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March 5, 2013 //
0

Yesterday another story scraped in at the eleventh hour. I am usually not a fan of simply reblogging articles, but this one is a must read – I have to make an exception… I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did.

artistatexit0's avatarArtist at Exit 0 Riverblog

image of Earth from space, 2013

Unknown hackers have recently posted images on the worldwide web reputedly obtained from government sources that state extraterrestrial aliens are among us.  The pictures go a long way in answering the question: “Are we truly alone in the universe?”.  The answer would be a resounding “no”! The information was lifted from top-secret computers from around the world, but seem to be centered on information purloined in the United States and New Zealand.  The group responsible for this posting call themselves members of “In Vino Veritas” and state their purpose is to let the truth be known.  In their communique “In Vino Veritas”  believes we are now  “evolved enough to handle the truth”.  Regardless, the cat is out of the bag…whatever that means?  Following are excerpts from their sensational posting which has gone bacterial on the internet.

Styrosian and crayfish, March 2013

Much of this stolen information centers around a lone alien that is believed to…

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Categories Art, Competition, Creative Writing, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network

Back to the burrow

March 4, 2013 //
2

mouse packing

This morning Mouse was packing her bags again to return to the burrow and the others. I had to ask her: “How is it going up there, it must be quite crowded?

“No, no, it is a very spacious burrow. I wonder how Harvey, who is constantly broke, could afford it. He must have done a lot of work himself.”

“And how is it going with Pavlova? Isn’t she sick of having you all around?” I remembered how Pavlova sat quietly in the corner at our last party watching the others rather than partaking.

“That is the biggest surprise” Mouse stopped for a minute and looked at me. “She is really, really nice. She is the perfect host.”  Then she told me that she thinks it must have something to do with it being Pavlova’s own familiar patch and she makes everybody feel comfortable without being overbearing. And Harvey just adores her and is so proud of how she looks after the house and everybody.

“I am surprised to hear that. I thought she is focused on having a good career. Didn’t Harvey say she put herself through school and landed a good job in a lab? Now you say she is the perfect host. You say she is a good home maker.”

“Yes, right, but this isn’t a contradiction, is it?” Mouse asked, then gave the answer herself.  “She has made her own cosy nest and feels secure in what she is doing. That’s her world. With all the pressure from her family I can understand that. Can’t you?”

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Categories Art, Creative Writing, Digital art, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network

What are you doing?

March 3, 2013 //
10

mouse aid

Mouse was back this morning, all by herself. I was very surprised as she is the one who loves company and organising meetings. She thrives on being busy and Sunday is usually the busiest day of the week for her. But this morning she was very subdued.

“So you are all back from your retreat then?” I asked.

“No, it is just me! I needed a break. This lot is so disorganised. Grrr. I can’t stand it. The discussions go round and round in little circles and we will never agree on a workable solution.” These frustrating words were so out of character. Mouse thoroughly believes there is always a win-win solution, you only have to find it.

“What are you actually trying to do? Don’t you think you should talk to me? Whether you like it or not, we are shackled together. I am still your artist…!”

“That is the problem. It is pretty much about you” she blurted out. “We are very concerned about you!’

“Concerned? About me?” I was surprised. “What have I done now?”

“We think you have too much on your plate and you take on more and more!” Then she reminded me what I have committed myself to over the next few months. Not only am I writing the new book about Lou, the love sick puppy, but I will have to prepare the exhibition and I am doing a stop motion film with some friends. All this is happening while we have some major building going on. “And I don’t even want to mention your work situation” she finished with a very worried look in her face.

“Ah yes, I just have lost one of my jobs, that is a fact of life. I will have to fill the void somehow, but let this be my problem not yours.”

“We have the feeling that because you spread yourself too thinly, the quality is suffering! One can tell your heart isn’t in it as it was in the beginning.”

“That is a bit unfair! I really look after you, don’t I?” Though I had to concede, it is a nuisance that my studio is packed up and I can’t make any new puppets for the time being.

“The zing is definitely gone!” Mouse stated matter-of-factly.

“Love changes over time. You can’t expect that we will be on our honeymoon forever.” I replied defiantly.

“We know that. But it is still sad and we want to help you find your old self. We want to make sure that you love us for a long time to come.”

It was so sweet of Mouse to say that and I had to give her a big hug.

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

Another story

March 2, 2013 //
17

philosopher cleaning

This morning we received another story for the competition. This time from our longstanding friend Arindam in India. He had exams and only got round to writing the story yesterday. He tells us how the image came about on a lovely spring day.

Unfortunately the Dedes are still missing and I can’t share my excitement with them. But I hope you all have a look. Don’t forget you can still write something about the image. The deadline is tomorrow (the rules are here).

I received a concerned question from Leopoldine asking what the skull in yesterday’s post was. It is nothing malicious, just a cow’s head I found when I rambled through the woods. The cow certainly died of old age. We don’t have predators in New Zealand that could be dangerous for animals the size of a cow. We don’t have venomous snakes and only one rare type of venomous spider. So life is pretty safe here. (Though I should add there was a fatal shark attack on Auckland’s West Coast last week. The first one in 37 years.)

This morning I finally made my way to the bottom of the garden and found Philosopher doing chores on his boat.

“Where are all the others?” I asked.

“With the builders in the house it was too noisy. We were only fighting and everybody got more and more agitated. No way we could have made any decisions. So Harvey invited all of us to his new burrow on the mountain top!”

“And why are you here and not with the rest?”

“I can’t stand decisions by committee. When you try to please everybody you will always end up in the middle of the road!”

“Tell me, what are they trying to do anyway?”

“I can’t reveal that. I have no mandate for it. You will have to wait!”

“When are they coming back then?”

“Who knows… When they are ready!” Philosopher looked at me and added “Didn’t you say earlier in the week we will quickly find out who needs whom more?”

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Categories Art, Competition, Creative Writing, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network

Getting irate

March 1, 2013 //
8

irate

If the Dedes have an issue, they send Devil to have a serious talk with me. I expected him to come around last night but he didn’t show up. I still don’t know what happened in the meeting and being left out of the loop makes me increasingly concerned.

When I have a problem with the Dedes I usually go and see Philosopher and pour my heart out. He is a very level-headed guy and even though he is only watching from the sidelines he always seems to know what’s going on. He is very good in figuring out the real issues. Even if you don’t like it, he can tell you the most awkward truth and you will still be okay with it. Sounds like the perfect puppet –  one you want to have around all the time. But no, he has one big  downside unfortunately. He isn’t funny at all. Gossip, irony, jokes… all the ingredients that help you cope with life are totally lost on him.

He lives at the end of my garden in a derelict boat and only comes up to the house occasionally to catch up with the rest of the Dedes. But I meet him once a week on Wednesday mornings for a walk. He sort of acts as my shrink. We have great  insightful conversations and then I am set for the week to come, until we meet again. Unfortunately he couldn’t make our morning walk this week for obvious reasons. He too was is this silly meeting. I really would have expected him to tell the other Dedes he can’t miss our weekly appointment. But no, the Dedes were obviously more important to him than I was. I was very disappointed as I had to go for my walk on my own.

Without Philosopher my thoughts were going round and round in little circles and rather than being relaxed, I came home in a bit of a state, thinking the entire Dede World is conspiring against me. At this stage the Dedes were still in their meeting and I went to work and then to sports.

When I came home on Wednesday night they had all left. I couldn’t find them anywhere. The next day Devil didn’t show up like he usually does when there is an issue and it got too late and too dark to make my way to the end of the garden…

What am I going to do? What if they never come back?

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

Now we missed it

February 28, 2013 //
0

robe

Yesterday was the day. The first anniversary of my blog. Unfortunately the protagonists were missing. What a sad situation. I couldn’t really celebrate, could I? Not without my Dedes?

I have to admit, when they went into their strategy meeting I was shocked to hear I wasn’t invited. My initial thought was I must convince them they really need me. But being forced to step away from my Dedes and keeping myself busy with other stuff I had neglected for some time, I realised they need to explore their own ways. In the end they will figure out they need me more than I need them.

Do they really think they can do away with their artist? I am quietly confident I know the answer.

Let’s face it, it is a power game. One day they are scared of a looming end because I don’t look after them well enough. The next day they feel so confident and cocky about their own ability. Convincing themselves they could do a much better job than me and they should do  away with me altogether.

I wish I wouldn’t get involved in their little games, but I am not super-human. For some reason or another I always end up in the thick of it.

I am not sure what happened, but last night when I came home from sports the door to their meeting room was flung wide open, light still blazing, and no Dede to be seen. I looked in all their usual hang-outs, but the only thing I could find was a discarded robe. They must have left in a hurry.

I know by now they have a habit of leaving in a huff, but they always come back.

While I am waiting, I want to remind our readers that our story-telling competition is still on until 4th March. I called it a competition for lack of a better word and because you can win a Dede book or postcards. Alien still wants to have a new background story :)

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Categories Art, Competition, Creative Writing, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network

Alien spaceship

February 27, 2013 //
11

alien spaceship

No news from the Dedes. They are still in lock-down.  I had to entertain myself last night, which was very difficult, as they were in the only room that still has a light. You might know that we are currently remodelling the house. When I was walking from one end of the house to the other I thought I saw an alien spaceship through the window in one of the empty rooms and I had to grab my camera. I finally realised how much I miss taking photographs of subjects other than the Dede puppets. They better be careful. Their strategy meeting might backfire if they don’t tell me soon what’s going on. I might rekindle my love for photography.

On closer scrutiny the glowing spaceship unfortunately turned out to be the old bathtub illuminated by the lights from the room where the Dedes had their meeting.

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Categories Art, Fun, Life, Photography, Relationships

Strategy meeting

February 26, 2013 //
0

do not disturb

Sorry, I can’t tell you much about the Dedes today. They left a sign on the door and went into lock-down. Of course I didn’t think it was for me and walked straight into the room. Woohoo, you should have seen them!

“Can’t you read?” Devil shouted at me.

“But… I live here. I have to get my…”

“Look, we’re having a strategy meeting. It will take all day. We have to nut out what we are going to do over the next year!” Mouse explained.

“Without me?” I asked very surprised. They can’t really make decisions without me, I thought.

“You wouldn’t be of any help. You are the worst planner on the planet. It drives us up the wall that you always just go with the flow.”

Cash Cow came to the door where I was standing like a possum in the headlights. I even had my hand still on the handle.

“We will tell you later what we came up with” she said and quietly shut the door in my face.

I didn’t dare interrupt them again and opted to go to work without breakfast. I have to warn you I will be very, very grumpy today.

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

First competition entry

February 25, 2013 //
2

mouse high five

Alien was indeed a bit too impatient. He had just left the room when the first story arrived. Written by his admirer Leopoldine from Austria, it’s a lovely long story in German recounting what happened when Alien was first beamed down to this place in the Dede World.

Mouse was truly delighted when the first story came in and she sends a big fat thank you to Leopoldine. Part of her delight was that she could stick it to Devil. Even though he is a very good mate of hers and she loves working with him, he can be a bit of a bully. Maybe it is a male thing – he truly believes he has the final say in everything and can get quite loud if he doesn’t get his way. He wasn’t a great fan of the story-telling competition. But Mouse stuck to her guns, trusting that Alien had come up with a good idea and believing she had good support from the rest of the Dedes, who – she sensed – were keen to try it.

Yesterday Mouse noticed that she might not have been totally clear with her rules. The story doesn’t need to be very long, it could also be a very short story, or even an extended caption. And everybody is invited to write, not just long-standing friends of Alien :). At the same time we don’t want to bully anybody into writing only because they are a long-standing friend. It is just an invitation to be creative. We are really curious what you make of us :)

You also can win the book ‘Hermit’s Web’ or 10 Dede puppet postcards. The rest of the rules you’ll find here.

Devil said to Mouse we shouldn’t exclude our Facebook fans either. Mouse doesn’t have much experience with Facebook and she  isn’t quite sure how it would work for them sharing their story with our blog friends. But of course if they want to do something they are very welcome as long as they let us know where to find their story.

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Categories Art, Competition, Creative Writing, Digital art, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network

First day of competition

February 24, 2013 //
4

mouse alien sush

“And, and, and…?” Alien asked excitedly when Mouse started up the computer this morning.

“What?”

“Do I have a new story?”

“Not yet!”

“What do you mean? Are you telling me nobody has written in?” Alien’s face dropped.

“I knew it will be a disaster” Devil interrupted. “We should have gone with my idea!”

“Give it time! It can take a little while to come up with a new story” Mouse replied calmly.

“Where I come from….” Alien started.

“Shssh.” Mouse put her hand over his mouth to quieten him. “you are not allowed to say anything until next week. You don’t want to influence anybody in their writing.”

“At least tell the readers they can find the rules for the competition in yesterday’s post!” Alien begged.

“C’mon, our readers are not thick!” Mouse replied and left it at this. “A bit of patience wouldn’t go amiss.”

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Categories Art, Competition, Creative Writing, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network
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