I'm back - did you miss me?  I've been traveling to a lot of film festivals -

Now that I'm finished with the production of "Hair High", I take every opportunity I can to promote and sell the film.  And, at the same time, I'm hyping "Guard Dog".

The first trip was to Belgrade, in Serbia-Montenegro (formerly Yugoslavia).  They have a 50-year old documentary festival there that's now added an animation section.  It's now run by an old friend of mine, Vera Vlajic.  I'd never been to that area before, so she really wanted to show me a good time. 

The first night, we went to a wonderful Belgrade dinner place, where we were joined by Rasiko Ciric, a great illustrator and animator.  After lots of great music and drinks, we decided to go to a new after-hours club, Bagdad Cafe.  One of the specialties of the house is their Iraqi belly-dancer - she was a very good dancer, so I thought I'd get a picture with her.

Well, as I posed and she danced, her sharp fingernail found its way into my eye - this picture (photo #3) is just moments after the stabbing - I tried to look happy but I was in pain.  I went to the hotel, hoping the pain would be gone by morning. 

I woke up the next day and I was blind in that eye - they bought me sunglasses so I could do the press interviews, but as the bright TV lights shined into my eye, massive tears streamed down my face.  The interviewers were very impressed by the passion I felt for animation, that it brought tears to my eyes.

They rushed me to the local hospital and gave me medicine and antibiotics and a big patch over my eye - so I spent the rest of the three days only seeing half of Belgrade.  I had a great time, though, I visited a number of animation classes and had wonderful meals on houseboats, listening to great Gypsy music.  After all, this is the home of Emir Kustirica - and I love his movies.

After opening the festival with "Guard Dog", I flew to Latvia, where I was met by Signe Baumane, "The Diva of N.Y. Animation".  They have a wonderful animation festival there called Bimini, and I was a judge.  The films were high-quality, and the theatre was a marvelous jewel of a cinema. 

We visited one of the studios that worked on "Triplettes of Belleville", and one rare warm day Signe took a bunch of us animators to the country for a Latvian sauna.  The day was bright and mild, so we all walked around naked in the sauna, then jumped in an iced-over pond - how great!  I wish all festivals were like this.

The end of the trip was a short visit to Lithuania.  We went to Klaipeda, where Signe and I did a special animators' show in their big casino.  It was a standing-room-only show with lots of fans.  The next day, we discovered a trail through a park that was marked by the most fantastic wooden characters from old Lithuanian folk tales.  It was a very magical place that would be a great concept for a film, live-action or animation.

Back to New York, I'm now working on a new project.  I have a book idea called "Sky Hi" - it's a dark novel about a flight to France, and all the characters that share the flight.  It will occasionally have sketches of these different passengers to break up the copy.

I went to the premiere screening of "Kill Bill Vol. 2" - it was fucking amazing!  The style, the humor, the music, the action.  I don't know how he does it, but Quentin seems to make films that are so different, yet so endlessly entertaining.  After the screening, when David Carradine's name came up, he got a wonderful ovation, which made me happy because he is also one of the stars of "Hair High".

Also, watch for the character who is supposed to marry Uma Thurman (the Bride) - his name is Tony Plympton - a nice gesture from Quentin!  Tell all your friends to go see it - the film rocks!

My next excursion was to the Philadelphia Film Festival.  This year TLA Video was one of the sponsors, and they've added a whole animation section to their store.  So I went down to do a Master Class at the University of the Arts, which was a lot of fun.  Then I premiered "Hair High" in the wonderful Prince Music Theatre.  I also appeared at the Art Institute of Philadelphia to do another class - and finally, I did a book signing at the Cosmic Comic shop on South Street, where they fed me with a wonderful cheesesteak.  Philadelphia is a booming animation town, so check it out.

I just saw "Home on the Range", supposedly the last 2-D Disney film.  The story was a little weak for my taste, but the music and design were wonderful.  Very flat, like UPA Studios, but with exquisite backgrounds.

Then, the final trip of the month was to the Newport Beach Film Festival in California.  It's a relatively young festival, they show features and shorts and documentaries and animation.  It's a very wealthy area with beautiful beaches.  The final day, they took us out on a harbor boat ride.  We saw seals and porpoises and got very drunk, but it got too choppy and we almost lost a baby overboard, so we had to return to port.  I was a judge at the festival, which was fun, and after giving out prizes, I received one for "Hair High".  The film got a wonderful crowd reaction, as did "Guard Dog".

I believe that both of these films are the best I've done up to this point in my career.  In fact, I just learned that "Guard Dog" won a prize in the Cartoons By the Bay animation festival in Positano, Italy.  I'm so glad they liked the film - I hope one day to go to that festival, it looks like such a beautiful location.

This scrapbook's cartoon is called "Merton Takes a Ride" - it's another episode in my never-published comic strip.  Again, I use my surrealistic imagery to tell a funny story - you can really see the influence of A.B. Frost on this technique.  Also you can see why the strip was never a success - the imagery is too weird and my writing is not so funny -

Stay tuned for the next issue of the scrapbook -Bill