Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Tangent: Live The Fabulous Lifestyle Of A Hollywood Cartoonist
John Kricfalusi posted a blistering post this morning about popular culture and the upside down meaning of the words "liberal" and "conservative" today. If you haven't read it yet, check it out. Here is my own take on a similar theme...
LIVE THE FABULOUS LIFESTYLE OF A HOLLYWOOD CARTOONIST
The other day, a student at Woodbury volunteered to help build out our database. His name is Jo-Jo. He told me how much this blog, along with Eddie Fitzgerald's and John K's, has opened his eyes to how great cartoons were in the 30s, 40s and 50s. He had a sketchbook full of Preston Blair drawings and enthusiasm for Fleischer, MGM and Warner Bros cartoons. So I asked him what kinds of music he listens to..."David Bowie mostly."
My jaw hit the floor. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I gave Jo-Jo the best tip he'll ever get...
Cartoons aren't the only things that were better back in the first half of the 20th century.
Mike Fontanelli stopped by later and pointed out that somebody should write a book titled "The Golden Age of Everything". Sure, there are things today that are incredibly great... computers, the internet, iPods, frost-free refrigerators, etc... but music, dance, illustration, writing, movies and cartoons were all better back then. Cartoonists should be aware of this, and they should absorb all of the greatness of the past. It will make them better cartoonists.Today, I'm going to talk about music...
I know that someone out there is going to post a comment saying that there's still great music being made, it just isn't mainstream. I'm fully aware of the fact that there are talented musicians working today. But in the 30s through the 50s, incredible talent was a given. Performers, from the top of the heap to the bottom- from most popular to least- were all capable of making you do a double take and say "wow!".
When I ask kids what kinds of music they listen to, I usually get the response, "All kinds." But "all kinds" usually turns out to mean a million shades of the same color... current rock music. There are so many names today for the same kind of music. For the life of me, I can't tell the difference between rave, techno and electronica. In the past, there really were a million kinds of music... pop vocals, hot jazz, country western, big band swing, folk, rhythm & blues, bluegrass, mambo, dixieland, rock n' roll, sweet orchestral, be bop...I could talk for hours about this subject, but the best proof is seeing what I'm talking about...
"Four Or Five Times" (Soundie/1941)
(Quicktime 7 / 5.5 megs)
"Under The Double Eagle" (Tex Ritter's Ranch Party/1959)
(Quicktime 7 / 5 megs)
"Gray Goose" "Pick A Bale Of Cotton"(1950s)
(Quicktime 7 / 10 megs)
"The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise" "Amuka Riki" (Grand Old Opry/1959)
(Quicktime 7 / 12 megs)
If you are a student planning to be a professional cartoonist, listen to music that relates to your work- read books that inspire cartoony ideas- watch movies to learn cinematic techniques that can be applied to cartooning- LIVE THE FABULOUS LIFESTYLE OF A FAMOUS HOLLYWOOD CARTOONIST!
By the way... Jo-Jo is a big Fats Waller fan now!
Let me know in the comments if you'd like more posts about other tangential subjects related to cartoons.
Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
1.27.09
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Labels: rerun
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posted by Stephen Worth @ 4:04 PM
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9 Comments:
Bob Wills, what a hero! True music of the South.
There's nothing like hearing Fats Waller play a song like African Ripples.
Thanks for such an inspirational music post!
Don't forget about Hank Williams! My dad would get drunk off his ass, drag me into his pickup truck, and we'd listen to Hank Williams all night.
Hey, what's wrong with Bowie?
Now seriously, these posts are more than welcome. For me, music and visual arts go very much hand in hand and are part of a common sensory experience. Now, to define whether the music and arts of the past were "better" than ours today is a highly relative and subjective matter. I'm equally at home listening to Dixieland jazz as I can be blasting electro music, depending on the mood I'm in.
I think I get your point though - back then, in an age when neither Undo keys nor digital trickery existed, you really had to bust your chops out to make it in music or cartoons. You had to get it right the first time or else. And in turn, that produced artists truly compromised with their art and deeply skilled at it. Which I can agree that's what we're lacking of today...
Stephen,
Thanks for this post! Now I don't feel so weird anymore. I'm 30, and MOST of my favorite music was written before I was born. Even my rock favorites!
Great choice of clips.
With all due respect -- are you kidding me? IMO, the idea of one's personal musical taste has no place on a website that purports to claim and association with an established animation organization, i.e., ASIFA. On one's personal website it can be expected and accepted as the host's personal taste, as in John K's, or your own blog. But here? Once a line is crossed and you publish what you feel is the best music of the first half of the 20th century, might you then do that with the animation goods?
Is there any written mission statement for this place? No doubt you have editorial control, and mostly it has been judicious, but I'd prefer to see it kept at bay and in line with the online dissemmination of the artwork and factual information that you stockpile.
More power to Jo-Jo and his tastes; although it sounds to me like he's doing fine on his own. And while I'd be grateful myself to be turned on to Fats Waller if I'd never heard him, I'd exclaim it elsewhere. The fact that you or myself or anyone else might personally enlighten and broaden his or anyone else's musical horizons is, in my belief, just self-validation -- "I want you to like what I like" -- and beyond the scope of a website that is connected to ASIFA.
Let the good times roll.
Good to see that Mr. Spector gets it. This is all subjective and sad to see something so patronizing on a site that I assumed was official and untainted by personal inflections.
Ahh, if only one could combine the high artistic standards and creative freedom of that era, with the social justice of today.
The hippies weren't *all* bad you know.
This stuff is great, but they were a product of their time and circumstanaces, just as things today are--which is not to say that I think music and art today are great or better than the past, because I don't.
But what would you have be done today? An imitation of what we see here?
Hello Adrienne
I elaborated on the subjects you raise in This Post. The short answer to your question is, apply the powerful techniques of the past to recapture the classic level of skill. Then use that skill to tell stories, make music, paint paintings that are honest and relevant to modern people.
Thanks
Steve
In the past, by doing every little task on an analog, one-shot format, you had to be really damn good, and pour everything you had into something to make it to the top. With the advent of easily-accessible and powerful computers, what should have happened is that these tools should have been used to make the end product even better, so that the artist sinks as much time into a project as they did before, and thus get an even better final product. In reality, with money and executives controlling everything, what should have been enhancing was used to replace traditional work, and thus cut down on energy, time, and cost of the final product. As this trend continued through generations, you have continuous degrading of the product by subsequent 'big money' peoples cutting corners, until you finally reach the end product of what we have today in music, movies, television, comedy, animation... anything really.
I took a rock & roll history class last semester, and I was truly in awe of the sounds of Les Paul, and the amazing jump that his sound had between going from a single shot, to inventing the overdub and then being able to go back and add more tracks directly over the other ones... essentially cloning himself to any part he wanted, in days where one person had to play as fast, hard, and accurate as a single metal artist's shred on a studio cut... plus then you're talking no cleanups, and any mistake would not only be extremely noticeable, due to the lack of distortion, but there would be no way to go back and clean it up! Music has sunk to the level it has today because of constant bombardment in advertising, and record companies sticking their nose in where they shouldn't be, and 'creating icons' from nobodies with minimal talent.
to think what the world of any media would be like to day, of you were to sit down with the great artists of yesteryears, give them 2-3 years to learn the tricks of the modern trade with computers, and watch the amazing creations that would come out of them... true, pure talent mixed with the very best technology...
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