Blog ending - New beginning

This blog is ending and being moved over to my official website. Look for me there at peebycartoons.com/welcome

Pacific West Maps - where 'Contours' begins.

The next stage of conquering the world with my ‘Contours’ conceptual abstract paintings has just begun.

That’s after the Mission Viejo Library gallery where my 2-month, one-man show displayed 23 of my acrylics on canvas and before the aforesaid paintings form the basis for the ‘Parkway Gallery' show on the Mission Viejo streets. Segments of 16 of those compositions will make up 32 panels on Crown Valley Parkway and Marguerite Parkway that will be on show for 4 months.

It’s unusual and I’m intrigued how much people or drivers-by will appreciate the splashes of color on the brick plinths in the center island of the separated highways.

Here am I with two panels - segments of Laguna Beach - with Linda at Concept Framing International, Laguna Hills, which is responsible for the presentation and I’m particularly pleased with the job it's done.

The ‘conquering’ part I referred to is at Pacific West Maps, 994 N Main Street, Orange. That’s where my journey into the unknown of the highs and lows of topography begins. Last weekend I collected a map for a future project and was particularly happy that the shop’s Brian wanted to display examples of my art. So all you hikers, bikers, campers, snowboarders, skateboarders, mining engineers, and other interested parties including hangliders & paragliders who are curious about the terrain you’re interested in – my colorful interpretations  (prints) are up on the wall and  modestly priced.

I know that they are effective – shoppers from Costa Mesa immediately noticed Newport Beach and others saw the shapes of Malibu, Beverly Hills and Coachella Valley.

Do you recognize them in the photo? Those on show are all signed, limited-edition Giclée (high quality) prints. And the flare on my wife’s photo, if nothing else, proves there’s glass in the frames!

Cartoonist Ronald Searle, a short tribute

The tribute is to him but naturally I remember how his life affected mine.

He was as well known for his St Trinians characters as he was for surviving the notorious Thai-Burma Railway as a Japanese Prisoner of War. I was to go to Singapore in the 1970s during my business life and saw the Changi cemetery in honor of those who died as a result of the Japanese invasion. It was a sober memory.

He returned from the war weighing 85 lbs complete with some 300 drawings which captured his experiences during his three or more years of incarceration.

Ronald had just had accepted his first St Trinians cartoon when he joined up for the war. Fortunately he was able to return and continue to draw his characters which were deliciously if not correctly transferred to the movies.

I include the Alastair Sim picture not only because I was supposed to look like him in the film  Christmas Carol starring Patrick Stewart which aired on TV recently but because Alastair was brilliant in the St Trinians series.

Yes, that's me - doling out the money in the 1999 movie.

As to the leggy girls - they appeared in a more recent revival of the St Trinians series and are the 'delicious' part I refer to.

Ronald Searle won many awards and his cartoons appeared in magazines on 'both sides of the pond'.

I include his caricature of the Beyond the Fringe crew because they in turn influenced so many later comics and form of humor; not least Monty Python.

Finally, although I understand Ronald wasn't happy with the final result, nevertheless the animated Dick Deadeye which my good friend's company Bill Melendez Productions produced and based on Searle's drawings was considered a triumph by everyone else. 

This particular book, of the animated film which featured Ronald Searle's characters and linked all the Gilbert and Sullivan Operettas I saw nestling in a little shop in a little town outside Sydney, Australia in the 1990s. I regretted to this day that I didn't buy it. But what it did show was how international was the appreciation of Ronald Searle's work.

Now that Ronald's gone to the Great Drawing Board in the Sky I hope he's reunited with all his characters and he will be remembered by his many fans.  I have been one, for years.

Hogmanay, the Royal Opera House …and me

Hogmanay is distinctly Scottish – New Year’s Day when heavily-committed Scotsmen return to their Homeland to get decidedly drunk celebrating the fact.

 It noticeably impacted on me in 1956 when my business colleague at the national Sunday Dispatch newspaper where we worked as lowly clerks said offhandedly ‘So many Scots Guards are heading home for Hogmanay, they need replacements.’

 Doug had recently returned from doing his 2 years National Service in the Welsh Guards. He had for the last 6 months of his tenure been based at the barracks at Bird Cage Walk, London (very near Buckingham Palace). There he discovered another employment – appearing on the stage. Not in ‘Footlights’  or anything to do with entertaining the troops but keeping the audience at the Royal Opera House enraptured.

 A right about turn you might believe and you would be correct but very much in the manner of tradition.

