Nina Paley

BLACKOUT

If anyone needs to download Sita Sings the Blues or copy Mimi & Eunice or anything from any of my web sites, including this blog, do it now because they’re all going dark for 24 hours in protest of SOPA/PIPA and the lobbyists and bought politicians who wrote them and will write the next stupid bills attempting to break the internet even after SOPA and PIPA “die” only to be resurrected zombie-like under new stupid acronyms.

Although I’ll truly miss Wikipedia while it’s down tomorrow, maybe I’ll use the time to get some actual animation done instead of just “research.”

R.I.P. Hiram Paley, 1933-2012

Some articles about my Dad here, here and here.

The passage of time is incomprehensible and very in my face this week.

Life in the Ancient Middle East

I actually have been working this past week, I’m just nowhere near ready to share any animation yet. Here though is a still from a work-in-progress. Everything might look different in the final thing, but at least this is evidence I’ve been doing something.

Crazy Little Thing

I interrupt this series of Ziz iterations to tell you about a new book you are likely to enjoy. It’s called Crazy Little Thing: Why Love and Sex Drive us Mad, by Liz Langley. Why are you reading about it here on my blog? Because there’s a whole chapter about ME, that’s why! Apparently I am a paragon of how not to kill your ex in a tormented rage, and make a work of art instead. Most of the other profiles in the book are about people killing/maiming/permanently damaging their exes or themselves after breakups, but an alternative is to make a feature film, which is what I did and how I merited this sweeeet chapter. Also the book is well-written and funny, and you should read it.

Brown Outlines FTW

See, this is why I leave myself open to comments, even though they can cause discomfort. Sasha Rubel made an excellent suggestion. On areas that were already brown, I used gold outlines.

Ziz of a Different Color

Two Zizzes, actually. The first has black outlines, which are thicker in the animated gif than the source file:

The second has no outlines, reminding me of 1930’s travel posters.

Maybe this Ziz is on its way to visit Palestine.