Inspiration

Inspiration:

Came on two fronts- My wife and kids got me GLUE by Irvine Welsh- Whenever I get the Welsh in my veins I get to writting.
So maybe some of it will end up here. I HAVE thought about "blogging" a story- and I have one in mind but- well, you all know about me and my "irons" and all that fire. Although I have been pretty good about keeping this site going- So, lay off damnit!

The last time I read a bunch of his books I wrote "These Strange Creatures"- which no one has seen- and a little after that I started "Stems and Seeds"- you can find them on Atomfilms.com

The other inspiration was Sin City. I finally started watching it and Kudos to Robert Rodriquez for having the sack to really stick to the vision. Sin City is like jumping in to a really cool pool of water on a hot summer day: It's shocking at first- but once you get used to it you never wanna get out.

If I can make this Batman animation look THAT fuckin' smooth- then I'll be real happy.
If you haven't seen it, do so. Or better yet- read the books and then see it. Frank Miller comics are in a category all their own.

Tank Treads and the lost art of being a Man

Now,
I got the project swinging by digging into those old files and seeing just how fucked up they were and exactly where I fucked up and am now trying to rectify the situation.

In all actuality- I really like some of what I was doing but can see where I lost interest with so many things not going as imagined from the "giddyup". I would point them all out to you but that would involve pictures and quite a long essay.

In short- I am going to have to lighten up on my "tweens" but at the same time give them life. Meaning: If an appendage seems to bend a little funky- or wrong (unrealistic) it's okay as long as it's a: cartoony (exaggerated) and b: not up long.

If I focus on my close up stuff and pull a Anime/Hanna Barbara technique of animating what needs to be animated and making the still stuff look REALLY good- then I'll be alright.

Add that theory to the simple assed storyboards I cranked on the airplane and I MIGHT just get an animation done...MIGHT.

That would be one thing- I still have the Timothy Greene game/book in the works- did a really nice picture for a Timothy sprite. It's lookin' good.


In other news...

I watched like 5 episodes of "Six Feet Under" last night (god, I love HBO) thanks to on demand- I only got the last two episodes to go. If you ain't seen it- you need to. It's pretty down to earth on a lot of things even though back in the day I had a work peep tell me he didn't want to watch it because he thought it was "more of that anti-family, liberal bullshit- where everyone has a problem and everyone is gay."

Yeah, I know...Whatever!

Watching it lead me to, once again, think about what it is to be a Man and what that means.

First off, it's beginning to strike me odd how people can dictate how a person is supposed to act and feel simply from which set of genitalia they were born with- but a great deal of the generalizations are true.

For example: that wicked, crazy-ass sex drive that we carry around.
For whatever reason- it seems that it's power has been seriously underestimated by society.

I mean, I'm not trying to justify anyone's infidelity or any other kind of sick ass act done in thename of lust BUT if you lock a buncha dudes in a cell eventually, at least one of them will try to fuck the others. Think about that- disturbing, isn't it. Looking that beast in the eye- but it is there. That base demon swirling around only held in check by a man's upbringing, moral background, religion, civility- or whatever you want to call the rusty chains that hold us together in social order.

I know, I know...women get horny too- but we are not talking about getting horny. I'm talking about the male sex drive. This is totally different from getting horny- a great comedian once described it as "the difference between shooting a bullet and throwing it". If you think it's the same thing then you don't know what I'm talkin' about.

All in all though this has little to do with being a MAN. Controlling yourself- and being decent is being human. Being a MAN is a much taller order.

When I say "MAN" I mean those guys that sacraficed without fear, that protected unto death their loved ones and were completely humble while doing so BUT I also mean those dudes who worked themselves into an early grave and rarely heard a thank you on the way down.
Those, who were in totally loveless relationships for the sole fact that they were good men who could provide.
Those, who gave and gave but were never recognised for doing so until they were in the ground.

No one has it easy. No matter what genitalia you're weilding when you pop into the world- but after watching a little SFU- I was kinda thinkin'- What has happened to the art of being a MAN.

Dudes that opened doors, gave up seats, championed honor so much they would live and die for it. Why did people lose love for seeing that kind of person?

Some jack-ass *cough*BenShapiro*cough,cough* might say it's due to feminism- but that's not it. Feminism is about the liberation of women- by my definition so far- a woman could be a MAN too! But I'm just speaking about the males 'cause I can relate to what goes on in a males mind better (being one myself and all).

No- we just don't give a motherfucka credit when they come with that decent, upstanding- "I'm going to treat you as I want to be treated"- respect initiative because now, you are just "weak" thinkin' like that, son.

Also, men are taught very early on to seperate themselves from their feelings. A great example of this happened one time when I was on the beach.
There was a little boy of about 4, his older brother of about 9 and an even older sister of about 14.
The 9 yr. old was teasing the hell out of the 4 yr. old and pretty much making his existance hell. Razzing him and slapping him playfully in the head. The younger boy cried until his older sister came over and ran the 9 yr. old off.
THEN she turned to the 4 yr. old and told him to stop crying and being such a baby. AND HE DID IT.

No doubt, this kid will grow up to be able to deal with all kinds of hasslin' with no prob. Of course when he can't articulate his feelings when he's 21 everyone will just toss it up to being a man.

The role of the father in the home has been marginalized as well but on that front I think society is starting to realize how important a father figure is-

In the end- I felt for some of the shit that the guys went through in SFU- some of it brought on themselves- some of it just for being men. I felt like they touched on a lot of reality in that show-
If you haven't checked it, maybe you should.






...oh yeah, they do women pretty well too.

Working and Working...

Well, That book by Dave Sims- "Cerebus and the art of Self Publishing" is proving to be difficult to find. However, I will find it.

About a year ago my hard drive got up and said "Screw you, Dude! I QUIT!" and it stopped working. I FINALLY got to pull a bunch of stuff off of it including a mess of Batman files that I had given up on. (another bonus is I located a CD that I had backed everything up to so the files I had lost are now found).

THEN, I was...slick enough...to install a little 3D program at work so I can use my spare time to crank on that instead of bullshitting in forums.

I just gotta get focused. And when I feel the project coming together again things will snowball.

I think the problem is I've lost touch with where to go next and what to do... I gotta find my damn path again!

Europe, Porn and Cartoons

Well, I am back and ready to dig in... But first a little bit about what I did over the summer (so far).

The past 4 weeks I have been in Germany and Belgium (my regular summer jaunt with the family to see in-laws) and we even squeezed in a couple of days in Paris, which is beautiful and poignant all at once. Such a mix of beauty and history- a deep history that we, as Americans, don't get to appreciate. I mean, buildings that were built in 1113- Choppin's grave yard- and things like that. I saw Seraut's final resting place and yeah, Jim Morrison too.

I read Ben Shapiro's book, Porn Generation And How Social Liberalism is corrupting Our Future and it really started to make me think- but not in the way he would have wished.

It is hard to describe how disturbed I am that someone with any decent amount of education can use the word "tolorance" as a derragatory statement and that "live and let live" is a crime.

Don't get me wrong. The guy did make some valid points and observations but they are so couched in this extremist right wing mentality it's scary.

Both the Right and the Left are out of fucking control, to put it honestly. Someone need s to call them out for it.
America needs to call them out for it.

My trip to Paris, well Europe in general was very enlightening on this- And I need to put that into words, I know, because I keep thinking about this every waking moment.
Some idiot will read this and say- "If you love Europe so much then go live there, Frenchy!" totally missing the point and thus, bringing my observations down into the black vs. white arena where sports styled politics reigns supreme. Score one for the Conservatives!

It's like both sides are pushing and pushing and they will do anything to get their point of view across no matter how much destruction and chaos will come of it.

The world is small and getting smaller; tolerance and "live and let live" may well be our best tools for survival.

I digress...

I also saw Melinda and Melinda on the flight. It's done by Woody Allen and stars Will Ferrell. This movie sucked. I mean, it sucked in that Gilmore Girls kind of way.
You know- where everyone is witty and has a snappy comeback for everybody elses snappy comebacks. The only difference is that they all weren't speaking at a hundred miles an hour.
And the acting. UGH! Will is the best thing in the film.
I normally like Woody Allen's stuff too.

Okay. Back to the project.
I picked up on the Batman animation again. I need to get Ponomo Studios back into the swing and that would be a really good start.

On the plane I drew some story boards for a two good scenes.

I also started a more concrete mapping of a book for The Unbearable Truth. The next step there I think is to start building the characters and buying Dave Sims book on self publishing.

I continue to work people...