I have hungered for good animation shorts ever since, and will join the hipster-ish cry for more independent pieces, things that reflect individual creators and concepts, instead of a future marketing plan. A short is a lovely way to explore a new art medium like animation and requires good storytelling for it to make it out into the world at large.

Lately, I’ve come across two animation bits that I really like. One old, one new – and both using stop-motion techniques, one of my favorite kinds of animation.

Cheburashka is an adorable “creature unknown to mankind” whose name comes from his tendency to “topple” over. Produced in the late 1960s and early 1970s as a handful of shorts starring him and his crocodile friend Gena, they get into adventures together that bring out the strange and adorable in Soviet Russia. It is surreal to watch Gena fix a corporation’s big oil leak into a river and Cheburashka pine for the opportunity to be a Pioneer (very similar to American Cub Scouts).

This youtube user has been kind enough to subtitle most of the episodes in English here.

The newer animation short is from a Canadian (yep, lots of animators up there it seems) who has been playing with his toys for a long time. This short in particular makes the anthropomorphization of a popular 1980s toy seamless. The music works well too – I look forward to other non-Transformers shorts from him.

It’s so nice to discover new animation bits. Post more in the comments if you’ve seen some neat ones lately.

Any alarms going off yet? Luckily for these two Russian girls, their friend did suspect something fishy – and even from a road trip through Wyoming, he called upon help at Metafilter to work on preventing what sounded like a textbook case of human trafficking.

The full thread of what happened is here. It’s pretty long, but a breathless read if you have the time. There’s a good summary from Mother Jones magazine, and it may still be unfolding as the authorities did get involved.

It blows my mind that even rational people in reach of good technology, transportation and friends can be lured into this trap. Slavery is more rampant now than it was 300 years ago, it is just couched in more convoluted terms of owing money for room and board, or being “taken care of” instead of being a burden to the family. From wikipedia,

“The organization Anti-Slavery International defines slavery as “forced labour.” By this definition there are approximately 27 million slaves in the world today, more than at any point in history and more than twice as many as all African slaves who survived being taken to the Americas in the Atlantic slave trade.”

It is relieving to see how in this case how many strangers worked together so quickly (over a 24 hour period, practically) to keep these girls from falling into a bad, bad situation. And knowing both what this looks like (job offers fall through, then once the targets arrive in the U.S., a meeting is set for a job that doesn’t seem like something that would need to recruit employees from abroad); and who are some helpful sources (Polaris Project is recommended here) is information I’m glad to pass along.

“Fifty-something Jones was a session soul singer turned Riker’s Island Corrections Officer, until new vintage act the Dap Kings reanimated her career in 2001. With her latest LP of new material, I Learned the Hard Way, just weeks from releasing to what will be very positive reviews, the nine-piece was on fire at SXSW, playing triple and quadruple the number of events of any other band. The 1 a.m. performance was Jones’ third of the day, and she still went at it with more tenacity than any rested indie band. Title track “I Learned the Hard Way” is pure dynamite live, an original, daringly structured track that feels as if it was beamed directly out of the late Sixties. The structure is so tricky the band flubbed one of the transitions — likely a consequence of exhaustion — but recovered gracefully. Up-close, it’s apparent that the Dap-Kings have an entire grammar of eye contact at their disposal. They are the pinnacle of the profession and they simply could not be frazzled as Jones shimmied, cajoled, and howled her way deeper into a late-career renaissance defined by winning over new fans one stunned soul at a time.”

From David Downs review

BTW – “I Learned the Hard Way” was first performed live at the show I was at Tuesday. Go Dap Kings!

The problem arose when in the maze that is Ikea in Utah; I was overwhelmed with choices, all of which I didn’t like. I could find a mattress I liked, a slat set I liked, box springs I liked, but all the beds were…well, if you’ve been there you’ve seen the homage to Swedish design that left me with lots of light or black wood designs that were all very low to the ground. I am ready for a grown-up bed, preferably one as high as a fancy hotel bed, with high thread count sheets to match. Luckily, my frustration was met with a suggestion from Sam: “Well, we could make our own bed.” I hadn’t considered this. I assumed it took knowledge only a carpenter with a pencil permanently mounted behind the ear could do. But turns out, beds can be made by people with an eye for measurement and knowledge of where to get high quality fasteners. (check and check).

Of course, after purchasing the slats and mattress, strapping them to the top of our solar trailer and bringing it back through the winds of Wyoming to home; the proposed September/October project is still in design phase. But here is what has been done so far:

• Picked out a baltic birch plywood that has “a large number of thin, void-free plys”
• Picked out and tested a dark stain
• Drawn up some preliminary designs, inspired by this box:
• Determined a bed height desired of 28-29 inches
• Used Sketch-Up and Illustrator to determine the cut pattern for the different pieces of the bed
• Tested these preliminary designs on the CNC Router “Findy“, to ensure a depth that allows the light wood to show through the stain but doesn’t weaken the wood

We’re not done, obviously, but we need to finish determining the pattern and putting it into software, since the order of assembly goes: stain, cut pattern, cut pieces, sand, polish, and assemble. But hopefully it is finished in next month or two, and I get my new bed. Project time…

Since then, I am helping to plan the warehouse’s blowout NYE bash. Our theme is that of a Speakeasy, leaving lots of creative options for decoration, costumes, activities, and drinks. It roughly parallels our journey from a start-up art cooperative to a more and more organized non-profit entity – an exciting process, of course. However, living out tales of prohibition and gangsters is more exciting, at least on a temporary basis. For the event, it was requested we have some visuals – something reminiscent of the 1920s. A friend who has experience both with lots of films and going non-profit warned me extensively about showing only materials that would not violate copyright with our private party status. Luckily, he also recommended archive.org, a website full of public domain films and music, complete with thumbnails to preview images and user reviews. Within a couple hours, I had tracked down old Betty Boop cartoons where Betty mimics both FDR and Herbert Hoover, and has visions of a mug of beer (not too subtle for the time). I found newsreels proclaiming the end of Prohibition, with footage of raids with men destroying barrels of whiskey with axes in the street. There were films both silent and talking covering scenes in nightclubs and speakeasies, with plenty of gangster and gambling action, and Felix the Cat cartoons where Felix learns about moonshine and quite enjoys it. A few days later, I have close to six hours of public domain and creative commons media (open copyright) ready to go for our gig. It’s pleasing to be able to find films like these and know they can be shown at an event to create atmosphere without running afoul of legal rights, even in creating a party specifically about law breakers 90 years ago.

It’s bizarre to reflect on what life was like for a country banning liquor production. December 31st, 1919 saw lots of private, undisclosed-location parties where people boozed up as much as possible before the January 16th, 1920 start of Prohibition. And yet, when Prohibition was headed for repeal, liquor prices countrywide dropped a full year before becoming legal again, just due to the change in expected market. I can imagine citizens easing off their stockpiles with legal alcohol on the horizon. It’s interesting to think whether this would happen with any other currently illegal drug – though nothing quite compares in terms of widespead legality the world around like alcohol.

Hopefully, tomorrow night will go something like this:

On January 16, 1920, Prohibition began. Only four days after, the 50-50 Club opened in New York City, becoming the first of some 30,000-100,000 speakeasies to operate in that city alone during the “Great Experiment.” The protocol was simple: Knock on a friendly (anonymous) door, give a pre-arranged password, and be permitted to enter. To order, one would “speak easily” (that is, in a quiet tone), and then be served a teacup of gin or whiskey that would either be the “real McCoy” or had just been mixed in someone’s bathtub, depending on the connection and the reliability of the bar owner.”

from “Joe Sent Me” by Dave Sikula

I for one, will be glad to break into a bottle of champagne tomorrow night – and have a sober driver cart me home eventually. And I won’t even have to hide my bubbly in a teacup.

NO! Sam’s grandmother is doing fine, you sick person. We are saying goodbye to the Biobenz – the mercedes on the left. It’s been a great car, treated us well on roadtrips, and we in return coddled its diesel engine through cold winters. And there’s nothing like the sound of an old diesel to tell you when someone’s just gotten home. However, it sits lonely in the parking lot most days now, and is better served at a new home in Tennessee. This week we’ll be looking for a different kind of trailer-puller – a Toyota pickup: it should hold up better in the winter, and be more useful for the trips to pick up big items as well as the road trips. Farewell, bio-benz – have a safe journey to Tennessee.

I love root beer, but the ingredients are expensive, and I’m still on the fence about adding caramel color to make it more appealing to the masses. So what other sodas can be kegged? Numerous ones – though I’m not a straight-up cola fan, and am generally not into fruit sodas either. However, our other brewer on the premises suggested a hibiscus soda – not unlike a common Mexican summer drink, oaxaca or sweet waters – made with jamaica (hibiscus), lime, cucumber, strawberries, or other summery ingredients. After checking out several recipes, I opted for the simplest: dried hibiscus blossoms, sugar and water. The test batch, completed Tuesday night came out with great color and flavor – even working with a recipe that listed “sugar: amount to taste”. I already liked hibiscus in herbal tea – this just brings it to an evening drink with the carbonation. It also competes with the trendy pomegranate drinks, since hibiscus is also high in Vitamin C.

The keg is carbonating for several days with 4 gallons of water – on Monday, I’ll make up what is essentially the hibiscus soda syrup in one gallon of water to be added to the keg and carbonated for an additional 3-4 days. That makes it ready to go for 4th of July weekend – and the following weekend’s art show. Here’s the basic recipe in case you feel like trying it – the non-keg, quick’n'dirty way to carbonate is to make it with half the water and top up with club soda:

Hibiscus Soda

2 quarts water

1 cup dried hibiscus blossoms (at groceries stores in the West, or in Mexican markets)

1/2 cup sugar

Boil the hibiscus blossoms in the water for ~4 minutes. Let steep another 10-15 minutes and strain. Add the sugar and mix thoroughly. Carbonate and pour over ice. Makes 2 quarts (duh).

I am told this is not how it works.

We are lucky that one member has done some background research on what we need to do, what laws are really important to research, and what benefits and difficulties we can expect. But it will take calling different offices to ask questions, probably some legal counsel, some changes in how finances are handled, and probably more work for me as we change our spreadsheets and procedures. The benefits would be helpful however, and so we’re slowly moving forward. In the meantime, if there are any experts out there on moving to non-profit status in the Centennial State, let me know.