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7/14/2025: From the year 2021 comes "Swing Scream". A lil animation built out of next to nothing; musta took nearly no time to create, concoct, configure! And it shows! I just watched it for the first time in the years since its creation and I came away with this: I have nearly zero recollection of this.. but I'm glad I made it, and I am glad it only takes like 17 seconds out of anyone's life to view it. In other news, hmmm.. I kinda forgot about the first 3 Colin Newman albums ("A-Z", "Provisionally Entitled The Singing Fish" and "Not To") and how great they are ..One of his later 80's albums "It Seems" is terrific too ..I love how music can sound of its time, but also it connects with the time in your life when you heard it first (that is, if you are like me and never keep up with current music!). "It Seems" sounds both like 1988 (is there a worse year for popular music in my lifetime?) and also like circa-2007 when I found the record. (Note: forget about 1988 ..all of the 00's are beyond the worst time for popular music. I am glad you agree with me!) (More on my negative thoughts towards different eras of popular music later!). Anyway, the album "It Seems" always sounds like a grey/rainy fall or spring day where you look out of a window and contemplate: maybe computers and technology can work together to enhance, rather than takeover/destroy/depress, humanity... ???
7/12/2025: I made an animated music video for the Texas band Teethe over the course of late Winter and early Spring this year; for their song "Hate Goodbyes", go watch HERE! Lots and lots of fun making this; of course very challenging too. It was nice to be reached out to by Teethe and given freedom to “do what I do”; ideal working conditions to be sure (and really the only way I do stuff for other folks, truth be told) …and yeah it’s not really “work” either. Like I said before, it is “fun” to do this stuff. (Want to mention here that after soooooo many repeated listens, I do still thoroughly enjoy the song …wouldn’t spend so much of my time on such things if I didn’t love the tune! ..and know that I would be hearing it over and over again for a while). Let me expand on why this (drawing, animating, and animating for other folks) is “fun”:
1: I love to draw
2: I love spending my time drawing and listening to music (though I would listen to the track as needed, I was all over the place listening-wise while making this)
3: It’s challenging animating to a set soundtrack; especially tough when it isn’t my own music/recording (…can’t make edits to the soundtrack, etc.). Related to this aspect of "funness" -it's obviously great to collaborate/contribute to something outside of your own usual practice ...you do inherently care a little more when you are working on a larger collective expression. Maybe I'm explaining that wrong (I do care about the stuff I make).
The last bit of “fun” I’ll mention here (I could go on and on) is that these things just begin to “live” after you get started. Like once you sit down and come up with some ideas on imagery and movement, etc. all of the sudden a set of drawings and a set of “guidelines” appear that you work under to see the project through. And then once you’ve gotten off to a start, you give yourself over to the drawings/music/ideas/process. ..You begin to “trust” all that stuff working together.. ..and then you just put in the weeks of drawing and editing.
Boy that’s probably confusing to read through, but hey, thanks for reading it!? I could go on and on, but I guess that’s why I have this website …can add to my one-sided conversation any old time I want to!
7/9/2025: Had fun making this sort-of "commercial"? for all the great record stores in the Northampton/Florence MA area; it's called: "Northampton/Florence Area Record Stores" (I know it is a boring title!). On occasion, I get the idea to make commercials for things I like ...I should do it more often ...totally unsolicited commercials ...Last year I did one for the "congo bars" that Cooper's Corner make and sell.. You can watch that here: "Coconut Congo Bar". Sometimes ya gotta share with the world the good stuff in life..? or like "spread the word" on the stuff you like in the very specific way that only you can, right? Maybe I'll make a commercial for the bikepath we got here in these parts ...I love it ...I love when I can casually ride my bike on it. To ride a bicycle casually is a pleasure to behold.
6/23/2025: From a long long time ago is "Ocean Artifacts" (2006). This is almost 20 years old (it does feel that old ..and it kinda looks it too) ...it's one of my earliest "complete" animations ..It utilizes the "draw, scan, erase, draw, scan, etc." method of animation, which I occasionally still use, though I use a digital camera now for capturing the frames (..and while some folks call that "scanning" now, I don't ..I call it photography ...or "capturing the frames" as I just said ..ha? ..FYI/update: Doesn't matter what you call it). I imagine I drew/scan/erased on like 10 or so index cards for this? And as you can see, the scanner was on death's door - all those "artifacts" (scan lines) ..not intentional, but left it ...feels very 2005/2006 to me! (Note: I have a vague rememberance of all the digital color in this as being an accident or a malfunction of the scanner ...certainty of such things is lost to time!) This piece of music I still love, maybe it is like the best piece of music I've ever made? It doesn't repeat (at least I don't think so?), about as close to I'll get to a composed guitar piece (I dabble in having the discipline to make such things ...focus/discipline.. whatever you want to call it. But often times when making recordings/music I find a riff and just finding that riff can be enough to play with/exploit/scratch the itch of being "musical"!?). Anyway, you can find that track, actually titled "You Are Small" (Ocean Artifacts), HERE, for free of course (you shouldn't have to pay for my stuff). I'm pretty sure that was recorded using this double neck bass/guitar (that I still have) but only using the electric guitar neck. And it was recorded on a 4 track cassette recorder (Tascam) ..I think it's only 2 tracks of guitar ...at times it just sounds like it's all one player ...but nah. Anyway, the sound and image together are nice to see many years later ...you gotta start somewhere with this stuff! I do find it amusing that I am still largely exploring the same material and using a lot of the same equipment, and/or basic methods to do this stuff, many years later. Some other day I will write about technology and trying to stick with a working method when it feels like consumerism constantly wants you to have to shift the way you work because of new tech demands. I largely think when I do that bit of writing the point would be: find your means of creation and make it last and work for you AS LONG AS FREAKING POSSIBLE!!!!
6/19/2025: What a freaking blessing it is to have a spot here in the digital space to put all (a lot anyway) of the crap I do. Thankful to have this ..it's cheap too, like $5 a month! (I'll do a proper commercial some other day?) Anyway, here is: "Some Of The Fashions and Faces of the Anti-AI Generation" ...A recent game/puzzle of an animation I made for myself. It's like making up a game to make these things sometimes. I enjoy it! Anyway, to give a lil idea of what I mean; for this animation I took a stack of paper (4.25" x 5.5"), I think maybe ahhh, hmm, 100 frames altogether? (I checked, actually 127 sheets of paper ..frames) and just decided to draw a set of changing eyes over the course of those 127 frames ...and make sure that the first drawing/set of eyes matched the last drawing/set of eyes (so when this was finished I had the option of turning it into a "loop", which is what I did). The set of eyes could move all around, blink, change shape, etc. Anyway so I just followed that through with nose, mouth, head shape, then shoulders, background.. color.. I enjoy wherever these things go, and other than some slight discomfort sitting over a drawing table for hours, I enjoy every step of the process. What a lucky thing it is to make up your own games and entertainment, blah blah blah! Regarding the title, I thought at the end that these shifting face folks I'd conjured, and this whole process, are all so against the current BS/buzzword/fad of "ai".. Sorry, just not into it/completely against it even. (And I know it is 1,000 times beyond a "fad" ...but the whole thing reaks of for the sake of humanity let's not go here ..but the execs/tech blah blahs have no humanity/couldn't give a shit, so I guess we are going there so they and like maybe? two generations of their off-spring can live a life high on the hog as they say?) ....I'll go ahead and talk about that some more on some other day..! And maybe I'll use less italics then.. we'll see. For the end here I'd like to plop down 4 random pieces of music that are good (on the short/instrumental side for the most part?) ..Enjoy some of what these humans came up with: "Tragic Magic" by NRBQ, "Crinkly Grin" by Family, "Why Spend A Dark Night With Me" by Moondog, and "Asleep In The Desert" by ZZ Top
6/15/2025: I've got some thoughts on films here with,"Movie Messages". Of course, one could go on and on about films/movies of all sorts of genres. I love good films and bad films and great films too. Can't say I have the same interest in TV shows or TV serieses (?) ...who has time for all that watchin? I mean, it's okay if one does, ...but I appreciate the telling of a story in one sitting, and then, hey!, I get my life back in like an hour and a half, or like 2 hours - I don't get strung along for freakin forever over some dumb red herring crap or like get all emotionally manipulated as a viewer over the course of months or years. Yay! Thanks for singular films! Thanks to the filmmakers who appreciate our time and emotions and wellbeing! Thanks for not WASTING MORE OF MY PRECIOUS TIME! Ha! (Geez, what was all that about?) Alright, well, just so you know, I'm not some aficionado on 90s films or action films ...probably quite the opposite (sorry, here is the deal, I think the 1990s was like the worst decade for many popular art forms ...music ..movies ...ahhh ..I'm too lazy to write about that, just trust me ..but also, just watch like "Face/Off" and come report back to me on how it just leaves you feeling like, did anyone CARE in the 90s? I mean, its just fucking heartless, blah blah, gun violence with all completely unlikeable characters ...or like watch the first 15 minutes of "The Beach"? Jesus, how could that director even finish his own film ..I mean if he was shooting it in sequence, I think he woulda been like me "Ah, I've seen enough, nevermind I'm not going to finish making whatever the hell this is" - not to mention the obnoxious anonymous music playing throughout that first 15 minutes ...just totally barf-a-rama). Alright so I'm hearing this Hawkwind song for the first time in forever right now, and yeah, I dig it! ...though, I get it, much like TV serieses (?) can be such a waste of everybodies time, a 15 minute song could be just that too. Well, ya gotta pick your battles right? Whatever that means.
