First, let's talk about the festivals I've been visiting lately:

Valdivia, October 15-21

For some odd reason, I got invited to a small film festival in Valdivia, Chile. I'd never heard of it before, but I figured, what the hell...it was springtime there, and New York was getting cold and wet. I didn't expect much, since many of my films had never played there.

Valdivia is a small town on the Calle-Calle River, but it has a huge new Las Vegas-type hotel (where I stayed) that stands out like it's from another century - very modern and ultra-fancy.

My first screening of "Mutant Aliens" was sold out (yeah!), the audience was filled with a mob of university students, who had spent 11 hours on a bus from Santiago, and they seemed to be familiar with me, because I got a long ovation when I took the stage at the local multiplex.

But the real shock to me was the sold-out Master Class, with 500 kids yelling and screaming in anticipation. The class ended in a huge ovation - I was embarrassed and I didn't know how to react - then I ran out of cards to sign, and ended up signing people's film passes.

It was a delightful weekend - I checked out the wonderful fish market, full of strange and tasty fish, flowers, fruits and vegetables. Also, as the fishermen chucked the fish heads into the river, huge sea lions came up and perched on the river wall to catch them, just like at Sea World. Meanwhile, seagulls, hawks and pigeons swarmed around with scull boat racers rowing smoothly by. It was a marvelous festival and a wonderful experience, and I hope to return to Valdivia someday. Although I still don't know where all my fans came from - my guess is that they were paid by the festival organization to fawn over me. I rate it 3 out of 5 stars.

Williamstown, MA, October 30-31

I had a free weekend, and an invitation to the Williamstown Film Festival, so I figured, "What the hell, how bad can it be?" Well, to answer that question, not bad! Their film selection was interesting, the cinema was small but packed. The town is very cute - I realized that this was a big theatre center (stupid me!) with lots of students from Williams College, so I had a lot of fans there. I met a few celebrities, like Alycia Delmore, a wonderful actress from the film "Humpday" (which she insisted was not a "mumblecore" film), Tom Fontana, the great writer-producer of "St. Elsewhere", "Oz", and "Homicide", and the famous Barry Levinson, director of "The Natural" and "Diner", who was there to screen "Poliwood". I also re-connected with James Ivory, who I met in Oregon at the Marylhurst Sesquicentennial Celebration.

The brilliant Steve Lawson, who runs the festival, made sure we saw a lot of films, ate great food and partied hard. On the closing night, they gave awards to the Best Short Film, but not the features - now how often does that happen? I highly recommend this festival, I give it 3 stars out of 5 - be sure to send your film there, please.

Memphis, TN, November 2-4

The next stop on my itinerary was Memphis - I was on the West Coast when the Memphis Independent Film Festival was showing my film "Hair High" - but we were able to reschedule my visit to Memphis two weeks later, in conjunction with the Memphis College of Art screening "Idiots and Angels". So I was able to visit that musical city and meet the fans - after the special screening of "Idiots", the next day I had two screenings of my short films with the students at MCA. But the real fun was checking out the musical history of that Tennessee town. I visited the large Gibson guitar factory, and also funky Beale Street, a honky-tonk street where I felt right at home. This was where W.C. Handy, the inventor of the blues, played. Then on to Sun Studios, the early home of Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and of course Elvis "The Pelvis".

And I visited the jewel in the crown of Memphis, Graceland. It's an amazing time capsule look at the "King of Rock and Roll's" life. The highlights: his jungle room with carved wood sofas and shag carpet, the car museum with all his Cadillacs, Mercedes and Stutz Bearcats (they show film clips of all his cinematic driving exploits that's preceded by some old claymation created by my old buddy, the late Bob Gardiner, creator of "Closed Mondays"), and then Elvis' two large private jets. But for me, the highlights were the more personal stuff - his old home movies and his garish costumes and paintings.

Savannah, GA, November 5-8

Next I went to Savannah, Georgia. I was at the Savannah Film Festival three years ago, and had a wonderful time - so I returned this November to do a master class at Savannah College of Art and Design and enjoy the sweet Georgia sunshine. I got a tour of their magnificent facilities, it was very impressive how large and professional the school has gotten in just a few years. The animation building now has large rooms of PCs and also animation desks.

The Savannah Film Festival itself showed a very impressive program of feature films, accompanied by many of the directors and stars in attendance, including Jeremy Renner from "The Hurt Locker", Patricia Clarkson, and Lee Daniels, producer of "Precious". The festival had great parties, and the feel and flavor of the city is filled with Southern charm. I put the Savannah Film Festival high my recommended list - I give it 4 out of 5 stars for charm and fun, and the great hotel they put me up in.

Montpellier, France, November 17-22

Whenever I get an invitation to visit France, I always jump at the opportunity, because the audiences are so great. While at Annecy last year, I was approached by the organizers of the AnimaSud Festival in Montpellier - it sounded good to me, since they wanted to do a whole Bill Plympton retrospective, and have me design their festival poster as well.

So, near the end of November, I traveled to this southern French town to celebrate animation. They treated me very well - packed screenings, wonderful food, and a great Master Class - I also had a few days to enjoy the wonderful coast and historic towns like Sete, a major oyster center, and Le Grand Motte ("the big moat"), which was an amazing city consisting of dozens of super-modern white condos - everything was very organized, like Disney World crossed with Woody Allen's "Sleeper".

The festival took place over a number of days and included other cities such as Baillargues. On my film festival scale, I give it 4 stars out of a possible 5.

I'd also like to give you my film recommendations - I'm a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures, so it's important that I see all the new features that come out at the end of each year. First, the live-action films:

"Up in the Air" - much more traditional Hollywood filmmaking by Jason Reitman, after two great films, "Thank You for Smoking" and "Juno".

"Precious" - a wonderful, powerful eye-opener.
"The Hurt Locker" - a gripping, scary Iraqi war film.

"Inglourious Basterds" - wonderful

"Young Victoria" - even though it's a chick flick, it's my favorite film of the year. What a delight!

As for the animated films:

"The Princess and the Frog" - wonderful and musical!

"Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" - funny and imaginative

"The Fantastic Mr. Fox" - another quirk-fest by Wes Anderson. I was very disappointed by this film. The character design was ugly, and the jokes were not funny. I don't know what the budget was but I hear it's bombing at the box office - yeah!

I was able to go to the New York premiere of "The Lovely Bones", an amazing film directed by Peter Jackson. Usually at these big Hollywood premieres, you're lucky to meet one or two of the stars - but this one was star-studded with Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci and Mark Wahlberg, and was were invited to a fancy dinner at the Plaza Hotel, where I spotted none other than Mr. Jackson himself, standing in a corner alone. So, I introduced myself, and he recognized me and mentioned that he loved "I Married a Strange Person" - and I said it was influenced by his great film "Brain Dead". We bonded and chatted for a while, until he was discovered by all the press, then I was pushed away by the masses. But it was one of the greatest nights of my life, to meet him - all his early films are classics, like "Meet the Feebles", "Bad Taste" and "Lost Silver", so check them out.

My new short film "The Cow Who Wanted to Be a Burger" is nearing completion - I was able to go to a wonderful exhibition of Vasily Kandinsky at the Guggenheim Museum, and I was truly amazed by the richness of his colors. In fact, when you see my "Cow" film, you might say "Man, he ripped off Kandinsky!" and you'd be right. But I'm influenced by a lot of artists, and life around me.

We're hoping to have the world premiere of the new short film in February, at a local bar + barbecue restaurant called Hill Country - watch my Facebook page for the date and time.

Also, some other exciting events - I'll be doing an animation show at Kodak (co-programmed with Signe Baumane) on January 12, then I'll be showing my short "Santa: The Fascist Years" at the Slamdance Festival in January, and I'll be there to introduce the film. On top of that, I'll be hosting a Master Class at the Society of Illustrators on Wednesday, January 20, so please come to that if you can. Also "Santa" was nominated for an Annie Award, which is like the Oscars of animation, so I'll be in L.A. for that awards show on February 6.

Then Signe and I are planning a very exciting animated "Battle of the Sexes" sometime in April - that should be a real smackdown event. So there are lots of Bill Plympton events coming up.

Then, of course, I'm beginning my new classes for a winter/spring semester of my Animation School, every Monday night starting January 18 - so if you want to sign up and learn from the master, please e-mail me at plymptoons@aol.com

The cartoon for this installment is page 50 from "Sloppy Seconds" - it's called "The Ultimate Striptease". This was another cartoon I tried to sell to the men's magazines, but no one bought it. My style was really coming together here - I believe it's drawn very well. And the humor is very wacky and surreal - enjoy!

See you next time, Bill