I did some research, and apparently the terms “sticky bun,” “cinnamon roll,” and “caramel roll” are all interchangeable. But to me, (and this may not be a South Dakota thing but a uniquely Mary-thing), a pastry doesn’t qualify as a sticky bun unless it is dripping in gooey caramel.
Friday’s Cave-In Looks To Be a Real SMASH!
Steve’s website is apparently down, and has been for the better part of a month, so it’s unclear where Weldon will live-stream (apart from YouTube, I guess?) but January’s Cave-In is set to go on as scheduled with special guest Lou Ferrigno!
Okay, so here’s the thing: I’ve had a migraine for two days, so I’m playing catch-up with work. Therefore, I don’t have time now to tell you why I think this is so great (besides the obvious). When I have time, I’ll come back later and tell you why the Hulk is special to me, but I just wanted to be sure to let you know that, one way or another, the show is going on.
I Got a Henson Funko Pop for Christmas
I only have one friend who ever gives me Muppet-related presents: my best friend Julie (the newlywed), who gave me my Wembley Funko Pop for my birthday last year (by which I mean 2018 because I still haven’t made the mental adjustment). For Christmas 2019, she gave me the Jim Henson Funko Pop holding Kermit.
Australian Bush Fire Relief
“In times of great peril and shared suffering, all of us should set aside our differences and reach out to one another in a spirit of love and understanding.”
–-Sprocket (Steve Whitmire) as interpreted by Doc (Gerry Parkes), Fraggle Rock, “Marooned” (written by David Young)
It may not be a shocking revelation to say that I have issues with the most popular Muppet fan sites. They also seem to have issues with me, and it’s a whole thing, and I don’t want to get into it right now.
But the reason I bring it up at all is because I also believe very strongly that good deeds deserve recognition. At the moment, the two most prominent fan sites, Tough Pigs and The Muppet Mindset, are engaged in a fundraising campaign to support relief efforts in response to the devastating bush fires in Australia which, as I’m sure you already know, have killed so many animals, displaced so many people, and laid thousands of acres to waste. The fundraising effort is a worthwhile cause, and I am happy to support them in their noble endeavor.
CF3 Podcast on YouTube
Hi, all! Happy New Year. Sorry I’ve been a bit quiet lately. Life is crazy. I’ve got a lot to say, and a lot of it is kind of cranky, and I don’t know when I will have time to get it all out of my system.
But in the meantime, I wanted to start off with something positive, and I’ve got something cool to show you. Remember last year when I went to OCon and I met Steve in the midst of his CF3 Podcast interview, and they recorded part of it? Well, they put that episode up on YouTube:
And because it is on YouTube, I can link specifically to certain parts of it, so here’s the start of Steve’s interview, and then about 30-35 seconds after that you can hear me getting all nervous and giggly. And then here’s the part where they ask him specifically about The Dark Crystal.
I want to say a thank you to Ethan, aka Captain Vegetable, who got in contact with me to tell me that this was on YouTube. I actually knew it already because I follow CF3 on Twitter, but I’m always, ALWAYS grateful for tips, so thank you so much for that.
“It’s a Miserable Life”
Episode 5 of Cave-In went up on YouTube yesterday:
At the risk of sounding a bit pathetic, I’ve been watching it almost nonstop ever since. I don’t want to say that I’m enamored with the sound of my own voice (it may be true; I just don’t want to say it), but given the choice, I would much rather listen to myself than watch myself.
Remembering Caroll Spinney
Today would have been Caroll Spinney’s 86th birthday. I knew that I didn’t want to let the occasion pass without comment, but at the same time, I didn’t know what I could say that hadn’t already been said. Then I ran across a tribute that I hadn’t seen yet from Good Morning America:
Here’s what makes it most noteworthy for me: On the occasion of Mr. Spinney’s retirement, I wrote about how when I was little, I couldn’t figure out Oscar’s raison d’etre. In this video, there is footage of Mr. Spinney himself expressing similar confusion, and it’s nice to know that I wasn’t the only one.
I know that I need hardly ask, but I hope you will all join me in holding the Spinney family in your hearts during this time that should have been joyous but is instead steeped in tragedy.
Muppet Masters Q&A
Boy, did I discover an unexpected Christmas gift today! I was on YouTube, and one of the videos recommended to me was a Q&A from GalaxyCon Louisville back in November featuring Steve Whitmire and Kirk Thatcher:
It’s so great and entertaining and informative just in general, but here is what I particularly like about it:
Muppet Christmas Double Feature
Merry Christmas, all! By the time I post this, it will technically be Christmas Day, but in my mind, at least, it is still Christmas Eve. This evening I watched Christmas Eve on Sesame Street and “The Bells of Fraggle Rock” back to back. I decided to do that merely because I hadn’t watched either of them yet this season, but in the process I found that they are more closely related thematically than I ever realized, and probably more so than anyone involved intended.
I have some deep thoughts about that, and I’d like to share them, but it’s really late right now (or early, depending on your point of view), and I am tired. So I’d just like to observe that if Cantus had been on Sesame Street while Big Bird was having his crisis of faith, he probably could have explained to Big Bird how Santa gets down the chimneys.
However, knowing Cantus, he probably would have done so in an oblique, metaphorical way that would probably just have confused and frustrated Big Bird, so he probably would have ended up on the roof anyway.
Nevertheless, that’s a scene that I wish existed, because I would love to see it.
Time Zones
Okay, so you want to know how much of a nerd I am? I was so fixated on the fact that the Mountain Time Zone shading in South Dakota doesn’t extend far enough east that at first I didn’t even notice that some of the states are labeled with the entirely wrong name, including some that don’t actually exist.
Oh, that Weldon! Wreaking mayhem by making up fake state names!🤣
“Do the Math”
There hasn’t been an announcement on Instagram regarding the next Cave-In, but Weldon did leave a message on Discord saying that it would be on 12/27 at 12:27 A.M. “Do the math,” he added, which makes me wonder if he knows that math is my personal kryptonite.
I think what that means, if I understand correctly, is if you live in the Central time zone like I do, it’s going to be at 11:27 P.M. on 12/26. But I make no guarantees that that is correct.
Adventures at GalaxyCon Minneapolis, Part 2
(Although I’m only finishing and publishing this now, I started drafting it well before the sad tidings of Caroll Spinney’s death. So if it seems inappropriately light-hearted in tone, that’s why.)
George Takei’s Q&A finished at about 1:00, and my brother Michael suggested that we find something to eat (“forage for food” were his exact words). I had been just about to make the same suggestion.
Like the Mid-America Center where OCon had been held, the Minneapolis Convention Center doesn’t allow outside food. Since it was cold and snowy, and since we had parked several blocks away, and since I didn’t have an extra $5 to check my coat again, there was nothing for it but to purchase overpriced lunch items from one of the several concession stands spread throughout the center. In addition to his wrap, Michael purchased a cookie and offered me half, and it reminded me of my favorite Cookie Monster sketch on Sesame Street:
After we finished eating lunch, Michael wanted to look around the vendors’ area, so we did, and I found that the vendors, though equally polite, weren’t as aggressive as they had been at OCon, meaning that we could pause by their tables without having to listen to pitches, which was a relief.
As we were walking around, we ran into three people that Michael knows in short succession. The first was a guy named Bruce (I think) who made a joke about Michael “dragging” me along to GalaxyCon, or words to that effect. I suppose I should have been annoyed by the implication that “gurls” don’t like nerdy stuff, but I just laughed and informed him, truthfully, that coming to GalaxyCon had been my idea in the first place. Michael tried to say that I was in a fandom, but at first he said that I had a fandom, and I wondered if that might actually be true from a certain point of view. I ultimately decided that it would be most accurate to say that I am in a fandom and within that fandom, I have a following. (And thanks for that, by the way!)
Never Prepared
It’s a curious thing about this human life we live. We know that it’s temporary, we know from a young age that eventually each of us is going to die, and yet when it happens to someone we care about, we are never quite prepared.
I’m sure you’re all already aware by now that Caroll Spinney passed away today. It is not such a strange thing that an 85-year-old man should die, especially when he was in ill health and had been for some time. But grief is not beholden to logic; it operates entirely separately from it.
Minneapolis Dispatch
I’m sorry that I haven’t finished my account of GalaxyCon Minneapolis. Things are crazy, particularly with the Thanksgiving holiday. But to tide you over, I found this brief interview that happened there. I think this occurred on Saturday, the day before I attended.
The Kermit that’s there on the table is a photo puppet that they used for photo ops and also to draw attention to the table. When I was there, someone asked Steve if it was the “real” Kermit, and he said no, it was a photo puppet that was a lot smaller.
I didn’t notice the photo puppet’s arms shaking so much while I was there, but boy, they sure do shake a lot on this video. By the way, the display rack (or whatever you would call it) holds the puppet up but doesn’t secure it in place, so it tended to fall over whenever anybody tried to move it.
It’s always fun to look at something like this and say, “Hey, I was there!” even though in this case I wasn’t there on the actual day.
Lyrical Reminder
Tonight is a new episode of Cave-In, and I’m so excited I decided to make up a song parody about it:
