intertextuality

Why I’m Afraid To Watch the New Fraggle Rock

Mary A. Uncategorized Tags: , , , 3 Comments

I know, of course, that now that “Fraggle Rock”: Back to the Rock is available, I shouldn’t talk about it without watching it first. But I’m afraid.

I’m afraid that talking about it without having watched it will be hypocritical, and that talking about something about which I do not have firsthand knowledge will make me look stupid. But if I try to watch it, I’m afraid I won’t be able to be objective because almost everything that I’ve found out about it makes me so angry.

I make it a point not to review things that I haven’t seen. So what follows is not a review. I am not making value judgments about what other people do or do not enjoy, nor am I making recommendations about what other people should or should not watch. What follows is merely a subjective account of the feelings I have from the above trailer, reviews, etc. To reiterate, I am NOT saying that other people should not watch the series or judging people who choose to do so. I’m just trying to explain why I feel that I CAN’T watch it.

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Muppet Show Content Warnings

Mary A. Uncategorized Tags: , , , 5 Comments

If you read my blog regularly, you know that I am not a fan of the Walt Disney Company, and I do not hesitate to call out its greedy or amoral behavior, especially when it has the potential to ruin individual lives or undermine our already fragile system of government. However, calling out bad behavior is only one side of the accountability coin. The other side is praising individuals or corporations when they do something good. 

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Cave-In Episode 11: Pasture-ized

Mary A. Cave-In Tags: , , , , , , 1 Comment

I just realized that I haven’t posted anything here since the last Cave-In, at least not on the main page. Where did this month go? Straight to hell, if there’s any justice. Although one could say that this month WAS hell, and that’s a valid argument, too. It’s just a good thing that Weldon taught us all coping strategies last month, because boy, do we need them. 

Fortunately, this was a really fun episode that provided a welcome respite. The premise sounds vaguely familiar to us Muppet Pundit veterans. Coincidence? I think not. (I don’t KNOW, but I THINK not.)

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Adventures at GalaxyCon Minneapolis, Part 2

Mary A. Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , 3 Comments

(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!)

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Adventures at GalaxyCon Minneapolis, Part 1

Mary A. Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , 3 Comments

This is Steve’s Q&A from GalaxyCon Minneapolis, but I wasn’t there that day so I only saw it for the first time yesterday.

On November 10th, I attended GalaxyCon Minneapolis and met up with Steve again. The only reason I was able to do that is because of my brother Michael. He lives in Minneapolis and allowed me to stay with him while I was in town. If I had had to pay the price of admission plus accommodations, I would never have been able to go. I also would have paid for parking because I wouldn’t have known there was another option.

When I initially planned to go to GalaxyCon, I thought that I would simply ask Michael if I could stay with him while I was in town. But then I thought about it, and I realized that although he’s not obsessive about Muppets the way I am, he still likes them. Not only that, but he’s an enormous Star Trek fan, and there were a bunch of Star Trek actors appearing. So I thought he might enjoy coming along, and that it might be more fun if he was there, so I invited him, and I was right on both counts. Not only that, but I don’t think I would have even made it into the exhibition hall to see Steve if Michael hadn’t been there to interpret the maps of the convention center for me and lead me in the right direction.

My point is that I have Michael to thank for the entire GalaxyCon experience, and if you enjoy what I have to say about it, then you owe him your gratitude as well. (If you don’t enjoy it, well, then leave him out of it because he had nothing to do with that.)

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Brief Footage of Steve Whitmire’s OCon Q&A

Mary A. Uncategorized Tags: , , , , 1 Comment

If the pattern holds true, it looks like the full video of Steve’s OCon Q&A may be going up within a few weeks. I don’t know for sure that that is the case, but they have full panels from last year that went up in early September, so that’s reason to hope. 

Because my memories of the Q&A are so sketchy, even with my notes, I’m going to hold off publishing my impressions of it for now. 

To tide us all over in the meantime, I found this highlight reel of the days’ events. A few moments of Steve’s Q&A, sans audio, are shown at about 43 seconds in: 

I looked to see if I could see myself in the background of any of these clips, but I didn’t, not at the Q&A or in any of the other footage.

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CF3 Podcast Interviews Steve Whitmire (and I WAS THERE!)

Mary A. Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , 8 Comments

In the first part of my OCon “saga,” I talked about how Steve was in the midst of a podcast interview when I met him. The podcast is called CF3 (Cult Fans, Films & Finds), and the episode just went up. In addition to Steve’s interview, it also includes an interview with Gigi Edgley, a review of The Dark Crystal, and some other stuff.

A word of caution before I post a link to the content: while the interview segments are safe and appropriate for everyone, the rest of the episode contains some explicit language. I don’t think I’m able to link right to one particular segment, unfortunately.

Oh, and by the way…I’M IN THIS PODCAST! They paused it briefly so Steve could talk to me but resumed it when they realized that we were acquainted. So you can hear me say hi to him (which I have NO MEMORY of doing, by the way), and then you can hear me getting giggly from nerves when Steve compliments my blog.

For some reason, the embed function isn’t working, so here’s the web address:

http://cf3pod.com/022-the-dark-crystal-1982-w-steve-whitmire-gigi-edgley

I’ve been told that it is also available through the various podcast apps, if that’s more convenient. 

I wanted to give you timestamps to help you find the most relevant content on your own, but for some inexplicable reason, the points where I’m finding the content are different every time I try to seek them out, so I can only give you approximate time stamps:

  • Start of Steve’s interview: Approximately 5 minutes (plus or minus 15 seconds)
  • My brief contribution: Approximately 6 minutes (plus or minus 40 seconds)
  • Steve’s rating of The Dark Crystal: Approximately 1 hour (plus or minus 6 minutes)

It’s not ideal, but that’s the best I can do.

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Meeting Steve Whitmire, Part 2: “Nice” Is Not the Word I’m Looking For

Mary A. Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 5 Comments

This is Part 2 of a series of at least three. Click here for Part 1.

Steve’s booth was next to Gigi Edgley’s, who was also making an appearance at OCon. I had seen that that was the plan and wondered if that was going to be awkward, given her close association with Brian Henson. But I didn’t want to ask Steve if it was awkward, because I thought that that somehow might make it more awkward. However, Steve brought up the subject of her appearance, asking me if I was familiar with her work. I told him that I’d never seen Farscape but that I had watched Creature Shop Challenge. He said that he hadn’t met her before this convention and wasn’t familiar with her work, but that he’d gotten acquainted with her over the course of the convention.

Clearly there’s no bad blood there.

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Meeting Steve Whitmire, Part 1: An Old Friend I’ve Just Met

Mary A. Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Before you begin reading, I should warn you: This is an extensive, detailed, impressionistic, lengthy, and potentially incoherent account of my trip to Omaha Comic Con to meet Steve Whitmire. I’m writing it in such great detail not because I think it will be interesting to you (although I hope it will be!) but mostly to fix my own memories of it as firmly in my mind as possible.

If you want the tl;dr version, the entire experience can basically be summed up in five emojis:

😱🤩🤗😊😂

I knew that meeting Steve at OCon was going to be an emotional experience. I anticipated that, as a result, I was going to have difficulty controlling my tears, that all the feels were going to turn my brain into guacamole, and that I was going to have a hard time talking to him as a result.

I tried to prepare myself beforehand to counteract these effects. I made notes about what I wanted to say, and I tried to imagine what would happen when I met him. When it happened for real, I was successful in the former regard (controlling my tears) but had less success in the latter (communicating articulately). All things considered, I think I did pretty well, because there was NO WAY I could ever have predicted or prepared for what actually happened.

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Sixty for 60: Ernie

Mary A. Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Welcome back to 60 for 60, a celebration of the work of Steve Whitmire in anticipation of his 60th birthday coming up later this year. This month is a celebration of Steve’s work as the irrepressible Ernie.

Just as Ernie and Bert are undervalued as one of the great comedy teams of all time, I feel that Steve Whitmire’s work as Ernie is tragically under-appreciated, especially by Muppet fans of a certain age. Whether playing alongside Frank Oz or Eric Jacobson, he’s done some stellar work in skits, songs, and bits that stack up against any of the great Bert and Ernie sketches of the pre-1990 Sesame Street era.

This was the hardest 60 for 60 entry that I’ve put together since I talked about Wembley last November. I could easily devote at least three months of this project to Steve’s work as Ernie. I would run out of months of the year before I ran out of material.

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Thoughts on the Dark Crystal Prequel Series Trailer

Mary A. Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , 1 Comment

I’ve been really looking forward to the trailer for The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance despite the fact that, for various reasons that I don’t want to get into right now, I don’t subscribe to Netflix. The Dark Crystal is my favorite non-Muppet creation of Jim Henson’s and I was looking forward to getting at least a peek back into the world of Thra. In a way, it felt like coming home. 

It all looks spectacular, and if anything could convince me to subscribe to Netflix, this would be it. Even if I don’t get to see it, I’m still glad that it exists, and that it seems to be branching off in new directions while remaining rooted within the mythos and ethos of the original movie. 

I do have some specific thoughts about it, however. Most good, some bad…

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Twelve Days of Muppet Christmas Carol: Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come

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The 12 Days of Muppet Christmas have reached the halfway point, which means it’s time to take a look at the Ghosts of Christmas Yet To Come from Muppet Christmas Carol and the 1999 TV movie starring Patrick Stewart.

Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come

 

Tim Potter - A Christmas Carol (1999) - The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come - The Many Ghosts of ‘A Christmas Carol’

Composite of Tim Potter as the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come in Christmas Carol ’99

Future

Donald Austen (body) and Rob Tygner (puppetry) as the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come in Muppet Christmas Carol

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Twelve Days of Muppet Christmas Carol: Ghost of Christmas Past

Mary A. Uncategorized Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

On the fourth of 12 Days of Muppet Christmas, I question whether a puppet floating in a tank of fluid or an Oscar winner in a blond wig makes a better guide through Scrooge’s memories.

Ghost of Christmas Past

Image result for 1999 ghost christmas past "christmas carol"

Joel Grey as the Ghost of Christmas Past in Christmas Carol ’99

Past
Karen Prell (lead puppeteer) and Jessica Fox (voice) as the Ghost of Christmas Past in Muppet Christmas Carol

The Ghost of Christmas Past from Muppet Christmas Carol is probably the depiction that comes closest to how Dickens described the character in the original novella. Though not explicitly stated, Dickens’ description is meant to evoke the idea of a candle flame come to life, and one can sort of tell how the team behind MCC took that as a jumping-off point in constructing a rod puppet meant to float in oil or water to give an ethereal effect (almost literally).

Oscar winner and one-time Muppet Show guest star Joel Grey plays the Ghost of Christmas Past in Christmas Carol ’99 as an androgynous but humanoid figure with an otherworldly glow, an unnatural skin tone, and a blond wig that he may have borrowed from Martin Short’s character Flik in Merlin, a TV special that also aired in 1999. (By the way, that’s not intended as a disparagement; I LOVE Martin Short in that blond wig in Merlin!)

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Twelve Days of Muppet Christmas Carol: Scrooge

Mary A. Uncategorized Tags: , , , , 1 Comment

Joyeux Noel, friends and readers, and thank you for joining me for the 2018-2019 installment of 12 Days of Muppet Christmas!

Because I’m a Muppet heretic, I can admit without hesitation or shame that Muppet Christmas Carol is not my favorite adaptation of the story. For nearly 20 years now, my favorite adaptation has been the 1999 made-for-TV movie starring Patrick Stewart and airing originally on TNT. 

However, given my relatively new appreciation of Muppet Christmas Carol, I want to see how the two versions measure up to one another. So for the next 12 days, coinciding with the traditional twelve days of Christmas, I’ll be comparing and contrasting the individual elements of these two different adaptations of the classic story and assigning an advantage to one or the other each day, because what’s the fun of comparing and contrasting without arbitrary value judgments? Then I’ll share the final results on January 6th (Epiphany).

Without further ado, let’s start by taking a closer look at our protagonist:

Scrooge

Image result for scrooge "muppet christmas carol"

Michael Caine as Ebenezer Scrooge in Muppet Christmas Carol

Image result for christmas carol 1999 "patrick stewart"

Patrick Stewart as Ebenezer Scrooge in Christmas Carol ’99

Michael Caine and Patrick Stewart are both actors renowned for their vast talent. Though playing the same character, each has his own unique interpretation. It’s not a question of right or wrong, good or bad. Though different from one another, each actor’s take on the character is completely valid, which makes it interesting to see how each approaches the same character from an entirely different angle.

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