Equity wins silver in Houston April 22, 2008
Posted by Jeff in Labor, Movies, Theater, Zook.2 comments
Above: Marie Dressler (foreground) and chorus girls from the Ziegfeld Follies picketing on Broadway, 1919.
My original screenplay Equity has been awarded a Silver Remi for Best Dramatic Screenplay at the 2008 WorldFest Houston International Film Festival.
For some reason, they love me in Texas April 11, 2008
Posted by Jeff in Movies, Zook.5 comments
For the second year in a row, one of my screenplays has won a Remi Award from the WorldFest Houston International Film Festival.
Old inbetweeners refuse to fade away January 19, 2008
Posted by Jeff in Art, Cartoons, Zook.15 comments
Watercolor by Virgil “Vip” Partch. Left to right: Sam Cobean, Tony Rivera, Bill McIntyre, Vip Partch, Reginald Massie (foreground), Dick Shaw.
This probably dates from late 1941 or 1942, after the Disney strike in which they all participated. All five would have been in their late twenties to early thirties at the time …
“Tubby The Tuba” January 17, 2008
Posted by Jeff in 1946 through 1960, Cartoons, Classical, Movies, Music, Puppetoons, Zook.17 comments
Reg Massie, 1945
Unlike clay animators like Nick Park, Will Vinton or Art Clokey, George Pal’s animators worked in a “replacement technique” using hand-carved wooden puppets. A separate puppet (or puppet part) was used for each motion, rather than clay or hinged parts. A single walking sequence, for instance, could involve 12 pairs of legs for one character. An average Puppetoon short would use 9,000 puppets.
“Jasper In A Jam” January 15, 2008
Posted by Jeff in 1946 through 1960, Cartoons, Jazz, Movies, Music, Peggy Lee, Puppetoons, Swing, Zook.5 comments
From 1946, a George Pal Puppetoon featuring Charlie Barnet and Peggy Lee, and designed by Reg Massie.
“Together In The Weather” January 14, 2008
Posted by Jeff in 1946 through 1960, Cartoons, Movies, Puppetoons, Zook.7 comments
This week, a festival of George Pal Puppetoons designed by my father, Reginald Massie (1909-1989).
Ed LaDou, 1955-2007 January 8, 2008
Posted by Jeff in In memoriam, Zook.1 comment so far
Above: Ed LaDou shows a pizza topped with lamb sausage, lemon grilled eggplant, roasted garlic, feta, mozzarella and kalamata olives
My brother Marcus, like me a long-time pizza fanatic, has fallen in love with the pizza at a wonderful little joint in Micanopy, Florida called Blue Highway. I certainly share his enthusiasm for the place, but I told him the next time he came to visit me I was going to take him to the shrine of California pizza, the Caioti Pizza Café in Studio City.
Imagine my shock upon returning to L. A., to learn that on the very day we had most recently gone to Blue Highway, the high priest of the California pizza cult, the man you have to thank if you’ve ever had barbecue chicken on a pizza, had passed away of cancer at the age of fifty-two.
6,000 days ago, o.d.a.a.t. October 31, 2007
Posted by Jeff in 1929 through WWII, Movies, Zook.add a comment
A nicely appropriate anniversary to fall on Halloween, i.m.h.o.
My favorite guns October 14, 2007
Posted by Jeff in Zook.3 comments
I sometimes think my brother Marcus suspects I’m not listening when he tells me about his gun collection, but he might be surprised …
Dad makes The New Yorker July 2, 2007
Posted by Jeff in Art, Zook.add a comment
The October 8, 1949 cover of The New Yorker magazine, by my father, Reginald Massie.
He would have been ninety-eight years old today. Happy Birthday, Dad!
Technorati tags: Reginald Massie., The New Yorker
For my sixteenth birthday* May 29, 2007
Posted by Jeff in Giuseppe Verdi, Italian, Netrebko and Villazón, Opera, Theater, Zook.2 comments
Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón celebrate the happy occasion 😉
From a brilliant Salzburg Festival production of Verdi’s La Traviata. (I watched this several times before I realized that half the chorus is women in drag.)
Books I like: The Temeraire series by Naomi Novik May 22, 2007
Posted by Jeff in Books I like, Zook.4 comments
As I reported in a previous non-post, I spent a couple of hours on the evening of May 8 inside the It’s A Grind coffeehouse on Vermont, reading a book while the Griffith Park fire raged about a mile from my apartment.
The work that was sufficiently engrossing to distract me from that rather spectacular event was Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik, one of a series that has become my favorite read over the last month.
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