dbborroughs' Friends

5:50PM - Jeff Smith bookstore signing in Toronto!

http://www.boneville.com/2009/07/14/jeff-bookstore-signing-in-toronto/

http://www.boneville.com/?p=2256

This August, Jeff is jumping the lake!

On Saturday August 8th, Jeff will be doing a signing at the Indigo Book Store in Toronto.

Indigo is Canada’s largest bookstore with locations across the country.

Jeff’s appearance will be at the Indigo Books in the Yorkdale Shopping Centre. The address is 3401 Dufferin Street, Unit #29, Toronto and the phone number is 416-781-6660.

The signing begins at 2pm.

This event could fill up quickly and you should contact Indigo for more information as the event gets closer.

6:10PM - Dallas McKennon 1919-2009

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CartoonBrew/~3/NAaY6L3GHps/dallas-mckennon-1919-2009.html

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/?p=15107

Just got word that Dallas McKennon passed away this morning. Sunday would’ve been his 90th birthday.

Dal was a prolific voice in animation, and you’ve heard him as the voice of Gumby, Archie, Buzz Buzzard, Ben Franklin at Epcot, the beaver in Lady and the Tramp, the fox in Mary Poppins, and in numerous Sam Singer cartoons. He was an actor in many live action movies for Disney, Alfred Hitchcock, George Pal, and Anthony Mann, but was probably best known to people the real world as a regular on the TV series Daniel Boone, playing Cinncinatus the storekeeper.

I had the pleasure of meeting Dal about ten years ago and hanging out with him during a visit to L.A. (he lived in Oregon) and found him to be a wonderful person. My favorite role of his was as the old sea captain, polar bear and bulldog in Tex Avery’s The Legend of Rock-A-Bye Point. “Sing it again for me, will ya, Charlie…” So in tribute, I’ve embedded it below.

(Thanks, Gene Hamm)

4:00PM - Bill Plympton’s Dog Days dvd

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CartoonBrew/~3/c-YnO7GBazg/bill-plymptons-dog-days-dvd.html

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/?p=15054

Independent animation great Bill Plympton has released a new dvd collecting all of the shorts he has created between 2004 and 2008: Guard Dog, Guide Dog, Hot Dog, Spiral, The Fan and the Flower, Shuteye Hotel, and Santa, the Fascist Years. The disc is packed with tons of extras including music videos for Kanye West, Weird Al Yankovic, and Parson Brown, TV commercials, animated documentary excerpts, and a TV special 12 Tiny Christmas Tales, as well as pencil tests, animatics, storyboards and filmmaker commentary. Animation director David Levy wrote a review of the dvd with insightful thoughts about Plympton’s work in general. Levy’s comments about the Parson Brown music video “Mexican Standoff” stood out to me:

I am tempted to describe Bill’s recent commissioned work, the music video “Mexican Standoff,” as one of those misfires in that it can appear to be an average work. But as soon as I think that, I correct myself: Average for whom? The film is full of innovative camera angles, daring animation, and enough style and ideas for 10 films. I wonder if one price Bill has paid for his productivity might be that we’ve become accustomed to his ordinary excellence. If we had never seen a Bill Plympton film before and started with “Mexican Standoff,” we might be asking, “Who did that terrific animation?” But, the value of the “Dog Days” collection is that it answers that injustice by forcing the viewer to look at this five-year period of Bill’s work as a whole.

This morning, we’re giving away a dvd signed by the legend himself. To enter, leave a comment below until 11am (Pacific time) and we’ll choose a random winner from the comments. To order the Dog Days dvd, which is $24.95, visit Plympton’s website.

12:06PM - Spots the Space Marine: Righteous Anger

Spots the Space Marine is a twice-weekly pay-at-whim serial. Find out more and read prior episodes.

Gym. 3 AM. Spots, wearing gloves, sleepwear and an intent expression, is applying fists and feet to a punching bag. Scythe, in a physical training uniform and with a katana, enters and watches for a while. After a particularly violent kick:

"I think you put his lung out the back of his ribs."

"Oh! Um, Scythe. I didn't see you come in."

"I noticed. You're up during your sleep-shift."

"Just... a little bit. Couldn't sleep, thought I'd work it out."

"Work what out?"

Spots eyes him. Sighs. "Guess if I said 'my aggression' you wouldn't believe me."

Scythe sits on a trunk used for safety equipment. "Actually, I would. What's eating you?"

"I'm getting a little tired of everyone treating me like a limp dishrag. I might have gone through boot camp over a decade before any of them, but I got through it." She flexes her hands. "And I qualified with a rifle while most of them were still in grade school. The gun jokes are getting old."

"You joined young."

She shrugs. "I wanted to go active, but I was engaged. It was that or get married and have kids." She smiles. "For an 18-year-old I was pretty clear about what I wanted."

"You still with this guy you married as a teenager?"

"Huh? Yes, of course." A smaller smile, private. "Best decision I ever made."

"You could try giving them as good as you get, you know."

Spots shakes her head. Strips off her gloves. "Not my style."

"What is your style, then?"

She thinks about it. Laughs, but not carefree. " 'Hang in there.' "

"I can see that. Hey, look, Guitart. At some point, you're going to have to lay down the law."

She grins at him. "Not going to fight my battles, are you."

"I could, but would you want me to?"

"Of course not. I've got a plan, I promise. But that doesn't mean I don't get angry when people dismiss me." She puts the gloves away, glances at him. "Aren't you on sleep-shift too?"

Scythe smiles, hands resting on the sword over his lap. "You're not the only one who has some aggression to work out."

"Want to talk about it?"

"No, I want to lop off some target heads. But thanks."

"No problem."

"Hey, Spots."

She pauses at the door. "Yes?"

"What is your plan?"

"Same as what worked with my kids. Wear 'em out. Night, Scythe."

The Board Room: the lab where alien bodies are dissected. Next to the door is a photo of butterflies pinned to a board, supplying the room's nickname. Peaches is standing next to several people: Naval Intelligence, contractors, some specialists. On the board is the King Claws brought in.

Peaches. "So this isn't a new shell?"

"Not quite, Lieutenant. It's one of the new shells your sniper shot, but modified for a King body."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Not completely, but the patterns and colors are the same, just... stretched out. We've never seen anything like it."

"What about the inside?"

"That's... where it gets stranger. There's a nodule of nervous tissue at the base of the thorax. It's tempting to say it's a second brain, but we have no idea what it would be used for. Kings have bigger brains anyway, but... why the second node? I wish we could ask our resident alien."

"Which you can't, because..."

"Orders. We don't discuss these things with the friendlies. It's impolitic, makes them uncomfortable."

Peaches. "So we have a King with a shell we think might be quasi-new but we're not sure, and that we think might have a second brain, and we're not sure, and we don't know what any of it means or how it'll affect us."

"Basically."

Peaches. "****."

###

Twenty minutes later, Peaches is striding down the corridor. She picks up the gunny and keeps going, all the way to the secure area.

"Ma'am? What are we up to?"

"Have you been through Sickbay lately, Gunny?"

"Yes, ma'am...?"

"So have I." Peaches swipes her security card, jaw hard. "We're going to see Samuel-Colt."

###

Peaches is angry! We need answers! Will we get them on Thursday? >.>

Donate.


Stardancer Home.

8:13AM - In which I am a geek

Look! A Library of Congress listing for Thief Eyes. It's a real book!

(Heads offline to finish revising same ...)

11:10AM - Keep it Simple

One of the games we play right now is "make Mommy draw stuff." I'll lie down next to a giant piece of paper and ask, "What should Mommy draw?" And whatever she comes up with, I'll give it a go. I've learned in this way that I don't really know what animals look like.

Today, for instance, she asked me for a feesh, so I drew her a tubby cartoon fish.

"FEESH!"

"Another fish?" I say. "Okay, another fish." And then I realize, 'um, I can only draw one fish. What the hey do fish look like?' So I do my best.

"nuh ehr FEESH!"

"ANOTHER fish?" I draw a long body and think, 'Fish have fins, right?' and just tack on some more fins and a tail.

"nuh erh FEESH!"

And this goes on for several more iterations, with me trying harder and harder to remember what real fish look like. Finally, in a spate of exhaustion, I draw one of my favorite animals:

"What's this?" I ask.

And to my great glee, she says: "Mahn tah RAE!"

And I laugh and laugh. "Yes! Manta Ray!"

My daughter knows what a manta ray is. I am full of the happy. -_-


Stardancer Home.

9:50AM - I'm Back...

http://mowillemsdoodles.blogspot.com/2009/07/im-back.html

from Chicago and the ALA Conference madness...The family had a great time visiting with friends, checking out new books, and hangin' with fans. Chicago is an awesome town.I had great fun at the Art Institute and the Convention Floor signings and bumped into author/illustrator pals Jackie Woodson, Jon Scieszka, Mac Barnett, Kadir Nelson, Laura Seeger, Brian Selznick, Mark Teague, Walter Myers,

8:07AM - Rain-Chance Tuesday

Tonight is Art Advisor Night! I am going to try to squeeze the gym in before seeing him.

Word of the Day
exculpatory, adj : tending or serving to clear from alleged fault or guilt

Baby at 22 Months
Every once in a while I think about how I wanted to be that mom that goes with her daughter on long walks, teaching her the names of plants and pointing out little animals, examining leaves and bugs and twigs. Like in those books I used to love when I was little. I am grumpy with myself for not doing that until I realize the average feels-like temperature in Florida is either 100 degrees or pouring-down-rain, and any walk I took her on would exhaust us both to whining and snapping. By my book you don't go out into that kind of weather for fun, you do it out of necessity.

So instead, while she sits in her high chair and eats yogurt with honey and strawberries and drinks milk, I sit across from her and say, "Hear that? That's a cardinal! A boy cardinal. He goes: thip thip thip! Do you hear? A cardinal is a kind of bird, a red bird."

"Rehd bihrd!"

"That's right, a red bird. And ooh, do you hear that? That's a red-tailed hawk! She goes, "aiii! aiii!" "

At least we can still hear the birds from inside. :P

Current Plans
Tonight I hope to paint while chatting with my art advisor. I also want to ask him about the angle of Spots's gun because I've drawn the bottom of it five times and I'm not getting it. Otherwise, the Spots is half-drafted, I hope to get that up this afternoon. And of course, if I have time I'm going to squish in my work-out.

Elsewhere
• The Sky-eyes and the Earth-hearts. Sponsor an epic poem about butterfly aliens, stanza by stanza!
• And Did You Do it With Respect. An alternative to "always do your best." From themaskmaker.


Stardancer Home.

3:00AM - SDCC ‘09: The Animation Panels (Sunday)

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CartoonBrew/~3/cklnQiC_WGw/sdcc-09-the-animation-panels-sunday.html

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/?p=15100

Here is third installment of Cartoon Brew’s guide to the 2009 San Diego Comic Con. Below are my recommended picks of animation-related panels scheduled for Sunday July 26th. It’s a light day for animation panels, most of them are voice-over related. I’m not recommending the American Dad panel or the advance screening of the new Scooby Doo movie - but if you want to see them, or other stuff like that, check the entire schedule for Sunday here.

