Kidd's Toy Museum

Behind the bland blue door of a warehouse in SE Portland, is perhaps one of the largest private toy collections out there. I took the kids recently (in February) to check out hundreds of toys dating mostly from the 1860's to the 1930's. Although, I saw some stuff from later years, as well. The lady behind the messy desk there told me that there's even more to the collection, but is currently in various warehouses. They simply don't have the money or space to have the entire Kidd's toy collection available to the public. But what is available to view is quite impressive.

A fascinating place. And better yet, it's free!

Oh, and I have to say this: visiting the museum offered the opportunity for me to talk to Ava about racism. Hadn't planned on it, but hey, no time like the present.


No frills: the museum's hours taped up on the door. Love the "by appointment or chance" line.


Everything's behind glass cases, so it's safe for the little ones to check out the toys. Just don't bump into them, of course.


A half-awake Ezra sits next to a case filled with various Disney-related toys.


A Mickey pull-toy from the 30's.


We Three Mickeys: Interesting to see the different ways Mickey was depicted back then.


Felix is a great character that pre-dates Mickey. While taking this shot, I noticed the rabbit in the background: Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Disney's first cartoon character.


Oswald the Lucky Rabbit: Disney's first cartoon character, co-created by Walt and Ub Iwerks. I couldn't get any closer without blurry shots, but underneath Oswald's name, "Universal" is mentioned. That's Ferdinand The Bull from the Disney short film of the same name (1938).


Umm....not sure what to make of this. Kinda creeps me out. It's chalkware, that's for sure.


The place had tons of coin banks. TONS of 'em. Here's a few of the smaller ones.


Toy motorcycles. Check out Popeye in the middle there.


My Dad owned one of those orange metal cab cars on the lower shelf there. I think he still has it at home. Came from his dad when he was a kid.


Odd assortment of porcelain (I think) heads. Anyone know what these are for?


Various oddities. Your guess is as good as mine.


Old pulp comics. I remember my grandparents having one or two of these around for the kids.


Ezra trying out a coin bank at the entry. Never could get the thing to work right. Ezra, of course, got mad.

A WORD TO THE WISE:
Since this is a historical collection of toys throughout the decades, mostly pre-1940's, there are several cases that have very un-PC depictions of African-Americans, mostly coin banks in blackface. These depictions are ugly to see, yet important not to forget. I've chosen not to show any photos of these items mainly because I don't feel that it's up to me to do so. I wasn't aware of the items when we visited the museum, but upon seeing the cases, I figured that I couldn't just hide them from Ava. (Ezra was asleep in my arms at the time.) I decided to sit down with her before we entered the room and talk to her about what she was about to see: about the past and how certain races of people were depicted back then. It was wrong then, as it is wrong now, but I told her that it's important to see these items and talk openly about who we are as a human race. I wanted her to see it for what it was: something ugly from our past and hopefully we've learned from it. To see blacks shown as lesser human beings on children's toys to having an African-American in charge of one of the most powerful countries on earth shows that we've definitely made some progress. But, I told her, it doesn't mean that others still won't make fun of and have hatred toward other races. And that is wrong.

Ava listened intently. "Why did they make them look like that? It looks ugly."

"I know," I sighed. "I guess that was their point back then."

So, if you want some racial education to go along with your children's entertainment one fine day in Portland, then Kidd's Toy Museum is for you.

Some more photos can be found in my Kidd's Toy Museum Flickr set.

One Foggy Morning

Since moving to Portland, I've noticed the occurrence of fog being far greater here than in Atlanta. This offers up more photographic opportunities in the morning, and since we've purchased a Nikon D40 not too long ago, I can't afford to pass up these opportunities. Wednesday morning was such an occasion.

I found a ridge that overlooked a park that had a bank of fog rolling in, over the trees below. It was a beautiful moment.





An hour later, the fog really set in:

He's watching me...

True story:

I was sitting in our car reading a book waiting for Andrea and Ava while they were shopping on Alberta Street about a month ago. The book I was reading was Neal Gabler's biography on Walt Disney. (I'll explain later.) As I was reading, I had a strange feeling that someone was watching me so I looked over to my left, where there was a coffeehouse. Hmmm....nothing.

Or was there?



Upon closer inspection, there was someone watching me!



What are the odds that I would be sitting in a car reading a biography of the man who just so happened to have a huge portrait painted of him hanging up in the coffeehouse that's across the street from me? In Portland, of all places?

It was very strange.

Portland Links

Ugh. Just look at how old my links are there. I still have my Atlanta linkage up, plus, some of the other links are old and broken. Time for an overhaul, don't you say? I've been compiling some local links of fellow LAIKA-ians and other artists, animators and illustrators in the Portland area -- in fact, I'm thinking about making a Northwest section as well. I know that I'm only scratching the surface, so I need your help. If you happen to be from Portland and/or know anyone from here who is an artist and/or animator, please let me know. I'll put the link up as part of my brand spankin' new blogroll and linky links. Just email me or put in the comments section for this post. Make sure you let me know where the subject is from, whether from Portland or the general Northwest area. Thanks!

Portland's calling

On CNN.com today there's a nice write-up on Portland in the Travel section. Seems like Portland is the place to be at the moment, especially when the NY Times has been singing the Rose City's praises for some time now (read this, this, this, and, oh, yeah...this).


The magnificent Hollywood Theatre on NE Sandy Blvd. Photo by Andrea.

All of it is deserving. Portland is, indeed, a "nice" city. With five quadrants (NW, N, NE, SE & SW) the city's layout is easy to understand and easy to navigate. The people are nice, especially while driving. Need convincing? Read this. A welcome change from Atlanta's heated cesspool, otherwise known as traffic. For an Atlantan, the nice drivers can be a bit "too" nice, however, especially when you're in a hurry. But I digress....


At Oaks Amusement Park. Photo by Andrea.

It's been so easy to love this new city of mine, with what seems to be TONS of things to do with kids in tow. We just recently checked out the Oaks Amusement Park this past Friday, and, even though it wasn't like good ol' Six Flags Over Georgia (Monster Plantation, anyone?), it still had the wonder and awe that only old skool rides can make for summer memories. They even had a roller rink, which I SWEAR had the exact smell of the 1970's -- they should somehow bottle it up and sell it on the street corners of America. I'd buy it. Ava and Ezra were loving the kiddie rides, all of which bordered on the "carny" side. In fact, the entire park screamed CARNY -- they just never left town. (The park's been a staple of SE Portland since 1905!) It was the perfect ending to a great summer.

So, yeah, Portland's been a great experience for us this year so far. I know that we're right in the middle of the best part of the year: summer and early autumn, where the temperature is perfect and hardly a hint of rain or humidity (which is unheard of for me, a true Southern boy). I might be singing a different tune come February, but I think that I can handle the drizzle of the NW better than the downpours of the South. (Fun fact: did you know that average rainfall for Portland is LESS than Atlanta's? Portland's 44 inches to Atlanta's 50.2.)

I'm not an outdoorsman, but I can easily slip into that role after living here for several years. There's so much to do in the city and in the surrounding area, I can't even begin to list it here. I love having the stately Mt. Hood hovering in the background, like a gentle brother overlooking you. We live two houses down from a very scenic view of the dormant volcano and I can't help but take the kids for a walk to capture a glimpse of this incredible mountain. And never does it look the same with each viewing. I love that. Northwesterners love their Cascades, and Portlanders certainly love their volcanoes. (Mt. St. Helens is right around the corner, too.)

-----------------------------

I've been getting more and more emails and comments from people lately asking me about the job situation at Laika and whether or not if we've gotten their resumé or portfolio or demo reel that they've sent, etc. Honestly, I don't know. I'm simply a director for the /house division. More often than not, most of you who've contacted me are doing so for positions in the Entertainment division. That's the feature film and development side. /house does commercials and short films. I don't mind pointing you in the right direction, but most of it requires getting in touch with someone in recruitment. In case you didn't know, there's a (recently updated) recruitment page on the LAIKA site, with a link to the current list of job openings. They are always hiring, with two features in the works (CORALINE and JACK & BEN) and a plethora of commercials that are always being produced. They recently hit the 425 mark in total employees -- and still hiring! Just letting ya know.

