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Home coming

November 20, 2012 //
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I am so happy… our heroes from the “Wallace Art Award” came back home yesterday. All the Dedes were excited and organised a ticker tape parade for their return. But boy, were our five travelers exhausted. Actually only four were exhausted and guess who was the chirpy one?

“Aliens don’t sleep”, a very grumpy Liar told me, and I think he was telling the truth for a change.

Alien had wanted to party all night, every night! And since the other artworks were very different and a bit stand-offish, he pestered his four friends, who gradually turned into his enemies. Ms SM, who can be a night owl herself, said they got so annoyed with him they even hatched a plan to push him aside, but  he fell off his stick instead. They felt bad about that, but luckily he didn’t break. The next morning the curator came along and put him back up. So they got a few hours reprieve, but didn’t dare try again. From then on they just gritted their teeth. They all agreed it was extremely difficult to live together in those crammed conditions for such a long time (they were away for six weeks). And they pledged never to go on holidays with friends again.

Very much to the disappointment of the Dedes who stayed at home, all the returnees retired early last night. Only Alien was prepared to tell a few more tales, but he had to make a quick phone call first and so went into the garden. When he didn’t come back for ages everybody toddled off, rather disappointed.

What a fizzer of a party! Some of them agreed we will have a proper home coming party on Saturday. If the travelers are up to it, that is!

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Categories Art, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships

Failed reunion

November 19, 2012 //
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Yesterday, Chance invited her half-sister Detail and her niece, Minor, for a picnic on my yoga mat. They hadn’t seen each other for months. These two sisters have a really strange love/hate relationship and I normally wouldn’t comment on anything family related, as the puppets can get very defensive when you talk about a close relative.

I have admitted it before, I favour Chance over Detail. Chance is much more relaxed. She doesn’t mind if you ignore her when you are otherwise engaged. She just shrugs her shoulders and says: “Your loss not mine” and leaves.

Detail on the other hand has a knack for driving me up the wall (particularly when I am already stressed). She always wants to have it done her way! Don’t get me wrong, it is good to know her and in less stressful situations – when I have plenty of time and can pay her enough attention – she is really, really lovely. You just need to know how to take her. Let’s face it, Detail wants to be super woman. She is a solo mum and it can’t be that easy with a teenage daughter like Minor. And I suspect she is only so finicky because she actually lacks confidence. She gets a lot of security by spending an exorbitant amount of time on precision.

Bring on Chance the airy fairy one and, I mean, honestly… any outsider can see that this can’t go well. But what can you do if it is family? Well, one thing is for sure, I want to stay out of their arguments. If you get caught in the middle….

Often their bone of contention is around  Minor. Chance doesn’t have kids of her own, so she dots on Minor when she can. Unfortunately Detail thinks Minor has picked up a few bad habits from her aunty. In particular, this very aggravating “wha-ever” response.

Back to yesterday…

True to herself, Chance was late, fifteen minutes or so. This of course set Detail off on the wrong foot. When Chance finally arrived with a bowl of prezel bows, Minor (who has a slight weight issue) dived with her hands into the bowl before it was placed on the mat. Detail exploded immediately, telling her daughter she should pay more attention to her appearance. Chance tried to defuse the situation and said teenagers have to eat a lot.

Detail jumped up and said, “you always undermine what I am doing”, grabbed Minor by the wrist and dragged her out the door.

Chance popped a pretzel bow in her mouth and said: “Ah well. I guess that is it for the next six months”

That was the shortest family reunion I have ever seen!

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Categories Art, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships

Take your pick

October 27, 2012 //
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When green asparagus appears in the shops, and shortly after when the deliciously red and sweet strawberries follow, then Winter is well and truly over! To celebrate the fresh arrivals, and as a small token of appreciation for all her work, I invited Mouse to the first strawberry breakfast of the season today.

