All cartoons are posted with the artists’ express permission to TPZoo.
Nick Anderson, Houston Chronicle Editorial Cartoonist and Animation Artist.
For Nick’s animations, visit Nick Anderson: Animation Archives.
For Nick’s cartoons, visit Nick Anderson.

“Against my better judgement, I feel certain that somewhere very near here — the first house down the road, maybe — there’s a good poet dying, but also somewhere very near here somebody’s having a hilarious pint of pus taken from her lovely young body, and I can’t be running back and forth forever between grief and high delight.”

Here’s an abstract sentence I didn’t think I would ever hear:

“If you gave The Postal Service a banjo they would become Freelance Whales.”

Formed as recently as late 2008 in Queens New York, Freelance Whales honed their “precariously arranged pop songs” busking in the streets and subways of the Big Apple. The band thrive under a gestalt idea of each simple instrument and sound combining to create a much more impressive, layered, interwoven body, like a synth-folk landscape painting combing simple individual forms into something beautiful and resonant as opposed to the usual cacophony of battling electrics, pedals and solo guitars each fighting the other for limelight. The peaceful idea of each member and instrument happy with its own easing simplicity and the combination of that simplicity into something greater and more moving is something that comes across strongly in this band.

Something that cannot be avoided (by my ears anyway) however is their similarity to The Postal Service, especially the vocal style, which sounds so like Ben Gibbard it seems feasible that he is simply working under a pseudonym or has single-handedly perfected cloning  in order to give himself more time with wife Zooey Deschanel, which would be an understandable move. Some tracks such as Generator^2ndFloor depart from The Postal Service sound in favour of a more choral gospel  feel and this may be the direction the band will take if they are to avoid hack writers spending more time describing the life of Ben Gibbard and co. than themselves.

With such a short history but a doubtlessly promising future little else remains to be said about Freelance Whales for the moment. If you like The Postal Service (and who doesn’t?) but are also a fan of slightly more folky, organic styles such as Animal Collective, you will like this band, they aren’t breaking boundaries but they are adding good material to under-populated ones. Their debut album Weathervanes was released on ITunes last August and actual physical CD’s (remember those?) were released on cdbaby.com in October. Freelance Whales are touring the U.S. until January.

IOHO recommends the tracks Generator^2ndFloor , Broken Horse and Starring

Broken Horse

Websites

http://www.myspace.com/freelancewhales

All cartoons are posted with the artists’ express permission to TPZoo.
Steve Sack, Minneapolis Star-Tribune

Via Drag me to Heijl

She also has a band called She & Him who are quite good and retro sounding:

So this is getting hard…..didn’t do anything today so here’s a picture of the book I’m reading at the moment, well re-reading :]
Franny and Zooey by J.D Salinger, best author ever.

Who are your favourite authors? :]

“How Soon Is Now” – The Smiths

Sooooo, I finally got around to watching (500) Days of Summer.  It was… good.

Things that I liked:

1.  LOS ANGELES-  born and raised, baby   It was so nice to see good ol’ LA portrayed with so much genuine love;  they didn’t  pretend that it was New York, like all other Hollywood movies do, but really almost personified the city.  However, neither of the two main characters were Angelenos- something that was a bit disappointing, especially since Zooey Deschanel (who, by the way, was named Zooey Glass Deschanel after Zooey Glass from J.D. Salinger’s Franny and Zooey which I just finished reading for my Intro to Lit class – thanks Leo from said class - which is AWESOME, I adore Salinger) is a LA native.

2.  THE MUSIC- See, I knew I should have kept up with Wolfmother after “Woman” because AMAZING !  I love the music in this movie so much (THE SMITHS-see title…we’ll get back to this later).  I am in no way a music conisiueur, but the Indie stuff is where my heart lies.  Also, how beautiful is Carla Bruni’s song “Quelqu’un M’a Dit”?

I shall show you:

To illustrate my earlier point, I had no idea Carla Bruni was a singer.  All I knew was the was some sort of  Princess Diana incarnation/First Lady of France/completely gorgeous.  But nay, she has one of the most gorgeous voices I’ve ever heard.  I’m not going to even try to describe the kinds of emotions that the soundtrack of this movie (which I am listening to as we speak) evoke in me.  If they could be so easily put into words, there wouldn’t be a need for the song in the first place.

3.  The humor:  It was wry, off-beat, and a little dark.  The most hilarious lines were placed in the most inappropriate scenes.  It’s called incongruity kids.  It’s like the plot played the straight man.

4.  Zooey Deschanel’s clothes, and apartment, and…:   Basically everything she owned.  I want.  DID YOU KNOW THAT SHE’S MARRIED TO BEN GIBBARD?  You probably did.  It’s ridiculously appropriate.  But I’m still jealous.  I heart her though, the almost-vegan/Katy Perry twin.  AND WHAT’S THIS ABOUT KATY PERRY DATING RUSSEL BRAND??  MY RUSSEL?!  Nooooooooooooo…

5.  Acting, writing, direction, editing etc. etc. blah blah blah..

6.  Autumn: Well, would you look at that, my favorite season

Things I Didn’t Like So Much:

1.  Tom:  This was by far my biggest problem with the movie, and probably the reason I didn’t moon over it like everyone else has done.  It’s not  because of Jason Gordon-Levitt; he did a fantastic job.  He was probably Tom’s redeeming factor, actually.  No matter how much I tried, I found it impossible to sympathize with Tom.  I mean, it was sad and all…really sad *cough*but I found myself siding more with his younger sister and that one girl he went out with as a blind date.  Summer told him that she wasn’t interested in being in a relationship, told him that what they had wasn’t serious- and he agreed.  He then continued to construct his own imaginary romance and then mourned over it by breaking plates on the kitchen counter and completely blaming Summer- despite the fact that she spelled everything out for him in the beginning.  Summer may have been many not-so-nice-things,  but she was honest.  Right to the very end.  And I liked that about her.  Tom was just a little too…Devdas for me.     Excuse the Bollywood reference, but really…all women want men to pine after them but…just how realistic is that? I love The Smiths, but…TITLE?  A bit melodramatic, maybe?

     In short, he was such a girl.  Geez.

Yeah, that was basically it.  I liked that it didn’t end with the typical “illogical happily ever after” because that is my ABSOLUTE LEASTFAVORITETHING ABOUT ROMANCES.  There was no romance between Summer and Tom.  There was Summer and then Tom’s fantasy, and that is where the romance lay.   And THAT is what love at first sight is.  I don’t believe in it.  LOVE, sure.  I don’t think that he falls in love with Autumn in the end; it is just the beginning of Autumn after all.  Enchantè

Besides, I’m listening to Vagabond right now and that’s all you really need to fall in love with the movie.

Maybe I’m just pathetically unromantic.  “She’s a DUDE!”  Ha ha ha.  Not.

In other news, I’m totally into Glee!  I downloaded most of the soundtrack and heart.   It’s not a revelation, but it’s fun and light and adorable.  And energetic.  There’s also an interesting satirical tone to the show which equals love for me.   So LOVE, Glee, LOVE!  It makes me happy

I downloaded all of Florance and The Machine’s album.  Awesome stuff.  I’ve also just discovered Cibelle, but her stuff is almost impossible to find.  :(  I’m tired ahora, I’ll post something gorgeous later.

TA!

Chathurika

It’s Saturday, the end of the week, and that can only mean one thing… it’s time for the latest HeelZone Babe of the Week! This week, my favorite week ever because the BOTW is none other than my favorite actress and singer, and probably the only celebrity crush I have, the absolutely adorable and insanely cute… Zooey Deschanel!

Hit the jump for a video and some pictures of the beautiful Zooey.

Yes, that is indeed a Cotton, the “Fabric of our Lives” commercial and it’s included for two reasons. 1.) Zooey looks super cute in it. 2.) Zooey sings in the commercial. So as you can see, it’s a win and win for all of us, and just happens to be my favorite commercial EVER!