6/13/2025: A new collection of recordings of mine can be found here: "Is This?". It's fun to make music, recordings, whathaveyou; I recommend it! I recommend half-learning an instrument and just go with that; that's enough, that's all you need, trust me! - no need for technical proficiency(?). It's best to approach most (creative?) things you are interested in in such a way that you don't beat yourself up too much about the result. Right? I mean, especially when starting out, right? Anyway, its about lunchtime here (which is 11am FYI). About to eat what I call a DELUXE sandwich. What this is is a sandwich that is either toasted or grilled ...definetly with a cheese of some kind, somethin like saurkraut or those oily peppers (update: they are called mild banana pepper rings according to the jar), a vegetable like a cucumber, and some mayo or "special sauce". Yeah, it'll be a big sloppy mess! ...Related to "Is This?" is this new animation called "Is This What Music Is?". Making this thing made me laugh. Also, this was so much fun to make ...a bunch of drawings from a while ago just in need of a soundtrack. It sounds that simple because it was; considering I kinda know what I'm doing with what it is I do. Ahh.. with age comes having a good sense of knowing what it is that you do.
6/12/2025: I've added a new "2003-2015" section over in Animation as I do have a wealth of stuff from, what is now, way back then! Both hard to believe and very believable that 2015 was TEN years ago. Life moves fast and slow. I've added "Again" from 2022, and "Fun" from 2015 for viewing purposes. There is a more "pure" version of (my) animation that lives in the back of my mind always. "Again" would be closer to that than "Fun" as "Fun" utilizes digital color and effects (...though its original source material is all hand drawn). What can be done?! You gotta have your own art ethics?, art morals? I suppose? Obviously I allow myself to explore whatever whims present themselves, and you learn from it all (right?). But yeah, I'll always strive for something within art making that is as close to mind-hand-paper with as little "other" in the way. Anyway, none of the inner blah blah blah should have to matter to the viewer ..perhaps? It is a gift to hold anyone's attention for any amount of time, no? Maybe? Ha.
6/3/2025: I reiterate myself a lot. That is, either in conversation or in writing an email or whathaveyou, I re-state the same information. So I think I do this to give the recipient of my comments as many ways to understand what I mean to say as possible. Possibly?? Anyway, I find it very facinating to reflect on, and really just wanted to mention that as I think it's a topic to come back to. Completely unrelated to that is "Be Aware" from the year of 2025; from this very month of JUNE even. I'll write about this one at some point -not sure there is much to say about it! -And yeah, I'll write more about reiterating? too sometime. Anyway, did I mention (yes I did) how much I love the Groundhogs these days? Geez, what a hidden gem of a band! I recommend things like this by them: "Music Is The Food Of Thought".
5/31/2025: May or October is the best month of the year, agreed? Agreed. Aside from that, here is a weird? thing from 2021, "Dougie and Doggie" ...weird? in that, why would anyone make such a thing!? Well, assuming you would think or say something like that, my response is, well what else is there to do? Would you rather try to fix a leaky faucet? Would you rather do laundry? Anyway, what I am getting at is, art/creativity can be a chore, agreed? ..(Yes, let's just agree on that and move along).. This time of year, I am pretty sure I buy more music than I can ever possibley listen to.. I have stacks of stuff I've burdened myself with. My appetite for music (and music purchasing!) is out of control. That said, it is too bad to feel like listening to it all is, you guessed it, like a CHORE! AHHHHH!!! NOOO!!!!.. Well.. Anyway, it's not really a CHORE ...I'm just saying sometimes the hunt, the acquisition, can just be satisfying in itself ..no? Anyway - all that said, I am currently enjoying a quartet of Jade Warrior albums! ..this one in particular. Oh, I've really been into The Groundhogs lately; they are thousands of times better than most of the "Blues Rock" crap garbage artists (sorry - I have no interest in EC or Hendrix.. overplayed, overrated, sorry!) of their day (late 60s to late 70s).. Probably helps to my ears that they were a lil more "prog"... Anyway, a good rainy day here today. Not great for taking your doggie for a walkie - but great for nearly every other reason.
