click to enlarge.

I hope you all had a nice Father's Day. Here is a picture of my father, George Sito, taken in Italy during World War Two. It was a favorite of my mothers.
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I see Surf's Up took in $9 million this week. This despite pretty good reviews. Here is where the strategy of the film distributor comes in. Summer around the 4th of July is primo time for blockbuster summer movies. An animation has to compete with the big releases like Fantastic Four, Die Hard and Spider Man. When I was at Disney we kept our major animated releases to the Holiday Season. The first animated movie we released in Summer was Lion King, and we sweated over that.
I wish Ratatioulle all the luck! It's tough out there.

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Birthdays: M C Escher, Charles Gounod, James Montgomery Flagg, Kay Kayser, Richard Boone, Jeanette MacDonald, Key Luke, Isabella Rosselini, Roger Ebert, Carol Kane, Sammy Kahn,Paul McCartney is 65

1815- WATERLOO- One of the battles that changed history. 145,000 men in brightly colored uniforms with 400 cannons blew each other to pieces for 9 hours at a road intersection outside Brussells about three miles square.
no animators present, but a lot of nice paintings done afterwards.
My favorite anecdote is about General Cambronne, leader of the French elite' Old Guard. He formed up an infantry square to take a last stand to cover the French retreat. His small band is surrounded by the victorious Anglo-Dutch German army and called upon to surrender. Cambronne had time for a one word reply before all the guns go off-" MERDE!" This is a favorite French epithete meaning "sh*t!" The writer Chateaubriand later said that he cried" The Guard dies but never Surrenders!" But we all know what he really said. To this day in France if you’re too polite to use an expletive you can say: A'la mot d'Cambronne!"

1892 - Macademia nuts first planted in Hawaii

1898 - 1st amusement pier opens in Atlantic City, NJ

1900- The Dowager Empress of China Zhou Zshi calls for the killing of all foreigners during the Boxer Rebellion. She commits the Chinese government to the expulsion of all the European colonialist powers. Empress Zhou Chi was the first person westerners called the Dragon Lady, a name later used by cartoonist Milt Caniff in his comic strip Terry & the Pirates.

1913- composer Cole Porter graduated from Yale.

1959 - 1st telecast transmitted from England to US.

1967- At the Monterey Pop Rock festival Jimi Hendrix electrified the audience then finished his set by burning and smashing his guitar on stage. Until then musicians didn’t behave in such a way towards their instruments. Ravi Shankar was particularly shocked.

1980 –"We are on a mission from God." John Landis movie of " The Blues Brothers" with Dan Ackroyd & John Belushi premiered.

2002- President George W. Bush said:” When we talk about war, we are really talking about peace.”