Well the first little part of 2020 was promoting and getting very excited about the Ghost Tank.. we had a premiere and everything... like a few weeks before everything shut down for Covid.
Then there was covid... which still continues while I write this post. Global pandemic. No fun. My work was shut down, so we did school from home. I was convinced it wouldn't last past the end of the year. I was mistaken. I had some time alone, so I came up with a few projects I could do. The first was to release a 3rd Nandi Bear Tenants Graphic Novel. Based on the movie, and mostly using stills from it, so it was fairly easy to put together. The thing is I had so much fun making this book I decided I should spend the pandemic making another new double length graphic novel. So as soon as #3 was done I set to work writing #4, The Return of Super Punk.
Then as I started working on that my mum got Covid. She lasted a few weeks but it ended up killing her. It was a very surreal event, and losing a mother isn't fun. I miss her a lot. We still haven't had any sort of memorial service for her. It makes me feel very weird. So the summer was spent thinking about mum and making comics.
During on-line school, one of the things I did was record a bunch of songs for the toddlers and kindergarten kids that go to the school where I work. It was lovely and the parents would send me videos of their kids dancing around and singing while watching me play the songs. I have always sang to the kids at school, but filming it and watching them watch it at home was inspiring. I decided to make a new kid's show. Not space station zero this time.. something new with lots of different segments and things.. more like sesame street with short cartoons and films. Lots of puppets. I taught myself how to make proper puppets and made a bunch.. I really figured we could film in a few months while I made all the puppets and other preparations. But the pandemic kept going and going. I decided that the star of the show would be Beth the Bunny, played by the same Beth who was Beetrice in the Ghost Tank.
Meanwhile I was working on a new album, this time trying to put together a lot of things that had happened over the last year, including my mum's death. That was released in the summer.
I was hoping to have the new Nandi Bear Tenants book out by Christmas, but it was too big and too good to get done by then. And Rabbit Ears, my new kids show was still waiting to be filmed by the end of the year... no one could get together because of Covid.. so we just waited. I got a lot of stuff ready to be made into Rabbit Ears, but the closest we got was a few Christmas songs.. it was I guess the first official Rabbit Ears release. The coming year would be nothin' but rabbits.
Since I was feeling so 'great' I thought to go along with my new therapy, and upped meds dosage and everything else I was trying to do to save my own life and help the people around me by not having to deal with my problems... I would make a brand new fukachuk egg machine record.
I hadn't made an actual fukachuk record since 2015. After that I became something else to try to fix what was happening to me... I became Cashew Body. Anyway, it didn't work, and I figured I should resurrect the world of fukachuk egg machine. Something I knew so well for over 20 years. Anyway I worked very hard for about 3 months and released Phases of the Moon. It was pretty excellent, and did what I needed it to at the time. I think I started getting better.
Have a listen:
The rest of the year was spent writing the script for, getting funding for, and ultimately completing 'The Ghost Tank' A new film that was my response to my brother's death.. I was trying to make sense of life and death and afterlife and what happens to a person when the die... how a story can continue and the end isn't absolute. It was important to me to make this movie, if only for my own sanity. It had a female detective duo to take the place of Beefart and Cheenkaw... Terence had told me he retired from acting, so this seemed to be the natural progression. I got one of my old students who was now like 18 to be Beetrice, and our old dear friend Jennifer 'Dorriss doom, Simeon the robot, etc.. etc..' Hartley to be Charleenkaw.
It's a beautiful and excellent movie. My old friend Fran who was first seen in the 2003 film 'The Pet' came back as the lead. She had been in South Africa for a long time and it was always a bad time for her to be in my movies. Suddenly she was in Calgary and the time was right. She's an excellent actress and I was very lucky to have such a great team. Old favourites like Rene, Chengis, Johnny Auchie, and my dear friend Randolph were there, and I'm very proud of the effort. It did very welll and to date has been viewed over 12,000 times on the internet.
In October I played a very rare live fukachuk egg machine show at Blind Beggar Pub. It went really well. I'm glad I got the opportunity.
2018 was generally a terrible year in my life, and other people's lives.
I was kind of convinced I shouldn't work with other actual humans on projects any more, mostly because I was having an extra bad time with my mental health, so I decided to do a feature length animated film. That way I could sit around by myself and draw and edit and not have to be around anyone... I ended up being around lots of people any way.
I did another film collaboration with Suzie for the follow up to her last movie... this time it was post apocalyptic, and it looked beautiful. We filmed over a period of several months to get different weather.
The cartoon was Nandi Bear Tenants: The Movie. I spent the early part of the year running away to the Devonian gardens and the library and stuff to write the script.
We were asked to screen Night of the Shadow People at this year's Calgary Entertainment Expo. So we were looking forward to that. I had given up on having a table there at this point, but I don't mind screening films!
The day before the screening I got a call telling me my little brother had overdosed and died. It spun my already fragile mental health out of control. I had a pretty nasty year after that point.
The next month I spent hiding in my room making a record about my brother.
I spent the rest of the year basically being very grumpy and anti-social to a unbelievably high degree. Working on the Nandi Bear Tenant Movie and editing the movie I made with Suzie, You can see "The Signal" here: https://youtu.be/Fr-bX6POgek
I finally finished the cartoon around Halloween. It is actually pretty amazing.
So I think one of the first things we did this year was to go out for a drive in Terry's car and shoot the video for daddy's Pants in a secluded parking lot. Probably don't watch the video below.
terry and Johnny Auchie started making some music under the name Art Prostitutes. I was originally asked to join the band, but after I made fun of the name they said I wasn't allowed to make music with them ever again....... https://artprostitute.bandcamp.com/
Then there was a big build up to Imitative Magic being released on the internet, and it was one of the more successful promotions in our history. People seemed to really care about it!
With Imitative Magic done I set to work straight away on my next project, which was 10 times as
ambitious. I wanted to make a 100% sci-fi movie that takes place on another planet, with almost no budget whatsoever. After several versions of script ideas I settled on Night of the Shadow People. using the idea of Shadow People from stories my brother would tell me when I was a kid. One of the most important things I wanted to accomplish with this film was to have one of the main characters be a robot. It wasn't going to be easy, but I didn't worry about HOW I would do it until after the script was written.
In the mean time the radio station did a Electric Oinks feature special show... it was pretty nice of them to do it, and it was ridiculous. Listen to the whole thing here:
Most of the rest of the year was literally making this huge production. All the costumes and props and sets... everything had to be made because it took place on a different world... it was wild. We got some really amazing actors and actresses to be in it, and we spent a lot of time running a fun raising campaign. The budget ended up being a couple thousand dollars.. which for us is astronomical! But still not very much to build a movie this epic.
The movie took up so much time that I didn't even make a fukachuk egg machine record that year!
But after months and months of very very hard work the film was done. And the first thing I did with it was to have it available at that year's Calgary Comic Holiday Expo.
Honestly it didn't sell well.. but I guess no one outside of my friend group really knew about it.
Night of the Shadow People would be released to the internet for free the following year...
I think the first thing that happened in 2015 was finishing up a collaboration with SC starlet, Sue Kenyon. It was our first movie together and was very cool... a cyber-punk pre-apocalyptic thing called Rubicon. We even had a premiere at some Art gallery downtown!
Then I started writing one of my very favourite films I ever made... it was so different and strange, and even had a romantic subplot.. but it was a very interesting concept: A Beefart and Cheenkaw movie where it was only about their fans. We didn't start actually shooting until June... in the mean time I ran a funding campaign, wrote the script, made props and all sorts of other pre production fun. I hired two of the people from the previous year's Christmas special to be the leads.. and they were absolutely perfect!
We went to that year's Comic convention with hopes to get people interested in this new film. But I had a really bad time there, and was generally having a really bad time with my mental health, which was only going to get worse over the next few years.. to my delight. I had previously been diagnosed with something called Pure-OCD, as well as PSTD and depression... and it was coming back full force. I was also having problems with my work and home life and was generally a mess.
We entered a 24 hour film festival that was to be presented at the comic convention... our entry didn't even get shown. It was an embarrassment.. It wasn't a bad film though.. here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6BDIT98gww
In the midst of my fun mental health crisis I made what I still consider to be my best album... very dark, and very good. Patterns was an album about how it's impossible to break the patterns set up in your life no matter how hard you try.. A pretty bleak outlook, but as I said I wasn't at my best.
Along with Patterns I released Light Patterns, which was an album of demos and stripped down versions of the songs on the main record... it was actually pretty good too.
Then we finally started filming Imitative Magic! It was actually a really good time shooting, and the people were great. I had my friend Neil behind the camera, and it made it a lot more fun for me to direct. I also met Randolph and Chengis, who I would make movies with for years to come!
Imitative Magic would go on to be our most popular film ever (as of 2021 any way) It was a lot of fun.
It was finished and available for sale, but wouldn't be released for free to the public until Valentine's Day 2016.
The last important thing that happened this year was the recording and release of another fantastic album by me and Terence! EO-Free Clinic was birthed, and made people happy and sick all over the planet.
The first part of 2014 was dedicated to working on the very exciting Dorriss Doom cartoon. Which in turn was also reigniting my love of my old comic heroes and making comics!
Another wildly silly and different kind of thing we did this year was to make a 9 part weekly radio drama about Beefart and Cheenkaw, it was played Monday nights on CJSW. The whole thing was completely improvised by me and Terence... It's ridiculous, to the max. http://www.scentertainment.ca/2014/03/beefart-cheenkaw-sinister-co-co.html
I released a 10 record set of SC Entertainment film music. It is honestly one of the most useful things I have done, and I continually go back to these volumes to grab some SC music for various productions.
We went to the Calgary Entertainment Expo this year wil hopes to sell the new Dorriss Doom DVD. We were also asked to have a screening of World of the Uncanny, and then at the last moment we were also asked to show Dorriss Doom. The world of the Uncanny screening was less than eventful, with very few people attending, but the Dorriss Doom screening was packed, and people got very excited! To the point where kids were asking for my autograph and buying all out copies of the DVD. It was maybe the most successful Comic con we ever attended.
Jennifer Hartley even cosplayed at Dorriss Doom at the event. It was a great time.
Meanwhile I had been recording a new fukachuk egg machine record. I hate to say it is mostly forgettable.. for me at least, but there were definitely a few good songs. Street Worms comes to mind.
We did spend a day shooting an interesting video for one of the songs. Our friend Emilia came over and I did a bunch of stop motion animation using her feet and pastries.
By the time the summer had come, I had decided to get back into making comics again, in a serious way. The Nandi Bear Tenants were born, and began a huge sprawling story that continues. I wanted to get it printed properly and beautifully, and sell as many copies as I could, so I started up a successful indiegogo campaign. I worked very hard and released my first 50 page graphic novel. For me it was a huge deal. people loved it and it was put in the library at the school where I work, where it still is one of the most popular books to get out.
Then I made an album of old coyboy cover songs... I learned a lot about old time cowboys while making it, and I guess that's the point. I was inspired when I was hanging out at an old folks home and there were a couple people there putting on a concert, singing old songs.. one of the songs they sang was comanche, and I got pretty excited.
For my birthday that year the Electric Oinks played live, and it was absolutely awesome.. playing old favourites and new songs.. everyone was disgusted and happy by the end of the show.
And finally to end the year I thought I should make the ultimate SC Entertainment Holiday special. It has become a tradition to watch it every year, and is a compilation of a bunch of short films hosted by me and Terence. So many exciting short films were made in the last couple months of 2014!
Today is the day! 35 years ago me and Terry made this junk up and I have been hopelessly obsessed with making stuff ever since. To the point where it's mostly just annoying!
Anyway, I had a big SC 35th anniversary special planned, but this year has been slightly too crazy to get that particular project done. I still have hopes that I will get it made, but it won't be done by today.
The real important thing is that I am continuing the dream. Making weird stuff and either forcing people to do it with me, or getting people to use their hidden talents to make the world a better place. Probably both. This year has seen a very cool short film I made with Sue and Elaine, as well and hundreds of hours put in to my next animated feature. Of which I am only a little more than half done. It has also seen a lot of terrible personal stuff go down, which sucked. But in the end me, Elaine Boyling and Terence Ramsay are out there every single weekend having the best times of our lives. Those two friends of mine make this all possible. And I know they make fun of my weird schemes and my hopeless OCD, but they do it because they know me so well, and it keeps me going to make more and more stuff that gets seen and heard by like 15 or 16 people every year. I'm 42 years old now, and I'm clearly delusional. But it's not going to stop. Yesterday I told one of my favourite SC actors, Rene Gonzalez, "Dude, expect phone calls from me to be in my weird movies when you are 90 years old." And as long as I live that long, you can be guaranteed to be enjoying SC Entertainment. and enjoying it as free as possible.
