Steve Paikin and Allan Gotlieb. On TVO's The Agenda. These guys are slaying me. "You'd have to be a conspiracy theorist of the first order." HAHAHA. Anyone else watching this worthy show? They still make them like this: today. ¶ Speaking of excellence, this site is: Animation Backgrounds.

Labels: Fan, TV

¶ 8:09 PM

Elisabeth Moss portrays Peggy, the New Girl at Sterling Cooper, a fictional advertising agency in Mad Men (AMC, Thursdays, 10pm, 9c). This show has a lot of things going for it: stunning design, beautiful costumes, thoughtful writing, complex-enough characters and, best of all for me, it's about Madison Avenue advertising in the early 1960s. Moss' Peggy is supposed to be bright-eyed and green, but there's something very serious and intelligent just below the surface. She's wiser than everyone gives her credit for and this doesn't seem to bother her. It's a source of power for her.

Labels: FeaturedIllustration, TV

¶ 1:04 PM

Brad Pitt is this week's featured illustration. ¶ Last night was our fifth of ten sailing class and it proved to be worthy. The breeze was lackluster but the feeling was positive. My confidence, roughly speaking here, is slowly increasing. I'm convinced that this sort of thing is a private language: my confidence may very well be higher than those that report high confidence. I'm reluctant to overstate the case, however, because of a near infinite number of reasons that exist in the self. Having said that, I'm beginning to see the Matrix in the code, and that's always exciting. My strength is muted: I'm fairly good at everything, I excel at nothing. What's beginning to emerge is the first stages of second nature. Everyone is after second nature. ¶ We saw Robert Altman's Gosford Park last evening. Not only is this a beautifully shot film with enough plot to keep you playing along but it's also quite touching. I suspect achieving this sort of thing on film is not easy. ¶ I'm new to the Judd Apatow world, and, though I rank low on the "biggest fan" scale, I'm enjoying the ride immensely. Most recently in the form of Knocked Up and, as I've mentioned before on Siteway, Freaks & Geeks. It took me some time to warm to Seth Rogen, the actor. Suprisingly, he actually made gains with me in the silly and misguided You, Me, and Dupree. Only a certain kind of Matt Dillon fan can enjoy his silly movies, of which there are plently. If you're going to watch one, I'd say give One Night at McCool's a whirl. This is classic "oh I hated it/turned it off/walked out on it" material based largely on how hard it tried (and, as a result, failed), but to me it's still a fun distraction. I'd rather a dozen of these misguided ensemble Hollywood romps over so-called spoof comedies which peaked when I was in junior high. ¶ Some time ago I had Kavin build me a Flash browser for Siteway illustrations. You can see the beginnings of it implemented here. More to browse soon. ¶ I've put up some pictures of my soon-to-be new office in Toronto over on flickr. ¶ Jake Gittes: Why are you doing it? How much better can you eat? What can you buy that you can't already afford? / Noah Cross: The future, Mr. Gittes, the future.

Labels: Cinema, FeaturedIllustration, Flickr, TV

¶ 10:28 AM

Maybe you, like me, dismissed Freaks & Geeks as just another good-quality but low-rated and early-cancelled television tragedy. "Whatever," you may have thought. Don't make this mistake any longer. Check out this show. I just watched the pilot and can't remember enjoying this genre as much since perhaps even the early Wonder Years. The truthful notes are even sharper. In fact, I'm going to watch the pilot again. Hint hint, I'll be drawing something from Freaks... very soon. It's also a good counterpoint to Entourage which I'm incredibly pleased is broadcasting again. In fact, I've been drawing Entourage actors and characters all week in the hopes of cobbling something together. Oh, and one more thing. I was finally pursuaded to check out Freaks & Geeks by my new favourite podcast. NPR: Movies is downloaded onto my still-loving-it Dell lappy and I listen every Monday morning. This is a high-quality state-of-the-radio-arts podcast. Check it out.

Labels: TV, Vague

¶ 12:09 AM

OK so I didn't fare that well during the 30 Rock hiatus! It's back this week though, and so I'm already looking forward to Thursday-as-Friday due to most business slowing down on Good Friday. ¶ Tracy Morgan is one of those comedians that I didn't warm to immediately but now can't get enough of. His stand-up comedy is probably not to everyone's taste. Very explicit, not just because it's blue but because it's honest about aspects of anthropology that we don't generally chat about in our everyday lives. If we're lucky, we'll see Morgan develop into something very special. ¶ Check out today's National Post for my spread of illustrations in The Month Ahead, AL1.

Labels: FeaturedIllustration, NationalPost, TV

¶ 12:17 PM

I was impressed by the overall feel of the 64th Annual Golden Globes and wonder quite seriously if we'll throw a Golden Globes party next year. Then again, it might have just been a good year. Was impressed with: Meryl Streep, Martin Scorsese (whose acceptance speech for best director was genuine, sweet-hearted, and geeky), Alec Baldwin, and Hugh Laurie. I thought Tina Fey looked beautiful. I remember the award shows of my early 20s in an underwhelming light (we don't always looks back with a nostalgic view!) but this year's award season shows some real promise. For God's sake I need to see The Departed.

Labels: Cinema, Nostalgia, TV

¶ 10:15 AM

Recently decided to give NBC's My Name is Earl a whirl and found it to be a nice little enjoyable treat. My favourite Jason Lee turn is his short-lived character in Tony Scott's Enemy of the State. If you watch carefully you'll notice that the game console they use to transport the video card is a Turbo Grafx-16 portable, the TurboExpress. I owned one of these in high school. I got a rebate for paying a small business loan on time and used that rebate to buy it. It was awesome. ¶ Caught a matinee of Alfonso Cuarón's Children of Men on Saturday. It and I were a perfect match, despite it being so heavy (though not heavy-handed in this writer's humble opinion). I notice that Cuarón also directed Great Expectations from 1998. A thoroughly underrated gem, I loved the big bold strokes of that film. ¶ Hey Toronto: thanks for yet another great weekend. Absence does make the heart grow fonder, but you need to feed that heart, and semi-regular visits is just the right fuel.