 Ever since Queen Victoria visited the Opera House and saw actors performing as military she said ‘My guardsmen can do better than that!’ And when Queen Victoria made statements like that they were obeyed. And so it came to pass that guardsmen stationed at Bird Cage Walk barracks were entitled to be ‘supernumeraries (supers) in the Covent Garden’s superb operas. Supers – non-speaking parts – ‘the lowest of the low’ – essentially extras for the stage.

 Returning to ‘Civvie Street’ Doug was able to continue his evening contribution to the finer arts and added to his meager Sunday Dispatch salary in the process.

 And so it came to pass that New Year 1957 arrived and so many of the Scots Guards were due northwards for the holiday that there would be a dearth of supernumeraries for the opera Aida. Doug enquired if we of the Sunday Dispatch Circulation department would care to step into the breach and get paid of course. We three: Howden, Putnam and myself agreed. Putnam, short of stature and bearded was advised if stopped at the stage door to say he was in the band. Howden at 6’2” and myself had no other instructions other than turn up – on time.

 No, Sophia Loren was not in the opera, only a film version.

So in the cramped dressing room we were introduced to the roles and payments for the night. If dressed as Egyptian soldiers we would be paid half a guinea (10shillings and sixpence 'old money', 75 cents, US), because of the greasepaint we would need to apply. Ethiopians with more skin visible would be paid 15 shillings and Nubian Slaves, black from top to bottom would be paid one guinea.

 Appropriately chosen we applied the orangey makeup with a sponges from a Victorian ‘po’ (chamber pot) to our face, arms and legs.

 Our role was part of the ‘parade’ which was a feature of Aida. We would take a wooden spear or giant salver plate as part of the parade across the stage – then turn backstage to exchange spears for other weapons and join on the end of the line. Keen eyed members of the audience might notice a person appearing more than once.

 When it was finished we would rush backstage, throw the spears (upright I hasten to add) to the backstage lad who dexterously fielded them – while we rushed to be first in the shower. Nubian slaves would later have the showers to themselves. Their guinea was earned for being longer onstage.

 Having got the taste of Show business, I also appeared in Boris Godunov and Meistersingers holding a banner but Aida was the more frequent opera. Three times more than the others because it ‘lost the least amount of money’ I was told.

 One memorable evening warming up, a guardsman mocked the obvious gayness of one of the male ballet troupe. He in return gave an elegant high kick which hit the guardsman squarely under the chin and knocked him out. One less for the parade and an instant stop to any further mockery.

One day Derek, an-earlier-school colleague thought he saw me on stage of another opera. Could it be? ‘No’, I said ‘I work in the circulation department of the Sunday Dispatch’. ‘My, you have a double’, he said, possibly suspecting my reluctance to admit being a ‘thespian’.

He wasn’t there when the prompter gave us a stage whisper to ‘Turn’. We did, but clearly it was a wrong order because his stage whisper could be heard over the silence throughout the house. I slowly turned back as we all did to see him head in hands having taken his eyes off the score!

Little did I know that it would be another forty years before I would return to 'acting' as a film extra.

Memories…

Sylvia Kristel, Boxing Day and why I never met her.

Boxing Day is a British institution. It follows Christmas Day and dates from the time, ‘Boxes’ or gifts were handed to staff. That may not be the case these days but the British enjoy the day to overcome any excesses of the previous day's celebrations. Nowadays though it’s the first day of the ‘Sales’ and for bargain hunters – another celebration. 

So knowing my American business partner Norman was in town we invited him for dinner. He was single, very much into arm-candy with a vast address book of page 3 girls (so-called nubile young ladies who would bare (most) to be featured on a page 3 tabloid; starlets, playboy bunnies – you get the picture. He wanted to impress us at our thatched cottage in the country and asked if he might bring a special lady. We were happy to add one more for dinner.

He set about convincing her to fly from Rome where she was filming and he would meet her at London’s Heathrow airport. She agreed. He was ecstatic. We would be entertaining Sylvia Kristel – the Dutch born soft porn queen star of Emmanuelle France’s highest-grossing film of all time, (which played at a Paris cinema continuously for 13  years) who had just split from Ian McShane.

 I mentioned her name to my wife. Unsuspectingly, she asked if Sylvia made family films. I concurred, my son and daughter overheard and snickered. As teenagers they knew the name even if my wife didn’t. The stage was set.

