For those of you who are regular readers to the site, the name David Buist should be a familiar one to you. In addition to writing and drawing the excellent web comic Taking the Bi-Pass, David is also the author of several of the ultra-cool applications running on this very site. The Top 50 list, the blog comments and the movie review database (currently being refurbished to fit the new design scheme). David has a generous spirit beyond compare and I can't thank him enough for everything he's given to Theater Hopper. Help me return the favor to David by bookmarking Taking the Bi-Pass and checking his site every day. It's worth it. Trust me.
Incidentally, David will be a parent as well in a few months. So, in addition to returning the favor on the guest comic rounds, we'll probably be up IM'ing each other late at night trading child-rearing tips and figuring out how we can get our respective tots off to sleep. Congrats, David!
In addition to David's strip today, you guys will want to take a break from your Valentine's Day activities on Wednesday to check the site for a guest essay written by none other than Jerry Holkins from Penny Arcade.
I've been teasing Jerry's contribution for about a week now, but it's time to come clean. I don't want to lay all the cards out on the table just yet. I need something to talk about on Wednesday! But I think you'll all get a real kick out of Jerry's work. It speaks directly toward the themes of fatherhood, responsibility and - yes - even movies. And isn't that what this whole month has been about?
Of course, on Friday, there will be another original strip from me (about Ghost Rider, natch) but I have a feeling it's going to be a pretty hard act to follow.
What's up in movie land? Well, Eddie Murphy's Norbit was number one at the box office this weekend blowing away it's nearest competition Hannibal Rising by more than double it's take. $33 million in three days? Seriously - what's wrong with America?
All I can say is that I hope the payday was worth it for Murphy. Despite Roger Ebert's endorsement for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar, there is palpable public sentiment that he doesn't deserve it (NSFW!). Couple this with the projects he's lining up post-Norbit (like a FOURTH Beverly Hills Cop) and you can pretty much categorize Murphy as artistically bankrupt.
In other more... depressing news?... Cami and I watched Half Nelson last night. I was able to get my hands on a screener copy before it comes out on DVD Tuesday. We were both curious to see it because it was a blip on our radar when it was in theaters last year and because Ryan Gosling is the dark horse contender in the Best Actor race this year. It was well worth the viewing, I must share. The subject matter appears to be both rote and bleak when read from the page. It's the story of a inner-city history teacher (Gosling) who through his own unique perspective gets his students to think for themselves. This sounds like territory previously mined from Dangerous Minds or more recently Freedom Writers. But there's a twist. Gosling has a dingy apartment and a nasty drug habit and one of his students finds out.
Everything that happens from there completely deviates from every other inner city education movie cliche you can imagine and it's very interesting to watch it unfold. Without giving too much away, there is a reason Gosling was nominated in a performance that hardly anyone saw. For those that have witnessed it, his performance is very nuanced and empathetic. Well worth the rent when it comes out on Tuesday. Check it out.
Incidentally, we'll be talking about Half Nelson along with The Bicycle Thief in the first half hour of The Triple Feature talkcast tonight at 9:00 pm CST. If that sounds too cerebral for your tastes, we'll be talking about romantic comedies in the second half hour in honor of Valentine's Day this week. Join us tonight at 9:00 pm CST when Gordon, Joe and myself talk about all the sappiest, gooiest movies ever to ham-handedly yank a heartstrings. It should be a lot of fun.
That's all for now. See you guys here on Wednesday!
(9.62 out of 10)
DESIGN FEEDBACK
by Tom on February 12th, 2007Since Dave was good enough to introduce the fancy blog commenting system, I thought I would take this opportunity to utlize it for a little feedback.
You guys might remember a while back when I was trying to develop some new shirt designs for the store. As per usual, the design phase takes me for friggin' ever because I'll design, redesign, doubt myself and then hang it up. The reason for this is because you kind of have to have momentum in order to produce these things and it's a bit of a tightrope walk to keep the right amount of inventory in stock. I feel like I kind of have a good thing going on with the handful of designs I'm currently offering. But at the same time, I'm kind of bored with it and it's time to branch out.
This time I think I've got something on my hands. Something that you will like. It's a refinement of the "Opening Weekend Junkie" concept I was floating around before. I have a few variations I would like you to inspect and, when you're finished, leave your thoughts on the comments page! Easy!
Okay, onto the designs.
1. The first design is pretty literal. Not too far from the first few drafts with the exception of a TORN ticket instead of a ticket coming out of a dispenser;
2. For the second draft, I thought to myself, "If I were really a junkie, my fonts wouldn't be so need and orderly." So I tried making things a little more askew;
3. Pushing the askew concept a little more. Throwing the fonts around at different sizes and angles;
4. At this point I started to really appreciate the simplicity of the torn ticket and thought about paring back the message a little bit. Showing a torn ticket and simply stating "junkie." pretty much gets across the same idea without throwing in the "Opening Weekend" prefix. Also, what if you're schedule is too busy to afford you the luxury of seeing movies on their opening weekend? At least this way, you can say you're a movie junkie in the general sense.
5. Simpifying further, I thought to myself "Maybe it doesn't need any text at all! Yes... the design is THAT strong." Ah, hubris.
Those are pretty much the designs to choose from. For those of you who want to see the ticket stub in more detail, you can click here.
So, what do you think. Which of these designs would you wear if any?
Be gentle. Remember what I told you about the second-guessing?