I’ve been pretty busy with life and I haven’t been around to post anything amazing. Today I figured I’d just post what I’ve been watching so far this year… starting from like Feb. until now. My plan is to try and watch 175 movies by the end of the year. I’m making August a 30 movies in 30 days kind of month. I think I can do it. I’m a huge nerd, and you should be too.
1. Get Carter
2. A History Of Violence
3. Eastern Promises
4. Two Lane Blacktop
5. We Own The Night
6. Children Of Men
7. How Green Was My Valley
8. The Good Shepard
9. Crime Wave
10. Blade Runner
11. No Country For Old Men
12. The Big Steal
13. This Is England
14. Illegal
15. The Wages Of Fear
16. Blood Diamond
17. Little Caesar
18. The Cranes Are Flying
19. The Darjeeling Limited
20. Act Of Violence
21. Crash
22. The Razor’s Edge
23. Metropolis
24. This Sporting Life
25. Woman In The Dunes
26. Atonement
27. Harlan County, U.S.A.
28. The Dark Past
29. Raising Arizona
30. The Vanishing
31. Mystery Street
32. Fargo
33. Sunrise
34. Le Silence De La Mer
35. The Road To Corinth
36. Operation Crossbow
37. Pierot Le Fou
38. The Odd Couple
39. Red River
40. Blood Simple
41. Blast Of Silence
42. The Ice Storm
43. Robinson Crusoe On Mars
44. Blue Velvet
45. The Seventh Seal
46. Citizen Kane
47. American Beauty
48. Angel Face
49. None But The Brave
50. 24 Hour Party People
51. The Pianist
52. Walker
53. No Mans Land
54. Journey Into Fear
55. Some Came Running
56. Miss Julie
57. The Grapes Of Wrath
58. Drums Along The Mohawk
59. My Darling Clementine
60. Control
61. Videodrome
62. Ballad Of A Soldier
63. Contraband
64. L.A. Confidential
65. Holocaust Miniseries
66. Pilgrimage
67. Out Of The Past
68. The Thin Man
69. The Last Emperor
70. The Bank Dick
71. Charade
72. Bad Day At Black Rock
73. The Element Of Crime
74. L’avventura
75. The Train
76. The Naked Kiss
77. Viridiana
78. Before The Rain
79. The Search
80. Classe Tous Risques
81. The Furies
82. The Postman Always Rings Twice
83. Double Indemnity
84. The Tin Drum
85. High And Low
86. Drunken Angel
87. Marnie
New Oasis album and tour in October, I think you should be pumped.
Shrooms Movie: “I know, right? I mean, I know I was supposed to come out in theatres, but they figured, Hell, lets just send me right to DVD you know what I’m sayin? But I’m tooootally cool though you know, cuz I’m all about drugs and ghosts and stuff.”
Me: “yea… you’re so well written…too”
Shrooms Movie: “For sure my man. I bet you never thought another teenager horror flick that takes place in the woods, has lots of blood, and bad special effects could be so cool right? Right? Well, hey dude, I gotta run. Me n’ The Ring 2 are supposed to go meet up and play hackey sack”
Blade Runner: The Final Cut is coming to the Harris Theatre downtown the weekend of March 7th thru the 13th. I will be there to experience the glory of one of the best sci-fi films ever. Granted I bought the limited edition suitcase with the final cut of Blade Runner inside.. but seeing it on the big screen is a must. Be there or be square nerds.
Lego leaked some photos of their new Indiana Jones themed sets coming out in May. These Lego sets come out the same time as the new Indiana Jones movie.
Why should you care? Well think about it this way. By looking at these Lego sets, you can see allot of what the movies about. For example, one set lets you build some type of soviet vehicle with giant saw blades on the front. Hmmm… wonder if that will be in the movie?
Last summer when I went to see Transformers, I was unexpectedly punched in the face by the movie industry.
A movie trailer with no name, and no answers as to why the city is getting destroyed during the party which is taking place in the trailer. I was pretty interested.
Then came November, and now we had a name for this movie. Cloverfield. We also knew it was a monster movie… so let’s see this monster.
No?
Fuck.
Here it is, 7 months later, and the movie is released in theatres today. I want to see it… but for all the wrong reasons. I don’t really know what it’s about. I don’t know the plotline. I only want to go to see what they wouldn’t tell me for the last 7 months. It’s a REALLY sneaky tactic, but unfortunately, it worked. I really hope the movie isn’t terrible.
Message boards and whatnot are exploding with people’s predictions about this movie… what the monster will look like… the plot line…Everyone claims they have the right answer. Everyone is saying they worked on the production team for the movie. It’s all a waste of time even looking online for hints.
Oh boy what a year it’s been huh? I keep a calendar at work, and each day I write down what I did the day before. I guess it’s my way of keeping a journal. Anyways, no one’s going to care at all about this, but I’m going to write about my year, so I can read this in the future and reflect about all the good times I had in ’07. So, in closing, don’t read this then complain that I wasted your time, because I wrote it for myself.
January:
I started off this year on my computer making a logo for Shinyfire.com. It was a squid lying on top of an Ipod, which was used to glorify our weekly pod cast. I also did two tiny paintings… one of King Hippo from Nintendo’s Punch Out!, and one of a drunk elephant. One Saturday night, I went over to my pal Gary’s house to play a fine game of Bastard ball, which is two teams each standing on opposite ends of a racquetball court. You get points by nailing the other team with the balls that are thrown at them. I also went to Southside w/ my pal Roadie and Mosley’s ex girlfriend Emily. This turned out to be a pretty awkward evening due to a drunken horny Roadie and Emily wanting nothing at all to do w/ him. I also made a disco dancing zombie in Illustrator which would later be used for a hoodie design. I also made a custom Valentines Day card for the upcoming holiday. I acquired an old painting at a thrift store in a big golden frame, so I painted a big blue guarding angel gangster on it. The painting is currently on display at Pack Rat in Southside Pittsburgh.
February:
The band “The Mikeys” contacted me to do a T Shirt and Sticker design for them, so I worked on those. I also did a tiny little painting of a boxer with a cityscape behind him. I also did my first public art show at the Creative Treehouse in
Bellevue. The trick was, all the artists had 24 hours to create a piece to be shown in the reception the next day. I painted a blue elephant with a tree growing out of the mouth on its back. The painting is now in California somewhere in some girl’s house that bought it off myspace. I also discovered an amazing drink, Volcanos, when KP, Tim, Benny, and I went out for a night on the town. Tim was testing out his new beard, which didn’t seem to go over well since he doesn’t have it any more. I also did a painting called “Husky Diver” which was a boy octopus sad over a lady pus.
March:
I cut out a big monster face with a word bubble saying MattGondek.com to hang at my art shows. I also bought a new slick computer monitor that is all flat, big, and sexy. I picked up a good book called “The Road” by Cormack McCarthy. It tells the story about a boy and his father walking south after the “end of the world”, which you are lead to believe is from some sort of nuclear attack. I did my first T Shirt for someone else this month too. I made it for Captive Clothing, which turned out to kind of suck in the end. I also designed a skate deck that is collecting dust in my bedroom. Since it was getting warmer out, I picked up a grill and had a cookout which was a nice way to relax after my art show at Peter’s Pub in
Oakland. For the show, I did two new pieces.. One was of Ronald McDonald squeezing his nipple milk to feed some crows, and the other was of God calling a bunch of stone statues “EskiSluts”. I also got stickers made!
April:
My friend Mosley and I organized our first art show this month. Called “Doughnuts and Art”, it was a collection of artists and bands and took place at the Creative Treehouse in Bellview. My band “Doughnuts in November” played there, and I also brought along some new pieces I made for the show. The first was of a confused octopus that some DJ in
California bought. Secondly, I did a piece called Swallows, which is now in France somewhere. It’s of a little angel baby getting attacked by an alligator. Lastly, I did a doughnut themed piece of monsters and elephants. On 4/20, four of my friends celebrated a birthday, so we all took a limo downtown to Buckheads to celebrate. The night ended w/ me losing my cell phone forever, Sean falling off a giant speaker, and an entire leg of lamb which was bought at at a little gyro shop. We ate the lamb that entire weekend, during the birthday party / Beer Olympics. I also started a now nine foot long drawing called Super Husky World, and began work on a painting of zombies fighting robots fighting dinosaurs for the cover of “A Rein of Haven’s” CD. Lastly, my friends and I all went to Flux, which was a big Artitst event downtown somewhere. Most of it was outside, so it was mega cold.
