Thursday, December 30, 2010

New Year's Weekend

Here it is: the last blog entry of the year. But I'm not ready to tote up the days and the happenings of 2010 and declare them to be of a certain quality. I think I'll have my taxes done long before I get a real handle on what 2010 was for me.

To celebrate its departure, Steve and I went up to Pismo Beach for a couple of days earlier this week. We got to visit with my sister Kittie and her husband David. We had a lovely Italian dinner with them Monday evening. Steve had shrimp and scallops and got extremely ill later that night. After about 11 hours of sleep, and he was feeling much better, so we headed out.

On Tuesday, we drove up to Cambria, since Steve had never been, and stopped in at Seekers Art Glass Gallery to see if we could get a couple more tumblers by Esteban Prieto.

No such luck. They were out of stock, so we drove slow down Main Street and drove past Dr. Tinkerpaw's house on Nitwit Ridge. We didn't stop for any food, since Steve was still feeling a little queasy.

By the time we reached Morro Bay, he had enough of an appetite to stop at one of the Foster's Freezes of my youth. We got milkshakes, which has always been my chicken-soup for food poisoning and/or hangovers.

After, we went down to the Embarcadero to window shop and kill some time before our dinner date. (I only seem to take pictures when I'm standing on a dock in Morro Bay. Here's a chunk of video):



Late afternoon-early evening, we got together with Lisa Woske at Pepe Delgado's in San Luis Obispo for a round of drinks and some dinner. Steve braved the Albonigos soup (which was most agreeable) and I had a taco salad. Lisa had a large burrito with the word "Whale" in its name. It was very large, and a hefty remainder went home with her to feed her son, Chris. Steve and I went back to the hotel and kicked back for the evening, listening to the rain as it arrived.

Wednesday morning, the rain had moved on. We packed up and checked out, then stopped by Kittie's office. She introduced us around (getting a real kick out of calling Steve her brother-in-law). After lunch at a deli in the Village, we dropped Kittie back at work and hit the road home.

The rain moved ahead of us as we drove south, following far enough behind never to get wet. The gray clouds were moving out of Pasadena just at the time we got home.

The cats were glad to see us.

For New Year's Eve, we're celebrating at home, as usual. Moving around in Pasadena on New Year's Eve can be tricky. We've got half a cheese log, a wedge of brie and bread and crackers enough for celebration.

Goodbye, 2010. Goodbye.

Can't wait for the Rose Parade and the floats. Much saner and better viewing watching it on HDTV. But maybe next year we'll get some tickets and brave the weather to be there in person.

Friday, December 24, 2010

Merry Christmas Everybody

Here it is, Christmas Eve, and now my favorite Christmas cartoon. Coming across this last year was what started the whole Yuletide cartoon fling. My copy from last year:

1936 "Christmas Comes But Once a Year" is a Fleischer cartoon (the creators of Betty Boop) from 1936 and stars Professor Grampy, who was added to the Fleischer character stable in an attempt to tone down the risque innuendos of Betty Boop's early cartoons which brought the wrath of the censors. I can remember watching this on our black-and-white television set in the late '50s. Running across it in color is a real treat.




We went out last night to pick up cat food and cat litter, both supplies almost exhausted and overlooked while getting ready for the holiday weekend. It was crazy out there. The parking at PetSmart was all right, but everywhere else it was impossible to find a parking place.

I hope I did a Christmas good deed. Sister-in-law Carla sent out an e-mail asking for dad's Christmas Eve Clam Chowder recipe. Luckily, I have it on file with my other favorites on the computer, so it was easy to copy and paste it. Hope she got the e-mail, as I sent it just minutes before she was scheduled to leave for the store.

So, Merry Christmas everybody, and a Happy New Year.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Here Comes Stepford Santa

From 1963, this short must have been a tax write-off. It's kind of a poem but not. It's obviously shot in somebody's living room and a department store somewhere, and there is no talent or even enthusiasm involved, but lots of stock footage of Santas in various promotional situations.

There's also lots of female brainwashing involved when it comes to the scenes in the "toy warehouse." My favorite line: "...she'll cook and scrub the whole day long, then serve a TV dinner."



Wednesday was rain. And rain. And more rain. There was lightning and thunder and some pretty nasty mudslides in the area, some four and five feet deep. And then, just before sundown, a crack in the clouds in the west and, for a moment, a rainbow. By the time the sun had gone down, seven days of constant rain were over. The storm has moved off to the east, to wreck havoc as it moves across the continent.