 Come Boxing Day, I drove into London to collect Norman and Sylvia. He answered the door and hurriedly blurted ‘It’s not Sylvia, it’s a Playboy bunny, I’ll explain later.” I drove us home wondering when I’d hear the story – how the Playboy Bunny replaced Sylvia in Norman’s affections. When we reached home I hurriedly repeated Norman’s words to my wife and she graciously received our visitors.

 At the sound of our arrival my son and daughter broke records rushing downstairs. Seeing a girlfriend, clearly not Sylvia Kristel they stomped back upstairs until dinner was ready. I thought I detected “Dad’s a liar” but I could have been wrong.

Dinner passed off without incident. After dinner we watched TV, one entertaining program hosted by Barry Norman, film buff/compére featured a visual questionnaire which ironically showed a female’s breast – none of us could imagine whose it was. When it transpired it was Sylvia’s I glanced at Norman quizzically, thinking at least he should know. He looked steadfastly at the screen and wouldn’t return my gaze.

 Not until the next day did I get the full story. Sylvia Kristel did take time out from her filming. She did catch the plane from Rome to London. And Norman did meet her at Heathrow. But she was so ‘out of it’ with drugs and alcohol, Norman was understandably upset and said so. Whereupon Sylvia took umbrage and took off. She headed immediately for Holland where her parents lived. That necessitated Norman hurriedly searching his book of ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ list of ‘charmers’ to make up for Sylvia’s absence.

To this day I think my son thinks it was just a story to impress.

---

Contours Paintings, Mission Viejo Library Gallery...and me.

It's a busy time prior to Christmas and now especially for me to have an exhibition of my work.  I feel honored that the City of Mission Viejo Library invited me to stage a one-man exhibition.

Dru Maurer the Cultural Services Supervisor, staff lady Tina and I put up the pictures, repositioned most of the lighting points and the exhibition commenced on Friday 2nd. It continues until January 26th 2012.

After which 'extracts' of my 23 paintings will appear as panels by the city's roadside, to be displayed for four months from February 2012.

That in itself is an interesting project - finding suitable detail from my compositions that reflect the same dynamic as the original paintings.

All in all a satisfactory end to 2011. If there's any downside to the exhibition it's that it's in a library and since libraries like a quiet surround any 'ooohhs' and 'aaahhs' will have to be silent. But believe me, I can put up with that.

Crime writer Peter James, my wife Pat Silver-Lasky …and me

English author Peter James has just won this year’s U.K. Specsavers ITV3  People’s Bestseller Dagger Award  for Dead man’s Grip voted by the public. He was up against stiff short-listed opposition: David Baldacci, Mark Billingham, Lee Childs and Peter Robinson. My novelist/screenwriter wife Pat Silver-Lasky and I first met Peter at English Horror writer James Herbert’s house in Sussex. When introduced we knew him as being involved in films. We were particularly impressed that he’d been financially involved in William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice starring Al Pacino. So it came as a wonderful surprise to later appreciate that he was an author too, who was building a reputation with his Police Inspector, Roy Grace character.

He writes a ‘mean blog’ and so readers know that he often accompanies the Brighton, U.K. police on drug busts and the like to get first hand information. Peter ‘does the rounds’ with the police for his background.

 Pat fully understands the depth of research that goes into the writing of a character. Many years before with her late husband Jesse Lasky, Jr. she wrote a seven part TV series called The New Breed which featured Leslie Nielsen – out of which sprang a lifetime’s friendship. Pat had the singular experience of being allowed to accompany the LAPD on certain cases, where female police were not yet permitted as she and Jesse built up a dossier of criminal events.

Leslie later found ‘instant’ fame with the farcically-funny Naked Gun franchise.

 Peter James’ workload is outstanding. He writes at least a book a year and accompanies it with book signings around the world. The UK has now read 7 of the Roy Grace series and Peter has a personal cartoon from me for each one since I’ve known him. He features it on his blog and I’m honored that it finds space in a room crowded with awards.  We count him as an extremely good friend and look forward to Dead Man’s Grip.

 Pat meanwhile continues her writing having moved with me, from the UK in 2009. Her Batsford UK Book Screenwriting for the 21^st Century ISBN 0 7134 8833 6, derived from her 7 year London International Film School lecturing tenure has reached Universities in the U.S. including Pepperdine. Her Letters from a Hollywood Mogul is being considered by a Publisher and her latest nod to Hollywood is the novel Ride the Tiger where ‘Murder in Hollywood doesn’t only happen in the movies’ ISN 978 145110188 available from Amazon and Kindle.

 So, for lovers of thrillers look out for both authors: Peter James and Pat Silver-Lasky.