just finished launching a new website for my second home: RONIN ATHLETICS—an incredible mixed martial arts gym in nyc. some design specs can be found on the design page.

as you can see, i’ve been integrating the main 36invisible.com site here. slowly but steadily. once fully integrated, this wp-based site will take over the main domain.

i’m all about simplicity and minimalism lately and i have no idea why.

i’ve always been a huge fan of Forest Whitaker. he (along with a few other actors) always embodies each and every roll he takes on and he’s done it again, incredibly so, in his Oscar winning performance in The Last King of Scotland.

another thing that i really appreciate about the film is how the writer blended the fictional with the real, injecting a fictional character in a historical story.

since this blog isn’t really intended to be a “film review” site, i won’t go further into detail, but if you’re up for an incredible movie (largely due to an incredible performance by Forest Whitaker), then definitely check it out.

so i’ve finally gotten around to upgrading wordpress and while i was at it, i went ahead and created a new theme.

destroyed_minimal is a clean, two-column theme and (when selected) uses a script i wrote to overlay the title headlines with on-the-fly generated (and/or from cache) headline PNGs in a specified font of [my] choosing. also added was a print stylesheet that will hide the image headlines when printing.

i haven’t tested this on a non-Mac yet, but everything validates ok. however, if you’re experiencing problems with this site, getting errors, the image headlines aren’t fully covering the text headlines, or terribly slow load-times, please let me know.

hope you enjoy it.

update: i added a stylesheet switcher (to the sidebar) that will allow you to choose between destroyed or minimal. it works via Ajax, requires no page reload, will function with or without javascript enabled, and will also give your browser a cookie to remember your preferred style for your future visits. however, it’s a little slower than my javascript-only version and even if you’ve chosen minimal, the images are still loaded in the background. i’ll improve these annoyances when i get some time.

update (1.13.2008): none of this applies any more since the 2008 redesign.

this could easily lead into another “how in the hell did The Departed win best picture?” rant, but i’m not going to go there.

instead, let me just say that Children of Men is incredible.

i’d read about it a month or so ago in American Cinematographer and have been itching to see it ever since. unfortunately i didn’t make it to the theatre in time to see it on the big screen, but thankfully it’s out on dvd.

so much of this film was wonderful. the story, the theme, the acting, the cinematography, the directing, the directing, the directing. incredible. Alfonso Cuarón has a Felini-like ability to choreograph a sequence and his long-takes were perfect for the documentary-feel that he and Emmanuel Lubezki actualized masterfully.

there’s something wonderful going on with Latin American cinema and i’m very glad to be able to experience it.

the dvd extras include a really great minidoc that’s also not to be missed.

definitely see this film. you’ll be glad you did.

things are moving along steadily on the writing and development fronts at 36invisible so far this year.

in the works is a feature-length documentary (currently submitted for a major grant—fingers-crossed) and two feature-length narrative screenplays (both in various stages of revision).

Red Letters will also be touring with IFCT in the UK, Los Angeles, Orlando and New York City in the coming year and we’re definitely looking forward to that.

stay tuned.