So, I understand that I'm an actual face that you can identify with and it seems a lot easier to just get in touch with me, but really? I'm a busy boy and I might not be able to pass along your requests in time! And if I do end up remembering, all I'll do is pass the requests along to recruitment. They'll be of more service than I'll ever be.




CORALINE is looking fantastic. We got to check out the footage that was shown at Comic Con this year, and, boy -- I was blown away. Man, I love stop-motion animation. I love the hand crafted look to all the sets and props, to the characters and how sometimes you can make out the quirks and oddities to the puppets, etc. Something about it that snaps you into the realness of it all, very grounded and true, yet somehow you can still go along with the fantasy of it all. The scene we got to see was of Coraline first finding the secret door and then, later on, going through it and meeting her 'other' mother for the first time. Exquisite animation and nice camera angles. I've read on other blogs and sites where there were questions regarding Henry Selick's ability as a director -- MONKEYBONE is often sited as his 'slip up', but if you've had the opportunity to hear Henry's story about all that, (he spoke at PLATFORM this year) he mentions how, with each feature, there were more and more studio involvement, mostly on the creative side. It culminated with MONKEYBONE, giving the director no room to offer his opinion, creatively. Ironically, that's the movie that made Coraline's author, Neil Gaiman, want him for the movie adaptation in the first place. And after watching this early footage of the film, it looks like a perfect match. Henry seems to be enjoying his new found freedom at LAIKA, and I'm not saying that because I work here. (Although I would be remiss if I didn't mention that that was one of the many reasons LAIKA was so appealing to me: creative freedom and opportunities.)

There ya go. Some updates for you all. By the way, the anniversary weekend was a blast. We finally got the pics transferred into our Powerbook last night, so expect some pics on our Flickr accounts soon.

PLATFORM Primer

PLATFORM is right around the corner and I'm so excited I could just poop. Did I just say "poop"? Sorry. Ava's doing the "poopie"-talk thing right now. Can't go anywhere without her substituting the p-word into every single sentence she utters. And it's not just "poop" but all its variants: "poo", "poopie", "pooter", etc. It drives me and Andrea crazy at times, however... I have to say it's kinda cute to hear her come up with some very creative sentences. But I digress....

Okay, focus, Ward -- PLATFORM. It's coming. Next week. Starting Monday night, in fact. I'll be involved with the festival to a certain degree -- I'll be on two panels. My panels are:

1. Attack of the Blog: Meet the Bloggers on Wednesday, June 27th at 11:30am. Winningstad Theatre. Moderated by Dan Sarto of AWN. Looks to be an interesting panel. Please attend. It'll be right before the big Picnic.

2. Tribute to Hanna Barbera, Saturday, June 30th. NW Film Center: Whitsell Auditorium. I'll be on the panel along with Michael Ouweleen of Cartoon Network and professional artist Kenny Scharf. Really? They must've been slummin' when they asked me to be a panelist for this one. I'll be pinching myself every chance I get. It'll be moderated by Jerry Beck. Okay, I'll do it.


Here's a rundown of various screenings, events and panels that either I'll be checking out or would be imperative you attend.




I'll be checking out the first competition: Program 1 at 7:30pm. Films of note: Oscar-winner The Danish Poet, Run Wrake's Rabbit, and Coca Cola "Rivalries," directed by Mark Gustafson, fellow LAIKA director.

Parties are a mainstay for festivals, so right after the first screening will be the Opening Party at 9pm.

Later on, Bill Plympton and Joanna Priestley will be hosting a late-night screening, "Comedy vs. Art" at Brunish Hall.




I'm shooting for Program 2, at 11am. It's the Family Program, so I'm looking forward to taking the kids along to this one. One thing I hated about going to Ottawa each year was that I could never take my kids to see the Children's Programming screening since they were hundreds of miles away. Now I have a great opportunity to expose my children to some wonderful animation, outside the usual TV mind-melting stuff they catch on the regular. (Spongebob is okay in my book, though. Word.) Oh, and the Children's Dance Party sounds like a cute idea. Might stick around for that. Might not. Depends.

Design Daze: Mid-Century Modern Design (screening): I'll be first in line for this one, folks. Hosted by Cartoon Brewer, Amid Amidi, at 4pm.

