The Fantastic Mr. Fox

In a few weeks, the Roald Dahl classic, Fantastic Mr Fox comes to the big screen as a stop-motion feature directed by Wes Anderson. I've never actually read the book (shhhh...), but I would kind of like to before seeing the movie. Maybe I won't. I'll probably just go watch it...

New, Kind of Random, Pencil Test

This pencil test has nothing to do with the last post about the Romanovs and the Russian Revolution; the fact they've come on the same day is entirely coincidental.

However, I have been for some time working on a comic strip/animation idea about a farm which has a bunch of communist pigs (a la Animal Farm). Here's a talking test for the Lenin Pig using none other than a clip from Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Happye Seynt Valentyne's Day!

Courtesy of Geoffrey Chaucer's Parlement of Foules (the first connection between
Valentine's Day and romance):

Whan I was come ayen unto the place
That I of spak, that was so swote and grene,
Forth welk I tho, my-selven to solace.
Tho was I war wher that ther sat a quene
That, as of light the somer-sonne shene
Passeth the sterre, right so over mesure
She fairer was than any creature.
And in a launde, upon an hille of floures,
Was set this noble goddesse Nature;
Of braunches were hir halles and hir boures,
Y-wrought after hir craft and hir mesure;
Ne ther nas foul that cometh of engendrure,
That they ne were prest in hir presence,
To take hir doom and yeve hir audience.
For this was on seynt Valentynes day,
Whan every foul cometh ther to chese his make,
Of every kinde, that men thenke may;
And that so huge a noyse gan they make,
That erthe and see, and tree, and every lake
So ful was, that unnethe was ther space
For me to stonde, so ful was al the place.

The Illusion of Life

Somewhere between five and ten years ago, my parents gave me The Illusion of Life: The Magic of Disney Animation by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston. It was a revolutionary book for me. Even today, I usually take a good read of it before I try to animate any movement, large or small, on my own.

Interestingly enough, I just found that there was a TV special in 1981 called "The Illusion of Life" (emceed by Hayley Mills, no less!). It's a great, and very dated, special about the process of animating at the Disney Studios. Perhaps best of all, it is full of interviews of the remaining "Nine Old Men"--and they are able to explain how animation changed from its earliest days in the 1920's to the (then) present. Below are all five parts.

There Once Was a Man from Nantucket

I am from Indiana's sturdy farming crop. My family had one of the best dairy herds and hay crops in the nation for years (my great-great uncle was the international "Hay King" seven times). That said, it seems pretty clear that I would know little to nothing about water-based anything. I've been to cottages on lakes in Michigan, and I've been in both the Atlantic (a lot) and the Pacific (once) yet I've never learned anything about the art of sailing. For some reason, I'd like to.

I've been windsurfing once on the Hudson. I also have relatives who live right off of Cape Cod. They are older and have never been water-sporting types. That area, however, has a remarkable pull to me. I don't know if there's just something in me that likes the preppy, aristocratic, I-don't-have-to-do-anything-since-I'm-rich-so-I'm-just-going-to-learn-how-to-sail-with-my-overly-abundant-free-time lifestyle (read: Kennedyesque) or if I would actually enjoy the ocean.

Two nights ago, instead of watching the Super Bowl (I don't have a TV...), I read The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. It is a quick read (only about 120 pages). I haven't had much time to think about its significance or to interpret the old man's resemblances to Christ as He's crucified. Something that stands out to me, though, is Hemingway's excellent ability to describe the world of fishing and of life on the sea. From his descriptions of the barrel of shark oil that the man drinks out of every day to the lavender and silver stripes on the marlin that he catches, in many ways, even for a drylander like me, it makes me feel like I'm there. The smells and taste and texture of the fishes' meat make you want to throw up, just as the man wants to. It's worth the read.

I'm afraid that another reason that I am interested in sailing is because of boat shoes, particularly the Sperry topsider. Pathetically, I already own four pairs of these shoes (plus an old pair from the 80's that my dad gave me). I wear them instead of sandals, since feet gross me out. Topsiders are not only cool looking, but they are practical (apparently on boats, because of the grooves; that was their original purpose) and machine washable. You can get the shoes wet and disgusting, but then wash them! They're made for it!

This year, there are two new ones that look awesome. Both are plaid (what can I say?), which should match your handy, preppy plaid shorts.

So, from the mouth (keyboard) of this midwestern boy: go out, buy boat shoes, learn to sail, and enjoy the sea! Of course, you have to wait for that bane, winter, to be dispatched first.