Who decided that calling a movie The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was a good marketing move? (Because it definitely wasn’t one of those artistic/creative decisions.) Might as well have called it The Goth Girl with A Lot of Piercings and an Awesome Mohawk, Who is Also Good at Hacking, no? …Yea probably not that. But still.
The native title of both the book and the original Swedish film is Män som hatar kvinnor—which translates to a more fitting, albeit more polarizing and less sexy, Men Who Hate Women. This adds a completely new dynamic to the film that I want to briefly touch upon.
There has been a lot of praise (especially from female critics and bloggers) about how refreshing it is to have such a strong, independent, kick ass female lead. How she is a woman others can relate to and learn from.
But is Lisbeth Salander really?
I have a hard time understanding how her revenge made anything better. Do her actions (no matter how justified) truly “empower” women? Is that really what an independent woman with power looks like? I would like to think not. And I know that is one extreme example, but take for example a more subtle instance later in the film. Just as Lisbeth saves her male counterpart Mikael in the basement and is about to chase Martin, she hesitates and turns around to ask, “Can I kill him?”
WHAT? Why does she need permission if she’s such an individual? Since when does she need approval to do the things she wants? Does this undermine everything she stands for as a woman? As a person? Is she just another female character written by a man, in a man’s world?
I’m probably taking this a bit too far, but it was the most interesting point of conversation in an otherwise mediocre movie. I think it’s David Fincher’s least compelling film to date (mostly due to weak source material)—which really isn’t so bad considering his filmography.
Dreams, according to Stéphane Miroux, are a combination of random thoughts, reminiscences of the day, memories, and finally “love, friendships, relationships, and all those ‘ships’…”
The most popular cinema post on this blog—in terms of likes/comments and conversations generated—is easily my post on Inception for, I think, two reasons. First, it was the only movie I’ve written about that more than five readers have actually seen. And second because it was the only movie I’ve written about that didn’t leave me at a complete loss for words.
The Science of Sleep, directed by Michel Gondry (who also directed Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Be Kind, Rewind), is the antithesis to everything that was wrong with the whole “dreaming” thing in Inception. There is no shortage of imagination here and everything you see is just nuts. Gondry navigates effortlessly between reality and dreams—sometimes to the point you don’t know which is which.
There are so many excellent films that dabble in surrealism or entertain the concept of a dream, but none I’ve seen that really fleshes out what it means to dream. What it looks, feels, smells like. There is little explanation provided (mostly not needed) and it has its flaws (how could it not?), but this film beautifully captures dreaming in all its wild absurdity and inexplicable crazy.
This shot of Erik (chairman and co-founder) was for a feature on the Med Games—an annual tournament where medical students from USC, UCSD, UCI, UCR, and UCLA get together and compete in various athletic events. The best part? Winning school takes home the Golden Stethoscope (which was not available to photograph).
The San Diego Chargers seem incapable of winning this season. And as amusing as it is to see the fair weather fans jump off the wagon, it really is a terrible situation. Good thing I have great USC Trojan teams to occupy my attention—and in a few weeks, my OKC Thunder.
Everyone knows how good our football team is (if you don’t, ask UCLA—or just look up the score from yesterday’s game), but not many know how good our other teams are at winning. Our tennis team, who won their third consecutive NCAA Championship earlier this year, being one of those teams.
The only time Emilio was available for a portrait was after a tournament he was playing in across town. I found out before we started shooting that he lost his match and I was hoping that it wouldn’t affect the photo too much. Oddly enough, I couldn’t get him to stop smiling (I think there are only three or four frames where he isn’t). He was always cracking jokes and just seemed like a bright guy. He also made sure I knew that—given his accent and last name—he was from Ecuador, not Mexico.
(click for bigger, better view)
After making my national debut on ESPN last year and subsequently admitting that I don’t actually like shooting sports, I thought I was done with it… until I became Chief Photographer/Photo Editor for USC’s El Rodeo yearbook. (Yes, we have a yearbook.)
Besides being ridiculously busy during deadlines, one of the perks of the position is that I get to go to all the away football games. All airfare, hotel, rental car and miscellaneous expenses paid. Tempe, AZ a few weeks ago; San Francisco for the Cal game at AT&T Park next week; with Notre Dame (get to stay in Chicago), Colorado and Oregon coming up!
So yea, I don’t mind shooting a little sports here and there for that.
We’re off to a comfortable 4-1 start—barely winning games we should be dominating and losing a very winnable game because of stupid mistakes. Oh wait, why does that sound exactly like the Chargers this season? What a coincidence.
The photo above was taken in the tunnel at the Coliseum and there are so many layers to it. But I won’t get into that.
But here is the sick team intro video that plays before home games and gets everyone pumped:
A still from my upcoming documentary, I Hate House Music—coming to local theaters 13/13/13.
I briefly met and shot Ben Michaels, creative director of Bluecanvas Magazine, at their sweet Los Angeles office. The space itself was (not surprisingly) filled with beautiful artwork and you could tell that the place just oozed with creative juices and fun. (They travel via Bluecanvas-branded scooters in their office!)
Check out their quarterly magazine the next time you’re at Barnes & Noble and their community of artists on their website!
Jim, a seminar speaker for emergency medicine physicians, was revamping his website and needed some photos to fill the pages. I was going to write this off as another paycheck job, but was immediately stricken by Jim’s peculiar charisma. I knew I had a great subject in front of me and I couldn’t let that go to waste. An otherwise mellow guy, Jim really gets fired up when he does what he does—speak.
It’s said that the easiest people to photograph are actors and dancers because they just perform. So gracefully, so naturally. I found this to be very true while shooting photos for Chelsea. She needed some headshots for an audition, but we fit in other (more exciting) shots as well. Everything was a breeze and overall pretty simple.
I made some portraits of upcoming musician Abraham Lim in conjunction with the release of his YouTube channel. And while aspiring artists pop up like pimples on a 9th grade kid’s forehead (usually met with the same dread and contempt), I have a feeling that this is different.
It has almost become routine (at least for me) to just smile politely when someone says they’re gonna become a Hollywood director or when someone shares their idea for a new startup (which will revolutionize EVERYTHING). You nod and hope the best for them, never actually believing that they will make it. He is different.
People have a lot to say, but I think his music speaks for itself. Listen to his first cover here and then his next.
