Do you ever wonder why no one makes animation desks out of those cool metal mesh shelves? You need only put them together according to your own pattern and put a wooden desktop on it. You can add or rearrange shelves when you need them.
I thought it was a great idea. Then I started the project.
The first thing to remember when trying to do this, if anyone else is mad enough to do so: Never buy the metal shelves on Ebay. There is something wrong with them if you do. My shelves were subtly warped. This may be symbolic of animation, or of the owner of the desk, but the upshot of warped shelves were: sometimes the posts wouldn't go together, and the shelves had interesting tilts when they were assembled.The little black sleevey things that are supposed to keep the shelves tight to the posts kept popping off. I swear that once one of them jumped about six feet, projectile style.
The next thing to remember is to put a shelf at the bottom. I did not do so, and my spavined shelves threatened to collapse like something out of a Laurel and Hardy movie until I slipped a shelf up the legs like a pair of pants, held it where I wanted by placing it on a pile of books, and attaching the sleevey things, then kicking the books out. The result was about as pleasant as a public hanging; after retrieving the sleevey things, I managed to stabilize the bottom of the shelf.
My old animation desk top needed to be attached with O rings and S hooks. Trouble is O rings don't self-thread. They would not drill into the desktop, no matter how hard I tried, and since they were designed for metal they wouldn't have held anyway. I wound up using the S hooks and some cup holders. That's right. They're the ones you see hanging down in old kitchen cupboards, except that these had a spring closure designed for California earthquakes. (My tool box has a lot of earthquake picture mounts, etc. left over from my time in LA.) I then tied the whole mess together with aluminum wire. (Update: I changed the cup holders to self threading O rings today and removed the wire, also lowered the desktop by five inches. It's now a really good, functional, desk with a lot of storage space.)
A surprising thing happened. The mess of warped metal actually seemed to straighten up and turn into an--animation desk! and not a bad one either.
And I discovered that the little sleevey things could be forced up from the bottom to make the warped shelves seat more or less tightly. It felt really, really good to use the hammer on them. I hit them very, very hard.
Gizmo managed to get up on the top shelf and peer down at me sweating below. Her fur bulged out between the wire frames for all the world like an old fashioned egg slicer.
I had constructed the thing in the living room and now had to push it down the hallway to the studio. In an act of sheer genius, I had dumped the expensive (and functional) wheels that came with the Ebay find. There were little plastic feet that would, I thought, protect the floor. What I didn't figure on was that they would grip the floor like a limpet and fight to stay where they were.
At this point, the shelves seemed to morph into a living creature with a mind of its own, and that mind was distinctly unfriendly.
I started pushing the desk toward the studio, the feet advancing by a series of shuddering jumps. As it reluctantly slid down the short hall, making a sound like a Wookiee mating call, I saw my idiotic cat sitting directly in front of the oncoming metal train.
"Get the *&@# out of the way!" I screamed. Gizmo did--and went into the studio, and sat directly in front of the thing, which had somehow turned the corner and was pushing a wheeled shelf ahead of it. My next remarks to Gizmo were even less printable, and I backed the shelves out before I ran over her.
Eventually I got the desk where it was supposed to be. It's behind me right now. I'll try to post a picture. It does not look at all bad, and there is plenty of storage space on the shelves. And here's an extra special Martha Stewed hint: To keep the books from falling out of the side of the shelves, I used aluminum wire threaded between the posts in a pattern that I have dubbed "The Drunken Spider". It looks really, really good. If I had the energy, I could thread little pink ribbons or something through it. It worked a lot better than the expensive metal 'side shelves' I purchased--in the wrong size! So yes, it is possible to build a functioning animation desk from wire metal shelves.
But next time, if there is a next time, I won't do this next time.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Canadian Capers
"What are you doing in the elevator?"
The questioner was one of two arrogant-looking twentysomethings standing in the hallway of a 1924 Rochester apartment building. I had loaded my 'accompanying' goods into the ancient machine while waiting for my neighbour who was to drive me and Gizmo to Canada. He was late. Yoga session. Which would not have been a problem if it weren't for the pair trying to get me out of the cab.
"I don't see what gives YOU the right to use it," the blond whined.
"I'm moving and I announced this move several months ago."
"Well, I'm moving!"
"Well, I'm NOT moving until my neighbour gets here," I said, privately imagining a scenario that began with them trying to forcibly remove me and my things, and ended with my landing a punch on a snub nose. The blonds left.
The neighbours arrived. We manhandled the huge computer box, cat box, document box, spare pots, small suitcase, cat and me into the rented "time share car", a Honda Element SUV, if that is not an oxymoron. Its name was actually Eastman. This was somehow significant. One of the seats had to be removed to accomodate Mr. Computer and Mrs. Monitor. Damn computers anyway.
Somehow everything fit, just. Gizmo, dumped unceremoniously into her cat carrier, howled as I shoehorned her and me into the remaining back seat. The howls were repeated at hourly intervals on the way to Lewiston. Since there was nothing else I could do, I picked her up and held her so that she could see the drivers (her old friends) and some of the outdoors. She quieted for a while after each session.
"Don't you want to even see the cat's rabies certificate?" I asked the customs agents at Lewiston.
"No."
They showed no interest in any of my documents other than the work permit. They were surprised that I already had it. I'd gone to Buffalo to get it a few days earlier, to prevent standing in line with Gizmo at a border post and minimize the stress for her.
There was no line in Lewiston. In fact, there was only one other person asking for border clearance.
"Do you need to see my contract or lease or degrees?"
"No. You already have the work permit. Do you have a car following, or plan to bring one in the future?"
"No."
"Then get out. Welcome to Canada."
The moving truck with three tons of stuff cleared Customs in about five minutes a week later. The clerk said my papers were so well put together, she could find nothing to change.
The truck driver informed me that he deliberately chose that particular office since the clerks were generally pleasant. "Nine times out of ten you will get someone like that clerk. The tenth time will be a dragon. If I'd taken you to one of the other posts, there is a 90 per cent chance that your goods would have been impounded and gone over with a fine toothed comb."
The new apartment at Queen Mary Drive was a real change from the Rochester apartment in more ways than one. I formerly thought the closets were ill planned and located. They swallowed the books easily and will take the shelves that I have yet to build (once I get them out of their boxes.) The super and his wife and their grandson have been extremely helpful, even cat sitting for Gizmo when the movers came. They wanted to keep her too, but they had just bought a small Siamese kitten and Gizmo promptly slapped it upside the head. Once the two were kept separately, Gizmo was a neat and considerate house guest.
"She's part Siamese," they told me. And when the kitten mewed at me in Gizmo's voice, I believed them. This explains her 'talkativeness', her gutteral growls and occasional babylike wails, her high intelligence and slim figure (no pet owners are NOT all like our pets! I only wish I had Gizmo's build and turnout.)
Things are starting to change, though. I got a medical exam before leaving and the incredulous doctor told me that I'd lost ten pounds. "Get out of a job, get a new job, leave the country, pack up three tons of stuff," I suggested. I guess packing is sort of weightlifting with a reward.
The welcome has been great across the board. On June 7 I attended a party at the home of WE MOVE TO CANADA'S blogger and author Laura Kaminker and Allan Wood in Port Credit. The Oakville resident's association can count me as a member and I'll attend their picnic next weekend at Foster Park. I have been to Friends Meeting in Toronto and took in the "Woofstock" dog show afterward near the St. Lawrence Market, copping enough free food for Gizmo to keep her in cat chow til September.
The studio and printer will be set up today, and I have a little work to do with hooks and so on before the animation desk top can be attached to the metal shelving. The Mighty Wurlitzer will make an admirable control center for teaching materials.
And my boss has asked if I could do some extra work this July, so there may even be a little money coming in.
The three ceiling fans are working hard, but the heat hit 100 for two days (40 C) and I was actually about to knuckle under and get an AC when the most violent lightning storm I've seen in years broke and washed most of the yuck away. The humidity level rivaled Savannah's for a day or so.
Now that I have the bicycle (which fits neatly into the storeroom along with the shelves!) I plan to do some exploring. Watch this space.
Canada is a lovely country and I'm happy to be here. I was surprised to hear that some Americans do not like living here and go home after a while. Whatever for?
The most obvious difference I've noted is that people here are a lot more polite. Strangers say Hello to you in the street just the way they do in the American South. This is a custom that I enjoy.
And there is, how do I say it...less tension here. As if I crossed through a curtain of it when crossing the border, and now I'm on the other side. It's not Heaven, but it's what used to pass for normal.
Maybe I'm just reacting to not having to plan for the move. It's done. The unpacking will take most of the rest of June, but at least everything is here.
I'll try to post when things happen. Lots more will be happening here than in Rochester, that's for sure.
The questioner was one of two arrogant-looking twentysomethings standing in the hallway of a 1924 Rochester apartment building. I had loaded my 'accompanying' goods into the ancient machine while waiting for my neighbour who was to drive me and Gizmo to Canada. He was late. Yoga session. Which would not have been a problem if it weren't for the pair trying to get me out of the cab.
"I don't see what gives YOU the right to use it," the blond whined.
"I'm moving and I announced this move several months ago."
"Well, I'm moving!"
"Well, I'm NOT moving until my neighbour gets here," I said, privately imagining a scenario that began with them trying to forcibly remove me and my things, and ended with my landing a punch on a snub nose. The blonds left.
The neighbours arrived. We manhandled the huge computer box, cat box, document box, spare pots, small suitcase, cat and me into the rented "time share car", a Honda Element SUV, if that is not an oxymoron. Its name was actually Eastman. This was somehow significant. One of the seats had to be removed to accomodate Mr. Computer and Mrs. Monitor. Damn computers anyway.
Somehow everything fit, just. Gizmo, dumped unceremoniously into her cat carrier, howled as I shoehorned her and me into the remaining back seat. The howls were repeated at hourly intervals on the way to Lewiston. Since there was nothing else I could do, I picked her up and held her so that she could see the drivers (her old friends) and some of the outdoors. She quieted for a while after each session.
"Don't you want to even see the cat's rabies certificate?" I asked the customs agents at Lewiston.
"No."
They showed no interest in any of my documents other than the work permit. They were surprised that I already had it. I'd gone to Buffalo to get it a few days earlier, to prevent standing in line with Gizmo at a border post and minimize the stress for her.
There was no line in Lewiston. In fact, there was only one other person asking for border clearance.
"Do you need to see my contract or lease or degrees?"
"No. You already have the work permit. Do you have a car following, or plan to bring one in the future?"
"No."
"Then get out. Welcome to Canada."
The moving truck with three tons of stuff cleared Customs in about five minutes a week later. The clerk said my papers were so well put together, she could find nothing to change.
The truck driver informed me that he deliberately chose that particular office since the clerks were generally pleasant. "Nine times out of ten you will get someone like that clerk. The tenth time will be a dragon. If I'd taken you to one of the other posts, there is a 90 per cent chance that your goods would have been impounded and gone over with a fine toothed comb."
The new apartment at Queen Mary Drive was a real change from the Rochester apartment in more ways than one. I formerly thought the closets were ill planned and located. They swallowed the books easily and will take the shelves that I have yet to build (once I get them out of their boxes.) The super and his wife and their grandson have been extremely helpful, even cat sitting for Gizmo when the movers came. They wanted to keep her too, but they had just bought a small Siamese kitten and Gizmo promptly slapped it upside the head. Once the two were kept separately, Gizmo was a neat and considerate house guest.
"She's part Siamese," they told me. And when the kitten mewed at me in Gizmo's voice, I believed them. This explains her 'talkativeness', her gutteral growls and occasional babylike wails, her high intelligence and slim figure (no pet owners are NOT all like our pets! I only wish I had Gizmo's build and turnout.)
Things are starting to change, though. I got a medical exam before leaving and the incredulous doctor told me that I'd lost ten pounds. "Get out of a job, get a new job, leave the country, pack up three tons of stuff," I suggested. I guess packing is sort of weightlifting with a reward.
The welcome has been great across the board. On June 7 I attended a party at the home of WE MOVE TO CANADA'S blogger and author Laura Kaminker and Allan Wood in Port Credit. The Oakville resident's association can count me as a member and I'll attend their picnic next weekend at Foster Park. I have been to Friends Meeting in Toronto and took in the "Woofstock" dog show afterward near the St. Lawrence Market, copping enough free food for Gizmo to keep her in cat chow til September.
