Art Gallery: Pop Culture and some OK Paintings

Art Gallery

Paintings and some other things

 

Welcome to another long awaited edition of my art gallery, a post to exhibit my personal artwork.

Since the previous feature, I have began working on 3D Software for animation. On the traditional front, I have exams coming up soon and I'm getting some practice in painting and perfecting my shading in preparations.

While that happens, on the side I have continued the practice of my painting skills through some fun works to build my portfolio for its initial phase at least. 

So let's take a sneak peek shall we...

Underdog Awards 2014, Coming Soon...

Underdog Awards 2014

 

 

 

So you might remember at one point, I talked about how just a few months into my blog I had gotten a chance to write for whatculture.com 

Of course that didn't fully materialize. My first article with them was rejected. Where as in between my second article, WhatCulture decided to make a change to their wordpress system and I didn't update on it. Hence losing my account.

So I'm here to talk about my second article.

That article was a lengthy feature called the Underdog Awards 2013, for the underrated films of 2012 that I felt didn't get the recognition they deserved whether it be Box Office or more importantly awards season. 

It's not that the films I listed were the best of the year. Some of them definitely not. But they went under-appreciated at least according to me, even though I'm sure a lot of people would have also seen them. Of course there were still movies that were under seen in the underrated category, that I myself might have missed. 

So why I am I dwindling in that area now. Well I wish to try and accomplish the same feat this year with multiple posts on Underdog movies from this year. 

This year I've got better perspective to judge whether most of these films actually deserve awards recognition and they do. The only issue is that unlike 2012, I couldn't spend enough time in 2013 to watch many English movies. 

As such I'm hoping for at least a month to be able to complete my awards list and then present it to you. 

This post is just to make you aware that the Underdog Awards are coming...

Below I will list how I judge which films get nominated, the categories and list the unpublished awards from 2013 for the movies of 2012

My Batty Collection!

My Batty Collection

For those not in the know, the year 2014 is the 75th Anniversary of; 

 

Yes Indeed the Dark Knight!

Now I'm going to make any false promises I can't live up to like I did last year with the X-Men and Avengers. 

What I'm going to do is whenever I'm in the mood (like today). I will give you a Batman related post. 

So what's todays post?

I'm glad you asked!

My Batman Collection

So I think I've made it clear before that I have past history of getting comics through some nefarious means (read illegalish), I haven't? or Have I? 

So I've obviously decided that collection would eventually be bought in real life so that I can pay for the free comics I've read. 

This specifically applies to my favorite character Batman. Whose current trades I've collected upto 14. I hope to review all of these by the end of the year, but once again this time round I'm not making any promises. 

This post is just for views, It's pictures of my Batman collection and each time I review one of the comics from my collection I'll add a link here on the picture. Enjoy

Batman: The Legacy left by Grant Morrison

Batman

 Grant Morrison's Legacy

 

 

Last year saw another lengthy comic book run come to a close. Grant Morrison finished off his lengthy writing stint on Batman with the completion of the second volume of Batman Incorporated. 

Morrison began his work on the continuous Batman comic in 2006, bringing his quintessential style of incorporating (pun intended) vast ideologies and history to a character. 

With Batman he entertained the notion of past history and continuity applying to the oft gritty Dark Knight, while also adding his own bits and pieces to the Bat-Legacy. 

To be honest, I found his initial starting to be a bit intimidating. 

As mentioned Green Lantern by Geoff Johns was my first foray into DC territory. Batman to me was advertised as a character full of flashy camp (thank you Warner Bros. and Joel Schumacher) and some questionable relationships with his 'ward' (thanks to friends all around). Mind you I didn't have internet then, and neither did I know of the low-key release (in Kenya) of the rebooted Batman movie with Batman Begins.

I picked up Morrison's Batman in curiosity after having read the writers much more meta Animal Man run online (lets face it, there aren't many places to find comics in Kenya so most of my reading has been done for free, a topic for another day). 

