LWL70 exhibition

A couple of Saturdays ago I went along to the Little White Lies 70 exhibition at the Kemistry gallery in Hoxton, which coincidentally was about a 5-minute walk from where I'm currently interning. The exhibiition ran from June 17th to July 2nd, I managed to get their on the last day.

The exhibition featured original 70s film artwork from various artists. I would have loved to have bought the Erasurehead print but £45 was a bit too steep for me unfortunately. You can buy a wide range of the prints that were on the show here.

Shorts Bay

Shorts Bay is a website that hosts a wide collection of some of the best short films currently on the web. There are plenty of genres and films can range from 2-30 minutes. With films from acclaimed filmmakers such as Michel Gondry, Shorts Bay is a good source of inspiration for young filmmakers looking to make short films.

This is one, a claymation telling the story of a lonely inventor who finds success comes at a high price, is probably my personal favourite. More was directed by Mark Osborne in 1999 and was nominated for an Oscar for 'Best Short'.

Little White Lies Magazine

My brother showed me this ace bi-monthly film magazine called Little White Lies: Truth & Movies, which reviews recent films and industry news, but in a unique way. It's laid out in chapters and the graphic design is amazing, feels more like a book than a mag. It contains covers and pages of film prints that are brilliantly and originally drawn. Their aim is to 'reshape the way films are debated'.

A yearly subscription is £20 for 6 issues, or £4 for an individual issue. They also sell their cover artwork as prints on their website.

Richard Swarbrick's Animation

I really like the style of animation this guy does. He's got two videos up on Youtube, one being of Gareth Bale's amazing solo effort against Inter Milan and the other is from the first El Clasico this season where Barcelona beat Real Madrid 5-0. Nice music as well. This must have taken him ages...

HBO order a third and fourth season of The Ricky Gervais Show

The animated show that brings to life the orginal podcasts/audiobooks of Karl, Ricky and Steve will have a third and fourth season. The good news is that, according to Ricky, the fourth season will consist almost entirely of previously unheard discussions and interviews. Including an 'army podcast' that was never released...

The Playground

The Playground is an online media site, or webzine, that covers the latest events and news from the world of music, fashion, art, and film. Though not the typical maintstream content you'll find everywhere else, so no reviews of The Fast and the Furious 5 unfortunately. Here are a couple of short pieces I contributed to the music section.

A review of Dorian Concept's EP 'Her Tears Taste Like Pears'

CSLSX: A short 'have you heard?' piece on the collective group based in Philadelphia,

Blackbird Blackbird: Another short 'have you heard?' piece promoting new artist Blackbird Blackbird aka. Mikey Sanders, who has used sites like soundcloud and hype machine to create an impressive following.

Check out The Playground if you get a chance as (my amateurish writing aside) there's a lot of good, interesting articles on there.

IdeasTap

IdeasTap is a creative networking website that allows you to create a profile and upload portfolios of your work. A wide range of people use the site to upload their work, varying from writers, artists, graphic designers, photographers, advertising creatives, and many, many other disciplines.

IdeasTap also lists the latest jobs in these creative industries and offers users the chance to participate in set briefs such as this one, with incentives including cash prizes, funding, and of course recognition. The website also has the latest events around the country on offer, such as exhibitons, performances or workshops.

Definitely worth getting involved with.

Cool T-shirt Designs.

Check out these brilliant t-shirts my friend Joe Stone has designed. You can buy 'Sad Balloon' from http://joecity.spreadshirt.co.uk/  and vote for 'My Heart's In The Right Place' at threadless.com.

Karl's been to Alaska

I saw on  Ricky's blog that Karl has just come back from his first trip on the second series of An Idiot Abroad, Alaska being the destination. Here's what Ricky has said on the subject:

"Karl got back from Alaska today. It was the first trip of An Idiot Abroad 2 : The Bucket List. He's not happy. It's not what he expected at all. Still too late now. He signed the contract and cashed the cheque. What a fucking twonk. Why did he trust us again? I have the angriest message saved on my phone. Really. He's so angry, and sick and tired that... it's hilarious."
  
Sounds like Ricky and Steve have stitched up Karl, in spite of Karl getting to choose the destinations in this series. I can't wait for this.

p.s. the audio clip of Karl's phone call rant to Ricky is also now up on Ricky's blog. He does not sound happy.

Ricky Gervais Guide To...Comic Relief

Free to download now from itunes! Superb.

'Gimp 2.6'

I downloaded this 'image manipulation' program called Gimp. No idea why it's called that but you can do fair bit with it. I wanted to make my photos look a bit cartoonish so I used the cartoon tool and messed about with the mapping and level of blackness. The best thing about Gimp is it's free.

Matt Forsythe's blog

Matt Forsythe created Ojingogo, the best graphic novel I've read. He's also got a pretty amazing blog:

http://comingupforair.net/

Featuring Afrocat!
http://comingupforair.net/comics/afrocat/

'Confessions' (2010)

Confessions or (Kokuhaku to use its Japanese title) is a Japanese psychological thriller film about a grieving school teacher, who suspects her daughter was killed by two of the students in her class. She concocts a horrifying plan to seek revenge on those responsible for her daughters' death. This involves using a syringe to inject HIV-infected blood into their school milk...I love the Japanese.

This is the trailer:

Ricky Gervais Guide To...Comic Relief

Ricky, Steve and Karl have recorded another 'Guide To...' podcast which will be released around the time of Comic Relief (18th March). It will be free to download too.

Can't wait to hear Karl's views on charity!

Life's Too Short & An Idiot Abroad 2

Apparently there will be a second series of An Idiot Abroad, which will focus on Karl experiencing 'bucket list' activities, which are things that people typically say you should do before you die. There are no other clues as to what these will include and Ricky has said that Karl is 'asking more questions this time around', considering what he went through last time. They start filming soon.

I would love to see Karl swimming with dolphins, climbing a mountain or running a marathon. Good news indeed.

I can't wait for Life's Too Short to air. After seeing the pilot episode the BBC have commisioned a full six-episode series. The sitcom will centre around Warwick Davis and will be a fictionalized account of his day-to-day struggles with being shorter than the average person. The series will include cameos by both Gervais and Merchant who will play themselves.

Depending on the success of the series there may even be a Life's Too Short film. The humour has been described by Ricky as being similar to that of Curb Your Enthusiasm.

What would we do without Karl, Ricky and Steve.

Submarine

Check out the trailer for Richard Ayoade's feature-length directorial debut 'Submarine'. Adapted from the novel of the same name written by Joe Dunthorne. Good to see the British film industry is producing some quality. Comes out in the cinema on Friday 18th March.




Film Trailers by Filmtrailer.com

An idea for a band.

I thought of an idea of a band who make music designed to sound as if it is a soundtrack for an old retro games console. Each album could be presented as a soundtrack for a fictional game, so that when you listen to the album you feel like your going through the game's levels. Each album's inlay could be presented as a 'manual' for the game (which doesn't exist) and there could be lots of pages going in to detail on what are actually very simplistic controls, with a small line of text on the last page saying 'music by...'

They could bring out an album for each console (megadrive, Amiga, Gameboy, N64) with each 'soundtrack' conjuring up what the console and its games were all about.

I don't know if this has been done...it seemed like a reasonable idea in my head.