On My Own

Tonight I'm uploading the last of my CDs to my computer, so I can get rid of the discs. After this I'll have no more physical CDs in the house, which I'm pretty excited about. I haven't bought a CD in almost 10 years now. I don't have a CD player in the house anymore. So it's time for them to go. I'll load what I want on my iPod and back up the rest. Think of the space this will save.

I just finished loading the 2 disc Broadway version of Les Miserables. It was one of Jeff's CDs. I had the London version on cassette (remember those?). I've never been tempted to "walk the boards" as they say, but if I were to act, it would be in Les Miserables. And I know exactly the character.

The first time I heard On My Own, sung by Eponine, I was in love. I loved the song from the very first verse. Perhaps it's all the unrequited romances I've had over my life. Perhaps it's my more tomboyish (or at least not girly) demeanor. But Eponine has always struck me as a kindred spirit. And not just because she's an alto and a brunette, both of which are rare in most musicals.

She's a melancholy character, prone to imagining things. The first verse of On My Own is about her imagining herself walking with Marius. I can't tell you how many imaginary walks or imaginary conversations I've had with characters or with people I know. I instantly connected with her because of her solitary imaginative walks. She pretends that she's independent even though she's longing to be loved. She is strong and just wants to be one of the guys. I see so many parallels it's as if they wrote the character for me.

So if I ever get the acting bug, I'll audition for Eponine. I can sing her pretty well in the car or the shower. I sing On My Own or Little Fall of Rain, at least once a month. I should be getting good at it by now. Perhaps one day I'll take the chance.

Charles Santoso

I'm not sure where I saw it, the image above. I'm sure I had been doing an image search for art or illustration or Totoro (because I do those kind of things regularly...probably more regularly than I should admit). But I saw this image and my heart melted. This is a wonderful piece of Totoro work. It has the same sweetness but it's not just ordinary fan art. This has extra character to it. This is the kind of piece that grabs my attention. So of course I had to see where it came from. The link led me to other tribute art, some for Peanuts, some for Calvin and Hobbes, some for Harry Potter. But all of them had the same soft softness and sweetness to them. I was hooked.

So I went to My Mini Tree House and discovered that this was just the tip of the iceberg in terms of Charles Santoso's work. And I love every bit of it. Santoso is a Sydney, Australia based artist who has done film and TV work. But it's his little character sketches that make me the happiest. On his website he describes himself as a concept artist who focuses on creating whimsical characters and scenes. He certainly does that. His draftsmanship is very good but it's the character and humor that makes me love his work.

 I subscribed immediately to his blog, and then started going back through the vast archive of art that he's already posted. As I read back, I grew to like his work even more. Santoso is willing to play. You can see the joy he takes in his work jump off the blog. He'll post concept art or strange dreams he's had. He'll try colors out and then post. He's having fun. I found all different types of art and so many characters, most of which are his own. Some artists leave me intimidated and Santoso certainly is good enough to do that. But looking at his work I just wanted to play and that was actually very inspiring. Incredible artwork and inspiration make for a new favorite artist.

P.S. I just went to Acid Free Gallery and purchased this print. Now I'll have some new artwork to hang on the wall.

Stranger Than Fiction

I watched Stranger Than Fiction again tonight. I'm not a huge Will Ferrell fan but I love him in this movie. I've seen it several dozen times now and every time I love it more. It's witty, funny, sweet, sad, and intelligent. It's the kind of movie I wish I had written. It not only breaks the fourth wall, it's all about the fourth wall.

What draws me to this movie is the characters and the characterizations. Jeff turned it on because he loves Maggie Gyllenhaal in this film. I can't blame him. She's beautiful in this movie. For me, I just want to be her character. I love the eclectic baker who fights the man and bakes goodies that make everyone drool. I love the kind-hearted character who gives away both her treats and her heart while still staying strong. I want to be her.

I also want to be Dustin Hoffman's character. I love the idea of the English professor who is enthralled with literature. His office is my dream office, filled with books, literature, discussion, and sunlight. I would love to have the time and intensity to read constantly and discuss books on a daily basis. I want to teach a class on "little did he know".

And I want to be Emma Thompson's character. I'm not sure I'd like the chain-smoking and ER stalking but I want that passion to write. To create. I have a card on my writing table that says "Passion is a form of madness." I've always craved that passion to write. Thompson plays the kind of eccentric writer I always wished I had become. Just more balanced.

I love this movie. I laugh, I cry, I dream. And in the end I finish the movie wanting to read and write and bake. But more than anything I want to live more fully. And that makes this movie special.

How to Train Your Dragon

It's rare when Jeff buys a movie just so I can see it. He had gone to the theater on the cruise ship to see How To Train Your Dragon and I hadn't gone. So when it finally came out on DVD, Jeff practically ran to the store and bought it. He made me watch it the first night. Halfway through the movie, I loudly announced

"If anything happens to harm this dragon, you are so in trouble."

It took me less than forty minutes and I was already completely enchanted by the dragon. I'm an animal lover by nature and tend to anthropomorphize anyway but the way the animators imbued him with cat-like sweetness, put me over the edge. I loved Toothless. I worried about Toothless. While I loved Hiccup's character, it was Toothless that stole the show for me. I'm always amazed by what animators can do with just the movement of an ear. With just the movement of Toothless's ears, they could make him angry or curious or happy. Without saying a word the creature spoke volumes. I'm in awe of that.

The whole film was both funny and sweet. I loved Craig Ferguson's character. So much of the dialogue and narration was clever. With lines like "This is Berk. It snows nine months out of the year, and hails the other three. What little food grows here is tough and tasteless. The people that grow here, even more so," you can't help but laugh. The relationship between Hiccup and pretty much everyone was interesting. I loved the banter between him and Astrid. But it was touching too. I'll even admit that when Stoick thanked Toothless for bringing Hiccup down to earth safely, I shed more than a few tears. But it was the animation that made me love the film. The emotion on one dragon's face made it all worth it. Such a great movie. I'm awfully glad that Jeff made me watch it.

Sam Nielson

As you know I'm always on the lookout for new, interesting artists. I love to find someone whose work makes me happy or makes me think. Sam Nielson's work makes me incredibly happy. How can you not smile with an image like this?

I found Sam through the website Amusing Planet, a site that lists great artists, interesting places, fun ideas, and anything else that happens to fascinate them. I would put it right up there with Neatorama as one of my favorite new sites.

Sam works for Avalanche Software, a Disney software company. He works doing mostly digital art with a focus on characters. And he's amazingly good at it. I fell in love with his work the moment I saw this little guy eating a brownie (love the irony). I was so incredibly impressed with his ability to create characters that seem to have depth to them.

But it's not just depth that drew me, it's the fun he seems to be having. His characters jump off the screen. They are silly and fun and incredibly well done. I'll be holding up Sam's work for anyone who tells me that digital art isn't quite as good as paint and ink art. Wonderful characters and fun images. A great find.

I understand that Sam just put out a art book for San Diego Comic Con. Guess I'm going shopping.

Book Review: Nature Girl

I love Carl Hiaasen. Okay well I've never met the man but I love his writing. There is something about the ability to take a dozen or so oddball characters and weave them together into a hilarious story. When I first read John Irving I thought that he was the best at combining characters but Hiaasen takes it to a higher place. This book is filled with no less than a dozen characters who are all fascinating in their own right. And he manages to bring them all together on one small island to see what will happen.

Nature Girl follows Honey Santana, a single mom in the Everglades who is off her meds. She hears mismatched songs in her head constantly and reacts often violently when things displease. Well she is displeased when a telemarketer calls one evening and then calls her a name. So she sets about to track him down. Now the telemarketer is having an interesting week as it is. His mistress is about to dump him for being too boring, his rich wife is planning to divorce him, and a private investigater is tailing him. So when he gets a fake call from Honey offering him an ecotour in Florida he jumps at the chance. So the telemarketer, his mistress, and the private investigator all head down to Florida.

There they meet a Seminole Indian who is haunted by a tourist he didn't kill, a college girl who is bored with life and is just looking for something fun, a fish vendor who is stalking Honey, and Honey's ex-husband and son. And that's just the beginning. Imagine all of these on a small island to get an idea of the almost slapstick quality of this novel. He sets things up beautifully. There are so many kidnappings in this book it is hard to keep track of whose prisoner is whose. Each character is played up to the max. Boyd, the telemarketer, is just scum in the worst sense of the word. Honey is crazy but still very likable. Sammy, the Seminole Indian, just wants to be alone and can't seem to catch a break. Even Boyd's soon to be ex-wife is just a little crazy.

Hiaasen writes all of his books about Florida and particularly about wild Florida. When I was on vacation a couple weeks ago I read his The Downhill Lie, about golf. I'm always impressed with the subtle environmental message that he hides in his books. The bad guys hate the outdoors, the good guys revel in it. The swamp always wins. And these are hidden in the book. Anyone who reads his work will come away thinking about how hilarious a writer he is. They may not even notice any sort of message. The plot on this books is wild but somehow the reader is willing to follow. The characters are just too interesting to turn away. In the tradition of the best train wreck, we just have to keep looking.

This book was a perfect antidote for me. It has been weeks since I've done any real reading so this was a quick read filled with enjoyable characters. I devoured it in little over 24 hours. The perfect beach book, I could also see spending a cold snowy day curled up on the couch with this book. Just be careful who's in the room. I guarantee you will laugh, probably out loud, possibly shooting food out your nose. Yeah he's that funny.