I watched Being There a few weeks ago and have been wanting to draw the main character, Chance (played by Peter Sellers), since then.  So here he is.


I found some custom Photoshop brushes online to achieve this messy effect.  I like it.

Today I moved off campus, officially ending my final semester at Malone.  In January I'll be moving to L.A. to attend a film school for a few months.

Over the next couple of weeks I plan on watching a bunch of movies and working on my own short film.  These are things I've been meaning to do for some time now, but I was previously hindered by homework, etc.  It's a relief to have all of that out of the way.

Movies I managed to watch over the last couple of weeks:

The Conversation - I watched this as part of a group project for a film class.  Very good movie.
The Horse's Mouth - Though a comedy, it didn't make me laugh much.  Nice to see Alec Guinness in a non-Obi-Wan role.
Chaos Theory - The trailer made it look better than it was.  Some parts were good.
The Ruling Class - Again, I didn't laugh as much as I wanted too.  Peter O'Toole is fun to watch, though.

A couple of my favorite videos at the moment:





Oh, and check out this site - it's a collection of movie title sequences.  Neat!
http://www.artofthetitle.com/

-Dan

Drew this the other day (except for the background, which was taken directly from the film).  While watching The 39 Steps, I felt a desire to draw something for the first time in months.


Last Thursday I took a trip to Chicago with my roommate to see a Coheed and Cambria concert.  It was one of the most frustrating experiences of my life, but good things helped balance it out.

We left at 7:30 in the morning to drive to Cleveland, where we would catch a bus headed straight for Chicago.  The bus left at 9:30, and we arrived at the bus stop at 9:31.  They didn't wait for us.  We called the Megabus phone number, but they weren't willing to stop the bus for us to catch up with it.

We'd planned on this trip for over a month, and I wasn't willing to just skip the whole thing, so I drove my own car to Chicago.  It was a long trip, and I had counted on getting some sleep on the bus.  So much for that.

We arrived in Chicago and met up with Angie, a friend who moved out there last year.  She was an incredible help to us, as she provided us with all sorts of directions and tips on getting around the city.  We would have been literally lost without her.  It was great to see her again.

The concert was amazing.  The band is in the middle of their "Neverender" tour, in which they play all four of their albums in full, one album each night, four nights in a row.  We would have attended the whole event if it weren't for school.  We saw them perform Good Apollo Volume 1, which was the first album of theirs I heard (and my personal favorite).  It was a truly great experience.

Afterwards, we drove to a nearby apartment to see some other friends, Jake and Adam.  Unfortunately, we weren't able to find the road sign we needed, and we ended up driving a total of about 80 miles more than we should have.  At one point I decided to turn around at the next exit I saw, but there wasn't an exit for another 20 miles.  So I was forced to drive 40 miles just to turn around from that point.  Having spent the first half of my day driving, this was not a pleasant experience for me.  Thank God for dropping gas prices.

Seeing Jake made all the misery from that wasted trip go away.  I always enjoy seeing him, which doesn't happen much since he moved to Chi-town.  Adam was asleep by the time we arrived, but I watched the end of Wild Hogs and half of State and Main with Jake.  I laughed a lot.

My roommate and I eventually made it back to Canton the following afternoon.  We missed two days of classes for the sake of this trip.  It was worth it, though it was more expensive than it needed to be (I haven't added up our expenses because I'd rather not know).

-Dan

Here's the final chapter in Joe Siebert's series of short films about him and his roommate, Mike.  In this one, I got to drive a truck.


Over the past couple of weeks I watched all four seasons of Entourage.  I wish I had HBO so I could start watching the new season in a few weeks.

I also watched the first three episodes of The Wire.  I can't say I'm enthralled by it.

I saw Tropic Thunder in the theater.  It was good, but not great.  I was hoping to be blown away by Tom Cruise's cameo, but it was just okay.

I hate hype.  It's ruining everything for me.  TV shows, movies, music....  My expectations have reached a point where nothing quite measures up.  I'm becoming numb to entertainment/art.

I watched Eyes Wide Shut last week.  It wasn't bad.

Tonight I plan on watching Control.  I hear good things.

On Saturday I'll move back to school.  This semester will be busier than usual for me.  Tough classes, a job, extra clubs and obligations... and in between all of that, I have to figure out a way to make a short film.  Also, about half of my friends graduated last year.  I don't know if that will help or hinder me.

Then in the spring, I'm moving to L.A. for a few months of film school.  After that, I plan on moving to Chicago for an undefined period of time.

-Dan

Randy Pausch died today.

Several months ago I watched this video, his "last lecture."

It was incredibly touching and motivational.

Today's news does not sit well with me. I never met the man, but I will miss him.

I encourage you to watch this.


-Dan

Last night I watched Bad Lieutenant.  I enjoyed it, but I kinda got annoyed by Harvey Keitel's groan/whine thing.  He might have used it a bit too much.


Just got back from seeing The Incredible Hulk.  I went to a matinée for the sake of saving some money, but unfortunately there were only a few other people in the theater.  I could have used some good audience reaction.  Even so, the movie was good.  Can't say I was blown away, though.

-Dan