Recently in Finds Category

From "Why Johnny Can't Code," a fascinating article by David Brin on Salon:

For three years -- ever since my son Ben was in fifth grade -- he and I have engaged in a quixotic but determined quest: We've searched for a simple and straightforward way to get the introductory programming language BASIC to run on either my Mac or my PC.

Why on Earth would we want to do that, in an era of glossy animation-rendering engines, game-design ogres and sophisticated avatar worlds? Because if you want to give young students a grounding in how computers actually work, there's still nothing better than a little experience at line-by-line programming.

Only, quietly and without fanfare, or even any comment or notice by software pundits, we have drifted into a situation where almost none of the millions of personal computers in America offers a line-programming language simple enough for kids to pick up fast. Not even the one that was a software lingua franca on nearly all machines, only a decade or so ago. And that is not only a problem for Ben and me; it is a problem for our nation and civilization.

Brin has a point. There are better languages than BASIC for just about everything, except for introducing kids to computer programming in a way that isn't so cryptic that it's frustrating.

BASIC was already approaching total obsolescence on home computers a decade ago when I was in high school, but Brin ignores the one place where BASIC is still king: graphing calculators. Both calculators I had in high school (some Casio model and, later, a TI-89) were programmable in a BASIC derivative language. That might explain why a lot of us nerds extensively programmed our calculators but didn't do much "real" computer programming until college.

Hey there, folks. I'm working on a few new drawings for this Memorial Day weekend, but I wanted to draw your attention to Operation Denver, an effort to urge Denver lawmakers to repeal the city's pit bull ban by sending one mile's worth of postcards (that's about 10,560 postcards) to the mayor.

If you weren't aware, it is illegal to bring an American pit bull terrier, American Staffordshire terrier, Staffordshire bull terrier, or any mixed or purebred dog that looks like one within the city limits of Denver. That includes just passing through. If they are discovered, dogs thought to be "pit bull type" dogs will be confiscated, and if a court finds them to be pit bulls, they may either be destroyed or, if the owner pays costs of impoundment, they may instead be permanently removed from the Denver city limits. The owner can also be charged a $1000 fine or imprisoned for up to a year.

In practice, the law costs the city a lot of money, and a lot of unaggressive pets are killed. Plus:

The ban was enacted under the assumption that ridding the area of this (so deemed) "dangerous" breed would decrease the number of injuries due to dog bites. Though the number of dog bite hospitalizations has decreased nationwide over the past 40 years, Denver has held the highest rate of dog bite hospitalizations of any county in the state since the ordinance was enacted, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment statistics.

From 1995 to 2006, Denver had nearly six times the total amount of dog bite hospitalizations (and more than three times the amount per capita) as breed-neutral Boulder County. (Best Friends Animal Network)

A couple years ago the Netherlands repealed their national pit bull ban on the grounds that it made no difference in their dog bite statistics. Animal welfare organizations oppose breed-specific bans, arguing that the public safety could be better served by stricter enforcement of existing laws targeting aggressive dogs and irresponsible pet owners. These bans don't work, and they just penalize law-abiding pit bull owners (like me) who can't enter the city with their dog.

What you can do: Create a postcard (either digitally or on paper) urging Denver lawmakers to repeal the ban. E-mail the 4" x 6" digital image to operationdenver@gmail.com, or contact them for the postal address to send the postcard physically (in an envelope--they will mail them all on the same day sometime in September).

You do NOT have to live in Colorado to participate. If you care about dogs, please create and send a postcard, regardless of where you live.

What ho, Internet readers! It's been some time, hasn't it? I've been doing a lot of going to bed early and a bit of reading and a bit of cooking and a lot of thinking about things, but very little productive, I'm afraid.

So, rather than posting drawings (which is probably what you're hanging around here for), I'll tell you about an interesting product I ordered that just came in the mail today. It's the Storyboard Book! They're little pocket-sized 32-page sketchbooks made specifically for storyboarding (or other activities where you may wish to accompany sketches with notes). I haven't used mine yet, but they look like they have potential in comics-making.

They seem like pretty sturdy little books, too, but only time and use will tell whether that's actually true. The covers are a sort of light cardboard/paperboard, and the paper itself is of a good quality. The smell and feel of good paper (new or old) triggers the release of pleasure-hormones in my brain--this is how I can tell.

I'm not entirely sure what I plan to use mine for. They're pretty neat, though! If you want to order your own, you can get them here.

I finally caved and got a Tumblr for posting all the dumb/awesome stuff I find on the Internet (and in real life (but mostly on the internet)) without feeling obligated to write useful commentary about it.

Subscribe to it and enjoy.

The "Finds" category will still be operational here, but it will only be used when I don't feel like exercising my skills in brevity.

Depressingly, Art Clokey, the creator of Gumby, died this morning. As a kid I was completely crazy about Gumby: I had the Gumby board game, a bendy Gumby doll that I took in the bath tub (which I think rusted the wires in it because it eventually stopped being bendy), smaller Gumby and Pokey figurines, and this one VHS tape of Gumby cartoons ("Gumby and the Moon Boggles") that I watched over and over again.

From that tape, in honor of Mr. Clokey, here is my favorite childhood Gumby episode, "Mystic Magic":

I'm actually not entirely sure why that one appealed to me so much. Not much of a story there! But it did include the terrifying prospect of accidentally transforming all your friends into inanimate objects, at least.

And Prickle! Prickle was my favorite Gumby character.

Now I think it's time we all also watched "Robot Rumpus" again:

Long-time Gargoyle acquaintance Jon Visger (AKA Absofacto) has posted this totally sweet new video for his song "Paper Crane."

My favorite part is when he is standing in front of the gate covered in hobo symbols. But I wonder if the space bubble sequence is intended to be a reference to Aronofsky's The Fountain.

Jon also has all his EPs available as pay-what-you-want downloads at his website, so you have no excuse. Go get his music! And please pay at least a few bucks for each record if you can. Mr. Visger is a cool guy and all that money goes to him, to do things like make more nice music for you to listen to.

EDIT 12/14/09: Tonight Absofacto also released a new single. Go listen!

Music by Brian Lonano and Flash animation by Victoria Cook.

I don't know, either. All I know is Poezenklaas both intrigues and terrifies me.

Video found via Cartoon Brew.

I'm sure every person on the Internet has seen this before, but I'll post it here anyway, just in case you haven't:

The clip is from a 1985 claymation film called The Adventures of Mark Twain, which I guess saw a few TV broadcasts despite (or perhaps because of) being intensely creepy.

This particular sequence is based on Twain's unfinished novella, The Mysterious Stranger, which is in many ways just as upsetting as the animation. It's also a very interesting meditation on the nature of God and religion, though I'm not sure it's a good story (I guess that's what "unfinished" indicates). Still, Twain was nothing if not a master wordsmith. Go read the novella.

I came across these unreleased recordings for Disney's Robin Hood earlier this month via Cartoon Brew. Both alternate recordings were edited into videos and uploaded by Huston Huddleston from the archives of his late father, Floyd Huddleston, who worked on the music for the film in 1973.

"The Phony King of England":

"Love":

This particular recording of "Love" is used in the new Wes Anderson film Fantastic Mr. Fox, which I am very much looking forward to seeing. This has been a great year for animation and kids' films, folks.

I still have not been terribly productive, so here, watch this clip from Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure.

This film, released in 1977, is extremely weird and did not do so hot at the box office, but it's widely known among cartoon nerds for its gorgeous animation. I mean, watch that movement; it's pure eye candy. A ton of brilliant Golden Age animators worked on it, including Fleischer/Disney animator Grim Natwick, Disney animator Art Babbit, and others who had worked at Disney, Warner and more during the time when the best hand-drawn animation the world has ever seen was being produced.

Even at their worst, these guys are a hard act to follow. This stuff is amazing.