As I sip Whiskey and Soda from my Pabst Blue Ribbon jar-cup, I am happy that I stole it.

I stole the jar-cup from a bar in downtown Vancouver.  Me and some random person that I met that night whose name I don’t know because I only saw her once afterwards but she is probably totally worth this run on sentence and rad as can be, decided that these mugs were awesome and that we each needed one.  We also decided that it wasn’t technically robbery, it was more of a science experiment.  It should be noted that alcohol is an important factor in this story.

She snuck hers out in her purse.  I held my mug in my hand with a jacket draped over it; so expertly, in fact, that not even the people I was there with noticed.

The time I saw said girl afterwards?  I went with a friend to one of his friend’s apartments and she just happened to be there!  I asked her how her science experiment went.  Evidently it went just as well as mine [NOTE: I am currently drinking from the mug in question.]  That’s right, I even got it over the border!  Well, not THE border, but a border [NOTE: I am currently in Calgary, Alberta.  Vancouver, B.C.’s neighboring province.]  Yeah, Greyhound.  Betcha didn’t know you were harboring a  LEGIT fugitive when ya took me back to cow town, did ya!?

Your loveable delinquent,

- Curtis

When naming the files on my computer while video or music editing, I have a three point naming system that directly corresponds to just how mad I am at the fact that the project isn’t working.  here’s how it works:

No Anger:  The file is named, “Guitar Track 1”.

Moderate Anger:  The file is named, “fuckthisshitfuckingworkalready”.

About-to-Smash-Everything Anger/Rage:  The file is named, “asdkladsadbkjladgsdskj”.

I find this system totally effective.  When looking back a year later I totally know that “asdasfkqewoijesdfkd” is the guitar solo track that almost made me put a fist through the wall… Yeah, I absolutely remember… I am not, like, being sarcastic right now or anything…

Yours asdasdfsadf truly,

- Curtis

I have a theory that when it rains early on in the summer there will be less wasps alive for its remainder.  This theory is based on nothing but the fact that I occasionally see dead wasps in puddles.  I don’t care if wasps provide some irreplaceable service for the environment; when I do see one floating belly up in a puddle I’m like, “Die fucker!”  For this reason, when it rains in May I am delighted.  Make it rain!

I am quite content to believe this theory of mine, whether it’s true or absolutely ridiculous, because it means more dead wasps (at least in my mind)!

About The Author: Curtis is generally anti-genocide, but not when horrible monsters that stab you with parts of their bodies are concerned.

In the earliest days of his career he brought to life Little Red Riding Hood, King Midas, Rapunzel, Little Miss Muffet and many more fairy tale characters.  Soon he would move on to blur the lines of fantasy and reality by bringing dinosaurs, aliens, octopuses and mutated creatures into the real world.  As these creatures stomped about cities, amusement parks, valleys, and monuments, there were real life people, policemen, scientists, pedestrians, all dealing with (and often causing) the menace the creatures brought with them.  

Real is perhaps not the correct word; it was always some sort of otherly-real.  As Ray Harryhausen himself said, “If you make fantasy too real, it loses the quality of a dream.”  The way in which these creatures move and interact with their environments lends to the fantasy, dream-like (and more often then not, nightmare-ish) sense of adventure that every Harryhausen picture has about it.

From aliens and monument destruction Ray moved on to the realms of fantasy and mythology.  Beginning with The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (I have a laserdisc of this movie autographed by the man himself…Yes, that is a boast!)  And ending with 1981’s Clash of the Titans.  We mustn’t forget of course, the stops in between these two film classics.  Jason and the Argonauts, for one.  The Golden Voyage of Sinbad for another.  Then there are the other films, not mythological or city destroying in nature.  The Mysterious Island for example.  It has always been one of my favourite Harryhausen features.  First Men in the Moon, too.  Harryhausen’s Gulliver is a film, in my opinion, that deserves a lot more credit than it gets.  Of course there are the plethora of other films not mentioned here, each of them a glimpse into another land of danger and imagination.

Ray, thank you for the adventures through space, time, dream worlds, nightmare realms, dark caves in the moon and dinosaur infested valleys.  I will continue to romp through these forests and over these cliffs for as long as I live and there’s a DVD or Laserdisc player nearby, and it’s all thanks to you.  So again, thank you.

One of your many fans,

- Curtis 

Ray Harryhausen Week, Day #7:

Here is a fan-made trailer for Ray’s final film, the real Clash of the Titans.  I really think it’s the passion of the fans that have kept Mr. Harryhausen’s work around as long as it has been, it’s always fun to talk to someone who knows of the word “dynamation.” 

The Medusa sequence in Clash of the Titans is probably Ray’s most atmospheric scene; it drips of suspense and foreboding.  The entire sequence with the Kraken is also one of my favourites, with several stop-motion creatures flying and splashing around.  Also, I had a huge crush on Andromeda as a kid…  Actually, I still kinda do… What?  She’s hawt.

Tomorrow I will try to post one last thing about Ray, partly because I want to post a larger career spanning kind of post, and partly because it’s been so much fun talking about one of my favourite creators.

- A fan

Ray Harryhausen Week, Day #6:

This is another one of my favourite Ray Harryhausen drawings.  It displays how well thought out the sense of scale his films always convey really was.  The spectacular statue of the Greek God dwarfs the tiny and insignificant people in the foreground, displaying his importance (or perhaps ego!) and diminishing theirs.

Also, in terms of pure drawing technique, Ray certainly knew how to convey depth.  Notice how the foreground is shaded much darker than the statue and temple wall in the background.  The two foreground pillars really frame the image perfectly, drawing our eyes to the gargantuan God and allowing us to just notice at first glance the ant like people below it.

See you tomorrow, when we’ll visit another magical world courtesy of Mr. Harryhausen.

- Curtis

Right now I wish the thoughts in my brain would just shut up so I could actually fall asleep.

Ray Harryhausen Week, Day #5:

One Million Years B.C.

Harryhausen with a decent budget!  I honestly don’t have much to say about this clip; except the most important thing of all, which is that it’s amazingly entertaining!  This four minute and forty second sequence contains a lot of Ray’s most clever tricks for combining live action and stop-motion; also scantily clad cave women!  Hurray! 

Until next time, don’t enjoy Raquel Welch’s assets too much, lest you become distracted and a dinosaur eats you.

- Curtis

Ray Harryhausen Week, Day #4:

Film runs through a projector at 24fps.  Each skeleton in this sequence had 5 moveable appendages.  This means, in group shots of the skeletons, there were 35 movements to be made each frame, which works out to 840 movements per one second of film.  Ray, as always, did every frame of this special effects feat by himself in his garage, sometimes averaging less than a second of completed footage a day.  At this rate, it took 4 and a half months to complete the entire skeleton army sequence of Jason And The Argonauts.

As someone who’s been known to do some stop-motion now and then, how Ray remembered which skeleton was moving which arm which way, then leg, head, torso etc etc etc between each frame is absolutely beyond me, but I guess that’s why he’s the legend.

Until next time,

- Curtis

Had a great show at the New Black, thanks to all who came!  As a side note, I’m pretty sure I left my copy of Will Grayson Will Grayson there.  That’s okay; I literally finished it on the door stoop before playing my set, so if you want a free John Green/David Levithan book, you know where to go!