I'M SPEAKING AT WOODBURY!

Here's a few of the live action characters I've played on this site in the past year or so, starting with "The Smoker" (above).  Acting is fun, especially on the internet where you're your own boss and can do pretty much anything you want to do.

 


I'm on the subject of acting because I've been invited by the ASIFA Hollywood Animation Archive to talk about acting at Woodbury University this weekend. I won't be the only person on the bill, so you won't have to stare at my ugly face for the whole night. If you're in the Burbank area this Saturday Night, why not drop in?

BTW, that's "The Upstanding Swiss Mountain Boy" above.

Maybe the whole thing will be a disaster! I don't have time to prepare, so I'll have to speak off the cuff. I've delivered both my best and worst talks using that method, so whether I'll get lucky this time is anybody's guess. I'll just try to have fun doing it, so at least one person present will get something out of it.  



That's Captain Hook in the two pictures above. I did two photo stories about him, and I could easily have done four or five more.  I love that character! 

I stopped doing photo stories and movies for this site after I had an operation last September. Somehow people tinkering around in my innards had the effect of inhibiting my graphic sense. It even attacked my ability to draw for a while, but that's all over now. I'm working on all cylinders again, as if nothing ever happened.

But my photo sense...recovering that has taken months. I think I'm almost back to normal in that regard, and I'm nearly to try some more photo shoots. I'll give it just a few more weeks. 

Just to identify the pictures: The three above are The Card Sharp, The Old Lady and The Nerd.

 


At Woodbury I'll illustrate everything with pictures. 

I got these poses off the DVD that came with Ed Hooks' book on animation acting. I won't be talking about Ed's theories at Woodbury...like every egoist, I naturally prefer my own theories. 


I hope somebody puts excerpts of some of Hooks' video on YouTube. I no longer have access to the book and I'm dying to be reminded of what the other gestures were.

  


Here's the address and the time (below).  I've never been to Woodbury before, so I'll probably get lost, just like you will.  Maybe we'll meet each other wandering around in the dark. I met the Iranian filmmaker Marjane Satrapi that way after another ASIFA event. 

ANIMATION SALON: ACTING FOR ANIMATION

Saturday, Feb. 21st 8pm

Admission FREE to the animation community

Woodbury University

School of Business / Fletcher Jones Foundation Theater

7500 Glenoaks Blvd.

Burbank, CA  91510

For the campus map:

http://www.woodbury.edu/s/131/images/editor_documents/8.5.08CampusMap&Directions7.08.pdf

For the location of Woodbury University:

http://www.mapquest.com/maps?city=Burbank&state=CA&address=7500+N+Glenoaks+Blvd&zipcode=91504-1052&country=US&latitude=34.206773&longitude=-118.341689&geocode=ADDRESS

For the ASIFA archive site:

http://www.animationarchive.org/

THE UNDER-RATED RED GROOMS

One of the most under-rated artists of the last half century is Red Grooms, who reached his peak in the 7os.  I didn't pay much attention to him until recently because I thought he couldn't draw, and was too sloppy. That was really stupid of me because, more than any other painter of his time, he managed to encapsulate and comment on the spirit of his age.

His life-size, walk-through subway sculptures (above) are some of the best art done anywhere in the 70s.

This (above) is a great depiction of a New York subway station! The subway car has no wall facing our side so we can see the people inside. Wearing their white disco boots, weird hair-dos, Superfly hats, etc., they calmly ride a marvel of engineering back to their homes where they can relax with  "The Beverly Hillbillies" and a TV dinner. 

Grooms was an alert to the contrasts that you find on the streets of American cities. It's a combination of exuberant and vibrant life with gritty technology and bizarre architecture.

How did grooms do it!? You can fault his drawing, but I don't think anything approaching realism could have captured the claustrophobic, funky, ugly but beautiful feeling of the urban street (above) in those times. 

Actually, I think Grooms is a good draughtsman. Two commenters, Stephen and Anonymous, said that his drawing style reminded them of Paul Cadmus (above). You could add Reginald Marsh and Robert Crumb to the list. Hans says the pictures remind him of Ralph Bakshi's style.

He frequently portrayed vast panoramas and drastic perspectives (above) on stand-up brick shapes.


Here's (above) a Grooms deli. Somehow he managed to get across how much fun it is to watch people and talk to friends in a busy, big city restaurant. He even calls our attention to the idea of vinyl padded booth seats, and formica tables which are two of the over-looked delights of modern living.  They're probably an American invention.

