Cliff cyclists
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Category Archives: Miscellany
J. Michael Spooner – Visual Development Design Consultant
Michael Spooner has worked in the animation industry for twenty-five years with such notable studios as Walt Disney, Warner Brothers and DreamWorks.
Michael’s professional career in art began in 1976, when he was invited to join the faculty at Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, after graduating with distinction. He taught for twelve years, simultaneously working as a freelance illustrator for clients that included the Public Broadcasting System, Zondervan Publishing House, Masda Motors, the National Football League, NBC Television, Paramount Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox.
Michael ventured into animation as a Layout Artist with Ralph Bakshi’s feature production of Tolkien’s, Lord of the Rings. Shortly after he worked with Filmation Studios on He-Man, Bravestar and Fat Albert and on the Bagdasarian feature, The Chipmunk Adventure.
Joining the Walt Disney Television Animation team in 1988 as a Visual Development Artist and Production Designer, Michael set the style for such episodic shows as, Chip ‘n’ Dale’s Rescue Rangers, Talespin, Goof Troop, The Little Mermaid, New Bonkers and Aladdin. He also worked on the direct-to-video production of Aladdin and the King of Thieves.
In 1994, Michael and his family moved to Paris, France, where he headed up the Production Layout team for Disney’s feature film, A Goofy Movie.
Returning to Los Angeles in 1995, Michael Co-Art Directed Warner Brothers first full-length animated feature, Quest for Camelot. Following that he worked independently as a Visual Development Designer Consultant on Disney’s Dinosaurs, The Emperor’s New Groove, Treasure Planet and Lilo and Stitch. Michael also assisted on early development design of Dreamworks,’ Shrek.
Michael moved to the Chicago area in 1999 to become Vice President of Visual Development and Artist Education with Big Idea Productions, home of the popular 3D animated video series, Veggie Tales. There he developed and headed up the Visual Development process in Story, Concept Design, Modeling and Layout. He also served as Art Director on various productions and as an Art Direction Consultant on Big Idea’s first feature animated film, Jonah.
Today, Michael owns Spoonerville Animation Design, an independent visual development studio, providing both traditional and CGI design concepts for clients such as Big Idea, Inc., Star Farm Productions, ReelFX Creative Studios and Walt Disney Animation Studios.
He lives in the western suburbs of Chicago with his writer-wife Beverly, and son Philip.
Michael is a visiting artist and lecturer, presenting in universities, art schools and animation studios throughout the United States.
You may reach him at: spoonerville1@sbcglobal.net or 630 301-0895
Best BLT in town
What makes for a really good bacon-lettuce-and-tomato sandwich? The L and T should be fresh and the B should be crisp and generous in proportion. You have a couple of options on the bread, whole wheat or sourdough. But either must be toasted.
One of the best BLT’s in Jefferson City can be found at Oscar’s out on the East end of town. Chef Rich (Richie?) made this one for me and it was de-licious.
Pull!
I went skeet shooting with Scott and Christi yesterday. Technically, I went “skeet-shooting-at,” since I didn’t actually hit one of the little clay targets (in the air). Scott placed a couple on the ground about 20 feet from the shooting area (“home intruder range”) and I sent them to the ER if not the morgue.
I haven’t shot a gun in 40 years. Last time was during training for the Postal Inspection Service. We had to qualify with a sidearm (a very un-sexy .38 revolver back in those days) and got an hour or two of training with a 12 gauge riot gun.
I really enjoyed yesterday’s outing and quickly became the designated clay pigeon flinger. Used a little plastic launcher to sling tiny clay Frisbees into the air where Scott and Christie blew them to smithereens.
I was impressed by the skill exhibited by both Scott and Christie. She wielded a 12 gauge pump (is there anything hotter than a woman with a 12 gauge?) and he switched back and forth between a couple of shotguns.
In case you’re wondering… no, I’m not a hunter and don’t plan to be. I’ve never owned a gun. But in the unlikely event someone showed up in the middle of the night, uninvited, I’d like to greet them with something besides my MacBook in my hands. Scott recommends a side-by-side double-barrel 20 gauge.
I know. I’m as surprised as you are.
New beau for Sheryl Crow?
The National Ledger –quoting Life & Style– reports Sheryl Crow is dating John Cassimus, a restaurateur from Birmingham, Ala.
