Ren, Stimpy and Howlin’ Wolf

Recently when I was working on musical tracks for a couple of Microsoft spots I created, my sound designer, (who happens to be my brother as well) came across an interesting piece of music. Whenever I start a project I begin by finding pieces of music to give to him for inspiration, much like when a client comes to me with an idea of what they are looking for. One thing I hear all the time is; “We want it to feel like the Esurance commercials.” In this case for the Microsoft spots I wanted them to have a 1950’s/early 60’s sound. Leave it to Beaver and The Andy Griffith Show, meets Ren and Stimpy is what I asked him for. A week or two later he got back to me with a song from Howlin’ Wolf, titled Killing Floor, which we both immediately realized had to be the inspiration for the Ren and Stimpy theme song. I then decided to try and find out who wrote the theme song. Finding the composer proved to be more difficult than I thought it would be. There seems to be a lot of mystery surrounding the Dog Pound Hop theme used in the original Ren & Stimpy show. Some sources credit just Jim Smith with the theme while others quote Scott Huml, John Kricfalusi and Chris Reccardi as well.

While searching for answers I also came across the Unofficial Ren & Stimpy Production Music Collection on Kirk Demarais’ secretfunspot.blogspot.com. He designed an ‘album cover’ for the collection (as seen above) as well as tracked down and tagged the name of each artist for all the tracks in the collection. Both albums can be downloaded for hours of enjoyment at the links below:
Ren And Stimpy Production Music
Ren And Stimpy Production Music Vol 02, You Eediot!

All artists, whether an animator, fine artist or musician, draw from various inspirational sources to bring their ideas to life. All of the artists I know have large reference libraries containing books, magazines, comics, records, CDs and DVDs; wherever they find inspiration. Taking design cues from their source materials, and re-interpreting them in a new way is fine. However, the danger is that if you stick too closely to the inspirational material, you end up ripping them off, rather than paying homage to them. As far as I’m concerned, when it comes to the Ren and Stimpy theme they need to give credit where credit is due and acknowledge the fact that they based the entire theme on the opening of Killing Floor, by Howlin’ Wolf. His name should be at the top of the credits for that song.

Take a listen to the tracks above and decide for yourself.

Draw-a-thon

It had been quite some time since I had been to a life drawing class, so I figured it was time for me to go back. Figure drawing classes are traditionally three hours long with one model, holding academic poses for 30 to 60 min at a time. Being an animator, I never spend 30 min on a single drawing, never mind 60, so I decided to look at some of the more alternative drawing classes out there.

I started out at Michael Alan’s Draw-a-thon which is held twice a month at various locations around the city. $20 got you into the 5000 sq ft room at the Gershwin Hotel in Midtown. The night was a mix of drawing class, performance theater, and poetry jam all mixed together. Models were “dressed” as hotel staff, butlers, drunk maids, a dead prostitute, a robot, Siamese twins, babies, creatures, puppets, and scenes from The Shining. Live music and poetry readings were also provided for your entertainment. I have to admit, the music and poetry was a bit much for me. In between the live acts they blasted Techno music at an annoying level. Many of the live acts seemed to have no idea they would be performing alongside naked men and women. A number of the models also got too into their roles, the best example of that being an older man wearing a soiled diaper which seemed to be authentic. There were over 20 models to pay attention to though, if one wasn’t to your liking. I think for my next outing I am going to look into some of the other venues around the city.

Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School, in Williamsburg‘s Lucky Cat Bar on Sat afternoons is where I am headed next. I have been to their website and it seems more to my liking. This past February 14th was the first in their Art Star series with special guest Ron English. I have admired his paintings for some time and hanging out and drawing a model dressed as one of his characters (Cathy Cowgirl) sounds like a great time. For more info on that event, click on this link: http://www.drsketchy.com/blog/?p=187 . Each of their sessions also has a theme. Another one which I wish I had gone to was their tribute to Betty Page. Their next event is on March 14th, 4-7 pm at The Slipper Room, 167 Orchard St., for only $10.

ASIFA East also offers free drawing classes for its members and SVA students. For details email Art Sir at: artnos@gmail.com Below I have listed a number of the other classes around the city I came across in my search.

Adult Drawing hosted by promoter Alex Zoppa. Two glasses of wine are provided with the $20 entrance fee with models from Burning Angels.com (who happen to be XXX film stars) as well as some male models from Playgirl Magazine posing in the great salon tradition.

Drink-N-Draw is every 1st and 3rd Wednesday of the month hosted in the Gallery of 3rd Ward, in Bushwick. They provide the beer, snacks and multiple models- you bring your drawing tools of choice. Hosted in the Gallery of 3rd Ward- this is a fun creative environment to help one relax after a long day of work. From 8pm- 1030pm. $15 per person or $10 if you bring a friend.

Society of Illustrators; Tu-Th 6:30-9:30; $10 Regular Sessions, $15 Special Events.
Tompkins Square Branch Library; Sat 2:30-4:00; Free drawing sessions - ask the librarian.
Art Students League of New York; Daily; Monthly Basis, $55-$155.

Studio in a School

Living in NYC there are always a ton of opportunities to go to great events right on your doorstep. This past Thursday I had a chance to do just that. Studio in a School is a not-for-profit organization that brings professional artists into public schools in all five boroughs of NYC, using the visual arts to enrich the lives of children ages three to eighteen. I attended a gallery opening for a group of elementary students at The Gallery at 1 East 53rd St. Their work was fantastic and so much fun to look at. The room was filled with proud parents, grand parents, brothers and sisters all there to support the kids who took part in the program. I didn’t have my first gallery exhibit in NY until I was about 30.

I got involved in Studio in a School in a roundabout way. Each year in Central Park I play a game of softball for the Paul Beard Classic which donates the proceeds from the benefit to the Studio in a School Program.

Above are a number of my favorite pieces from the show, and I gave the respective artists credit for their work. Top Left: Sally Barrilla Grade 4, Center: Irene Deleon Grade 7, Bottom Left: Dinalee Polanco Grade 6, Bottom Center: Lizbeth Vazquez Grade 2 and Bottom Left: Justin Chan Grade 3.

If you are in the area, and want to walk away with a big smile on your face, stop in and check out the rotating works at the gallery.

Superjail event

This is a test for the first ever ASIFA East podcast of out Superjail event. THIS IS ONLY A TEST of the ASIFA East Broadcast Network. We will return you to the regular blog shortly.

ASIFA East’s 40th Anniversary Film Fest

It was time again for another ASIFA postcard. The theme this time was for the upcoming ASIFA festival screening night. Believe it or not this is the 40th Anniversary of the festival.

One of the best advantages of being an ASIFA member is the ability to vote on who wins the festival. So many times when I speak to people about ASIFA, and ask if they are entering the festival this year they often answer, “Why bother, the same people win every year.” Nothing could make me angrier than that response. To them I answer, “Did you go to the screenings, did you encourage others to go and vote, and voice their opinions?” If not then you have nothing to complain about. NY is a city of independent animators; a number of whom are very prolific film makers and they win from year to year because of that tenacity, plus the fact that they are good film makers. The winners of each category are chosen by the people sitting in the audience on that night. It’s the truest form of democracy in action.

I had the pleasure of being invited to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (The Oscars) screening of the short films here in NYC by Candy Kugel this year. It was an exciting day to be in a room surrounded by legendary film makers. The short animation category is the only category that the Academy allows to be screened together outside of LA County. On a weekend when the Oscars are taking place, and knowing I was in the room when the winners were selected is exciting. Maybe, just maybe, the conversation I had after the screenings had some little, itsy-bitsy, slight influence on an academy member’s choice to win an Oscar. To be part of the academy’s club, you have to have been nominated in the past for an award. To be a voting member for the ASIFA Festival all you have to be is a member. THAT”S IT! Pay your dues and you can directly influence who wins the award that year. Whether you’re Howard Beckerman, or a student in school your vote means exactly the same thing. ASIFA East has survived for 40 years as a volunteer organization of dedicated professionals with the sole interest of promoting animated films on the East Coast.

This year has been a year of change for so many reasons, not the least was the election of Barack Obama as our president. As the message for this month’s postcard was “Get out and vote!” I decided to design our post card in the style of Shepard Fairey’s iconic Image of our president. I combined the images of four of our board members into one for the postcard. Just as Shepard Fairey didn’t name the photographer who took the reference for his iconic image, I will never tell whose images I combined together to make the postcard for ASIFA.

I am glad to say I am a member of ASIFA East and I will be there each of the nights casting my vote.

Geriatric Hip and Advertising Shorts

Geriatric Hip is a short I completed about 2 years ago that I worked on during my spare time while I was working at Cartoon Pizza on Pinky Dinky Doo. I wanted to create a short which wasn’t aimed at children, and you can’t get further away from children than a film about the joy of smoking.

Around the same time I purchased a DVD collection of 1950’s-1970’s Classic Commercials which had so much great work on it. Some of my favorites were the spots for cigarettes, in particular one featuring the Flintstones. In the 60’s TV was a relatively new medium, and an early way that marketers capitalized on the success of it was to sponsor an entire show. The show would often open with stars of the show personally using or endorsing the sponsor's products. As the decade went on, major sponsors were no longer needed as advertisers lined up to buy spots in the middle of shows. TV executives preferred not having one big sponsor as it meant less interference with the content of the show and the one sponsor system fell out of favor. While I am not a smoker, and have never been, I was intrigued and inspired by the way they were once advertised.

The idea of having one major sponsor hasn’t gone away completely though. No one has quite figured out how to make money out of content on the internet yet. Just as TV was an unproven media in the early 60’s, the internet is in a similar position today. When Dan Meth and Channel Frederator teamed up for their Nite Fite series, they got Starburst to sponsor them. They worked out a distribution deal, and included the product in the shorts themselves. Dan and Frederator had to give up some creative license and get things approved by the Starburst people, but in exchange for that they got the shorts paid for. If they had any ideas that Starburst didn’t like, they simply saved those ideas for another time, when another sponsor might not object to a particular idea.

The line between advertising and entertaining are being blurred all the time with marketing companies like The Viral Factory trying to capitalize on the power of the internet by creating viral videos such as the Trojan Games for Trojan. A second example of a successful viral campaign would be the one for Carl’s Jr. featuring Paris Hilton washing a car.

Over the past few years I have entered Geriatric Hip in a number of festivals and it has not been received well. Until you screen a film you never know how it will do. It is my version of an advertising era gone by, when smoking was fun. It’s now time for it to go out into the big scary world of the internet and see how it does on its own.

Comic Con 2009

It was my first time going to a Comic Con and I didn’t quite know what to expect. In order to prepare for my first time I went to their website to try and see just what it was I was getting into. To my horror one of the first things I saw was their weapons policy. THEY HAVE A WEAPONS POLICY !!! I had no idea that comic book aficionados were so dangerous. Here is their actual policy listed below.

The following items are forbidden at New York Comic Con:
• Functional firearms (including air soft guns, BB guns, cap guns, paintball guns, and pellet guns)
• Functional projectile weapons (including blow guns, crossbows, long bows, silly string, slingshots, water balloons, and water guns)
• Metal-bladed weapons (including axes, daggers, hatchets, knives, kunai, shuriken, swords, sword canes, and switch blades)
• Explosives (including firecrackers and fireworks)
• Chemical weapons (including mace and pepper spray)
• Blunt weapons (including brass knuckles, clubs, and nunchaku)
• Hard prop weapons (including props made of metal, fiberglass, and glass)

I decided to push through the fear and attend the convention despite the obvious danger I was placing myself in. After waiting in what can only be described as an underground holding cell for nearly an hour, I made my way onto the convention floor. I was greeted by the largest collection of geeks in one place I have ever seen. The Javits Center was packed shoulder to shoulder with them. But not only Geeks, there were Nerds, Dweebs, Dorks, Goobers, Goofballs, Techies and Trekkies. What's the difference you might ask? Well, here is how I see it. A Geek is an intelligent person with an obsessive interest; in this case with comic books. A Nerd is the same, but lacks social graces, and a Dweeb is simply a mega nerd.

Star Wars seemed to be very popular with the Geeks. Storm Troopers and Jedi Knights and were all over the place swinging their light sabers and shooting off their blasters. Apparently ones fascination with Star Wars can be passed on generation to generation. There were seminars led by actual NY Jedi instructors on Light Saber practice for kids- 12 and under. I started to understand the weapons policy at this point.

The Nerds leaned towards the gaming side of things. I think this could be attributed to all the time they spend in their parent’s basements alone in the dark playing whatever the latest shoot ‘em-up game is. I have to confess I am not very ‘Up’ on the video game world and didn’t know who they were supposed to be.

The Dweebs seem to be very unaware of their body types. Just because you wish you were Poison Ivy or Harley Quinn from Batman doesn’t mean you should dress like her. Comic book characters have an impossible body type which less that 1% of the population can achieve, and the ones I saw weren’t in that 1%. Until this weekend I also never realized Superman’s package was so large. I can’t count the number of times I turned around to see just a little more than I was comfortable with. There is a reason that spandex leotards never caught on as daywear for men.

There were actors from every decade there as well. From the late 70s there was Lou Ferrigno of The Incredible Hulk fame and Anthony Forrest from Star Wars. He was the Storm Trooper who stops Luke's Landspeeder to check on the droids and said the line “These aren’t the droids you’re looking for”. Melody Anderson from the 80s movie Flash Gordon was there as well as Marina Sirtis, better known as Counselor Deana Troi from Star Trek: The Next Generation from the 90s.

A handful of NYC animators/artists were on the scene as well. Jared Deal and Danny Kimsnyen (kaNO), had a booth together selling their vinyl and resin toys. Rick Lacy and Philip Gelatt were at the Oni Press booth promoting their comic Labor Days. Bill Plimpton had a booth of his own which every time I walked by was swamped with admiring fans lining up to get a free drawing from him. He premiered his latest Dog film, Horn Dog, as well as a number of other new shorts, all of which I believe he intends to enter in the upcoming ASIFA East film festival. The Venture Brothers’ Jackson Public and Doc Hammer were there to talk about their upcoming season four. The creators and executive producers of Superjail, Christy Karacas and Stephen Warbrick were there to promote their show on Adult Swim. The last of the New Yorkers I ran into was Dan Meth at the Nerdcore booth.

After an exhausting day of looking at comics, watching short films, movie trailers and scantily clad pale people I was glad to head home and look forward to doing it all over again, a year from now. After all, where else can you walk around as a 7ft tall Chewbacca, or drive your life size R2D2 remote control robot around.