No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on August 28, 2015

Today is my brother’s birthday.

Sean is an awesome person both as a brother and a friend. His friends could tell you tales of Sean going out of his way to help them. But they don’t know the number of times that he did things that he took no credit for.

He has a wicked sense of humor and has taken the concept of a running gag to epic proportions. The courting of his wife could be a book in itself.

He has taught himself all kinds of interesting skills. He finds something interesting and wants to learn how to do it for himself. Because of this curiosity, I have someone who is a blacksmith and can do amazing things with Plexiglass among other hard to work materials in my back pocket when I need some help with something for puppets or the like.

He is known in southern scifi fandom and, in some cases, world wide for his elaborate parties that have been called, without exaggeration, legendary. Once you have been to one of his parties, you look forward to be invited to the next one. The invites are inventive and collectable. One year it was “The Dead Man’s Party” and you had to have a toe tag to get in. One year you became part of the fashion police. I know a couple of people who collect his cloisonné pins even if they can’t get to the party. I am looking forward to DragonCon and whatever he has mixed up this year. Oh, he is also an excellent bartender too.

I remember when he was shorted than me. I remember holding him when he was a baby. I remember crawling on the floor trying to teach him how to crawl. I remember playing with him in elaborate games we created.

I love the look of sheer joy on his face when he figures something out or gets one of his really clever ideas.

I love the confidence he has in his skills and abilities.

I love him.

He’ll always be my little brother even though he is a couple inches taller than me.

So Happy Birthday Sean!

I am so very grateful that Sean is my brother.

Category: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tags:

Posted By Kathleen David on August 13, 2015

Subtitled Kath has got to get her act together and get ready to go on the road.

Yep, that time of year when I look at what I said I was going to do and now have to deal with the reality of what I did and didn’t do this past year. I did get the puppet count from 22 down to 16 which is doable but I won’t be doing much else.

I am looking forward to being at the convention. I have a number of cool panels that I am participating in and I also am the moderator for an hour with Caroll Spinney which makes my inner fangirl just giggle every time I think about it. Find my schedule and you can find me at DragonCon or check at Peter’s table which will be in Artist Alley or find me at the banquet. I am not exactly going to be hiding.

My goal this year is to have all the puppets DONE before we go to the convention so I am not sewing at any point. We also have to do a re-do on Caroline’s costume for the convention again I want it done before we go. I want to be able to spend some time at the convention not worrying about anything to do with anything I am working on.

So today I am going to build some bodies and figure out how I am going to create some things. I still need to do some research but I have a pretty good feel for what everything is going to look like.

I’ll update what I get done once a day even if it is nothing just to keep me honest.

There is some other news in the pipeline but more on that AFTER DragonCon.

I am grateful for a gameplan.

Category: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Tags:

Posted By Kathleen David on August 11, 2015

We had a lot of fun at Shoreleave.

Mystery Trekkie Theater went over very well. The episode that was being lampooned was Sub Rosa. I was proud that Mike, Bob, and Peter did the fight choreography I created correctly and no one got hurt.

Caroline had her friend Pixie with her for a majority of the weekend and they had a lot of fun building pillow forts and running around the convention together. Also Ariel and her fiancé joined us so Caroline was able to spend time with her.

I had panels and talked about various subjects as did Peter. I signed a couple of things that I had written during the weekend, which is happening more often. Peter signed a lot of stuff and made people happy. I spent time talking to friends but not as much as I would like. I judged the Masquerade with four other lovely folks. And I got part one of a present for my friends Jeff and Angelo and, with luck, set up part two. We’ll see how that goes.

Trip down was made more interesting by a gas leak that shut down the New Jersey Turnpike stranding us for a time at a rest stop in the frozen zone. Trip back was a lot of maneuvering to avoid the parking lots we are calling highways and parkways around here. Between construction and accidents, it was a journey that took twice as long than it should.

So that was Shoreleave.

Next up the big one for me every year that being DragonCon.

I have 10 puppets for the Art Show and 5 for the Puppetslam which Peter and I sorted out in the car and we have our A game plan and our B game plan with C as a back-up. This will be different from anything I have done at puppetslam before.

So today is all about recovering the house from Shoreleave and then I am off to puppet land for the next couple of weeks. For the Art Show I am making Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson a number of times. It will make sense at DragonCon.

I got my tentative schedule from the convention and I am doing some interesting panels and judging the Friday Night Workmanship contest. There is one panel that I am positively giddy about but more on that closer to the convention.

I am grateful for conventions where I have fun.

Category: Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
Tags:

Posted By Kathleen David on August 6, 2015

Yesterday I finally got to see Mr. Holmes, a movie I have wanted to see from when I first found out about it. I have read the novel that the film was based on so I knew pretty much the plot of the piece.

If you are looking for a Sherlock Holmes Adventure like a Hound of the Baskervilles, this is not it.

This is a character piece splendidly acted by Ian McKellen as Holmes in his dotage and 30 years earlier on his last case before he retires to Sussex.

The structure of the film flips us between past and present and Sir Ian makes sure you know where you are in the narrative with just his body language. It is an amazing performance to watch unspool. His realization into how far his mind has gone and the sheer terror of loosing that which making him Sherlock Holmes was a tour de force. It is at times not comfortable to watch but very compelling.

Laura Linney is playing Holmes’ housekeeper and quietly gives a stunning performance as you watch a woman trying to keep her life and the life of her son together. I was surprised how much of their backstory the writer managed to get into the piece.

The find of the piece is a young actor by the name of Milo Parker who plays Laura Linney’s son. I foresee a long and brilliant future for this young actor. He managed to steal scenes from Sir Ian with little effort.

If you are a fan of Sherlock Holmes and/or a fan of Ian McKellen, this is a must see film.

It was a little confusing through the first hour as the storylines didn’t seem to fit together but by the end everything introduced makes sense within the story.

I will say that tissues are a must especially for the last half hour.

I have a feeling that the word Oscar is going to be bandies about this film even though it opened so early in the year.

I highly recommend this film.

Category: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tags:

Posted By Kathleen David on August 4, 2015

I have known Jeff and Angelo aka J & A for almost 30 years now. Even though we don’t talk as often as we probably should, ours is a comfortable friendship that picks up from where we left off. They are some of my closest friends in this world.

This past weekend I went down to Atlanta to attending their commitment ceremony, which was beautiful and very much them.

The Happy Couple photo taken by me all rights reserved
(Jeff is on the left and Angelo is on the right. . Jeff is wearing a black suit with a blue tie and a Steamboat Mickey tie pin. Angelo is wearing a black suit with a green tie and an Oswald tie pin.)

The rest of this is behind the cut due to being photo heavy
(more…)

Category: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tags: