Archives for posts with tag: Philosophy

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Top Dog figured out the Dedes won’t surrender unless he can unsettle the artist. He is adamant to find some dirt he can use. Luckily for him the artist is currently decluttering her house and had left a pile of ancient diaries on an otherwise empty shelf. Top Dog rubbed his hands and opened the first book. But luckily for the artist she had written her diaries in German and Top Dog doesn’t speak the language.

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He took one of the books to Foreign Correspondent, who is looking after the Dede’s German blog. “Mhm,” the expert consultant said after he had evaluated a few pages. “Who do you think is interested in the drivel of a sad and lonely eighteen year old who is at odds with the world? In my opinion the books should be committed to the recycling bin!”

Top Dog didn’t like the answer, but Foreign Correspondent didn’t want to take another look. “Forget it! There is no artistic merit in these books” he said and continued with his own work.

We all know Top Dog is not one to give up easily. “Wrong consultant and wrong diary” he mumbled and grabbed another book. “Foreign Correspondent is simply too rational. I need someone who can emotionally connect with the story the artist recorded in her diaries.”

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This time he went and asked Deutsch Fraulein for help. Surprisingly, when he mentioned the diaries, the old girl looked up from her mobile to which she usually is glued to and said: “leave the book with me. I will think about it.”

 

devil day

It seems to be the day of the devils. At first light, lil’Devil, the the Super Dede Competition cheerleader, was dancing around the house like there is no tomorrow. We were all wondering if the competition had finished early or what. Turns out it was the regram contest that had finished. Last week in the post working hard on it the management team decided to make lil’Devil the cheerleader for the Super Dede Competition. While he was chuffed about the honor he soon found out that he would have to leave home if someone reposted the picture. For a week he was holding his breath, a hard thing to do for any devil. His job performance wasn’t that great either. You can barely see him in the pictures of the competition holding up the signs with the names of the contestants. Anyway, the offer is off the table now and no one took it up. That means the lil’Devil can stay with us. And while he will be a bit upset with the management team for some time, he will survive and happily do his job for the rest of the competition.

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Today’s contestant is also a devil, Milky Bar Devil. He skulked on stage and didn’t know what to say.  In the end the MC prompted him. “You said in your statement that you want to be in the competition to learn about how to become ruthless. Isn’t that a strange thing to say?” Milky Bar Devil looked surprised. “You of all Dedes should know what is expected of a devil, but it simply doesn’t come naturally to me.” Then he told the audience that he is studying hard and reads all the books. But when he applies all the devilish things he learned in theory, everybody just laughs at him. “I am such a useless devil! I will never fulfill the expectations of my parents. I will never be a success in their eyes.”

“Mhm” said Devil, “not sure if this competition is the right therapy for you.”

Yes, I left civilisation and it looked like I never came back. But I can set your mind at rest. I have returned and the Dedes have been posting on Instagram every day. Fittingly, having had Valentine’s Day this month, they are discussing the various notions of love. :) It started with Minor, Detail‘s teenage daughter, looking for true love. Today Skeleton Edeltraut complains about an admirer who doesn’t respect her boundaries. Below I have put together a catch-up picture gallery. If you have any forms of love to add, please feel free to make a comment.

I have to apologise for my longer blog posts that have fallen by the wayside again. I am trying to make a major decision.  I am investigating the feasibility of  leaving  ‘honest  work’ and the big smoke behind and moving to the country side, engaging in art (not just the puppets), full-time and for good.

top dog first

I actually didn’t want to write about the new Dede on the blog: Top Dog. It’s not worth it I thought. He will see how the Dede community works and will mellow, but no, Top Dog simply wants to be one thing and that is to be top dog, nothing else. You may know that the Dedes work on mutual respect. They acknowledge that each of them has their little quirks, the world is not black and white and they happily live with it. In the end they always find a way to move forward. It might take a while, but so far it has worked out just fine. Now Top Dog has entered the scene, announcing his arrival with loud incessant barking and not the least bit interested in what others have to say. Within a minute the Dedes knew his heritage, lineage and achievements, his family situation and living arrangements. The Dedes looked at each other and didn’t know what hit them. “This is how we do it from now on” barked Top Dog charging in a direction he obviously deemed to be forward. “There is no other way!”

The Dedes were flabbergasted and speechless.

Witch, who was part of the welcoming committee, turned around to go and continue whatever it was she was doing before Top Dog arrived. “Ah well, if he wants to go there let him go there” she sighed. “I have things to do!”

Chance, who stood next to her, said “I thought people with those attitudes died out  in the nineties together with the bad hair do.” Everybody looked at her.It is totally out of character for her to stoop so low and make disapproving comments about anybody she had just met.

“It might just be fear. It isn’t easy to deal with so many new Dedes at once” consoled Philosopher, who always reminds us of the positive in everybody.

“Oh no” commented Devil. “You are just blessed that you are not in the workforce… they are still around and they are very bad news.”

“What shall we do?” asked L’Artiste a little distressed. He needs everybody to be a happy family to be creative and work well.

“Wait and see” remarked Bad Conscience who was lingering in a dark corner and looking very bored. “It will sort itself out one way or another. Or if it doesn’t I will move in with him!”

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Why did I start the year with a picture of ducks?

I want to tell you a story that has kept me pondering since Christmas and I can’t solve the riddle about what life is trying to tell me here, and what the moral of the story is supposed to be.

When we went to the farm this Christmas, the ducklings had hatched. Fourteen of them. By the time we arrived there were only eleven left. Three disappeared during the night without trace. The next night was fine, the family was okay, but the following night the numbers were decimated, leaving five, and the day after Boxing Day all the ducklings were all gone. Isn’t that sad? I look at their lovely mellow faces, so content and clueless. Oh, dear!

But this is not the end of the story. While the duck and the drake had a full nest of eggs, the old chick in the pen next to the ducks tried to brood some eggs as well, but to no avail. The whole affair was rather doomed, as there is no rooster about. Still, she was sitting on these duds for ages, not wanting to admit defeat.  Luckily the duck had actually laid sixteen eggs, but wasn’t big enough to cover all of them. So two were given to the old hen. The dud eggs were replaced and the hen continued sitting on the duck eggs instead. Sure enough, when time came, these ducklings hatched as well though they shouldn’t be called ducklings, but rather chicklings. Mother hen was clucking around them and like every good mother tried to teach them all she knew about life. Like how to scatch for food (pretty difficult with webbed feet) or having a sand bath. While a couple of feet away the duck family was happily paddling ab0ut in the plastic pond. At night though, the chicken took the chicklings under her wings and that is how they survived. I wonder at what point they will find out that they are not chickens and whether they can survive life with the experience that is handed down to them by their surrogate mother. I certainly hope that the story has an equally happy ending like in the fairy tale by H C Anderson: The Ugly Duckling.

Cash Cow didn’t move from her place after Professor’s performance last week and has been pondering about the sense of Dada poems ever since. I now proudly present to you the sequel to the Dede Dada Do and yes, I can resist calling it Dede Dada Dodo. It is simply called Dede Dada Do 2, or Art for Art’s sake.

Enjoy!

Special thanks to Miss Viwi, who kindly allowed me to use her Dada poem.

mouse and push push

This morning Mouse walked up to Push Push, tutu in hand, and said “You shouldn’t give up. I had a go, it is not as easy as it looks.”

“I try and try and try so hard. I don’t seem to get anywhere” Push Push replied. “You know, at one stage you just run out of steam.”

“That is a common, but true tale. If you do something unusual, you get knocked back more often. You have to admit we are more used to dancing fairies than elephants” said Mouse when she handed over the dress. “I’d say, stick to your guns girl! And maybe compare yourself with elephants, not fairies, for now.”

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Our famous red sofa in the studio is operational again. It didn’t take long for Philosopher to settle there and take in the goings-on with his eyes shut. “So what is your plan then?” I asked him as I value his opinion.

“Do you always have to have a plan?”

“If you don’t have a plan, nothing ever happens.”

“I beg to differe here, love. The world goes on regardless of plans”

“But don’t you want to be the master of your own destiny like all the others?”

“So you have noticed that all the Dedes who revealed their plans were themselves at the centre?”

“Except for Witch or course who cooked this lovely pudding for me ”

“Yes, except for the wicked Witch! What would we do without Dedes like her?”

Why can’t Philosopher ever give me a straight answer?

 

mouse and socialite

Socialite couldn’t wait for her turn and Witch went away to think of some questions. By the time I left she hadn’t come back.

“Tell me,” Socialite asked nobody in particular, “does Witch really think she is good looking?” As there was no response from anybody she answered for herself. “No, she must have been joking. She has a crooked nose with a big wart on it and she is all wrinkly. No, she can’t have been serious.”

“I think for her age she scrubs up nicely” Mouse said now.

“But Mouse, we don’t know how old she is!” Socialite replied.

“But you can see she has life experience. I love the look of her wrinkles. They are witness to a life spend laughing rather than crying. I want to look like her when I am old” Mouse continued.

“No way” Socialite waved the idea aside. “Who wants to be old? Of all people, a witch really doesn’t need to be old. With her magical powers and potions she could make herself look stunning and young!”

“If she wanted to, maybe, “Devil chipped in. “But after all she is a witch. If she looked too young would anybody take her  seriously as witch? It is her trademark after all, isn’t it? Maybe she is too coy to tell us her age because she is much younger than we all assume!”

“Now you are getting silly!” Socialite said angrily. She was sure Devil was taking the mickey out of her now.

Set in concrete

I see the writing on the wall. Set in concrete the letter I. Not something I am aspiring to.