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The Breakfast Club is a movie that can be taken at face value or you can read into a bit more if you want to.

Which is why it’s an excellent film and one I highly recommend for repeated viewings — if anything to see how much all of the actors (aside from Alley Sheedy and Molly Ringwald) have aged.

Here are some thoughts/notes I jotted down as I was watching The Breakfast Club recently (via Netflix’s Watch Now feature) for the umpteenth time:

• Subtleties in the acting, especially Judd Nelson (as Bender), empowering a dysfunctional character with an emotional performance.
• Principal Vernon’s feelings on the lack of respect he receives from students, which seems a bit too much like self pity.
• The group as a whole coming to the realization that while they all seem different, deep down, they are all the same.
• Segregation by popularity and on the other side of the spectrum, lack thereof, continues to exist.
• The Jock and the Geek seem so different (mind over matter, vice-versa), and yet each share similar traits: parents have high expectations, social norms, segregation.
• The attractions between opposing social “classifications”; rebel and prom queen, jock and mental case.
• Janitor Carl as the key holder; the eyes and ears of the school, disrespected and yet more levelheaded than most.

If you’ve seen the movie please feel free to share some of your observations.

Update: Thanks to the generosity of Joost allowing unlimited invites everyone who added a comment and those who leave a comment from this point on will receive an invite.

For weeks on end I’ve been patiently waiting for a Joost beta invite. Why am I so excited about something that on the surface seems like Tivo™ for the web?

There’s an easy answer for that, so let me spill it. Before I do that however, I’d like to thank Paul for sending me the invite.

Joost Oozes With Quality

It doesn’t take a special decoder ring to figure out what Joost does. The official site describes its functionality quite perfectly:

The magic of television, with the power of the internet built right in. Joost puts you in control, and TV will never be the same again.

This could be construed as a bold claim, as if the creators/developers/masterminds (the people responsible for Skype and Kazaa) behind this operation could not possibly convince themselves otherwise.

Yet, when you connect the dots, evaluating the whole enchilada for a service like this (branding, web site and technology) you can’t help but be enthralled by the polish.

Spectrums, Rainbows and Magic

Have you ever looked through a spectrum? There’s a infinite amount of colors that appear if you hold one up to a light source. It’s interesting that the creators of Joost chose to theme their service around the concept of spectrums and color variety. Although, I must admit they do look a bit like colored Kryptonite, not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Earlier today I was doing my best to describe the promotional video on the What’s Joost? section to a friend. Halfway into explaining how cool it was I realized it’s just one of those things you have to see for yourself.

At first glance the demonstration video seems a bit awkward, or at least it did to me. After watching it I realized it seems familiar and that’s because it’s somewhat like a medley of Batteries Not Included, Cocoon, The Last Starfighter and Tron. Like I said, you need to see it firsthand because my description just won’t cut it.

Beta Means Slim Pickings

I would say that my only beef with the service is that the channel offerings are slim at best and the video output ranges from near DVD quality to sub par Youtube quality. One moment it looks great, the next it just distracts from the overall experience but I’m sure in time it’ll improve.

As far as the content is concerned other than watching some “vintage” Ren & Stimpy cartoons with my daughter and a couple Discovery Channel specials on lions and pyramids, there’s nothing else that peaks my interest for the time being.

That will change as Joost continues to sign content providers but in the interim there just isn’t a lot to consume at the moment. Although, this is still in beta so that’s just par for the course. Joost has promised to continue signing content providers; for instance, they just added a variety of shows from providers like Comedy Central, VH1 (the channel you switch on when you’re bored, or, at least I do) and MTV.

Beta Invites

If you haven’t experience Joost yet, well, that’s just not right. I’ll tell you what, leave a comment and I’ll use the magic of the internets (and a handy script to randomly select a number) to choose three lucky people to send an invite to.

Ready, set, go!

After 4 years of writing, off and on, about a variety of things such as odd thoughts, close calls, success (and failure) and other things now relegated to the archives, it’s time to switch directions and start anew.

From the get go I’ve always envisioned this site as an outlet for experimental creativity and to share the results of such with whomever was interested.

