Ariel meets Kermit

September 11, 2006...in light of solemn reflection on a terrible day from 5 years ago, it could not have been more comforting and perfect to have the meeting of two very special people in my life: Ariel and Kermit. The most awesome and perfect gift imaginable arrived from my friend and colleague (and current freelance employer) Muppeteer Galen Fott and his family down in Nashville. Thanks you guys!

In other news, I'm starting to get into the swing of being back at work and catching up with activity from my time away. My Saturday classes started up again this past weekend, so it's back to being busy. This week I get to attend the first happening of the new equivalent to the Oscars/Emmies/Annies-type ceremony for the Canadian animation industry, hosted by William Shatner. Several of our students have been nominated for awards, and our involvement has mostly been in other peoples' hands so I'm not sure what to expect, but it should be fun. Also anticipating and preparing for going to the Ottawa Festival this year, which I am really looking super forward to. My book will be on sale at the Aniboutique with me present at the VanArts booth for autographs. I got some postcards today from the publishers to help with promotion, and a typo on the back says that I have an MFA instead of a BFA...not accurate, but it makes me look better!

Dialogue Exercises

I just recently posted the latest 'Creature Comforts'-inspired dialogue exercise from my stop-motion students on YouTube, so I figured I should add it here as well, and include the previous two, which have received several comments from happy people. I ask my students random questions and whatever un-scripted answers they give are drawn from a hat and animated, so nobody animates their own voice.





Animation & Voices by Andy Simpson, Jason Vanderhill, and Matt Hooker (bunny's voice is mine)


Animation & Voices by Luke Wareing, Darren Lee, Junko Ogawa, and Jose Torrico

The days just blur together...

I keep forgetting what day it is, as this week has just flown by without much regular routine; a welcome respite to relax and just be in the moment with Ariel and help around the house as much as possible before returning to work. Today was the rehearsal dinner for Mike & Jo's wedding day tomorrow, and we spent some time at a nearby park going through the motions for the wedding party. Ariel stayed behind and was passed around by other relatives until we got back to the house. I think we are certainly at that point now where we really miss her when she's not around. As much as I'm looking forward to Ottawa in a big way, part of me is really sad I'll be so far away for almost a week. There is nothing like having her curled up and snuggly...it's the most amazing feeling. The daddy gene is definitely starting to kick in and I'm getting rather hooked. Jay is a pretty hot mom, too.


Tonight I took this picture of some of the party balloons that floated away into the sky. I like it alot...it's rather poetic. I'm not sure what I think it means, so I'll leave it up to you.

Ariel, just hangin' out

Ariel is fun to watch. She just makes faces, dances around and farts a lot too. Been off work this week to help Jay recover and just spend some family time together. It's been nice.

My daughter is awesome

Oooooooooooooh! You are in my power!

Everybody dance!

There's no place like Daddy.

Ariel Priebe - LIVE!

Here she is!

Ariel Lynn Priebe

Born via c-section at 2:13am

Monday, August 14th

8 lbs 11 oz

52 cm (20.47 inches)

Coming home Thursday...

Yes!

Last Day?

Ok, so that wasn't our last day before baby, as we are still waiting after 2 trips to the hospital attempting to be induced. Jay's blog has all the details. Feeling really anxious but relatively positive and calm at the moment. Tick tock...

Last Day

Today was our last day simply as a married couple, visiting with my family around town. After the unfolding of events tomorrow, we will be our own family of 3!

We spent the day in Steveston, and at Centennial Beach, just walking around, shopping, wading through the low tide-water floor and enjoying the day, relaxing and having dinner at White Spot. It was a perfect day. Now we're preparing ourselves for tomorrow.

Here is a great picture of Jay standing on the beach in profile, which I love...it was a perfect moment where she was standing at a distance and we caught each other's gaze and instantly had the same idea for the picture. I love her so much and I'm so proud of her already...she's got a lot of hard work to do tomorrow.

Also like this picture of the dynamic duo, Mom and Jonathan. I got an incredible video about him at his workplace which I will post here once the dust settles a bit.

Stay tuned!

See You This Thursday

Ok, so today has been my first official vacation day and we went to the doctors and hospital for a non-stress-test, and we'll be going in to be induced on Thursday. So it appears that Ariel's birthday shall be August 10 or 11, depending on how long the whole process takes. Very exciting...I'm kind of in a state of shock at the moment hoping everything goes smoothly and just anticipating the event.

My family is here now and very tired from the long trip; tomorrow we'll plan some kind of outing and make it count, as it's our last day of solitude before everything changes!

Eeeeeeeee...

Another funny movie

This is kind of clever too...gee, you find some interesting things when you're bored waiting for your first born to arrive.



Anyway, better get back to animating.

An Eye for Annai

On a whim I decided to see if this brilliant film from last year's Ottawa Festival was on YouTube, and am thrilled to see it is so, so I have to share it...

Antici.....

....pation.

Still....waiting....for....baby. I have a new theory as of today though, that God is holding off until all unresolved issues at work are wrapped up in a pretty package so that I don't have to worry about them during my time off. Every few minutes I come across something else that makes me think, hmmm, better take care of that. If that is indeed the case, then it's fine. I'd like to be able to relax at least a little bit while I adjust to my new adventurous lifestyle. But after tomorrow, and possibly a Saturday of teaching, hopefully that will be it, as I'm officially on vacation as of Tuesday.

Might have the possibility of doing a public talk on stop-motion through the local Siggraph people, so that's very exciting and I hope it crystallizes. My book was officially launched at SIGGRAPH in Boston this week, so it will be neat to hear how well it did and what other opps may have come from it. Working on planning Ottawa next.

The past few days I've had a new sense of responsibility in my personality and how I react to things, as though I feel the dawn of impending fatherhood already having an affect on my life. Hard to explain, just feel more alert, more open, more in tune with what's going on and how to tackle my 'issues'....or maybe it's the calm before the storm. Overall very excited and full of a calm kind of anxiety, but a squishy confident one that is still impatient...yet grown up.

Saw Marcello today. What a neat guy...he's going to teach art in China. His life would make a good book.

And now, for no reason other than it's a free country, the obligatory random Rock-afire picture...

The Great Space Coaster of Life

Well, life's like a roller coaster sometimes, up and down...had some great news Thursday: due to the plug on the Brew, Leonard Maltin has requested a copy of my book to review on his site, mainly because of the history chapter, so I think that's pretty frickin' cool! Shortly after hearing this news, I had (to borrow a funny Meeka phrase) an 'assy' day at work. The next day was better because the person who made it assy was not present, and I got a hell of a lot more actual work done.

Today I had an awesome day of teaching, and really discovered once again how much I enjoy it...I hope someday I can make it more of a full-time thing, but we'll see what happens. Overall starting to recover a bit more from my recent stomach bug, though it still creeps back now and then. Today was good. Then I read something which has inclined me to listen to Linkin Park most of the evening while working on an animation project I've been hired to do. My brother may never forgive me for using them as my anger outlet, as I'm sure he has much stronger therapeutic examples to choose from. But it works for me.

I've become so numb I can't feel you there become so tired so much more aware I'm becoming this all I want to do is be more like me and be less like you

(Trying not to break but I’m so tired of this deceit) (Every time I try to make myself get back up on my feet) (All I ever think about is this) (All the tiring time between) (And how trying to put my trust in you just takes so much out of me) Take everything from the inside and throw it all away Cuz I swear for the last time I won’t trust myself with you I won’t waste myself on you

Funnily enough, in the latter song I often see in my head images from Passion of the Christ...so perhaps good to meditate on the forgiveness aspect of things.

First Review on Cartoon Brew

Jerry Beck has a review for my book on Cartoon Brew!

"Select Theaters" better be in Vancouver...

Miramax Sucks

Ok, so every now and then something peaks my interest and I think, hmmm what is this? I hear about certain aspects of a piece of pop culture from other people and eventually discover it myself on my own terms, and it becomes an obsession that I find interesting and take it to another level, thus making it an inspiring part of my life at that time. This is how I stumbled upon things like Rocky Horror, Monty Python, and even bands like Pink Floyd, Queensryche and Zappa....having heard about them for years before finding out what made them special in the first place. Such has been the case with a strange little British stop-motion show called the Magic Roundabout. I've read about it and heard people talk about it, even how it's all about drugs, and I mentioned it briefly in my book. So I think, hmm interesting...but I've never really seen it.

So a stupid part of me sees this CG feature released earlier this year called Dougal, and I'm like, that looks like the dog from Magic Roundabout, which it is. And then I see it in the video store and my curiosity gets the better of me...I figure, it's British, directed by former stop-motion people, nobody saw it, I like things nobody else cares about, maybe there's something to it. Remember, curiosity killed the cat.....right now I'm a cat with its spleen cooking on the highway.

I got through 15 minutes before I had to stop and watch the special features instead...perhaps they would have a retrospective on the original series, and talk about the history behind the characters, or possibly have an old episode there for nostalgic purposes? No, instead there was another 15 minutes of Whoopi Goldberg and Jimmy Fallon dancing to the Kinks, and some dumbass with bad teeth talking about how cool Jon Stewart is. Funnily enough, the feature had titles for all the voice actors, but didn't have any for the directors or producers! Will the real Alan Smithee please stand up? Did they hire Wal Mart employees to pretend they made the film? Then they spend a minute bragging about how the WHOLE THING was made with computers, and then go right back to Whoopi talking about snails.

Apparently this was a British film that the Weinsteins at Miramax saw and decided they should hire famous actors to dub their dialogue, which explains why the lip sync and posing didn't match at all. They would often ad-lib dialogue over scenes where their mouths didn't move. I had to watch a Popeye cartoon afterwards to try and figure out why it works in that context, but not in this one. The best solution I could come up with so far was....Popeye cartoons are actually GOOD!

Part of me has been thinking, I should see some of these CG features to see if they really are as bad as the traditional-animation purists think they are. Well, they're right after all.

Now Jay and I have to find something better to do with our evening, despite the heat. Already saw the bikes and got some drinks, cooled off...I'm still floored that she delivered all my heavy books yesterday. What a sweetie...she'll do anything strenuous at this point to get our baby out. Come on, Ariel, let's get moving! I need a young mind to fill with culture!

At least our noisy neighbours moved out. There is hope.

Bring It On!

So we had a pretty kick-ass weekend. Friday night was a BBQ at the Funks' house with members of the worship team and other delightful church folk. Apparently the rumour was leaked to our new worship pastor that I used to play the drums, so perhaps when the dust settles at some point, I'll get to do that. Whoa...is...me...I feel like a splintered drumstick.
It was a fantastic evening and there are no better people on this planet.

Saturday was Marcy & Stephen's wedding, which was lovely. We got to see Mike's apartment as well, way up high overlooking the beauties of downtown Richmond and a big kitty litter box where people apparently like to draw...pictures. Yes, I like waking up to big...pictures too.
Anyway, fun fun fun was had by all. At the reception location there was another reception going on as well, and some of the groomsmen were sending drunks from there into their dance floor. Experiments in human behavior make celebrations of true love more interesting.

Sunday was church, bridal shower for Jo, and birthday dinner for Bill Matthews at French restaurant downtown. Spent awhile wandering the area around Robson/Denman where I used to live; not much to see there. Dinner was nice...Bill Matthews had an interesting comment about my book...he said, after just reading the introduction and skimming through it cover to cover, he thinks it is "to puppet animation today what Preston Blair's book was to cartoon animation in the 1940s." That is a comment you take to the bank! I'm still reeling from that one.

This evening I showed a stop-motion film retrospective at the school to tie-in with the release of my book, including It's a Bird, The Mascot, Revolt of the Toys, Do-it-Yourself Cartoon Kit, Closed Mondays, A Christmas Gift, Crosspaths, Creature Comforts and The Peanut Vendor.

Speaking of stop-motion, apparently our baby is very healthy and growing to Kong-sized proportions. Hopefully the theory that they eat and sleep better will ring true. There is a chance that a window delivery is inevitable, so we'll see what happens; we just want her here now, and just got back from a long walk to see if we can get the engine going.

And now, a sign.

New Arrival #1

From out of my hands, to into my hands! My first copy of the actual book arrived today, and I am happy. The publishers did a fantastic job laying it out and making it look awesome. The paper is good quality, it's a comfortable size, small but frickin' thick! I can't believe I wrote all of this in 6 months, but of course it was also due to plenty of divine intervention and generous assistance from so many others, especially Jay.

Order yours today!

Now we're just waiting for Arrival #2, also small but frickin' thick from the feel of things. Still continuing to drop...next week? two weeks? We shall see!

Today was pretty awesome, as I spent the day with Chris Carter (not the X-files guy) to go through the footage for the next VanArts DVD. We got some good stuff...man it's exhausting work just watching videos. Then we headed over to Backbone Entertainment to shoot interviews with some of the grads working there. During a time when some of us are nervous about stuff going on at work, today really solidified what a grand history the school has had, and why it should keep doing what it does best. Many of these guys were kids when I first met them, and now they're so grown up. There were even people who I didn't know were working there, like Jose, who I was hoping I would run into soon. It was a blast, like a reunion of old souls. Quite an amazing visit.

Hold on tight...

Drumroll please...

So today I found out that the book has finally arrived at the warehouse (all 4000+ of them), so I should get a copy this week, and our baby is measuring at 40 weeks, still dropping, so could be ready to arrive at any moment. Feeling incredibly anxious and excited about both.

Last night I had ribs. That is also very good news.

Approaching the Southern Oracle of Life

Found out today that Ariel is starting to drop, so it could be a few weeks, or one, two weeks, we don't know...depends on her agenda. Sooner would be good, as it's freakin hot around here.

Cars Review

Saw Cars yesterday and posted a review on Hollywood Jesus.

5 Years!

Ah yes, 5 years ago today I married my best friend. Today we had a very relaxing time, going out for breakfast, walking around town, hanging around the house together, and going out to an amazing dinner at La Belle Auberge, including our first taste of smoked kangaroo! Yes, that's right, kangaroo. We also watched our wedding video and laughed and cried together. It's amazing to watch; seems so long ago and yet still so close. I am still the happiest and most blessed person on Earth to be with Jay. I'm so proud of her and look forward to seeing her as a mom...she's going to be great. Watching our video also reminded me of how wonderful our families are, both in blood and in friendship. Life is good today, very good.

Looking forward

Ahh, the calm after one storm and before another...

Just had another group of students start at work, and the summer group next week. Lots of drama, don't really want to get into it. Too much to say. Makes my brain hurt. Always feel drained after an intake starts. Luckily this weekend is a holiday with three entire days off. The first one being our 5-year anniversary...finally made it to a whole hand!

Thought Baby might be doin' a tap dance inside but turns out she's still breakdancing doing a head spin...yep, if all goes well she will leave through the door instead of the window. The room is finally all finished, complete with chair, crib, poop table and the ever important bookcase.

...and here is our stroller, with stunt baby testing it out and checking for things like good airbag control, wind resistance, flux capacitor and coffee holder all functioning properly, not to mention getting the coordinates from the Nava computer, since travelling through hyperspace ain't like dusting crops, as we all know without precise coordinates the baby might fly right through a star or bounce too close to a supernova and that would end her trip real quick.

What does one say about this?

Ok, I am scared but intrigued. Disturbing hypnotic Disney toys from Japan...possibly some kind of brainwashing device? Remember, this is the same country that brought us 'The Ring.'

Be afraid.....Danny's not here, Mrs. Torrance!

I should become a dumb athlete

I played the game of "Life" for the first time this evening! I know, I'm a little behind the times I guess. I still don't like Monopoly either. Life was fun though; I got to be a dumb athlete who got repeated speeding tickets and somehow had my salary change from $70k to $40k overnight, but I still got to retire with over $1 million! Maybe I should forget writing and animation and kick a ball around.

Cut, Print, That's a Wrap!

It's official, the book has finally been shipped to the printers, so it's officially out of my hands! All that is left is batting ideas around for marketing, which I've already made suggestions for, so it's up to the publishers to work it. I feel strangely empty yet fulfilled, and it's hard to believe I no longer have to pick away at this thing at night. I find just doing nothing rather satisfying and I have an itching urge to watch Star Wars, which I think I will do tomorrow on the bus. That is random and I have no idea why.

Anyway, here is the cover, before a minor punctuation adjustment at bottom:

Already available for pre-order at Amazon.com and available July 18!

Baby still kicking like the Flashdance video these days. Tonight she practically womped my hand away. Jay is really uncomfortable cuz the weather is getting warmer, fog is getting thicker, Leon is getting larger, and so is she. 7 weeks to go, so we're praying for an early arrival.

Tick tick tick...

Coming down

It's been another lazy Sunday for us, other than an outdoor church service and May Days parade with donuts and coffee. I've been feeling really gross the past few days with a cold-fluish type thing. Not sure where I caught it, but I attribute part of it to climate change and coming down off the high from working so hard on the book these past few months. All of the CD material got sent off the other day, and all chapters minus the introduction have been approved and fine-tuned by me and the editors. I've seen proofs for the first four chapters, and it looks fabulous...like a real book! It's all very exciting and extremely surreal.

Baby is still kicking alot and we can't wait for her to be here. Scheduled family visits are starting to take place; Mom and brothers will be here in August for about a week, and I'm assuming Dad, Grandpa and hopefully Francie & Shucree sometime in the Fall. Our plans at this point are to go to Michigan in the Spring, but will have to be before or after the dates in March when Dan is going to Europe, the lucky guy. I'm excited for him.

Now that the book is out of the way, I'm starting to focus back on the film again. Backgrounds will be started soon and a few scenes have been farmed out for in-betweening. The documentary project is still hanging over my head too, and I'm not sure when that will see the light of day. It mainly requires getting our computer fixed up first. Who knows, I'm sure I'll know when the time is right to attempt making it into something, perhaps just a short film of sorts. I'd also like to put Snot Living on DVD soon, as soon as I get a working transfer from Steve. Lots to do...

Long Weekend Ketchup

Time to ketchup on recent events.

A few weeks ago I had a radio interview on CBC Radio, and I'm still waiting on getting a recording of it, either from the Reel Youth festival people or from CBC. When I get a copy I'll post it here. It was a lot of fun...I love doing radio...takes me back to old WCBN daze.

Author review time for the book going well...I have to get going on the CD material very soon, as I'm running out of time for it.

My brain is...hold on a second...that's better. My brain is pretty full with lots of things these days: work, baby, book, films, eating. Our baby has been kicking and dancing up a storm lately, and many a relaxing night between business has been spent on the couch feeling it move while all of the good TV shows wrap up their series finales. We are at the point where we would rather have it here than inside there. Already preparing myself pretending there's a little person in the house. It's all new so I don't really know how to act, other than being supportive and excited, and take it as it comes.

Luckily today is a day off, so here is something to give the brain a rest...

Lucas, Rest In Peace

Lucas

1993-2006

Very sad news from this week...a four-legged member of the family went to Doggie Heaven. He was a constant source of entertainment and the cutest dog I've ever had the privilege to know. It's surreal and sad when a dog dies; I remember when Tyler died it was weird not having him in the house anymore. The neat thing about Lucas is that we were given a pretty urn to hold his ashes which is sitting in the sun on our windowsill, so now our landlord can't say anything about having a dog in the apartment. He's finally living with us, and we can actually feel his presence.

Lucas was really Jay's dog, so she has a much more detailed and heartfelt tribute on her blog. But I miss him too.

Photos, Killer Plants, and a Weekend Getaway

So this has been an eventful week! Wednesday night we had a maternity photo shoot done by Maria at Frozen Reflections, who did our photo shoot from last Spring. It was fun...Jay didn't wear much. We will have some nice pictures for various baby albums and scrapbooks now, plus a few that only arty folk like us will see.

Thursday night, after a frustrating day at work, was seeing my favorite musical Little Shop of Horrors done by the local high school. A couple guys from our Youth Group were involved in the production, as well. For a high school production, they did a fantastic job, even better then the rendition I saw at UofM. It was nice to see it done with a real talking plant, rather than a giant pod with a girl in a green leotard coming out. It reminded me of how brilliant the lyrics are in that show, and there were extra songs not included in the movie that were just as good. I found myself almost tearing up during 'Somewhere That's Green'...the 50s references are awesome and make it nostalgic but classic. The one song I noticed they cut was 'Mean Green Mother' which was fine, because it's not a very strong song. It works well in the movie, but I think given the dark tone of the play near the end it would have seemed out of place, so I'm glad they cut it. Now I want to watch the movie again...and again.

...and again.

Now we are in Victoria and you are not, unless you live here, hi.....for a much-needed getaway. Not sure what we're going to do today, except eat at Chandlers and have tea, shop, etc. whatever. Ok time to go.

That's all she wrote

Apparently Jay is telling me she's going to out-blog me, so I guess I'd better starting updating this site more...not sure what I get if I win, but I bet it's good.

Anyway, for all intents and purposes, the book is DONE! Or at least there is no more new material to be written or pictures to take. Now begins the process of editing, writing up bibliographies and whatnot, fine tuning kind of stuff, and also preparing movies for the CD that comes with it. Now perhaps I can actually start to watch movies, hang out with Jay and have a social life. Pretty overwhelming that all of this stuff I've been doing is going to be out there being read by thousands of people I may never meet. But again, it's kind of like this blog, if anyone reads it.

Today I need to clean up all of the mess I've left around the house while working on books and puppets. This is why we need a big house so I can have my own workshop for this kind of stuff. Here is a sneak preview of some of the puppets I've built to include in the book.

I've been finally getting to feel the baby kick, which is neat. Doesn't always work, she tends to stop when I put my hand there expecting to feel something. Tricky little thing. Sounds like trouble. I don't believe in karma, but I think there might be something to that 'what goes around comes around' theory when it comes to having children. But that's life I guess. All the good stuff about us will be there too. We've already been wondering which characteristics our kids will have. Guess we find out in about 15 weeks or so!

Ariel in 3D!

Meet Ariel Lynn Priebe...in eye-popping 3D!

After technical difficulties during our first visit, we returned to get the rest of our sneak-peek at our little girl. This time the technical difficulties were presented not by their equipment, but by the baby, who had her back turned most of the time. Jay had to eat chocolate and run up and downstairs to see if it would coax our little bean sprout to turn around. After much prodding, we did manage to get a good enough profile so we could get some shots of her face, before she turned around again. Think this will be a difficult child?

Anyway, this is all very exciting and we can't wait to see her leave her womb service hotel to enter the real world. Here's her feet! She got long legs like Daddy.

In other news, I'm taking a few days off work to finish my book and build puppets, and enjoy the Easter weekend activities with family. Last night we finished up a successful wire armature puppet, and over the next few days will be attempting a latex build-up character. I recently discovered the joys of YouTube and have posted some of my students' work online, and it's a big hit over at the StopMotionAnimation.com message board.

Back to writing...

Everything Else

Here's everything else that's going on....I'm currently in the final stretch for my book, and I see many long nights & days ahead. Through it all I've been connecting with lots of big stop-motion people granting permission to use images. I got an email from Will Vinton, who I'm still awaiting more contact with, which is really neat. Also got a personal letter from Ray Harryhausen, and am currently negotiating rights for images with Ladislas Starewitch's granddaughter. I've been toying with the idea of an entire book of interviews with stop-motion animators as a follow up to this one, so we'll see what happens there.

I had a tape sent to me from home with all of my raw Snot Living footage on it. It's been fun looking through it all and remembering what a challenge making that film was, and how much fun. I miss working with film; it has such a better look than video. Too bad it's so expensive and impractical compared to today's digital tools. Perhaps one day I'll get the opportunity again to shoot something that way.

