Year in Review: 2019

Hello! It's the end of 2019 and this is my ELEVENTH annual year-in-review post! (See also: 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, and 2009.) This is a self-centric and navel-gazey exercise, but I keep it up because it helps me keep track of my goals, remember what happened each year, and take a moment to say "thank you" for the year.

2019 Accomplishments / Highlights:

• I did three big items from my bucket list this year: I made art pilgrimages to Monet and Frida's homes in Giverny and Coyoacán, and I presented a short film I directed ("Exchange Student") at Annecy! :D

• It was a great career year - my team finished Exchange Student, and I got to see it screen at El Capitan Theater with the other Short Circuit shorts. I learned that the shorts would be released on Disney Plus, and all of the Directors got to go to D-23 to screen them and talk about them. I spent most of 2019 working on something I can't talk about yet that I'm SO excited about! I was named one of Variety's "Top 10 Animators to Watch", and got to go to a swanky Hollywood party with my friend Michael Herrera to celebrate that and rub elbows with other animation folks. I gave a workshop at Gallery Nucleus that had SUCH a great audience, I went to Tennessee for the first time to give a talk and a storyboarding workshop to the passionate students of Tom Bancroft at Lipscomb University, I gave a solo Comic Book Commentary (who knew I could speak uninterrupted for 45 minutes?! I did not), Chris Oatley invited me onto his Visual Storytelling podcast, and I spoke with SyfyWire at Emerald City Comic-Con:

• I Moved to Los Angeles to Work in Animation went back to print soon after its release! Maybe I shouldn't admit this, but that's the first time one of my GN's has gone back to print, so I was thrilled. The book was also nominated for a Ringo Award for Best Non-Fiction Comic Work.

• After book promo stuff died down, I was really good about holding the line and saying "no" to extracurricular commitments, interviews, and side-quests. I desperately needed the time and focus this year to move forward on my next projects.
• I got to go on a nice France trip in June for work as well as for personal travel. I gave a solo talk at the Annecy international animated film festival and that was so awesome!!! People told me they got in line 4 hours early just to get in, and they were so kind and enthusiastic! People were even willing to sit on the floor and wings and stairs to not be turned away! :0 I spoke on a WIA panel and was able to give portfolio reviews with Disney. I finally got to meet one of my Skype WIA mentees, Sarah Vettori, in person. I did a casual meet-up at Café des Arts that turned kind of crazy when more people than I expected showed up. Thank goodness for Jerry Huynh, who jumped right in and helped entertain and manage things. I saw Giverny, rode bikes to Monet's house, went into the Catacombs, and visited Le Fiancé's sweet sweet family in the countryside.

• I made it to Oregon 3 times this year! Le Fiancé and I went on a trip to Cannon Beach in March, plus Portland trips for Thanksgiving and for xmas. Got to see many members of my extended family in Bend as well. It's great to see my friends who still live in Portland; I really love them and I'm glad we've been able to stay close despite the distance.
• I also went to Mexico for the first time! Carrie Liao, Amelia Lorenz, and I spent a long weekend discovering Mexico City and we LOVED IT. I want to go back immediately. The pyramids! The food!! The canals! The crowds! Day of the Dead! Wow!

• Went to SDCC this year with my friend Kellye Perdue, and my brothers flew down to join me!
• Mom came to visit LA and I brought her as my +1 to the Frozen 2 wrap party.
• Le Fiancé's fall visit was great. He was here for Halloween, which is SO much fun with him, and he was here for Thanksgiving in Portland with my family. While he was in town we also finished his visa application, built him a custom wood desk, threw axes, hiked to Pittock Mansion and looked at wedding venues in the woods, went on a distillery tour and a triple winery tour, and visited the good folks at Helioscope Studio.

• I unfollowed everyone on Twitter, so I can still use it to post my art, but I don't have the compulsion to scroll through the feed. I spend much less time on it now, and I think it's helping me feel happier.
• I started streaming on Twitch and I'm having fun! 
• Got my blue "verified" badge on Instagram!

• I was proactive with friends this year, and I especially enjoyed a Halloween double-feature movie night I hosted (The Craft, Lost Boys) with home-mulled wine and spiced cider.
• I found time to read several new (to me) books this year: The Picture of Dorian Gray, Bulle de suif, Save the Cat, Pride & Prejudice, The Bluest Eye, Au Bonheur des ogres, Morphology of the Folktale, and Screenwriting: the Sequence Approach

• I've kept my expenses low even though my salary has increased over the past few years (roommates, wink!). This year, I lived off of 30% of my post-tax income and put the rest in savings! :0 That feels good. I would like to own a house and/or retire someday.
• I was way over-taxed in 2018 and I got a big tax refund HAYYY
• The first Lightbox Expo was great! That promises to be a strong new tentpole event in the LA animation industry. I sold out of books and walked around for half of Sunday just admiring the other tables.
• After 4 years of freezing every day at work (in LOS ANGELES! In the SUMMER!), I finally procured time with the mystical, elusive AC man and convinced him to shut off the AC valve in my office. VICTORY!

2019 Shortcomings / Lowlights:

• They moved me to a new office a couple of months later. Booooo.
• Waiting on visas suuuuuuuucks. We have a good lawyer, but it's a ton of paperwork and money and uncertainty. We just want to get on with our lives, TOGETHER.
• I'm house-crazy and I can't afford anything. I don't know when/if I'll be able to afford something in a city where I can work in animation.
• I still have TMJ, but now I have braces, too. Ha ha. They come off in January, looking forward to that.
• I still have back pain off and on. :-/
• One of my roommates moved out and I miss him!

What Did We Learn?

• So...presenting a short at Annecy has been on my bucket list since 2014, and it was INCREDIBLE to have the privilege of doing that this year! But...I thought it would feel better than it did? I saw so many objectively better shorts than mine that week, and I saw how incredibly niche our little world is. Even in this tiny world of animation, so many people had no idea what we were up to at Disney. Most people had lovely things to say about Exchange Student, but I also got critical feedback on the short, some of it legitimate and some of it just dumb lobs aimed at Disney in general. I think it was just a good reminder for me not to let myself be ruled by external validation. I wrote on the back of my office door in big sharpie letters: "Don't chase gold stars from other people. Make stuff YOU think is good."

• At home over the holidays, my parents pulled out family videos that I had never seen before - them as young parents with baby-me! HONESTLY, this made me understand a lot more why people would want to have kids??? I've been ambivilant about it, leaning towards not having them, but this tipped the scales a bit the other direction. Mom and Dad just looked so happy (and hey, it was very nice seeing how much they loved me), not like the poop-covered, underslept, bickering trainwreck that I imagine parenthood being. It was fascinating how quickly babies grow and learn! :0 I was shocked how much just watching those old family videos with my parents changed my perspective on parenthood.
• I got some very practical convention-life advice from another exhibitor at Lightbox, and I think I agree with her philosophy. She believes that merchandise has a 2-year shelf-life. If it sells out before 2 years, you can go ahead and order some more (still aiming to sell out at the 2-year mark). If it sells out around 2 years, congratulations, you ordered the perfect amount and you don't need to buy more. If it doesn't sell out after 2 years, don't mark down the price. Just take it off your table and make room for more recent art that better represents you NOW. You can liquidate the old merch online, give it to friends, etc., but don't keep straggler merch on your table.
• I really miss having animals in the house and spending time around animal-friends. :,( 

