“Tim Burton, in his element - Los Angeles Times” plus 1 more |
| Tim Burton, in his element - Los Angeles Times Posted: 30 Dec 2010 06:39 PM PST If, as William Carlos Williams wrote, "The pure products of America / go crazy," where does that leave Tim Burton, a pure product not just of America but also of Southern California, land's end of our national phantasmagoria? Hollywood, maybe, where Burton — born in Burbank, raised on TV and the films of Ray Harryhausen, educated at the California Institute of the Arts — landed in the late 1970s. Or London, where he now lives with the actress Helena Bonham Carter and their two kids. Really, though, the landscape Burton occupies is one of the imagination, a territory marked by whimsy and darkness, in which the visuals are the main event. "My background is animation," he says by phone from his home in England. "Early on, I was essentially a nonverbal person." Even now, the director of "Beetle Juice," "Batman," "Corpse Bride" and "Edward Scissorhands" seems not completely comfortable in conversation; he pauses, backtracks, like someone speaking in a second language, as he discusses "The Art of Tim Burton," a lavish art book featuring more than 1,000 images, some of which go back to childhood. "The Art of Tim Burton" first came out in 2009, to coincide with the opening of a Burton retrospective at New York's Museum of Modern Art. That show arrives at LACMA in May, but in the meantime, Burton has released a new limited edition of the book, with bonus material, including a signed lithograph. The book is self-published, available from Burton's website. "Publishers approached me, but they didn't seem too enthusiastic," he says, "so we decided to do it independently. That way, the whole point was the process, the joy of making it, doing it, seeing it develop. It was a more fun and positive experience." Burton is no stranger to books. In 1997, he published a collection of macabre fictions called "The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories"; he also wrote the children's picture book adaptation of his stop-action animation classic " The Nightmare Before Christmas." More recently, he — along with writer Leah Gallo and designer Holly C. Kempf, who did much of the heavy lifting on "The Art of Tim Burton" — has produced commemorative volumes for the films "Sweeney Todd" and "Alice in Wonderland," to be given to the cast and crew. "Instead of crew jackets," Burton says, "we'd do these books: yearbooks, personal books. So in some way, this book grew out of that." That's a fine analogy, for "The Art of Tim Burton" is as personal as a scrapbook, full of reminiscences and previously unseen work. A childhood crayon drawing of the Creature from the Black Lagoon leads to the image of an early (and unpublished) picture book called "The Giant Zlig" and a poster Burton designed as a teenage employee of the city of Burbank for an anti-litter campaign. There are character sketches from his movies (Jack Skellington, the Joker, Sweeney Todd) and surreal cartoons that work as visual puns. In "A Tongue Twister," a noxious insect twists a man's tongue so tightly that it looks like a corkscrew; "Mr. Happyface remembers better days" presents the iconic yellow "Have a Nice Day" face turned in on itself, frowning over empty bottles and a half-drunk glass of wine. Johnny Depp, Martin Landau, Winona Ryder, Pee-wee Herman and even Harryhausen all weigh in on Burton and share anecdotes. Particularly resonant is old friend Rick Heinrichs' "Short Montage of Early Personal Impressions of Tim," which includes this telling recollection: "Pulling up to his Burbank apartment to pick him up on our way to see a film at the Cinerama Dome and observing him completely absorbed by something at ground level: the micro-world of an anthill." Here, we get a glimpse of Burton in his element, which is what "The Art of Tim Burton" offers, as well. "It's not showing me as a great artist," he says. "It's just showing my weird mental process, the way things grow. Whether I'm working on a movie or doing a drawing, my favorite time is making it. When I finish, there's a nice sense of accomplishment, but really, it's about the process for me." Part of that process is physical, a hand's on interaction between Burton and the work. This is why he was drawn to animation, and it's also why he wanted to produce a book. "I love books," he says, "their tactile nature. Like stop-action animation, there's nothing else like them. In this age, when everyone is looking at screens, I wanted to do something different. I wanted to make a book — big, heavy, hard to hold sometimes. I wanted it to be a physical experience." This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| Curing and preventing a hangover this New Year's - AZCentral.com Posted: 30 Dec 2010 02:22 PM PST by Andrea Aker - Dec. 30, 2010 01:09 PM New Year's Eve, and the weekend that precedes it, is a beer-drinker's heaven, as it's the unofficial drink of the holiday. As hoards enjoy beer after beer, many drinkers will experience the inevitable the following morning: a killer hangover. But we want to keep your Irish eyes smiling, so we've come up with a guide to sussing out the facts from the fictions when it comes to beating hangovers. According to the how-to Web site Howstuffworks.com, the formal term for a hangover is veisalgia, derived from the Norwegian word for "uneasiness following debauchery." (How cool is it that they even have a word for