Animation

I'm a big fan of animated films.

Today, the USC Cinema School dedicated its Division of Animation & Digital Arts (DADA) in honor of Disney animator John C. Hench.

The school showed clips from the animation department. With the advent of digital animation, virtually anything is possible, and these films showed a very wide range of creativity. They were visually and aurally inventive in a way that the live-action narratives are usually not. Since the advent of synch sound, most films have showed people sitting around and talking. Not because it is creative, but because it's the cheapest thing to shoot.

I think the future of film lies in our ability to create beyond what we can already experience in real life. People go to see movies to expand their minds and their thoughts through the experience of new sights and sounds.

Roy Disney also showed the Dali short DESTINO which was completed in 2004, after the artist's death. It was far more inventive than any film I saw in the theater this year. But there aren't many Salvador Dalis.

In football, the Patriots came from behind to beat the Bills 19-17, but it was a much closer game than anyone expected. (The line had been 10 points.) It was really lost by the Bills defense, which says a lot about how good the team had been until the 4th quarter. Props to Dick Jauron and the Bills for rising to the occasion!

In baseball news, rookie and first-time major league pitcher Eric Stultz pitched six excellent innings for the Dodgers against the Mets today resulting in a 9-1 win for the Dodgers, and a split series with the Mets, which is much better than most people hoped for. The Dodgers now play three games against the Cubs; in theory, and easy series. Then they come back to LA to play four game against the Padres, who are currently beating SF 6-0, so it's likely they will stay 1.5 games back of the Dodgers today. THAT should be a good series!

The Angels won, but so did Oakland, and the Red Sox won, but so did the Yankees. It's unlikely the Red Sox could ever overcome the 5-game series lost to the Yankees.