CIAO!

So the day is finally almost here. We leave for New York in the morning and then for Italy on Friday.

We have to take Molly to the kennel this afternoon. She senses something's up. It's a nice place where she's staying, but it's the hardest thing about traveling for us.

I posted a silly storyboard for my section of Toons x 9 here. The illustration above is from the storyboard. Just something to keep you laughing. It was a peculiar project- 9 animators retelling Faust.

I opted for a soap opera approach to hell- at the time airlines weren't as nasty as they are now and computers weren't part of most people's lives. I didn't ever color it in and got rushed to even scan this and put it on line. I never saw what any of the other animators did. In fact I don't even know who they were. Marv Newland (Bambi Meets Godzilla) paid us to do it. Faust is no treat to read, let me tell you! The link is slow to load even though I broke it into segments, and you'll see a white screen before the loading symbol kicks in.

One more thing about the toons project. Aloosha was based on a woman I met the last time I was in New York, 22 years ago! Her name was Lizzie Borden and she was a filmmaker who hoped we'd collaborate on something. She had that "I work out all day" look. I forget if she was a kleptomaniac or not!

I had insane good luck at the track last week and will buy a new tablet computer when I get back, and I guarantee no way in hell will it be a Mac.

Don't even get me started on Steve Job's arrogance re Flash, when you can read it in the paper anyway!

Have fun while I'm away, and hope to check up on you all from an internet cafe in Italy.

For a Laugh

After I posted this little cult outfit on Facebook I tried to find the original storyboards for the animated/live action feature which I wrote in 1982. It seemed all that was left were some beat up xeroxes, but after I'd scanned a bunch of them I found the original four volumes of pictures.

I've popped them into a little presentation which is on line here. A few of the storyboard pages were in full page comic strip format so when I separated the individual panels I had to blow up the images quite a bit.

Let me know if it's hard to navigate- I was feeling a bit lazy when I put it together. It's just the first act or so but there's some funny stuff going on.

No More Mr. Hot Stuff?

I went out to Santa Anita solo yesterday and was on fire as a handicapper. I got the pick 4 which means you pick 4 winners in a row, on an $8 bet. It CAN pay hundreds, sometimes thousands, but in my case it paid $84. That will buy a lot of oranges at the Farmers' Market in the morning. Got a lot of other bets right too.

But a horse who's drop dead gorgeous, Mr. Hot Stuff, was running yesterday, and that was actually the reason I went out there. I love this horse's looks, I admit it. He's a sleek well built truly black horse. He hasn't won a race since before the Kentucky Derby and I've bet him to win every time, including in the Derby. He didn't win yesterday either and he still looked like hot stuff. Plus he had my fave jockey, Smokin Joe Talamo on board.

But while walking Molly this morning I thought I could turn him into an internet cartoon strip character, with Whinsey, maybe for the phone. We'll see. I "worked" on it all day. Hard to get good expression on a jet black horse. And then when you're working in Flash you start thinking, gee, if this moved it would be more fun than a still comic- and take a lot longer to do. Rainy weather, sometimes I love you.

Google Surprises

okay I confess, I set something on google to send me notices when I appear on the internet. Thus I came upon this hysterical post.

and this lovely piece eekers.

Both were in the same google announcement and it didn't seem right not to include the second one as well. Or maybe I should just sit down and shut up.

Quasi's Big Day

This morning when I got up my friend Michael had emailed me that my film "Quasi at the Quackadero" had been included in 2009 National Film Registry.

"The National Film Preservation Board members enthusiastically supported this addition to the more than 500 U.S. films now recognized as "culturally, historically and aesthetically significant" and worthy of preservation."

I want to toast E.E. Gregg Snazelle. Right after college I rented an editing room at Snazelle Films in San Francisco so I could finish my third film, "Chow Fun." Gregg saw the film and offered me a job at his film company. The job was to experiment with animation, and do commercials for him when the jobs came in. He also hoped I'd figure out how to solve 3-d without glasses.

Needless to say I didn't solve 3-d. I didn't even do very many commercials over ten years, but I showed up at 8:30, took an hour off for lunch and worked till 5:30. I was paid $350 a month, and I could live on that then.

He encouraged me generously without ever paying much attention to me. These days if an opportunity like that even existed, you'd be forced to sign all kinds of rights statements for characters and content created, but this was before "Star Wars" and he just seemed to be happy to have me around. We were never particularly close. It spoiled me for any job after that.

I made all my "Quasi" films while I was working at Snazelle. Unfortunately he's no longer alive, but here's to you, Gregg, with a big heart and much thanks.

Got a job for you Sally!

So I haven't had work in a couple of years.

By work I mean where someone calls you up and says, "I'd like you to do this for x amount of $".

I'm not talking about those vulture animation "contests" where they say "hey kids, animate something really funny with original characters to this song about our corporation and you may get a chance to have your own series!"

In other words, trolling for talent by requesting spec work, and if they like it they own all rights because you didn't read the small print. And you get "prize money" in return for animating a series for them.

So I'm excited when I get an email this morning about a music video. I love animating to music, my favorite thing about animation. "Oh goody", I think, and read on.

"Now the kicker about this song is that it is very taboo!! It is about me going to the store to pick up a mentally handicapped hooker.. We fall in love then i train her for the special Olympics.. Now this song has received major press on the net for its crazy humour and I think it would be a perfect job for you.."

I go downstairs to make coffee. Is there anyway this doesn't totally offend me? I mean, I thought "Pretty Woman" was offensive and every other preteen girl in the country adored that movie. I come back upstairs and press the play button.

Offensive? I had no idea how specifically dirty a "song" could be. I played it about 2/3 through and couldn't take any more. It'll probably be a big hit in whatever area of the internet loves "songs" about mentally handicapped hookers.

TheBoogley

An animator from Australia sent me a nice message via youtube, and I looked at all his animations on his channel TheBoogley. I really enjoyed watching them, and think he has a lovely fluid style and sense of fun and surprise. I was amazed to learn these were all done in Flash with a Wacom tablet.

He says:

I work using a wacom tablet straight into flash. I set the brush tool smoothing down to 35 which makes the line a little scraggily at times but keeps it fairly true to the movement of my hand. A few months ago I bought a wacom cintiq screen tablet, it's increased my speed by at least 10 times!

The Cintiq is the fancy Wacom tablet where you look at the screen as you draw. Now I'm thinking: I WANT ONE! This teenser laptop screen is a challenge for me.

I thought his animations were excellent, and love the look of the youtube channel too. Maybe he'll stop by here. It amazed me that they had an animation CLUB that met once a month and people would do animation just for the meeting.

Namowal's "I'm So Tired"

Fellow artist Namowal has just completed her first Flash animated musical piece and it is stunning!!

It's a song I never thought about much but here it takes on a mystery and beauty-- love the way the spiral movements echo the clock's movements, the way it captures the beat and the obsessive feeling, the refined and elegant while also charming animation of the girl and the phone. I think the teapot section is my favorite. The backgrounds work well to add depth while keeping focus on what's animating.

It's not easy to use Flash tweens so smoothly and effectively and for emotional effect too. Great work, Namowal. And a brilliant ending too, with such innovation and yet feels just right.

Truly amazing that this is your first drawn animated work as it is quite masterly. I hope some new form of animation will open up so your talent can be more widely seen.

You can read more about it at her blog here.

Old Friend Roundup

I was surprised and happy to see this video of my favorite racehorse The Pamplemousse noisily enjoying an apple at Hollywood Park just last week. Youtuber johnchen provided the video. The P was scratched the morning of the Santa Anita Derby and hasn't been heard from since.

Last night I got sent a nice link to an interview with my old pals Bob Armstrong and Allan Dodge talking about their music over the years at Fretboard Journal. About 45 minutes in they talk about working with me. I was trying to find a picture of us this morning but came up empty. Al's all mixed up about the Academy Award stuff but it was great to hear their voices and brought back so many memories.

The Preakness is today, and it would be great if filly Rachel Alexandra won but there are a lot of great horses in there.

Looking for my Missing Cult

whew, hope I don't pick up that telephone when it rings! Might be Werner Erhard!

This self portrait was taken in a motel room in Sarasota Florida at a very far out film "festival" around 1981. A wealthy young guy invited a small group of artist filmmakers to come to his motel for a goofy get together. Films were projected on a raft on the gulf. We were all supposed to get along, as Rodney King might have said.

It was awkward, it was fun, it was weird. It was all paid for by the host. Southwest Florida at that time was a very sleepy place, strictly seniors and locals and miniature golf. 16mm films. SERIOUS artistes in a silly place. Films you'd watch and try not to look back at the projector to see how much more was still on the reel.

Espeakink Spanich en Macy's

M.K. Brown is another fine cartoonist. For awhile we were in touch on line but I lost her email address. Her strip cartoon here, "The Singles Bar" is especially funny.

Back in the 80s M.K. Brown, Matt Groening and I were all in the running to do animation bits for the Tracy Ullman show that was just starting. Guess who didn't get the job?

On the Tunaphone

This is a Charlie the Tuna Telephone. From 1987. Why was this popular? Who wants to talk into a fish?

Last year I got fired up with the idea that cel phone animation was the coming thing. But you know what? I don't think so any more. I don't think people want to just look at their phones. They want to do things with them. Just sitting there looking at your phone seems kind of sad, doesn't it?

That's why the iphone games are taking off. That's what I think.

But I'm getting emails from art students who've decided animation is what they want to do, and they want advice. Sounds as if animation is a popular course of study on campus these days, the way marine biology was a few years ago.

I don't know what to tell them. The way the world is now, it seems like a terrible choice to me. (Have you considered entymology?) There are so few ways to make money with animation, other than teaching more students.

But sometimes a bubble of interest can be foreshadowing some new format that we can't quite identify, and maybe these students are right in front of the wave. I don't think it's just more games on phones that will be coming along, but maybe some whole new manner of interactive animation. I usually tell them to learn Flash, because it's a way in to interactive animation, even if the code language has become a bear.

Closet Surprise

I thought this painting never left my Berkeley apartment when I moved out around 1980, so I was quite surprised to find it in a stack of unhung pictures today, deep, deep in the front hall closet.

It tells a story but I'm not sure what that story is.

It's not as yellow as this jpeg and the colors are intense. I painted it around 1974. At the time I was very inspired by watercolor paintings being done by a group of smart women in the East Bay. One of them, Lulu Stanley, is still painting, though I got stuck trying to find an image with google just now.

Can you believe I painted every one of those beads in the beaded curtain? Computers have made me so lazy about results.

Painting measures 8.5" x 11" and is for sale, framed already, for $600.

La Bamba Lately

I think Obama is doing an amazing job meeting problems of unthinkable magnitude with zest and flair. And I just love when Austan Goolsbee (above) is interviewed. Not only is he cuter than Parviz Musharraf, but his name is straight out of W.C. Fields. A brilliant interview with him here. A classic inspirational professor!

How about the millions of acres preserved as wilderness, signed into law? Go La Bamba.

How about throwing the bum out at GM? But wait, where's the stylist? The new guy, Fritz Henderson, looked like he was going to pick up a banjo at a pizza parlor in 1977 on tv last night. He was wearing a red and white striped shirt with a giant white collar and big blue tie. We were cracking up . But try as I might, I couldn't find man with shirt through google image. But I did come across this picture of yellow cars with snazzy rear ends! Soon the world will be looking like my cartoons!

Smiley Face Titles

The track is loud be warned.

I found the original files for "Smiley Face" on an external drive deep in the closet. This is how they look in Flash reduced to about 20% of their original size. (Guess I should have put a stop button on it too.) I'm pleased that the color looks as intended, because on the dvd it looks awful. It looks really awful. It looks so awful I could only look at it one time and then put it deep in the closet. The movie went straight to DVD. Greg Araki was very nice to work for. They wanted the timing that fast-- it wasn't my decision.

This was the last animation job I did, and it was in 2007. Mothers, don't send your kids to art school!

Testing Anita Testing

I bought a little microphone at Radio Shack and have been testing a story with it. This is a scene. You need the sound on.

Early Quasi

This is the first appearance of Anita and Quasi in color. It's another tiny watercolor. Notice the chocolate cake is already in place, Anita has pretty blue hair and Quasi's cap is like a red and white circus tent.

Today's my mother's birthday. She is now officially 94, born on the first day of spring.

I wandered into a Hallmark store earlier in the week to look for a card. The copy on greeting cards is so yucky-- maybe it always has been, but I couldn't find any card that didn't irritate me. Well at least I know no one will ever send me a card that says "You were always there for me," or I hope not, because I hate that expression. I don't think the sentiment fits me, anyway!

I found one card that was almost okay, though the writing was small and hard to read, but at the counter it was $4.00 plus tax. I actually put it back and left the store. Went home and made her a card from an old postcard. Is Hallmark the next one heading for bailout? How can they sell cards at prices like that? And such ugly cards too!

ambitious dream

I had a dream last night that I had a job selling a product called Nutritious Oil . (hey, catchy name that!) I was selling it door to door. It came in a spray foam bottle.

You could spray it on any food and turn that food into something nutritious. It was a white foam. But best of all, it doubled as an all purpose cleaner.

What the brain does...

Image is a tiny watercolor sketch for "Quasi at the Quackadero" that I came upon today while looking for something else. You can see how influenced I was by carnival and circus poster art from a long time ago.

Bob Dylan Backstage

made me laugh.

after seeing Birdman of Alcatraz

For the first half of "Birdman of Alcatraz" I thought this was maybe the best movie I'd ever seen. The second half wasn't as moving.

It was interesting how civilized jail life on the cell blocks was portrayed. Was it really like that?

After seeing the movie I poked around facebook and made contact with friends from the past, saw friends of friends I also knew, even friends of friends I didn't want to know anymore. You can call out to them and make digital contact, but it's not the same as being in person, of course.

It was as if friends from my past were in all these different little cells calling out to me, sort of.