Quiz: What is a peripatetic?

Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: In the Tom & Jerry shorts directed by Hanna & Barbera, when Tom yells out, who did that voice?
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History for 8/5/2008
Birthdays: Guy de Maupassant, Amboise Thomas, William- first black child born in British America, Neil Armstrong, John Huston, Robert Taylor, Conrad Aiken, Roman Gabriel, Selma Diamond, Patrick Ewing, John Merrick the Elephant Man, Loni Anderson, Bill Scott -the voice of Bullwinkle Moose, John Saxon,Jonathan Silverman

1667- Moliere’s famous comedy “Tartuffe” first played for the public. The next day the Parliament of Paris ordered the theater closed and it’s posters ripped down. The Archbishop of Paris threatened excommunication of anyone who saw it or performed it. It seemed the local religious community didn’t like all the jokes about a charlatan who steals everything from a family by pretending to be a man of the cloth. But the Sun King Louis XIV thought it was funny. He overruled the prelates and ordered the play resumed.

1769- Marching up the California coast Gaspar de Portola discovered the San Fernando Valley.( Oh ma Gaawd!) He came down out of the Sepulveda pass, made a left at Ventura Blvd. and went over to the Chumash village by a spring in Encino (now Encino park near Balboa Blvd.). There was an inversion (smog) layer even at this time. The original Indian word for the valley was “Valley of Smoke”.

1775 - 1st Spanish ship, the San Carlos, entered San Francisco Bay.

1847 -Author Herman Melville met Nathaniel Hawthorne. They went for a hike together in the Berkshires.

1864-“ DAMN THE TORPEDOES!” Admiral David Farragut at Mobile Bay. The Union Navy captured one of last Southern deep water ports. As the US warships in a line ran the heavy batteries of the rebel forts a ship in the lead exploded from a floating mine called a torpedo. This stacked up the ship traffic under the enemy guns like a shooting gallery . Admiral Farragut shouted “Damn the Torpedoes, Full Speed Ahead ! “ he pushed his flagship the USS Hartford to the lead and gambled the remaining booby traps would be duds, they were. They also defeated the Confederate ironclad Tennessee, who’s captain Franklin Buchanan had commanded the Merrimac two years earlier. Even though Farragut had closed the port to Confederate ships the North wouldn’t spare troops to capture the city so Mobile itself didn’t surrender until four days after Lee surrendered to Grant in 1865.

1891- the American Express Company introduces Travellers Checks.

1910- The first Traffic Light set up on Euclid and 105th st. in Cleveland.

1924 Arf, Arf ! the first Little Orphan Annie comic strip drawn by Harold Gray.

1926 – Magician Harry Houdini stays in a coffin under water for one hour.

1927- Victrola Record producer Ralph Peer realized there might be a market for “Hillbilly Music” so he set up a makeshift recording studio above a furniture store in Bristol Tennessee and put an ad in the local papers for talent. In this one session he recorded future stars Jimmy Rogers the Singing Brakeman, The Carter Family, The Tennessee Mountaineers and Ernest Pop Stoneman. This session has been called the “ Big Bang of Country Music.”

1945- At Tinian airbase The atomic uranium bomb “Little Boy” is loaded onto the B-29 bomber Enola Gay after traveling by ship from Hawaii. The crew will take off at 5:00 am next morning.

1953- The film “From Here to Eternity” opened , starring Deborah Kerr, Burt Lancaster and Montgomery Clift. But the big story was Frank Sinatra’s Oscar winning performance as Maggio that signaled the turnaround in his slumping career.

1955- The Screen Actor’s Guild strikes Hollywood for television residuals. Between 1955 and 2000 SAG will hit the bricks at around seven times. Their president was Walter Pidgeon who had played Dr. Morbius in Forbidden Planet.

1957- American Bandstand featuring the eternally teenaged Dick Clark debuts on television.

