Random Rant

I woke up early Saturday morning with an urge to get crafty. I keep seeing these cardboard mounted deer heads in restaurants and stores. They sell pre-cut cardboard deer heads in stores and online anywhere from $20-$60. I decided to make one myself and save some money. I created a fake deer head out of plastic before. It’s mounted right above my living television. So I knew I can make an animal head in a weekend morning. This way, I don’t feel like I wasted my weekend just lounging around, watching movies, and playing video games.

Boom. Made three. It took longer than I expected to cut them all out. I didn’t want to make huge mounted heads, so instead of cardboard I just had them printed on really thick watercolor paper.

Painted them with acrylic to add some strength. It’s not much, but it should keep them from drooping. Today, I’m gonna get cheap frames to mount them on. Not bad for a Saturday morning project.

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Speaking of movies, I decided to watch Full Metal Jacket again. I realize that the documentary Room 237 is all simply about theories regarding Stanley Kubrick’s motivations for The Shining, but theory or not, his imagery is truly rife for deeper interpretation. He really does seem like a “bored genius” who is a few steps ahead- and in in those few steps, manages to put so much meaning into his film, leaving viewers to sift through clues and red herrings. Of course, the message in Full Metal Jacket is quite clear, but it doesn’t make him any less of a genius.

I also watched Welcome to the Rileys which feature James Gandolfini and Kristen Stewart. I miss James Gandolfini. There’s something incredibly human to the characters he plays. Kristen Stewart is not bad as well. I keep seeing her in many independent films these days. I guess she’s trying to wash away Twilight with a bit of indie cred.

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Canada has a few teams at the NHL playoffs this year. The Winnipeg Jets barely got in, but I’m glad they’re in nonetheless.

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Been playing a lot of Bloodborne lately. Just like the other Souls game, it is punishing but is quite addictive. Hidetaka Miyazaki is a genius. I’m a grown man and should really stop playing video games, but games like Bloodborne will keep me distracting myself in front of the TV until I’m old and gray.

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Here’s an advice to married men out there. If you’re wife clearly doesn’t appreciate your sense of humor, STOP TRYING. Stop making commentaries and observations. Stop trying to make her laugh or smile. Who are you trying to impress anyway? It’s not gonna get you laid more. You’re making jokes and commentaries for your own benefit and not for her. She doesn’t want to hear from you. She wants her humor from the strangers on television. Just stick with banal observations. “The sky is cloudy today. I should bring an umbrella.” Stick with that. Save your wit and humor for your friends. That way, no one gets annoyed or offended.

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Update: Framed and done.

Killer Cars

Religious hood ornament. With the chances of dying in a car accident being around 1 in 100, I’m surprised I don’t see these on the road. Automobile fatality stats are higher than being chosen to compete in the “Hunger Games!”

A little late, especially since the death of Nelson Mandela being in the news, but speaking of dying in car crashes, notice the amount of good deeds the media reported regarding the late Paul Walker? He started a charity, he helped pay for someone else’s engagement ring, he helped some other person, etc. Is this his PR people? I don’t have much to say about Paul Walker and the “Fast and the Furious” movie franchise other than it’s just not for me, but it’s like the media tried so hard to distract the public from the fact that the man died doing something which his movies encouraged, going vroom vroom on suped-up cars. If you strictly just read the Huffington Post for news, you would think the man was the pope (or Nelson Mandela). I mean, you didn’t hear too many of the good deeds James Gandolfini did in his lifetime after he died this year, not that he didn’t do any, I’m sure he did. But the media mostly reported about his genius as an actor and his role in “The Sopranos.” With Paul Walker, it seems the only thing he did whenever he wasn’t acting in those dumb racing films was help out the rest of humanity.

As for Nelson Mandela, there’s really not much to say about his death that hasn’t already been said. The world lost a hero and a role model, and we are in desperate need of Nelson Mandelas to look up to. (I realize this is quite the change in tone compared to how I talked about Paul Walker) What’s sad though, is that even as the world honors a great man and tries to glean lessons from his life, not long before he died, his family was feuding over making money out of the family name in ventures which included a reality show.

I’ve been reading about the upcoming Penn & Teller movie about the painting process of Johannes Vermeer. It might sound like the most boring topic in the world and something that art history students would snooze through, but looking at the Dutch master’s photorealistic work and trying to emulate it using one of the theories that he used mirrors and lenses to guide his brush sounds very intriguing. The movie is the first movie that’s got me excited for 2014, that and George Clooney’s “Monuments Men.”

Update: Speaking of deaths. Eleanor Parker just died. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/09/eleanor-parker-dead-dies_n_4415730.html) The Baroness is dead! There was a great letter in McSweeney’s which makes some great points about her in the movie, although it failed to mentioned how those misguided kids practically bullied her out of a ball game.
(http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/i-regret-to-inform-you-that-my-wedding-to-captain-von-trapp-has-been-canceled)