Popular Lies About Graphic Design

This is a cool book.

I think this is a great, very quick read about design. The author just plays devil's advocate and/or tries to dispels "lies" he's been told or encountered in his design career. Most of it is spot-on, and some of it is up for debate. But that's how it should be; a dialogue.

I'm looking forward to passing this along to the rest of my co-workers. I think they'll find it an inspirational read. The layout is excellent and worth the price of the book alone.

There isn't a ton to say about this. It's pocket-sized. It's well designed. And it's thought-provoking and sometimes confrontational. There are guest spots by quite a lot of famous and not-so-famous designers. Sagmeister and Carson make cameos. Y'know how it goes...

Good book for any designer. Another good one to hand out at design school. Dig it.

Sinner's Blood

Wow.

This was fuckin nuts, man. The opening frames were of boobs. And a knife. And really poor lighting. Then it cut to something else completely unrelated and the movie started. The production was atrocious. The acting was heinous. But the movie was awesome!

I don't think we've ever hooted and hollered so much in all our years of watching biker movies together. We were crying with laughter. And sometimes with confusion.

I thought I had read that this was originally shot as a biker porno and a couple of the main characters were porn stars in real life. Then I read somewhere else that it wasn't shot as a porno but scenes from a porno film were intercut into Sinner's Blood and it was rereleased as a biker porn a couple years later. The biker porn in question is called Hard Riders. So either way, it came out a porno at some point, whether it was originally intended that way or not is maybe up for debate...

The acting and "plot" certainly makes me think this could very well have been a porno. As it currently stands it's a pretty hard R for 1969, in my opinion. Tame by today's standards, but over the top compared to all the other biker flicks we've seen from that era.

They cover all the lurid bases: incestual straight sex, incestual lesbian sex, gay sex, and straight sex. Oh yeah, and there's a retarded peeping tom. Total mouth-breather. But the best/worst part was when one chick is seducing her female cousin by talking to her about how pretty her dead mother must have been. Said mother just died two months prior. The cousin starts talking aloud about her mother's beauty while the other chick starts disrobing her and fondling her. Then they get it on. Of course!

This movie makes zero sense. The ending is totally bizarre. It has absolutely NOTHING to do with anything. It's quite amazing that this ever got financed and made. But I'm glad it did because it was easily one of the most entertaining films we're yet to see.

The transfer sucks. Looks like it came right off of a 5th gen VHS bootleg.

Oh, you want to know about the bikes? They're little Honda 350's. One fat dude rides a Triumph. They're the crappiest biker gang of all. But they know how to party. At least when they have a love-in in the woods their girls get naked.

Looked like the world's first fake boobs, too. This one chick's knockers were so far apart you could park a double decker bus between them.

This was definitely a stand-out. Mostly for how insanely bad it was.

Generation Iron

Pickle reminded me that Generation Iron was on Netflix so I gave it a watch.

I was impressed by the opening credits. I could tell right off the bat that this wasn't some bullshit shoestring budget flick thrown together by a hack. It seemed to have high production values and a definite artistic perspective.

It was well edited and the score was good. I have no real beef with the flick. But somehow it didn't quite live up to the high expectation that I set when the credits started to roll. I dunno. Everything in the flick just didn't seem...essential.

The movie loosely follows a half dozen bodybuilders as they gear up for the 2012(?) Mr. Olympia competition in Vegas. It's mostly about their psyche. There's banter back and forth between them. But it's nothing too malicious or anything. The crew just follow them around, do interviews at their gyms, and generally just discuss their back story and what it means to be Mr. O.

I think I was expecting something a bit more historical and that's why I didn't think it was a complete knock out. The flick has a narrow scope and I think broadening that a little bit to include more of the history and definitely more of their training/diet regimens would have been great. If there's a Director's cut or a "cut for meatheads" then I think that'd be much better than the current theatrical cut.

If you lift this is a mandatory watch just like Pumping Iron is.

Get the blood in it.

 

the Golden Era was way cooler.

the Walking Dead: Volume 22 A New Beginning

Holy shit, I've been reading the Walking Dead for 10 years? For real? Time flies. But that explains why I don't remember a whole lot about it.

A New Beginning is uneventful then BAM!, some crazy shit happens at the end of the book. Leaves you with another hell of a cliffhanger. I think the crazy shit that happens is pretty groundbreaking. I couldn't believe it. That's why I've been reading it for 10 years. It never gets old. Kirkman always finds some new story arc or concept to blow your mind. So once again...I sit...and wait for the next TPB to be released.

Conan: The Song of Bêlit

Marie and I were in Ann Arbor last week and we popped into the Vault of Midnight comic book store. Don't get out there much but when I do it's a treat. It's a good spot, man. I picked up the latest Walking Dead TPB and the latest Conan hardcover; volume 16.

This is an emotional one, fellas. It's the conclusion in the Queen of the Black Coast saga. That can only mean one thing.

It's a good read. Lots of emotional ups and downs but Conan faces them the only way he knows. By decapitating people. I believe there're are some foes that he even cleaves right in half. Good stuff.

The writing is good but the art isn't my favorite. I dunno, man, you get used to one way of visualizing Conan then it gets thrown out of whack when someone else picks up the pencil. It's a little jarring at first but then you get used to it. It's not sub-par...just different, I guess.

This is one hell of a ride, though. Sorcery, pirates, evil beasts, blood, fire, death. It's packed to gills with riches and witches.