SUNDAY

10:00-11:00 Phineas & Ferb panel with creators Dan Povenmire and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh, plus the voice of Phineas, Vincent Martella, and other surprise guests — and sneak peeks of new episodes. Room 6DE

10:30-11:30 The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd—LIVE! Not quite animation, but a cartoon-like live radio show with Chuck McCann, Frank Conniff, and animation voice actors Moira Quirk, Alison Mork and Michael Rayner. Room 8

11:15-12:30 Cartoon Voices II Co-hosts Mark Evanier and Earl Kress discuss cartoon voices with Hank Garrett (G.I. Joe), Susan Silo (Biker Mice from Mars), Greg Cipes (Teen Titans), Tom Kane (Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends) and several more. Room 6A.

1:00-2:00 Business of Cartoon Voices A serious “how to” look at the business, telling you what it takes to get in and how to avoid getting ripped-off. Once again, Mark Evanier and Earl Kress assemble a panel of agents, casting directors and working actors for a no-nonsense look at the business. Room 2

After this, I’m goin’ home.

6:54PM

In case you missed this I thought I'd post this link to some great Harry Potter cast pics
at the London premiere where it rained:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1198130/Harry-Potter-premiere-Emma-Watson-shows-shes-grown-up.html

Potter begins tomorrow night in the U.S.!

9:05PM - Art Spiegelman at MOCAD

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Comicsgirl/~3/wdpF3iG_qUo/

http://www.comicsgirl.com/?p=1023

I was recently in Michigan visiting my brother and enjoying the abundance of wonderful (wonderful!) beer they have there. But during a break in the drinking, we also managed to visit Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, which currently features an exhibition of Art Spiegelman’s work, focusing on Breakdowns.

It’s not a large exhibit, but what’s there is good. I liked seeing Spiegelman’s process — his sketches on graphic paper, revisions to the text and panel layouts — and how it all would come together in the final strip. While I never thought his work was really just thrown together, he’s much more of a technical artist than I thought. I’m glad I got to go.

The exhibit is up through July 26. Spiegelman himself will be at MOCAD on Wednesday. It’s $7 and I think tickets are still available (I see no indication anywhere otherwise). I, however, will not be since I’m back home (and sadly back at work — vacations are never long enough).

MOCAD is a neat space and I’d like to go back when I’m in Michigan again.

12:48PM - Five tanka on five words

As you may have noticed, I dislike memes that are all about me!me!. I want to hear people, not talk about myself -- I do far too much of that anyway. But with this one, at least I get something out of it: Reply to this meme by yelling "Words!" and I will give you five words that remind me of you. Then post them in your LJ/blog and explain what they mean to you.

These words were given to me by rachelmanija. They ended up being more interconnected (inter-tanka-nected?) than I suspect she knew.


Iceland

In the furthest north
sustainability's edge:
vikings held on
with their only luxuries
landscape and the spoken word.

Sagas

Grandparents talk of
love, law, loss, blood, and revenge
in the winter night;
a storyteller listens
and runs howling to his art.

Poetry

Against truth's harsh light
we shade ourselves with small lies,
softening shadows;
a writer listens to his lies
and runs howling to his craft.

Terrible science fiction

The future isn't --
we fill up that empty time
with comforting hopes;
a liar takes them for truth
and runs howling to his crap.

Tall

Tall tales are needed:
they show the limits of truth.
Tall coffees as well:
sometimes, they are just enough.
Tall people are excessive.

It need not be a yell, or a howl -- a simple request will do.

---L.

10:00AM - Jacque Torres's Hibernating Cookies

One of my more unfortunate hobbies is baking, and in particular I am always questing for the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. Even when I think I've found the best, I can't resist a new one if it intrigues. I've been baking since I was a kid so you can only imagine how many chocolate chip cookie recipes I've been through in my life.

I kept running into mentions of the 36-Hour Chocolate Chip Cookies and I couldn't help but wonder about them. Cake flour? Bread flour? A 36-hour rest? How enigmatic! How finicky! I had to try it! Here's how it stacked up:

General
This is what store-bought cookies should taste like, the ones that look so pretty in the case and taste like cardboard. The cookies bake very tender but tall... but also chewy. This is not a combination of things I've ever observed in another cookie recipe. You bite into them and get a toothsome mouthful, but as you chew, the texture is silky. Fascinating! I like soft cookies, but if you bake them longer, they are delightfully crisp while still having a significant body... none of that biting into a paper-thin cookie and having it shatter. These give you something for your teeth to bite through while still being crispy.

Pros
• The dough is very tasty (is this a pro or a con?).
• The baked cookies freeze adequately, but don't microwave them; let them thaw on their own, otherwise you get weird temperature differentials.

Cons
• You have to plan to make these in advance, so they're not good for on-the-spot dessert-making.
• The recipe calls for really hard-to-find chocolate pieces; I live next to a chocolate specialty store and even I had trouble with it. However, the Ghirardelli bittersweet chips are flatter and larger than average chocolate chips and they're easier to find; I find them an adequate substitute.
• Cake flour is very fine, and sifting it made me wish for a face mask. o_O

I later discovered that these cookies were developed by Jaques Torres, which I suppose makes it no surprise they're so good. I find it unfortunate that I like them, though, because they're a lot of trouble and even more temptation (I'm one of those dough-eating bakers... finished baked goods aren't anywhere near as compelling). But they're definitely worth trying if you're into chocolate chip cookies.


Bonus: My daughter gave them two thumbs up. :)

Stardancer Home.

8:54AM - 7.13.09

8:51AM - 7.12.09

8:46AM - 7.11.09

11:40AM - Wall Street Analyst Apologizes For Predicting UP Would Fail

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CartoonBrew/~3/zVatwLHJ-jA/wall-street-analyst-apologize-for-predicting-up-would-fail.html

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/?p=15062

Here’s something you don’t hear often: an analyst on Wall Street admitting they’re wrong. Richard Greenfield of Pali Research told the New York Times that he was “dead wrong” when he suggested that investors sell their Disney shares, in part because UP would flop. Prior to the opening of the film, Greenfield had said, “We doubt younger boys will be that excited by the main character,” and he also claimed the film lacked commercial appeal because there was no female lead. Now that UP has become Pixar’s second-highest grossing film domestically, Greenfield is backtracking. It’s worth noting that Greenfield has a history of being wrong about Pixar and Disney. In 2008, he’d been hesitant about the potential of Wall-E, and in March of this year, he predicted that Disney’s stock would crash to $12.50 a share whereas it has jumped to over $22 in the past couple months. There is no animation business plan more foolproof than creating work from a foundation of creative integrity. Pixar gets that; it’s too bad the analysts on Wall Street don’t.

(via Michael Sporn)

7:47AM - Dairy-Free Monday

Extra Picture From Yesterday

It appears this morning we're going to the grocery for breakfast! Thank you, Power Company.

Word of the Day
fecund, adj 1: fruitful in offspring or vegetation : prolific 2: intellectually productive or inventive to a marked degree
I have always loved this word.

Baby at 22 Months
...a couple of days ago, when she had her strange 2-day cold (allergies, maybe?), I was balancing her on one thigh and trying to get a saline spray prepared; for those of you who haven't had small kids, when they get stuffy noses you have to drip/spray saline into them and then use a specialized squeegee thing to suck the mucus out, because they don't know how to blow their own noses yet. But anyway, I was trying to manhandle this and a 32-pound kid when she reached over and took the spray from my hand, inserted the nozzle into her own nostril and murmured, "skweeez" and tried to give it a good squeeze.

I admit I gaped rather than leaping on this opportunity. But the next time she did it, I pressed on the bottle too and we got her nose irrigated together. She did the other side on her own too.

It's these little moments where she masters a completely new and often bizarre human skill that are the most astonishing, somehow.

Current Plans
Working on a card painting scaffold (this one's going to take some planning). I'm now done with all my card readings (that I know of!), so I'm free to do more of those. Also, researching and writing tomorrow's Spots. I am thinking of squeezing another hour out of my schedule to go to the gym, but I'm not sure I'll be doing extra Spots. I did pick up a book (about Marine boot camp) and a sample of another (an autobiography of the top Marine sniper) and those are proving very insightful. Oh, and before I forget, I'm working on a recipe review for you folks.

