HANGIN' WITH THE D!

Spent a rather insane couple of hours at the offices of Variety to participate in an interview with some of the amazing voice talent on the 7D. To say these gents are some of the best of the best would be an understatement. Yet, I love understatements! I also love Triscuits. But that's a whole other post.

From Left to Right: Maurice Lamarche (Grumpy), Bill Farmer (Doc), Kevin Michael Richardson (Happy), Scott Menville (Sneezy), Kelly Ward (Voice Director), Me (Lord Starchbottom), Stephen Stanton (Sleepy), Billy West (Bashful)

On the drive to the interview I spotted this shoe car in Santa Monica. This isn't important per se, but I think if someone went through all the trouble of making a shoe car, the very least I could do is mention it here. Well done, shoe car maker! This is the best shoe car I have ever seen. It's also the only shoe car I have ever seen so I really have nothing to judge it by. But, if I ever do see another shoe car I'll let you know how yours compares.

Shoe Car. (Not Pictured - Maurice Lamarche, Bill Farmer, Kevin Michael Richardson, Scott Menville, Kelly Ward, Me, Stephen Stanton, Billy West.)

UPDATE: I have been informed by Doug Langdale that there is a Shoe Car in Burbank. I will attempt to photograph this other shoe car and determine if this Santa Monica shoe car is better or worse. I want to thank Doug Langdale for sharing this information.

STUFF

So, here I am, sitting on the train on my way to Los Angeles from our new home in a sleepy little beach community about 40 miles north of the city. It Really is sleepy, too. For a while I thought there were lots of homeless people there...but it turns out the sea breeze just makes you sleepy. I have struggled to stay awake just walking to my car. I have fallen asleep in the checkout line at the market. I have dozed mightily watering the plants. I am not quite sure how anyone gets anything done in our town, but I have noticed most everyone carries around a large can of Red Bull. The priest at our new parish takes huge swigs of the stuff between words during his homily. The crime rate here is incredibly low, too. We have a lot of criminals, but they nod off when they're being chased by police officers who wear special breathing masks that provide a continuous supply of non-beach city air. Half of our home is still under construction and has been for 43 years. The carpenters can only manage to drive one nail an hour.

By the way, a bear just tried to attack our train.

Anyway, I'm sure I'll eventually adapt to the slower pace of our new town. Okay...now the bear is running toward the back of the train. We slowed down a little and he almost got on and then the conductor went a little faster and the bear missed. Everyone is laughing. I guess they do this a lot. Okay, I just checked with the person sitting next to me. He tells me it's called bear-baiting. We just slowed down again and just as the bear almost climbed on the back we sped up again. Everyone is laughing again. I don't know. I think it's kind of mean. Oh we'll, I guess what Marvin Hamlish said was right; 'We're all different."

Not that you asked, but I've come to the conclusion that moving stinks. We Ruggs tend to stay in one place for a long while. So moving 20 years of stuff hasn't been very pleasurable. It's been icky. The last time I moved I was young and stupid. I did what all young, stupid people do when they move...get their friends to help. Now, 20 years older, I never got the memo that people my age hire people to move. It never occurred to me that people will actually put all your stuff in a truck and drive it to the new place, unpack it and then leave. I only realized this as I drove the UHaul truck back to the rental place after a day of lugging heavy furniture up endless flights of stairs with my saintly brother-in-law. I have promised myself that if we ever move again, I'm going all out. I'm going to hire the most expensive movers I can find and sip wine with friends as they go about moving everything. Wait a second...looks like the train slowed down a little too much. Great. Now there's a bear on board.

Because Laura Said To

I know. I've been grossly negligent in staying true to my blogging duties. I've let work...a pilot in development...various writing assigments and other things get in the way of keeping this inestimable blog up to date. And so it would have continued...

...had Laura not bravely emailed to say that enough is enough. She called me to task...pleasantly enough, mind you...and told me it was time get back to the important mission of filling this blog with clever words.

Thank you, Laura. I needed that.

However, after a few months off, I'm a little rusty at being clever. So, while I brush up and figure out what to blog about, I'd like to leave you all with this:

A man wrestling a bear for no reason.

Chester Phelph's Exciting Special

Hope everyone can join Chester for his first ever television special on Froynlaven!

Praise For Paul Rugg's Book Announcement

Well....wow. Just wow. I can't tell everyone how humbled and...another word for humbled...and yet another, different word for humbled but with a slightly different meaning...I am. (I'm sorry, but the thesaurus on my computer isn't working. So, you'll have to bare with me. Or bear with me. Sorry but the spell check thingy and the grammar gizmo is also busted.)

Anyway...

Ever since I annoonced that my book on Writing Animation is in the works, I've been ininundilatedated with emails from people who are excited and...another word for excited...and yet another, different word for excited but with a slightly different meaning. I'm super gravilgakin. Really.

Leonard Krelms of Baywater wrote:  

"Mr. Rugg! I've often hoped and prayed that someone would write a book on writing animation. And now, you are! Now people will know how to do that! I feel your book will be the most important thing to come out this year. You have not paid me to say that. I have never met you. I have the documents to prove it and will repudiate with all force at my disposal anyone who asserts otherwise. They are liars and probably jealous. Can't wait!"

Thanks, Leonard! I can also say that I never heard of you before I received your email and can back up that claim with various documents and affidavits. Nor have I exchange any goods or services to solicit...another word for solicit...and yet another, different word for solicit but with a stronger meaning...a fake email by you which endorses my book. I further assert and another word for assert and another word for assert that I have no financial interest whatsoever in the Baywater Development Company, and, as of last week, divested all shares in said company...etc. etc. etc...to whit, all monies do me...etc. etc. etc...have been nuanced and applied to various holding companies to which I am sole shareholder. My attorney, Arnold Buxzum, has directed me to assert my rights through these holding companies to legally deny that we ever had any direct contact.

So, anyway! Keep those emails cooming!

TV Animation Writing 101 - Intro To Lesson One

The time has come, dear reader of Froynlaven, for me to pass the baton to a younger generation; a generation that yearns to write in that most noble field of TV Animation. Why they yearn to do that is unknown to me. People's yearnings are very personal. I think Virgil expressed it best when he wrote, "I yearn. You yearn. We all yearn for something." (Interestingly, it was Horace Lombash who, while working in the marketing department of the Des Moines Creamery in 1893,  modified Virgil's immutable words to 'I scream. You scream. We all scream for Ice Cream.' Lombash's popular saying helped ice cream sales to skyrocket. By 1894, the Des Moines Creamery was the largest manufacturer of Ice Cream in the Northern Hemisphere. Sadly, in 1895, a rabid beaver attacked the Des Moines plant, leading to the death of most of the creamery's workers. Horace Lombash was spared, but never worked in ice cream again. He disappeared. 10 years later he resurfaced as First Lady of Bolivia.)

And so, I bid a fond adieu to writing TV Animation. It has been interesting, sometimes fun, and incredibly lucrative. I've been able to purchase three homes, five private jets and a wide array of personal, exotic luxury watercraft. Not to mention a Panda called, Xia Lu, which lives in my sprawling back yard behind an electrified pen. (Pandas are very cute. But I've learned the hard way; DON'T THROW BANANAS AT THEM.)

And please...fear not. I am not retiring. I am simply shifting my focus to different writing endeavors. I shall hopefully be able to talk about said endeavors some time in November. 

Anyway, I think it's only fair that I at least attempt to teach some of what I know about writing TV Animation to whoever is interested. Lessons will begin tomorrow. I will teach you what I was taught on my first day at Warner Brothers Animation. It's a style of writing TV Animation that I think you'll find interesting. It's also really useful.

My course is free. Because I am incredibly rich and can afford it.

Join me tomorrow for Lesson One.

And THAT'S How You Land A Rover On Mars!!!

Forgive me for a moment while I geek out and make a total fool of myself.

WOOOOO! AHHHHHH! OHHHHHH! BLEEEEEEERK! SNNNNNERBY!!!! WOWWWWW!

A photo taken my the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter which shows Curiosity hanging from its supersonic parachute as it drops toward the surface of Mars.

Had you been at the Rugg homestead last night at around 10:31 PM, those are noises you would have heard me make as we watched the newest Mars rover, Curiosity, triumphantly touch down on Mr. Bradbury's wonderfully red planet. (I'm not entirely sure what SNNNNNNERBY means. But it's a good noise. A happy noise.)

Long-time readers of this inestimable blog are well aware by now that I'm a bit of a fanatic about aviation and space. I am, as my wife informed me, a "Rover Hugger". That's a term she found on the internet that describes people like me who avidly follow the comings and going of those plucky little robots on Mars.

Had I not been one of St. Viator Elementary School's "worst students of all time" and unable to tie my shoes  until I was 17, there's a good chance I would have been a brilliant engineer that made cool Mars rovers. However, as one of St. Viator Elementary School's worst students of all time and unable to tie my shoes until I was 17, there was little I could do except for TV Animation.  (On a side note, I recently  came across a letter written to my parents by my 8th grade teacher which stated, "We feel Paul will need constant care throughout his adult years. Please plan accordingly. We can recommend a number of wonderful group homes.")

Anyway...

Curiosity is safely down on the surface of Mars and the whole thing couldn't have been more exciting. Seriously. If you don't believe me, then please take the next 5 minutes to watch what it had to go through.




I hope you watched that and didn't just pretend to watch that because it's really cool. And if you did just pretended to watch it, but are now feeling somewhat sheepish and slightly curious, go ahead and watch it now. Go ahead. Don't be shy. We'll all wait.

Pretty awesome, right? So there we were last night watching all of this live. In the weeks leading up to the landing I had forced my family to watch the above video countless times. (That's the video I asked you to watch and you did. Right? If you didn't. Do it now. There's still time. Seriously. Don't be ashamed. Just do it.) So, having watched the video, we all knew the various things that had to happen as the rover made it's way down. Luckily my family got into it and you would have thought it was the superbowl. When we heard that the parachute had deployed, we clapped. We we heard the heat shield had come off we clapped. When we heard the rockets had fired for powered flight, we cheered. When the sky crane started doing it's thing...I think that's when I made my SNERRRRRBY sound. And when Curiosity said it had arrived, I jumped up and down. Cuz it's cool. And there aren't enough cool things happening today.

Thanks to the rock star engineers and scientists at JPL for putting some cool back into the world. It needed it.

Now if you'll excuse me, we're going out and I need my wife to tie my shoes.