Wednesday evening was cookie-baking time. Not the vast amounts I had hoped to do, but enough to make a gift and keep a dozen or so for our holidays.

Today I have one more shopping errand and then we're ready for the holiday weekend and the week off to come. It will be nice to walk in a chilly but sunny day. But it's my understanding we're not done with the rain, and some forecasts predict at least drizzle on the Rose Parade. We'll have to see.

One last cartoon scheduled for tomorrow, Christmas Eve. We will go back to the Great Depression and one of my favorite holiday animations.

If you don't get around to reading this on Christmas Eve, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Holiday Bump-a-Cars

Made in Russia in 1959, "The Christmas Visit" provided for the holiday (which officially did not exist) while showcasing Soviet scientific superiority. Kind of kooky, but no less insane than American Christmas.

Of course, there's no telling what liberties were taken by the people who dubbed this into English. It's fun to compare this to the very first Christmas cartoon in this series, which was also done in Russia but in 1913 (Here Come the Cartoons, 12/03/10).



Tuesday was weird. There was a good lull in the rain, so I took the opportunity to go out and do grocery shopping for the holiday weekend. This year I actually put together a daily menu so I'd have the right stuff on hand and not have to run out to grab missing ingredients.

I was driving down Mentor, a one-way street clearly marked "no stopping at any time," and there was a car stopped in the righthand lane, just in front of the entrance to the store parking lot. I pulled left around them, signaled for my righthand turn and felt them ram into the back of my car as I made my turn.

I backed up and parked on the street, and an old woman emerged from the passenger's side. She had a heavy slavic accent. "Dis vas yur vault!" she was saying. The driver, a younger woman, sat in the car. I went around and checked my fender and there was a foot-long scratch but, hey, there are lots of scratches on my car, as it's 12 years old.

"You were stopped in a no-stopping zone," I said. "And you hit me from behind, so you obviously didn't look for traffic before pulling forward."

"No, no," she protested, "You come from wrong lane."

"Because you were illegally stopped in the right one."

About this time the young woman got out.

"Well, what's the damage to your car?" I asked. We walked over and checked the driver's side headlight. There was a inch-long scratch in the paint and a small piece of the rubber gasket around the light housing was half peeled back.

"Here," the old woman said in an injured voice, "You see vat you do!"

"I was turning into the parking lot," the young woman said.

"And you cut us off!" the older one exclaimed.

"Well," I said, "I can give you my insurance information and you can give me yours and we can call the police and wait for someone to come out and document this." The old woman glared at me. The young one looked worried.

"You were breaking the law," I repeated. "There's a sign right there and one right back there, and they both say 'No Stopping at Any Time.'" All was silent.

"You're going Christmas shopping, aren't you?" I asked. They both nodded. "If we file a report, you'll get a ticket and I might get one, too. Why don't we say we were both at fault and live with the scratches? The important thing is everyone's all right."

"I'm a sick old woman!" was the reply.

And then. "I think you're right," from the driver.

"Let's get our shopping done," I said, moving back to my car, and added without really thinking, "Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas!" the old woman called. The two words had worked magic on her, and she seemed almost chipper.

This store has a strange holiday energy. Five years ago, Steve and I were pulling into the parking lot Christmas Eve to pick up last-minute stuff. He hit the curb and blew out a tire.

As Steve was gnashing his teeth and we set about to change the wheel, a man pulled up next to us in the parking lot and said, "Looks like you need some help." While we watched, he pulled a pneumatic jack from his truck, popped the wheel and had the new one on in no time, chattering happily all the while. "Merry Christmas!" he called on the way into the store. We returned his hail.

This is all very heartwarming, in an automotive way, but I am avoiding this Ralphs store within 10 days of any major holiday from now on.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Wet, Wetter, Wettest, Wettester

"The Christmas Visitor" from 1959. It's an English cartoon, done in the simplified animation style that would become so popular in TV commercials of the 1960s.

It's a take on "T'was the Night Before Christmas," with a whole Snidley-Whiplash-Nell-on-the-train-tracks twist that doesn't make sense. Santa smokes a cigar and drinks booze while it all unfolds. Also, he's got a Mary Poppins thing going on in the chimney.



It rained even more Monday than it did the day before. Whole gobs of rain. I kept waiting for it to let up so I could go out and do some shopping, but by 2 p.m. it was obvious this was as good as it was going to get, so I got in the car and headed out.

Conditions were terrible: intersections flooded, my windows fogging up, idiots in SUVs tearing around like the roads were dry. Got done most of what I wanted to get done and then headed straight back home. Wrapped a couple more presents and stayed warm inside while the storm pounded on Pasadena.

Today I plan on doing some holiday baking and some boring old laundry. And Wednesday I've got to get the shopping done for the holiday weekend. Haven't even planned the menu yet, but I'm sure it will all come together.

Only a couple days left until Christmas, only a couple of cartoons left to put up here. Hope everyone's holiday season is going well so far. Hope people can get to where they're going by the time they need to get there.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Gray Skies Aren't Gonna Clear Up

Harveytoons strikes again with "Jumping With Toy" from 1957. This one stars Baby Huey, a mentally challenged monster duckling. The starving fox always tries to consume Baby Huey, but Huey's positive attitude and giant size saves him every time. What's the point of the cartoon? There is none, as with much of 1950s American culture.



Sunday was spent pretty much indoors, as it rained and rained and rained. It looks like it's going to be doing just that until well into Wednesday, so my last days of shopping will be done in drizzle to downpour, depending on the timing of it all.

My heart goes out to those who live beneath the burn areas, which take three to five years to fully recover. Minor mudslides were reported today, but if the rain keep coming down as forecast, I fear some families will be spending Christmas knee-deep in mud.

Steve and I have decided, since he's off between Christmas and New Year's days, to take a couple days and head up the coast just to get out of town. We're scheduling it so that we miss most of what will be the intra-holiday traffic.

Hopefully, one of our stops will be at John and Sandy Beck's to see their Christmas decorations. I'll get footage, if possible, to share with those unfamiliar with this phenomenon. It will astound the uninitiated.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Merry Christmas 200 Times

It must be close to Christmas, because we've reach the 1950s and television has begun to brainwash us all. Today's feature short is "Howdy Doody's Christmas." You have to be rather long in the tooth to remember this show. Only four of the regular characters show up here (and Santa too, of course), but already nefarious forces are at work to stop Santa's special visit.

But first, in the spirit of 1950s TV Christmas and while the kids are all watching, a word from our sponsor:



And now, back to our special program for today from 1957:



Today was rainy-drizzling, with constant but not overwhelming precipitation. We went grocery shopping, then Steve went out for a haircut while I wrapped presents. When he got home, I went up and napped while he wrapped presents. Now it's not looking too shabby under the tree, but nothing like some of the trees from my family's past (one coarse snapshot shown here, with presents reaching wall to wall).

When we were very little kids, opening presents happened on Christmas mornings, and it was a free-for-all: paper and ribbon flew and it was over in about 15 minutes. As we got older, we started opening presents on Christmas Eve, 7:30 p.m. to be precise.

Someone was designated and he or she picked a present from under the tree (when picking, the rule was it could not be to you or from you) and handed it to the recipient. He or she opened the present, oohs and aahs ensued and everyone got to see it. The recipient then got up and picked a present and presented it to the next person and so on.

This procedure could last for hours with a family of seven (and even longer when those siblings spawned offspring). The extended period, however, gave us all more time to enjoy the holiday.

Traditions are funny things, sort of like taking a shower: everyone does it a little differently and without ever thinking about it. Yet they have a very precise and time-honored course they follow. And, over the years, it changes ever so subtly that almost no one notices.

Merry Christmas: pass the shampoo when you're done with it.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Ghost of Christmas 1955

To prove the shamelessness of Hollywood, here comes a Casper cartoon from 1955. With all the potential of the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future and their rich Dickensian heritage, Harveytoons chooses to rip off the Fliescher Bros. 1938 classic, "Christmas Comes But Once a Year" (which we will be seeing here on Christmas Eve Day) in this friendly ghost story. No real redeeming qualities, but I wanted to show it as a lackluster comparison to the original.



Looks like it's going to rain right through until Christmas here in Pasadena. The temperatures will be below normal, meaning in the low 60s instead of the high 60s. I watch the news coverage of cold and snow in the rest of the country and have to be thankful for our winters here. Let's just hope it doesn't rain on the Rose Parade like it did five years ago.

Friday I got down the wrapping materials and took paper/ribbon/bow inventory. The one thing I always forget — name tags — I had already purchased. Having made my count (and taken a picture of the wrapping papers to match colors), I went shopping to fill out the supplies.

I checked the job boards online, but nothing new is showing up this week, and I don't think anything will until the new year, so I'm concentrating on holiday cheer, thankful for all the good things in my life right now, and my good taste in holiday wrapping supplies.

Still some shopping left, so next week won't be boring.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Begin the Year's Closing Out

Just got the news today that Variety hired someone else for the graphic designer position they had open. Actually, Wednesday night I wrote an e-mail to Creative Director, Paula Taylor, saying I couldn't understand why I wasn't being seriously considered for the position and letting her know I was going to call her on Friday to discuss whatever concerns she might have.

Thursday afternoon I got an e-mail from the HR person saying that the position had been offered to someone else and they had accepted it. If I had not been so assertive, I wonder how many days it would have taken her to give me that information (or, in fact, for how many days she had it and had not communicated it to me as she has repeatedly said she would).

It was a long shot, in any case, but at least I got the information I wanted (though not the information I wanted, if you get my drift). Perhaps this is God telling me that the entertainment industry sucks, and I should go into something sincere, meaningful and genuine, like marketing or public relations.

Enough of my tawdry career melodramatics. Nothing of substance is going to happen until after the holidays now, so let's have some holly-jolly fun, what eh?

It's time for today's Christmas short: "Hardrock, Coco and Joe (the Three Little Dwarfs.)" I love this one especially because, during a time when America had such racial tensions brewing, the creators of this piece were brave enough to make Santa Asian (perhaps guilt feelings of Hiroshima): ENJOY!




There was a party on Thursday at Pearce Plastics (the company where Steve works and I did their web design), and I was the only invited outside guest. It was quite an honor. It was a combination Christmas party and birthday party (the owner, Woody Pearce, will be 91 this month).

They held it in an open area of the shipping department (the company manufactures plastic tops and jars for the cosmetic industry) and it was kind of a pot luck. There were some amazing enchiladas and rice, and a flan that was really excellent. And after the food was the Dancing! Here's the very first video from my iPhone recording the festivities. Woody's the guy in the gray jacket who comes into frame on the right about 30 seconds into the clip.



After the party, I actually got some shopping done and the parking wasn't too terrible at all. Found some nice stuff and a few bargains.

And when I got home there were two boxes from Fed Ex sitting outside the door. They were both from my sister Kittie and her husband David. One was full of Christmas presents and the other had birthday presents from this last year: two hand-blown tumblers in the exact same style and by the exact same artist as the four old-fashioned glasses I've had for almost 20 years. Steve and I were just blown away! And the birthday presents were packed in a styrofoam shipping chest, so now we have a really convenient way to transport our spare human organs.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE!!!

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Aching for the Holidays

Today's short: "Here Comes Suzy Snowflake." Rosemary Clooney popularized this 1951 song with a much spritlier version than the one heard here. This film's creators were also responsible for tomorrow's vid, "Hardrock, Coco and Joe" (more gang names), both created for broadcast on WGN in Chicago.



I woke up yesterday morning feeling achy and sore and didn't get any better, so I called and canceled my last day at job search boot camp. I made myself a sandwich and went back to bed and slept the rest of the day. Taking an ibuprofen improved things a little, and I'm not feeling too lousy. Since I write these blogs around midnight, I can report that I'm feeling better and hope to be back on my feet today.

Got to put together my to-do list. Believe it or not, I haven't even started my Christmas shopping, and there's only eight days left (we open packages on Christmas Eve). The list will be short this year, but it needs to get done, nonetheless. Also on the list, getting my car smogged and paying the registration. A tip: Never buy a car in January. It really screws up the holidays with the annual paperwork. What a festive bit of advice upon which to end.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Six Decades of Separation

Here's a lovely live-action short from Christmas 1950, starring Santa Claus and his three elf workers, Pepe, Zippo and Click. It's odd, because I'm sure I've seen these same names scrawled in graffiti on a bus bench in old town Pasadena: yesterday's Christmas elves become today's gang members.

I love the family portrayed in this film. No needy children here, just Christmas greed wrapped up in a holiday hymn: a glimmer of the mercantile Christmas yet to come.



The second day of job search boot camp was kind of like the first, only in reverse. The first session dealt with taking your LinkedIn network and using it to find contacts with various companies. They also turned us on to several job sites that are designed to narrow your search rather than cast the widest net.

One of the great things about these seminars is that these folks are recruiters, and they are giving us the inside scoop on how recruiters go about finding qualified candidates for job openings; how they search and what they look for in resumes and profiles.

The second half of the afternoon was interview advice, and a lot of this was pretty self-evident. I did pick up a few ideas, though, so it wasn't a total repeat of what I already know. Tomorrow is mock interviewing with actual recruiters, with a critique afterwards. That will wrap up the three-day workshop.

I still haven't done any Christmas shopping.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Disturbing Live Action

This film, "Santa in Animal Land," was made in 1948 and just smacks of something churned out for that new medium that no one knew how to program: television.

The acting, writing and direction are disturbingly similar to early John Waters films. The puppets themselves are creepy, especially Santa, who looks like he has a crystal meth problem. Better to keep this one from the children.



Monday's session of job search boot camp was stultifyingly boring for the first two hours, as they were devoted to discussing motivation and how to keep it. The fact that the guy doing the speaking was not terribly motivational didn't help, and I had heard all the quotes and tricks to stay motivated. Just as my eyes were glazing over, we had a break.

The second half of the afternoon was devoted to the concept of networking, and specifically portals for virtual networking. The cold hard fact is that 80% of jobs are filled via networking and not by filling out applications on a website or mailing resumes in response to job postings online.

They also discussed effective networking, as opposed to just attending meet-and-greets and shoving your business card in every available hand. The techniques they discussed take some time, but I can see how they would put you in a great position to be in the mind of many influential people.

Today we're going to discuss using LinkedIn as a way to build a cyber network. More and more, recruiters are going to these business specific social networking sites to do their culling for job candidates. It's definitely interesting enough that I will be going back. On Wednesday, we're going to do mock interviews with actual recruiters to get feedback on the good, the bad and the ugly of sitting as a candidate for a position. I'll keep you all posted.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Mark Goes to Boot Camp

Today's cartoon is from 1948, another one from Famous Studios. Entitled "Hector's Hectic Life," it deals with a dog and a woman who seems to be Norwegian or Swedish or something. Three little puppies who look just like Hector arrive at the door and panic ensues (why do animated offspring always come in three's?). Fairly pointless, kind of hinting at the vapid, materialistic road post-WWII America was on.



This afternoon I am going to unemployment boot camp. You see, I have the dubious honor of belonging to the "Top 125"; we're clients of the Foothill Employment and Training Center who are the most skilled and employable but who still do not have jobs (I think I must be in the top 10 by now).

So the WIA Program I belong to (which was where I got my grant for my web design training last year) is having this three-day boot camp "to help propel you into the workforce." Sounds a little uncontrolled to me. I imagine, after three days and 12 hours of rigorous corporate brainwashing, being hurtled forward, catapultlike, and landing in a job where I get to say "do you want fries with that?" at least 20 times an hour.

The boot camp is being "facilitated by dynamic workforce professionals from Launchpad Careers, Inc." Well, that's a plus: the word "career," having one and trying to continue with it are concepts that the folks at FETC are addressing less and less the longer I'm unemployed. At a certain point, I think I become an embarrassment and they wash their hands of me altogether: That will probably be about the time my unemployment extensions run out.

Actually, these folks have been very helpful; it's just the employers who seem to have so little interest in hiring a "seasoned" design professional like myself.

So I'll let you know how day one goes in tomorrow's entry. For all the sarcasm, I'm keeping a positive attitude and hoping this will be a very real turning point for the job search.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

The Depression's Over

At least as far as the Christmas cartoons are concerned; we have moved on to the post-WWII era. Today's offering is called "Santa's Surprise" from 1947 and features Little Audrey. Gone are the children in tatters; here's a Santa who has plenty of presents for every girl and boy all over the world, and in the spirit of the United Nations, which began the year before, all the children decide to give Santa a present in return by cleaning up his messy house (one must surmise Mrs. Claus had not been created yet as a plot or marketing tool). All the racial stereotypes are here, and Santa's as white and American as can be.



We drove out to Claremont Saturday night to attend Steve and Roberto's annual Christmas party. They have a house well-suited to large soirees, not an open plan, but lots of different rooms, and they deck the place out for the holidays. I believe I counted four large trees and at least a dozen tiny ones.

We lasted a couple hours, but then the place got so crowded it was nearly impossible to move. By the time we left, four rooms on two floors, a very large patio and even larger deck were filled with bodies, and they were spilling out onto the lawn outside the front door and along the walkway when we left. It was a blast and the food, as usual, was amazing. (We didn't stay around for the tamales or desserts, though.)

Earlier in the day, Steve confessed that he was going to get me a new iPhone for Christmas but wasn't sure how to activate it. I then confessed that I was getting him one, as well, and that I would have to be present with both old phones to get the new ones activated because the Family Plan is in my name. So we headed on over to the AT&T store and, after some questions and answers, came home with our new phones. (It was about time; we both have the first generation of iPhone and they'll be obsolete in a year or so).

The new phones have video, and I tried to shoot a video tour of the Christmas tree, but it's getting late and I'm working with programs I have never run before, so getting the framing right and adding music and such will have to wait until tomorrow. You'll see something soon here, I promise.

To compensate, I've added a couple shots of ornaments on the tree. This will have to suffice until I master the rudimentaries of the iMovie program.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Party Weekend

Today's Christmas cartoon is "Somewhere in Dreamland" from 1936. Another depression-era cartoon about poor children and destitute parents and the miracle of Christmas giving. If you're starting to get sick of this theme, fear not, we are almost out of the era of animation and will be getting to shoddier and more tasteless fare from the '50s and '60s very soon.



The holiday season has begun because David and Deeann have had their Continental party (named after the Christopher Walken character from Saturday Night Live) on Friday evening. Ever since I worked at the Reporter, this has been the first bash of the season after Thanksgiving, and has kick-started my holidays for the last couple years.

We had to leave fairly early to get back to Pasadena, but I did get to see several people I haven't talked to in months or years. It was a really good time and something my spirit needed right about now.

Saturday is shopping day and, guess what? We're out of laundry soap. This evening we have Steve and Roberto's Christmas party, so this should be a whirlwind weekend. I'm just glad it's so warm (in the '70s and '80s through the weekend).

Friday, December 10, 2010

I Want to Make My Dirty Clean

Firesign Theater fans will recognize the title as a line from "High School Madness." Today it refers to the fact that I spent yesterday not only doing all the laundry but also emptying the dishwasher and cleaning my desk (well, starting to clean it, anyway).

Today's Christmas cartoon is called "Toyland Premiere" and is one of those studio cartoons that caricaturizes Hollywood stars (although it also seems to be alluding to the Macy's parade with the balloons, and it all takes place in a department store). It's "controversial" because the elves are called "dwarves" in the lyrics, and there's an Al Jolson caricature in blackface. Also, there is a small cut made at the end: Santa blows out the candles on the cake, the cake splatters on Laurel and Hardy's faces to make them look like they're in blackface (that bit's cut), then it cuts to Santa laughing.



Tonight we have a party in Toluca Lake. It's hosted by a couple who used to work at the Reporter with me. There are going to be a lot of old faces (some still working at the Reporter, some who have moved on, some still unemployed), so it will be nice to catch up on where people are in their lives and careers, and garner all the juicy details about the Reporter since it has gone glam mag.

Hell, maybe I'll get out and do some shopping beforehand. You never know.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Working It In

This cartoon was featured in last year's lineup. Here's the comments I made about it back then:

"It's interesting to note that Santa's house looks an awful lot like Sleeping Beauty's Castle at Disneyland. And those elves aren't unlike the happy human fodder who work for the Disney magic factory even today. See if you can spot the four places where Walt indulges in that campy '30s racism he's so famous for (a hint: two blacks, two asians and a Jew)."



A point of interest: if you go to the Hollywood Reporter slideshow on my website and select the Special Sections gallery, then choose the fifth image ("Buzz Biz") and download the PDF file, on page 5 of that PDF file you will find an advertisement for this cartoon, as well as "Mickey's Good Deed," both released in 1932.

I think I've run out of holiday spirit for the week. We've got a party on Friday and a party on Saturday, and I'm hoping these will charge me back up with good cheer, but right now I have no desire to go shopping or wrap presents or any other festive thing. What I have in store for me today is the laundry.

I can't get over this being my second Christmas unemployed. Things are going well but I really feel the lack of direction in my life. Starting up my own studio would be a positive move, but I just don't have the motivation to make it happen right now.

I've started working up the steps necessary, the licenses and permits needed, sketching out a marketing strategy, but I'm not jumping out of bed in the morning thinking, "Got to get working on the business." There was a time when I felt that way about working at the Reporter, but that's a fading memory these days.

So I'll go sort the laundry and get the loads going. At least we'll have fresh clothes for the parties to come.

