Blood Orange

Unique. Indie. Soul. Funk.
Soundcloud

Father's adorable daughter portraits

Japanese photographer, Nagano Toyokazu, captures the amazing energy of his youngest daughter, Kanna. Her imagination and happiness seep out of the pictures and into your heart :)

Jimmy Interviews Michael Jordan

Something funny to start your week off with :D

Movie Review - 13 Assassins (2010)

In the final years of the samurai, Japan is at an age of peace.  This period of calm is threatened when Lord Matsudaira Naritsugu is at the verge of becoming one of the highest ranked in the land.  Naritsugu has no conscience, murdering and raping at will.  Shinzaemon Shimada, a veteran samurai, is chosen to find the best warriors for a suicide mission to attack an army and assassinate Naritsugu.

Minus the scene with a small herd of fake looking CG bulls, this remake delivers a great amount of visceral thrills.  Each set piece is a sight to behold as 13 men take on hundreds of soldiers.  Even though almost half of the movie is immersed in action, the creators take their time in developing motivation for each main character:  an old samurai grateful for the opportunity to die nobly, a head samurai upholding allegiance to an evil lord, and many more.

Every sword fight is captured and cut harmoniously well.  In a day and age where action cohesion is held second to special effects and chaos, it is refreshing to watch real men duel in the most classic sense.  It is rare to find contemporary action films where you know exactly what is happening in every shot.    

 

13 Assassins is currently available for stream on Netflix

Rated R for sequences of bloody violence, some disturbing images and brief nudity

 

The Naked and Famous - Hearts Like Ours

Pro Infirmis - Make Handicaps Disappear

See differently.

Fascinating Moleskin Doodles

Kerby Rosanes takes doodling in a Moleskin to another level. Each of his drawings are filled with blasts of little happy monsters and other fun objects. One cannot help, but smile when examining the details of his artwork.

see differently

Just a few comics I made :)

Movie Review - Girl Model (2011)

"Just like Noah saved all the animals, I'm trying to save all these young girls...I'm putting them on the plane, sending them to the west, giving them a chance where they can find themselves...I hope that someday they will do some good to the other people.  So in a way this is a religious matter: this is my bible." 

-Tigran, owner of NOAH Models

 

Every year, NOAH Models holds an open contest to all aspiring Siberian models with Ashley, the main talent scout.  Hundreds of young teenage girls crowd the stage and studio, filed one by one to be accounted for and judged.  The winner is granted a modeling contract in Japan to appear in advertisements and promised significant amounts of money.  All of these rewards seem like a great opportunity to these young girls like 13-year-old Nadya Vall, a simple country girl from a low income home.  This documentary follows her journey after she "wins" the contest.  What she experiences is the complete opposite.

Watching this film is like experiencing the slow descent into a world of loneliness and exploitation.  Nadya is sent off on a plane to Tokyo alone, expected to figure out how to find where she is supposed to go knowing broken English and no Japanese at all.  She later meets her roommate, Madlen, another aspiring model who was lost wandering the subway system for four hours.  Nadya is told to lie that she is 15, is carted around Japan for a few shoots but never paid.  Both models are never paid while they are there, and need money sent from home just to eat.

Ashley, the main talent scout, is a product of the same system.  She openly admits that she hates the industry, never had a passion for it, but does what is required of her as a scout to find prepubescent looking girls for Tokyo.  Ashley started as a young model and this industry is all she knows.  So she exploits the girls the same way she was years ago.  There is an obvious sadness to her as she carries herself through her spacious empty glass house.  Some rooms are lined with a disturbing amount of plastic baby dolls. 

The filmmakers said that they never planned what they were going to capture in the finished documentary.  It is surprising how much this industry takes advantage of girls from poor rural towns.  What is more disturbing is the denial and apathy involved in all the grown adults that perpetuate the system.    

 Girl Model is available for stream on Netflix.

Not Rated

     

      

Reflections

Tom Hussey creates a beautiful nostalgic feeling of the elderly peering into their younger reflection.