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Moving on

August 24, 2016 //
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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.

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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!”

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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.”

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Categories Absurd, Art, Competition, craft, Creative Writing, dada, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Politics, Relationships, Social Network

Pinkpok

August 18, 2016 //
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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.

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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.

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Categories Absurd, Art, Comedy, contest, Creative Writing, dada, film, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Promotion, Relationships, Social Network

What’s the attraction?

August 13, 2016 //
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Esta Blished said they should talk to the followers of Top Dog. Luckily Alien is a friendly chap and curious by nature, so he went straight to work and made a list of Dedes he has to talk to. First up was Mr Vague. He looks a little bit like a bear and Alien thought he might find some more clues from him. He ask outright, “why are you following Top Dog?”

Mr Vague hung his head and admitted “I find life very confusing and I am intimidated by all this information that is thrown at me. I have to make decisions here, there and everywhere, when all I want is to be left in peace. It is simply too much. Someone who knows better has to tell me what’s good or bad.”

Alien just listened and took notes, but reserved judgement.

The next one on the list was Bossman. But gee did he get a different reception here.

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Bossman is struggling to keep his business afloat.

“Expletive, I expletive don’t expletive talk expletive to expletive aliens” he screamed. Alien didn’t understand what he said as there were too many filler words, but he got the message. He turned round quickly, and with a big smile and shaking knees he said: “you don’t expect me to take you seriously, do you?”

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Categories Absurd, Art, Comedy, Creative Writing, dada, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Politics, Relationships, Social Network

Look who is back

August 8, 2016 //
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Yesterday, the Dedes had a break and did a bit of house-keeping. They announced the winner of the latest Instagram contest and also decided to start a new feature called Truth Tuesday. Readers can ask questions and on Tuesday, the Dedes will answer as honest as possible. Apart from this, nothing happend on the weekend. Unfortunately, as soon as there is a bit of a lull, Top Dog rears his ugly little head.

“C’mon guys” he said right after breakfast today, “you must see everything is terribly wrong in Dedeland.” And then he ranted on that the administration is run by a busybody rodent (Mouse). He even doubts that she has a work permit. He also pointed out that we have some unemployed puppets and looked disdainfully at Rob D Light, who was still sleeping under his blanket of newspapers. “And to top it all off” he said concluding his monologue, “the artist wants to make new Dedes. What shall we do with this influx? Tell me, what has this world come to?”

Everybody looked a bit sheepish, but no one said anything. It seems fatigue is starting to set in.

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Nobody said anything, except for the new puppet Norman T Newbie. He was clapping his hands wildly and shouted excitedly “Well done my hero. No, we don’t want to have new Dedes!”

Of course Top Dog enjoyed the admiration. “I could go on and on” he said. “Truth Tuesday, struth, what’s that all about? No one wants to know the truth! It is far to complicated. Quick and easy solutions are the fashion of the day. Black and white! Who needs grey?”

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Categories Absurd, Art, Comedy, Creative Writing, dada, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Politics, Relationships, Social Network

No offence

August 5, 2016 //
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L’Artiste was flabbergasted when an angry mob of Dedes showed up at the studio door.He had no idea what grief his flippant comment caused the other day.

“What have I done?” he asked truly surprised.

“You intimidated Cash Cow!” said Bobby, the policeman.

“Stop here,” said L’Artiste, “what happened to irony?”

“What about irony?” asked the policeman suspiciously and stop for a second, “have you killed her too?”

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Now poor L’Artiste had to come clean. “You got it all wrong guys” a very embarrassed artist admitted, “I love that cow.”

Then he showed them his diary. Here he calls his object of desire “Katching Moo.” Not a very imaginative or particlarly well discuised pet name. It is a combination between the sound of a cash register and the word catching. And Moo of course identifies the cow.

The book was full of little hearts and stories. A silent witness to his hopes that one day she will answer his prayers and be his. Honestly, look at the image of them together! You can see the love, can’t you? It is definitely Cash Cow who plays hard to get! She could have any artist if only she wanted.

 

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Categories Absurd, Art, Comedy, Creative Writing, dada, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network

Pass the buck

August 3, 2016 //
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We know now, Magician feels he is incapable of doing a magic trick for the Dedes. But wait, there are a few puppets that should be able to help. Esta Blished, the fairy godmother for example, should have magical powers too. Unfortunately it is a well-known fact that she has Alzheimers so she is away with the fairies most of the time. Every so often though she is totally lucid and such a moment just happened. She went to L’Artiste and said, “you know I have misplaced my book of spells, but artists can create magic too, can’t they?”

True, L’Artiste creates magic, but mainly for himself, when he is in the zone of making things. However, it is not the kind of magic, the Dedes are looking for. Remember, they need magic to make Top Dog disappear.

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So, L’Artiste went to see Cash Cow. (These two are indeed very difficult to picture together).

“I try so hard” said L’Artiste frustratedly, “but my magic can’t solve the problems of the world.” Then he hugged the old cow to lessen the impact of what he was about to say next. “Personally, I think the only hope for the world is to slaughter you.”

Cash Cow, who always looks like she is hard done by, wasn’t the least surprised. Obviously it wasn’t the first time that she heard this suggestion and she replied firmly “why do artists always have to be so melodramatic! Just concentrate on your work and leave me alone. If you are good you might make an impact one day!”

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Categories Absurd, Art, Comedy, craft, Creative Writing, dada, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Politics, Relationships

About dreams

July 28, 2016 //
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“Admit it,” said Sunny to Mouse (who is a workaholic) “you have all laughed at me because I want to be an artist.” He just assumed that Mouse and the others all thought artists are slackers.

“We have not laughed at you, Sunny, we laughed about your approach,” Mouse explained and pointed to the billboard she just had installed. Then she reminded Sunny, that he spent years trying to find a patron without having any work to show. Worse, while he was trying, he ate all the other Dede’s pizzas. Everyone can recall the last sure thing he followed up. The time, when he tried to get the money from his deceased great-uncle in Nigeria. He is still waiting. The reminder, though true, made  Sunny very uncomfortable and he quickly headed for the exit.

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Then Rob D Light passed by the billboard, looked at it and shook his head. “Lucky them who still can afford dreams,” he thought, “I simply need a job for survival.”

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Categories Absurd, Art, Comedy, Creative Writing, dada, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Politics, Relationships, Social Network

Cat and dog

July 16, 2016 //
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The “Embrace Diversity” couple that faces the public today is Lapdog and Cool Cat.  Everyone knows cats and dogs don’t like each other! Really? Yes really, but they can be civil to each other. Here Cool Cat give Lapdog a little kiss on the forehead, that is as far as she will go.

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They usually don’t see eye to eye as they have totally different attitudes. Cool Cat has even called Lapdog a “slut” which curries favour with everyone. Lapdog doesn’t think much better of Cool Cat. She finds her up her self and arrogant. So, the cat is a loner who looks after her appearance and does yoga to keep fit. She does not allow anyone to touch her, particularly her tummy. Lapdog on the other hand likes rough and tumble play and you virtually have to force her to have a bath afterwards. She totally dislikes to be on her own, so she is friendly with everyone, like a little ray of sunshine and she loves to be patted on every part of her body.

With so many differences, to name but a few, it is not surprising that these two will never be bosom buddies. But they do respect each other deeply and therefore can co-exist peacefully. Their secret is that neither of them tries to force their way of life on the other.

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Categories Absurd, Art, bullying, Comedy, Creative Writing, dada, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Politics, Relationships

Stand by your friends

July 14, 2016 //
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The Dede’s maxim has always been “Embrace Diversity,” but not in a lovey-dovey, goody two-shoes kind of way. Like anybody else they clearly have likes and dislikes. They might hate a situation, but never the individuals in it. At the moment Top Dog annoys them. They now call him a Me-Me, rather than Dede, as he obviously flouts their values. Before he brings the Dedes into disrepute, and as a counter- balance to his behaviour, Foxy Lady proposed the Dedes take pictures with an “unnatural” friend. She made a start and asked Harvey, the gambling rabbit, to pose with her.

You need to know that Harvey is a womanizer and Foxy Lady is a very independent modern vixen. When Harvey first met her he was instantly smitten. He followed her around and showered her with attention. And this is something she really can’t stand. One day she got so upset she snapped and said she’d rather have him on her dinner plate. Gosh, he sure interpreted this the wrong way. I won’t tell you what happened, it is simply too embarassing for Harvey. (No need to go searching for it on Facebook. The story isn’t on there either.)

Never mind. They keep out of each other’s way these days. And anyway, Harvey is now married to Pavlova the lab rat and everything is forgiven and forgotten.

 

 

 

 

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Categories Absurd, Art, Comedy, Creative Writing, dada, Hand Puppets, Life, Politics, Relationships, Social Network

After the first day

June 7, 2016 //
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Mouse was very keen this morning to find out how the first day went. She doesn’t like to look at the blog on her mobile phone, so she jumped on the laptop before breakfast…. and the silly computer did it’s silly updates. She got so frustrated that she nearly chucked it in. She wrote a post for Instagram, telling the readers that there is no update and just as she was about to hit the publish button, the computer made its welcome noise. Grrr.

So, she deleted her angry post and hopped back onto the computer to check out what happened on the blog. Nothing much. Grrrr again.

“Clearly our mistake, ” said Devil “we have let the blog slide too much.”

“That is history. We try to make amends here, aren’t we” said Mouse and analysed what she saw. On the blog all contestants were introduced at once and Snotty Nosed Prince has clearly taken the lead. There are six Dedes with the same amount of votes (1! isn’t that sad) and two who have no votes whatsoever, Lapdog and Loudmouth. “I know how that feels” said Snippedy, the clown, secretly smirking away as he knew this time he will be safe, at least he has some votes. In the last competition he didn’t get past the preliminaries. He had nothing, zilch!

On Instagram only two contestants were introduced yesterday: Chambermaid and Snippedy. Both showed equal amounts of likes this morning, 57 to be precise. So with their one vote from the blog each, they are currently sharing the lead. But the two Dedes that were introduced this morning are catching up fast.

If you haven’t voted yet, Mouse has set-up a special page here on the blog (available from the menu) where you can read about all the contestants and vote. The Dedes do appreciate your support!

 

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Categories Absurd, Art, Comedy, Competition, contest, Creative Writing, dada, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Promotion
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