|
|
 |
| Thursday, January 3, 2008 |
|
HE'S A VAMPIRE!
Dick Clark is immortal. He has had an amazing career, and he is beloved by the American public. At 79 years of age, not even a stroke could stop this man. Why? Because he is a vampire!
I would not make fun of a person who's had a stroke. My own grandfather suffered a massive stroke and died shortly after. But anyone who saw him on New Year's Eve could tell there was something supernatural about his grin, his voice, and his message.
I've spoken before about my belief that Dick Clark is a vampire. He only made appearances indoors or after sundown, and before his stroke, he hadn't aged a day in about the last 40 years. All that clearly said vampire to me, but still, I didn't have hard proof... until now.
Here you can see him clutching who I assume is his wife. She probably expected a kiss on the cheek, but clearly his mouth is open, and he's focusing on her neck. I believe her turtleneck sweater is the only thing that saved her.
His blood lust didn't stop there. It wasn't long before Ryan Seacrest got a little too close and once again, Mr. Clark went for the neck. What's worse is that just before the bite, Mr. Clark turned to Seacrest and said "I want to make you suffer."
I am not making this up. That is an exact quote. And while I'm sure most of us would also like to see him suffer, especially for wearing that terrible metallic tie, nobody want's him to be the victim of a vampire bite, at least not while the cameras are rolling.
The most frightening piece of evidence that I present is in this screen capture where you can clearly see his fangs. This is a completely unaltered image. I've been using Photoshop for 15 years, and believe me, I could have easily made those fangs look very pronounced, but I didn't touch them. This, my friends is proof. I rest my case. Dick Clark is indeed a vampire. Hide your children and stock up on garlic. We are not safe!
Comments?
|
| Sunday, December 30, 2007 |
|
PHILLY
I spent a few hours visiting an old friend in Philadelphia over the weekend. I didn't have much time to spend, but it was fun checking out some of the sites. I was also trying out a new camera. I love my big SLR, and I won't be giving that up, but it's nice to finally have a small point-and-shoot.
It's almost 2008. Have a wonderful New Year, everyone!
Comments?
|
| Friday, December 28, 2007 |
|
UNDER THE BOARDWALK
We've all heard the song, and if you've ever wondered what it looks like "under the boardwalk", well here you go. I was kind of surprised just how clean it was under there.
Christmas in NJ was nice. My family all made the trip here, which was a lot of fun. Instead of trudging through snow, we got to walk on the sand on Christmas day. We didn't have a lot of time together, but we made the most of what we had. Here my dad found a dinosaur sized crab. This thing would make a pretty good helmet.
I'm nearing the home stretch with my marathon viewing of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." It's hard to believe that this started way back in April when I was still in Minnesota. I never expected this marathon to go on this long. There are 144 episodes, and many of these have audio commentaries. I'm a sucker for audio commentaries, and so I have to watch those too. I also hadn't planned on adding the spin-off series, "Angel" to the marathon, but after the third season of Buffy, I realize that the two shows really do go together, and with so many cross-over episodes, I'd be missing a big chunk of the story. So I bought the five seasons of Angel, and I'm watching both series together (including commentaries) which makes for quite a long marathon. To be fair, I don't watch every day, and at the rate I'm going, (currently season 6 of Buffy, and season 3 of Angel, It's entirely possible that I could finish in April, and this marathon will have taken an entire year. I guess that shows how much I watch TV (not much at all).
Comments?
|
| Friday, November 23, 2007 |
|
GARDEN STATE
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. Where the last five months have gone is beyond me. Much has changed since my last post. For starters, I'm no longer in Minnesota. Sadly, the animated TV show I was working on did not get picked up and so wave by wave, all of the animators were let go. Nobody wanted this to happen, but it's just the nature of the game. Fortunately for me, I was not out of work for long. I accepted an animation position in (are you ready for this...) New Jersey. Pause for a moment to let that sink in.
New Jersey is certainly not the animation capital of the country, but neither was Minneapolis. I had expected Los Angeles to be my next destination, but the vast majority of work in my field is short term contract work, which comes with no stability and no benefits. I have been without health insurance for several years now, and that's just not a good situation to be in. So when an opportunity came up for a permanent animation position with good benefits (in New Jersey) I just couldn't pass it up. Sure, I'd still rather be in LA or back in Orlando, but I'm now within driving distance of my family, and I'm very close to the beach. That'll do.
As for the job, well, it's pretty cool. I'm doing animation (mostly character animation) for the casino gaming industry. I'm not a gambler and I don't really like casinos, but I'm really enjoying the work I'm doing. Everything is very cartoony and whimsical and fun. Best of all, I have a whole lot more creative control than I did when I was working on the shows in Minnesota. Our company is big, but our animation staff is small. I'm working with three other guys who all attended the DAVE School. One of them was even a classmate of mine and worked with me on Creepers. He was the one who let me know there was a job opening here. It just goes to show that it helps to have friends everywhere, and never, ever burn bridges.
Unfortunately, I probably won't be able to post any of the work I'm doing here for some time. The work I'm doing falls under the R&D department, and so most of what I'm doing I can't yet show. But, I'll show what I can when I'm able to.
There's more to tell, but I've got a date with the tread mill. Next time we'll talk about my Buffy marathon... which is still going on.
Comments?
|
| Wednesday, June 6, 2007 |
|
REVEALED
Today I posted a new demo reel. I'm finally able to show some of the work I've been doing since finishing school. The first was a Star Wars side project that I helped out with. This was a "What if" teaser trailer for an animated series. A group of dedicated people worked really hard for about three months on this project. My involvement was minimal. I came in and helped out for a couple of days near the end. My shot was of Han Solo dressed as a Stormtrooper, taking off his helmet. Check out the trailer here.
If you watch my demo reel, you'll be able to see some shots from "The Moodsters." This is the animated series I've been doing at work. I still don't think I'm allowed to say much about the series, but I do have permission to use these shots on my reel. Check out the website for a description of the show. I also did a few shots for the Auto-B-Good series. I put three clips from that on my new reel. Check it out here.
My Buffy the Vampire Slayer marathon continues, but I've been busy, and I don't always get to watch an episode each day. Right now I'm almost mid-way through the third season and enjoying every minute of it.
Comments?
|
| Wednesday, May 9, 2007 |
|
144 DAYS OF BUFFY
About a year and a half ago, I reached a milestone in my life. I reached the point where I had no debt of any kind. School was paid off. My car was paid off. My credit card was paid off. It was a really nice feeling. Then two months later I borrowed a pile of money to go to animation school.
I haven't spent any money on myself since then. Since I wasn't working full time, I really had to watch my finances closely last year while I was in school. Things have certainly gotten easier now that I'm working full-time doing animation. But this move to Minnesota was expensive and I'm still playing catch up.
Then last month, just a few days after I had written a big check to the IRS, I got a message from my old pal Joe who wanted to let me know that Amazon was running a big one-day half-price sale on the boxed set of the entire "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" series.
Call it a guilty little pleasure but I'm a big fan of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." The show is ridiculous and doesn't take itself seriously, and that's what I love about it. It's a hell of a lot of fun (and certainly better than Spiderman 3). Life on the Hellmouth is never dull. Where else do you get to see a girl save her mom from the evil robot she's dating one day, battle a gang of kids who are possessed by demon hyenas the next day, and then drive a stake through a few pesky vampires that night. That, my friends, is entertainment.
So I hesitated at first after seeing the boxed set on amazon. I hated to spend the money, but after a short while, I gave in and whipped out my credit card. A week later the set arrived with 40 DVDs covering all seven seasons of the show (144 episodes). And thus began what I call "144 Days of Buffy."
Comments?
|
|
