Bruce Springsteen song title goes here

Scott Caple's recent post reminded me I have yet to share my trip to the U.S of A



Ah, Sunny California! What a treat after a long Canadian winter!
I stayed with my friend JoJo, he was a great host.
JoJo is the archive assistant, and his friends Alex and Kelsey are loyal volunteers at the Archive, they do great work.

And speaking of the Archive, what is a trip to LA without helping out my ol' buddy Steve?

If you're not into cartoons, then you should at least go there for the music,
Here Steve performs a beautiful rendering to the old folk song "Barnacle Bill the Sailor",
Which can be heard in the classic Fleischer cartoons "Barnacle Bill" (with Betty Boop) and "Beware of Barnacle Bill" (with Popeye), I was first introduced to Fleischer cartoons by Steve when I was 14, and they've been among my favorites since.

Our friend Mike Fontanelli visited often, working passionately on wonderful Al Capp posts.

I was doing image processing and tagging, and donated the book "Rube Goldberg vs. The Machine Age"

As said, Scott Caple was in town, Aside for being a great artist, He's a film and history fan, who appreciates great artwork and craftsmanship, so I invited him to the Archive, He came there with his friend Kevin, and they were both blown away, It was fun!

Foodles from a generous John K. Pizza education session

And of course, when you're on vacation, you should go to the Zoo, It's simply what the doctor prescribed, because there you see everyone's favorite laughter factor: crazy monkeys in swing!

When I came back from the Zoo, JoJo and Alex had finished class, Alex asked me if I've been to the aviary, because there's a Bird there that looks like Tex Avery, I haven't seen it, I wonder if that's why they call it the Aviary.

I'd like to thank Will Finn, Kent Butterworth, Sherm Cohen, Eddie Fitzgerald, Mike Kazalah, Claudio Riba, Sue Kroyer, Joe Haidar, the students at Woodbury University , and JD Mata, it was great to meet you! Looking forward to next time!

Peace.

Influence on cartoons

When I watch films I don't just watch them for fun, I always try to learn from them...Well that's a half lie, because learning from them is also fun!
One of my favorite things to do is "dig in" to cartoon/film history, especially to look into the influence behind my favorites, It's rare, but I'm very pleased when I find it.

John K. has often noted Peter Lorre as one of his favorite actors, The first film I happened to see with him was "The Maltese Falcon", I caught it one night on TCM, and I was hooked from the first minute...That film is totally cut to the chase! They never waste any time! The characters are so strong, and the pace was so tight, it's as if John Huston had me hooked by a fishing rod and pulling me into the TV, I just couldn't sit back in my chair. The scene that most interested me happened in the climax.

When John K. took Steve, kali and I to dinner last summer, we talked about our favorite Film Noir, John's favorite is THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, I mentioned that mine was the MALTESE FALCON...and that I've been meaning to ask him: Near the end of the Film: Peter Lorre snaps at Sydney Greenstreet....and before I could finish my sentence, John completes it: "That's where Ren and Stimpy came from!"

The Maltese Stimpy
Uploaded by toonamir

In his commentary on His favorite cartoon "The Great Piggy Bank Robbery" John notes a hilarious scene in it may as well be influenced by the same wonderful film

Wilmer the piggy
Uploaded by toonamir

I like surfing the internet because I often find material that both inspires me and teaches me, As I was putting together the link list, I found Rosemary Clooney's wonderful performance of the song "Blues in the Night"



This was a great discovery because I often heard references to this song in many of Bob Clampett's Cartoons, Notably the banned and brilliant "Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs"

Coal Black: Blues in the Night
Uploaded by toonamir

If you'd like to see the complete cartoon in it's original release quality visit Steve at the ASIFA-Hollywood Archive


There's still a ton of stuff to discover, and Blogs can help us get there, so I hope folks such as Will Finn and Pete Emslie will continue commenting with "Useless Trivia"!

By the way, do you need a clue to find out which American cartoon the Miyazaki Lupin episode is based on? I'll give you a hint: It's a Fleischer cartoon from the 1940s.

Think Fink

Last Thursday we had a visit from Sheridan grad Mike Roberts.
He animated “Tales of Rat Fink” all by himself. I haven’t heard of the film before,
but now that I’ve seen it, I highly recommend it.
“Tales of Rat Fink” is a part animated/ part live-action biography of pop culture icon Ed Roth.
Ed isn’t a household name, but his influence is phenomenal.
He revolutionized the world of Hot Rods and created the graphic T-shirt (“before him they were just underwear!”) He’s best known for designing the character of Rat Fink: A grotesque monster resembling Mickey Mouse… after a nuclear shower.
This is a classic fun-to-learn documentary, giving the deserving recognition to this pop culture icon. If your stuck for inspiration, or just looking for movie night ideas, think fink!

Inspiration

Betty Boop drawn for the 80s by Grim Natwick (signature hidden by flash light)

Photo courtesy of Reg Hartt