Have you tried buying a t-shirt online? It is a lesson in frustration. There are amazing concepts being turned into shirts and then, like small children's balloons, let go into the stratosphere never to be seen again. I am particularly upset about not getting to walk around with the image at left, from huskworks, on my chest. Grrr. I guess I will have to buy a white Hanes wife-beater and like it!

This has been all over the animation blogs lately, so you have probly seen it by now. If not, take a few minutes and absorb this animation treasure, The Thief and the Cobbler. It was obsessed over by the artist, Richard Williams, mangled by The Man, and distributed as a movie that the animator never intended to make.

Now there's a re-edited version, motivated out of love rather than profit, and the roughness of the edges makes it that much better. Stick it to The Man and enjoy it on YouTube for free!! These are amazing times we live in, no? Thanks to Cartoon Brew for waking me up to this.

Movies in the World:

Michel Gondry, leader of the free world, has a new movie The Science of Sleep, and there are now clips available online. Although it is dangerously French, it looks ready to charm the socks off anything else out there.

I mean, really. If you know of anything - besides Ratatouille- that looks better, let me know. As always, get caught up at the Gondry blog.



I guess there is a sequel to Hellboy, someday. I liked the first Hellboy a lot.

Plus, there's going to be a sequel to Elizabeth, which is one of my all-time faves. How funny is that - Elizabeth 2. It will be great though - Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, the whole Brady Bunch from the first one. Except, sadly, Vincent "What-uh?" Cassel.

I just finished watching the original Thing and it was immensely entertaining: everybody talks over each other through the whole thing! Fantastic! The monster was barely in it, but the 50's rapid-fire dialogue totally won me over. Go Thing!!

How many times have you wished you could have two of yourself around: one to get work done, and another you to just sit and noodle with a piano in the corner? This toy is for you, babe: the Pianolina! Not only is it free, and easy to figure out, you can just wind it up and let it play for you, until you grow weary of the prettiness and need to clear your head with some Scissorfight. More fun than dropping a bucket of marbles into a grand piano, and with a similar musical result. Thanks, WFMU blog!

I keep telling people: Le Dernier Cri! It's wicked awesome! I can't quite figure it out, but I imagine some Gallic Fort Thunder. They even have an actual dragon made out of ceramic plates. You are waiting for what???

I'm not totally sold on myspace... there are some fun little confabulations of images and whatnot on some of the artsier pages, and some interesting music to be found. I guess its a blast if you're out looking for confused teens to chat with, or, alternatively, a big gnarly waste of time.

All the same, Frouky wandered over to say hello and I said to myself Hey! I like this person/band/concept! Maybe you will too.

Traumatized kids from around the world have banded together to create this touching tribute to playground art. You, you can just click the images away, but for these kids... they are forever. Erg!!!

Thanks (?) to boingboing.

Will somebody help Kirk and tell him what is in the box already??

What happens to cartoons when they die before they are born? Anybody?

Whatever little blastocysts are left from Sylvain Chomet's abortive attempt at Barbacoa (which sounded absolutely hilarious) must be a far cry more inspiring than all the turds being churned out from major CG animation studios this summer. I would trade 6 "over the hedges" for some stills of the monkey trying not to be eaten in the wartime zoo. Grrr. Anybody? Anything? Hello?

Jean Michel Jarre - Zoolook

I don't know. Somebody says this is Jeunet & Caro? Seems far-fetched. I've always liked this song tho, and the kids in this video seem to really like the robots. Try it, it don't cost nothin.

Sometimes I wonder if I am just getting excited about what everybody else has been checking out for ages. As it happens, I was hip to JerryTime since its inception, or close to it, and you probly were too. Either way, the Jerry guys' new short film TRIUMPH OF THE PEEPS is something x-tra special and you should gorge yourself on it post haste. Also, on the peep tip, be aware that your kids are submitting this stuff to youtube after you go to bed.

Slow Bob in the Lower Dimensions (1990)

This YouTube thing is really starting to shiver me timbers. Today I find "Slow Bob" from Henry Selick - a very hard-to-find early piece from the guy who made Nightmare Before Christmas and the creatures from The Life Aquatic. Hot dog, what?

Two quick ones:

First, I hope somebody reading this remembers to check on bibliodyssey more often than I do, 'cause every time I drop in there, they're in the middle of uncovering yet another epiphany. Truly a fountain of inspiration over there.

