talk talk talk

Dr. Hubert Zork here. I could write for you a jazz article about why Trumbauer did not play the trums. I could play for you upon the clairinet a jazz inflected sea shanty. But no, instead, today I will write to you about the animated animation antics of one fictional John Akre, a fictional animator of whom I am to fictionally report.

Yesterday he did some work with his mouth. He recorded the soundtrack for the next section he is to animate. He wrote the words several years ago and then earlier this year he cut them down to size. He has made further cuttings, even to the last moments before he stood to read. He set up his small video camera with its microphone pointing up, for this is how he recorded his sound, directly into that cheap camera microphone. He likes the sound of it, and it is easy to do. So he aimed it up and stood mere inches away from the camera microphone and borrowed a music stand from me upon which to place his pages of parchment, his pages of text, his pages of script, and then he said it loud enough for the camera, but soft enough so that the neighbors did not complain.

He spoke with his normal voice as the narrator and then adjusted his voice for all the charactes. He has worked out various sounds for the various characters. He is not much of a voice actor, but since he was a fictional child he has admired the work of actors who do the various voices for radio or cartoons. Of course he admires Mel Blanc, voice for the Warner Brothers cartoon characters, but also very much admires the Jay Ward staple of voices, such as Bill Scott, June Foray and Paul Frees.

Anway, he read a section with fits and starts, reading many parts over again, and over again, for some tongue twisters. Then he recorded the session onto his computer hard drive and cut the audio so it was almost seamless. He cut it with his video editing program, Premiere. He tightened it up. He patched he spots and leaks.

Before arriving at his paid work, he shot some Locaciamation. But it was a bit windy, so the wind blew his sticky notes both in the downtown office building setting where he shot and over the Mississippi River on the Stone Arch bridge where he shot.

Now it's time for something we hope you'll really like. It is time for the Pome of the Day project.

Elemental were the stars
experimental with cigars
stuck into their stellar noses
like hypothesis supposes

if we do not scientific
we will lose the mode terrific
if we do not wear the tie
we might as well eat humble pie

sink the groove into your bones
until the good ship up and groans
and if there is a real show stopper
someone's bound to call a copper

if the fire, in its red jumps
fails to ever warm you up
quench your thirst with wind and trees
but one at a time, if you please.

Written in sincerity and with fingers,
Dr. Hubert Zork