Archives for posts with tag: story

Detail wants to talk

January 19, 2013 //

Oh, it is Saturday and I don’t need to get up at an ungodly hour. When I finally got up, Detail had laid the breakfast table and it smelled wonderfully of fresh coffee…. that is what I call bliss!

The Dedes are not early risers and not many were around. It was still nice and quiet. Devil was of course there – he doesn’t seem to sleep at all – and also Detail who arranged this wonderful surprise. Last, but not least, there was Foreign Correspondent, who seems to be everywhere lately.

We had just sat down when Devil launched into telling us about the Facebook page but I rudely interrupted him: “Please, not on Saturday, and particularly not when I am having my breakfast!”

“But it is important to me!” he exclaimed. “Join the club” Foreign Correspondent said, “I have to talk about my German translation as well. You know I don’t think the summaries are working… I have to do a daily translation, otherwise it is too confusing.”

“It’s your gig” I said, “you can do what you want, as long as you do a good job” and bit into my croissant. “Aren’t you interested in what we are doing?” Devil asked. “Of course I am, but there is a time and place for everything. And Saturday breakfast is not for facebook or German translations!”

“You really should ask our readers to join us on Facebook. Only when we have 25 Likes can we claim…”

“Devil, please!” I got quite annoyed and slammed my croissant on the plate.

“That is such a male thing” Detail started now. “I lay the table and put on a nice breakfast because I want to discuss something and you guys just jump in, invite yourself, and hog the conversation straight away.” Devil and Foreign Correspondent looked at her in surprise. It is unusual for her to be so straight forward.

“So what’s your problem then?” Devil asked annoyed.

“I can’t talk about it now!” she yelled and jumped up. “I’ll go and see Philosopher. He is the only Dede one can talk to!”

And so, what started out as a lovely breakfast was spoilt for every one. The three of us continued in silence, but we had rather lost our appetite.

Tags art, character traits, Characters, creative writing, dede puppets, life, relationships, story, story telling

Categories Art, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network

Breakdown

January 17, 2013 //

Mouse finally had her break down everybody was waiting for. Yesterday, one could hardly talk to her without her bursting into tears. She is obviously overworked. But asking her what the matter was made it even worse. I have learned my lesson in the meantime and leave her alone on days like this, it will pass! I will approach her again when she has calmed down. Even though I know this is not the best thing to do, on days like this you basically can’t win. Talk to her, she cries. Don’t talk to her she says, nobody loves her. Thankfully she doesn’t have these days very often.

Last night she went to visit her bosom buddy Skeleton Edeltraut, who lives with her partner Monster under my bed. Wednesday night is Monster’s night out. He meets up with some monster mates at the local for quiz night and a beer. Skeleton Edeltraut doesn’t like to go to the pub and hang out with Monster‘s mates, but doesn’t want to be at home on her own either because she has a stalker. Puppy Lou is in love with her, ever since he first laid eyes on her. I can understand the attraction for a young dog. She on the other hand is just plain scared of his attention, which of course I can understand as well. Have you ever seen how a dog treats a bone?

Personally, I am okay with my skeletons (the rest of her family lives in my closet), as long as they don’t bother me. But I wouldn’t seek them out and that goes for Monster as well. But Mouse is a regular visitor at their place. Last night they must have had a good heart to heart. They kept their voices down, but between sobbing I could hear fragments like “… just too much…” “…everybody relies…” “… take it anymore….” I didn’t try too hard to listen in on their conversation. I know it will blow over and she will be back to her normal self. I hope it will be today!

Tags art, character traits, Characters, creative writing, dede puppets, friends, imagination, life, mood, relationships, story, story telling

Categories Art, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network

Topsy-Turvy

January 16, 2013 //

It’s all happening at the moment. First of all, the problem we had with the blog images seems to have dissolved into thin air. Yesterday morning, Mouse was close to a nervous break-down after she had spent almost the whole night on the computer trying to solve the problem together with Foreign Correspondent. You know how it is. When there is a technical issue, you really want to nail it, don’t you! When the posted image still didn’t show up in the Reader yesterday, she was hyperventilating. I was worried she might have a heart attack. Finally, she threw her hands in air and admitted defeat.

