Tuesday, November 29, 2005


Holiday shopping? Need pointers from Das Brick?
No, I didn't think so.
Regardless, there are now recommendation lists at Amazon
for all you breathless fans.

Sunday, November 27, 2005










The only people in my household who love the works of the PES studio more than I do are my 2-year-old son and my four-year-old daughter. Every time the monitor flickers on, the kids jump up on my lap and shout "bottle train! bottle train!" which is the little tykes' shorthand for a Bacardi commercial. Aimed at pre-schoolers, I guess.

At any rate, PES is embarassingly awesome and there are a couple of enchanting new items on their page (always big news at my house) - including a "making of" for KABOOM!, one of everybody's faves. Fall in love all over again - link

Saturday, November 26, 2005


Score again for hydrocephalicbunny, with reports this week from the animation scene in Germany. I get a charge out of the Animations Institut site, a German animation school with lots to choose from. Click on the "projects" tab and enjoy No Limits for starts.

Friday, November 25, 2005


A supa find from Jeff at hydrocephalicbunny - -

Behold the enchanted world of Guillaume Delaunay - great flash, with perfect audio to go with it. This will go down very nicely after swishing An Eye For Ennai around in your mouth for a few minutes. Ahhh.


Just look at this. It will make your whole day.
http://media.putfile.com/An-Eye-For-Annai
(the http://www.burstofbeaden.com/ site is out of service for now;
I will check it again later on and let all y'all know what happens)

Thursday, November 24, 2005




If you read the interview with Henry "Nightmare Before Christmas"/"James and the Giant Peach"/"The Life Aquatic" Selick over at http://www.animated-news.com/archives/00004144.html then you were probably left with the same question I had: how do I get to see this lost piece of Selickiana called Slow Bob in the Lower Dimensions? After looking through dozens of false leads (the film used to be online at Selick's Vinton animation site before it got eaten by the Laika site) my answer is: get ahold of the Residents' DVD Icky Flix, and look for the easter eggs. Apparently Slow Bob is a bonus on this DVD.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006U3U88/002-0174714-4084001?v=glance&n=130&n=507846&s=dvd&v=glance

Anybody out there know more about this?

Another banner day over at Drawn! ... if you somehow missed this, go check out the Little Friends of Printmaking pronto. http://thelittlefriendsofprintmaking.com/ Egads! What a hurricane of niftiness!

Plus...
















The gorgeous colorforms-esque backgrounds for Adult Swim's Squidbillies, which I have mentioned before, are now collected at Ben Prisk's blog.






He is quite a guy. Check out his whole site, but start with:
http://prisk.typepad.com/photos/backgrounds/index.html

Plus...

















those Drawn! guys have a whole list of new blogs to check out. I personally am waxing hypnagogic about two Brazilian guys:
http://brunocorte.blogspot.com/

and

http://danieledmundson.blogspot.com/

I spent fifteen bucks to get this on DVD and I'm not sorry at all. But for anybody trapped at work without other means to watch Nick Parks' masterpiece Creature Comforts, Rejoice! herewith is the whole dealie on line! Yay. http://www.atomfilms.com/af/content/atom_221

Sunday, November 20, 2005


You either love Fanfare Ciocarlia or you haven't heard of them yet. Imagine Earth, Wind, and Fire as a swarm of mustachioed Moldavian horn players, playing so fast that you actually worry about them. Or, y'know, Squarepusher or Aesop Rock as a football marching band. Now imagine this group finally releasing their finest recording to date - and yes I have all of their recordings!!! Yes they did! Go see them live, buy Gili Garabdi, and repent of everything else you thought was tuff enuff. These chaps play for blood! http://www.fanfare-ciocarlia.com/

Saturday, November 19, 2005


I've been trying to remember the name of this guy for a while... since I saw The 2005 Animation Show, actually. Jonathan Nix made the best little flick I saw that particular night, and here is his site: http://www.studionix.com/ - check out Hello. What the heck... while you're there, look at all of his stuff, right?

Thursday, November 17, 2005



Stop the presses! Here's another chin-twisting site of well-crafted and super-hip animation. My heavens. Taplabs http://www.taplabs.com/ was featured in the aforementioned Frederator podcast and boy did it get my attention! Go forth! and enjoy...

This is the blog that we have been waiting for... and you too, I'm sure. A bona fide Russian animation site! More power to you! Lift this mysterious flap: http://russian-insider.blogspot.com/


I like this photograph.

Now that I think about it, maybe it came from Boing Boing. Sorry.

It is an octopus made from cans, though. See?

Wednesday, November 16, 2005


Maybe you don't already know about Channel Frederator? Ok, so here... it's a podcast of cartoons! Funny, itchy, indie sorts of cartoons. It's wicked fun. Cost = zero dollars. If you have iTunes then you can get caught up with the first 4 episodes real easy-like (search for "frederator"), or go to http://www.channelfrederator.com/ Hoorah!










What can you do about Bruno Salamone, while waiting for his website http://brunosalamone.free.fr/ to finish being built?

