Kurosawa and The Criterion Collection

Recently I've started following The Criterion Collection on Tumblr.

I think it's a really great and genuine tumblr to follow because they just have this whole vault to pull such incredible images from. It just makes sense and has a legitimate purpose - it makes you want to see the film and to me - creates a more nuanced and stronger relationship to images and film.

Anyways, I thought one of the entries from today was really cute and hilarious:


"Akira Kurosawa considers an explosion on the set of RAN."

Look at this old Japanese man with his cute white gloves and runners and cap, having the luxury to consider an explosion and whether or not he liked it for his film. So, so, so cute. It's funny to think that explosions are "considered" and that they are considered by this little Japanese man who wears white gloves and runners to work. And it's also funny to think about whether or not he did like the explosion and his reasons for either. Oh, it was too red. Oh it was too big. Oh it wasn't smoky enough - let's do it again.

Invincible Summer

An illustration I made for Ginger.

At first I was kind of stumped on what to draw for her. I was really excited to do it, but the more I thought about it, the more I felt like this illustration was something kind of personal - more than I initially thought it would be. To be too deep and over-analytical - this illustration would be a part of me that would be on her wall and she would look at it everyday until she decided it sucked and take it down. That kind of weirded me out and I began to put a nonsensical and unnecessary pressure on myself and went into a little lull of not knowing what to do.

Ginger and I talked about what she wanted, and she kept it quite open, to think of it as a sort of hello from me to her.

And so - Hello Ginger. This is for you and I hope you like it.

And for everyone else - this is such a good quote (from Albert Camus!) and is always something nice to remember.

Menu design for Elephant Cutlet.

Really looking forward to consuming some crème anglaise, haven't had enough of that stuff in my life so far. And the sausage - it's homemade and probably being made as we speak at Windsor meats - so cool!

You cominggggg?

Elephant Cutlet

Alex and Ken are doing a pop up restaurant at a space over by Crab Park. It's called Elephant Cutlet and the name and concept was inspired in part by this. They were really inspired by Ludwig Bemelmans, the author/illustrator of the cute little Madeline books. This is my sort of homage to Bemelmans. I think this poster is really funny - the shapes are supposed to be really abstract pieces of meat, one of them kind of looks like a severed elephant trunk, but I was more going for a rack of ribs.

Also, I think it's worth showing the other direction that I proposed for the poster:

This is the more elegant, sort of mysterious version - because the dinner is a pop up and at a sort of obscure place. But the boys chose the first direction - wanting to be whimsy and getting away from the "coolness" typically seen in design in the restaurant industry.

Fine by me!

Anyways - come out to the dinner - it's simple, delicious home food and it'll be really cozy and affordable - and oh yah, I'll be there and it be nice to see your faces!