We Need A Mensch!

I was pleasantly surprised when Frumster.com contacted me to produce a cartoon animation to celebrate their 500th wedding, considering my track record with irreverent Jewish humor, not to mention one or two comic strips they may have come across. Naturally, we toned down the edge for this one, kept it super sweet.

And, being the mensches that they are, Frumster.com also hooked me up with a Premium membership. They promised me that if I am not married within six months, they'll give me an extension :)

For your enjoyment, "We Need A Mensch!"

NB: I only did the animation for this production, Frumster handled the music and script.

Robot the Rabbi

Alyssa from 14th Street Y warned me about a new Jewish robot on the block, Robot the Rabbi! I'm not sure exactly who he is or where he is from, but apparently he is a host or MC with the Kosher Project.

Will Shabot's and Robot the Rabbi's paths cross?

Robot Logic

Peter Kirn pluggin' plug-ins
If you are familiar with the Shabot 6000 animated Flash cartoons on this site, you may wonder what audio production software I use for the music and voiceover, including Shabot's special robot vox. As a robot who prides himself in making sense of a world which sometimes DOES NOT COMPUTE, the logical choice is Apple Logic Pro, of course.

Peter Kirn, friend and author of Real World Digital Audio was the guest speaker at this month's New York Logic Pro Users Group, graciously hosted at Dale Pro Audio in Manhattan. The focus of Kirn's tutorial was on Sculpture, a Logic plug-in that uses component modeling technology to create a wide array of new and organic sounds. I'm looking forward to trying some of the techniques I learned tonight in my next animation.

Award winning composer (Reading Rainbow!) Steve Horlick, NYLPUG president Jonathan Perl, and guest presenter Peter Kirn
Kirn and the Bot
Dale Pro Audio host, Tim Finnegan, and Logic Pro pro Jonathan Perl
WTF?! Threebrain is everywhere! Here seen harassing Peter Kirn with PC audio questions (he doesn't even own a Mac!)

Dewanatron for my Positronic Brain

That's not red-eye ... Leon's and Brian's orbs really do glow when they are MAD.

Last night I went to see my friend and local mad musician, Brian Dewan, perform with his cousin Leon on their homemade electronic instrumental abominations, the Dewanatron, at the Pierogi 2000 gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The audience were treated to a special performance, which featured the acoustic accompaniment of traditional instrumentation, meshed with the space age robot sounds of Dewan's inventions.

The hypnotic tones of the Dewanatron put me and Shana in a trance.

On the walls surrounding the gallery were several functioning Dewanatron models, each sporatically chiming in like broken clockwork with whirrs and beeps, part of the exhibit appropriately named Irregular Hours.

Paul and Sofie, struggling to control their Dewanatron induced brain fever

Special friend Threebrain made a surprise guest appearance and gave Dewanatron two thumbs up! Don't ask where the other thumb is.

Jesus in Threebrain's beer

The Dewanatron exhibit was out of this world, but paled in comparison to Threebrain's discovery of the image of Jesus in his beer! I suggested we sell it to Golden Palace, but it was too late. Threebrain was extremely thirsty.

Caveman Robot

While most of my Shabot 6000 content focuses on the "Shab", we musn't forget the "Bot" in Shabot. This past Sunday I attended the year's first Brick-a-Brac variety show at the Brick Theater in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, having been personally invited by the guest host, Caveman Robot!

Jason Robert Bell, creator inside of Caveman Robot

The show started off like any normal variety show hosted by a prehistoric robot. The first act was this guy David "The Steak" D'Ostillio giving a dramatic reading while dressed like a steak. His act involved a lot of hesitant pauses and screaming for no apparent reason. I agreed with Caveman Robot on this one: I didn't get it.

Caveman Robot was by far the highlight of the show, standing nearly 9 feet tall, shoulders scraping against the wall as he struggled to squeeze by us little present-day people. At the end of the show, CR went into auto-shutdown mode and collapsed into a heap of servos and steel on stage. That's when I went to introduce myself to him in person, but my camera battery had died.

I hope Shabot and Caveman Robot can one day be friends. Because I wouldn't want to be his enemy.