cry rain

Dr. Hubert Zork is here with another look into the artificial world of the fictional animator Akre.

Yesterday he succeeded in doing some more animation. In one scene, perhaps the most emotional for his character Wargoon Flishe, he drew some frames of locatiamation. These scenes were about Wargoon openly bawling, crying at his great success. Because it was a rainy day, the animator shot these frames outside in the rain, and even managed to get a couple raindrops to fall on the images as he was filming them. It is a rainy day yet again today, but there are no more such scenes to film.

He also began the work of ripping up some construction paper, for the sets of the final scenes will be made out of just such a substance.

He has sat down to do some more work, and being that we share the same fingers, I will now end with the Pome of the Day Project.

i only have two answers
the only ones i know
if you ask me a question
i'll answer yes or no

you might ask me for reasons
or how much, more or less
i will not give you quantity
i'll answer no or yes

if you ask me directions
you don't know where to go
i will not tell you left or right
i'll tell you yes or no

you just might want my story
you might want me to digress
but i'll stay my straight and narrow
and i'll tell you no or yes

you may want exposition
or even a decree
but i'll only tell you yes or no
i'll never reach maybe

Written in sincerity and with fingers,
Dr. Hubert Zork

50

Dr. Zork is here with his everseeming neverending reports on the life of the fictional animator John Akre, at work on his fictional feature animated film work whatever.

Yesterday he drew note cards about a celebration. He drew words and he drew characters and he scanned them in and put them in front of gradients of yellow and orange and red. It was all about a celebration of the re-life in death of the major character of his animated film. He also brought his characters back to the House of the Dead. Oh my.

He is getting near to the end of his 52 page script. That is enough of this. He has ideas. He will execute them. Here is the Pome.

let me count the ways i love thee
on my fingers and my toes
and if i come up short of digits
i'll use my eyes and ears and nose

i'll count my legs and arms and head
assign a reason to my lips
i'll count my kneecaps and elbows
i'll even count upon my hips

i'll, to each toenail and each hair,
attribute reasons i love thee
and if i fill my whole round scalp
i'll even count on my willie

i'll count the cheeks of my buttocks
i'll count the teeth inside my face
i'll need them all, plus an accountant
to keep track of the ways

Written in sincerity and with fingers,
Dr. Hubert Zork

life

Dr. Zork is at your animation update service.

Yesterday the fictional animator worked on just a short scene, the scene where Stripesmaybe picks the flower and holds it in front of Wargoon's nose to bring him back to dead life. He got home from work, then went to a volunteer gig to shoot some video, then came home and was able to work on a few scenes and start them rendering, then he sat down to watch a movie. In his animation, he recycled a flower and a sun from earlier scenes.

Such a day. Such a tedious day. It must be time for the pome.

i'm really on my way
i'm talking as i walk
and tho it slows me down
i'm walking as i talk

i have fathoms to go
i'm thinking as i sink
and tho it takes some skill
i'm sinking as i think

i have a rip in mind
i'm sewing as i go
and tho the needle stabs
i'm going as i sew

i have a secret side
i'm dying as i try
and tho i'll get there yet
i'm trying as i die

Written in sincerity and with fingers,
Dr. Hubert Zork

49

Dr. Hubert Zork is here once again to report on the animation progress.

Yesterday, the fictional animator Akre moved down page 48 of his 52 page script. Wargoon Flishe was now in many pieces and Stripesmaybe had to gather those pieces and put them together like a puzzle. He also made a locatiamation of Wargoon Flishe's dead dream of a flower.

The aninmation continues as he races to the script finish line. He had to wait a long time for yesterday's scenes to render. I think it is time for the Pome.

i did not make my getaway
because the coast was clear
i did not see the way to go
something was in my ear

i did not make my getaway
because the gate was up
if i ran down the entry stairs
i could have spilled my cup

i did not make my getaway
there was no way for me
i did not have the perfect map
that i could have for free

i did not make my getaway
altho my shoes were tied
and when the gates came down again
my eyeballs up and cried

my getaway
my getaway
i did not make my getaway

Written in sincerity and with fingers,
Dr. Hubert Zork

48

Dr. Zork is here, but I am not about to report on the beautiful jazz music that I so love to write about. Instead, I am forced by a fictional character to write about him. Of course, I am referring to the fictional animator Akre. Instead of writing melifluous phrases on the sounds of cool jazz music I must write about some guy making his drawings move.

Yesterday he brought back his character Stripesmaybe. She is gathering up the pieces of Wargoon Flishe that were scattered by the stock investors. You know the story. She has a shovel, a burlap bag, and a wheelbarrow.

The background is growing redder as the scenes move forward. The land and sky is a gradient from brown to blue.

That is really all there is to report. He has four pages left of his script now.

Here is the pome of the day project.

rattle the pots and all the pans
hit the pipes and whirl the hose
make loud steps with your loud shoes
and noises from your mouth and nose

smash the walls in joyfully
for that will make a peculiar whop
wrap your hands around some neck
and squeeze until the gurgles stop

make some noise with artillery
if you are a happy dude
your celebrating may bring death
but if you smile it's not so rude

stick your tongue out, blow a razz
smash your own head in with a stone
make loud noises till you die
and you won't feel so all alone

Written in sincerity and with fingers,
Dr. Hubert Zork

investments in knife

Hello all. This is Dr. Hubert Zork with the latest daily animation report.

The fictional animator Akre has slowed down the last few days in his animation work for his mother is visiting him from out of town. But he did complete a segment where disatisfied stock investors cut up the body of Wargoon Flishe and scatter the pieces.

Now on to the Pome of the Day Project.

space and time
pulled out my chair
now i'm sitting
on the air

space and time
drew me a loop
replacing my bean
with cosmic soup

space and time
untied my shoes
i tripped, i fell
i sang the blues

space and time
got in my bed
and turned my house
into my head

space and time
shifted a bit
it's just enough
you want to quit

Written in sincerity and with fingers,
Dr. Hubert Zork

pome alone

Dr. Zork is here to say that there was very little animation done yesterday, so we will go straight to the Pome of the Day Project.

some of the people are nasty
some of the people are not
some of the people are way too cold
and some are way too hot

some of the people are rough
some of the people are slick
some of the people use their teeth
and some prefer to lick

some of the people are angry
some of the people are calm
some of the people hand you flowers
and some would rather bomb

some of the people say yuck
and some of the people say yum
some of the people are really smart
and some are really dumb

some of the people like land
and some are best on sea
some of the people happen to be you
but this one is only me

Written in sincerity and with fingers,
Dr. Hubert Zork

47

Dr. Zork is here with more animation talk.

Yesterday the fictional animator Akre drew and filmed a long locatiamation section of his film. This was the near death dream of Wargoon Flishe, the dream he dreams after eating almost everything.

The animator shot most of the dream scene in his backyard teahouse. He filmed the post-it notes on a piece of glass connected in front of his video camera. There was a frame of the real world around the square of the animated world.

The real world that he saw that was most interesting was the play of shadows. Some shadows were on the post-it notes, some were on the grid of the teahouse roof further away. He liked the way these played together. He shot it and that was all he got done yesterday.

Now it is the time for the Pome of the Day Project.

i like to eat my breakfast
i like to eat my lunch
i like to eat my dinner
on weekends i like brunch

i eat with all my fingers
i do not use my feet
i eat upon the kitchen table
and not upon the street

i eat to make my stomach
as happy as can be
i eat all kinds of growing things
i will not eat a tree

i wish that you could taste
the yummy flavor on my tongue
but then i'd have to feed you like
the birdies feed their young

Written in sincerity and with fingers,
Dr. Hubert Zork

46

This is Dr. Hubert Zork with another report on the animation actualities of the fictional animator John Akre.

Yesterday he only managed to animate one short scene. This is the scene where Barleyparsons comes across the idea for her company of Partial slogans for Partial times over the big sleeping body of Wargoon Flishe. It struck the animator as he was working on this scene that this might be a possible scene for cutting, for he will have to make some cuts to get his movie at the timing he wants. It also ties up the Barleyparsons character, and would leave her hanging without it. But it also lacks some lead up scenes that are in the book that might give the scene more context.

He went ahead and animated it anyway. He also recorded the narration for the eighth and last section of the script. He has just a few weeks of animation left to go, and then he plans to go back to the beginning and redo some earlier scenes.

Now it is the time for the Pome of the Day Project.

there are more animals than we
who live inside our house
a cat, and then another cat, some fish
but not a mouse

the cats can be our greatest friends
they like us to be home
their world is within our four walls
within those walls they roam

they ask us to be fed at dawn
in evening and at night
they eat as fast as they can eat
and sometimes they will fight

but mostly they curl up upon
our bed, the couch, the floor
and there they sleep until they hear
us coming thru the door

and then they greet us with their voice
and walk a circling walk
what stories they could tell of home
if we could read their talk

Written in sincerity and with fingers,
Dr. Hubert Zork

tour guide

Hi all. Dr. Zork is here with more reports on the animator.

Yesterday he worked on a new scene with the old character Gladweary, Wargoon's best friend but Wargoon killed him when they were still young men. Now Gladweary is dead and now he is a tour guide, which was his life-long dream. He leads a tour group past the sleeping body of Wargoon Flishe. Wargoon is bloated from eating too many companies and is covered with their logos like a race car covered with decals.

He also animated a short scene where Botulism moves that he take over power of Boom, Inc., for Wargoon does not appear to be moving and making decisions.

And so he has animated his way down page 45.

Now it is time for the Pome of the Day Project.

the human animal crouched up
and rattled his world cage
it could have been a stomach ache
it could have been some rage

it could have been the taste of sky
perhaps the price of gas
it could have been tight underwear
or change in body mass

but he stood up and grabbed the bars
and pushed them like a rattle
it could have been a call to arms
to signal a new battle

the swear words came out, one by one
"is that all that you've got?"
and thus the lobster settled in
its boiling water pot

Written in sincerity and with fingers,
Dr. Hubert Zork

45

Dr. Zork is here to report on animation. The animation work of the fictional animator Akre. The work on his feature length animated film Wargoon Flishe.

Yesterday: more work. It is four months into the steady animation of his film and he just has a few pages of script left to animate.

He created some more locatiamation that he shot sitting in the lilac bushes in the front of his house. He made a cool green background for the scene of the announcement that Boom is bust.

He wonders about time. He has spent months animating this movie that will go by in a little more than an hour. How will that work out, his months turned into minutes. Will those minutes seem like months. Will that time squishing work at all?

It must be time now for the Pome of the Day Project.

where oh where did friday go
and where is this one going
when did last week leave the room
and when is thursday showing

where did last year go to rest
and what of two years prior
is that wednesday on some shelf
was it consumed by fire

what about two hours ago
and will it play again
all this time that i have lost
when will it ever end

Written in sincerity and with fingers,
Dr. Hubert Zork

44

Dr. Zork is here to report on animation and not on jazz music. That is my body and my soul, but not for this moment.

The fictional animator Akre continues to progress thru his script. There are 52 pages, and he is on 44. The backgrounds have become more abstract, just glowing gradients. A new character, Ruperstocy, is made out of paper clips. The animator scanned in one paper clip and then copied it many times to make legs, arms, torso and head all out of paper clips. He then drew and animated an eye that blinks, the one thing in Ruperstocy not made of paper clips.

Of course the character Wargoon Flishe will kill and eat this paper clip man.

That is enough of eating and animating. Now we must go to the Pome of the Day Project.

lifting, hauling, digging dirt
that will make the muscles hurt
hammering nails into some wood
will stress and strain them nice and good

splitting wood by pushing saw
makes those muscles feel so raw
stacking up a pile of bricks
is not so normally done for kicks

push the heavy wheelbarrow
to move that cargo down the row
set that stake into its hole
and some day you'll have met your goal

dig and set and hesitate
do the work and do not wait
strain those arms by working hard
and someday you'll have a nice yard

Written in sincerity and with fingers,
Dr. Hubert Zork

buying

This is Dr. Hubert Zork, master of unfamiliar jazz criticism but rather than extolling on the sweet music, I must let you know about the animation work of the fictional animator John Akre, at work at giving a strange kind of life to his fictional characters.

