Last year when Pig was on stage at the Super Dede competitiion, he got terrible stage fright. I am happy that he has finally found his calling: He loves to work the camera and vowed to leave the stage in future to his mate Professor. Now that they both have found something to do, I hope they will move out of my liquor cabinet and find another place to live. Having them squatting there got rather expensive for me.
Since Lil’ Piggy and Farmer John were sold so quickly, the manager of the gallery asked me to bring some more puppets in. I like to keep them in pairs so they can tell a good story and I hope they find a new home together. When I told the manager I brought Lil’Princess and Naughty Boy along, she replied without looking, “Oh, I know those two”. Yes, I am sure they can tell a story!
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?
Witch came up to me this morning with a plate of brown gunk. She is the one that is into healthy nutrition and the other puppets secretly make fun of her, as what she makes often doesn’t look or smell so good, or sound very palatable. Just to give you an example: for a while I had a pretty bad cough I couldn’t shift. She listened to it for weeks and weeks and finally she got fed up and made me eat a clove of raw garlic (garlic seems to be her panacea). It didn’t appeal to me at all, but she can be so persistent and I eventually swallowed it all. And would you believe it? The cough went away. But I digress.
So, this morning she presented me this plate of gooey stuff. “What’s that?” I asked suspciously, even though on closer scrutiny it looked like a sumptuous chocolate mousse. But I know Witch never cooks something as yummy as that.
“You say you don’t have any energy left. I really want to get you back to your old self. Otherwise we Dedes are doomed. So I made you this. This will fix you.”
“But what is it?’ I sniffed at it and it didn’t smell like garlic. I was relieved. I even thought I smelt a hint of brandy. But Witch is a teetotaller and she wouldn’t put any alcohol in it.
“Don’t be so suspicious, just try it…. It is a healthy chocolate pudding!”
“Now that is a contradiction in itself!” I said, though it made me curious. I took a deep breath and tried it. It tasted divine!
Witch watched me with great satisfaction. “Healthy food doesn’t have to be unpalatable. Do you believe me now?”
“To be honest this chocolate pudding doesn’t taste healthy at all” I said. “Something this delicious surely can’t be good for you. So tell me, what is it made of?”
“It’s made of teff flour”
“Teff?” I’ve never heard of it.
“It is an ethopian grain. Ever wondered why there are so many good ethopian long-distance runners? They eat bread made from teff. It is gluten free and has a very good balance of amino acids. A high content of calcium, zinc, iron, magnesium…” Witch started to lecture while my eyes glazed over.
“Just give me the recipe” I begged. “I want to have more of this.”
“You know that I don’t have recipes. I just experiment with food, but the recipe went something like this.” Witch took a pen and paper and wrote down:
Put 1/2 cup of teff flour in a pot and add two cups of water. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 15 mins. Stir continuously. (It will have the consisency of custard). Let it cool. Combine half a cup of cocoa powder with sugar (3 tablespoons will do, but if you have a very sweet tooth you might want to have more. If you don’t like sugar use stevia instead) and mix into the teff custard. Put in the fridge for an hour or so.
“The cooling down is very important” Witch pointed out while she wrote down the recipe. If the teff is still too hot when you put the cocoa in, the result will be firmer, more like a christmas pudding. When the mixture is cooler it is more like a mousse.
“But didn’t I taste a hint of brandy?”
“Ah well” Witch winked at me “that was my little treat for you. You can put all sorts of flavourings in.”
We have made the move, phew. All our business stuff has been shuffled into the new studio space. And that is it. We have just added to the big mess we already had in the house anyway. I don’t even know where to start tidying up. But mess and all, the space feels fantastic. This morning Monkey came sliding down the balustrade from upstairs and settled on the sideboard next to my desk. “So” he said to me “The move is over. Where are all the others then?”
“You can’t be serious” I responded, slightly annoyed. “Look around. I can’t have all the Dedes running wild in this mess.”
“I am so sick of all your promises” he said indignantly. “Can I remind you, that you have an obligation to look after us. We are your artworks!”
“I know, I know. I feel really bad about it. But things are just so much slower in real life. But of course you wouldn’t know, you are not real!”
“It is not just about us! It is now three months since you told your real friends they would be invited to a Dede recital afternoon. And it still hasn’t happend! This is simply unacceptable by any standard.”
“Do you think I am happy with the progress?”
“C’mon, be brave! Just set a date! You know when you set a date it will happen.”
He jumped down from the sideboard and grabbed the computer mouse to open the calendar. “How does Saturday the 26th sound?”
“I don’t know if the bathroom will be painted by then.”
“Get real. Do you think your friends care? It’s only paint! They’ll be here to see us!”
I knew I had to give in to get him off my back. Otherwise I wouldn’t get any work done today.
The rucksack must have become uncomfortable during the night and they found their way out. But they only made it a few steps to the side, to the rolled-up yoga mat. There I found them in the morning. L’Artiste staring depressed into space, Mitzi squinting up at me, I don’t know what she is thinking, but she seems to be okay as long as she has a lap to sit on. I have to admit, I am not particularly good with depressed puppets, so pretended I didn’t see them as I walked past on my way to the kitchen. Monkey, who was right behind me, stopped and told L’Artiste in clear words he should snap out of it. Life is hard for everybody. L’Artiste said lamely, “Leave me alone, I want to wallow in my sorrow.”
Monkey shrugged his shoulders. “Ah well then, you can’t be helped!”
And I thought: what happened to my poor Dedes? They were such a fun bunch to have around. I really have to engage them in new projects.
I needn’t have worried. Monkey has already found a new friend to confide in: Lil’Piggy.
Lil’Piggy and Farmer John eloped together and set up camp in one of my hoody pockets. They looked so settled that I let them stay. This morning when I came into the kitchen Monkey was sitting on the floor telling Lil’Piggy his life story. Farmer John sat on the kitchen bench and watched them from afar. He reckons Monkey is attracted to the Lil’Dedes because the other Dedes never tired of laughing at his antics and always called him a monkey.
The Dedes are starting to run out of patience. They still haven’t moved into their new studio space. We are still busy sanding down window frames. I want to have the space perfect before I allow them to settle. Surprisingly, it was all good for a while. They seemed to be content as they could see the light at the end of the tunnel – or so I thought. I just assumed the Dedes know me well enough to sense how stressed I am and that it is not a good time to talk to me. I really appreciated that they gave me the space I needed and that they refrained from pushing me. But this morning it finally occured to me they don’t really understand that things take time. No! they have simply given up on me. All the projects that we’ve started came to a screeching halt. They have given up asking me about the tennis film and recording the Dada recitals and all the other fun things we had planned and were so excited about. Instead, they are terribly annoyed that I spend every spare minute making new Lil’Dedes for the upcoming exhibition. Needless to say, there is no love lost between the big ones and the little ones. The big ones keep to themselves and it is now very obvious that they are currently avoiding me!
This morning Devil and L’Artiste decided they couldn’t wait any longer and took action to speed things up. They went into the new space and had a good look at the sander. They discussed it, scratched their heads and figured out it will take at least two Dedes to shift the heavy thing. By the time they had dragged it to the window they were totally exhausted and needed a break. They still haven’t figured out how to switch the thing on. To be honest, I hope they never ever will…
I’ve got an email from Theresa with a brief report how Lil’Devil is doing. He is a bit shy and mainly sitting on her bookshelf reading books in English. Theresa says that with the speed he is churning through the books he will have to learn German soon so he can start on the German books. Learning German wouldn’t go amiss anyway. Otherwise he will have a hard time making friends. But then, most Germans speak pretty good English and are always happy to practise their language skills with a native speaker.
Last weekend they went to Gorinsee in the north-east of Berlin and I’ve been told he made quite an impression with his tiger-print dress.
Lil’ Devil has left for Berlin… and I will now reveal who he wanted to impress with his tiger print dress. (He would certainly blush if he knew I was telling you). He was a present for my lovely tutorial assistant, Theresa, and he really wanted to wow her.
Theresa is a gifted illustrator who won a scholarship to do her Masters in New Zealand. The programme she was enrolled in is a Masters by project. This means the students produce a new body of work and write an exergesis rather than an entirely theoretical thesis. In her project Theresa investigated living in a different culture and her final work was a graphic novel. Much to my suprise, one of the chapters was dedicated to the Dedes. In this chapter she processed the conversations we had and let the puppets do the talking. I have to say, she did a wonderful job capturing the Dedes (and the conversations). I only have a copy of the Dede chapter but you should have seen her other drawings: beautiful and elaborate cityscapes, with heaps to see and read and chuckle about. She is certainly one to watch out for. I have no doubt she will be very, very successful.
I hope Lil’ Devil is a good luck charm and he will watch out for her in difficult times. He promised me – in true Dede fashion – that he is ready to have a conversation whenever she feels like it :). Maybe she will even get him a new dress.
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