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!