The Puhalas were quite kind and extended an invite to Carolyn and me to join them at the Ratatouille Animation Wrap Party last Tuesday. I think it’s becoming a pattern for me that I’m heading off to parties for projects that I had nothing to do with. But I digress… The party took place at Cafe Du Nord which is a pretty nice little subterranean bar in the Castro. I’d been there a few years back for a show that I never went to. So I’d seen the outside of the place, but the inside is a tad more fun.

Amila had sent me information about the party earlier that day and it mentioned a special un-named guest band. Much to my excitement, it was the ever-interesting Dead Hensons. The Dead Hensons are a cover band that play nothing but Muppet tunes and the educational songs from Sesame Street. I’d seen them before back when I was a student and I was discovering the local music scene. I had wanted to go see them for Carolyn’s birthday but it didn’t work out. Anyway, they were rockin’ and many a person at the party agreed.

The party was your typical wrap party fun. There were drinks, a quick little speech from the director, some more drinks, some music and some photos. The Pixar people tend to point a whole lot less than the DNA folk do, but it was still pretty fun. I was able to see my teachers who had just posted our short. I also was able to see a couple of friends from school that I hadn’t seen in a few months. And given that Bert is taking off in a few weeks for Blue Sky, the Puhalas are heading out there later this summer, Alex is heading to PDI soon and YoungJae and Scott will likely head to a pretty awesome place, this was a pretty fitting party to celebrate our successes over the past 10 or so months.

Thanks again Patrik and Amila, Carolyn and I had a great time.

A few days ago, my Pixar 3 teachers posted the completed short that my classmates and I worked on, The Virgin Voyage. The semester was rough trying to find time to work on the short and trying to balance that with my uncanny ability to find time to play video games and hang out with my friends. But I succeeded. I finished my shots on the due date and the short is indeed animated, lit and complete.

The very friends I was hanging out with were pretty curious with how the shots were coming and I would always skirt around the answer. Well, now I can hide no more as the short is viewable here. So, the last three shots are mine. Starting with Tony nervously looking around the bridge to the last shot of him.

The short seems to be getting a pretty good reaction as far as I can tell. I agree with some of the comments that the strongest part is the animation and the weakest is the story, but it was a great and original idea to do “improvimation.” Despite some of the feeling down about the whole thing and the constant worrying that I was bringing the quality of the short down, I had a pretty good time on it.

Quite a few days ago was Carolyn’s birthday. I made quick mention of it recently. Even more recent than that though was a complete overhaul of my online photo album. So, in a perfect display of amazingly well timed and coordinated events, I have provided photographic proof that indeed, Carolyn had a birthday.

On Wednesday there was a nice little celebration at work. Industrial Light & Magic recently brought home an Oscar for their amazing work on Pirates 2. I don’t work for ILM and I didn’t do anything really to earn my place at that celebration, but it was there, so I went. Well, I guess I started celebrating International Talk Like A Pirate Day seven years ago. So, perhaps the rising interest in pirates convinced Gore Verbinski and Jerry Bruckheimer that a movie focused solely on them would do tremendously well at the box office. And I suppose my seeing Pirates 1 in the theaters a few times convinced them that a sequel would also be financially successful. So in a weird way, I guess I did have a reason to be celebrating ILM’s work on the film.

Anyway, even if I had no real claim to be there, ILM had all of their awards out so you get your photo with them. And to show that it’s not all fun and parties at work, I took this real serious picture.

Oh, and a word of warning to any filmmakers out there. If you ever win an Oscar, beware, that sucker is heavy. Seriously heavy. Remember this when you go up to give your acceptance speech as you will look really stupid when you drop it.