April 29, 2015

Turning invisible.


When there's a death, there follows an immediate cluster of support and love.


This cluster begins to fall away a few weeks after the death; people are busy, they have their own lives, money worries and health issues to think about. The epicenter of grief puts on a brave face, a mask for the most part.


Months pass and life goes on.


Except for the crumbling inside. The missing. The opening your Skype and seeing their familiar face in your contacts, as if you might be able to reach them wherever they are in the beyond.


It's not the easy choice to remain close to the epicenter. We must allow our lives to fall away - work, play, Internet - so that we may hover nearby, and silently bolster. And that's why you haven't seen much of me lately. I'm turning invisible.


But I'll be back.


Comments are here.


April 20, 2015

4 / 20 PickleWeasel.

PickleWeasel (for grownups) - guess the words.




Comments are here.


April 15, 2015

Montreal gets an International Animation Festival.

In 1983 I was infected by the animation bug. I got a job inbetweening on a tv show, worked like a dog, drank like a fish and attended every screening and I could. Decades flew by.


I'll be honest with you: I lost my taste for animation festivals a couple of years ago while attending the Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF). Let's just say I was unable to stomach continuing to fork out for the ticket, the travel and the hotel for the privilege of viewing films selected by a single person, whose taste and demeanor differed so vastly from my own. I did miss the camaraderie of seeing old friends, but we only ended up complaining the whole time about the terrible films and the "selection committee of one", so it was just a downward spiral of facepalm.

Animator facepalm.

I went rogue; the cash I'd normally throw at animation festivals was redirected to blogging conferences - a whole 'nother world. I had way too much fun, and though I never quite fit in on account of being "an animator who blogs with drawings", I did manage to carve out a tiny niche for myself. And made a few rock solid friendships along the way.

Still...I'm kinda starved for animation. And not the kind you can see on the innerwebz.

I don't know how we missed it, but neither myself, nor my animation friends here in Montreal knew about Le MIAFF: The Montreal International Animation Film Festival until it was a week away. Just by chance I flipped the car radio from NPR to the CBC and heard an interview with the festival director, Laurie Gordon. And I'm like wtf, an animation festival in my hometown?


I missed the deadline to submit any of my recent films, but there's always next year. I'm still not sure who else (of my circle) is going to Le MIAFF, but I'll be there and I'm especially looking forward to the He(art) screening, with Don Hertzfeldt's multiple-award-winning World of Tomorrow.



Le MIAFF starts tomorrow, April 16 - 19, 2015, at downtown Concordia.  If you see me, please come say hi.

Comments are here.


April 1, 2015

Separated at Birth.

All my life I've had this feeling that I was somehow incomplete. And now I discover what I've always known to be true: PickleWeasel is my twin.

See how alike we are? (That's me on the right by the way.)


It's an amazing feeling.

Comments are here.