Month: April 2019

David Lynch’s 1984 sci-fi epic Dune is generally considered a failure, albeit one with moments of brilliance. I confess, seeing it at the theaters in ’84, I was definitely in the “failure” camp. When they handed me a glossary of terms upon entering the theater, I knew we were in for trouble (wish I still had that crib sheet though!).

Since the arrival of Star Wars a few years earlier, expectations for each new sci-fi blockbuster grew in terms of visual effects, and this one seemed like a step back. Spacecraft often looked like what they were — photo cut-outs filmed against black. And while the sets and costumes were admittedly lavish, things were too often undercut by crude process photography, or wildly discordant electric guitar music by the rock band, Toto.

Continue reading “David Lynch’s DUNE — in 3D!”

Like many would-be creatives upon graduating from college, I brushed the hayseeds out of my hair (some of them, anyway), crammed my belongings into the back of a friend’s Honda Civic, and headed for the Big Apple. It was a wonderful, terrifying, rewarding, depressing, all-around not-to-be-missed 25 years of my life.

After a few months working retail at a now-defunct art store (R.I.P., Pearl Paint), I worked my contact list diligently and managed to land a job at the New-York Historical Society (NOT defunct and currently thriving, so go visit). It was a place I’d happily call home for 10 years or so, off and on, in various positions, one of which was assistant in the Prints and Photographs division.

One of my first tasks there was to rehouse a large collection of stereoscopic views from the 19th and early 20th Century. It was fascinating material and I learned more about history while doing that than I did in all my years of formal education combined.

Continue reading “A New York City Realist”