Archives for posts with tag: personalities

Doesn’t this rooster look mean?

…Sorry, this is a human’s interpretation of an animal’s facial expression. Of course I have no idea what’s going on in his head. But he is certainly eyeballing the viewer. You have to admit he is an absolutely gorgeous creature.

A lot of things put us off at at first sight, but when we look again we might discover the beauty in the beast. Unfortunately we have the tendency to make our judgements hastily and move on to the next thing, always worried we could miss out on something important. We skim and skip all day long. Unfortunately this has quite the opposite effect: We miss a lot. Photography is a magnificent tool to stop the world and look again.

I have one friend who doesn’t want to look at my puppets. He finds them disturbing. Fair enough, but he won’t elaborate on what puts him off exactly. I would be so interested. Not everybody has to love them, but I am curious what they trigger in different people.

The stories that go with the puppets are of course reflections of my own experiences with people. Creating the puppets and writing up their traits is very therapeutic. While photography is a discovery of the visible world, making the puppets enables me to explore the non-tangible world, primarily relationships. When I have finished a puppet, I have looked at so many different angles of the same issue. While I still might not like the situation, I will have a better understanding and most importantly I will have kept my sanity in the process. For me they are like voodoo dolls gone peaceful.

I digressed again, didn’t I?

The blog is supposed to be about the dede puppets and it is time to introduce the latest addition to the troupe: Push-Push. She is a nice enough puppet, but she is always blowing her own trumpet. If you look past the glitter, you will find she is plain boring, and doesn’t have many ideas of her own. She loves to slip into her colourful circus gear and a real transformation takes place: “Look at me, look at me, look at what I can do” she calls out.  And then she shows you tricks as old as Methuselah. “Yawn,” I say and walk away.

These two, Pig and Witch, were early puppets. (If I recall correctly, Witch was the third puppet I ever made). They are a reminder of how relationships change over time. These two were really good mates once, but now they can’t stand each other. I don’t know exactly what happened, but I suspect it is because Witch turned into a health freak and a teetotaler, while Pig likes his booze. Pig is now hanging out with Professor while Witch keeps more or less to herself.

I noticed the more puppets I make the more negative (in my opinion) traits they display. The first lot of fifteen, they were my friends. They have their little quirks, the ones you just reckon with in friends. Some of them I like more, others a little less, but they are all puppets I wouldn’t mind inviting round to my place.

The newer ones are more like acquaintances. I know them, but some of them have traits I totally dislike. The worst is, that I can easily come up with these now.

I have two more books planned for later this year, early next year. The next one will be of course about Puppy the love sick stalker (by the way, he has moved back into the house and he is starting to annoy me) and the following one will be about Hermit loosing his job. Pretty sure all the negative characters will find their place in this one.

I am currently working on a puppet called PushPush. It is one that drives her own agenda, no matter what. Along the way she tramples all over the others. Yes, pretty sure you find her at the average workplace. And then I think, I really need to get started on Procrastinator as well.

I have created twenty-six characters to date and so far have only one character I really dislike. This is Twoface.  She looks straight at you and smiles. Superficially she looks like a pleasant enough person, very non-committal though. Her response to what you say is usually: “Ah, yes” or “Really” or “Indeed.” But you know exactly she doesn’t give a toss about anything. Even worse, when you turn her around, she has a second face rolling her eyes and it is very clear she believes everybody (except for herself) is a tosser.

I haven’t incorporated her in any stories yet, but I think she will become the boss. I will only use her if absolutely necessary.

two_face roling eyesNow that I look at her second face and know that she is the boss, I feel slightly sorry for her. She must be in middle management and feels a bit of pressure from higher up. While she rolls her eyes, she does look a bit scared. But still I thoroughly dislike her behavior and I will stay clear of her as much as possible.

I didn’t really want to write about what happens in the dede world today, but there was another incident.

