backstory

Yes, this is Dr. Zork. And no, I am not about to set down some more of my sizzling jazz criticism, but I am about to relay to you some more information about the fictional animator Akre.

Once upon a time there was a pre-ten small boy, an impressario of puppet shows, a drawer of crayon books. On his tenth birthday he was given a wind up 8mm camera by a neighbor. The camera was old, and the neighbor was not using it, so boy John got a roll of film at the drug store and filled up the camera with it.

His first animation experiments animated his brother and sisters. He could make them appear, disappear and transform simply by turning the camera on and off. Soon he moved inside the house, and discovered the importance of lighting. His first animation project, moving some shapes around on an easel, were nothing to see. There was not enough light and so they were underexposed. He was surprised when the film was all black, and a little angry, so he raised a pen and tried to write on some of the film. First he felt like he had ruined the movie by writing on it, but when he played back the blue lines, he liked what he saw.

He visited the small library in downtown Powell, Wyoming and read the books in the film section, a single shelf. He was most intrigued by the books about animation, and read a book about young animators and how they did their work. He saw the work of young animators on a television program called Zoom, and he was soon making his own cartoons, with lighting courtesy of a desk lamp.

There is more to this story, but there will be a future, and I will make good use of it. Now I will leave you with the Pome of the Day Project pome. Here it is.

it's a good day if
the sun don't stop
a good day if
the moon don't plop
a good day if
the seas don't boil
a good day when
we run out of oil

it's a good day if
the birdies stay
a good day if
we don't blow away
a good day if
we don't burn to ash
a good day when
the cars all crash

it's a good day if
there's still a sky
a good day if
all the animals don't die
a good day if
the trees aren't sad
a good day when
we're not so bad

Written in sincerity and with fingers,
Dr. Hubert Zork