To be traced onto better paper with the light box.
Spellblind
I watched this free movie, that’s also commercial-free, in 10-minute chunks over the past couple of weeks. Note that the video can’t be embedded here, so you’ll have to follow the link. I suspect YouTube will eventually end embedding, just as monetizing is becoming standard, even for submissions from users who haven’t signed up for the program.
Mirage, with its overly contrived plot and a small sci-fi twist at the end, is a failed Hitchcock wannabe, but it’s an interesting curiosity. For Gregory Peck the role is a return to Hitchcock’s Spellbound, from 20 years earlier, with him again trying to remember a traumatic event. The movie’s hook for me is the gorgeous “brunette Grace Kelly,” Diane Baker, who was seven years old when Peck was in Spellbound. A year before Mirage, Baker appeared in Hitchcock’s Marnie.
The hard contrast of the photography, along with some cheap looking sets, give Mirage the appearance of a widescreen 60’s TV production. The New York locations are interesting, and Walter Matthau does his usual Walter Matthau thing. George Kennedy and Jack Weston are both menacing and goofy. Fun fact: I’m the same age as the little girl who plays Irene in the middle of the movie.
Leaded Fuel
It’s confounding that the frustration I feel when getting warmed up for drawing now, is exactly the same as I remember having as far back as age 4, and definitely at age 8. Once I’m going, picking up a pencil and just doodling around, it takes just a minute to whip up a sketch like this one.
But from there, revving up the engine in my brain enough to work up a composition, and getting the gears connected to the ol’ drawing arm (the left one) to render it reasonably cleanly, requires some effort. Then some help from my trusty light box.
I’m contemplating the purchase of a Wacom Intuos Pro Paper Edition. My son no longer has use for a Dell all-in-one I gave him a few years ago. I originally purchased it for my father in Arizona, in an attempt to see if he could manage the touch screen after his stroke. That didn’t work out, so I had it shipped home. The factory-calibrated 24″ FHD screen on this thing is outstanding, and it would be ideal for digital drawing. Once I have the system set up on the drawing table, no longer tilted, I’ll decide on getting a tablet… or not.
Follow-up: Leaning towards the Wacom Intuos Medium. It’s half the price of the Pro — $200 vs. $400 — and it comes with a 2-year license for software that’s useful for cartooning.
A Dusty Record
Do records sound “better?” Here is a comparison that is completely invalid in every technical sense, but is nevertheless worth hearing.
First, the official copy on YouTube.
Now from vinyl, that may have been, for all I know, mastered from a digital source.
On my Logitech Z-3 computer speakers I’m hearing the same difference I’ve always heard between CD and LP.
More For MIH
Heritage Auctions has been a key driver of original art prices, but ya gotta love their high-resolution scans. So click to enlarge!
Compare the page above, inked by Vince Colletta, with the page below, inked by my pal Joe Sinnott. The only thing they had in common was that neither one of them ever missed a deadline.
The Misery of Peter, Paul & Mary
When I was a little kid, up to the time when the Beatles arrived in America, and beyond, the first three Peter, Paul & Mary albums were played a lot at home. They were my first popular musical reference point.
Listening to those old mono LP’s this week for the first time in years, I’m struck by how depressing they all are! Even “Puff the Magic Dragon” is sad. I guess “If I Had a Hammer” is supposed to be the happy song?
Many of the songs are weighed down by allusions to Biblical times. This one, from the second album, is filled with despair. It’s based on a tune from sometime in the 1800’s.
This reminds me of John Lennon making fun of protest songs in the 1965 Beatles fan club Christmas record, with Ringo tossing in a River Jordan dig for good measure. Later on, John was of course big on protest songs himself.
This must be the first time I have ever significantly revised my view of some of the music that I grew up with. “Rock and Roll Music” is the only bouncy and fun Peter Paul & Mary record that comes to mind. But I think its message rings hollow, serving not to knock those other artists, but to point out just how good they were.