2017 was definitely a hard year in the world of SC Entertainment. Not really as far as output, because I did lots.. but more as in everything seemed to take a huge effort to get done.. or the project was generated by some sort of diabolical need that arose from some kind of weird or horrible event. Or I was sick or in the hospital or something awful like that. Anyway, here's hoping 2018 cuts me a bit of a break.
2017 started off with Cashew Body. A new music project born from fukachuk egg machine. basically it is exactly the same but with a different name, and at this point I don't actually consider them separate at all. It is a pretty amazing and miserable album, born from lots of terrible things that were happening at the time.
From an interview:
We were out at Blaise's Dad's acreage somewhere in rural Alberta. The place is full of things his Dad has collected to fix, or to use to fix something else. There's a field full of cars and assorted vehicles all some way into the transformation between junk and running. He can build you a bike out of the bits of other bikes lying around in the grass, and he does. There are children and animals running around, and dubious smoke coming from whatever just got thrown in the firepit. Blaise's uncle, with one hand missing, throws fruit snacks at you, everybody gets a packet. Blaise's dad puts cinamon in the coffee and grins, so excited to see if you can guess what it is. Later on, the kids come running into the house.
"We found a Cashewbody," says the youngest, very solemn.
What they meant was that they had found a dog carcass, out in the thicket of birch trees. It had been buried, but now it was exhumed, and partly excavated, by a local pack of coyotes.
Cashew was their pet, a beautiful, sweet dog the colour of roasted cashew nuts. She was hit by a car. The driver didn't stop, they just drove away.
"It's so clever," says Blaise. "It's not Cashew, it's a Cashew body. The part that was Cashew isn't there any more, but there is still this body left there. There's something so true about it. It's horrific, but it's just a fact."
I believe the next thing after Cashew Body that happened was that I released the feature length Sci-Fi masterpiece "Night of the Shadow People" to the world on-line. Even though it had been shot and completed by the end of 2016, this was the first time most people would get a chance to see it. It was a big deal and involved me creating a huge set of on-line bubblegum cards to go with the release.
I'm still so proud of this movie, I can't even believe I made it. I just wish more people would take the time to check it out. I did get a few movie theatre screenings at some film festivals, but none where I could go see unfortunately. I would love to see this film in a theatre. I think it would be amazing.
Then I decided to do too much.
In 1981 my brother Lafe, (who I learned everything I know from, and is basically the greatest person who ever lived) started making a series of horror films called 'My School' About the vicious killer Kevin Markson and his evil Teddy bear. I grew up watching them every day and they are basically part of my DNA. It was a 10 part series of films. In 1993 part 10 was completed, however there was a problem, he never made part 9. 24 years later part 9 still remained un-made. I decided to complete my brother's vision and make My School 9. It's not that it was any bigger than any other feature films I had made before, but at the same time I also was doing art and film summer camps, and I had finally decided to make the sequel to the Nandi Bear Tenants graphic novel from 2014. And I wanted to get everything done by at latest Halloween. I thought it would happen.
So I got to work. My school was so much fun.. what an amazing group of people. And I completed 2 successful indiegogo campaigns as well.. one for My School 9 and one for Nandi Bear Tenants.
We shot My School at the school where I work.. it was empty for summer, so we had the place to ourselves, including the cool underground tunnels and creepy boiler room. I couldn't ask for more.
I also got started on the new book. the story was great, more complex and lots of cool new characters. It was a bit longer than the first one as well... but no problem. I'm Blaise Kolodychuk. In between teaching classes I was making horror movies and drawing lots of super hero cats. Then my dear friend and collaborator Suzie came at me with a plan to do a sequel to the first film we made together Rubicon. This time it was going to be called Tabula Rosa, and take place after a plague in a post apocalyptic world.. I was super excited!
Then I started to get sick. Next thing I knew I was in the hospital getting my appendix sawed out of me... then stuck in bed for a couple weeks, then I got some nerve damage from the surgery so I could barely walk for a while... I still haven't got that totally sorted yet. Then I kept getting sick.. then my punk rock stomach problems came back with a vengeance. Anyway, the last half of the year I have been dragging myself along like Bo-Bo had got me.
However, I finished My School 9. It's awesome. We had a successful premiere screening with a lot of very wonderful people. The big news was that my brother Lafe was thrilled with the movie and seems to have been inspired ever since with a million awesome ideas.
I finally got the book done. And I can't even describe how happy I am. I am so proud of this little work of art. even though I still haven't got my own copy yet (I have been told it's in the mail......) But it is beautiful and I love it, and I realised how much I love being an artist, and how much I love making comics.
We started shooting Tabula Rasa, and it's crazy beautiful so far... we haven't finished shooting it, because basically my body and mind fell apart in the last month and a half. But it's going to happen, and soon. It's a great script.. and one of my favourite things in the world is working with Sue.
So that's where I ended the year. Some new movies, and a beautiful new book.
I've already started figuring out the SC plan for next year... Spoilers: More super hero cats.
The Electric Oinks reunited to make an insanely bizarre and twisted new record called Secret Eyes. It was an instant hit and made all the young girls cry.
Meanwhile I was having a pretty nasty first part of the year and recorded a new fukachuk egg machine record. It is pretty angry and bleak. And definitely not something I listen to very often any more.
The good news is that I finished up work on World of the Uncanny, and it was amazing. Tons of crazy hard work paid off, and to date, at least as far as youtube views go, it is one of the most popular things we have ever done.
That year at the Comic and Entertainment Expo, we were invited to hold a discussion panel, show a short film about the history of SC and do a question and answer thing about making movies and stuff.. it was pretty cool. And we met the talented Jennifer Hartley there. Watch it here: http://youtu.be/JsbWAhl8jBI
That May me and Elaine finally got married in Terry's backyard, surrounded by friends, family, flying saucers, and monster tentacles attacking us from massive paper mache craters we spent weeks building.
The summer produced a short film written and directed by my daughter Miette.. it is kind of spooky actually. It's called The Petal: http://youtu.be/fCk7SFj8i7k
I also spent a lot of time back in Britain, and discovered that Scotland is my favourite place ever. When I got back to Canada, I spent the rest of the summer building a huge sculpture of a Dodo in a box... It is actually really cool. The rest of my time was spent preparing for the super exciting SC Entertianment 30th Anniversary festival that was to take place at the end of August. I had gather some of my friends who made music, as well as Fukachuk Egg Machine, Dads with no Face, and the Electric Oinks. We were also to have film screenings and basically just a bunch of fun and celebrations.. my hope was to match the awesomeness of the SC 15th Anniversary festival that had taken place in 1998.. And it totally did. It was a great night.
After the Massive SC celebrations, I got back to work. I had decided to make another fantastic cartoon series, like Space Cow from years before. This time I would use other comic book characters from my past and decided that Dorriss Doom would be the main hero in a sci-fi adventure about defeating oppression. The cartoon was to be in 6 parts, and I got our new friend Jennifer Hartley to be the voice of Dorriss. By the end if the year the first two episodes were complete.
One of the first things I did in 2012 was to go to Britain, I came back and made some pretty exciting stuff.. well.. mostly I made a record, I had written all the songs while I was in the UK.
Also while I was in Britain I made a fukachuk film.. it was mostly just a video for one of the songs.
I also made a video for the song 'Spider Lizards', and other than a slightly bizarre short film I made one night called 'Two Sound' that is all the actual film I made that whole year.
But don't worry, I wasn't be lazy, not even a bit.
We went to the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo again this year, but it was over crowded and people were rude and angry the whole time, and Terry couldn't even get in. basically it was kind of horrible. At least we didn't have to pay for a booth, as our friend who owns a cult and hard to find DVD distribution place let us share his both so we could sell some of our stuff. Still though.. people were pretty nasty there that year.
