Jim Hill of Jim Hill Media has written a good piece on the ramifications of this years current glut of 3D animated features. http://jimhillmedia.com/blogs/jim_hill/archives/2006/08/5218.aspx

Mark Mayerson has published a nice autobiographical letter he got from Warners director Friz Freleng when he was but a wee sprout back in 1976. http://mayersononanimation.blogspot.com
July 27th entry, I believe. I admire the way Friz Freleng always made the time to answer students and help young artists.

I recall when I first arrived in Hollywood in 1977 I made the rounds of all the animation plants, with minimal results. When I trekked out on the bus to DePatie Freleng in the San Fernando Valley near Van Nuys Airport, instead of a nondescript HR person asking me to drop off my portfolio until next week, the receptionist said:" Mr. Freleng can see you now." I was shocked. Mr. Freleng? Himself?

Friz took me into his office and sat me down. Unlike the sunbaked streets outside, his office was dark paneled and refreshingly cool, with awards and photos covering the walls. It was like a career- biosphere. Seated next to me, he proceeded to go through my samples, pointing out what I needed to improve and how to do it. When we concluded we both stood up. Being short in stature, he didn't lookup at me but would stare straight into my shirtbutton while telling me he wasn't hiring at the moment. I looked down on his bald orange freckled head.

In the end I didn't get hired, but I was deeply impressed that he took so much time with one skinny, zitty kid. I hope I've been able to Pay-it-Forward with other young people since.

More Wisdom from Old Animators:

courtesy of Brendoman media.com

Richard Williams was fond of telling us" Life is on Ones.."

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Birthdays: Goethe, Tolstoy, Donald O'Connor, Charles Boyer" Come wis me to zee Cazbah! - I'm sorry, Pepe Le Pew didn't say it first, Boyer said it in the film Pepe Le Moko. Bruno Bettleheim, Ben Gazzara, Marvel master cartoonist Jack "King" Kirby, Jason Preistley, Daniel Stern, Shania Twain, Jack Black is 33, animation historian Charles Solomon

79 a.d.- POMPEII DESTROYED BY MOUNT VERSUVIUS -The great volcano
errupted burying the Roman city. The Emperor Titus rushed a fleet commanded
by the natural scientist Pliny to rescue as many as he could. Pliny was overcome
by the sulphurous fumes and died. His son, Pliny the Younger, eyewitnesses it all
and wrote a moving account of the tragedy in his 'letters'. Scientists
have been digging at the site of Pompeii since it's rediscovery in 1726, but
estimates are there's as many as 30,000 skeletons still buried.

476AD-The Last Roman Emperor of the West, the boy Romulus Augustulus, is deposed.
It was done by his counselor and actual power behind the throne, a barbarian named Odoacer. Odoacer sent the Imperial diadem and insignia to the Zeno the Emperor of the East in Constantinople and declared himself King of the Germans in Italy. He was later split in two by Theodric the Visigoth at a peace summit.

1296- The Ragman Roll- Scottish nobles were forced to pledge allegiance
to King Edward Ist of England. Edward Longshanks dropped his pretense of protection
of the Scottish crown and instead moved for direct annexation to England. The only
resistance came from peasant born leader William Wallace. The ceremony went on for
so long such it coined a term for long inane formalities- Rigamarole.

1837 - Pharmacists John Leah & William Perrins invent Worcestershire Sauce.

1859-In Titusville Pennsylvania the first U.S.oil well strikes oil. Before the industrial
revolution crude oil or coal tar was considered a smelly nuisance. It was called
Indian-Oil because Indians wore it as black warpaint, it was great for tarring and
feathering rapscallions. Some entrepreneurs even tried to bottle it as health tonic.
By this era it was refined into kerosene which was seen as a cheap plentiful substitute
for whale-oil lamps.

1922- The first broadcast commercial. It was for a real estate firm Queensboro
Realty. It ran on the radio for ten minutes and cost 100 dollars. The firm selling suburban homes
in Queens NY immediately did $100,000 worth of business. The Business world took
note of the new method of advertising.

1934-Upton Sinclair the writer is nominated for Governor of California on the Democratic
ticket by over half a million votes. This shocked the California power-elite because
Sinclair was a radical whose grass roots organization EPIC (End Poverty in California)
advocated socialist solutions to the Depression. Even FDR kept his distance from
Sinclair.
Powerful forces enlisted Louis B. Mayer, Irving Thalberg and other Hollywood conservatives
to ensure Sinclair's defeat by creating the first modern media negative campaign.
This included phony newsreels of actors dressed as hobos saying how they're
going to California to sponge off the taxpayers. Walt Disney's lawyer, Gunther
Lessing, demanded Ward Kimball take the "Sinclair for Governor" sign off
his car window. Governor Frank Merriam who earlier that year had ordered troops to shoot
striking San Francisco longshoremen won re-election.