5/17/2025: Here comes Saturday and I'm sure it'll be either a day full of surprises or a day filled with no surprises at all. I am ready for both kinds of days! One thing I am supposed to do today is fix a leaky faucet. I have done this once in my life (that I can remember), on a utility sink faucet, so I've got to admit, the stakes were pretty low on that fix ...I mean, come on, it's a utility sink faucet. Couldn't ask for a better faucet to try out your faucet fixing skills for the first time (though note, like I mentioned above, that may have not been my first faucet fix ..just want to make sure you remembered). This one today I gotta fix, this one is the real deal: a leaky bathroom faucet. Can you imagine the stakes???... (take a break here) ...Here is one of those quick animations that I do.. just something for fun, just to keep us warm... or whatever. It is called "Optimistic Crap?" for whatever reason... sometimes you gotta just title things whatever ..add a question mark just to give folks the sense that hey, maybe this isn't optimistic crap after all...?
5/16/2025: I've been busy with things, and the things are mostly good things! Aside from that (and more on that on a later day) busy-ness, the spring weather has been absolutely delightful -something to be happy about. Even the rainy days are a treasure to behold. Currently I am listening to this R Stevie Moore track: First-Hand ...upbeat fun bedroom pop? from 40 some years ago (or thereabouts). I do find much to enjoy over the course of RSM's career even though his discography is very confusing (but I'll also say, for me, the confusion makes it all the more fun to discover/sort out/get into). Anyway, I am sharing "How and Why" from 2023. I enjoy these "experiments"? (that exist on their own, if I do say so myself!) ..both while I'm making them and viewing the finished piece (especially as the years roll by -you get less attached to whatever hang-ups you may have had, and yer just glad you made the thing ...or well that's my feel on it. ...Am I like a Pollyanna or something? I've heard that word/description thrown around in news articles I've been reading lately ..couldn't ever be bothered to look up wtf that meant until this past week. ..but yeah I think I'm Pollyanna-ish in a way ..whatever ...feels like a kinda lucky disposition to have these days? Who knows if this makes any sense). Animation made from a roll of unused cash register tape.
4/26/2025: "For Immediate Release". Hard for me to believe that April 2025 is rapidly coming to an end. Not a thing you can do about the time that goes by! Maybe it would be helpful to not have a way to tell time? Another topic: some times I find Saturday or Sunday mornings to be the perfect time to listen to the music of Chris Smither. I've seen him perform once; hoping to see him again some day. ..Back to the topic of April 2025; the spring feel has been real and I appreciate that. Getting a good rain today I hear; it is needed! ..been working on a project for a while now; it's a slightly longer duration than most things I do ...so it takes some time ...and it takes some energy to stay with it (boy I'm enjoying knowing the code for italics these days!)... but I'll stick with it and then enjoy doing something else (probably not so time consuming or structured) very soon after. Anyway, I've been listening to this specific collection of Smither's while I've been writing this, and like most his releases, it goes down easy (maybe I'll listen to and write about John Martyn next time..).
4/19/2025: "Is There Something?" has been added to animations from 2024 ...it's just a lil thing; requires very little investment on your part. I shall note that there is the sound of a person (me) blowing into a trumpet making a sound on the soundtrack to "Is There Something?". Now, that trumpet sound may not be music itself; the attempt at music around it helps it fit in tho. But anyway it is the sound of someone successfully blowing into a trumpet and making a noise, and sometimes ya just gotta celebrate things like that. "Hey listen to me playing the trumpet" you (or in this case, "I") could say. And what will they say back? "Hmmm, I suppose you are right: that is the sound of a trumpet I suppose. It doesn't sound good, or it doesn't sound right, but yes I agree, that is the sound of you making noise, or maybe music, coming out of a trumpet". Now, if you've ever felt intimidated to put your mouth on a trumpet, maybe you'll now feel so empowered to give it a try?? At least that is the hope I have of relating such a string of nonsense as I have written above! Aside from that, my friend The Great Gambino has released a great lil springtime music just in time for that great springtime feel. Go listen now!
4/12/2025: It's great to say hello to the day that is in front of you. Here is "Big Race" from the year 2021. Quite a "narrative" in that one, if you can even make out what is happening during its brief duration. Funny to think of animation (or hand-drawn/time consuming animation of the sort that I do) as a medium in which to "improvise" with ...which is what I feel like I do sometimes, or that's the approach I'd like to take to it ..be "loose" with it. But you do have to sit with it all (the drawings, the sound, the editing) and make some "sense" of it all. Anyway, I could go on and on, about this and other topics. Oh, here is a track over in music called My Town from some time ago. I take a similar approach to music as I do animation (or at least sometimes?) in that the point isn't any kind of "perfection". What is the point? (note: boy I should learn the code for italics instead of using "quotes" all the time ..a simple thing to look up, but I'm not going to do it this second, sorry to say!) ...the "point" is:
I live/I have lived and this is what I have seen.. this is what I have wanted to see.. this is what I am trying to see.. this is what I have heard.. this is what I am trying to hear.. this is what I have thought..
Life is meant to be lived and observed upon ...and your perspective should be shared if you are comfortable sharing it (even if it doesn't have a "point" or doesn't make any "sense"). Anyway, some words for a day in April, the year 2025.
4/4/2025: Good Golly Miss Molly here we are in the month of April, in the year of 2025, and I
have yet to say a word! Well here goes something: "On A Dark Night Etc" has here by, or hear by?, been added to the wonderful selection of animation on the day that was today. This was made in the year 2022. Funny thing is that I feel like this was made like 2 months ago! But, nope, not the case. Ya know, I never knew that this song was not a DEVO song (song and performance are amazing), but a cover of a song from this movie. Crazy. Some mysteries of life reveal themselves if you live long enough I suppose!
3/30/2025: "Why Do Such Things?" is yet another of the kind of things that I do - added to animation. Why? do such things indeed.. I should do more narrative animations I suppose.. something with more "thought" put into it.. Maybe.. I find it's easier to just have fun instead! Too much thinking involved with narrative or "story" stuff ...too much to worry over, and who wants that? Meanwhile.
3/29/2025: Another day of it not being April yet. Ya can't win 'em all! ..or You Can't Win 'em All. For the sake of humankind, "Ok - No One - Haircut", has been added to good ole animation.
3/28/2025: Before you know it, the month will be April. All you have to do is hang in there, for it's bound to be April in just a number of days that I am too lazy to count at the moment. Take 31 seconds, though, to watch "Take A Second" which was just added to animation a second ago. And I will mark this very specific set of seconds with the declaration that I am listening to this tune for the first time right now while I write this. Sure, I dig it, why not? And just like that (many seconds have actually flown by since two sentences ago!) now I'm listening to this recent Kim Deal album "Nobody Loves You More". Good job everyone throughout time and space for all the great music out in the world. All your work and creativity wasn't for nothing!
3/20/2025: New to animation is "Enough".
3/17/2025: Somtimes in the toilet of life, you must flush. Or, sometimes in the card game of life, you get a flush. And then other times in life you make an animation called "Wax" and then you put it on the internet and then put a coat of polyurethane finish on your kitchen counter top. I say: "do things because you must, for today is just another day to do things, because you must!" And also I say: "I saw the wax alien".
3/15/2025: Hey, hello, hi. New to animation is "I Got Video Hands and Video Feet and No New Ideas So.." and "Arrival Departure" both from the grand old year of 2023. These sorts of things used to just make themselves way back then. Just draw some pictures and let 'em go! Everyone was doing it! I remember it well. Those days can come again if we wish it to be so.
3/9/2025: More stuff from 2019 ("Exercise") and 2018 ("Nothing" / "Moreover" / "Feelin' Whimish Subaru Commercial") to animation.
3/8/2025: New to animation are some animations I did with works by R Stevie Moore:"Scented Candles" and "The Meeting That Couldn't Be". Find out more about RSM at his website or on his bandcamp.
3/7/2025: Animations of various sorts: "Hypnotize" and
"Big Movie" from good old 2022 and "Window Blinds" from 2021.. also found at the usual place: animation. Windy outside today, cold too. How about that! A March 7th to remember, to be sure. Unrelated to anything drawing goes here:
3/2/2025: Added this animation "New Day" from 2021, to animation. I am thankful it is now the month of March. Unrelated to anything drawing goes here:
3/1/2025: Added "Dirt", "Day Off". and "Confusing Plot" to the animation page.
2/27/2025: Added only animations that start with the letter "Y" to the animation page today: "Yep, Thanks (1)",
"Yep, Thanks (2)", "You Jerk!", and "You Will" .
2/24/2025: Added "It Continues" and "Holidears" to the animation page.
2/23/2025: Added a Music tab/page.
2/22/2025: Uploaded more animations today.
2/19/2025: Uploaded some animations today.
2/15?/2025: Here you can find the kind of things that I do.
Do you like facts? Here are some facts:
There is some stuff here too.