Killer of Sheep

This weekend we saw the fantastic Charles Burnett movie Killer of Sheep, the long-neglected masterpiece about the life of a poverty-stricken family in 1970s Watts, told through the eyes of Stan, a sensitive man deadened by the hard work and psychic impact of working at a slaughterhouse. It's a hard movie to pin down, so honest and real I left the theater drained, unable to talk about the story on the subway ride home.

Nonetheless, the film's scenes and characters worked on me for over the weekend, and will probably remain, playing over and over in my head for a long time. Made in 1977, the film was Burnett's answer to the blacksploitation movies of the time, a filmic statement that made no false assertions about its characters. At turns bleak, joyous and ennobling, the movie is a true work of art, and deserves to be seen by a larger audience.

See it when it comes to your town.

The Work of a Subversive Graphic Designer?

Like many read William Burroughs as a teenager, I have a healthy obsession with the number 23, a number which seems to reoccur in history and popular culture. Skeptics say that its seeming frequency is due to that fact that we are looking for it, pick any other number and you'll see it pop up in the newspaper with shocking regularity. But those of us in the know have experimented, observed, and tested...and there certainly seems to be something to it. But this post isn't about that, it's about the upcoming movie 23 with Jim Carrey.

Take a look at the selection from the movie poster. Do you see what I see? Maybe it's like the number itself and I am imagining something that really isn't there, but that little alphabetic squiggle just above Carrey's left eyebrow certainly looks suspicious. Somewhere, a graphic designer might be smirking at his juvenile prank...or maybe I can only see it because I'm looking for it.

We Hate It When Bigots Become Successful

I was working to perfectly match the font, but then I realized that it doesn't matter. Here's hoping that Mel's new movie tanks big time.