Easter Weekend

Eddie at the Getty Centre – gardens

Peter and Georgia completed their whirlwhind jam-packed tour of L.A. yesterday with a tour of the Getty Centre, lunch in Sawtelle and a quick cruise through Rodeo Drive. As they were leaving for Sydney, they observed with some disappointment that Easter isn’t as big a deal here as it is in Sydney.

In Australia this time of the year, there are Easter Eggs  for sale everywhere. There’s also the famous Royal Easter Show.(As you can see, there’s nothing religious about this occasion) Also, Monday is a public holiday in Australia unlike here.

Well we learnt from Sandra  that yesterday there was a lot happening on Venice Beach. There was an Easter Egg garden for the kids and a guy-in-Easter-Bunny-suit leading the hunt. (Peter & Georgia – there you go!)

In four days time, Eddie and I will be leaving for Sydney. There is always so much to do before a long trip like this one – Last minute meetings and dinners, laundry, packing and CD backups of work files. We’ll be away for approx. a month but will still be doing as much work as we can on ML and JTE.

This afternoon everything on my laptop monitor was pink (!) on start-up. This happened twice and freaked us out. I think it’s time to get a new computer to replace my five year old Dell… It’s so hard to decide what to get.

Wanted:

• petit glam issue #7 – features the folk art of Alexander Girard. (who is better known for his textile & furniture designs). We saw an exhibition in NYC four years ago and fell in love with his folk art sculptures, which we’ve never since been able to locate in any book or website. So it was a buzz seeing them in this Japanese design magazine from the gr2 store… if only it didn’t cost forty bucks.
• “Maskman World” (translated from katakana) is a Japanese publication that looks like a compendium of masked wrestlers from around the world. Keith is ordering a copy and it looks great.

We had dinner last night at Trader Vics where the cocktails were deliciously potent and did not disappoint. (Eddie had a Samoan Fogcutter; Tim and I had Suffering Bastards). Also great food. The only thing missing was that kitsch “tiki” vibe we like. For upscale Polynesian decor with plenty of cheeze value, San Francisco’s Tonga Room goes unbeaten…

Check out Tyson, the skateboarding bulldog (videoclip). This doggie is good!

Happy Good Friday for tomorrow! We’ll be workin’ in the studio…

Catfish Hotel by Studio Tanuki (France) looks intriguing. Interesting character designs; really funny run and walk cycles. We like the music too, and notice that Cornelius is in the credits.  (link from Jared)

Way back in the eighties, before Eddie started working in animation, he was in several Melbourne electronic/synth pop bands. It appears that someone has compiled a bunch of Shanghai Au Go Go tracks on CD and is selling this on the internet! (Eddie: “It’s a shame this guy picked our very first album. It was so bad.”)

Well, Peter and Georgia, our guests from Sydney, had an awesome time in Disneyland yesterday as we knew they would. They left at 7.30am and didn’t get home till midnight. This morning they had a blast doing the WB VIP Lot Tour (which we still haven’t done!) and tonight they’re flying to Las Vegas.

About Protected Posts – I’ve had a few “Please add me to the protected list” emails in the last week. Sorry if I hadn’t made myself clear. If you want to be added to the list in order to read our protected blog entries, you need to send me your xanga username. (I don’t need your email address) Which means that:

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Warning: The protected posts are usually ranty in the some way. So, you’re not really missing out on anything by not reading these.

Hee hee. Amid from Cartoon Brew has linked to us on the subject of ‘Christian Anime’ – see previous post. (Amid is always the brutally honest and sober voice of the animation scene. Want proof? Check out his SHAG Pink Panther comments…)

Maddog - There are some funny and informative articles on this blog/website. Also check out the travelogues to Ireland, Brazil etc.

JMM is coming to LA to attend a screening of his movie Broad Daylight on April 21st, at the Egyptian Theater. It’s a shame we’re not going to be around on this date…

Hollywood 2D Digital Animation – The New Flash Production Revolution
We did an interview with Cliff Parrot, one of the authors of this book, a couple of months ago. Our copy arrived in the mail today and it looks pretty damn good. There’s a lot of production info here. Flipping through quickly, we notice an image of  Cosmic Baby with this caption: ©2003 Warner Bros Animation and ©2003 Fwak! Animation.

That should have been “©2003 Cartoon Network Asia Pacific and ©2003 Fwak! Animation”. AAAAaaaahh!!!

Mailwasher – I’ve been getting at least 30 spam emails per day. I guess this is the price I pay for being an internet junkie. Thanks to Peter for introducing me to this spam-bouncing program. Hopefully in a few months (so he tells me) my address will have been taken off all those nasty mailing lists and I will be spam-free.

Peter and Georgia are in Disneyland today. Wish we were there…

This looks interesting – Club Par Avion. “…We are a dance craze of sensational and entirely seductive Global Indie Clubpop, Indiepop, Cartoon Disco, Cutepop, 60′s Twist and Ye-Ye! from Japan, Spain, France, Hong Kong, Mexico, Germany, China and Bollywood, conducive to dancefloor exuberance and flirtacious alcoholic consumption. We invite you to Do the Twist and The Monkey with our cute and creative Par Avion patrons at our Clubpop Disco!!!”

Neokaiju is a toy project which Tim Biskup & Gary Basemen are involved with. I remember Nathan J. telling me about this.

I’ve created an Endsville picture album. Only the main characters so far. (Will add cars later). 

Animation trends 2004?

In this month’s issue of Animation Magazine (which we rarely read anymore), there’s an article with a list of “What’s Cool in 2004?” 

So, this is what’s cool this year -

• Christian resurgence is everywhere…. Think spirituality in all things in 2004, and the market will find you.
• Going Japanese will continue… From anime to technology to foods and fashions, anything Japanese will be watched carefully for emerging trends and fads.

Eddie: Well how about a show where the hero is“Jesus Christ Samurai”? Jesus is a samurai warrior. With his gang of the twelve apostles they defend a village from the barbaric Romans.

Lili:  Also on the list - Girl Power refuses to cool off. Is your Jesus Christ Samurai idea going to do anything for the girls?

Eddie: In that case, Jesus can have a sidekick, Mary Magdalene. She kicks ass and wears a schoolgirl outfit like in Battle Royale.

Lili: A Christian anime-looking boys-action series… Something for everyone.Which network? Kids WB?

Eddie: Yeah. No, wait. This should be for Cartoon Network’s new Miguzi block

Found also in Animation Magazine – an ad for a animation program called The Tab, which is developed by the Toonz people, which sounds very similar to (but looks friendlier than)Toonboom studio. The Tab incorporates the storyboarding phase and includes  3D camera moves, effects and Flash output. Anyone tried this?

Today, we had brunch on Venice Beach. It’s still a vibrant hippie-buskers’ hangout and feels so different from the rest of L.A. In the afternoon, Peter and Georgia did their sightseeing and (more) shopping in Santa Monica while Eddie and I worked on our ”Jive Turkey Experience music reference” CD-mix.

DJ Big-Up-Ma-Selecta says

Then we all had dinner at Canters diner, another LA institution. Tomorrow morning, Peter visits Sherman Oaks for the first time and sees where we work.

Our guests are high-energy tourists. There is so much to see and Peter and Georgia want to see it all. So far:

• Day 1: Breakfast at Fred 62 with celebrity sighting no. 1 – Ben Lee; Universal Studios Tour; dinner at Musso & Franks
• Day 2: Hollywood Tour of Stars’ Homes with celebrity sighting no. 2 – Janet Jackson (outside Kodak theatre); Santa Monica 3rd Street Promenade & pier; Sunset Strip; Pinks Hot Dogs; drinks at Tiki-Ti.
• Day 3: Breakfast at the Coffee Table Cafe (Silverlake); “Hollywood Sign” sighting; Lake Hollywood; Mulholland Drive; Shopping on Melrose Ave for 3 hours; dinner at Cha Cha Cha.

3 days has felt like a week! They still haven’t been to the WB Lot, Venice Beach, Getty Centre, Downtown LA, and Pasadena…

scenic lookout  from Mulholland Drive

So maybe not much blogging these next couple of days.

We also have heaps of design homework as things speed up on our Jive Turkey development project. Peter and Georgia leave next week, and not long after, on April 15th Eddie and I are flying back to Sydney for about a month (to take care of visa issues and catch up with friends & families). There’s so much that we have to accomplish in the next two weeks.

Recommendations from xangans:

Jared Chapman’s blog (thanks, Jared)

Luke Chueh has a show in Sawtelle. (thanks, melymel22)

Currently watching/playing:

Space Patrol DVD compilation. Eddie says he used to love this series as a kid.
Ruta 100 – $2 Latin music comp. from the Blue Demon store. It’s pretty good.

* UPDATE – many apologies.. I had the wrong URL for Space Patrol earlier. This is the correct link now.

Upcomin’ stuff.

This morning, Peter and Georgia arrived from Australia. (Peter is a co-director/business affairs manager of Fwak) So we’ll be spending time with them doing touristy things over the next ten days. The rest of this week – it’s Hollywood, Sunset Strip, Santa Monica, Downtown. Next week, Disneyland and Las Vegas. (Peter and Georgia that is, not us. We have to work)

© Miles Thompson

Miles Thompson (a designer on ML) is exhibiting at Copro Nason Gallery April 10th. See some gorgeous artwork right here. 

Hangar 1018  – “interactive videogames, art installations, circuit bending, and micromusic supa stahz!” Another cool event courtesy of Tony Mora, our micromusic correspondent.  See flyer here. We were at Club Microwave Tues night. It was fun but less ‘bleepy’ than we expected. I think this one’s going to be bleepier.

Christa  is launching her new lucha-noir novel: “Hoodtown” on May 1st. Pity that Eddie and I won’t be around (we’ll be in Sydney). We feel very honored to have read the first 50 pages and we can’t wait to read more! This book is gonna be a hot item for lucha or non-lucha fans alike.

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