In case I haven’t mentioned it in any previous postings, I really hate being cold. Not surprising for a Californian.

Another dreadful New York winter is encroaching. We’ve gone from too cold to ‘way too cold, And it’s been trying to snow the past two days. No snow, just wind chills down to the ‘teens.

Meanwhile, I’m still paying attention to current events, which always have their little excitements to offer. John Lennon’s 30^th yahrtzeit isn’t exciting; it sucks. Even Rolling Stone publishing the last interview doesn’t make it anything but much too sad a day in the World of Rock ‘n’ Roll.

The resumption of Jewish building in Yehudah and Samaria however, almost makes up for it. Let the Arabs get real if they want to deal. Israel is Jewish land, Jerusalem is Jewish land. Build, Bibi, build!

I’m not at all disappointed that Obama backed off of Israel over Jewish construction. I am repeatedly disappointed, however, that he does the same with domestic issues – from health care to banking reform to taxation. I personally was rather hoping that Candidate Obama would serve in office. If I thought another (or any – ever – for that matter) Republican administration was in order, I’d have voted Republican.

Daily developments in the WikiLeaks flap, of course, suck up most of the attention in the media these days. Kevin Rudd, who used to be PM in Julian Assange’s native Australia (and got to look like a bit of a bozo in at least one leaked note), makes the point that it was a breach of U.S. security, rather than an irresponsible messenger, which is ultimately responsible for all this hoo-hah. He’s right, you know. Having had a bit of experience with Government procedures, it amazes me that a PFC – even in an all-volunteer army – can get a level of clearance to get near Secret, Top Secret, Classified, etc., documents. In my time, I had an appropriate level of clearance (through Defense, not State; nowhere near as much juicy gossip even available where I was, and no internet, or even CD-ROM drives, yet), and there was no way I could ever have left a Federal facility with enough documentation to make anywhere near this kind of trouble, even if I’d wanted to. We understood ‘way back then, that technology, no matter how wondrous, could be misused. But, then, I was with Defense (and later JPL), not State.

As for Assange, he’s hosed, no matter how much damage he does on the way out. For my part, I have little sympathy. I still hold by Sir Mick Jagger’s immortal quote, “F**k ‘em if they can’t take a joke,” but Assange isn’t being funny. OK, maybe some of the gossipy stuff early on may have been good for an uneasy chuckle, but some of the more recent notes have, as one wag was quoted as saying, “give al Qaida a short list,” and carry a higher potential to put civilian lives at stake – like yours and mine – and even I’m not that much of an anarchist.

But, in any event, Assange is history. Having antagonized every legitimate (and some not quite so) government in the world and survived – so far – his most recently announced agenda item (before his “doomsday document”) is to leak all over where the real power is, the guys who really run things – he wants to leak on the banks. He’s screwed.

Tough thing is, he has friends who might want to make him a martyr, as wacked as he is – maybe more so – and at least as technologically adept. The genie is out of the bottle, kids. How’s your MasterCard?

Let the Crackberry Rhapsody begin:

What an amazing piece of machinery!!! And it’s so tiny! I remember Zev Brenner’s first-generation Blackberry. It took two hands to even hold it. I guess one had to push the buttons with one’s nose. That was only five years ago. Mine (called the “Curve,” for those who must know those details) is only a little larger than my former flip-phone. Amazing!!

It’s now Week 3 since the arrival of the new toy, and I’ve been having too much fun with it. The new cel phone plan has some limits on phone minutes and text, but the internet (what I most wanted in this deal) is unlimited – and for about half of what my previous plan was charging me for simple voice. Yes, I’m stoked. My e-mail inboxes haven’t been this tidy in years. I can finally get and respond to casting notices in a timely manner. Maybe it’ll help.

It didn’t take long to learn to love mobile apps. Try navigating a full-size web site on a teeny-tiny BlackBerry screen. You’ll work it out fast. Interestingly, some of the most accessible apps seem to come out of media organizations (NY Times, S Francisco Chronicle, LA Times, BBC, AP); I’m in news junkie heaven.

The BlackBerry itself seems to have its own idiosyncrasies. For some inexplicable reason, the software shifts a middle name to the last name, which, of course, wreaks havoc with being able to properly alphabetize one’s contacts. It imposes a compromise, and I hate to have to compromise.

Which brings us to the new Munkis Bros. show, pending. There is, at last, an animatic, and the script, though it needs to get trimmed a bit for time, plays a little better than I first thought. The big issue is, of course, the opening sequence. Limitations in my animation software have already imposed compromises, and it looks like I’ll have to rip everything out and start it all over. It has to be there, though. Without it, nothing that follows makes sense. I can, however, begin to see an end to it, but not for another few weeks at best.

With the Munkis show, of course, I can make some realistic projections because I’m the only one on the project. There are a few other things attempting to percolate up, but when someone else is involved, I find it best to hold back announcements until they’re announcing something that’s really on the ground. The general picture promises to brighten; the problem is, it’s not my promise.

New York Governors’ Race update: While I still strongly favor (and would give a formal endorsement were it not the political equivalent of bestowing the Kiss of Death) Kristin Davis’ Anti-Prohibition Party candidacy, one must take note of the fact that Jimmie McMillan of the Rent Is Too Damn High Party, has received a most influential endorsement: that of a toy manufacturer.

For a mere $49 (not much more than dinner for one at Dougie’s), one can now have their very own Jimmie McMillan Action Figure. The doll carries a silly hat and McMillan’s trademark black gloves and, by the accounts of those who know the difference, looks rather like him. And, of course, the doll talks. It only says one thing, but those who saw/heard the NY Gubernatorial Debates know, so does Mr. McMillan: “Rent Is Too Damn High!” Mr. McMillan’s notoriety seems to have reached as far even as China (where the dolls are probably made), where he’s a bigger hit than he is here. Ya gotta love it.

Why does it always have to be the opening sequence?!?!?!

Yes, we’re finally at the animatic stage with the new Munkis Brothers extravaganza, and the opening sequence – after behaving in a suitably civilized manner in the tests – has started giving me rendering problems. The software suddenly seems unable to handle the scale of it all. It’s not enough the people I’m pitching projects to can’t handle the scale; now I get it my software too!!

It’s almost funny, the way what looks to me like a perfectly reasonable proposal, based on stuff I did for years Back Home (already scaled down to accommodate less available space and a shallower talent pool), is too big for the imaginations here. I try explaining that, if we really want to bring on the biggest event in human history – Moshiach – we need to start thinking bigger, if for no reason other than to be prepared for the magnitude of the event itself.

One can’t reason with software though. One can’t reason with Brooklyners, either (they still want it smaller and – most importantly – cheaper), but the presence of breathing bodies standing on their hind legs gives one the illusion that, with persistence, the lights will go on, even for them. There’s no such hope to be reasonably raised regarding a machine which gives conflicting messages between one software package and another in a way that, last time, took a day and a half to add up from vague hints in the documentation.

Why does it always have to be the opening sequence?!?!?!

It’s presenting most of the nuisance factors the previous one did, minus the Pandora’s Box unleashed by deployment of the new whiz-bang features in the animation software. That was a double-whammy catalogue of hassles which first crashed the software (on a typical day, once every six minutes) and ultimately wouldn’t export in any form to anything. This opening sequence is bigger and longer than its predecessor, but with less stuff in it. Basic storytelling issues – especially the visual aspects – should be resolved, right? This time, the dialogue relates to the action, which should simplify things thematically, right? OK, there was a small anomaly in the script, but I think I resolved that by extending the opening sequence by a few harmless seconds. Just skooch a few shots around to match the references in the dialogue, fill the space, and, presto! one opening sequence, as neat as you please.

No such luck.

All the big guys in CG animation say the same thing (only in 3D, with better writing, and ‘way bigger budgets!), that movies want to be big and massive and that computers want to make things small and light. That’s pretty much the technical issue I’m contending with at the moment. The zoom-out that tested so nicely is freaking out some part of the chain of software and, if it won’t render for export, it’s worthless. We’ll be pounding on the walls for the next little while, and doubtless grumbling forever over whatever compromise the infernal machine imposes on me.

More happily (well, maybe), MazalTov to Mr. Howard Jacobson on winning the Mann-Booker Prize, a serious British literary award, for The Finkler Question, with the interesting premise of a non-Jew who intensely investigates Jewish life without benefit of conversion (rather like Eliyyahu David when we first met and neither of us knew any better), pretty serious stuff, which Mr. Jacobson handles with award-winning wit. Mr. Howard Jacobson is not related to our local Jacobsons, at least according to Yossi Jacobson (yes, the Rabbi Yossi Y. Jacobson, who should know whereof he speaks, and he speaks so well!), but that was before Howard won the Mann-Booker.

* * * * *

After almost ten years of serial and overlapping renewals, my cel phone contract with Sprint has finally expired. Yay! Now I’m looking at prepaid plans, which give one a lot more for a lot less than the best deal I ever got with Sprint. The downside of prepaid is, of course, the initial outlay for equipment – and I, of course, want the newest new Blackberry, which may not even be in this physical world, just an enticing series of images on Blackberry’s web site. One knows it has to be pricey. The previously newest Blackberry is pretty pricey (about as much as my Palm, from back in the Radio Daze but, one would hope, without all the bugs), but the one plan I’ve seen it attached to is less than half the cost of Sprint’s – with insurance. If I can USB it into my HP, I’ll be a happily connected man.

Watch this space for breathless rhapsodies over my new toy, once all the pieces come together.

* * * * *

A week and some change from now, the silliest election season I’ve ever seen will, happily, be behind us. Or maybe not so happily. If projections are good, there could be a Republican takeover of Congress, which is never good news. To make matters worse, some percentage of these “new” Republicans will be tea-baggers. Even worse, there are 37 state governorships up for grabs – and a load of tea-baggers in that field too.

As for me, it’s a family tradition to not say who we vote for. It was the only secret my parents kept from each other, not that it was any great mystery. However, tradition must be honored, and I won’t say who I’m actually voting for, although I’ve proudly said for years that friends don’t let friends vote Republican. I can, however, offer the Officially Officious Radiojew’s Revenge endorsements: for Governor of California (of course I still care), Jerry Brown; for Governor of Texas, Kinky Friedman (my endorsement didn’t do him any good last time, either); for Governor of New York, I’m wavering between the Anti-Prohibition Party (organized by and running kristin Davis, Eliot Spitzer’s favorite madam from his tenure as Governor; rather symmetrical. Number nine, number nine …) and the Rent Is Too Damn High Party which, like its founder/candidate, Jimmie McMillan, is just plain a hoot. The Greens have ideas, but they’re going nowhere on this side of the Atlantic. One reason may be that they’ve yet to run a credible candidate for anything. Maybe they should talk to Kinky Friedman.

What I expect to happen when New York gets its first elected Governor in three years is that we, like California, will get an ancestral governor in Andrew Cuomo. It could be worse. “Crazy Carl” Paladino, for those living in the Real World (outside New York), is a tea-bagger nutjob that even the Republicans will be happy to see go away. Were I Back Home, I might think that New York deserves such a preposterous embarrassment. However, being a current resident, I’d rather not, thanks.

The talk all over the media is that the national frustration with the Obama administration is manifesting in the tea-baggers. Get real! It’s right-wing and corporate resentment of the will of the people. And I’m not even considering race as a factor, which could open up all manner of mishigas I don’t want here. Until there is genuine campaign finance reform, the corporate takeover of the U.S. of A. will accelerate, with no way of knowing where the money is really coming from. Therein lies my frustration with the New Boss; he’s too much the same as the Old Boss (and we thought we wouldn’t get fooled again!). The only good news about the Obama admin so far is their failure to put enough pressure on Israel to make the Arabs happy. Health insurance “reform” is a distasteful disaster of corporate welfare (can you say “single payer?” Obama can’t) that pushes each citizen further toward serfdom to our corporate oligarchs. Was it thirteen or fifteen separate pieces of Wall St. and banking-related legislation shot down by Republicans – with the “good guys” holding a “veto-proof majority?!?” Of course, Congress has to vote in these presidential initiatives, but that gets to be another rant for another posting. I have another meeting shortly – on another proposal – with another Brooklyner.

One final musing: The Texas Rangers beat the Yankees for the American League pennant. Yay! My personal feelings about New York sports teams in general aside, it shows that, in the prolonged absence of George W. (“Shrub”) Bush, a pretty pathetic excuse for a baseball team can recover and go on to take the American League pennant. The thought gives one hope for this country.

Yes, loafing on the blog again.

There were at least three hints dropped in the first Munkis Bros episode as to what is coming next. It should be easy to guess, those who had the strength to follow the first year of "Revenge." It's a whole lot bigger than what's up there now.

I'm also determined to make it more visually interesting than what's up now. In furtherance of that goal, I've been looking, for the first time in a long time at Hitchcock, Altman, John Ford, Michael Mann, J. J. Abrams, of course Quentin Tarentino (what will he do without Sally?), the Coen Bros, etc, ... That sort of thing can be done with animation (ask Brad Bird), but it'll slow things down a bit. The animatic is, believe it or not, proceeding, but not in a vacuum.

It's already noon Erev Shabbos Enjoy the weekend.

Yes, it's been a while. Access, funky though it be, is a little more plentiful and consistent than it's been for a while. Golus still sucks, and so does life in Brooklyn Now for the story behind the headlines:

There's been an offer to start up the old Radiojew's Revenge webcam rant (yep; still a less-than-zero budget) and, surprisingly enough, more than one request. Whodathunkit?! There might be word on that development this week. Watch this neglected space.

The new Munkis Bros cartoon is currently still dragging through pre-production. Script issues bogged things down after a load of time in designing 3 new characters, but we're almost to the animatic stage. If I drop everything for a week, I can have it finished (at least to that stage), but here I am goofing off on the blog.

I should start planning to get at least a week behind schedule on any project I take on, because it seems to happen every time – most frequently over technical issues. And, no sooner do I start making predictions on a release date, here comes the Time Eater.

This time around, the Time Eater bit about ten days out of my life and added ‘em to the production schedule for RR41. The second week of Tamuz (another 2-3 weeks) starts to look more realistic now, but there’s still a lot of cartoon to account for; almost six minutes – a theatrical-length short – between now and then. And there’s still some dialogue that’s not quite ready.

And business, like the golus, still sucks. Some things seem to never change.

Oh, yes, I made RR40 go away. Everyone hated it, especially Shlomo Munkis. Watch for RR41 and …

Brace for impact.