This is kinda cool – a web comic called When I Am King by Demian.5 a Swiss illustrator. The story spans many panels and chapters. I just like looking at the pictures.

Easter Qee Cholo ($9.95) from kidrobot.com

Mu-Meson Film Screenings

We’re on Jamie Leonarder’s mailing list, and this just came in:

Wednesday 23rd April
Paranoia Conspiracy: The Secret Heart Beat of America:
Birth of Federal Reserve. Was there a take over of the America by the international bankers. Look behind the bolted doors of the Bilderburgs.Mu-Meson Archives 7.30pm for 8pm start $7

Thursday 24th April
Jack Sargeant, author, academic, researcher, and legendary bon vivant, returns to the Mu Meson Archives to present a work-in-progress / secret premier of his lecture on Trepenation, Brainbloodvolume, hole in head mysticism, and the ancient art of drilling holes in your skull with selected exerts of the rare documentary on this subject. Scheduled to be given at the academic Body Conference at the weekend, this is a sneak preview.
all tickets: $7 bring a bottle (Jack Sargeant’s Website)

Friday 25th April
UFO Fact or Fiction
Rare lost Australian documentary made for TV 1975 written, hosted and produced by Roger Climpson. Recently uncovered at an auction for 16mm film this unique piece of Australiana will shed light on the UFO phenomena from a local perspective. Mu-Meson Archives 7.30 for 8pm start $7

Monday 28th April
The Night Stalker (1971)
This is what inspired Chris Carter to write the X-Files. This well made pilot film features Darren McGavin as a wise-guy reporter with a straw hat trying to prove the existence of and then destroy a vicious modern-day vampire (Barry Atwater) stalking Las Vegas. This Dan Curtis project used a good director, John Moxley (Horror Hotel), and a tight and witty script based on a Jeff Rice story. Annandale Hotel 7.30pm Donation

Jamie and Aspa collect rare films, are conspiracy archivists and host an underground film night in their home/theatrette. (Venue details for Mu-Meson Archives)

… Bought I Am Cuba (DVD) from Tower Records today. This 1964 film first came to our attention via a snippet of cool-looking footage in a documentary about the Cuban Revolution.

From Phil Hall’s review:

Made during the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, this bizarre production was actually locked away by the humorless commies in both Moscow and Havana because the finished film was so strange and, quite frankly, un-Communist. Recently rediscovered and brought to the US for the very first time, I Am Cuba is a unique celebration of cinematic excess, Cold War paranoia, and Caribbean rhythm.

Can’t wait to see it. BTW, we’ll have to wait till we’re back in Sydney. No DVD player here …

If you scroll down to the bottom of this page - I have added links to some previous blog entries. I know xanga is working on a “search” function, and something that lets us link to “favorite posts”, but until that happens, this little dropdown menu will have to do for now.

Another Californian Weekend…

Yesterday we decided to hit the road and head South. Stopped over in La Jolla and had lunch with a sunny ocean view. The afternoon was spent at the massive San Diego Zoo where most of the animals were busy having their siesta or just nowhere to be seen…

The queue to the giant pandas stretched forever. Eddie was getting irritated but I HAD TO see the pandas, if nothing else, so we waited.

Behold the BABY Panda!

One lesson we learnt yesterday was never again to travel without a decent road map. (Ours was super-simplified) San Diego was a nice city but we had no idea where to go, so ended up driving around the port and back up north onto the freeway towards Old Town. Somehow we managed to miss the exit and got lost. 

After driving around in circles, pulling over and asking someone, we found Old Town at last. Called the “Birthplace of California”, this was a warm and picturesque spot bustling with tourists, colorful crafty stores, photogenic architecture and mariachis. We had dinner at Rancho de Nopal restaurant where the margaritas were THIS big…

Didn’t get up till midday today… spent the early afternoon in Santa Monica and had lunch Downtown at Phillipes, another LA eating institution (like Pinks Hot Dogs) which Joel had told us about. What a cool old-skool place. Eddie: I can imagine Perry Mason getting his lunch here.

… Me in Chinatown

Back to work tomorrow. One good thing that’s come out of this little trip – we’ve got a new idea for a cartoon…

Happy Easter!

… went to the art store on Beverly Blvd this afternoon and bought some brush pens, paints, paper, paintbrushes. We decided not to go to Matt’s housewarming party; instead started working on our artwork submissions for Jorge and Sandra’s ¡Viva Lucha! show which will be at the Gallery Bink next month in Portland, Oregon.

Artwork below by the talented curators:

This is HARD. I have to admit I have been totally spoilt by the conveniences of digital technology; relying on Flash to make my drawings look clean and beautiful. Now I am using pure pencil, paper, and ink and … aaarrrrggghhh! No Ctrl Z !!!

Work in progress – one of my initial rough sketches

Eddie’s doing much better than I am…

Getting up early tomorrow and going to San Diego … Good night.

Newsflash from ANIMATION BLAST:

Synergy Or Sin-ergy? Here’s an unbelievable but true bit I heard yesterday. In all their infinite wisdom, Warner Bros execs have decided that the classic Warner characters should make cameo appearances in their current TV shows, likely as a promotion for the forthcoming Looney Tunes feature BACK IN ACTION. For example, the Road Runner will be making an appearance in one of the WB’s action-adventure cartoons (like STATIC SHOCK) and the Tasmanian Devil is scheduled to appear on MUCHA LUCHA! It’s unclear whether the characters are going to be animated into the shows or if they’re going to be cheaply superimposed on top, but any way you look at this, its imbecilic, inappropriate and insulting to the legacies of Jones, Clampett, Freleng, Avery and McKimson. It’s good those directors are all gone so they don’t have to witness their creations being desecrated for the sake of a buck.

Yes it’s true! The Tazmanian Devil is making an appearance in a forthcoming episode of ML. 

Eddie says: I’m all for desecrating sacred characters and pulling them down from their lofty pedestals! MWA HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAA! And I think directors like Tex Avery had such a playful sense of fun and disregard for tradition, they wouldn’t give a rat’s ass anyway! Lighten up, Amid.

NTSC COLORS:
Important Tip of The Day

We’ve just been to a “NTSC Colour Meeting” here at WB about which colors are safe for broadcast and which aren’t (illegal colors will be pulled back in Post, also affecting colors in the entire scene!) 

Basically, this is what all of us Character/BG Designers and colorists have to do: Make sure that for every color we choose – the RGB values stay within the 16-235 value range. No values below 16; no values above 235.

R: 16-235
G: 16-235
B: 16-235

I.e., the darkest black will be 16-16-16; the whitest white should be 235-235-235. Colors outside this range won’t be registered on screen.

Bradford (from WB Post): If you pick a color you like and notice that one of the RGB values is outside this range, for example 238, just change it to 235 and you’re safe. You won’t notice the difference anyway. well, I dunno about that.

* Same goes for PAL Broadcast.

The Fuzz has just been accepted at the Commonwealth Film Festival in Manchester, UK. Screening Details: 10th June 2003 from 18:30, in Cinema 2 at The Cornerhouse Cinema, Manchester. www.commonwealthfilm.com

Check out this cool illustration by Ivan Brunetti
Image above is a small part of the full piece