I won’t be posting anything anytime soon.   My website and all its related material, including this blog, is undergoing a redesign.  I hope to be finished sometime soon.

Thanks for visiting!

From The Onion:

Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early

Part one of The Animation Podcast’s interview with the inimitable James Baxter is up.  Get yours here.

Well, two out of three ain’t bad…I’d predicted on November 9 that “Persepolis,” “Ratatouille” and “The Simpsons Movie” would be nominated. Nostradamus, I’m not.

Big congrats to “Surf’s Up,” a movie totally deserving of a nomination. (I’d figured that the academy wouldn’t do the penguin thing two years in a row. Shows ya what I know.) Congratulations also to Brad, Jan and Jim and Skywalker Sound for “Rat’s” other Screenplay and Sound nominations.

Having only seen two of the five nominations for Best Animated Short (”I Met the Walrus” and “Madame Tutli-Putli”), I’m not going out on any limbs for this one. However, I’m surprised and slightly disappointed that “How to Hook Up Your Home Theatre” didn’t get nominated. What’s up with that?

Maybe he’s tired of waiting for the cake cutting to start.

Everything’s back up and working.

If you’re coming here directly from the portfolio, don’t laugh.  It looks a bit weird right now.

Hopefully, it’ll all be better soon.

I found it interesting that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences thought it unnecessary to advance France’s entry, “Persepolis,” for further voting in the Foreign Language Film category for this year’s Oscar run. I’d say if past nominees and winners in this category are any proof that the Academy means to honor great films that transcend language, they really blew it this time.

But the biggest hurt? France could only submit one film of three excellent films this year, and “Persepolis” was chosen over “La Vie en Rose” and “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.” I’d like to think that maybe France made their choice in realizing that a film about free thinking in the face of oppressive governments could make a difference for future generations. But perhaps “drawing someone a picture” about that particular topic didn’t help.

The argument whether an animated project even has a place in a category such as “Best Foreign Language Film” (or even as “Best Picture”) is one that’s currently being taken up on Cartoon Brew in two spots, here and here. Like some, I’m happy that at least there’s a category for feature animation, but also agree that some really great stuff will probably get ignored just because it’s animated. So goes the film business.

(And don’t get me started on why the producers of the Oscar telecast still insist that the orchestra conductor play some old-timey Carl Stalling-type piece of music whenever the category is presented on television. Makes me sick. Nothing against Carl Stalling.)

I’m by no means a scholar when it comes to animation, but I can list a few animated things I’ve seen that speak on a broad social level about the human condition. These are the projects that inspired me to get into and stay in this wacky business in the first place. And “Persepolis” is most definitely near the top of the list. Big, big kudos to Marjane Satrapi for making such a touching work of art.

(If you’re interested in seeing some of the more socially relevant animated things that still inspire me , I urge you to check out “When the Wind Blows,” “Allegro non Troppo” [especially the “Bolero” section], “Technological Threat,” “Balance,” “The Point,” and “The Man Who Planted Trees.”)

For the two (or three) of you that have rss feeds to this blog, I wanted to let you know that the website is almost finished. At some point in the not-too-distant future, your bookmarks will have to change as typing in www_dot_toddjacobsen_dot_com will take you to the root of the new website, thereby making this blog inaccessible from that address.

However, there will be a radio button labeled “blog” (original, huh?) on the website’s menu that will take you to this very place, where you can continue to read all the blather that’s fit to digest. Just be sure to take a Rolaids first.

Found this over on Cartoon Brew this morning. Way too good to pass up.