I went to Alberta for a few days for more info sessions and got to see Mike Trudy and the boys; they're so cute.

Yesterday I had an amazing experience doing a stop-motion workshop at a small private school in Victoria. There were three kids, grades 6 to 8, who want to start a stop-motion club and make films. It was truly inspirational to see the potential audience for my book, so passionate about what they were doing, and very talented. One of the kids in particular, this 6th grader named Julian, was going on about and reacting to comments about Svankmeyer, Metropolis, Clockwork Orange, Eraserhead and all of these other films which I'm sure nobody else his age knows about. I told him 'you probably shouldn't be watching all of those films, but I'm glad you are!' I was absolutely delighted...gave me a glimpse of what our kids will probably be like, unless they get too much art & film from us and want to be stockbrokers instead. I would love to be able to help kids make films as a career someday; perhaps down the road I'll have the opportunity.

Today I saw the most brilliant short film I've ever seen, right here:

Steve did some animation on it and told me to check it out. The film made me laugh and cry; such a fantastic piece of work, and gave me a burst of inspiration to get my film done sometime soon and get it out there. Gonna see if Steve and his partner can help me get it colored in.

Better get back to the book, and will try to blog more amongst all of everything.

Doesn't look like Skeletor anymore

Here's baby update again. A few weeks ago we went to the 3D ultrasound place but their equipment wasn't working right, so we had to reschedule, and we're going back there April 12. The trip wasn't a total waste, cuz we found out it looks like we're having...

...a girl!

We're very excited; I'm already telling her she's not allowed to date or get on the back of a motorcycle. Today we had another 2D ultrasound pictured above, and she did a big stretch with a yawn, and scratched the back of her head. Profile looks like both of us, since Jay and I have the same profile anyway, so no surprises there. She's been kicking alot, but I haven't felt it yet. Sure I will before too long, and people say you can usually see little lumps poking around sometimes. This is so cool.

Baby!

Here's Baby's pictorial debut!

This is so cool...we created a little person. Weird eh? The radio was playing that 'Walking in Memphis' song when I saw it on the screen for the first time. I'm not sure why that's significant, but it's a good song so now it actually has meaning. So yay!

Today is nasty cold rainy windy blah but it's a day off work, so time to write. Gotta meet a deadline.

Overdoo Blog

I'm finally out from under my rock. It's been a crazy busy time lately, what with book writing, stress at work, birthdays, babies, barf and more book writing. So here's a few highlights...

-interviews mostly finished...just plugging away on chapters trying to make myself sound intelligent. Not much else to say there; just writing and getting equipped for animating. I got Ray Harryhausen's mailing address.

-One morning I got some sort of food poisoning from some bad Japanese food. It was not fun. It was the opposite of good.

-I turned 31 on a Sunday. Went to church and found out we raised lots of money for the new building. Jesus rocks. Spent the rest of the day with leisure, Chinese food and 80s videos.

-I got my first advance check from the publishers...the first time I got paid to write! Whew...here's to the start of something.

-Last night I met Marv Newland and got to see all his films on the big screen. Quite a historic event...nice guy too.

-Baby's getting bigger! Finally heard its heartbeat. We have a sneaky baby...we found it right away, and then it moved, as if saying 'leave me alone!' Then it took awhile to find it again, but finally located it and got to listen to it again...like a game of hide and seek. Probably means it will be a difficult child with a mind of its own? Guess we had it coming, being who we are. Seriously though, I have been in a pretty great mood since then...the reality of this whole thing hit us and it's very exciting. Afterwards I had a very new feeling that was altogether new to me (and quite frankly, I love it!) Heh.



- Puppy!

Hollywood Jesus Gathering Day 3

Happy New Year! Today was our last full day here in Renton. The discussions today were really good; very insightful and entertaining too. Topics for today included Race & Cinema, Language of Film, Gospel & Culture and Influences of Hollywood Jesus and its purpose. It's amazing to really think about how big HJ really is and how much of an influence it's becoming. Neat to think that some of us are starting to be invited to press junkets too. The best part of this whole weekend was putting names to faces and meeting people of like mind, including Peter Chattaway who lives in Vancouver working as a writer, and he and his wife are also expecting...twins, in fact! :o

Tonight, before ringing in the New Year, we shared favorite movie clips. I showed the incredible "I'm Lost" scene from Lilo & Stitch, and also my Lord of the Rings/Bring Me to Life video, which was a pretty big hit. A large part of me is sad to leave, as I think in one weekend we only stratched things on the surface, but God knows that more great things will happen. And yes, David Bruce is a real person! Very real, indeed. Future e-mail correspondence will be much more meaningful now with everyone, and I hope this happens again next year!

Hollywood Jesus Gathering Day 2

First full day with the HJ staff, discussing various things like horror films, foreign film vs. American film, and comic books. Had lunch today with David Bruce and Kevin Miller, who I finally got to meet. (Picture here is Kevin and Maurice Broaddus talkin' about comics) David read my mind and encouraged me to put a book together on animation under the HJ Publishing banner, so once the stop-motion book is out of the way that's something to work towards. I never fully realized what a revolutionary thing Hollywood Jesus was until coming to this, and that fact is only going to become clearer as the weekend moves along. It's neat to feel a part of something like this, and I definitely feel encouraged to become even more involved than I have been. I feel somewhat out of touch at times, since I don't see new movies very often and haven't seen as many as these folks. But I also know that I have my own special niche on the site for animation, too, which is needed.

Jay is spending most of her time in the hotel resting her tired pregnant self and enjoying New Years marathons of Full House and Law & Order SVU, like the good sport she is. It's been fun ordering room service and having great little meals with Red Panda.


Last night I got popcorn chicken in a candle holder! It had crunchy stringy things inside which I couldn't completely identify. I think they might have been drippings from the deep fryer. Or maybe fried snot. Tasted OK but I couldn't eat all of them.

Tomorrow is another day of discussions and a New Years party, and then it's 2006!

Hollywood Jesus Gathering Day 1

So today we have driven to Renton, WA and are here for the first annual Hollywood Jesus Gathering. It took us an hour to get through the border and then getting into the states we discovered that A&W and KFC have joined forces! I wonder if it spells anything...AWKFC? FWACK? That's it! FWACK! Sounds like a Batman sound! From the look of this picture, I have been FWACKED by fatty food. Huzzah for my liver.
So far the gathering is already very exciting and a great opportunity to meet people. Tonight we finally got to meet David Bruce after all these years, and I have a feeling it will be a life-changing weekend. More on this as we go along. At the moment it's time to rest after a long day of travelling.

Merry Christmas to All

Well, it's been a busy couple of weeks...pregnant Jay has been sick and having the occasional BBLLEEARRUGGH but in good spirits nonetheless. We're excited to finally be able to say we're having a baby...it sinks in every now and then and I see myself starting to feel a greater appreciation for things. The Christmas concert at church went well as did the first chapter of my book being submitted. This week I interviewed Anthony Scott and Larry Larson. Pretty much just catching up on projects and getting them done so we can relax a little bit over the next few days. Not much else to say, except this has been a year for the books!

So, the Rock-afire says .... MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! (yeah, I'm gonna say it, so put that in your politically incorrect pipe and smoke it!) Whee!

"Merry Christmas, Come Again!"

There and Back Again

The rest of our Michigan visit was fantastic....had a great time. Wednesday was a day for hanging out at the house, finding my long-lost 16mm Sorceror's Apprentice print, and a short jaunt to Lakeside Mall. Jonathan had to buy a teapot for Mom's birthday, and it had to cost $21.99. The one he saw before was no longer there, so we had to search each teapot until we found one at the right price. We stopped at the Disney Store and had a hard time getting out of there cuz they had so much cool stuff. Upon returning to the house, Yaya arrived and we had dinner (hot n' spicy tortilla soup), and then we set up the Christmas tree. Blake arrived with a dramatic entrance, knocking over a picture frame thingie which was left leaning against the door. Hung out, watched Family Guy, and that was Wednesday.

Thursday was Thanksgiving and viciously cold and snowy. We headed out to Nancy & Bill's house in Ann Arbor for dinner; it was great to see some of my cousins for the first time in 4 years! When we got back, Meighan stopped by for a visit and it was great to catch up. Gee how we've all grown!

Crazy crazy crazy man!


Friday we decorated the tree and did some window shopping in the Village. I found a farting dog toy that had me laughing so hard my eyes got puffy. I wasn't allowed to buy it. That's ok though, I went back the following day to videotape it, so I will be able to treasure it when I'm old, grey and farting. Anyway...

That night we also went to see the new Harry Potter movie. It was quite enjoyable, although I enjoyed the Prisoner of Azkaban a little bit more. When we came out, there was a real kind of magic in the sky as a vast snowfall was sailing down, looking quite amazing in the streetlights. Every night around 10:30 or 11ish we had to have Dan take us through a drive-thru for a midnight snack cuz our stomachs were still on Pacific Time and dinner was like our lunch. We got to visit the Grosse Pointe KFC which was like the Monty Python Cheese Shop because they were out of food.

Saturday we got to go to Costco and harrass Dan at Krogers. I threw a pair of panty hose at him. We also drove around town a bit, bought some flowers for Mom, shopped some more, and watched the Family Guy movie with Dan. I like the pop culture references in the show, and the surreal humor, but sometimes it seems like a big Seth MacFarlane ego trip that goes on way too long. But decent entertainment when you're in the right state of mind.

