Stop Screaming.

He’s healthy. His mother loves him.  He came into this world wet, beautiful and loud. Like most babies are. He glows in his tired mother’s arms… smiles and kisses everywhere. Love fills the room.  He looks around his new world, he lives here now. This is life and his begins in noise, love and heat. 

I wish I could tell him not to be afraid of anything. That everything will be okay. I want to tell him that he needs to pay attention, though.  That sometimes he’ll feel just like the first time he came into this world. Change is scary. Change is life.  He’ll scream again. Out of desperation, frustration, anger. He’ll also scream out of joy. Emotions run high and rampant and he will ride them, everywhere.

<this is just the beginning>

Movie Review: Daybreakers

The Placebo soundtrack on the trailer really drew me in.  That and the tag line "The Matrix meets 28 Days Later." Overall, it was following the recent trend i.e. normal vampire movie with a twist.  Not very engaging. The only link to the Matrix was tehir se of humans to survive… for blood this time, obviously.. not being used as batteries.  The Matrix had it done better though… they had a plan in place to replace dead humans… here the dead humans just die… leaving a blood shortage.

Anyway… it was a filler movie. something you can waste your time with and would be just as good if you got it on DVD or waited for it come on TV.

What was great about it was the colouring and the cinematography. It was noir in a  modern way and the soundtrack fit the movie really well.  Also, Ethan Hawke makes a really good vampire. On the plot… I like how they put in all the normal stuff that happens after being a vampire becomes normalised.  Things like the economy, class systems, food shortages, etc. start to take over the agenda.

I’d give the movie a 6/10 :) Enjoy.

Is Brad Pitt a fishfinger? – Brand Design Analysis on Inglourious Basterds

Best Agency Christmas Present I ever received… so far.

"So what the hell does that mean?" is probably going through your head. Well here’s the rub… the Poster design for Inglourious Basterds was akin to having a great shot of a fishfinger on a pack of… well.. fishfingers.  No differentiation, nothing to build the brand. Bland. Blends into the background. Status quo. Following Market conventions… Don’t agree? Let me prove it.

Exhibit A: The Inglourious Basterds Poster (Mainstream)

Exhibit B: The Valkyrie Poster

Spot the difference. None… design-wise anyway. Now you can see Brad Pitt in typical fish-finger style… blending into the background of mediocre poster history.  Why would Tarantino bow down to corporate pressure like this and risk his almost instantaneously recognised style and colouring for mass-produced crap like this?

To be fair… there were incredibly great-looking posters made alongside this one… the issue I have is that the mass-produced poster was the most ubiquitous. Which was a shit move, marketing-wise. I’d fire whoever approved it, and am highly disappointed with Tarantino for condoning it.

Anyway… here’s the great ones…

So there you have it.  On the mass poster, Brad Pitt is a fish-finger. That poster should not have been made, let alone be put up as the main attraction.  The movie was fucking awesome, regardless.

Google’s Nexus One vs. iPhone, Droid and Palm Pre

The below info is American-focused but you can get an idea of the benefits and pitfalls of each phone.  Also, as I have always maintained, go for the phone which would suit your particular needs. Not everyone needs an iPhone despite it’s Cool status, which seems to be slowly dying out now.  If you’re a business person, get a Blackberry.  If you’re an all media, social, business, game and traveller junkie… stick with the iPhone… It’s all about utility, yo.

All info was thanks to Billshrink

This always inspired me…

Before the movie came out I didn’t know Mandela used it to inspire him when he was at Robben Island. For years now this has been one of the poems I’ve used when I was down and needed to get up and get going. And I still think it worth posting up on various forums again and again.

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.