I wish I had 2,010 dollars...

I hope everyone had a blast ringing in the 2010! I attended a party filled with lovely ladies and danced myself into exhaustion...a lovely way to start a new year!

Speaking of new, I nearly ran myself ragged trying to find the perfect pair of heels to caress my feet on the big day. Sadly, I found a bunch online that were a little out of my price range. I primarily drooled over these:

And these:

It would be real nice to afford $300 shoes.

Anyway I finally had the opportunity to see Dante's Inferno last week. What I thought would be a movie with ok puppets and a bunch of dick and fart jokes ended up being a movie with amazingly detailed puppets, a well thought out script, and a bunch of dick and fart jokes. The story follows Dante, a young man who wakes up in a drunken haze in another dimension and meets Virgil, a mullet - toting poet from ancient Rome. They travel together through all the dimensions of hell ending with an encounter with the Dark Prince himself. It's definitely worth a look for the charming, well- choreographed puppets and all the political figure/ pop culture icons dispersed though out Hades. Incidentally, one of the head puppeteers is Paul Zaloom of Beakman's World fame and my friend's puppetry teacher in college.

So that's that. I leave you with this wonderful piece of art from Michel Gondry and Lauri Faggioni. Enjoy.

A Red Ribbon. Music by Devendra Banhart

Michel and Pop up books.

I just rented the collected shorts of Michel Gondry and I am so utterly in love. I'm very fascinated with him because he's quirky and french and he seems to have created an entire mythology around himself. Also I appreciate how he tends to lean more towards "live" special effects and handmade props rather than CG. It's definitely worth watching if you enjoyed The Science of Sleep or Eternal Sunshine. I haven't seen Be Kind Rewind, though.

Tiny by Michel Gondry

Also, I have been on this weird pop up book kick. I used to think they were really dorky but I don't understand how I was able to overlook how amazing they are. I want to make one about my most recent trip to California. I stumbled across some really awesome pop up book art/artists during my research on the internet.

First Bank
An Elaborate Pop up by Colette Fu
http://www.fusansan.com/


Andrea Dezso

I found her by accident. I believe I was researching embroidery when I stumbled upon her amazing website. She works primarily in the book and paper realm but she created short animated films using nothing but embroidered images. I suggest you check out her stop motion animation, Demon Bridegroom when it's released in July.

New York Dreams
Andrea Dezso

Pioneers give first aid to their comrades.

Moon

Stillwater

I think Michael Jackson dying is strange because in the DVD I just watched, Michel Gondry named him as one of his musical heroes. I'm also beginning to suspect that I have a thing for quirky french men. Death is so scary, isn't it?