Labor Day

In celebration, here's something I labored away on last week.


That's right! More G-dcast-tic Animation! What may most likely be my final episode was a fun one. Once again, my fellow feline-lover and current roommate Chrissy Fellmeth lent a hand (and wondrous Cintiq), helping me get work out of the way long enough for me to enjoy some fun in the sun-



- and a bit of history this weekend.



But today it's back to the grind. New job, new criteria, same short deadline. Should be good to post images by Wednesday.

Beachtown - the beach = Nyack!

Headed out of town this weekend to see what was what at one of my former spots of employment: the Renaissance Faire.

I never made it. Always one for an impromptu adventure, I took a slight detour to Nyack to check out the Hopper House.

I had only been in 'downtown' Nyack once before, to drop off a DVD to the They Might Be Giants folks. It's 'quaint and cute'. I only have a problem with 'quaint and cute' when there's no beach attached to the town.


But on to the main attraction!




When visiting the Florida Keys one year, my mom and I took a tour of Hemingway's house. In a way, this was even nicer than that, being so 'off the beaten path'. There are guided tours of Hemingway's estate; Hopper has a girl sitting in a side room selling postcards. It was more personal.


Inside also housed a gallery for local artists. The outside caters to them as well, mostly in the form of outdoor concerts. Unfortunately, as far as the fine arts are concerned-


This sign was tacked up out in front. Apparently Nyack has problems with cat-burglars.


A few blocks down was this sign. Coincidence?

Now for those of you still upset by my negative view of the folksy downtown area, I'll confess it wasn't that bad. This book store (and it's non-human employees) saw to that.


Such unoriginal reading material.


Keeping an eye on everything; the store's muscle.

The colors, Duke!

One thing I've noticed recently is how drab the city is. Or rather, one thing I haven't noticed since it didn't occur to me till I happened by this church on my way home yesterday.


Reds! Pinks! Greens! I've actually passed by it before. What caught my eye that day was Mary's original paint job.

(artist's recreation)

It's since been toned down, sadly. I liked it better before, actually.


It matched the fountain behind the church.


I don't know why I find this scene so attractive. The bright red bench with matching awning? The tacky blue concrete pool? The exposed lighting? The huge crucifix?


I think it's all in the saturation. Green, red and bright blue. The juxtaposition of tacky and sacred is wonderful as well, like those little religious figurines made out of seashells you find at boardwalks. Hopefully no one will find this one "offensive" enough to demand a new coat of paint.


And as more proof of my obsession with color, this great sign a block past the church. The awesome font helps, too...

Fit the First

Went on a little trip yesterday in spite of the rain. A brief break in the work flow allowed me a few hours to head all the way up to E 88th St. to visit the Church of the Holy Trinity. What for?



These stained-glass friezes were completed by Henry Holiday, a prominent London painter in his time and the illustrator for Lewis Carroll’s nonsense epic The Hunting of the Snark.

A short while back, I came across a worn, but well-cared-for copy of The Annotated Snark at a flea market. Martin Garber talks a bit about Holiday's career in the book's introduction and speaks highly in particular of his work with stained-glass which the artist himself apparently cited as some of his best work.


Unfortunately, as far as his work on Carroll’s Snark is concerned? Well, let’s just say Tenniel is a hard act to follow. Though Carroll spoke very highly of Holiday, most critics found his work to be inferior to Tenniel's illustrations in the Alice books.


His stained-glass work is beautifully detailed and thoroughly realistic.

But that is a hindrance when it comes to the Snark illustrations.


The characters are completely realistic with nothing but the occasional oversized head and accompanying goblin or beaver.


In fact, most of the surreal nature of the illustrations is nothing more than a byproduct of the surreal nature of the poem.



That being said, his work, no matter what the medium, is wonderfully detailed and rich with texture. His drapery is particularly exquisite.

Only one of Holiday’s sketches for Snark was rejected by Carroll.


