That was fun
Although I'm jetlagged out of my mind, I had a great time at the FMX conference in Stuttgart. I was totally surprised and delighted to see Alfred Muchilwa, one of the participants in Africa Animated '04 in Nairobi, where I taught Flash production. I enjoyed sharing cranky stories with
Marv Newland, genius animator, designer, and luddite, whose misanthropy rivals my own. I met a significant contingent of speakers from India: K.M. Ranjith, Vinod Vijay of Tatvah, Yugandhar, and Kireet. I saw my old neighbor from Urbana, IL, who grew up and became a superstar opf VFX lighting: Paul Debevec. Our gracious and generous host, Prof. Thomas Haegele, showed us around the impressive Filmakademie Baden-Württenburg and fed us like royalty. I saw brilliant new art from Gary Stasiuk, which represents the opposite end of the Flash spectrum from my own work (interactive, actionscript, non-narrative) and is gorgeous. Big thanks to Wolfgang Schmidt-Sichermann for inviting me. I had fun for a whole week, and how often does that happen? Photos here.
Comments:
I enjoyed your Sitayama very much, I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out.
I've known since childhood another tale of Sita, more or less beginning where the Indian tales leave off.
Same deal, schmuck god-husband, children who turned on her for the father who hadn't any time with them in fourteen years, same incarnation of the earth goddess scenario --
but instead of being born in a plowed field, she was born on a crossroads, and at the beginning/second chapter the earth swallows her up, gives birth to her back on the road on the back of a beautiful white horse, and she returns to the wandering life she had lead, becoming a patron saint/goddess/etc. of the rootless people, the Gypsies.
I'm Hungarian gypsy. We also have a great tale about a man who falls in love with a traveling girl, who is sent off to fight a dragon -- who turns out to be his beloved. It's the storyteller's whim whether he then gets eaten and she and her father move on, or she marries him and takes him with her and her father.
I was given the dragon's name, and have heard this story countless times told different ways.
Thought you'd enjoy the story.
I know I'd love to see you animate the meeting of Johnny with his shiny armor and shiny sword -- "I'll see your three feet of steel -- and raise you twenty talons and my breath of fire!"
JulieB
Thanks for that story about Sita's rebirth, Julie B. It's one I hadn't heard before. Do Gypsies/Roma have their own version of the Ramayana? A quick Google search didn't give me an answer, but it did turn up this interesting Ramayana discussion:
http://locana.blogspot.com/2005/08/sita-continues-to-be-abandoned.html
Personally, I think of Sita as the patron saint of the abandoned and broken-hearted.
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