No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on April 24, 2012

I can’t currently find my old portfolio that had all the photos I wanted to scan. But when I do, I’ll post them here.

Anyway, Saturday is a National Day of Puppetry. I plan to take that day and build some sort of random puppet. Also Caroline and I are going to pull out our What-nots and improve with each other.

Puppets are an art form and a very varied art form indeed. All cultures seem to have some form of puppetry within them. Puppets can be as simple or complex as one would like to make it. And they are only limited by your imagination (and physics but even then you can cheat a little).

So to get ready celebrate National Day of Puppetry, I suggest building a puppet.

Here are some links for some puppets that are easy to make and can be a spring board to so much more.

Crayola has a page dedicated to NDoP with a number of links to some pretty cool puppets that are print, color, and go. Crayola NDoP page

The Disney Family Fun site has a lot of puppet ideas and patterns. I like this one because it is really a jumping off point for the imagination. Paper Finger Puppets

Instructables has a number of people who have put up tutorials on how to make all kinds of puppets. Instructables search There is a lot to poke through there.

Legends and Lore have a pretty good site for both parents and teachers with a couple of puppet ideas and links Legends and Lore site

As to Puppets as Art, here are a couple of places to go look at puppets and puppetry.

Center for Puppetry Arts Museum page with its virtual museum

Puppeteers of America have a site with lots of information and lots of links to all kinds of puppets and puppeteers. Puppeteers of America>

The Jim Henson Foundation is a great way to keep up on all things puppets. They have all kinds of information on their site and the photos are quite lovely. The Jim Henson Foundation website

And one of the best link sites for Puppetry is maintained by the Barones. SageCraft Puppetry Page

So there are some places to start.

I encourage all of you to do something on NDoP. Let’s keep this art form alive.

I am grateful that I have puppets in my life.

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Posted By Kathleen David on April 23, 2012

And he is safe in Montreal starting his drive to Quebec City. Caroline misses him a lot already.

I talk to a lot of parents who have to blast their kids out of bed in the morning. I have an early riser in Caroline who tends to get up a little before 7 AM which allows her to ease her way into her day. I don’t know how much longer that is going to last but I am going to enjoy it as long as I can.

We have rain today. Peter is going to have to deal with snow. Amazing the difference that a few degrees can make.

I have been reading Johan Lehrer’s Imagine and it is an interesting read. There were also a number of interesting articles in yesterday’s New York Time’s magazine that I am probably going to be finishing over the week while working out on some form of exercise machine. I have always been fascinated with the brain and how it works and doesn’t work on occasion. I know mine is a little bit different because I am dyslexic. I have worked very hard to train myself to spell words correctly but it can be the oddest word that can cause me all kinds of problems. And although I am still sketchy on my right from my left, my sense of direction and how to get somewhere I have been before is pretty doggone good. I seem to have a visual memory. Caroline seems to have a form of eidetic memory which has served her well in both school and puzzles.

Mets and Giants are going to try to get a double-header in today. Good luck, the weather looks rather sketchy today.

For those of you who DVR Young Justice, this Saturday is the first episode of the second season but the title is different so your DVR might not pick it up. As of Saturday, it is know as Young Justice: Invasion. Please make a note of it. And yes, Peter is writing a couple more episodes for it.

We are watching our way through the movies that proceed the Avengers film which we should be seeing on Thursday with the Marvel Crew (fingers crossed) We have an Iron Man and a Captain America to go to complete the set. Caroline knows these characters cold. She loves the Hulk. She also is pretty savvy about the X-men and X-factor’s current team. She is looking forward to it a lot.

I have a couple of things on my plate today before I start the next set of Things That Must Be Done henceforth to be know as TTMBD. There are also a list of things I would like to do as well. We’ll see where we get.

Because Peter is out of town, I think I am going to use his scanner to get in some photos of some of my earlier puppets. I have a couple of really twisted ones that I am quite proud of. I first have to find my portfolio which is somewhere in my filing cabinet or under the top of my desk in my to be filled stack.

Fig is yowling at the office door trying to find me I guess. She has a very distinctive voice.

Off to sort out the day. I think I am going to start with a list.

I am grateful that Peter made it up to Canada with no problem.

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Posted By Kathleen David on April 22, 2012

I have never been able to figure out of Sunday is the beginning of the week or the end of the week. I have had plenty of calendars that say one and plenty that say the other. For me it seems to be a little bit of both. I use Sunday to both reflect on the week behind me and the week ahead.

The week behind me was a seriously mixed bag of happy/sad. We had good news and some pretty crappy news all in the same week. At least we had more of a balance than some weeks. I didn’t get half of what I wanted to get done. I was dealing with other stuff that needed to be done and discovered that onions and I really don’t get along anymore which is a shame since I love a good onion ring. I am hoping for a more productive week.

The week ahead is going to be interesting since Peter is leaving Monday AM for a gig and then a convention which will bring him back home a week later. So I will be a fulltime Mommy for a week. That creates a set of time parameters as to where I need to be when including all of Caroline’s afterschool activities which she has every afternoon except Thursday.

Today is about laundry and getting Peter ready for his trip. We are going to be doing some family stuff together. So a quiet Sunday with a number of activities.

Next week I think I am going to make the first part about cleaning and the second half about creating or maybe the other way around. Or AM cleaning and PM creating. I’ll come up with some plan that I will have to change rather quickly because something will cause me to have to do so.

So here is what I am thinking about blogging this week.

Monday Musings about various topics.

Crafty Tuesday will be a look at past projects I think. I need to find some photos and scan some others in. Also I will be starting the DragonCon list since I am in the Art Show and I would like to get everything done before August to allow me some time to get extra details on stuff. (Yes, I know I say that every year but I am starting early this year.)

Wednesday is open at this point. I may starting doing a “When I was a young Fan” or “Convention Advise” series.

This Thursday is going to be Introspection I think.

Friday I am keeping open for whatever my mind comes up with.

The weekend can be a bit more dicey about posting since I am Super Mom but it will be whatever is on my mind.

I am wondering if there is any interest in me talking about parenting or what Caroline is up to.

So there is my breakdown of the week to come.

I am grateful for things that amuse my husband and daughter.

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Posted By Kathleen David on April 21, 2012

I have had “Moving Right Along” from the Muppet Movie stuck in my head for the past day or so. I figured I picked it up during the concert but it didn’t stick until a few other songs passed through.

Happy Earth Day! We currently have only one planet to live on, lets be nice to it.

It has been kind of a puppety week for me. Between building one and contemplating the next set(s) to be built, I have been in puppet mode. But that is not too unusual for me since puppet mode is basically breathing to me.

If you like puppetry may I suggest that you add the Jim Henson Foundation Newletter to your e-mail. More information can be found at www.hensonfoundation.org . Atlanta has a treat today because Paul Zaloom is performing his “A Theater of Trash” in honor of Earth Day. If you haven’t seen Paul Zaloom perform, he is a brilliant found object puppeteer. And yes he was the scientist in Beakman’s World. Washington DC is having a Basil Twist festival will all kinds of fun things

Ours is going to be a rainy Earth Day which is probably going to put a damper on various celebrations through out the city.

Hope everyone has a nice day. We are going to go see Chimpanzee and just veg since Peter is going to have a busy week next week.

I am grateful for rain because we really could use some.

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Posted By Kathleen David on April 20, 2012

Yesterday it was announced by his family that Jonathan Frid passed away on Friday the 13th. Mr. Frid was best known for his portrayal of the original brooding vampire Barnabus Collins. Barnabus didn’t want to be a vampire and spent most of his time trying to find how to NOT be a vampire anymore. It was soap opera at its gothic soapiness and I loved every minute of it. Barnabus was the first vampire I encountered that didn’t want to be a vampire and regretted his blood thirst and harming others. There have been many since then but Barnabus Collins will always be the first one I encountered.

Years later, after I had graduated from Yale, I got a call from my advisor/mentor telling me about a gig that she had put my name in for and the contact information for the agent putting the tour together. It was for a tour of Jonathan Frid’s one man Edgar Allan Poe show. I made it back up to New York and met with the agent about it. I was tentatively offered the gig which wasn’t quite to the point where they were hiring. I held my schedule open as long as I could but I ended up taking another gig that lasted longer and paid better because I couldn’t wait on this job. One of my few regrets in my theatrical career. I think it would have been fun.

I am now thinking of making a Barnabus and Quentin puppets for DragonCon. I did a set years ago but I think that my techniques and abilities are much better than before and it seems the right time for it. Barnabus would have removable fangs and Quentin would have his normal face and his Werewolf face.

We also have the new film coming out in a month. I am sorry that Mr. Frid isn’t going to be able to see the fan reaction to the film. Apparently he has a cameo in it as are a number of other actors who were in the original series. I am an old school Dark Shadows fan that is going to go into the film with an open mind. I know what I am getting into because it was directed by Tim Burton and he does have a certain style that I enjoy. They can’t do what they did in the soap opera beat for beat because that was build up over weeks of a show. So they are going to have to cherry pick their shots from the wealth of material that Dan Curtis and his writers created. There are places that I am really hoping they won’t go because it didn’t work in the original Dark Shadows but soap operas can course correct where as a film really can’t.

I will confess that some of my first fanfic was Dark Shadows related. No, no one but me saw it and for some strange reason I reread it recently and I can say that no one but me WILL see it. My first fanfic that others saw was my Dr. Who fic.

I wonder how many Dark Shadows outfits there are going to be at DragonCon this year. I have seen a smattering over the years but I am expecting that this is the year for this and John Carter along with the Avengers who have been big at DragonCon for a while. I will say that the Barnabus costume has been made easier since the cane and the ring are slated for Halloween this year from Elope. (Deep dark secret, my college ring is gold with a black onyx stone. Yes, I got it that way because of Dark Shadows)

My sympathies to Mr. Frid’s family and friends.

I am grateful that I did have that opportunity even though it didn’t pan out.

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