The Tourist, starring Angelia Jolie and Johnny Depp: My Review

This movie is funny! I wasn't expecting that. I expected the glorious eye candy that is Angelina Jolie, Johnny Depp and the cities of Venice and Paris and "The Tourist" delivered that much at least.

It's a combination romantic comedy and spy movie. I was surprised how much I laughed. Depp plays a small town, math teacher who meets a gorgeous, mystery woman, on a train heading to Venice.

It was a visual feast, with Jolie looking like the most glamorous movie star alive. In many shots, we're simply watching her walk into a sumptuous, well appointed room or merely walking down an historic European street; and loving it. She is drop dead gorgeous.

The clothes, the jewelry, the fancy boats and the glorious posh hotel rooms are all fun to look at.

 

The plot could be any man's fantasy, but I suspended my system of disbelief and went along with the ride. If you don't do that, you won't like this movie.  Depp is charming and irresistible, while Jolie is a glam Goddess; much like Cary Grant and Sophia Loren were in movies from the 50's.

There were some cool, high tech incidents, a couple of boat chases and a funny scene with Depp in his pajama's running across Spanish tile rooftops.

It's not the best movie I've ever seen before, but it's not the worst, by far. Fortunately, it's not too long, checking in at 104 minutes. The pacing was good, with no major lulls. I laughed a lot, smiled even more and was mostly entertained. There were some predictable moments, but a surprise ending. I give it three stars.

 

Merry Christmas from The Girls of The DSC Show 2010!!

Women in Art Over 500 Years

I love this video. Philip Scott Johnson created it and posted it to YouTube in 2007. It morphs famous female portraits in Western Art over the last 500 years. 

Maybe you'll recognize The Madonna, Mona Lisa or The Birth of Venus. Many artists are represented, including: Botticelli, da Vinci and Renoir. For a complete list of artists and paintings visit http://www.maysstuff.com/womenid.htm

The lovely music is Bach's, Sarabande from Suite for Solo Cello No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007 performed by Yo-Yo Ma. 

 Thank you for visiting and Merry Christmas!

Feast Your Eyes on This - Incredible Foodscapes!

By nature, artists tend to see the world differently than other people - and it never stops amazing me! I recently came across a London artist named, Carl Warner. He uses food to create landscapes, cityscapes, people and more. If you look closely, you'll see every object in each of the pieces is something edible.

Warner says he see's trees and bushes when he looks at broccoli and celery. He says his only problem is creating sky, since there's no blue food.

He loves fat loaves of artisan bread, where he see's the bubbles as rocks and stones of all shapes and sizes. He uses them to build mountains, roads to create each detailed piece.

Smoked salmon is used below to show a sunset reflecting on a body of water. A lot of time goes into planning each piece.

When I see food, I think of eating it and how good it might taste. Not Warner. He see's sculpture and creates what he calls foodscapes. The details are stunning!

I'm a more traditional mixed media artist who uses paint, collage and lots of pretty pens and pencils. I feel sort of boring compared to Warner.

 Here's the artist at work.

There's no paint here, just colorful, well placed food, beautifully photographed.

Learn more about Warner and see more of his outstanding originals on his website, here. He has some stunning foodscape video's too. He also has two books for sale here.