This site’s focus was never meant to be excluded to just a blog, but due to my interests in creative writing it just remained. Like Anton, I’ve been ready for quite some time to move away from just being a blog and realign (not that kind of realignment) my interests and the intentions of this site.

For historical preservation, I’ve decided to select the best articles from the archives and compile them into a book because I’d hate to see those disappear. Besides, I’d like to do some self-publishing and Lulu has me more than intrigued.

A Fresh Restart

What this means is that I’ll be transitioning the blog, or what you’re reading now, into a small, but important portion of the site. If you can think of it as the conversation that takes place after you’ve consumed a three-course meal, then you’ll understand what its purpose will be.

The main course of the meal will be the illustration and design, wrapped together in a fresh and fun layout that’ll hopefully immerse you in what I’ll have to offer. (Speaking of which, have you seen the new Squidfingers design?)

As corny as this might sound, I do appreciate each and every one of you who continues to subscribe to, read and interact with kartooner. There are plenty of you who should be proud of your design prowess and measure of intellect. Without you, I’d just be a guy with one of them-there blog thingies here in New York. In other words, channeling the mantra of Chris J. Davis, “You rawk!”.

Catching up with Goals

Part of the reason I’m so adamant about changing some things is because I need to finally meet my goal of finishing my comic. Yes, that comic, the one I’ve been talking about for a little over 2 years! After mixing it up with my friends at SXSW this year and absorbing the enthusiasm, I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to not just pursue, but chase after and tackle my goals.

I could just keep making excuses or continue playing trash basketball to bide the time, but that wasn’t why I chose this career in the first place. This is a journey of exploration and fascination that we’re all on, and I’m moving up a couple seats to see the full view.

Process and Innovation

On my panel at SXSWi this year I mentioned doing conceptual sketches for Sideville, using the movie Pirates of the Carribean as one of my source materials. I foresee using the blog to post my work in progress, kind of like Carson System’s Bare Naked App but without the app and the bare nakedness. It seems like people are interested in the process and craft of developing a project and appreciate that mistakes are made along the way.

As perfect as the end result might be, success needs to be constantly fine-tuned and recognizing trail and error is part of that process. Every brilliant and successful business or idea has to be built from the ground up and the visionary at the forefront of things needs to keep innovating and moving forward.

Sure, a lot of what success can be might seem serendipitous, but it’s the crucial element of keeping one’s eye on their goals that makes it both challenging and rewarding.

To sum it all up, I’ve got an idea and it’s time to take that from concept to reality. Join me.

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve eluded to the fact that I will be participating on a panel at this year’s SXSWi called The Influence of Art in Design.

Here’s a description of the panel (straight from the horse’s mouth):

Fine arts have long held a subtle, yet influential grip on both information and design. From cartoons, illustrations, digital art, photography and more, you’ll hear firsthand from some of the best in their fields, have a chance to explore the past, present, and future of the techniques that you see around the web, and how it can improve your own work and get both sides of the brain working better together.

Turning Thoughts into Reality

To backpedal a bit, before I made the commitment to go to last year’s SXSW Interactive conference — my first visit — I made a promise to myself that come the next conference I would be on a panel. Certainly it’s fun to actively participate as an observer, but to present your thoughts to people, to engage them, to make them think and all said and done, if they can get something out of what you’re saying, well, that’s saying something.

I kept that thought in the back of my mind, that I would somehow, using some force of nature have the opportunity to be up there amongst a group of my peers and share something, even if at the time I hadn’t any idea of what that might be.

Months later during a late night IM conversation with Anton Peck he mentioned the concept of the panel to me and it didn’t take much convincing on his part, I was hooked..

The Dream Team

Next week I will be sharing meatspace with the following creative-minded people:

• Dan Rubin (our fearless moderator)
• Glenda Sims
• Anton Peck
• Dave Shea
• Patrick Haney

Come join us on Saturday, March 10th (11:30-12:30pm) and be sure to mark it on your SXSW calendar.

It’s a win-win; you’ll have a blast, learn a thing or two and I can genuinely promise your creativity will kick into overdrive.