• I found Natalie Lue's Baggage Reclaim podcast episode on "Jealousy & Envy in Friendships" EXTREMELY helpful. I've posted before about professional jealousy. Envy is absolutely the deadly sin that I relate to the most. I liked Natalie Lue's reframing of envy as a teacher, which tips us off to things that we didn't know we wanted, or things we think deep down we are supposed to have by this point in our lives. I have absolutely been envious of people for things that I don't even want, just because they seem so happy knowing what they want. Anyway, I felt like 2 hours of listening to this podcast untangled a LOT for me.
• That meet-up I organized at Cafe des Arts in Annecy this year was a learning experience. I organized identical meet-ups in 2014 and 2016, and 3-5 people showed up, so I was expecting maybe 10 this time? Well, we had 40 or 50 people show up! It was a BLESSING and I loved meeting everybody, but we really confused/crowded the restaurant and it was hard to talk to everybody. I felt bad for the restaurant and I felt responsible for people having a good time. I believe that when someone organizes an event, or manages a website or a fandom or whatever, it's their responsibility to keep things safe and respectful for the group, and I could have done better with this event. In the future, if I don't know how many people are coming, I'll probably do it somewhere more suitable like a picnic on the lakeside lawn.

Goals for 2020: 

• Get le Fiancé over the the US! Plan a wedding! :0
• Do a big roadtrip around the American southwest
• Do a good job at work on (exciting thing I can't talk about yet)
• Thanksgiving - maybe travel with Le Fiancé? Japan? Mexico? National Park? Think ahead of holidays, try to book trips earlier this year.
• Keep studying film theory, watching classic movies and movies from lots of different cultures / perspectives, hosting movie nights and making it more fun/social
• Go to the gym after work, or swimming before work, at least 2x/week
• Stretch every day
• Write something every day
• Start fostering kittens
• Schedule all the medical checkups I need, plan ahead (I haven't been to the eye doctor in 5 years. Adulting is hard!)
• Find a new counselor / therapist who specializes in career counseling, stress, & anxiety. Preferably one who doesn't believe in crystals (or god, tbh).
• Self-Care Sundays: I won't make plans or commit to anything on Sundays. I will get my chores done on Saturdays, save Sundays for myself, and do whatever I feel like when Sunday rolls around.
• Schedule more lunches with friends / people I want to know better in animation
• Finish the first draft of my next GN (!)
• Do Inktober again! Break the rules, pick a theme that's fun for me, draw 30 finished colored pieces (5x7") and frame them to sell at the Disney holiday craft fair in December

Notable Media:
Films: Do the Right Thing, Parasite, Knives Out, Trainspotting, The Favorite, Cleo from 5-7, Us, About Time, Virgin Spring, My Fair Lady, Peau d'Ane, The Taste of Tea, Moonlight, Jojo Rabbit, J'ai perdu mon corps, Raising Arizona (somehow I'd never seen it before!), Cyrano de Bergerac with Depardieu

TV shows: Killing Eve, His Dark Materials, Fleabag season 2, the end of Broad City, Russian Doll, Derry Girls, Mrs. Maisel season 3, One Day at a Time, Salt Fat Acid Heat, Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, The Good Place, the Matt Smith Doctor Who episodes, Love Death and Robots, Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Shorts: Kitbull, Perl, Inocente, Acid Rain, Fille dans le Couloir, Je sors acheter des cigarettes, La chanson de l'elephant, Memorable, Mimi, Nuit cherie, Per aspera Ad Astra, Symbiosis, Toomas dans la vallee des loups sauvages

Favorite Memes / Jokes / Whatever :
The #1 most quoted piece of media in our household this year: "It's an EMU"
kn0nker: Lion King animation
Jack Bensinger: "took a picture of myself every day for 10 years"
Ayla Kirstine: running like a horse
Lewis Vaughan Jones: Drone runs out of battery over a lake
al.nesta: "you're not weird for liking anime as a kid"
Whoever mashed the headbanging dog video with "Jump Around"
zachrecker: squirrel TikTok
Pretty much every Gritty meme
McVaporwave: "Ash minding his own business"
thechrispycream: "JEANS"
TikTok has just been giving me life this year. Thank you, TikTok.

