This is an exceptionally moving video. Via StayFree: San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders made an announcement last week regarding same-sex marriage. If you haven’t seen it, I urge you to take 5 minutes right now and watch.

Yesterday I received a package from Istanbul: 3 copies of Turkish art magazine Hillsider.

As you can see, Sita’s on the cover! And inside too.

Big ups to journalist Gülenay Antep for writing about my film!

As of today, I have animated every scene in Sita Sings the Blues. That’s 80 minutes.

The film is by no means finished. My sound designer, Greg Sextro, only begins adding effects early October, and it’s not clear how much time he’ll need. I still have to make end credits, add title text, and fuss around with what I’ve already done, changing colors here and nose-ring orientations there. But as of this morning, every scene has an image.

Whew!

Postsecret + LOLcats = LOLSECRETZ. Motto: “INTRNT DUN NOW THX”

I’m almost finished animating Sita Sings the Blues. I haven’t been posting images of the latest scenes, based on my own misadventures in love, so here’s one for ya. It depicts “Nina” months after being dumped by her husband by email, while similar events are analyzed by a shadow puppet voiced by Manish Acharya. Because the film is now 80 minutes long, I am omitting a song. I was going to have a composer sweeten it up and make it more pop-y, but I kind of like it as is (I “made” it myself! Thanks iTunes and Audio Hijack Pro!). It is about what everyone asks compulsively when their love fails. You won’t hear it in the film, it’s a ninapaley.com exclusive!

Astute reader/luncher Andrew directs our attention to this very interesting BBC series, The Trap:

Above is episode two; see also episodes one and three.

An ongoing feature in which I recommend the work and websites of people who buy me lunch. Today’s entry: Stephen Hersh!

This is kind of late, as I last lunched with my old pal Stephen Hersh back in July. And Stephen doesn’t have his own web site, so finding related links was a challenge. But what a brilliant guy he is! Stephen wrote and drew Bliss, one of my favorite comic strips ever. We both left Universal Press Syndicate around the same time, after which the late, great Jay Kennedy of King Features recruited us to co-create The Hots. Steve wrote, I drew, and after a year I retired to pursue Sita Sings the Blues. Here’s an old King Features press release about a series of Hots Passover strips we did. And that’s it for Stephen Hersh links. You’re more likely to find his work on TeeVee: he writes commercials for Chunky Soup and V-8, among others. Anyway, our lunch was delicious - look at that tasty thali from Saravanaas he’s eating. Let’s do lunch again soon, and get web sites, people!

Would YOU like to be featured in Links for Lunch? Then buy me lunch. My email address is at the bottom of the middle column, the one with the pictures linking to my movies and cartoons and stuff.

Very Similar to how sausages are made.

An ongoing feature in which I recommend the work and websites of people who buy me dinner. Today’s entry: Ken Levis!

This is a blurry picture of my dear friend Ken Levis (bonus photo: Ken & Bubba). Ken is a documentary producer, and a damn good one. He’s also a writer, editor and director, not to mention a total mensch. Ken has won a ton of awards, and his friends love him so much we even forgive him for working as the official court documentarian of Thomas Friedman. Ken’s most recent film, Struggle for the Soul of Islam: Inside Indonesia, has been widely praised. Yet in spite of all his achievements, Ken still doesn’t have his own web site. Get on it, Ken! And thanks for dinner (look at that swanky restaurant he took me to)!

Would YOU like to be featured in Eats for Endorsement? Then buy me dinner. My email address is at the bottom of the middle column, the one with the pictures linking to my movies and cartoons and stuff.

Nothing inspires me like my fellow heretics. Please enjoy a sample of Stand Up for Judas by Dick Gaughan.

Read the full lyrics here.

Here’s an excerpt of I video I worked on (I did the animation, duh) for the amazing, wonderful feature film Loins of Punjab Presents. Lucky viewers in India will get to see it in theaters later this month. We sadly deprived Americans will have to wait until after its festival premiere October 3rd. Well, I’m not sadly deprived - I saw it, and it’s awesome!

Q: According to Sigmund Freud, what comes between fear and sex?
A: Fünf.

(via)

You know what makes me angry? Hope.

Hope is worse than desire. Hope is when you actually believe your desires are real, that what you desire may come to pass. Desire is an illusion, Hope is a delusion.

One of the greatest stories about Hope is Pandora’s Box, about which I made a film several years ago. According to legend, after Pandora released from the box all the plagues of mankind, only one was left: Hope. Consequently, all the other curses of humanity may be recognized as such, but Hope remains a gift-wrapped curse.

Good ol’ Friedrich Nietzsche sez:

So now man has the lucky jar in his house forever and thinks the world of the treasure. It is at his service; he reaches for it when he fancies it. For he does not know that that jar which Pandora brought was the jar of evils, and he takes the remaining evil for the greatest worldly good–it is hope, for Zeus did not want man to throw his life away, no matter how much the other evils might torment him, but rather to go on letting himself be tormented anew. To that end, he gives man hope. In truth, it is the most evil of evils because it prolongs man’s torment. (link)

I’ve been afflicted by hope recently, so I searched online for some management tips. Of course I had to google “anger management” to find anything, and then substitute “hope” for “anger.” My results, after the fold…
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Via Two Can Anne, the amazing cat photography of Mr. Lee:

Mr. Lee’s human attached a tiny camera to his collar, yielding fascinating new insights into the secret life of cats. Blow your mind with the whole story here.

There’s also a cat cam user in Los Angeles:

Wow. Hooray for the internets!

In the course of an unrelated image search today I came across the remarkable photographs of Martin Klimas:

They remind me of other pictures of things smashing: