Halloween. Chuck Jones stories. Animation Expo
November 5, 2009 in ART, PODCASTS, THE SIMPSONS NEWS
THE SIMPSONS NEWS
We had the studio Halloween party last Friday. Overall it looked like it wasn’t going to be much fun. The studio has so few people the party almost looked deserted. Things pick up when the costume contest began. Suddenly the party got really fun. Lots of cool costumes, including a group of people who dressed up as the cast of Gilligan’s Island (Ship and all).
As far as the rest of the work week, not much to report. Just churning away at scenes. Today I’m going to be staying late to make up for the fact that I’ll need to come in late tomorrow. Outside of the party, it hasn’t been too eventful
FAMILY
Taking another break from the trip to Disneyland story to write about Halloween.
I don’t like Halloween. I’m not into dressing up and I’m not into going to parties, so Halloween does nothing for me. That being said, I had a great Halloween this year. Perhaps the best one I’ve ever had. Why? Because of my kids.
We didn’t know what we were going to dress the kids up as for Halloween. On Friday at daycare, they had gotten their faces drawn on so that Munckin looked like a dog and Dante looked at like a cat. Munchkin really enjoyed that. So much so that when I wiped the paint off later, she got very sad. After that, we knew what she was going to be for Halloween. Dante was not so attached to the cat idea. He really didn’t seem to care one way or the other.
On Saturday, we made our way to some Halloween stores where we bought some paint and a tail for Munchkin’s costume and figure out a costume for Dante. He didn’t want dress like a monkey so in the end, we dressed him up like Superman. When I showed him the costume we got him, he laughed out loud.
I had fun painting Munchkin’s face. All I did was paint a white eye patch around one eye and then I painted her nose and put some “muzzle” lines around her mouth. She looked great. Alesha later did her hair to look like floppy ears. When we put on her tail, she shook her hips to make her tail wag. She was having fun being a puppy.
We met my parents, my brother, my sister-in-law, and my nephew Paolo in front of a library where the stores in the area where doing a trick or treating event. There were tons of kids and parents everywhere and we saw all kinds of costumes. Little Paolo and his mommy were all dressed up like 50s greasers; even down to Paolos converse sneakers. He was very cute.
Once we met up, we went Trick or Treating. This is where it just became super fun for me. Dante was too little still to really enjoy what was going on. He had a good time but not in the same way that his sister was having fun. She was really into it. It was a joy to see her go up to get candy. She’d been watching Halloween cartoons for days and, for her to actually be doing the Trick or Treating that the cartoons showed, must have been the best thing ever.
Unfortunately, not everyone in the group was up to the task of taking the kids Trick or Treating for long. After, about an hour an a half or so, we had to call it quits. The ordeal was too tiring. We all went back to my brother’s house, hung out and had dinner there. That was fun too. The kids ate candy, played and ran around. Meanwhile we watched Looney Toons talked about them and other things. It was fun.
We had to leave at 7:00pm though because my brother had to wake up early the next day. Still, it was a great day.
PODCASTS
Last week I wrote about the art podcasts I had been listening to but I left one out.
Well, I just thought I’d plug it again. Especially since the latest podcast has a Halloween theme and a Looney Tunes theme as well. Which is a strange coincidence since watching Looney Tunes was part of my Halloween.
Raul goes into some interesting stories that Bill Melendez told him about working at Warner Brother on Looney Tune cartoons, back in the day. Check out the podcast.
ART
Nov. 20-22 is the CNT Animation Expo, here, at the Burbank Convention Center. It actually sound like great fun. It’s like a little Comic Con but only for animation. Some of the best artists in the industry will be giving talks over their area of expertise. Many of the major studios will also be recruiting there. It’s a great place to get connections and network. It’s also only a block away from Starz Media/Film Roman, where I work. I really want to go.
The only thing I don’t like about it, is the cost. If you didn’t sign up before Oct. 31st, you have to pay 70$ to get in, in order to participate in any of the panels (which is really, the best reason to come). Otherwise, you just pay 25$ and you get the run of the show floor.
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Baby birth eve, Last day of work, The Dragon Page Cover to Cover, Portrayal.
January 31, 2008 in ANSWERING COMMENTS, FAMILY, PODCASTS, THE SIMPSONS NEWS, VIDEO GAMES
THE SIMPSONS NEWS
Wednesday was the last day of work for me. As of this day, I’ve heard that the writers are back in at the negotiating table. Hopefully an agreement can be had this time. I hope it happens sooner than later. I’ve got enough saved to last a month or so but you never can tell.
The Universal Studios Simpsons ride deadline was Friday. We didn’t make the deadline. I worked Saturday but I spent time at home with my wife and baby girl Sunday. We had a lot of errands to do. I went back into work on Monday and it didn’t seem like much was done by anyone on Sunday even though some of us worked that day. When Wednesday came, it still looked like there was a lot of work left to do. Doesn’t seem like the work will ever end on that project. It did for me though. Pray for us.
FAMILY
My son Dante Gabriel will be born this Thursday January 31. He’s in breach position so it will have to be a C-section. It’s exciting and worrisome at the same time. Hope all goes well. Munchkin will have a crazy day. She’s going to be passed around like a baton for the next day and a half from Godparents, to Aunt, to Grandparents. Once she’s gone I won’t see her till I pick her up at my parents the following evening. I wonder what she will think is happening? I hope she doesn’t freak out when we bring the new baby home and she discovers that we can’t give her all our attention all the time like she’s used to.
In a strange way, getting layoff right now is turning out to be a really good thing. It means I’ll be able to help out when I’m needed most. On the other hand, the money would come in real handy now more than ever.
PODCASTS
I often listen to a Podcast called: The Dragon Page Cover to Cover. It’s basically a podcast where they interview hot Sci fi/Fantasy books authors, as well as discuss Fantasy books and writing. It’s a great podcast for people who like reading Sci fi and Fantasy books. The podcast is great when they keep to the topic of fantasy books, but the thing about Sci fi and Fantasy books is that they tend to bring up subjects that are often controversial, like politics, religion, or secular philosophy. Therefore, sometimes the hosts of the show, which seem to me to be secular humanists, tend to say things about subjects like Christianity that maybe they shouldn’t say. As is typical in these discussions they tend to be subtly and not so subtly anti-Christian and even anti-Catholic. Most of the time, I tend to ignore stuff like that because this kind of bigotry is so normal in California that, even though it bugs me, it’s usually not worth making a big stink out it. Thing is, sometimes, I just can’t stand it anymore and I have to say something. In the case of The Dragon page podcast, I couldn’t keep quite about something that was said by one of the hosts.
I think that this host is great. I have nothing against him personally and I find myself being really disappointed when he isn’t on show because he’s working or something. He’s great because he’s a published author of many best selling books and he often gives great insight to the inner workings of publishing. He also goes out of his way to help people learn to write and has a general reputation of being a stand up guy. Thing is, I get the impression that he’s a fallen away Catholic and as many fallen away Catholics, he tends to give out a small air of disdain about Catholicism, it’s dogmas, and it’s hierarchy. This wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t for the fact that this bias comes through once in a while in his comments.
There was a particular episode where he brought up something that seemed to me to imply a lot more than just the surface statement. It bothered me so much that I called and left a message asking if I thought I heard him right or if I was just reading more into his statement than he meant. He was good enough to answer my question. I’ve listen to the answer a few times and think he did his best to answer as best he could. I think I understand what he was trying to say but I’m not sure. Problem is that my question was rather long and had a lot of examples, I think there where multiple questions or statements in it and only having heard it once, it’s difficult to just answer everything in a nice little package. It’s obvious that he has read some books about the history of Christianity and since I haven’t particularly read the specific book he mentions in the podcast, I don’t know exactly what information he may be referring to that I don’t have. I do get the impression that the book he talks about puts forth an anti-orthodox theory stating that there where many legitimate Christianities in the beginning and the strongest ended up surviving. While an orthodox Catholic would say that there was only one true Christianity from the start and there were many heresies that tried claiming they were truly Christian but were proven wrong. Of course these kind of arguments use the exact same data but each use a different way of interpreting it based on the interpreter’s world view. I’m not a relativist so I think only one of these points of view is the correct one.
In any case, I’m thinking of maybe sending him an e-mail just to follow up and to thank him for answering my question. I admire his work and the good things he does for others and I hope that he continues to do well.
If you wish to hear the question and the answer, the episode is Cover to Cover #293A. My question begins in the 2:30 mark. Let me know what you think.
For some reason, this entire event has called to mind a quote from Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. It goes like this:
BOARD GAMES
Besides playing Lost Cities and Lord of the Lord of the Rings – The Confrontation: Deluxe Edition against my wife this week and losing both games to her. I thought I might play a game with you. I was watching one of the latest Board Games with Scott video casts and he reviewed a party game that really caught my attention because of how clever the premise is. I will let Scott explain it in the video so I won’t go into it here. In the video, he actually plays a round of the game with the audience after explaining the game. I thought it would be fun so I played along. I was thinking that maybe you can also.
[video src="http://ia360629.us.archive.org/3/items/bgws_044/bgws_044_lq.mp4" /]Directly underneath this paragraph is a small thumbnail of the drawing I came up with (it’s a bit difficult to see). DON’T CLICK ON THE THUMBNAIL UNTIL YOU’VE PLAYED THE GAME YOURSELF. After you’ve done so you can look at what I did. In the comments section below I will write what my score was. Did you manage to beat my score? No fair pausing the video. I didn’t.
ANSWERING COMMENTS
I don’t have a specific comment I want to answer this week. I would just like to thank everyone that has commented positively on the last cartoon I put up. Because of the response, I’m planning to make another one that will follow a similar style also involving Superman, Batman, and even Spiderman this time. I’ve already started writing it and it’s gotten a bit out of control in how long it is. I’m even thinking of animating it a bit more than the original one and I might have to use Adobe Flash to do it I haven’t made up my mind yet if I’m going to go that route. Now that I have a little more time, I might be able to do something as elaborate as that. Stay tuned.
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