 

Year In Review: 2016

(Before the post, here's a little New Year gift: I made my latest sketchbook PDF available as a pay-what-you-want digital download! Check it out here!)

Hello! 2016 is over and this is my annual year-in-review post (see also: 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, and 2009). I admit that this is a self-centric and navel-gazey exercise, but it helps me to keep track of my goals and remember what happened each year, so I want to continue doing it.

2016 Accomplishments / Highlights:
-Celebrated my 1-year anniversary at Disney, storyboarding on feature films. :) I got to work with and meet some amazing people this year!!!! My apprenticeship ended in October and I got extended/promoted to "story assistant"!
-At Disney, I had incredible mentors and I got to do regular figure drawing, attend lectures and screenings, take complimentary film classes, and access a big film/book library. It's like the art school I never had! ❤

-I finished drawing a 96-page graphic novel!!! My last GN came out in 2013, so I am really happy to have a new one this year. The book is for major French publisher Le Lombard, and having a book out in the French market will be a first for me! :D
-Survived my first year in Los Angeles. Made some more friends, found some places I liked going and things I liked doing. It is not my favorite city in the world, and I haven't really found where I fit in here yet...but it is huge and there is a lot of good when I go out and look for it.
-Read 3 novels in French (Anansi Boys, La Passe-Miroir livres 1 &2)
-My French s.o. uprooted his life for 3 months and came to live with me in LA. We packed our weekends with travels and new experiences around LA like the Vasquez Rocks, Malibu, and the Moana wrap party.
-Attended the Annecy International Animated Film Festival! Got to see a lot of French friends and watch amazing animation from all over the world! :)
-Spoke on a Disney panel at San Diego Comic-Con about comics & storyboarding! What an honor to be included in that. A couple of people came up after the talk to say that they used to visit me at comic conventions and still follow my work now even though I'm in an animation studio and not publishing so many comics, and...it was just the nicest thing to hear :,)
-Volunteered at the Disney booth at CTNX
-Attended Comic Arts LA for the first time. Amazing show!!
-Watched 3 of my best friends tie the knot in Oregon this summer (n-not all to each other......you get it)
-Published a digital sketchbook with a ton of life drawings

 -Drove 7 hours up to San Francisco, spent time with Laurel and her lovely family, visited Pixar, hiked in the Muir Woods, and enjoyed the city (it is a very good city)
-Hosted couch surfers for the first time, as well as several friends visiting LA. I used couch surfing a LOT while I was traveling in Europe, and I've wanted to pay it forward ever since, so that felt really good. :) Got to meet some cool people and show them my city!
-I HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE THROUGH MY EMPLOYER FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER *cries* I am really worried about freelance artists insured through the ACA, and feeling very grateful for my own situation this year. :-/

2016 Shortcomings / Unfortunate Events:  
-Syria
-The US presidential election
-DAPL
-Brock Turner
-Brexit
-...Why am I trying to type it all out? 2016 was an enormous dumpster fire.
-2016

On a personal level...
-We lost my Grandma Cay this year.
-I broke up with said French s.o. due to the distance, even though we like each other very much.

-Turned into a smelly hermit in December while rushing to meet my book deadline. Spent most of my weekends and weeknights for the last year working on my second job instead of being social or taking care of myself.
-Had a long dental fillings session without anesthesia (because I arrived late. Don't do that.)

 

2017 Goals:   
-Do a great job at Disney, hopefully transition from a "story assistant" to a "story artist"
-Use my car to take weekend trips out of LA more often. I've never seen the Grand Canyon, for starters, and it's not that far from here.

-Make a (*secret project*) with Ben & Terry...!
-Move into an apartment with buddies, get more space and pay lower rent per person. Living alone for the first time ever was a good experiment. There are things I like about it, but I find myself missing roommates...!
-Host/organize more shindigs/outings. If I want to do something, plan it, invite people, and make it happen.
-Set up an automatic weekly deposit to a savings account for possibly buying a house someday (!?!?!?). Neeeeever had that thought before this year, but hey what do you know I think I want (at least the option) to buy a house someday.
-Work out 2-3 times/week & stretch every day. Try to walk to the grocery store instead of drive.

