Saturday, December 13, 2008

Da Party Itself

Former TAG board member and current university prof Mark Farquhar toasts another yultide party. (From Animation Nation ... because I'm too damn tired to put up my own photographs ... although you can click on the link immediately below and see me taking a picture.)

As our fair nation circles the Big Drain, The Animation Guild throws its annual ho-ho-ho frolic for members, friends, and industry cohorts.

The way it works is, board members and staff start setting up for the seasonal bash on Friday afternoons. Yesterday, at five o'clock, the Pickwick Center ushered 500 guests out of its largest ballroom and TAG's merry little band moved in to start setting up.

Gifts were set in place, center decorations were positioned on dozens of tables rapidly put up by Pickwick's crack staff, and at 7:00 p.m. the festivities began.

Happily, this year we got the food tables positioned in the rights pots, so we didn't have long lines snaking through the ballroom as people waited for skewered chicken, sandwiches and the ever popular cheese on a cracker. The crowds weren't so thick that you couldn't breathe, and a good time seemed to be had by ... a sizable majority.

"I didn't know so many people had warm feelings for me. It was real nice to be around lots of my kind of people. It felt great, in fact."

We handed out a variety of gifts this year: sketch books, tote bags, flip books and lots of copies of Tom Sito's Drawing the Line, which Tom was on hand to cheerfully sign.

I talked to so many people during the course of the evening that by the end of it, I was a sound-alike for Andy Devine.

Many studios have cut back on Christmas parties this year, so we hope that the artists, technicians, and writers who made the trip to Burbank for our modest offering felt the evening was well spent.

I enjoyed it, but I've been coming to these holiday bashes for a looong time, so perhaps I'm not the best judge ...

What say the rest of you?

2 comments:

Kate said...

It was my first time at the guild party and I had a fantastic time, even on four hours sleep and in pinchy shoes. I stayed for the whole party, caught up with friends I hadn't seen in awhile, and met scores of new cool characters. And there should be more pictures. We're in a few of them. Anyhoo, it was a great time! Thanks for putting it together!

Steve Hulett said...

You're welcom.

We'll put up more pictures in the next couple of days.

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