Yesterday he animated so many company logos and also did an extended locatiamation segment all about buying. He started shooting his sticky notes on his locatiamator in the dappled shade under the lattice ceiling of his picnic table arbor and liked that pattern of sun and shadow so much he shot all of them there.

He will continue his work on page 43 this evening. Now it is time for the Pome of the Day Project.

electronic devices everwhere
comence to scream and shout
it seems that all the batteries
have chosen to go out

the C's and D's, the double A's
the wet cells and the dry
rechargables and buttons
make the toys and cell phones cry

the air is black with screaming
calls of portable distress
the death of all those batteries
leaves behind electric mess

it could be global warming
cosmic rays, or just neglect
but the tiny screaming tells the end
of current that's direct.

Written in sincerity and with fingers,
Dr. Hubert Zork

43

Dr. Zork is here again with more of the watch upon the fictional animator Akre.

Despite the nice weather and familial obligations and other projects that he must face, he continues to sleepwalk thru this feature animation project. He finished another page yesterday and made progress into another of his script. He animated Wargoon singing his old childhood song, Mr. Cloudy White Face, to himself in a strange sunburst set. It was a memory of youth, and the song triggers some changes in this last half of the tale of our hero.

Then the animator came up with some fictional company logos, for these are the companies that Wargoon will soon be buying and eating. He also drew some locatiamation on post-it notes for him to work on perhaps some time today.

And now it is time for the Pome of the Day Project

the languages are in the house
tho very rarely spoken
they're trying to express themselves
but most of them are choking

they're on this day, or so I've heard
to get some recognition
for all the past work they have done
assisting in cognition

but all the languages today
are in the throes of dying
we hate to shout it out too loud
but not to would be lying

the languages line up in rows
accepting modest praise
and then they hide their alphabets
in darkest paraphrase

Written in sincerity and with fingers,
Dr. Hubert Zork

factories

Hello, this is Dr. Hubert Zork with more information about our fictional animator Akre. Yesterday he did some work, just a small bit of work, but hopefully a key bit of work.

He animated a chorus linking the character of the story with the audience. He made a short bit of image that tries to make guilt in the watching. Whether it will have any success in that remains to be seen.

He made a person spewing pollution. Hopefully it looks like that. Whether or not it is read as that remains to be seen.

So many things remain to be seen. Such as, how will this all work together.

Enough of that. Here is the Pome of the Day Project.

the senate voted sausage of
the passage act today
the legislation was intense
to make it work that way

the cowboys rounded up their ropes
by twirling all their cattle
and when they spun those beasts up there
it really made a rattle

construction crews built up a nail
by pounding on some houses
it took some upright citizenry
they couldn't be just louses

we walked the long way round the world
to get across our town
it took so many extra steps
but gave us some renoun

and when the moon fell from the sky
to signify the night
we had to go on sleeping sound
because of all the light

Written in sincerity and with fingers,
Dr. Hubert Zork

42

Dr. Zork is now reporting from the trenches of animation witnessing. The fictional animator Akre has moved on to page 42, and quickly, mostly because he did some cutting on page 41.

He has animated the death scene of another character. There are glowing colors and stripes in the background. His animation world is become more and more abstract as the main character gets further away from his twisted reality, as his power grows and as he grows.

Last night the animator's neighborhood was the scene of a hostage situation, and a madman neighbor barricaded himself in his house as the street a block away was ringed by cops and bystanders. Here is his Pome of the Day about it.

what world revolves inside his head
he says he is the FBI
and everyone around his face
is a crack head in a crack house
he takes a hostage
his girlfriend
he says he has a gun to her
the police make rings around his house
the yellow tape, the neighbors chat
the bomb squad truck is on standby
it idles in our window
as he calls the news from his circled kitchen
he tells them salad
and then he laughs
and then he laughs and laughs
and then laughs and he laughs
as the news helicopter
rings the house
the neighborhood and he
drawing his circle
his world
his bubble

Written in sincerity and with fingers,
Dr. Hubert Zork

41

Dr. Zork is here and present but I will not be writing about how jazz was a baby in New Orleans and turned adult in Chicago. Instead I will write to you about the on-going animation work or lack of such of fictional animator Akre.

