I remember seeing that “Basquiat” movie years ago, and in it someone told Basquiat to give up making music in order to take painting more seriously. I can remember thinking I was lucky to be an animator, getting to use both music and visual art. I think that’s why a lot of us end up in this profession – it’s an excuse to make music and draw pictures.

Off the top of my head, Christy Karacas, director of SuperJail! is guitarist in the band Cheeseburger. John Kricfalusi wrote the Ren & Stimpy theme song. Alan Foreman, director of Three Delivery, is in the band Ten Minute Turns which also makes the soundtrack for the show. Songwriter Benji Cossa started off as an animator. I’ve heard Mike Judge is quite a bass player. Animator Jim Diotte plays for Major Dad and about seven other bands. Animator Nate Mulliken was the drummer for the great Tie Reds. I’m sure there are more that slip my mind right now.

Anyways, a great song called “Clinically Dead” by a guy named Chad VanGaalen kept popping up when I was listening to Pandora. It turns out that he’s also an animator, and has animated videos for his own songs as well as a few for other bands. Really neat stuff, though I’m guessing he gets a lot of “What is that guy on?” type of comments. He’ll be playing New York on the 21st, but I won’t be back from Ottawa by then. Darn!

I just put together a little splash page for www.upstatefour.com . Will and I are spiffing things up in preparation for the big Ottawa screening at the end of the month, and we should have a new “Krause Brothers” compilation DVD available at the festival.

It’s been a goal of mine to get something into competition in Ottawa ever since I went there as a college senior in my RISD days. Mister Smile and Utica Cartoon were both in competition at the now defunct SAFO (Student Animation Festival of Ottawa), and Moonraker was in a Panorama screening at Ottawa 2005, but this is my first time in competition at Ottawa with the big kids.

My only experience with steel drums is that segment from Sesame Street that shows someone making one in old New York. Lately, I’ve been hearing some interesting sounds when biking on Pacific Street near Classon Ave late at night. Sounds like steel drums.  This past weekend, I found where the music was coming from.

A group called “Desper USA” occupies a lot between some auto garages on Classon between Pacific and Atlantic, and they make a beautiful sound. I couldn’t really tell how many people were playing, or who was conducting the whole thing, but it sounded great. Very dynamic and happy. It seemed like all genders and ages were involved, and about fifteen people were making something that sounded as complicated as Flight of the Bumblebee. One of the guys there said that they’re preparing a ten-minute piece for a big competition next Saturday at the Brooklyn Museum. He said the competition has 50-100 member steel drum orchestras. I think it’ll be worth checking out!

Every time I walk by the 4th Ave laundromat when I’m visiting Yuliya, I want to stop and check out some great character designs. These plastic signs seem to date back at least thirty years.

Will and I went to the Governor’s Island Ferry Terminal today to check out David Byrne‘s installation, Playing The Building.

The setup is a beautiful, decrepit old ferry terminal. Tin ceiling, great sunlight, and weird noises coming from all over the place. I heard out-of-tune flutes, hammering pipes, and something that sounded like refrigerators being dragged across the roof. It was hard to tell at first where all the noises were coming from.

The room had been rigged with pneumatic tubes that blow through old pipes, electromagnetic hammers that strike the columns, and vibrating motors that get the ceiling beams to resonate at low frequencies. Everything is controlled by an old organ keyboard, so you can play the room like an instrument. On the ground in front of the keyboard are simple stenciled letters painted on the ground that say “Please Play”.

Though some of the people in line looked like they knew how to play piano, I didn’t hear any regular music. Sometimes it was creepy horror movie music, sometimes it was weird dream music. I just tried mashing all the keys to see what it could do. It was like being the mad scientist equivalent of a pianist. After we got our turn to play, Will and I sat around for an hour or so, surrounded by odd noises coming from every direction.

I was excited when I first heard about the project because it’s an idea that crossed my mind a few times, but I never thought someone would have the time and resources to actually build such a complicated contraption. It’s definitely a contraption. It was like seeing Tim Hawkinson’s work, in that it was fun to figure out how things worked, but the interactive element made it so much more fun. I didn’t even notice until we were on our way out that there were any people working in the exhibit space, it just seemed like a bunch of random people wandering around, trying to figure it out.

It’s only up for two more days, this Saturday and Sunday, and it’s really worth checking out. If you are in New York this weekend, take the time to check it out. It’s free and open from noon to six in the evening.