I went to the first night of the Genndy Tartakovsky retrospective at the Egyptian Theatre which was quite cool. I had never seen the Emmy-winning one-hour “Birth of Evil” episode of Samurai Jack. It is much better than most animated features in the Theater. Genndy pretty much verified my concerns about Cartoon Network without directly saying it–they are becoming a corporate manufacturer of the same crap as everyone else. They seem to be heading in the direction of becoming Nick 2. Let’s hope that changes. He said Astroboy is basically in limbo, so it may be a long time (if ever) before it gets made. I also saw Steamboy this weekend which I liked VERY much, much like I knew I would. Otomo does not let me down. I hope to see more Steamboy stuff, be it animated or in comic format. Three puppet shows and a trip to the beach. It was a busy weekend.