Tuesday May 2After waking up and chugging some ice coffee from the local Starbucks, we hit the road and take the 5 up to LA. Since we're not going at peak hours the drive isn't too bad. The weather is pretty overcast into the early afternoon.
Leah was compelled to capture this taco truck on the drive up.
Our only real mission today is to visit the
ASIFA Hollywood Animation Archive. We get to Burbank early and locate the archive on the semi-desolate Burbank Blvd. Since it isn't open yet we head over to the only sign of civilization, a shopping center. I try unsuccessfully to find some white t-shirts from Target that aren't cut to fit fat people.
With nothing else in the immediate vicinity we head over to the lovely Olive Garden. Any one who knows us also knows that we hate chain restaurants with a passion. The 'host' quizzes us on our Olive Garden menu knowledge on the way to seating us. I lie and say I've been to this place before just to spare us any more of his corporate jive.
After an okay meal we head over to the archive. The director Stephen Worth shows us around the exhibit area where there are a stack of vintage Golden Book recently donated by
John K, tables covered with Mexican lobby posters, and early (if not the first) Betty Boop model sheets. Next he takes us to the back room which is packed with yet to be cataloged animation cels, drawings, storyboards, model sheets, background paintings and any other piece of cartoon related art you could fathom. Finally we are led back to the front where there's a row of iMacs for viewing digitized cartoons and art. Leah and I sit down to join
Katie Rice and
Marc Deckter who are watching a slew of vintage Terrytoons. I can't wait until we move to LA so I can volunteer at the archive to help preserve cartoon animation history.
Next we decide to drive through Echo Park, Silverlake and Atwater Village to check out the vibe. Since we're unfamiliar with the LA area our tour is pretty random but still fun. On a whim we decide to drive up to Griffith Park which we liked a lot. The trail had a lot of wildlife like birds, lizards, insects, snakes and some angst ridden teens sharing a bottle of Jack. The views from the top start Leah's obsession with the Hollywood Hills.
After our hike we drove over to
Cobras and Matadors on West Beverly Blvd for some delicious tapas. All I can say is whoever thought of searing bacon onto the backs of prawns and drizzling them in cream sauce is a genius! It's a BYOB restaurant which saved us some cash, so we left a decent tip by NYC standards. I guess it was bigger tip than normal because our waiter thanked me like I just saved his kid from drowning. Finally we jump back on the 5 down to Dana and Lisa's place.
Here are the final letter forms, drawn in Adobe Illustrator:
With a little 3D shadow action:
In pretty colors:
If you don't already know Amid's writing from Cartoon Brew or Cartoon Modern head over right now! Don't forget to buy Amid's new book from my favorite publisher Chronicle Books, also titled 'Cartoon Modern'. If you're a fan of cartoon animation, especially the more designed and graphic work of the 50's and 60's you want to own this book.
