On the other side of these very thin Paintshop walls...
…banging and clanging and impact drilling and cutting continues: Garage door, day two ensues: looks like we're nearing the end, fingers crossed – on both mine and the builder's mental capacities: he said it was by far the most challenging garage he's ever worked on, which, I suppose, makes me feel semi-vindicated that I hadn't tackled it because it would have ended up being a tarp with velcro and even that's pushing it. Even the removal was more elegant than my crowbarring of one panel, not that that's difficult to improve upon, but the building team did it with aplomb.
Wait: I think I heard some beeping. Is that… the garage door rising by itself??? Oooh…
After wrapping up the morning, it's lunch and then more waiting around until K gets home so I can go mow my remaining grandfather's yard and finish weedeating of the bank from hell. Unless things take a surprising turn, ending the school year as I began, with another grandfather exiting, is not at all outside the realm of possibility.
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more.
the floral still lifes of Christiane Kubrick (in EYES WIDE SHUT)
I really need to revisit EYES; it’s been far too long.
Christiane’s paintings serve as more than decoration. Their floral subject matter reinforces the movie’s themes of lust and decay. Another work titled Homage to Van Gogh, an imitation of the Dutch master’s work seen in the background as the characters eat breakfast and watch TV, evokes the concepts of truth and authenticity, which play a central role in this story about a troubled marriage.
As author Juli Kearns explains in a frame-by-frame analysis of the film:
“What is authentic and what is not the real thing? What hasn’t fidelity? Butter is not butter and what represents itself as a bear is instead honey. In the Looney Tunes cartoon, Santa proves to instead be the Tasmanian Devil when the soot is removed. And then there’s Christiane’s rendering of Van Gogh flowers in homage of him.”
(via artnet)
THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER (André Øvredal, 2023)
Went into this one more skeptical than it deserved - no doubt because of how much I loved the second episode of the Moffat / Gattis DRACULA that covered the same chapter of the novel - and came out satisfied. Nothing spectacular, but not a bad film by any means: solid performances throughout, some great shippy-atmosphere, and an Orlock-infused Dracula. That being said, all of the above deserved a less pedestrian direction; can only imagine what a more visceral, artistic director would have made of it. Can’t stop thinking that DEMETER would have been a perfect fit for John Carpenter or Ridley Scott (especially given its ALIEN inspiration). (*** / *****)
the pull-list, currently
... W0RLDTR33 (Tynion IV / Blanco)… BATMAN (Zdarsky / Jimenez)… BIRDS OF PREY (Thompson / Romero)… DAREDEVIL (Ahmed / Kuder)… CAPTAIN AMERICA (JMS / Saiz)… RARE FLAVOURS (V / Andrade)… WONDER WOMAN (King / Sampere)… BATMAN: GARGOYLE OF GOTHAM (Grampá / Lopes)… THE FLASH (Spurrier / Deodato) … USAGI YOJIMBO (Sakai)… THE PENGUIN (King / De La Torre)… FANTASTIC FOUR (North / Gómez)… BENEATH THE TREES WHERE NOBODY SEES (Horvath)… DETECTIVE COMICS (V / et al)… ANIMAL POUND (King / Gross)… THE DEVIANT (Tynion IV / Hixson)… LOTUS LAND (Van Poelgeest / Filipe)… PETROL HEAD (Williams / Parr)… BATMAN: OFF-WORLD (Aaron / Mahnke)… BASIC INSTINCT (Freeman / Del Ray)… CRAVE (Llovet)… ALAN SCOTT: THE GREEN LANTERN (Sheridan / Tormey)… BATMAN '89: ECHOES (Hamm / Quinones)… BEYOND REAL (Kaplan / Mascolo / Fejzula)… MASTERPIECE (Bendis / Maleev)… UNDERHEIST (Lapham / Lapham)… VOID RIVALS (Kirkman / De Felici)... TRANSFORMERS (Johnson)... DUKE (Williamson / Reilly)… COBRA COMMANDER (Williamson / Milana)… VENGEANCE OF THE MOON KNIGHT (MacKay / Cappucio)… PINE & MERRIMAC (Starks / Galán)… ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN (Hickman / Checchetto)… ULTIMATE BLACK PANTHER (Hill / Caselli)... ULTIMATE X-MEN (Momoko)... ZORRO: MAN OF THE DEAD (Murphy)… AVENGERS: TWILIGHT (Zdarsky / Acuña)… JAMES BOND 007 (Ennis / Lobosco)… GONE (Jock)... THE ONE HAND (V / Campbell)… THE SIX FINGERS (Watters / Kumar)... THE DISPLACED (Brisson / Casalanguida)… BLUE BOOK 1947 (Tynion IV / Oeming)… IF YOU FIND THIS I'M ALREADY DEAD (Kindt / McDaid)... MAN'S BEST (Picheshote / Lonergan)... BLASFAMOUS (Andolfo)... SPIDER-PUNK ARMS RACE (Ziglar / Mason)... SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MEN (Weisman / Ramos)... NIGHT PEOPLE (Condon / Level)... THE BAT-MAN: FIRST KNIGHT (Jurgens / Perkins)... NAPALM LULLABY (Remender / Bengal) ... LITTLE BLACK BOOK (McComsey / Cunha)... THE GOON: THEM THAT DONT'T STAY DEAD (Powell)... BATMAN: DARK AGE (Russell / The Allreds)... SPIDER-MAN: SHADOW OF THE GREEN GOBLIN (DeMatteis / Maria)... GEIGER (Johns / Frank)... REDCOAT (Johns / Hitch)... ROOK: EXODUS (Johns / Fabok)... AKOGUN: BRUTALIZER OF THE GODS (Ayodele / Akande)... ACTION COMICS (Williamson / Sandoval)... MONSTERS ARE MY BUSINESS (Bunn / Piazzalunga)... UNCANNY VALLEY (Fleecs / Wachter)... SILICON BANDITS (Starr / Talajić)…
Marvel Mini-Books, 1966
Befitting my endless fascination with outré and small narrative delivery systems, I finally added a set of these wonderful little gumball prizes to The Collection: produced in 1966, the Mini-Books won the Guinness World Record for the smallest books ever made, an honor which I believe they still hold. In the pics below, you can see just how small these little things are. Ordered the recent Abrams facsimile set (featuring Mark Evanier commentary) so I can actually peruse them without worry of them falling apart. Beautiful little examples of comics – and the Marvel Age of comics – history.
