Big Norman

Norman Morlock was one of those kids who wore 1950's era horn rim glasses which gave him a distinctly nerdy appearance. This was however 1978 and Norman Morlock was my best neighborhood buddy, geekiness be damned.

His home-life was also a bit more stable than mine (at least by outward appearances), so I took to hanging out there as much as possible. For a number of years his house became my second home and I probably spent as much time there as at my own.

It's funny the things you remember after so many years, for example, I can still picture the layout of the entire house and all the games we used to play. His family had this great closet that was filled with board games like mousetrap and skill games like Pick Up Sticks. And if memory serves me, I even remember playing "Seven seconds to Heaven" for the first time with his sister in her bedroom closet. Prepubescent groping and fumbling that seems quaint and innocent by todays standards.

Norman's dad was a large man, (well at least in my minds eye he seemed larger than life) and I remember they called him "Big Norman". I'm not really sure if it was due to his size or the fact that he was the senior to his namesake son.

Big Norman, like the whole family, had taken me under his wing as sort of a surrogate member of the family. One of the most vivid memories of my then 10 year old world was the time that Mr. Morlock decided to teach me how to throw a baseball, which ended in less than stellar results. As the tutorial began, I remember throwing the ball rather clumsily and being chastised to "Throw it like a man". This of course, I found extremely ironic, since I was in fact, just a kid. Never the less, I moved a few steps closer and dutifully tried again, to equally disastrous results. To this day I can hear the exasperation in his voice as he once again intoned for me to "quit acting like a girl and throw the damn ball". This last admonishment, along with the not so quiet snickering of little Norman in the background set off a chain of events that is etched in my memory forever.

"Okay fine", I thought to myself, "I'll show you I'm not a girl". I took a few steps closer still, bringing myself in fact much closer than I realized at the time. I inhaled a deep breath and with every ounce of strength in my body I leaned back for the wind up and hurled the baseball at something approaching mach five toward the Senior Morlock. He was, to say the least, taken by surprise as the ball hit him squarely between the eyes, shattering his glasses and cutting his face in a number of places. Although, I was more than a bit terrified of this large man, I could not help but feel entirely vindicated in regard to his questioning of my masculinity. His only response of course was "Damn son, you don't throw it that hard when you're so close", as he stumbled inside to clean the blood from his face and shirt.

When we hit our early teens, Norman and I had a terrible falling out and never spoke again. I wish I could recall what the argument was about, but the memory escapes me. It was, no doubt, extremely important at the time.

Years later, I heard through the grape vine that little Norman's parents had split and that junior had even gone so far as to change his name to "Andy" in a rebellious move against his dad.

Well, here' s to you Norman . . . uh errr. . . Andy Morlock!

Retro Bathroom

Our friend Vanessa wrote a little article about us on her cool Populuxe blog. Check out the article and other nifty bits here . . .

Treasures

I thought I'd post this image of the Universal Prop House, to honor all my fellow filmmakers who are out of work today as the writers strike begins.

While I certainly don't disagree that the writers should get their due in any new media markets, it doesn't change the fact that they currently make drastically more than the average film technician. So, while they strike to get their proper recompense, those at the bottom of the barrel also suffer. The grips, drivers, electricians and my fellow set dressers and art department minions will now struggle to keep the bills paid. Let's not forget that while those at the top fight for larger pieces of the pie, others would like to continue to collect the crumbs and feed their families.

Image: The above image always reminds me of the last shot of Indian Jones with the giant warehouse of treasures that fades off into the distance. Universal prop house is just like that, the only difference being that instead of Indiana Jones you get some slightly grumpy Uni prop guys.

The Thrush

The ‘64 Dodge Dart careened down highway 83, the once brilliant powder blue paint now faded and pock marked by three bitter winters and hundreds of salty, slushy miles. Inside, the driver Tom Fenton fared little better, the road had taken its toll on the man, as much as his once beloved machine.

Minutes later the driver opened his eyes to find the car had skidded to a halt on a wet, muddy patch of embankment. His bottle of bourbon lay on its side near his feet gurgling its last contents onto the stained floorboard. As an eighteen-wheeler passed, it whipped up a wet spray which covered the Dart in a milky brown ooze and somehow seem to add insult to injury. The trucker, who was rushing to get home to supper with his wife, didn’t even offer a passing glance at the little car or it’s driver. This was of course, no surprise to Tom, as very few people ever took notice of him.

It would be kind to note here, that Tom had not always been so forgettable, that he had been the star quarterback in high school. That he was the life of the party in his twenties, and had even deflowered the homecoming queen. It would be kind to say these things, but it would also be untrue. The sad fact was that Tom’s high school years, young adulthood and whole life, had in fact been as bland and unexciting as it was when this dreary day began.

It occurred to Tom, the homoerotic nature of this, his final act as he wrapped his lips around the barrel of the gun. This only only served to deepen the suffering, and his resolve. The muffled shot barely registered outside the car. A lone thrush watched emotionless from a wire high above. The bird, silhouetted in the darkening grey sky pondered the noise for a moment, squawked and took flight. - BKane

Halloween Past

Normally my laziness trumps my creativity and I end up at home wallowing in my bowl of mini candy bars and declaring that . . . "Next year I'm gonna really do it up right! Yes, sir. "

Here is a shot of me on one of the rare occasions I had enough energy to build a quick little costume for Halloween.

btw, it's a tiki not a tree! If you call it a tree we are gonna have to take it outside and settle this like men. ie. we'll each count how many candies we have in our plastic pumpkins and see who has the most.

UPDATE: Quick Tutorial. To make this tiki costume I went to a fabric store (Joanne's) and bought two 6 ft long by 3 ft wide rolls of 2 inch foam and some adhesive. I think I used epoxy, I know you have to make sure the adhesive doesn't melt the foam, so test it out on a scrap piece of foam. I then applied adhesive down the long edge of both pieces of foam and attached them with gator clips to hold until it dried. Once dried, I had created a tube out of the two long pieces of foam and was ready to draw the tiki. I hand drew the rough edges on the bottom and top and the eyes and mouth. I cut out the holes and used extra pieces of foam to create some depth around the features. I glued those pieces on and once it was dry I took several shades of brown and black spray paint and quickly painted striations down the costume like the bark or ridges in wood.

Thats it.

Kapow

Still experimenting with different backgrounds for these mego images.

good times

Left to Right: Santhi, Bret & Kim

We were great chums back in high school but life got away from us and we lost touch. Since our twenty year reunion however Santhi and I have kept in touch and sometimes it feels like no time has past, even though my waistline tells me otherwise. I can't believe I was that skinny.

The next step is to track down some of the usual suspects like Kim, Ron Delama and Darrin Larocca, all of whom failed to show at the reunion.

Emergency brake

Villains

Yes, another of my mego images. I recently printed these for a friend and they look amazing when printed out. I just found an inexpensive professional print house in New York, so I think I'm going to print a small batch on fine art paper and give 'em out, maybe sell a few to cover costs.

Concept/Art Direction - B. Kane, Photogaphy - Julie Monello,
Compositing - Greg Rebis

Lost in Brooklyn

Took this shot while lost in Brooklyn, as we explored by foot looking for nice neighborhoods. We wound up in Williamsburg? on a Jewish holiday (everything closed) with no cabs, no subway for miles. . . it took us about an hour of walking to get to a subway stop.

Note to self: Buy map

Chasing Papi Set Dec Crew

Some of my good friends and really talented set dec crew from Chasing Papi.

Heroes

Here is another MEGO image. S.M.A.P. project continues...

Concept/Art Direction - B.Kane, Photography - Julie Monello,
Compositing - Greg Rebis

Ennis house look-a-like

I was reminded of this set we decorated by an entry on my friend Vanessa's blog. It was for the tv series "American Family" and the wall relief/textile block we used is similar to the Ennis house which is being restored and is featured in a new print from the artist SHAG.

Check out Vanessa's cool blog and the full story on the Ennis house here...

http://populuxebooks.com/blog/index.php/2007/08/

Bats & Robin

Here is another from my mego series from the S.M.A.P. project. I'm still tweaking this one but I really like the overall look of it.

Big thank to Andy Gersh for his help.

Concept/Art Direction - Bret K, Photography - Julie Monello,
Compositing - Greg Rebis

Mego

Here is one of the mego images from my S.M.A.P. project. (Saturday Morning Art Project) I have a number images along this same theme, ie.Batman villains in action words. Even though i normally like minimalism in my designs I still feel something is missing with all that white. Any thoughts?

•Concept/Art Direction - bret kane, Photography - Julie Monello,
Compositing - Greg Rebis

Deco Backdrop

Here is a deco backdrop I designed and built for the band at my wedding. We had a 1940's USO Dance theme for our wedding. A full band in military outfits and an Andrews Sisters Act singing. It was so much fun and all 200 hundred guests wore vintage outfits at our request. Hows that for good friends.

It's made of 4 luan panels of 4ft x 8ft, framed out on the back.

American Pie

I snapped this photo on the set of "American Pie: Bandcamp".

Even though it was #4 in the series of low brow films, I had a great time working on it. I took a job as 'On Set Dresser' as favor for my friend Treven who is also a 'leadman'. It had been awhile since I worked as 'on set dresser' because it's a fairly thankless job trying to redecorate the set every five minutes while the crew tears it apart to get equipment in or out. This film however had Victor Klemper as the DP and he was amazing, he is an old school DP with none of the usual pompous attitude. Not only could he light the set faster than anybody I've ever seen, but he also had a great respect for all the crew members even the lowly art department. (The red headed step-child of any production)

Alleyway filming

Here is an image from the filming of "American Family" a tv mini series on PBS. The interesting thing about filming in alleyways in downtown Los Angeles is that the production is supposed to have the alleyway sprayed with bleach water to kill all the nasty things that can make you sick. I've been on low budget shows where they tried to save money and skip that important step.

The funny thing about this day was that the alley was sprayed clean and then we came in to make it look dirty again, but one of my crew (Pete) picked up a box from a nearby street to use as set dressing and didn't realize it had human feces all over it. He ended up throwing away his favorite jacket because he was so disgusted. Ahhh the joys of filming in Downtown Los Angeles.

Vader triptych

Here is another image from my S.M.A.P. project (Saturday Morning Art Project). This one and the one titled "Father and Son" (below) are done, it's the Mego images that I'm still not happy with. I'll post those soon for feedback. I would love to find a fulfillment house like "Thumbtack Press" to make these available to anyone who wants them. Any ideas?

•Concept/Art Direction - bret kane, Photography - Julie Monello,
Compositing - Greg Rebis

Tony's Burgers

Since I shared the lovely crack pipe image with you, I thought I'd stay with the Downtown L.A. theme. I haven't actually tried the food at Tony's but this is the kind of place you'll find all over Los Angeles and more often than not, the grub is pretty good. The thing I love about Los Angeles is that every restaurant has to post a rating in the window A, B, C, etc etc. I don't know if it goes to F because "B" is where I draw the line. It's a great system though because the restaurants are rated for a variety of reasons and they have to earn there way back to a better grade.

They really need that system back in Florida, as I've seen the kitchens of some diners and restaurants and the conditions are beyond disgusting.

I like the chain link in this shot, sort of gives it a creepy first person perspective.

Crack pipe downtown LA

I was working on a tv show in downtown Los Angeles and noticed this crack pipe(?) on the sidewalk. Regardless of the sad fact of what it is, I think the design is really compelling.

UPDATE: Thank you to all the stoners out there that have pointed out my ignorance of drug paraphernalia. It is in fact a "pot" pipe. I humbly apologize and will immediately turn in my "Spencers" discount card.

20th Reunion

I flew from Los Angeles to Tampa last year for my 20th high school reunion and took this shot. I realize it's not a particularly unique image but to me it captures the essence of that trip home.

The day to day distractions of life make it easy to to blink and realize another decade or more has come and gone. The quiet flight allowed me to finally find a calm moment and come to terms with the fact that it's been 20 years since high school. Yikes.

Father & Son

I've always loved the aesthetic of toy photos as artwork and I've seen some amazing examples in both New York and Los Angeles galleries. But of course most of these were too expensive for my lowly art budget. So with that in mind, I set out to create some of my own toy art a few years ago and I'm just now getting around to finishing it up. I have two images using vintage Kenner's Star Wars figures and a whole bunch of images utilizing Mego action figures. Here is the first of the Star Wars images, I'll post a couple of the Mego shots soon, but I'm still not happy with them so I'll be looking for feedback.

•Concept/Art Direction - bret kane, Photography - Julie Monello,
Compositing - Greg Rebis

Cape Cod Summer!

Yes I am biased about pics of my son, but I love this image. It has great lines and the light reflection from behind his hair is perfect. Not to mention the joyous summertime smile I caught. The best part is that this was a "shot from the hip" style image. I took this with a little point and shoot optio and had the camera down by my feet pointing up and just "winging" it. I've gotten pretty good at aiming the camera with out ever holding it to my face. With a toddler this is the best way to capture those real moments, you just don't have time to look through the viewfinder and compose a shot.