Prohibition

I love Ken Burns and his documentaries. Ever since I was a kid and watched The Civil War with my dad, I've been hooked. As many critics say, he has the ability to take otherwise complex and inaccessible history and turn it into something fascinating. Some say he makes things seem too simplistic. Well, that's a critique that can be leveled against any documentarian. You only have so much time that an audience will grant you. With the time that he has, Ken Burns makes people who don't like history absolutely love it.

That's why I can't wait for his new documentary, which will be showing on PBS starting this Sunday. It's on that great American experiment, Prohibition. So, go grab a tumbler, make yourself an Old Fashioned, and enjoy the featurette with great anticipation:

Pardon the Changes

Apologies for the drastic changes to my blog. I've been battling Blogger's new interface for the last few days, and thus far, I seem to be losing. Hopefully it'll have more of a semblance of something readable soon.

Jim Henson's Birthday

Tomorrow, I learned from Google, is the 75th birthday of the great Jim Henson.

Of course, I've written before about how inspiring Jim Henson has been to me. It's amazing to think that he'd only be 75 tomorrow. The last twenty years could've really been something for the Muppets. Maybe, however, it was his time. Maybe he left at the top of his game. I don't know. That's a bit too metaphysical for me.

Henson is such an inspiration because of his wild creativity. He never stood still, he never stopped imagining new creatures, new sketches, new characters. He continued to grow in his craft (go check out The Dark Crystal to see how advanced his puppetry had become by the end of his career). He also continued to explore other crafts--surrealism, animation, painting. Puppetry was only part of the big world of art, and the Muppets were only a part of the big world of puppetry.

I saw a video recently (I think through Drawn!, the illustration blog) about the collaboration between Jim Henson and Frank Oz. It doesn't have any narration, only interviews with Jim, Frank, and others, and clips from the various projects they worked on together. Though Frank seems to always try to give Jim sole credit for everything, the two really were one of those incredible corroborations that will be remembered for a long time to come, on the order of Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, or Gilbert and Sullivan. Kermit wouldn't be complete without Miss Piggy. Ernie wouldn't be complete without Bert, and the Swedish Chef wouldn't be complete without...uh...hands. Here it is, in memory of Jim Henson, whose Muppets continue to entertain us on the silver screen, on YouTube, at Walt Disney World, and in innumerable other places.

Happy Birthday, Jim!

Lion Drawing

I promise that at some point I will stop drawing big cats.  I promise I have more to my repertoire.  They're just so fun.

I spent the day at the zoo, sketching animals.  The gorillas were having a good time, so I might do something with one of them.  Or maybe a rhinoceros or a giraffe.  Or, maybe a leopard becau--doh!  No, not a leopard.

Well, maybe a leopard.

Yet Another Cheetah Drawing

Been working on some drawings. They're of cheetahs, which is a surprise to no one.  I've been once again practicing light and shadow, so here's an example.  I also had a little fun with depth-of-field in the background.  I need more work on that kind of thing, but there you go.

Cheetah Run!

So, I've basically been rotoscoping a clip of a young cheetah hunting a gazelle. It's a really fascinating way to see how these animals move when they are running.

Here are the two clips:

Yet Another Animation

This time, it's a bear!

Another Thing Dealing With Animation and Big Cats

Just downloaded the trial version of DigiCel Flipbook. Kinda fun. I made a lion jump (though, as you can see, ran out of room on the landing!). The timing is a little fast, but I'm still working on figuring out the product. Now, if I could only find out how to add frames...

They're Coming

OK, all you right-handed yokels. Today is the day that you will all regret being 90% of the population. Today is the day that you'll regret being less prone to accident-related injuries. Today is the day that we, the lefties of the world, celebrate our sinistrality, for today, August 13, is International Left-Handers Day.

We will not cease. We will not relent. We will spread, and grow. We already have the leader of the free world. We also have the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and will soon have the leader of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth Realms. We lurk among you, so beware.

Lefties of the world--UNITE!

Did You Know That Kermit and Mickey Mouse Are BFFs?

I had heard of the 1990 TV Special "The Muppets at Walt Disney World" before, but I had never seen it, until today. It has classic Muppetisms (Charles Grodin to Rizzo: "You know, you're smarter than the average rat." Rizzo to Charles Grodin: "Well, that's good, because you're dumber than the average human.") and the wonder of Disney COMBINED. Look out for a cameo from Raven-Symone (popular as a kid in The Cosby Show at the time) and for Stadtler and Waldorf serenading an old grandma while riding a trolley through the Magic Kingdom.

Those who know anything about Disney World will notice that they break into MGM Studios but manage to get themselves all over the different parks and hotels. Miss Piggy and Beauregard go looking for the Disney remake of Grauman's Chinese Theater in MGM but find themselves inexplicably in the Magic Kingdom instead.