Here's a New York bohemian bar. Boy, does it look inviting! Grooms is accused buy his detractors of dwelling on the grotesque, but just as often his work is a love letter to the city he obviously has great affection for.

He did a lot of bookstore pictures. He wisely realized that books and ideas are two of the engines that make modern cities so much fun to live in.

GYPSY ARCHITECTURE

My entire knowledge of gypsies comes from old black & white, Hollywood werewolf movies. In those movies gypsies dress flamboyantly, are superstitious and quick to re-act to insult, and are wanderers who travel around in beautiful covered wagons. Well, I was partly wrong.  An increasing number of them aren't wanderers anymore.

Thanks to the enlightened tolerance of Romania and Moldova, the gypsies in those places often have permanent houses. Some of the gypsies are even rich and can afford custom-made villas and mansions.  A book called "Gypsy Architecture" documents these upscale neighborhoods where each house is built gypsy-style, with turrets, tiles, and layered rooftops (above). The style mixes Indian, Turkish, and even Chinese.

I'm really happy for the gypsies. Finally a place of their own! I read that very often the rich owners won't live in them.  The rooms are all furnished, and the appliances work, but the purpose of the house is impress people, and living in them would just get them dirty. Better to keep them pristine, as showpieces. The whole family sleeps outside. 

 

Boy, those columns on the clover-leaf porches look like ones you'd see in India!

A few interiors, courtesy of Anonymous.  I don't know what to make of these shots. There's a huge kitsch element here, but there's also a sincerity that commands respect.

And imposing fireplace (above) combined with a strangely vacant room. 

A high ceiling (above) combined with an unconventional color scheme.

Definitely different (above) than what I'm used to seeing here! I wish I could go to Romania and see these rooms for myself!

IF ARTISTS DESIGNED CITIES

I'm not a fan of the mega city concept, where one architect designs the look of an entire city. That unified look is great for sci-fi movies (above), but most of us want the city we're actually going to live in to have more diversity. I like cities where each division has its own flavor, each section has its own story to tell.



Architects aren't sympathetic to any of this. They believe in the one-size-fits-all philosophy where the solution to every problem is simplistic, bold shapes.  I hate stuff like that.

Architects are clueless about what people really want.

A lot of what they're building today (above) will be the crime-ridden, concrete slums of tomorrow.

There's plenty of examples of good, vintage architecture out there, but you can't get architects to pay attention to it. Maybe it's time to give artists a turn at bat.  They can't do worse than what's around now. 

These days artists are steeped in graphic novels which are always depicting the dark side of things.  If artists designed a city they'd probably go for something funereal, like Gotham City in the "Batman" movie.

Such a city is bound to attract a criminal element.  Rather than leave their housing to chance, artists should build it (above) for them. Maybe something by H. R. Giger. 

Maybe thugs would feel at home in this environment, and not be tempted to venture out looking for victims.

Giger fantasizes about making murals out of human remains. (above). criminals should love that.

If the city is going to have a modern design, let's try something really drastic (above). Imagine going down that staircase on the upper left.  The steep angle would take your breath away, and descending would be difficult and dangerous...but it sure would be fun! 

Maybe a city of raised platforms half a mile in the air would make for a stimulating walk.

Maybe we need to flood the streets the way Venice is flooded. Wouldn't it be fun to take a boat to work?

Here's (above) a little Lego city that Norman Mailer built years ago, and which still stands somewhere. Each Lego block represents an apartment. Mailer said philosophers would live on the top, call girls would live in the white blocks, and corporate executives in the black ones.

Here's an idea (above) for giving Manhattan a kind of colorful, kid's playroom look.

Here's (above) a goth city where half the population is Christian and requires a lot of churches, and the other half are irreverent satanists who delight in building churches upside-down.

A city which is divided like that will naturally be pretty tense. To distract the population from their differences I suggest a diversion, perhaps a race of genetically modified giants who will walk around and randomly intimidate people.  

If the giants get out of hand, the city's water monsters will be unleashed. Water monsters eat giants. 

Here's (above) a possible layout for a New York City.  The buildings would be crammed together...really packed. Every window would be butted up to some window in the next building. if you want to live here you better be the kind of person who gets along with your neighbors. 

MORE STRIPS THAT DIDN'T MAKE THE CUT

All from that magnificent blog..."Stripper's Guide," whose address can be found in my list of links. I'm dying to comment on these but I'm so sleepy that I can hardly sit upright.

It goes without saying: be sure to click to enlarge. These won't look like much at thumbnail size.