No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on March 21, 2011

Today we promote both puppets and the art of puppetry and the historical importance of Puppetry.

Here in the United States it can be hard to get people to look at puppetry as anything more than for children. Part of that can come from the early days of television and all the children’s shows that used puppets to entertain. Between that and Sesame Street, they became more for children than adults. But that is not true. There are puppet shows all over the country that are for adults not only for adult content but the fact that children would be bored with the show because it is geared for adults.

We have seen more puppetry on Broadway in recently history than has been seen since the Golden Age of Broadway. Avenue Q aside, there are puppets being used in plenty of shows currently running on Broadway including the Addams Family and Spiderman: Turn off the Dark. Puppets can solve problems for how to tell the story without having to hire more actors or create some rather expensive mix media visuals. I don’t think the 39 Steps could have been done without puppets.

And there are new forms of puppetry combining with video and smart computers. The Monster Laugh Floor at Disney world combines both a static show and a live show. Some of the monsters are really puppets being controlled by the actors but the puppets don’t exist as foam and fur but rather as bits and bytes. This is a step up from the original “Turtle Talk with Crush” at Epcot. Then there is the trashcan that wanders around Tomorrowland talking to everyone. It says thank you when someone puts trash in it. It comments in real time about the people around it. I finally figured out who the operator was but they were well camouflaged in the crowd. The same goes for Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker which is, I believe, still in Disney Tokyo. The puppets interacted with the people around them. Then there is the dinosaur that walked around Animal Kingdom which was sent to somewhere in Asia.

I encourage each and every one of you to go see what is in your area for puppetry. You might be amazed that you have an entire troop of critters you never knew about.

And since it is World Puppet Day, do you have any puppetry questions for me?

I am so very grateful that I am a Puppeteer.

Category: Uncategorized | Comments Off on Happy World Puppetry Day 2011
Tags:

Posted By Kathleen David on March 20, 2011

Honestly I wrote an entire web log entry in a dream I had this morning. I really liked it too but I can’t remember what I wrote about at all other than the pleased feeling I got from it.

So I check my website(s) and there is no entry for today after I could have sworn I wrote one.

Apparently my brain is trying to take care of things in other realms as well.

I do wish I could remember any detail of the entry but it is a bit of a blank.

I need to write topics down as they come to me rather than looking at the blank screen and hoping to have the topic come back out of my brain. Sometimes it works and other times the lights are on but nobody is home.

Does anyone wear a wristwatch anymore? I know I do when traveling because it is more convenient than pulling out my cell phone. But Ariel doesn’t wear one nor has she ever. Caroline has one but never wears it except when I remind her and none of the kids at the bus stop wear a watch. In fact most of the parents don’t either. I guess we have gone back to an upgraded version of the pocket watch aka the smart-phone.

Sometimes I do put all my timepieces away and give myself permission to not care about time passing. It is sort of an in the moment thing for me. I am aware time is passing but it is not the ruler of what I am doing. I also step away from the computer and the smart-phone at times to just allow me to have some time that I am not electronically hooked into the world.

Time is a funny thing. When I was a kid, the holidays took forever to get to. Now as an adult I swear I blink and find myself in another month. With Caroline around, I feel like time is sped up ever more. I just brought her home from the hospital and now I suddenly have this little girl who is reading a book on the couch next to me. I can remember that we did a lot of things between each point but it seems so fast. Fig is doing the same thing. A couple of months ago she was a small scared ball of fluff and now she is vying to be the Alpha Cat on occasion. (So far she has been informed by the older cats that she is not.)

Caroline is feeling a little better today but the fever keeps coming in and out so we are keeping an eye on it and her. I am hoping that she’ll be alright for school tomorrow but if she is running a fever again, we may have to keep her home for a day or so.

I am grateful for my watches including my really cool early digital watch.

Category: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Tags:

Posted By Kathleen David on March 19, 2011

So today we went back to rather cold this morning with more cold for the afternoon and evening. But we had a hint of the spring to come.

The moon was lovely last night and is suppose to be even more so tonight. Caroline and I watched the clouds speed past the moon casting spooky shadows across our lawn. I am going to pull out my telescope for tonight if the skies stay clear.

Caroline went from fever to no fever and no sore throat after drinking some water. I didn’t give her anything either and she wanted to go to school. I put it down to the digital thermometer having low batteries. She went to school and played with her friends and woke up this morning with a real fever that isn’t vanishing after a little while of being up along with serious sniffles and a rough cough. This time I am going to not let her out until I know she is better.

After two very productive days, yesterday was not as productive. They can’t all be winners.

To everyone at LunaCon, hope you are having fun. It just didn’t work out for me this year. I do miss the Art Show and the panels and my fellow panelists. I don’t miss the usual mess of a drive to get up there.

So today is going to be a productive day. I have declared it so!

I am grateful for productive days.

Category: Uncategorized | Comments Off on Lovely Weather Yesterday. Not as Much Today
Tags:

Posted By Kathleen David on March 18, 2011

I had today pretty much planned out and Caroline woke up with a slight fever and a very sore throat. There is strep going around her school. A couple of kids at her bus stop were out pretty much of last week with it. So we are taking her to the Doctor to make sure that she just has the sniffles. But that is all part and parcel of being a parent, the kid’s needs come first and today she needs us.

So now it doesn’t matter where you are in the country, if you have certain cable systems you can see any of the NCAA basketball tourney. Which means a lot of programming got dumped in favor of the college hoops. I will be interested to see if the ratings justify this sort of thing. I watched a bit of this and a bit of that.

I did finish Faceoff and if you are going for a body of work over the TV series, then the right person won. If you are going off the last challenge, then I think at least one other person if not two had better make-up jobs. Although the winner is great on the fine details and overall I think has a better shot of running a studio than the others (I am trying not to spoil it for those who haven’t seen the last episode so if you want to talk about it, please do so in broad strokes.)

Now I am off to re-arrange the day and figure out what we are doing with the weekend.

I am grateful for flashlights that work.

Category: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Tags:

Posted By Kathleen David on March 17, 2011

When one says “the luck of the Irish” they don’t really think that Luck can be good and beyond crappy and the Irish have had both in bushels.

Still waiting on word from the editorial jobs I applied for. The longer I wait the more I believe that it is just a way for them to get enough resumes to justify their hiring within the company. Ah well, it would have been nice.

Yesterday was mostly a cleaning day and today is shaping up to be about the same. Going out of town doesn’t stop one’s house from getting dusty and with cats there is always some extra fur to deal with.

The weather is improving quite a bit. I had the windows open yesterday afternoon and let some air into the house. I am hoping that the warming trend continues into the weekend so I can take Caroline down to the park to play. If we go, I plan to take a chair since they got rid of a number of benches that the parents use to sit on.

I am enjoying watching Spring Training baseball. I know the season will start soon enough but right now there is a sense of fun and silliness that we seem to lose once it start to count towards the World Series. One of the reasons I enjoy the Long Island Ducks. Ticket prices for four is about what you would pay for one ticket at Citifield (I miss Shea) and the food is cheaper. But most of all there is a sense of fun about the game that seems lacking in the big leagues.

Projects whirling around in my head. I think I need to sit down with some paper and sort things out again.

I am grateful for an Irish pub to go eat lunch at today.

Category: Uncategorized | Comments Off on RTBTCKI (The Luck of the Irish Edition)
Tags: