Grandchildren

Toby

2009-09-14T20:25:00.001-07:00

Tristan

2009-09-14T20:24:00.001-07:00

Britta

2009-09-14T20:23:00.000-07:00

Dan & Amelia

2009-09-07T14:00:00.001-07:00

Epid

2009-09-01T16:39:00.000-07:00

Cairo

2009-07-26T12:18:00.001-07:00

Still

2009-07-26T12:17:00.003-07:00

2009-07-26T12:17:00.001-07:00

Still

2009-07-26T12:16:00.000-07:00

Sad

2009-07-13T14:04:00.001-07:00

Trail

2009-07-12T16:00:00.001-07:00

Home!

2009-07-11T13:40:00.001-07:00

Manquer

2009-06-05T19:15:00.000-07:00

It's been really hot in Seattle lately. Today was a little cooler though. I am finishing up a video for Elvis Perkins in Dearland. Here are some photos from last weekend. And whoever stole my bike, I will find you, or it will find its way back to me...

Walking

2009-04-13T22:04:00.001-07:00

Walked again up through Central Park. Listened to Radiolab along the way. Sat next to the Dakota and listened to 6 strangers singing Help. Walked over and up Amsterdam, then down Broadway to 72nd and hoped train to Brooklyn. Interesting things spotted along the way: cherry blossoms, a smiling baby, runners, Toby's cousin, a bunch of people drinking after work, a man standing and holding his hand out towards me in the subway.

You Reckon?

2009-04-13T19:39:00.000-07:00

Pretty fun website, http://www.xtranormal.com/ that lets you type a script and hit the Action button and presto! An animated film. Er...

Swallowed by Trees

2009-04-05T23:08:00.000-07:00

Walked along the promenade down through Dumbo, alongside the freeway, through the Hasidic neighborhood in Williamsburg, had some coffee on Bedford then hoped a train back to Union Square then transferred to the 5 then the 4 back to BH. It was a nice spring day today. I saw an apartment building that was completely over grown with vines and boarded up. Like it has been left abandoned for 100 years. It was like that book The World Without Us. It was funny because it was in the middle of Brooklyn, not back in the woods somewhere, or out in the country in a small town that had seen better days. No it was right next to a basketball court and a major freeway. And it was a beautiful building too. I wonder who once lived there. What they dreamt of at night. How many kids they had. Where are they now. Do they ever wander back to show someone where they grew up and discover it swallowed by trees?

NYPL at Bryant Park

2009-04-04T15:43:00.000-07:00

Library

2009-04-04T15:42:00.000-07:00

Chair

2009-04-02T13:37:00.001-07:00

Chair

2009-04-02T13:35:00.000-07:00

Thursday

2009-04-02T10:20:00.001-07:00

Sitting at the desk in Brooklyn on Pierrepont St. The same folks walking around outside. It's about 65 degrees here today. Quite nice actually. I am going to take a walk, then back to work.

Flowers

2009-03-31T00:59:00.001-07:00

Today and yesterday were good. Aja and I drove up to the farm and cooked yam tacos for Robin and Olivia. The sun was out on the drive up, and I took a bunch of photos on the ferry. There were a lot of pre-teen couples walking around holding hands. There was a dog sitting patiently on the sun deck, some abandoned brooms left propped against a white wall, weird warning signs in bold all caps. I shot a lot of everything. It felt good. I haven't been doing that as much as I used to. And it reminded me of why I use to so much more. You look at things differently when you have a camera in your hand. I realized that when I take a photo, I am usually trying to frame and compose it like a graphic image. I think i need to move past that. I need to focus on a subject, or sit and wait for the right thing to happen. I was fixated on the inanimate for a while, the things left behind by humans. I still am, but I want to move to the animate.