1962- GOODBYE, NORMA JEAN. Marilyn Monroe found nude in bed, dead of barbiturate overdose. She was 36. Whether you think the starlet overdosed by accident, suicide, or was done in by the Mafia, the Kennedys, a Svengali like personal physician, lesbian physical therapist or space aliens is still a mystery. She made a call to Attorney General Bobby Kennedy’s office in Washington several hours earlier but was rebuffed. Her last call was to her hairdresser Mr. Guilaroff. She left the bulk of her belongings to her drama teacher Lee Strassberg and her funeral was organized by ex-husband Joe Dimaggio. Her Westwood cottage suite had a tile over the doorway which read :"All my troubles end Here."

1963- The US, Britain and USSR sign the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

1964 - Actress Anne Bancroft & Comedian Mel Brooks wed.

1966- Caesar’s Palace Hotel & Casino first opened to the public. This was the first of the super-resort casinos, with a total theme park design and three times the space and accommodations of anything yet seen on the Vegas Strip. It’s success ushered in an accelerated era of building for Las Vegas casinos.

1966 –It a moment of youthful indiscretion Beatle John Lennon says his band the Beatles are now more popular than Jesus. This flippant comment provoked a firestorm of nationwide protest among conservative elements in the US. Beatles albums were publically burned in the streets. Lennon apologized, then suggested that they were being crucified over the comment. McCartney rush up to the mike to insist that that wasn't the choice of words they preferred.

1967- Bobby Gentry released “Ode to Billy Jo”.

1980- The Osmond Brothers break up.

1984- Welsh actor Richard Burton died of cerebral hemorrhage at 64. With a tumultuous career and sometime marriages to Elizabeth Taylor the hard drinking Burton was the most famous English thespian of his day. But unlike Olivier and Geilgud, he was never knighted. As I recall, the monarchy objected to their portrayal, when Burton starred in a miniseries on Winston Churchill.

1984- Joan Benoit won the first Women’s Olympic Marathon.

1986 - It's revealed painter Andrew Wyeth had secretly created 240 drawings &
paintings of his neighbor Helga Testorf, in Chadds Ford, Pa

1994- JUDGE KENNETH STARR appointed by Congress to be special prosecutor to investigate wrongdoing by President Clinton in his Whitewater financial dealings. When the Whitewater affair proved a cold lead he came upon the Travelgate, Paula Jones and the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal. Yet Starr never garnered much public support because his probe was perceived as a political vendetta. Rather than seem to be impartial Judge Starr was an declared enemy of Bill Clinton’s politics. And his blunt tactics brought up disturbing memories of McCarthyism- like his ordering the arrest of a D.C. bookshop owner who refused to hand over his receipts and berating jurors who deadlocked over two counts against Clinton’s law partners. After $54 million spent, Congress voted impeachment of the President for his sexual peccadilloes and lying under oath. But that was defeated and Clinton served out his term. Judge Star became president of Pepperdine College in liberal Malibu Cal.
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Yesterdays’ Quiz: In the Tom & Jerry shorts directed by Hanna & Barbera, when Tom yells out, who did that voice?

Answer: Bill Hanna himself. Bill and Joe auditioned actors all day and didn’t get the sound the way Bill kept demonstrating it. Finally Joe said” Bill, why don’t we just use yours?” And so it remained.

The Creative Talent Network and Samuel French Bookshops invites you to join Eric Goldberg at a reception and booksigning in Studio City this Wednesday August 6th from 7pm-9pm to celebrate the publication of "Character Animation Crash Course". This event is free of charge and great for students of animation to get an opportunity to meet Eric Goldberg and for pros to re-connect. Food and drink will be served.

Samuel French Theatre and Film Bookshop
11963 Ventura Blvd.
Studio City, CA 91604
(818) 762-0535
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Quiz: In the Tom & Jerry shorts directed by Hanna & Barbera, when Tom yells out, who did that voice?

Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: Why is a signature called a John Hancock?
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History for 8/4/2008
Birthdays: Percy Bysshe Shelley, Nicholas Conte' 1777-inventor of the modern pencil and the conte'-crayon, Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong, William Pater, Richard Belzer, Franco Corelli, Elizabeth-England's late Queen Mum, opera tenor, Roger Clemens, runner Mary Decker-Slaney, Billy-Bob Thornton, Barack Obama is 47

1693 – “ Come quickly Martin, I am tasting stars!”monk Dom Perignon invented the Method Champagnoise to create champagne.

1735- N.Y. newspaper editor John Peter Zenger had been writing articles criticizing the Royal Governor for corruption. Past governors of New York, Maryland and North Carolina colonies were known fences for Caribbean pirates like Captain Kidd and Blackbeard and pocketing monetary bonds set up for colonial defense. This day German born Zenger's newspaper was shut down, and he was arrested for 'Seditious Libel". His later trial and acquittal was seen as the first great victory in America for Freedom of the Press. Today the Governor would just call Zenger's corporate employer, who would fire him.

1776-The nice printed up Declaration of Independence we all recognize was officially signed. The declaration approved on July 2nd and published on July 4th was the rough draft. Today John Hancock signed that big flowing signature "So old King George won't need his spectacles". Today a nickname for a signature is a John Hancock. It was a gutsy thing to do, the signatures would be their death warrants if the rebellion was crushed. Ironically if you asked Hancock for a pinch of snuff his snuffbox was an engraved gift from King George III he received during a visit to London ten years earlier.
During the War of 1812 when the British burned Washington D.C. the Declaration was hidden under a doorstep in Baltimore. It later hung in a sunlit window for 30 years which bleached it’s print almost to invisibility. Today millions are being spent on restoration efforts like encasing it in pure helium.

1782- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart married Constanze Weber, the aunt of composer Karl Maria Von Weber. Mozart had first proposed to Constanze's sister but she chose another.

1792- The FRENCH REVOLUTION HEATS UP. Since the fall of the Bastille two years earlier France and King Louis XVI had tried to work as a constitutional monarchy guided by the Marquis de Lafayette. But Louis only played the system for time while negotiating with his royal relatives in Germany and Austria to send armies to help him put his peasants in their place. By now the French nation had enough. Mobs stirred to anger by radicals like Danton and Marat marched on the Tuilieries Palace demanding justice. The King Louis XVI's Swiss bodyguard opened fire on them . The enraged peasants tore the guards to pieces and looted the palace, sticking soldier's ears on the kings desk. The king and queen tried to escape out the back door but were grabbed by the mob. A flag was made from a Swiss red uniform coats- the very first Red Flag of Revolution. Lafayette later fled into exile and was imprisoned. Standing in the street watching all this was a young unemployed lieutenant named Napoleon Bonaparte. He later wrote that if King Louis had the nerve to appear on a horse at the head of his supporters he could have still triumphed. Napoleon's final opinion: " Quel con!”- “What an Asshole!"

1892-" Lizzie Borden took an axe, gave her mother forty whacks, when he saw what she had done, gave her father forty-one.", etc. In Fall River Mass, Andrew and Abbie Borden were found brutally murdered and their daughter Elisabeth was accused. Ms. Borden pleaded innocence and cited a long history of abuse from her parents .She was acquitted but the murderer was never found. When Lizzie died peacefully in 1927 she left $30,000 to the ASPCA.

1918- Young corporal Adolf Hitler was awarded the Iron Cross, First Class for bravery. He was quite proud of it and wore it on his uniform for the rest of his life. The German officer who recommended Hitler, and pinned his medal on was Captain Hugo Gutmann, a Jew.

1922- In honor of the passing of Alexander Graham Bell, all 13 million telephones in the United States observed three minutes of silence.

1925- Conrad Hilton opened the first Hilton Hotel in Dallas Texas.

1942- The Bing Crosby-Fred Astaire-Marjorie Reynolds film the Holiday Inn released. The film featured Irving Berlin hit songs like White Christmas and Easter Parade but is hardly ever shown anymore because the Lincoln’s Birthday skit featured the cast in embarrassing minstrel blackface, singing “bout Massa Lincoln”.

1944- British pilot T.D. Dean uses his plane to bump the wing of a German V-1 Flying Bomb, causing it to flip over off course.

1944-Acting on a tip from a neighbor, the Gestapo discovered and arrested 16 year old Anne Frank and her family in their hiding place in an Amsterdam warehouse. All were sent to Auschwitz. Only her father Otto survived.

1956- Elvis Presley released his version of the Big Mama Mabel Thornton song " You Ain’t Nothin’ but a Hound Dog".

1964- The TONKIN GULF INCIDENT. North Vietnamese gunboats attacked the U.S.S. Maddox and the Turner Joy patrolling off their coast. The US claimed they were in international waters but the Pentagon Papers revealed that the Maddox was deliberately sent close to the shore to provoke the Vietnamese. The Maddox's captain testified he was 30 miles offshore when in reality he was 3 miles. For months the CIA had been conducting hit and run naval raids on the Vietnamese coast, but that was all still top secret. Although the U.S. already had advisors in the Vietnamese civil war for years this incident provided the legal pretext President Lyndon Johnson needed to escalate U.S. involvement up to 450,000 combat troops and trillions of dollars. Johnson had told his press attache' Bill Moyers:" Bill, if this Vietnam thing comes off I'll go down as one of the great presidents of this century, if not I'll be the goat.".....

1984- Actor Johnny Depp opened his own club on the Sunset Strip called the Viper Room. The original club on that site had once been owned by mobster Bugsy Sigel.
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Yesterday’s Quiz: Why is a signature called a John Hancock?

Answer: Look above at 1776.

Quiz: Why is a signature called a John Hancock?

Yesterdays’ question answered below: What do you mean by something being called apocryphal?
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History for 8/3/2008
birthdays: British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, Elisha Otis inventor of the Elevator, John T. Scopes- the teacher accused in the Monkey Trial, Habib Bourghiba, Ernie Pyle, Gene Kelly, Lenny Bruce, Tony Bennett, John Landis, Jay North, Dolores Del Rio, Leon Uris, Ann Klein, Martin Sheen

126 B.C. HANNIBAL DEFEATS THE ROMANS at CANNAE. Hannibal's defeat of a much larger Roman army is one of the great pieces of strategy still studied today. He had crossed the Alps to attack Italy with 30 war elephants but only 3 or 4 survived the crossing. The one-eyed Carthaginian was one of histories few conquerors with a sense of humor. When a nervous warrior named Gisgo remarked to him: "General, there must be a million Romans down there." Hannibal replied " Yes, and I’ll wager not one of them is named Gisgo". Hey, for a two thousand year old joke that's not bad ! His maneuvering and use of cavalry annihilated the top generals of Rome and left nothing between him and the city . Yet he uncharacteristically hesitated until the Romans recovered. His cavalry commander Mago snarled at him:" You know how to win battles, but not a war."The Romans recovered eventually drawing him off to Africa to protect his home city Carthage, where he was defeated by Scipio Africanis at Zama. Years afterwards Roman mothers would scare their children at night by recalling the old cry Annibale ad Portas! Hannibal is at our Gates!

48 B.C.-Battle of Pharsalia- Julius Caesar defeats his political rival Pompey the Great in northern Greece. Pompey fled to Egypt where he was murdered. Caesar came in hot pursuit where he met Cleopatra.

1492- One half hour before dawn Christopher Columbus set sail from Palos, Spain on the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria in search of the Indies. This was the first of four voyages. He took on board a linguist fluent in Turkish ,Sanskrit and Hebrew to speak to any natives they might encounter.

1769- Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portola made the first-ever recorded mention of the Rancho La Brea "tar pits" in Los Angeles: "The 3rd, we proceeded for three hours on a good road; to the right of it were extensive swamps of bitumen which is called chapapote. We debated whether this substance, which flows melted from underneath the earth, could occasion so many earthquakes.”

1858- British explorer John Speeckes discovered Lake Victoria Nyanza, the source of the Nile River. The question of the Nile's origins had become a cause celebre among British explorers and debate raged fiercely. Speeckes was traveling with famed Orientalist Richard Burton, translator of the Arabian Nights stories, but Burton absented himself from the last leg of the journey because of malaria. He regretted this decision for the rest of his life and grew to hate Speeckes. Speeckes and Burton began a feud that may or may not have contributed to Speeckes accidental suicide in 1864.

1916- Sir Roger Casement was executed for treason in London. Casement was an Irish patriot who went to Berlin to get Germany to fund the Irish Easter Sunday Uprising and he exposed human rites violations done by the Belgians in the Congo. After his conviction many leading English intellects like Arthur Conan-Doyle and Bernard Shaw lobbied for mercy for Casement, but the government produced his “black diaries” from his home in London, that proved he was homosexual. So the mercy movement was silenced, and Sir Roger Casement was hanged.

1943- In Sicily Gen. George S. Patton while touring a field hospital encountered a Pvt. Herman Kuhl. Private Kuhl wasn't physically wounded but suffering from nervous exhaustion called today Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Patton angrily accused him of cowardice and slapped him down. Allied High Command ordered Patton to apologize to Kuhl and the entire army, then recalled him to England. He would have no part in military actions until after D-Day, to the amazement of the Nazis General staff. Patton never could understand battle fatigue, I guess he never got tired of it.

1948- Time Magazine editor Whittaker Chambers publicly denounced a top Truman presidential aide Alger Hiss of being a Russian spy. Alger Hiss was a protege of both Franklin Roosevelt and Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. The Hiss investigation eventually convicted Hiss of espionage based on the 'pumpkin papers', incriminating documents Chambers said were found hidden in a pumpkin. The senate investigation shot to national prominence a new young congressman named Richard Nixon. In 1991 Soviet KGB files revealed Hiss was never a spy.

1963 –Unemployed television producer Alan Sherman released an album of comedy songs at the request of his friends. Called “My Son the Folksinger” it contained the hit “Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh, Here I am at, Camp Granada” and became an overnight sensation.

1966- While celebrating his 39th birthday, Comedian Lenny Bruce died of a morphine overdose. The groundbreaking comedian who coined the term “T & A” was arrested in 1964 and charged with obscenity for using the "F" word in his act. President Johnson and his opponent Senator Barry Goldwater could swear enough to make a sailor blush, but comedians were only supposed to make mother-in-law jokes. Bruce served six months, was broken physically and financially and no club would hire him. Yet today he is the model for all modern stand-up comedy. Phil Spector said: Lenny died of an overdose of cops” Today no one is arrested for telling jokes. Whether he leapt to his death from a window yelling “ I’m Super Jew! ” is a matter of legend.

1981- U.S. Air traffic controllers (PATCO) go on strike despite Pres. Reagan's warning they would be fired. Reagan was once president of the Screen Actor’s Guild. Ironically the only U.S. President who has ever been a labor leader was the most union-busting president of all time.

1996- The silly dance the Macarena by Los Del Rio becomes the #1 hit worldwide.
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Yesterday’s Quiz: What do you mean by something being called apocryphal?

Answer: The Bible, like any other book, was subject to editing. Rabbi Akivah comes down to us as one of the champions of keeping the Psalms and the poetry of David in the final. From 200BC to 100AD all the other Bible stories, Judith, Tobit, The Prayer of Manassah, was gathered up in a collection called Apocrypha, or the Hidden Books. They were considered by many churches as probably authentic but not enough to be considered sacred text. Since then, the term apocryphal has come to mean probably mythical, but believed by many to be true.

Quiz: What do you mean by something being called apocryphal?

Yesterday’s Quiz: In old cartoons there always seems to be a big, dumb character saying” duh..tell me about da rabbits, George..” where did that come from?
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History for 8/2/2008
Birthdays: Perre L’Enfant the architect –designer of Washington DC, Myrna Loy, Sir Arthur Bliss, James Baldwin, Carrol O'Connor, Joanna Cassidy is 63, Pete Sampras, Butch Patrick (Eddie Munster ), Jack Warner, Bob Beamon, Wes Craven, Apollonia, Edward Furlong, Kevin Smith is 37, Peter O'Toole is 76, Marie Louise Parker is 44

47BC- Battle of Zela. This day Julius Caesar took time off from Cleopatra and rushed up to Pontus where he destroyed King Pharnaces army in one large battle. Caesar sent a three word report to the Senate:“VENI VIDI VICI- I came,I saw, I conquered.”

1589- French King Henri III de Valois is stabbed in the guts by a demented Dominican, Brother Jacques Clement. He thought the King wasn't doing enough to stamp out Protestantism. The kings last words were: "That little bastard has killed me. Kill him!" Henry IV de Bourbon becomes one of Frances most well beloved kings. The children's song "Frere' Jacques" is about this assassin. "Brother Jacques, Why are you sleeping?" another King needs stabbing, in other words.

1865- The Confederate raider CSS Shenandoah, after sinking a dozen U.S whaling ships in the Bering Sea off Alaska, is told by a passing British merchantman that the American Civil War had ended over 3 months ago......doh! They refused to believe it until shown some newspapers.

1873- The first San Francisco cable car began service. Inventor Arthur Halliday had conceived the idea in 1869 after seeing a horse drawn tram fail to get up a steep hill.

1876- In Deadwood South Dakota at Nuttall & Manns No.10 Saloon gunfighter Wild Bill Hickock was shot in the back and killed while playing cards. He was 48 years old. He was holding the "Deadman's Hand" aces & eights, all black and a jack of hearts. His assailant 'Crooked Nose" Jack McCall was found hiding in a butchers shop and hanged for the murder. An eyewitness said:" It was very sad. Bill had won the hand too."

1914- THE GUNS OF AUGUST-General mobilization began throughout Europe for World War One. Large armies moved towards their frontiers amid hysterical street demonstrations of patriotism, Jubilant mobs shouting "A Berlin!" "Nach Paris!" ring out as Europe prepared to destroy itself. In Russia Czar Nicholas II in a solemn religious ceremony takes the oath his ancestor Alexander Ist had taken to drive out Napoleon. In Berlin a torchlight parade stopped under the Japanese Embassy to salute their friends. They were unaware that Japan had already decided to join the other side. The terrified diplomats thought the crowd was there to lynch them. From the Reichchancellory window German foreign minister Von Bethman-Holveig mumbled: "How did this all happen? If only I knew..." In London Lord Grey similarly reflected-" The Lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime."

1923- President Warren Harding died suddenly in San Francisco’s Palace Hotel. He was touring the country to get away from the festering 'Tea Pot Dome'' bribery scandal in Wash. The official cause of death was listed as “ a stroke of apoplexy”. It was rumored he may have committed suicide or had eaten bad crab meat. A popular idea was that First Lady Florence “Flossie” Harding had poisoned him. Harding was a womanizer and once locked a girlfriend he was entertaining in a closet in his office because his cabinet was coming. Flossie was well aware of his indiscretions; She refused an autopsy and had him quickly embalmed. She controlled all media coverage. To the press she was the Duchess. Nan Britton, the tootsie in the closet, immediately sued for $50,000 for the daughter she bore Harding. She lost but wrote a best selling book called the President’s Daughter in 1927. “Silent Cal” Coolidge became President.

