America Rock (1976)

This little ditty has been stuck in my head for the few days.



Taxation without representation is still a bit of a thing.



Maybe I'm just a wistful, first-generation American. There's great promise here and we can do this, together.

AUTOMANIA 2000 (Halas & Batchelor, 1963)

From IMDB.com...
An animated, dark satire of America's automobile-obsessed, consumerist culture. An anonymous, brilliant scientist toils tirelessly in his ivory tower satisfying the public's ever-increasing demands for novelty and status consciousness, with predictable environmental consequences.

- Written by Leo L. Schwab {ewhac@best.com}

June Foray (1917-2017)

God Speed Rocky!

What could have been

"An artificial intelligence system being developed at Facebook has created its own language. It developed a system of code words to make communication more efficient. The researchers shut the system down as it prompted concerns we could lose control of AI."

The 2016 Academy Award Nominated and Winning Animated Shorts!

Blind Vaysha by Theodore Ushev




Borrowed Time by Andrew Coats and Lou Hamou-Lhadj




Pear Cider and Cigarettes by Robert Valley




Pearl by Patrick Osborne




And the winner is...

Piper by Alan Barillaro

Alike (2016)

Also from the same co-director, a decade earlier!

What we do is what we do

So, you've never been to an Anime Hell show? Well, I slapped together a playlist of some of our more popular videos. When I say "popular", I mean stuff we've shown. This is--by no means--a complete list, but it might give you some a feel for what's in store for you if you come to one of the Texas shows.

Of course, no two shows are alike. We're always finding new things, pruning here, planting there, changing the order...

And it's not like this is some kind of DIY Anime Hell kit, even if you try to use it as such. You have to work with a convention to get a room, round up prizes, get some candy, be aware of your time limitations, buy some kazoos, heard some cats, sacrifice a black goat under a full moon, etc. The usual.

One thing I've always loved about the Texas shows is the audience participation. Contests! Sing-a-longs! Hell, even you guys just shouting random stuff from the dark. Our shows wouldn't be anything without you. Take away the audience and we're just...a playlist. We can't stay static because that kind of thing gets boring pretty quickly. Heck, if we play the same things all the time, why bother coming to a live show?

I was talking to Dave about this a while back. The Texas shows are so unlike any of the others due to the contests, and there was that whole thing with Danno dying in 2015, and maybe it's time to retire Anime Hell in Texas. Danno pretty much was Anime Hell and doing a show under that name almost feels like trying to make a marionette out of a corpse.

But there's still the audience. We still want to give you guys a good time and a place to have fun and cut loose and yell silly things at silly videos while we throw candy at you.

So, this year, our 17th at Anime Fest, we're going to retire the name "Anime Hell" for what we do in Texas. Like a jersey number, we're going to pack that away and try a new name that really reflects what we do.

We're going to officially become Otaku Hell.

And I think that better reflects how we do things. "Anime Hell" is something you watch, but "Otaku Hell" is something you are.

It's still a show of fun video, fun contests, and fun times. You're still going to laugh or recoil in horror or scratch your head and ask WTF but you're still going to be the best audience in the world.

And, going through some archives, I think Danno would agree.

Twin Peaks bento box

Thanks to the lovely Shaindle for finding this!

Raymond (2010)

Live your dreams, Raymond.

Tibs (2015)

Just spending a relaxing Sunday afternoon with the kitties....

Hevisaurus (Finland)

Here's a Finnish heavy-metal dinosaur rapping about Christmas. If you had an argument of any kind, it is now invalid.

Lambert the Sheepish Lion (1952)

Don't discount those kids. You might need them later.

Ring any bells?

A simple PSA

Yes, I know. The rate of gravity is actually 9.8 not 9.2. Sorry. The warning still applies.

Fox and Mouse (2016)

"To run from a tiger, only to meet a crocodile."

Nine Short Film (2017)

This ring any bells for anyone?

Hot Dog Hands (2017)

Eat your heart out, Salad Fingers.

There's a lot about this that just Is Not Right, so I'm just gonna post it here and you can watch it during your lunch break.

On second thought, don't do that.

Paul Frees: A Man of Words

Sound and Fury

OK, I have to tell you a little thing.

My folks thought I was deaf for a long time. I didn't talk until I was well into my third year. Turned out, I just didn't talk because I didn't have to. Adults always spoke for me.

But, because of all that, my folks became very interested in the Theater for the Deaf here in Dallas. Now, I'd like to point out the above trailer is for Deaf West Theater in Pasadena, but there used to be one in DFW. Let me tell you how those go:

For every character on stage, there are two actors: one signs the other speaks. In the production for the trailer above, Charlie has a child actor as his speaking voice at the start of the show. As his intellect develops, he gains an adult speaking actor. I can tell you now, when the child speaking actor returned to the stage, the audience gasped. They could see what it meant.

The first production I ever saw was a biopic of Edgar Allen Poe. The program listed the actors and the signs for everyone's name: speaking Poe was a P to the head. Signing Poe was a P to the heart. When they did "The Tell-Tale Heart", there were speakers with heavy bass for the heartbeat.

They also did productions of The Last Unicorn and Pippin. Man alive, I love me some puppets. Pretty sure the Red Bull was at least five puppeteers.

So let me show you this:



Lemme tell you something: all of those dancers are deaf. Some of them are even blind. The choreography includes them blowing on each other's necks so they can work out the timing.

I remember that Danno always liked the music I played in my car, but I have to also remember he'd blown out his eardrums a few years prior. The reason we showed what we did at Anime Hell was it was what he could hear. He was practically deaf himself.

Guan Yin is the bodhisattva of compassion. Her mantra is what saw a dying cat off.

We show a lot of cruel videos at hell. Sure it makes us laugh, but I'll only ask one thing of you:

Stay safe.
Have fun.
Be kind.