Sunday, September 30, 2007

Blues Blues Blues...



When my baby left me
I wish'd I was dead
But then I thought
I'll find her sister instead

Buddy Guy

Buddy Guy is one of my favorite blues guitarists and is the obvious grandfather of the blues rock guitarists of the 60's (Hendrix, Clapton, SRV).

Both of these examples were taken off the album Drinking TNT 'n Smoking Dynamite which was recorded live at the Montreux Jazz Festival in '74. Man, I wonder if the festival still holds this quality material? Anybody know? I guess I have my right to be skeptical.

I also just found out that Buddy Guy was the session player on my favorite Muddy Waters album "Folk Singer".

Buddy Guy & Junior Wells - The Hoodoo Man


Buddy Guy & Junior Wells - When You See the Tears from my Eyes


David Gemmil did a cool drawing inspired by Buddy. Check it out HERE.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Tourettes Guy

Here's a memory sketch of the Tourettes Guy while I was supposed to be paying attention to my teacher rehash stuff verbatim from the assigned reading. Ugh.



Here's who I'm talking about. Definitely not work friendly, or anything friendly for that matter. Lots of profanity, yet something extremely humorous about the sheer volume of his anger outbursts.

Gil Scott Heron

You know Gil. You just might not know that you know Gil. But I know that you might not know that you know about Gil, you know?

Gil came outta the Bronx. He melted socially-conscious jazz, blues, and soul together into a powerful mixture that paved the path for the first generation of rappers. You've probably heard his song "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised". Gil was one of the first artists to seriously explore spoken word over music so hip cats will call him the "godfather of rap". He put out a great song called "Message to the Messengers" once he saw hip-hop start to take off that is very critical of the direction in which the hip-hop community took the artform.

"Four letter words or fours syllable words won't make you a poet,
It will only magnify how shallow you are and let ev'rybody know it."

Gil Scott Heron - Is That Jazz?


Gil Scott Heron - The Bottle

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Eddie Hazel

Eddie Hazel is the phenom guitarist that is known for his career with the legendary Parliament-Funkadelic. He was supposed to go on tour with the surviving members of the Band of Gypsies after Hendrix died, but Hazel himself succumbed to a drug induced heart attack too early for that to ever happen. It was just too good of an idea to ever happen, so it never did.

When Eddie left, guitar virtuoso Michael Hampton took his place. But this is a prime example of visceral feeling highly overpowering technical skill. Hampton has fast runs but loses the essential element that made Eddie fit so well into Funkadelic: feeling.

This ain't yo daddy's funk.

Eddie Hazel - jam


Funkadelic - Maggot Brain

Friday, September 21, 2007

"Cafeteria Crush" airing on Nick.

The first stepping stone to subversively corrupting the youth of America. I just got word that an animated short that I did for Nickelodeon will be broadcast nationally through the cutting edge technology of tel-o-vision on the Nick Toons channel at 8:00pm this Sunday evening on "Shorts in a Bunch". The short is called "Cafeteria Crush" and if you see it, it will be apparent that it's largely autobiographical. Check it out if there's nothing new on the PAX channel or something.

Dempsey Pencil Test



Here's a pencil test for another homegrown toon, nurtured with sunlight and love. Something to tantalize your tastebuds hopefully.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Just some doodles.

Just some doodles, doods.











Sorry for the lack of posts. I'm working on an animation test and I've got a pencil test if anybody's interested... Should I post it, or do you guys just wanna see finished stuff?

Monday, September 10, 2007

the Bar-Kays

Two music posts in a row?! Has Chris gone soft? People, people: I give you my assurances. I'm as hard as ever. Erm... Artwork/animation coming down the pipes (probably later tonight).

The Bar-Kays. They were signed to Stax Records (home to Isaac Hayes, Otis Redding, Booker T. and the MG's, et. al). This footage is from Wattstax, the baddest concert on the planet. Could've probably done without the vocals. Their later material really sucks, so don't bother. The guitar player really drives the whole piece and it's nice to see a guitar take a rhythm role in this age of facemelting players (not to say I don't like my share of thems, too).

Anyway, this track is so funky you might wanna turn a fan on in the room.

the Bar-Kays - Son of Shaft

Rahsaan Roland Kirk

You know, this is my blog and I'll blog about whatever I damn well please. And boy oh boy, do I please Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Erm... shit. Well, guess I can't go back, it's already in print so I'm just gonna go forward with it.

Anyway, Roland Kirk is an amazing blind, jazz musician. He's known for playing 3 saxophones at once, two flutes (one in the mouth and one in the nose(okay, minds out of the gutter)), along with a maelstrom of other quirky instruments. He mastered circular breathing (where he doesn't have to stop playing notes to breathe) and was once recorded to play continuously for 2.5 hours without a breath break. This is footage from the Monteaux Jazz Festival.

Rahsaan Roland Kirk - Volunteered Slavery


Rahsaan Roland Kirk - no idea what the song is (not the song title)

Haha, he's his own horn section!

Sunday, September 9, 2007

Dempsey the Dodo.



This design is for a 40 second quickie I'm pumpin out starring Dempsey the Dodo. He's the simple man's simpleton. Dempsey tries to put on a raincoat and goulashes to go out into the rain. Hilarity ensues.

And here's a bonus drawing off the pegboard in the animation room. I'd love to see more of people's drawings of the people they work around. This one is of myself (with long hair) and one of my best hippie-smashing friends, Mike Nassar.

Friday, September 7, 2007

Pimpin'



My buddy Zack always does rope the 10's.

Saturday, September 1, 2007

Great NEWS!

I've been hounding Lou the Frog to let me use him in a film. Finally early this morning, he held his head and reluctantly said "yes, anything as long as you get the &#@*$ out."



The one stipulation Lou had was that there had to be women in in the film. Lots of women. I'm only happy to oblidge.



With the other film winding down, I'm getting geared up for the next. Progress to come soon! Check back! Oh, and could you bring Lou a tylenol and a glass of water? He's got a headache for some reason.