Yesterday he made a few short scenes and got past page 40 of his script. There was really nothing new in his work of late, so I will go directly into the Pome of the Day Project.

my ears are open all the time
they never close up shop
they hear the smallest whisper
they hear the loudest pop

i may not even hear the sound
but they take in the wave
i wonder if they'll keep that up
when I am in my grave

the sounds they hear position me
so i know where to go
i like how their locationing
will give me stereo

they pull in sound from far away
and also from the near
surrounded by a world of noise
with my tour guide, the ear.

Written in sincerity and with fingers,
Dr. Hubert Zork

picking

Dr. Zork. Animation diary. Fictional animator named John Akre. Latest report.

Some animation at the end of the day. A scene of picking a flower when the theatre audience expects a gun to fire. Their disappointment. A flower stand. And then the computer renders the scenes over the night.

When the fictional animator was younger, he made clay animation films. Around the time of The Monument and The Terrorists, two of his Hibling films made around 8th and 9th grade, he made The Sower for a Sunday school class. This was an illustration of the New Testament parable that starred Harrinson, one of his Hibling characters. That summer he discovered home film processing and made two short Hibling films in black and white. One was called The Intruder, or something like that, and the other was called Gone With the Paycheck. The Hiblings had descended in parody, and the series was dying out.

He also, somewhere between ninth and tenth grade, had grand plans for an animated film set to Ravel's La Valse, that was about a whole planet and civilation under invasion. He made a few test scenes, animating the crowds of clay figures he made waddling thru the cardboard city he created, but that is as far as he got. His animation career, so early on, was already somewhat dying out. He made one more animated film toward the end of his high school career. That was called Return of the Hiblings, but I will speak of that at another time.

Talking about time. Now it's that for the Pome of the Day Project.

our minds, our plans, our histories
like roads on maps to trace
are etched just like a formula
to find inside a face

a face can be an instrument
a face can be a plan
a face can say the essence
of the woman or the man

a face can bear the weather
and the critic's harshest looks
a face can fill the TV frame
or pages of some books

there's only one in all the world
in all of outer space
your address of uniqueness
is so written in your face

Written in sincerity and with fingers,
Dr. Hubert Zork

interruptions

This is Dr. Hubert Zork and I must tell you about the animation activities of one fictional animator Akre.

He is finding only a few stray minutes or an hour or so at the end of his day the last couple days to further his work on his animated feature, Wargoon Flishe. He has spent a couple days making his way slowly down page 40 of his now 52 page script. It is just two paragraphs, but has involved several compositions and many movements.

Work and other volunteer activities are pushing their way in. He is doing some animation work in his movie theatre set, but there was also a two day transit conference where he did many interviews. He must find some time to do some work on the public transit public access show he does, and that will take much time away from animation.

Last night he saw a reading by the author T.C. Boyle. He drew a few sketches of the author, and got a chance to speak briefly with him during the book signing.

Akre has started work on the fourth and final section of his film. He is thinking about walking and biking and transit, and how he will cut these interviews together. He might even write a news story about this conference he went to. He wants to think about animation too, but his mind can only take so much, and his hours can only take so much.

With much exhaustion, I must now give to you the Pome of the Day Project.

the people you know
that you never met
they call out your name
as if it were flame
and then you forget

the places you've been
that you never were
each doorway and stair
escapes in the air
and physics is blur

the person you are
but you never knew
your face and your nose
too strange to suppose
how can this be you

Written in sincerity and with fingers,
Dr. Hubert Zork

crowds

Dr. Zork is here with another chapter of animation activities by the fictional animator Akre.

Yesterday saw precious little time for animation, but he did cut together the audio narration for the next ten minute segment of his film and did some work on the first seconds of that section. He did this work in an hour or so after his long day of work.


He created a crowd our of one character. He made three mouths for that character: one mouth was a smile, one was a circle of surprise, and the third was a smile. He scanned in this character and cut apart the pieces with Photoshop.

The crowd of similar characters was waiting to get into the premiere of the Wargoon Flishe film, The Story of a Flower.

