Thursday, March 25, 2010

Die gestalten verlag.

Those jerks at Gestalten did it again. Don't they realize that I don't make enough money to buy all their books? They just keep churning out book after book only to very quickly be added to my already expansive Amazon Wish List. The latest two to make it to the top of my wish list are Impressive and Beyond the Street. Impressive's subheading reads: "Printmaking, Letterpress and Graphic Design." Wait, Printmaking and Graphic Design? Aren't those the two things I emphasized in getting my bfa? Now if it only covered Arrested Development, curly hair, sporadic video game playing and my wife I could get all my passions between two covers.

Beyond the Street promises to be an exciting volume to add to your library. It contains interviews with "the 100 leading figures in Urban Art," including my favorite, Herakut. The one big surprise I had was that Banksy is not included in the list of leading figures. Beyond that I can see little disappointment with this book. It's 400 pages, so it'll be heavy, and with Gestalten's reputation for putting out very well crafted books I can see I'm going to have to do some quick calculations to figure out when I'll be able to get this one off the wish list and on to my shelf.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Quote unquote fantastic.

Fantastic Mr. Fox came out on video yesterday. Needless to say I picked it up on my lunchbreak and we watched it again last night. I had forgotten just how much I love that movie. It quickly made its way into my "Top 5." What else is on my "Top 5" you ask? Well, at the moment all I can remember is Groundhog's Day and Stranger Than Fiction. I really like the Brothers Bloom but I'm not sure it can replace the two movies I can't remember right now. It might be number 6. And there are great movies like Son of Rambow and (500) Days of Summer, but I don't think they quite make the cut either. Turns out I might not have a physical list of 5 films that I hold closer to my heart than any other. It might just be a euphemism for saying, "I really, really like these movies" where the ones that don't make the cut I only really like (only one "really"). Then there are those movies that I hold in whatever body part is the opposite of the heart, like Eragon and Jumper, that I wish I could go back in time to convince myself to schedule a dentist appointment for the showtime of the movie instead of subjecting myself to sit through it. Even the painfully bad Riding the Bus with My Sister doesn't quite make that cut.

I wish I could find good bandit hats like these.