The RHLC!

[Muppet Newsgirl]

Wow - it's amazing how much I miss when I'm away for the weekend.

Ah, Placido Flamingo. He's certainly not shy about showing off his vocal skills, I'll give him credit for that. And I agree - he works on two levels. He entertains the children and teaches them about opera, and he amuses the adults who are familiar with Placido Domingo.

I was in New York for the weekend - it's the annual New Yorker festival, and Mom and I went to see some of this year's seminars, especially 'cause one was on investigative journalism - but on my way home from campus I picked up my copy of FR3 from the music store. I've only watched some of the behind the scenes footage on the bonus disc, but I really, really like what I've seen. Got a grin out of "Scared Silly;" seeing how much stress Dave and Steve subjected Jocelyn to, it's really sweet to see them get covered in confetti - and to see Richard come walking onto the set laughing his head off.

 

[CensoredAlso]

That's great that you finally got to purchase Fraggle Season 3, glad you enjoyed the "Sacred Silly" segment, lol. Have you watched any of the episode descriptions yet?

How was the seminar, what kinds of things did they talk about?

 

[The Count]

Couple of observations. In the song "Count Up To Nine", the werewolf howls sound as if they're provided by the man of this club's patronage. Additionally, in the song "Imagine That", during the segment where Ernie's steering the ship through the storm... Listen closely for the sailors' reactions, and I think you'll recognize a Richardly laugh there too.

 

[CensoredAlso]

I think you're definitely correct about "Imagine That" (beautiful song btw); I think he's also doing the puppeteering and non singing voice of the sailor who keeps getting rocked back and forth (obviously Chris did the singing). Lol so funny! Not positive about "Count up to Nine" but you could be right.

Btw, I don't know if anyone noticed (I'm probably assuming here lol) but I was slightly absent last week. Or at least more absent than usual. I was pleasantly surprised to find someone had posted like a dozen episode of the early '90s Disney show Adventures in Wonderland on youtube (yay!). I was so excited I just spent the entire week watching them, lol. At the moment I've run out of episodes, lol, hopefully they'll post some more. And I did order a few from Amazon (but that's a Christmas thing). Great show, very funny and educational.

For anyone unfamiliar, here is one of the more popular episodes, enjoy:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=9UzOnGhrl8k

 

[Muppet Newsgirl]

That's great that you finally got to purchase Fraggle Season 3, glad you enjoyed the "Sacred Silly" segment, lol. Have you watched any of the episode descriptions yet?

How was the seminar, what kinds of things did they talk about?

Yeah, I watched the Season 3 overview, and a bunch of the interviews and all that. Really interesting stuff - and funny, too! Even my mom, who's not really a Fraggle fan, took an interest in the behind-the-scenes stuff. I'd really sit down and watch all the episodes - but my professors were cruel enough to give me homework over fall break.

Well, at the talk, the panelists discussed some of the things important to investigative journalism. For example: if you have a central source who won't talk, talk to everyone who knows him or her - like their mother.
They also emphasized the importance of listening, and that sort of thing - and how a lot of sources start viewing interviews as a form of therapy, and they want it to continue well after the story's been written.

At the end, I got to go up to the microphone and ask a question - it was whether or not they thought J-schools were putting too much emphasis on the 5 Ws and the inverted pyramid (that's putting all the key facts right up front). It was really, really cool.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Oh yeah I've heard of Fall Break, never had one of those though, lol. Yeah it's never fun when you're given homework during a vacation.

Sounds like a very interesting seminar, did it inspire you to pursue investigative journalism more? That was a good question to ask, good for you for asking! I personally think the old methods can start to get stale.

 

[Muppet Newsgirl]

It did - and the panelists' responses also cleared up some of my concerns over whether to start the job hunt or go on to graduate school. One of them said he'd like to get rid of journalism schools entirely; a good reporter, he said, simply needs a good education and experience with a newspaper - internships, college papers, that kind of thing.

One of the other panelists disagreed somewhat - but then, he's one of the senior faculty in Columbia's journalism school, so he's a tad biased. But they all agreed that just sticking all the facts in the first paragraph doesn't always tell the whole story.

 

[Muppet Newsgirl]

Interesting thing happened today - I had to go by the office of one of my professors to pick up a term paper I did for my class on children's literature. I noticed that the prof had a bunch of Muppet plushes and figurines sitting on her bookshelf, so she and I had a quick chat about all things Muppet, and I told her about Richard's quilt, that sort of thing.

 

[CensoredAlso]

That's really cool, MN, it's great when you find someone you can talk to about these things! What did she say about the quilt?

Btw, I finally heard what was going on in that Lew Zealand sketch in the Of Muppets and Men scene. Hehe, all he said was "Maestro...please!" So it wasn't exactly a punchline, Richard was probably just laughing at the general silliness of it all (the sketch itself is about Lew hitting fish to the tune of "You Light Up My Life").

What I like about that scene in Of Muppets and Men is the reaction of everyone else around Richard when he laughed. Like they're not quite sure why he's laughing just then, but they are still eager to join in the mirth. Lol

 

[Muppet Newsgirl]

Oh, so that's what Jerry said - I couldn't tell what it was over Jim's narration. (no offense, Jim)

You're right; a bunch of fish being made to burble "You Light Up My Life" when they're struck is pretty absurd, so no wonder Richard had to get up and deliver a good solid laugh. And everyone does want to get in on the hilarity. It was kind of the same on FR, during the "Rev" sessions. Richard said to Dave, "You know, I admire you. I don't know why," and rolled his eyes, as Kathy starts laughing.

Oh, and about the quilt - she thought the idea was pretty cool. I keep a photo of it in the cover of my notebook for that class - something cheerful to look at with the threat of a pop quiz hanging over you, don't you know - so perhaps I'll show it to her.