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.

R.I.P. Kokomo

I've been feeling gloomy since the sudden demise of my bronzed wing Pionus, Kokomo, who was about fourteen years old and had been with us since before the Northridge Earthquake. Birds don't show symptoms of illness until they are very sick, and I have no idea what went wrong.

I was his principle person all his life, but he hated me and would scream when I came in the room. I loved him anyway. He was a feather picker, and disturbing to see, as he looked as if he was headed into the oven. This picture is from the start of his feather picking days.

We had another parrot, Big Boy, who really loved me, but he's been gone four years now. He flew away, and I always have hoped he landed in a back yard where someone made him a pet. Once he was quite ill and went to the bird hospital. They told me I could come see him during visiting hours. I went for my visit and was admitted into the room. They brought Big Boy in. He looked at me, struggled with his tongue, then said, "You poor thing."

I guess we won't be getting more parrots. If we move to Colorado, it will be too cold for them. I've been having troubles with aging animals generally. My horse Pepper is not really interested in being ridden anymore, at age 23, though he still loves to run and buck if I'm not on him. And last summer dear old Luna, my first horse, went on to the big corral. So it's been tough adjusting to life without riding, which may sound quite spoiled but I really love to ride.

Reading Banned Classics

I went to visit my mother at her retirement community and had a computer free week. I really enjoyed reading an assortment of novels and non-fiction, and with my mind disconnected from the internet could really think about them.

The two classic banned books I read were "Huckleberry Finn" and "Catcher in the Rye." I'd read "Catcher in the Rye" a few times before, but somehow never "Huckleberry Finn." Of course on the scale of banned books these are such innocent low weights, but they appear on many of those stupid lists. It was just coincidental that I read them together-- I only put the connection together later.

The first third of "Huckleberry Finn" is very great, mysterious, original, and moving. I didn't expect it to be that good. Then it takes a big narrative shift with the entrance of two con artists/pitchmen, the King and the Duke, and turned into a very different book, which I didn't particularly enjoy. By the time Tom Sawyer enters near the end I was quite sick of it.

But the edition I was reading was annotated, (and also included the original illustrations), I learned he took a break from the book at just the point where the tone changes, and returned to it four years later. The magic was gone by then. Jane Smiley wrote a defense of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" at the end of this edition! Wow, there's a new point of view. Actually it made me want to read the book!

"Catcher in the Rye" still kept me involved. As I first started it, it seemed so involved in a prep school vision, but then that fell away for me, part of a world described that no longer exists. There are moments when he writes things that no one else has ever written. That's how it struck me at least.

I read an awful short story in "The New Yorker" by Louise Erdrich. I remember reading an early book of hers where the descriptions were so beautiful they took my breath away, but this story had a character with a "mop" of brown hair and sensitive brown eyes. geez.

The Land of Make Believe

When I was little I had this poster on my bedroom wall. It delighted me. I could explore this world. The image is laid out in a way that makes it easy to enter and travel around, in your mind. Later in the hippie years it was sold in head shops. I was never a hippie by the way. I've learned the artist's name, Jaro Hess. It's from the 30's. I don't have a copy anymore, but maybe I'll order one.

I've been working on a new Whinsey/Anita story in flash. I'm using the IBM text to speech voices-- not quite what I'd like but by grabbing voices to use in the animation it makes me more likely to continue with the project. My old source for text to speech voices is no longer available. If I had to get a microphone etc. I would probably just not do it.

I feel sort of like Tinkerbell in the Peter Pan tv show, begging for claps to fly, asking for encouragement to continue. Actually I've received so many nice emails from total strangers who've enjoyed my animation over the years, and I think that, (plus total lack of work), is what's gotten me started on a new project.

ebay makes me SO MAD!

I've been selling on ebay for years-- postcards, horse stuff, movie memorabilia. The last year I've been selling copies of my own cartoons on dvd-rs. Since I am the copyright owner, this is legal on ebay. However, dvd-r is also a frequent format for bootlegs. Something in the ebay system punches reject and they pull my listings, considering them taboo.

I protest, they check the listing, they concede, I relist.The people who want these dvds really want them, remembering something from their crazy youth, etc. All the feedback on the dvds positive. (More than 1200 feedbacks and only one negative all that time.) Each time ebay concedes they apologize and say they've added a note to my account so the same mistake won't be made again.

Tonight I listed the dvd again and they have suspended my account. Means I cease to exist on ebay. Meanwhile I had about twenty five other auctions on-going, with bids, and they get suspended too. I know ebay will re-instate me, but meanwhile all these auctions are screwed. And ebay has no support phone number, you are totally at the mercy of their support email. In the last two months I sold more than $6000 in one thing or the other-- means nothing in the mega giant corporate world of ebay.Worst part is I really want to get re-instated. grovel grovel. groan. groan.

Soviet Sal

I was about nine or ten, it was the late fifties, Kruschev era, Sputnik, cold war. I lived in New Jersey, a Republican town, all church going families, the burbs... I was very interested in everything Russian. Really I don't know why, thinking back on it now. I kept checking out a little phonograph album from the public library to teach myself Russian, and I would play the records in my room on a kiddie record player. "Nyet Nyet Nyet" I was careful to renew the album when it was overdue. Then I decided to subscribe to "Soviet Life." It was free. It looked like LIFE magazine but was even bigger, and more color pictures. But the pictures were sort of dull, young women on tractors in giant wheat fields with bright blue skies. I got interested in other things.Then summer rolled around, and two men in suits came up on the front porch to talk to my mother. They were from the F.B.I.!!! They wanted to talk to her about ME! Little Sally, the soviet spy!!!!

There's probably a record on me somewhere in Washington!

Of course in the George Bush era of "all your information is mine" this may not seem so funny, but it still cracks me up.

Entertainment of the Future

I've been thinking a lot about entertainment of the future, where is it going? I've had so little work the last few years, but it's been that way for lots of creative people I know around L.A. We're not retired, but we might as well be. 2-D animation is another obsolete format, it seems, but maybe so is the linear narrative.

In his important book, "Understanding Media", Marshall McLuhan pointed out that break-through media formats are often predicted by earlier art movements-- his example that the color tv had antecedents in Seurat may seem far fetched, but I have always felt that the sudden beginning of independent animation in the early 70's was somehow foreshadowing an event or media form that has yet to fully take shape. Will it be on a hand held device, or perhaps a screen right in the air in front of you, or on your clothes?

R.I.P. Video artist Nam June Paik, who died this week. Many of his video installations now sit in storage rooms because the video components require spare parts that are no longer made. I find this sort of mind boggling. For years video art was regarded as the newest, the hippest, and in such a short period of time it too has become obsolete.