And I finally got an Ipod! It was worth the wait. Dad transferred a bunch of the Cruisin' record series to mp3s for me, and so far I've been enjoying them tremendously, appeasing my latest obsession with nostalgic radio. The music back then was so great. So much more basic. It's neat to get a glimpse into how things were before my time, and imagine what the culture must have been like for my parents.


Sunday was Mom's birthday so we brought presents over, and went out to the Henry Ford Museum for the Disneyland exhibit. It was amazing being in the presence of original artwork by John Hench, Marc Davis, Mary Blair and others. I have a special fondness for the old classic Disneyland rides and animatronics. We met Jeff & Marie and Steve & Mary there and got to catch up with them briefly too. Fun fun fun! After that we went to Memphis Smoke for birthday dinner...holy crap, best food ever.

Monday was a long day of travelling, since our first Detroit-Chicago flight was delayed we missed our connecting flight and had to wait almost 6 hours for the next one to Vancouver. By this time it was dark and a very bumpy ride. They also didn't serve any food! I had $10 in my pocket which I purposely didn't spend so we'd have money to buy those little meal boxes on the plane, and then they didn't have them! On a friggin' 4-hour flight all they gave out was friggin' pretzels! Good thing I had bought a bag of chips and some Good n' Plentys, but even that wasn't enough to keep me happy. (Note to self: Good n' Plentys are great by themselves, but don't mix with Pepsi.) I was not impressed. At least Charlie & the Chocolate Factory was mildly entertaining enough to keep my mind off things for half the flight.

Thusly, we finally arrived home cold and hungry around midnight, so now we're back.
And now for something completely different....

We told Mom, Dad and Dan at the dinner table Saturday night, and the news is now spreading further to other family and friends. August is sure to be a busy month, as Mike just got engaged and he & Jo have set a date for Aug. 26. My book also comes out around the same time the baby does, so our theme for August 2006 is Book-Baby-Brother-Bride!

...and Blessed! Pray that all goes well, for an Earthling child can only be found beyond the boundaries of Fantasia...

US Customs: May your prize bull hate cows

Well, here we are on our first full day in my childhood homeland...yesterday was pretty much a full day of travelling. It started out with a real kicker of a comment from the asshole of a US customs officer. I presented my Canadian passport, and this guy asked to see my US one, saying in a rather scolding manner that if I ever travel into the States, I show my US passport, because that's where I'm originally from. Fair enough. But then he says, 'There are only 3 kinds of people in this world: Americans, Residents of the US, and Foreigners.' And here I am with my beautiful Canadian wife beside me...rather embarassing. So I was pretty pissed for awhile after that. Makes me angry because I am proud of where I come from, but I don't understand where this arrogance comes from. But anyway, I digress....for now.

It's cold here and starting to snow. There is a Disneyland exhibit at the Henry Ford museum I hope to check out while we are here. So far it's just been hanging out with the family, and today we'll be picking up Yaya from the airport. Yay!

Writin' and Votin'

So I got my contract and various paperworks for the book....my final deadline for the manuscript is April 18, 2006! Pretty tight deadline, but it's managable. Today I came up with an outline for the history chapter. I'm thinking if I do the interviews first it will make the rest of the book easier. It boggles my mind that I'm doing this. I'm ecstatic!

This morning one of my 2D students showed me a tattoo design he was scheduled to carve into a client's arm later that day: a neo-Renaissance-style Christ on the cross, with people crowded around him praying. Very nice work. It was a neat witnessing experience, since he asked me for help in drawing one of the hands, so I got to explain some things about how the crucifixion happened and whatnot.

Today I also got to vote in Canada for the first time. Yay me! I have a voice. I'm special.

Just a few days and we fly out to Michigan to see family & friends...can't wait.

Jay & I saw Chicken Little last weekend and wrote a review for Hollywood Jesus. Read it and enjoy....http://www.hollywoodjesus.com/chicken_litte_reviews.htm

Remembrance Day

Today we are relaxing at home, and taking a moment to listen to the bagpipes outside, remembering those who fought in the trenches to preserve our freedom.

Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
John 15:13

My first book

I recently got an email sent to me from work from an editor at Thomson Course Technologies publishing house, who found my bio on the VanArts website. They have written several instructional books on computer animation, filmmaking, etc. and because of the recent sucess of Corpse Bride and the Wallace & Gromit movie, thought it might be the right time to publish a book on stop-motion animation. So they asked me if I would be interested in writing it, so we started talking and I spent a few days writing up a proposal, which I sent off along with an animation reel.

Today the proposal was presented to the editorial board out in Boston, where the company is located, and they officially gave it the go-ahead, so I am now on my way to writing my first book!!! The great thing is that I've been comtemplating the whole author idea for a long time and never really knew how to get myself started, and now this just sort of fell into my lap! They want to have it finished and released by June/July 2006, so I have lots of work ahead of me, but we're both very excited about this opportunity!