Elsewhere
• Aquanotes. I admit I am passing tempted by these. -_-
• Trent Reznor's Advice to New Musicians. He thinks social media is important.

Monday's Quote of the Week
Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.—Colin Powell
(There are so many awesome things about this quote that I just giggle with glee typing it.)


Stardancer Home.

10:07PM - My Day in Pictures

Sketching is a decision-making process, an act of creation, and an aggressive, energetic process. You wrestle what you want to depict out of your head, you choose how to compose it, you put down the lines and each line you put down is a decision and... you know, deciding things gets exhausting. On days when I have time to myself but I'm too tired to spearhead new work, I am grateful that I have a backlog of available projects to finish, many of which already have color-tests printed out for easy reference.

Today was one of those tired-in-the-head days, so I printed out Mother's Guardian and took it with me when I headed north with baby.

It was not a particularly pretty day to be out photographing things; the weather was storm-tousled and rainy. The lighting... not so good. Even in the diner, the lighting was kind of grimy.



I'm trying not to take this piece too seriously, and so I was having a lot more fun with it than I anticipated. And as usual, when you're having fun, fun things happen... check out this gradient! The colors are edible!



I spent about an hour and a half painting, and this is close to where I stopped for the afternoon, having blocked out a lot of the background. This is just the first pass... all the colors have to be deepened and darkened and brightened and... well, you know how this will go. You've watched me do it before!



Apparently while I was gone the baby had a fun time too... my father bought her this toy pool, which she splashed around in for an hour, ignoring the lunch my mom bought her.



Driving back, I did see one thing outside worth photographing... my old friends, the sandhill cranes. We had dozens of these magnificent birds in my previous neighborhood, each one almost as tall as I am, but they don't frequent where I live now. It's so nice to see them near my parents' house. When animals get to a certain size, they obtain a kind of personhood... as if anything that registers as human-sized when glanced at in the periphery is granted sapience by visual default. I always thought of these cranes as neighbors.



Later, my mom sent me this photo of the baby with her bunny. It was such an amazing photo that I had to share. I was thinking today about how I know so many people whose parents raised them as an imposition, a cramp in their style, a reason they couldn't go out and party and drink and dance or do whatever they wanted to. And how as adults now a lot of those people carry that wound with them... forever, and translate it to other kids and...

God hear me, I don't ever want to be that mom. What good is a life lived doing whatever you want to? You don't sharpen a soul that way. This child is the light of my life, and I hope she grows up knowing it.

And that was my day! Well, except for the five hours that our bloody power company failed to repair a blown something-or-other, resulting in an appalling amount of lost groceries. Our refrigerator is empty, and tomorrow's grocery bill is going to hurt because it should have been unnecessary. :P


Stardancer Home.

12:00AM - The Smurfs and Hong Kong Phooey go live action

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CartoonBrew/~3/RkxARJQ3rWY/the-smurfs-and-hong-kong-phooey-go-live-action.html

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/?p=15081

It’s been a big week for Hollywood’s goal to turn every crap cartoon of the 1970s into live action blockbuster movies.

Take the Smurfs… Please! Raja Gosnell (Scooby Doo 1 and 2, Beverly Hills Chihuahua) was just announced as the director of the live action-animation Smurfs movie from Sony Pictures Animation. It will be released in 3-D in December 2010.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that Warner Bros. has just hired the man who brought you Carrot Top in Chairman Of The Board and the direct-to-video sequel to Inspector Gadget, Alex Zamm, to direct a live action feature length version of Hong Kong Phooey.

If any of these films were half the fun as the Hanna Barbera action figures (above) from McFarlane Toys (designed by Scott Shaw!), it might actually be worth the effort. Instead, you can throw these two in the one dollar DVD bin.