Top 5 New Brownsville Observations.

5. Houses, Houses, Houses. All the empty fields around town when I was younger are now being filled with residential developments; for better or worse.

4. Amigoland Mall, the older and less developed shopping center is now defunct. The University of Texas at Brownsville has purchased the building and has developed new labs, classrooms, and facilities for existing departments. The tire lube center on the campus is now the Mechanics department. This is also in addition to new buildings around the back of the existing college.

3. Hooter's has arrived and is now accepting applications. Oddly enough, it's located just down the street from Stiletto's, a gentlemen's club.

2. In a new neighborhood under construction, a monstrous custom home is being built on a resaca (oxbow lake). From the other street, looking into the backyard, you'll see the cities first built-in waterslide going from the second floor balcony into the pool, complete with steps back up. This house will probably be at least $350,000.

1. Muchas Taquerias. One new one in particular around town called
"Betty's Taqueria." The sign says their tacos are 'Betty, Betty, good.'
Welcome to Brownsville.

Kong Krazy.

I'm glad there's only about 5 months lefts until Peter Jackson's new movie, instead of almost a year for Ron Howard's "Da Vinci Code." This is about the standard, not-too-ridiculous amount of time to build a buzz about a bigtime, unbelievable, can't-wait-that-long kind of movie like "King Kong." And you can see the eagerly awaited first trailer for the film at www.volkswagen.com. I've never said this before, but I actually adjusted my evening schedule of packing, booted up my laptop, and stared straight at the television until the end of tonights Fear Factor, just to watch the debut trailer. And let me tell you, it was worth it. If Steven Spielberg is the master of the cinematic "push", Peter Jackson is the master of the "pull." When Naomi Watts screams, and we pull back from the cave as Kong screams...absolutely terrifying. Is it too early to promote Jack Black or Naomi Watts for an Oscar? (and she doesn't even 'speak' a word in this trailer) Perhaps. Am I crazy about this trailer? Yes. Kong looks phenomenal. This film will be huge. This film will be great. This film will blow your mind. I will probably try to see it more times in the theater than I did "Jurassic Park" in 1993....and that will not be good on the pocketbook. When you read tomorrow that over 50 million people logged on to watch the trailer again, I hope you think of me. God bless you, Peter Jackson.

Confirmation Affirmation.

I know we had something printed out. I remember seeing it. Lyndsey remembers seeing it. Sometime in mid-April we had made reservations through Travelocity.com for 2 roundtrip tickets from Atlanta to Brownsville, June 28th-July 4th. It wasn't until yesterday that we discovered we had, in our names, nothing of the sort. What we did have was a confirmed cancellation of an existing reservation due to credit card errors. At least this is what the people at Travelocity told us. Also, apparently we were to have received an automated email about such errors, which Lyndsey did not have, and she hasn't deleted a single one since 1998. Needless to say, Travelocity's attempts at retribution were short and hardly worth mentioning. This trip was to be our First Anniversary gift to each other, in celebration of using Travelocity a year ago to purchase our honeymoon. Now we're celebrating by paying 30% more for our trip 2 days away. I could have sworn we printed out a confirmation.

The Cruise Hasn't Sailed.

If I was a journalist on the 'Today' show interviewing Tom Cruise, my first question would have been a little different. "So, Tom, don't you have a little film coming out next week? And doesn't it involve one of the greatest masters of filmmaking and his greatest film subject? Tell me about it." And now that I'm thinking about it, my last question would have been a little different as well. "So, Tom, how's Katie doing? Did you think Christian Bale pulled off the character?" I think it's great that he's in love (again). I commend him for wanting to share it with his friends, even if those friends include Oprah's tv show, I don't care about his religious beliefs or what he says. I only care that he continues to make good movies with great people. I wish an interview, news segment, or magazine article would tell me about friggin' "War of the Worlds." I want to know. And you can add me to the statistic that will still see the film regardless of the mumbo jumbo. So, Tom, what do the aliens look like?

The Masthead

activityMasthead
Originally uploaded by jtpuck.

Here's the masthead for the magazine I concepted in my Publication class as described in the previous post.

Magazine Prescription.

I nearly had a heart attack at Borders this past Sunday. But to tell you that story, I have to first tell you this one:

I took a Publication class this quarter. We had to concept a new magazine, design a masthead (logo), 3 covers, a 3-spread feature, table of contents, editors letter, and a few department spreads. I first created "homeREC", a DIY recreational mag. that mixed "ReadyMade" with "Sports Illustrated"; but, I was having too many issues with the content and everyone would always laugh and say "home wrecker". So I changed it, turned it into a recreational mag that simply promotes getting off the couch. I called it "activity". The departments were based on the senses, ACT, SEE, EAT, HEAR....these are things you do when you go out, when you do something. It was for singles and couples, 20-40, that would have talked about Disc Golf, sports on a date, beach fun, museums, concerts, even had an article on new Rollercoasters coming out this year. Anyway, the concept and the masthead succeeded in critique last Tuesday night, but my layouts were weak and conflicting.

So...

At Borders, I was cleaning up the magazine rack and saw the July/August Premiere issue of "Weekend" magazine (weekend.net), 'the new magazine that makes the most of the time we call our own.' It talks about different things to do for a great weekend, home or away. It has an aesthetic style very similar to "Real Simple", feminine, for families, clean, and a good read. THEY STOLE MY IDEA! Or at least, the generalities of my idea. There was even a blurb about wooden rollercoasters around the country. How unbelievable is this? So I bought it, and I'll probably prescribe a year's worth of the mag to make me feel worse.

Beginnings and Endings.

Summer films are always filled with sequels, prequels, and somewhere-in-betweenquels. Luckily, I've been able to catch 2 of the big ones. "Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith" completes the new trilogy, confirming the creation of Darth Vader, and finishing the 6-film landmark saga. This film is emotionally heavy, action-packed, and filled with darkness; in turn, making it the best of the prequels. Everyone takes their acting up a level, except for Natalie Portman, and especially Ian McDiarmind as Senator Palpatine/Darth Sidious. Everything comes full circle and blends into Episode IV without a hitch. The only question that remains is, in what order are we going to show our kids?

"Batman Begins" resurrects a dying comic book favorite from neon hell with a new star, new director, and everything in between. This film is absolutely brilliant. Roger Ebert was right on the money when he said, "This is the movie I did not realize I was waiting for." The history, the skills, the Wayne family, all the who-what-where-when-why are here without question as to the creation of Batman, and I believe it. Christopher Nolan and David Goyer convinced me. Christian Bale as the new masked avenger convinced me, and I've never been more excited about the character. This new Batman is emotionally heavy, action-packed, and filled with darkness; do we see any similarities? I'll probably write the same thing for Spielberg's "War of the Worlds."

New Look.

Well, it's the end of my 3rd quarter at Portfolio Center, and the beginning of something new. No, you have not accidentally typed in the wrong website, this is still the slow and sarcastic blog life of Jason Puckett, but a new Jason Puckett. One with a little more design knowledge under his belt. One with a better understanding of hierarchy. One who knows better than to use u.t's burnt orange as its primary background color, when I am indeed a graduate of Texas A&M's maroon and white. "But Jason, what's that orange rectangle in the upper left corner of the screen?" Well, I'm glad you asked. First off, it's part of the template, a template I think is phenomenal. Secondly, orange is blue's complimentary friend and therefore very pleasing to the eye, so I think I'll leave it right where it is.