1963- Dr. Martin Luther King gave his "I Have a Dream" speech in front
of the Lincoln Memorial at the climax of the first ' Poor People's March
'on Washington. Organizer A. Phillip Randolph conceived a poor peoples march
taking weeks not unlike the Bonus Marchers of 1929. The sympathetic John F. Kennedy
administration prevailed upon them to keep it to one day to reduce the chance of
violence and maximize media exposure. They had planned for 100,000 but they got
400,000. Movie stars like Sidney Poitier, Marlon Brando, even Charlton Heston attended.
Young CBS reporter Roger Mudd was so excited he threw up behind the Jefferson Memorial

1968- THE CHICAGO DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION- While thousands of anti-war hippie and
yippie protestors battled the Chicago Police in Grant Park the Democrats nominated
Hubert Horatio Humphrey, the "Happy Warrior" their candidate to replace
the assassinated Bobby Kennedy. Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, the Yippie and SDS
(Students for a Democratic Society) leaders tried to get a live 100 pound pig into
the convention and get it nominated for President. Newsman Dan Rather was gut-punched by
a Chicago cop on camera on the convention floor. Disney animation historian John Culhane was
clubbed down by police despite wearing all his press credentials and a baby blue
army helmet with Newsweek painted on it. While the police
and demonstrators battled poet Alan Ginsburg and Timothy Leary grabbed a loudspeaker
and chanted the Buddist "Ohhhmmmmm" to calm people down. The student leaders
-the Chicago 7 in reality 8, were put on trial for incitement to riot but after
a year long media circus all the charges were overturned. Republican Richard Nixon
won the election.
"Ouch! Hey, don't hit me! I'm Mr. Snoops!Ouch!courtesy pbs.org

1990- Computer pioneer Sandy Lerner was fired from the company she founded- Cisco
Systems.

duhh... have I mentioned lately that I wrote a booK?

DRAWING THE LINE Booksigning events planned so far...
October 13th Fri. Burbank Cal. Gordon Biersch - c/o Creative Talent Network.

October 18- USC Seminar, 6:30PM, Lucas Bldng, Department of Cinema Television.

October 23- UCLA Bridges Auditorium, Melnitz Hall, 7:30PM

October 25- Laguna College of Design.

October 30- California State College, Fullerton

November 17th Fri. San Francisco Cartoon Museum 313 Mission St., evening talk with
ASIFA/SF 7:00PM

November 18th Saturday -San Francisco- Zeum ,a childrens interactive museum.

November 27- New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, 11:00am.

November 29th Weds. New York- Chelsea Barnes & Noble, 675 6th Ave near NYU.
7:00PM talk & reception courtesy of the School of Visual Arts and ASIFA*East.

December 8th, Fri. Los Angeles- The Animation Guild Local 839, IATSE Holiday Party, The Pickwick Center, Burbank Ca.

December 14th Hollywood- Dec membership meeting.the preservation society Hollywood Heritage dedicates restoration of 1920s era building near Capitol Records on Yucca that was once the Screen Cartoonists Guild Local 852 offices.

According to a Canadian trade minister, Canadians consume more donuts than any other nationality on Earth.

Another reason why I enjoyed my years there. I had a Tim Hortons on my corner on King St in Toronto.

I'm getting ready to relocate back to Los Angeles from Taipei this week. Time to begin the Fall school semester and plan booksignings. Using the weekend to check out a few more Taipei Nightmarkets and Buddhist Temples. Saw a Vietnamese pocket pig on a leash. Had dinner with James Wang and toured his studio Cuckoo's Nest. He has a portrait of Bill Hanna in his lobby. For years Cuckoos Nest did a lot of Hanna & Barbera's overseas television animation work.

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Correction on the Correction! The other day I mentioned that Kenny Baker may not have been R2D2 in the original 1977 Star Wars but C3P0. Well, other Star Wars experts jumped into the fray and after a cross check with IMDB the final result is Kenny Baker was indeed R2D2, Anthony Daniels was C3P0. My apologies for any confusion.

Years ago there was a best selling book on everyones toilet called the Book of Lists. Written by David Wallechinsky, the son of Irving Wallace, it was a vast treasure house of eclectic knowledge. Reading it I spotted a few errors regarding the Byzantine Empress Theodora and the Marine attack on Tripoli. So, being a saucy young rogue I sent the author a list of corrections. Instead of being offended I got a very nice response back from Mr Wallechinsky. He said that with such a large number of topics he counted on people on the outside who would take the time to point out specific corrections.

I learned from this and I am also very happy to receive any corrections from those who think I got something incorrect.

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Birthdays: Man Ray, Martha Ray, LBJ ( Lyndon Baines Johnson), George William Hegel, C.S. Forester, Barbara Bach, Theodore Dreiser, Lady Antonia Fraser, Mother Theresa, Tommy Sands, Tuesday Weld, Paul Rubens-former Cal Arts Character Animation graduate who became Pee Wee Herman

1506- Pope Julius II attacks Perugia and Bologna for Holy Mother Church. After the conquest Julius has Michelangelo cast a nine foot statue of him to remind the Perugians who kicked their butts. Michelangelo created his largest free standing bronze caste, but we don't have it anymore. In 1512 Julius's enemies liberated Perugia and the happy people melted down the hated statue and cast it into a huge cannon they nicknamed :"La Julia" -Big Julie.