That is enough animation talk for today. Now, the Pome of the Day Project.

my mind is quite the chatterbox
it talks and talks all night
when i just want it dead asleep
it keeps on talking, quite

it talks about the day just past
it talks about the coming
i wish it just would shut its yap
but it keeps that yap running

i wish for dreams to take my head
or silent sleep descend
but there's my mind, and it has words
to say until night's end

Written in sincerity and with fingers,
Dr. Hubert Zork

40

Dr. Hubert Zork is here again with another report on the animation activities of the fictional animator Akre.

Yesterday was a Sunday, and he did get some animation work done. He completed the animation for the third quarter of his film, and reached the one hour mark of animation.

He finished the frame work for the ending chorus and re-rendered and put in Premiere the eating scenes that he animated the day before. He had to clean up some bad erasing work in his Photoshop files. He also worked on the script for the fourth part. He cut it down by a bit and thought of his ending. He will end the movie with just the words.

This morning he read out the narration for the first half of the last quarter.

But he did not get as much work done as he would on a usual Sunday where he really did not do anything else, or go anywhere, for it was nice outside and he worked in the garden. The garden work will slow down his animation to some degree from this point on.

Anway, enough of the animation talk. Here is the Pome of the Day Project.

look down the to ground
do you see that one?
it's a plant coming up
to breathe the sun

look up in the sky
or have you heard
what is that song
it is a bird

take off that coat
you'll come to no harm
feel the air now
they call that warm

dig a new hole
to plant something
and then sit outside
to enjoy the spring

Written in sincerity and with fingers,
Dr. Hubert Zork

cook and eat

Dr. Zork is here, not with a shimmering evocation of the early years of classic jazz, but instead with another report on the animation antics of the fictional animator Akre, at work on his feature animation project, Wargoon Flishe.

Yesterday, being Saturday, there was time for animation. But it was also a very nice day, so he had to make the work short, so his computer could render and he could work out in the garden.

He began the day during granola-making by working on some frames for the final chorus of section 3. This is an extended chorus. He has to finish work on those frames today.

He also made the primary animation for that chorus. In this animation his fictional character shoots, kills and eats him, the narrator and author.

In order to make this effect, Akre had one of his co-workers take a still picture of him against the blue wall in his workplace. This happened on Wednesday. Akre then deleted the blue of the wall and put his picture in with the animation. A few jagged eraser lines on Photoshop layers made for perhaps somewhat believable bite marks.

But this is an animation diary, not a cooking show, so I think it is time for the Pome of the Day Project.

you'll go nowhere by standing still
you'll get no place by talking
so shut your hole, commence to stroll
and get your body walking

you've done all you can in that spot
no reason to be balking
it's time to go so start the show
and show us how by walking

some folks complain of the terrain
they won't go far by squawking
if other shires you so desire
you'll see them best by walking

no map you need to show the way
or painted crosswalk marking
just look ahead and hoist your leg
and go to town by walking

Written in sincerity and with fingers,
Dr. Hubert Zork

Saturday

Dr. Zork is here, but I am not going to write to you a stunning jazz article like "Why Miff Mole had good reason to be miffed," which is one of the many jazz articles I am dying to write. Instead I must give you another episode in the animation diary of the fictional animator John Akre, a character I created to create me and so forth.

Yesterday there was no animation activity, and there was precious little the day before, but today is Saturday, and the sun is shining. Today he will try to do the lociamation that he drew on Wednesday night, and some other work that will bring him close to the end of the third section of his script. He also must work next on the famous scene where his fictional character nonchalantly offs him.

Thursday night he created a film strip and an audio strip to torment his character. He scanned in some of the audio notecards upside down but when it all came out in the animation, he liked the effect, so he kept it. The audio partly reverses itself at one point, and then restores its own order.

Last night he saw a movie filmed in Butte, Montana by Wim Wenders.

