Sonic Sunday: Teach Yourself Piano

Well, last night we were treated to the all-you-can-eat music buffet of Teach Yourself Piano. Not only can you siddle on up to the heaping portions of sweet and sour songs on there freshly minted CD Sweet Waltz, Bitter Waltz but you can listen to bite sized samples on their tasty new website. The house was full but appetites were growling for the main event that was their CD release party. They did not fail to deliver. Sarah's vocals sound better and better every time I hear her and the kick off was spiced up so hot with musical guests that it added that extra tear to that slow pot now set on boil. And even though I have been on a steady diet of T.Y.P. they served up each song with newness and mixed in some surprises. Kevin's instrumental compositions showed off his seasoned musical chops and were one of the highlights of the night for me. But the best was when everyone got on stage and played 'Fabulous' and the hall shrank down to the Atkinson's living room for one of their infamous parties. There would be so much good food and people would just jam away as everyone added in their sound. I guess that is why I associated food with their music. Boil everything down and their music is my comfort food that are good friends and good times. I know I weigh in heavy on the bias scale but it works for Cheney and Haliburton. So sit back in that big Armchair and let that pant botton out as we sing karaoke after filling our faces at the International House of Atkinson.

David B.

Just a quick post today as the nervous tick of "getthehelloutsidecuzitssonice" is biting me hairy arse. I thought I would start sharing some of the good books I am reading whilst hanging out on the patio and sipping my Mojito. David B. has been the recent cat in my head chasing that gerbil on the wheel. Babel is the spin-off series from his award winning book Epileptic (buy it now if ya don't have it). The story still revolves around his relationship with his brother and his ailment but now the story wheel squeaks to the rhythm of myth, history and dreams. The larger 'Ignatz' format combined with the dual black and red tone printing fits perfectly now into the series fold. David's storytelling along with his bold graphic style against the red backgrounds show his command of the sequential language as he stands atop this tower of Babel. Here is an excerpt interview with him from the recent Comics Journal and an article from the one and only Bart Beaty from the Comics Reporter. Also, don't forget to check out David's stuff in the MOME anthology!! Great stoof or I should say C'est Bon huh huh huh!!

Sonic Sunday on a Tuesday: Tom Waits

Let it be known that this Mule variation is just me as an ignorant ass getting kicked in the throat by the one and only Tom Waits. I know, I know that everyone in the world is a fan of his and that my slow uptake is met with the same old whiskey drenched adjectives and gravel laden lyrics that meander deep into the backwoods. But, I just saw him in concert and I thought it would be interesting to see if there was any animation that captured his scarecrow-like gestures and that distinctive sabulous voice that rumbles and rasps through the cracks of that (wind)pipe. Unfortunately, there is hardly any. The only one that does the trick is this animation by John Lamb and Bruce Lyon in the late 1970's (shown above). "Tom Waits for No One" (via YouTube or download here) is a rotoscoped video that won an Academy award for scientific and technical achievement for Lamb and Lyon. HERE is an excellent write-up and interview with John Lamb about the video and the process. Other than that there is nothing that comes close to harnessing the dark energy of that vocal creation.
However, Tom has composed music for some animated feature films (which will remain ogreless) and a short film by Chris Wedge, Bunny. You can watch it here in it's entirety!! Also, he composed music for that disturbing film about everyone's favorite outside artist, Henry Darger: In the Realms of the Unreal.

Distinctive and untamed is the voice that remains to be Tom Waits but his lyrics and his music will inpire and drown the dreams many. Enjoy.

The Global Student Awards

Here I am peeking from behind the operating room curtain watching all the people in the viewing gallery leave from this botched experiment. But, don't fret as I am still picking at the scab of art and animation and I am working on a new format for this soapbox of mine.
So, here is a few trix to keep you bunnies occupied until the smoke clears. Stash magazine sponsors the annual Global Student Animation awards (last years post). I am not sure if the voting is still on but go and watch the finalists work in the categories of animation, motion design and vfx. Lots of nice student work here to while away these hot summer days.

Pick up those scissors and run don't walk along this biased line of independent animation.

Ottawa International Animation Festival '06

Well, all the souls have been weighed in and sorted! So, without much further ado, HERE are the sacrificial films showing at this years Ottawa International Animation Festival to help celebrate their infernal 30 years of sinful pleasures. Fire up the projector and get ready for the visual gluttony that has all the major players cooking. From the likes of George Griffin, Mati Kutt, Theodore Ushev, Priit Tender, Joanna Quinn, Andreas Hykade, Jonas Odell and Ulo Pikkov (and many more) will serve it up cold and raw. I can't wait to slide down in the hot seat of the blackened theater to be force fed these delectable morsels while demons play Oscar Peterson music tattooed on my arse. Fun for the entire family indeed!! Don't forget to download the podcasts now available.

Sonic Sunday: Brave New Waves and Mutek

Let's drop the needle and give that brain a poke to feel the stimulating noise of some Brave New Waves. My summer vacation might have come to a dietary end but I have managed to stay up late and gorge on the aural treats from the fridge of CBC Radio 2. Patti Schmidt straps on the headnoise and takes us deep underground every week night to stress and gauge the level of our musical boundaries. Avant-garde to noise to electronica, BNW is the self proclaimed disclaimer of the disclaimed. So push that finger into the left frontal lobe (right above your eye) and get happy to some Brave New gammaWaves. Mix and stir that with some live shake and bake yer gelatinous North American ass in the sonic oven known as MUTEK. This international festival of music, sound and new technologies falls in Montreal every spring to rain on your mainstream parade. Even though it is over for this year, let the electrodes twitch that nerve of curiosity to prod at the artists that made up this years experimental audiovisual overload. You can listen to a podcast of it here from Radio 3 and read and watch about it on Vu d'ici. There you can see via YouTube a performance by a favorite of mine 1-speed bike. And since I am in Montreal, I couldn't go without mentioning La Société des arts technologiques [SAT]. They just had their FantASIA film festival and you can read a good review of it from those great purveyors of everything cool, FPSmagazine. Also, check on the SAT site for upcoming events that will make you salivate for no good reason. Note to self: move to Montreal!!

Neural

This is a deviation from the norm here on this freakshow train but this is for my friend Kevin Atkinson who is getting married today. If ya didn't know, I have a secret fascination with New Media art and here is a great site to fire the electrodes to 010 with all things nanotechcool. Neural should be a site you visit on a regular basis to fill that empty cyborg gap. Weta you know it or not we will still think you are the shizzle of geekdom. cheers.

N.F.B. free for all

Take off to the Great White North, ya hosers! The gloves are off in this N.F.B. viewing bench brawl of the most popular all-star players to help celebrate their 65th anniversary. So, put that red or blue Sweater on and break out the NFB animator trading cards to watch your favorite animation back in action. From the likes of Richard Condie to Cordell Barker and Christopher Hinton's Flux (shown above) to Caroline Leaf's The Street, they are all there for your viewing pleasure. And it's free!! Pick two and put them in a head to head shoot-out or hook up it up to that projector t.v. and have an animation party. Whatever you do, whether it is viewing these for the hundreth time or the first, remember that it is these animated shorts that have made the N.F.B. the Hanson brothers of the film production league. Although, you could argue that they have lost their powerhouse status as only a hand full of these films are from the last 16 years but this is a celebration of their history. Gone are the glory days of carte blanche creator driven films but instead the era of co-productions are the norm as the game is watered down. But hopefully, the N.F.B. will strive to be at the forefront of independent animation as it's history so poignantly points out. Animator trading cards what a good idea!!
(via CartoonBrew and Warren Leonhardt)

Joanna Quinn

Everyone knows the work of Joanna Quinn. Whether it is a 'frisky' cat or the dancing Charmin Bears, everyone knows the commercial work of Joanna Quinn. But, like all good animators she quietly sits away in the corner drawing to her hearts content. I don't know if it because she doesn't have a strong internet presence or that everyone is still getting down with the shiny bling bling of 3D animation, but, Joanna's independent films are something to press your face against while taking in her body (of work) beautiful. Rowr. Her latest film, 'Dreams and Desires', won the Special Jury prize and Audience award at Annecy this year. Which is fitting as it is almost 20 years ago that her first film, Girls Night Out (1986), won at Annecy. In fact, Joanna has won almost every major animation award or has been nominated for it. Come in a little closer. At first glance Joanna's animation is beautiful. Caricatures befitting Daumier at times and the movement of form in a loose, free style. It is raw 2D animation...pencil on paper! As a complete package though her work packs the full wallop like the robust women that frequent her films. Laugh out loud, knee slapping hilarity ensues as the slice of life piece is passed around for all to enjoy. Joanna explores issues of womanhood and ideas of beauty personified in the character of Beryl. It is a nice touch to see Beryl has aged in this latest film. So, whether it is a Girls Night Out or the Wife of Bath to Dreams and Desires, Joanna and her work are not only positive role models but just plain brilliant animation. Pull the covers back and snuggle up beside the fleshy world of Beryl and don't be afraid to blush because now everyone will know about the private work of Joanna Quinn. Wouldn't it be nice to see a dvd with a collection of her work on it? Well Knight me as I wear my big cod piece and call me Sir Wishalot! Rowr!

Anders Nilsen

It was in 2003 that Leesa and I met Anders Nilsen and his partner Cheryl Weaver at the inaugeral T.C.A.F.! So it came as a shock to both of us when we saw the forthcoming 'comic' from Anders as a comemoration of Cheryl's fight against hodgkins lymphoma. Don't Go Where I Can't Follow is a journal of notes, sketches and photos of her fight and untimely passing. Art is what we talked about three years ago and the struggle of being an artist today. Since that time, Anders has become a force to note about in the world of comix and graphic novels, from the pages of Mome to Dogs and Water and my favorite big question of Big Questions. His work, even in it's minimalist of forms, touches upon the aimless journey of life and all the frail steps that question or punctuate our emotional process(es). Meaningful? Only in absurdity and in the human condition does the rounded questions get more blurred and wander off into the distance. Maybe, I make his work sound too philosophical but in the end it is about man vs. man, man vs. nature and in this latest offering man vs. self and the healing of the creative process. Seek out Anders work and look out for his Monologue for the Coming Plague from Fantagraphics and The End (tentatively scheduled for next year). Required reading for the Bigheaded.

Jan Svankmajer

There is only one animator that comes to mind when I here the descriptive words 'animated meat'...and that is Jan Svankmajer!! Lunacy (Selini) is the latest tongue-out-of-mouth offering from the abattoire filmhouse of Svankmajer. Click here for the trailor. Obviously, I wallow in the formaldahyde pool as a devote specimen with fake painted eyes at the surreal visions of Jan Svankmajer but then again, who isn't!!! Get on board the mystic train and befriend the rotting piece of flesh beside you as we journey into what has become the distinctive cut of human psyche this side of the Vltava River. Again, it is the familiar territory of live-action and animation that Jan takes us into. Lunacy is loosely based on two short stories from Edgar Allen Poe with the Marquis de Sade being a main character and inspiration. Cross pollinate that with Svankmajer's unique insight into the human mind and current political climate and you get this allegory of 'philosophical horror'. If you want to taste more of his work, you can go and watch some down through YouTube. But, don't just dig in...savour the imaginative process of this Master of Animation and buy his stuff for your 'Stuck on a Island' essential dvd collection. See I wrote this whole damn thing without saying Alchemy. Shazam!!

Sonic Sunday: Thinkbox

Over the past couple of months I have been travelling around and neglecting the carnivorous plants growing in my blogosphere. Recently, in my Little Shop of Horrors I am playing the experimental ambient sounds of Thinkbox to quell the hunger of my Audrey II. Congrats to my hometown dial turners and beat manipulators for an overdue retrospective of their sonic experimentations in our local hotbed that is also the home of Richie Hawtin. They had their closing performance at the end of last month at the Art Gallery of Windsor. So let the sound wrap around as the heady rhythms of Chris McNamara, Rob Theakson, Mark Laliberte, Bill Van Loo, Chris Bissonnette and Steve Roy engulf you down to your shoegazing self. And while you are travelling down the tube take in the visual fever that accompanies the music. The strong visual presence of this collective is part and parcel of the whole organic feel of what makes them each a unique automaton being counted in the flow meter of photosynthesis. Stay tuned as I have brought back plenty of sacrificial victims to feed into this Venus fly trap blogosphere to get this head turning like the poltergeist horror that it has become. Projectile peas optional.

Hail the Brothers Quay

Funny how life sometimes feels like it is stuck in some stop motion world filled with hollow-eyed dolls, creatures assembled from your bones and that annoying hair that vibrates incessantly at the crown of your forehead. No. Well, stop taking those pills and let the Brothers Quay treat you in absentia. With porcupine needle in hand head on over to the AWN and stick it into Taylor Jessen's interview with the expatriot twins who were in L.A. for a lecture and retrospective of their work. If you do not know who Stephen and Timothy Quay are then get yourself to the sanitorium and frantically scribble 'I am a loser' until your fingers bleed and the dead opera lady sings. Here are some St. Quay relics that we put the token in to illuminate the leathery skin--IFFR wish I could see this!! Also, Jack and Diane and no do not think John Meloncamp but a movie they are doing some animation for starting this summer. All hail the Brothers Quay.

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Hyacinthe

Here is just a quick slice and splice of the winner of the best video award @ Annecy. Sébastien Cossett and Joann Sfar's underground eye popping strangle(r) hold of Thomas Fersen's "Hyacinthe". This is a nice cross breeding of Joann's graphical stylings set into motion to this slice of life story of Hyacinthe (lady of the house speaking!) and the Monsanto-like results that occur. So swap them factory farmed cows in for the genetically modified seeds of Joann Sfar and gang to take the vine downward into the disturbed ground. See what creature is spliced into the genetic strain to make up this modern day Frankenstein.

Annecy winners

I have rigged up a self-torture device that looks like some medieval Rube Goldberg contraption that would make Flaggellants bleed with envy as I bemoan the fact of missing out on going to Annecy this year. So, it is with tar and feathers that I parade out like the village idiot to happily announce this years winners:
The grand prize goes to a specimen that hasn't strayed too far from this curiosity cabinet--
Regina Pessoa and her short film A Tragic Story with a Happy Ending. Also, Run Wrake's Rabbit, which you can now view on the BBC film network, took a special destinction award!! There are many winners so go and check out the full list here. I will open up the door of the Iron Maiden to pierce your heretical soul and enlighten you to some of the saints and sinners of the biggest animation inquisition in the world. So put on that 'Mask of Infamy' and bring your tortured self back for a pagan dance on this cranial altar of sacrificial offerings.

Rob Sato

I have been toiling in the bunny patch so that I can grow my genetically modified army of cabbage patch drones. But then, I realized in so doing that I have neglected the propaganda crusade of unearthing delectable morsels to share with yous'all. Well pack your lunch and march in single file to bury those cut off crusty edges in the back garden with Rob Sato. I took shovel in hand to start the uprooting of what I consider one of the most overlooked comics of last year, Burying Sandwiches. Fortunately now Rob has his own greenhouse to showcase the fruits of his blackened thumb. With that check out his freakish flora form art that grows wild with seeded imagination. Also, the sample pages of his comic are ripe and ready to sink your canine teeth into. See why this beautiful yet simple story of anorexia is more subtle in tone than the black and white marks on the page.

Sunday Inspiration: Kara Walker

Yesterday, under the blistering gaze of the afternoon sun my shadow became long and agitated. It soon left as I sat and lazed unable to lift myself from beneath the burden of the struggle of labour. The shadow(s) play but underneath the silhouette it can convey a story of complex starkness. Unlike Peter, we get a chance to enter into the history of the South through magnifying lens of Kara Walker. Paper beats rocks but she doesn't cover the hardships of the past up with a white sheet but perforates it to reveal the negative spaces around it. Life-sized images of escaped silhouettes confront us with violence, brutality and murder in a playful punctuated tableaux. Just like in first year animation class where you have to convey action in an 'easy to read' silhouette, Kara captures the caricatured forms and unbridled actions of the cracked 'Song of the South'. We have already backlit the art and craft of Lotte Reininger and Michel Ocelot's shadow puppet animation. But unlike the elegant cameo vision of these two artists Kara uses the cut-out technique to free the idealizations and stereotypes and rewrite the visual language of this black and white imagery.
Kara has exhibited extensively and is included in the Art Now 2 book and the pbs Art:21. So play in the shadows and run the Races of the past as this bunny has already pulled the trigger.

A is for...

ANIMATION BLAST 9! This is for anyone out there that doesn't know about or just woke up from some deep hibernation or the icecaps melted to expose a new intelligable life form to the Darwinian proof of highly evolved animation magazine. Amid Amidi has been dragging his knuckles on this one for awhile now but it will finally stand tall this month to the chagrin of the Neanderthalic stone and chisel reporting news of some myopic organizations. So preview and then throw away that so called magazine of intelligent design and see who the Creator(s) really are!!! A stands for Annecy too. And Amid Amidi will also be the abomidable reporter from zee Amazing festival via the Cartoon Brew. Ack too many A's, eh! So while this bunny is getting over the passing of his kitty put on that beret and drink some whine cuz I wanna be in France. Bring back a t-shirt for me Amid:)

Sonic Sunday: Tanya Tagaq

Since the cobwebs have overtaken the light coming in from the Rose window of Sunday Inspiration, I have decided to stick the electrodes back into the specimen to hear the spasms that lie within. A couple of months ago I was driving home when I was overtaken by the sounds of Tanya Tagaq performing with Kronos Quartet. Night had taken over but the colours of the percussive voice of Tanya mixed with the Titan power of Kronos (quartet) illuminated the slow descent down the throat as I was consumed by the sound. The playful interaction of the throat singing and the instrumentation was almost primal in nature and drove me closer to the center of something inately familiar. It was of course something that I had heard before and later realized that Tanya has collaberated with that otherwordly nymph, Bjork. I had picked up the soundtrack to Drawing Restraint 9 and Tanya performs on one of the tracks on it. (Aside) ironically, Matthew Barney is someone I have been meaning to feature on Sunday Inspirtation...go here to see the trailer. The mesmerizing voice of Tanya certainly matches with the texturally rich imagery of Matthew Barney. Expand the mind and unnaturally splay open the throat to the earthy sounds of Tanya Tagaq!! Now if only they would release the performance with Kronos Quartet. Check out her MySpace audio stuff. Sonic headtuning!

Joseph Feltus

Today we fire up the giant hot air bunny balloon head and take it high up where the lack of oxygen makes us giddy! Joseph Feltus along with brother Tobias hover in the stratosphere of emptiness and regret with their latest offering Solo Duets! Beautiful puppet animation that delves into memory, reflection and longing. I would love to see this in it's entirety but we are just given a teaser and plentiful pre/production photos to give us enough air to want more. Definately, these two float between the realm of art and animation and their creative voice shines through on this graduate film from the Edinburgh College of Art. Also, check out Joseph's other films on his site and the italian duos siamese hybrid connection of FeltusFeltus.
So take another gasp and fly high on this flashback of broken dreams. Munchies optional.
(Aside) sort of looks like the Brothers Quay when they are old and retired.