May:
In may this blog was started. I also did a shirt for Shipshape clothing of an elephant and did an Illustrator design of a portion of the nine foot drawing. This piece would later become a flier for the creative treehouse. My friends and I also went to a Girl Talk show and danced our faces off.
June:
The band “Girl in the Closet” from
Texas commissioned me to create a logo for them. After I finished that, I began painting a drunken tattooed pink hippo on an old table I found in the neighbor’s trash. The table was unique because it had about 100 or so tiny little photos glued on it of different people. I also made an arcade machine printout that for my myspace that people could print out and construct. I had an art show at the
RexTheatre in Southside which was a pretty good time because I got to show my new piece of a grub tied to an octopus. Debris Magazine contacted me to do a banner for their site, and did a feature on my work, as did the website Lost at E Minor. My band played in Monaca PA at “SuperFriends 5” and crushed it hard. Everyone was real into it and dancing around which was good because their wasn’t a great turnout for the event. KP and I also went downtown to the Pittsburgh Art’s Festival and to another Flux event which took place right in the heart of Pittsburgh. We had seen a motorcycle get hit by a car that day, which in the end was still pretty crazy to see. No one got hurt. I also went to
WashingtonDC to all the museums and everything which was cool.
July:
I seen Transformers in the theatre and got super excited by the amazing visuals. I also bough a new Ipod, and seen the new Harry Potter and Simpsons movie. My buddy Aaron took me to see Interpol downtown too. I didn’t do much art this month. Only to the Southside works to do chalk drawings during their annual artist festival thing.
August:
Rob Larson from Destroy/ Destroyer and I got together to do a colab piece called Rampage. It uses his signature style of a cityscape in the background, along w/ the Ninteno Rampage characters I painted in the front. I also painted another monster on a aerosol can, which caused allot more problems than it was worth with my friend. A great movie, Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theatres came out on DVD and was a great purchase. I did another shirt for Shipshape Clothing as well as a new painting of some roses. The local paper ran an interview of me talking about Mosley and I’s event, Doughnuts and Art 2.0 which happened this month. The lead singer of Doughnuts in November was also in the interview. I also bought a new car, and ’07 Hyundai Elantra.
September: Like every resident of
Pittsburgh at some point in the summer, I went to
KennywoodPark and later on, a Pirates Game. I was commissioned by Phoenix Entertainment to design a custom pair of Air Force Ones, and commissioned by a clothing company called With Open Eyes to design two shirts. I also went to the Improv at the waterfront for the first time ever, and to the Penguins Open House. When my Birthday rolled around, we took a Limo downtown and almost got in a fight with a racist DJ. We also had a party at my house, and a cookout and wiffleball game the next day. I did a painting of a crying face called “A young Good Looking American” and went to my friends art show, Conceived Bully”, at the Digging Pit.
October:
The band “The Devil Wears Prada” commissioned me to do two shirt designs for them. I also did another pair of custom slip on shoes for a kid in
Jersey named John.My pal Sean and I went to Sonics and ate like kings since Pittsburgh finally got one. I hastily got the tater tots as my side, but secretly wished I had gotten the fries. KP and I went to our pal Wamsley’s house to do a photo shoot for a piece he was working on. It involved me dressed like a killer clown and I had KP tied up about to do some killin’ on her. Our friend had a Halloween party, and in the afternoon that day we all went to watch Saw 4, which is now a Halloween tradition. Fresh Clothing commissioned me to do a shirt for them, and I also did a mural at “Your Moms” store in Bellevue. (Yes I know I’m spelling it different each time)
November:
Wamley’s photo piece of KP and I was entered into the Halloween art show at the Creative Treehouse. My band also played the event and I had some artwork on display as well. KP and I won the pumpkin carving contest and were rewarded handsomely w/ some candy, a free pizza, and a gift certificate for a fancy restaurant. The band “The Announced” commissioned me to do a shirt design for them. A friend of mine commissioned me to do a painting for his wife for Christmas. I also took some time for myself and did a painting of some badgers hanging out in a rose garden in the clouds. I also made a limited edition book called Husky Diver to give away with art purchases from my site. Lastly, I was contacted to include a piece in a “Vice’s” show in
San Francisco. My biggest vice is my bad mouth, so I painted and submitted a piece, called “Smartmouth that’s deece”. The show started today, the 2nd.
December:
I once again went to
WashingtonDC for the weekend with KP. My roommates started talk about making a clothing company called “I Shirt Myself”, which I did two designs for. I also created a logo for Chest Laser, Mosleys new online store which should be out early this year. I also did two different paintings of a purple bird, which I’ve named Morgan Freeman. He is currently having a comic drawn of him by yours truly. Lastly, I bought myself some new toys. An Ipod Touch and a new TV.
In other news..
Kp and I recently watched a movie called “Fido”, which is about a 1950’s world where the zombie outbreak has already happened and has been dealt with. The zombies were not killed… instead a company called Zomcor invents these collars that allow normal people to keep zombies as personal assistants and whatnot. Most houses have at least one zombie who does the yardwork, cleaning, and serving. However (as you can probably guess), the collars sometimes malfuntion and the zombies get mad crazy and start eating people. This isn’t in any way THAT kind of movie though. It’s actually a very refreshing take on the played out zombie movie. The atmosphere of the flick is very good, but personally, I feel that the movie suffers becuase it was made by Canadians.
The story revolves around a little boy who is kind of an outcast and his new friend, their zombie servent. I recommend checking it out. It’s at the movie rental store.
Last year around this time I decided that it was my mission to finally get into films and really start collecting DVD’s. After a few months of grabbing as many Criterion Collection, Masters Of Cinema, Kino Video, and classic releases I decided that I must find a way to see foreign films and older films on the big screen. While cruising the net I discovered the “Pittsburgh Filmmakers” and their two theaters in Pittsburgh. The Harris Theatre is located downtown on Liberty Avenue and the Regent Square Theatre is in Edgewood. The reason why I bring this up now is that I’ve noticed the quality of films being shown has increased dramatically in the past few months. Hitchcock, David Lynch, Fellini, and the best in Indie Cinema are on tap in January at both theaters. I’m very excited to finally see the Ian Curtis film entitled “Control” which tells of the tragic life of the Joy Division front-man and his sudden suicide. BTW: That pic is from Eraserhead.. maybe the craziest film of the 70’s which plays this weekend.
Today I’d like to write about the greatest American made movie in the history of cinema. It’s called Big Money Hustla’s. The move came out in 2000, and stars rap stars, The Insane Clown Posse.
The movie follows hero Sugar Bear (played by Shaggy 2 Dope) as a San Francisco cop hunting down the king of the criminal underworld, Big Baby Sweets (played by Violent J). I wish I could write more about the plotline, but I can’t seem to remember what it was about, most likely because I was in entire awe of the acting, directing, and engaging story.
Actually, this movie is a piece of shit, and the only reason I’m writing about it is because I’m pissed off at Taco Bell. You see, where I live, Taco Bell is the leading employeer of Juggalos (fans of ICP who dress like them and have extremely large decals of their logo on the back of their pickup trucks). Due to this, it is practically impossible to enjoy any form of taco bell in a timely manner. There are only two places I’ve ever seen Juggalos. Taco Bell and the Mall. Especially if the mall has a Taco Bell inside it. I believe they consider it some sort of command center.
Here is a review written by a fan on RottenTomatoes.com
“BIG MONEY HUSTLAS POSSABLY ONE OF THE BEST MOVIES OF ALL TIME THEY HAD TO PAY FOR THIS MOVIE OUT OF THERE OWN POCKETS”.
You can see by this fan’s rampant and almost dangerous use of cap lock, coupled with their spelling and sentence structure, that Juggalos are regarded as valuable members of society. As for the paying out of their own pockets, Violent J had to use $100,000 of his own cash when their record label refused to give them any more money for this piece of shit. They didn’t pay for the ENTIRE thing themselves. In their defense, he has $100,000 and I don’t.
Also, ICP glorifies the soft Drink “Faygo”, which makes me mad too. I think that if they glorified something more substantial, like a work ethic, that we’d all be better off. This way, we’d be able to avoid Taco Bell’s “fast food” lies and I could actually viva gordita in a timely manner.
In conclusion, if you don’t want me to write a five paragraph rant in my head about how much you suck while sitting in the drive thru lane, please don’t make me wait for a burrito.
“Pittsburgh. It’s the city that built America with its steel, cured polio, opened the world’s first movie theater, invented everything from aluminum to the Big Mac, and inspired hometown icon Fred Rogers.”
