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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.