She arrived with her little clipboard under her arm. I was a bit taken aback. It is Saturday and the clipboard reeked suspiciously of work. “There are only two items I want to quickly go over with you” she said apologetically, while I dished her up the biggest fruit I could find.

I had a quick glance and in her scrawly handwriting it said:

  1. Reminder: Lou and Philosopher due back tomorrow
  2. Cancellation email

Pretty small list. I wondered what she needed the clipboard for. She should have been able to memorize these two items. I guess she wanted to feel important.

1. Lou and Philosopher

With all the goings-on in the last week I have totally forgotten to tell you that Mouse managed to send Lou and Philosopher on the long-planned fishing trip. We first hatched this plan way back at Philosopher‘s birthday  in June. Lou was so in love with Skeleton Edeltraut then and I hoped Philosopher would be able to talk some sense into the puppy. But the weather was inclement throughout winter. Philosopher’s boat wouldn’t have been able to handle it and so it just didn’t happen. I was surprised, indeed, more than surprised, when they hastily departed last Sunday morning. Turns out Mouse had chartered a boat without telling anyone and then just said: “Well that is it: you two go now. Otherwise it will never happen” And they toddled off. Lou, the still love-sick puppy, went very reluctantly. Philosopher was out the door in a flash (not really a flash, but faster than his usually laid back speed – He loves the sea.) Problem is, Mouse hasn’t thought about who is going to pay for the charter boat.

I have to think about this one. I wish they wouldn’t do this to me. I am not a cash-cow. Oh, I feel a new puppet coming on. Yes, Cash-Cow would be a great flatmate for me.

2. Cancellation email

Mouse asked me who I thought wrote the email telling everybody the party last Sunday was cancelled.  She is very, veeeery upset that one of our friends would do such a thing. I looked at her and said: “This is a no-brainer, isn’t it? Of course it must have been Devil?”

“No, it actually wasn’t!” she rebuked

“What makes you think that?”

“He told me so! He was a victim here. He missed out on the party because of the email”

Everybody knows Mouse is a sucker for tall stories, and we often have her on. She believes everything and everybody. “C’mon, he is a devil after all. Do you believe him?”

“There we have it – you are clearly prejudiced towards devils. Just because he is a devil doesn’t make him a liar, does it? And yes, I believe him. He is my friend!”

“Oh no, not you too” I exclaimed resignedly “So who was it then?”

“I don’t know. But Devil told me he got the email and thought: Yes, rain is a good enough reason for her to cancel a party. After all, you cancelled the outing to the boat ramp because of rain!”

“Yes, but the party was in the house! Devil can’t be that thick!”

“That is besides the point. Someone has written an email to sabotage my hard work. I have worked my little heart out to pull off something really nice and on extremely short notice to boot. To be honest, I am terribly pissed off! So what are you going to do about it?”

Mouse jumped up. I have never seen her so agitated.

“I have to think about it. I don’t know who dunnit! I am at the end of my wits too if it wasn’t Devil!”

“I will leave it with you. And I want to see action, otherwise it was the last party I organised for you!” she said, and left without thanking me for the big juicy strawberry.

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Categories Art, Hand Puppets, Life, Photography, Relationships

Good times!

October 22, 2012 //
4

The party was a bit of a fizzer in terms of attendance. I feel sorry for Mouse and Push Push. After all the preparations only a few puppets showed their faces. Later Professor told me he had received an email letting everybody know the party was cancelled due to rain. The email looked authentic. He decided to drop by anyway as I certainly would have stocked up on wine and it would be a pity to waste it.

I have my suspicions who sent the email, but I will keep them to myself. He wouldn’t stoop that low would he? He wouldn’t try to ruin Mouse’s efforts. He hurt her more than he hurt me, as she has done all the hard work. I only paid for the wine and the food. If I ever find out that it was him…

In the end there were only a handful of us. We still had a great time. We always do. Nobody raised my issue with Devil. They all have their own problems. Why should they be interested in our little tiff? They all wanted to forget their sorrows and to party, not to burden themselves with yet another problem.

Usually I am not much of a party animal. I prefer one-on-one conversations with my friends.  I usually don’t  remember much detail about the party, what I have talked about (certainly nothing deep and meaningful) and who was there… All I can remember is the general feeling whether I enjoyed myself or not. And I certainly did enjoy myself last night.

Looking at my illustrious friends I had around last night… I am sure I can call myself open-minded.

I took a couple of photographs as proof we had a good time. The one I have chosen for today’s post shows Professor and his mate Pig in the foreground on the left. Pig is just happy he had enough booze and Professor is on the brink of slipping into the melancholic phase.  In the back Sunny the aspiring artist is talking to L’Artiste Dede  the accomplished artist. L’Artiste Dede  is not particularly interested in what Sunny has to say. If you know Sunny, you know his story as well. He is a good guy but very repetitive. He just can’t get his break. As L’Artiste has advised him many times, less talk and more doing wouldn’t go amiss. Skeleton (to the right of L’Artiste Dede) feels she is missing out on something and I have my suspicions she is hard of hearing, but she just wouldn’t make an appointment with the hearing doctor. And the one on the far-right is Ducky. He is a politician and stands for election in the Dede Society. He has tried a few times unsuccessfully, but he doesn’t give up hope and in the meantime he just makes everything his business. He has an opinion about everyone and everything.

I just noticed, this is so typical, all the boys were hanging out together and most of the girls (Witch, Mouse and Push Push) were in the kitchen. How stereotypical is that?

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Categories Art, Fun, Life, Relationships

Prejudiced

October 21, 2012 //
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I have to recap what was on my mind all last week. One of my puppets (I don’t want to name him) has accused me of being prejudiced towards devils and he made noises about suing me for an obscene amount of money, which of course I don’t have. But that is besides the point. I have been thinking about it a lot this week: Am I really prejudiced? Who knows, but certainly not against devils. Honestly, I have spent hours and hours listening to him when he was depressed, because  nobody seems to like him. He is not the easiest puppet to deal with. And yes, I had promised him an outing to the boat ramp and had to cancel, but for a very good reason: It was raining cats and dogs and he wouldn’t have lasted 5 minutes in this weather.

It annoys me tremendously that he now turns around and just gives me the blanket label of being “prejudiced”, only because he couldn’t get his way. How can one debunk this label? It is such a trap… And I stepped right into it. It is one of those labels that is thrown into the ring when puppets run out of arguments. Nobody wants to be prejudiced, but how can you prove you aren’t?

My accuser has made himself scarce, but I know he is around. I can smell sulphide. The curtains in the living room smell particularly bad, they will have to go in the wash soon. Anyway, I wonder if he is man enough to show his face at the party tonight and I am curious how it goes.

For now I am pleased to have it off my chest…  What do you think?

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Categories Art, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships

Paranoia sets in

October 17, 2012 //
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Devil has left his spot on the sofa and is nowhere to be found. He is not one for being known as a gossip, but I have the feeling that all the Dedes know of our little disagreement that just got out of hand. Whenever I see two characters sticking their heads together I can’t help but think they are talking about me and how mean I am to poor Devil. Whatever I do, they all watch me out of the corner of their eyes and shut up, or worse, lower their voices to a whisper as soon as I approach. The situation is becoming increasingly awkward.

I wanted to ask Fairy Godmother for advice, but when I arrived at her place Devil’s Advocate was already there and they looked as if I had interrupted something important, their eyes unmistakenly told me: “Bugger off”.  I might try to win Witch as a confidant in this case.

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Categories Art, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Photography, Relationships

Now he is grumpy

October 15, 2012 //
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Sure enough, On Sunday the weather was much better (at least between the showers).  Devil pestered me all morning to go on our outing. I did not have the time, I really couldn’t fit him in. In the end he got very miffed with me. He didn’t leave the sofa at all but made heaps of snide remarks while I was pacing up and down the hallway trying to get organised. At one stage I had enough and told him off for his upsetting behaviour. When I talked to him he looked a bit meek, and now he is curled up in the corner of the sofa and feeling sorry for himself.  He will be okay when I come home tonight. I am sure he will be back to his devilish self in no time. But seeing him how he is right now, makes me feel really bad…

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Categories Art, Fun, Life, Relationships

What is old age?

October 8, 2012 //
4

I read a disturbing article. It wasn’t really an article, but a profiling piece by a German foundation that helps older women to find jobs.  It said that women over 50 have a hard time finding  jobs when they become unemployed (I think for men it is not that easy either). I have heard this before from other sources but thought it was scare-mongering. I find it hard to believe that a society can discard such a large group and valuable resource by making 50 the cut-off point for participation in working life. When I was still living there, Germany didn’t have a huge culture of volunteer work either. So what are you doing when you are over 50 there? Is it really old age? Do you really have to start preparing for retirement? S-c-a-r-y!

It slowly dawns on me there is no way I could go back to Germany, even if I wanted to. This door is firmly closed. There is, however, this other interesting research I read a while ago, and it has stuck to my mind: In old age, you revert back to your first language, as you will loose the ability to speak your second language. I think old age might become very frustrating for me. Ah well, I always can talk to my puppets!

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Categories Art, Life, Photography, Relationships

Emotional cross-dressers

September 22, 2012 //
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Now to a typical  puppet subject… Emotional cross-dressing. I have been thinking about this for quite some time and I believe this is the real reason for my puppets’ existence. My puppets can have all these traits without being aggravating. They are not based on anybody in particular, but show easily recognised generic behaviour.

Emotional cross-dressing comes in different guises and is a kind of unintentional lie, a self-defense mechanism. These particular cross-dressers are people who, for some reason or another, hide their real emotions and pretend to have different feelings. It comes on a sliding scale with two poles. On one end you find the always friendly person, sweet and kind, but when you look away the bile rises straight to their eyeballs. On the other end of the scale is the old grump or tough guy, who pushes everybody away, but when you invest the time to know him better, he is the most generous and friendliest person ever. Of course there are a lot of shades between these two extremes.

In both cases the cross-dressers themselves suffer more than their surrounding, as they are not in sync with their own emotions and most of the time they have the feeling of being terribly misunderstood.

More often than not they are forced to cross-dress by expectations put on them, for example, by parents, spouses, friends. And they want nothing more than to oblige, to fulfill the expectations. But at one stage they have to, and will, crack.

PS: People who use these strategies to knowingly deceive others to get an advantage, I would call devious.

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Categories Art, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships

Where is the sign post?

September 18, 2012 //
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Last night I went to an exhibition opening of my students. I was impressed. This is one of the things I enjoy most about teaching, seeing individuals developing in their art. They are by no means all young kids. In photography we have a lot of mature students. Unfortunately I have the ungrateful task of teaching digital imaging. Generally, the younger ones just do it, the older ones say “I hate it, I hate it, I hate it”… but at one stage (and I can usually wait for it) they come up to me with a big wide smile all over their face and say something like “I am proud of myself, I have done so much on the computer”. The best of course is when they say “I love digital now!” I can’t take the credit for this, though. It doesn’t have much to do with my teaching, but with them gaining confidence in an area they never would have thought they could excel in. Good on you!

After the event I was hurled towards the opposite end of human emotions. I bumped into a friend, a very talented musician, who is currently drifting down the path towards middle age. I love him to bits. He really has something going for him, but he doesn’t know yet what, and he is increasingly running out of patience. He told me, and I repeat verbatim: “I don’t like what the world has on offer at the moment.”

Oh dear! What a puppet moment!

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Categories Art, Life, Photography, Relationships
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