I'd be hard-pressed not to enthusiastically recommend any book in the Conan of Cimmeria series. I'm looking forward to re-reading them in one big week-long binge or something. Maybe when/if the 30th book comes out I'll re-read them all one book a day for a whole month.

Hail the king.

Tanar of Pellucidar

You can judge a book by its cover. I mean, just look at this. You know it's gonna be bad ass. Frank Frazetta painting of a muscled barbarian holding a dagger dripping with blood. He's just vanquished his foe and he's poised ready for more action. How could it not be great?

Edgar Rice Burroughs is famous for writing Tarzan, but he also had a series of books centered around the fictional realm of Pellucidar. This was my first exposure to the author and although it started cold I feel it definitely warmed up.

Pellucidar is in the center of the Earth. The inhabitants are in various states of cultural and physical evolution. There are some gnarly prehistoric creatures mixed with 17th Century era firearms like canons and harquebuses. There are a few people who have travelled from the surface down into Pellucidar and brought with them modern day technology. It's crazy shit. Their sun is perpetually at its zenith so there is no night and there is no concept of north, south, east or west. Things are different in the center of the Earth.

So, I felt like the book was a second-rate Conan yarn. Where are Robert E. Howard would have some sort of rising drama and eventual climax punctuated with small sub-dramatic elements along the way, I felt like this one was often times just one small drama to the next to the next to the next, with no clear destination. It took a while but eventually it started to coalesce. I just felt like a decent amount of the book was Burroughs making up one calamitous event after another for the sake of taking up pages. Girl is captured, Tanar fights some villagers, Taner frees girl, both are captured, they both escape, rinse wash, repeat.

But at the end of the day I definitely dug the book. I think the second half was better than the first. I probably needed to get used to Burroughs writing. I will continue to buy books for the Pellucidarian series whenever I see them at local stores. Hell, I'll read more Burroughs and maybe I'll get into Tarzan. Why not.

Dig it.

Savages from Hell

Hands down one of the funniest biker flicks we've ever seen. The acting was THE WORST and that's saying something. Holy shit.

Incredible fake accents, overt racism, the worst Prez ever, and lamest intro to a biker flick the world has ever seen. This one takes place in Florida which is only the second classic US biker flick we've seen that isn't set in Arizona or Cali. At times the movie seems like a telenovela interrupted by a shitty biker gang and a lunatic broad. The acting is amazingly bad, though. It's awesome. Shockingly I don't think any of the "stars" of Savages from Hell went on to do anything else that was remotely noteworthy.

The editing is hilarious. Not because it's just downright bad, but because there are so many botched attempts at trying to be good/artistic. There's no shock that this never got a good restoration. You can rent it on Amazon Prime for $2 in all its 3:4 aspect ratio glory. Terribly degraded film stock at no additional cost. ;) The rip that I've linked above is the whole movie on YouTube, but the Amazon one is actually better. The exposure and contrast is improved.

Who cares about the plot. There's a botched rape scene. There's an demented jilted ex. There's a violent and idiotic Prez. And there are some really rad bikes, but you don't get to see them in detail enough. It's a shame because the bikes look outta sight.

If you're looking for a hilariously poor bikesploitation flick look no further. You've hit pay dirt.

The Art of Client Service

I read The Art of Client Service on the plane to Puerto Rico. As the subtitle says, it's 58 things every advertising & marketing professional should know. I figured being in the business it would be worthwhile for me to give it a good read. So I did...

This is the kind of book that should be mandatory reading for the Account / Sales team. The advice is universal and you can definitely apply it regardless of whether you're a "sales person" or not. Because truly we're all selling, every day, regardless of our title.

The book is broken up into the following areas: At the start of an assignment, looking at creative, making presentations, running a meeting, attitude, communication, trouble, and socializing. Each area has its own chunk of "things you should do." Most are exemplified via personal anecdotes. The author has failed often (as all successful people have), and mined those failures to give substance to his suggestions and assertions.

I will definitely be passing this one around at work. It's a quick read and it's packed with little nuggets of advice. But it's definitely something I'll reread and take specific notes. I believe the website has a downloadable PDF with the main 58 take-aways summarized so you can post them up on your wall and whatnot.

If you read business books then add this to your list and bust it out on your next flight...

Grand Prix

So, I reviewed Grand Prix before. I just reread it and I think it sums up everything perfectly. This movie is un-fucking-believable. In the Top 10 flicks of all time? It's that good.

Naked Angels

Don't do a google image search for "Naked Angels" when you're at work. It doesn't pull up the biker flick.

We watched this last night. It's another classic Corman biker flick. This is 1969, mommas, bar fights, great choppers, gang war, disturbing the peace, love-ins, violence and boobs. It clearly ticks all the right boxes. Naked Angels has a legit soundtrack. I was really vibing on it.

It's pretty gritty. And terribly shallow. The whole plot could be explained in about 3 sentences: Biker gets beat up. Biker seeks revenge. Wait, make that two sentences. The stage is set in the first 30 seconds of the movie and then the remaining 83 minutes and 30 seconds is pretty much a gang of bikers riding through the desert so they can beat up another gang. Sometimes in fast motion. And often times stopping to beat up and molest their mommas along the way.

There's some decent acting from the main mustachioed Pres (considering the type of movie). But typically everyone else is pretty crappy. It's par for the course.

This one definitely was a bit of a downer. There's a lot of internal strife going on. But I think it was actually one of the strongest classic biker flicks we've seen. I think it deserves a spot in the top ten.

I purchased the dvd and it's a pretty freakin good transfer. You can watch a shitty transfer on YouTube above.

Recommended if sleazy biker flicks are your thing.