SXSW

Heather and I went to SXSW this weekend and quickly learned the value of having a badge.

Still, we had fun bar-hopping around my namesake city, catching bands and tagging vans.

Just doin' my part to keep Austin weird.

12 days...

A Very Miserables Musical

The latest poster for Pixar's improv troupe, The Improvibles.

 

I originally had Russell Crowe belting out a shattering melody note to the tagline, "Even worse than Russell Crowe." My wiser colleagues mentioned that RC might supply a voice for Pixar some day and that the more prudent path would be leaving the note intact.

I still think it's funnier the other way.

3 days...

Chades Challenge LXV: Highlanders

You can keep your Christopher Lampberts and Adrian Pauls, when it comes to Highlanders, there can be only one!

If you have any Highlanders, let me know and I'll post them below. Otherwise join in July 6th for...

Chades Challenge LXVI: 

Time-Travelling Comic Con Attendees

Jimmy "Rob LeRoy" FauntLeRoy

Kyle "Tilted Kilt" Baeta-Orick

Josh "Freeeedoooooommmm!!!" Billings

David "Never Forget" Campbell

Deena "Princess of Dubai" Stevens

James "Rad Plaid" Trujillo

Austin "The Spartan Tartan" Reinkens

Zane "Scotland Yarb" Yarbrough

This Chades Challenge today is in honour of Brave's release and our last Kilt Friday. We'll be raising a glass tonight to all our cousins in Scotland and across the world. Alba gu Brath! 

0 days...BRAVE premieres today! 

Hey Jude

Birthday card for my dear friend and fellow animator, Jude Brownbill. She's a Brit, her name is Jude...my task was clear.

25 days...

Jennifer Holiday Eats Young Woman's Head

I'm not a fan of American Idol, but I did catch last night's finale and I must say the duet between Jennifer Holliday and 1st place loser Jessica Sanchez was uh-mazing! The facial expressions alone on Ms. Holliday, who is doing everything she can to bury Sanchez's career before it begins, are worth the watch!

I'm not sure if it's singing or roaring, but if this sort of gladiator-battle-set-to-music is American Idol, sign me up!

29 days...

ChewROCKa

I suggest a new strategy, Artoo. Let the wookiee rock.

 

37 days...

Santa, Baby

If you're looking for a drawing challenge, here's a good one: illustrate a Christmas song! Santa, Baby always seemed rife with animation possibilities. Community certainly capitalized on the song's comic potential.

Emma Coats

Guillermo Martinez

Maggie Gevers

10 days...

Dick Figures "Bath Rhymes" Music Video

The Dick Figures Bath Rhymes music video is up, and my scene along with it, in all it's Jurassic Park/Masters of the Universe-ish glory.

Zack and Ed (the Dick Figures creators/voice actors) sent out this thank you to all the animators who participated in the Season Two finale. Can't wait for Season Three season premiere--when a certain Pixar animator may or may not be lending their vocal talents to Red and Blue's first villain...

12 days...

CHADES CHALLENGE LVI: MARILYN MANTIS

You and I both know that mantids, as hemimetabolic insects, have nymph stages rather than the holometabolic pupal stage. But don't let that bug you.

I had so much fun researching Mr. Manson, that I decided to do a sketch of him in human form as well. If you haven't watched this guy in a live show, you should check it out. Much like a mantis, I could picture this guy biting his mate's head off.

In retrospect, it looks a bit more like Anthony Kiedis.

If you have any Marilyn Mantis designs, let me know and I'll post them below! As always, everyone is invited to participate. If you don't have anything this week, you're welcome to contribute to our next Character Design Challenge on August 26th. The subject will be:

STYGIAN VIETNAM

Adam "The Praying Mantis" Dix

Here's a late submission for last week's challenge, Cowboys & Aliens:

Riley "Wilde West" MacGregor

25 days...

A Couple Warm-Up Drawings

First, happy birthday to my old friend, the highflyin' Vi-Dieu Nguyen! Hope you have a ball, pal.

Second: the "Name That Trailer Soundrack" challenge!

After seeing the trailer for the new Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy, I decided to pose a challenge to my Twitter followers to name the soundtrack in the score. Fifty seconds later, someone identified Elfman's Wolfman theme. I should have known better than to underestimate the wisdom of the Twitterverse!

This drawing went to the winner, Nick Folkman.

Speaking of monster drawing challenges, Chades Challenge LIII: Super 8 is due tomorrow! Everyone is invited to contribute and all submissions will be posted! Let's see what sort of monster you would have designed for JJ's film.

15 days...

Happy St. Patty's Day!


To all you artists who follow this blog,
Heed well my warning while sippin' yer grog!
To avoid a good pinch,
You should cover each inch,
With clothes green as the moss on a log!

According to last week's blog poll, you folks agree (or a majority of you, anyway) that The Green Dragon is the best St. Patrick's Day drinking song. So here it is for your viewing enjoyment!

And just so my fellow Scots don't feel left out on this uber-Irish holiday, Slainte mhor agus a h-uile beannachd duibh, cousins!

31 days...

A Doodle and an "I Do"dle

You've got to love restaurants with paper tablecloths to draw on. Before long, Hil and I had riddled the table with doodles. This is probably the only post-appropriate of the bunch.

This guy was doodled at Flora, a restaurant across the street from the Fox Theater in Oakland. If you go, you've got to have the Death in the Afternoon cocktail (not truly an afternoon-exclusive menu item at all, apparently).

We followed our dinner up with one of my favorite bands, The Decemberists. The highlight of the evening was probably when Colin Meloy revealed that their drummer is an ordained minister and asked if anyone in the audience wanted to get married.

The couple gave their vows, were announced man and wife, and The Decemberists went on to play a medley of popular wedding reception songs. It just doesn't get more Valentine's Dayish than spontaneous marriage.

12 days...

BRINGIN' REXY BACK

According to Science Daily, scientists have confirmed the remains of biochemical material (proteins) in dinosaur fossils. T. rex fossils, no less! This organic material has survived for sixty-eight million years; I think this is proof that God wants us to bring the dinosaurs back. I am so excited by this news, I was inspired to write a haiku.

Rain-slicked poncho blue
Primordial forest green
Stain on pants yellow

Speaking of inspirational new stuff, there's some awesome new music out there by Weird Al and Regina Spektor. Weird Al's new song, CNR, is a JibJab exclusive, though it's already on YouTube. I was shown the CNR video by my buddy Raph, who is an exact doppleganger of the ill-fated fellow at the video's 1:42 mark. Raph's adopted, so he may just have an identical twin out there!

JibJab's Alan Cook:


Pixar's Raphael Suter:

Uncanny, eh? Kudos to my friends and fellow CalArts alumni Amanda and Justin, and everyone else at JibJab for keeping up the inspiring work!

The other song I was inspired by is Regina Spektor's new single, Laughing With. I'm one of those people who would check both the box for God and evolution in my "What do you believe?" poll. So I'm greatly inspired by anything God-or dino-related.

Laughing With begs the question, why do people only laugh at God when they don't need to depend on Him? It's one of the more profound songs I've heard in a great while, so I thought I'd share it with you all (regardless of which boxes you select in my poll).

INDIANA JONES
and the Magic Kingdom of the Three-foot Mouse

I've got to say, I'm pretty surprised at the results of last week's poll, What is Your Favorite Disneyland Attraction? I really thought Pirates was going to win by a landslide, but Indiana Jones crushed it like some sort of colossal, rolling object. I love both rides, Indiana Jones has a cooler line, but Pirates has that true Disney magic. Of course, my favorite Disneyland attraction always has been and always will be Star Tours. The technology is dated, and the poorly synchronized hydraulics never fail to bring on a head-ache, but I always feel transported into the Star Wars universe, and I still find myself ducking my head in the ice asteroid. Thanks for the votes. Make sure to chime in on this week's poll. Most of my polls are to determine what the best of the best of any given category is, time to turn it around and dig through the bottom of the barrel, starting with: What is the worst song of all time?

In my search for the worst songs of all-time, I ran across this list of the worst country songs ever recorded. Remember, these are actual songs. Enjoy!

1. Get Your Biscuits In The Oven And Your Buns In Bed
2. Get Your Tongue Otta My Mouth 'Cause I'm Kissing You Goodbye
3. Her Teeth Was Stained, But Her Heart Was Pure
4. How Can I Miss You If You Won't Go Away?
5. I Can't Get Over You, So Why Don't You Get Under Me
6. I Don't Know Whether To Kill Myself Or Go Bowling
7. I Got In At 2 With a 10, And Woke Up At 10 With a 2.
8. I Hate Every Bone In Your Body Except For Mine
9. I Just Bought A Car From A Guy That Stole My Girl, But The Car
Don't Run, So I figure We Got An Even Deal
10. I Keep Forgettin' I Forgot About You
11. I Liked You Better Before I Knew You So Well
12. I Still Miss You Baby, But My Aim's Gettin' Better
13. I Wouldn't Take Her To A Dog Fight, Cause I'm Afraid She'd Win
14. I'll Marry You Tomorrow But Let's Honeymoon Tonight
15. I'm So miserable Without You, It's Like Having You Here
16. I've Got Tears in My Ears From Lying On My Back While I Cry Over
you
17. If I Can't Be Number One In Your Life, Then Number Two On You
18. If I Had Shot You When I Wanted To, I'd Be Out By Now
19. Mama Get A Hammer (There's A Fly On Papa's Head)
20. My Head Hurts, My Feet Stink, And I Love Rovers
21. My Wife Ran Off With My Best Friend, and I Sure Do Miss Him
22. Please Bypass this Heart
23. She Got The Ring and I Got The Finger
24. You're the Reason Our Kids Are So Ugly

Coming Soon: Sly Orange: The O-dyssey

My apocryphal rock band, Sly Orange, went on tour through Portland and Seattle last Independence Day. Our hotel-thrashing drummer, Vi, started compiling the video that we shot for our bass-player, Ben, who unfortunately couldn't make the tour. Most of the conversations are out of context, and make little sense. You'll hear me talking about 'future surgeries' which is me talking to the camera as if it is my future-self watching the video like a time capsule. I'm not sure if that makes more or less sense. Anyway, Vi did a great job editing this little teaser, and it features my fantastic singing voice, so I thought I'd share it. Make sure to look for The O-dyssey in record stores and on iTunes this Christmas!




In other music news, President-Elect Obama has officially tapped John Williams to compose/conduct a piece of music for his inauguration. Talk about getting started on the right foot, I can't think of a better person to set the stage for a historical moment. I think there's only one piece suitable for such an occasion. It certainly wouldn't be the first Star Wars/Obama mash-up.



Everyone loves John Williams, but a much more polarizing figure appearing at the inauguration is Pastor Rick Warren. I've read his book, A Purpose Driven Life, twice, once with my late buddy, Justin Wright. Justin and I hardly agreed with each other on every issue, and we certainly didn't agree with everything Pastor Warren had to say in his book, but it definitely challenged us both to think about what it means to live a life of purpose. Before anyone gets angry about Pastor Warren giving the invocation at Obama's inauguration, I'd challenge them to watch his talk at the TED conference. You may not agree with everything the man has to say (if you don't, you may find Dan Dennett's TED talk more to your liking), but Pastor Warren's certainly not a "fear mongerer," and I'm personally not interested in hearing an invocation from anyone who agrees with everybody, anyway.

"Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less."
--Rick Warren

Williams A Cappella

I love the last lyric.

Voyage of the Obyrith, Chapter II: The Fallen

I started doing these pseudo-comic covers for a DnD campaign I'm running to get the players pumped up for each game. Here's the 'cover' for our second gaming session:

The dark of night holds many secrets,

The dark of night tells many lies,
Beware the things that shimmer there,
They may be friends, they may be spies

More cool art at Dungeons and Shenanigans.
For you gamers out there looking for good, atmospheric music--check out E.S. Posthumous. You may recognize some of his tunes from trailers, but the full unedited songs are really epic, intense, and all-around top notch!

Sly Orange: The O-dyssey
Just got back from the O-dyssey tour through Portland and Seattle. I highly recommend the Space Needle and Experience The Music Project in Seattle and Powell's in Portland. Unfortunately our gig in Olympia was canceled, I don't think the Olympians are interested in a Sly Orange without our bass player, Ben Michaels. Hopefully he comes back for the next album; I'm not sure if my new invention "bass-scatting" is quite as good as the real thing.

Pat feeling the blues backstage before the Seattle show

Oregon and Washington were absolutely beautiful. I'm pretty jealous of our drummer, Vi, who lives in Portland since it's basically Berkeley without the transients. We had a gig at PG&E park on the fourth to watch some baseball and fireworks--y'know, really soak in the America. I've got to say, any sport that needs audience clapping games, Top 40 sound bites, rehearsed mascot routines, raffles, or the wave every five minutes is just not entertaining enough. If they really want to keep the fans interested, they should but a basketball court in the outfield.

The fireworks were great, though, and the rest of the tour was a blast. Our keyboardist, Pat, designed a top-notch tattoo for me, and our lead guitarist, Amalia, really slayed during our cover of Purple Haze. The goal of the tour, aside from rocking our fans' collective socks off, was to get a cup of joe at the original Starbucks at the Seattle market. I did, and I must say, it was worth the trip! Is it just me, or is the quality of java directly proportional to the cuteness of the barista?

To sum up: Portland and Seattle are awesome, Sly Orange still knows how to rock, and someone should put baseball out of its misery.

Speaking of rock'n'roll legends...
The Rock'n'Poll has officially come to a close. I'm sure forty-six votes are enough to speak for the entire populous, so I am officially declaring Bohemian Rhapsody is the Greatest Rock'n'Roll Song of All-Time!! They are the champions, my friend.

ROCK'N' POLL CHAMPIONSHIP

It's been seven weeks since the genesis of the Rock'n'Poll tournament. Songs from twenty rock genres have contended, and at last the finalists have emerged from the smoke and wreckage of rock-combat. Which song will become the champion? Which tune will rock the choruses off of the other contenders? Which ballad is truly worthy to be deemed Greatest Rock'n'Roll Song of All Time? As Captain Planet once said, "The power is yours!" Now rock that flippin' vote.


In other news, the new Chades Challenge is NIGHTMARISH CONSTRUCTION WORKERS. Sketch greatly!

Sorry, I missed this week of Chades posting. Mean Orcs this Friday I promise. Check out the work from the two contenders who were up to the challenge.
Flaviano
Cody Malick

Also, make sure to vote on this week's Rock'n'Poll survey. Next week is the final three genres before THE CHAMPIONSHIP, when the the greatest rock'n'roll song of all time shall finally be revealed. So far the finalists are:

Hound Dog (Elvis Presley)
Paint it Black (Rolling Stones)
Welcome to the Jungle (Guns N' Roses)
Back in Black (AC/DC)
Run to the Hills (Iron Maiden)
Queen-Bohemian Rhapsody
Breakin' the Law (Judas Priest)
Like a Rolling Stone (Bob Dylan)
Whip It! (Devo)
Free Bird (Lynnard Skinnard)
Eye of the Tiger (Survivor)
Blitzkrieg Bop (The Ramones)
Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana)

I know my musical knowledge is grossly incompetent, so if there are any songs you feel I've left out or bands that you feel have been gypped, speak now or forever hold your rock.

Again, tune in this friday for orcs and vote for them songs!