What 2016 holds for Relayers in Second Life

Disclaimer: When I post about negative experiences it is rarely if ever out of any smug satisfaction.  There are no winners.  It is a "buyer beware" as I stumble through the metaverse.  This post definitely serves this purpose.  You have an opportunity to learn from any mistakes I've made and spot warning signs in advance.  Those who know these people and find me relating a story: take it for what it is; there's no glory in it for me. I am sure to lose several from my contact list.  I always blog with the expectation that someone is going to find out, whether there are tattlers or not. This is The Internet.  Just keep in mind that my opinions may not be that of the Hearts & Souls Relay For Life team, and taking anything out on the team or creating difficulties getting the team resources or preventing them from representation or fundraising is an attack on innocent people - both from the team and American Cancer Society - who have nothing to do with this post or me. 

The First Relay Rap Gathering of 2016

Relayers waited.

Word got around that many left critical feedback as a result of the 2015 RFL season; a popular sentiment was to see what the new Relay For Life of Second Life committee would be like before resuming participation.

Many like me sat out the Xmas Expo while others made it their final involvement for the calendar year.   For the first time in four years  I didn't sign up for the Sci-Fi Convention.   No gig at Merciless Ming's.  Not until I saw true change with Relay For Life of Second Life and a committee who saw to our needs and acted on our behalf with the American Cancer Society in both words AND actions, and respected each and every one of us toward a collective goal.

The Relay committee had their first Relay Rap of the year in January and word was they would announce some changes.  Following their show would be a Q&A at a Town Hall on ACS' sim.

The Inbred Committee

As we filed in, my RL jaw dropped.  The committee was positively inbred, dominated by active members of Harmony From Hell and the Relay Rockers with little else, including both of their captains.  T.S. Darrow was once again in charge of the Survivors/Caregivers Honor Lap project.  Anybody who volunteered a service out of the goodness of their hearts in the past became a committee member.  I wonder if the minutiae of titles offered them each a tax or expense write-off?  Didn't think that's why we had a committee but you really have to wonder when you see what we saw that evening. 

The changes themselves were also the last thing any of us expected.  Looks like someone upstairs wasn't pleased with the sharp decline in donations, but rather than recognize their role in this, the committee was going to take it out of our asses.  Amazing but true: they did the math and based their 2016 objective on whomever hadn't left and our doing the same as last year.  As if.

Their platform was one of a stern drive to acquire donations. Gone was the philosophy that every little bit helped the cause. Forget FUNdraising; it was  now all about FUNDraising.  They came up with all sorts of lingo with the word "fund" in it to drive home their point. 

Were they kidding?

They added that fundraising levels and incentives were rewarded at higher numbers; teams raising less than US$300 would not only be eligible for a campsite on Relay Weekend, but not be listed on the website's totals page either.  Bronze level goal went from US$40 to US$300.  We wouldn't count for contributing to the breakdown before raising that.  They were punishing us!

What a disconnect.

They created a category called Rising Star for those raising US$100-$299.99. You still didn't rate a listing in the team totals or a campsite at the track but could get a booth for your team on some designer sim for Relay Weekend.  Tent city for the impoverished - for raising ONLY a couple hundred dollars.

They made new positions for fundraising tutors, among whom is the captain of Harmony From Hell (what she gonna teach: how to steal other Relayers' ideas for FUND and profit? LOL).  Basically more committee members from the same teams give or take a token outsider or two; I guess they added them to throw us off a painfully obviously configuration.

No more mentors/coaches assigned teams.  You've seen one team you've seen them all, right?

The only good news was the return of the inworld event boards. (UPDATE: Talk and no walk; there is only the prototype in use at RFL headquarters)

Flanked by ACTs' Bain and Cure Chasers' Sienna. Several Skype
and group chats were afire over the committee's initial decrees.

The town hall was packed. Some attendees were there because they were new, but the vast majority were pissed off veterans.  The committee responded in voice to our typed feedback and questions. They took a good look at us - slowly peering out through the filmy wall of their bubble for the first time - the faithful who cared enough to show up and who were being taken advantage of. Maybe the downward trend wasn't a natural turn or failure on our parts (ya think? Btw since the previous post a few who've read it say I was spot on.  They have a choice to remain anonymous and discrete, but someone had to say these things and it was me).  Their 2016 goal was not realistic under their imposed conditions.  About time they had that revelation.

The totals page would only display in dollars.  Many had a thing to say about that one.  I pointed out that half of my team's mid-2000s total in 2015 was raised in Lindens. Also with international participation this made it difficult for those whose common point of reference WAS the Linden Dollar.  Very user-unfriendly.

They took down all our points and would notify us of a follow up town hall.

I had made up my mind not to raise money for or donate to Relay For Life of Second Life this year.  For the first time I called RFL's hotline to get a better understanding of how the Relay structure worked and what direction to take for my team.


How being a Relay Team works

RFL of SL follows the Relay For Life model pretty closely.  First there is a scheduled Relay event such as a Relay Weekend, be it local, regional, organizational, etc.  Teams  sign up for that event and their fundraising efforts leading up to it get added to the event's grand total.

Relay Weekend is a ritual which serves to honor the survivors and caregivers, as well as a collective gesture to defy cancer's devastating impact. It is a time of celebrating victories, remembering losses, and looking to the future. Of course trinkets and stuff are offered for donations towards the event's total.  To make it clear this isn't a flea market or a swap meet.  This is about those who have fought, win or lose and celebrate moving closer to a cure.

The bottom line here is that a team cannot just exist in its own universe but must associate with a Relay event. Everything culminates towards that. You have to point to an event when you create your team for the year.  It's part of the application.


The Decision and Hearts & Souls' Objectives in 2016
There was only one other online Relay event -  the hotline representative said there was once a generic online event people could latch on to but that was gone.  So I signed us up to Relay For Life of InWorldz.  With a history of committee chairs such as Bain and OldeSoul, there was no question of their level of integrity. Our offgrid fundraising would contribute towards what was felt to be a far more deserving operation.

I crafted a notecard to my teammates, having sheltered them from most of the hipocrisy and grief of the past two years, and subsequently discussed in group chat which direction we should take for inworld fundraising.  They had two choices:

1 - Join another team with a healthy recommendation to ACTS, or
2 - Hearts & Souls would continue in Second Life exclusively for inworld fundraising and not be linked to convio, with custom posters and objects linking to our external RL team site for CC and PayPal donations. 

Their main concern was whether the committee was skimming off funds in any way.  I didn't believe so.  Also Stingray Raymaker served as ACS liaison for both Second Life and InWorldz.

The team decided to continue its presence this year.  I would provide all their tools and info, see to spots for them at major events for their vendors etc, and serve faithfully as our captain.  I would not personally post kiosks or vendors but do everything else.

My only exceptions for personal contributions would be to purchase any worthwhile offering from SF Design during Fashion For Life (done) and DJ for Fantasy Faire. Also rezzing a kiosk for placement at said major events. 

They Finally Saw the Light

At the follow-up meeting there was a great deal of backpedaling in our favor: 

- Every team with funds raised would appear on the totals page
- The totals page would display as it always had, breaking down dollars and Lindens
- Teams with a history of participation would get a campsite for Relay Weekend, even if they fell short of the Bronze (we will most likely fall into this category unless they choose to punish my teammates - predominantly caregivers & survivors - as a misdirected vendetta against these posts).

Their explanation for restricting campsites is understandable:  In previous years Teams who earned US$5 would get a large campsite (about a quarter of a sim). Others would apply and be noshows, prompting staff to fill the gaps with impromptu builds and landscapes.  Take these away and you save on sim costs reducing the size of the track.

Personally I would have offered an incentive with an option for a large campsite to Gold and higher, with the majority as smaller campsites for those who raise US$50 or higher, an obvious exception being when such a team sponsors a sim.  IMHO this should have been the policy since Day One.

