CONTORTED PASTA

I've been listening to shanties while drawing polar explorers and, well, things happen. Deb was Australian, see? So funny!

My conscience would like to point out that the album Northwest Passage came out six years after Silas died, so he would not be singing it in 1910, but since when did respect for chronology trump a good gag? Not ever.

Gosh it feels nice to draw something silly again ...

The 'vintage' Disney season continues at Picturehouse, now onto films which came out during my childhood. I missed Little Mermaid last week, which I have mixed feelings about – on one hand, I don't think I've seen it in the cinema since I was seven, but on the other, I have seen it on DVD and as such I am not overflowing with regret that I missed seeing it in enormous crystal-clear detail. It's a good film, entertainment-wise, but only just coming out of Disney's 1980s slump in technical and artistic standards.

Despite having seen it on the big screen fairly recently, however, I knew I had to make an effort to go see Beauty and the Beast this week. I cannot overstate the impact it made on my childhood – Hunchback made me want to become an animator (20th anniversary and still no sign of that being rereleased, alas), but purely on the receiving end, a peculiar, bookish, independent 5th Grader getting a Disney movie about a peculiar, bookish, independent young lady was a Big Thing. I probably would have ended up much the same without it, but to have that sort of affirmation at a formative time of life meant a lot. It's experiences like that that make me symathise with the push for representation of minorities in the media – if such a small thing meant so much to me, how much more would an analogous thing mean to someone far further from what's currently considered media-mainstream?

Having watched the video to the point of memorization, seeing this movie again was almost an opposite experience to Jungle Book. I could write about surprising details or things I know now about the production that colour my viewing, but the latter you can find in Dream On Silly Dreamer and the former via an attentive eye and a Blu-Ray player. I'm coming to the end of a short lunch break so I will keep it to this: As much as Beauty and the Beast was a trip down childhood's memory lane, it was also a re-acquaintance with people who were role models and then colleagues. People love to point out how characters are designed and animated to reflect the actors providing the voices, but when I watched this film I was seeing the animators. Anyone who's worked with Ruben Aquino would find him in Maurice, and there is an undeniable Nik Rainieri-ness in Lumiere; somehow Philippe is Russ Edmonds despite being a horse (Russ also animated Phoebus in Hunchback, you may note the similarity), and Glen Keane is all over the Beast if you know what to look for. Most bittersweet of the reacquaintances was James Baxter, though – he supervised Belle when he was quite young, but his scenes stand out by a mile, and it was so good to see his 'handwriting' again. He animates in CG for Dreamworks now and does a very good job of it, but CG smooths everyone out, so that joy of finding the really special sweet in the candy bowl is a thing of the past. It made me a bit wistful to experience it again, but at the same time, there are so many really excellent up-and-coming 2d animators that I hope it will be a future joy as well. It's become clear to me in teaching and animating here in Europe that the sky is the limit and there are dozens if not hundreds of keen and talented people out there raising the bar every day – it's a little personally dispiriting to see it pulled so quickly and so far out of my reach, but fantastically inspiring all the same, and I'd rather be inspired than smug any day.

And life is but a dream for those whose eyes are always cast
On things around them with a ray turned ever back upon the past

"Life Is But A Dream" (Watch on YouTube)

Hmm, a bunch of whimsical minor key songs describing a life marked by tragedy, while paying joyous homage to its source material ... can't think what draws me to this show at all.

Since the middle of July, I've been starting lists of radio links and abandoning them until the shows expire. It's not that there hasn't been good stuff, I've just been doing work that occupies more languagey parts of my brain than usual, so I haven't been able to listen to as much radio, and therefore can't assemble a list of any length worth bothering with.

In recent weeks I've been falling back in love with the CBC, so I thought I'd share some of their most stand-out shows with you, which have the benefit of remaining online for quite a long time ...

IDEAS
A weeknightly documentary series that covers just about anything so long as it makes your brain fizz. You can browse available podcasts for yourself, but my particular recent favourites as are follows:
The Discovery of Human Rights - In this age of online activism it's easy to assume the idea that all people are entitled to a certain level of respect and legal status is as 'self-evident' as Jefferson stated it to be. But it is a fairly recent development in human culture, and its progress isn't finished yet.
Coyotl's Song - The Coyote has been a part of North American folklore from time immemorial, from a First Nations trickster to the cat-snatching bugbear of modern cities. This episode contains a quick lesson in How To Speak Basic Coyote.
Wise Guys - If you like your urban wildlife of a darker and more airborne variety, this is an excellent documentary on the intelligence, success, and appeal of crows.
The Dream of Brother XII - I came for the name Edward Wilson; I stayed for a fascinating look at utopian initiatives in British Columbia, a peculiar bit of history relating to an area I know quite well, and a broader look at millennial theosophy, which has a longer history than I expected.
The Shape of Things to Come - T.E. Lawrence ("of Arabia") was an Oxford-trained archaeologist who ended up leading an Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. His background knowledge of history, experience on the ground with the people and cultures of the Middle East, and relationship with British high command gave him unique insight into the region and what was to follow, and is still following – though would anyone listen to him? Of course not.
Undoing Forever - A look at the prospect – and attempts – of bringing extinct species, from Woolly Mammoths to Passenger Pigeons, back to life.
Vestigial Tale - Evolutionary psychologists take a look at the human propensity for storytelling, from a scientific perspective. Episode 1, linked above, is about the act of constructing and conveying information in narrative form; Episode 2 is about fiction and the value of telling each other things that we know are untrue.
The Sorrows of Empire - The American Empire has been called everything from a "reluctant empire" to "a colossus with attention deficit disorder". The enormous cost of foreign wars and other interventions has led to imperial overstretch. This one's next on my plate and I'm really looking forward to it ...

Speaking of history and tantalising brain porn, check out this year's Massey Lectures: The Return of History – if you're lucky enough to be in any of the cities where they're recording, it looks like you can still buy tickets; the rest of us will have to wait – somehow – until the end of October.

THIS IS THAT
Sort of like if you crossed a current affairs magazine with The Onion, but on the radio and with that certain Canadian leg-pulling tongue-in-cheekiness; its only fault is being sometimes a little too close to the truth. You can listen straight through the whole podcast list, but I'd particularly like to direct your attention to people-smuggling into Canada from the US. Ahh, satire.

DAY 6
Having lived in the US during two "normal" election years, I can only imagine what a nightmare it is for Americans to follow the news right now. Luckily for you, the CBC covers American news better than any US media outlet I know, and one of the best programmes for insight-to-time-investment ratio is the Saturday magazine show Day 6. There's not much point linking to past episodes as news doesn't keep, but if you're interested in their interviews and analysis you are welcome to browse the archive at your leisure. (There is also non-American news on that show, but I promise, it doesn't hurt.)

If you like this taster of CBC goodness, I recommend getting the CBC Radio App for your mobile device – it's available for most common platforms from whatever your OS App Store is. The splash page is a little bewildering if you're looking for something you already have in mind, but you can easily add your favourite shows to a sub-page which saves searching, and browse for new things to listen to.

AND FINALLY
A good and reliable friend has brought to my attention this week the soundtrack to a musical about the life of Edgar Allan Poe, devised by a bunch of Canucks and mainly performed north of the border (after all, what is more Canadian than Poe?), which is now available to purchase on iTunes and Amazon. I've been listening to it on repeat for two days and will likely resume doing so after this next thing I need to concentrate on. Attention to meter and rhyme, with a preponderance of minor-key waltzes, and I'm hooked.

So the embedded targeted advertising on Tumblr this month appears to be British Airways trying to sell me on the U.S. as a tourist destination.

Yooooouuuuuu keep tryin' there, BA.

For the third time now, I've sat down with my photo collection and tried to get to grips with Cherry. I hope doing it properly this time will mean it sticks. He's tricky in that his two dominant features are his proganthous nose and his glasses – it's easy to throw those down on a face that doesn't work right and say 'Ta-daa, it's Cherry!' when you're really just using them to hide your lack of knowledge. (This is precisely what I was doing whilst drawing something else, the awareness of which prompted me to do this study.) But as you see in my notes to myself, if he doesn't look right without his glasses, he's NOT RIGHT – so I've left them off in these drawings, so as to check them against the reference photos more clearly, and not allow myself to lean on them.




As he ended up being more or less at the centre of most aspects of the Expedition, he really needs to have a proper model pack done, but as usual my time is conflicted at present so I can't sit down to do it now. This is a down-payment on the sort of work that needs to happen, in the hope that dipping my toe in now will make it easier to dive in when time allows.

Is it just me, or is social media feeling increasingly pointless?

I mean, no offence to the friends I keep in touch with through various online channels – you guys are great and I would not want to swear off social media because that would mean losing you, and that would not be OK. But as far as the wider world of social media, that great big cloud-sourced stimulation machine and distraction engine ... it doesn't ping the 'reward' neurons like it used to. Is it that the people I follow for entertainment rather than personal purposes are getting wrapped up in their own lives and not posting as much? (This is true enough for me.) Or are they still posting and I just don't care enough to notice? I fell out of fandom post-Avengers, when I realised I could not summon the enthusiasm even to pretend to care about the Marvel Universe; since then everyone's gone off on things I am not remotely interested in even investigating. But my Tumblr feed has even run dry of posts about whatever the 2016 equivalent of Hannibal, Game of Thrones, or True Detective might be, so something is up. Someone I talked to recently said that everyone was leaving Tumblr for Instagram – I'm not chasing the fickle crowds onto another platform, especially not one that's even worse for conversation and serendipity than Tumblr is! It's not like I've ever seen a penny from all the hours I put into my 'online presence'. Why all this migration anyway?

Nevertheless I still keep getting stuck in my virtual rounds, even though it takes half the time it once did to catch up on it all, even though I finish a round and think 'what did I even see?' It's become so much a part of the rhythm of my day I almost do it without noticing. What would I do instead? What should I do instead? Cultivate a longer attention span and focus for longer periods on what I'm doing? (ha, ha!) That did serve me very well when I was in high school and we only had the one shared computer. But it's one thing not to have the distraction engine available, and another to have it an outstretched finger away but voluntarily refrain from using it, even if I'm only using it to confirm for the fifteenth time today that no, there's nothing online ...

On the other hand, this is exactly what happened with TV for me, over ten years ago now, so it's not unreasonable to hope I may be weaning myself off the Internet the same way. But the people I know who don't bother much with social media are the people who have an engaging social life in the real world, whereas my giving up social media would leave me in what is, more or less, a social vacuum. And I'm not the most gregarious person, but I've had enough isolation in my life; I don't want to go back to that.

So I leave you with this little puddle of thought, and excuse myself to go back to drawing dead guys. Maybe that tells you all you need to know.

A rather cursory basket for you this week as I haven't had much opportunity to listen. As always you are welcome to browse the Radio 4 and Radio 4 Extra schedules yourself and see what else you might like.

DRAMA
The Victorian in the Wall - A bit of domestic renovation introduces a struggling writer to a Victorian who'd been stuck in his wall, somehow. A cute and energetic production which expires in a few days so listen quick if you fancy ...
Roald Dahl: Served With a Twist - Grownup stories from the 20th century's master of children's fiction.
The Voice of God - Simon Bovey's acoustic weapon story set in the Australian Outback, featuring his usual Full House of compelling story, brisk pacing, strong female characters, and unusual perspectives.
Night of the Triffids - It's like someone read Day of the Triffids and thought, 'I like it, but it could be more Michael Bay ...' But it's a nice tight radio movie, which is sadly infrequent these days.

COMEDY
Dilemma - Sue Perkins puts her guests through the ethical wringer.
The Horne Section - With the news being a perpetual source of angst these days, why not listen to the children's show for grownups instead?
John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme - A pleasant reminder that there are four whole episodes available right now, and another airing Friday morning, so if The Horne Section still hasn't got the taste of news out of your mouth, have a go at this.
Talking and Not Talking - 30 minutes of barmy sketch comedy, with a pinkish picture of a woman!
Concrete Cow - 30 minutes of barmy sketch comedy, with a pinkish picture of a man!

FACTUAL
A Gremlin in the Works - Gerald Scarfe tells of the Roald Dahl story that Walt Disney almost made into an animated feature film. Almost.
Out of Armenia - In these times of Migrant Crises, a look at what became of a nation fleeing genocide in 1915. This episode focuses on the Armenians in Paris.
The Invention of Childhood - A great series for anyone who thinks it was better in The Old Days. (It wasn't, they just had nicer production design.)
My Teenage Diary: Chris Packham - This episode made me at once joyful that there are still nature nuts out there, and despairing over how one might ever meet any.

SPECIAL MENTION
The Last Prairie Home Companion - Garrison Keillor's variety show was my first radio love. I remember my parents listening to it when I was small; when I got older I inflicted it on them until I got a radio Walkman and a stereo in my room on which I recorded episodes compulsively. Before Martin and Douglas and Arthur In Black-And-White Times, it was Dusty and Lefty and Guy Noir who kept me company while I drew or tidied or whatever. I suppose I 'grew out of it' well before finding Radio 4, but it continued to send ripples through my life, whether through musical exposure, or an early taste of radio comedy, or even just painting a picture of an America that could be, in direct opposition to the America on the news and in my face. It was bittersweet to listen to the last ever episode from my room in Cambridge: So much of my life has been getting as far as possible from the life from which Prairie Home Companion was such a gratifying escape; listening to those familiar voices was both comforting and upsetting as they dredged up old feelings that were better left behind. But it's a good send-off, and if the show has ever meant anything to you, worth a listen, if only to hear how much it's meant to other people as well.

Well, it's been a hard slog all week, but I think I've finally got Crean on paper. It's not a final design – I have to push it graphically some more, as I won't have the luxury to draw his head 5 inches high every time and need to make him recognizable at a small scale, but I need to let that step steep before I take it.


These are the first sketches in which I felt like I'd captured him, but of course it's one thing to hit the mark once or twice and another to be able to hit it every time, so I had to put him through his paces:

( Many many more below the cut ... )

And of course, had to give him a dog ...

I haven't been able to listen to much radio at all lately, but there's been a glut of stuff I have listened to in the past which I know is good, and stuff I suspect would be rather good if I had the opportunity to listen to it now. So I proffer it to you, and you can tell me if I was right.

FACTUAL
My Teenage Diary - A series in which public figures read the thoughts of their teenage selves to the public. Sometimes cringeworthy, but frequently touching and insightful, and always deeply human.
All the Planet's Wonders - comedian Josie Long and her genuine heartfelt passion for learning things
The New Young Fogeys - As someone who has self-identified as Old Fogey from about the age of 8, I relish the affirmation (and want to know where the rest of them are).
Love From Boy - These excerpts from Roald Dahl's life of letters to his mother are all interesting, but this episode specifically describes his experience working with Disney. In all the worship of 'the old guys' I never heard of 'Walt's #1 Artist' Jimmy Bodrero though ...?
The Life Scientific - In which various scientists are interviewed about their life and work; in this case Sheila Rowan and gravitational waves.
In Our Time: Bronze Age Collapse - Apparently around the end of the Bronze Age a number of established cultures (e.g. the Hittites) collapsed and disappeared. The first I heard of this was at 9 this morning; now I share it with you.
Shakespeare's Restless World - A series exploring the times in which Shakespeare lived, through a collection of contemporary items.

FICTIONAL
Brave New World - I thought being a skeptical outsider in a hypersexual consumerist culture helped me 'get' this book when I read it in high school, but thanks to this excellent adaptation I 'get it' even more now. Episode 1 expires on Sunday, so listen now.
Day of the Triffids - It gets a bad rap for being your quintessential 1950s sci-fi B-movie – man-eating plants, oh no! – but the actual book (of which this is a reading, not a dramatisation) is actually a cunning observation of human society dressed up as a sci-fi B-movie. 28 Days Later basically replaced Triffids with zombies. Highly recommended.
The Spy - James Fenimore Cooper, best known for Last of the Mohicans, tells a somewhat more nuanced tale of the American Revolution than one usually encounters ...
The Lives of Harry Lime - I don't remember much about this Orson Welles radio series about a con man taking on different personas for various missions, but I remember liking it, so here you go.

COMEDY
John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme - I just assume that by telling you the title of the show you will listen to it. There is a reason for this. You may have to listen to find out.
Concrete Cow - Those of you who've followed my radio tastes for any length of time will know I have a soft spot for barmy sketch comedy; this is one of those, with the distinction of starring Robert Webb.
Crème de la Crime - Spoof "true crime" documentary comedy series
Armando Iannucci - Before he was producing television programmes that are both surreal and strangely prescient, Mr Iannucci was a DJ on Radio 1. Yeah.
2000 Years of Radio - Radio Victoriana! Three cheers for the Empire, I say, what!
Bleak Expectations - Speaking of Victorian radio: This spoof Dickensian sitcom(?) may be on Series 5, but by this point it's got so weird you really won't need to know what's gone before.
Old Harry's Game - A Health and Safety engineer gets sent to Hell and seems not to be able to leave his job behind.
Think the Unthinkable - This time the comedy consultancy agency takes on the world of Finance.
Knocker - This 15-minute comedy series about a door-to-door canvasser has been described as "a chillingly accurate documentary" by a friend in the trade.