WebJam.08 Animation Festival May 22-24

We’re throwing the world premiere WebJam.08 Animation Festival. It will be held at the Coolidge Corner Theater, Brookline, MA May 22, 23 and 24, 2008. (The official poster is above)

WebJam.08 is the first big screen film festival dedicated to web animation, an exploding new breed of animated shorts that has been seen by an online audience in the millions. Some of the most famous web animations in the show include: Happy Tree Friends, JibJab, Joe Cartoon, 30 Second Bunny Theatre, Odd Todd, Xeth.com, Low Morale, the amazing Tale of How and your host, Its JerryTime! (Ozone Inc.)

WebJam’s Original Trailer and the brand new, awesome Trailer #2 plus many other goodies can be found on the WebJam website. .

WebJam will be held at the Coolidge Corner Theater, a restored Art Deco movie palace that has been showing movies since 1933. Tickets will be available online at the Coolidge website and can also be purchased at the door. Shows are at 7pm Thursday May 22nd for $8.50 or $7.75 for the encore midnight shows on Fri and Sat, May 23-24.

Enjoy your favorites on the big screen! Get your tickets early! If you’re in Boston at this time, hope to see you there.

Chaplin

I read that Charlie Chaplin once said that it was ironic that he became one of the world’s richest men by portraying one of the poorest ones.

I got hooked on Chaplin when I was a kid, after I saw “The Circus” at the old North Park Theater in Buffalo.

Shown above is an early Chaplin film, “The Tramp” (1915), poignantly accompanied by the high society singer known as “Hutch.” The farmer’s daughter is Edna Purviance.

Born in 1889, Chaplin would have been 119 years old on April 16. Curiously, he was born just four days before Adolf Hitler, who later adopted Chaplin’s trademark moustache and put Chaplin on his “Death List.” As an act of defiance, Chaplin created the great political satire “The Great Dictator.”

Jerry Announces Bid for President!

I have formally announced that I am running for President of the United States.

I just made the world-premiere announcement on ComputerAmerica Radio, America’s longest-running nationally syndicated talk show about computers, hosted by Craig Crossman and Carey Holzman, who gives the lead interview.

I will outline my positions in upcoming spots that we’ll run on Its JerryTime! and throughout cyberspace. Basically, if you are dissatisfied with the current crop of candidates for President, then cast your vote for Jerry for President in the November elections. Why not?

PS: I’m looking for ideas. Please write in on how we can handle our problems in this country so we all have less aggravation. If your plans are imaginitive enough, I might be able to work them into our future campaign.

Pit Bull & Chicks

This is a sort of heartwarming sequel to the Crow and the Kitten. I like how he lunges for one of them at the end. We just posted our Easter film Triumph of the Peeps on YouTube, on our quirky new comedy channel, Skid Row TV.

Happy Easter!

The Casting Call

The original “George” pilot episode was shot in in Chicago in 1984. “George Does His Laundry,” pictured above, is the sequel.

George Goetschel, a Chicago musican and improv artist, plays the lead character George. You can actually see and hear George in the documentary clip in the episode.

Key contributors to “The Casting Call” start with HBO comedy star Kristen Schaal as performance artist Violette Moon, a character based on a real-life world musician named Destiny Quibble. You can catch Kristen on HBO’s hit show Flight of the Conchords as “Mel.” Also, many thanks to Jane Potenzo at HBO and David Martin at Avalon Television for hooking us up.

The legendary rock group The Residents added their star power. Thanks to The Cryptic Corporation for permission.

The original George series was produced with the help of the founders of the Chicago improv mecca Improv Olympic (iO) Theater. Improv Gurus Del Close, now deceased, and Charna Halpern, who briefly appears in “George Does His Laundry,” helped brainstorm the process.

The original camera/editor for the series was Paul Snead, now President of Sound Video Impressions in Des Plaines, IL.

Hillary vs. Obama on SNL

The Hillary-Obama debates were recently lampooned on SNL . The biting satire targeted the appalling bias the press has bestowed upon Obama. Hillary and Barack, brilliantly portrayed by Amy Poehler and Fred Armisen, are both made to look like fools, and the press is even dumber. It’s the truth and it skewers everyone. It sends me a message: They’re all terrible.

That’s Amore - Dean Martin

This was about the best Valentines tune I can come up with to go with last year’s “Beautiful Love”by Bill Evans. I also found Chet Baker’s “My Funny Valentine,” Frank Sinatra’s “Strangers in the Night,” John Coltrane’s “My Favorite Things,” Elvis’ “Teddy Bear” and the Beatles’“She Loves You.”

And then there is Miles Davis and John Coltrane’s “So What.”

Enjoy and Happy Valentines Day.

Tiny Tim

I was watching a recent interview with Laugh-In great Dick Martin, and I flashed back to the time in the early 80s when I worked in the old Brill Building on Broadway. I bumped into Tiny Tim in the elevator. He was a large man. I felt like I came up to his elbow. Tongue-tied in the presence of a legend, I stumbled saying hello. He was very polite, soft-spoken and just seemed so suprisingly normal, despite the odd appearance.

The original “Tiptoe Through the Tulips,” sung by crooner Nick Lucas, was part of a lost Warner Brothers’ 1929 technicolor musical called “Gold Diggers of Broadway,” a movie that was only recently restored, in sections, by The Vitaphone Project.

It’s recordings like this and The Wedding of the Painted Doll, also from 1929, that gives me the eeire feeling that all of these lively people from the Roaring Twenties are now all dead and gone.

What is Eaten in One Week

The American family.

In case you missed it, here’s an interesting comparison of what is eaten by families in one week in different countries all over the world. Pretty amazing how far $1.23 will get you in Chad, Africa. Thanks Deanna.

Crow and Kitten are Friends.

Here’s a story about a crow who adopts a stray kitten. I like this story. It makes me happy. I hope we can all take a cue about how to treat people and other creatures from this clip. Thanks George…

Happy New Year.