Check out his marvelous illustrations (and lots of other eye candy) at Agent 002 http://www.agent002.com/home/home.php

Here's a nice way to shed some of that unwanted cash you have. Subscribe to a DVD magazine, filled with interesting-looking ads and shorts! Ho ho!

Stash Magazine http://www.stashmedia.tv/archive/index.html has lots of links to provide hours of eye-bulging glee. Or, send them money.

Monday, November 14, 2005


Is this old, and from BoingBoing? Yes.
But, I didn't know about it until today, and it just seems to belong here.

Vintage Soviet animation clips!

Sort of like Rankin-Bass stuff, but more entertaining if you don't understand Russian. Whee!

http://www.wellesley.edu/Russian/cartoons101.html

Sunday, November 13, 2005

I wonder how many crying kids and frustrated Indiana Jones fans got hornswoggled by a press release calling Alexandr Ptushko "the Russian Spielberg." Or, as the New York Times blurted out a few years ago, the "Russian Disney." Look, Ptushko is wonderful filmmaker, and some of his leading ladies are very easy to look at. His sets are dazzling in a Cinemascope wonderland sort of way. But the point of the (1930s - 1960s) movies is to make crazy stop-action animation. I think you'd do better to expect a Russian George Pal, if not quite Harryhausen. I like his films! They're the kind of stuff you enjoyed falling asleep during as a child. Especially VIY, which is like watching Mary Poppins and The Exorcist at the same time. But don't expect Spielberg, or Disney. http://www.kinoglaz.fr/ptouchko.htm
From the Tin Hat Trio site: http://www.tinhattrio.com/about_frm.html :

Tin Hat has also been teaming up with a live foley artist (Zeena Parkins) to accompany the silent insect animations of Ladislaw Starewicz. They have written a series of original scores which are performed live with these groundbreaking films - made in Russia and Paris in the early 20th century, they feature a number of animated insects, frogs and rats, dressed for roles in decidedly surreal tellings of Aesop's fables and Grimm's fairy tales.

OK, let's look at this one piece at a time. (A) Tin Hat (formerly a trio, now a nebulous blob of white-hot musical atmosphericalization) is one of the greatest things going in our Clear Channel-bound little world. (B) Zeena Parkins is a tremendous gift to all of us; witness her work with Butch Morris (whom I had the pleasure to see at the Village Vanguard, with my neighbor who thought he was Buckwheat.. but that's another story) and with Björk, John Zorn, and I'm sure tons of other seminal stuff. (C) Ladislaw Starewicz is my favorite stop-action animator ever. ever. ever. See his stuff today.

So, what happened to this collaboration?? No recordings at all, for those of us not in the Bay Area? Must I write a letter?? Grrrr!

Here's a plea for help... anyone in the wide world know more about Doug Johnson, airbrush genius responsible for the shiny, almost-menacing-looking creatures on the covers of Judas Priest's 1980s albums -

Screaming for Vengeance






















and Defenders of the Faith?



I am hoping Doug will come forward to tell the story of these characters... they appear to be glistening monsters made of posterboard, electrical conduit, a host of neon lightbulbs, and some seashells. They give the impression that they fold neatly for storage, or something. I was really enthralled as a kid, now I'm mystified. And still wishing I had a t-shirt.

Mercifully, there are hundreds IF NOT THOUSANDS of hairy, unemployed men out there emailing furiously to get Mr Johnson back for ANOTHER JUDAS PRIEST ALBUM COVER so hold on to your hats.

I agree! Airbrush art rules!

In this kind of art, you can see different
artists, real talented people.

In computer graphics, everybody looks like everybody!

And honestly speaking I was very disappointed

with the cover of
Demolition.

It's too cheap for a Priest album!

The same is valid for Live Meltdown 98,

another cheap cover.

I think they should call Doug Johnson back and do a decent cover,

in the style of SCREAMING FOR VENGEANCE!

That would rock!


ROCK HARD RIDE FREE in 2005!!!!!!

- courtesy of The Metal God's Quorum http://www.robhalford.com/quorum/

I will keep you posted.




Hey! Looking for some fresh graphic design ideas?
Here's a big, flyblown mound of largely un-imitated album covers to reflect on!!
http://www.zonicweb.net/badalbmcvrs/

Anyone who made cheap, weekend sci-fi movies with friends in high school has probly appreciated the stonefaced joie de nonsense which pervades one of my all-time fave movies, Alex Cox's Straight to Hell.



I have always enjoyed the rambling pointless improv of all these rock-n-roll con artists (Miguel Sandoval, Sy Richardson, the Pogues, Courtney Love, Elvis Costello, Joe Strummer, etc etc) wandering around the desert and not cursing. Jim Jarmusch, when confronted with Mexican police trying to deputize his gun during a shootout, gets to bleat "You cops can throw rocks."

Still, one wonders, how did such a film, whose point seems to be to provide a great time for the director and all his friends, ever get funded? The question has bothered me since high school. Here, friends, is the very satisfying answer - http://www.alexcox.com/dir_straighttohell.htm - straight from Mr Cox's own blog. Doesn't that feel better?


You may be putting off your Christmas shopping because you hate the long lines at the solar-powered spider store, and the jammed parking lot outside the handmade childbirth automaton shop. Well, I have a time-saving hint for you!! Pack you credit cards and get all your holiday shopping done in one easy stop at Dug North's!! http://www.dugnorth.com/index.aspx
Tell him I said Ho ho ho!

You will always feel better after watching
wooden puppets jump around by themselves.
(Thanks to Jeff at hydrocephalicbunny.blogspot.com !)

Saturday, November 12, 2005





Michel Gondry update: "The Denial Twist" by the White Stripes is now available for repeated viewing. The man cannot make a video without having the time of his life, can he? http://www.video-c.co.uk/micrositedisplayfull.asp?vidref=thew010&page=watch&FileType=ADSLProg


I was already prepared to trade my Queen-size Family Truckster for the BMW C1, and then I seen this camping model. O heavens. Camping in my C1. A Cylon Raider with wheels and a backpack. To live in Italy!!!

http://www.c1.bmw.it/ (you'll need to allow pop-ups for this to work)...

... which I will attach to my VW Syncro. Fully pimped with sink and couch. Which I wanted more than tix to go see Ozzy, when I was 14. And now I discover that the Brits have a club for people like me... http://www.club80-90syncro.co.uk/

I am a syncronaut!

Which sounds better than a "vanagon-liker."




I am probly showing my demographic here... or mebbe being up at 3:30am has made me a little soft... but it really does seem like the Go! Team record is as much fun as it is cracked up to be. I will go out on a limb here and say that if you swooned at life in Idaho after seeing Napoleon Dynamite, and/or you still wear the early B-52's in spite of later B-52's, then you'll get frothy about the Go! Team. I am frothy right now.

http://www.thegoteam.co.uk/flash/GoKids.html will answer many questions you may have.

...in fairness, though, those Go! people owe a big vibe royalty to your friends in STEREO TOTAL, the best thing to come out of Germany since movable type.

http://www.stereototal.de/music/download_rare.html

...and I will also plug the sterling producer of some Stereo Total musics,

who is very rockin on his own.

Pyrolator!! http://www.pyrolator.com/

Anybody with a copy of Drive to Heaven, Welcome to Chaos will please contact me stat. I sold my copy at ZIA records in Tempe, Arizona for 3 weeks of mac and cheese money.

Bad move. Sorry.



Just checking... everybody knows that the complete Flat Eric oeuvre is available at the click of a button?? What could be easier, or more satisfying?

http://www.punchbaby.com/clip_FlatEric.htm

Friday, November 11, 2005

Now here's something. I have already packed my bags for the charming world of Goopymart, and you should too. Can't beat cheerful rainbow-colored monsters on vacation, now, can you?
http://www.goopymart.com/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/goopymart/sets/1343585/
There.

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Do you miss Alive from Off Center as much as I do?
Go here and drink in some processed video for it's own sake: http://x.nnon.tv/ Posted by Picasa

Saturday, November 05, 2005

Thursday, November 03, 2005


Hoorah! A small heap of Michel Gagné's Insanely Twisted Shadow Puppet animation in one handy spot!
http://www.gagneint.com/Final%20site/insanelytwisted.com/main.htm

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

I usually leave music recommendations to other folks, but I am so tickled by
Broken Social Scene
that I am going to wave their flag for a minute.
I picked up their new self-titled album, which is so good it's silly.
Picked up their first (see picture above).
Same result. Where to go from here?
I am having trouble listening to anyone else these days.
Also see:
other bands from Montreal:
if you haven't gotten sick of them already,
and

http://www.gogolbordello.com/home/

You will want to start your own band. Guaranteed!


Why was Google invented? To provide happiness. How else would I have found out that (a) some of my favorite Hot Wheels cars as a kid were real size cars??? (b) the same guy who made the giant Hot Wheels also made the Munsters car??? and (c) HE ALSO MADE THE BATMOBILE.

I am suddenly, blissfully, nine years old again. God bless George Barris. http://www.barris.com/gallery.html

Tuesday, November 01, 2005


Looking for that special someone to spend an evening with? Make a date with Georges Méliès. He has a pile of crazed silent films to choose from, and there is scarcely a dull moment in the whole lot. He invents and invents and reinvents, frame after frame. You will be inspired, I guarantee... no matter what field you work in!

The DVD collection Méliès the Magician comes highly recommended, but if there's a moviehouse cool enough to show his stuff near you, get thee there! http://frenchfilms.topcities.com/index3.html#http://frenchfilms.topcities.com/nf_gmelies.html























The mesmerizing world of Brad Johnson aka J. Bradley Johnson, aka Snoot and Grolo's proud dad. Perhaps you know this guy from Julie Doucet's Dirty Plotte, or Snake Eyes, or lots of other unlikely places. Here is a cornucopia of his funnies:

http://www.jbradleyjohnson.com/comics/index.html