that?) Most of us know the drill, dehydration, a throbbing headache and nausea, among a slew of other uncomfortable symptoms. "When you're drinking you dump a lot of water that would normally be recycled into your body," said Howstuffworks.com, founder Marshall Brain. "Most folks who have been drinking a lot get dehydrated and that's one of the big factors in creating a hangover." But, is it possible to avoid this painful fate without passing up the bottle? Brain helps us break down the science behind popular hangover remedies, but first a word about prevention. You can help to lessen your chances of the hangover with some prevention products such as Xo3, made by Phoenix-based Dietblends, Inc. This supplement contains multiple mineral complexes and Glutathione, a peptide that is essential to the liver in accelerating detoxification and eliminating toxic byproducts of alcohol metabolism, which cause hangovers. But Dietblends owner Peter Dobler says his product doesn't replace the liquids lost to alcohol dehydration, it can help. "The term hangover cure is oxymoronic because there is no real cure for a hangover," he says. "We're trying to prevent it from happening. Once you have the hangover it's going to take time, rest and nutrition to bounce back." But Xo3 is just one of countless supplemental, vitamin-filled waters and juices marketed to help drinkers recover. There are vitamin, fit, smart and urban waters all promising that their special blends of carbohydrates, vitamins and protective antioxidants will "rejuvenate the body, boost its recuperative powers, offset dehydration, and promote liver health." Or at least that's what the makers of Springbac promise. And whether it helps or not, it's already got celebs hooked, including Los Angeles DJ Samantha Ronson, who had a case delivered to her house recently to help her fight post-gig hangovers. But if hangover remedies espoused by hipster West Coast DJs aren't your thing, here's a look at the effectiveness of other hangover-fighting food and drink.
True/False Eating fatty foods is all about the timing. Chow down before you start drinking to prevent a hangover. Fatty foods stick to the stomach lining and slow down the absorption of alcohol into the bloodstream. But gorging on fatty foods the morning after could upset your stomach further. Eggs - True Eggs provide energy and contain large amount of cysteine, which breaks down toxins that cause hangovers. So, it's possible a serving can aid the symptoms. Bananas - True The popular fruit does harness hangover-cutting power. Bananas replenish electrolytes and potassium, which are keys to recovery. Kiwi fruit and sports drinks have a similar effect. Juice vs. Water - Both Not all liquids are created equal. Water fights dehydration and dilutes its byproducts. It's best to alternate alcoholic drinks with water during the night, as opposed to chugging it all in the morning. That might make you sick. Juices high in vitamins can also give the body a boost of energy, and studies have proven that it also increases the rate at the body gets rid of toxins. Brain says it's best to opt for juices high in electrolytes such as orange. Painkillers - True Over-the-counter painkillers can ease hangovers, but choose carefully. If you're plagued by a headache, Excedrin may be a good. However, Excedrin combines acetaminophen with caffeine. A prolonged combination of alcohol and acetaminophen has been shown to cause liver damage. Plus, caffeine is a diuretic that can dehydrate you. Aspirin, on the other hand, is a non-caffeinated pain reliever, but if you have a sensitive stomach, it could make that worse. Remedy: Hair of the Dog - False Brain says that drinking alcohol to make it through a hangover may temporarily mask the side effects, but the liver still needs to break down the toxins, and drinking more prolongs the time your system needs to clear itself. Burnt Toast - False This so-called remedy is actually based on scientific facts, yet Howstuffworks.com explains why the cure itself is fiction. It's been said the carbon in the charred bread acts like a filter. While it is true that activated charcoal, which is a treated form of carbon, is used to treat some types of poisonings, it's not used to treat alcohol poisoning. Plus, the carbon/charcoal found in burnt toast is not the same as activated charcoal. Black Coffee - False Coffee is loaded with caffeine, which will keep you awake, but once the caffeine wears off, you'll be ready to climb back into bed. Caffeine can help alleviate a pounding headache because it reduces the size of blood vessels, reversing the swelling effect alcohol has on vessels. But caffeine is also a diuretic and as such can dehydrate you further. So really, coffee can make hangovers worse.
Enh. Not great. Remedies such as Chaser, Sob'r-K Hangover Stopper, RU-21, Berocca and Rebound are considered dietary supplements and their ingredients vary greatly. The remedies that include carbon, like Sob'r-K, are said to reduce the number of impurities the body has to process. This is a different carbon than the kind found in burnt toast, which is not proven to aid hangovers. Other supplements include different kinds and amounts of vitamins. They're basically multivitamins. "You would be better off eating a big meal and drinking liquids," said Brain. Editor Megan Finnerty contributed to this story. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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