Of course Top Dog had to say something about the deal. He doesn’t particularly like the owl, as his charm doesn’t work on her. “Can we call you Indian Gift from now on?” he asked and added with a big smirk “I knew the artist can’t be trusted!”
“Oh, shut up you disingenuous old thing. It was all done amicably” replied Pinkpok obviously angry that he tried to spoil her joy.
“Oh, how I wish they had let you go!” said Top Dog and wandered off.
“Right, I have enough” said Mouse to Devil. “We have to do something new! What about taking ballet classes with the Grande Ballerina?”
“How is that suppose to help?” asked Devil.
“It will take our mind of things!” answered Mouse.
“Yeah, but ballet?” Devil wasn’t convinced “We could have a party, as Pinkpok is leaving us soon.”
“No, she doesn’t like a big farewell, she is very sad” said Mouse. “Don’t make it even harder for her.”
Indeed Pinkpok had packed her stuff and was ready to leave the Dedes. Not!
She was crying all night and here she is waiting, sad and exhausted, at the backdoor for her ride to the post office.
What she didn’t know then, was that her new owner moss.creek had already contacted the artist saying that she felt very uncomfortable separating Pinkpok from her Dede friends. A Dede needs like minded puppets around her. And moss.creek quite enjoys seeing the wise owl popping up in the story now and then.
Push Push the elephant suggested that Pinkpok could become a sponsored Dede just like her. Push Push and Harvey, the rabbit, are both owned by collectors but are still living in the Dede household, so that they can participate in the story. They have an obligation to write Christmas cards to their owners and can be recalled any time. Both moss.creek and Pinkpok were delighted with the solution. Phew!
Pinkpok, the wise owl, is finally preparing to leave the Dedehousehold. In this very short time she lived here, she has become Mouse’s confidant.
“Top Dog unsettles everybody. He has no empathy whatsoever. What can we do?” asked Mouse while she helped Pinkpok packing.
“That actually isn’t true! Top Dog can read the Dedes very well, so he has rational empathy. But he uses his knowledge to his advantage and doesn’t feel the pain he causes. That makes him a psychopath and there is not much you can do, but run!” lectured Pinkpok.
“It’s so sad that you have to leave soon. I could learn so much from you,” remarked Mouse dolefully.
Top Dog who has extremely good hearing and loves to eavesdrop on other Dedes conversations overheard everything.
“Ha, they say I feel no pain,” he said and grabbed himself a bottle of beer. “Of course I feel pain if I don’t get what I want. But I am not a whiner, I have better ways of dealing with the pain.”
Our friend wizened_gnome sent us a quote by Oscar Wilde yesterday. “Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live….Selfishness always aims at creating around it an absolute uniformity of type. Unselfishness recognizes infinite variety of type as a delightful thing, accepts it, acquiesces in it, enjoys it. It is not selfish to think for oneself.”
Cat licked that one up like a bowl of milk. “Ha!” she said, “I love this quote. It proves, it’s not us cats who are the selfish ones. We don’t give a toss what others do. The baddies are always the dogs!”
Oh dear, it didn’t take long and we received a complaint. Cat has totally misinterpreted this quote, I was told, moreover, she is an arrogant piece of work. Mhm. I guess, as quotes are always cited out of context, they are open to misinterpretation too.
Mouse is wondering what happened to the happy-go-lucky Dedes?
“I don’t like where we are heading,” she mumbled and looked in the box of half-finished heads. “I have to tell the artist we need some amicable Dedes.”
Devil was so surprised about Top Dog’s offer, he couldn’t get over it. “I can tell you what the problem is, my dear” said Pinkpok. “Everyone is the centre of their own world and therefore, how they act is normal by their standards. Of course, as everyone is normal, all the others are expected to act in exactly the same way as oneself.”
This threw the cat among the pigeons. No-one could really make sense of what the owl meant. One reader even said “I conclude I’m a descendent of the Dedes – brain totally mushed and have resorted to the gin bottle 🙃”
Oh dear, we see the headlines: puppets drive readers to bottle.
A so wild discussion ensued.
“I don’t get what Pinkpok is trying to tell us,” said Calamity to Pavlova, the lab rat.
“It’s simple,” explained Pavlova, who always has to try new things in her job. “We believe what we do and think is normal. If we come across someone who has a different world view, we tend to believe we are right and they are wrong. It is easier than engaging with the otherness.”
“Do I have to understand that?” asked Calamity. Ah well, some Dedes never get it!
Yesterday was Truth Tuesday again and Mouse started packing her bags. Truth is, the Dedes are on the move. They will be moving from the big smoke to the countryside. This is a major undertaking. The Dedes came into existence because of changes to the current abode and now they are partially responsible for leaving it behind. It is simply because I want to have a bigger studio space. More space for more puppets and more puppet making workshops. So please, if their reporting gets a bit erratic over the next two months be lenient and don’t give up on them.
Today Top Dog snaked up to Devil. It looks like his popularity is waning and he tries to drum up more followers. He said: “I could do very well with a devil like you on my team!” But Devil doesn’t want to have a bar of it “No way” was the short and definitive reply.
“Not even if I gave you my soul?” Top Dog believes that this is an offer no real devil can refuse. “What soul? You don’t have a soul!”
Devil was deeply insulted by Top Dog’s offer. “What does he think? Does he really believe I am as mean-spirited as him?” he asked Pinkpok, the wise owl.
“Of course no-one thinks of themselves as being nasty, not even Top Dog, ” the owl replied “I know, you are well-meaning, but you often tick the Dedes off because you blatantly call a spade a spade. Sometimes it would help to present the spade nicely wrapped.”
Here some impressions from the puppet making event at the Storylines Familyday in Auckland yesterday. It was absolutely amazing. I think the faces of the kids speak for themselves. They simply loved it. We had a steady stream at the table. In the end we had to pinch a few paper coffee cups from the cafeteria, because we had run out of items to use for bodies. :)
There is no inspiration without Groucho…. Today Liar showed us his favourite quote, which was sent to the Dedes by @renfieldwantsmore “Who is that Groucho Marx guy” called Top Dog from behind the curtains “he copied that one straight out of my book! I will sue him.”
Then Top Dog came out of his hiding place and walked straight up to Liar. “You and I are definitely cut from the same cloth,” he said, “do you want to be my campaign manager?”
This didn’t go down well with a few instagram readers. Sorry guys, it is out of my hands. The two seem to be the dream team.
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I am not sure if I get round to updating you tomorrow as I have a full-day gig making puppets from trash at the Auckland Storylines Family day. The puppet making is themed healthy eating. Munch and Kin will be the baddies that need to be fought off.
I was busy all week sifting through surplus and left-over material and whittled it down to two boxes full of rubbish to take. This is a job that takes ages, as I easily get sidetracked with making things myself. I also had to remove oodles of rusty pins, so the kids don’t injure themselves when they comb through the treasures. I love these workshops. I find it amazing to see the kids being totally engrossed for an hour or so and come up with their gorgeous creations. I hope I will get some good pics, but I might be too busy running around with my glue gun, helping to stick everything together.
Here is one puppet I prepared earlier, to give the kids an idea what to do. Not that they need it, but had fun making it.
Now that Pinkpok is already old news, the Dedes continue with their inspirational quotes. Calamity showed the one she tries hard to live by. But she is adamant in her picture the shadows definitely outweigh the highlights. According to her, she can’t do anything about it no matter how hard she tries.
“Who cares about inspirational quotes anyway” said Munch to Kin, “all I care for is junk food.” These two special characters came out of the closet for the weekend. I made them a while back to promote my friend’s book about good nutrition. And this Sunday they will have an exciting outing. They will attend Storylines Auckland Familydays, where we will be making puppets from junk.
Today is a big day for the new Dede @moss.creek and I have developed together. Moss.Creek, whose real name is Sheila, had won a referral competition. Her prize was that an image of her was turned into a puppet. In the little film, the puppet was preparing to meet the rest of the crew for the first time with her skin on. As you certainly all know, it is not easy to be the new kid on the block. Nervously, she has been practising her maiden speech all morning. The text was written by Sheila and it was the foundation from which the puppet was developed. It was a novelty for me to create a puppet in a long distance collaboration. However, Tony from xraypics, will certainly recognise the approach to the new puppet’s maiden speech. I used a tts program, as I personally have a very strong German accent, that would have set the wrong tone for the puppet :). I first used a tts with the puppets when we did a Dada Jill and Jack film, for which Tony kindly provided the text.
When Pinkpok (as the puppet was christened by Sheila) finally met all the other Dedes, she had forgotten the words she practised so conscientiously and she had to wing it. This is what she said in the end: “Darkness and the discomforts of reality will always be the most important things to face. Within this darkness we will find the true nature of how things are and find the strength to let our light shine forth.” What wise words. Ah well she is an owl. Thanks @moss.creek for the great words of wisdom. It was really fun to create Pinkpok by email! Personally I think she is rather cute, but very difficult to photograph. We hardly know her, but we already love her. Pity that she will have to leave soon. I offered Sheila jokingly she could have Top Dog and I would keep Pinkpok. But no, her response was Top Tog could go into a dog pound. She has big plans for Pinkpok and even is working on a dress for her already. And she promised, we will get letters from time to time.
dedepuppets 