This is the first Tex Avery's birthday post I've done since my son was born. Like I mentioned before, my son's name is Avery taken after the great master Tex Avery so I feel it's fitting to involve he little guy in this post. Throughout this post we will all answer the question put forth in the title: "What is my son's assessment of Tex Avery's work?"
What's that? Why, yes, my boy Avery has indeed been watching many many selections from my DVD/Bluray collection pretty much since the day his eyes were fully open. Why do you ask? It's a good way to keep him quiet and happy.............. some of the time. If he's genuinely enjoying what he sees, then it works quite well. If not, well then you've got a loud cranky baby on your hands and you'd better do what you can to alleviate that situation fast.
One big selection from Tex's filmography that my son has seen is the "magnumest opus that ever magnumed an opus", that seminal masterpiece: Red Hot Riding Hood.
The verdict: I am sad to report that this cartoon made my son Avery cry. He wasn't crying at first, which is good. However, when it got to the part where the Wolf was going crazy at the table looking at Red dancing on the stage, that's when he showed his displeasure. Ah well. He's only 5 months old as of right now. Cultural works have ways of growing on people once they mature and become more worldly, which I'm sure my son is destined to do.
Here are some other shows that have given him displeasure in the first few months of his life:
Sesame Street - he's scared of The Count
Fraggle Rock - he's scared of the Gorgs, especially in the openning theme song when Jr grabs Gobo
Dumbo - Avery does NOT care for those lady elephants that pick on and exclude Dumbo. Well' y'know, he's not wrong. If you watch the movie you can easily see that those elephants are pieces of shit in general throughout the entire movie. That's the point of their characters of course, but it's understandable that he would not enjoy watching them.
I'll give a special mention to Sylvester & Tweety right here, because he has a kind of love/hate opinion of them. Li'l Avery loves anything with music in it, you see.
As many of you reading this now are aware, most S&T cartoons start off with Tweety singing a song. My son is thoroughly entertained by this. But he is quickly taken aback the moment Sylvester makes any kind of grab for him. Avery lets out a shriek that seems to be saying "NOOOOOOOOO! DON'T KILL THE SINGING BIRD!!!!" That grief is short lived the moment Sylvester fails with either a long fall, dog punch, or explosion. That is then followed by a feeling of relief. But, the grief begins anew when that "puddy tat" recovers and makes another attempt. It is of course then followed by another sense of relief. Grief --> Relief Grief --> Relief Grief --> Relief over and over again. So, to him, the Sylvester & Tweety series is more of a heavy drama than a slapstick comedy. Well, again, he's 5 months. He will eventually notice a pattern within this cartoon series and hopefully experience joy or what have you.
There is one thing in this world that he does fully enjoy. It lights his face up every time he watches it. Anybody with small children already know who it is. But, for everyone else, I will embed his very favourite show right below:
Yep! This video has been playing much more than once a day every day for several months. And now that I'm showing you this video, now YOU have every one of her songs stuck in your head with no chance of escape. HA!!!
Although, I have heard that the above figure Ms Rachel is being hailed as the new Mister Rogers and for good reason. She does a tremendous job of reaching, teaching, and educating children I'm sure all over the world. She helps keep my son happy and that's great. More power to her.
He's not ONLY entertained by Ms Rachel though. His horizons are a bit more broad than that. Here are some things I've seen him enjoy:
Robin Hood Daffy - I saw him smile al through the scene where Daffy and Porky are laughing with each other. He found their laughter to be infectious and it got to him.
Louvre Come Back To Me - Well, for pretty much the entire cartoon he had no idea what was going on. He saw Pepe Le Pew pursuing the black & white cat throughout the art museum while her naturally jealous boyfriend was trying to step between them (only to be overpowered by Pepe's stench). However, I saw him smile at the very very end of the cartoon. There's a "montage" of sorts showing many of the paintings reacting to Pepe Le Pew's odour all through the establishment. The very last painting to react is the Mona Lisa who simply says "I can tell you chaps one thing. It's not always easy to hold this smile." Whether you think that joke is strong, weak or whatever is immaterial. Avery found it amusing that a painting suddenly started talking and that's great.
Oh hey! There is a Tex Avery cartoon that my son Avery did enjoy. He likes that cartoon about little Owl Jolson wanting to sing jazz much to the dismay of his conventional symphony-loving father: I Love To Singa. I've seen him enjoy seeing that little owl singing the signature song for the whole cartoon. So, in a small tribute to my baby son, I've drawn him as Owl Jolson.
I can't wait for him to start his education just so I can see if he would "get through Yale with buela buela"!
Here's a screenshot from that animated video I'm working on. I figured that it was too crazy NOT to share. Anyway, there it is for your visual enjoyment or whichever emotion takes you.
I've seen people online decrying smear animation and too wonky and weird. People just take a screenshot of it and just focus on that one image pointing out everything they find "wrong" with it. These are people that are of course 1) not in the animation business 2) have never tried to animate anything in their entire lives. Therefore they have no inkling of how any of it works. On the day they finally do acquire that knowledge, they'll find out that the image they once gawked at does indeed work within the movement where it counts.
This is, of course, something that AI artists could never fully duplicate even with the biggest computer with the highest amount of RAM memory.
Anyway, that's my post and subsequently my rant. Here's hoping my video, smears and all, is done and online soon. I can't wait.
That's quite a hot take I know, but I just have to say it. It's true. Kenny Rogers was a highly talented artist who had a special gift for writing songs. He had that spark, that indelible flair for crafting songs that entertain and uplift generations upon generations of people from all walks of life. A true master of his craft if there ever was one.
I know a lot of creaky old boomers and various music nerds will read that line above and maybe respond with "WELL NO BIDOY! I've known that that since his work with the First Edition! I know what condition his condition was in! It's like common knowledge, man! Where have you been? Are ya deef and dum maybe?! What's the big idea?? Why I oughta........."
Whoa whoa whoa! Calm down there you hyper hypothetical. Yes, I'm quite aware of how famous and well established he was in his lifetime. He had multiple selling albums and many hit songs to his name. I know that full well.
However, my assessment of Kenny Rogers' music right now is not based on the usual criteria. I'm not going by how many fans he has or any number of album sales. I don't care about any sold out concert performances at all. I'm definitely not going to use any measures or charts that musicologists use to over analyze a song to see if it follows a proper wave pattern or whatnot. No, I am not using any method used by any of the most obsessed music nerd you can name. My assessment of Kenny Rogers is based on my son Avery.
A most discerning connoisseur.
I'll explain. One fine day, not long ago, I was given the task to keep my son occupied so my wife could cook either a breakfast or lunch. I remembered that there are several episodes of the original Muppet Show on Disney+ so I decided to check that out. Yes, you guessed it, I selected the episode with Kenny Rogers in it. I can't quite recall why I chose that particular show, but I'm glad I did.
I already knew that my son loves any show with music in it and I was also very familiar with the Muppets' proclivity to burst into song at any given notice (I was indeed a big fan of the Muppets back when they were originally on the air). So, I figured he'd enjoy that. Being that he's only a few months old, some parts of the show entertained him but other parts scared him. I guess Jim Henson was a little TOO ambitious with his creations sometimes.
However, Avery's fear completely melted away when Kenny Rogers sang the final song of the show. He just grabbed his guitar and softly played Love Lifted Me. My son's reaction to that song is probably the most precious thing I'll ever witness. That song makes him sad and happy at the same time. It's difficult to describe, but that's how it looked to me.
Keep in mind that this is a months old baby. Lyrics mean nothing to him. They all just sound like babble babble babble to him. My son reacted to pure melody. That's the mark of a good song writer, really. If just the melody or the hook can reach a person right in the soul, songs can't get any better than that.
Even though Kenny Rogers left us back in 2020, I'm sure he's happy to know that he just got a new fan in my son. Here's a drawing I made of the two of them enjoying each others' company:
That's all I wanted to say with this post. I just wanted to let everyone know that Kenny still inspires people and probably will for generations to come. For those woefully unfamiliar with Kenny Rogers' Love Lifted Me song, I'll embed a video of him singing that song on The Muppet Show, the very same version of that song which delighted my son. Show this clip to brighten the day of other people in your life. Enjoy!
It's finally happened! I have put my Censor Monkey characters to animation. Don't worry if this scene doesn't make sense yet. It's a very small part of a larger video I'm working on. There will be some other action going on in those two empty seats in the front row.
Looking at this you're probably asking many questions. "Why have they all gathered in this movie theatre?" "Why film are they watching?" "What could they be seeing that is making them all so mad?"
Well, the answer to the last question is: Everything! Everything they see makes them mad. A little spoiler there I guess. Anyway, I made this thing and it is what it is. Feedback is always welcome.
Like I mentioned in the previous post, Halloween is once again upon us. Like other years previous, my daughter and I did some pumpkin carving to celebrate. The big difference this year is that my son Avery has joined us.
So, this year, I decided to take another approach to the jack o'lantern design. I tried to make it pleasent and somewhat baby-like rather than spooky or crazy. I drew mine out on paper first:
I thought that looked pleasant enough. Avery would be sure to enjoy that. Raianne doodled a quick pleasent face too just a few minutes before carving. The full result with the lights added is below.
I thought I had achieved something that would please my one month old son. However, his mom (my wife) informed that he was indeed scared of this pumpkins. He put on a sad face as soon as he saw them. Oh well, he did see the both of us carving the pumpkins earlier abd seemed to enjoy that. Maybe next year he can participate.
Halloween is almost upon us, so everybody the whole world over are preparing themselves with elaborate house decorations, even more elaborate costumes, as well as many delinquent style pranks being meticulously planned. Since my son was only born last month, this will be his first time participating in the Hallows Eve festivities. Since his name is Avery, it's only fitting that his first costume be "Tex Avery related". So, his first costume is Droopy.
My wife helped with the sewing because she's much more competent at it than me. (Confidentially, I couldn't even sew a button with an electrified button sewer). At any rate, the above photo is the result of our labour. What do you think?
Even though Avery is way too young to be eating any candy, I think he'll have an enjoyable Halloween. He seems happy anyway.
To complete this blog post, here's a Droopy cartoon for your viewing pleasure. Happy Halloween, all!
On September 17 at 4:46 am Mountain Time, my son Avery was born to very beleaguered and exhausted parents. That is an ordeal that none of the parties involved will ever forget.
The adventure got underway at about 6:30 Saturday morning when my wife woke me up to tell me that her water had broke. I knew that was a sure sign that the baby's birth was imminent so it was time to head out for the hospital. There was literally no time for anything else. We checked in and the doctors did their usual evaluation, looking at dilation of various parts and things. We were initially sent home because we were told there were still hours to wait yet. So we were back for for a small bit. I took that time to have a shower. Then, when her contractions were getting more intense and closer together, we were right back at that hospital again.
My wife assumed that this delivery would be quick because of previous experience. When our daughter was born 14 years ago, there was only an hour between water breaking and full delivery. She naturally thought that would happen again. But nope. This labour went on for hours and hours. Of course, the maternity staff were busy with other babies being born at that time, so a lot of that time was just the both of us waiting on a bed in a room not knowing how any of this would go down.
When it was finally our turn, the staff was right there instructing my wife to "PUSH PUSH PUSH PUSH PUSH". I acted as a "human stirrup" in that endeavour by holding her leg up. What else are husbands for? Sadly, all of that pushing was to no avail. All that came out was a small amount of poop, but no baby. At that point, they used the dreaded phrase "C section". We were both taken to another room full of big lights and beeping machines (none of which went PING to my disappointment). I sat near my wife while they put a tarp over her lower part so that we couldn't see what they were doing.
In just a few short minutes it was done. Little baby Avery was finally out of his mother's womb and amongst the rest of us. It was a joyous and happy moment for me of course. However, I really really felt so bad for Avery. Upon being birthed, he was placed on a small bed surrounded by people wearing yellow gowns and face masks (me being one of them). One nurse felt there was still too much amniotic fluid in his system. So, to alleviate that problem, she inserted a hose very far into his nose in order to suck it all out. Then proceeded to insert another hose into his mouth to catch what she missed. To me, that looked like a nightmare scenario, especially for someone who has just entered to world having no idea what anything is. Yes, I know that all of that needed to be done in order to ensure survival, but Avery didn't know that and there's no way he could've known. He was having a miserable time at that point.
It didn't stop there either. They let my wife hold him for a bit. Then, while he wasn't looking, a nurse gave him a quick Vitamin K shot in his leg and slipped away before he knew what was happening. I'll never forget Avery's reaction to that. He didn't just cry. He had gotten a lot of his crying out during the previous ordeal I mentioned. No, this was more of an angry cry. I was reminded of every Al Pacino performance I had ever seen. Avery's cry seemed to be saying "HEY! WHO DID THAT?! WHO STUCK ME?! I WANT ANSWERS!! WAS IT FREDO?! THIS WHOLE SYSTEM'S OUT OF ORDER!!! ATTICA!!! ATTICA!!!" That's my interpretation anyway.
Thankfully for Avery, things calmed down very quickly and he could finally relax. That's when I was given a chance to hold him for the first (and definitely not the last) time. The look he gave me was the greatest look. For about half a second, his look seemed to say "who's this guy?". But, it immediately changed to a "oh ok, I recognize him now. He's good people." I was at first puzzled by how he could've known me so fast. But then I remembered something my wife kept telling me during the final few months of the pregnancy. Apparently, while in the womb, Avery would always react whenever he heard my voice. So, that's how he recognized me then. He knew my voice.
I think Avery still has a memory of his tumultuous first few minutes of his life. We were discharged from the hospital two days later after had deemed both baby and mom to be healthy enough to survive out in the world. So, we went straight home and put little Avery into his new sleeping quarters: his bassinet. Just a few days after that though, a nurse came right to our house to check up on us to make sure Avery was still healthy and that our home environment was ideal for a baby. After the nurse was done giving Avery a check up, I put him back in his bassinet while she gave my wife instructions about caring for newborns. The look on Avery's face was not a friendly one. He had a "get her out of here" kind of face. He was NOT in the mood to be dealing with medical professionals at that point and I can't blame him. No, I'm not going to help him with a vigilante quest to "punish" all medicos. I'll simply say that Avery has already learned a valuable lesson about the world: there are people you cannot trust. That's a lesson everyone should learn.
I'm ending this post with my first glance at Avery the moment he was born. This is what he looked like to me:
Most parents get freaked out by this site and nearly faint. They consider the baby to be "hideous" at this stage. However, to me, he just looked cool. If he stayed looking like this, I'd be fine.
If anyone out there reading this has a baby in their lives, keep being good to that baby. To anyone out there who doesn't, I recommend it. Happy parenting!
Last post I put up a small animated segment from something I'm working on. This time I'd like to share one small image from it. I can't even believe I drew that. Yes, it's an in-between and it does work well enough within the movement. But even still, it's such a twisted bizarre image that I felt the need to share it.
I really can't wait for my project to be done and shared with the world.
This right here is a small cropped out clip of an animation piece I'm working on. It's not for any big studio, or even a little studio for that matter. It's just something I feel compelled to do for my own reasons. I've completed 3 scenes of this video already, only 49 more left to go. It's lots of work but it's also lots of fun too. I know for sure that my son will be born by the time it's finished. I can't wait for him to see it.
The wife and I had the big anatomy scan ultrasound just recently. It is now confirmed that the baby developing inside her body as we live and breathe is indeed a boy. As I mentioned in this blog's title, we've settled on his first name being "Avery". He's named after the great animation genius Tex Avery of course. Will my son live up to the amazing legacy of Tex? Um......... geez! Way to put pressure on a kid before he's even out of the womb. Back off a bit, you weirdo!
Based on what my wife has experienced so far in being Avery's portable incubator, we're sure he's going to a spry and energetic little man who will give us plenty of excitement and exercise. I'm sure he can't wait to come out and meet us all as well.
"Thumbs up, doc! Thumbs up!"
See! He's already giving the world a big thumbs up. He's ready for us, but are we ready for him?
Also, according to my wife, Avery likes to kick and punch a lot inside there. All fetuses (feti?) do that to some degree. But, that seems to be Avery's favourite activity so far. So, in that spirit, I've created an artist's rendering of what Avery could look like when he finally out of the womb.
Is this accurate? Well, he's due in September so we'll know for sure by then. I'll certainly keep everyone posted when that happens.
A preliminary welcome to the world, little Avery. We can't wait to meet you.
That's right. As of April 28 of this year, the highly controversial Bill C-11 passed in the senate and became law. Some are saying it's "great for Canadian culture" while others decry it as "the ultimate censorship tool". "Which of those is it", you ask. Well, let's talk about it here.
The pro-C11 side say that this new law is simply about boosting truly Canadian content on the internet including social media sites. A noble goal indeed, but severely flawed from the outset. Government meddling in entertainment and news media is NEVER a good thing. At the animation school I attended, one of our teachers grew up in Soviet occupied Ukraine. She told us that the only thing available on Soviet television was ballet.
this or nothing
In the USSR, the only shows you could watch on TV were ballet or nothing. This was the country's government colluding with entertainment and blatantly telling the entire populous that "THIS is what our culture is".
I'm not saying this amount of suppression is happening here in Canada already. There's certainly still a wide variety of shows and news available to Canadians made here and around the world. Here's hoping it stays that way no matter what the government does.
This idea of presenting a "Canadian identity" on our airwaves is certainly nothing new. It's a debate going back decades and decades. For instance, back in the day when "Justin's dad" was the Prime Minister, there was a Canadian made show called SCTV. The "SC" stood for Second City. The show was pretty much the main stage cast of the Toronto affiliate of Second City producing a TV show the same way they would create their sketches for the live stage. After their first season, they were shopping their show around to various TV stations in order to attract a wider audience. When they made their pitch to a station manager in Edmonton, they got some rather back-handed feedback. "Your show is not Canadian enough", he said. They didn't appreciate that assessment. "We're already using Canadian actors, writers, producers and facilities. What more do you want us to do? You want us to sit in front of a big map of Canada, wear toques and drink beer?" That was their response.
Well, the guy said "make it more Canadian" so that's what they did. This is what brought about the MacKenzie Brothers. Everyone in Canada (definitely those over 40) are all too familiar with these characters. But, for those who aren't, I'll post a video below:
Watching this skit all those years, did you ever wonder why they had that long scroll at the end of their first few shows? Well, that was their rebellion against the CRTC's guidelines of what constitutes "Canadian content" and against that weird jerky guy in Edmonton. "Is THIS Canadian enough for you, hosers??!!"
Of course, now with Bill C-11 in place, it's not just "some guy in Edmonton" whose pushing for "a more Canadian feel" to this country's content, it's the current Prime Minister doing it. He won't physically be in the writing room telling Canadian productions what to do and what not to do, which is how it should ALWAYS be. However, he will have his finger on the algorithm that will determine what productions get artificially boosted online and which ones don't. And the standards for which he and his cabinet will use to ascertain which productions will be boosted or not are................................... well, he's not saying so far. Whether Justin claims to make these decisions fairly or not, I will talk about a time not so long ago about another Prime Minister with a similar type of ambition.
That Prime Minister's name was Stephen Harper. About 15 or so years ago, the Bill C-11 was known as Bill C-10. PM Harper wanted to pass that bill so that, as Conservatives put it at the time,
"tax dollars should not be funding productions that some Canadians find objectionable". I talked about much of that controversy here on this blog back in the day. Here is an interview the CBC did about that topic back in the day. I find it rather odd that many of the same people who were up in arms about Harper passing this bill are today all uproariously happy with Trudeau passing the exact same bill. Of course, at the same time, some people who are outraged about the bill paying under Trudeau were hoping for Harper to pass it back in 2008. I, for one, want NEITHER of these sides in charge of Canadian productions and I want both of them far FAR FAAAAAAAAAR away from any kind of social media regulation. If the next Prime Minister to get in after Justin does not immediately take Bill C-11 and journey to Mordor to cast it the fiery lakes from which it was forged, that Prime Minister should receive a non-confidence vote instantly and then replaced by someone that WILL make that journey.
No, master. You no takes my precious bill away. I use bill responsibly. You see.
Well, ok Minister of....... Stuff. Just don't let the bill be handled by any of these guys:
But, for now, the bill is now here and is not going anywhere any time soon. But, I haven't given up hope in any way. As with the example of SCTV I showed earlier, there's always rebellion to fall back on. Anyone who's truly creative enough can find ways around draconian government rules no matter how many of those rules the government chooses to make. Freedom always finds a way.
I'll end this post with a video from one of the best group of sketch comedians in Canada or anywhere else in the world: the Kids in the Hall. I've embedded below one of their sketches that would surely challenge any rules that any Canadian government can dish out, even 30 years later. Enjoy, and also, screw you. :P
