The Kingsington Journal

Friday, January 31, 2014

Lawrence of Arabia (1962) Starring Peter O'Toole

Lawrence of Arabia is a 1962 British epic adventure drama film based on the life of T. E. Lawrence. It was directed by David Lean and produced by Sam Spiegel through his British company, Horizon Pictures, with the screenplay by Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson. The film stars Peter O'Toole in the title role. It is widely considered one of the greatest and most influential films in the history of cinema. The dramatic score by Maurice Jarre and the Super Panavision 70 cinematography by Freddie Young are also highly acclaimed. The film was nominated for ten Academy Awards and won seven in total including Best Director, Best Sound Editing, and Best Picture.

The film depicts Lawrence's experiences in Arabia during World War I, in particular his attacks on Aqaba and Damascus and his involvement in the Arab National Council. Its themes include Lawrence's emotional struggles with the personal violence inherent in war, his own identity, and his divided allegiance between his native Britain and its army and his newfound comrades within the Arabian desert tribes.

Read More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_of_Arabia_(film)

=================================

Lawrence of Arabia (1962) Original Theatrical Trailer

=======================================

The Avengers by Alex Ross

The Avengers by Alex Ross

======================

Darkhawk by Brandon Peterson

Darkhawk by Brandon Peterson

=========================

Thursday, January 30, 2014

John Byrne - Comic Book Artist and Writer

John Byrne is a British-born comic-book writer and artist of comic books. Since the mid-1970s, Byrne has worked on many major American superheroes.

Byrne's better-known work has been on Marvel Comics’ X-Men and Fantastic Four and the 1986 relaunch of DC Comics’ Superman franchise. Coming into the comics profession exclusively as a penciler, Byrne began co-plotting the X-Men comics during his tenure on them, and launched his writing career in earnest with Fantastic Four (where he started inking his own pencils). During the 1990s he produced a number of creator-owned works, including Next Men and Danger Unlimited. He scripted the first issues of Mike Mignola's Hellboy series and produced a number of Star Trek comics for IDW Publishing.

Art style

Promotional art for Blood of the Demon #1, a series which was written and drawn by Byrne for DC Comics.

Byrne has himself called the straight line "his least favorite artistic element".

Ron Goulart has called Byrne’s artwork "an eminently acceptable mix of bravura, complexity and storytelling clarity".

In Scott McCloud’s book Understanding Comics, Byrne is charted along with other comics artists in the "Big Triangle". McCloud’s placement of Byrne within it identifies his style as similar to Gilbert Hernandez and Jim Lee, making the point that Byrne’s line style is naturalistic without being overly detailed.

Byrne is color blind for a narrow range of green and brown tones. During the first year that Byrne illustrated Iron Fist, he believed that the protagonist's costume was brown. While he experimented with his own hand-developed lettering fonts in the early 1980s, he has since begun using a computer font based on the handwriting of the letterer Jack Morelli.

Byrne’s artistic style, his layouts and his storytelling have been sources of instruction and inspiration to many comics artists, including Todd McFarlane and Bryan Hitch.

Read More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Byrne_(comics)

=============================================

Man of Steel #1 (1986) by John Byrne

==========================

Alpha Flight #3 by John Byrne

============================================

Check out more John Byrne art and comic book covers at:

http://www.pinterest.com/torrenceking/john-byrne-art-and-legacy/

***************************

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Playlist 2013 - Favorite Songs of The Year

I continued my musical journey in 2013 with more discoveries online by way of Spotify, Pandora, YouTube and other networks. Again, I say, welcome to the future…

From Pop Hits to Indie Dance to Rock...and Everything Else, it was quite a busy year for music, as always and everyone knows my taste varies. I expanded my Spotify playlists to include more Indie Dance, Electronica, Sounds of both Brazil and Ibiza, Classic Rock (Thanks to the music of Pink Floyd, The Eagles and Led Zeppelin added to Spotify) and Classic Jazz; Discovering and listening to artists like Kavinsky, The Civil Wars, Tame Impala, Alice Smith, The Editors, Cut Copy, Chromeo and The Weeknd for the first time.

Familiar favorites were in rotation as well including Daft Punk, Kings of Leon, New Order, The Smiths, Jamiroquai, Eddie Kendricks, The Cure and Chet Baker.

The best television performance of the year, in my opinion, would go to Alice Smith’s “Fool for You” performed on BET’s Black Girls Rock 2013.

The one music collection, I discovered, that rose above all others would go to the Tammi Terrell – Come on and See Me: The Complete Solo Collection and her version of Stevie Wonder’s “All I Do Is Think About You” (Previously Unreleased) Though released in 2010, this collection is as definitive as it gets for a talent our world lost so young. I discovered it after adding the Motown Complete Singles Collection 1959-1970s on my Spotify Playlists in July. Both are great collections every music fan should add.

And the song with the best video-song combination with a deep meaning goes to Basement Jaxx and their song, “What A Difference Your Love Makes” So, here again, listed alphabetically, are some of those songs and artists I discovered, enjoyed and had made the rotation on my playlists in 2013:

======================================

A Little Party Never Killed Nobody (All We Got) - Fergie, Q-Tip and GoonRock (The Great Gatsby Soundtrack)