Walking Talking Puppets

Kiddo got seasons 1 and 2 of Dinosaurs for her birthday and the past few days we've been watching a LOT of them. Hubby was amused to find that Robbie's friend Spike (who seems almost certainly to be based on Mike Damone from Fast Times at Ridgemont High) was voiced by Christopher Meloni, known best for his work on Law & Order SVU and Oz. My eureka moment was figuring out that Kevin Clash (a.k.a. Elmo) voiced the Baby. Once I put that together it was hard not to see/hear a furry red monster in place of the little yellow dinosaur.

Dinosaurs lasted 4 seasons, from 1991-94. It was aimed at adults, not unlike the Flintstones were in the 1960s, but for those of us raised on puppet-filled shows -- Sesame Street, The Great Space Coaster, the many Sid and Marty Krofft Saturday morning shows, the Muppet Show (OMG -- A Muppet Wiki!!), and more -- it was target marketed to the 18-35 demographic. Suffice to say, I'm happy this show is in my house right now, and I am waiting for seasons 3 and 4. Kiddo loves it too.

Now... in searching for some of the links up there I found some really really funny things:

1. The song Mah Na Mah Na (to which I refered on Friday) debuted in a softcore porn movie. Really.

2. Sid and Marty Krofft successfully sued McDonalds' Corp. for copyrigt infringement -- charging them with ripping off H.R. Pufnstuff characters to create Mayor McCheese, et. al.

...I also found an interesting Wikipedia article on Adult Pupeteering that reminded me of other great puppet shows -- most notably Spitting Image. Damn that was a funny show, but mostly I think of the puppets being used in Genesis' video for Land of Confusion [it's on YouTube!].

Yeah. Puppets rock.



tags: puppets (duh), television.

New Old TV....

As of June 1st, the Global channel Prime was re-branded as TVTropolis. Along with "classic" shows such as Seinfeld, News Radio and teen soap 90210, the lineup includes a host of b-list celebrity reality shows like My Fair Brady (Christopher Knight a.k.a. Peter Brady walks down the aisle with supermodel Adrianne Curry) and Hogan Knows Best, which looks like the kind of trainwreck that causes a paralysis in one's channel-flipping finger.

I dunno what my point is in blogging about this... I just find rebranding amusing.


tags: television

Sick, tired, rudderless...

As expected, by Friday afternoon my sinuses were waging full out war on my body. I left work about an hour early, not that I was very focused while I was there, came home and I flaked out while Hubby and Kiddo worked on making pasta with our new pastamaker (we got it second hand, along with the drying rack, through Craigslist.)

Last night I finally saw Finding Neverland -- how come I waited so long?? It really was a lovely movie and not at all what I was expecting (twee and overly sentimental). Depp, as usual, was brilliant.

Today was low power, mostly spent trying to move files off my drive (apparently 20 GB is not big enough for all my photos and music). Sigh. This evening, Hubby made more pasta (lasagna) and we headed down for a family dinner (they're all suffering from the same cold) and watched Dodgeball. I think that movie is funnier with successive viewings.


tags: movies, pasta, health

Mahna-mahna!

Oh, how cool is this? The Puppet Project aims to bring puppetry to the masses, providing patterns, supplies (primarily reticulated foam) and plenty of inspiration.

Now all I can think of is Mahna-Mahna, doo doooo DOO doo-doo.

RoundUp

Been a couple of days since I posted. Hubby and kiddo are both sick (Hubby more so) and so I have been waiting for the hand of ill health to strike at me, too. In the meantime, here's what's on my computer screen of late:

Scary scientific findings: New Orleans is sinking faster than originally estimated. I have to ask displaced New Orleans residents, do you really want to go back? This is what the author of the new report says:

"My concern is the very low-lying areas," said lead author Tim Dixon, a University of Miami geophysicist. "I think those areas are death traps. I don't think those areas should be rebuilt."

Yikes.

Old toys: yeah, it was interesting to have a table at the Victoria Toy Show, but I sure don't want to do that again. Sure, you get to see cool toys, but I can do that online. In several places.

Speaking of childhood.... Ever thought Rock-Paper-Scissors was a stupid game? Thought maybe you should kick it up a notch? Via BoingBoing is RockPaperScissors25 -- using 25 diffierent hand gestures (the original 3 plus 22 new ones) giving you far more chance of pwning the opposition.

And finally, Zombies are on my mind. First it was suggested that I use my mad haiku skillz to enter a Zombie Haiku contest.... which I will do... and then for my weekly writing focus, I doodled out a short-short story called My Zombie Lover, which amuses me greatly.


tags: science, toys and games, zombies.