Post 697 - Slideshow of Sfumata Progress - #2 and #4

 For the ASIFA Central retreat, September 7, 2024

Post 696 - Just Playing Around Again

 I like to dust off this file every now and then, just to see what effects can be added... from 2020

The Good Guys Do Win, On Occasion

Post 695 - Slides for an ASIFA Central Retreat - The ANIJAM around the Plympton IAD Poster

Yep, we got Bill Plympton to sketch out the ASIFA IAD poster for this October's celebration - so to give it further attention, we're going to work on animating the frames in its representational "storyboard."  Here were the specs, as provided to ASIFA Central at its autumn retreat September 7, 2024:

This particular slide demonstrated an animated gif based on a "morph" program.  It was lame, but it was intended only as an example.

This example is shown in an earlier blog posting on the same image, back in August.

The vimeo link in this takes to the August "progress report" as the project was just starting its move into the consciousness of the group.

And that's it!  If you're an ASIFA member and wish to contribute, you can pick two frames and have your way with them.  Nearly 100 have reviewed our initial discussion of the project in this blog, so I'm optimistic for a good turn out.  We made it part of a 90 minute "bean" workshop during our September ASIFA Central retreat.  The animator of each segment retains all rights to his/her/one's work, and it will be shown on the ASIFA Central youtube channel and posted on this blog.  Oh the fame!!!

 

Post 694 - Journal Entry from 1985

Uncovered while picking up some spilled files:

Journal Entry May 20, 1985

Received a call yesterday just as I was getting ready to be late for work.  I said, “Hello.”  The caller said, “Hello, Jim.  John Garcia here with some good news for a weapons fanatic like yourself.”

Now, such comments over the phone really get my mind working.  First of all, who the hell is John Garcia?  I knew a John Garcia in high school, but he was at least four years older than me, and I think we used to call him Juan.  Or he used to call him Juan.  But I haven’t spoken with Juan or John or anyone named Garcia since somewhere in the mid 70's.  And then this “weapons fanatic” stuff – I mean, I’ve expressed an interest to Hobday or Lematta* that I might like to get one of those black powder muskets and pretend I was Dan’l Boone and scare various wild birds from my parents’ swampland, but I would consider that as qualification to be a fanatic.  I truly thought about all of this before I finally said -

“Well, I couldn’t consider myself a fanatic.”

John (or Juan) had a quick reply to that.  “I’ve got an UZI!”  He said it like I would drop the phone, pass out, wake up again, run to the bank, get a quick loan at 35% interest, and then dash to his feet, panting, begging to hold this instrument of persuasion and call it mine.

My response wasn’t quite what he was expecting.

I said, “That’s nice.”

Now Juan (or John) was sounding uneasy - and suspicious.  “Is this Jim Middleton?”

I told him You Betcha.

“Well, it doesn’t sound like Jim Middleton.”

The only other Jim Middleton I’ve ever met was my grandfather, and since he has been dead for about four years, I don’t really know what he’d sound like now.  In addition, he was into Lincolns, not guns.  Juan wasn’t finished, however -

“What nickname do we call Mr. Ruble?”

Hoo boy, here it comes, I thought.   Some secret password, some coded message with this question to separate the wimps from the Survivors.  The only thing that popped into my head at this time was “Barney,” but I didn’t say this for fear of being right, and then who knew what would happen?

“Are you a friend of Ron Hobday’s?” I asked, instead.

This seemed to be a major shut down for Mr. Garcia.  He said, “Hoo, am I sorry.  Excuse me,”
and he rang off.

I was still late for work.

*two former fellow pharmacists in my hospital days

Yee HA!

Post 693 - "The General" Novelization - 1927

Small town libraries don't seem to be the repositories of history any more.  The digital push brushes past tangible artifacts that have slipped from the thin vapor of memory and are no longer deemed significant.

This afternoon I found a volume in the local library's "discard bin."  It may have been remaindered from a local estate sale, it may have been donated and rejected for fund raising purposes.  

The title immediately caught my attention, having recently attended a showing of the Jim Schaub/Ron Pesch documentary, Keaton:Home in Muskegon.  The General is frequently cited among the best silent films ever made, and in terms of comic timing and visual composition, a likely contender as one of the best films ever made in any category.  

I never heard of the author, Joseph Warren, and opened it, expecting to see the exploits of some European count or Great War honcho.  Instead, the cover page told a completely different tale - The General was a contemporary novelization of the 1927 Keaton masterpiece, an expensive epic that, to jazz age eyes, wasn't all that much to get enthused over (the Raymond Griffith film Hands Up! had better reviews), with the dark humor of the battle scenes regarded as positively repelling.   

I'll be scanning the pages in the days ahead to preserve this version of the film, lest my own eventual estate sale be equally incapable of finding the original volume a proper, appreciative custodian.

Thus far, I have only come upon one other novelization by Joseph Warren (of Long Island, according to his prologue to The General): What a Widow! was a novelization of an early Gloria Swanson talkie of the same name in 1930.  Will continue to explore the rabbit hole!

 

(note her producer's name) 

 

Click here for The General (archive.org 4K file - if it takes too long to "fire up" you can just download the file and enjoy it when and where-ever you wish!)

Post 692 - First Rough Assembly - IAD Poster Animation Material for 2024 - ASIFA Central

 Testing the morphing images, adding the first roughed in animation as examples for the chapter members.

Kids! Try this at home!

2024 ASIFA Central

Post 691 - Anijam Transition Test - Using Plympton and Benny

 First run, using only a morphing program as a test for resolution:

And then, using image three and four as a framing device to introduce Benny:

Take Two - 

And Annoying Autodesk Products in the meantime with other images:

And take Two with that one: