MASTER LIST #8: The 101 Greatest Action Movies

I discovered in doing this list that the action genre was really born in the 1960s. Before then, most movie "action" came in the form of war movies, westerns, film noir, and serials (to which the #1 film on the list is a complete homage). When the long-dominating western started to lose steam in the late 60s, the action genre--which, for the most part, is a wildly-differing urban-based one--

MASTER LIST #7: The 101 Greatest War Movies

An amazing list of movies here, I guess because war is perhaps the most dramatic of subjects. I didn't include documentaries or films with war as a peripheral subject (like Casablanca or The Best Years of Our Lives). So here, based on (1) quality, (2) relevance to genre, and (3) influence, are the results: 1) Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, 57) 2) Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 79) 3)

2009 Academy Awards: The Overview

Well, I'm sort of all Oscared out, as I blogged about it live here on The Flaming Nose. But I do wanna mention my top Oscar moments:1) Anne Hathaway playing "Nixon" in Hugh Jackman's opening number. 2) Danny Boyle hopping like Tigger upon his win. 3) Sean Penn claiming fellow nominee Mickey Rourke as "his brother."4) Anne Hathaway, teary-eyed, thanking Shirley MacLaine for her comments about

MASTER LIST #6: The 101 Greatest Musicals

In thinking about the best musicals, I had to reflect, of course, on the traditional view we all have of the genre--you know, those kind of movies with people rather surrealistically breaking out into song. But I also felt I had to mix in nods to musical bio-pics, animated films, films in which instrumental music was central to the picture, and films in which dancing--sans singing--takes center

Meat & Poison

"Meat & Poison" 2009
My senior project for Ringling College is called the Monstrosities of the Femme Fatale.
This is the first of a series of five, the Plant Woman.
I'm still tweaking some details, so I'll include a statement when she's done :)

SOI Student Scholarship Competition

"My Mug" "The Four Beauties"

I am happy to say that the two above images were selected for the Society of Illustrators 2009 Student Scholarship Competition.
Of the 5,600 pieces entered, 145 pieces were chosen from schools across the country.
My school, Ringling College managed to snag 34 spots out of the 145.
The show will be in New York on May 8, 2009.

Last year, my Woody Allen caricature was selected for the 2008 competition.

Take me with you

I wish I could swim so I can go diving and look at the wonders of the sea.
But for now, I content myself with painting my imaginary adventures.

MASTER LIST #5: The 150 Greatest Comedies

Since, unlike with many genres, comedies have been steadily produced since the advent of the camera, and routinely take up half of every video store's catalogue, I decided to expand my usual 101 films on these lists to a fairer 150. Even with this extension (which I will only use again with my master list on DRAMAS), this was a VERY difficult list to make, mostly because it really forced me to

Katsucon

I saw this circular rainbow on the way to Washington DC.
At first I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me or the plane window was creating a weird effect,
but it was a real, natural rainbow. I only made the photo colors more saturated, but otherwise, it's just as I saw it!

I am very happy to have met many of you at Katsucon 2009! It was a great event and I am fortunate to meet many awesome artists, friends and art enthusiasts alike. Thank you for those who stopped by and said hi, or bought a print or two, or shared thoughts and comments on my latest artworks.

See you next year! :)

filmicability gets the Dardos!

I can't think of a better way to celebrate my blog's one-year anniversary than to get cited for a blogging award--the Dardos--from one of my most treasured cohorts, Tony Dayoub over at Cinema Viewfinder. He said of me and the other four writers he cited: "These folks give me new insight into the world of cinema on an almost daily basis, and all are great writers to boot." To say the least, I'm

On Valentine's Day: Romance on Film

Valentine's Day (or, as I like to call it, "Sex Day") is here again, to the delight of the attached and the consternation of the unattached. So today I'll be recommending videos that might help both the bitter and the romantically satisfied through the holiday. Now, the problem with most movie romances is that they fail to give compelling reasons why the two people in question have fallen for

Way Overrated: FROST/NIXON and MILK

It's usually my policy not to talk about movies I don't like on filmicability. But I just spend 25 bucks and 5 hours on an incredibly disappointing 70s-politics-double-feature. Milk and Frost/Nixon are predictably but wrongfully vying for Best Picture at this year's woeful Oscar ceremonies. I say woeful because, if these are two of the movies Hollywood thinks are their best efforts, then the

Marilyn Wine

A wine design project, I chose Marilyn Wines.
Using Marilyn's "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" and "Seven Year Itch"'s iconic looks, I used the same concept to design a red and white wine.

Work in progress

One in a series of paintings I am doing.
May I introduce the Carnivorous Plant Lady,
although I do plan to give her a cooler name when I'm done!