-See a counselor for the first time. I've been sad for months for a variety of reasons, and it's time to ask for help. (It's scary to admit that!)
-Turn down work for hire in 2017; save my nights and weekends for decompressing, taking care of myself, seeing friends, discovering LA, and drawing what I WANT to draw
-Learn how to broadcast on Twitch, try live-drawing

-Exhibit at CALA, maybe CTNX with a new minicomic this fall
(-Make a new minicomic)
-Complete Steve Ahn's action/adventure storyboarding online class!
-Take a French class at the AF de LA and do the weekly exercises on TV5monde

-Use my zoo membership
-Attend the Women's March in Los Angeles
-Go to an Animation Guild meeting for the first time
-Attend a city council meeting for the first time
-Find a volunteering opportunity that fits me
-Plan my next big trip and start saving up for it. I don't know when it's going to be possible, or even where I want to go. I've daydreamed about everywhere from Berlin to Madagascar to Havana to Japan to the Camino de Santiago. But travel is important to me and I'd like to have something on the horizon. :)

What did we learn?
-I have to do a lot more than vote, talk to like-minded friends, and retweet articles if leadership / policy in the US matters to me
-Storyboarding full-time and drawing a graphic novel with a hard deadline don't mix well. I think that, going forward, comic projects are going to need to be either A) very short or B) have no deadline

-I prefer living with roommates to having my own place
-I should absolutely live with roommates when I move to a new city, to be around other people in the beginning when I don't have a social life yet
-Don't show up late to the dentist on filling day
  
Final thoughts / miscellany:
-Fav things I saw this year: The Boy & The World, Stranger Things, Westworld, BoJack Horseman season 3 (that underwater episode!), Keanu, Selma, Luke Cage, Les Dissociés, Gravity Falls (I was very late to the party), Zootopia, Moana, Arrival, Paper Moon, and The Birds (even later to the party)

-HAMILTONNNNN (I haven't seen it; I just listen the soundtrack on Spotify. But still.)
-Fave podcasts to listen to while I work: This American Life, How Did This Get Made, Alice Isn't Dead, My Favorite Murder, Keepin it 1600

Annecy International Animated Film Festival 2016

Hey all, happy summer!
The International Animated Film Festival took place last week in Annecy, and yours truly got to attend!! (You can check out my blog post from the 2014 festival here).

The big difference for me this year was that my new cell plan allows me to use data abroad at no additional cost, so I was online and able to use the festival's official app to book screenings and keep track of my schedule throughout the day -- I absolutely loved it.  I spent barely any time in lines, wondering if I would get into a screening.  If I heard about something interesting while I was out, I could check and book a seat right then and there.

I spent most of the week hanging out with Boulet, Cy, and Erwann Surcouf. Boulet reviewed the festival with comics in 2014 and 2015, and this year Cy and Erwann were splitting review duties (Cy's comics are on her site, and you can read Erwann's in his twitter feed).

It was AWESOME to hear people talking after the Disney panel on Friday!  Brand-new animation was screened from Moana (titled "Vaiana" in a lot of European countries), as well as the new short film Inner Workings, which will screen before Moana in theaters this November.  Leo Matsuda's artwork is SO funny and charming; I was really happy to see his art style translated into a distinct look for the short and to see some creative integration of 2D animation in a 3D film.

Check out the beautiful new Moana/Vaiana poster released at the festival!

I loved having "Walt Disney Animation Studios" written on my badge (!!), but I was at the festival of my own volition, as a fan.  I wasn't working and I was free to walk around and do whatever I felt like. :)

One of my missions for the week was to pick up a BUNCH of new French comics.  I finally got my own copies of Fanfare and Transat by Aude Picault, and about a dozen other books. ^^ I spent a lot of time at BD Fugue and Momie/9eme Quai.

One thing the festival impressed upon me was the lack of non-commercial animation coming out of the US.  We don't seem to have the funding/grants/residencies/support for independent animation that a lot of other countries have.  There were strong American feature films, TV episodes, and commercial shorts at the festival, but very little experimental stuff from the US (The Dancing Line by Shelley Dodson was one fun exception).

Now I'm going to take the rest of this post to share links to the animations I thought were original or I really liked from the festival. I hope you find them interesting and inspiring! Some of these don't have links, or they only link to a trailer...because a lot of them are not online yet. :-/ You may be able to find them in a few months or next year if you search for them.

Here is the "Partners" trailer film which opened every screening:

And here are the 5 Gobelins films that also screened before screenings.  The theme of the 2016 festival was "France", so these shorts are particularly French-themed!  If I understood correctly, next year's festival will be about "China", so we have that to look forward to. :)

From special event screenings:
La Tortue rouge
Nerdland

Short films from the closing ceremony:
The Inspector and the Umbrella
Hootchu
Machine by Anna Vasof:

Remote by Andrew Lavery and Mathew Rees:


Shorts in competition:
Peripheria (This was my favorite film from the festival!)
Vaysha, l'aveugle
Stems by Ainslie Henderson
Il etait 3 fois
Decorado
La Soupe au caillou
Before Love
'n Gewone blou Maandagoggend
Le Bruit du gris
Babustempelstrasse
Mamie by Janice Nadeau
The Dancing Line by Shelley Dodson
Beer by Nerdo
Piano by Kaspar Jancis
Gaidot Jauno gadu
Waves '98
La Chambre vide
Linnugripp
A Coat Made Dark

Out of competition short films:
Ono by Genadzi Buto
Corpus by Marc Hericher
Trial & Error by Antje Heyn
Jailbreak by Aaron Sorenson (another favorite!)
Le futur sera chauve
Loss by YiZhao
Branded Dreams by Studio Smack
Three Little Ninjas Delivery Service
The Crossing by Marieka Walsh
Tres moscas a medida
Dota by Petra Zlonoga

Films for Television:
Les Animaux domestiques"Le Chien"

Commercial films:
Dan Deacon When I Was Done Dying
A.A. World Services, Inc. "Doors"
The Ethical Dilemma of Self-driving Cars
The New York Times "Modern Love - A Kiss Deferred"
Private Parts by Anna Ginsburg
Run the Jewels "Meowpurrdy"
James "To My Surprise" (another favorite!)
Barriers "Girl Effect"
A Self Compassion Exercise
De Staat "Witch Doctor"

Aaaand a few things I didn't see myself, but really want to see based on what I heard:
La Jeune Fille sans mains
Window Horses
Ma vie de Courgette
Moms on Fire

Annecy Film Festival

I had the immense pleasure of attending the Annecy Film Festival last month.  Le boyfriend was an invited guest, and I was lucky enough to tag along with a guest badge and my hotel costs covered.

The festival runs for 6 days and it's too immense to see everything, let alone blog about each aspect with the attention it deserves, so I'm just going to run through a few of my personal highlights from my first (and hopefully not last!) time at this amazing festival.  I linked to everything I could find online.  I really hope you get a chance to see all of these films!

My absolute favorites were almost all from the Shorts in Competition category:
The Dam Keeper - Do not miss this short film.  Everything about it is delightful and touching and tasteful.  It will give you ALL the feels.  Bonus: it's quite possibly the most beautiful digital animation I've ever seen; the lighting and textures give it the feel of Pixar's digital concept art.
Hasta Santiago - I got a little teary in this one.  Really nice traveler's story
Tempête sur anorak - what my French friends would call "hysterical".  They don't mean it as a compliment, but I do.  This film is fun and crazy.

Don't Hug Me I'm Scared 2 "Time"
Savages "Marshal Dear"
Timber - Cute animation and a horrifying story.  It walks that perfect line between comedy and sheer horror that has you bursting into shock-laughter.
Le Bien Chasser "Derrick et la Grosse Peche"
Les Kassos - This series shows beloved fictional characters revealing their major issues at the desk of a social worker
La Buche de Noel
La Faillite
Man on the Chair
La Petite Casserole d'Anatole
Cheatin' - the new Bill Plympton feature film
Moulton og meg
Grace Under Water
Histoires de bus
Rainy Days
Le Sens du toucher - Romantic!
The Missing Scarf

There were also a number of commercial shorts that I really liked.  Even if they were advertisements, and maybe more mainstream / derivative than the short films in competition, they often had REALLY high production values (no doubt from those sweet, sweet commercial budgets), plus more straightforward/logical stories.
The Lanskies "48 Hours"
Alber Elbaz Puts on a Show for Lancome!
La Guillotine
Sour "Life Is Music"
Doc Meets Dorf "Title Sequence"
Peau "Instant T"
Biomasse
The Paper Kites "Young"
China, IL "Get Your Ass Back to School!"
Aldebert "Les Amoureux"
Phantom Limb - I actually saw this aaaafter the festival online, but it's great!  And I'm amazed that it was animated in Photoshop....it REALLY makes me want to try making my own short film.
Poom "Big Bang"

I got to see the The Tale of Princess Kaguya with members of Studio Ghibli, including Takahata, in attendance just two rows in front of us (!!!).  I heard a lot of disappointment from people after the movie, but the more I think about it the more I like it.  I think the original tale is very strange, and has some weird messages, and Ghibli made a great adaptation given that material.  It's funny how I knew the story, but I couldn't help hoping for a happy ending.  It's like walking into Romeo and Juliet; you can't help but hope somehow, this time, things are going to work out differently, and the ending is always painful!
I loved the way that the "penciled" art style lent itself to certain scenes and moods.  And I LOVED the character of Kaguya.  It was incredible watching such an in-depth coming-of-age story for a young woman.  I particularly liked her battle against her female mentor, the scene after her menarche, and her complex relationship with societal norms and her own impulses.  She developed a lot of different kinds of strength throughout her life, and I really liked the way that she was able to use formality/customs to her advantage and outwit her suitors.

I also got to see The Wind Rises, which I'd been putting off because I wanted everything to be just right when I watched what might be my last new Miyazaki movie.  I was afraid to watch it in France, because there would be a Japanese language track and French subtitles, and I didn't want to miss anything.  That turned out to be fine!  Between my rusty Japanese, my intermediate French, and the movie's clear storytelling, it wasn't confusing.  I also knew I would have MAJOR FEELS, and wasn't sure I wanted to watch the movie in public.  That...turned out to be accurate.  I was sobbing at the end, and went back to the hotel to clean my mascara off of my chin before the next screening.  Guh, so good but SO SAD.

There are movies projected on the giant lawn next to Lake Annecy each night, and whether or not you have a pass for the festival you can go and have a great time.  We watched Paranorman (dubbed in French lololol) with little picnic snacks and loved it.  Bonus: there was a dry summer thunderstorm at the same time there was thunder and lightning in the movie!

One movie we missed that I want to make sure to see in the future is Boy and the World.  I heard nothing but good things and I love the artwork I've seen from it.

Monkeybrain Comics publishing my Amsterdam sketchbook! Also, meet me this summer in Spain, France, or New York!

WEDNESDAY JUNE 4 -- Monkeybrain Comics is publishing a 19-page collection of my sketches from Amsterdam!  Life drawings, doodles, and comics, all completed while on the trip, in one clean digital comic file.  If you like process and sketchbooks, I think you'll enjoy this.

