Orson Whales
May 3, 2007
This is more or less a birthday gift to myself. I’ve been drawing it on every page of Moby Dick (using two books to get both sides of each page) for months. The soundtrack is built from searching “moby dick” on You Tube (I was looking for Orson’s Preacher from the the John Huston film), I couldn’t find the preacer, but you find tons of Led Zep and drummers doing Bonzo and a little Orson reading from the Novel for a failed Italian T.V. film…… makes for a nice Melville in the end.
Cinqo de Mayo I turn Forty. Ahhhhhhh the French Champagne.
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May 4th, 2007 at 7:53 am
I kind of stumbled upon your site by happy accident. I lurrrrrve this! Oh yes, and happy birthday!
May 4th, 2007 at 10:19 am
I think you did a great job on this. I like the pasing and the led zepplin music. Keep up the animation, its dying, it needs you.
May 4th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
Awesome. An amazing piece of work.
May 4th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
stand out!
outstanding!!!!
May 4th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
MetaFilter http://www.metafilter.com/60885/Orson-Whales
May 4th, 2007 at 2:53 pm
Bravo!!! Happy approaching 40th!
May 4th, 2007 at 4:36 pm
I loved Moby Dick, and I think you paid a great hommage to it with your wonderful animation. And oh, seems like I’m the only one who can’t wait to turn 40.
May 4th, 2007 at 6:36 pm
Excellent! Loved it.
May 4th, 2007 at 6:48 pm
amazing.
May 4th, 2007 at 7:21 pm
One of my former students forward your site to me. It is fabulous. Happy Birthday and bEst wishes
May 4th, 2007 at 8:03 pm
Excelente!
May 4th, 2007 at 8:13 pm
Outstanding. Really outstanding.
May 4th, 2007 at 8:26 pm
flipppin’ brilliant. totally inspired. you command your muse, which is usually the cause for concern and midlife crisis at your 40-year milestone. keep on. be great. cheers! silva
May 4th, 2007 at 10:55 pm
Beautiful work
May 5th, 2007 at 1:22 am
That’s one of the few non-pornographic things on the Internet that has genuinely made me gasp with joy.
I wonder, though…how much appropriation as homage is a good thing? I dunno. I’m still skeptical of art that exists in the interstices of other works, though I know it’s been happening since Chaucer first lit a fart…
Still, that’s really fecund territory you’re in. Keep up the goodness.
May 5th, 2007 at 3:34 am
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh man.
That is good!
I can only dare to hope to dream that I might come up with something half as good as this when I turn 40. Which is next year……….
May 5th, 2007 at 6:41 am
if you should accidentally stray in to london i’d feel obliged to buy you a bucket of champagne
May 6th, 2007 at 1:17 am
happy birthday!!!
May 6th, 2007 at 7:02 pm
thanks all….
Funny the character in OMegg who buys the lovers wine is named Tristan.
I might take you up on that london offer some time… been over a decade since I’ve see Waterloo Sunset.
May 8th, 2007 at 11:16 am
really great video, animation, I liked it a lot, good editing, great script planning — you did plan right?
May 9th, 2007 at 1:21 am
not so much plan as make chess moves from one thing to the next.
May 9th, 2007 at 7:47 am
Really excellent – tied in quite a few superficially related works to make a coherent statement! Loved it
May 9th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
I love the drawing over the book thing. What dimension
May 10th, 2007 at 11:57 am
ahh!…the french champagne!!
splendid work.
May 11th, 2007 at 12:15 am
gosh. thanks for the magic pages. and happy birthday.
May 11th, 2007 at 1:57 pm
This is amazing. A work of art. I say this as a fan of Melville, “Moby Dick,” Led Zeppelin, John Bonham, Orson Welles, and art on books. (Not to be confused with books on art, though some of those are quite nice as well.)
Brilliant, from stem to stern.
Happy Birthday, btw.
My favorite previous edition of “Moby Dick” is the one illustrated by Rockwell Kent. I now have another one to admire.
I’m going to read more about you. You intrigue me, sir!
Most sincerely,
Josh
May 14th, 2007 at 8:49 pm
my son, geoff, told me about what you have done…..outstandingly wonderful…..a perfect birthday tribute and i want to see more….happy birthday and then some…..and how do i go about getting a print for my son to use when he teaches Moby Dick and for me to watch the northwest greys get dank and dark.
May 15th, 2007 at 8:00 am
Well one can dowload from Vimeo (there is a little “download” button ond this will give you a quicktime file….
Not very high rez, but good enough for non union work.
as far as Higher Rez versions go, I’m sure we could work out something where in the spermacetti is rendered and put into a mirrored flask,
I mean to say: DVD burn.
May 16th, 2007 at 1:18 am
Alex,
Your art breathes – and despite it’s kicking breath, it has much to say. Whatever surreal shit we got into last night, (You, me, Priya and the Jedi) it was irreverent. Let’s shuffle the deck and deal another.
-Julian Jacobson
May 16th, 2007 at 11:03 pm
Hi!!! Very nice design, by the way!!! I think … What do you think about my?
May 21st, 2007 at 12:15 pm
I think the line between spam and love is small… but then as M.P. says:
Spam spam spam spam spamacetti spam.
May 23rd, 2007 at 1:54 pm
39, 573 gasps. splendid.
May 23rd, 2007 at 2:47 pm
Alex,
Great work! Inspiring.
Welcome to 40.
May 29th, 2007 at 8:15 pm
Your site looks great!!!!!!!!!! Please, look at my
June 11th, 2007 at 10:04 pm
Alex- This is one of my favorite things on the Internet ever. Thank you!
June 17th, 2007 at 5:46 pm
Yay! Beatitudes from a coeval.
June 19th, 2007 at 10:47 am
Absolutely fantastic job! Congratulations!
November 24th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
alex /
your video is really amazing!
happy birthday & best wishes from italia /
November 27th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
Happy belated birthday!
Thank you for sharing that–I did enjoy it quite a bit. Interesting take on Wells and Moby Dick. White I’m not a big fan of either, it was quite fun to sort out the layers and digest the work.
What is your whale? I think when an art is a statement by one artist about another, it is a reflection.
December 15th, 2007 at 12:24 pm
very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
Idetrorce
March 7th, 2009 at 11:56 am
Great blog, I think ill have a go at this, its wordpress isnt it?
March 7th, 2009 at 12:02 pm
IT its