There's one little question: why are they griping over the cost of sims when each one is sponsored?  It has been understood that sponsoring sims (and last year they added lap theme sponsors) covered the cost of the track, already deeply discounted. 

- Having realized we could not be held accountable for any goals they set and failed to meet, they threw out their FUND agenda and renewed their vows to respect the Linden.

Their changes on the whole were far more reasonable, and many who had planned to leave following the rap resolved to register a team.

A pity extricating T S Darrow never happened.  I'll unmute him long enough to get information for my teammates to sign up for the Honour Lap, but I'm certainly not going to run it, and he otherwise does not exist to me. 

I'd question the numbers assigned to us as team designations.  They should be on a first come first serve basis.  The first teams took days to get their confirmations, and clearly those favored got lower numbers regardless of chronology.  I was among the first to register, and landed in the 50s.  At least we're in good company!

Relay stuffs...

Got the impression Relay Rap happened inworld, only a location SLURL was not shared.  Wonder if it's all-audio from here on?

Joining RFL ADvocacy may have been a natural fit, as I use social networking to promote RFL happenings and events.  Many migrated friends are doing what they can in their own way as they feel comfortable with, and that's fine too.  A few are new to RFL of SL, having only heard of it in past years. Give them a taste of being part of a greater whole and get comfortable in it. Even that feels good :)

April 2010.  I'd just acquired an irregular patch of abandoned land I had my eye on for months when it finally went to auction.  Following a consecration ceremony I placed The Starship Diner, adapted from The Golden Yak Diner I built for that previous Second Life Winterfest season.

During the housewarming party, DJ GoSpeed Racer called out to RacerX Gullwing, who was checking the route for a cross-country Giant Snail Race for Relay For Life. Like many in Second Life I'd only heard about RFL, and at the time wasn't aware of Treet TV (or Metaverse TV) programs. I knew RacerX from Lummerland Show & Tell and his reputation for amazing fireworks. He was in the area because the snails were going to pass my land on Saturday!

I reached out to him the following morning after building an observation platform.  He sent me info, a Treet media screen, and took my LM for his master list of observation locales.  I contacted MamaP who provided me with a kiosk. 

Soon a crowd formed and the snails came winding down the road toward us. High up as we were, they were taller than the platform. It was quite a sight.

Snurky had the nerve to try them in May or June through Skybeam Estates.

That's how I was first involved with Relay For Life.  Snurky continues with the relays (see her March 23rd for this year's first one), and I sell annual editions of Snail Racing cartoon shirts under Racer's team.  Last year I also helped with some art for Racer's Bay City Giant Snail relay hunt.  You can always get Giant Snail Relay info at my diner. Look for the new styles of original Giant Snail Relay shirts sometime this month.

Last year I had a wall where I kept an accumulation of vendors. This year I'm not entirely sure of where to place these. There's a space beside the gallery where I can put a wall or little market I suppose. Not entirely sure yet. Wish there was something lowprim & Aley I could utilize that isn't too gritty and fits an inland theme... let me know if you have any suggestions :)

Thought We Got Rid of Him...

Sometimes I'd rather be fishin'...

Victor's convinced New Toulouse' estate management that he's god's gift to timelords and their authority over themed private estates. They can have him, the police boxes which rez outdoors against covenant, and the RP category he's placed them under rather than Social (that alone is a slap in the face of New Toulouse).  The management didn't ask their own people to provide these for the community, only accommodated someone's personal roleplay.

They should be very proud of themselves that a bully with no interest in the populace or theme chased out one of its own to assert themselves.  Nothing says disconnect like four rezzers with modern and British structures at the ready.  Gabrielle Riel added him to the resident group and he never left. No, I don't know what he was doing there. One of the things I liked about NT was that he wasn't there. Then he was. You don't think he's a stalker? Suit yourself.  Personally if we never crossed paths again I wouldn't object.

I let the meter run out.  Someone I know needed more prims anyway.  I tried to get a journalist to hold off on a review of Maison Bleu, but he was insistent on posting it.

I'll still be there for the community.  Those who share a bond and true connection with the culture and its music dominate the New Toulouse.  A few places offered for me to play tunes at their establishments, so I won't be gone.  And of course I remain their liaison for the Aether Chrononauts during Relay For Life season.

I've learned the Aether Chrononauts have a perennial logo.  I made some clip art of it available to team members so that they can include it in some form on events/vendor textures - in a corner of the graphic or something.

I have been this close to making my own team for Relay For Life but for 3 things:

1. If I hadn't gone to Wildstar Beaumont there wouldn't be an AC team this year. There's an accountability I cannot deny. In fairness though he should have said there wouldn't be one instead of plucking someone unfamiliar with RFL to run the team.  That's hardly fair to anybody incl them. What would have been the harm if it took a year's hiatus? Still it's done and he went through a lot to find someone. We have a team thanks to him.

I want to say though the captains are very sweet and helpful, but I think they try too hard. The unique thing about AC is that it is comprised of disparate cultures, who work out whatever according to their own communities while contributing towards a single total. The only real place we have to synchronize our schedules is for RFL hosted events where the team works together. But they're learning. I think once the intimidation of the whole thing fades and they get more comfortable, they'll be fine.

2. The campsite. I'm not making one. Don't even ask.

3. A friend reminded me that the end result is the most important thing.  I must not ever forget that. If they just leave me be to do what I do and help the team by keeping members informed and equipped plus coordinating Teams R Us weekends lineups then it'll be good.

I'm proud to have brought on so many people, some new to Relay For Life. I couldn't do it with my own team. The objectivity would be gone. We'll see how this season pans out. I have a lot to prove after my experiences last year.

The first Teams R Us mini-gig is this Saturday: Kick-off Day. Have some team folks planned to provide vendors in addition to myself. Look for new shirts and Second Line Umbrellas :)  I'd have signed on for Cartoon World Gallery to have a booth in Fashion For Life but I didn't have the money to register.

Here's to more good times and helping people leave their bad times behind. GO RELAY!

New Toulouse en Fluxe

New Toulouse in its recent incarnation

Change can be tough, no doubt about it.

When you're steeped in commitment but have lost the spirit, what do you do?

You may plod on as best you can with what you have and hope it doesn't show. Perhaps you get your friends to take on some of the tasks which once energized you and which now feel like a dead weight on your back. Suddenly there's gravity in a virtual environment. Once you thought it was doable with everything else in your life.
Hey, it happens.

But say you've become attracted to something else. Another genre perhaps? You begin to feel that old magic again. If only you could unload the current project and start this one.  With all that you've learned and all that's going on in your life, you're confident it could all work out if things were done on a much smaller scale.

But no, you can't let people down. They rely on you. They look to you not just as a landlord or landlady but for guidance and the occasional dance party. This project is sustaining itself, so why break what doesn't need fixing?

Of course I'm projecting.  I couldn't begin to guess Gabrielle Riel's RL beyond what she's shared with us as her residents, and that's already a considerable hand dealt.  Add to that the virtual: running a series of web-based radio stations out of RadioRiel.org and the New Toulouse estate. This includes coordinating the past few years of Mardi Gras and hurricanes and monthly soirees and then some.

New Toulouse is an oddball theme in the great scheme of things Second Life.  It is presently 1912 there, which is post-Victorian and pre-Jazz Age.  It doesn't really fit it into Edwardian because it isn't British.  I'd call it early 20th Century Americana, only a lowdown Cajun-Immigrant corner of it. No illusions within the illusion.

Many residents like myself were attracted to it by way of a RL connection.  I was born in New Orleans.  A neighbor is into all eras of Jazz and hosts live talents regularly.  There have been Ann Rice fans establishing another kind of nightlife in line with her novels, and they've maintained a full residence in their cemeteries.

Radio Riel provides the soundtrack for many Second Life genres with a gamut of musical styles, among them Baroque, Dieselpunk (between the World Wars), gothic and experimental (aka Steampunk channel), and more.  The Steamlands appear to be Gabrielle Riel's affinity, with a presence each in Caledon, Steelhead and New Babbage, as well as sidetrips to Winterfell and Seraph City. 

Many years back when the owner put the estate up for sale, she took the plunge and saved the day.  New Toulouse had not only a dance hall for Radio Riel, it was Gabrielle Riel's domain.  A stream was added to RR's repertoire, the only stream named for an estate; it has been the perfect soundtrack.

Did I see signs?  Of course. Several on many levels. The most prominent of them was her decision to turn a discarded NT sim into the epitomê of gothic New England for an HP Lovecraft festival.  I knew the sim would remain beyond the festival and Halloween.  In November there were plans to rename it to Witchport, open it up to rentals and attach it to New Toulouse via a homestead water sim.  Many Taloosters and post-Lovecraftians expressed interest in moving over to early 20th century New England with options to visit via boat.

Witchport on a chilly winter morning

About three weeks ago came the news that she would be putting the estate up for sale.  Witchport would continue as a separate entity from New Toulouse: a much smaller project and better suitable to work harmoniously with her other projects and RL. If nobody took the estate over by the first of the year, the sims would be sold off one by one.

Naturally there was panic. I think we all looked around for an alternative, but we already knew that there was nothing like New Toulouse on the grid. Anything claiming any resemblance to New Orleans looked like a Linden Labs sim with stuff plopped on it. New Toulouse has a look and vibe which instantly transports you to a place, and no one's come close to that with this theme.

I got to thinking: If nobody stepped forward - not just anybody of course - there would be no Mardi Gras, no hurricane, no Madhu's Café. The latter would continue somewhere else; I frequented Carter's place before NT so that will live on wherever it ends up.

I asked one of the vampires. When New Toulouse Jardin (what became the Lovecraft sim. This was previously NT's upscale garden district) was decommissioned over the spring/summer, they moved off-theme to Skybeam. I've never warmed up to Seraph City and don't know of any other 1920s themed sims with lax rules on dress code.

With the holidays came word that about three potential buyers were in discussion with Gabrielle Riel. An original resident had been notified and stepped forward and would take over two sims: New Toulouse and New Toulouse Bayou. NT Ponchartrain and NT Bourbon would be sold off; one has since been claimed. New Toulouse Algiers would be renamed Witchwood and join Witchport to the south. Two friends will be making the transition there, one of them Carter.

With so many people interested in staying and others having departed, there has been a fair exchange in parcel ownership. The new owners won't be lacking renters once they install new meters. There were many times NT as a whole would have no vacancies. Most of the time one or two parcels showed yellow on the map, maybe an occasional cemetery plot.

Naturally change affects people differently.  With word of the changes I was pleased. We had answers and saw a future. With word of Gabrielle Riel finding closure with New Toulouse and friends riding a landmass to her new world I'm happy.  She's handled this fairly and been helping the new owners as best she can. Gotta give her kudos.

I'm a little concerned though for a neighbor who seemingly expected everyone from four dense sims to want to squeeze into our two, so much so that she asked those not associated with New Toulouse whether they found their new parcel yet.  She hasn't spoken to me since that day.  The neurotic in me suspects that she interprets my laid back behavior as non-allegiance. We had previously discussed the pros and cons of places we had both escaped from before coming to NT.  I don't want to see her turn into another "us vs them" type, and I'm aware she may be in shock and just need some time. Hopefully she'll snap out of it and get back to her old self, welcoming residents and visitors (including ex-pats) with equal enthusiasm.

IMHO nobody should be judged because they choose to keep their parcel in favor of relocation. They weren't any more or less of a resident. Everyone has their reasons for being where they are, and if somewhere else suits them or they came to NT because of Gabrielle Riel and her events, so be it. She's a very good landlady and maybe some want to continue being somewhere she's in charge. At any rate they're all welcome to my place. Nobody switches off an interest in music or art because they've moved. If Gabrielle Riel wants to hang out when I play 20s tunes that's just fine.  And she knows I'll continue to show up wherever she has a party going. If Madhu's is in Witchwood then you'll find me there on World Music night.

The only thing likely to deter me from continuing in the revised New Toulouse is how the estate is run. Naturally a certain estate buttinski would be grounds to leave if he were added as a manager. While this is far from their genre of interest, power IS a genre of interest unto itself and he'd be attracted to with claims of experience. Happily he hasn't been in evidence.

I was invited to groups these past two days. K.I.S.S. I always say.  People sometimes think an event or place needs a group for each minutia of topic (RFL SLB and Burn2 all suffer from Group Diarrhea). I've only ever belonged to one group for New Toulouse: The residents group. They have a website with an events section anyone can see. If they officially choose to keep the NT renters group apart from a social group and we're no longer allowed to comiserate in group chat, I can understand the change. If all non-residents are effectively ousted from the rental group and expats benefit from a social group, I'll join ONE of them. UPDATE: The latter is the case, and all former residents should join Gens de New Toulouse ;) .

But for now, New Toulouse is saved, new owners are experiencing a steep learning curve while Gabrielle Riel brings them up to speed while the map will remain in flux just a little while longer.

New Toulouse as of this morning.

What grew on this year's Burn2 Sculpture

Here is a guide to all the influences which sprouted forth from my campsite Stream of Consciousness currently on display at Burning Man in Second Life...

Style Branch

	Art Deco Inspired by the architects of Ancient Egypt. This angular and asymmetrical style was an attempt to lend a modern eye to elegance during the 20s.
	Googie and Atomic Age Following Art Deco came Streamline Moderne, which took the soul out of its line and often gave buildings a "submarine" look. After WWII signs and structures tried to define themselves for the future with geometric shapes and odd color schemes, mostly pastel and primary. Some say this post-deco look was inspired in part by Disneyland and the conceptual art of Mary Blair. Others by the proliferation of prefab diners. Applying this to homes, drive-ins, restaurants, hotels, etc. went on well into the 1960s, where it set the style for the New York World's Fair. My builds on Hydrangea reflect this style, as well as my fishing marina The Retro Metro in Nova Albion.
	Tiki USA's involvement in the Pacific also introduced a Polynesian influence. Mix that with Googie and you get a campy cult, which also manifested its own genre of musical styles.
	Framed Storybook Cottages Something I saw a lot of when visiting my mother's side in Alsace-Lorraine. Strasbourg and Obernai in particular. I'd never seen such detail, not even in Big Ben jigsaw puzzles.

Movie Branch

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans First soundtrack-on-film feature (versus playing a record in sync). Directed by Fritz "Nosferatu" Lang about true love reborn. You WILL weep I don't care who you are.
Back to the Future Trilogy After Buster Keaton's The Cameraman - a perfect comedy - comes the perfect epic adventure trilogy, in which everything happens for a reason and everything falls into place by the end.
Singin' in the Rain A perfect account of Hollywood at the dawn of the talkies. This has a little bit of everything in it, and beats American in Paris by a long mile.
A Matter of Life and Death Brilliant and clever tale of an RAF airman who survives his jump from a burning plane in a way no one would expect. It's refreshing to see foreigners depict American stereotypes.
Jean Cocteau He had a way of making Orpheus look like a waking dream and La Belle et La Bête like a walking Doré engraving. The moment the poet plunges into the mirror is nothing which has been replicated on film in that way before or since. Not even Eddy Grant...
Flesh and the Devil Two performers fall in love while shooting a movie about forbidden romance and scandal. You don't think that shows up on film? Hell yeah!
Random Harvest Okay so this nurse falls in love with an amnesic soldier at the end of WWI and they fall in love, start a life, live in one of those storybook cottages... until one day he remembers who he is and forgets his new life. ARRRGH!
The Forbidden Zone Danny Elfman's brother made this low budget softcore cult film with Hervé Villechaize, Susan Tyrrell, Oingo Boingo, The Kipper Kids, an obsession with Max Fleischer cartoons, old 78s, chickens, and hardly any budget, The result was a very bizarre but intriguing concoction with surprisingly successful special effects.
North by NortwestWhat do you mean you've never seen this?!

