Good-Bye Grandpa Priebe

Dear Grandpa-

I'm sorry we didn't get to say good-bye in this life, so this letter will have to do. I'm sad that you left so suddenly and I won't be able to call you and hear the usual..."OH HEY KEN! OK, LET ME CALL YOU BACK!" :)

First of all, I want to thank you for all the memories I've been blessed to have with you as my grandpa. I still remember many things about all the visits to your house in Dearborn, how I loved the cuckoo clock on your wall, and how you and Grandma always welcomed us with open arms. I was always sad to leave. Visits to our house always would come with gifts of Dunkin Donuts and your little one-finger tickle to my belly. I also remember the visits to pizza places and Greenfield Village, and memories of those places are always reflected with being with you and Grandma. These memories are great, but even more special to me are the many visits I made to see you in Arizona during my college years. This was the time when I really started to get closer to you and learn more about the person you are. I could always count on you to just listen to my dreams, my concerns or whatever else was on my mind. I enjoyed watching old movies with you and sharing new ones as well. You had a kindness and a curiosity and openness to everything, and calm understated contentness with life that to this day I find very inspiring, and as I get older I find myself becoming more like that.

I'm so glad you were able to visit me and Janet here in Ladner and connect with family members here, and I'm especially thankful that you got to meet our little Ariel. Even though she was too young to remember, we'll make sure she doesn't forget.

Although I wil miss you dearly, it comforts me to know that you and Grandma are together again, because I know how much you missed her. So until we meet again, thank you for our history, yesterday and today. I love you with all my heart.

Ken

Sunday

Had a good day yesterday...in the morning was my much-anticipated and obsessively-prepared-for first Sunday School class for my 'Faith & Film' series. Basic gist of the class was looking at 'Garden State' and breaking down the symbolism therein. I think I might take everything from the class and make it into an extended visual review for HollywoodJesus sometime soon.

Afterwards, spent the afternoon playing with Ariel and watching some more movies. Saw bits & pieces of 'Man of the Year' but it couldn't really hold my attention. I thought Robin Williams' character was extremely under-developed...he wasn't really acting or playing a character, but more played himself. The film seemed to me an excuse for mixing political statements with recycled Williams jokes...much of the material I remembered from his stand-up acts. And on top of that was a completely unrealistic romance (?) of sorts with Laura Linney, who I can't stand in any film I've seen her in...same with Holly Hunter....they always play the same annoying strung-out characters you just want to reach into the screen and put a muzzle on. So anyway, not much to report on there.

Later on I watched 'Flushed Away' in two parts since I fell asleep and needed to pause for an intermission. I liked it, but wasn't really into the story or characters enough to love it. Still worth another viewing. Animation was fun to watch, in that the Aardman style was very much intact. I've tried looking for some information on how they made it look like stop-motion, all jerky at times...did they use replacement models? Can't seem to find anything except featurettes on the voice actors. Dreamworks sucks.

Iris Out on Michigan for now

Back to BC! The whole trip has been amazing...quite likely the best we've had. Ariel was a good girl and everybody loved her. It's sad needing to leave, but we'll be back. We're headed back with so much stuff, we needed to borrow an extra suitcase.

On Monday I got to visit College for Creative Studies and present my work and my students' work, and hang out with Steve and his students. It was a great time...several students there were incredibly talented. It was also re-assuring to know that the same politics and inane management decisions go on even at large schools like this one, based on the conversations I heard around the campfire. Makes my job seem more normal, I guess you could say. It was a shame that Larry Larson couldn't make it in, but there will be other times for that. I was glad to see Frank Beaver make the effort to come by and visit, and especially the chance meeting with Jim Pinard as well. My second presentation had been cancelled due to all the students coming to the first one instead, so instead we hung out in the classroom and then went up to the office so Steve could tie up some loose ends getting ready for his history class. Jim just happened to catch me as I was going out the door! A rather divine moment of excellent God-timing...I guess He really wanted us to meet....glad too, as we had an amazing chat over coffee. This mysterious "maker of the egg film" I felt was very much on the same page as myself, so we had great talks about our lives, film, God, CS Lewis, and all those other things that matter.

Looky, a triangle of babies! This was one of the events of the trip I was most looking forward to...seeing Jeff & Marie and getting our girls together for playtime. The twins, Kasia and Moira, are beautiful babies and it's nice to know that Ariel will have some friends to bond with over the years when we visit.

Here's some more pictures of various family ties...Ohana, Part II...

Ariel with my 2nd cousin Lisa's kids (Brett, Megan, & Trent) and 1st cousin Sara's little Aeron. So this is 3rd, 4th cousins, or something...ehh, just cousins, all of 'em. Brett reminds me of Daniel at that age; very quirky and creative.

Angels and Demons: Ariel with Uncle Dan

Here's me, Ariel and my brothers with an R2D2 mailbox we found in Greektown! Rather appropriate, since Detroit is typically the Mos Eisley of the USA...'You may never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.' I have to admit though, compared to what I saw growing up, it appears to be under-going a Special Edition digital update.

And other random image-ness...

Put that in your pipe and smoke it!

I like any bottle label with a chicken on it.

Ohana

Ariel, her new singing teddy bear, and her Great-Grammy Ambrose.

4 generations of Ambrose blood!

Me with my Uncle Bill...no, wait, that's my cousin Ryan.

Ariel and her 'Great-Aunt' Nancy, in every sense of the word.

My Own Little Garden State

I'm here in my ol' home town and having a blast. Jay has many more details on her blog as usual, so I figure I'll give my Kennish commentary and post some awesome pictures.

Hey Fozzie, I want you to turn left at the fork in the road.

Everybody suck on a spoon and see how awesome my brother is.

We've learned on this trip that Ariel LOVES dogs, even fake ones.

I would love to create an entire book of photos with me standing next to every giant mouse with a piece of cheese throughout the country. I now have two pages, since I found another one in Wisconsin almost 10 years ago. The search continues...

My two favorite frau-lines wander through und village de Deutchland...or Frankenmuth.

Tonight I entertained a random decision to see the newly-released Aqua Teen Hunger Force Movie with Brother Dan and Good Friend Brandon. Holy crap, was that twisted and somehow brilliantly funny. Not sure what it means for the future of animation, but who cares? It's not Pinocchio but it's not supposed to be. College stoners need art too. A good time was had by all...been a long time since I saw a film like that with that kind of crowd.

Being here at home to catch up with Michigan familiars with my BC family is so much the best of both worlds. I feel alive, and the best is yet to come.

Michigan Trip

The big visit is coming soon!

Mon 9- bussing to Seattle, flying out 10pm.
Tues 10- arriving in Detroit at 5am...ugh (red eye flight!)
Wed 11- goin' to Frankenmuth with the family
Thur 12- returning sometime evening-ish.
Fri 13- chillin' at home
Sat 14- chillin' at home, plus family gathering for dinner
Sun 15- chillin' at home
Mon 16- Me going to College of Creative Studies as a 'guest artist!'
Tues 17- Ann Arbor to see friends and another family gathering
Wed 18- chillin' at home mostly, visiting Mom's classroom
Thur 19- flying back

ASIFA Book Review

My book has recently received a new plug from ASIFA Hollywood. I had a review copy sent to Larry Loc who is putting together a Stop-Motion Expo on April 21 in Los Angeles. The review is posted here...

I'm a little bit confused by the comments on the dope sheets, as I made it clear in the text what their purpose was. I know that stop-motion can be done without dope sheets, all straight-ahead (I didn't use dope sheets at all for Snot Living) but for certain things like dialogue and the morph, it is absolutely necessary. But otherwise it's a generous review and I'm glad for the publicity, especially since the timing of the Expo itself is not convenient. If it wasn't at the tail-end of our Michigan trip I would have loved to make it down there. But there will be other opportunities like this another day.

Speaking of Snot Living, I finally got a digitally re-mastered version from Steve so it will soon be making its 10th Anniversary Special Edition debut!

Stop-Motion Dialogue #5

The latest collection of dialogue from my stop-motion students!

Cow Town

Well I'm goin' down to Cow Town,
A cow's a friend to me,
Lives beneath the ocean,
And that's where I will be,
Beneath the waves, the waves,
And that's where I will be,
I'm gonna see the cow beneath the sea...

-They Might Be Giants

You might have guessed I'm in Calgary! Came here to do some info sessions for VanArts, and tomorrow it's the same thing in Edmonton. Whirlwind trip, but nice to have a change of pace all the same. I miss my girls though. It's lonely on the road.

Anyway, back to reality before too long, and our Michigan trip gets closer and closer. A world of huzzah.

Bring Me to Life / Lord of the Rings

I've finally managed to post a music video I edited for kicks one weekend a long time ago. Enjoy!

Film Production Diary

Since we have cancelled our Prie-believing.com website due to lack of use, I'm adding a link to my old "Storytime with Nigel" production diary here so it doesn't get lost or forgotten.

http://madkap.diaryland.com/older.html

Any new updates will be posted here instead. Basically I'm at the point now where only a few scenes remain to be finished, mostly just in-betweening is needed. Awaiting a number of completed scenes back from Steve and his students.

Adventures in Babysitting

So let's see what's going on...work is work, month is March, I'm in my jammies, going to Alberta in a couple weeks, my wife is cute and so is my baby. She is trying to figure out crawling and so far can mostly go backwards and in circles. (That's Ariel I'm talking about. Most of the time Jay can walk just fine.) Tonight I'm pretty sure I saw her take at least two "steps" while crawling.

The other night she got a ride in the laundry basket. Much cuter than a dirty sock.

Planning for Michigan trip in April...will be taking shuttle bus to Seattle and then flying red-eye flight for 4 hours and hopefully sleep through most of it.

Been transferring all of my disposable videotapes to DVD as an on-going project, and trying to copy as many as possible before we go so there's stuff to give away at our garage sale upon returning. It's a great space-saver. Still debating if I should sell most of my home-taped cartoons at the garage sale or see if the internet animation historian community would be more interested. Will have to figure that one out still.

I recently got my copy in the mail of the DVD project I worked on over the summer for Galen. It was really neat to see it all finished and all of our animation colored in. The whole thing turned out great. In the trailer here you can see a brief snippet of my animation, with a kid in a striped shirt holding his breath. We were especially excited to see Ariel mentioned in the end credits as the "Production Baby." My film will have the same credit as well (Hell, at this rate, perhaps there will be two of them!).

And now a word from Ariel: "DADADADADADADADADA"

Apparently she has a thing for modern art.

And cooking with nothing in the pan.

On the floor.

Oh boy, animation!

Been out of the blog loop for awhile, either too tired or chipping away at my film again. As you can see, Ariel likes it.

My brother Jonathan

This is a video about my brother Jonathan, and his job. I'm very proud of him.

Animation 101

Watch and learn, young Jedi...

A Joyful Yuletide

So we had a very Merry Christmas, as our 7th together, 6th married, and 1st with Ariel. She got a hippopatomus for Christmas, and in this picture it's eating her head.

Christmas Day in the afternoon, while Jay relaxed upstairs, I had a lovely time camped out on the couch watching some episodes from the first season of Saturday Night Live, which I got on DVD, including some awesome Simon & Garfunkel performances, Andy Kaufman bits, and the Land of Gorch Muppet sketches I've been wanting to see for years...so far most of them have been worth the wait. What struck me as pretty neat about watching them while Ariel slept on my stomach was that the show had its debut when I was a baby, and I know my parents were pretty big fans of the show, so it made think that these shows might have been watched under similar circumstances with me and them. Also fascinating pieces of history.

This week has been spent with a few various outings, working on the film (it's my goal to finish in 2007), and playing with Ariel so Jay can get some rest too. Thanks to lovely Santa Jay, I now have the complete DVD set of Monty Python's Flying Circus so there's been much viewing of that while animating. Life doesn't get much better than this.

Today we went birdwatching at the Reifel Sanctuary, which I haven't done in a very long time so it was nice to get back into it. I'd like to make it a more regular occurance if possible. Here's a list of what we saw, and a few pictures: Trumpeter Swan, Wood Duck, Pintail, Green-Winged Teal, Widgeon, Bufflehead, Fox Sparrow, White-Crowned Sparrow, Rufous-Sided Towhee, Black-Capped Chickadee, American Coot, Black-Crowned Night Heron, Bald Eagle, Gray-Headed Junco, Red-Winged Blackbird, and a few others I wasn't sure of.

Christmas Vacation

It is SO nice to officially be on vacation for awhile! Yesterday, after hitting the shops for foodstuffs early enough to beat most of the heavy traffic, I resolved to spend the rest of the day doing absolutely NOTHING...that is, until it was time to go out for dinner. Dinner is important, especially Christmas dinner.

So anyway, the afternoon was spent with a variety of cartoon-watching and exposing Ariel to higher culture. Here we are enjoying one of Daddy's favorites from 1950s Disney, A Cowboy Needs a Horse.

And now it's Christmas Eve and we've had a double-dose of church services, so now it's time for more food and cartoons in our jammies. What a truly magical feeling with Christmas as a little family this year, and each year shall be more amazing.

To top it all off, after a wonderfully spiritually engaging and uplifting service tonight with incredible music and a powerful message, and driving around Ladner to see the festive light displays adorning the houses of families awaiting Santa and his magic, we arrive home and approach our humble abode while a sweet smell permeates from a neighbor's deck giving a new meaning to Angels we Have Heard on High...

...or perhaps the old Dr. Demento standard Frosty the Dopeman would be more appropriate.

To all a good night!

More videos

For a very cute video of Ariel getting a serenade from a special green friend, visit Jay's blog, where it's already posted:

http://thisisthegreatadventure.blogspot.com/2006/12/ariel-and-kermit_20.html

...and after wiping your tears away, you can marvel at the latest dialogue exercise from my talented students.

Monkeys!

History in the making! The creepiest puppet film ever made makes its internet debut, thanks to YouTube and a certain obsessive animation fan who calls himself "Scuzzbopper"...

Spread the evil far and wide!



...and speaking of cute but creepy monkeys (...actually one of them is more cute than creepy)...

Look Out! They Might Be Giants!

What's This? What's This?

Our neighborhood looks like Halloween Town invading Christmas Town this week, as there is a feature film called Trick or Treat being shot here, and everything is all decked out like it's Halloween, but with snow. Pretty funny to see.




'Happy Halloween!' 'Merry Christmas!'

An Evening for Stop-Motion

This past Wednesday was the SIGGRAPH Event for Stop-Motion in Vancouver, featuring myself, Anthony Scott, Larry Bafia and Peter Muyzers. We had an amazing turn-out despite the nasty snow warnings, and the whole evening went really well.

I presented some of my animation from Snot Living and my various indie projects, plus some of my students' work, followed by a short 15-minute history of stop-motion creature effects. Anthony and Larry presented retrospectives on their stop-motion careers, along with some amazing behind-the-scenes footage from Nightmare, Corpse Bride and Vinton Studios. A panel discussion with all of us followed. Also sold and autographed at least a dozen copies of my book! It was a great night, and nice to see Larry again and meet Anthony and Peter in person.

There's been talk of doing more events like this in the future, so stay tuned!

Conversations with Ariel

There have been times recently when the most intelligent things I hear all day sound like this...'Hooooooooooooohhhh..... errrERRRerrrrr.... aaaaaeeeehhhhhhhhh.... eeehh... eehhhh..... ppfffffftttttt!'

Thank goodness for little girls.

My dearest friend...

So today Toby & I drove down to the Seattle area, in Monroe, to witness the highly-anticipated Nightmare Before Christmas in 3D. It was great...looked so crisp and beautiful on the big screen again. You could see all the wrinkles in the foam latex and even some tie-down holes in the sets, all the while getting sucked into the characters and Jack's passionate life. That character still resonates with me alot. I felt really good at the end scene, as it reminded me of proposing to my wife, since I used the scene to do so. Jay is my Sally! Hopefully now that my cinematic fanboy indulgence is satisfied, I can see her more often, and Ariel too...I miss my girls.

Anyway, it's weird, I go to see movies in the theater so rarely these days that whenever I do, it invokes a sense of nostalgia, especially when it's films that I discovered long ago. The strangest thing about this theater, however, was the stock footage they had interspersed with the standard advertisements before the movie started. Just a very bizarre montage of water, 1930s New York, baby chickens, a cat losing interest in a fish, time-lapse city films, and a giant American flag with a completely unnecessary dissolve into itself. All that was missing was applause from the Women's Institute.

Jay tells me a big storm is hitting us tonight. After the weather we've had all day, I believe it. Hopefully Ariel won't freak out...knowing her she'll probably sleep through it, if she's anything like her Daddy. If there's thunder, hopefully she'll enjoy it, also like her Daddy. Maybe the freeway will be flooded and I can stay home tomorrow! Well, like I said, prayer works! Better get on my knees...

Prayer Works

Mellow evening at home blogging stream-of-conscious with the Winamp shuffle...current music: 'Fire' by the Rock-afire Explosion.

Been a long hard week, and rather exhausting, current music: 'Waiting for the World to Fall' , Jars of Clay. Indeed. However the best thing about recent situations has been a rejuvenation of my prayer life, particularly *had to go rescue Jay from baby barf* current music: 'Will I' from Rent on the bus when I have nothing else to do. Enrollment at work is slowing down a bit so lots of prayer is needed on a daily basis to keep the momentum going, and so far it's working, slowly but divinely. More needed due to people in our lives dealing with hard scary challenges like cancer and more miraculous-but-tiring challenges like twins. current music: 'Good Enough', Evanescence.

Last night we carved our Halloween punkin and watched Charlie Brown, a wonderful new annual tradition. Jack will keep her safe from the Oogie Boogie Man this year!

Planning to see Nightmare in 3D in a couple weeks. Current music: 'Shine', Martin Ansell, Better Off Dead Soundtrack. Was hoping to pick up the new Nightmare soundtrack today, but it's not officially released until Halloween Day, which is sucky. Ariel is here being all smily.

On November 29, I will have a book signing event hosted by Vancouver SIGGRAPH, including a stop-motion history lecture, presentation by Anthony Scott and I get to moderate a panel discussion with other stop-motion vets (Larry Bafia, maybe David Bowes). Current music: 'Liquid', Jars of Clay again. Really looking forward to it. Register here!

Found out this week that Ahmet Zappa is directing the music for the upcoming Fraggle Rock feature film. The more I think about it, the more it makes sense. I can just imagine, the Fraggles sing 'Watch out where the Doozers go, don't you eat that yellow snow' and 'Let's make the water turn black' while the Gorgs do a polka rendition of 'Take your clothes off when you dance' and the Trash Heap does 'Cosmic Debris.' That would rock, literally, with Fraggles.

Current music: 'Barque in the Harbor', Great Big Sea while Ariel sings along. My family is wonderful.

Ariel's First Disney Movie

Ariel ended up watching her first Disney movie, The Little Mermaid, by default recently, due to the fortunate timing of the DVD release. She liked it!

Back home and happy

Ariel is so happy to have Daddy home, all she can do is drum on her pumpkin!

So yes, I've been back from Ottawa for quite a few days now, and just now getting around to blogging. Pathetic, I know. Lots going on, besides settling back into work. October is here, one of my favorite months. The brisk Autumn air is upon us, I have some new clothes, and life in general is just pretty damn good.

Jeff and Marie now have their twin girls, and I am so happy for them. They are going to have a blast...already they are a family of four, which is amazing. Can't wait to see them. Next April we shall get all our girls together for a picture. I'm glad Ariel will have some playmates to see through the years as we make our annual visits. As you can see, she is becoming rather bored only having pumpkins for friends.

Had a good Thanksgiving weekend. Saturday night after a fun day of teaching I attended film group at Ron Reed's to discuss Garden State, thanks to Mike. Such a great film. Saw lots more this time around, continued symbols of water-baptism imagery: during the hamster funeral scene, the covered pool symbolizing Large's dormant numb state, moving on to his reluctance to dive into his friend's pool, and his opening up to Sam after diving in finally, then the 'baptism from above' in the rain at the quarry, followed by his intimate moments with Sam soaking wet in the tub, where his mother died. The whole thread signifies his new birth, coming out of his shell and actually living. Lots of other stuff too that people pointed out, about the cinematography and pretty much everything else. I hope to frequent the film group more often as my schedule allows. I think I shall present Cars there once it's out on DVD, seeing as how one could write an entire sermon at that film.

The other day I found some awesome deals on DVD at the Bay, of all places. On their bargain rack I found butt-cheap copies of The Miracle Maker, Season 1 of Rex the Runt, and that Sci-Fi Cartoon compilation I've been seeking for months. The latter disc has a cartoon I seem to remember seeing in Kindergarten: The Huffless Puffless Dragon, which I think they screened for us so we wouldn't smoke. Pretty important, seeing as how there were millions of 5-year-olds tempted to light up back in the early 80s...bloody Human League, terrible influence. I'm watching Miracle Maker currently and taking a closer look at it since seeing it on TV years ago, and a miracle is exactly what it is.

Speaking of miracles, here's Ariel again.

Ottawa 2006, Days 4 and 5

Saturday/Sunday.

Saturday morning we headed over for the keynote by Rob Coleman, which was delayed by well over a half-hour due to technical difficulties (which is incredibly ironic for a seminar on the future of digital technology). Since we went through the wrong door, I got to meet Rob briefly as he was waiting to get into the locked room himself. Unfortunately, due to my empty stomach and the time delay moving too close to the Animarket opening, I decided to skip the keynote so I could get the booth up and running. Calvin took lots of notes and said it was really great, so I'll catch up on it from him later.

The Animarket moved along smoothly throughout the day, and I got to autograph several copies of my book. All of the copies sold through the Aniboutique sold out before the afternoon was over, so I was pleased and suprised to hear it. The last copy was picked up by a representative of Concordia College, who have already been doing some great stop-motion films through their experimental animation program. I'm confident it's in good hands; they're doing some neat things there. I also met David Levy and picked up two signed copies of his book Your Career in Animation: How to Survive and Thrive...one for me, and one for the VanArts library. Just by thumbing through the book so far, I can tell it's great, and David is a really friendly person.

Around 6ish I left to look for Steve, thinking I might ride over to Barrymore's with him for his Cultoons screening. Couldn't find him anywhere, but I did run into John K during my searching, and introduced myself, as I was looking forward to meeting him...very friendly guy. (Ren & Stimpy actually had a small part to play in my obsession with stop-motion...my first viewing of Creature Comforts happened during a commercial break for the Cousin Sven episode.) So I headed outside just about to call a cab, when a van pulls up and a festival staff member Joanne asks me if I'm Steve Stanchfield, cuz she's supposed to give him a ride to the venue but doesn't know what he looks like. I tell her he looks like a grown-up version of Oopie from the Columbia Scrappy cartoons, but that doesn't help much. So she gives me a ride to Barrymore's so I can identify Steve if he's there...turns out he had driven there himself, so all was good...just a little communication gap and I didn't have to wait in line to get in.

The Cultoons screening was full of unique moments in the history of humans. For many of these cartoons, it was certainly the first time they had ever been seen in a nightclub full of tipsy animators...for many it could have possibly been the largest audience they ever had. The world may never know, but listening to the crowd watching Monkey Doodle in that setting at that moment was right up there with the moon landing as a legendary historical slice of time. Steve, Mary, Jerry and I had a ball giving it the MST3K treatment. Steve's monologues describing each cartoon were priceless...I told him he should do a one-man show where he just verbally describes cartoons without showing them. Sometimes it's funnier than the actual film. He graciously allowed me to introduce The Peanut Vendor, which we made into an audience participation happening where we had to scream whenever the monkey flashed back into the frame in those full grotesque close-up shots. It was frightening. It was triumphant. It was art.


John K also put on a good show with the outrageous and over-the-top Lost Episodes from Spumco Productions. I especially liked his new Weird Al video. I remember visiting Spumco back in 1998 when Stephen Worth showed us some of the first unreleased Flash cartoons, and I vividly remember this hilarious gag when George Liquor goes into his house and then his giant oversized head emerges from the front door...probably one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Partied until about 12:30 and then headed home to crash.


Here John K is perplexed by the unchanging grin on my pet goblin's face.

Sunday morning we headed back to the NAC for another day at the Animarket, which was slow but still mananged to talk to some interested potential students. Shut down around 4pm and went out for Thai food with Calvin, Steve and Mary. We then headed back to our hotel cafe to review a prospective student's portfolio, and moved on from there to the Best of Festival Screening. This year had an amazing line-up of winners, and I was very pleased to see these films be recognized. Many of them were even more entertaining the second time through, particularly Here and There and Jeu...just amazing stuff. My favorite films which I had viewed for the first time at this screening were Mr Schwartz, Mr Hazen & Mr Horlocker, and Michael Sporn's Man Who Walked Between the Towers...both brilliantly made on opposite ends of the spectrum.

The closing party was really nice...in a more intimate venue with less booming music and claustrophobia. I had a great lengthy conversation with Garry Schwartz, who works at CCS and has done some amazing things around the world with his animation workshops, very similar to the animation outreach project I have in mind. Also chatted more with David Chai, Steve's Thunderbean partner who directed Fumi & the Bad Luck Foot (which should have been at Ottawa! Oh well...) and was very excited to meet the great Bruno Bozzetto, who told me "Vancouver is the best-eh city in da world for animation!" Viva Allegro Non Troppo!


The Great Bruno Bozzetto.


Marv Newland, clad in Mike Gribble's jacket.





Overall this year's fest was a very inspiring experience and I hope to make it back next year! I met so many incredible people who I believe will continue to have a great influence in my love for this wonderful art form of animation. Things are definitely happening...

As wonderful as it has been, I'm 110% ready to go home and wrap my arms around my wife and daughter. Ariel is probably huge by now, and starting to smile and discuss the atmospheric kinetic principles of psychological photosynthesis like any 6-week-old baby would do, naturally.

Ottawa 2006 Day 3

Friday.

Today was pretty awesome. In the morning, we went to a 'Meet the Filmmakers' panel and got to hear from some of the people whose films are showing this weekend. Said hello to Marv Newland again. That guy just pops up everywhere. One of the filmmakers was Kihachiro Kawamoto, famous stop-motion animator from Japan. I asked him which lessons were the most important he had learned from Jiri Trnka, and he said he had interviewed him, and he told him, "A puppet is not a miniature human. He has his own world." And that has stuck with him eversince. Now it has stuck with me.


After which, we set up the VanArts booth. Calvin ran into an old friend of his, David Nethery, from his first animation job in Ottawa, who he hadn't seen in 20 years...I've rarely seen anyone that excited about seeing another person in my life. Also saw Augusto again, who was still a bit shaken up by witnessing someone getting hit by a truck the night before, understandably so. We all went to wait for the double decker buses to arrive and take us to the Animator's Picnic.

While we were waiting, I saw Mr Kawamoto again, speaking with another stop-motion legend Co Hoedeman. I met Co a couple of years ago when he came to speak in Vancouver, and he seemed to remember me when I approached him again to talk to him. I showed him my book, since there is a large photo from The Sandcastle inside (to which he commented on the color being off...he said 'it's supposed to look like sand!') and I had mentioned him a couple of times in the text. Then I had both him and Kawamoto looking at it at once! What a rare moment of random stop-motion history that was...very exciting. They both appreciated it.
















(Two stop-motion legends discuss with George Griffin the moral implications of my book.)

At the Animator's Picnic, I found Steve & Mary and brought them over to sit with us. Steve and Calvin hit it off right away and started talking about all of these Disney people they knew. We had a great time reminiscing about the old Tonka games and the time I stayed at their house and fed their chickens, fulfilling the mandatory task of singing the cartoon chicken song each time. Steve had to leave for a radio interview on CBC, which hopefully he can get a recording of. I called Jay and we talked for awhile...Ariel is still snotty but feeling better. Then spoke with a few more people, including Adam Mimnaugh from my VanArts class, who has his own studio now in Halifax.

We drove back with Calvin's friend Dave and another former Disney animator Anthony Michaels, who worked in Florida on Lilo & Stitch and many other projects. Picked up a few things from the hotel and had a nice dinner, then on to the Grand Opening of the Animarket! Our booth looks great this year...a far cry from last year...faaaaaaaaarrr cryyyyyyyyy......

Authors unite! Me with Cartoon Modern/Brew's Amid Amidi

Waited a bit for a copy of Cartoon Modern and had it signed by Amid Amidi; looks like a great book and I can't wait to dig into it. I ended up speaking at length to Larry Bafia, head of animation at VFS, who is also going to be part of our stop-motion panel since he worked with Will Vinton for many years. My Ariel brag-book of photos made its rounds to various people, including Jerry Beck who really liked the Kermit pictures. After the Animarket was over, I joined Augusto for the Short Competition screening.