1664- NIEUW AMSTERDAM BECOMES NEW YORK. The English had disputed Holland's stake in America based on the early exploration of John Cabot. Now with the growth of the New England colonies, the English Civil War over and the Spanish Menace diminishing England sent a large battle fleet under Colonel Rollins to New Amsterdam to demand the surrender of the colony.

The Dutch governor was an old one-legged mercenary named Peter Stuyversant. He wanted to make a fight of it and had even set up a battery of cannon on -where else? the Battery. However his city council were men of commerce, not soldiers. They told him if he wanted to fight he should do it himself because they were surrendering. Even his own son was against fighting. Stuyversant in a rage shouted at the burghers:" Keep to your shovels and barrows!" The governor himself hobbled up to the cannon pointed at the British fleet and lit a match to fire the first shot. He paused and noticed the silent stares of all those around him. The chaplain of the colony, Dominie Megapolensis, silently took Stuyversant by the hand down from the fort and Stuyversant signed the surrender.

He was allowed to keep his large farm, or in Dutch, his Bouwerie -the Bowery. Five years later the English named renamed the city after King Charles II's brother the Duke of York for his birthday. The Duke of York's protection kept Long Island from being made part of Connecticut. The first English colony planted after the conquest was named for the only part of Britain to remain loyal to King Charles during the Cromwell period, the Isle of Jersey (New Jersey). Charles main supporter was James Leslie, Baron Newark. (Newark N.J.) and his son the Duke of Monmouth. Still the old Dutch roots were deep and even in George Washington's time Dutch was the predominant language on New York's streets. In 1832 Martin Van Buren became our first knickerbocker President.

1814-British invaders roamed the Maryland countryside after the Burning of Washington. An elderly Scottish immigrant doctor named Beanes was dragged out of his house by Royal Marines and packed off to the flagship off shore. He was accused of mistreating captured British soldiers. Since he was born in Scotland he could face a charge of treason. When local residents petitions to have Dr Beanes released were refused, an appeal was made to a respected Georgetown attorney named Francis Scott Key to go try and win his release. Key arrived with letters from the wounded Britishers attesting to Dr. Beanes humanity. Admiral Cockburn agreed to release Doctor Beanes, but kept Key on board until after their assault on Baltimore. This is why Francis Scott Key was on the British warship in time to watch the Rockets Red Glare, the Bombs Bursting in Air , etc.

1814- Meanwhile in England poet Percy Shelley eloped with Mary, the only daughter of John Godwin and feminist writer Mary Wollenstonecraft. Godwin had objected to Shelley’s proposal for his daughters hand because he was an opium addict, a sexual libertine, an atheist and already married with a baby daughter! Yeah, but besides all that what’s your objection? They ran off followed by Mary’s stepsister Claire who started sleeping with Lord Byron. Mary of course was the author of Frankenstein. If I knew all this before maybe I would have paid more attention in English Lit class....

1912- Edgar Rice Burroughs first published Tarzan of the Apes.

1917- Straight Shooting, the first feature length film directed by John Ford released. Before that Ford directed three shorts and did bit parts and stuntwork. He was a Klansman in Birth of a Nation. Not because he was prejudiced, but he needed money and it was work as an extra. You can tell him from the others because he was fussing with his white hood that kept slipping over his eyes while he was trying to ride his horse.

1930- Lon Chaney Sr. died of throat cancer. The theory then was during filming of the Unholy Three a wind machine blew an artificial gypsum snowflake into Chaney's mouth - it caused an irritation that became a tumor.

1950- NBC and General Foods abruptly cancelled the hit television show “the Aldrich Family” when a pamphlet called Red Channels accused one of the show’s stars Jean Muir, of being a communist.

1953- The film Roman Holiday introduced a new young actress from Holland named Audrey Hepburn.

1968- Former master animator Bill Tytla's in his old age regretted his ever leaving Walt Disney Studio in 1943. Today his final request to return to work at Disney was turned down. The artist who had animated Grumpy the Dwarf, Dumbo and the Devil on Bald Mountain even offered to do a free "trial animation test" to show he still had it. Disney H. R. exec W.H. Anderson wrote him:" We really have only enough animation for our present staff." Bill Tytla died later that year.

1990- Guitar great Stevie Ray Vaughan was killed in a helicopter crash outside Alpine Valley Wisconsin, on his way back to Chicago, after an "All Stars of the Blues" type show. Stevie Ray took the last remaining seat on the helicopter after Eric Clapton got off, claiming he'd rather take a limo back to Chicago, which was about an hour away.