Later, he explained why:

'One of the first of three I had to do was the disappearance of the Baker, and I not unnaturally invented a Boojum. Mr. Dodgson wrote that it was a delightful monster, but that it was inadmissible. All his descriptions of the Boojum were quite unimaginable, and he wanted the creature to remain so… I hope that some future Darwin, in a new Beagle, will find the beast, or its remains; if he does, I know he will confirm my drawing.'

With our special Guest Star...

Barry Sanders (not to be confused with the football player, apparently) is in town. You should hang out with him. I did.


Thanks to the time-waster known as Facebook, I heard (read, I guess) that Barry was ‘going to make a Muppet!’ Really the word ‘Muppet’ was all I needed to convince me to ditch my work load for a few hours. The word ‘make’ sure didn’t hurt either.

So I pulled on my boots, broke out my umbrella and headed to FAO Schwarz to make a Muppet. Well, to watch Barry order a pre-made Muppet, actually. (Note to the reader: if you really want to make a Muppet, visit www.projectpuppet.com.)


On the one hand,it’s basically like the loathsome Build-A-Bear shops except with cooler characters.


On the other hand, I’ll be the first to admit it: if I ever need a second job, I’d be happy to build Muppet parts all day.

So, the whole Muppet building process was short and sweet and (kinda) lame, at least from the buyer’s point of view. But, what did we care? There was still the whole rest of the store to explore!


Now, I’ll confess, I’ve only been to FAO Schwarz once when I was young, so most of my memories of the store come from that Home Alone follow-up. In fact, I was almost positive they shut down. But it seems business is, well… Okay, it may not be booming.


As Barry said, you know there's a recession on when the unicorn goes on sale.


Unicorn, schmoonicorn... What about the dragon? I guess we'll be heading for the end of times when that hits the market.

History Lesson... with visual aids!

You’re in luck! I was certain that when my computer died about a month ago it had taken the following pictures with it. But wonders upon wonders, I hadn’t deleted them off of my camera’s CF card and so, here is the blog post that might never have been:

My hometown of Warwick, NY isn’t far from another, even smaller town, Florida, NY.


While it lacks palm trees and beaches you may know Florida, NY as the birthplace of William H. Seward, Secretary of State under Lincoln and Johnson. He nearly shared Lincoln’s fate that infamous night, in fact.


Sadly, the town either doesn’t have the funding or the inclination to actually preserve this piece of history outside of not bulldozing the building to the ground and putting up a few plaques and ‘No Trespassing’ signs.


How many people skip over this piece of history to grab a slice?


Ignoring the well-posted 'No Trespassing' signs, I snooped as best I could in the mud and cold. Outside the barn, I found an ancient outhouse and loads of junk pouring out from the inside.


Magnetic tape and film!


Children’s books!


Bones!


I couldn’t get inside to some of the larger rooms due to the fact that they were filled with so much junk the doors wouldn’t open more then a few inches.


Luckily, some of the windows had been smashed in. What did I find?


Old taxidermy (always neat).


Creepy old operating tables… I think…?


A coffin?!?

Then again, you may be familiar with Florida, NY as the hometown of Jimmy Sturr, the Polka King.

Tell me doctor, where are we going this time?

One of the neat little factoids I've learned in the year I've been working at 8 Hats High is actually about the building our studio is housed in.


Located in downtown Middletown, NY, it may not look like much to many of the big-time city folks but if we take a step back in time...


... we would find the grand olde Bull's Opera House in which none other than Edwin Booth performed one of his most famous roles as Hamlet.


Now while some of you might be disappointed that it was Edwin and not John who graced the stage here, rest assured Edwin was the better actor. Today, you'll find just as interesting a character waiting at the door to greet you...


From here it's upstairs to the old lobby with concession stands and ticket booths. Sadly, these have all been replaced by light tables, computers, scanners, two TV sets and a few fake pine trees. From the one-time lobby, you enter into what was once the theater.


Today, the high ceilings serve to house our Motion Capture system...


... and green screen.


Then there's the lamp post that leads to Narnia, but I'll save that for a later blog...