It's been a while since my last scrapbook entry (Oct. 24), partly because I had many reshoots of "Hair High" to rush to the camera, and also because I've been traveling a lot - so here is a brief recap of the last few weeks.

Other than drawing the reshoots of "Hair High", I took the train to Peekskill, where I presented my old and new animations at SUNY Westchester College and a wonderful audience.

Then I spent 2 days in Chicago for the first annual Chicago Animation Film Festival. Even though the festival was badly organized, I had a wonderful time. I hung out with Ed Hooks, Pat Smith, and Igor Kovalyov and saw some interesting animation.

The screenings, although sparsely attended, were interesting, and I had a good time touring Chicago. The festival took place in the Biograph Theatre, famous as the location of the capture of John Dillinger. And, let's hope the 2nd year is a bigger success.

I was also able to see "The Matrix: Revolutions" there - nice battle scenes, but incomprehensible philosophies - and how is it that when they fight, their sunglasses never fall off?

I then visited the Bradford Animation Festival, or "BAF". In contrast to the Chicago Fest, Bradford is very well organized and fully attended, thanks to the wonderful skills of Adam Pugh.

I was able to take one day off to tour the villages, moors and heathers of Yorkshire. I got to visit the Bronté sisters' village (Howarth) and home - "Wuthering Heights" is one of my favorite films and the terrain still looks exactly the same.

On the last day of BAF I presented an animation workshop - they showed a clip from "Hair High" that was a tremendous success. You must go to this festival if you can, it's in a great town with great audiences.

Finally, I appeared at New Jersey City University in Jersey City, in the Visual Arts Auditorium. It was a wonderful, inquisitive crowd and they laughed a lot, which I like.

Films I've seen recently:
"21 Grams" - excellent
"Big Fish" - Tim Burton - great visuals - jumbled story
"Brother Bear" - Yecch! For all of Disney's huge budgets, why can't they put proper shadows on these characters? Miyazaki, with much smaller budgets, has gorgeous shadows, while Disney art looks like Saturday morning kiddie films.

I believe the next cartoon from "Sloppy Seconds" is my take on sneezing. This was obviously inspired by a nasty cold that got way out of hand - so it's quite easy to imagine the source of the explosion. I believe that this is the first printing of this cartoon, even though it was drawn in the early Eighties -

Stay in touch and watch for selected clips from "Hair High" appearing on www.hairhigh.com

-Bill