Massimo Carnevale

I came across Massimo Carnevale about two months ago without knowing who or what he was, just that I loved him. Recently I discovered his blog sketchesnatched where Massimo has been displaying some AMAZING paintings of popular (and unpopular I suppose) films from the past century. I saved a bunch of them to my computer to use as iPhone backgrounds and I can never choose which one I want I love them all so much!

Here are a quite a few of my favorites anyway, I couldn't leave any more of them out they're just too good! So be sure to check out his blog for more of his stuff.

http://sketchesnatched.blogspot.com

Django Unchained

Saturday Night Fever

Léon: The Professional

Hotel Chevalier

Clerks II

Black Swan

American Beauty

Moonrise Kingdom

Pulp Fiction

The Pianist

Gangs of New York

Yogurt Pizza Whaaat?

Today in a huge effort to procrastinate as best I could, I found myself back on Stumbleupon. Now I haven't used Stumbleupon since my days of study avoidance back in college so I didn't remember what to expect. I started stumbling food (obviously) and came across a recipe for two ingredient pizza dough which is just so cool!! Just one cup of flour and a half cup of GREEK YOGURT yes, yogurt.

 It actually works out great I couldn't believe it when the dough started forming quickly. I had fully resided myself to the probability that this was going to be a disaster and I would be ordering Thai food within the hour but no it actually did work out! 

It was a seriously thrown together, poor intern, nothing in the fridge job but it was delicious. I used some tomato pasta sauce for the base and then just sliced some mozzarella and sprinkled some Parmesan, oregano and garlic powder over it and lashed it into the oven at 450 Fahrenheit. I would probably brush some olive oil over the base if I made it again but it was still lovely. I dipped it in some Ballymaloe courtesy of mammy O'Bloglin's visit last week! 

Sure it's all part of my latest pact to stop getting take away food, if my track record is anything to go by I should be ordering in by Wednesday at the latest and abandoning it all for another 3 weeks or so....  

Back from Hiatus

Sorry it's been so long since I last posted but I have been very busy with my final exams and celebratory post exam holidays! I thought I'd come back with a little tip on a show that doesn't seem to be getting much attention in Ireland at all, and that show is Veep.

I feel like Veep has been kind of overshadowed by Girls and even though I love Girls as much as anyone else I still think we need to give Veep a bit of our time! The show centers around fictional vice president of the USA Selina Meyer (played by the always wonderful Julia Louis-Dreyfus) it airs on HBO on Sunday nights. This of course means for us Irish that it airs on Monday mornings when we get out the laptop over breakfast and watch it online. Veep is seriously funny, when describing it to a friend she thought it sounded like a pretentious "smart" humor show but it couldn't be dumber in reality! Selina Meyer is the epitome of every stereotype ever made about female politicians and combined with her rag-tag band of loyal followers (Anna Chlumsky, Tony Hale and Matt Walsh positively SHINE in this show) makes for one of the best all round casts I think we've seen in a long time!
I really can't recommend Veep enough, it's an excellent filler for off season TV and if you prefer to wait to avoid buffering issues, it will be showing on Sky Atlantic starting from June.

Caine's Arcade

This is everywhere at the moment. A little boy in LA called Caine who loves loves loves arcades decided to set up his own homemade cardboard arcade in his dad's auto-part shop, resulting in extreme cuteness. Prepare for tears around the 3.45 mark.

Lesson learned? Never under estimate the power of hipsters.

Sin Nombre

Now don't get turned off but Sin Nombre is a Spanish language film directed by Cary Fukunaga. Yes that's right if you see this film you will have to read subtitles but honestly it is worth it! It was actually released in 2009 so this is a bit late but I have only recently fallen in love with Latin American film and I really regret all those years I spent bitching about subtitles because I was really missing out and you are too! Almost every scene of Sin Nombre is tragic,beautiful, exciting, romantic, heartbreaking and uplifting all at once, an art I find has only really be achieved in the cinema of Latin America.

The film is centers around Casper (played by the gorgeous Edgar Flores) a Mexican boy who is a member of the MS13 and growing resentful of gang life, and Sayra (Paulina Gaitán) a Honduran girl being forced to travel illegally with her estranged father and brother to the USA on the roof of a train. The two youths collide through a series of very unfortunate events and strike up an unlikely friendship. Both Casper and Sayra are desperately trying to take control of their own lives and face many adversities along their quest for independent identities.

The real draw of this film is the way it's made. It's very like  Y Tu Mama Tambien or The Motorcycle Diaries in the sense that is it technically a road film but also it takes a very simple humanistic plot line and sets it against the backdrop of a continent in turmoil. Fukunaga has followed in the footsteps of  Salles, Cuaron and many others before him and used the power of film to showcase South American problems to the world in a contemporary and entertaining fashion.
If you haven't seen it I highly recommend it and if you're interested in getting in to Latin American cinema heres a list of my favorite films from down south-believe me you won't regret it!

La Ciénaga

The Motorcycle Diaries

Y Tu Mama Tambien

City of God

Soy Cuba

Amores Perros

Federico Chiesa-Horror Vacui

This is a collection of very cool photos depicting an array of movie villains in their old age. The project, created by Federico Chiesa is more or less the same kind of thing that always pops up on the internet every couple of months but I really like this one. Old age is pretty much the most vulnerable stage of most people's lives and looking at these freaks who have haunted us since childhood as harmless ol' folks is kind of soothing!

Plus the one of Vader is actually adorable look at his little hot water bottle ooojjoo!!

via  www.behance.net

Ben and Jerry's Supports Gay Marriage

Ben and Jerry's, known for their delicious but overpriced ice cream have renamed their Oh! My! Apple! Pie! ice cream to Apple-y Ever After in support of gay marriage. So now instead of apples and a friendly caterpillar, the carton features two men on top of a wedding cake decorated with the Rainbow flag.

Very cute pic and the ice cream sounds really nice, I'd never heard of it before but mmm chunks of pie crust 

 

The Candy Woman at Junk Kouture 2012

My little sister Vicki is one of the finalists for the 2012 Junk Kouture fashion competition. She has spent hours creating this amazing ensemble called "The Candy Woman" out of... well, Junk.
She's going to be showing the outfit at the fashion show on Sunday but one of the categories to determine the winner is online voting so please vote for Vicki

HERE

Thank you :)