Music Branch

	The Beatles *watching Ed Sullivan* Mommy Mommy why are those girls screaming? They can't hear the music!" "Because they're crazy Dear." Even today there are very few music acts from any genre who were not even indirectly influenced by The Beatles. Which was your Beatle? Mine's always been Paul McCartney. I heard the Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey and thus started my listening the radio. He was big stuff at the time with his band Wings, and less interested in making social statements than putting out appealing pop tunes. On a trip to the UK in 1977 I acquired the single "Give Ireland Back to the Irish" which we'd never heard in the States.
	The Carpenters Sick at home and stir crazy I listened to a LOT of pop hits in the summer of 1971 when pursuing the radio, and it was a big year for The Carpenters and their multi-layered sound, which was great in headphones at my friend's house. My parents were pleased that I'd taken to someone they liked as well, and we included a concert as part of a road trip through Pennsylvania.
	Electric Light Orchestra Influences come and influences go, but I always come back to ELO. Still doing AM Radio in 1973 I caught the syndicated weekly AT40 where I got to hear Can't Get It Out of My Head once a week. By 1976 and having owned each single of theirs since AND listened to all their B-sides, I figured it was time to move on to albums. Simply this: Electric Light Orchestra picked up where The Beatles left off. And Jeff Lynne is God.
	DEVO i didn't think much of them until Oh No! It's DEVO! In 1982. That and a dream set a short distance from an atomic test site.
	Dave Edmunds High octane rockabilly strait ouda Cardiff.
	Paul Whiteman Orchestra You've got your kind of Jazz and I've got mine. It's just that most of mine are Foxtrot with Vocal Refrain

Art & Animation Branch

Looney Tunes Who doesn't love Looney Tunes? Funny imagery for kids and shrewd humor for adults.
Thomas Kinkade There are those framed cottages again, only mostly English. But still that cozy light inside. This man's work was always one step away from total kitsche, but he always maintained that distance.
Disney moment in Cinderella I knew I was going to be an artist, at least a cartoonist, but a moment of a scene from Cinderella in which the character ran into a darkened room so realistic had me hooked into majoring in animation while in High School. Yeah so what if the character was rotoscoped in the shot. This was my destiny and I had to follow.
Busby Berkley As you may suspect, Busby Berkley was in fact a drill sergeant at some point. Then coming back to the states after WWI he found work on Broadway choreographing reviews. It made sense to move on to movies, where his formations and patterns became legendary. Try the formulaic "Dames" for some of the best musical sequences.
Osamu Tezuka My earliest recollection of anime - at the time called Japanimation - was that of Astroboy aka Atom. From there was Kimba aka Leo the Lion. And Amazing Three, about aliens disguised as animals riding in a tire. Picking up my first manga in 1971 found me a host of new characters to follow, but opening a Yochiyen got me all my Tezuka favorites plus MamaChan, Magma, Black Jack, and more. He had the first anime studio and was a pioneer to Japan akin to Walt Disney.
Go Nagai Don't think I'd ever seen naked characters in a kids comic before then. He got parents in Japan furious in the 60s and 70s. But truly he did some amazing work. His original Devilman series was very sophisticated.
Ishinomori Shotaro For action, adventure, and again cyborgs and robots with hearts of gold. Much of my timing in comics came from him. At a time when I found American comics cluttered and messy, I found an appeal with simple character design yet perfect poses and amazing embellishments in manga (explosions, etc), mostly from this artist. Kamen Rider, Wild, Cyborg 009, Kikaida... these practically became a part of me.
Speed Racer Who would have thought? An animated series without talking animals or aliens etc? It was an animated version of an adventure spy thriller, and for the time it worked. When you grow up with Trans Lux' low budget dubbing you can't see it any other way and you wouldn't want to.
John Romita Sr A clean simple line, perfect poses... these are what I liked about Johnny Romita when he took over Daredevil. The only reason he left was to cover for Ditko on Spider-man. Thus a legend was born.
Gene Colan My key American inspiration stands right beside Go Nagai and Ishinomori Shotaro with yet another unique storytelling style. A man with a knack for realism straight from the hand with cinematic angles. He was like I am: see things in tones and very difficult to ink. I had resolved to pursue inking in mainstream comics as a result. We were eventually on a first-name basis but I never expressed to him my desire to ink is art and work on a project with him. I suppose somewhere up there he now knows.
Brian Bolland His inking style is unsurpassed. I wish I could do what he did, and he did it with a brush.
James Montgomery Flagg An amazing illustrator and cartoonist from early 20th century. What he could do with a few lines was just incredible. While he is known for his Uncle Sam Wants YOU poster it's the black & white cartoons and spot illustrations from an earlier time that I admire most.

