Saturday, April 18, 2009
Back once again: The blog name, Calgary Artists and Tatsumi
Physical State: achey muscles, gym
Mental State: encouraged
Music: Pains of Being Pure at Heart - s/t
Fashion sense: blue t-shirt, jeans
Ok after some consideration and a need to do more writing on a daily basis, I figure back to the blog is a good start. I mean I was doing this thing for a long time and the last two (count 'em) years I have slacked off. So here I am starting this up again. Let's hope it takes this time.
First off I met up today with a new meetup group for Calgary artists. Yes I am living in Calgary now in case you didn't know and freshly laid-off (or not that freshly about a month and a half). Anyways so I signed up with the meetup group to get inspired to draw again, to start thinking about art again and to frankly get out of the house as well and be more social. I thought it was a great first meeting and I am looking forward to more events in the future. I also found out pointers on some great comic stores around town which I am looking forward to checking out.
Secondly, Stranger Than Paradise. Why that name? Well it comes from the name of Jim Jarmusch's debut feature film and I always liked that movie for it's b/w and it's "smallness." The cast of Richard Edson, John Lurie and Ezter Balint are still great. This film watches like a small graphic novel reads. They are a bunch of broke goofballs who just hang out all day (and in Ezter's character's case listen to Screamin' Jay Hawkins all day). I still love this film and it's one of Jarmusch's early works that still rock.
The third thing I wanted to draw attention to is the great work of Japanese master graphic novelist Yoshihiro Tatsumi. Tatsumi has quickly become a favourite of mine after reading about his work in one of Adrian Tomine's Optic Nerve editions. Tatsumi is the originator of the realistic "Gekiga" style. Tomine ushered in Tatsumi's work to North America in the past decade, graphic novels that were created in the late 60s! The new editions are lovingly hardbound by the fine folks at Drawn and Quarterly. These four volumes of Tatsumi's work are timeless. I just read that he is going to be at the Toronto comics fest in May and I wish I could go. This recent article in the NY Times pays tribute to this lesser-known artist and reviews his most recent work at a hefty 855 pages, the graphic novel A Drifting Life. This fascination with all things Tatsumi comes at the same time as I am reading Murakami novels. I would love to see the two of them collaborate on something together. One can dream.
Physical State: achey muscles, gym
Mental State: encouraged
Music: Pains of Being Pure at Heart - s/t
Fashion sense: blue t-shirt, jeans
Ok after some consideration and a need to do more writing on a daily basis, I figure back to the blog is a good start. I mean I was doing this thing for a long time and the last two (count 'em) years I have slacked off. So here I am starting this up again. Let's hope it takes this time.
First off I met up today with a new meetup group for Calgary artists. Yes I am living in Calgary now in case you didn't know and freshly laid-off (or not that freshly about a month and a half). Anyways so I signed up with the meetup group to get inspired to draw again, to start thinking about art again and to frankly get out of the house as well and be more social. I thought it was a great first meeting and I am looking forward to more events in the future. I also found out pointers on some great comic stores around town which I am looking forward to checking out.
Secondly, Stranger Than Paradise. Why that name? Well it comes from the name of Jim Jarmusch's debut feature film and I always liked that movie for it's b/w and it's "smallness." The cast of Richard Edson, John Lurie and Ezter Balint are still great. This film watches like a small graphic novel reads. They are a bunch of broke goofballs who just hang out all day (and in Ezter's character's case listen to Screamin' Jay Hawkins all day). I still love this film and it's one of Jarmusch's early works that still rock.
The third thing I wanted to draw attention to is the great work of Japanese master graphic novelist Yoshihiro Tatsumi. Tatsumi has quickly become a favourite of mine after reading about his work in one of Adrian Tomine's Optic Nerve editions. Tatsumi is the originator of the realistic "Gekiga" style. Tomine ushered in Tatsumi's work to North America in the past decade, graphic novels that were created in the late 60s! The new editions are lovingly hardbound by the fine folks at Drawn and Quarterly. These four volumes of Tatsumi's work are timeless. I just read that he is going to be at the Toronto comics fest in May and I wish I could go. This recent article in the NY Times pays tribute to this lesser-known artist and reviews his most recent work at a hefty 855 pages, the graphic novel A Drifting Life. This fascination with all things Tatsumi comes at the same time as I am reading Murakami novels. I would love to see the two of them collaborate on something together. One can dream.
