Art Department Weekly - Jan 2013

ADW

art department whenever January 2013

Django Things you need to see winter beers more star wars PLus: five things BK Moments Nerds rejoice

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“There are cheaper ways to get a better blow job” -madeline

“I don’t want to be too self disparaging, but the one me, not so good” -mike

The above shot summed up the general public’s response to Amazing Spider-Man #700. To say it was met with negative reviews would be an understatement. This issue saw the culmination of Doc Ock’s plan as he took over Peter’s body while Peter died in the old shell of Doc Ock. We shall see if the new Spidey is indeed Superior.

joKe of the month

“Guys, I can’t go tonight; I have to bedazzle my horn” -Luis

“Maybe I’ll make that suggestion when I write my Yelp review” -ian

“My feet smell like frosting” -Brookelynn

“OMG, you just made me deep throat that candy cane” -Katie L.

“You know, they can lie on the bed and play with the bottle in a sensitive way” -noah

What did the Puerto Rican say to the potato?

I’ll cut you PAPA! (“Papa” = “potato” in Spanish)

venti AWesome Artist and designer Armritaj Gupta put together this more than amazing doodle of Wonder Woman on the mermaid of the Starbucks cup. To learn more about Armitaj and his work visit http://about.me/artraj

“Everyone liked ‘The Sign,’ no one liked Ace of Base” -Luis

Cy Kuckenbaker captured every plane landing at San Diego International over a 5-hour period, inspiring this.

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print pleAse This is issue of the Dubbs is getting rushed out the door—right along with me and everyone else headed to the Maxim Party in New Orleans. While it might seem wasteful to spend all this time pouring over potential content and proofreading submissions, I beg to differ.

The picture of airplanes could simply be in celebration of how so many of us are jetting off this week. But it’s not a simple picture and this is not a simple thought. (Stick with me.)

For decades now, “people” have been saying that print is over. Everyone loves how fast and accessible the internet is.

When you get done reading something here, you cannot instantly tell the whole world your opinion. You either have to remember to talk about it later or just be satisfied that you know how felt.

But what you do have in your hands is a companion. (Sorry, PDF readers. But print it out, and now my point makes more sense.) This issue can travel with you without causing you any woes. This issue does not require a charger or a signal. It does not need to be shut off at any point or opened for security. And yet it still connects you to other people.

Like the photo above, we’ve sifted through all the thoughts and pictures and

quotes, and filtered it down to one (hopefully) entertaining body of work.

While you might love the constant stream of social media blips, I believe there has to be a point in your day when you process what is going on around you.

The idea that print will vanish is not horrifying because we’d all be out of work; it’s horrifying because it means we’d all be so stupid.

When a group of 25-year-old females were asked to give up technology for a week, their main observation was that they were all forced to think for themselves. And they had time to think about how they actually felt. Private thoughts remained private!

So, while there will always be those who want everything to be loud and fast and short-lived, I will always be in favor of taking a moment at some point to reflect.

And not just when you’re refraining for dashing off a series of 140-character retorts.

Created for the amusement of those who work in publishing (or maybe any sort of graphic design), Art Department Weekly (or the Dubbs) has been running strong for much longer than anyone might have expected. ADW is distributed as often as possible in print with a circulation ranging between 25 and 100 copies. Contributions are accepted through Wednesday for each closing issue.

ADW is a Dinosaur Girly Production, 1468 W 8th Street, Brookyn, NY 11204 To request a copy or submit content, please contact dubbsubs@yahoo.com

minD the gaP One of the best books on the market right now is the new series from Jim McCann and Rodin Esquejo. Rodin you may know as the brilliant cover artist on Morning Glories. They’re telling a tale of the beautiful Ellie Peterson who is in a coma but able to jump into other recently deceased (or comatose) bodies as she tries to unravel the mystery behind her attack. As the layers are peeled away more questions are uncovered.

The story is wonderfully complex and took me by complete surprise. On the art side, Esquejo’s pencils are nothing short of brilliant. I can’t wait to see more from this rising star.

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Killing them softly movie review

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2013 has come and big announcements in music are coming through the flood gates! Here’s my list of what new music to look out for in the New Year.

