Introduction

[bigshot]

It's been suggested that I introduce myself, so here goes...

I'm an animation producer, archivist and educator living in Hollywood, CA. My website is...

http://www.animationarchive.org

My two passions in life are cartooning and music. You can find some articles I wrote for Boing-Boing on music in the right sidebar of my site. Just look for "online exhibits" and click on "Adventures in Music".

Since college I've been exploring all kinds of music, from pop vocals to jazz to opera to country western to classical to ethnic to easy listening. I have a library packed with books, records and videos. Here's a photo of part of my record wall.



I recently bought a house and have finally been able to build my dream screening/listening room...





It's got a Mac mini server with over a year's worth of music in the iTunes library and thousands of movies on DVD and BluRay. Needless to say, I'm in hog heaven.

I do screenings for the non-profit group I work for, and share my collection of art and film through a digital archive in Burbank, CA that is open to animators, students and researchers.

I'm always looking for hot tips on new music and new insights into music I already know. Most of my friends are artists and musicians and I love trading theories and turning smart kids on to the astounding world of creativity that is right there under the thin surface of modern mediocrity. Because of this, I sometimes make people mad.

I hope to have fun here and learn a lot.

Steve Worth
"bigshot"

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

That's quite an introduction! Welcome to GMG! Any composers you favor?


--Greetings from Delft, the Netherlands


Johan

[mc ukrneal]

We've already met on the other thread, but welcome nonetheless!

Pictures aren't working for me, but nor sure if that is my problem or a site problem.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

We've already met on the other thread, but welcome nonetheless!

Pictures aren't working for me, but nor sure if that is my problem or a site problem.

I see them...

[bhodges]

Hi Steve, and welcome. Nice media set-up you have there! I see you've already dived into the discussions, so carry on, enjoy yourself, and let us know what composers and pieces you like.

--Bruce

[bigshot]

My favorite composers are Wagner (I have more Rings than fingers and toes!), Ravel, Rimsky, Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Verdi, Bruckner, Schubert... Hard to say because I like so many.

My favorite conductors are easier to list... Stoki, Reiner, Dutoit, Abbado, Bohm, Bernstein and Walter.

My favorite recordings of all time are Walter's Act I of Walkure with Melchior and Lehmann, Schnabel's recording of Beethoven's Diabelli variations, Previn's Schehehrezade, Geza Anda's Mozart Piano Concerto 17 and 21, Fiedler's Gaetie Parisienne and Stokowski's Bach transcriptions.

My favorite classical music on video are Karajan's Rheingold, Mehta's Valencia Ring, Zefferelli's La Traviata, Bernstein's Young People's concerts and Omnibus, Tilson Thomas's Keeping Score Ives, and Gergiev's Firebird and Rite of Spring ballets.

Still finding new favorites every day.

[greg]

Welcome! 
Your site has a ton of cool pictures.

[Hollywood]

Hey there Steve. Greetings from Beethoven's Vienna. Welcome to the forum. 

I see that you live in the town where I was born, hence my username. What kind of animation are you involved with? When I was much younger I too was into animation and I wanted more than anything to get a job at the Disney Studio in Burbank. The closest I ever got to that dream was becoming a good friend to Barbara, the widow to Art Babbitt, who was one of the early Disney Studio years animators as well as creating the character Goofy. 

[david johnson]

hi!   

dj

[bigshot]

I was friends with Art. He was an amazing person. A more principled person never lived. I was lucky enough to know and work with a lot of animation legends... Grim Natwick, Mike Lah, Irv Spence, Bill Melendez, Marc Davis, Bill Scott, June Foray, etc. Animation is a very small community. I've worked in animation for about 25 years. I started out on TV commercials and the Chipmunks, then worked with Ralph Bakshi and John Kricfalusi's Spumco. Now I'm passing it on to the next generation of animators.

You're very lucky to live in Vienna. My friend Grim studied there under Gustav Klimt. I bet you've got some great used bookstores. I've scoured the ones on the Internet for copies of Jugend and Simplicissimus. Vienna during the Weimar years was one of the absolute peaks of creativity.

[Hollywood]

Wow Steve, I'm impressed by all of the cool animators you know and have worked with. I checked out your bio on the ASIFA site. Small world...I grew up in Eagle Rock, but went to high school and also lived in Glendale for a time as well. My birthday is 3 May but I am a few years older than you.  Now if we have any great used bookshops here in Vienna, I haven't come across any yet and I've been here 17 years. 

[springrite]

For 22 years I lived a molitov coc... I mean, a stone throw away from where you are. Many of my friends there were musicians and artists as well, including Rachel Worby (MD of Pasadena Pops), a few members of the LA Phil and some music professors and their students, and some painters. I miss that community! When I go back for a visit later this year maybe I can re-connect or at least meet a couple of them again.

[Mirror Image]

Since college I've been exploring all kinds of music, from pop vocals to jazz to opera to country western to classical to ethnic to easy listening. I have a library packed with books, records and videos. Here's a photo of part of my record wall.

No CDs?

[Lethevich]

Welcome!

[bigshot]

The CDs are on another wall.

[Mirror Image]

The CDs are on another wall.

Let's get a picture of them up on here. I want to see if you own more than me or Harry. 

[mahler10th]

http://www.animationarchive.org



It's got a Mac mini server with over a year's worth of music in the iTunes library and thousands of movies on DVD and BluRay. Needless to say, I'm in hog heaven.
I do screenings for the non-profit group I work for, and share my collection of art and film through a digital archive in Burbank, CA that is open to animators, students and researchers.
I'm always looking for hot tips on new music and new insights into music I already know. Most of my friends are artists and musicians and I love trading theories and turning smart kids on to the astounding world of creativity that is right there under the thin surface of modern mediocrity. Because of this, I sometimes make people mad.
I hope to have fun here and learn a lot.
Steve Worth
"bigshot"

Hi Steve.  Very nice setup, it will be great to hear your contributions.     Are there any windows in California?

[bigshot]

Let's get a picture of them up on here. I want to see if you own more than me or Harry. 

I'm afraid they're all in books, not jewel cases. There are about. 10,000

[DavidRoss]

Wow.  Love the trusses (esp. w/ the wide-angle bowing), but wonder about the acoustic qualities of all those hard surfaces.  Saw some of your comments elsewhere, including some sage advice to newbies.  Seems you'll fit in here just fine, especially if you enjoy the self-deprecating humor your handle suggests!  Welcome aboard, bs!

[bigshot]

Acoustically, the room isn't too bad. Before I got everything into the room and it was empty, there was a noticeable lack of echos. Reflected sound isn't a problem with the soft pine walls. The main problem was the concrete slab floor. It sucked up the bass. I had to supplement my 70s JBL woofers with a subwoofer. Now it's pretty flat all the way down.

A lesser problem was creating a soundstage wide enough to match the screen. I used two sets of mains leaning to midrange for the inner set and bass and treble on the outer set. Now the sound fills the whole front of the room with the middle congregated at the center which is perfect for voices. Surprisingly, it works really well as a two channel stereo room too.