However, by lunch time she checked the blogs she is following in the Reader and she couldn’t believe her eyes. There they were, the Dede blog images. All of them. The two from yesterday, the day before, even last weeks. So, remind me again, what was the problem? It seems to have been a WordPress glitch and Mouse and Foreign Correspondent now believe it might have something to do with the size of the original images. The images I give them to put up are sized to fit into the width of our blog column, not a single pixel larger, and WordPress obviously makes them even smaller to display in the Reader.

They told everybody what they had figured out, but the Dedes weren’t interested in the detail. They were just pleased that it finally seems to work.

This gave Foreign Correspondent the confidence to put up his introductory post on the German Blog dedepuppetsde.wordpress.com. So it is all go now. “And we even have a follower already!” He was really chuffed when he reported back to us. “We also had a comment from Monika-Maria, congratulating me on my new job and what a great idea it is to have the German translation.” He could barely hide his pride.

Mouse was a bit touchy. “So what?” she said. “You are only rehashing what we do on our English blog. And if I hadn’t done all the hard work here for nearly a year, nobody would have looked at yours today.” She tried to down-play his success. I was genuinely surprised by her reaction. I thought these two were getting on well, after their unexpected bonding exercise of trouble-shooting. Then it occurred to me there might be professional envy at play.

Mouse thrives on the admiration for her work and so far there has been absolutely no one who could hold a candle up to her. Then out of the blue Foreign Correspondent shows up and in next to nothing he gets something off the ground, no fussing at all. Uh, that must have hurt.

“And by the way,” Mouse continued with the snappy tone, “I have started on the Dede puppets fan page on facebook… We have been discussing it for so long. This is just ridiculous. I can’t wait until we all agree… I could wait until the cows come home!”

“So how is it going with this one?” Socialite pricked up her ears. She was always keen on a facebook page. “Not so well,” Mouse admitted quietly. “I shouldn’t have said anything yet. I have to get my head around this first. After all, I was very tired last night from all the trouble shooting the night before. So, please don’t look at it yet!”

Tags art, character traits, Characters, creative writing, dede puppets, friends, life, personalities, reflections, story, story telling

Categories Art, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network

A little trouble shooting

January 15, 2013 //

I asked all the Dedes individually what they thought of Foreign Correspondent’s performance and whether we should go ahead with his proposal. Most of them couldn’t care less as long as it didn’t increase their workload. The one who really had to think hard about it was Mouse, as she does all the work around here. When she realised there was something going on, she watched Foreign Correspondent closely, but couldn’t fault him. He is a professional. Over the weekend he translated all the background information and recreated the blog in German, so he could start as soon as the Dede Committee gave him the green light.

Foreign Correspondent had also been watching Mouse and last night he approached her. “Do you think we could fix the problem with the images?” he asked “I don’t want to start posting when this problem isn’t solved.”

Mouse was taken aback at first. She felt he was making demands, despite him being the newbie. In her opinion newbies have to keep their mouth’s shut, just watch and slip into place once they had observed enough and found their own little niche. They are not supposed to make suggestions, not on the first day at least… Unfortunately, Mouse herself knew something wasn’t working correctly, but she pretended she didn’t know. “What’s wrong?” she asked with a surprised tone in her voice and a tad defensive.

“When I first look at a new post, the pics are crunched up in tiny little boxes” Foreign Correspondent described the problem. “I have to double click first to see them in full size and they don’t show up in the Reader either.”

Mouse admitted that she has had the same problem, but initially thought it was just a little glitch with her computer. She thought she had fixed it when she double clicked on it and the visitors wouldn’t have a problem. Indeed, she had asked some people and they were totally unaware of the problem she was talking about, while others said they had also experienced it.