The studio and printer will be set up today, and I have a little work to do with hooks and so on before the animation desk top can be attached to the metal shelving. The Mighty Wurlitzer will make an admirable control center for teaching materials.
And my boss has asked if I could do some extra work this July, so there may even be a little money coming in.
The three ceiling fans are working hard, but the heat hit 100 for two days (40 C) and I was actually about to knuckle under and get an AC when the most violent lightning storm I've seen in years broke and washed most of the yuck away. The humidity level rivaled Savannah's for a day or so.
Now that I have the bicycle (which fits neatly into the storeroom along with the shelves!) I plan to do some exploring. Watch this space.
Canada is a lovely country and I'm happy to be here. I was surprised to hear that some Americans do not like living here and go home after a while. Whatever for?
The most obvious difference I've noted is that people here are a lot more polite. Strangers say Hello to you in the street just the way they do in the American South. This is a custom that I enjoy.
And there is, how do I say it...less tension here. As if I crossed through a curtain of it when crossing the border, and now I'm on the other side. It's not Heaven, but it's what used to pass for normal.
Maybe I'm just reacting to not having to plan for the move. It's done. The unpacking will take most of the rest of June, but at least everything is here.
I'll try to post when things happen. Lots more will be happening here than in Rochester, that's for sure.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
The Reuben Awards
Well, the Reubens, the cartoon Oscars, took place last night in New Orleans. The National Cartoonists Society awarded the Illustrated Book category award to Sandra Boynton for Blue Moo.
It's a fine book. Sandra Boynton was also awarded the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award. I thought that I might have a chance when I heard of this special award...but apparently the NCS doesn't have a problem giving two awards to the same person in the same event.
Al Jaffee, the MAD cartoonist who created and still draws the famous MAD FOLD-INS, won a well deserved and long overdue Reuben. Dave Silverman won the Feature Animation award for THE SIMPSONS MOVIE, and Steve Silver won in television for KIM POSSIBLE. Here is a list of the other winners:
http://dailycartoonist.com/index.php/the-2008-ncs-reuben-weekend-coverage/
The NCS tried to make their awards system a little fairer by having individual chapters vote on the entries for one category each, rather than have the entire membership vote 'cold'. For example, I don't know anyone working in comics or sports cartooning. I would tend to pick a name that sounded familiar, which wouldn't be an accurate vote and might skew the award. If the individual chapters view the submissions, they can do so at meetings and discuss the candidates while actually looking at the artwork.
One drawback is that the awards are essentially determined by a small 'focus group' and not the general membership. The NCS used to be a New York based organization where everyone worked with and saw one another on a fairly regular basis. It is now a truly national organization, really a worldwide one. I don't know how to really solve the problem of determining Reuben winners. It's going in the right direction, but still not there yet.
The weakness in this system is that the category awards demarcations are too general. For example, of the three nominees in the Illustrated Book category, two (mine and Jay Stephens' ROBOTS) were a textbook and a how-to, respectively, 'books with illustrations' and not really illustrated books in the traditional sense.
I would like to see a new category for CARTOON INSTRUCTION or CARTOON RESEARCH added to the awards, since there are so many of these books to choose from. Hans Bacher's DREAM WORLDS, the ART OF animation series from Pixar and Disney, would all be eligible for this new award.
Animation also needs another category: Online, or Web Animation. This is where animation is headed, like it or not. Perhaps the Television division will eventually change into a new Home Animation category.
Of course there are more important things in the world to worry about. And it will be one less thing to pack.
One good side effect is that PREPARE TO BOARD! has gone below 10,000 on the amazon.com sales chart, making it an official best seller. Thanks, everyone who bought it as a result of the REUBEN publicity.
It's a fine book. Sandra Boynton was also awarded the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award. I thought that I might have a chance when I heard of this special award...but apparently the NCS doesn't have a problem giving two awards to the same person in the same event.
Al Jaffee, the MAD cartoonist who created and still draws the famous MAD FOLD-INS, won a well deserved and long overdue Reuben. Dave Silverman won the Feature Animation award for THE SIMPSONS MOVIE, and Steve Silver won in television for KIM POSSIBLE. Here is a list of the other winners:
http://dailycartoonist.com/index.php/the-2008-ncs-reuben-weekend-coverage/
The NCS tried to make their awards system a little fairer by having individual chapters vote on the entries for one category each, rather than have the entire membership vote 'cold'. For example, I don't know anyone working in comics or sports cartooning. I would tend to pick a name that sounded familiar, which wouldn't be an accurate vote and might skew the award. If the individual chapters view the submissions, they can do so at meetings and discuss the candidates while actually looking at the artwork.
One drawback is that the awards are essentially determined by a small 'focus group' and not the general membership. The NCS used to be a New York based organization where everyone worked with and saw one another on a fairly regular basis. It is now a truly national organization, really a worldwide one. I don't know how to really solve the problem of determining Reuben winners. It's going in the right direction, but still not there yet.
The weakness in this system is that the category awards demarcations are too general. For example, of the three nominees in the Illustrated Book category, two (mine and Jay Stephens' ROBOTS) were a textbook and a how-to, respectively, 'books with illustrations' and not really illustrated books in the traditional sense.
I would like to see a new category for CARTOON INSTRUCTION or CARTOON RESEARCH added to the awards, since there are so many of these books to choose from. Hans Bacher's DREAM WORLDS, the ART OF animation series from Pixar and Disney, would all be eligible for this new award.
Animation also needs another category: Online, or Web Animation. This is where animation is headed, like it or not. Perhaps the Television division will eventually change into a new Home Animation category.
Of course there are more important things in the world to worry about. And it will be one less thing to pack.
One good side effect is that PREPARE TO BOARD! has gone below 10,000 on the amazon.com sales chart, making it an official best seller. Thanks, everyone who bought it as a result of the REUBEN publicity.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Countdown to the Canada move!
It's hard to believe that M-day is almost here. Things are proceeding at the same pace--methodical, with just a hint of panic at the start. Actually I did all the panicking back in December when I contemplated the sheer amount of stuff I had to pack up and move.
Well most of it is packed; the remainder (day to day stuff, including this computer) will be packed up just after Memorial Day. My neighbours purchased a cake (red with white frosting, like the Canadian flag...wait that didn't sound right--the Canadian flag doesn't have frosting...anyway, it's a red velvet cake with white frosting. I am going to make a Vegan quiche and provide wine and some bourbon and so on. If the weather continues cold and nasty, as it is at present, we'll have the function in the splendid lobby of this former hotel. (most of the furnishings are the 1924 originals...I'm going to miss them.)
Gizmo the cat managed to get herself jammed behind the upended animation desk today. The first sign of something wrong was a mad scrabbling sound just behind me. I looked back to see a cat's rear end, from the knees back, pointing straight up in the air; the rest of the cat was stuck behind the desk. The rear end was quite animated however. When I tried to rescue her she kept wildly scrabbling with the rear and unseen front legs; and managed to eventually right herself in a sitting position on top of the desk.
It's funny now, but there is a real danger of the cat hurting herself during this move. I will keep an eagle eye on her when I go onto the new place's balcony; and the first thing I 'm going to do when I get there, after she's unpacked--is put the netting on the railing and tie it on tight. Eventually, she will get out on the balcony no matter what i do. I hope that the concrete surface will prove uninviting to her feet.
So anyway, tomorrow I am going to Roycroft. I want to see the place again since it is not likely that I'll be heading that way again any time soon. It's the only time I can go.
I'll write more about it after I've been. There are earlier articles about it on this blog, if anyone is interested in the place. It's one of the nicest things about Western New York and it should be much better known.
Anyway, that's that...then the final packing starts after the party.
Well most of it is packed; the remainder (day to day stuff, including this computer) will be packed up just after Memorial Day. My neighbours purchased a cake (red with white frosting, like the Canadian flag...wait that didn't sound right--the Canadian flag doesn't have frosting...anyway, it's a red velvet cake with white frosting. I am going to make a Vegan quiche and provide wine and some bourbon and so on. If the weather continues cold and nasty, as it is at present, we'll have the function in the splendid lobby of this former hotel. (most of the furnishings are the 1924 originals...I'm going to miss them.)
Gizmo the cat managed to get herself jammed behind the upended animation desk today. The first sign of something wrong was a mad scrabbling sound just behind me. I looked back to see a cat's rear end, from the knees back, pointing straight up in the air; the rest of the cat was stuck behind the desk. The rear end was quite animated however. When I tried to rescue her she kept wildly scrabbling with the rear and unseen front legs; and managed to eventually right herself in a sitting position on top of the desk.
It's funny now, but there is a real danger of the cat hurting herself during this move. I will keep an eagle eye on her when I go onto the new place's balcony; and the first thing I 'm going to do when I get there, after she's unpacked--is put the netting on the railing and tie it on tight. Eventually, she will get out on the balcony no matter what i do. I hope that the concrete surface will prove uninviting to her feet.
So anyway, tomorrow I am going to Roycroft. I want to see the place again since it is not likely that I'll be heading that way again any time soon. It's the only time I can go.
I'll write more about it after I've been. There are earlier articles about it on this blog, if anyone is interested in the place. It's one of the nicest things about Western New York and it should be much better known.
Anyway, that's that...then the final packing starts after the party.
Friday, May 16, 2008
The New Apartment: Back to 1967
I've rented an apartment in Oakville that was built in 1967, on the cusp of the Decade that Taste Forgot, also known as the 1970s. First the good news. The building was better made than many of the others in the area; it has radiant heating in the floor, it's meticulously clean and well maintained, and it is in a terrific location.
As for the apartment itself. It was designed by people who decided that no one, ever, would EVER want to configure a room differently, or redecorate, ever ever again. It has an 18 foot long picture window. But it is not SYMMETRICAL and doesn't come in a STANDARD SIZE. That would be too square, DaddyO! In addition, ALL the windows slam into the walls. I've never, ever seen this before, not even in East Berlin. What were they THINKING? Who can put window treatments on windows that run directly into the corners of a room? It's completely impossible to use anything but the old fashioned curtain hooks and traverse rods, which I remember my parents swearing over in the Sixties. You can't use the tab curtains since there's nowhere to attach some of the brackets. In addition the 18 foot long balcony looks out on nothing more than the building across the way, which is lit up like a Christmas tree at night. So I ordered SIX different blackout drapes from online stores and a friend in my current place kindly took them up (since NONE were standard lengths--once again, I Gotta Be Me---who needs standard windows, man?) I got into the spirit of things by not having the center panels match. It'll match the furniture and the side windows will have pictures hanging in front of them, so I've created more wall space in this fashion. I purchased netting for the strange balcony to keep the cat from falling through the railings, which have iron rails that are spaced exactly as wide as a cat's head. How thoughtful. And there are huge spikes on the iron part of the balcony that were probably intended to guard the place from marauding dragons since it looks like an upside down portcullis. That'll get the cat's attention if she tries to jump over it--and she'd continue seven stories down, straight to the concrete. Gizmo is forbidden to go onto the balcony but I know she'll sneak out once or twice. The netting will eliminate most of the hazard anyway. There are no ledges or windowsills for her to sun herself on, so I'll put furniture in strategic locations or get some more cat trees.
The cheapness and lack of character in postwar construction never ceases to amaze me. The architects of that time were absolutely convinced that they had perfected interior design and that no one would ever want to use any style other than Swedish Modern Minimalist in any of their rooms or actually hang simple curtains instead of drapes.
So while it's not as bad as the horrors in James Lileks' INTERIOR DESECRATORS, (after all, I can cover up the windows) it has a few other design hiccups that are worthy of note.
The bathroom has one of those ghastly 'vanities' with fake marble. It's much too small and although it has some storage, it's pretty meager. And you would not believe the hall lights. These are the kind that do nothing but catch dust. Early Jetsons design style.
And believe it or not, there are plastic panels in the bedrooms. They are set into the walls, under the windows. They have no function whatever. It's 1967, Plastic is In, Baby. Which is why I will put the longest, heaviest drapes in the bedroom. The traverse rod there is ten feet wide. The window is 24" wide. I guess the drama queens of 1967 could make a splendid entrance from behind the extra wide drapes. The bedroom curtains are a pleasant floral pattern that will suggest wallpaper and deaden the sound and light from the street. I plan to put a large oak dresser in front of the hideous inset (which is at least a neutral colour.) The studio will have to look after itself with a simple Roman shade the last tenant left. I mean really...Canada was just as cold in the Sixties. Did they never hear of something called insulation?
Now, my furniture is Mission style, and I am bored by most buildings constructed after 1950, though I've spent some very happy times in one (many years ago in New York.) And to be fair, the new place is cheery and very well lit. This is not going to be the last stop, but it's a good stopgap til I get my legs under me at Sheridan and, more importantly, give them most of the artwork and books I've assembled over the years.
Sheridan has an archive and I have stuff that needs to be archived. It's a great match. But if I give them the materials before residing in Canada for twelve months, I must pay duty on it. So I hang onto the things for a year and give them as gifts once I have my first anniversary on the job. I hope that this can form a nucleus for a real animation collection similar to the Cartoon Research Library at Ohio State University which was developed from a donation of original art by the late Milton Caniff. (Hey, there's something about guys named Milt and cartoons...they all drawr real good!)
Meanwhile, I've spoken to the super about replacing the ceiling lights with my old fans. I'll get a new floor lamp for the living room since NO ONE was ever going to need a ceiling light there after 1967!
What struck me about this building is that it perfectly summed up the tenor of the times. They knew they had achieved plastic perfection, and nothing would ever change.
For me, it's not so much Back to the Future as Back to the Past. Give me a well kept 1920 or 30s building every time...the rooms can be configured the way YOU want, since they were designed in a less 'perfect' era.
As for the apartment itself. It was designed by people who decided that no one, ever, would EVER want to configure a room differently, or redecorate, ever ever again. It has an 18 foot long picture window. But it is not SYMMETRICAL and doesn't come in a STANDARD SIZE. That would be too square, DaddyO! In addition, ALL the windows slam into the walls. I've never, ever seen this before, not even in East Berlin. What were they THINKING? Who can put window treatments on windows that run directly into the corners of a room? It's completely impossible to use anything but the old fashioned curtain hooks and traverse rods, which I remember my parents swearing over in the Sixties. You can't use the tab curtains since there's nowhere to attach some of the brackets. In addition the 18 foot long balcony looks out on nothing more than the building across the way, which is lit up like a Christmas tree at night. So I ordered SIX different blackout drapes from online stores and a friend in my current place kindly took them up (since NONE were standard lengths--once again, I Gotta Be Me---who needs standard windows, man?) I got into the spirit of things by not having the center panels match. It'll match the furniture and the side windows will have pictures hanging in front of them, so I've created more wall space in this fashion. I purchased netting for the strange balcony to keep the cat from falling through the railings, which have iron rails that are spaced exactly as wide as a cat's head. How thoughtful. And there are huge spikes on the iron part of the balcony that were probably intended to guard the place from marauding dragons since it looks like an upside down portcullis. That'll get the cat's attention if she tries to jump over it--and she'd continue seven stories down, straight to the concrete. Gizmo is forbidden to go onto the balcony but I know she'll sneak out once or twice. The netting will eliminate most of the hazard anyway. There are no ledges or windowsills for her to sun herself on, so I'll put furniture in strategic locations or get some more cat trees.
The cheapness and lack of character in postwar construction never ceases to amaze me. The architects of that time were absolutely convinced that they had perfected interior design and that no one would ever want to use any style other than Swedish Modern Minimalist in any of their rooms or actually hang simple curtains instead of drapes.
So while it's not as bad as the horrors in James Lileks' INTERIOR DESECRATORS, (after all, I can cover up the windows) it has a few other design hiccups that are worthy of note.
The bathroom has one of those ghastly 'vanities' with fake marble. It's much too small and although it has some storage, it's pretty meager. And you would not believe the hall lights. These are the kind that do nothing but catch dust. Early Jetsons design style.
And believe it or not, there are plastic panels in the bedrooms. They are set into the walls, under the windows. They have no function whatever. It's 1967, Plastic is In, Baby. Which is why I will put the longest, heaviest drapes in the bedroom. The traverse rod there is ten feet wide. The window is 24" wide. I guess the drama queens of 1967 could make a splendid entrance from behind the extra wide drapes. The bedroom curtains are a pleasant floral pattern that will suggest wallpaper and deaden the sound and light from the street. I plan to put a large oak dresser in front of the hideous inset (which is at least a neutral colour.) The studio will have to look after itself with a simple Roman shade the last tenant left. I mean really...Canada was just as cold in the Sixties. Did they never hear of something called insulation?
Now, my furniture is Mission style, and I am bored by most buildings constructed after 1950, though I've spent some very happy times in one (many years ago in New York.) And to be fair, the new place is cheery and very well lit. This is not going to be the last stop, but it's a good stopgap til I get my legs under me at Sheridan and, more importantly, give them most of the artwork and books I've assembled over the years.
Sheridan has an archive and I have stuff that needs to be archived. It's a great match. But if I give them the materials before residing in Canada for twelve months, I must pay duty on it. So I hang onto the things for a year and give them as gifts once I have my first anniversary on the job. I hope that this can form a nucleus for a real animation collection similar to the Cartoon Research Library at Ohio State University which was developed from a donation of original art by the late Milton Caniff. (Hey, there's something about guys named Milt and cartoons...they all drawr real good!)
Meanwhile, I've spoken to the super about replacing the ceiling lights with my old fans. I'll get a new floor lamp for the living room since NO ONE was ever going to need a ceiling light there after 1967!
What struck me about this building is that it perfectly summed up the tenor of the times. They knew they had achieved plastic perfection, and nothing would ever change.
For me, it's not so much Back to the Future as Back to the Past. Give me a well kept 1920 or 30s building every time...the rooms can be configured the way YOU want, since they were designed in a less 'perfect' era.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Animation Books and Book Shows
Tina Price of Creative Talent Network sent a notice about the new animation book look in L.A. I can't make it this year. All my energies for the past year have been taken up with searching for a better job and now with the move. Once the move is over, I will see what I will see.
Here is Tina's announcement:
Anyone who is in Los Angeles should visit this show and look at the smorgasbord of books on display. If it is anything like last year's show, it should be a lot of fun. And speaking of books, I have just received the incredible book of animation caricatures assembled from the yearly show at the Walt Disney Studio. This book, which was appropriately published on April 1, was intended to showcase the resurgence of drawn animation at that studio. It was published in-house and only distributed to employees.
It really should have been called the John Musker collection since his outstanding work is on nearly every page. The rest of us were just playing along. (Actually many other artists have remarkable work here, but John was so prolific an illustrator, his work makes up about eighty per cent of the book.)
I remember some of the drawings and people like it was yesterday and the drawings bring back pleasant memories of my time at Disney. Less pleasant memories are immortalized as well; Musker, in particular, got into some political material toward the end of his first stay at the studio.
The quality of the work (other than John's) deteriorates after management lays off most of the artistic staff. The layoffs and other developments are deliniated in a timeline inside the front and back covers.
And sadly the first ten years of the caricature show is unrepresented because the artwork from this show was not digitized. But it's a stunning book, and it will be one of my treasures.
How did I happen to get a copy if it was only distributed to employees? There are two reasons.
Along about last November I was contacted by Lella Smith of the Animation Research Library on the lot. She asked if they could have my permission to use some of my caricatures (including the ones of Frank and Ollie that became the 'official' caricatures of these legendary animators) in the book. Of course, I said, but don't you already own them? No, it turns out they didn't. I was promised a book in exchange for the use of the drawings, which was overpaying me by a lot.
Oddly enough five of the six drawings I did for the show are included here. I rarely participated since I was too busy working...I once asked John Musker how he could do up to seventy five drawings per show. It turns out he would sketch during lengthy meetings. Other, fancier pieces by John show up later in the book when he and Ron Clements were sitting idle in their offices awaiting their 'fate' as the management continued to play up the computer wing and destroy the cartoonists. John's drawings from 2004 to 2006 are a chronicle of an artistic massacre. There is one that has a computer evilly grinning and holding a card marked '2D' as the last "Survivor" at Disney's. But help is on the way.
2006's pages feature a very funny drawing of John Lasseter about to land on top of David Stainton like the Sumo wrestler in Bill Plympton's 25 WAYS TO QUIT SMOKING. (Stainton was the former head of Feature Animation, and a chainsaw manager par excellence.)
So what is my second reason for receiving this book?
You never really leave Disney. It's more of a living entity than a studio. Sooner or later, everyone comes back. I don't know if the reach will extend to Canada, but spiritually a part of me will always be there, I guess.
Here is Tina's announcement:
The Animation Book Look is a gathering of authors and artists from the
animation industry. Co-hosted by Van Eaton Galleries and The Creative Talent
Network, this year’s event will be held in Sherman Oaks, California, on May 17
from 1pm - 6pm. This free festival of book signings and artist sightings is the
only event of its kind in the country.The Book Look will bring amazing artists
and authors to the signing table. More than 75 books will be featured, including
children’s books, Artist’s Sketchbooks, and How-To’s and History-Of’s from
illustration to fine art.The Who’s Who of artists and authors include Jerry
Beck, Toby Bluth, Tee Bosustow, Stefan Bucher, Dave Colman, Craig Elliott, Gris
Grimly, Ryan Hungerford, Mike Kunkel, Jason Lethcoe, Rik Maki, Patrick Morgan,
Steve Niles, Brian and Phil Phillipson, Don Peri, Eric Pigors, Ragnar, Martha
Sigall, Stephen Silver, Bob Singer, Jim Smith, Tom Sito, Amanda Visell, Tony
White, Shigeru Yabu, and Willie Ito.The Animation Book Look signing and sales
event will be held at Van Eaton Galleries, 13613 Ventura Blvd. Sherman Oaks, CA,
on Saturday, May 17, from 1:00 pm-6:00 pm. The event is free, but RSVP’s are
suggested by contacting Van Eaton Galleries at (818) 788-2357. Visit AnimationBookLook.com for more details.And be sure and stop by
the CTN Table and say hi!!
Anyone who is in Los Angeles should visit this show and look at the smorgasbord of books on display. If it is anything like last year's show, it should be a lot of fun. And speaking of books, I have just received the incredible book of animation caricatures assembled from the yearly show at the Walt Disney Studio. This book, which was appropriately published on April 1, was intended to showcase the resurgence of drawn animation at that studio. It was published in-house and only distributed to employees.
It really should have been called the John Musker collection since his outstanding work is on nearly every page. The rest of us were just playing along. (Actually many other artists have remarkable work here, but John was so prolific an illustrator, his work makes up about eighty per cent of the book.)
I remember some of the drawings and people like it was yesterday and the drawings bring back pleasant memories of my time at Disney. Less pleasant memories are immortalized as well; Musker, in particular, got into some political material toward the end of his first stay at the studio.
The quality of the work (other than John's) deteriorates after management lays off most of the artistic staff. The layoffs and other developments are deliniated in a timeline inside the front and back covers.
And sadly the first ten years of the caricature show is unrepresented because the artwork from this show was not digitized. But it's a stunning book, and it will be one of my treasures.
How did I happen to get a copy if it was only distributed to employees? There are two reasons.
Along about last November I was contacted by Lella Smith of the Animation Research Library on the lot. She asked if they could have my permission to use some of my caricatures (including the ones of Frank and Ollie that became the 'official' caricatures of these legendary animators) in the book. Of course, I said, but don't you already own them? No, it turns out they didn't. I was promised a book in exchange for the use of the drawings, which was overpaying me by a lot.
Oddly enough five of the six drawings I did for the show are included here. I rarely participated since I was too busy working...I once asked John Musker how he could do up to seventy five drawings per show. It turns out he would sketch during lengthy meetings. Other, fancier pieces by John show up later in the book when he and Ron Clements were sitting idle in their offices awaiting their 'fate' as the management continued to play up the computer wing and destroy the cartoonists. John's drawings from 2004 to 2006 are a chronicle of an artistic massacre. There is one that has a computer evilly grinning and holding a card marked '2D' as the last "Survivor" at Disney's. But help is on the way.
2006's pages feature a very funny drawing of John Lasseter about to land on top of David Stainton like the Sumo wrestler in Bill Plympton's 25 WAYS TO QUIT SMOKING. (Stainton was the former head of Feature Animation, and a chainsaw manager par excellence.)
So what is my second reason for receiving this book?
You never really leave Disney. It's more of a living entity than a studio. Sooner or later, everyone comes back. I don't know if the reach will extend to Canada, but spiritually a part of me will always be there, I guess.
Thursday, May 01, 2008
SITA SINGS THE BLUES: Animation as Expiation
Some animators can detach themselves emotionally from the scene at the end of the work day. Others pour their souls into a performance so that they actually identify with the character. They live, eat, sleep, breathe the character until the project is done--and sometimes long after it's done!
And still others use their art as a sort of therapy. I'm in the last category and I suspect a sizable amount of our adult viewers might be, too. (By the way--It's okay to like animation after you reach adulthood--the USA is the only country that sees this powerful medium as 'kid stuff' anyway.)
Are things not going your way in your life? Frustrated relationship? Animators can make their own world where Everything is Fine, or get back at the person place or thing that annoys them through the magic of animated art.
Nina Paley, "America's Best-Loved Unknown Cartoonist" has achieved expiation (definition: "compensation for a wrong") through animation in her new feature SITA SINGS THE BLUES, which screened at the Rochester High Falls Film Festival last night. All artwork, eding, directing, and visuals were done by Nina Paley; she's one of a very small group of animators who create feature films singlehanded.
SITA SINGS THE BLUES would not exist without the computer. Ironically enough, Nina Paley had her life literally changed by a computer; she got the idea of making a feature film about the trials and tribulations of Sita, wife of Rama (the principals in Valmiki's Sanskrit epic of The Ramayana) after her ex 'dumped' her in one short, brutal email sent from India.
Yet this is anything but a computer-generated picture. The first sections to be completed were amusing Flash-animated shorts set to the 1920s recordings of singer Annette Hanshaw. Nina's cartoon style is breathtaking, and her art direction absolutely sublime. She graciously gave me permission to use some examples from this film in my art direction chapters of PREPARE TO BOARD! and that publication doesn't do justice to the color.
A viewer in the Rochester audience asked what connection Miss Hanshaw's recordings had to a 3,000+ year old legend. Well, after Nina was dumped she crashed with friends in New York City, one of whom played a Hanshaw '78 for her, and Nina was hooked. Many of Hanshaw's songs are about suffering women, Twenties style, but some depict the sexually liberated Flapper of the period. Paley used both types of song for soundtracks, complete with scratchy 78 sounds and needle drops. The music is part of the expiatory process.
The Sita films, which originally appeared on Nina's blog and in film festivals, illustrate important moments in the Ramayana but they had to be stitched into the fabric of a feature film along with the hand-drawn Flash animation that tells a barebones version of Nina's breakup with her 'ex', Dave. This animation is handled completely differently from Sita's tribulations: Sita and Rama appear as animated cutouts, paintings done in classical Indian style, and as beautifully designed Flash characters, caricatured with respect; the modern sequences are sketchy, boiling (mad) and extremely direct. The story point is quickly made. Dave rejects Nina in a brutal email sent from India when she is on the other side of the world. Dave has no character, even his voice is flat. He's the McGuffin that gets Nina thinking about Sita--and while there is no overt identification with the goddess, the theme of the 'woman wronged by her man' does carry through both stories.
The glue that holds the picture together is the extremely entertaining commentary provided by shadow puppets voiced by Bhavana Nagulapally, Aseem Chhabra, and Manish Acharya.
Their analysis of the Ramayana clarifies complicated character relationships and actions and keeps us motivated and interested in Sita's story, which is a lot less direct than Nina's.
Nina Paley has received some criticism (and hate mail) from people who could not possibly have seen the entire film. You can read about this on her blog.
It's difficult to know how people will react to art that involves religious figures. There are many examples of this sort of thing in the Christian canon, which has been prime Hollywood material ever since there was a Hollywood. But the subtext is not religion: it's the rebellion and redemption of the woman, not the Goddess. In fact, the last shot of the film shows Sita and Rama together back in Sward (the Hindu Olympus)--with a twist that I won't give away here.
I think that SITA SINGS THE BLUES is a very original movie and quite an achievement for the artist. It may be problematic getting major distribution for it; it's already on the indie and festival circuit.
I also think that this is a film that will be best viewed more than once.
You can visit the film's site here. See SITA, and judge this film for yourself.
And I'll be visiting the store for a SITA mug!
And still others use their art as a sort of therapy. I'm in the last category and I suspect a sizable amount of our adult viewers might be, too. (By the way--It's okay to like animation after you reach adulthood--the USA is the only country that sees this powerful medium as 'kid stuff' anyway.)
Are things not going your way in your life? Frustrated relationship? Animators can make their own world where Everything is Fine, or get back at the person place or thing that annoys them through the magic of animated art.
Nina Paley, "America's Best-Loved Unknown Cartoonist" has achieved expiation (definition: "compensation for a wrong") through animation in her new feature SITA SINGS THE BLUES, which screened at the Rochester High Falls Film Festival last night. All artwork, eding, directing, and visuals were done by Nina Paley; she's one of a very small group of animators who create feature films singlehanded.
SITA SINGS THE BLUES would not exist without the computer. Ironically enough, Nina Paley had her life literally changed by a computer; she got the idea of making a feature film about the trials and tribulations of Sita, wife of Rama (the principals in Valmiki's Sanskrit epic of The Ramayana) after her ex 'dumped' her in one short, brutal email sent from India.
Yet this is anything but a computer-generated picture. The first sections to be completed were amusing Flash-animated shorts set to the 1920s recordings of singer Annette Hanshaw. Nina's cartoon style is breathtaking, and her art direction absolutely sublime. She graciously gave me permission to use some examples from this film in my art direction chapters of PREPARE TO BOARD! and that publication doesn't do justice to the color.
A viewer in the Rochester audience asked what connection Miss Hanshaw's recordings had to a 3,000+ year old legend. Well, after Nina was dumped she crashed with friends in New York City, one of whom played a Hanshaw '78 for her, and Nina was hooked. Many of Hanshaw's songs are about suffering women, Twenties style, but some depict the sexually liberated Flapper of the period. Paley used both types of song for soundtracks, complete with scratchy 78 sounds and needle drops. The music is part of the expiatory process.
The Sita films, which originally appeared on Nina's blog and in film festivals, illustrate important moments in the Ramayana but they had to be stitched into the fabric of a feature film along with the hand-drawn Flash animation that tells a barebones version of Nina's breakup with her 'ex', Dave. This animation is handled completely differently from Sita's tribulations: Sita and Rama appear as animated cutouts, paintings done in classical Indian style, and as beautifully designed Flash characters, caricatured with respect; the modern sequences are sketchy, boiling (mad) and extremely direct. The story point is quickly made. Dave rejects Nina in a brutal email sent from India when she is on the other side of the world. Dave has no character, even his voice is flat. He's the McGuffin that gets Nina thinking about Sita--and while there is no overt identification with the goddess, the theme of the 'woman wronged by her man' does carry through both stories.
The glue that holds the picture together is the extremely entertaining commentary provided by shadow puppets voiced by Bhavana Nagulapally, Aseem Chhabra, and Manish Acharya.
Their analysis of the Ramayana clarifies complicated character relationships and actions and keeps us motivated and interested in Sita's story, which is a lot less direct than Nina's.
Nina Paley has received some criticism (and hate mail) from people who could not possibly have seen the entire film. You can read about this on her blog.
It's difficult to know how people will react to art that involves religious figures. There are many examples of this sort of thing in the Christian canon, which has been prime Hollywood material ever since there was a Hollywood. But the subtext is not religion: it's the rebellion and redemption of the woman, not the Goddess. In fact, the last shot of the film shows Sita and Rama together back in Sward (the Hindu Olympus)--with a twist that I won't give away here.
I think that SITA SINGS THE BLUES is a very original movie and quite an achievement for the artist. It may be problematic getting major distribution for it; it's already on the indie and festival circuit.
I also think that this is a film that will be best viewed more than once.
You can visit the film's site here. See SITA, and judge this film for yourself.
And I'll be visiting the store for a SITA mug!
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
The Count Down
It's a little hard to believe that in thirty one days, Gizmo and I are leaving for our new Canadian home.
Thirty days is a round number but I'll start the countdown now.
This weekend I'll pick up the apartment keys and measure the windows for the curtains. There's a window treatment on the useless picture window in the living room, but I have to get something for the three others. While I'm at it I'll bring a compass to get some idea of where the sun hits this building...I was told 'eastern' exposure, but the flat has two exposures.
I've contacted a pet food supplier for Gizmo's rather poorly distributed but excellent food, a bed manufacturer for the delivery time on a new bed, and the cable company. All three things (special cat food, bed, and cable and telephone service) will be in the flat by the first week of May.
There's not much more to say except that classes are nearly over, I have all my stuff in boxes except for the things used on a day to day basis. (George Carlin's routine, "Stuff" has never been so funny.) The movers have sent the contracts. Once I'm up there there's plenty of time to inquire about my new courses and get into the culture of Sheridan and maybe even see a little of Ontario before the real work starts in August.
Thirty days is a round number but I'll start the countdown now.
This weekend I'll pick up the apartment keys and measure the windows for the curtains. There's a window treatment on the useless picture window in the living room, but I have to get something for the three others. While I'm at it I'll bring a compass to get some idea of where the sun hits this building...I was told 'eastern' exposure, but the flat has two exposures.
I've contacted a pet food supplier for Gizmo's rather poorly distributed but excellent food, a bed manufacturer for the delivery time on a new bed, and the cable company. All three things (special cat food, bed, and cable and telephone service) will be in the flat by the first week of May.
There's not much more to say except that classes are nearly over, I have all my stuff in boxes except for the things used on a day to day basis. (George Carlin's routine, "Stuff" has never been so funny.) The movers have sent the contracts. Once I'm up there there's plenty of time to inquire about my new courses and get into the culture of Sheridan and maybe even see a little of Ontario before the real work starts in August.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
The Animation Desk Redux, or Re-desked
The operation was a success! and the patient didn't die!
I now have a very sturdy birch plywood top to where the swivel used to be on the old animation desk. The top and 'ears' are disassembled and waiting to be reconfigured on metal shelves that rest next to the wooden desk (which is uncharacteristically standing on end in preparation for the move.) It makes an attractive sculpture and will be a very nice computer desk. Two neat holes have been cut in the rear of the top shelf section to allow free passage of the mare's nest of cables one needs to set up this system.
And I got a floor plan for the apartment that gives accurate measurements for the rooms--the desk will fit, and there's room for a small shelf that will hold the computer tower and backup system. The fit will be Snug, but it will be a better use of space than the much larger room I'm moving it out of.
I had a crazy conversation with Bill Matthews about my new place. It seems that Bill, who was one of the founders of the Sheridan animation program in 1967, lived in that very building, and on the same floor, while working to get the program started. We have ascertained that we are not sharing the same apartment, albeit at different points in time.
Now this might sound like Synergy, Serendipity, or oogie boogie magic, but in fact there is a simple explanation. The Devonshire apartments are a good deal nicer looking than the unit across the street, which also dates from the late Sixties. There are very few apartment buildings in Oakville. The ones near the college now probably did not exist then. And the Devonshire is wonderfully located; the bus is right outside the door, it's five minutes from the train station, and within walking distance to the library, a pool, a cultural centre, and the lake. It would be a logical choice for someone who didn't want to drive too much but still keep a short distance between themselves and work.
But it is a rather remarkable coincidence all the same.
I now have a very sturdy birch plywood top to where the swivel used to be on the old animation desk. The top and 'ears' are disassembled and waiting to be reconfigured on metal shelves that rest next to the wooden desk (which is uncharacteristically standing on end in preparation for the move.) It makes an attractive sculpture and will be a very nice computer desk. Two neat holes have been cut in the rear of the top shelf section to allow free passage of the mare's nest of cables one needs to set up this system.
And I got a floor plan for the apartment that gives accurate measurements for the rooms--the desk will fit, and there's room for a small shelf that will hold the computer tower and backup system. The fit will be Snug, but it will be a better use of space than the much larger room I'm moving it out of.
I had a crazy conversation with Bill Matthews about my new place. It seems that Bill, who was one of the founders of the Sheridan animation program in 1967, lived in that very building, and on the same floor, while working to get the program started. We have ascertained that we are not sharing the same apartment, albeit at different points in time.
Now this might sound like Synergy, Serendipity, or oogie boogie magic, but in fact there is a simple explanation. The Devonshire apartments are a good deal nicer looking than the unit across the street, which also dates from the late Sixties. There are very few apartment buildings in Oakville. The ones near the college now probably did not exist then. And the Devonshire is wonderfully located; the bus is right outside the door, it's five minutes from the train station, and within walking distance to the library, a pool, a cultural centre, and the lake. It would be a logical choice for someone who didn't want to drive too much but still keep a short distance between themselves and work.
But it is a rather remarkable coincidence all the same.
Women in Animation (and live action)
"There were no female animators at Disney's in the Golden Age (except for Retta Scott)."
I've heard this statement from men and women --many of whom should know better.
"We had a lot of female assistants," one younger animator said to me once. The thing is that if you were assisting at Disney's in the Golden Age, you were also animating. If your animator allowed you to accumulate 70 feet of footage on approved scenes, you would be promoted to animator...and how easy it was, under this system, to not count scenes as 'animation' so that the promotion would forever be in the future.
I hope to have some information on some of the unknown women of The Golden Age At Disney Animation in future posts.
Meanwhile, I can write about a few working today whom I know personally.
Ellen Woodbury (supervising animator, ZaZu in THE LION KING, Pegasus in HERCULES) is currently a sculptor in Loveland, Colorado. Ellen's stonework reflects her animation training--some of them really do seem to be alive! Her work can be viewed at the Creative Talent Network. While you are at it, check out the work of the many other talented women and men there.
Carole Holliday was an animator on THE GOOFY MOVIE while I was a supervisor in France. I told my superiors that Carole's animation was good, and that her storyboards were even better. This might have influenced their putting Carole into the Story department after GOOFY MOVIE wrapped. She was, I believe, the first African American woman to work there.
Carole has just informed me that she has added another string to her bow; she has produced a short live action film with her own production company (Crowded Metro Films)
The film, WITT'S DAUGHTER is a lovely looking and beautifully photographed little film. I look forward to seeing the entire film and hearing how it does on the festival circuit.
I've heard this statement from men and women --many of whom should know better.
"We had a lot of female assistants," one younger animator said to me once. The thing is that if you were assisting at Disney's in the Golden Age, you were also animating. If your animator allowed you to accumulate 70 feet of footage on approved scenes, you would be promoted to animator...and how easy it was, under this system, to not count scenes as 'animation' so that the promotion would forever be in the future.
I hope to have some information on some of the unknown women of The Golden Age At Disney Animation in future posts.
Meanwhile, I can write about a few working today whom I know personally.
Ellen Woodbury (supervising animator, ZaZu in THE LION KING, Pegasus in HERCULES) is currently a sculptor in Loveland, Colorado. Ellen's stonework reflects her animation training--some of them really do seem to be alive! Her work can be viewed at the Creative Talent Network. While you are at it, check out the work of the many other talented women and men there.
Carole Holliday was an animator on THE GOOFY MOVIE while I was a supervisor in France. I told my superiors that Carole's animation was good, and that her storyboards were even better. This might have influenced their putting Carole into the Story department after GOOFY MOVIE wrapped. She was, I believe, the first African American woman to work there.
Carole has just informed me that she has added another string to her bow; she has produced a short live action film with her own production company (Crowded Metro Films)
The film, WITT'S DAUGHTER is a lovely looking and beautifully photographed little film. I look forward to seeing the entire film and hearing how it does on the festival circuit.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Ollie Johnston, 1912-2008
It's been a sad week for animators. First we lose Andy Knight, now news has come that Ollie Johnston (the last of the famous "Nine Old Men") died on April 14 after a long illness. Ollie was 95 years old.
I first met him when I was in my freshman year at Cal Arts. I'd gotten the idea of animating an albatross--a gooney bird. I was pretty sure that this amusing creature, which crashes on landing, had never been animated before.
"I hate to disillusion you," Brad Bird said one day as I was happily working away on a walk on the bird, "but they're animating an albatross in THE RESCUERS, the new Disney feature. Ollie Johnston is animating it, and he is one of the artists coming to our show this spring to see our pencil tests."
My reaction was something along the lines of "NUURGGGHHH" (sound of extremely fast inhalation and incipient panic attack.)
Ollie and Frank were genuinely interested in our work. I recall that Marc Davis was there too at the screening, but can only remember one thing Ollie said to me after it was over and he'd seen my albatross test. As he and Frank were exiting the room, Ollie turned, looked back at me, and said behind his hand in conspiratorial fashion:
"Stick with it. We need more women in this business!"
I did stick with it, and became friendly with Frank, Ollie, Marie and Jeanette after I landed my first job at Zander's Animation Parlour. Since I'd actually gone to work before my senior screening and graduation, I wrote to Frank Thomas after I found out from assistant Ellsworth Barthen how to reach him, and asked for a crit.
"Your test shows great ambition and some difficult angles...perhaps when you have improved the animation, staging, cutting and direction, your work will improve."
Blunt criticism, but absolutely true.
Ollie and Frank continued to go to the Cal Arts shows. They really loved this crazy artform and did not want the knowledge of a lifetime to die with them, so they wrote one of the most important books ever published on character animation, Disney style: THE ILLUSION OF LIFE.
I think they went on to write one other book that was at least as important as this one. I refer to their moving and wonderful book on the making of BAMBI. What an achievement!
I was proud to count both of these fine gentlemen as my friends. They also encouraged many other female students at Cal Arts to 'stick with it'. Thank you, Frank and Ollie, for being great artists and just great, period.
Thank you too, Captain Hook, Mr. Smee, Baloo, Thumper, Doorknob, Queen of Hearts, White Rabbit, Pinocchio, Seven Dwarfs, Bambi and Thumper...
I will think of Frank and Ollie whenever I run these films.
Donations to the World Wildlife Fund may be made in Ollie's memory.
Your scenes really are there forever.
I first met him when I was in my freshman year at Cal Arts. I'd gotten the idea of animating an albatross--a gooney bird. I was pretty sure that this amusing creature, which crashes on landing, had never been animated before.
"I hate to disillusion you," Brad Bird said one day as I was happily working away on a walk on the bird, "but they're animating an albatross in THE RESCUERS, the new Disney feature. Ollie Johnston is animating it, and he is one of the artists coming to our show this spring to see our pencil tests."
My reaction was something along the lines of "NUURGGGHHH" (sound of extremely fast inhalation and incipient panic attack.)
Ollie and Frank were genuinely interested in our work. I recall that Marc Davis was there too at the screening, but can only remember one thing Ollie said to me after it was over and he'd seen my albatross test. As he and Frank were exiting the room, Ollie turned, looked back at me, and said behind his hand in conspiratorial fashion:
"Stick with it. We need more women in this business!"
I did stick with it, and became friendly with Frank, Ollie, Marie and Jeanette after I landed my first job at Zander's Animation Parlour. Since I'd actually gone to work before my senior screening and graduation, I wrote to Frank Thomas after I found out from assistant Ellsworth Barthen how to reach him, and asked for a crit.
"Your test shows great ambition and some difficult angles...perhaps when you have improved the animation, staging, cutting and direction, your work will improve."
Blunt criticism, but absolutely true.
Ollie and Frank continued to go to the Cal Arts shows. They really loved this crazy artform and did not want the knowledge of a lifetime to die with them, so they wrote one of the most important books ever published on character animation, Disney style: THE ILLUSION OF LIFE.
I think they went on to write one other book that was at least as important as this one. I refer to their moving and wonderful book on the making of BAMBI. What an achievement!
I was proud to count both of these fine gentlemen as my friends. They also encouraged many other female students at Cal Arts to 'stick with it'. Thank you, Frank and Ollie, for being great artists and just great, period.
Thank you too, Captain Hook, Mr. Smee, Baloo, Thumper, Doorknob, Queen of Hearts, White Rabbit, Pinocchio, Seven Dwarfs, Bambi and Thumper...
I will think of Frank and Ollie whenever I run these films.
Donations to the World Wildlife Fund may be made in Ollie's memory.
Your scenes really are there forever.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Andy Knight
I am extremely sorry to announce that talented animator, producer, storyboard artist and layout man Andy Knight died of a massive stroke on April 11 while on a trip to France.
I worked with Andy at Hahnfilm in 1988 on WERNER BEINHART and BENJAMIN BLUMCHEN--I was amazed at how fast this young Canadian artist could turn out background and character layouts--it was almost as if he was animating.
Andy's company, "Red Rover" was a well known and very successful Toronto commercial animation company. Andy was just on the verge of signing contracts in France with a variety of producers for a number of original productions he'd created.
He was 46 years old.
Addendum: Andy's funeral was on April 21. Donations in his memory can be made to
Plan Canada (Foster Parents Plan) http://www.plancanada.ca
I worked with Andy at Hahnfilm in 1988 on WERNER BEINHART and BENJAMIN BLUMCHEN--I was amazed at how fast this young Canadian artist could turn out background and character layouts--it was almost as if he was animating.
Andy's company, "Red Rover" was a well known and very successful Toronto commercial animation company. Andy was just on the verge of signing contracts in France with a variety of producers for a number of original productions he'd created.
He was 46 years old.
Addendum: Andy's funeral was on April 21. Donations in his memory can be made to
Plan Canada (Foster Parents Plan) http://www.plancanada.ca
Friday, April 11, 2008
Great Fleischer blog and it's about time too!
Forgotten by everyone but history geeks, of course.
This is a fantastic blog about the Fleischer studio. Learn about Disney's biggest rival in the Thirties...if the brothers had made up with the union and not fought amongst themselves, they could STILL be giving Disney a run for their money....Sigh.
Lillian Friedman Astor was the first female animator in a commercial studio. Read about her here, then read about the other fantastic Fleischer people.
This is a fantastic blog about the Fleischer studio. Learn about Disney's biggest rival in the Thirties...if the brothers had made up with the union and not fought amongst themselves, they could STILL be giving Disney a run for their money....Sigh.
Lillian Friedman Astor was the first female animator in a commercial studio. Read about her here, then read about the other fantastic Fleischer people.
Kitty Movers
Moving Day approaches and things are going to start falling into place when they are not falling down. Gizmo the Cat got into the swing of things by being sick in interesting places, then climbing into a closet and getting locked in for a while (she didn't make a sound, she is too trusting. ) I had visions of finding a mouldering carcass after I returned on Sunday from my latest Canadian trip. Fortunately Miss Stupid came out the second time I went looking for her in the studio. Giant fun.
She was very affectionate when I was lying in bed reading a book. Then I hear the unmistakable 'rupe rupe' sound. "Get onto the floor!" I said. Gizmo did, and left a present. I have no idea what prompted her to gift me with some of her lunch. Hope she doesn't make a habit of it.
She isn't stressed at all. She has been lying on top of some of the picture boxes and playing with the empties, and purring a lot. Clearly the slow move was a good move when one has to do it with a cat. The gradual change in the apartment excites her curiosity rather than frightening her.
There was an almighty crash at two AM today. The unmistakable sound of a huge and very heavy box falling to the floor, which actually vibrated. I did not turn on the light but yelled at Gizmo to stop being a jerk and get back to bed. Now there are three huge cats living upstairs and it is quite conceivable that one of them got frisky and kicked over a television or something. Kitty Radar ensures that Gizmo starts skipping and running around at the same time as the 19 pounder upstairs. Jacques is so huge that it sounds like a human being moving around when he galumphs down the hall.
Maybe that's it. I couldn't find any huge boxes out of place today; I've deliberately stacked them so she can't knock them over. It'll be even more fun when I have to put the cat in her carrier, listen to the pathetic howls, and then have her sit still for a two or three hour trip to Canada at the end of May.
I can't wait. Can she?
She was very affectionate when I was lying in bed reading a book. Then I hear the unmistakable 'rupe rupe' sound. "Get onto the floor!" I said. Gizmo did, and left a present. I have no idea what prompted her to gift me with some of her lunch. Hope she doesn't make a habit of it.
She isn't stressed at all. She has been lying on top of some of the picture boxes and playing with the empties, and purring a lot. Clearly the slow move was a good move when one has to do it with a cat. The gradual change in the apartment excites her curiosity rather than frightening her.
There was an almighty crash at two AM today. The unmistakable sound of a huge and very heavy box falling to the floor, which actually vibrated. I did not turn on the light but yelled at Gizmo to stop being a jerk and get back to bed. Now there are three huge cats living upstairs and it is quite conceivable that one of them got frisky and kicked over a television or something. Kitty Radar ensures that Gizmo starts skipping and running around at the same time as the 19 pounder upstairs. Jacques is so huge that it sounds like a human being moving around when he galumphs down the hall.
Maybe that's it. I couldn't find any huge boxes out of place today; I've deliberately stacked them so she can't knock them over. It'll be even more fun when I have to put the cat in her carrier, listen to the pathetic howls, and then have her sit still for a two or three hour trip to Canada at the end of May.
I can't wait. Can she?
Friday, April 04, 2008
The Uncertain Art
I've been teaching for eight years now. It's hard to imagine that one quarter of my career would be spent outside studios (though I still work in the industry, it's not the main 'bread and butter' job any more.)
During that time there have been more animation books published than, I believe, were published in the previous twenty. Some of the books are long overdue, particularly UNFILTERED, the new book on Ralph Bakshi, and STEPPING INTO THE PICTURE . THE ART AND FLAIR OF MARY BLAIR, which profile Maurice Noble and Mary Blair respectively, and DREAM WORLDS, a wonderful book on animation art direction by Hans Bacher. I've ordered them all even though I know books weigh a ton that will be duly added to my already-topheavy shipment to Canada. These are important works on subjects that weren't covered in most early animation books.
There are great books on the art of animation, but only a few on the history, and these still tend to be studio-specific. The Walt Disney studio is of course the best documented, with Warner Brothers catching up fast.
The books that deal with general animation history are generally flawed. Some are America-centric, some have historical errors, and all of them are out of date. This field changes so rapidly that the best source for animation history turns out to be the Internet. Wonderful things turn up on YouTube--who'd have thought I'd be actually able to show SORA NO MOMOTARO in a history class that dealt with propaganda animation, or this charming early sound cartoon (KURO NYAGO) from Japan? (Warning: This tune will stick in your head all day!) These cartoons were only names in a book before. Thanks to the Web, they can be shown and analyzed and compared with contemporary work. KURO NYAGO was made the same year as SKELETON DANCE!.
New animation DVDS are also full of good things. The Disney and Warner studios have put some great artwork from their productions on as 'extras'--this is even more remarkable when you realize that their main market is a family audience, not educators or historians. There's a little something for everyone.
So I don't want to kvetch or bite the hand that is feeding us such wonderful goodies, but I do want to bring up one thing: the history in some of the recent reissues is highly skewed. The most surprising was on a recent release: one animator was the subject of the 'extra' but most of the clip was spent discussing another animator and another picture!
Now, the opinions of the artists on these discs are to be respected, but are they to be considered the last word, the official history, of the subject? Until a better source comes along, these will be seen as the 'accurate' version of events. And some, as I mentioned before, are skewed. There is no definitive history of animation and this book may never be written. Animation is a young artform, but it blossomed into gorgeous variations on the themes before it was ten years old. It needs an encyclopedia, not a single volume, and much of it would have to appear on disc rather than in print.
Or maybe a website with the right links would handle this ever-expanding art in the most up-to-date fashion? Has someone already done this?
During that time there have been more animation books published than, I believe, were published in the previous twenty. Some of the books are long overdue, particularly UNFILTERED, the new book on Ralph Bakshi, and STEPPING INTO THE PICTURE . THE ART AND FLAIR OF MARY BLAIR, which profile Maurice Noble and Mary Blair respectively, and DREAM WORLDS, a wonderful book on animation art direction by Hans Bacher. I've ordered them all even though I know books weigh a ton that will be duly added to my already-topheavy shipment to Canada. These are important works on subjects that weren't covered in most early animation books.
There are great books on the art of animation, but only a few on the history, and these still tend to be studio-specific. The Walt Disney studio is of course the best documented, with Warner Brothers catching up fast.
The books that deal with general animation history are generally flawed. Some are America-centric, some have historical errors, and all of them are out of date. This field changes so rapidly that the best source for animation history turns out to be the Internet. Wonderful things turn up on YouTube--who'd have thought I'd be actually able to show SORA NO MOMOTARO in a history class that dealt with propaganda animation, or this charming early sound cartoon (KURO NYAGO) from Japan? (Warning: This tune will stick in your head all day!) These cartoons were only names in a book before. Thanks to the Web, they can be shown and analyzed and compared with contemporary work. KURO NYAGO was made the same year as SKELETON DANCE!.
New animation DVDS are also full of good things. The Disney and Warner studios have put some great artwork from their productions on as 'extras'--this is even more remarkable when you realize that their main market is a family audience, not educators or historians. There's a little something for everyone.
So I don't want to kvetch or bite the hand that is feeding us such wonderful goodies, but I do want to bring up one thing: the history in some of the recent reissues is highly skewed. The most surprising was on a recent release: one animator was the subject of the 'extra' but most of the clip was spent discussing another animator and another picture!
Now, the opinions of the artists on these discs are to be respected, but are they to be considered the last word, the official history, of the subject? Until a better source comes along, these will be seen as the 'accurate' version of events. And some, as I mentioned before, are skewed. There is no definitive history of animation and this book may never be written. Animation is a young artform, but it blossomed into gorgeous variations on the themes before it was ten years old. It needs an encyclopedia, not a single volume, and much of it would have to appear on disc rather than in print.
Or maybe a website with the right links would handle this ever-expanding art in the most up-to-date fashion? Has someone already done this?
Monday, March 31, 2008
Reuben Awards: The National Cartoonist Society 2008
I have just been informed that PREPARE TO BOARD! has been nominated in the Book Illustration category in the National Cartoonist Society's REUBEN awards.
The NCS is America's oldest cartoonists' organization. The Reuben is named after founder Rube Goldberg --who is famous for creating the Rube Goldberg Machine, Rube, ironically enough, was unable to win his own award for the machines, or for any of his comics. He won, instead, for a brilliant political cartoon that can be seen here (scroll down to "Peace Today")
I was particularly chuffed at being nominated in the same group as the wonderful illustrator Sandra Boynton.
Here are the category nominees:
http://www.reuben.org/ncs/news2.asp
and here are pictures of last year's Reubens, including one of the grand statue itself (designed by Rube Goldberg)
http://cagle.msnbc.com/hogan/reubens/reubens2007/main.asp
Al Jaffee of MAD magazine is one of the three finalists for the grand award, the REUBEN itself.
As luck would have it, the New Orleans party falls on the same weekend I am moving to Canada, so unfortunately I won't be able to attend. It's an honor to be nominated, though.
Update: Lynn Johnston has graciously agreed to make the acceptance speech in the event that PREPARE TO BOARD! wins. I asked her just to thank everyone.
The NCS is America's oldest cartoonists' organization. The Reuben is named after founder Rube Goldberg --who is famous for creating the Rube Goldberg Machine, Rube, ironically enough, was unable to win his own award for the machines, or for any of his comics. He won, instead, for a brilliant political cartoon that can be seen here (scroll down to "Peace Today")
I was particularly chuffed at being nominated in the same group as the wonderful illustrator Sandra Boynton.
Here are the category nominees:
http://www.reuben.org/ncs/news2.asp
and here are pictures of last year's Reubens, including one of the grand statue itself (designed by Rube Goldberg)
http://cagle.msnbc.com/hogan/reubens/reubens2007/main.asp
Al Jaffee of MAD magazine is one of the three finalists for the grand award, the REUBEN itself.
As luck would have it, the New Orleans party falls on the same weekend I am moving to Canada, so unfortunately I won't be able to attend. It's an honor to be nominated, though.
Update: Lynn Johnston has graciously agreed to make the acceptance speech in the event that PREPARE TO BOARD! wins. I asked her just to thank everyone.
Mr. Fun's Blog
Floyd Norman, who was rechristened Mr. Fun by cartoonist Scott Shaw! and Charlie Grosvenor
has a new blog.
It's called MR. FUN'S BLOG. Originally Floyd called it something else, but I and a few others said it couldn't be called anything else. Floyd simply IS "Mr. Fun."
He's also one of the few survivors from Disney's Golden Age. Floyd's animation 'editorial' books include FASTER! CHEAPER!, SON OF FASTER! CHEAPER! and HOW THE GRINCH STOLE DISNEY. Michael Eisner once ordered Floyd to stop drawing caricatures of him! How cool is that? (You can buy the books through afrokids.com)
Read Mr. Fun's Blog. It's good.
has a new blog.
It's called MR. FUN'S BLOG. Originally Floyd called it something else, but I and a few others said it couldn't be called anything else. Floyd simply IS "Mr. Fun."
He's also one of the few survivors from Disney's Golden Age. Floyd's animation 'editorial' books include FASTER! CHEAPER!, SON OF FASTER! CHEAPER! and HOW THE GRINCH STOLE DISNEY. Michael Eisner once ordered Floyd to stop drawing caricatures of him! How cool is that? (You can buy the books through afrokids.com)
Read Mr. Fun's Blog. It's good.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Death (and Resurrection) of an Animation Desk
I always wanted a Disney "Mighty Wurlitzer" animation desk. These were built in 1939 for the new studio in Burbank, and they were a real status symbol for those of us at Features fortunate enough to have one in our offices. (This was a political issue, by the way, but more about that later.) They looked so solid and permanent. They also were considerably better designed than the "Florida desks" made for the second Disney feature animation unit. These were smaller, which was not a bad thing, but their shelves tapered upward until there was nothing but a two inch ledge at the top suitable to hold nothing more than a flower vase or (in the case of one Catholic animator) a vial of Lourdes water.
When I worked at Disney I had the smallest office in the Hat Building, and a Florida desk. One day I had my door open. A Mighty Wurlitzer, disassembled (they were modular) was being pushed by on a dolly. "He's already got one. This goes back to the warehouse," the men were saying. I popped out of the door and said, "No it doesn't go back to the warehouse! It goes in here!"
And yes, I was given permission to have the desk installed. If you read my interview on the AWN from 1997, I'm sitting in front of it. What a marvellous piece of furniture it was.
Well, they weren't available for sale--at least not then--and so I decided to hire a carpenter to make me a Wurlitzer of my own. This was easily done. I then drew up blueprints based partly on my office desk and partly on an inker's model owned by animator Mark Kausler. This was much smaller than the six foot long Wurlitzer and it might have made more sense to duplicate it entire, but I wanted a Wurlizter and so I was going to get one.
The changes were small but significant: I widened the desktop on my blueprints so that the new, huge exposure sheets we were using would fit well. I also added the 'ears'--very nicely made cork boards on hinges for model sheet and other displays.
Three of these were built. Two other Disney artists made arrangements to have them constructed, which brought the price down a bit. Interestingly enough since the hole for the disc was off center, the desk could be right-or-left handed. Both of the other animators were southpaws, so I got the only right handed model.
It paid for itself within the year, but another problem arose. It was never designed to be repeatedly disassembled and hauled around the country. It also did not fit through a standard door; another modular bit had to be built so that the top shelf could be removed to fit through the door (and pegs held it together.)
Now I'm moving to Canada and the apartment simply doesn't have a large enough second bedroom for the Wurlizter and a computer desk/printer arrangement.
So I decided, after months of agonizing, that it wasn't worth it; this wasn't, after all, a real Disney desk, but one that I built. It was and is a useful desk. Part of it still is. I'm taking the top and the 'ears' with me, and I'll make a truly modular desk out of metal shelving, attaching the top to it with hooks. It's easy to do, sturdy, and doesn't even require a blueprint. Best of all I can add all the shelves I like, and I have decided I need a U shaped model that wraps around, rather than a six foot long model that takes up most of the room.
Most importantly, I can put it together myself. I am able to get the top and the 'ears' off the Wurlizter, but I can't budge the shelves. This is a problem when you are doing everything by yourself during a move.
My decision isn't completely final; at this writing, the desk is still sitting in the office, with the top and ears packed in boxes. I could change my mind. But probably I won't. Times have changed and I now do most of my work on the computer. I have a small portable animation desk that adequately handles the 12 field paper that newer Toonboom and Flash based projects would use. A 16 field disc might never be necessary again.
Plenty of people have worked without Wurlitzers. My friend Dean Yeagle has Preston Blair's old desk; it's nothing more than a drafting table with a hole cut in it, the same that most of us use.
Then again, maybe I could measure the top of the tabouret again. MAYBE the new printer would fit on the side. (the old one is dying and is not worth shipping to Canada.)
Perhaps the Wurlizter will survive in two pieces: the animation desktop assembled on a new metal frame, and the base used for the computer desk? Could this be possible?
As Bugs Bunny used to say...hmmmmm COULD be!
Perhaps it won't leave at all--it'll just go through a little metamorphosis.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Crap Food from the Seventies
This stuff is too awful to even be junk food. Junk food is stuff that people LIKE to eat. I doubt if anyone ever prepared, let alone ate, Dish Number One. It is the ugliest 'sandwich loaf' I've ever seen. Even James Lileks can't beat this. It's in gross, 1973-era color. I don't know what to hate first: the purplish, lumpy interior of the decomposing blue log? The reddish streaks on the side? or the cheery flowers that lend the only 'natural' touch to this utterly disgusting mess?
The finishing directions are all that I'm willing to print of the actual recipe. "To finish: Frost top and sides of loaf with green-tinted cheese; make a decorative border of yellow cheese. Garnish with fresh flowers or use other garniture--radish roses, carrot curls and stuffed olives."
Note to self: NEVER EAT BLUE FOOD. It's a good rule.
Americans are suckers for royalty and this apparently extends to the humble casserole dish. This particular set of recipes (THE COMPLETE FAMILY RECIPE CARD SERIES COLLECTION, 1973) features not one, but two, crowns-o'-food.
Poor Crown-o'Franks was assembled from cream of chicken soup, milk, potatoes, bacon, onion, a few green beans (as a sop to those Natural Food freaks that were just becoming noticeable at the time) and of course the franks, obviously not kosher.
It seems that someone tried to liven up this rather depressing repast by arranging the franks so that they formed a little crown. How cute. The other crowned recipe in the set, stunningly named "Burger Beef Tiara" featured Bisquick biscuits surrounding chopped meat and a few disconsolate stringbeans. This tiara wasn't designed to be worn. Just admired.
Friendly Advice from Pies
You don't want to meet the UNfriendly Dessert Pies, trust us. Follow the directions. Buy the Friendly Dessert Pies from our good friend Louie,and he won't have to slam the telephone into your head again.Chafing Dish that will Leave You Chafing
Here's the recipe for CHAFING DISH HORS D'OEUVRE. I knew you couldn't wait to read more fine recipes from this great cookbook. You're welcome!
I'll use dried-blood-coloured ink to give you that authentic, meaty feeling. The designer has bloodlike gouts of red decorating every page in irregular bursts. Yum.
But now to the meat of the matter. Literally. Guten Appetit!
I think that the pre-relaxation-hour gave guests time to prepare to face the horrid reality of the 1956 Swift-inspired dinner table.
Most of the hors d'ouvres recipes tell you to use a 'pick' to hold them together ("Wrap Swift's Bacon around Cracker. Secure with pick")
Maybe they should use an icepick? Pickaxe? Pickup truck?
Who knows. They might taste good.
I'll use dried-blood-coloured ink to give you that authentic, meaty feeling. The designer has bloodlike gouts of red decorating every page in irregular bursts. Yum.
But now to the meat of the matter. Literally. Guten Appetit!
Now to what Lily Tomlin, as Ernestine the telephone operator, used to call the "Piece of Resistance"--FROSTED CANNED HAM. This recipe isn't really that different from a Baked Virginia ham though it substitutes 'lemon jelly powder' for honey or maple syrup. It's the name of the dish that makes me want to retch. I had an irrepressible mental image of a ham covered with white artificially-flavoured vanilla icing with cherries on top (the recipe in fact does call for strawberries as a garnish)Show your pretty dish
off to advantage. Keep the hors d'ouvre hot during pre-dinner relaxation
hour.
2 packages SWIFT'S
PREMIUM BROWN N' SERVE SAUSAGE
2 cups (20 fluid oz.)
applesauce (pureed)
1 ounce red cinnamon
candies or 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 drops red food
coloring
Cut each link into 4 to 5
pennywise slices. Brown and heat in the skillet. Shake the pan to turn them so
they brown evenly. Place a toothpick in each sausage piece. PLace applesauce,
candies, and coloring in a chafing dish, then heat until candies are
dissolved. Add browned sausage pieces pick side up to the sauce. Serve
hot.(There's no mention of an antidote. And this cookbook has never been used. I can see why.)
I think that the pre-relaxation-hour gave guests time to prepare to face the horrid reality of the 1956 Swift-inspired dinner table.
Most of the hors d'ouvres recipes tell you to use a 'pick' to hold them together ("Wrap Swift's Bacon around Cracker. Secure with pick")
Maybe they should use an icepick? Pickaxe? Pickup truck?
Who knows. They might taste good.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Crazy Cookbook
Get a load of what I found in a junk shop in Rochester!
And believe it or not, I can't find reference to this anywhere else. It's from the CNE, which appeared to be related to the yearly Canadian National exhibition now held at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. I have no idea where it was held back in the day.The back cover states that Swift's, which sponsored the Disneyland program, was celebrating its 101st anniversary the year this undated cookbook came out.
This means it's from 1956. What's curious is that the Tinkerbelle character who appears throughout the book looks nothing like the Disney version at all. She looks like she's burning up the entire kitchen in the illustration for WALTZ OF THE FLOWERS TARTS. Other Disney-like illustrations appear occasionally. There's a castle, sort of, on the cover, and a pumpkin coach that has been modified to look like a casserole dish later on (actually, this is a very nice touch). My favorite illustration is called HAVE A DISNEYLAND FRONTIERLAND PARTY FOR THE KIDS. The two kids in the picture look like homicidal maniacs, or maybe they're just upset. After all, they're just disembodied heads with glazed expressions. "PLANNING ADDS ZIP TO THE PARTY" (No Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, folks?)
The planning is described in somewhat alarming terms.
GAMES ARE ESSENTIAL
KEEP THEM OCCUPIED ALL DURING THE PARTY
The caps are theirs. There IS something wrong with the kiddie guests. Probably they're on work/study from the local pen. Keep 'em amused and nobody gets hurt.
Some of the suggested games include normal stuff like Pin the Tail on the Donkey. But hey, it's 1956. That game is just for the cowBOYS. "Little girl Indians could quickly dress a papoose, if you handed out some rags, scissors and a small plastic cupey (sic) doll." Some fun. I think they meant kewpie.
Adventureland calls for a barbecue. "Get your husband or a volunteer to start the fire early..." Yep, it's definitely 1956. Most women couldn't be trusted with matches and lighter fluid back then.
Since this is Swift's show, most of the recipes call for ham and other meat products. There is a halfhearted attempt to work Disney into the mix with things like the Waltz of the Flowers Tarts, which I half expected to be meat-based. They weren't, and the cakes might actually be nice if made today. FROSTED CANNED HAM was, however, distressing.
The TOMORROWLAND section has some of the finest writing in the book. "When you wish upon a star what are your expectations of the dreamland just beyond the rainbow?...Maybe your dreams are as sophisticated as a slick ranch home--or perhaps something just as simple as a new outfit."
What else can I say.
I'll try scanning in some more of the illustrations from this incredible book.
Incidentally, it was written by someone named MARTHA LOGAN, but she's no relation to the character on TV today.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Here are two more good reasons to move to Canada.
The pictures were taken on my 2005 train trip on the CANADIAN train across Canada.
Picture Number One was taken in British Columbia and the lower picture, one of the finest I've ever shot, was taken in Ontario's 'cottage country'.
THE CANADIAN, incidentally, is the train featured in the 2008 Oscar animation nominee MADAME TUTLI-PUTLI. This is somewhat anachronistic since the train actually dates from the 1950s, and the film takes place in the Twenties.
It's a wonderful train, and a wonderful trip.
The Story So Far
I really do want to blog more often, but a combination of some kind of creeping crud and the usual fuss involved in the end of another school term have prevented much of that lately.
RIT has its 'spring break' in the middle of the winter due to its term system. Sheridan uses the semester system, which means spring break is where Spring usually occurs. The faculty do not have a break then; they spend it reviewing student applicants' portfolios.
Anyway, I've got some business to attend to once I am over the slight indisposition I've suffered for about a week now. Grades have to be posted, one student pencil test has to be screened with me present in the audience, and then the real fun starts.
It seems that Australia now requires fingerprints for positive identification of people, so I'm going to have to get to the Rochester police fingerprint division in the very short hours of their operation and pay for another set. I may get two as long as I'm there in case someone else needs them.
Then, packing commences in earnest. There are certain advantages to being at a major university. They throw out a tremendous amount of packaging. I've gotten about forty per cent of my packing boxes from recycling bins in the apartment building and in the hallways of RIT. The uni's trash included some splendid heavy duty computer boxes that I asked for and that the support staff kindly saved for me, two complete packing kits for large screens (one of which was used to pack the very rare animating Mickey Mouse picture, the other will be used for the screen for this computer). Yesterday I found styrofoam inserts for several large Dell screens (three complete sets, I couldn't carry the fourth) and one of them will hold the larger screen for the video system, others can pad the posters. A kind grad student helped me haul everythign in his small SUV (so the things are good for something.) I'll have some additional help with the stereo and its mare's nest of cables, which will be photographed before packing so I can reassemble the mess singlehanded once I'm in Toronto. At least there is one less machine to plug in. I sent back the "Cinea" player that the Academy sent me three years ago. It's been used precisely once, and no one encodes their discs any more, so it was just ballast.
Then at the beginning of March I'm off to Toronto for a presentation or two at Sheridan (topic is fairly casual, but is based on character design this time, not storyboard; I am bringing the student pencil test to compare it with its Leica reel. It will be fun to see how it plays.)
While I'm there I will be searching for an apartment in earnest, walking around some neighbourhoods and exploring side streets. It's important to do this in Toronto when there is snow on the ground, since some streets are not plowed regularly--shades of Rochester! I'll be walking around Port Credit, Long Branch, and possibly Mimico to see what I can see and possibly introduce myself to a few prospective landlords.
Lots of folks in Canada are offering help, and I have spoken to a realtor or two, so that at least gives me some idea of what neighbourhoods are likeliest. Everyone I know in the Toronto area says to live close to the school, which unhappily rules out my dream of living near the St. Lawrence Market since Sheridan is in Oakville and not in Toronto at all. Well, they have a point; the commute can be irregular on the GO train, and it is vitally important to get to work on time. I will listen to them and look a bit farther afield, then go into the city on the weekends.
The computer started to show signs of senility and general cussedness, so I purchased something called the Uniblue Power Suite at Dad's suggestion. I don't get paid for saying this, but if you are on a Windows machine, you need this product. Mr. Computer is humming along now, relieved of about 500 registry errors and 13 infected cookies. If you don't know what a registry is, you REALLY need to use this thing. I am relieved at not having to hire someone to come and pick through it manually.
That's the update for now. Gizmo is adapting to the packing. She has developed a taste for the air pillows that frequently cushion books and printed matter nowadays. I heard a strange chew-chew-stretch POP and got two of them away from her, sadly after the popping. The others are on a high shelf that she can't jump to without knocking over a lot of stuff. Since she's an intelligent cat she never jumps anywhere that doesn't have a clear surface.
This is why many surfaces in the apartment have been cluttered for as long as I can remember. At least it's a nice excuse.
