Jacob's Semi-Yearly Year's End Review of the Year- 2011

Here we are at the end of another year.  In what seems to be a a pattern, this was a weird year.  As per tradition, let's take a look back at the highlights, lowlights, and in-betweenlights.

2011 started with a mix of excitement and exhaustion after the recent completion of Four Tanks and a Healer.  I took a brief rest, then shifted back into work mode and finished animating The Girl and the Ghost while Marisa and Larry had some big meetings in LA about Four Tanks.

Following completion of the animation for Ghost, I laid low for a while and let myself decompress a bit.

After a long, rainy spring that lasted into the summer, in late June, I took a trip to Niagara Falls and met Teal Sherer.  We spent a few days hanging out, saw Chantal play at Jackson-Triggs and just had a great time.

Sadly, the vacation ended with me getting sick and it took me until the end of July to feel back to normal.

At the end of August, I was ready to donate again, so I went and got my hair chopped.

In September, Mom was out of commission with an infection in her finger and took most of the month to recover.  Before the month was over, Mom was back on track and we took an interesting trip to Toronto, which I still need to blog about.

In October, nearly a year after its completion, Four Tanks and a Healer premiered at TheOneRing.net and received very positive reactions.

In November, Bridget, Mom, and I saw Marketa Irglova in an amazing, intimate concert.  Still need to blog about that one too.

This strangely rainy December saw the release of a great holiday video Teal came up with.  I was happy to have been involved, even if I only lent a small hand.

http://youtu.be/6ZnxWz3NAY4?hd=1

Christmas, though snowless, was nice.  I loved watching Matthew experience the magic and fun of it all.

Overall, 2011 was a slow year that flew by.  It was also, as most years are, a year filled with change.
One big change is that 4Reelz now consists of just Marisa and me, as Larry left to start his own company, Eddy Spaghetti Productions.  I'm sure we'll still team up on plenty of stuff though.

Another notable change is that Matthew has grown from this little guy...

...into this less-little guy.

Entertainment-wise, I'd say it was a decent year.  A brief rundown of what entertained me this year...

Movies:
The Muppets
Super 8
Thor
Captain America
Hugo
Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Music:
Marketa Irglova- Anar
Anna Nalick- Broken Doll & Odds & Ends
Billy the Kid & The Southside Boys- Ours
and even though it wasn't actually released this year, Jenny Owen Youngs- Transmitter Failure, which features probably my most listened-to song of the year, Last Person.

http://youtu.be/vLsV1IWB8nY?hd=1

I don't want to risk jinxing anything, but I have to say, the coming year is looking like it could be pretty outstanding.
In the next few weeks, music and sound effects for The Girl and the Ghost will be done and this seemingly endless project will finally be finished.
Things are in motion for my next project, currently titled Waiting for the Sun, to really get moving.  Fingers crossed, this one could be a dream project.
And without giving anything away just yet, if all goes well, the coming summer could include a trip out west...
Also coming up in 2012, my 30th birthday the release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, and who knows what else?

Here's hoping 2012 is full of happiness, health, love, and success for all of us.  Happy New Year, everyone!

Music! Merchandise! Mystery! And Me Without a Brown Trenchcoat. And a Fedora.

It's been a little while since I've been excited about upcoming music, probably since the release of Chantal's Ghost Stories back in August, which, incidentally, is finally being released here in the States in May. Moving on to music I don't already have, Andrea Corr's solo debut, Ten Feet High, is coming out in June.
There's a musician out of New Jersey I've been following on MySpace for a while now, her name is Jenny Owen Youngs. She just signed with Nettwerk Records and her debut release, Batten the Hatches, is set for April 10th. I have her EP's and love her sound, I'm really looking forward to picking that album up.

After Corey recommended it, I signed up and created an account for myself on Virb.com. It's basically a new networking site like MySpace, but not. I uploaded the animated shorts and Sex Love and Honey there yesterday and they've actually already featured the latter on their video page. How cool is that? It's a huge kick having people enjoy something you worked on like that. It's a cool site though, very music-centric, check it out.

The weather was nice again today, hovering around 60, though a bit overcast. I did some running around with Mom and did a bit of shopping to satisfy my nerdy tendencies. I got the Justice League Unlimited: Season 2 DVD set, a bunch of geekily magnificent DC Comics figures (including the excellent new Darkseid figure), and, on a less geeky note, Joshua Radin's CD, We Were Here.

As we left Best Buy, I spotted something that struck me as odd. Canada geese aren't foreign to me by any means, but they've always either been on the ground, flying through the air, or floating on the water when I've seen them. Not today. As Mom and I drove past Bakers Square, I saw a lone goose perched up on top of the building, just looking out over everything below him like the king of all geese. I wish I would have thought to snap a picture before we were too far away.

After shopping was done, Mom and I set out on a rescue mission. Dad's been having trouble with his truck these past few days, today he called from the lot when he noticed he was leaking transmission fluid. We picked some up and delivered it to him, before following him home to make sure he made it all the way.

We were all hungry, so the three of us went to Denny's for the first time in months. It was a bit iffy last time, everything just tasted...off, but it was much better this time. As we were getting ready to leave, we bumped into our old neighbor from across the street, Elise. I hadn't seen her in years, so it was cool to chit chat and catch up a little.

While there, I realized I may have watched too much Veronica Mars when I had my own little Mars moment. As we ate, a man came in and seemed quite perturbed when he was seated at the front of the restaurant. He asked for a table in the back room, but was told they couldn't do that, as they only had one server working. His frustration caught my attention.
Wow. Guess I'm an eavesdropper.
Anyway, he held off on ordering as he was waiting for someone. "Ooh, this guy's having an affair!" I joked to myself. Sure enough, a woman showed up a few minutes later. They seemed familiar with each other, but there was still a sort of awkwardness between them.
Is Denny's an acceptable dating destination for a pair of middle-aged folks? It seems like more of an under-the-radar meeting place, especially with the persistence to be in the back room. Now that I think about it, they did both seem a bit overdressed for Denny's.
Yeah, it's mostly speculation and none of my business whatsoever, but that little rendez-vous intrigued me.

Ahh. To be a Private Eye.