“It all worked a breeze before, until the WordPress people made changes to the library module” Mouse explained. “I don’t know what I can do about it. I’ve tried virtually everything!”

“I’ve noticed” Foreign Correspondent answered. “Now I can’t even double click anymore.”

“I am at the end of my tether. I even sent a support question to WordPress, but have had no response yet. It might have something to do with the template I am using, maybe I have to change this.”

Foreign Correspondent suggested I should give him a lift to my office, while Mouse stayed at home and made changes. Then he could use the computer at work to check whether it worked or not.

When I went to bed last night, Mouse and Foreign Correspondent were busy skyping and changing things, but without the usual screaming and cursing. I don’t know if they have fixed the problem or not.

We will see when this post goes up.

It would be great if readers who have had this problem could let Mouse and Foreign Correspondent know if it has been fixed. Or if not, does anybody have an idea what’s going on? Your help is very much appreciated!

Tags art, Characters, creative writing, dede puppets, imagination, life, personalities, story, story telling

Categories Art, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network

Decision making

January 14, 2013 //

Last night the second post of the Dede story was launched at ||:VEGGIETORIA:||. For the Dedes it is an absolute must to watch, just like a riveting mini series on TV. As I had them all in one place, I told them what Foreign Correspondent and I had nutted out recently. Surprisingly we received very mixed reactions. I was so convinced they would be excited and I realised I don’t know them as well as I thought I did.

The main reservation was that the Dedes believe most Germans speak better English than they let on. They wouldn’t need the extra summary. Foreign Correspondent just stood there and smiled, but he didn’t try to convince them of his plan. In the end Devil’s Advocate said: “Can we discuss this later? I want to know what Miss Viwi has to say today!” And he invited Foreign Correspondent to take the floor.

Foreign Correspondent stood there calmly, looking very credible, and started his speech: “Thank you Dedes for giving me the opportunity to talk to you tonight. I believe you would like to be known to a wider audience. Is that right?” He paused for effect, and all the Dedes obediently nodded their heads. Then he continued. “I can help you to achieve this and I would be delighted if you would accept my proposal. ” He took charge of the computer and switched to Miss Viwi’s page.

“First of all, I want to thank Miss Viwi again for her kindness in publishing a series about the background of the Dedes. Let’s see what she has to say:”

{dede puppets | second act}

[The book:]

‘Hermit’s web or the few friends I need, I hand-craft myself’. The story of this book introduces the first fifteen Dede characters.
dietlind: „The idea for the story was conceived when someone I didn’t know invited me to become friends on face book. Not only was this person a stranger to me, I don’t have a face book page. So I go on and tell the world that I have enough to do with my real friends, my Dedes. The book is written in easy-to-understand English, similar to the blog.

[the blog]

dietlind: „I started the blog shortly before the book was launched. An artist friend of mine had advised me to document the entire process. A year on, I am really happy I have heeded this advice. The thought of selling [the puppets ] has disappeared into thin air and the blog has definitely strengthened the relationship between the Dedes and myself.

top left to right.: Detail, Snippedy, Devil, Mouse and Socialite || below left to right: Monkey, Pig, Professor, L’Artiste Dede, Foxy Lady and Fairy Godmother

miss viwi: So you can’t imagine selling puppets?

dietlind: „Not at the moment. In particular not those that appear on the blog and there is no way I could part with the first ones, the ones from the book. But at one stage there will be so many, and I should be able to let some go. I can envisage, though, creating some puppets specifically for an exhibition and to sell them before I get used to them, before I come up with their character traits.“

[Exhibition]

Exhibitions are a relatively new subject for the artist, she never considered it with her previous work, but „The Dede puppets are a category of their own, they really want to be seen.“

Apart from a few low key photographic exhibitions, the puppets were on show at the book launch.

Book launch April 2012, Auckland, Visitor examines L’Artiste Dede (Foto: © Sonya Roussina)

An installation by the artist Dietlind Wagner had been selected as a finalist in New Zealand’s prestigeous „Wallace Art Awards“. The installation of five dede puppets was exhibited in a gallery in Auckland.
Further solo exhibitions are planned for 2013.

dietlind: „I also had two workshops for Senior Citizens and would love to explore this area further. Hand puppets are often used in therapy with kids, but I am convinced they could be equally useful with the elderly.“

—

The interview will continue next Sunday 20/1/13, at 8 am CET at |:::VEGGIETORIA:::|.

P.S.: If you have any queries, wishes or comments feel free to write in

“Good, good” Devil said. “Now, Foreign Correspondent, this was a very literal translation. But you have to prove to us that you can summarise, if we are to give you the responsibility of looking after the Dede’s German blog. So how would you summarise what Miss Viwi has said?” Mouse turned to Devil and gave him a hi-five.

Foreign Correspondent was unfazed and said: “In brief, Dietlind loves us all. And all of us, who are currently in the room are safe. She won’t sell any of us. She believes the blog strengthened our relationship, but she also knows we are attention seekers and she would like to comply by presenting us to the non-digital world in exhibitions and workshops. If you have any queries, leave a comment or send an email!”

“I hope your German summaries are a bit more comprehensive, but I would say give it a go!” Devil concluded.

Tags art, artist, background, creative writing, dede puppets, friends, fun, personalities, story, story telling

Categories Art, Books, Fun, Hand Puppets, Relationships, Social Network

Foreign Correspondent

January 13, 2013 //

Today is Sunday again and the Dedes are all curious about what the second installment from Miss Viwi on ||:::VEGGIETORIA:::|| will be like. I am pretty sure they will be hanging around the living room tonight again so they don’t miss the new post.

Miss Viwi’s series got the Dedes thinking. We got a few comments lately from German speaking readers and friends who said they use the Dedes to brush up on their English, but sometimes they are not sure about the meaning as the blog is quite colloquial. During the week this fellow introduced himself to me. He claimed to be a foreign correspondent. I didn’t believe him at first, he looks more like a tourist to me, but then he put forward his ideas and I changed my mind. He seems to know what he is talking about.

Here is what he suggested: He is going to scan all the posts on the dedepuppet blog and will write a summary twice a week in German. These summaries will be posted on dedepuppetsde.wordpress.com, not on this blog here. There will be no new stories on the German blog at all, as all the Dedes are in New Zealand, so new stories can only happen here and they will continue to happen in English. Of course Foreign Correspondent will report back to us if any interesting comments are made.

I haven’t put it to the Dede committee yet to find out what they think, but Foreign Correspondent was proactive and translated the site anyway. He says he wants to be ready to roll as soon as he gets the go ahead. I said he should hold his horses as we will put him to the test when Miss Viwi’s post needs to be translated again. So tonight he will be presenting his proposal and translation to the Dedes.

What do you think?

Tags art, character traits, Characters, creative writing, dede puppets, friends, imagination, personalities, story, story telling, thoughts

Categories Art, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network

Hello neighbours

January 12, 2013 //

The weather here is just fantastic at the moment. During the day it is hot, but still bearable, and when night falls, it becomes balmy. This is the time when it is lovely to sit outside for a little, before the mosquitoes start their battle for dominance outdoors. Last night a few of us where sitting on the deck, having a quiet wind-down from a busy week, when Nosy Neighbour and his wife Two-faced walked by. They only got married last year and we don’t see much of them. We see him more than her, though. We really only know her as a shadow behind the curtain in their living room. He, on the other hand, is out and about. He does some gardening or fetches the newspaper and I even think he does the shopping for the two of them. He particularly likes to be out after the Dedes have had a loud party. Sometimes I suspect he is only hanging around in the open in order to catch me and have a good old rant about my lot.

“Hello neighbours,” I called out when I saw them passing “Want to join us?”

