Our final Halloween animated short comes from Fuh-rance—Mortys focuses in on a mother grim reaper trying to balance her job and her family life in the 21st century. I saw this video quite a while ago and it was actually the inspiration for doing a weeks’ worth of animated shorts… hope you enjoy!
Artist: Danny Elman / Album: Sleepy Hollow
Well it’s Saturday, which means it’s time to loosen up a bit!! That’s what Saturday means, right? Sadly enough, I’ll be spending it at home and in bed with a horrible sore throat… wah wah. At any rate, Mourir Auprès de Toi (To Die By Your Side), is a collaboration between director Spike Jonze (best known for Where the Wild Things Are, Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and his many forays into music video land) and designer Olympia Le-Tan that focuses on the “star-crossed” love story of two characters from book covers in the fictional Parisian bookstore, Shakespeare and Co.
Fair warning, there’s a bit of “loosening up” happening in the video—they are only felt puppets, mind you—but it might be a bit inappropriate for some of you. You know who you are!
Spike Jonze: Mourir Auprès de Toi on Nowness.com.
Artist: Danny Elfman / Album: The Corpse Bride
After arriving into Paris we immediately boarded our EuroTours bus (btw, we have the same driver as last year!) and drove to the German town of Rinteln for an overnight stay at a local hostel. We got in around 8:30 and mandated a “lights out” time of 10:00 for the kids, which only left a little bit of time to explore the local scenery.
(Fair warning… thus begins what will most likely be a long parade of posts with pictures of churches. They tend to be the dominant architecture in these small towns and are unavoidable but of course beautiful.)
I think I saw a horror movie begin on the grounds of this church one time. Rusted gates and empty churches tend to be not the best of omens
The other (less creepy) town church
Early on my walk I ran into the choir conductor, Carole—who also happens to be a friend of mine from University of Michigan (we sang in choir together there and she studied voice with Freda as well!), and we finished up the tour together. I think she’d agree with me that, churches notwithstanding, this was our favorite part of the whole town:
I WANT THAT PLAYSET!!!!!!
Sooo… I was trying to take an artsy fartsy shot of the pavement and SOMEONE had to photobomb my picture!!
CAROLE!!!!!!!
And finally, a view from of the bridge at sunset.
Artist: Danny Elfman/ Album: The Corpse Bride
In preparation for Keliy Anderson-Staley’s Imagined Family Heirlooms, Catherine and I decided to have a “theme” to go along with the drinks and snacks for the opening. Inspired by Keliy’s Baking Pan Series we instantly thought of milk and cookies!
Installation shot of the Baking Pan Series
So instead of spending a Friday night out on the town, I attempted to make three different batches of cookies: chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, and snickerdoodle. Monica also made a surprise guest appearance to help me out with some of the baking. Some of you may remember her from my first outing to the John Cleary Gallery oh so many months ago! Let’s see how that turned out, shall we?
So much for homemade… besides, I’ve realized I’m more of an Ansel Adams wannabe than a Martha Stewart anyway!
Looking forward to seeing you all at the opening tomorrow, Saturday March 26 between 6 and 8pm! Come for the chocolate chips and stay for the fabulous photography. (Well, and the white Russians certainly can’t hurt either)
Artist: Danny Elfman/ Album: Edward Scissorhands
A stones throw away from the Botanical gardens is the American Indian Museum. (Not that I’d recommend throwing stones anywhere near the gardens. You know… glass houses and all).
Look closely and you can see Mary Anne and David!
Artist: Danny Elfman/ Album: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
