Toons In 3-Dimensions

Check out this amazing flickr set of View-Master slides courtesy of Matt Hinrichs ... quite simply put, these are some of the most beautiful sculptures of animated images you'll ever see.

Hey, I Wrote That!

Meant to post this at the first of the month instead of the end, but here's the latest book to appear with my byline, as well as my first title from the fine folks at Capstone Press.

Available in both a hardcover "library binding" and a softcover edition for those of us on a budget. Of course, if one believes what one reads on amazon.com, they are both the same price. Yes, the listings for both versions of The FBI (Cartoon Nation) are riddled with errors such as having the wrong product description, two authors instead of one (Terry and Collins), incorrect creator bios and a listed page count of 2,660 (instead of the correct 32)!

I sent amazon a list of corrections just a few moments ago, but have my doubts how long they will take to appear. Click the book cover if you're curious to see for yourself! ADDENDUM: In less than 24 hours, amazon.com did correct the author's name, but the rest of the errors still stand. Stay tuned for further details (although I must confess to feeling positively like Thomas Pynchon at the thought of crafting a 2,660 page book on the FBI - and a book for young readers at that)!

A Ride Home

"When I stepped out into the bright sunlight of the dark movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman, and a ride home."

After teaching the novel The Outsiders for two years, 150 students, and eight middle school classes, I was always saddened when the kids in my charge had no idea who Paul Newman was ... I might well have been talking about obscure stage actors of the 1800's as opposed to an iconic, and, until recently, still active screen presence of the last fifty years. Cultural awareness of this latest generation is a sad state of affairs - which is even more surprising when one considers that teens today have access to more information than any generation before them, and yet seem more blissfully unaware of anything going back further than five years.

So when reading of Newman's death today, I wondered if any of the middle school kids I taught who are now in freshmen and sophomores in high school might have taken pause to remember Ponyboy's opening (and closing) lines from S.E. Hinton's book.

Perhaps. When bringing the middle schoolers up to speed with a list of movies such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Cool Hand Luke, and The Sting that got me blank stares in return, the only one that ever clicked for them was, ironically, Newman's voice work as Doc Hudson in Cars.

From what I know of Newman, I think he would have liked that....

Found Footage Festival 2008 Preview!

Anyone who knows me, also knows I love awkward local cable access singing and dancing performances when mashed together with equally surreal corporate training videos.

Sound bizarre? Oh, absolutely. But for now, let this preview (complete with wrestlers!) whet your appetite for the simple insanity of the Found Footage Festival (2008 edition).

Sammy Sings Seltzer Songs!

By this time in the Candy Man's illustrious career, he was singing anything and everything to maintain his lavish cocaine-fueled California lifestyle, as evidenced by this commercial cash-in oddity (possibly free with any purchase of Alka Seltzer). Does anyone out there have a digital download of Sammy warbling "Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz?" (Hold on ... just did a search, and yes, someone does have the tune in question!)

So click the LP Cover and dig Scattin' Sammy's swinging seltzer soiree!