Grenada at Late Sunset in April

I had to take a break to share this wonderful panorama I took of tonight’s sunset, I wish I had caught it a bit earlier while the sun was still visible in the sky, but I’ll try and get a better version soon.

Enjoy

Dany

Visually Stunning pic of Javier Bardem

OK, I don’t have much for today, but I did stumble across the above pic of Javier Bardem after seeing Vicky Cristina Barcelona, which I enjoyed a great deal. I really don’t know what to say about it, other than it is visually stunning and it reminds me why I love photography.

Thanks Vanity Fair for the above photo!

That’s all I got.

Dany

Vicky Cristina Barcelona Review

I just got back from watching Woody Allen’s new movie, Vicky Cristina Barcelona. This film really has not gotten a lot of press coverage, I haven’t really seen any ads for it, but shows like Filmspotting (subscribe here), The Totally Rad Show (subscribe here), along with the always trusty Roger Ebert and James Berardinelli have also tried to bring this film into the light of day.

I try and make a point of seeing any new Woody Allen film I hear about and this is definitely one of those times where I feel completely rewarded for this policy. This movie is wonderfully wild, especially as the film progresses and yes Scarlett Johansson is insanely beautiful and sexy, but with this movie, I can see specifically what it is that Woody saw in her to have her star in 3 of his last 4 films, while I liked Match Point more than this movie, I thought she gave her best performance here as Cristina. Johansson has a restless, exuberant innocence that is wonderful.

I don’t always like the use of a narrator and I didn’t always like it in this movie either. It was useful for explaining which Spanish landmarks were being visited and which artists and sculptures were being admired throughout the film, but it got a bit annoying when, for example being told that the characters were tasting chocolates at a local chocolatier, while on screen, we can see Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson and Javier Bardem walking in and eating those chocolates.

It has been a long time since I saw a film with Penélope Cruz and her sensuous and wild performance reminded me of the first time I ever saw her, back in Abre los ojos (the role that also inspired Tom Cruise to remake that film into Vanilla Sky with her starring in it as well) and it shames me to think that I still have not gotten to see her in Volver up to this point! I NEED to put that film on my list of things to see on dvd now.

I think this is a wonderful movie and I just loved it, especially with all the photography featured in the film, I love photography and I wish I could get my shots to come out looking as good as some of those taken in this film. Thanks to VickyCristinaBarcelona.WordPress.com for the above pic.

On a side note, throughout the film, I kept identifying with the Doug character (Chris Messina), no matter how much I wanted this to not be so, while at the same time, I wish I acted more like Juan Antonio in my dealings with women and relationships.

Enjoy

Dany

Jessica Rabbit and Stewie Griffin untooned by Pixeloo

After finding out what Homer Simpson and Mario Mario would look like if they weren’t cartoons by Pixeloo, I knew I’d have to see what was the next projects were.

I really enjoyed Pixeloo’s rendition of Jessica Rabbit:

and Stewie Griffin:

Also, here is the ~10 minute video going through the Jessica Rabbit untooning process.

Enjoy

Dany

Attempting to Break the Civil War Map

I know it is a gross oversimplification to say that the South votes Republican, while the North votes Democrat here in the US, but the New Yorker has an interesting video in their Naked Campaign series (subscribe here), called Map Quest, where they talk about which states Obama could win to get the magic number (270) in the electoral college, while also pointing out which states McCain could swoop in and take himself.

It’s quite interesting to watch, especially for a political junkie, like myself.

Dany

Sebastian’s Voodoo – 3D Animation

I love finding interesting short films, especially those made by enthusiasts. This short is called Sebastian’s Voodoo and was created by Joaquin Baldwin and scored by Nick Favola at the UCLA Animation Workshop. I found this video because of Boing Boing TV (subscribe here).

Watch as a brave voodoo doll tries to save its fellow voodoo dolls from harm. If you can, try and check out the high quality version to get a feel for some of the amazing detail work that went into this!

Enjoy a visually stunning 4 minutes created using Maya and After Effects.

Dany

MUTO – By Blu, Stop-Motion Animated on Public Walls

MUTO is an amazing visual experience. This short film by Blu was created using stop motion animation in Buenos Aires to painstakingly create this 7min short film. I’ll let the film speak for itself, just check it out.

Thanks to Diggnation (subscribe here) for mentioning it on a recent episode and thanks to Blu for the above pic.

Enjoy

Dany

The Birds… Minus Those Pesky Birds Re-edit by Martijn Hendriks

In a similar vein to Garfield Minus Garfield, we have Martijn Hendriks taking the classic Hitchock film The Birds and digitally editing out all the birds that the movie is named for, frame by painstaking frame as part of an art project called Give Us Today Our Daily Terror which is slated for completion in 2008.

There are currently only 3 excerpts (1, 2, 3) available and some movie stills, but this is an interesting project that you should check out. I can’t wait to see what the final 2 hour movie will be like.

Enjoy

Dany

I would give credit to where I heard about this art project from, but for the life of me I can not remember which podcast mentioned it recently. If anybody knows, can you leave a comment or email me about it, I feel bad not attributing where I found out about this from.

*Update 10-21-2009 – Thanks to DailyCosas 2.0, there’s also this trailer to a funny prequel to The Birds, called The Eggs, which was created by NYSUfilms:

Jewno

After loving the movie Juno, finding this movie trailer spoof called Jewno, just made me laugh. I can’t believe they got J.K. Simmons to help with this, he’s one of my favorite niche actors. Also, the 92nd st Y mug was a nice touch.

I originally found it on Funny or Die because of the GREAT podcast The 404 (subscribe here), which I am extremely backlogged with this podcast (I’m 2 months behind), so I gotta go try and catch up now.

Enjoy

Dany

Women Are DAMN Funny!

I don’t normally read Vanity Fair, but my grandmother does and she knows that I LOVE comedians, so she saved this article about a dozen of the craziest and most gut bustingly funny female comedians in the entertainment industry today for me.

Any article that covers Sarah Silverman, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph at the same time is DEFINITELY worth your time!

Check it out here. Also, it helps that the photography for this article was done by Annie Leibovitz, she’s a wonderful photographer.

Dany