Articles
MOVIES
Chinatown by Paul D. Marks
I'm a movie guy. Love movies. I'm fascinated on so many levels. From the idea of creating fantasy worlds to trying to recreate reality. Love old movies from the 30s and 40s. And later films from Hollywood's Second Golden Age in the 1970s. Movies ... read more »
E.T. the extra-terrestrial by Alan "Nordling" Cerny
"I've been wishing for this since I was ten years old." If you came here looking for a critical breakdown of Steven Spielberg's E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL, you're not going to get it. Sure, I'll talk about what works, and I may ... read more »
Blade Runner by Steven Kotler
The first words I spoke to her were a quote stolen, like so many other things in those days, from the movie Blade Runner. The year was 1986 and her name was Patricia. She was some kind of beautiful mutt: half-Japanese, half something ... read more »
Doug and Mary by Stephen Jared
Mary Pickford was born Gladys Smith. In her time, actors hired for films were naturally recruited from the theater, and they played to the rafters. But young Mary had a different idea - she played to the camera. The consequence of this was that; ... read more »
Alan Ladd Jr. and the Seventy Years Legacy by Stephen Jared
If a movie has a foreign destination as title, I see it. I don't need to know anything else. Perhaps it was growing up in Midwest America, where far away exotic lands, mixed with Hollywood effects, cast an addictive spell. Star Wars ... read more »
The Man Who Would Be King by Stephen Jared
On September 26, 2008, Paul Newman passed away - but he'll always be with us. One of my favorite stories about Newman's bigheartedness has nothing to do with his legendary generosity to charity; it has to do with movies. In the early 1970's John ... read more »
The Simon Wincer Chronicles by Stephen Jared
Simon Wincer, the Australian director responsible for decades worth of adventures and westerns such as Lonesome Dove, The Lighthorsemen, The Phantom and some of the best of the Young Indiana Jones series, seems slightly out of ... read more »
Indiana Jones and the Tomb of Saturday Serials by Stephen Jared
A beautiful woman tied to train tracks. A speeding locomotive snakes through the mountains. The woman screams. A hero races to her. But will he reach her in time?Thanks to the cutting together of images like these, mixed with the melodramatic banging of a piano's keys, stage writers and novelists suddenly had a hard time competing with movies. Broadway could boast about gifted choreographers and the ... read more »
ART
Heads Up, It's A Ray Turner Interview! by Stephen Jared
Throughout our lives we probably look at faces more than anything else. When we see spouses, parents, children, friends, co-workers plus strangers on the streets, in the shopping malls, at airports, we see a lot of faces. Yet how closely do we look? ... read more »
Sally Storch's Unfinished Stories by Stephen Jared
Stephen: Is Hopper becoming more influential to painters as time goes by? Sally: I think he's probably gotten more popular. I had never heard of him around the time he died in the 60s. I think now people are really appreciating what he ... read more »
Tony Peters' Clean, bright, roads by Stephen Jared
While working as an assistant at the renowned Mendenhall Gallery in Pasadena, Tony Peters apprenticed Richard Bunkall. Upon first meeting Tony, he asks me, "Do you know Richard?" "Only from ... read more »
The Drew Struzan Interview by Stephen Jared
"There's a generation who grew up with images, which have become very meaningful to them. I actually get letters every day from people who say one of my illustrations inspired them toward a certain career path or something." Drew Struzan speaks ... read more »
Amsel: Illustrator of the Lost Art by Stephen Jared
My generation's first ever look at Indiana Jones was through the eyes of Richard Amsel. I was thirteen when Raiders of the Lost Ark was released. I had some minor talent with drawing, and after seeing the film, I penciled many copies of ... read more »
Gabe Langholtz Talks About His Art by Stephen Jared
People refer to earlier times as simpler times. Simple, however, doesn't mean less difficult. Sometimes simple is reflective of something more complicated. For example, I lived in a toolshed for a year. This was shortly after I moved to Los ... read more »
BOOKS
The Adventures of Louis L'Amour and the Diamond of Jeru by Stephen Jared
As a fan of great adventure stories and old Hollywood, I became enamored with a movie Louis L'Amour's son, Beau, made a few years ago called The Diamond of Jeru. The movie was based on a short story Louis L'Amour never completed. Louis ... read more »
Richard Burton's Arabian Nights by Stephen Jared
Richard Francis Burton lived a life that told many stories. He should have died a thousand times. At sixty-nine, old age and poor health brought his adventuring to an end. Mystifying those who prepared him for burial, his corpse was covered with ... read more »
