journal page 11

october 25, 2000
exploratory surgery
red plastic cowboy
10:00pm
back from travel, back to work. it's nice to see that things have returned to normal over here. the scary lady is back stomping around outside of the jack in the box and i even saw gas mask guy staggering alongside the road the other day. he had a light blue rag hanging off of his other rags. it was really great to see him add a splash of color for the season. "re-animator" is on cable, i don't think i've ever seen it all the way through before. zombie uses his intestines to strangle somebody, brilliant.

so we've launched straight into a third sound session for the new project last sunday and have now topped over sixty people doing vocals. i am hoping this will do it this time, but you never know. lots of work to do.

the book i'm reading about explorers has gotten better. more malaria and people eating boots. there was one guy in an expedition who started eating his partners and they weren't even starving.

october 8, 2000
"This is really a lovely day. Congratulations!"
7:54pm
to promote their new dog movie, disney has a new toy on life cereal boxes: for 3.99, you can send away for your very own plastic barking spoon. you'll howl over this fun way to start your day. dip this spoon into milk and it starts barking. make your checks out to "life cereal's barking spoon offer." i am saddened that i have been reading cereal boxes.

animating continues while finalizing travel plans for next week. things have quieted down a little with "rejected" and i don't need to be on top of its promotion so much now and things are back to normal. the pencil tests are looking good but the poor old test camera is on its last legs. everything it shoots is not only hot pink but is now extremely flickery. not sure how soon until the old fellow finally collapses. i have sunken back into the boring routine life of an animator. draw. walk to beach. draw. eat bread. erase. read.

all-right i'll catch you all when we get back from new orleans and chicago. meanwhile, here is the latest from rob...

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The guards inside confiscated his plastic sword and cap gun. He smiled and headed towards the elevator. As the doors opened to the 69th floor a little girl commented on his pirate shoes and big fluffy shirt. Paul climbed over the guard railing quickly and waved to the girl before letting go. The empire state building is surrounded by a series of balconies that were constructed in the twenties. The suicide rate has reached over thirty from the observation deck on the 69th floor. Paul connected with the 23 floor roof at a speed aproaching 100 mph. His pirate sword was later thrown away. The cap gun is believed to be stolen.

september 27, 2000
muggy
12:25am
ran out of paper, so no animating for a few days. my olympic fever has escalated to olympic dysentery. how can you say no to people's entire lives shattered by the way they jump into water? the kangaroo boxing was exciting, as was the duck catching. the belgians were great. i am looking forward to the synchronized whittling tonight and eagerly await the advent of knife fight and ridiculous high kicks as medal events. they say 2004. i actually just finished watching some of the synchronized swimming. the commentator said during one of the routines, "it is as if they are swimming as one."

september 19, 2000
"your smells will come back and return ten fold." suddenly his face becomes prune-y and emits a mysterious vapor.
2:52am
the olympics are going on and i have the olympic fever. three channels of around the clock backstroke preliminaries and women's weightlifting.

i've reached that well-known point after which a new film is completed and i am totally broke: sunk every last penny in order to wrap up "rejected", while income from it has not yet arrived. this will last about a month. the film's popularity becomes both a blessing and a curse wherein you have to finance a number of film prints and postage in order to screen it at every festival that wants it and you watch the movie travel off to wild, distant blinking lands that you will never be able to afford to go. and you become a little too used to eating the two dollar sourdough loaves, one half for lunch the other half for dinner.

i haven't animated anything for a few days thanks to the la jolla trip and will have to un-lazy myself again tomorrow night. i read a magazine article last month about the poor bastard who was driven off the road by some random person and his van flipped over a cliff and smashed and trapped him inside and he was stuck in there for days trying to desperately saw off his left arm with this tiny little knife in order to free himself while all these furry little woodland creatures sat in front of him calmly eating all of his fingers.

september 4, 2000
1:37am
taking a break from animating the new thing. i tried to explain to someone all the complicated animation processes i will need to go through in order to pull off this new film. "jesus christ!" he exclaimed, "that's going to take FOREVER." vote of confidence.

the reason i'm writing tonight is to share the very first heads-up in regards to an upcoming online charity auction. every so often we donate a few rare or interesting things to charities we know and this is one of those times. much more info coming up regarding the who's and what's on the news page in like a week or two.

i am looking forward to seeing some of you at the la jolla show in a couple weeks. i am supposed to sign things and say hi to people. i shake hands. please, no hugs.

don

august 29, 2000
12:00 am
so i can report that animation is already pretty much underway on this new thing. maybe it will see the light of day late next year. it's been difficult settling into a project again though, i'm sort of poking around and trying to get seriously working on 1 1/2 projects right now with three or four others flitting around from time to time and i really need to clear the junk off my desk and just focus on one of them. it doesn't help that tonight is one of those nights where everything you write and everything you draw doesn't come out right and you are resigned to watching boxing on mexican channels where they don't even wear mouthpieces and are really sluggish and are all in their 40's and 50's with like 200 fights to their names. so anyway i look forward to seeing some of you in a couple weekends at the spike and mike show in la jolla where i am supposed to be. though i do not fear returning to san diego freeways, i will be safely wrapped up in pillows and blankets this time making soft cooing noises from the back seat and let somebody else do the driving.
2:27pm
they have invented a food eating robot. it is called "chew chew the gastrobot." it converts bacteria into electrical energy and runs on meat. i think i am going back to bed now

somebody just sent this: