"Bob Peak: Father of the Modern Hollywood Poster"

Bob Peak in 1985
A really cool art gallery, Gallery Nucleus, will feature the works of Bob Peak all month long. Bob Peak was an American commercial illustrator best known for innovative design in the development of the modern movie poster. His artwork has been used on the cover of Time magazine, TV Guide, and Sports Illustrated. He also illustrated advertisements and U.S. postage stamps. His style is instantly recognizable. If you are like me, Peak's images were constantly somewhere in the periphery of your childhood view. As I was growing up during the '70s and '80s, Peak's art was to the visual what composer John Williams's music was to the aural. Just a sample:

Apocalypse Now

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
(Peak did all the original cast movie posters)

Excalibur

Superman: The Movie

Rollerball

I wish I lived near Alhambra, California! I guess I will just have to settle for Space Center Houston's "The Cinema of George Lucas" artifacts exhibit.

(Pictures source)

Diedrich Rulfs: Master Architect of Nacogdoches

May 16, 2011 UPDATE: In honor of The Daily Sentinel (subscription only) having an "interview" with Diedrich Rulfs, and a link back to me, I hereby make all the pages of this ridiculously high-priced Blurb book temporarily viewable. Wouldn't you much prefer the actual, tactile sensation of finger on high-quality page? Or an attractive edition sitting on your very own coffee table?? I'm just sayin'.

Announcing the completion and publication of the 2nd (and hopefully final) edition of Diedrich Rulfs: Master Architect of Nacogdoches. This 130-page book (previous version was 112) includes all of the photographs I used in my posts devoted to the architecture of Diedrich Rulfs, and several I didn't. Two copies of this book are available at the University of Houston library. You can get a free taste at my Rulfs Flickr set.

Diedrich Rulfs...

By Chris Adams

Book Preview

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Tyler car wash at sunrise

Saturday morning, Tyler, Texas

Toots

Toots Shor and Joltin' Joe DiMaggio
Let me highly recommend a movie to the Sinatra peeps out there and fans of the American, cocktail lounge sub-culture of the 1940s through the early 1960s. Those who've not seen Toots (2006) should check it out. It is a documentary about New York restaurateur and bar owner, Bernard "Toots" Shor. This is the IMDb summary:

The '40s and '50s were a classic period in New York City nightlife, when the saloonkeeper was king and regular folks could drink with celebrities like Frank Sinatra and Jackie Gleason. In this documentary, Kristi Jacobson profiles her grandfather, the king of kings: Toots Shor of the eponymous restaurant and saloon, which was once the place to be seen in Manhattan.

Toots Shor (1903-1977) was Manhattan's premier saloonkeeper from 1940 to 1959. At 18, he went to New York from South Philly, becoming a speakeasy bouncer. In 1940, he opened his place at 51 51st St., the watering hole for sports heroes, actors, mobsters, cops, politicians, visiting dignitaries, and writers. Shor's daughter, Frank Gifford, Peter Duchin, former sports writers, and others comment throughout as the filmmaker mixes still photographs, archive footage, including an appearance on This Is Your Life, and an audio-tape interview from 1975 to present a portrait of New York during and after Prohibition and of a lovable, larger-than-life, uniquely New York public figure.

Sinatra paid a sort of tribute to Shor by including the second, 52nd street restaurant in Come Blow Your Horn.

Greatest rock band, EVER

The Beatles--sitting in an English garden waiting for the sun
I must say, Yoko, Paul, Olivia, and Ringo made a brilliant move in lending the Beatles (their name, music and image) to the latest in the Rock Band series of videogames. It will no doubt gain them countless number of young fans they might otherwise not have attracted. I just hope some of those kids learn to actually play their music on real musical instruments! For older fans, such as myself, it will reinforce in their minds the idea that there will never, ever again be a group as wonderful as the Beatles.

And what group is more perfect for one of these games than the Fabs? I've never played any of the Rock Band or Guitar Hero games, but I assume the player has to master certain levels to get further into the game. So, the way in which the Beatles rose to higher and higher levels of success (Hamburg to the Cavern, to conquering the U.K., then Europe, America, etc.) must have made it really easy to design the game. Also, what other rock band in the history of popular music had the musical development of the Beatles?? This too will make for a really interesting game -- i.e., you can't play "Ticket to Ride" until you've mastered "Twist and Shout," etc. The Beatles: Rock Band comes out on 9/9/09...

One can watch actual gameplay here, or even better, the trailer. It is a thing of beauty, even if there wasn't a game to promote. Although they got the chronology of the music wrong in some places, it still has the same kind of coolness the mashups done for last year's Love had in some places. It's a neat, mini-history of the group, minus all the petty squabbling and growing-up-and-apart issues (let's leave all that for an awesome film someday):

Wouldn't it be neat to see a "reboot" or just a redo of the Beatles cartoon which aired from 1965-69 in this style? The correct answer is "yes."

Genitalia on Angelina's chin...

...please, let me explain.

Sometime over the weekend, one of the less...enlightened citizens of nearby Lufkin decided Angelina would look better if she had male genitalia spray painted onto her chin. I disagree with this particular aesthetic modification. It will cost the city of Lufkin around $1,500 to restore. Monday night, police found a similar, erotic work of art on the south side (yo) of L-Town, so maybe they'll catch the artist. Speaking of which, muralist Lance Hunter painted this, and other, murals in 1991. These are some of the others in downtown Lufkin. I see several other places where genitalia could be added.


She's practically begging for it.






Definitely in need of some genitalia.



Think of the fun to be had with a can of spray paint on this one!!

Trek humor

Cracked has a humorous take on "The Coolest House in the Neighborhood, Perhaps, the Galaxy." Majel Barrett would need to provide the computer voice to truly make it the coolest house for me!

Khaan! The Greatest Syllable Ever Told (hilarious and bizarre)

Every Adult Swim Star Trek Sketch