It started with a showing of Every Child, in tribute to the late Derek Lamb. I had never seen the film before, and I was delighted by it. This screening, as a whole, was a bit darker than the others I've seen. My favorites were...Liam (a collection of abstract cut-out animation set to music, all compiled from a high school animation class; absolutely brilliant and entertaining throughout! Probably enjoyed it the most), Tyger (awesome music, great blend of Flash animation and a Bunraku tiger puppet with visible puppeteers), Rabbit (hilarious, creepy, great story, defies description, would sound better describing it verbally I think), Journey to the Disney Vault (very funny commentary on the "secrets" of the Disney studio, including Walt's "original print" of Song of the South... I shouldn't have laughed at it, but it was clever in the right context.)...also liked The Runt for it's cinematic design and color sense, although it was not the touching story I thought it might be judging from the picture...actually quite disturbing, but riveting and it stuck with you. My wife shall never see it, because bunnies die.

See ya tomorrow.

Ottawa 2006, Day 2

Thursday.
Today was mellow but productive, as how I would describe it. Slept in a little bit, until about 8:20, which isn't really sleeping in since I went to bed at 2, so in effect with the time difference I got up at 5:20. Stopped by the Ottawa School of Art, got a little tour and dropped off some VanArts stuff. For some reason I really like that place...it just has a nice feel to it. Checked out some of the other school's presentations...then stayed for the Canadian Film Showcase, which was awesome. Talked to Marv Newland again and showed him my book (see picture).

Also talked with Ann Denman and got an update from her and the director of the animation festival in Portland they are planning for next year. They're interested in having me down for a book signing! Also met Tom Knott from Laika who will be involved with the Vancouver stop-motion panel discussion in November (where I will also be participating and signing books...mark yer calendar: Nov 29!)

The Canadian films were great, in particular: Abstract by Steve Whitehouse (reminded me of Pete Docter's student films), also liked Montrose Avenue (very modern 50s style Flash), Inheritance (stop-motion, creepy, David Lynch-esque, and starring a living cheese log...how do you spell brilliant?), Cuz (cute Flash about global warming, sweet and simple), Emma Graves (which starred Meeka as the lead character's voice), and also Janet Perlman's Invasion of the Space Lobsters was cute, Marv's film was brilliant as always...and also in the David Lynch-category was a trippy cheesefest from Sheridan starring a CG Hulk Hogan playing video games in a psychedelic 80s video game world, which they accidentally played twice. Canada is weird. I like it.

Info Session tonight went very well, considering we had attendance of 3 people plus 1 parent, but it appears that all of them will likely apply, so it's worth it.

If you're reading this, please pray for my girls back home...they both have colds.

Ottawa 2006, Day 1

Greetings from Ottawa! I am here to represent VanArts a an Animation Festival Patron, to support the animation industry, network with studios and hopefully recruit some students, plus meet up with some old friends. Joining me is VanArts 3D Animation Program Director Calvin Leduc. I don't have my camera here with me, as I cannot deprive Jay from taking pictures of Ariel...that would be a crime, especially since I have to keep an eye on how much she's growing, plus I miss them. Calvin has his camera, so I will mooch pictures off him and add them later. (Update: Pictures now added! Huzzah!) Poor Jay is sick and I can't be there to take care of her. Sigh...

Anyway, so far so good. The traffic was really bad this morning so both Calvin and I were running a little late meeting at the airport, but Calvin even more so, to the point where I almost panicked and might have left solo. But all good, we made it by our coattails. Funny thing was, while waiting in line to check our bags we ended up behind a guy with ammunition in his luggage, like he was a hunter or something, so he had to go through all this lengthy paperwork while we're in danger of missing our flight. Sometimes life shakes you up a bit to keep things interesting.

4-hour flight was fine, with Inside Man as the in-flight movie...first half very good, second half eehhhh. Made it here in time to check in to our very nice 2-bedroom suite, pick up our passes, see a copy of my book at the Aniboutique table, and go to the first screening. Some really great films...highlight was another masterpiece by Joanna Quinn (UK animator who does the cha-cha-cha-Charmin bears who get all happy about toilet paper). Her new film would not be quite as appropriate for television, but brilliant all the same, beautiful work. So far have run into and chatted briefly with my good friend Augusto, Barry Ward from Bardel, Marv Newland, Amid Amidi and Jerry Beck at our brief appearance to the Opening Party, where they had a Brazilian band that was way too loud playing in an Irish pub. Strange juxtaposition, plus beer. Beauty.

Though it's almost 2am here, I'm right on time for bed according to my BC clock, so off I go to rest up for tomorrow.

I'm 1 month old!