We made a birthday brunch this morning, blueberry waffles, tofu scramble, coffee. Then played the video game Flower where you are the wind and the object is to pollinate flowers and rejuvenate rolling fields. It has to be the most pleasant video game ever made. Dad played it fixated for 40 minutes.
Packed up things at the house, and met some friends for a drink at Flowers. Hmmm, too many Flowers references in this post? The wind is blowing pretty hard outside at the moment. Just like the game.
Well I'm off to New York tomorrow. I will keep a detailed account of the trip on this blog. So stay tuned...

Love,

Sean

Desk!!

2009-03-29T23:19:00.000-07:00

You

2009-03-28T21:12:00.001-07:00

Home

2009-03-26T04:08:00.000-07:00

Gc

2009-03-24T22:25:00.001-07:00

Grand C

2009-03-24T13:45:00.000-07:00

Really

2009-03-23T12:32:00.000-07:00

Roswell

2009-03-23T11:50:00.000-07:00

Veggie Burger

2009-03-21T18:35:00.000-07:00

Light

2009-03-21T18:34:00.000-07:00

South by Southwest

2009-03-19T23:16:00.001-07:00

So we made it down here to Austin. The drive was really nice. I loved the misty drive through the mountains and across the desert from Bakersfield to Vegas. We stayed there for a quick nights rest at Circus Circus, the cheapest hotel room I've ever experienced at 24 dollars for a huge room with 2 queen beds. The next morning we drove across the Hoover dam, and watched the tourists and construction crews go about their business. Through Arizona, and New Mexico and across the long state of Texas to where we are now.

The film festival has pretty much given way now to the music, but it was fun while it lasted. I saw Moon, Garbage Dreams, Best Worst Movie, Troll 2, True Adolescents, Humpday, The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle, and the music video showcase. We almost missed the award show, because we were sitting down by the river but its a good thing we made it because White WInter Hymnal won the Jury Award and Jerk It won the Best Music Video award. That day was also my birthday and St. Patrick's Day and we spent the rest of the night eating sushi, and talking at the closing night party. Toby had surprised me and flew down from New York! It was so great to have her here for a couple days, we miss you.

I'm excited to have seen some really great films out of Seattle at the festival this year. It makes me feel proud to call that city home.

Swing

2009-03-19T17:40:00.001-07:00

Tristan's Building

2009-03-19T17:38:00.000-07:00

Birthday Card!

2009-03-17T10:33:00.000-07:00

Great Gospel Revival

2009-03-16T16:51:00.000-07:00

The Red Carpet

2009-03-16T15:52:00.000-07:00

Attack of the Segway

2009-03-14T16:48:00.000-07:00

Lunch at Pepitos!

2009-03-13T19:35:00.000-07:00

Dinner?

2009-03-13T00:46:00.000-07:00

Sit

2009-03-12T17:00:00.001-07:00

Map

2009-03-12T16:58:00.000-07:00

Iced cream as tall as a man!

2009-03-12T16:57:00.000-07:00

Just Crossed Hoover Dam!

2009-03-12T12:28:00.000-07:00

Dog and Gaurd

2009-03-11T20:38:00.001-07:00

Strip Mall Security

2009-03-11T20:37:00.001-07:00

2009-03-11T07:59:00.000-07:00

Morning

2009-03-11T07:58:00.000-07:00

The Full Moon Setting

2009-03-11T07:02:00.000-07:00

You Mother Young

2009-03-11T02:38:00.000-07:00

I am sitting up in the kitchen of our new home. Looking down at the checkered white and black floor all covered with dirt prints from the move. The flowers wilted so fast, so I put the pedals in the vase and left them on top of the fridge. I have been getting home so late at night, the house probably thinks it's still for rent. Upstairs there was a baby born the other night. I wonder if it is a boy or a girl, because I know the parents were waiting to find out. I celebrated my birthday tonight with my family, 7 days early. We talked about how twitter is taking over peoples lives, the evolution of human thought and communication getting closer and closer to telepathy, strange. I wonder how long it will be before our minds just exist in some other space, our bodies just shells. Hmm...

I am still here though getting ready for the ride to pick me up at 4am to get on the road. We are venturing down south then over east to go to a small city in a really large state. Hopefully we will see something meaningful like a goat standing on top of a cow, on the way.

I better get some sleep, at least an hour. Stay tuned for updates and images from the road.

Land of Little Houses

2009-03-10T01:38:00.001-07:00

Cal

2009-03-08T15:30:00.001-07:00

Field

2009-03-08T00:24:00.001-08:00

Saturday Morning

2009-03-07T04:08:00.000-08:00

Thunderground and PSST! at By Design.

2009-03-06T23:24:00.001-08:00

The short film Matt Smithson and I made last summer is premiering tomorrow night as part of the Film Forum's By Design show. Can't wait to see all the PSST! sections on the big screen! Screening starts at 7pm.

New Home

2009-03-06T23:19:00.001-08:00

Mykonos

2009-03-05T19:56:00.000-08:00

Mykonos making of from Grandchildren on Vimeo.

Well we spent one of the darkest months of the year in a dark cave underground. Toby, Chris and Jesse I love you guys. Thank you for all your hard work.

Sunday

2009-02-22T21:08:00.001-08:00

The Muppets Christmas Carol

2008-12-24T17:25:00.000-08:00

Custom Made Slush Boots

2008-12-24T16:13:00.000-08:00

2008-12-22T16:09:00.001-08:00

Cairo

2008-12-20T15:40:00.001-08:00

Port Townsend

2008-12-15T00:56:00.000-08:00

Don't Just Crumple Up and Give Up

2008-12-13T00:34:00.000-08:00

2008-12-08T01:22:00.000-08:00

Tour

2008-11-24T08:26:00.001-08:00

Katie Cruel

2008-06-09T00:30:00.001-07:00

Backstage Sessions : Fleet Foxes - Katie Cruel (Cover) from Hard to Find a Friend on Vimeo.

Nude by James Houston

2008-06-07T18:38:00.001-07:00

Big Ideas (Don't get any) from James Houston on Vimeo.

Unbelievable

2008-05-20T10:27:00.001-07:00

FF on Pitchfork.tv

2008-05-06T11:53:00.001-07:00

A Man With An Upright Bass Sings Nirvana In The Park

2008-03-06T21:26:00.000-08:00

Come As You Are, to be precise. Just plunk plunk pa plunk plunk, lyrics belting out of this man wearing glasses and standing beneath the tall statue that held a similar pose to his. I took a seat at a bench in Washington Square Park, next to a woman reading a book, and an old man taking an afternoon nap. The sun was out and the sky was clear for the most part. The buildings in New York are so beautiful and large. Being from Seattle, I am not quite used to the scale of these things. When you walk down the street, you can see these giant avenues that just go on forever and ever, and just disappear into the distance eventually. I wonder what it was like in the 1700's & 1800's. I wonder what it was like to come here from a small village in Europe somewhere, and arrive in Manhattan, the first walk around town must have been frightening and exhilarating all at once.

Sometimes this city seems like a beautiful machine run by tiny little creatures that dart to and fro in a systematic, predictable manner. People board trains from the outskirts and are shuffled in to the central nervous system to buzz around and take part in it's swinging pendulums, pistons, and gears grinding around and around. Steam rises up from this machine but it is invisible. It relies on itself to stay alive. it relies on these little tiny creatures riding on trains and elevators and escalators and cars. Wherever they are going. Where are they going? Perhaps, and most likely, they will end up at a little desk in a chair staring at a glowing screen with numbers or words or pictures. As they hit refresh on their electronic mail, waiting patiently for little notes from the world outside of their screens. But maybe that's only about half of these creatures, the other half are doing other things. They dart to and fro in the world outside pulling levers and twisting knobs and cranking cranks. Because while the others are pushing pistons and pendulums, there has to be someone to tend to the other needs of the machine. And there are moments sometimes when someone is walking down the street and they think about the pulsing beast of a machine around and they let out a piercing scream which reverberates around the immediate corners of big beautiful buildings only to be drowned out by the pistons, pendulums, gears, cranks, levers, and knobs. But it was enough to scream for now she smiles looks up and down the avenue and heads back up the elevator to her warm glowing screen.

The Goat Theory

2008-02-11T00:40:00.000-08:00

Hi. Haven't posted in a while. So I am sitting in my living room with Robin and Olivia. We just shot some band photos for Fleet Foxes tonight over at Olivia's house. Should have them up online sometime this week. Robin and I worked on a t-shirt design for their upcoming tour. I have been chipping away at the short film that we submitted to SIFF last week, trying to actually finish it and feel good about it. I am finishing an Xbox edit this week and animating at Milk in the down time. Missing toby... but heading back to New York in about 2 1/2 weeks. Racing in the Chilly Hilly Feb. 23rd. Thinking about Europe lately. I love that place so much. Aja went to Portland to interview The Helio Sequence yesterday with Kate Jackson.

Lately i have been thinking about a lot of things like the universe and the aging process and dark matter and all that. It's so funny to me the constant rate of aging and how it is always moving along at the same speed, our bodies slowly deteriorating and cells dying, but as that happens we are growing more and learning more and seeing things we have never seen before and it never seems like it is constant. Sometimes it's incredibly fast and sometimes it's achingly slow. But still the clock ticks on second by second. I guess time is just a funny thing. Like if we had no concept of time or days or calendars, we would still feel the same probably, but we would measure our age with other things around us, trees, sun, stars, animals. Why do most animals only live a fraction of the lifespan of humans? Why do we have to watch our pets die?

I guess it's just the way of the world.

Went to the Democratic congress on Saturday. It was a mad house, but quite enjoyable. Obama supporters were out in force and our precinct voted 104 - 35 in favor of Obama. I also went to see him speak at Key Arena on Friday, and I've never seen so many people out for a politician. He is a remarkable human being.

Looking forward to this week and progress on The Strange Hunger.

The Cat With Hands

2008-01-05T14:33:00.000-08:00

This short is amazing. Watch it now.

via Ticklebooth

Things From The Past

2007-12-28T16:02:00.001-08:00

It's funny to think that photography hasn't even been around that long, but millions of people have been taking pictures of millions of things. Most are forgotten only to be discovered some time later perhaps at a garage sale, or antique store. I found these gems looking through the online archive of the Library of Congress. Which seems to have quite a healthy collection of photographs that may have otherwise been forgotten.

A Flat Tire & Antique Paintings

2007-12-27T17:23:00.000-08:00

It is two days after Christmas. It rained heavily today in Seattle. Robin got a flat tire in the white car, i helped him change it and we took it to get a new tire. While waiting we found a huge antique warehouse in Georgetown and bought up four little paintings to hang somewhere soon. Christmas was filled with family and friends. Back to work soon.

the brown sheep

2007-12-23T00:37:00.000-08:00

thebrownsheep.

after the bombs stopped falling it was just my sister and i. mum and pa must not have made it cause they're no where in sight. we've had to look for food, there isn't much left i'm not sure how long we can last on crickets and milk

just one of the sheep survived the brown one, just kind of stands there now, looking around like a little brown puff of the past, what's left of a once great sheep farm. maybe it's a good thing it hadn't been the same for a few years, whole town had felt the effects of the industrial boom in the city. it's hard to run a sheep farm when no-one's makin sweaters of wool.

then the war started and it went from bad to worse. no matter now though. just one sheep left, the brown one. guess we'll have to be movin on soon. time for a fresh start. i wonder if it's a boy or a girl...

Summer

2007-12-23T00:20:00.001-08:00

The young Pecknold's on a summer's day in 1989.

