Back from vacation! I picked up some good stuff that I will share in front of the class this week. But for now, I begin the countdown to the Ottawa Animation Festival. They have put together another solid program of retrospectives and special screenings which includes one of my favorite italian animators. So this is this weeks: Under the Microscope... Gianluigi Toccafondo. His films are not experimental in the sense of him creating some new technique. His films are however innovative in the use of the paint on film style that he has mastered. The stroke of Toccafondo's brush attaches itself to the flicker of film in a poetic and hypnotic way and so convincing is that warp and blur of line that I can't tell where one ends and the other begins. What are you waiting for...break out and storm the castle as the king is dead and is touring with last sideshow on earth.