TEKKON KINKREET at 7pm. Looks promising.

Schedule conflict for me at 9pm:
Competition 3 is showing at the same time as Aurally Visual (Part 1 of 2), hosted by Tom Knott. I've seen some of the films both screenings, so it's a matter of what am I in the mood for that night. It's nice to have choices, but man! What choices! I do have to say this: If you're thinking about seeing Comp 3 that night, please consider the alternative: "Bastard Wants to Hit Me" directed by, Aaron Sorenson and Courtney Booker, is hilarious and wonderfully animated (and I'm not just saying that because Aaron's office is two down from mine at LAIKA). Also, "El Kabong Rides Again" is stunning, "The Curse of The Voodoo Child" is probably Steve Woloshen's best (what that guy does with scratched film is nothing short of amazing), and everyone should see Nick Cross's "The Waif of Persephone" if only for the backgrounds alone (the animation is great, too, of course). But really, the main reason to go to the Aurally Visual screening is to see animator extraordinaire, Mark Kausler's "It's The Cat." Old school rules, baby.

My good pal Pat Smith is hosting the interestingly titled, "Cartoons from HELL!" at 11pm. Apparently it's the witching hour. Shorts from JJ Villard, Bill Plympton, Don Hertzfeldt, David Chai and others.

Other items of interest for Tuesday:

Best of Pictoplasma at 10am.
Trademarked: Copyright in the Age of New Media panel at 11:30am. (Rick Prelinger of Prelinger Archives will be one of the panelists.)
Renegades of Animation panel at 2:30pm.

Oh, and be sure to check out Meet the Animators each day of the festival, at 9:45am. Get to meet some of the creators of films that were in the competition screening the previous night.




Busy day for me.

First off, it's the Attack of the Blog panel that I'll be on. 11:30am.

Then, the Platform Festival Picnic will be a must to attend. It runs from 12:30 to 4pm and is sponsored by some company you might know of: LAIKA. The picnic at Ottawa was always a fun event -- it was great to finally meet some of the animators and filmmakers that you've heard about for so long. The same will be said for Platform's as well. Word of advice: keep checking those name tags. You never know who you'll bump into!

Right after the Picnic, I'm headed to the Winningstad Theatre to check out the 2nd part to Amid's Design Daze presentation. This time, Amid will talk about master designer Tom Oreb. 4:30pm.

At 7pm is the Program 4 competition. Again, a scheduling conflict because of the 2nd part to Tom Knott's Aurally Visual program will be on at the same time. Check out the listing for each of the screenings and see what they have to offer. There'll be something for everyone, that's for sure.

Later on at 9pm is The Animation Show: Special Edition screening, presented by Don Hertzfeldt. Always an interesting evening to be had if Don's the host. Not sure if I'm going to this one. I might need to rest my weary, 38 year-old bones. Even later is the Drinking and Drawing party, hosted by Frederator. Drink up, johnny!

Items of note for Wednesday:

Open Screenings at 7:30pm. If you got something to show, bring it! They'll play it. It better be good, though. Or else I'll talk bad about it on Drawn! the next day. No, really. I will.

At 9pm will be the Portland Animation Showcase, at the NW Film Center: Whitsell Theatre. Portland's got it goin' on, y'all. Some LAIKA folk will be representin': Mike Wellins, Mark Gustafson, Aaron Sorenson, Eric Wiese and Henry Selick.




Thursday is an easier day for me (after all, I still gotta work). I'd love to check out the 11:30am screening of Competition Program 7 (TV for Children), and be able to take the kids, but we'll see.

Aardman Animation looks to be an interesting presentation. That's in the Newmark Theatre at 2pm. Right after it (at 4pm) is the Pixar Presentation, presented by Gary Rydstrom. Two events showcasing the work of two stellar animation studios. Not to be missed.

Even though my day is iffy, I definitely will be checking out the Competition Program 5 at 7pm.

After that is a special event: Animation Inside Out, a walking tour of animated installations throughout the Pearl District. It's juried, so that means they're not kidding around.

Other items of note for Thursday:

Love it or loathe it, there'll be a special presentation on Adult Swim, featuring the core group of guys who head it up. Here's a little bit of trivia for ya: Did you know that I did some compositing for the pilot episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force? Yeah, I did. Funny, huh? No, I didn't put that on my resumé. Some things are better left unsaid.

Panels heavy on the biz side of things:
Job or No Job: How to Get a Job at 11:30am.
Giving Good Portfolio at 2:30pm.
Deal or No Deal at 4:30pm.




Competition Program 6 will be screening at 4pm today. I'll check that one out.

Items worth checking out for Friday:

Aaron Simpson will be the moderator for Flashers Convention, a panel discussion on Flash animation. 11am.

Sita Sings The Blues at 2pm is a screening and presentation of filmmaker Nina Paley. Should be worth checking out if you're an indie filmmaker.

At 2:30, Jerry Beck hosts a panel of artists and animators talking about the art and life of Basil Wolverton.




There's a repeat screening of the Competition Program 7 (TV for Kids) at 9:30am this morning. But at the same time is Creature Comforts with Aardman. Right after that is Aardman: Soft Clay, Hard Work, & Lucky Breaks with Peter Lord. 11:30am.

Smith & Foulkes: Stylish but Silly is a presentation of the work of London animation duo Alan Smith & Adam Foulkes (from Nexus Productions). These guys got mad skills. Screening at 11:30am. Worth a look.

At 2pm is An Afternoon with Henry Selick. He'll be showing some of his past work and maybe even give us a glimpse of what he's currently working on: CORALINE. If I go to this, I'll have to leave early in order to be on the panel for:

Tribute To Hanna Barbera at 4pm. Yikes! I'm slightly nervous about this. Wish me luck!

Later on is the Awards Ceremony at 8pm and then the Closing Party at 9:30 until late. Should be fun!

On Sunday they'll have a Best of PLATFORM sceening for all those people who were into CliffNotes back in the day. Cheaters! Actually, it'll probably be a great screening, you know?

In case you're wondering, here are some links that might benefit you better than what I have written here in regards to the PLATFORM schedule:
Schedule by day.
Schedule by venue.

There ya go! I know that my PLATFORM cup runneth over here, but I thought that it would make it easier for some of you who are wondering what to check out for the festival. The festival organizers have made sure that PLATFORM will be one unique experience for all festial goers. From the students, independent filmmakers to the studios and professionals, this looks to be one fantastic show.

And it's right in my backyard. I couldn't be happier.

What? Ho!

Hey, lookit that! A new post! And boy, is it ever so strange to look over at my profile and see my new location. Strange now, but old hat not too far down the road.

I'm back now, and we're up and running with internet at home finally, although still having some problems with the wireless router -- any help? I could use it. I have Netgear and haven't been able to get my computer to play nice with it....

Andrea's finally got some gorgeous photos uploaded on her Flickr from our trip, although it's just a few -- part of her excellent 365 project. Expect more between the two of us soon. Just give us a wee bit more time. Still living out of boxes, boxes, boxes. Oh, and more boxes.

Here's a shot by Andrea, somewhere in Idaho. Graff headz reprezentin' out West:


Portland has probably the best indie bookstore EVER: Powell's. Me likeies. Here's me with Ezra:


When we got closer to Portland, we skipped on over to check out beautiful Multnomah Falls. Andrea took this amazing photo of Ava:

Hello, cutie pie!

Okay, that's all for now. I'll get back to ya soon enough.

Portland

Back in late January, the company sent the wifey and I out to Portland to check out the city, the neighborhoods, the studio, the whole she-bang. It was a great trip, one filled with trepidation, opportunity, and great potential. It felt so wrong to be in a city so far away from Atlanta and especially since we weren't supposed to be there, but dangit -- we weren't going to let that spoil it for us. And we had a blast. Our good friends Craig and Amy showed us around the neighborhoods, giving us a chance to take it all in and to give us some clues as to what to expect for various schools, etc. We considered ourselves very lucky to have them as hosts.

Anyway, we took photos while we were there. Andrea put the best of them in a nice Flickr photoset which can be viewed HERE. It's a gorgeous town. I've heard nothing but good things about the city. We're looking forward to becoming Portland residents soon.


You know I just had to check out the local antique/junk stores, right? And for the record, I did buy that book I'm thumbing through.