Now it must be time for the Pome of the Day Project. It is all about him.

i may not have a body
i may have lost my hat
i think i am invisible
what do you think of that

i do not have a question
or even an address
i my not be a citizen
but i don't feel distress

i do not have an answer
i may not have a nose
i manufacture no such things
that others would suppose

i might just be transparent
i don't go very far
i am as much as i can walk
i do not have a car

Written in sincerity and with fingers,
Dr. Hubert Zork

39

Dr. Zork here to let you know that there was animation in the life of the fictional animator Akre yesterday evening. I am reporting on his work on his animated feature film Wargoon Flishe, on which he is currently on page 39 of his 56 page script.

Last night he worked thru some scenes of carnage. Some bodies piling up for the film of Wargoon Flishe. He also drew some note card animation for the next scene, and drew a sequence on post-it notes that he hopes to animate outside in his garden this evening, weather permitting.

He let his computer render the carnage scenes. He also cleaned up some things in an earlier scene. There isn't really anything too interesting to report on at this moment. There is just more of the same.

So I guess it is best now to go directly to the Pome of the Day Project.

i looked about the room
i looked about the home
i looked and looked but darn it if
i couldn't find the pome

i looked with all my eyes
i looked with your eyes too
but darn it if i couldn't find it
also couldn't you

i looked out in the yard
where pomes sometimes play
but darn it if there were no pomes
where were they, anyway

i looked inside my brain
there was no pome in sight
and with no pome, what was the point
so i turned out the light

Written in sincerity and with fingers,
Dr. Hubert Zork

no animation

There was no animation activity yesterday by the fictional animator Akre, the subject of my research. He had a day of long hours at his usual job and did not have the energy or the time to devote to his animation activities.

As usual in these days of animationlessness, I will again explore the animation past of my subject.

The third clay-animated Hibling film was called "The Terrorists." He made this film when he was in 9th grade. This was the late 70's, and terrorists were all the rage, just as they are today.

In this film, a group of small Hiblings, that look a little like the Prims, are a terrorist cell that threatens the peace of the peaple. The Hiblings like Fatty and Mr. Offal have to defeat them. The terrorist cave is burned out and so the day is saved.

There is a terrorist massacre scene that the young fictional Akre based roughly on the Odessa steps sequence of Potemkin as the terrorists stride thru a crowd shooting their toothpick guns.

The Terrorists includes the pyrotechnic skills of Akre's friend Nick, who set fire to a stash of gunpowder in the terrorist cave to burn them out at the stunning conclusion.

Anyway, that is enough yawn-inducing animation talk. Now is the time for the Pome of the Day Project.

there is no pome today
i have nothing to say

no pome to stir the soul
no pome new or old

i have nothing to lend
to you, my pome friend

no pome to surprise
you with its truth or lies

no pome to leave a stain
on pome-addled brain

no pome you can read
as if it were a seed

to pome like a flash
to bat your small eyelash

no pome big or small
there is no pome at all

Written in sincerity and with fingers,
Dr. Hubert Zork

boomflower

Dr. Zork is here again at last to report not on the jazz music which he loves and reports on with such critical acumen, but to instead report to you about the on-going animation practices of the fictional animator Akre.

Akre is at work on a feature length animated film called Wargoon Flishe. He considers this project something of a learning piece, a Lehrstucke. He is learning how to animate by doing this project and running into dead ends and learning from those dead ends by smashing his head into them.

Last night he worked on the great movie fiasco scene of Wargoon Flishe. He first scanned all the pictures that had flowers in them from his collection of old Life, Look and Saturday Evening Post magazines. Then he made somewhat of a set of the flowers, and then he drew and scanned in more flower-related images.

He discovered how close the usual cartoon flower looks like the cartoon explosion shape. The flowers had rounded spikes and the explosions had sharp spikes but they were basically the same, and he made several flowers go boom. He made a flower monster and made them all move and then he added them to his photo background to make several After Effects compositions to tell the story in a bit of a wacky way.

Then he rendered them. That is all. Now it is time for the Pome of the Day Project.

i turn purple
i want to scream
but i wake up
it's only a dream

the world has turned
me on my bean
no reason to fret
it's just a dream

the construction crew
unleash a beam
aimed at my head
but just in dream

i wake up and
the icebergs are cream
if only our crazy
were just a dream

Written in sincerity and with fingers,
Dr. Hubert Zork

38

This is Dr. Hubert Zork, and I have no jazz wisdom to offer you. Instead I have another episode in the life of the fictional animator, one John Akre, and I also have the Pome of the Day Project when we get to the end of this report.