It was the 20th anniversary of Dads with no Face, so a retrospective compilation album was made to celebrate the many loud and weird times we had as Dads with no Face...
That year me and Elaine worked very hard on an album that Elaine had been planning and working on for quite a long time.. I just had to get around to seeing how genius she was, and then I got to work also. The album was called the prehistoric disco, and I would have to say it is the definitive Dinojubilee record.. it encompasses everything that makes that band great.
Some time during the summer me and Terry and Elaine started having secret meetings around giant bonfires to work out a new and amazing plan for what would be Beefart & Cheenkaw's next adventure. The meeting were strange and filled with mystery.. so I can't really say any more about it.. but I got straight to work on making these things in to a reality. We even tried crowd funding for the first time ever to see if we could get a little extra money to make this movie.. and heck, we got almost $1000.. that is pretty sweet, and in SC money it is like $10,000.
Meanwhile me and Elaine weren't finished yet.. what do you do when you just made the greatest Dinojubilee record of all time? You decide to make a new band with electronic loops and droning guitars and echos all over the place, and you make a mega huge double album, half sung by each of us. We called it Lost Worlds... it isn't strictly not a part of the Dinojubilee universe.. but it isn't really Dinojubilee either.
I also started making a new comic called 'SC Comics Massive Adventure' and I was releasing it on facebook when ever I got one done.
So I wrote the script for this new film and the whole time I wrote it I listened to the soundtrack from the 1970's doctor who story 'The Sea Devils' on repeat, and if you have ever seen that one, you will know what state my mind was in while I wrote that script. Basically it was awesome, and we got to work making everything and shooting this thing. Again it is a tribute to everything that had happened before, but it was something so totally new and different. We had new main characters, and diabolical new villains and it is kind of the greatest thing ever when I think about it, I can barely believe that we made it. We filmed it to the end of the year, but the film wouldn't be done until 2013.
So there was no fukachuk egg machine album released in 2010, but but February of 2011 I had released a new record.. it was kind of not very gloomy at all, so at first I wasn't sure if I should still call it fukachuk egg machine.. but I did, and in hindsight it totally is fukachuk.
But one of the best things that came from that album was the special video I made to promote it. It was a rip off of an old Shirley Bassey special from the 80's, and I called it: Blaise Kolodychuk: a very special man. I wore a fabulous dress and make up and was ridiculous... I kind of love it.
Elaine's sister had come over for Christmas of 2010, and stayed for quite some time. So I decided that I should make a movie with her in it.. it was a strange sort of fukachuk egg machine movie, but not really like any of the ones I had done in the past, thins one had a bit more of a story and dialogue and stuff.. it turned out very good actually. You can watch Planting Buttons here:
We again went to the comic and entertainment expo. It was still a good time, though we didn't really sell very much if I remember correctly... but it is always fun to go there and talk to people and hang out.
Then I started to make the biggest film I had ever made to date.. it was the sequel to the first Beefart & Cheenkaw movie, but I had also decided that I would also make it a sequel to the Bo-Bo movies as well and bring him and Rolf back... it was no small feat, because the iconic Bo-Bo mask has since disintegrated into nothing... and we could never find a mask that ever remotely looked similar to that in our journeys over the years. So the task was to make a new Bo-Bo mask from scratch. I am not a mask maker.. but I became one, and it worked out pretty good. (To be completely honest, it is not the strongest thing n the world.. but it looks good)
Anyway, we started production on Beefart & Cheenkaw 2 - Bo-Bo 7...
In the mean time, Dinojubilee was hard at work recording a 'real' album.. we also played a show at some metal bar downtown... it would have gone better, but even the staff made funb of us for not having a drummer... kind of made me feel like depeche mode in 1982 or something.
But the album was great, and mixed really great.. we called it People like you.
And by the end of the year, this absolutely beautiful monster of a film was complete.. It was, at the time, the most glorious thing I think SC Films had ever done. It was kind of a tribute to everything we had made over the last 25 years in a lot of ways, and had pretty much everyone fro the history of SC in it. I even built an entire sort of bat cave in my mother's basement.. complete with a giant blinking super computer. By this point in my life, I could probably say without lying, that I was an expert at building space stations in people's basements.
