I'm selling artwork online now

I've been doing a lot of code work, lately. I tech edited the latest Flash for Dummies book, soon to be published. My critical nature helps me with tech editing because errors just jump out at me.

After building a friend's custom jewelry site in Flash with Paypal, I decided to use what I'd learned to sell my own artwork. I have a simple art gallery
with very inexpensive pieces for sale. I'll be adding more items as free time permits. This piece is from the youtube/Sesame Street song, "Above It All."

If you're an artist who wants a simple method of selling your work online, I could build you a sales site quite readily and inexpensively.

Escalator Safety etc.

Ahh, accident-proof excalators. I'm off to visit my mother in South Jersey this weekend. I've got Whinsey back on line and I think she's working. I've been in code frenzy state this week. Off for two hikes now. Also, if you go to my youtube channel, do check out the piece "impossumble." Youtube seems to grab the image at the exact center for each video's icon, and I lost on that one, as it's an image from cnn. But the piece has more going on than that I promise.

Just a pretty swamp picture.

I'm so pleased to finally get Flash 8 to work on my blog. There was nothing difficult about it, I just didn't know exactly what code would work. This is another experiment based on code by pixelfumes It doesn't animate- in fact I had to switch out a jpeg for it due to blog complexities. But the lovely reflection and blur are created dynamically in Flash.

The artwork is from the Sesame Street song I did, "From Your Head", sung by jazz great Betty Carter. You can see it on youtube

A Flash Kaleidoscope

I found the code for this at quasimondo
and popped an image into Flash 8. Loved the results. Move your mouse over this one!

Back in the pencil and cel paint days it took me a 40 hour week to make an animated Kaleidoscope sequence. I still have the cels.

where them gators?

No trip to Florida is complete without a "Do Not Feed the Alligators" sign. What's Dinah doing at the Tramp pickup?

What was in her bikini!

We're going to Florida in the morning and I couldn't help but think back to the bikini fish that turned up in the shower, with shrieks, last time we were there.

aww poor fishie.

Molly, our mega bright German Shepherd, is now at the fancy kennel, signed up for Yappy Hour, Kindercare, Busy Bones and Agility. We signed up for guilt. Well at least we didn't choose the option to pay for someone to sleep with her in the theme cottage... (an option!) plus the web cam.


Dinah's dear horse Tia survived colic surgery two weeks ago but it was too shocking and bizarre and scary and expensive to write about. The surgeon did a great job.

Original Quasi art for sale

UPDATE Feb. 14: (relisted, url is current.)Since some of you who stumble by are "Quasi at the Quackadero" fans, I thought I'd point out that I'm selling an original watercolor sketch from the film on ebay this week. This is an idea sketch I did before I ever started animating the film.

Smiley Face Premieres at Sundance 2007

I had SO much fun designing and animating the main titles for Gregg Araki's "Smiley Face", which premiered over the weekend at Sundance Festival in Park City.

Some Days it all Falls Down

Like yesterday. ..

Did the weight of Dinah knock over the tree?
Did Molly the German Shepherd pull it over?
No, the nasty nasty winds knocked over our lovely pepper tree. The tree man said pepper trees never survive repositioning.

Then later in the day when I backwashed and rinsed the pond, I somehow got the valve stuck. When I went out in the dark last night, to put the roosters in the garage, I discovered the pond was almost entirely drained and the koi were gasping. Emergency work restored their home at least.

Then this morning got an email from the nice fellow who hosts my site saying the hard drive holding all my files was destroyed.

The chickens weren't happy about their loss of tree. Anyone want a gorgeous silkie rooster? We have one too many.

Retiring my Chat Bot

Some of you may have had conversations with my talking horse Whinsey, a chat bot I built myself over the years with a code brain consisting of regular expression in JavaScript, and a lot of php backup from various search engines.

For those who don't know, a chat bot is a character that you can talk/type to, who attempts to answer reasonably, and in my case I tried to make her funny too. I used a php script to grab an image off of google images, so the funky tv in Whinsey's barn would show an image related to what you were talking to her about, while she "spoke" (text only) her response to you.

As search engines have gotten more and more personable and astonishing, the effect of the chat bot began to seem last century, to me at least. The various chatbot contests were seeming increasingly inbred and rigged.

I did see an amazing chatbot yesterday, missdewey.com
Not sure who's claiming credit for that. If anyone can tell me how that super real flash/live action effect is accomplished, I'd love to know. It's not that she was so smart, and her answers were kind of lame, but the presentation was superb.

Today I learned my server had lost ALL my files, and though I could put Whinsey back together again, every time google or answer.com or thesaurus.com changed the layout of their pages, all my pretty php scripts ceased to work, and it seemed like a good time to retire the talking horse. She's still a continuing character in my flash animation.

Just as an aside, code freak that I am, I'd written a log script that logged everyone's conversations with Whinsey, though it never id'd them. All those logs vanished yesterday too. Probably just as well. Another reason I took the horse gal off line is I was tired of reading all the hot and dirty things people typed in. I mean, I worked hard for her to have a response to "Who was Sylvia Plath?" but most people just wanted to talk about sex with Whinsey.

ROSE BOWL 2007 we were there

Aloha all around

Christmas greetings from me and our horses Tia and Pepper, co-starring in "Hawaiian Honeymoon. " Well, why not? Actually they've just been moved to a new and awful location at their five year home in Bell Canyon Equestrian Center, and it's no walk on the beach.

I found this amazing link to the M.I.T. Drawing Project yesterday. I've installed "Stumble" on my Firefox and it pops up treats frequently when I click on it. But this is yet another step towards making animation so dynamic you won't even think of it as a process. Be sure you watch it all the way through. At first it seems like a Mr. Science demo, but it's quite astounding.

Above It All

Wow 3500 views of this Sesame Street song I did in 1989. And such nice words of praise too. If I got a dollar for every viewing I could give extravagant presents this Christmas. But then I don't own rights to the piece-- oops-- but then I got paid peanuts-- oops-- but then what is happening to copyright law these days? I never particularly liked this song, "Above It All", but it was run more than any of the others, and seems to have really struck a memory ping in the youtube audience. Some of the comments people have posted have great depth to them. Oddly, my other films are also up on youtube, and have only a fraction as many views. You can see it here.

Right now I'm doing a new animated piece for youtube. So stay tuned.

Halloween Postcards

I have a large collection of Halloween postcards from the turn of the century. I like the way they sentimentalized images of fear. I used to collect various Halloween items, but have lost the desire to collect, which is a good thing! Halloween's been a bit over taken by the Hallmark crowd these days, and the inflatables really give me the willies.

I have recently put a great number of my animations, including Sesame Street pieces, on youtube. The image quality really goes down the tubes by the time they chew on it at youtube with their video codecs, but I'm happy to circulate them. Maybe if you like them you'll buy my dvd at www.funonmars.com. Shameless Sal.

Got Work? Yes!

Shh- I'm doing animated movie titles for a very funny comedy. I'm not supposed to reveal the specifics, so don't ask! I'm doing it all myself in Flash, exporting through After Effects. Those two applications are dynamite. This is a very far out piece and the director is a delight to work with.

Nuff said. Every morning I walk Molly twice around Lake Balboa, at sunrise. The abundance of bird life is thrilling, and constantly changing. I'm headed there right now. I get up early!

Golden Boots etc.

A few weeks ago we went to the Golden Boots awards dinner. It honors motion picture Western stars and forgotten workers, with an ever shrinking list to honor. The money raised goes to the Motion Picture Home in Woodland Hills. People come in Western costume, if they wish. The men seem to get into dressing up for this more than women do.

I had a nice new Rockmount shirt to wear. This fellow came dressed as a sidekick, or maybe he just sloshed into the hotel lobby.

Clint Eastwood got the top award, at the end of FIVE HOURS of slow ceremony. No one told him that the top of his hair was sticking straight up like a rooster comb. Maybe he took a snooze before the dessert course. Burt Reynolds told a funny story about how cheap Clint is, then rambled on like a beatnik poet till they pulled him away from the mike.

I thought it was pretty tacky that they asked us to bow our heads and pray for God to give us more opportunities to make Western movies and tv shows. No one mentioned Brokeback Mountain. They also brought some army guy in from Iraq who proselytized about harm's way, the usual crap. The emcee should have had his speech checked at the door.

July 4 in Telluride

We spent the first part of summer in Colorado, loved the fourth of July parade in Telluride, pictured here. A lovely time with hiking and reading. Best book I read was "Lonesome Dove" by Larry McMurtry. I was so sorry when it ended-- I just loved that book.

I'm back in L.A. working on movie titles-- yay hooray. I published a children's book that my mother wrote in 1957 and my sister Carol illustrated, when she was only 16. I used www.lulu.com, and am going to try other projects there. The book, for young children, is available here . It's quite amazing how easy it's become to self-publish.

I've made a first chapter animated online

Maybe this is the sort of thing that people would enjoy getting on their cel phones, but I don't know since I don't even have one. Just a little story I got started on. It's about five megs, but on my high speed line starts playing pretty fast.

I welcome any comments on it. I used the AT&T voices because it means I've got voices, even if I'm not thrilled with level of emotion. Anyway, if you'd like to see it, it's here: http://www.funonmars.com/ajax/futuregirls.html

R.I.P. Lulu

Our beautiful Chow Lulu died unexpectedly during what we thought was a routine vet visit. She was only seven years old. It's so hard to lose a dog....

Sourdough Slim and the Cowboy Festival

We went to the final day of the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival on Sunday. It was formerly the Santa Clarita Cowboy Poetry Festival, for many years, but I guess Poetry sinks the audience-- not sure why that changed. There was actually a signifigant drop in audience size from the year before. So many gray haired guys dress up in their once a year (I'm guessing) cowboy duds for this event and look really great. Far fewer are women in theme clothes. It's held at Melody Ranch, where many Westerns over the years were filmed.

We were absolutely won over by Sourdough Slim, an eccentric vaudeville style cowboy, who created a unique persona with hints of W.C. Fields, Cliff Edwards, Frankie Marvin, and his own nice singing style and great physical comedy. http://www.sourdoughslim.com
I bought his CD, and low and behold my old buddy Robt. Armstrong plays the musical saw and Hawaiian guitar on some of the cuts. Small world.