1939- Albert Einstein then living in New Jersey wrote a famous letter to President Franklin Roosevelt describing the potential power of nuclear energy and that the US must develop atomic weapons before the Nazis do. The Manhattan Project was the result. In later years Einstein described this letter as “one of the biggest mistakes of my life.”

1961 - Beatles 1st gig as house band of Liverpool's Cavern Club.

1962- If you are a “Marilyn Monroe was done in by the Kennedy’s ” Conspiracy fan, a recently unearthed CIA document dated this day mentioned that Marilyn’s bungalow was under electronic surveillance and that she kept a “red book” diary. The diary disappeared after her death in two nights from now.

1990 –After Kuwait refused to waive Iraq’s outstanding debts. 100,000 troops of Sadam Hussein’s army invaded and occupied Kuwait.
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Yesterday’s Quiz: In old cartoons there always seems to be a big, dumb character saying” duh..tell me about da rabbits, George..” where did that come from?

Answer: John Steinbeck’s 1937 novel Of Mice and Men had two characters. Lennie, the big simpleton with the mind of a child, and George the small flinty one. It was very popular with Warner Bros cartoonists. Director Tex Avery saw the story as a play and loved it. He did the voice of the Lenny character in his cartoons himself.

Despite the heat, downtime and vacations, the LA Animation Community will have a busy month this August. The big news is SIGGRAPH, (Special Interest Group on Graphics and Interactive Techniques) the computer graphics society's annual gathering, is happening at the LA Convention Center downtown (8/11-15th). This provides Angeleanos with their semi-annual excuse to bother to drive downtown.
Other goodies this month include:

-Eric Goldberg will be having a book-signing/ launch party at Samuel French Bookstores in Studio City 8/6 7:00PM sponsored by CTN Creative Talent Networks.

-SOUND IN ANIMATION II, the Motion Picture Academy will host a show where award winning sound artists Mark Mangini ( Aladdin), and Randy Thom (Incredibles,Forrest Gump, Ratatouille, even Osmosis Jones!)will discuss the art of past sound efx masters like Looney Tunes Treg Brown, and Jimmy McDonald. Fri. 8/8 7:30PM www.oscars.org

-Sunday Aug 10th at 1:45PM I'll be giving a talk to Once Upon a Classic, a group of Disney Animation supporters. I'll be talking about my own career and signing copies of DRAWING THE LINE.

-FREDERIC' BACK is coming! Composer Michael Giacchino will host a tribute to Frederic's music master Normand Roger. Sun 8/10, 7:30PM www.oscars.org
Frederic's work will be on exhibit at the Academy's Linwood Dunn gallery in Hollywood.

-I'll be MC at a panel celebrating the art of FRANK THOMAS & OLLIE JOHNSTON at SIGGRAPH. Don Hahn, Ted Thomas, Dave Burgess, Kevin Koch, Randy Cartwright and Andreas Deja will join me in discussing the art of one of animation's most famous teams, and their continued relevance to our digital world. SIGGRAPH 8/13 10:30AM-noon.

-The School of Visual Arts will hold an Alumni Party at SIGGRAPH thurs at the Hotel Figueroa Thurs 8/14 6:00PM

-There will be an invitation-only Tribute to the Life of the late Ollie Johnston at the El Capitan Theater, 8/19.

-The Academy is hosting a CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF GEORGE PAL. The Hungarian immigrant filmmaker who created the PUPPETOONS shorts, then went into producing visual effects fantasies like THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM, WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE, THE TIME MACHINE (1960) and THE WAR OF THE WORLDS (1953) film director Joe Dante will host. Guests include Russ Tamblyn, Alan Young (Mr. Ed), Ann Robinson and effects master Jim Danforth. Weds 8/27th 7:30PM.

The Martians cruise LA, from George Pal's War of the Worlds

So, Dude! Wipe off that zinc-oxide! lots of cool reasons not to go to the beach this summer!