1. David Bowie Where Are We Now? 2. Major Lazer, Free The Universe 3. A$AP Rocky, Long.Live.ASAP 4. Danny Brown, OLD 5. Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs, TBD —Sterling

Killing Them Softly follows Brad Pitt, an “enforcer” hired to track down three guys who rob a Mob protected card game. The gangster thriller also stars James Gandolfini, who was sent to do a specific job, and Ray Liotta, who runs the illegal gambling setup. This stylish thriller is definitely worth seeing—despite its relentless violent.

Its sharp dialogue, mesmerizing cinematography and gritty performances will keep you hanging on. The parallels between economic decay, political disappointments and petty criminals are anything but subtle. Throughout the film, there is a

year of steel When I started to think of the things in pop culture I was looking forward to the most this year, I of course gravitated to one specific thing: Superman.

2013 is the 75th anniversary of Superman, and DC is going all out to celebrate. They’re revamping the creative teams on both of his existing titles (Andy Diggle and Tony Daniel on Action Comics, Scott Lobdell and the amazing Kenneth Rocafort on Superman) and most exciting—I would argue the most exciting news in all of comics—is the upcoming launch of Man of Steel by the incomparable duo of Jim Lee and Scott Snyder.

Snyder is hands down the hottest writer in comics right now. With the huge acclaim and success he has garnered DC with his Court of Owls (Bruce Wayne has a brother) and Death of the Family (Batman messed up and the Joker knows who everyone in the batgang really is) storylines in Batman, and the runaway

success of American Vampire (pick up the trades—you will not be disappointed), it seems everything he writes is amazing.

Partnering him with Lee, who is still the best artist in the game, is a pure stroke of genius. This book will dominate the charts this year, I can’t wait.

But that’s not all. June sees the release of Man of Steel by geek director Zach Snyder. Snyder faithfully adapted 300 and Watchmen to the big-screen, so you know Superman is in good hands. Henry Cavill seems to be an inspired choice to play Kal-El. The more I see of this

strong political undertone that the writing/director keeps hammering home.

The fireworks are for Barack Obama.

The movie is set in 2008, during the climax of the Presidential campaign and the slump in the financial markets. At the start, over shots of a derelict lot strewn with trash, we hear Obama promising “the freedom to make of our lives what we will.” You feel the impact of low life against the high hopes on which politics and community spirit rely, and it leaves you shaking.

—Erica B film, the more excited I become. I think it has a chance to be the top movie of the summer.

Check out the cover to the recently released Empire for a good look at the new costume. No underpants on the outside with a textured cloth throughout. I like the modern twist on the classic suit.

more star wars

@azizansari: Amazing! Surprise screening of Star Wars Episode VII at this morning’s Illuminati meeting.

So great.

My internet connection is really bad, so I didn’t wait around to see how many people understood the joke. But thousands of people had retweeted and favorited it, so I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that more than a few readers would find these facebook pics as funny as I did.

—Madeline

nerds rejoice Star Wars fans awoke to the best possible combination of words since Disney announced the purchase of Lucasfilm: J.J. Abrams will direct Star Wars Episode VII.

J.J. has been the brains behind some of the best genre TV shows of my

generation (Fringe, LOST, Alias and even Felicity). He also reinvigorated both the Mission Impossible franchise and successfully relaunched the Star Trek franchise—and that series was on life support. Now fans can’t wait for the next Trek installment. May 2015 and Episode VII can’t come soon enough.

—LV

Dee-Jango Un S

top playing Beethoven!” Dr. King Shultz (Christoph Waltz) screamed at a harpist playing Für Elise, as the horrors he witnessed on the grounds of Candie Land cascade through his mind. A powerful scene, which beautifully conveys the intelligible fact that sometimes one cannot simply turn aside and disregard injustice. Often, I find myself feeling the same way about modern day cinema. For decades, I have implored La La Land to please stop destroying films by juxtaposing terrible images with inane story lines alongside amazing soundtracks and oncelegendary actors (I’m talking to you Robert De Niro! Most notably in the 2008 flick Righteous Kill, which saw the demise of two legends for the price of one: De Niro and Al Pacino paired together onscreen for only the second time in history). Django Unchained is not one of those cases. Extraordinarily well-crafted, Quentin Tarantino once again fires off every one of his talents, leaving nothing behind. Cinematography, soundtrack, dialogue, set design, and story is all there, all spewing forth from the same entity. He’s like a mad man running wild across a wide canvas with a brush and gallons of paint.

Django Unchained follows the exploits of Dr. King Shultz, a former dentist turned bounty hunter who plies his trade in the stalking and extermination of wanted criminals throughout the South, and Django (the “D” is silent) (Jamie Foxx) a slave who accompanies Shultz on these exploits in exchange for his freedom.

Before long an apprenticeship is underway as Django, under the tutelage of Dr. Shultz, learns the ins and outs of bounty hunting, which often includes putting on intricate facades, conversing with the less intelligent (often much less intelligent) and controlling one’s impulses. As the story progresses, Django tells Dr. Shultz of his wife, Broomhilda, from whom he was separated when they were sold individually on the auction block by a vengeful slave owner known as Old Man Carrucan. Shultz, touched by his story, agrees to aide Django in his allegorical quest to reunite with Broomhilda. A quest, which before long delivers them into the sovereignty of Candie Land, a ruthless cotton plantation

One by Jim Lee, one by Madeline.

owned by Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio). Candie, a Francophile, whom insists upon being referred to as Monsieur Candie, regardless of the fact he doesn’t speak French, rules Candie Land as a king would a feudal nation. Calvin wields absolute power over life and death, no matter how cruel or unusual, with complete autonomy. He is aided in his endeavors by Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson), a frightening 76-year-old Uncle Tom at the Candie Land plantation.

Stephen, amongst his many other tasks, serves as head slave and Calvin’s veritable wartime consigliere.

Shultz and Django infiltrate the Candie Land plantation posing as amoral slavers looking to acquire one of Monsieur Candie’s strongest slaves for the purpose of what basically amounts to human cockfighting. All of this is of course, a ruse weaved in order for Django and Shultz to quietly purchase

Broomhilda, grant her her freedom, and ride off into the sunset before anyone is the wiser. Obviously, this being a Tarantino film, nothing is ever a straight line and no task is met without its obstacles. Tension-building humor, startling violence and a flare for the unthinkable are all touchstones of Quentin Tarantino’s work and none are spared within his latest undertaking.

A tip of the hat to Samuel L. Jackson and Leonardo DiCaprio for delivering Oscar caliber performances. They were both simply magnificent. DiCaprio deserves an Oscar nod simply for agreeing to have blackened teeth throughout the entire film! Oddly enough, Jamie Foxx’s portrayal of the title role left me a bit unsatisfied as I felt he often came across as detached. Django is almost too cool for school as his character appeared more like someone watching from the sidelines rather than

nchAineD becoming the driving force of the film I had expected. Christoph Waltz was pitch perfect as the endearing bounty hunter, Dr. King Shultz, whose arc as a whole was the most pronounced. Dr. Shultz’s hostility towards slavery, love for Django and overall disdain for plantation owners nationwide help shape him into a memorable character with oodles of onscreen charisma.

One of Quentin Tarantino’s biggest talents as a director is his ability to build up tension to a boiling point and immediately diffuse it with laughter before ratcheting up that tension to an even higher caliber. Tension is the quality in which a fear or anxiety is stretched out without resolution. Few could argue the opening scene from his previous film Inglourious Basterds didn’t have us all on edge as Col. Hans Landa questions a French dairy farmer about the whereabouts of hidden Jews as he smokes an insanely large calabash pipe.

That Sherlock Holmes pipe gave us, the audience, a moment to breathe a sigh of relief before tragedy struck the dairy farmer’s house in the form of armed nazis blasting holes into the kitchen floor massacring the Jews hidden beneath.

That is Tarantino’s gift as a director. For me, that is what has kept him both a critical and commercial success for the past twenty years. Everything in Django Unchained is about resolving tensions.

The tension of slavery, both as a whole and on an individual level. The looming tension of the Civil War. Calvin Candie’s own anxiety about why his slaves don’t rise up against him until low and behold Django shows up and does just that.

Quentin pulls these strings until they snap.

Much like Quentin Tarantino’s previous work, Django Unchained exudes essential features of all the great Spaghetti Westerns made famous by the likes of Sergio Leone and Sergio Corbucci. The Western, a genre that no doubt has influenced Tarantino more than any other.

It’s been said that every movie is a Western. Aliens is a Western. Titanic is a Western. Step Up 3D, however abhorrent, is, too, a Western. The genre is extremely all-encompassing. That’s why America invented it! Unlike most Westerns, Django Unchained is not about redemption.

