Carl Banks' Blog Entries: Arts

Thursday, June 26, 2008, 5:49 PM EDT Skeletal character studies of cartoons What the skeletons of distorted cartoon characters would look like. Read more

Thursday, April 17, 2008, 7:45 PM EDT My new conlang (constructed language): Bowtudgelean. As many of my friends and family are aware, I am currently writing a video game, The Ditty of Carmeana, an action-adventure title set in the fictional Kingdom of Bowtudgel. Also as many people know, I am very interested in linguistics. Therefore, I decided this was the perfect opportunity to create a new language for my fictional kingdom. The (in progress) result is Bowtudgelean. Read more

Thursday, June 21, 2007, 4:36 AM EDT TV Shows with only one funny character Ever notice that a lot of TV comedies seem to have only one funny character, often a supporting character? I started noticing that whenever I'd mumble about shows I can sit through without cracking a smile (e.g. Seinfeld). I started noticing that my main complaint wasn't that the show wasn't funny at all, but that only one person was really funny (e.g., George). Well, I made a list. Read more

Thursday, June 21, 2007, 4:34 AM EDT Major works of literature I've read Here is a pretty complete list of literature (excluding short stories and poems) that I've read. I tend to go for quality over quantity. Read more

Saturday, May 5, 2007, 7:29 PM EDT Believe it or not, Scrubs is actually a good show When I first saw Scrubs, I thought it was a stupid show. It seemed to be a bunch stupid characters incapable of making an intelligent decision, the kind of show that makes me cringe and shout at the TV, "It is inhumanly impossible to be that stupid!" Those kinds of show annoy me more than they make me laugh. But after inevitably watching a few shows, I started to see that the stupidity of the characters was all an act. The Scrubs gang really does have a lot of depth; their outward shallowness is only something they project as a defense against a stressful work place. Read more

Wednesday, January 10, 2007, 10:35 PM EST The Real Story Behind the Iliad The Scene A cheap pub in Corinth, on the coast of Greece, BC 876. The Players About 20 low-ranking Greek warriors, having just made landfall after having sailed back from a war with a small city-state on the Turkish coast. They had names such as Agamemnon, Odysseus, Aias, Menalaus, Nestor, and so on. Read more

Saturday, November 11, 2006, 10:37 AM EST Reinterpretations of Popular Movies When it comes to movies, it seems that there is often a sort of popular concensus about aspects of them. I don't mean a concensus over whether the movie's good or bad--taste varies, after all--but rather over the superficial meaning of things in the movie. For example, most people can tell whether and ending is supposed to be a sad ending, even if they don't actually feel sad. Most people know if a character's supposed to be sympathetic or not, etc. Sometimes, however, the people are wrong. Sometimes, the people accept something a certian way, but the details fom the movie indicate that that way is not correct. So here, I am going to reinterpret some popular movies where I think concensus is a little off. Read more

Friday, April 21, 2006, 11:51 AM EDT Illustrated Catalog of ACME Products Illustrated Catalog of ACME Products Now you can order all the great products that Wile E. Coyote used in his quest to eat the Roadrunner! Read more

Sunday, March 26, 2006, 12:43 AM EST The First Rule of G.R.O.S.S. is that you don't talk about G.R.O.S.S. It appears that the Tyler and Jack are actually Calvin and Hobbes grown up. Read more

Sunday, March 12, 2006, 7:28 PM EST Why movie scores these days annoy me It seems to me that more and more directors (especially but not exclusively in high-budget blockbuster-type movies) are using the score to bully you into feeling a certain way, when they should be using the score enhance the mood that the picture and story give you. You know what, I don't need a fascist director using the score to shove emotion down my throat. You want me to feel a certain way? How about using the story to do that? Use the score to enhance the feeling, not create it. Read more

Saturday, January 28, 2006, 1:05 PM EST Chia Professor I admit it: I am not the easiest person to shop for on Christmas. Because of this, it was inevitable that sooner or later, I was going to get a Chia Pet. This Chirstmas, my sister Alexis got me Chia Professor. Here are the results. Read more

Sunday, September 25, 2005, 2:26 AM EDT Phase Portraits These are some phase portraits I've made for a homework assignment. (A phase portrait is a graph showing the trajectories of a system.) Anyways, the different basins of attraction were to be color coded. I decided to use GIMP to do the color coding in a more creative way. Read more

Sunday, September 25, 2005, 2:25 AM EDT My theory on what Tom Bombadil is Tom Bombadil is one of the most enigmatic characters in J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. Many have speculated on the true nature of Tom Bombadil. Although their explanations have their strong and weak points, none are truly convincing. I believe, however, that most speculators have been too narrow in their thinking; a true, convincing explanation of Tom Bombadil depends on one considering the history of Middle Earth in its proper context. Read more