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This is the email design I’ve mocked up couple of weeks ago. And though it was not what client wanted I’m still loving it (which does not happen very often - I mean usually when I create something, it’s just a matter of not very long time for me to start thinking it’s not really that brilliant).  May be because of its  freshness  and  summer feel, all what is being missed in a dull winter like this..

All new blockbusters on a 20 sq m screen, popcorn and all that stuff. Since this weekend we have been enjoying all that. It’s fine, be jealous. Well, ok, sometimes you have to share it with other people, but mostly they are nice, and ok, to get to the cinema you have to… cross the road. But that does not ruin all the enjoyment at all.

So we finally did it - applied for a pass which lets us for £10.99 per months watch all the movies what are on the show without limitations. Yami-yami. Well, you can easily imagine where we spent this weekend ;)

First we went to see Hot Fuzz, bloody British comedy, I mean literally bloody but very funny at the same time. Probably, the most hilarious and shocking moment was when the Police Constable kicked the old granny in the face (she just seemed to be kind, but was rotten inside and besides, she was trying to shoot him) - the whole audience was applauding to this. I love these rare moments so much :) I mean not when the senior people are kicked, but when people react simultaneously during the film.

Then we went to silly romantic Music & Lyrics with Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore, but they were not showing it because of some technical problem. But we did not have to be disappointed cause we just went for another movie : Luc Besson’s Arthur and the Invisibles. It was a children fairy-tale enjoyed by us greatly, just because we love fairy-tales.

And then on Sunday night we went to see The Science of Sleep, an adult fairy-tale this time, which was… I don’t know… a bit too art-house, so we had mixed feelings for that.

So this is how weekend was waisted. And we still have couple of other movies to see during these few days, hehe..

Things are definitely not what they are, it’s how we perceive them.

I have a cousin, Dima, who is 10 years younger then me and whom I haven’t seen for about 8-10 years. Before that I used to see him quite often. The time has past, but in my perception he still remained a cute 8 year old boy, what happened to be not very accurate now :) So when he and his sister Ludmila emailed me a couple of months ago, I was a bit shocked. How come these kids are adults now? It just did not fit in my head :) As if grow up, you change, you evolve, but they have to remain the same…

Anyway, it turned out that Dima made music, breakbeat/techno to be precise, and what he does is a really good stuff. His band is called UnderThis and you can check them yourself at myspace.com/underthis.

So last weekend he asked me to create a CD cover for their new single ‘I Got What You Need’, for what I was given just a couple of days and I agreed. I came up with two concepts which then evolved into the approved version and less approved one :) Let me know what you think of them.

PS. The single itself is exceptionally good, so hope you will be able to enjoy later at myspace. As for me, I have already reserved one copy :)

It was meant to be a surprise. I love surprises. Till the very last moment when we approached the New London Theatre, Veronica did not know where we were going :) And then it became obvious: The Blue Man Group show. For this Valentine’s day I wanted us to do something quite memorable. So recommended by a few of my co-workers, it was going to be fun. And it was! :) As a matter of fact I have never been at the show like this. Absolutely fabulous!

But who are the blue men? Three man with bold blue heads. A bit of aliens, a bit of kids. Haven’t said a single word during the show. Almost no mimics. Motionless faces. Just eyes wide open. Curious. Investigating. Actually this lack of emotions was even a bit disturbing. But at the say time you could feel they were friendly and naive. Like children.

The show was smart and funny with some unexpected turns. One of them, ‘Late arrival’ was absolutely hilarious , when there was a couple which was 20 minutes late and was trying to get to their seats unnoticed, but the blue men just did the opposite: they drew full attention to them. The show was literally stopped, the screaming alarm was started and the blue men gathered at the edge of the stage to see who was late, pointing the limelight right on that pour couple and some sort of dramatic opera song about the latecomers started playing with their embarrassed faces shown on the huge screen. Very funny :) Afterwards you realize it was made up, but it does not loose its charm anyway.

So it was sort of interactive-comedy-pantomime-rock-concert-show happening in few dimensions: on the stage, in the stall, on the balcony, at the backstage and even outside the theatre, a mix of virtual and actual reality. The blue man did quite a lot of percussion, the one on the plumbing pipes was absolutely amazing. I also really enjoyed the music of their band – they were wearing black suites with glowing ultraviolet patterns on them, lit with ultraviolet lights, so you just saw shapes floating while they played. They looked very surreal! A sort of mix of animated characters and voodoo dolls.

In the end, tens of sort of long toilet paper rolls were unrolled from behind the balcony seats and then all that paper with the help of enthusiastic public filled the whole room and everything looked like a big cool mess…

In short - hugely entertaining. If there is going to be another chance for me to see them in the future, I will definitely do it :)

Additional reading is here (wiki), or see them here (bluemangrop.co.uk), or here (blueman.com) or here on flickr (lots of pictures taken by the show fans).

The sweetest word ‘weekend’… We always look forward to them, but so many times when the weekend is gone we ask ourselves ‘What have we actually done during these days?’ and the answer is not so inspiring… And then we return to our routine and wait for another weekend opportunity just to blow it up. He he…

This weekend I spent fighting nasty cold, so my overall condition was far from desired. But ironically I have managed to do so much work.. much more then on some other usual weekends, when inspite of all your plans you wind on at Sunday night just to realize the things haven’t moved an inch. I’ve designed an email for one of the local company (they have rejected the idea because it was not very much in accordance with they corporate style, hehe, but still i really liked what came out, so not disappointed at all and going to put that design in my portfolio shortly, you’ll see), have made a CD cover design for one electronic band (yep, I’m gonna upload that image soon too), have done quite a lot updates on the website I am currently working on and… actually that’s it, enough for an ill coughing and sneezing weekender :) Well, as they say, the artist must be hungry, what means: the discomfort (mental or physical) boosts our creativity. So true, so true… Such a simple connection between our belly and our creations.

So the weekend was not that bad. Besides I just had to stay at home and so I did not spend any money at all, what a healthy and idle weekender usually does :)

p.s. Still… being sick of being ill. Hate that.