Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- A couple of weeks ago, I focused the Sunday photos on the new type of children’s playgrounds. In the time that playgrounds have changed to what they currently are, dogparks have sprung up in the City’s parks. It makes sense. Anthropologist, Elizabeth Marshall Thomas in her book, The Hidden Lives of Dogs, writes that all a dog really wants is other dogs. Dogparks give city dogs a chance to play with other dogs.

I pass several on my daily routine, and they’re all different.

Madison Square Park

Madison Square park offers a very large and friendly space with “Jemmy’s Run.”

There’s a lot of run-around areas for the dogs and plenty of seating for the owners to
mix and chat.

You enter the fenced area through a small square with two gates. They ask that you open only one gate at a time so that the dogs can’t run out and escape the space.

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There’ are a lot of trees and shrubery, plenty of plants. There’s an attendant who constantly keeps the space clean. It’s a totally pleasant space where I can imagine dogs have a blast.

Washington Square Park

Washington Square Park offers a couple of dogparks. One quite large, the other quite small.

The larger area looks well worn as evidenced by this front gate, which like all the others has two portals so that the dog can’t escape easily.

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Like the other special areas in this park, they try to separate the outside from the inside with foliage. I had to stand on a high ground to be able to snap the second of the above shots.

This is quite a populated area. Lots of larger dogs run about. Not a lot of sitting space for the owners.

By comparison, this second are, a bit more centrally located in the park, is very small, no more than 1/8th the area of the other.

The view from the opposite side doesn’t make it feel any larger. Park benches surround
the area where owners can sit watching the dogs play.

As with the other dogpark, there are two gates to enter. It’s designed to make sure your dog won’t escape, running wild around the park. This little squared off area seems no larger than a closet. I can’t imagine two dogs could pass through at the same time.

I have to say that despite the size of this space, I once came upon about eight small dogs running back and forth in a pack; they were having a lot of fun.

NYU Housing complex

The only other dogpark in the nearby area is one adjoining a housing complex which belongs to NYU. They have a relatively large space for dogs to run, and it’s often full of animals and their owners.

I had to push these images a bit since it was dark when I photographed them. You can, however, see here how large the space is.

The entrance is the same as the others. There are two portals so that you can let the dog off the leash once you’ve passed through the first gate, and let the dog into the area via
the second gate.

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Not many dogs were here when I photographed it, but I’ve often seen a lot of dogs running around the concrete park.

– You’ll remember back in August I promised to give you some more photos of the Art in the BMT. No, you don’t remember? I’d posted some photos from the Prince Street subway station which displays some silhouettes artistically tiled into the walls.

Well, I remember it, and today’s the day. I have images from the 23rd Street BMT station which displays hats. Yes, HATS. I wasn’t sure what this has to do with the subway or the BMT, but there are lots of hats floating about that station, and it intrigued me. So I went to the station specifically to take these photos. In fact, I was walking past it when I remembered that I wanted to photograph them.

(Click any image you’d like to enlarge.)

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The exhibit is called Memories of 23rd Street and was designed and constructed by Keith Godard. A London-born graphic designer and artist Mr. Godard also designed the
14 ft. high-relief bronze historical plaques on the Brooklyn Bridge that, he insists, were inspired by Lorenzo Ghiberti’s ”Gates of Paradise” in Florence.

I learned that Mr. Godard’s idea for the piece is, apparently, two. First, he honors all the people who probably stood at this intersection since the station was built by picturing their hats.

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Secondly, the Flatiron Building (just above this station) once was notorious for the wind tunnel it created above ground. Hats went flying everywhere up and down 23rd Street.
Hence, the flying hats and the term “23 Skidoo.”

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If you have the time (a train could be coming into the station just as you arrive, and you’ll have to rush on board missing the artwork), you can go in close to study the elaborate tile constructions.

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All of the hats are identified with little labels a couple of feet below the images. If you
check out the MTA’s site, you can see whose hats are flying about.

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Since I came to see the HATS, I had all the time I wanted. I stood about snapping pictures and had the few early morning riders watching me. There, of course, were hats up and down both platforms in the subway station. I stayed on the one side – going Downtown.

I let a couple of trains go by before leaving when I felt I’d shot enough.

- Steam is the secret energy that runs my city. There’s an article in a local paper called The Gotham Gazette which describes the system in full detail. It’s a good read, so I urge you to go there if you’re interested in further understanding the system.

Atop ground we get to see steam leaking out of sewers, see giant pipes spewing steam into the air, and read about exploding steam pipes that cause damage. (There was a recent explosion at 42nd Street near Grand Central Station. Another in Murray Hill, a couple of years back, destroyed a building and closed a city block for several weeks.)

We pass by these steampipes and stewing manhole covers without thinking about it. It’s like some primeval force out of the Rite of Spring hiding underground.
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(Click any image to enlarge.)

For the times Con Edison is working on the system at specific locations, they construct barber-pole colored pipes which emit large bursts of steam into the air. That wonderful scent you get when walking into a dry cleaners often surounds these pipes.

Back when Raggedy Ann started, there was a very large construction and similar pipe steaming up the entire front of the Brill Building in which we were located. I seem to remember we were originally on the fourth floor, so any offices that faced the front of the building saw nothing more than steam flowing all day long.

Dick Williams had one such office; the conference room was another.

The steam would make a very loud SHUSSSHHH-ing sound as it flowed out. This was often accompanied by workers jackhammering their way underground.

There was a Saturday rush to complete the art for the rough animatic. Dick and Gerry Potterton and I were in the conference room for at least 8 hours madly coloring storyboard drawings with colored pencils. We had a great time laughing and joking and gossipping about everyone under the sun. I was a lowly Asst. Animator, but they treated me like an equal. It was fun, needless to say.

All day long that incessant SHUSSSHHH; all day long that steam flowing up and pass our large bank of windows. It was crazy-making.

Dick finally broke from a conversation we were having to scream out at the steam and the workers. He was sure that New York was ready to burst out and blow up underneath us. Gerry and I had a good laugh at the rant.
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Obviously, not all of these pipes are striped in the Con Edison orange and white. I found
this black, short pipe.

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You can see it coming out the sewer caps. Sometimes heavy, as in the left; sometimes
light, as in the right.

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Often close to invisible. I had to go closer to see the steam coming out of this cap.

This truck trailer has been parked on Fifth Avenue and 8th Street for a while. Apparently Con Edison isn’t supplying all the steam needs for the city.

I found this guide to where things are underground. It gives a good, informative view of what’s flowing underneath us in this town. Maybe it will blow up someday.

- Remember those old schoolyard playgrounds we had as kids? Well, maybe not all of us; just the older of us. There was a jungle jim, some swings, and a sandbox. In the summer, there might be a sprinkler of some kind that would spray water on us. It was all concrete and apparently somewhat dangerous. Funny it didn’t feel that way. I can see that plopping a kid in a box of sand might not be the best way to entertain a child.

Well, things have changed. On my daily walk to & from my studio I get to see a couple of children’s playgrounds. (I’d hesitate to call them playgrounds except that the sign below calls it that.) They all seem to be constructed on the theme park model. I’m sure these playgrounds are no different than anywhere else in this country. The attitude toward child rearing has definitely changed.

Madison Square Park has a relatively large and elaborate area.

The idea seems to be to shroud the playground in foliage and an elaborate wrought iron fence. They’re trying to create a positive approach.

This is the entrance to the area. The gateway says it all. Rules aplenty to all these spaces.

Pleasant foliage with lots of well-kept flowers surround the playground. Colorful constructions are inviting to the eye. It’s obviously a pleasant area for these kids to play.

There are a number of turreted spaces connected by a bridge with plenty of crawlspace areas. It’s a safe way for kids to actively move around.

Designed with plenty of places to climb, slide down or run across, these areas are
probably great for fantasies of forts or castles.

Though all of these playgrounds I’ve looked at are similar, this one – in Madison Square Park – seems the most interesting and friendly to me. I’d have enjoyed it as a kid.

Washington Square Park 1

- There are two Playground areas in NYU’s Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. They’re undoubtedly connected, though both are a bit more rustic than the others I’ve photographed.

The front gate to the larger park is intimidating with this enormous iron fence. I thought
the area was locked (at 7am when I photographed it) but learned that it was just tightly closed. A mother with a child in a stroller entered after giving me dirty looks.

The large fence and a very large grass moat surrounds the large space. I certainly felt
like I was an outsider in the movie “Little Children.” I wondered how the kids inside there felt.

The turreted areas look out from behind the shrubery hiding the play area, but the
casual on-looker sees what looks like a more traditional playground.

The space contains more of the turreted areas, with more of the usual picnic benches
and slides.

Washington Square Park 2

This second, tiny playground intrigues me more than the larger one. The surrounding, wrought iron fence, again, is nothing if not intimidating. Again, I felt like I was doing something wrong in taking a photograph of the locked area when a cop car drove by.

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There’s one rustic-looking turreted space with a ramp and stairs. The whole affair looks a bit lonely, and I’m not sure what kids are supposed to do here but feel outcast.

I usually only see the space when it’s locked up and no kids are playing.
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Two odd, springy seats seem to be a peculiar replacement for swings. They look a bit dangerous. They are the only spots of color in the area.

Downing Street Playground

The third playground I’m going to feature here, is the Downing Street Playground. This
is a small area with its entrance on Carmine Street (about a block from my studio in the
West Village.) The gated and guarded entrance usually has a couple of old people
sitting in front.

The rear of the park is on Downing Street and is backed by a brick wall with some octagonal, concrete windows to peer in.

Within, there’s a colorful turreted play area, with lots of colorful and odd-shaped pipes to climb up or slide down. Not many flowers or foliage is evident. It looks like the
back yard of a building, which it is. I kinda like it in a city way.

What looks like a yellow, circular jungle jim stands behind the turrets. The whole place
looks fairly safe and possibly fun for some imaginative kids. I’m pleased to see that this small, Italian neighborhood has made a real effort to establish an area specifically for kids.

- I’ve posted a lot of photos of things I’ve noticed about New York on my daily treck from home to studio. These are all objects that we, at least in NY, seem to take for granted. Odd objects we just about trip over but rarely notice.

The problem is that once I finish these posts I start noticing others that would have nicely complimented that post. I’ve saved up some of these images and would like to post these now.

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In a post about draped buildings, I noted that Our Lady of Pompeii Church was draped for the longest time. However, it is now finally cleaned and undraped. This might be a good time to look at it again.

Likewise, I had intended to use the excellent top of this church for my Up On The Rooftops post, but it was draped over for so long. Now it’s open.

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That very same post showed a lot of greyish drapes covering buildings, Christo-style, to protect pedestrians from falling objects and sprayed chemicals. Well, I found another type drape. They’ve actually drawn a building on this screen.

Walking down the street, you end up doing a double take when you go past it. At first it looks like the real thing underneath the draped screen, but no, it’s painted there.

I did notice this image up on the rooftops. More rooftops. This view is visible at 16th Street from Park Avenue.

In the post about standpipes and sprinkler pipes, I showed a lot of different type pipes evidenced on the sidewalk alongside buildings. Well, I came across this one, and I’m not sure what to make of it.

It looks like an object out of the Terry Gilliam movie, Brazil.

There’s an excellent report with photos on the events of the 9/11 memorial service this year at Blather from Brooklyn.

- New Yorkers seem to have given themselves over to the tennis matches being held at the US Open in nearby Flushing, Queens. For those who couldn’t get tickets, American Express has taken over Madison Square Park at 23rd Street and Park Ave and set up a faux arena to view the matches. They offer everything you want to know about the matches including a big screen TV, portable rest rooms, bleacher viewing stands, and even vendors selling high priced wine.

I took some photos yesterday afternoon. (Click any of them to enlarge.)

As you enter the park from 23rd Street, you come upon a small area wherein this large board greets you with the full schedule and all the results to date.

Here you can also buy T-shirts and goods (left) or take tennis lessons (right). Earlier in
the week they had a larger set-up where you could actually play a round or two.

As you move toward the main section of the park, you see lots of picnicking people laying about in the humid sunny weather. The big screen TV is just visible in the distance behind the steel trees.

Once you arrive at the center of the action, on the North side of the park, there are bleachers constructed for people to watch the TV screen.

The bleachers are on the right and left of the screen. Lots of other people sitting on the ground all around the TV screen.

Many people sit between the two sets of bleacher stands within what is usually a reflecting pool. It’s interesting how contained and quiet it all is.

A group of tents has been set up to sell food. Sandwiches and drinks, for the most part.
It looks upscale enough that I’d assume the prices were high.

