Playing Catch Up

COMICAL:  A shark and a couple of big art-related projects this week that have kept us from posting as often as usual. 

Last night (just before the deadline!) we finished our final project for "The Rise of Super-Heroes and Their Impact on Pop Culture." 

There was a bit of work involved. Like, choosing a mythic inspiration for our superhero ... 

 Of course, you can't have a superhero without a contemporary social influence. ... 

And what's a superhero without superpowers?!

Of course, no one's perfect ... 

 Meet our her, Tabby :)

`Of course, every hero needs a nemesis!

 Here is our/their story ...

Storyboarding a scene ... 

FORTY FRIGHTFUL YEARS:  Wednesday night, we headed to the movie theater to immerse ourselves in the cinematic masterpiece, "Jaws." The movie is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.

Neither CJ nor Annabelle had seen the movie before, so it was great that their first experience was on the big screen, to get the full "immersive" experience, no pun intended.

The movie didn't appear to be remastered, and it wasn't in IMAX or 3D, it appeared to be just like Christian and I saw it 40 years ago. And though it certainly looked dated at times (people smoking everywhere, including the hospital, old phones, the now-vintage clothing, cars and such), the movie has definitely aged well, otherwise. 

Here's what Annabelle had to say about it ... 

On June 25, I went to go see Jaws for its 40^th anniversary. The movie is (rather obviously) about a shark, and how the town goes on the hunt for it. The movie is very scary and I can see why some people thought it was one of the best movies of all time. The story is compelling and the visuals are very good for a movie made in 1975. One of the most amazing things is the animatronic shark that was nicknamed “Bruce”- It was very realistic in its movements. A fun fact about the animatronic shark is that they had to make multiple versions of it- the first was never tested in water and sank as soon it went in. The movie told a great story and I thought it flowed very smoothly. It didn’t start with the main characters sitting on a boat, which would have been very boring. The characters are also good, from the aqua-phobic police chief, Martin Brody, to the shark expert, Matt Hooper. Overall I enjoyed the movie and I was scared, which is a good thing for that kind of movie. I think it’s one of the best movies I've seen.

And CJ's take ...

On June 25th, 2015, I went to see a special 40th anniversary screening of Jaws, one of the most famous movies of all time. The movie Jaws was based on a novel of the same name by Peter Benchley. Jaws is about a dangerous, man-eating Great White Shark living near Amity island, a fictional island in New England, geared towards summer tourists. The film is famous for many things, including its plot and the haunting soundtrack, which John Williams composed.  Although many people who have not seen the movie believe it to be filled with "jumpscares," there are only about two in the movie. (SPOILER ALERT) One is when the head of a dead local fisherman is discovered at the partially sunken remains of his boat. The other is when one of the crew members of the Orca, Captain Quint's boat, is throwing chum into the ocean so that the shark will follow them (so they can kill it), but the shark unexpectedly jumps up. The fact that there are only a couple of "jump out of your seat" moments doesn't make Jaws any less tense or scary, however.

Overall, it was a great experience seeing Jaws for its 40th anniversary.

CRAZY COOKIES:  The first three days of this week were partially consumed by a cookie project. The theme was the game "Moonrise," by Undead Labs, a local game developer.  Moonrise is still in its beta form, so there aren't a lot of images of Moonrise's characters out there floating around, and the ones that are out there are thumbnail sized.

And, as you can see, the creatures are pretty far out ... 

Especially this fleshy thing, named Porpoisely ...

So fleshy and awkward ... 

I'm hoping for a good month's worth of no cookies or cakes at this point ...