The big event of the year was my L.A. premiere of "Hair High", L.A. is the capital of the animation world and I figured if I could score well there, like I did in New York, then the distribution and TV release of the film would be assured.

I booked a nice room at my favorite hotel, the Magic Castle in Hollywood. And my super press agent, Steve Tenhonen, came down from Portland to help get the word out. I did promotional appearances at USC, UCLA, ASIFA-Hollywood, Dreamworks and Disney - we handed out flyers at all the art events, bought ads in L.A. Weekly, The Onion, L.A. City Beat, and Cartoon Network.

The film got rave reviews from L.A. Weekly, L.A. Times, Moving Pictures magazine, City Beat and all the internet sites. The premiere was at the Laemmle 5 Theatre in Hollywood, and we had a number of the stars there, like Keith Carradine and Eric Gilliland, and we had the theatrical premiere of "Don't Download This Song" with Weird Al Yankovic in attendance. And, although it wasn't packed, we had a wonderful turnout and they all loved the film.

Many people ask me why I self-distribute my films, as opposed to going with the big guys. Even though I had a number of interested buyers, the money they offered me was not enough to make back my initial investment. Also, sometimes even though they have a professional press agent arranging interviews and doing publicity, I never see any royalties. So, I often decide to release the film myself, that way I get the money directly from the cinemas, and later I can still make money from DVD and television sales. It's harder work, but I feel as though these films are my "babies" and I just don't trust a lot of the big distribution companies to take care of my "children". They might get put on a shelf and abandoned - I want them out there for all to see.

I'm nearing the end of the drawing part of production on "Idiots and Angels", and it's exciting to finally near completion of the animation - but also, it's a bit depressing, because it's so much damn fun to draw these characters. And now, I feel very comfortable with their design and personalities. I could draw them in my sleep (metaphorically) - although, I really do wish I could draw them in my sleep, the film would be completed a lot more quickly.

However, I've made commitments to various film festivals around the world, and I must leave the drawing board to spread the animation seeds to other continents.

I hadn't been to the Stuttgart Animation Festival for a long time, perhaps 7 years - they asked me to present a retrospective of my shorts and features in late April, and it was a totally delightful experience. The weather there was excellent - clear, warm days and balmy nights.

Also, they've moved the festival to downtown Stuttgart, so all the screenings and activities are next to a wonderful fountain and park. They set up a tent and beer garden on the park, where there was live music and casual animation gatherings. Occasionally, we'd wander through the old, narrow streets and visit the markets, bistros and beer gardens. I had assumed that the entire city had been leveled during WWII because it was a center of manufacturing (Mercedes-Benz, Porsche) but many of the old buildings and cathedrals were still standing.

I was able to visit with many old friends. Picha, who I had just seen in Anima Basauri, was there with "Snow White" ("Niege Blanc"), a very ribald and funny retelling of the old Grimm's fairy tale. He is one of my inspirations, since he and Ralph Bakshi were the first guys to make animated features with adult, sexual content.

Regina Pessoa and Abi Feijo were there to do a workshop and screening - I talked to them about the injustice of their film "A Tragic Story With a Happy Ending" not being nominated for an Oscar.
I was able to chat with Ron Diamond, the great Andreas Hykade, Misha Aldashin, and for only one day, I got to hang out with my hero, Joanna Quinn, and her husband, Les.

I was able to do a workshop that was so popular, they had to move it to a larger theater. And the competition screenings were in a very large cinema, and they were packed to the walls. There is nothing more enjoyable for an animator than to perform before a full audience.

As soon as I arrived home, I was immediately thrust into the excitement of the Tribeca Film Festival - one of the fastest growing festivals in the world. I believe in a few years it could overtake Sundance in importance. I was showing the world premier of my new short "Shuteye Hotel". Inexplicably, it was screening with "The Last Jews of Syria", a very nice documentary, but with an audience totally opposite from my films. Don't get me wrong, I was happy to be included in the Tribeca Festival, but an audience of old Jewish ladies is not my fan base.
One of the great things about the Tribeca Festival is the wonderful luncheons and parties - and although I missed the opening bash because of Stuttgart, I was able to go to the awards ceremony with my date from Oregon, Patty Schnabel - we had a great time. Also joining us were Corey A. Jackson, who composed the music for "Shuteye Hotel", and his lovely and talented wife, Sharon.

Just as I was catching up on "Idiots and Angels", I had to depart for Morocco - I would have preferred to stay and finish "Idiots", but I made a commitment - and I'm glad I did. The Meknes Animation Festival is a wonderful event.

Meknes is a three-hour drive from Casablanca, and we passed through verdant villages filled with lush orchards, grasslands and colorful flowers. It was a very different image than the one from the Josef von Sternberg film "Morocco" from the 1930's (starring Gary Cooper and Marlene Dietrich) - the last shot of Marlene Dietrich wandering off into the vast Moroccan desert.

We stayed at the wonderfully French Colonial Hotel Transatlantic. Decorative tile was everywhere, and the wonderful pool overlooked the Medina, the old walled city. Every morning I'd traipse through the ornate lobby in my summer trunks (highly irregular and very anti-Muslim) to go swimming to the wails of the numerous mosque speakers announcing prayer time. I'm lucky I wasn't thrown out of the hotel.
The festival itself was held at the Institute Francaise, a charming cultural retreat a short walk from my hotel. The cinema holds about 500 people and it was usually packed with very enthusiastic students and fans.

I was very fortunate to take a day trip.with a Jordanian couple, Lena and Eurad (a famous cartoonist), and Hassan, a famous Moroccan caricature artist who provided the car to Fez. We drove through the center of town, which reminded me a lot of the town of the future in "Meet the Robinsons" - very white, clean, unique architecture and colorful plants from another era.
Then, we visited the bazaar, which is from a much earlier era, a thousand years earlier. (They say that Fez is the site of the first university.) It's made up of a labyrinth of narrow streets, overshadowed by fragile timber struts, just barely keeping the high stucco walls from collapsing.

We visited the oldest tannery in Morocco, about 50 large, ancient barrels filled with chemicals as half-naked guys waded around washing the camel, goat and sheep skins. The stench was so bad that when you visit the tannery, they give you a bouquet of mint leaves to stuff up your nose. The men who work in the baths have a permanent stench from the place, and consequently can never marry - so it's not a profession that's handed down from father to son.

I caught up with Michel Ocelot - now that he's a big success with "Azur and Azmar", he was the rock star at the festival. Apparently he's now working on a stage version of the story. The festival could only show my earlier films, the ones that are kid-friendly, like "Your Face", "25 Ways to Quit Smoking", and "The Tune". The next day, I did my workshop for all the animation students and industry professionals. It was a delightful experience, hanging out at the Institute compound, barbecuing lunch, drinking wine, soaking up the sun and talking, and watching animation all day. My thanks for Mohamed Beyond and Fiona for showing me a wonderful time.

In May, I did a quick weekend trip to Montreal, to the Cinematheque Quebecois. They had a retrospective of all of my films. It was chilly - even a little snow - but the people were very warm and welcoming. I had a packed audience for my workshop and a screening of "Hair High". While there, I was able to check out the Cinematheque, and like the famous French version in Paris, it's very extensive and prestigious.

From there, I went to Chicago, where Gabe Levinson put on "The John and Bill Show". Gabe had met me at the Animation Show screening in Chicago, and asked me who I'd like to do a show with - I mentioned John Krisfaluci, who's a famous animation recluse. Surprisingly, he jumped at the opportunity - we met at the airport and stayed at the fancy Hotel Burnham.

The show took place at the famed Portage Theatre. The first night, I introduced John K. and he showed some of his more forbidden and obscure cartoons - it was a riot. Afterwards, he did caricatures of the audience members. The next night, I showed clips from "Idiots and Angels" and "Hair High". Then, John K. asked me questions about my career and I gave out drawings to the audience. It was a great event, and we're talking about doing it again in the fall.

I'd never heard of the Bonnaroo Music Festival before, but when I told my friends I was invited, they all said I should go, because it's a great event. I arrived at the Nashville airport and drove about 1 hour north, to Manchester. It's much more organized than the classic 60's Woodstock Festival, and certainly not as large, but it's got all the great bands - Ziggy Marley, The Police, White Stripes and Tool. I was met at the backstage area by Sherrie, and she and her 2 friends drove me around the 7 large band areas in a golf cart. We arrived at the film tent and already there was a large line waiting to get in to the standing-room-only 1000-seat arena. I love large audiences! They loved my show and all lined up for autographs after.

Then, I wandered around to the large complex, just checking out the bands. It was a definite flashback to late 60's/early 70's rock fests I went to in Oregon - lots of pot, a few naked bodies and great music. I was supposed to hook up with Jim Jarmusch there, he was doing his film event the next day - but I could only wave to him as he sped by on his golf cart.

The Platform Animation Festival originated when Irene Kotlarz mentioned to some people from Cartoon Network that the U.S. did not have a major animation festival. So, the Cartoon Network commissioned Irene (who had previously organized the Cardiff Animation Festival) to hold the first Platform Festival in Portland at the end of June. I was very excited to be involved, because it was in my home town. In fact, the year before, during the Annecy Plus Festival, we announced the Platform Festival as a promotional event.