The Old Mill

2007-12-22T11:14:00.000-08:00

This classic from Walt Disney is a great one. Not only is it a simple and sweet story, the animation is fantastic. It's from 1937 and won the Oscar for Best Short: Cartoon that year.

via Ticklebooth

Christmas Party

2007-12-22T02:24:00.000-08:00

We just had a wonderful christmas get together at milk that culminated in the most intense game of two on two chair soccer. We knew something was going to break, we just didn't know what it would be, and the game was just too much fun to worry about it. Eventually the ball ricocheted off of the goal post and knocked a glass bottle to the ground with a crash as the ball rolled into the back of the net. However, it was too little too late for Adam and Matt's team. Joy and I walked away with the 3-2 victory.

Funny Games

2007-12-20T22:31:00.001-08:00

This poster is striking. I hear the movie is as well.

The Clouds in The Sky Today

2007-12-20T16:13:00.001-08:00

It is cold today on Capitol Hill. But the sky cleared from it's morning grey and left these billowing clouds in it's place. I stood and watched an enormous jumbo jet emerge from one of these clouds and fly south towards the airport. It's so amazing that those big metal birds can fly through the sky up there next to those clouds. Ah well, back to the computer.

Color & The Lack Of Color

2007-12-19T15:06:00.000-08:00

Just some quick ones from my sketchbook.

My desk today...

2007-12-19T14:14:00.001-08:00

Today it rained in Seattle. I spent some time at Milk and worked on a few different things. This photo shows a revised render for The Fall of Otto. We replaced some light bulbs in the overhead balls. I had a veggie blt for lunch.

Philippe Starck: Why Design?

2007-12-19T13:53:00.000-08:00

Kierkegaard

2007-12-19T02:27:00.001-08:00

How did I get into the world? Why was I not asked about it and why was I not informed of the rules and regulations but just thrust into the ranks as if I had been bought by a peddling shanghaier of human beings? How did I get involved in this big enterprise called actuality? Why should I be involved? Isn't it a matter of choice? And if I am compelled to be involved, where is the manager—I have something to say about this. Is there no manager? To whom shall I make my complaint?

In December the Days Are Short

2007-12-19T01:37:00.001-08:00

Just a few things i have been working on lately. The character is from a new short film "The Fall of Otto." I am finishing up the character animation and sound design, and will have it up probably before the end of this year, or maybe early 2008! The second is from a silly animated collage of some amazing old footage i found of people dancing.

Pierrot Le Fou

2007-12-19T01:03:00.000-08:00

I love this poster.

Paper Whale

2007-12-03T21:22:00.001-08:00

Listen to the beautiful and charming music of Paper Whale!
And to the one who is over there, Come home, come home!!

Darkness, Light, Darkness

2007-11-04T21:31:00.000-08:00

An incredible short film from the master Jan Svankmajer.

The Golden Dawn of Washington

2007-10-21T12:27:00.000-07:00

Watch this and relive the fall! Orange leaves falling all around. The crisp mountain air, Ahhh!

Vincent

2007-10-19T15:58:00.001-07:00

The classic Tim Burton short film.

Blue Yodel

2007-10-19T02:07:00.000-07:00

Heart of Gold

2007-10-19T02:06:00.001-07:00

Bumbershoot Trailer

2007-07-24T17:13:00.001-07:00

Just finished this. also i have a new portfolio site at www.bygrandchildren.com

sean

Chimney of 1348

2007-04-30T22:28:00.000-07:00

Holiday

2007-04-30T22:27:00.000-07:00

fleet foxes

2007-04-17T10:55:00.000-07:00

this week i am filming the fleet foxes as they spend the week at London Bridge studios recording their first LP. i will post updates soon.

For Joe

2007-04-15T14:05:00.001-07:00

Imago

2007-04-12T18:06:00.000-07:00

The Trumpet Man

2007-04-01T09:41:00.000-07:00

One time i heard this story about a fantastic trumpet player who's lips became so powerful that that when he kissed someone it would knock them to the floor.