I’m loving the look of the new Tron movie, Tron Legacy. The new film builds on the original and tells the story of Kevin Flynn’s son, who goes in search of his father 20 years after his disappearance. Here’s the official synopsis from Walt Disney Pictures via IMDB:
Sam Flynn (Hedlund), a rebellious 27-year-old, is haunted by the mysterious disappearance of his father Kevin Flynn (Bridges), a man once known as the world’s leading video-game developer. When Sam investigates a strange signal sent from the old Flynn’s Arcade — a signal that could only come from his father– he finds himself pulled into a digital world where Kevin has been trapped for 20 years. With the help of the fearless warrior Quorra (Wilde), father and son embark on a life-or-death journey across a cyber universe — a universe created by Kevin himself that has become far more advanced with vehicles, weapons, landscapes and a ruthless villain who will stop at nothing to prevent their escape.
Tron Legacy is being released in 3D, and with as amazing as the graphics look in 2D, I can’t wait to see them in 3D IMAX. I’ve attached another video below that really showcases the CGI.
The last time I saw the original Tron I was really young (I was 6 when it came out in theaters!), so I’m really hoping to be able to watch it again before Tron Legacy hits theaters in December. I’ve looked quite a bit online, and it seems that only the 20th anniversary collector’s edition is available for purchase, for $35.95. I’d been hoping to find it available streaming from Amazon (because I want it NOW!), but no luck. However, as it’s Walt Disney Pictures, I’m thinking we may see a new release of the original in the coming months as a lead in for the new film.
Camilla d’Errico is an artist from British Columbia whose work I’ve been following for a while now. She is a painter and comic book illustrator, and her work can be seen in comics such as Tanpopo, Sky Pirates of New Terra and Burn. Her paintings can been seen at one of her gallery shows, including her solo show, “Il Codice d’Errico”, which opens tomorrow at the Mondo Bizarro Gallery in Rome, Italy.
I first saw Camilla’s work at the Emerald City Comicon and was drawn in by the beauty of her paintings of wide-eyed young girls. The images evoke an innocence that often belies the actual content of the illustrations, giving them a complexity that might be missed on first glance. I got a chance to meet Camilla briefly and she was very friendly and down-to-earth. I was a little star struck but she put me at ease right away, and I’m now the proud owner of an autographed print of “Iguana.”
To see more of Camilla’s work or to purchase prints, comics, clothing or accessories, check out her website and store at camilladerrico.com. Here are a few of my favorites:
Vincent Laforet created this video with a Canon 7D as the first chapter in a series for the Canon video contest “The Story Beyond the Still.” Laforet was given a still image to interpret, and this video is his interpretation of that image. The video ends with another still, which contestants for the second chapter had to then interpret and build upon. The result is a story told by multiple filmmakers, each with their own style of cinematography, dialogue and film making. Each chapter has different actors, but the actors look enough alike that it’s easy to tell which character is which.
The contest will have a total of six chapters, and with four of the chapters now completed I’m curious to see if the contestants will ultimately be able to tie the story together in a neat package, or if we’ll end up with an ending that does not do justice to Laforet’s alluring beginning. With an impressive list of filmmakers on the judges’ panel, my hope is that they’ll be able to find an ending that will satisfy the viewers in both its storytelling and its cinematography. The completed chapters are available here on Vimeo, along with the contest details. Chapter 5 entries are due by June 10, but there’s still lots of time to complete an entry for the final chapter.
This is the book trailer for The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart by Mathias Malzieu. I’ve seen links to book trailers before, and never thought much about them. I prefer to read the inside flap or reviews from other readers to decide if I want to read a book, and I don’t want to have preconceived images of the characters in my mind. This trailer caught my eye as it’s done completely in stop-motion, and it’s absolutely beautiful.
The song in the video, “Tais-toi mon coeur”, is performed by Mathias Malzieu’s own band, Dionysos, and also features French singer Olivia Ruiz. Malzieu is also working on an animated feature film of the book. I’m hoping he’ll go the stop-motion route for that too. If the trailer is any indication, it will be a film worth seeing. In the meantime, though, I’ll be picking up a copy of the book.
There is a version of the trailer with subtitles available also, but the images are not as crisp. You can find it here.
My house is full of books. There are bookshelves full of them in my living room, my bedroom and my office, and I always have a running list of books that I want to read that I haven’t had time yet to add to the home collection. I’ve gotten to the point where I’ve run out of space for more, and since I can’t imagine parting with any more of my current stash, I needed to find a solution. I’d heard about the kindle, but there was just something unappealing about the large white surface and the keyboard. It seemed, so… clinical. I like the size of my books. I like the smell of a new book, the feel of the pages, and the sound the pages make when I turn them. I like books. How could an electronic device give me that same feeling?
Last fall, as my book ownership was reaching the limit of my apartment and my husband’s tolerance, and I was sneaking books into the house and hiding them so it would appear they’d been there all along, Barnes and Noble announced that they were coming out with an ereader, a competitor to the kindle. I’d already decided that I wasn’t interested in the kindle, but the new ereader, named nook, had a different look and feel. It was smaller than the kindle in length and width, sized about the same as a thin trade paperback. Instead of a keyboard, which seemed silly to me on a “book”, there was a small touchscreen that would show images of the covers of the books in my collection. And it was from Barnes and Noble, my national book haven, the place that I could go, no matter where I was in the US, and feel at home. It was as if the book gods where sending me help in my time of need. How could I not at least give it a chance?
Not being one to rush in lightly, I waited until the sample nook arrived in-store to make a decision. Excitedly I arrived at my local B&N and bee-lined my way to the giant “NOOK” sign in the middle of the store. I couldn’t believe how small and sharp-looking the nook was, but I also couldn’t believe all the issues the salesperson was having with the display device. It seemed to take forever to turn the pages and to navigate the menu. I asked if the contrast on the e-ink screen was adjustable, and the staff went back and forth, unable to give me an answer. I left frustrated, deciding to wait until some of the issues were resolved before I made my decision.
A few weeks later, on December 26th, I was back in Barnes and Noble, taking another look. I’d heard that there’d been a software fix, and sure enough, the page turning and navigation were much faster. I placed my order, and anxiously awaited my nook, scheduled to ship on February 2. In the meantime, I read the nook forums an a lot of online reviews, and I started to worry. The reviews were bad, and the nook owners had a lot of complaints – issues registering, freeze-ups, losing their pages, parts of the book being cut off, sideloading issues, etc. I started to think I should just get a kindle. But I waited it out, wanting to see for myself if my nook would have issues.
Continue reading Review: Barnes and Noble Nook eReader »
July 31, 2010, at 7:03 am
