In case you missed the Gallery 1988 Cheshire Cat show, We’re All Mad Here, don’t fret. The good folks at Vinyl Pulse have posted most of the pieces here and the Gallery itself is selling all of them online. Surreal stuff by the likes of Amanda Visell, Anthony Ausgang (above), Carlos Ramos and many others.

Backspace is a new video podcast showcasing “experimental short films to provoke your imagination.” It’s created by 20-year-old Stephen Watkins, who describes it as follows:

“Backspace is my Honours year research project in Communication Design at RMIT University (Melbourne). I was intrigued by podcasts and their growing popularity. Through my research project I generated a series of short experimental films and I could see potential for a podcast to circulate these films to a wider and more diverse audience.”

He’s only released one episode so far, FLOAT, which features animated letters and numbers floating around Melbourne. It’s well worth a view. I’ve already subscribed to his podcast and look forward to future episodes. He also has some other interesting video projects posted on YouTube.

What an awesome way to start a Monday morning! Josh of the Jazz:Animated blog has posted onto YouTube the difficult-to-find 1956 John and Faith Hubley film DATE WITH DIZZY. The live-action short features the Dizzy Gillespie Quintet as they attempt to compose a cartoon jingle for a product called “Instant Rope Ladder.” The film is a parody of the TV commercial biz (note how clueless the ad agency guy is), but the three commercials shown in the film were all actual spots that John Hubley had produced back when his studio Storyboard was based in Los Angeles.

Josh’s write-up about the film is quite insightful so let me direct you to his text HERE. Also be sure to check out the rest of his blog, which is turning into a superb compendium of jazz-related animation material. It’s extra nice to hear these jazz cartoons being discussed from the vantage point of a musician.

A quick follow-up to last Friday’s post about Cartoon Network’s first original live-action production. An individual who’s familiar with Cartoon Network politics, but who prefers to remain anonymous for obvious reasons, wrote me the following:

“Who says a cartoon has to be animated?”

This was said/asked constantly by Atlanta programming execs, Burbank development execs, and marketing execs in their attempts to “explain” their interest in live action projects. I heard it at least once a week the last few months I was at the studio.

The other excuse often tossed around was that it was all Ted Turner’s fault. The story going around was that Ted was “originally going to call it the ‘Acme Network’ but changed his mind at the last moment.” As one head of development kept saying, “If only Ted had gone with the original name, we wouldn’t have this problem.”

It’s great that they’ve been able to rationalize this boneheaded programming shift to themselves. Now if they could just explain to the public why a station called Cartoon Network is increasingly creating and airing live-action content.

If you’ve written for TV Animation, you might be eligible for a 2006 Writers Guild Award. The Writers Guild is looking for nominees in this category and sent along this information:

Awards are presented in simultaneous ceremonies in New York and Los Angeles in February. For those in the east, details and submission forms can be found online at wgaeast.org and in the west at wga.org – or you can call the Writers Guild of America East at (212) 767-7805 or the WGA West at (323) 951-4000.It’s free and easy to apply. You don’t even have to be a member of the Writers Guild. Your script must air (or have aired) for the first time between December 1st 2005 and November 30th, 2006. The deadline for submissions is October 13th, which is next Friday. So hurry up! You might wind up with an impressive and heavy industry award!

In case you were wondering (like I was the other night) what ever happened to Chuck Jones’s final productions, the Thomas J. Timberwolf internet cartoons… well wonder no more. I found them here. Not sure how much Chuck was involved with these, outside of character design, but they are pretty good for early Flash animation efforts.

Check out the breathtaking sample animation and concept art for a new video game called Limbo. It’s being developed by designer Arnt Jensen (Hitman 2, Freedom Fighters) and, according to Playthrough , he’s looking to hire a programmer.(Thanks, Thomas Martin)

I got some photos of the bizarre DRx Looney Tunes mural in Hollywood, which I mentioned in this post a few days ago. It fills an entire wall… and apparently the painting “evolved” over several weeks. Below is a later, more gruesome, version. Click on photo below for a larger image.With Looney Tunes for all intents and purposes off the air (save for a precious few appearances on Boomerang and TCM), and the LOONATICS revamp on Kids’ WB! ruining the characters as a children’s brand, I will give Warner Bros. some credit for not giving up on the original designs and aiming this marketing effort towards older teens and adult consumers.

Here’s a music video (below) I found on YouTube relating to this new merchandising agenda. For more information about this DRx campaign, check out the What’s Up, DRx website.