Warning! 

To anyone wanting to begin Batman, don't pick up Morrison's run first!

Going through his work is a daunting task, and confusion is abundant as I realized. While Morrison's work may be the first worthy lengthy run of Batman I would suggest, it is rife with a lot of historical call backs to the caped crusaders continuity and requires a lot of prior knowledge to understand. 

But more so, it is confusing because of the themes and ideas the writer explores. Till this day I have no proper idea about...

...What the Fuck Zur-En-Arrh is????

Still as aforementioned, his work is the first lengthy run I would suggest readers wanting a taste of Batman the comic to explore. Although I would suggest a lot more Batman before you get into Morrison's work.

Till then let us examine and celebrate the legacy this wacky writer leaves on the...

Tintin's Top Ten: The Best of The Best Bollywood films of 2013

Tintin's Top Ten

The Best of The Best Bollywood Films of 2013

 

I've mentioned how 2013 saw some really terrific Hindi films. While not even close to a great year like 2012, 2013 holds the weight of being the 100th year of Hindi cinema. As such I was prompted to make the extensive lists I did, however I finally decided to separate the top ten from the top 30 because these 10 films deserve their own space to shine in. 

Like with the previous feature, this one will have a best ranking of where the film falls on my subjective favorite list of the year. 

Of the ten best you'll notice some great romantic films. Romance in Hindi cinema before was the epitome, but it was mostly melodramatic schlock by the 90's and modern romantic films needed that contemporary rom-com vibe to work. Old world/Old school (with new school thought) romance is back with a bang this year. 

There are also some really exceptional content driven films this year, that surprise surprise were promoted by big time production houses alluding to a dawning of a new age where content might just be King. 

There are a few films I missed; 

specifically Anand Gandhi's Ship Of Theseus which was a unanimously lauded feature. I haven't yet been able to find it, so I'm missing out on that experience. 

Then there's Farooq Sheikh's last feature film Club 60. 

And of course maybe some Indie features such as the documentary Hari Got Married and more. 

For now, enjoy this top ten

Shadow of the Bat: The True Tragic Origin of The Batman

Shadow of the Bat

The True Tragic Origin of The Batman

If your reading this then I'm assuming in one way or another no matter how small, your life is filled with the essence of Pop Culture. With the world of Pop and beyond falling into palms of the nerds (mostly the comic book type). 

Then you know Batman, and most importantly you know Batman's tragic origins and some of you also know Batman's credited creator. No not DC (that's the company) but rather Bob Kane.

His name appears on anything related to Batman. It's the marquee at the top. 

So let me take you down memory lane, to the history of Batman and as a whole the comics industry. But above all else let me make you understand the tragedy that not only haunts Batman as a character but as a creation as well. 

Tintin's Top Thirty: Best Bollywood films of 2013

Tintin's Top Ten Thirty

Best Bollywood Films of 2013

I decided for the best films of the year, I want to do something different and expand from ten to thirty. Cause surprise! Surprise! I believe there's enough films for that. Of course the 100 years of Bollywood also demanded this.

This best of post will be divided in 3 parts, the first being the films that are Good but not Great (30-21), those that were Just so Close (20-11) and of course the Best of The Best (10-1).

Like with the worst of this year, a theme about the best has been of course some original scripts, smart direction and great acting

But more than that a surprisingly stellar return to old fashioned romance on celluloid. But not only old fashioned romance, there's been all types of romantic films this year that have just lit up the screen. So lets head on.

Also note, like with my previous top tens on Bollywood in 2013 there will be something unique included.

I review my films from an objective perspective. As such the unique feature will be the ranking of each film in terms of my favorite. Essentially the subjective ranking of the thirty films. 

This also brings me to my next point, if certain films have the same score, than the film that was my favorite among them will get the higher best film ranking, irrespective of individual score such as Performances etc. 

Now onto the feature presentation...