A short list of some of my favorite things from this past year.
Favorite Movies Released in 2009 (In no particular order) - Up - The Damned United - The Hangover - Where The Wild Things Are - I Love You, Man - Up In The Air - X-Men Origins: Wolverine Favorite Movies Released Before 2009 (That I watched for the first time this year) - Milk (2008) - Hype! (1996) - A League of Ordinary Gentlemen (2005) - W. (2008) - Fanboys(2008) - In Bruges(2008) - Sugar (2008) - Helvetica(2007)
Most Memorable Concerts - AC/DC - Eagles of Death Metal - Coldplay Favorite Albums - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (Phoenix) - Lost In The 80s (The Lost Fingers) - Backspacer(Pearl Jam) - Them Crooked Vultures (Them Crooked Vultures) - The E.N.D. (The Black Eyed Peas) Songs Most Listened To (According to last.fm) - It's A Dream (Neil Young) - Rise (Eddie Vedder) - Kids (MGMT) - I Got A Feeling (Black Eyed Peas) - Wheels (Foo Fighters) - Billie Jean (The Lost Fingers) - Andy You're A Star (The Killers) - Lasso (Phoenix) - The End (Pearl Jam) - Love Lockdown(Kanye West)
Maybe about 10 days ago, I received an early Christmas present in the mail. I had ordered a book containing 229 Pearl Jam posters, all designed by the Ames Bros from 1995 - 2007.
The book is officially called Pearl Jam vs Ames Bros: 13 Years of Tour Posters and I think it's unreal! There are two different versions. The unbelievably cheap $50 US green copy is the one I ordered. It's got 229 posters, interviews and some explanations and inspirations behind some of the posters. The $200 US orange copy is numbered, autographed by the 3 Ames Bros head designers, 32 bonus pages featuring over 250 sketches, an 8 page overlay of the printing process, and 3 silkscreen art prints, just to name a few things.
For any fan of the band, the artists or poster art in general, I can't highly recommend this enough. It's just awesome.
Back in '08, Kevin Smith had to change the name Zack and Miri Make a Porno to Zack and Miri. He then had to change his posters too. This is all due to the MPAA and their decision that it was too explicit and they thought that the word Porno would not be well received by the public. Ugh. Stupid. It's especially ironic since the Weinstein Company originally approved the project right after they just heard the title of the movie.
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So Smith's next project just had their trailer released. And despite him promoting the film for month's as A Couple of Dicks, it too has gone through the MPAA wringer. Now it's titled Cop Out. It's just not the same. Smith did argue this newest change, bringing up the Inglorious Basterds title that was approved. But due to the purposely misspelled Basterds, it was allowed. So Smith rebutted with A Couple of D.I.C.s (Detectives In Charge) and they still didn't accept it! I think they've seriously got something personal against Smith. Idiots.
To learn more on the MPAA and their unnecessary power, I'd suggest watching This Film is Not Yet Rated. It deals more with the ratings (PG-13, MC-17, R, etc) but still shows the struggle that film makers have.
Two quick movie updates. First is Robin Hood. I think it's safe to say that many people are excited for this movie, not just myself. The Disney version hands down one of my favorite movies ever. Back to the point. A trailer for the new movie was released yesterday. Looks like it's got potential. It looks like it'll be more graphic and dark, which'll be a different way of seeing Robin Hood. He always seems to happy-go-lucky. Thank goodness for Ridley Scott. You are a truly solid director.
But quite possibly better than that, is the new Alice in Wonderland trailer that just came out. They had a shorter teaser released a while ago, but this newly cut full trailer is just more awesome. Quite possibly the best movie of 2010 perhaps?
Living without cable or satellite, to this day in fact, has certainly lead to me missing out on many shows and channels that everyone I know seemed to grow up on. If it wasn't for the internet, I would never have seen music videos, old sitcoms, etc. And as an avid internet-television watcher, I never thought that I'd miss commercials as much as I do. Last year I had the opportunity to go see the 2008 Cannes Lions Premiere. It's a 2 hour showing of the world's best commercials from that year. This year's showing will be happening in the next few days. Fellow Winnipegers can go here for more info.
Now, not seeing many American commercials, I get pleasantly surprised when I go to friends' houses and see some of them. In last years' Cannes, they showed a spot by Sony Bravia that I thought was extraordinary.
I went to go find that spot, and I was happily surprised with finding a new ad that they have done. I think it's just an extraordinary idea and the execution is wonderful. I'm certainly a fan of their creative. Just thought I'd share. There's the spot, but if you've got a couple extra minutes, a short 'behind the scenes' is posted below. Enjoy!
Kevin Smith is my all-time favoritest person from New Jersey. And also someone that I look up to a lot. I've admired his starting point in film since I started shooting my own films, as well as his ability to stay true to who he is: a fat comic-book nerd from New Jersey that should've been born in Canada. It's not an insult. I'm envious in many ways.
Now, I could go on and on, but I won't. All I have to say is that one of the websites that I check daily for my dose of movie and television updates is Ain't It Cool News. One of their larger bloggers, Capone, was able to do a 2-part interview with Kevin Smith the other day. It's a bit of a long read, but it's what any Smith fan loves, his brutal honesty. Oh well, enjoy.
My life can simply be summed up as random. Random events. Random people. Random stories.
So following what I know, I figured I should just write about that.
I enjoy learning about miscellaneous things, mostly relating to some sort of graphic design, films or architecture.
As is with most others, music and movies are a big part of my life. I can only hope of one day being more involved in either industry.
Awesome.
12/30/2009 01:26:00 PM
mikey b.