There were about five tents of food, all of which looked similar to me. These tents were placed near some beautiful flowers in an attractive setting.

Wine and beer seemed to be the principal item for sale.

Just to the rear of the screen, things were significantly quieter.

There, 20 feet away from the action, the resident homeless crowd were having their own party. Squirrels were running everywhere feasting on their own goodies.

On the way out, I passed a number of generators that were rendering the power for the whole operation. Not much of a tennis fan, I left in time to watch the Yankees beat up on
the Kansas City Royals.

– Back in 1985, master Russian director, Feodor Khitruk, escorted the brilliant animator/director, Yurij Norstein, on a trip to New York.
My friend, Charles Samu, who was playing host to them on the trip, asked if I’d like them to visit my studio. I suggested a breakfast meeting so that I could call in a couple of additional people who would like to attend. Specifically, I was thinking of Tissa David who was an enormous fan of Norstein’s film, Tale of Tales.

I must admit I was over the top since Norstein was nothing short of a hero to me. His film had completely changed my thoughts on animation and its importance in the world. I find his film the answer to anyone who questions whether animation can live up to what live action can do. The answer now is, YES. (Of course, I haven’t seen anything remotely comparable to this 1978 film since seeing it – despite the invention of the computer.)

In short, I think it’s a GREAT film of the highest order.

So they came, and here are some photos of the meeting.

My studio, at the time, was on 38th Street off Fifth Avenue. This is facing a windowed
wall we had that looked out onto the rear of the building. (You could see the Empire State Building from there.) The studio also had a large skylight overhead. Liz Seidman works to the Left and Greg Perler, my editor, works to the Right (far in front of Liz.)

Norstein (L) and Khitruk (R) arrived on time with Charles (taking the picture.)

We set a table full of lots of food, but I don’t think any of us were interested in eating.
L to R:Norstein, Khitruk, Tissa David, Greg Perler (standing in the back, editing), Lisa Crafts, me, Bridget Thorne (hands visible). Charles Samu sat opposite Lisa and took the pictures. Others were there but didn’t make Charles’ camera lens.

I had plenty of questions about Norstein’s style and production methods. He tried to respond, and Khitruk acted as the interpreter and had to draw his answer at one point.

I followed up by drawing my next question.

There was quite a conversation despite the fact that we were speaking two languages.
(And I don’t remember a word of what was said.)

Khitruk packs up as they prepare to leave.

Norstein and I exchanged little souvenirs of the meeting.

Tissa and I posed for a picture before the break up.

After everybody left, we got back to work. Bridget Thorne had to run an errand and
Liz Seidman & Mary Thorne went back to work on Lyle Lyle Crocodile.

I had an in-house meeting with Mark Sottnick (above), one of the producers of Santa Bear, which was also in production.

- A necessary accessory to a high rise building in a city is the standpipe and fire sprinkler systems. These are evidenced outside of most of these buildings as odd pipes and valves that attach near the front doors of most buildings.

The standpipe is a pipe that runs vertically through an entire building. It allows the fire department to attach to the standpipe and get water within a fire. Wet standpipes have water always running throughout these pipes. Dry standpipes require water to be pumped into the pipes.

Last weekend there was a fire in a building in NY in which two firefighters died. This building was a remnant of 9/11 in that it was ultimately gutted and asbestos was being cleared from the site. A fire broke out, and one of the reasons for the death of the two men was the dry standpipe. It hadn’t been properly maintained, _________(Click any image to enlarge.)
and water pumped into the pipe burst out and
flooded the stairwells. Thus becoming a problem rather than an aid. The firemen had to use ropes to try to lift hoses to the higher floors.

I find these constructions outside buildings quite interesting. We pass by them, sometimes even sit on them when waiting, without really taking notice of them.
So I decided to photograph some of them.

Traditionally, the pipes look like these. The photo on the left gives a good shot of the
norm. The red pipe indicates a standpipe, and the right pipe indicates a sprinkler system. The fire department can tap into either. I like how they’ve left some of the beautiful brass pipe showing. In the photo on the right, the shapes start to get a bit more wonky.

Valve systems maintain the color schemes of red and green, indicating standpipes and sprinkler. Here we have a yellow one which tells us it’s a combination system.

The signage starts to go crazy on some of them. I’m not sure what “high level alarm” indicates, but it’s scary.