Secondly, for all you fellow believers in wigged-out French rock-et-roll, make sure you are listening to the Three Les:

Les Sans Culottes,

Les Georges Leningrad,

and, obviously, Les Nessman.

Oops I forgot about Art Brut. Add them on there too.


Stir in the aforementioned Zemog El Gallo Bueno, and a healthy dollop of my main man Machito, et voilá! ... now you have lots of greet beach musik... for you surfin' surfniks!!

Family Dog - Part 3

Family Dog - Part 2

Family Dog - Part 1

Happy Fat Head Day to all y'all - I had to spend $35 on eBay for a videotape of this one: Brad Bird's classic Family Dog, from the 1980s Amazing Stories TV series. One of my favorite animated bits to just watch over and over, until the poor tape just wears out. Well, now you can obsess over it... for free! ... and not punish your antique VCR. Watch parts 1, 2, and 3 in that order - or feel like a nong-nong.

WOW! Piles of fresh-out-the-box animated goodness from Gobelins, the French animation school that manufactures awesomeness like a Play-Doh fun factory. Check this out. Now!! Especially Burning Safari, which caused me to fill my Depends.

Thanks a bunch, fous d'anim!!

Look everybody! Sidney the Elephant, featuring voice talent such as Carol Channing as the Ms. Giraffe, Homestarrunner from Parsnips Aplenty as Mr. Lion, and Carl from Aqua Teen Hunger Force as Mr Rhino. I suggest listening to this one while you work on something else. Tee hee!

Plus, cheery news from Cartoon Brew - Warners is finally releasing the magnificent, original Fleischer Popeyes on DVD next year.

Thanks to Fantagraphics blog for the you-tube links!

I'm always having to remind my kids how easy they have it. There was a time when, if you wanted to see a brass squid riding a bicycle , you had to take all kids of dangerous and expensive drugs. Now, you just have to point and click. God bless the Squid blog !!!













Plus, if you are ready, the troops at Squid blog point us to a colorful picture of the inside of a squid's stomach. Complete with a PAIR OF EYES STARING AT YOU.

Kids, if you're going to eat other people's eyes, remember to chew before you swallow, or you will have EYES IN YOUR STOMACH STARING AT YOU.

Still raining here in Boston... so here's a sleepy, easy-going video that my hero, Michel Gondry, seems to have made with his left hand one afternoon, with some very ear-friendly vocal stylings from Cody Chesnutt.

I guess if you are friends with gifted musicians, and can doodle, and you can send your doodles off to graphic studios like The Mill NY to get made into Light-Brite-looking footage, then you can just crank this kind of stuff out whenever you feel like. Ahh, to be Michel Gondry.

His new movie, The Science of Sleep, just came out in France, by the way. Prepare yourselves, rest of the world.

Here is a touching tale... Kirk Demarais grew up in Walmartland, Arkansas and recounts finding all this lovable plastic garbage at non-Walmarts, until they were boarded up under the pressure of the juggernaut. Luckily, he has preserved this crazy cultural flotsam with tons of flair at his labyrinthine site.

Thanks to Monsterama for finding these gems!

Are you growing weary, searching for the perfect cocktail of shell-shocked jazz and puertorican glossolalia? Have you been wondering what Boston ever had to contribute to blow-the-roof-off boricua psychedelic party music? Are you just aimless and glossy-eyed since Jayuya broke up?

Get hip, son. ZEMOG has their second full-length out, and it is miles ahead of your fly-blown emo and o-so-unhappy Swedish death metal. If you are running out of money, you can even hear them live on a PC in your local library. Just turn the sound down, so as not to disrupt the 8th graders at the next table doing their book reports.

Off to the hills of Puerto Rico with you, and your hipster friends too!!!

Well here's breaking art news from 2000. I don't know why I just remembered this... perhaps spending yet another day listening to rain cascading over my gutters onto my Civic just put a spell on me. Yet suddenly, from my mind's ear, I heard the haunting ooghs of Tim Hawkinson's UBERORGAN, a soul-soothing yet massive musical-instrument-slash-art-installation situated at Mass MoCA in 2000. If it's not raining where you are, wait until it starts, then listen to these righteous mp3s and imagine the football-field-sized polyethylene bladders belching this out. Go Tim go!!!