Monday, January 25, 2010

The Anti-Muse


Greek mythology gave us the muses. The poetry muse inspires poets. The musical muse inspires musicians. Dramatic and Comedic muses help playwrights and writers. Had animation existed in ancient times, I'm sure an animation muse would have been thrown into the mix.
The ancients have also overlooked the worst muse of all. She's the Anti-Muse. Her job is to sabotage creativity. A stern guardian at the threshold of ideas. She won't even let you have a peek at the bad ideas.
I've been working on my Flash cartoon. I've blocked most of it and have done a lot of the rough animation. I saved the musical bridge of the song for last. My characters would spend it in a fun house were all sorts of cartoon craziness would happen. Anything could happen! It would be so fun!
Then it was time to start the funhouse sequence. I was stumped.
My inner dialog played like this.
Namo1:Now what?
Namo2:It's a fun house. Have weird things happen.
Namo1:Like what?
Namo2:You know all about Laff-in-the-Darks. Have corny stuff jumping out at them. Or make it  a walk through with goofy floors.
Namo1:I'm drawing blanks.  Can't think of a thing.
Namo2:Oh for crying out loud. Have anything jump out at them. Have office supplies jump out at them. Have junk mail and pop up windows chasing them around. Send a giant rolling cheeseball after 'em.
Namo1:Arrg!!   "Fun House" is too broad.  Now if it were "Fun House" + Pickles, say, I'd have more to work with.  They'd ride pickle mobiles with picklechip wheels.  There'd be a volcanoes spewing condiments.  A relish monster.  Pickled artichoke forests! Flying peperoncini!
Namo2: That's nice, but it's not Funhouse + Pickles.  
(Loop back to the top of the dialog to continue conversation)       
Anyone know how to make the Anti-Muse go away?

10 comments:

robrowles said...

Maybe a bottle of Vodka and a trip to Kansas???

You know, "To Find Yourself"

stray said...

I find the pickles idea amusing.

Namowal (Jennifer Bourne) said...

Hi MTSU peeps!

robrowles,
Ha ha.
Sounds like a good way to "find myself" on a strange curb with no idea how I got there ;)

stray,
I'll probably work the pickles in there somewhere. I get the nuttiest ideas when I combine unrelated things, as in What if [thing one] was made of [thing two?]

Linda Davick said...

I love this.

But yeah, why not a Pickle Funhouse?

A Cheezy Funhouse would also be a barrel of monkeys. (with the giant cheeze ball chasing you and string cheese being shot out of cans.)

A barrel of monkey funhouse would also be fun.

But I love your picture illustrating the anti-muse!!!!!! Watch out, she's everywhere.

booda baby said...

Strangest thing. I've been working on my next bloggedy blog about this very thing. Well ... sort of this very thing - 'How I Nipped Frustration in the Bud (if you don't count the three days I didn't realize it was building up.) (Not very helpful, now was that? Well, that's why it's a blog and not a comment. :):))

Sally said...

Do you have music? I like to lie on the the floor and listen to the music and picture things. Don't feel so tied to the concept of fun house, cause it's restricting you. In Van Nuys there's a restaurant called Le Fun Cafe where I was going to eat today but then I got excuuuuused.

Namowal (Jennifer Bourne) said...

Thanks, Linda!
I guess I'll have to smuggle a cheeseball into the fun house too. And maybe some monkeys!

Hi Boodababy,
Your latest blog post (with the purple horse) had some great points.
Thanks for posting!

Hi Sally,
Music always helps. Even when I was little I pictured stuff with music. I agree that locking the concept in a funhouse was part of the problem. Better to come up with more off the wall stuff (which can magically show up in the funhouse).
p.s. Is Le Fun Cafe really fun? (Or does Fun mean something in French I'm not aware of?)

Mean Jean said...

Distorting mirrors, maze, slides, revolving doors, trap doors, "eat me" (a la Alice) grow/shrink thingie.

I'm tired. Going to go nap now.

Namowal (Jennifer Bourne) said...

Thanks, Mean Jean! .')

*distorted mirror emoticon

Linda Davick said...

Namo, you're on to something with that distorted mirror emoticon.