RIP Frank Buckles

So, I haven't written anything for a really long time. Sorry about that. Anyway, some sad news that I just saw: the last American veteran of World War I has died. Frank Buckles, at 110, was the final one of 4,734,991 Americans to have served in the Great War. He was a Missouri farm boy, born in 1901, who served in France from 1917-1920. In World War II, he happened to be in the Philippines and was held by the Japanese as a civilian POW for three years. He held no particular distinction in the Army; that is, he didn't do anything more remarkable than almost all the millions of other men with which he served. It seems fitting, however, that the last standing veteran of a war should be just a normal guy, since those 'normal guys' are the ones who really do the work of war, yet their overwhelming contribution is often the least celebrated.

As an aside, there are still two remaining World War I vets in the world. I imagine that in the next few years, they too will pass, and the world will keep on revolving, barely noting it.

Jim Henson's House For Sale!

Calling all people with $28 million lying around the house: Jim Henson's former Manhattan workshop is for sale. It was here where many of the Muppets we all know and love were created and built and tested. While it's been out of the Henson fold since 2003 (and owned by a Seagram's executive), it's still got the giant 1980's Muppet mural in the lobby (as far as I know...someone would've reported if that were gone, right?).

Here's a photo of Jim and Kermit in front of the mural:



Now, let the bidding begin!

Yesterday At The Art Museum and Sculpture and Stuff

Yesterday was the last free day at the Art Institute of Chicago for the month, so Emily and I went after work. It's always a pleasant place to be, though since they remodeled it, everything kind of throws me off.

Whenever I go there, I really enjoy sketching sculptures. It's a great chance to play with light and shadow and to be able to understand how a figure's different protuberances change as you walk around it. In the past, I've enjoyed the Lincoln in thought by Daniel Chester French and Nathan Hale by Frederick Macmonnies. This time around, there were two that I had either never seen or never noticed, which is disappointing, since they are both amazing. They are called "Saïd Abdullah of the Mayac, Kingdom of the Darfur" and "African Venus," both by Charles Cordier.

I really enjoy sculpture in which a character is brought out. It's a very subtle art--the tilt of the head, the slight variations of the mouth, or the angle of the eyebrows are just a few of the hundreds of tiny tweaks that carry a figure's attitude. Too often, sculptures become boring classical relics:


The work itself is impressive, but there is no feeling to it. The figure is certainly figure, but it isn't alive. Now, the Romans advanced over the Greeks by making people actually look like people instead of idealized versions of people.

Greek (boring, idealized):


Roman (interesting, realistic):


But the Romans still weren't big on giving an attitude to a sculpture (the po'ed old guy above notwithstanding). That's why I like the two in the Art Institute so much. The bust of Saïd Abdullah is so proud, do dignified. He looks like he's staring into you, ready to speak. The African Venus is proud, too, but she doesn't look like she's going to speak. She just seems to be looking down on you. It's awesome.

So, I drew Saïd Abullah. I really like how both pictures came out, even though the front view doesn't look very much like the sculpture. The expression I got in my drawing is more inquisitive than challenging, mostly because of his eyebrows looking less furrowed and his head being tilted to the side, unlike the original.

Anyway, enjoy!

I'm Sorry For This

I just watched the music video for Earth Wind and Fire's Let's Groove, and I just can't handle it. I apologize that you haven't seen it until now. The retro cosmo-funk just gets my groove on like nobody's business.

Snowpocalypse Now

Chicago is being socked by snow as I write. Who will survive? When will the four snowmen of the apocalypse appear? I can't say. I can say, however, that it is accompanied by thunder and that the federal government in Chicago, in its grand idiocy, isn't going to close its offices tomorrow.


UPDATE: My apologies to the federal government. They did close their offices, even though they didn't do so until around 6am this morning, after everything else in the city had come to a standstill. Good work, Feds. Good work.

Sometimes Rioters Can Do Good Things

If you ever read the news, you may have noticed that Egypt is on the verge of collapse. Is it really? That's a good question. A few years ago, people were predicting the fall of the Iranian government, but it never materialized. Will the same happen in Egypt? Who knows.

There are reasons to be concerned about a new regime and reasons to be hopeful for one. I have no idea what will happen, so half a world away, I'll just wait and watch.



I can say that I'm incredibly happy to have been able to see Egypt before all of this craziness. It seems that riots and disasters follow me in the wake of my trips: Istanbul in 2008, Greece in 2008-2010, Kenya in 2010 (though, in all fairness, most of their riots were already over; I was there when they ratified their new constitution, though, which was pretty awesome), and now Egypt.

I don't know Cairo very well--partially because we didn't spend much time exploring the place--but, our hotel was very close to the Egyptian Museum and the NDP Party headquarters. So, when I heard that the headquarters were on fire, my first worry was for the priceless artifacts in the Egyptian Museum, among them the thousands of items found in Tutankhamun's tomb. To lose those after thousands of years would be absolutely tragic not just for Egypt, but for the entire world.

That's why I was so happy to read that one of the first places the Egyptian Army went during the night was to secure the Museum. Apparently, before they had arrived, a group of rioters had surrounded the place in a protective chain to keep looters from savaging the collection. When the Army arrived, the rioters allowed them to access and secure the place.





It's such a relief that the Egyptian people understand the importance of the items that they steward. I mean, I guess I understood they did, but I'm really happy to see them put their money where their mouths are. Way to go, Egyptians!

Guh-WHAAA?

I don't know why I began this post with 'guh'. It's probably to express the noise I made when I saw that Lee Unkrich (director of Toy Story 3) has posted photos of TS3 characters that were printed using a color 3D printer.






Beyond being generally cool, I'm wigging out over the fact that one can print things in 3D! And with such detail!

Of course, this ignited a massive internet search. Below is a good pseudo-explanatory video of how the process works. Basically, the printer takes the 3D image information and lays down successive (thin!) layers of resin to form the image. My first question was: "what if there is something that is hanging over (like an elephant's trunk)? How does that get printed without falling off?" The answer is that a waxy resin shell encases the actual object. As the layers are placed down, the shell builds up around it. You then remove the shell by either melting it off or washing it off.

Genius!

Tezcatlipoca

A few years ago Emily went to Thailand and Vietnam with her (now roommate), Jill. While there, they met up with a bunch of Seventh Day Adventists. One of them happened to be an aspiring animator. When she returned, she told me about it and sent me his senior project, entitled "Tezcatlipoca". It depicts the Aztec god Tezcatlipoca descending from the stars in the form of a jaguar, and it is very well done. I had it saved to my iTunes for a long time, but just today, on the blog On Animation, there it was as a link! I hadn't watched it in a long time. So, now, two years later, I'm posting it, too.

Facial Expressions

Tracy Butler at Lackydaisycats has a great ditty on expressions for characters. Click on the picture below to see it in full. I certainly know that I too easily make the 'smarm brow' that she says artists should 'unlearn'.

Jim Henson's Fantastic World

On Friday Emily and I went to see the Museum of Science and Industry's exhibit on "Jim Henson's Fantastic World." Unfortunately, if you want to see it, you'll have to find its next stop, since it left Chicago on Sunday.

The exhibit was breathtaking. The moment you walk in to the first room--circular and painted with an alternating green/lime green pattern reminiscent of a certain Muppet's collar--Kermit the Frog greets you. It's an original Kermit puppet from the 1970's, just sitting on a log, happy as a clam. When I saw him, I could've started crying hysterically, but I held myself together.

"Hi-ho!"

All around are early sketches made by Jim Henson. You realize when viewing them that his mind was constantly moving, making connections between language, art, music, movement, and mechanics. He took puns and literalized them into characters. He took music and visualized it with animation. He took homonyms and built them into satirical worlds.

Each successive room goes through his career (somewhat) chronologically. You see the posters he made as a college student for events on campus. You see characters and sketches from "Hey Cinderella!", "Sam and Friends", and the commercials he worked on in his early days. You see Rowlf the Dog--the first nationally-known Muppet (due to his appearances on The Jimmy Dean Show).

All that is followed by The Muppet Show (including the Mahna-Mahna guy and his pink friends) and his different films. Miss Piggy is there in her wedding dress from The Muppets Take Manhattan.

As a little break, there is a puppet theater where museum staff perform shows throughout the day. There is also a touching 18 minute film "Jim in His Own Words" (or something like that) that chronicles his entire career.

This section is followed by a little foray into Jim's earlier work in Time Piece in the 1960's, followed by Sesame Street, including Ernie and Bert and sketches and storyboards for various characters and scenes. The early concepts for Big Bird and Oscar are especially neat. A little girl came in and saw the Oscar concept and exclaimed "It's Randall!".

Notice that Jim drew himself inside the puppet

The last room contains information and items from his other projects: Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, and Fraggle Rock.

I think it's a pretty uncontroversial point that everyone, whether consciously or unconsciously, chooses icons for various aspects of their lives--the people who have inspired them to act in certain ways, to fight for certain beliefs, and to accomplish certain things. Often, they are people we know: parents, grandparents, friends, teachers, pastors. Sometimes they are people who inhabit our world but aren't personally familiar: artists, politicians, academicians. In some cases, however, they are people whose time was before our own, whose lives were unknown to us as they happened, and whose legacies can only be understood from what remains of their work.

Jim Henson died two days after I turned four years old. I venture to guess that when it happened, I neither noticed nor cared. As one of its principal architects departed this life, I sat comfortably watching Sesame Street. I'd like to think that he was mindful of the impact he was having on so many young lives.

In his own words (from a foreword to an unpublished book, 1986):

Over the years, I've evolved my own set of beliefs and attitudes - as we all have - that I feel works for me.

I believe that life is basically a process of growth - that we go through many lives, choosing those situations and problems that we will learn through.

I believe that we form our own lives, that we create our own reality, and that everything works out for the best. I know I drive some people crazy with what seems to be ridiculous optimism, but it has always worked out for me.

I believe in taking a positive attitude toward the world, toward people, and toward my work. I think I'm here for a purpose. I think it's likely that we all are, but I'm only sure about myself. I try to tune myself in to whatever it is that I'm supposed to be, and I try to think of myself as a part of all of us - all mankind and all life. I find it's not easy to keep these lofty thoughts in mind as the day goes by, but it certainly helps me a great deal to start out this way.

At some point in my life I decided, rightly or wrongly, that there are many situations in this life that I can't do much about - acts of terrorism, feelings of nationalistic prejudice, cold war, etc. - so what I should do is concentrate on the situations that my energy can affect.

I believe that we can use television and film to be an influence for good; that we can help to shape the thoughts of children and adults in a positive way. As it has turned out, I'm very proud of some of the work we've done, and I think we can do many more good things.

When I was young, my ambition was to be one of the people who made a difference in this world. My hope still is to leave the world a little bit better for my having been here.

It's a wonderful life and I love it.

Now, most people enjoy the Muppets. They go about their daily lives and sometimes see a funny clip or an old movie with Kermit the Frog and laugh at the entertainment it provides. What they don't recognize is how much thought and care Jim Henson put into what his characters represented. Sure, the Swedish Chef is hilarious, and the idea of a pig and a frog as opposite romantic leads is ridiculous. However, when viewed as a whole, Jim's ouvre--from Sam and Friends to The Jim Henson Hour--is about bringing education and awareness to children and laughter to adults. And what can't be overstated enough is that that was no accident.