Labels: Cinema, FeaturedIllustration, TV, WeekendUpdate

¶ 11:49 AM

I don't know if it was the snow... scratch that. It was the snow. And I've got the winter feeling like you wouldn't believe. We had a couple of drinks on Thursday evening and then we had that egg nog adventure (see below) and now it's Sunday evening and the decorations are up and I'm feeling the holiday. Been enjoying the U.S. Office and I feel like my Carell definitely has the Christmas spirit. Here's to you, and him, and the creators of that marvelous marvelous show.

Labels: Christmas, Londontown, TV

¶ 10:20 PM

Leslie David Baker (Stanley from The Office, US edition) is... THE BEST!

Labels: One-liner, TV

¶ 4:53 PM

Okay, so I know that I can get pretty mainstream sometimes but HOW COME NOBODY I KNOW HAS RECOMMENDED THAT I WATCH 'HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER'? This is a good (however imperfect) American sitcom. ¶ P.S. I haven't had this many blog ideas in one night in about two years (they're forthcoming, don't worry)! G'night. ¶ P.P.S. I love how film has finally embraced the subtitle as a form. Yes!

Labels: Musings, TV

¶ 12:17 AM

If Pitchfork reviewed television, they'd surely hate Jericho. It's pretty obvious why. Jericho isn't terribly clever, isn't terribly well-acted, written, or even paced for that matter! But it's for a lot of these reasons that I've taken quite a shine to this popular little serial. Sometimes I like what I call the cultural feeling of a show. It often occurs in overtly commercial products because there's really no creative focus. I imagine the show's creators have had to water down what they've wanted to write about and the team of writers is likely handcuffed to a painful degree. And yet an earnestness survives which I can't get enough of. There are three other reasons I'm enjoying Jericho. First, there's no irony. Second, there's absolutely no self-referentiality (which I adore). And third, and this is the real appeal of the show, there's an implicit surreality that colours every scene. This is because the premise is quite solid (most critics grant this). Jake Green (Skeet Ulrich) comes home to Jericho to makes amends with his father before he starts his new life back in California. As he drives out of town several U.S. cities are destroyed by nuclear bombs forcing Jake to stay put and make eyes with his old flame, save people from desperate situations and basically save the day. This is a mainstream show and that means there are no anti-heroes. But that's what I love about it! You get to create all sorts of small crimes that might be in this character's past that will NEVER make it on air. You get to fill in the human blanks. I find Ulrich unaccountably engaging because he's just so NORMAL. I went to junior high school with guys like him. They weren't jocks but excelled at sports. They weren't mean but they weren't doormats. They weren't in the cool crowd, but they were ultimately cool. They didn't read books but they understood the themes in literature. They were just guys who were easy to get along with because the world was easy for them. Jericho is a very uncool show because it's earnest and not ironic. It has a solid foundation because it doesn't rely on effects or gimmicks or wink-wink-cleverness and puts the show entirely on Jake Green's shoulders. And somehow Skeet Ulrich pulls it off! It could be a much better show if CBS would let the writers do flex their surreal muscles but with commercial success comes length and with length comes experimentation and with experimentation comes surreality. ¶ Today was the single hardest day I've had drawing portraits. It took me all day to finish Ulrich, and I still didn't get the likeness to the point I'd wanted to. But I do think works alone as a portrait so I'm proud to publish it I worked on this week's Siteway feature after dinner and now it's exactly what I wanted. Here's to dinner tonight and relaxzone. ¶ Jay-Z in tomorrow's Post: AL2.

Labels: NationalPost, TV

¶ 6:49 PM

Quiet weekend, but it was really rather pleasant. ¶ I've been watching a lot of primetime television lately and one show that has hooked me in is NBC's Heroes. Though it's far from perfect, I think it has carved out a nice little bit of imaginary space in American mainstream storytelling. I imagine the show as pitched was much stronger but that's sort of like wishing your Big Mac was cooked by a bona fide gourmet chef. ¶ Ladies and germs, Masi Oka. ¶ Pleasant dreams.

Labels: FeaturedIllustration, TV, WeekendUpdate

¶ 11:02 PM

It's Edward Woodward, star of the original Wicker Man (1973) and TV's The Equalizer (1985-1989). I'm not familiar with either of these works, but I've long been intrigued by Mr. Woodward.

Labels: Cinema, FeaturedIllustration, TV

¶ 1:06 AM

"I'm on vacay... I'm gettin' a cocktail." —Ari Gold. Open letter to Doug Ellin, creator of Entourage: You have created a very near perfect show.

Labels: Open Letter, TV

¶ 1:39 AM

Now it's on. This weekend officially marked the beginning of the next chapter. Pauline and I jumped into packing mode today even though we had still been very much focused on matters of levity and immediacy until very recently. Friday night was a gas, and Saturday proved not only successful, but simply fun, and now we both have our wardrobe taken care of for the wedding. ¶ Phases come, phases go. Right now I'm into more things than I care to list, and one of those things is watching films and television shows while I draw. Currently I'm addicted to every movie I missed this spring along with HBO's Entourage to which I've been addicted since winter. Here's to Siteway's man of the moment, Jeremy Piven. He has helped create one of television's best characters of all time, Ari Gold.

Labels: Cinema, TV, WeekendUpdate

¶ 12:32 AM