Maybe tomorrow's post will be a little more festive.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Today is Today

Yes, I'm really writing this entry on the 8th. The fact that I just finished writing the entry for the 7th means I don't have a whole lot to add just now.

Here's our Christmas cartoon: Popeye! It's a colorized version, and it is your basic Popeye cartoon: Popeye and Olive Oyl together, Bluto mashes Olive, Olive gets in grave danger when she rejects Mr. B's advances, Popeye eats spinach and saves the day. The American icon of competition and violence, except this one ends with a Christmas tree and holiday greetings (this tree is not created by a magical Santa, however; it is the direct result of violence of one human on another). The real message of Popeye, though, is the futility of wanting to possess another, especially someone as bung-ugly as Ms. Oyl.



And now that I'm caught up on my blog entries, I think I'll hop in the shower, throw on some clothes (it's 72 and sunny outside) and maybe go out and do a little Christmas shopping.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Catching Up

Our Christmas cartoon today features the Little King, whom I vaguely remember from my childhood (possibly the Sunday funnies in the paper?), but I had never seen him animated. The whole thing is kind of pointless, but any Little King who picks up two hobos on Christmas Eve and bathes and sleeps with them while the Queen is sleeping in the other room is OK with me. I also don't understand the whole thing with the soap. An interesting point, just like in the 1913 animation, Santa actually makes the tree grow, with decorations included. Enjoy.




This entry is labeled Dec. 7, although I'm actually writing it on the 8th. Our router died on the 6th and I had to make my blog entry from Steve's computer. I'm afraid I got so preoccupied with catching up on job searching and such, I failed to make a Dec. 7 entry. So here it is:

I did my job search and found one great job right here in Pasadena which was already closed by the time I made application (of course, it took 20 minutes of filling out their employment info online to find that out).

Then I cleaned the floors downstairs (trying to use up all the wet Swiffer mop heads, because I really hate them) and vacuumed the rug and slate. That was about the scope of my holiday job for the 7th.

And, of course, I remembered Pearl Harbor.

Monday, December 6, 2010

I'm Dreaming of a Wet Christmas

It's presently raining cats and dogs outside here in Pasadena, and that's about as Christmassy as it gets in Southern California.

Today we continue with the Depression-era holiday cartoons, this one called "The Shanty Where Santy Claus Lives," produced in 1933. This was right toward the end of the era when the concept of putting burning candles onto a Christmas tree was still thought to be sane.



We went out Sunday just long enough to pick up some final items to finish with the holiday decorating. I put up the garland over the dining room window and strung the electronic-controlled LED lights in the window facing the street, so now it twinkles like stars … well, kind of. It's real pretty from the sidewalk, though.

Our router died Sunday morning, so there was no Internet connection available. We got the modem rebooted and hooked up to Steve's computer, but mine is offline for the moment. This being so, I'm posting this entry on his computer, which is a PC with a right-hand mouse (even though he's left-handed), which is kind of awkward for me.

Hope your weekend was wonderful. I suppose I'm going router shopping, as job searching must continue each and every Monday. Maybe I'll get some holiday shopping done, as well. I haven't even started yet.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

All Things Disney

One of my friends on Facebook was starting her gingerbread house today (she's a professional baker, doing specialty wedding cakes and such) and was taking suggestions of after what she should model the house. I suggested the train station at the entrance of Disneyland. She's a Disneyland nut (living just a few miles from the park) and really liked the idea.

Now I sit down to write today's post and who should be the protagonist of our next cartoon but Mickey himself. This reminded me of the freebie park tickets I used to get as a member of the press. This is the second Christmas season we haven't taken someone to the Magic Kingdom.

So here it is, "Mickey's Good Deed," which was created in 1932. Many of these depression-era cartoons deal with the huge disparity between the wealthy and the destitute. These days we don't seem to care too much about that, even though the gap between the very rich and the very poor is every widening in this new century.



It's interesting that Mickey's good deed was to betray his best friend in order to give a merry Christmas to a bunch of cats. Also interesting is that the rich father and son are portrayed as pigs, an image that was carried over into the protest decade of the 1960s.

Here are two shots of our Disneyana ornaments. The first is a "hidden Mickey" disco ball (purchased at Downtown Disney on our way out of the park) and the other is one of a dozen small Mickey ornaments on the tree. We do not have a Tinkerbell or Cinderella, but we do have a Barbie ornament which Steve inherited from his mom.

Today we went down to Di-No Computers and found out about laptops for that design studio I'm thinking of starting up. I'll have to do it by the end of the year if I want to get tax breaks on all the design equipment and software I've bought this year. I'm starting to sketch out potential marketing plans and trying to come up with a bare-bones budget to get up and started. I'm thinking I could concentrate more on a full-service approach to business and marketing design, emphasizing the benefits of print promotion while integrating that with a web presence.

One last thing I have decided this evening: We need more holiday decorations. And I'm not really sure what we're going to do with all the tree lights that we no longer need, what with a prelit tree now. Perhaps the two will have some sort of mutual and inexpensive solution.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

From the Mountains to the Sea

I went out to West L.A. for my interview with the temp agency today. It took two hours each way, with half of that riding on the express bus down Wilshire Boulevard. It was a long haul but the interview was really great, and the woman I'm working with there is savvy and sharp. Almost all of their services are web based, so I can cull through the available positions and also take advantage of their online tutorials.

Today's holiday cartoon is "The Snow Man" from 1932. Frosty he ain't, and there have been several versions of this short over the years, mostly edited to cut down on what critics saw as excessive terror and violence. Originally intended to be in color, it was released in black and white because Walt Disney had an exclusive arrangement with Technicolor at the time for color animated films.



I'm pretty sure this will be a weekend of holiday shopping for many of you, so have fun but keep those credit cards in your wallets and shop local. But most of all,have fun!

Friday, December 3, 2010

Here Come the Cartoons

After spending quite some time on YouTube, I've put together a sort of video advent calendar. A few of the pieces are not really cartoons, per se, but all of them bring their own special facet to the whole holiday cheer thing.

I'm going to present them in roughly chronological order, and so we start with this very bizarre yet somehow touching Russian stop-motion animation from 1913. This was cutting edge experimental at the time and, remember, all of the "special effects" were done in the camera.



The Christmas tree is up and finally decorated. We started on it last Saturday and, after figuring out how the prestrung lights plugged in together, we took our time adorning it, and it was really quite a pleasant experience. I dragged out all the boxes of ornaments and decorations on Wednesday and put the special ornaments on that evening. Thursday we finished up the tree and unloaded most of the decorations, though none are really in place, save the stockings.

This afternoon I spent with the usual surfing of the job sites and actually found three potentials. With my three percent reply rate on resumes, though, I'm not holding my breath. Still, as Confucius said, "It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop." So I keep plugging along and focus on that moment in the future when resolution will appear.

And I have the interview with the temp agency this afternoon. I'll let you know how that goes in my post tomorrow.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

December Is Here

The lst of December. It's in the low 70s during the day and dips into the upper 30s at night and that translates to cold, wintery weather here in Southern California. Add a little rain to that, and everyone starts singing Christmas carols.

I thought this was an appropriate day to make my first holiday posting, since Hanukkah started this evening.

So here is my first holiday season cartoon. I started this last year and decided to continue the tradition this year. This is actually a reprise of the first cartoon from last December. It was so popular back then, I decided to repeat it.



On the work front, no official word yet from Variety, but I'm pretty sure they hired someone younger and prettier, since I'm not getting answers back from my e-mails to the HR manager there. Same goes for the HR person at Thibiant, so I seem to be back at Square One, jobwise. And, thanks to the Republicans, my unemployment will run out at the end of the month and we get to start dipping into savings to pay the bills.

I did get a call from a woman at a temp agency in West L.A., and I've got an appointment with her on Friday to come in and take their tests and sign up for possible temp assignments. I told her I wasn't really interested in anything less than three months in length, and what I'm really looking for is permanent full time. She said a lot of places are hiring temp to feel the waters before they start adding back to the staffs they cut back in the last few years. It may just be a line temp agencies use, but it would make sense to have some short-term gigs on the resume and keep my hand in the game, as it were.

I'm seriously considering starting up a design business of my own, since I have pretty much everything I need to make that happen. I'm really lousy at marketing, though, so the first year or two might be rough going, but I'm getting really sick of sending out resumes and getting nothing back. I have yet to sit down and crunch the numbers on the idea, but perhaps now is the time to take just such a dramatic step in my life.

We got a new Christmas tree from Stats last weekend, a prelighted one. The old tree has seen a decade of seasonal service and was looking rather ragged. The new one has branch tips that look just like the real thing, not green bottle brushes. We started putting ornaments on it this evening. Photos will follow once it is fully decked.

Hope your holiday season is starting off well and will continue to bring happiness and joy.