June 2 - National Bubba Day

Happy National Bubba Day! On June 2 each year, today recognizes any and all of those we lovingly call "Bubba" in our lives. The name may come from the way young children try to shorten the word brother. 

Often used as an affectionate nickname for a brother, Bubba is also used by close family friends as a term of endearment.  

Through the years, you may have met many Bubbas or maybe you only know one. No matter how many Bubbas you know, the name is often used as a term for a friend or family member you hold close to your heart or even in high regard. 

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  • Emory Nicholas “Bubba” Church – The American baseball player played in Major League Baseball for five years pitching for the Philadelphia Phillies, Cincinnati Reds (then known as the Redlegs), and the Chicago Cubs. 

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  • David “Bubba” Brooks, Jr. – The African-American tenor saxophonist played professional jazz music across the United States after serving in the United States Army during World War II. 

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  • Bill “Bubba” Clinton – The American politician was elected as the 42nd President of the United States. 

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  • Gerry Lester “Bubba” Watson, Jr. – The left-handed professional golfer currently plays on the PGA Tour. 

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  • Benjamin Buford “Bubba” Blue – The fictional character (played by Mykelti Williamson) in the 1994 American drama/comedy-drama film 'Forest Gump' served in the Vietnam War alongside the titular main character. 

To all of those named, nicknamed or just sometimes called Bubba, Happy National Bubba Day! 

HOW TO OBSERVE 

Do you know someone called Bubba? Celebrate the Bubbas in your life. Give them a shout out or a phone call. Let them know you’re thinking about them.  

Share memories and a good laugh using #NationalBubbaDay to post on social media. 

HISTORY 

American comedian, musical artist, author and newspaper columnist T. Bubba Bechtol, founded National Bubba Day to celebrate anyone and everyone we call Bubba. Bechtol is also the founder of The Bubba's of America Organization. 

The day originally took place on May 1 but was moved to June 2nd in honor of his wife, Bubbalicious. 

How can you acknowledge a Bubba in your life today? 

#NationalBubbaDay 

@tbubbabecthol 

@nichecinema

June 2 - National Leave The Office Early Day

Happy National Leave The Office Early Day! Everyone is sure to enjoy marking today on their calendar. Today, one can finally understand the meaning of happy hour. 

Observed each year on June 2 (unless June 2 falls on a weekend, at which time it would be acknowledged on the closest working day), the observance is an incentive to many who often work more than forty hours each week. 

About one-third of Americans work more than forty hours per week. Some work even more than that. Those who are self-employed or who work two jobs are likely work sixty to eighty hours per week.  

Those types of hours don’t leave much for family, self-care, or home maintenance. Stress piles up and so do the phone calls from Mom, the grandkids, and maybe the gym wondering where you’ve been.  

Maybe the guys or the girlfriends want to meet up for dinner or go see a movie. However, you’ve been stuck behind a desk or on the road working all of this time, trying to keep your schedule and sanity in check. 

This holiday reminds you to take a little time off for yourself every once in a while. 

HOW TO OBSERVE 

On this day, upon completion of all the necessary day’s work and the needed approval, it is suggested that you can then leave work early to enjoy the rest of the day with fun activities of your choosing.

Use #LeaveTheOfficeEarlyDay to post on social media. 

HISTORY 

American Employee Productivity Specialist Laura Stack created National Leave The Office Early Day as a reminder to employees to take time for themselves. 

She is also an award-winning keynote speaker and trainer, bestselling author, and noted authority on personal productivity and team performance.  

Stack is the president of The Productivity Pro®, Inc., a company dedicated to helping leaders increase workplace performance in high-stress environments. 

Her company also provides time management workshops around the globe to help attendees achieve Maximum Results in Minimum Time®. 

How can you leave the office early today? 

#LeaveTheOfficeEarlyDay 

@laurastack

@TheProductivityPro 

@nichecinema 

DATES 

June 02, 2021 
June 02, 2022 
June 02, 2023 
June 03, 2024 
June 02, 2025 
June 02, 2026 
June 02, 2027 

June 02, 2028 
June 01, 2029 

June 2 - Lotte Rieniger

Happy Birthday, Lotte Reiniger! Born today in 1899 as Charlotte "Lotte" Reiniger, this German film director was also the foremost pioneer of silhouette animation, pre-dating Walt Disney by nearly a decade. 

  

Among her credits, she is best known for writing and co-directing the 1926 German silent black and white (tinted and toned) animation/fantasy film 'Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed' ('The Adventures of Prince Achmed'). The film is thought to be one of the oldest surviving feature-length animated films. 

  

Hailed as the first feature-length animated film in the history of cinema, this captivating film by the pioneering animator Reiniger tells the story of Prince Achmed's magical adventures. 

  

The story is based on elements from Syrian Maronite cloth merchant, writer and storyteller Antun Yusuf Hanna Diyab's One Thousand and One Nights. This included "Aladdin" and "The Story of Prince Ahmedand the Fairy Perī-Bānū". 

  

Reiniger required several years, from 1923 to 1926, to make 'Prince Achmed'. Each frame had to be painstakingly filmed, and twenty-four frames were needed per second. 

  

More than seventy-five years later, this enchanting film still stands as one of the great classics of animation – beautiful, mesmerizing and utterly seductive. 

Several famous avant-garde animators worked on this film with Reiniger, among them German cinematographer and film director Walter Ruttmann, Bohemian film-maker Berthold Bartosch, and noted American architect Carl Koch (who co-directed 'Prince Achmed' but went uncredited). 

Reiniger is also noted for having devised the first form of a multiplane camera; she made more than forty films, all using her invention. 

Reiniger had a distinct art style in her animations that was very different from other artists in the time period of the 1920s and the 1930s, particularly in terms of characters.  

In the 1920s especially, characters tended to rely on facial expressions to express emotions or action, while Reiniger's characters relied on gestures to display emotions or actions. She also utilized the technique of metamorphosis often in her animations.  

This focus on transformation greatly benefits her tendency to work with fairytale stories. 'The Adventures of Prince Achmed' specifically adapts fantastic elements to take advantage of animation to show things that could not be shown in reality.  

Reiniger considered animation's separation from the laws of the material plane to be one of the greatest strengths of the medium. 

Because of this, Reiniger's characters are not usually biologically correct, but they are able to express a fluidity which is very important to her style of expressionism.  

Although there are other animators in that time period that used these techniques, Reiniger stands out because she is able to accomplish this style using cutout animation. Reiniger's figures resemble stop-motion animation in the way that they move. 

Although all subsequent makers of animated fairy tales could be said to have been influenced by Reiniger, German film director Bruno J. Böttge is probably the one who has made the most explicit references to her work. 

Reiniger is also known for directing the eleven-minute 1935 German black and white animation/fantasy short film 'Papageno'. This is thought to be one of the oldest surviving feature-length animated films as well. 

Disney's 1940 American animation/fantasy film 'Fantasia' uses Reiniger's style in the beginning of the scene where Mickey Mouse is in the same shot as the live-action musicians. 

Two homages to 'Prince Achmed' can be spotted in two Disney films. The first is in the 1963 American animation adventure comedy fantasy film 'The Sword and the Stone'.  

The scene includes the duel between the witch Madam Mim and the wizard Merlin, who both transform in various creatures. 

Starting with the silhouette format in the 1989 French silhouette animation television series  Ciné si (Cinema If), French writer, designer, storyboard artist and director of animated films and television programs Michel Ocelot employs many of the techniques created by Reiniger. 

The second homage in a Disney film can be spotted when a character named Prince Achmed makes a cameo at the beginning of the 1992 American animation musical fantasy film 'Aladdin'. 

Along with the other techniques created by Reiniger for Ocelot's own invention, this is shown in his 2000 French compilation animation/family film 'Princes et princesses' ('Princes and Princesses'). 

Reiniger's cut-out animation style was even utilized in the credits of the 2004 American gothic dark comedy/fantasy film 'Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events'. 

In the 2010 British/American fantasy film, 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1', Swiss animation director Ben Hibon used Reiniger's style of animation in the short film titled "The Tale of the Three Brothers". 

The American animated television series Steven Universe (2013–2019) paid homage to the style of Reiniger's films in the episode "The Answer" (S02E22). 

The municipal museum in Tübingen, a traditional university town in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany, holds much of Reiniger's original materials and hosts a permanent exhibition, "The World in Light and Shadow: Silhouette, shadow theatre, silhouette film".  

The Filmmuseum Düsseldorf also holds many materials of Reiniger's work, including her animation table, and a part of the permanent exhibition is dedicated to her. Collections relating to her are also held at the BFI National Archive. 

No original German nitrate prints of 'Prince Achmed' are known to still exist. While the original film featured color tinting, prints available just prior to the restoration had all been in black and white.  

During 1996, while working from surviving nitrate prints, German and British archivists had restored the film. 

In 1999, they reinstated the original tinted image by using the Desmet method. This involved film tinting, toning, or a combination of the two. 

On June 2, 2016, a Google Doodle was created in what would have been Reiniger's 117th birthday.

Reiniger had been active from 1918–1979. 

  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkgirvbPJnw 

  

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