Monster waited up for me. He sat quietly in the corner and waited until I came past. “Psst” he said, and at first I could hardly hear it. “Psst” he said again and I looked around and there he was all scared, squashed into the corner. He is an ugly little thing and one doesn’t know where his front and back is, but his dark black button eyes stood out.

“Can we talk?” he continued. “I don’t have much time, so make it short” I said looking at my watch. I was happy to lend him my ear. He comes across as a fairly rowdy one, I assume much of it is facade. Once you know him, he can be a really nice guy. But one thing is for sure, he is certainly not one who wins you over at first sight. You have to look twice and engage with him for a little while.

“You know, mhm, you know” he hummed and hawed.  There was nothing demanding about him today, not like the other day when he came to see me together with Skeleton. I felt sorry for him as I could see how painful it was for him to get started. Then finally he just exploded and blurted it all out… all his fears.

He virtually begged me to put Lou in his place (if he had knees he would have fallen on them). Deep down he is very worried that Skeleton actually enjoys the attention she gets from this handsome young puppy. He has been observing her. She is looking in the mirror more often than she usually does. If she had hair she would comb it all day. There are countless little signs. He told me around ninety-nine of them …

Monster is worried out of his mind that he will loose her. He is so sure she is his soul mate. He seems to think he would not survive, should she ever leave him.

I had to sit down and just let him talk. He sobbed and cried. It was obvious he seems to think she is his ultimate love. He talked and talked. Finally after an hour or so, he started to slow down, clearly exhausted. I watched him silently. A lot of thoughts flashed through my mind, but I was certain, none of them would have fallen on fertile ground in this situation.

I believe, if they really have such a strong relationship, no puppy, now matter how young and handsome, could destroy it. Yes, the attention might revitalise Skeleton Edeltraut for a little, but only temporarily…. She certainly knows there is more to a relationship than zing!

In the end I put my arm around him and said: “Look, just trust Edeltraut. Don’t be clingy and suffocate her with your love. The more you watch her, the more you shackle her, the more you will drive her away.”

“But, but…”

“No but… Trust!”

“You just don’t understand” he muttered, disappointed.

“Poor sod” I thought.

I’ve finished two more puppets. This here is Foxy Lady. She is a beauty, I could fall in love with her myself. Initially I started her as a play mate for Lou, but now I think is she is too mature for Lou. No… I certainly wouldn’t be happy if Lou tried to chase her instead of  Skeleton. His puppy love for Skeleton is a pain, but at least I know he is going nowhere.

I have updated the Character page and finally included the three puppets that were on show as well as the two new ones.

It is very wintery now and it rains a lot. The beauty in our country is that it never rains for very long. Sometimes we have all fours seasons packed into one day.  Yesterday lunchtime it was like summer and I grabbed my sandwich and headed for the bench at the library, which is nicely sheltered from the wind and drenched in sun. I had hardly settled, when Ducky passed by. Ducky wants to stand for office in the Dede Society and now he makes everything his business. He has an opinion about everything and everybody. Most of the time he doesn’t even acknowledge me but obviously he had heard something and of course he had to stop today.  He towered over me with the sun at his back and said: “I hear you have difficulties with Lou! Can I help in anyway?”

I had to shield my eyes and squint to look at him “No, not really,” I replied. He didn’t move and went on to tell me how well connected he is and that he could get Lou into a really good puppy school if I wanted. I just let him talk, there is no need to interrupt him, he doesn’t like listening much. I know I should have said something, but I also thought what’s happening in my house is not such a big deal . I am very much one for keeping it in the family.

Finally he gave up but not without saying: “You know you have to stop them early. Lou is a nice young lad, but you don’t want to him to go around and pee on every lamp post!”

He is a puppy for god’s sake, I thought, but was so pleased to finally get rid of Ducky. If I’d said something, he would have started again…

I am very tired at the moment. I really feel the dedes pulling and tugging at me and it starts to wear me down. I thought I would treat myself to an early night. This wasn’t a good idea though. As you might know by now, Monster has a flat under the bed and Skeleton Edeltraut has virtually moved in with him. Mouse is good mates with Skeleton Edeltraut and of all nights in the week she picked last night to pay Edeltraut a visit. Obviously Monster had gone out and Skeleton didn’t want to be on her own. She finds her family very boring now, as they sit in the wardrobe playing cards, day and night.

I have to be fair, usually they are reasonably considerate and keep their voices down, but last night I heard Mouse’s high shriek of exclamation and had to listen to what they were saying. Edeltraut of course told her the story of Lou‘s scare attack. “Oh no,” I thought  “don’t tell Mouse!” It is an open secret: if Mouse has news every dede in the world will know it by lunch time.

It’s usually not my thing, but I had to say something as Lou wasn’t there to defend himself. “Excuse me!” I said (it just popped out without thinking too much) “but Lou has a totally different view on the story.” Mouse and Skeleton both jumped out at me. “Of course he would,” Skeleton replied quite angrily, “he had three days to think a  good one up!” Mouse only shook her head and said: “You are such a sucker for a story, aren’t you? You believe everything.” I thought that was a bit rich coming from Mouse!

I was too drained to have a long discussion, so I just turned round and said: “What ever…” I will have to tell Lou he needs a good publicist to do damage control.

 

Pirate came by. He wanted to sell me some tapes he’d found in his ol’ man’s cellar. He just assumed I would belong to an age group that still had tapes and I would have a recorder to go with it. (And no, I am not talking video tapes here…) Sorry to disappoint you, Pirate, I never owned a tape recorder. These gadgets were even before my time. I am a bit offended though, next time he will be offering me a record for a gramophone…

Anyway, he had tea with me and was very surprised not to see Lou hanging around. Usually these two go all gaga when they are together and do hilleareous things. I told him Lou is having a bit of a sulk out in the kennel.

So Pirate went over there and didn’t come back for ages. I don’t really trust Pirate to offer the best advice to a young puppy, so I sneaked up on them and eavesdropped for a while. I am not proud of myself and I made sure nobody could see me. It’s not a thing I usually do and I don’t want anybody to know.

Pirate spoke in a very soothing and quite voice. I was surprised, as he is usually very boisterous. I have never seen this side of him. I heard him saying Lou shouldn’t worry, there are plenty more skeletons out there. Every human has at least four or five, they are there for the taking. “Yeah right,” I thought, “that is so Pirate… He would sell Lou one of his own skeletons if he could”. Thankfully Lou was in no state to accept anything or make any deals (apart from this, he has only a small allowance of pocket money and Pirate normally asks exorbitant prices). Lou kept mumbling something about Edeltraut’s lovely bones.

I knew I could leave them to it, there would be no resolution. So I went back into the house and had another cup of tea.

The conversation I was supposed to have with Lou was on my mind all day yesterday. I could hardly concentrate on my work. On my way back I stopped at the wine shop and bought a bottle of red. I thought I’d have it while cooking dinner, so it will be easier for me to talk later.

I had forgotten that whenever I open a bottle of red, The Professor pops up out of nowhere and of course with Pig in tow (they are an item – totally inseparable. If you ask me, it is a case of co-dependency. But who asks me!).

These guys certainly saved Lou from his talk. They usually don’t stop at a single bottle and I had to dip into the good stuff I keep in the kitchen rack for special occasions. I left them to it and went to bed around 11pm. I don’t know what they were doing all night, but they were still hanging around when I got up this morning. The Professor gets very melancholic when he drinks and he loves to solve the problems of the world in this state. He can really talk, particularly round and round in ever decreasing circles. Pig doesn’t say much at the best of times, just holds on to his wine glass. It was all a bit too much for me last night.

This morning they both were very quiet and they moved on relatively swiftly after I made them a good strong coffee (and left me with the mess!). I haven’t seen Lou yet.