The Sunday, June 24, 2007 issue of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette highlights an opinion piece entitled “Pittsburgh - We can make it here” by Carl Kurlander (follow the link to read the article online). Kurlander, a Pittsburgh native most famously known for writing the hit film “St. Elmo’s Fire,” recognizes the potential for greatness in Pittsburgh with the many resources - the universities, great old movie houses, WQED, the Carnegie Mellon Entertainment Technology Center, Pittsburgh Filmmakers, Civic Light Opera, Pittsburgh Public Theater, etc. - and explains that someone “has got to sew all this up…to get everything to work together to transform these nonprofit resources into a lucrative business.”
His advice is precisely the idea I have in mind for starting a business. I want to combine the local talent and resources available in abundance and transform Pittsburgh into a city with an entrepreneurial focus.
Where do we start? Kurlander says, “Invest in talent.”
To put his advice into perspective, he invites readers to think back to the city one hundred years ago when “this was the Silicon Valley of the Industrial Revolution.” He notes that “back then if you were 22-year-old Charles Hull with an idea about the process for making aluminum or 21-year-old George Westinghouse with the idea for an air brake, you came to Pittsburgh to get your ideas funded.” In 1905, Pittsburgh was arguably the best city in the world for entrepreneurs.
In 2007, Pittsburgh natives find success utilizing their creative talents elsewhere, as Kurlander explains. Rob Marshall, director of “Chicago,” grew up in Squirrel Hill and attended the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama. Mt. Lebanon native Terri Minksy created the TV series “Lizzie McGuire.” Bernie Goldmann, who also grew up in Squirrel Hill, produced “300″ and George A. Romero’s “Land of the Dead.” Today, when the “entertainment industry makes more than the steel and automobile industry,” it is time for Pittsburgh to invest in retaining more local creative ventures.
Currently, Kurlander works as a Visiting Distinguished Senior Lecturer for the University of Pittsburgh and has been finishing a documentary about Pittsburgh reinventing itself called, “My Pittsburgh: A Tale of Two Cities.” In the film, he points to the flourishing Pittsburgh of the past and legendary Pittsburgh talent Andy Warhol, Gene Kelly, and August Wilson to remind Pittsburghers of the rich artistic legacy cultivated in this city. He summarizes his message concerning Pittsburgh’s future in four points: 1) Pass the film incentive legislation, 2) Take intellectual property seriously, 3) Bring the talent back, and 4) Invest in emerging talent.
Kurlander has taken great strides to facilitate the process of retaining local talent by creating the organization Pitt in Hollywood and co-founding the Steeltown Entertainment Project, each an effort to promote more interaction with the entertainment industry and emerging artists in Southwestern Pennsylvania. As part of the initiatives of the Steeltown Entertainment Project, Kurlander wants to launch the Steeltown Film Factory, where emerging artists can attend workshops and participate in competitions to work with successful Pittsburgh-native film and television mentors and create up to three short films about Pittsburgh.
At the end of the Post-Gazette article, Kurlander leaves readers with these thoughts: “WHAT PITTSBURGH NEEDS MOST OF ALL IS A HIT- a film, a TV show, an Internet company to take off. But to get that hit, we must do what people in Hollywood and Silicon Valley do and what has worked here in the past with manufacturing and medicine - take a variety of bets on talented people with good ideas. Growing a sector requires:
Mentoring from experienced professionals who have a track record of success
Exposure to an entrepreneurial community who knows calculated risks are what it takes to launch an idea
Venture capital to make sure that idea happens in a timely way and has exposure to the markets”
I know there are many efforts to transform Pittsburgh into a profitable artistic center, one of which being the upcoming event PodCamp Pittsburgh 2, a community “unconference” to learn about blogs, vlogs, audio podcasts, web video, content networks and new media monetization. The event will be held at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh August 18-19, 2007.
I will be attending the second planning session this coming Thursday, June 28, 2007 @ 7:00 PM, held at the Creative Treehouse in Bellevue.
Advancing artistic endeavors taking place in Pittsburgh, PA is one of the main ideas at echoflip.com. As soon as I come up with a way to turn the ideas into a lucrative business, as Carl Kurlander advises, I will be sure to share it here with Pittsburgh and the world. If anyone has anymore advice for me or other young aspiring entrepreneurs and artists in Pittsburgh, please post a comment.
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