Und zee vinners arrrrgh....

Well, I am sick sick sick so this is a quick post to direct you to the winners list of this year's Ottawa International Animation Festival!! Phil Mulloy took the Feature film category while Joanna Quinn took the grand prize for best independent short. Go to the OIAF website for the full list and stay tuned for my mucus filled thoughts on them. But, for now I have taken way to many cold pills and I am delusional with thougths of Hitler starring as the Designer Guys and what kind of film footage my mom would take on my wedding day...scary!

Robert Seidel

Achtung! Almost one year ago to the day I wrote about Robert Seidel's _grau. His film went on to win the best experimental animation at last years Ottawa Animation festival. So, I am pleased to inform you of his latest music video he did for the U.K. band Zero 7 feat. Jose Gonzalez called 'Futures'. So, even though the entries for the experimental category of this year's OIAF doesn't grab my attention...although I could be proven wrong again...you can watch this organic morphing kaleidoscope of 'the Fall' of Eden and the decay of the Garden as it time-lapses in front of you. I am looking forward to seeing Robert's next project and it is good to see a band take on a more non-commercial project even though it is for a DVD extra. But, ya gotta start somewhere. (thanx, Motionographer)

Manu Larcenet

Let's see what's on the nightstand table this week: Ordinary Victories by Manu Larcenet! I don't know what it is...too much cheese and wine but the comic and animation scene in France is turning my lemons into lemonade. Hi Kev. Anyway, Manu rubs noses with the hip bande dessinee crowd and is part of the epic of Donjon with Lewis Trondheim and Joann Sfar. This book hooked me in with the humour by the second page and kept me enthralled with the character til the end. I love his cartoony style set against the slice of life storyline of secret pasts, self-doubt, creative freedom and the capturing of everyday life under the light of art and progress. It is something that I find myself gripped with right now...except the secret past thing but anything could happen. Well, I am going to go off and play some video games and ...well you have to read the book for the next part:) Also, visit his blog!! Cool doodles and notes about the seedy underbelly of the french comic world. Filled with snails but in france that is considered yummy!

Chris Shepherd and David Shrigley

Well, here we are and it isn't a Sunday! The bunnyhole is back and open for business with lots of pleasure as the genetically modified golden carrot of factory life is quickly coming to end. Now, the scary ride of real life is clammering up that fateful hill as I look down on Who I am and What I Want! Which segway's nicely into the countdown to the OIAF 06...if you are not going then the hand of Chris Robinson will pluck yer head right off (see above). Well actually no...but his scientists are working on it. Be warned!! Not only am I just a wannabe pimp but Chris beats me to the proverbial punch of showing off the best shiners of independent animation...which leads us to Chris Shepherd and David Shrigley. Here is his left hook review here. The wonder twin power of this dynamic duo is activated by muttering slurs in a dark alley. My first exposure to Chris Shepherd's work was with his film, Dad's Dead. This live-action augmented world where animation heightens the emotional tension of angst and misguided youth was like that first drag of a cigarette in the back of the portables. Pass the dark meat, please. Mix this with the raw art of David Shrigley and you get a new orifice openning up and decapitated heads (no really, see above). You may know David's work from the video he did for Blur which was animated by Shynola. Even though some may NOT like his art because of its crudeness and 'my kid could do that' mentality it nevertheless touches on some raw nerve. In comics, it would be akin to Jeffrey Brown's work. Art isn't pur-dee all the time. It is ugly and crude and sometimes not even about the picture. I talked about it here. Anyway, Who I am and What I Want is a must see for me at the festival. So, put mortar and pestle together for this crudite of animation delights. Why does it always come back to sex and food? C'est la Vie!

Sonic Sunday: Bell X1

I know it seems that this has become a sonic sunday kinda habit but my computer is down yet again and I only get a chance to access this digital soapbox every week. I promise the animation will go off like a furball violently dislodging from yer throat as soon as I get my computer up and running again. But for now, I offer up a cool graphics company called SSSR who has done a bang up job on a band I have been following ever since I saw them perform at Eamonn Doran's in Temple Bar way back in the day. The band then was Juniper but now with some shedding they are Bell X1 and I am happy to say that they sound cooler than ever! Damien who? It is great to see they are getting a hip animation house to create the visuals to their sound. SSSR nicely combines different visual styles and 'Rocky took a Lover' is a good example of this. It is a great look to a song that has been stuck in me head for the last couple of weeks now. I have had the pleasure of hanging out with David Geraghty from the band and it is good to see that he is still going at it.