An Open Letter to Amid:

Dear Mr. Amid Amidi,

I was just going to let your diatribe on the Annies pass because it really does not deserve a response and anyway I am too busy keeping that useless organization running to waste time on another sideliner who bitches but does not give back to the animation community. If I was still the Blog voice of ASIFA-Hollywood I would never write you this letter. But there is fredom in running your own blog as you well know.

In fact, if it wasn`t for the tribe of mindless drones yeah-saying your venom in the comments on your blog I would still have left your heartfelt but I believe way misguided attack to die the foolish death of other mindless hot headed attacks.

This isn`t the first time you have attacked the Annie Awards and called them an ultimately useless award . If you truly believe they are useless then I wonder why do you even bother to attack us?

First off, what are you attacking? Not all the Annie Awards per say, not all the Annie Awards that you grouped together and call an ultimately useless award along with all of ASIFA-Hollwood. Even you have to know better.

Strange, I see you showing up at our screening and events all the time. Why are you wasting your time. Your problem has always been with the Winsor McCay Awards for lifetime achievement and the fact that the nominating committee does not always think exactly like the great and all know voice of animation, Amid Amidi.

But to tar the entire Annie Awards and all of the work of ASIFA-Hollywood with the same useless brush is just wrong. Especially by someone who never has time to help save us from uselessness.

I fear that our industry disagrees with you. Ever year the Annies and ASIFA-Hollywood the Animation Archives are bigger and bigger with wider industry support. Come on Amid, you have got to know that you are basically full of shit here or just trying to up your readership again so you can make more on banner adds by starting a blog war when you call ASIFA-Hollywood an even more useless organization.

The Animation Archives is useless, the animated films we preserve are useless. The AFI Screens you come to are all useless. The Afternoon of Remembrance is useless. I seem to remember seeing you there. The cartoons that would be lose forever if we on the board did not fight for them the same way we fight for are heroes every year when it comes Winsor McCay Award time, they are all useless, useless, useless. The programs we put on are useless. The Stop Mo Expo that I killed myself to put together last April is useless. All the animation programming I put together every year for Comic Con are useless. Fine, stop coming to our useless events and stop logging on to our useless web resources. Or tone down your attacks.

It is easy to set on the sidelines and spend all your time promoting only Amid Amidi and never give back to the animation community unless there is a pay check in it. It is another thing to roll up your sleeves and lug over 2,000 boxes slated for the trash out of Klasky-Csupo in 103-degree heat on your Saturday off. Or get up on a Sunday morning and save a 1935 Dick Huemer mural from the wrecking ball. Or spend all day with Q-Tips and mild soap slowly cleaning 15 years of cooking greece off part of the Oogie-Boogie set from Nightmare Before Christmas. In fact, I can`t think of a time when you did anything that did not promote Amid Amidi.

You say that you`re not privy to the politics of the Annie Awards. Damn right! You haven`t earned the right to set at that table and fight for your heroes. You will never know how close Art Stevens has come any number of times to getting that Winsor McCay Award. You will never have to suffer the heartbreak of watching one of your childhood heroes loose out to another one of your childhood heroes and then have the added pleasure of being called useless by some sideliner who is always ready to eat the bread but not to make it.

Being called Useless is just one of the perks we board members get for all our years of hard work that we never get thanked for while you are off at another self promotion event or thinking of your next book tour and working out how you are going to use animation to make a living for Amid Amidi.

We get to set at the table and fight for our heroes and get to be called useless by the people like you that will not lend a hand. Because we earn that right. Amid you have to know in your heart of hearts that you are way out of line when you call us useless. We don`t call you useless. We get use out of your hard work even if it is done to the glory of Amid Amidi.