cherner side chair (1958)

if i could spare the dough, i would have gotten one of these reissued norman cherner side chairs already. i love the organic shape and curves plus the use of the walnut colored plywood. just sitting in it must take you back to 1958… the heyday of mid-century modern design. the model with the arm rest is cool too. anyways, i’m just going to let the following images doing the talking for me.

denzel

been meaning to catch denzel’s new movie ‘deja vu’ in the theater, but it looks like i am going to see it on dvd instead. anyways, i noticed an alarming parallel in denzel’s current acting style and his gut—both are really large! so, curious to see how denzel’s acting and his gut turn out in his new movie. i mean as denzel’s gut has gotten larger in each successive film, the more over the top his acting has gotten, especially after he won the supporting oscar for ‘training day.’ i was really into denzel when he did ‘mo’ better blues’ and ‘mississippi masala’ and ‘crimson tide’ and ‘devil in a blue dress.’ all of those performances had his easy going charm. plus he has the coolest gait while walking around in a wife beater tee. (who would not want to have denzel’s stride?) but a little after that denzel stopped working out and his gut started to bulge (i first noticed it on ‘virtuosity’ that he started getting lazy and wore a loose dark sweater to hide his gut). and it seemed like he always had a yelling scene in all his films too just to drive the point home how large he had gotten. hopefully, denzel doesn’t turn into another al pacino, who relies mainly on rage to turn-in a performance. i mean in ‘inside man’ spike lee was a little more subtle (that you almost miss the yelling scene) by having denzel yell at a really thick glass door to clive owen. although you couldn’t hear him yelling, you could see the emotional fury of his over-the-top acting. for ‘inside man,’ it is too bad though that denzel didn’t get nominated for that role because he did a good job compared to some of the best actor nominees selected this week. maybe denzel’s gut undermined his nomination? most of the nominees are pretty skinny dudes except for that other fatty, forrest whitaker. (i guess only one fatty actor can get nominated a year.) denzel has addressed this oversight by not working himself back into shape but casting opposite himself in ‘deja vu’ the very bloated face of val kilmer (get a load of that close-up in the photo below). this totally draws our attention away from denzel’s gut. the proof is in the pudding for denzel as these photos atest.

julia roberts acknowledging that denzel’s oscar win and gut go hand-in-hand.
denzel’s gut stressing out the button on his tuxedo jacket and hogging halle berry’s space that she has to suck it up.
denzel’s new tactic while out in public—wear a really long and loose trench coat, taking no chances for his beer gut to be noticed. instead blame it on a really bad fashion stylist for clothes that don’t fit.
scale reference of denzel in relation to his ‘deja vu’ co-star.
val kilmer looking the largest of the large.
did val kilmer gain weight for his role in ‘deja vu’ to draw attention away from denzel’s gut?
more denzel trench coat subterfuge. “stare at my index finger and not my gut.”

the onitsuka tiger

my fave sneaker at the moment is an off-white asics onitsuka tiger with a cyan stripe. i love the flat sole and the narrow rounded toe. it’s a great sneaker to wear with tappered jeans or slim trousers that break slightly at its hem while it meets the sneaker’s top. also, a great compliment to a dark blazer, which completes the look. i used to disdain retro looking sneakers in the past because they seemed too kitschy, but my opinion of them has changed. anyways, i just fell in love with a modified version of the onitsuka tiger with three velcro straps that comes with an orange stripe:

see here

wkw’s ‘my blueberry nights’

here are some scouting location jpgs with director wong kar-wai, cinematographer darius khondji & editor/production designer william chang from wkw’s new film ‘my blueberry nights’ (his first american location shot feature). hopefully, wim wender’s ‘paris, texas’ and playwright tennessee williams’ literary southern gothic settings have an influence on the look of ‘my blueberry nights’ rather than a wkw american visual compliation of his previous films ‘happy together,’ ‘chungking express’ and ‘fallen angels’ combined. also, from the recent dennis lim n.y. times article (click blog entry title to read write up) and production reports from various media sources, it seems wkw is up to his old method of improvising during shooting. while crime novelist larry block’s script appears only to be a front, so wkw could attain financing but ultimately shoot in his typical manner of discovering the narrative during production. in addition, imdb lists ‘my blueberry nights’ with a june 2007 new york/los angeles release date and will probably screen at this year’s cannes film festival. looking forward to seeing how this one turns out for wkw & cast (norah jones, jude law, natalie portman, rachel weisez and david strathairn) & crew (william chang & darius khondji) and which of these locations jpgs appear in the final cut besides palacinka in nyc. (click individual images to enlarge & see more details.)

special thanks to s


director wong kar-wai at location unknown


cinematographer darius khondji at location unknown


editor/production designer william chang at palacinka in nyc


interior of palacinka










cinematographer darius khondji in ely, nevada



wong kar-wai discovered ely while driving along highway 50, known as “the loneliest road in america”

49er throwback frank gore

49er running back frank gore is one of the lone bright spots on this year’s team. he’s the kinda player the niners used to have an abundance of… playmakers with class who used to routinely win games and put up big stats too and enjoy lengthy and successful careers with the 49ers. i am talking about quarterbacks like joe montana & steve young & receivers john taylor & jerry rice & defensive players like ronnie lott & charles haley and of course, coaching from the likes of bill walsh & george seifert. i sorta jumped on the 49er bandwagon after they became consistent winners but i was rooting for them during their third, fourth & fifth superbowl titles.

john taylor is my fave niner… hands down a better playmaker/crack blocker who beat the defense’s best corner with slippery moves and a wicked stiff arm and better teammate than terrell owens (owens never did help the niners win anything of significance, but j.t. won them a superbowl and enabled jerry rice to have the big numbers and big games in the prime of his career, since defenses had to account for taylor burning them for a big play, plus he rarely dropped passes or never heard “footsteps” from defenses or called attention to himself… t.o. is just a pain in the ass). just ask any los angeles/st. louis fan what a rams killer john taylor was right up until his final season in 1995.

one of my fave niner games was in the 1989 superbowl season when montana lead the niners to a comeback win on the road against buddy ryan’s eagles with that punishing defense lead by reggie white. montana got sacked like 8 times in that game but in the fourth quarter he threw four touchdown strikes once he figured out the eagles blitzing defense and exploited their lousy secondary and his pass protection improved. also, in that season john taylor had that awesome monday night game against the rams that was for the division title. taylor had two touchdowns for over 90 yards and over 280 yards total receiving. the niners rode his back to the win and began their march toward back-to-back titles.

my fave bill walsh superbowl run was his final season when he knocked out the vikings, mike ditka’s bears in chicago and capped it off with a superbowl title against sam wyche’s bengals. that final drive in superbowl XXlll epitomized walsh’s offense, which went 92 yards (actually 102 yards because of a 10 yard penalty on the drive) with just over three minutes left in the game, using short passes with the receivers gaining yards after the catch and the offense eating up clock by making several first downs and leaving little time remaining for the bengals to score and retake the lead. and guess who caught the game winning touchdown? not jerry rice, who got superbowl mvp honors with his 215 yards receiving, 11 catches and 1 acrobatic touchdown, or league offensive mvp roger craig, but, yes that’s right, john taylor, who didn’t catch a pass all day and wasn’t the primary option on that touchdown play. after he crossed the goal line and scored, he calmly spiked the ball between his legs… no dance, no taunting, no showboating. btw, earlier in that drive taylor was upset with himself because he missed a block that would have sprung rice for the touchdown; the replays showed him on the turf pounding his fist when he saw rice being tackled because of his missed block… t.o. would have just laughed that one off and probably mocked rice for letting himself get tackled because he’s too slow. even funnier was don shula calling him turner instead of taylor during the post game show.

anyways, the current niners probably won’t have the same superbowl success of those past niner champions but frank gore would have fit in nicely with those squads. my fave 49er running back has always been garrison hearst but gore is more physically durable. so, i hope he has a long, successful career and retires a 49er… he’s a humble kid and a marvelous player. congrats to him going to his first pro bowl and starting for the nfc, the lone 49er selected on the first ballot.

frank gore against the broncos in the season finale. for the 2007 season, gore finished first in the nfc in rushing yards and third overall in the league.

joe montana & bill walsh during the waning minutes of a divisional playoff win of 34-9 against the vikings in 1989

john taylor scoring one of the 49ers’ 8 tds in superbowl XXlV against the broncos

montana fearless in the pocket against the eagles pass rush in a regular season come-from-behind win of 38-28, played in philly

jerry rice sporting 49er throwback uniforms during the 1994 superbowl season (coach seifert was superstitous and believed the 49ers winning was linked to the throwback uniforms, so they wore them all the way to a superbowl win over the chargers 49-26)

julie doucet’s ‘elle-humor’

i just received julie doucet’s terrific new book ‘elle-humor’ from picture box inc., which is the general book release of doucet’s ‘sophie punt lovely #11: la création de l'univers (variations), a silk-screened printed and bound edition of 50 offered by alvin buenaventura press. doucet is a superb graphic artist/designer/cartoonist from canada, who appropriates found retro imagery and typography and then collages them just like the russian constructivists did in the 1920s. her best stuff is her line art or a combination of her line art and found images and typography. she has a great color sense and has a knack of using a minimalist canvas for a striking layout. what i really like about her work is the characters or objects in her piece come from the mundane like a stool or luggage or channel lock pliers, which she illustrates with so much beauty and character. and then she can go in another direction and create something abstract and vulgar (by using ordinary magazine tear sheets of retro models); there’s a lot of diversity in her visual style and expression. anyways, here are some images from the buenaventura offering (first set of images) followed by the cover of ‘elle-humor’ and some pages from that book (click image to see a larger version). enjoy.