Yes, the cover for this digital release is where my new banner for the blog came from! ^_^

Meet me in Spain, France, or New York!
I have quite a bit of travel ahead of me, and I wanted to list it out for any readers who might be interested in a meet-up in one of these cities.  I'll try to go to cafes (and maybe bars) to life draw in each city, and give some warning on Twitter before I do.  If you'd like to join me and chat or draw, I hope you will!

June 6-8 Amiens, FRANCE (I’m a guest at the BD festival, but I’ll be around town in the evenings)
June 9-14 Annecy, FRANCE (I’m attending the Film Festival, but should have lots of free time)
June 28-29 Granada, SPAIN
June 30-July 1 Madrid, SPAIN
July 2-4 Barcelona, SPAIN
July 16-21 New York City, USA

What's new?
I had a really nice mention on the Forbidden Planet blog last week.

I animated a thing I was very happy with.

Recently I've had a flurry of meet-ups with friends and readers in Paris.  It's been really fun!  I met a couple of American backpackers on their gap year in the Tuileries Garden for a picnic and a long talk about traveling in Europe.  A reader living in France introduced me to a fun bar with French slam poetry in Belleville.  My sorority sister Kayla and friend Alyssa are on a big Eurotrip together and we met up for dinner and drinks near the St-Martin Canal.  Author Isabelle Bauthian met me for a drink and a nice talk about language, comics, and American vs French styles of acting.

I was also lucky enough to attend my first two French concerts last month.  Both venues were beautiful, old concert halls with chandeliers and decorated ceilings.  And both had seating for this old fogey!  People stood up near the front, but it was possible to enjoy the show (and my drink) from a seat.
Manu, previously of Dolly, played an intimate show at the Resevoir.  She performed new material (including a song in Japanese off of her new album!!), but also a lot of big hits from Dolly.  I even knew some of them, thanks to Nico introducing me to the band back in January. 
I also got to see Renan Luce in concert at the Trianon.  We got to sit in the center of the balcony.  This show was really fun--Renan's music is playful, and I like trying to follow the stories he's telling.  Check out La Boite if you haven't yet!

I took the B2 DELF exam this month and that was...interesting.  The 2.5 hour written exam felt fine, actually, but the oral exam was terrifying.  We had 30 minutes to read an article and draft an argumentative speech meant to last 10 minutes.  I only had my introduction and bulletpoints for the rest of my speech when we ran out of time and had to go off to our examiners. @__@ I'll find out July 8 whether or not I passed; fingers crossed!

 I went to the Arts & Metiers museum for the first time last week.  It's free every Thursday night!  The museum is dedicated to scientific tools from the 1750s to the present (everything from telescopes to looms to computers).  I love the way the instruments are presented as artwork in addition to their scientific context.  Recommended!

I got to visit another French cartoonist studio in May.  That's such a pleasure for me--I love seeing how people work, especially groups of cartoonists.  It's surprising how much we all have in common!  This studio houses a lot of cartoonists I admire, and I felt a little like I was walking on hallowed ground.  I drew a little but I mostly walked around admiring the space. :)

I got to attend the Paris premiere of Godzilla with Boulet at the Grand REX Theater, and we made reaction comics after. :) On my movie review blog, I posted about 10 new reviews in the last 3 weeks for readers who requested movies for me.

I visited Bois de Vincennes again with some friends for a picnic.  It was PACKED; I couldn't believe it.  My friend Emilie took us back into downtown Paris on foot via La Coulée Verte: a 4.7km long park built on top of an obsolete elevated train track.  VERY pretty and a nice, green break from downtown.

Last but not least, I attended the Other Writers' Group at Shakespeare & Co last night, and that was a great time.  About 20 English-language authors met to share works-in-progress and give each other rigorous constructive feedback.  I couldn't believe the meeting really took place in the picturesque second-story front room over the bookstore.  Well worth the 6 Euros, and I'm sure I'll be back.  Maybe with print-outs of my next comic if I'm feeling brave!