I arrived in Portland a few days early to do press interviews and also see some of my family. The festival took place at the famed Performing Art Center in downtown Portland. On opening nigh, in the foyer downstairs, we had an international gathering of renowned guests: producers Ron Diamond, John Andrews, Linda Simensky, writers Jerry Beck, Amid Amidi, Dennis Nybeck, festival directors Gerben Schermer, Gunnar Strom, Tom Knott, and animators like the famed Jim Blashfield, Will Vinton, Joan Gratz and Joanna Priestley.

After the competition, and large amounts of blue champagne, we all went to the top floor for the Animation Smackdown - "Abstract vs. Comedy". The whole idea for this event was spawned after the film "Spiral" by W.P. Murton, a parody of abstract animation, was screened opening night at the Annecy Festival - even though it brought down the house, it offended a large number of "artistic" animators. The film (produced by my studio) caused a "furor in France". One of those offended animators was Steve Woloshen, a well-known scratch-film animator from Canada - so he made an abstract answer to "Spiral", which he called "Rebuttal", that screened at the Ottawa Animation Festival. So, the gauntlet had been thrown down - and I pitched the idea of an animation style competition to Irene, and she loved it.

After the screening of "Spiral" and "Rebuttal", Joanna Priestley, famed Portland animator, came on stage wearing a robe and boxing gloves, and smacked me around on stage. She showed three abstract films, alternating between my three favorite funny films, including Signe Baumane's "Teat Beat of Sex", which even made Joanna laugh. Joanna's husband was the score-keeper (he had an applause meter) and she stacked the crowd with her friends, so naturally she won - just barely, though, with a score of 6.5 to 6. But it was such a raucous success, we believe that we'll return for Round 2 next year.

Another successful evening at Platform was Pat Smith's "Cartoons from Hell" show the following night, which was a collection of shorts that dealt with evil. The big hits were "25 Ways to Die" by David Chai, "Shuteye Hotel" by yours truly, and "Puppet" by Pat Smith.

On Wednesday, we had a wonderful picnic, sponsored by Laika. It was out on beautiful Sauvie Island, with hamburgers, sangria and live bluegrass music. People broke out the frisbees and it was a perfect Oregon afternoon party.

Some other highlights of the Platform Festival: the panel on Oregon legend Basil Wolverton with "Marvelous" Marv Newland, Kenny Scharfe and Monte Wolverton (Basil's son), emceed by Jerry Beck. A screening of "Show White and the Seven Dwarfs", and afterwards John Canemaker interviewed the model for Snow White, the spry-at-88 Marge Champion On Saturday, we held the closing ceremonies, emceed by a Mr. Plympton... it was a lot of fun introducing my heroes Marv Newland, Danny Antonucci and Will Vinton.

You can see all the winners on platformfestival.com - at the after-party I got to talk to Don Hertzfeldt (winner), Henry Selick and Jan Pinkava. The festival director, Irene Kotlarz, got a 2-minute standing ovation - rightfully so, because the festival was well-organized and had a wide spectrum of films and installations. Also, Portland is such a great town to have a festival - small, convenient and so artsy. I hope the Cartoon Network decides to sponsor it next year - the U.S. needs a major animation festival.

Upon returning to New York, I rushed out to see "Ratatouille". Pat Smith predicted it would be hard to get a major audience to see a film about a rat in a kitchen, especially with a French title - and he has a good record (he predicted John Canemaker would win the Oscar). Sure enough, the box office for "Ratatouille" is well below that of "Cars" and "The Incredibles". But, believe me, it's a fantastic, funny, touching film - Brad Bird is a brilliant director, and the story by Jan Pinkava is so universal and meaningful. It goes way beyond just a rodent in the kitchen - please rush out and see it!

The other animated features I saw: "Shrek the Third" by Dreamworks - was more of the same, and if you like the others, you'll like this one. But I like animation that takes chances and pushes the edges a little bit (well, maybe a lot) - but if you like animation, it's a good film to see.
Also, "Surf's Up" came out in June, produced by Sony. It's not to be confused with "Happy Feet". I liked this film more than "Shrek" - the surfing sequences are marvelous, and some of the characterizations are nice, but I don't get the chicken, and his wandering through the jungle with some kind of miniature head-hunters. Also, I believe they should have only made the surfing contest itself a documentary, and left all the other parts as a normal narrative.

Just last week, I finally completed all the drawing for my new feature, "Idiots and Angels". What a relief! Now I can get to work on the post-production - music, editing and sound. I can also begin to work on my newer projects, "Hot Dog" (the follow-up to "Guide Dog"), and Kanye West book, and another short film I want to get going on. And, oh yes, of course, my social life - I remember I used to have a social life.

This edition, my cartoon is page 41 of my book "Sloppy Seconds", called "Human Crash Tests". This was not bought by any magazine, but it became a successful short segment included in my film "Plymptoons". Again, it takes a cliché - this time car crash tests - and substitutes a human being for the car, with extremely disastrous and hopefully funny results.