Back in the Day

Alien Armpit Sniffers at Work

Hey everyone!

Sorry for the blog suckage and delay in posting anything brand spankin' new for awhile. I've just returned from two and a half weeks in Denmark working on a fun project. I was animating a music video for the Danish band called Figurines.

Brad Mossman, the video's director, is an old friend from San Francisco who now lives in northern Denmark. He is a wacked musician that does frantic theme songs for cartoons on Nickelodeon, Disney and Cartoon Network. All of the jingles for the cartoons and video games I helped create a few years back were also brain-stormed by him.

Brad drew the cover character for the Figurine's album, Skeleton. So everyone thought it was a good idea to have these his characters come to life for the video of "Back in the Day."

The video is partially funded by the Animation Workshop, in Viborg, Denmark. You can check out our progress, see where we were working, and laugh at our pale, sunlight deprived faces at the official Back in the Day Blog put together by Brad.

After a chill weekend in Copenhagen (visiting more old friends), I'm back in London. Although I'm working without Brad's tasty veggie cooking, I hope to have the remaining 10% percent of the animation done by Christmas. I'll let you all know when it's available for your viewing pleasure.

When Belly Button Lint goes Unchecked

Creepy Cornwall

A foggy night and an abadoned tin mine in southwestern Cornwall

Dear faithful readers, sorry about the lack of posts this month. I've luckily been traveling a lot and away from the computer. Then when I'm in front of the thing, I get BlogBlock. One of my trips was to the English seaside with my girlfriend and family. We rented a cottage in Port Issac, Cornwall. Cornwall is a fiercely territoral area with its own language, ideals, history and folklore. Little did I know that it is one of the most haunted in England as well.

The entrance to the... well, you can guess.

One of the biggest attractions in the area we were staying was the Witchcraft Museum in Boscastle. Tucked away in a small looking cottage, this museum had an extensive collection of artifacts from all areas of witchcraft-potion indredients and herbs, the history of witch persectuation and torture, voodoo dolls, mandrakes, descriptions of spells, curses and charms, and information on current popular witchcraft (wiccans). Unfortunately we were short on time and I had to fly through. If you are in that neck of the woods, I'd definetely recommend it.

Boscastle was a perfect setting for sucha museum. It's a small harbor village in a valley with an eiree feel to it. The town was nearly wiped out in a 2004 flash flood and the Wellington Hotel has several spooky residents.

As one Cornish local said to us, "there's witchy things going on around these parts".

A piskie plots his revenge.

But by far my favorite part of the trip was an accidental visit to the Tunnels Through Time. It was one the most creepiest, dustiest, out of the way, weird tourist trap I've ever been to (and I seek them out). While walking around the surfing town of Newquay, I noticed signs to the Tunnel of Time. So with only minutes to closing time we snuck and began our tour.

You are walked through Cornwall's bloody history and folklore by disturbingly real dioramas of cavemen, smugglers, pirates, wizards and mermaids. There are also scary ones depicting leprosy, human sacrifices, the Black Plague and the Dungeon of Despair!

My favorites were the unique dioramas with Cornish magical residents in them. The piskies, the knockers and the great giant Bolster (with blood spewing out his wrist) were the most interesting.

It was a nice break from the fudge shoppes and frilly cream tea rooms.

Hopefully I haven't creeped everyone out... will post some drawings next week.

Back from Beijing

Up, up and awaaaaay!

I'm finally back from Beijing! I apologize for not uploading anything while I was there. It seems that accessing Blogger is blocked in China.

Beijing is a remarkably crazy city. I really liked it despite (and because of) the heavy pollution, the sweltering mugginess, the constant blaring of car horns and the threat of being run over every five minutes. It really is a unique city. The people were extremely friendly and generous. I'm glad I had a chance to work there so I could talk to the locals and see what they were like. I also had a chance to do a little sightseeing as well- The Great Wall, the Forbidden City, and Tiannamen Square. The best way to see the city is walking through the old neighborhood alleyways and streets called "hutongs". Sadly these are being bulldozed to make way for faceless modern high-rises for the 2008 Olympics. Beijing is a city in transition.

You can see my pics here.

I'll be extremely busy working on two freelance projects over the next couple of weeks, so I don't know how much I'm be updating Blogcha. "Sorry" in advance for blog butt suckage.

Mao & Me

I'm heading to Beijing today for a few weeks for biznazz 'n pleazure. I'll try to post some pics while I'm there and I'm hoping to do a bunch of sketches as well for your later enjoyment.