journal page 17

may 24, 2001
midnight
again, not too much to report. i talked to another film class today and the professor declared that the bleeding/dance scene in "rejected" is the "single most disturbing scene i have ever watched in all of cinema." she saw the fluffy dancing creatures as being some sort of sheep and went on to describe to the class the scene's commentary on social conformity and nazi mass mentality. i thought that was pretty cool i guess?

may 21, 2001
clarity
no refills
2:01am
was at the drug store buying antibiotics last week and it was very busy so it was rather hard to hear the clerk from across the counter. twice i had to say, "...sorry?" to make her repeat what she had mumbled, after which she continued the conversation in this really loud, slow, over-enunciated tone, assuming that i was hard of hearing. when i sat down waiting for my order to be filled, she yelled at me from behind the counter, "DO-YOU-HAVE-YOUR-CREDIT- CARD?";, vigourously miming the motion of a little card being swiped.

the nights are getting later. the animation is coming along fine, very slow, etc. i feel like i end up writing the same thing in this journal lately but that's sort of just the way things are right now. animate, sleep. animate, sleep. julia was over the other day and cut my hair. there is a strange stuffed kiwi looming over the corner of one of the booths in this restaurant that i am determined to make off with and mount over my bed. the problem is they have his feet bolted into the booth. so i will need a screwdriver and some considerable stealth. i had trouble getting to sleep last night because i couldn't stop lying there thinking about the end of the universe. somebody wrote in recently and revealed that gas mask guy is really just a screwy drug addict. well, that sort of takes the magic out of it all, doesn't it.

my apartment gets stuffy really easy. back to work..

don

april 30, 2001
your television will show you anything that will get you to watch more commercials
3:08am
my hair is getting long. taking a break from animating. have slipped straight back into being nocturnal, which will probably kick in fully over the next few months. i'll draw until 4 or 5 in the morning, sleep until noon. there's really no other way to get through this stuff other than late at night when there are no distractions. and it's somehow kind of nice to be the only one awake in the building and it's wonderfully quiet. i was really intimidated to get through the very first few characters last week and i was really nit-picking it all apart, but i've finally loosened up and am well into the flow of things. 500 drawings down, uh... several thousand to go.

i went to the art museum the other day and enjoyed a wall-sized oil painting of a screaming bear attacked by five dogs. i'm sure it was a metaphor for something. the bear looked real upset

i was spending much time in the cereal aisle late last night making a difficult decision that finally was narrowed down to which cereal offered the best toy. the rice krispies box has a little donald duck stuffed animal picture on the front -- "inside!" is all it says. on the back it says, collect all 4 characters in specially marked packages! free inside! so i buy the box, figuring i can give the doll to tim's kids or something. i open the box. nothing free inside. there is an order form printed on the inside of the box. mail in three box tops plus 3.50 and they will send your "free doll" in 6 weeks. what? isn't it supposed to say, "hey kids! not-free doll order form inside!" all these little kids are buying this cereal just for the free doll promise, only to take it home to be disappointed. how hard is it to really just put the little things in the box? i'm not sure what my point is other than i should stop reading cereal boxes but i guess it sort of serves to illustrate a larger picture. sort of like the screaming bear getting mauled by dogs. yeah

consumer advocate don

lies! lies! lies!!

rob says, "i just love the fact that you actually thought there'd be a stuffed animal in your cereal box"

april 18, 2001
geographic tongue girl
squeak squeak
9:42pm
the weather has been really beautiful and it's warm and everyone is smiling. the fed ex lady lectured me today about boxes. my box was apparently "sub-standard." she was weirdly upset about it. then the supermarket was selling little frozen pizzas 2 for 1 and my freezer is now a mountain of little frozen pizzas. this is not interesting. i am feeling a little better but this is still the worst sore throat i've ever had. in fact may i be so bold as to reason that if pain was symbolically represented by semicolons, i would have like three of them! ---> ;;; tHAT'S RIGHT! i lie you not!!

the opening sequence of the film, which is really just 10 seconds, is now more or less wrapped up, it just needs to be inked.

don

april 9, 2001
important instructions printed inside wrapper
7:07pm
feeling very upbeat. came up with the opening sequence of the new film last night and i think it will work perfectly. this may be the first time ever i've actually had the beginning and ending to a project firmly in mind this early in production but then again i have been slowly plugging away in pre-production on it for almost a year now so maybe that's misleading. meeting with tim tomorrow night to go over some music cues for the opening bits and make sure that i have the thing plotted out in my head right. meanwhile the pencil tests, all 6,000+ pages of them, are still coming along well and though they are tremendously painful to slog through, there's no other way to approach this project. i'm looking forward to someday seeing them all composited/traced together in the finished version. but i cannot believe that it's already been nine or ten months of just preparatory work. i've wanted to make this cartoon for many years now, even before "billy's balloon," but i never knew exactly how to pull it off. it wasn't until mid-way through "rejected" that i decided to bite the bullet and attempt to tackle this next.

i am sort of sick. there has been something evil sitting in the back of my throat since the weekend and it is really painful. i hope it doesn't spread to my ear. i have now built up an admirable immunity to this red numbing throat spray. i saw gasmask guy twice recently. he was walking along the freeway the other day and just this afternoon i saw him strolling around outside the jiffy lube. i'd have given him a ride if not for his wearing a gasmask and interest in eating me.

don