A VISIT TO THE GETTY VILLA

I just spent a large part of the day at The Getty Villa in The Pacific Palisades. If you live in LA you know that this recreation of a Roman villa houses one of the best collections of Greek and Roman art in the United States.

My favorite room is the one containing the busts. This Roman bronze (above) is extraordinary when you see it up close. The face shows a man full of grit, someone who spits in the face of adversity and refuses to buckle under. 

Yikes! I'm paying the price for not reading the inscriptions. Who is this man? Alexander? Maybe it's nobody well-known, but he dominates the room.

This (above) is simply a highly individuated balding man.

A fascinating likeness (above)! Who is this man?

Above, the emperor Nerva. He looks like Lawrence Olivier in "Spartacus."

This is Commodus, the dissolute son of Marcus Aurelius. I thought Bernini invented this ultra-smooth, beautifully mannered technique, but I guess he didn't.

I've seen this face (above) many times on modern men in present day Los Angeles, yet here it is, on a bust more than 2,000 years old. 

Here's (above) "The Charioteer," which celebrates the victory in a race of Rome's most popular charioteer. 

I'm wondering if the real life charioteer paid for this sculpture (above) out of his own pocket. How else to account for the obvious "Chick Magnet" appeal of the shapes? You should have seen how the women in the museum reacted to this statue.

Above, another bearded man. 

Here's (above) a stunningly charming female face. The sculptor must have admired his subject, maybe he even fell in love with her. It looks like something Carpeaux would have done 1500 years later.

This statue (above) blew my mind. The fluid, quirky style reminds me of Donatello's "David." I thought Donatello invented this technique, but this sculpture pre-dates David by at least 1500 years.

Here's (above) a musician or a poet being visited by the muses. An easily grasped concept, right?

Wrong. What the heck is that (above) fish tail on their backs? I wish I'd taken the time to read the inscription.

Above, a couple of artifacts from Greek theater. The Getty has more painted items like this, but photography in those rooms was forbidden. 

T. HEE DRAWS EDDIE

This'll have to be a hastily done post. Workers are in the house tearing down a wall and with the din I can't think straight. Fortunately Milt recently gave me a couple of Xeroxes that readers might be interested in, so I don't have to appear empty-handed. 

Okay, here's (above) the first Xerox. It appears to be a caricature of me drawn by renowned Disney caricaturist, T. Hee. Wow, it's terrific! T. Hee really nailed me...but, huh? Wait a minute...how can that be? The inscription says it's George Manuel, who was a story artist in the 30s and 40s. Holy Mackerel! That could only mean one thing...there was another me all those years ago...and he called himself George Manuel!

Sure, it could be a coincidence, but the likeness is so striking that I'm forced to consider another possibility, ie., that I'm a vampire who holds on to life by sucking the blood of others. I don't recall having done anything like that but, who knows?

Milt also gave me a copy (above) of Marlena Dietrich's scathing review of Snow White from 1937.  He got it from a site called "Animation Anecdotes," which I bookmarked as soon as I got home. I don't agree with Dietrich's evaluation of the film, but you have to admit that it's funny.

Milt reminded me that caricaturist Al Hirschfeld also wrote a negative review of that film and I include it below.

Okay, that's it! I've gotta get out of the house!

MY TRIP TO DISNEYLAND

I've seen lots of vintage photos of The Mad Hatter (above) and I wanted to have my picture taken with him. Alas, he was nowhere to be seen.

Horace Horsecollar's girlfriend (above) was there....

....as was Grumpy (above). It wouldn't be Disneyland without Grumpy.

There's a new attraction in Disneyland called Pixie Hollow, and it's pretty well done. It even has a Don Martin-type frog pond, but I wasn't able to get a picture of it.

The Hollow is the home of the Five Princesses (above). Little girls wearing princess costumes flock to the Hollow to pal around with beautiful grown-up princesses.

 When I was there the The Five were on a lunch break and the little girls were going nuts with waiting.

Later I made my way to Fantasyland.

Disneyland excels at handling crowds. People in this picture (above) are almost shoulder to shoulder yet they remain even-tempered. The sights and sounds are no doubt diverting, and so are the people watching opportunities, but above all for me is the fascinating use of architectural space. I couldn't take my eyes off it!

I got some dirty looks when I took shots of the crowd. Sheesh! What was that about? Was everybody there on the lamb from the law? Maybe I stumbled into some kind of felons convention.

I stopped at some stores and was impressed by the props on the shelves along the walls. 

You can't buy these props, they're for display only.

How'd you like to have that crawling monster (above) on your wall?

I wish I'd gotten more shots of Adventureland. 

Here I am (above) in Minnie Mouse's house. Boy, Minnie has good taste in architecture!

  

I want to live in this house! I hope the designer got some sort of prize.

I've gotta go back to Disneyland soon. It's a photographer's dream! 

STORYBOARDING THE GANG CARTOON

Storyboarding the Gang Cartoon

Seventy years ago you could do a cartoon with nothing but a rabbit and a hunter and everybody loved it. No more. Something about modern life requires many people on the screen at the same time. A frame with only two characters in it now seems empty...desolate...icy...loveless. At least that's what employers believe.

If you're dismayed by this then cheer up! Help is on the way! Theory Corner offers you this lesson in storyboarding what I call the gang cartoon (gang = ridiculously crowded). The panels are unrelated, there's no story being told here. I'm just putting up suggestions for organizing the kind of crowd that modern cartoons require.

The organizing principal in a gang cartoon is fairly simple. In each set-up the crowd confronts a single speaker. I call that speaker (my term) the "solo confronter."

In panel "A" we see a flying (i.e. downshot) perpendicular doublet/triplet wedgie (i.e. group} facing a reverse (back shot) solo confronter. In panel "B" we see two flanking triplet wedgies, also both facing the forward solo confronter.

In panel "C" a triplet wedgie confronts a reverse solo confronter with a few neutral "pawns" present as a sort of garnish.
Panel "D" shows two flying doublet wedgies facing a reverse solo confronter. Got the hang of it now? If so, you're ready for the grand finale in panel "E" below....

Panel "E" shows a cascading, right to left flying tsunami octet facing a forward solo confronter. Now THAT'S professional staging!

YOUNG WOMEN VS. OLDER WOMEN

Younger women have obvious assets, you don't need me to point them out. Older women have assets too, but they don't get discussed very often. I thought I'd take a minute to examine what those assets are. 

Let's face it, young girls haven't seen much of life. They don't have...depth. They lack....

...they lack "gravitas."

They're always lost, always spilling things, always tripping over curbs, always getting their fingers caught in drawers.

Older women (abvove) on the other hand, are confident and worldly. They see life from the lofty heights, from the eagles' point of view.

Not only that, but older women get the joke. They're more hip....more with it.

Younger women are always playing hard to get. How wearisome!

Older women know the score. They're not afraid to take the initiative. 

Younger women are only attracted to men with animal magnetism. A few chick magnets (above) get all the girls.

Older women (above) have no need of chick magnets. They're tickled to death to live with normal men. They don't care if their husbands leave their BVDs on the sofa. 

Now, I admit that not all older women (above) have gravitas.

I also admit that some older women take...well, a bit of getting used to. Give me time. I'm stll working on that.

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One more thing! You MUST see this video Steve Worth showed me last night! Watch the whole thing, from beginning to end. It lasts about 40 minutes.