Zub Tales

Never a dull moment in the world of Zub…

Thanks everyone who e-mailed me after the last newsletter. I really appreciated the support, advice and love you guys gave. Some of it was positive, others were negative but ALL of it is incredibly appreciated. I always want to know what people think and their outlook on things. It helps me in so many ways. Thank you.

The days are whizzing by and we’re blasting through October at an incredible rate. I can’t even believe the month is 3/4 over. If this keeps up, I’ll be home for the holidays before I turn around again. Of course, at this rate, the holiday time will rip by just as fast…

It felt great sending a big bouquet of flowers to my Mom on her birthday this year. Last year at this time I didn’t have the finances to do much for her. Now that I’m back on my feet in that respect, it was the right thing to do. She seemed pretty blown away by it, so all is good.

Class is going great and I’m juggling all sorts of events quite well. My friend Mike has set me up a sweet gig at Corus Entertainment’s open house on Wednesday. Corus is the company that bought Cinar animation studio and is poised to buy Nelvana. They’re having an open house at their Calgary office and I’ll be there talking about animation and doing some caricatures of their executives. It’s a great schmoozing opportunity and I’m hoping to make some decent contacts. But, that’s not the big news:

I’m incredibly giddy. I read about a seminar coming up and knew deep down that I HAD to attend it. I busted my ass on a proposal for the school all weekend, hoping that they would dip into their professional development funds and help me pay to attend this thing. It paid off, they’ve agreed and so-

On the weekend of November 4th, I’m headed to LA for three days to attend an animation class taught by Don Bluth! Don Bluth = Secret of NIMH, Dragons Lair, Land Before Time, American Tail! Three days in a class of 60-70 students, taking notes and learning from the master. I can’t wait. I mean, I’ve got a Secret of NIMH poster framed in my room, this guy’s one of my influences!! I’m electrified at the opportunity…

When I booked my ticket to the seminar, Don’s secretary was all impressed that I was flying in from Canada. She remembered my name and said that Don was really looking forward to meeting me because I was making the trek down! Even if I don’t make some strong industry contacts, even if I don’t see LA, it’s a hell of an opportunity to learn about the technique and thought process of this animation great. Very disturbing…it’s a Zub Tale of epic proportion just waiting to be told.

I was talking to some animation friends from TO and it seems like they’re all headed out East to Nova Scotia. Funbag animation studio’s opened a subsidiary called Helix there that’s doing spill work for other studios. They’ve been hiring up people and the opportunity looks great. It’s a bit depressing seeing everyone move farther away (like I’m one to talk) but I am really happy for them. I hope everyone stays in touch.

So, to summarize- life’s a whirlwind and I’m in the midst of it. Thanks again for the responses from everyone. I’ll end off this e-mail with a quote from my boss Bohdan, who’s the master of sarcastic truth and black humor:

“Most of you only have about 75 summers left. Go out and live life!”