As one of the oldest animation styles, cut-out animation has been around since the early 20th century. The film The Adventures of Prince Achmed came out in 1926 and featured a style of animation using paper silhouettes to create characters, which were then animated using stop motion photography. This style of animation lends itself to a humorous and sort of surreal feel.

Born in Afghanistan as Jalāl al-Dīn, he later moved to Turkey and undertook his career as a religious scholar and teacher, taking over for his father after his death. His life and work up to this point were respectable and fairly standard, as that sort of thing goes until he encountered a wandering dervish or holy man who called himself Shams of Tabriz. This is where the life of Rumi, the mystical artist, began to emerge.

A friend of mine recently released a full, song-for-song, tribute album of Brian Wilson’s Smile that he recorded entirely on his own over the course of several years. What I was most impressed with was the deep and intense love of something that would compel him to undertake such a huge task…mainly, for the fun of it.