Love most things Zooey is in… be it Elf, Yes Man, Almost Famous, whatever she’s in I love. Especially Tin Man. She’s definitely a quirky cutie in Tin Man, which I reviewed here. I know, you clicked this to see pictures of the lovely Zooey, not see me profess my love of all things Zooey Deschanel, so pictures you shall get!

Obviously, you click those thumbnails, and you’ll see the larger version. We’ve got A LOT more Zooey Deschanel posted in the Babe Zone section of our forums, but that section is for registered members only! So what are you waiting for? Hop on over to the forums and register today for more Zooey pictures and videos.

A maioria das comédias românticas sempre me parece chinfrim. E a razão é simples assim: geralmente não me identifico com o amor que elas apresentam.

Identificação, então, parece ser o segredo. Se o amor se parece com aquele que você um dia sentiu, ou ainda sente, então o filme já segue em vias de ganhar o seu coração.

“500 Dias Com Ela” me ganhou fácil. A primeira troca de olhares, os diálogos no elevador, as tentativas frustradas no escritório, o karaokê, o número de dança, a expectativa X realidade… tudo muito similar ao meu jeito de amar. Um jeito nerd, sofrido, bobo e bonito. E sincero, ainda que equivocado.

Os dias, se vão e vêm (mas nem tanto assim), vão e vêm assim talvez porque é assim que eles seguem nos amores da gente também. Relembramos cousas, refazemos outras na nossa mente, lamentamos erros e sorrimos com os acertos de antes do grande erro. É bem assim. E se bem contado, com simpatia, dedicação, capricho e uma ou outra piração, tanto melhor. E se os atores abraçam a causa e se fazem amantes com jeito de gente que ama de verdade, perfeito. Porque assim, a identificação com o amor exibido faz nascer o amor verdadeiro… por um filme assim.

((500) Days Of Summer – 2009) - Trailer
Direção: Marc Webb
Roteiro: Scott Neustadter e Michael H. Webber
Elenco: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Zoey Deschanel

~ This is not a love story. This is a story about love ~

Tidak heran kenapa film ini banyak mendapatkan pujian dari sejumlah kritikus, film yang disutradarai oleh Marc Webb ini memang bagus bila dibandingkan sejumlah film romantic comedy yang akhir2 ini beredar *ngelirik Sandra Bullock & Katherine Heigl :nohope: *, sayangnya film ini tidak ditayangkan di bioskop2 tanah air, jadi harus menontonnya melalui dvd.

Dari segi cerita sebenarnya cukup simple, hanya penyampaiannya ke dalam sebuah film menurut saya cukup unik, dengan memakai alur maju-mundur, penonton dibuat terus mengikuti alurnya sehingga muncul rasa penasaran bagaimana endingnya. Itulah yang setidaknya terjadi ketika saya menonton film ini.

Penampilan Joseph Gordon-Levitt dan Zooey Deschanel sangat pas dalam membawakan karakter Tom dan Summer, karena chemistry nya terasa diantara mereka. Ditemani dengan soundtrack2 yang sangat memukau (download-lah soundtracknya), sangat pas memasukkan lagu2nya ke dalam suatu adegan. Saya berani kasih nilai tinggi, karena memang film ini bagus.

9/10

Link to IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes

Now if any of you have seen the movie 500 Days Of Summer you would know of Zooey Deschanel. Well she sing’s in a two piece called She & Him with the musician M.Ward.

Below is a track off their one and only LP. It’s a cover of Smokey Robinson’s You Really Got A Hold On Me. Fantastic. Their album is on Spotify, if you like blue grass and folk, this is for you.

Seen the film? The blue dress Summer Finn (Zooey Deschanel) wears to the work colleagues wedding. The dress she dances with Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) in before stomping all over his heart on her rooftop. According to an interview with 500 Days‘ costume designer Hope Hanafin, the dress came from Western Costume – a North Hollywood outfit that “[f]rom the birth of Hollywood to the new millennium … has dressed virtually every major star film has known.” I’d like to see you beat that claim.

<3

os filmes-pra-ver-no-cinema que eu mais espero pra ver.
Sabe aqueles filmes tão bons que valem o dinheiro do ingresso, a fila e a espera?
pois é, pena que eles mimatam de ansiedade, só de ver os posters já bate uma crise de agoniacite aguda.
Mas xô compartilhar meu sofrimento:

1. New York, I Love You
vários curtas sobre uma das cidades mais melhores de boa do planeta!  tô mimorrendo de curiosidade pra saber o que fizeram. NY merece um filmão e eu não consigo esperar menos que queixo-no-chão-de-tã0-absurdamente-lindo

2. The Lovely Bones
A história é bem spooky, Peter Jackson dirige e tem o Mark Wahlberg. Ai, meu coração.

3. 500 Days of Summer
O feel-good-indie filme do ano, fato. Conta uma história de amor bem pouco convencional e tem a fofíssima Zooey Deschanel no elenco.

4. Whip It
Há uma grande chance de eu infartar quando for ver esse filme no cinema. Roller Derby, Drew Barrymore dirigindo  e minhas duas ídalas juvenis atuando: Ellen Page e Alia Shawkat, a.k.a Juno e Maeby, de Arrested Development.

5. Alice in Wonderland
Mas se eu não infartar com Whip It, é certeza que vou com Alice. Tim Burton + história dark infantil + Mia Wasikowska [a eterna Sophie de In Treatment] só pode dar em épico.

I don’t know, I just don’t know.  She has got the whole big-eyes/fringe thing going for her I suppose.   Tell you what though, Mark Kermode’s impression of her is spookily accurate.  And now all I can think about is Kermode waffling about The Smiths.

Great.  At least I’ll be chuckling to myself like a crazy person on public transport all day thanks to that.  Maybe I’ll drag out the Three and Out podcast again, for old times’ sake.

I found out something beautiful today, and I wanted to pass on the news as fast as possible.  We all remember that beautiful Indie band Bright Eyes, don’t we?  Basically, it was Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis, and Nate Walcott, as well as whoever happened to wander into the recording studio and say: “can I play with you guys?”  And the members of the band, being as friendly and open as I imagine them being would go: “sure, hop in and let’s make some fantasmical music!”

We all remember that Bright Eyes kind of, well, retired.  They decided it was time to move on.  Eleven years is a pretty good run, though, isn’t it?  We all know that their last album is supposed to be coming out sometime next year (supposedly in Fall), and after that, nothing else.  Obviously, because it’s their last album.

Before I go into this next thing, can I say something?  We all know Ben Gibbard, the lead singer for the current band Death Cab For Cutie, and the old project band The Postal Service, right?  And we all remember Emily Deschanel, who plays Temperance Brennan in Bones, and was also some crazy chick from a “horror” movie called Rose Red (I only watched half of it), I’m sure she was in more things, too, but I can’t remember any of them.  Which means that we must know her little sister, Zooey Deschanel.  She was in that sci-fi miniseries that was based off of our beloved classic The Wizard of Oz (I watched the first two episodes, but I forgot the name of it), as well as some other stuff, but I have no idea what it is because I’d never heard of her before then.  Anyway, she’s adorable.  Back sometime last year, we all remember when Ben Gibbard and Zooey Deschanel announced their engagement.  Well, I’ve heard (not read, and not watched on the news or anything) that they were married something like two days ago!  (I’m not entirely sure if this is right, because, like I said, I was told this.)  Yay for them, even though Ben Gibbard’s musically-talented ass sold out for some enormous amount of money, oh, it just chokes me up.

I just looked it up, the name of that show was Tin Man.  Y’know, she’s really pretty, but in half of her pictures she looks really fat– and her eyes are a weird color, they’re, like, too light, or something.

Back on topic!   She is in this band that I’ve definitely never heard of called She & Him (I haven’t had a chance to listen to them yet, either, so I don’t know if they’re any good).  Also in that band was M. Ward (I have zero idea who that is), they’re still going on, but it seems like they’re musical career is moving relatively slow.

I know what you’re thinking.  You’re thinking: “Why the hell are you throwing information at us, some of which YOU don’t even know for sure?!  What does this all mean?!”  Well, my good Sir or Madam, this can only mean one thing.

A BRAND, SPANKING New Band!  Yessir, something grand and shiny, and I’m here to tell you all about it!

Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes), Mike Mogis  (Bright Eyes), Jim James (My Morning Jacket– I’ve never heard of this one, either), and M. Ward (She & Him) have joined together to make beautiful, fantastic music!  Their band is called Monsters of Folk, and was started way back in 2004!  So why haven’t we heard much about/from them?  Well, She & Him was still going on (I think), and Bright Eyes was still rolling out tunes, so the members were just too busy!  But now that Bright Eyes is over and I’ve still never heard of either She & Him or My Morning Jacket, they must have a lot more time on their hands, because they’ve started making themselves known!

In fact, just YESTERDAY (Sep. 22) they put out their very first album called: Monsters of Folk!

I, myself, have listened to a couple of their tunes, and I think I’m definitely liking it!  I might just have to go and buy the album myself!  You might want to go ahead and check them out, too, or you might regret it when the entire Indie Music society is talking about them, and you’ve missed out.

Monsters of Folk- The Sandman, The Brakeman, and Me

Monsters of Folk Official Site

Please comment your opinions!

There’s something thats fundamentaly wrong with this film. The fact that it’s “not a love story” really limits it somewhat. I didn’t come across a bad review of the film when it was finally generally released across the country about a month ago and many have gave it five stars and so-forth. There’s no doubting that, because it’s a genuinely good film and the way it chops and changes it’s chronological order so much adds to it’s charm and it manages to achieve a disorganised but cutsey feel by doing this. However, and this is a big however, as a viewer, I didn’t react well to the whole depressing break up part because it was just painful.

I felt Tom’s pain when Summer drifts away from him and it’s rather odd that the film left me feeling heartbroken – which now makes me feel a bit pathetic now I’ve written it down – but I think the writer’s have perhaps tried to be a bit too clever with the story. Conventional films of this genre tend to follow the same theme as normal themes – boy meets girl, girl and boy fall in love, boy and girl argue, girl breaks boys heart (or vice versa), girl/boy realises mistake and then happy ending as they get back together. However (500) Days does the unthinkable and fucks with this tried and tested formula.

The very beginning, the deep-voiced narrator warns us that this is not a love story. But there’s no denying it, it really is a love story and one of the most painful I think I’ve ever watched. The way that you see Joseph Gordon-Levitt falling in love with Zooey Deschanel makes it appear that you’re falling in love with her too. It’s incredibly disconcerting to be a part of this through the talents of the cinematorium. The way the film skips from the beginning to parts at the end don’t brace yourself for their inevitable end but instead just made me dread the moment when Summer (Deschanel) drifts away from Tom (Gordon-Levitt). By the end I wasn’t happy for how the film turned out and how both parties had moved on but I felt robbed of this perfect romance as if somehow I was a part of it. And I hate it when films make me feel like that.

Anyway, on a lighter note, this is by far the best film I’ve seen this year as it’s clever, daring and non-conforming in it’s order, which I really liked – even if it did kinda make me feel really depressed by the end of the film. What’s clever about it is that you’re made aware of the films entire plot more or less right at the beginning of the film, which is why I’m not spoiling it for you by admitting they do split in the end. But it’s how this plot is twisted and turned which is the clever part. The film’s music is also amazing and fits the kooky image that the film portrays. Whilst watching it, I couldn’t help but think of Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, as the general love feel of the film closely links with the gradual story based in (500) Days.

Finally, I know the arrangement of this blog is a bit incorrect and my use of language isn’t my best but I wanted to get some thoughts down into a blog. So there you have it.

Check back later.