RIT has its 'spring break' in the middle of the winter due to its term system. Sheridan uses the semester system, which means spring break is where Spring usually occurs. The faculty do not have a break then; they spend it reviewing student applicants' portfolios.
Anyway, I've got some business to attend to once I am over the slight indisposition I've suffered for about a week now. Grades have to be posted, one student pencil test has to be screened with me present in the audience, and then the real fun starts.
It seems that Australia now requires fingerprints for positive identification of people, so I'm going to have to get to the Rochester police fingerprint division in the very short hours of their operation and pay for another set. I may get two as long as I'm there in case someone else needs them.
Then, packing commences in earnest. There are certain advantages to being at a major university. They throw out a tremendous amount of packaging. I've gotten about forty per cent of my packing boxes from recycling bins in the apartment building and in the hallways of RIT. The uni's trash included some splendid heavy duty computer boxes that I asked for and that the support staff kindly saved for me, two complete packing kits for large screens (one of which was used to pack the very rare animating Mickey Mouse picture, the other will be used for the screen for this computer). Yesterday I found styrofoam inserts for several large Dell screens (three complete sets, I couldn't carry the fourth) and one of them will hold the larger screen for the video system, others can pad the posters. A kind grad student helped me haul everythign in his small SUV (so the things are good for something.) I'll have some additional help with the stereo and its mare's nest of cables, which will be photographed before packing so I can reassemble the mess singlehanded once I'm in Toronto. At least there is one less machine to plug in. I sent back the "Cinea" player that the Academy sent me three years ago. It's been used precisely once, and no one encodes their discs any more, so it was just ballast.
Then at the beginning of March I'm off to Toronto for a presentation or two at Sheridan (topic is fairly casual, but is based on character design this time, not storyboard; I am bringing the student pencil test to compare it with its Leica reel. It will be fun to see how it plays.)
While I'm there I will be searching for an apartment in earnest, walking around some neighbourhoods and exploring side streets. It's important to do this in Toronto when there is snow on the ground, since some streets are not plowed regularly--shades of Rochester! I'll be walking around Port Credit, Long Branch, and possibly Mimico to see what I can see and possibly introduce myself to a few prospective landlords.
Lots of folks in Canada are offering help, and I have spoken to a realtor or two, so that at least gives me some idea of what neighbourhoods are likeliest. Everyone I know in the Toronto area says to live close to the school, which unhappily rules out my dream of living near the St. Lawrence Market since Sheridan is in Oakville and not in Toronto at all. Well, they have a point; the commute can be irregular on the GO train, and it is vitally important to get to work on time. I will listen to them and look a bit farther afield, then go into the city on the weekends.
The computer started to show signs of senility and general cussedness, so I purchased something called the Uniblue Power Suite at Dad's suggestion. I don't get paid for saying this, but if you are on a Windows machine, you need this product. Mr. Computer is humming along now, relieved of about 500 registry errors and 13 infected cookies. If you don't know what a registry is, you REALLY need to use this thing. I am relieved at not having to hire someone to come and pick through it manually.
That's the update for now. Gizmo is adapting to the packing. She has developed a taste for the air pillows that frequently cushion books and printed matter nowadays. I heard a strange chew-chew-stretch POP and got two of them away from her, sadly after the popping. The others are on a high shelf that she can't jump to without knocking over a lot of stuff. Since she's an intelligent cat she never jumps anywhere that doesn't have a clear surface.
This is why many surfaces in the apartment have been cluttered for as long as I can remember. At least it's a nice excuse.
Saturday, February 09, 2008
There Will be Laughs
I am definitely out of touch with this century. Or at least with the century's movies. What is it about some of the Oscar contenders that makes them receive raves from critics when a simple viewing reveals them to be utterly mediocre?
THERE WILL BE BLOOD has a 95% positive rating on rottentomatoes.com It has a raft of Oscar nominations. And it's a perfectly ridiculous movie.
I and two grad students were laughing hysterically at the slapping scenes--but why go into lurid detail? There was no way I was going to accept Daniel Day-Lewis as an American, and his character had no development whatsoever--we're suddenly told he hates people, but nothing in the previous hour has shown why or how. It just happens.
This appears to be a common problem in modern screenplays; characters don't hold the center of the film, so why watch it? There were some pretty effects and the first hour wasn't bad.
But then I read some of OIL! the Upton Sinclair book that the film was supposed to be based on, and did a double take. Is this really the same story? Where are the female charaters? (In the movie, you never find out what happened to the boy's mother; in Sinclair's novel, she is a major character.)
The book was fascinating, even in brief online increments. The movie was just laughable. We were cracking up at the ending...
I had to explain what OSCAR BAIT was to the two foreign students. THERE WILL BE BLOOD is someone's party piece, or payback for an ego trip.
THERE WILL BE BLOOD has a 95% positive rating on rottentomatoes.com It has a raft of Oscar nominations. And it's a perfectly ridiculous movie.
I and two grad students were laughing hysterically at the slapping scenes--but why go into lurid detail? There was no way I was going to accept Daniel Day-Lewis as an American, and his character had no development whatsoever--we're suddenly told he hates people, but nothing in the previous hour has shown why or how. It just happens.
This appears to be a common problem in modern screenplays; characters don't hold the center of the film, so why watch it? There were some pretty effects and the first hour wasn't bad.
But then I read some of OIL! the Upton Sinclair book that the film was supposed to be based on, and did a double take. Is this really the same story? Where are the female charaters? (In the movie, you never find out what happened to the boy's mother; in Sinclair's novel, she is a major character.)
The book was fascinating, even in brief online increments. The movie was just laughable. We were cracking up at the ending...
I had to explain what OSCAR BAIT was to the two foreign students. THERE WILL BE BLOOD is someone's party piece, or payback for an ego trip.
Why Move to Canada?
A poster has inquired what the differences were on the southern side of the Canadian border. I was going to answer in a brief note but this deserves a full blog entry.
There are 180 miles as the car flies between Rochester and Toronto. The two cities have similar climates and growing seasons. Both are on or near Lake Ontario. There the similarities end.
Toronto has excellent public transportation. Rochester's is a sometimes-functional bus service that is extremely deficient in the suburbs. (RIT is in the suburbs.) City routes are not coordinated and there are invariably long waits for buses. Schedules are not posted. Formerly they were changed without notice every three months. Lately they have standardized the times but there are never schedules on the buses; you have to download them online. The assumption is that you must drive a car if you really want to go anywhere.
Toronto is ten times the size of Rochester. The latter city is in decline, with a shrinking population and tax base. There are great cultural landmarks here, most of which are not publicized and some of which are underutilized by the city --the best known is probably George Eastman House, one of the finest collections of film and motion picture materiels in the world. Rochester also has the Susan B. Anthony House, two parks designed by Central Park designer Frederick Law Olmstead, an early Prairie house by Frank Lloyd Wright, a mile of splendid turn of the twentieth century mansions on East Avenue, not one but two waterfalls in the downtown core, a river, the Erie Canal, the Rochester Jazz Festival, and of course the city's noble history as the American terminus of the Underground Railroad. Rochester was central to abolitionist publishing --Frederick Douglass' magazine was published here-- the Spiritualist Movement, and the Women's Movement. Rochester has a small yet active Green movement and there are many local organic farms. There is a very good farmer's market and one food co-0p.
Rochester is not even mentioned in travel guides to Western New York. A neighbour called it the 'best kept secret' in the area. It's a secret since no one in the government or Chamber of Commerce manages to get the news out that there is something to see here besides the House of Guitars, which is all that the Canadian travelers on the late ferryboat that ran from Rochester to Toronto came to see. I should know because I asked them. That ferryboat was handled as badly as all the rest of Rochester's public transportation. If there was a mistake to make in transportation, Rochester made it. They even had a subway here! It ran for only thirty years before they took it out to build a freeway on top of it. Rochester is a textbook case of what author James Howard Kunstler called the greatest mis-investment of national treasure in the history of the country--the worship of the automobile and the cancerous growth of suburbia. Rochester is being sucked dry by suburbs that benefit from city services but don't pay city taxes. Some of them, such as Pittsford, are charming and well heeled little villages tastefully restored (an architecht told me they learned from the mistakes of Rochester not to destroy their prime Victorian business district). Other nearby towns are sprawling suburbs with monstrous newly constructed McMansions on the local farmland. There is a concrete wasteland with depressing strip malls.
And it's no coincidence that with the exception of the Wright house and the Eastman collection, most of Rochester's glories were produced in the nineteenth century.
The George Eastman Theatre is lovely, but there is no bright nightlife, cafes or any beauty in the downtown core. It was left to rot after 1964 race riots. And the city was treebarked by an ugly freeway and ring road in the 1960s, dislocating RIT's campus to the boring suburb of Henrietta and further strangling the downtown business district.
So Toronto may not be perfect, but there is a lot more to do there, you can get around without a car, and they make sensible use of their waterfront.
In addition there is the new job, which is a great improvement on the one I have now. Sheridan College is one of the greatest animation schools in the world.
So that's the answer to the question. Next?
There are 180 miles as the car flies between Rochester and Toronto. The two cities have similar climates and growing seasons. Both are on or near Lake Ontario. There the similarities end.
Toronto has excellent public transportation. Rochester's is a sometimes-functional bus service that is extremely deficient in the suburbs. (RIT is in the suburbs.) City routes are not coordinated and there are invariably long waits for buses. Schedules are not posted. Formerly they were changed without notice every three months. Lately they have standardized the times but there are never schedules on the buses; you have to download them online. The assumption is that you must drive a car if you really want to go anywhere.
Toronto is ten times the size of Rochester. The latter city is in decline, with a shrinking population and tax base. There are great cultural landmarks here, most of which are not publicized and some of which are underutilized by the city --the best known is probably George Eastman House, one of the finest collections of film and motion picture materiels in the world. Rochester also has the Susan B. Anthony House, two parks designed by Central Park designer Frederick Law Olmstead, an early Prairie house by Frank Lloyd Wright, a mile of splendid turn of the twentieth century mansions on East Avenue, not one but two waterfalls in the downtown core, a river, the Erie Canal, the Rochester Jazz Festival, and of course the city's noble history as the American terminus of the Underground Railroad. Rochester was central to abolitionist publishing --Frederick Douglass' magazine was published here-- the Spiritualist Movement, and the Women's Movement. Rochester has a small yet active Green movement and there are many local organic farms. There is a very good farmer's market and one food co-0p.
Rochester is not even mentioned in travel guides to Western New York. A neighbour called it the 'best kept secret' in the area. It's a secret since no one in the government or Chamber of Commerce manages to get the news out that there is something to see here besides the House of Guitars, which is all that the Canadian travelers on the late ferryboat that ran from Rochester to Toronto came to see. I should know because I asked them. That ferryboat was handled as badly as all the rest of Rochester's public transportation. If there was a mistake to make in transportation, Rochester made it. They even had a subway here! It ran for only thirty years before they took it out to build a freeway on top of it. Rochester is a textbook case of what author James Howard Kunstler called the greatest mis-investment of national treasure in the history of the country--the worship of the automobile and the cancerous growth of suburbia. Rochester is being sucked dry by suburbs that benefit from city services but don't pay city taxes. Some of them, such as Pittsford, are charming and well heeled little villages tastefully restored (an architecht told me they learned from the mistakes of Rochester not to destroy their prime Victorian business district). Other nearby towns are sprawling suburbs with monstrous newly constructed McMansions on the local farmland. There is a concrete wasteland with depressing strip malls.
And it's no coincidence that with the exception of the Wright house and the Eastman collection, most of Rochester's glories were produced in the nineteenth century.
The George Eastman Theatre is lovely, but there is no bright nightlife, cafes or any beauty in the downtown core. It was left to rot after 1964 race riots. And the city was treebarked by an ugly freeway and ring road in the 1960s, dislocating RIT's campus to the boring suburb of Henrietta and further strangling the downtown business district.
So Toronto may not be perfect, but there is a lot more to do there, you can get around without a car, and they make sensible use of their waterfront.
In addition there is the new job, which is a great improvement on the one I have now. Sheridan College is one of the greatest animation schools in the world.
So that's the answer to the question. Next?
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