When Prince died I was writing an IT proposal to get a Federal contract. If you’d have told me that either of those things (Prince dying at 57, me leaving commercial art for filthy lucre) when “Purple Rain” came out – I would have punched you. Making accommodations to self-sufficiency were still years off, and I had years of struggle and failure ahead of me, I lived in a bubble of artistic delusion. I’m writing today to say, I wasn’t all wrong. (more…)
Category: Vital Art
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The Creative Ember – Death, Prince and Me
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Halloween: Disturbing Movies
Good God how I love Halloween. Beyond wonderful childhood memories of costumes and candy, it heralds the Fall and in a small way acknowledges the darkness that lies inside us all. Sure, for most it’s just an excuse to debauch and dress like a slutty nurse, but at a deeper level it reminds us that locks on doors are good things. (more…) -
Vital Art – OMAC!
CRAZY Doesn’t Cover It!I just finished revisiting Jack Kirby’s OMAC opus from 1974, and I’m trying to find a pithy way to encapsulate it for the uninitiated – the best I can come up with is “Like Philip K. Dick if his target audience was 7.” (more…)
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Vital Art: 5 (or more) Great Film Commentaries
This is a bit of a Vital Art cheat, film commentary being more like an art remora, but with the proliferation of streaming media I think fewer and fewer people are aware of (or have access to) these great audio insights into the business and art of film. (more…) -
Vital Art: The Maltese Falcon (1941)
(Vital Art is my ongoing attempt to cobble together a list of what I consider “essential” works – basically a low-brow version of Harold Bloom’s “How to Read and Why”, only encompassing all forms of art.)
I stumbled a little when deciding what the initial piece of Vital Art I’d discuss would be, and decided to take it easy on myself and pick something I love, and that’s often dismissed as guttural or “common”. (more…)