Archives for posts with tag: friends

Last week the competition started in earnest. And the contestants had to talk about themselves. Push Push was first up. But she started with a complaint. The stage was too small for her.

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Devil reminded here that she should talk about herself and why she wanted to take part in the competition. “Well,” said Push Push “it is a little known fact, that I am a sponsored Dede. That means I have been sold to a collector. Since I forgot to send my sponsor a Christmas card last year, I felt obliged to take part in the competition to push my value up”

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Cool Cat was taken by surprise that she made it into the competition and she let us in on her secret: “I am a fashion girl and want to look my best. When I first didn’t make it into the competition I was so upset I cooked myself a huge meal of mouse, my favourite. And then  when I heard I made it, I had to eat grass to throw it all up again. What a waste!”

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“Who likes Mouse pie?” asked Monkey. “I like pancakes with banana and I think the committee should announce that any comment in the competition goes into the draw for the ‘Artist’s Survival Cookbook’.” He showed the readers the page with his recipe in the book. “Stop it!” said Devil from behind the curtain “tell us something we don’t know!”

Monkey took a deep breath and said proudly “Once, an old lady said, I looked like Obama!” and then he added with a lower disappointed voice “but I think she wasn’t wearing her glasses.”

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Skeleton Edeltraut wasn’t too sure anymore, whether her decision was right. “Everyone said I will feel so much better, when I come out of the closet” she said while she was tightly holding on the curtain. “Now I am no longer sure, whether I can do it. You know, this is a point of no return. Once I am out, there is no going back! The door will be closed forever!” The readers were very supportive and encouraged Skeleton Edeltraut to continue.

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Court Jester was taken aback by the whole event. “OMG” he sighed, “are my competitors really taking it  that seriously? Where is the fun in their lives? What the heck, I dress up as Leprechaun and have a pint of Guinness. Cheers!”

And that was the end of the first week.

Now the next day Mouse had to make good for her omission. “Monkey is right,” she admitted very embarrassed dragging a copy of the Artist’s Survival Cookbook on stage. “I have forgotten to mention that any comment during the competition goes into the draw to win our flour and water recipe book. I so wish Detail was here, she certainly would have reminded me, but she is still missing.”

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The competition is always very stressful, so on Sunday Mouse and Devil needed to have some time out. They went to the beach, sat on a bench and didn’t talk all day.

To be continued next week….

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We are still alive and kicking, but much has happened since Christmas the year before last, when Top Dog in our last post tried to steal all the Christmas presents. He has in fact stolen not only the presents but also the Dedes’ innocence and lightness of being.

But from the beginning: As you might have figured the Dedes are dye-in-the-wool liberals They found it more and more difficult to cope with the rise of the autocrats all over the world. What use to be funny, when they were only a sideshow, it no longer funny and so the Dedes lost their voice and became speechless.

The Artist of the Dedes decided in the meantime to leave the of hustle and bustle of big town Auckland behind, like so many others, and moved to the sunny Bay of Islands in New Zealand’s Far North. Well, looking out the window today. It’s all but sunny. Anyway, along the way she was homeless for three month. Not homeless as in ‘no future’ as you can see increasingly on the streets of our big cities, rather homeless as in shake off the old and and clear your mind for the exciting change to come. She spend the time sailing around the Hauraki Gulf and Great Barrier on a little 26-foot catamaran, together with her soulmate and three traveler Dedes. It is documented on the Instagram account @dedepuppets that continued throughout the journey. Then they went for a month to Melbourne housesitting. But after the sailing stint it was clear, citylife is no longer an option.

In July the Dedes moved on an 1.5 ha lifestyle block with a delapidated house and are renovating ever since, digging trenches, planting out vegetables, cutting down trees and and and. Life has never been busier, but at the same time it has never been happier either. Though there is a clear mental battle going on. Taking the easy route and happily withdraw into the privacy of a little bubble, or continue to make public statements and give a small group of readers something to smile about.

Unfortunately for the Dedes, the happier, the quieter they are. Well, on Instagram the Artist had suggested, once the Dedes drop below 700 followers they will die. There was a little outcry amongst our handful of diehard followers. And so we continue. To be honest, the amount of followers is not important to us. On instagram they come and go like flies anyway. For the Artist the Dedes are really there to make sense of her world und understand human behaviour. And there is still so much more to understand. We can’t go back to where we were, but we can’t continue towards the abyss with open eyes. So for now we soldier on without a solution! Maybe it will be around the next corner…

It was always in the back of our mind to revive the blog once we are sort of settled in our new environment. And we feel really back to have it neglected for over a year. Thanks to our puppeteer friend in Australia who missed the blog, here we are…

On instagram the Dedes are preparing to embark on yet another Super Dede Competition. The ones in 2013 and in 2016 were definitely the highlights of their career and they hope they can repeat their success, proving to their Artist that there is still live in them. The Artist is suspicious, as well, she doesn’t want to flogg it to death.

The blog will be different, but how we don’t know yet :)

I hope there are still a few followers out there, who are happy to see us back.

Go, Dedes, go

 

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“I am very disappointed in you,” said Devil, who somehow managed to make his way back onto the scene. Like most of the Dedes he had been packed away.

“But why?” asked Foxy Lady and pulled the picture of the dashing fox closer to her heart.

“I would have expected a girl of your intelligence to stand up and fight for her believes! Not run away and follow a mirage into some romantic dreamland.”

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Of course Foxy Lady knows she is in trouble now. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out that her attempt to assassinate Top Dog will have repercussions. It would be best if she could disappear. But how? How can she escape this little Dedeworld?
It happened that we received snail mail from @denise_m_oehl recently. Denise had sent us a pack of beautiful postcards of her work. Oh, postcards, greetings from the big wide world! Foxy Lady’s heart nearly stopped when she discovered this image of a gorgeous fox with golden fur. “I am going to find this man” she thought instantly “and I am going to marry him!” Problem solved!?

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Deutsch Fraulein started reading the same night and she couldn’t put the artist’s diary down until she was finished. Top Dog had given her the one written when the artist travelled to New Zealand for the first time. It wasn’t an outstanding work in the sense of literature, but Deutsch Fraulein found it very insightful and loved the honesty. Something she misses when she is reading posts on her mobile phone.

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The next day Deutsch Fraulein had to seek advice from her friend Socialite. “I don’t know what to do” she said. “I read one of the Artist’s diaries and Top Dog asked me to tell him some juicy bits. I don’t want to disclose secrets, but you know, I can’t say NO to a Dede.”

Socialite might not have been the right Dede to ask for advice. She was as curious about the content as Top Dog. “Don’t worry” she appeased Deutsch Fraulein “for us Dedes the artist is a person of public interest, so she doesn’t have the same privacy rights as a normal person!” she explained.

“Really?” Deutsch Fraulein wasn’t convinced and decided to get a second opinion.

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Next she asked Foxy Lady: “You are a girl, what would you do?”

“Give ’em the sanitised version, like people do on social networks nowadays. Leave out the bad bits, pretend doubting never happened” the vixen advised.

“But I found the problems were the interesting part. It was so comforting to read about the ups and downs. That made her so human and made me realise I am not a nutcase with all my doubts.”

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Then Alien, who always seems to be on a different planet, entered the discussion. “Why all the drama?” he asked Foxy Lady. “Everyone knows you have to travel on your own to find yourself. And to make sense of your impressions its best to write an honest diary on the way. I do it too. If you want, you can publish my diaries!”

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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.

 

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“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.”

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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.

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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!

 

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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.

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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.”

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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.

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“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!

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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.”