I really love discovering unique puppet makers, so I was psyched when Vlad sent me a link to Mad Geppetto’s “monsters, murderers, movie stars and malcontents.”
Tor!
More on his site.
Category: puppets
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I love this page on The Selby (a showcase of inspiring personal spaces), featuring Jessica Grindstaff and Erik Sanko. Amazing handcrafted marionettes, sculptures, displays…all around fun oddities to gaze at.
See the rest of the collection here.
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I have basically no chance of catching this performance, but it looks amazing. Chicago’s Redmoon Theater has brought back The Cabinet.
The Cabinet sets the story of the murderous Dr. Caligari and his somnambulist slave Cesare in an off-kilter world of puppetry and intricate machinery. Inspired by the 1919 German Expressionist silent film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The Cabinet creates a wild, abstracted “cabinet of curiosities” in which five puppeteers manipulate and maneuver the characters and objects much as Caligari controls Cesare’s plight.
From the Coilhouse review:
The characters are played by exquisite glass-eyed puppets, manipulated by intricately costumed puppeteers…There’s a sense of charged symbiosis, with the performers moving in measured, clockwork rhythms, like antique automatons. They watch their puppets raptly, sometimes standing alongside them, sometimes hanging upside down, sometimes nearly out of sight. Gloved hands appear from around the edges of the stage; when a weapon appears, it is held out to the puppet with a long-handled silver hemostat. When there is a death, they unspool red ribbons of blood.
A short clip:
Anyone know of a way I could make an appeal for this production to come to NYC?
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Just a few snapshots of odds and ends…
I dug out the holiday lollipops Louisa gave me last year, to find that they had been exposed to too much heat and had melted slightly. This only adds to their greatness.
Santa candle got it too (check out that leg)…
If you’re curious about how Hubert Cumberdale is doing (which you probably are not), he’s enjoying the festivities in his new residence:
And last but not least, we have our nativity scene, SheWalksSoftly style:
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Don’t get discouraged by the beginning of this video. If the cyclist doesn’t impress you, stick around for the burlesque dancer at 0:54. Sir Rollin D. Bones (starting at 1:50) is amazing. Best skeleton dance moves ever caught on film.
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This post is not for the weak. I confess that I had trouble getting through the whole thing, but it’s something you might want to experience just once.
Yes Folks, it’s Captain Hook and his band of Christian pirates, storming the high seas to spread the word of Jesus. It’s entertaining, if not mildly terrifying, to see “the captain” use this theme to manipulate young minds and bastardize your favorite fairy tales.
Little Red Riding Hood becomes an allegory of Satan, with classic Big Bad Wolf lines such as “Hey Little Red Riding Hood…let’s you and me go take some dope!” Don’t believe me? Go ahead and download for yourself, but do so at your own risk…
(This post makes me think I need to have a “worst thing ever” tag)
Courtesy of Schadenfreudian Therapy.
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According to the New York Times:
There are people who love puppets, there are people who love Kafka, and there is almost certainly a subset of people who love both puppets and Kafka. Their moment has arrived.
I am a card-carrying member of that subset, but sadly…the moment has passed. The one day I could have gone to see Puppet Kafka, it was sold out.
I would have loved to see one of my favorite authors animated in creepy marionettes (apparently it was a combination of the Metamorphosis and the Trial).
Must make a point to keep current with surrealist puppet theater.
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Did you know there’s a subgenre of Christian puppetry records? Believe it.
The puppet prerequisites? Awkward, malformed or otherwise terrifying.
We also find the occasional doll on these covers. Here, the doll is clearly fed up with this child’s incessant praying.
Almost forgot one! There is indeed a puppet here, but the menacing mascots caused me to overlook him entirely.
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Here’s one for the Ren and Stimpy fans. You may recognize this character as George Liquor.
This fantastic marionette was made by the fine folks at Flexitoon.
Isn’t he wonderful?
More pictures and sketches on John K’s blog.
SheWalksSoftly 