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Showing posts from February, 2012

Kahl's Version of Captain Hook

This photo taken during production of "Peter Pan" is interesting to me. You see Frank Thomas working on the scene with Captain Hook, when he is anxiously waiting for Tinker Bell to reveal the hiding place of Peter Pan.  I don't know who the visitor is, but she seems to be admiring the Hook model sheet. The drawings on that sheet are by fellow animator Milt Kahl, who had lobbied hard for the assignment to animate Hook. But Walt Disney wanted Milt to supervise the title character as well as Wendy, and it was Frank who ended up with the villain. He remembered screening his first test scene for Walt and the crew. Milt was very displeased with the result, "That's a nothing scene" he touted.  Frank was relieved when he heard Walt's comment, "No, there's something there, I want Frank to play with the character a bit more, he'll get it." When you look at Milt's drawings below, you can detect his typical graphic abstractions.  The jaw line i...

Insights for Life from The Nutty Professor (1963)

I remember once speaking with an elderly woman on the way out of church.  The congregation had just finished singing Amazing Grace , and she commented to me that this hymn seemed to her as something of inestimable depth.  She made this comment: "Every time we sing Amazing Grace , I notice something new in it that I had not seen before!" While I was unable to concur with her regarding this hymn (everything I ever got out of it seemed evident to me on first hearing), I do feel that way about the Jerry Lewis film, The Nutty Professor (1963).  I watched it again last night, after an interval of perhaps eight years. One thing that had not impacted me as much on earlier viewings was the way in which bodybuilding, as it later developed, eventually answered all the yearnings of the weakling Professor Julius Kelp.  In the movie, before he invents his magical androgenic formula, he tries bodybuilding for six months.  He joins Vic Tanny's gym and begins to lift weights. B...

Oracle Cards

It is an intercalary day today, Feb. 29th. It was the first day when my area was covered with lots of snow. It is a snowman somehow. I canceled today's plan and stayed home peacefully. One of my hobbies is cards-reading. I actually attended some courses how to read cards a few years ago. I often use card decks designed by Dorren Virtue . I already had 9 decks of hers and another persons. And I ordered more recently. I opend the Romance Angels card deck today. The cards inside are like these. Very beautiful and romantic!! I'm going to have the first pastel-therapy workshop next month this year. I'll use this deck for the attendance. In my Japanese-language blog, I gave readers a message by usuing this card. The card was this below. Love Yourself First In the same way you love yourself, you love your partner. If you can't love yourself truly, you don't understand what the true love means and how much your partner loves you. You are loved by your partner as much ...

Denim Uniform

Wearing: Topshop jeans and Cardiagan, Zara tee (old) Levi Jacket, Thrifted bag and Ash trainers Wow it's wednesday already! Where is time going to? I am so busy at the moment with Uni work as I am in my final year as well as getting the shop ready!! So excited as I just got new stock in which I absolutely love!  This was a very casual outfit for me as I had a fun (yet terrifying) day out at London Bridge experience and London tombs, if anyone has gone you know what I am talking about! Hope I am not the only scardy cat! The main thing about this outfit is my new Ash shoes! They are perfect for me as I never ever wear flats, I don't even think I own any so they are a perfect compromise because they have a hidden wedge heel they really comfortable too! After all the LFW madness I wanted to wear something really casual yet kind of stylish too. Keeping my leopard print going, you must be getting sick of it now! Oh and the cheeky bum shot is from the boy, ask for outfit shots and tha...

A Wild Dream

Last night, I had a wild dream.  But unlike most of my dreams, I expect this one to have some sort of lasting effect on me, because of the power with which it was infused. In the dream, I was sitting in what seemed to be an Episcopal Church.  It was packed.  The congregation was racially diverse.  There seemed to be a 50/50 split between men and women.  And there were some children in the congregation also.  What I didn't really notice until later is that everyone seemed to be dressed up in suits and dresses from perhaps the late 1940s. There seemed to be no preacher, but parishioners were taking turns ascending to the top of the chancel steps and addressing the church.  They were "testifying" ... telling what the Lord had done for them.  I heard one or two brief testimonies of the usual variety (e.g., God gave me a job this week, God healed my sister).  Then a shabbily dressed man climbed the stairs and began to speak in an emotional voice....

Disney is looking.....

Eric Larson sent me this terrific brochure in the late seventies, while I was still studying Graphic Design in Germany. My jaw dropped, and my eyes popped out of my head when I browsed through the pages. This was Disney NOW, people working on a variety of projects and looking toward the future of Disney animation. There was no way I was not going to try to be part of this…whatever it would take. I was dead serious about this. I remember being a little intimidated by the sample sketchbook pages toward the end. They looked pretty awesome to me. I don't think I draw THAT well, was my thinking. Mel Shaw's artwork for "The Hero from Otherwhere" and "The Black Cauldron" blew me away. I had always been excited about Disney, but this brochure set me on fire. I won't write captions for every photo, but you find talented folks like effects animator Ted Kierscey, story man Pete Young, animator Gary Goldman, Glen Keane, writer Steve Hulett, Disney CEO Ron Miller, Ta...

Auricular Confession and Bodybuilding Coaching

In my early days of competitive bodybuilding, I saw many competitors who trained other, lesser-experienced competitors for contests.  I myself hired trainers to guide me in preparing for my contests.  I got to know the names of quite a few local trainers. But after a while, I noticed something odd:  these same trainers, when it came time for them to compete, hired trainers for themselves.  I thought it odd because I reasoned that if these individuals were strong, wise, experienced, smart, and good enough to guide others, could they not guide themselves?  Sort of a twist on the Biblical injunction:  "Physician, heal thyself!" But as I thought about it more, it made sense.  Bodybuilding contest prep is not an easy thing.  The severe diet and exercise regimens mess with your mind.  Substantially.  Even if you are experienced, you may not be the most objective decision-maker regarding your own conditioning and regarding the necessary ac...

LFW Street Style

The Anti-Trailer Queen!

In the car hobby, "Trailer Queen" is the phrase chosen to describe a car so perfectly finished and so clean (at least in the eyes of its owner) that it is never driven on the street.  It rides to shows on a trailer, preferably of the enclosed variety. But for the past 10 to 15 years, a backlash against Trailer Queens has sprung up.  It is a back-to-roots kind of thing, fueled by the popularity of traditionally constructed rods and customs, as well as the so-called "rat rods", which are vehicles which are left without finished paint. At the 2012 Detroit Autorama, we saw a beautiful bug-green custom that looked clean enough to be a trailer queen.  But, it was in the basement of Autorama, with the "rat rod" crowd.  Only later did my son find this photo of the same car, towing a beautiful gold hot rod. So, not only is this beautiful lead sled not transported on a trailer, but itself is used as a tow vehicle.  Bitchin'!!  I wish I knew who owned these cars,...

Bernard Garbutt

Bernard Garbutt  was an animator during the Golden Age at Disney, where he also taught animal drawing. I found this info about him online: Bernard Garbutt (1900-1975) Born: Ontario, CA; Bernard Garbutt was born in Southern California and grew up in the Los Angeles area. After finishing high school he was hired as a staff artist for the Los Angeles Times to cover country fairs, horse races and farming events to produce drawings for the Sunday supplements. Bernard Garbutt was an extremely versatile artist. He wrote and illustrated a number of children’s books, Including Timothy the Deer. The Walt Disney Studio hired him to work on the animated film productions of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Bambi. During WWII he was an artist for Screen Gems Productions in Hollywood and during the 1950s and 1960s, he taught at the Chouinard Art Institute. Garbutt was no expert in personality animation, but he animated realistic and believable animal locomotion beautifully. His draughtsmanship...