They looked at each other and Two-faced shook her head. “Would love to catch up” Nosy Neighbour replied, “but we have to keep going. We have to do something about the kilos we gained over Christmas.” Nevertheless, he approached the deck a little, but Two-faced was anchored firmly to the footpath and didn’t move an inch.

“Lovely evening for it” Devil said to keep the small-talk going.

“I’ve just started to read your blog” Nosy Neighbour told us, when he finally stopped a few paces from where we were sitting.

“What do you think?” Mouse wanted to know of course.

“Interesting read” he said and looked at me. “I don’t even know why you bother. They are such a nuisance.” He pointed with his head towards my little friends, and continued talking as if they weren’t there. “Why don’t you kick them all out and that is it. No more problems! Myself? I wouldn’t put up with their crap!”

All the Dedes that were with me started laughing. They thought it was a big big joke. Only I knew he was serious. I had too many similar conversations with him before.

“They are not that bad” I appeased him. He rolled his eyes, turned around and mumbled: “You really have to mow your lawn too” while he walked back to his wife, who was still waiting on the foot path. She waived at us with a smile, before they walked on.

“He has such dead pan humour, I just love it!” Devil said.

“We should invite them to our next barbeque,” Mouse added. “It’s a pity we know so little about them, they are Dedes just like us, aren’t they?”

Tags art, character traits, Characters, creative writing, dede puppets, friends, fun, imagination, life, personalities, story, story telling

Categories Art, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network

But what about us monkeys?

January 11, 2013 //

Yes, I was happy with Philosopher’s statement about what the Dede’s mission is. They are celebrating diversity! I was really happy for a day, until Monkey showed up.

Monkey swung through the curtains to the floor lamp and stopped a safe distance from me. I observed him closely. He is a bit stand-offish and usually only comes to see me in a group with others. Even today he looked as if he had to muster all his bravery. He sat there and casually scratched some flees out of his fur. Finally he addressed me: “Diversity you said… ”

“Yes”, I answered proudly “That’s what the Dedes are about”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“You could also say ‘Live and let live!’ Embracing all the differences” I said.

“Funny you should say that” said Monkey, still sitting at a safe distance. “So what about the monkeys then?”

“What about them?” I asked as I had no clue what he was on about.

“Aren’t you writing a book!” Monkey said.

“No, not at the moment, though I have written plenty of books in the past. Now I am too busy with the Dedes”

“So it’s not true that you have a nearly completed book in the drawer… The others told me so.”

And then all of a sudden it occurred to me, yes, right. Last summer before the Dedes burst onto the scene I was indeed working on a book that contained all my wisdom of over sixteen years of teaching digital imaging. I had made good progress until the rain set in and the Dedes pushed into my life.

“Ah, you mean ‘Let’s kill that monkey‘?” I blurted out. Oops, only now I noticed what an unfortunate title it had.

Monkey jumped a bit further away from me and said: “Yes that one”.

I laughed out loud. “No worries… I don’t really kill monkeys. Did you really think I would?”

He wanted to know why I gave my book such a mean title. It is a clear call to violence after all. I explained it was frustration talking. I had the strong feeling some of my students didn’t really want to be bothered with understanding the programs, but chose just to fluff around and see what comes out. I wouldn’t call my student monkeys, no way, but any work created without intention I call ‘monkey work’.

“This doesn’t sound like celebrating differences. In fact it is very derogatory. You have to come up with a different term!” said Monkey while swinging away.

Tags art, character traits, Characters, creative writing, dede puppets, friends, fun, imagination, life, story, story telling, thoughts

Categories Art, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network

Philosopher’s thought

January 10, 2013 //

On Wednesday mornings Philosopher comes round and picks me up for a walk. I treasure this hour with him. There is no need to talk, if there is nothing to talk about. Sometimes silence in company can feel awkward, you certainly know that feeling, but with Philosopher quietness feels comforting. He has a very good head on his shoulders. And if you talk, you can be sure he would never pooh pooh any ideas – even if they are miles off the beaten track – nor would he speak badly about anyone.

So we walked in silence for a while and then I had to ask him: “So, Philosopher, what do you think about Witch’s comment on the blog yesterday?”

“Sorry, I don’t read your blog,” he answered honestly. “What happened?”

“You don’t read my blog?” I asked in disbelief.

“A lot of your friends don’t. Everybody knows you will tell them what’s happening anyway next time you see them.”

“Do they really?” I tried to remember the barbeques I had been to lately and started to wonder if everybody is getting sick of me. Am I quietly turning into a bore? I have to admit, Philosopher is right, the Dedes are my favourite subject.

“Oh, yes,” Philosopher smiled benevolently. “But don’t worry, they all like your passion – and not just that, they love us Dedes.” Before I could think more about my real friends, Philosopher got me back on my original train of thought: “So what did Witch say?”

I told him that Witch was taken aback by my remark the Dedes are for fun. It was just an aside and I wished Witch wouldn’t read my blog and wouldn’t pick up on little throw-away phrases like that.

“Do you think we are for fun?” Philosopher inquired.

“Not always… but what do you think, Philosopher, what is the agenda of the Dedes? Help me out here, please.” I know for a fact Witch would love to have more space on the blog to promote a frugal and healthy lifestyle. Cash Cow might support her, but it would displease most of the other Dedes, as this is really just Witch’s hobby-horse.

Philosopher didn’t think long: “In my opinion, the Dedes are celebrating diversity and they are having fun while doing it. This, my valued friend, is a good enough reason for their existence!”

Tags art, Characters, creative writing, dede puppets, friends, fun, imagination, life, personalities, Philosophy, story, story telling

Categories Art, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network

My word!

January 9, 2013 //

Cash Cow and Witch popped in for a cup of tea. They seem to have become good friends over the last couple of months and hang out together a lot. As soon as they had their mugs in front of them Witch started to raise her concerns about my post yesterday, where I wrote about Pirate‘s business preposition.

“You know, I am not happy with what you’ve said” she started. And Cash Cow nodded eagerly in support.

I was very surprised about this comment, as I know Witch is not into money. At least she never tires of telling the rest of us that… Though be careful when you ask her to look into her crystal ball for you; she charges an arm and a leg for that service. It is her only source of income and of course being self-employed she never knows when the next payment will come in. (I have no idea how many people use her services.) So over time she adopted an extremely frugal life style, living off the land. I admire her for being able to make a meal out of virtually nothing. She is also very generous and happy to share her concoctions with others – unfortunately most of the other Dedes are not too keen to take up the offer. So she is a bit of a loner and just does her own thing. It can’t be good for anybody, and I was pleased when Cash Cow took a liking to her. It seems to work both ways and I assume Witch has taken Cash Cow under her wing, sort of as an apprentice. We all know Cash Cow is strapped for money, and she certainly can learn a thing or two from Witch about how to make a bob stretch further. I hope she doesn’t teach her how to read the crystal ball though. I can not imagine a cow doing a good job in this profession.

“So you would have taken up Pirate’s offer then?” I replied flabbergasted.

“Of course not,” Witch looked at me sternly. “What is it with you people, why is it always about money?!”

“Aren’t you just talking about my missed business opportunity?”

“No, no, I agree with you on this one. I wouldn’t trust Pirate as far as I could throw him.” Witch shook her head fiercely.

“What else did I say then?” I tried to recall the conversation with Pirate, but all I could remember was him trying to sell me his latest scheme. In fact I couldn’t remember saying much at all.

“You said we are here to have fun!” Cash Cow blurted out.

“Do you really think we are that shallow? We only want to have fun?” Witch asked. It certainly didn’t feel like fun right then, it felt more like the inquisition.

“Forgive me,” I begged “it was just a thoughtless comment. It didn’t mean anything.”

“You have to be a bit more careful with your comments, my dear, you certainly devalued us Dedes with that one!”

Tags art, character traits, Characters, creative writing, dede puppets, personalities, relationships, story, story telling

Categories Art, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network

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