Father Geek here to alert Bay Area Geeks of an important event in your neck-of-the-woods today. And if there is ANY way you can get to this, DO IT! I've visited with Ray several times over the last 30 years, and he is a great guy and a wonderful story teller. Its difficult to get him to draw a dinosaur, or other creature for you, but take my word for it, he will do this if approached correctly. Harry, his sister, and I each have one we got him to do at the 1993 DallasCon. But he loves to sign posters etc... although he hesitated signing our 1-sht to CLASH OF THE TITANS. "I hate to mess up such a beautiful poster," he said at DragonCon back in 1998. He loved posing for pictures with Harry and I in our poster booth at a show during the summer of 89 also. He is very very approachable. The chance to meet these two giants of phantastic cinema together at the same time is golden. Take off work early, skip that last class, hold off supper till late, do whatever is necessary, but get to this event. You will NEVER be sorry about it, that I promise you...
Now here is the notice we received here at Geek Headquarters in Austin today. Damn, I wish I could make it to this...
Hey Geeks,
If I didn't hafta work today, I would go to this and take some pictures and get autographs and scraps of clothing and such... I suggest you alert your spies in the SF, CA area about this, if y'all didn't know about it already.
What - Meet Animation Pioneers Ray Harryhausen and Phil Tippett
Where - AAC Theater, 491 Post (near Union Square) in San Francisco
When - Monday June 24, doors open at 5pm, program at 6pm sharp
Details: AAC occasionally honors the greats of our profession, and will be naming their animation building in honor of Ray Harryhausen (at 4pm). At 6pm, Harryhausen and Phil Tippett will receive honorary doctorates and will each present a program about their lives and times. Afterwards, both will take questions and meet with attendees for pictures, autographs, and so forth.
Phil Tippett, founder and president of Berkeley-based Tippet Studio, is an award- winning director of animation and producer of visual effects over the past 20 years, whose work you have seen in such films as RoboCop, Jurassic Park, and Starship Troopers. Tippett is an active and important force in creating realistic 3D effects.
Ray Harryhausen is truly one of the pioneers of stop-motion animation, whose career stretched from Mighty Joe Young (1949) to Clash of the Titans (1981). Many a science fiction, fantasy, and adventure epic was created by Harryhausen using simple yet sophisticated model animation to bring the unusual to life. His art has been widely shown at venues including the Museum of Modern Art.
Sam Young
