Let's see, where did I leave off? I think it was at the Oscars - the Academy, for some stupid reason, decided to exclude "The Fan and the Flower" (written and produced by the brilliant Dan O'Shannon) from a nomination.  It happens to be my most successful short - that little 7-minute film has gone on to win 15 major festival prizes.  How could the Academy be so blind?  Well, hopefully I'll get in there again next year with "Guide Dog", my follow-up to "Guard Dog".

I've been hired to do an opening credit sequence for this crazy San Francisco a cappella group called the Kinsey Sicks, who perform a revue called "Dragapella". I listened to their music and really liked it, so the producers flew me out to Las Vegas to catch their act at the Hilton Grand Hotel.  Ken and Alonzo picked me up at the airport, then took me to see Dragapella, who were performing right next to the legendary Barry Manilow.

If you haven't seen the Kinsey Sicks, definitely check them out - it's one of the most amazing shows I've ever seen!  Bawdy, outrageous, sexy and great music and lyrics. They're just like my animations come to life. So, I sat there in the front row, trying to sketch the performers, in between my laughter and awe.

Later that night, I was able to explore the experience known as Las Vegas - I thought I'd walk around the street and check out the different casinos.  Well, it's simply not possible to walk around Las Vegas - the streets are designed so that one must take a taxi or be able to fly to go from casino to casino.  In any case, I got a lot of exercise, and only saw a few casinos.  I didn't do any gambling - I feel that I gamble enough on my own films (sometimes I lose, sometimes I win) so the appeal of dropping a quarter in a slot doesn't work for me.

From there, I went up to Seattle for a show at the Seattle Film Forum - this was the first theatrical screening of "Hair High".  It's a beautiful venue with very nice organizers, but without good press, no one knew about the show - I was very disappointed with the turnout.

In fact, at one of the later shows, as I sat outside, waiting to do my Q&A, all of a sudden the entire audience streamed out of the cinema, yelling and screaming - were the violent scenes in the film that disgusting?  I rushed to see what had upset the audience, and there in the middle of the seats was a young student, standing up and peeing all over the seats.  His friends were able to subdue the small-bladdered drunk and wrestle him out of the cinema.  Believe it or not, a few brave people returned to the urine-soaked room for a quick Q&A session.  Now I can put on my publicity flyers - "Hair High.  It's so funny, you'll pee in your pants."

Back in New York, I went to the premiere of another project I was involved with, called "Fuck, A Documentary", which played at the GenArt Festival.  It's a wonderful exploration of the origins and meanings of that ubiquitous F-word.  Steve Anderson, the director, had hired me to create 5 minutes of animation to help explain the word.

The screening was sold out long before the actual show - in fact, there was such a buzz that people who hadn't seen the film were talking about it.  I guess it's a magic word that creates a lot of controversy.  I don't know how they're going to advertise it or even review it in the newspapers without censorship.

In fact, I've been hired to create the ad campaign for the film, so wait until this fall, when the film comes out, to see the solution.  Also, they may be showing "Guide Dog" as a short before the feature.

I'd like to talk about three films that I've seen recently.  The first is "The Wild".  What a piece of crap!  Badly designed, no funny jokes, no story - how could Disney release such a flawed film?  It's films like this that ruin the wonderful CGI reputation brought about by Pixar.

Then, I went to the premiere of "Ice Age: The Meltdown".  I could quibble about some weak character design (the vultures) and some lame jokes, but the essential story is strong and there are great action scenes - that film's going to make a fortune. 

The final film I'd like to comment on is "Thank You For Smoking".  What a masterpiece!  From a wonderful book by Chris Buckley and directed by Jason Reitman, it's perfectly cast with sharp writing and great dark humor.  It's the kind of film I wish I'd done - go out and see it soon, before it leaves the cinemas.

Recently, we had what I like to call "Animation Week" - for some bizarre reason, from May 1 to 10 the city of New York was chock-a-block with animation screenings.  First was the Tribeca Film Festival's "Animated New York", which I proudly programmed.  Last year, I was lucky enough to have "Guard Dog" in the festival, and I was able to convince Peter Scarlett, the head programmer, to give us a spotlight on New York City animation.  He was reluctant at first, then he saw my music video for Kanye West and somehow felt it would be a cool thing.

They programmed four screenings at terrible times - morning and noontime screenings at far-flung and hard-to-reach venues, such as the Jewish Museum (that's in an isolated part of lower Manhattan) but surprisingly, the audience turned out in droves.  We had 3 sold-out shows, and the 4th nearly sold out.  The best part was introducing the filmmakers to the audience, and showing them that New York City is the world capital of independent animation.  Check out the program posted here for the list of the films included in the Tribeca Festival event.

Also during "Animation Week" were all the screenings of the films by the graduating students from the film schools.  I was only able to get to NYU and SVA, I missed Pratt and Parsons, but what I saw was very impressive.

This was also the time for the student Academy screening, and I was chosen to present the prize to the New York regional winner in animation - Yusuki Murikami for "Man, Woman and Capitalism".

On top of all that, the Film Forum presented what they called "Cartoons: No Laughing Matter?"  The program included a lot of adult animation about serious topics.  I didn't like a few of the films - "The Dog" by Suzie Templeton is one of my least favorite films, very melodramatic, cloying, and unpleasant to watch.  But there were some gems - like Andy + Carolyn London's "Back Brace" (which was also in my Tribeca show), also Debra Solomon's "Everybody's Pregnant", a real treat to watch.  And, my favorite, another masterpiece from "Asparagus" creator Susan Pitt, called "El Doctor" - a beautifully-rendered story about a Mexican doctor who performs medical miracles.  If you get a chance to see it, take it - it's wonderful!

As the final piece-de-resistance, the annual ASIFA-East awards ceremony capped off the "Animation Week" - "Guide Dog" was in the running and won first prize.  I was very excited and a lot of people came up to me to say they enjoyed it more than "Guard Dog", and now there's a big demand for little Guard Dog dolls.  So now I guess he really is my "Mickey Mouse" and I've got to start developing merchandise.

The ASIFA awards are one of the highlights of my year, because it's so great to see all the New York animators at once and catch up on all the animation gossip.

Next week, I'm off to Animayo, the Canary Islands animation festival, and then in June there's the great Annecy Festival, where Pat Smith and I are presenting the famed Annecy Plus screening on Friday night - don't miss it! Be there!

The cartoon for this scrapbook is from page 35 of Sloppy Seconds (Plymptoons Publishing), called "Believe it or Rot!".  It's another cartoon that first appeared in Playboy.  I love these little  features - I didn't write them but they're fun to draw and the money was great!

I'm also posting some pictures from some of my earlier festival adventures - from the Tampere Festival in Finland, and the Fantasporto Festival in Portugal. Thanks to my friend Dori from Oporto for taking lots of photos!