Shordurpersavs
Shordurpersav is SubGenius for "Short Duration Personal Savior". It's those things which hit you hard with influence and advance you into a new phase of your life until the next one comes along.

	Tin Man Fascinating. An empty structure with a soul. I felt he had the most heart...
	Speed Racer I saw this during a visit in 1967 to NYC. I obsessed over it once back in Chicago and had to keep drawing it and singing the theme song so I wouldn't forget. Two years later we'd be moving to NYC and that's all I could think of.
	Dr Strange As long as one can go, there's always a path to redemption. I was impressed to learn that in the 60s there were college courses analyzing this Marvel comic series. I boast an impressive collection of original Dr Strange page art, and always wanted to do a piece for Marvel.
	Captain Hook There comes that moment reading the book that you realize that he wasn't the bad guy. In the original version he gets so sick of being tormented by Peter Pan that he climbs down from the ship to kneel in the water before the crocodile.
	Eddie Cantor The original King of All Media. Started impoverished in an immigrant family and became one of the greatest celebrities of his time and a great philanthropist. He also founded the Actors Guild.
	Buster Keaton Easily the best filmmaker. Director and producer AND screenplays. His Rube Goldberg engineering skills were also how he approached his plots.
	Danny Elfman Is he the devil? Is he a manic lead singer? Is he a soundtrack composer? I know him for more than Jack Skellington.
	Errol Flynn He might not have reached his full potential. Flynn was a dysfunctional genius with a great skill for the written word. He also had rage issues which turned him into a monster under the influence. Admitted that he wondered how his life would have been if he weren't so pretty and gotten away with so much. Looked 80 when he died at 50, but lived three times that. Was inspiration for the Tasmanian Devil. Many things written about him since his passing were not true.
	The EMH My adoptive persona since 2000 has been the Emergency Medical Hologram or Holographic Doctor. To interact realistically with people in a medical environment the EMH was configured with heuristic subroutines which resulted in a sentient lifeform. The story of the EMH is not just a study of an aware creature finding his place in society but ultimately the story of humanity's future and the question of whether we have truly evolved when mankind creates simulated scenarios for killing and war on the holodeck. People online don't always get that they are ALWAYS evaluated based on whether their values off the computer remain when they interact with strangers online.
	Doctor Who Damn I hated that show in the 70s. It was some crummy low-budget thing on before wrestling Saturday mornings (in NYC it wasn't on PBS). There's a different first impression between being a 3 yr old hiding behind the couch or being regarded by a film major (case in point Speed Racer, which appears on two branches of my sculpture). My first roomate made me watch it a decade later and it was painful. Something happened along the way, and now it's the best show on TV anywhere. I jumped on with series 5 in 2010, when most of that year's episodes could hold up in the movie theatre over anything out at the time.