“John, who’s also a pilot, has been flying his plane to Nashville to see her. They’ve kept it pretty low-key — cooking together, riding horses, going up in his plane.” And if they decide to dine out, they’ll never have to worry about a reservation.
“John runs a restaurant chain in the South called Zoë’s Kitchen,” the insider says. “He’s also a partner in a Japanese place called Jinsei in Homewood, near Birmingham.” Sheryl is set to perform in nearby Pelham on May 23 — and, according to the insider, be with her new beau.”
A million photographs
There’s an image on the right side of this page that’s taken by a little webcam in my office that uploads a photo every 30 seconds. At the end of the day I sometimes leave it pointed toward the door to the hallway, and sometimes I point it out the window. Today I aimed it in a different direction and got this image.
If I’ve done the math correctly, that’s 2,880 images every day. One million plus every year (is it really a new photograph if nothing has changed?). The daytime images aren’t all that interesting but the ones taken when the office is empty sometimes are. Maybe it’s the idea of the photo composing itself.
I’ve had the Office-cam for years and, frankly, I’m surprised nobody has gone into my office at night and… had some fun. The obvious thing would be to moon me (and the world). But wouldn’t it be more fun to create little tableaux? Maybe a solitary figure standing in the parking lot, in the rain… looking directly up at the camera. Or close-up of someone’s eye. Or a page from a book.
And knowing the photo would only exist for 30 seconds, when the next photo takes it’s place. It would really only exist if someone, somewhere, saw it and decided to save it within that half-minute.
I have this fantasy of some guy serving a life sentence. In his cell 23 hours a day. No TV, no radio, no books or magazines… just a computer that can only do one thing. Show the images from my webcam.
What sort of story would he construct from these images. Year after year, some aging white guy in some office somewhere. People walking past the open doorway, sometimes coming in to talk. About something he’ll never know. Would he wonder about my moods from my facial expressions? Would he feel as though he knows me after years of watching me, hour after hour?
And suppose –somehow– I was made aware he existed. And my webcam was his only window on the world. Would I behave differently? Perhaps lure some cute co-workers in for a chat, to brighten his day?
As silly as this sounds, I really don’t know that this is not happening. Hmm.
Well. Tomorrow is Fez Friday. He always enjoys Fez Friday.
The First Thing I Saw When I Opened My Eyes #001
After a long night of blogging and Beck’s guzzling, I sometimes wake up in strange places. Last weekend it was in the middle of a gravel road. My first thought was "The Beck’s Elves have left me in The Land of Giant Turtles." My second was, "No problem, I can outrun a giant turtle, even with a hangover."
Shredded memories
My friend David, who lives in southwest Missouri, found some… I hate to call them scraps or debris… shredded memories from the weekend tornadoes that hammered parts of four states.
He posted them to his blog in hopes someone might recognize the photo and help get (what’s left of) it back to the owner.
Regular readers of this blog know I loves my photos and I keep iPhoto backed up nightly. And I take great comfort in having many of them on flicker or embedded in a post here.
If you have a shoe box full of photos but lack the time, tools or patience to scan them… send them off to one of the many services that will do it for you. I’d add: then hire a high school kid to put them up on flickr, but a lot of folks are just not comfortable with that. But it give me great comfort knowing mine are safely floating in cyberspace.
When the time comes, I’m going to figure out a way to see that they stay up (out?) there after I’m gone.
Omaha man saves own life with self-tracheotomy
“An Omaha man apparently saved his own life by performing an emergency surgery on himself. Fifty-five-year-old Steve Wilder awoke in the middle of the night last week and couldn’t breathe. He’d had breathing trouble after a bout with throat cancer several years ago and his windpipe had swollen shut as he slept. Wilder says he knew he only had one option, as an ambulance would never arrive in time, so he gave himself a tracheotomy. He used a steak knife and poked a hole in his throat, which brought a gush of blood — and a rush of air. He could breathe. He says it didn’t hurt. Doctors say it saved Wilder’s life but they don’t recommend what he did — call 911 instead.”
[Radio Iowa – Nebraska Radio Network]
Geek Wannabe Botches Webcast
Well, that sucked. Great video… shitty audio. Yes, we DID test equipment first, but thanks for asking. Even with George (he’s brilliant) on site, we couldn’t pull it off. But it was my party so I can’t blame him. No idea what happened but we shall not rest until we figure it out and pull off a decent webcast.