Django’s mission isn’t to atone for his sins.

On the contrary, he’s looking to commit even more. He’s out to right a severe wrong with bullets and blood and TNT. Thankfully, none of these are in short supply.

In terms of sheer craft, Django Unchained cannot be ignored. Elementally it is a masterpiece, and I don’t throw that term around loosely. The real shame is that most of the more vocal critics have chosen to focus on the 110-plus uses of the infamous N-word instead of the actual overall point of the film, which is first and foremost love, African-American empowerment, justice, and morality. To bark that a film is racist simply because of the use of racial slurs without any regard to context is ludicrous. By that definition, films such as American History X should be met with similar disdain. It’s twice as insulting when you read that a majority of these critics are damning the film without even having seen it. I’ve seen the movie; I’ve seen it twice in fact. My advice to you, if you find yourself at the multiplex and it’s a toss-up between Billy Crystal’s Parental Guidance and Django Unchained, you’re probably reading the wrong magazine right now.

—Mike Posillico

n i t n D e u Q fine De Quentin Tarantino was born in Knoxville Tennessee in 1963 and raised by his single mother Connie McHugh. At the age of 15 Quentin dropped out of his Los Angeles middle school just prior to completing the ninth grade. At 16 Quentin briefly became an usher at an adult movie theater just in time to witness the theater’s big switch from film to video production and presentation as depicted in 1997’s Boogie Nights. At this point, Quentin began taking acting classes full time and eventually left the Pussycat Theater to work at the famous Video Archives, a Los Angeles-based video rental chain known for it’s wide and rare selection, similar to Kim’s Video of Manhattan. It was here that Quentin educated himself and gained a majority of his encyclopedic knowledge of film.

Since then Quentin Tarantino has been responsible for some of the most memorable films within the past 20 years. True Romance, Reservoir Dogs, Natural Born Killers, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill (Vol. I & II), Death Proof and Inglourious Basterds, as well as doing uncredited script doctoring for The Rock and Crimson Tide. Quentin abhors digital filming and projection and has related in several interviews that he considers going to a movie theater to view a film in digital projection the same as “watching a DVD in public,” which is not in keeping with the escapism that the movie-going experience was founded on. Additionally he has claimed that he will most likely retire from the industry after completing 10 films as a director, in order that his filmography will not become polluted with subpar films that were made after he was “past his prime” as an artist.

Quentin Tarantino’s newest film—his seventh for those keeping count!— Django Unchained is currently in theaters.

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Here is a leftover tidbit from “Dee-Jango Unchained”:

my FaVOrite rumOr i OnCe hearD WhiLe in FiLm sChOOL, But Was neVer aBLe tO COnFirm Or Deny

Quentin Tarantino, Spike Jonze, David Fincher, Sophia Coppola, Paul Thomas Anderson and a revolving list of other noted directors and writers would all get together once a month in Los Angeles to screen films and eat pizza.

This secret meeting of the young up-and-coming elite was dubbed the “Hollywood Pizza Party.”

While Mike didn’t expand on whether or not he believed this, I for one will say that it is probably true super talented, up-and-coming directors found each other and picked each other’s brains. I saw it in college. Three guys who were always together are now award-winning journalists for ESPN and the New York Times. I was already thinking of them because I just read a book about the real inspirations behind dozens of works of great literature, and somehow every generation of writers seemed to find each other. Not just like Harper Lee and Truman Capote were childhood best friends, but like artists who really didn’t need each other were making the effort to get together. It was mentioned in like story after story. And I started to wonder where I should be hanging out. I mean, there’s not going to be a group like that on Meet-Up...

—Madeline

Winter Beers

by Matt Ciccone

As teased in the last ADW, we’ll tackle the basics of beer with ABV and IBUs. ABV stands for Alcohol By Volume and is the standard measure of alcohol contained in a beverage. In beer, the ABV is determined by the type and amount of fermentable sugars (grain/barley) used in the beer. Bud Light and other fizzy yellow beers use genetically engineered rice (yes, really) to create more fermentable sugars without adding any taste, but still provide alcohol. Guinness Draught uses lots of roasted malts for taste and color, much of which does not ferment and, thus, produces less alcohol while still packing a punch of flavor. Typical light beer is about 4.2% ABV, whereas favorites such as Blue Moon, Sierra Nevada, Heineken, PBR, and Stella Artois are all in the 5-5.6% range. IPAs are typically in the 6-7% ABV range.

IBUs, or International Bitterness Units, is a scale that provides the bitterness of a beer on a range from 0-100. Light American Lagers (Fizzy Yellow Beers) come in at a whopping 10 IBUs. American Wheat Beers like Sam Adams Summer Ale range anywhere between 15 and 30 IBUs. German Pilsner’s such as Beck’s, measure 25-45 IBUs. American Stouts like Brooklyn’s Sixpoint Diesel, have anywhere from 35-75 IBUs. And IPA’s like Stone IPA register anywhere from 50-80. A double IPA or barleywine, like Sierra Nevada Bigfoot comes out on top at 60-100 IBUs. Winter is the season of short days and big beers! Try out one of the beers below that are out now. And remember – Fizzy Yellow Beer Is For Wussies.

Left hand Brewing Company milk stout nitro 6% ABV 25 IBUs America’s version of a Guinness with a ton more flavor. Dark and delicious, Milk Stout Nitro has the aroma is of brown sugar and vanilla cream, with hints of roasted coffee. Initial roasty, mocha flavors rise up, with slight hop and roast bitterness in the finish. The rest is pure bliss of milk chocolate fullness. Love this beer right now— available in 6 packs. When pouring, pour hard to into the glass to create the nitro pour effect. (Again, think how Guinness is poured at bars.) rogue yellow snow iPa 6.5% ABV 70 IBUs Pale golden in color with a hoppy fruity aroma. Big hop flavor up front complemented by medium body and

hoppyness mid-pallet. Finishes with a characteristic lingering bitterness.

A nice West Coast IPA with a fun Winter name. sierra nevada Bigfoot ale 2013 9.6% ABV 90 IBUs A yearly release, Bigfoot is a beast of a beer, brimming with bold flavors of bittersweet malt and heaps of aggressive whole-cone Pacific Northwest hops. First introduced in the winter of 1983, Bigfoot is a cult-classic beer brewed in the barleywine style, meaning a strong, robust, bruiser of a beer with the refined intensity of a wine. Under the proper conditions, it can age like a fine wine, developing new flavors and character as it matures in the bottle.

Each new release or “expedition” is vintage dated. Collect your own and see the flavors develop and progress.

cute overloAD Shetland ponies wearing Shetland sweaters in the Shetland Islands. Yes. For real.

People knit all kinds of crazy shit for animals. Look it up. Hours of entertainment.

s ’ K B im X A m ments

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2 1 0 2

1. the giants win Super Bowl & Ian

Wins Pictionary 2. niCK russO rips his pants before the

big game 3. marDi gras... Riding around in the

I don’t know this little kid, but now I kind of wish I knew the parents.

Bat-Mobile. Dance party with Lama and Aric at Republic. Trying oysters! Fred Noe. Getting ready in a convention center bathroom with Lama. Colin and David pelting us with beads 4. niKKi’s dumb as rocks comments: “Brookelyn, what will I be wearing at Mardi Gras? I need to know what body parts I should be working out” and “What degrees is it in New Orleans?

Like, should I pack pants?”

5. Katie LaLama in general. Especially this convo: Lama: “I don’t like getting massages, I feel icky afterwards” BK: “Yeah, it breaks down all the lactic acid in your muscles and makes you pretty nauseous” Lama: “I probably have a lot of lactic acid, I eat a lot of cheese” 6. rhuDy anD hiLary join Maxim 7. PLaying sOFtBaLL with the Maxim team (or trying to) 8. Learning how to manage “the COLin sPeCiaL” 9. these PhOtOs of Bruce Kostic, and

Ian Warren 10. mary Carmen punches out

Persephanie “Ding, Ding, Ding!!!”

five things the random things on rhudy’s mind

I’m thinking about getting a Carmelo anthony jersey. It’ll be perfect for June when we’re in the Finals.*

What would I do if I had 24 hours to live?

I can’t believe my son is turning 3

soon... Time flies.

mayan calendar vacation... I need one!

All this hype about the world ending and nothing! What a scam.

*Luis suggests waiting until mid May when the Knicks inevitably make their first round playoff exit and the jerseys are on sale.