8.31.2010

NATRON DREAMING



Nate Wey - aka Natron Dreaming - is one of the first people I bumped into moving into my sophmore dorm at NYU. We instantly became best friends, the kind to whom you can share anything you love with and know that the person will most likely be on the exact same page. Nate and I had lots of fun at NYU being roommates, having parties, talking about films, art and girls, making music, taking pictures, shooting films, and wandering around exploring and observing the beauty and magic of New York City. Nate currently resides in Portland, where you can often hear him perform as his experimental pop alias The Happy Prescriptions at a gallery, house or club around town. Natron also works for Hollywood doing sound, and has gained a following online for his photography, which I'm sharing with you here today.





Nate's photographic eye never ceases to amaze me. Across a range of subjects and styles, Nate always captures interesting compositions, moments and colors in a way that is always interesting. I particularly love some of his more abstract images. Why he's not being paid by top ad agencies to take photographs is beyond my understanding. I asked Nate a few quick questions to accompany this piece. Enjoy the photography and experience more at the Lynchian HappyPrescriptions.com, where you can stream or purchase Nate's music and see his most recent short film, a surreal, Van-Sant-esque video for his song "Animal."





Sam's Myth: What kind of camera(s) do you primarily use to take photographs?

Natron Dreaming: Right now a Pentax, but I tend to break cameras pretty quickly, so I basically use whatever I find at Goodwill... My favorite was a
plastic SLR called a Konika but I broke the shutter while drunk at a
friends wedding. It was sad.

Pick your favorite thing to shoot. a) landscapes b) girls c) abstractions d) can't decide

Either d) or a)








What are you listening to these days?

In my room its been early Stones, Pierre Henri (60s electronic
guy), this Portland band called Upsidedown, James Carr, this soul comp
called Magic Potion, and Elvis's Sun Sessions. Paul McCartney's Ram,
this gospel comp called "Life is Hard", and Love & Rocket's "Express"
have been my cooking music.





Name three of your favorite places in Portland.

Forest Park, The Sandy River @ Oxbow Park, Laurelhurst area.

Name three of your favorite places in the world.

Paris, New York (esp. the Brooklyn Bridge), the Pacific Ocean ...Nebraska sand dunes get an honorable mention, as does driving through
the hills in Idaho.





What's a book that you think everyone should read?

The Wind Up Bird Chronicle.


What all is on your desk right now?

Blank CD-Rs, a few notecards with to do lists, a flashlight, a
small empty coffee mug with a lightbulb on it, my cell phone, lead for
mechanical pencils, my laptop and my speakers. A midi keyboard in arms
length of the desk.








What are a few films you've seen recently that have blown your mind?

Just re-watched Breathless tonight and loved it even more than
before. For the first time I recently saw Miller's Crossing and For
All Mankind
, both of which blew my mind. The other day I talked to a
friend about the movie Microcosmos, which, though I haven't seen in a
couple years, left a strong effect on me. I saw that movie the same
night as watching They Live. Its a good double feature.


























































For more of Nate's photography, check out his Flickr page. Thanks Natron!

8.29.2010

ALL TOMORROW'S POSTERS



Criterion, along with CC alumn Jim Jarmusch, are curating another All Tomorrow's Parties film festival, and this year Criterion head designer Eric Skillman--no stranger to the comic book world as he has written several of his own-- rounded up some amazing comic artists to create new posters for select films in the series. The result is pure pulp awesomeness: the first three that have appeared online are the above NIGHT OF THE HUNTER poster by Matt Kindt and these two below by Scott Morse for BRUTE FORCE and TOUCHES PAS AU GRISBI. According to Morse's blog, it seems that Skillman might be transforming these original paintings into comic-cover form himself. Nice work fellas! Can't wait to see what else has been commissioned for this. Thanks to Ryan at CriterionCast.com for bringing these to my attention.




8.28.2010

SATURDAY EVENING POSTER



1. The internet is boring on the weekends. 2. There are thousands of amazing posters. I've combined these two truths to bring you the Saturday Evening Poster. Look for it each week. Usually they will be film posters from different countries, but I'm making an exception already this week because this poster features a giant robot, an underwater city, choo-choo train and a space station. Courtesy of the collection of Sandi Vincent, this poster by Susumu Eguchi was made for a children's science exhibition at a Tobu department store. Source: Graphis Annual 69/70.

8.27.2010

JAROSLAV SURA






Thanks to a copy of Graphis' 1965-66 Annual, I've just discovered the poster art of Jaroslav Sura. The Czech artist who currently resides in Prague joins a long list of the great Czech poster artists, many of which I'd like to post about here soon, but Sura's work is strangely undocumented online or in print (Chronicle Books' biblical Art of the Modern Movie Poster doesn't feature any of his posters in the Czech section, for example). I'm including almost everything I could find online, image-wise, from Sura, but the main two pieces I wanted to share are these two posters found in that Graphis Annual, for productions of Shakespeare's Henry V and Hamlet. Graphis publishes many of these works in black and white, proving their graphic power in greyscale alone, yet leaving us salivating at what these posters would look like in their original color schemes (black, gold and blue/purple for Henry V; black, gold and red for Hamlet). I love Sura's use of abstract shapes and his way with lettering, as if everything in the image were cut or torn from the same material. Please, if you come across any more work by this dude, let me know. Hell, Jaroslav, if you're listening, post more of your stuff online for us to drool over. Stay tuned for a post with some more of my favorite images from the annual.





























R.I.P. SATOSHI KON



This past Tuesday the world of cinema lost one of its great auteurs: Japanese animator Satoshi Kon. His films: PERFECT BLUE, MILLENIUM ACTRESS, TOKYO GODFATHERS, PARANOIA AGENT and PAPRIKA. His unfinished most recent feature was to be called DREAMING MACHINES. Satoshi died of pancreatic cancer at the young age of 47, and wrote this letter to be published after his death, which took great courage for me to read. I don't know if any other filmmaker's death in my lifetime has affected me personally in this way. I hope and know that Satoshi Kon felt the gratitude from all of his fans around the world for his contributions to film art.



8.26.2010

INSPIRATION

Some inspiration for a project I'm working on right now: select movie posters of the 70's. Thanks to Adrian Curry for tipping me off to a lot of these.