I’ve noticed that most of the superintendents use the water in the standpipe to hose down their sidewalks in the early mornings. I’ve often wondered about this practice of washing
the concrete. They do it even on days it’s going to rain.

The paint job to the valves on the left might soon need a touch up. No pipes other than these valves extend outside of this building. Whereas the pipe on the right has developed
a bit of character.

The standpipe on the left is rather high. I suppose this means the firemen won’t have to bend as much. This pipe (broken at its mouth) hides in the grass behind a fence.

The sign behind this fence leaves no doubt that there’s a standpipe, but then the pipe is higher than the sign. Just one house down the valves hide at ground level, but they keep the sign high enough to see. It’d be interesting to see the firemen cut through the
chain lock to get to it.

Thank goodnesss for the signage. There’s a long shrub circling this building and only the sign lets you know where to find the standpipe. I can imagine firemen hunting.

I love this system. Lotsa valves to play with.

Pat Smith‘s film, Puppet, will have its TV premiere
tonight on Nicktoons, 10pm EST.

This is an interesting film which, I think, shows the fight between the artist and his creation. Somehow, I’ve never had this much difficulty with my creations, but I suppose others have.
Pat’s done an excellent job of producing this film; its score is lush and rich. I’m glad that Nickelodeon will be airing it.

In case you haven’t checked out Pat’s blog, you should have a look there, as well.

The Iranian animator, Nouroddin Zarrinkelk, is producing a documentary on a 5,000-year-old cup discovered in Iran’s Burnt City. The cup is believed to bear the world’s first animation.

The carving on the cup surface illustrates a goat moving toward a tree in five consecutive images, which is believed to be a primitive form of animation. Zarrinkelk’s documentary will be presented to the International Association of Animation Films, and the goat is to become the symbol for the Association of Iranian Animation Films (their chapter of ASIFA).

An now for more recent animation history:

Dave Hilberman and Zach Schwartz present a storyboard to Steve Bosustow

Recently, Karl Cohen, of ASIFA San Francisco, sent me an excellent and extensive tribute to the late David Hilberman, one of the co-founders of UPA, a victim of the blacklist, and a leader in the Disney strike. Hilberman also founded one of the largest commercial studios in NYC, Tempo, and taught for years at San Freancisco State University.

Karl asked that I not publish his piece for a while, but his article inspired me to search for some stills of Hilberman’s work. I found a few that represented work from the studio that became UPA, Industrial Films and Poster Service. However these were tiny. The best images I found within a book were in Charles Solomon‘s The History of Animation.

I decided to post some cleaner, higher res scans of these pictures.

__________________ Two stills from Hell Bent For Election

Left, a still from Hell Bent For Election____ right, a still from Brotherhood of Man

Part of a storyboard for an animated version of
George Baker’s comic strip Sad Sac(k)

- As I stepped into the BMT subway station at Prince and Broadway, I was taken by the tile work that had been introduced to this station since I’d last entered it.

In the old days, the elaborate tiles would decoratively detail the name of the station. As a matter of fact, it’s quite extraordinary that there’s such beautiful work throughout the subway system, and even more extraordinary that they still keep it up.

Anyway, throughout this station, the tiles depicted silhouettes of different riders and working personnel. Everything from the student to the station cleaners. I did a little bit of research and found that Janet Zweig, who designed it, says that the frieze, “…celebrates the significance and individuality of the citizens of New York. … It depicts 194 silhouetted people … taken from photographs of New Yorkers in all their variety… arranged as a 1200 foot narrative that contains smaller dramatic narratives within it.” The artwork was installed in 2004. I guess it’s been a while since I’ve been in this station.

While waiting for the N train to arrive, I had to snap some stills.

The brushes this guy carries either makes him a chimney sweep
or a subway cleaner.

Here’s a student off to school. He looks like he’s out of the 1920′s.

This guy’s either going to clean the station or
about to mug this woman searching for her wallet.

Oh, wait. Is that the same guy about to empty the trash can?
The other two 1920′s Yuppies are trying to keep their distance.

Here’s a closeup. They look exhausted and as though they’re arguing.

A closeup of the guy with the trash.

Here are two more shoppers. Looks like they bought a rug.

My train comes into the station, and I can’t photograph them all.

From the window of the train I shot some more of these silhouette people.
Eventually I’ll come back to see who else is there.