Friday, March 31, 2006
chuck harvey
When I was at work a couple days ago, a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to see a lecture given by a former Disney animator, Chuck Harvey. I jumped at the chance, so I used it as an excuse to ditch Econ yesterday. He presented for more than two hours on the process Disney used to create their animated feature films, and his role as an animator. Chuck started at Disney in 1971 and hand drew scenes for Robin Hood, The Little Mermaid, The Rescuers, and The Fox and the Hound before he moved on to Warner Studios where he animated for Tiny Toons, Animaniacs, and (his personal favorite) The Tick. He is an amazing artist, and quite a character in person as well.
After the presentation I was hanging around (The lecture was literally right next door to my cubicle), and I was invited to go to pizza with Chuck and his wife and a couple other students. I agreed of course, but the plans changed a little. The dean of the college of engineering and computer science decided to treat the 6 of us to dinner at probably the fanciest restaurant in the city, the 5th Street Steakhouse.
I rushed home and changed into some nicer clothes (I was wearing flip-flops...) and met the group there. What a dinner! It was me, Brendan (the guy who invited me to the lecture to begin with), another student animator, and a staff person where I work sitting across from Chuck Harvey and his wife over an excelent steak dinner, fine beer, and a nice bottle of wine. Oh, how I wish I was twenty one. Anywho, Chuck is an amazing guy. He told the best stories, did the best imitations, and had the table laughing the entire night. His wife was also a fireball; she is very animated and entertaining, but when the two of them got together there was no stopping them. It was great company paired with a superb dinner (with a hefty check to go along with it).
I've met the dean of the ECT college a couple times - I'm in his program after all - but he wouldn't know my face or name by any means. I thought about just walking into his office and thanking him for dinner just to see his reaction. Perhaps on monday :)
And it amazes me, being a college student. Last night I was eating steak at the fanciest restaurant in town, and now I have water boiling for my mac-n-cheese. Funny these things, aren't they?