Yesterday was a day of more animation. Akre drew several scenes about the moviemaking process, which Wargoon Flishe is embarking on. He animated several scenes of Wargoon writing his script. Then there was render time on the computer.

It was a rainy day, so it was a good day to stay inside and look out the window and work on animation. Akre also drew, scanned, photoshoppped and animated another chorus, this one praising Wargoon Flishe and his penmanship. Akre continues to use his latest animation revelation, the simple act of slightly moving over the next note card to follow an action. These lessons, he believes, are best learned by running your head against that wall, and learning from experience, and learning from just having to do it.

Here is the Pome.

the hue and cry hit all the air
it was less of a cry than a barking
that what the land needed, most of all
was simply more space for parking

the particular condition of schools or shoes
did not get the folk meadowlarking
but what got their undies in a bunch
was the lack of more space for parking

the ice of the poles may melt away
the oceans may rise above marking
but the state of the people, expressed in one phrase,
"I think we could use some more parking."

Written in sincerity and with fingers,
Dr. Hubert Zork

37

Dr. Hubert Zork here, and I am not about to write about why jazz bands always have male musicians and female vocalists, but instead I must write to you more of the ongoing animation adventures of the fictional animator Akre.

Yesterday was Saturday, so he ripped into and down on page 37 of his script. He finished animating the restaurant scene and also did a locatiamation shoot of Wargoon singing at the sun and the clouds.

He came upon a small but useful animation revelation yesterday. He had a problem. He wanted to have Stripesmaybe write in her notebook on the table while the rest of her body was under the table. So he realized that he could cut the arm off of the rest of her to put it, solo, on a higher level of the layer stacking. It was brutal, but it worked. The lesson is that sometimes fictional characters must be truncated and re-assembled for fictional justice.

Also yesterday, Akre played back some recently rendered scenes and saw a small mistake. A notebook was on top of wine glasses, while the opposite should have been. So he had to go back to his composition, restack, and re-render.

Later in the day he worked in his garden, and then went with his sweetie to see the symphony. They listened to a sparkling Mahler Symphony No. 1, which is not jazz, but is very fine, even according to me, Dr. Zork.

Enough of that fiction. Here is the Pome of the Day Project.

two of us
we live in a circle
we wear the same shoe
how do you do

two of us
feed insects their buzzing
and flowers their dew
which we can brew

two of us
eat sideways on sundays
and cook tuesday stew
from things we grew

two of us
wash our faces in starlight
because of the view
and this is true

Written in sincerity and with fingers,
Dr. Hubert Zork

animation passion

This is Dr. Zork, and tho I would like to tell you about the rise and descent of the excellent jazz note, I must instead write to you about the animation fantasy world of the fictional animator John Akre, who finds himself at work on his animated feature film Wargoon Flishe.

Last night he displayed to himself his great passion for animation. After a long taxing day at work and then dinner out with his girlfriend and then a walk thru an art show of gigantic people photographs, he retreated to his computer to put together parts of animation of a new scene.

He moved steadily down page 36 of his script. He animated the meeting of Wargoon and Stripesmaybe in the theatre as the credits roll. The credits were that very page of the book of which he animated.

Then he moved his characters to a restaurant, where candles burned. This was a very simple set, with some note card animations and a square for a table. He began last night a dialogue scene across the table, and he will most likely finish up that scene today.

And now, let us leave behind a bit of his passion and I shall now endow you with the Pome of the Day Project.

the deep fat fried employment act
is sitting on the table
the first section is written in cartoon
the last part like a fable

"the deep fat fried employment act
is very sorely needed,"
the governor signed it as he said,
"and i hope it will be heeded."

if you must bring your child to work
the act says, you must try
to keep it out of the hot oil
or baby will surely fry

despite its extent, it has liimitations
common in legislation so toiling
for example, there are no protections enforced
when swim teams compete in oil boiling.

Writtin in sincerity and with fingers,
Dr. Hubert Zork