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I had so many great experiences at the con this year! It's not easy to assimilate them, but I'll post some here. It may help break me out of the funk I'm in now because the con is over and I just took my friend Kathy to the airport.
What I'm sure you'll want to hear about first: Fraggly/Muppetty things! I attended multiple events with Karen Prell, Kathy Mullen, and Michael Frith, and they were a pleasure to listen to. Frith was especially funny and informative on the subject of the development of the various shows, particularly the context of the times.
The first one was the Fraggle 30th anniversary panels, and the following meet & greet with Prell & Mullen & Mokey & Red. Janken and Boober got their pics taken with 'em! It was at the meet & Greet that I handed over the postcards. They were surprised to receive the little bundles, and at a later panel Prell thanked me for bringing them. Back to the panel, it was mostly the panelists talking about their involvement in the show, how they became puppeteers, and the like. Red and Mokey came out close to the end of the panel, and, heh, it took a minute for Mokey to get back into voice, but it was positively wonderful to see the gals again after so long.
I attended a panel of Frith's world-building, and he talked at length and very entertainingly about his work at Random House with Ted "Dr. Seuss" Giesel, Sesame Street, and other Henson projects. Because many of the Sesame street puppets only existed from the waist up, he had to make up the rest for the full-body illustration. So, he proclaimed, he can claim credit for designing Cookie Monster's bottom!
Next day there was an autograph session, and I got all three to sign my autograph/artbook. Prell drew a little Red for me. Hee hee. I also gathered my nerve and brought my Mokey puppet. I felt a little embarrassed showing her to Mullen, but she seemed genuinely impressed. Squee!
And then there was the Muppet Babies panel. It was in one of the small rooms, but dang if it wasn't packed. Kathy (my aforementioned friend, who came with me to all these panels and often was wiggling one of my puppets) and I were on the front row, me with my Skeeter puppet. Some people recognized Amy Mebberson's design, and Frith was amused by her. Squee #2. He had a fair bit to say about the context of the show's development, its supporters and obstacles, the context in which it was developed, and what their purpose was. He also showed a wonderful music video for I Will Always Love You that included references to a lot of other '80s video, and at points had the audience laughing out loud. Is that thing anywhere on the 'net?
The parade! The head of the Puppetry track told me that the puppetry section of the parade had been canceled because only eight people had signed up for it. I was bummed, but I was still gonna march. If there was no puppetry section, I'd march in the children's shows or "Everything Dragon*Con" or whatever other section they put me in. I would not be denied! When I got there, however, the parade folks guided me to spot #17, which was still Puppetry. And because of aforementioned track director, I was the only puppeteer there. Well, phooey, I'd march and have a ball anyway. But right in front of us was the Periodic Table of Elements group, which I've admired for years, and they had some slots open, so they added us to their section. Janken and I became Cobalt, and Kathy (who was not planning to march because of twice-aforementioned killjoy) became Oxygen. And we marched, and had a blast, and Janken's arm came off during one of the "atomic bonding" dances. No tragedy; I stuffed it back up his sleeve and kept his gestures very small after that. When I got back to the room I saw that the thread had merely parted, and sewed it back on, good as new.
The final event we attended was the Puppet Tea Party. They set up a room like a tea party, with round tables and chairs and prop tableware and stuff, and only people with puppets could attend. After the welcome (by a sheep puppet that sounded but did not look like Lambchop) we mingled for quite a while, puppets and puppeteers talking to each other. There were little kids with simple stick puppets they bought at the con, and people with crude puppets that they'd made themselves, and pro-quality puppets and puppeteers, and everything in between. (I was blown away by a wonderful marionette and his marionettist, and Janken was amazed when the marionette picked up a cup. ("I can't do that!") Then we played a game of charades, with the puppets acting out verbs, and we finished by all singing The Rainbow Connection. It was an absolute blast, and I hope to heck they make it a regular event.
The other major activity was simply walking around the Hyatt and Marriott, socializing, and posing for lots of photos. I brought five puppets (Janken, Boober, Mokey, Sage, and Skeeter) and Kathy and I put on who we felt like operating and went out to mingle. We gave out lots of smoothies are rollies and Doozer sticks (stick candy), and I gave out some business cards to people who wanted to see more of my work and might even want to commission me. The biggest kick was seeing people's faces light up when they saw Fraggles. There were little kids who didn't ever want to leave us, and adults who had to have photos and tell us about their childhood memories. And we had to repeat many times that, no, we are not the actual Muppeteers, and these are not puppets used on the show, but thank you for thinking we're that good!
I've got photos on my iPod, and I'll post some and share 'em here when I get my act together.
Oh, and I met Larry Niven, one of my two all-time fave authors, at an autograph session, and got him to sign a publication I can't mention here, but it contained an illustrated version of one of his funniest essays, Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex. Squee #3.
What I'm sure you'll want to hear about first: Fraggly/Muppetty things! I attended multiple events with Karen Prell, Kathy Mullen, and Michael Frith, and they were a pleasure to listen to. Frith was especially funny and informative on the subject of the development of the various shows, particularly the context of the times.
The first one was the Fraggle 30th anniversary panels, and the following meet & greet with Prell & Mullen & Mokey & Red. Janken and Boober got their pics taken with 'em! It was at the meet & Greet that I handed over the postcards. They were surprised to receive the little bundles, and at a later panel Prell thanked me for bringing them. Back to the panel, it was mostly the panelists talking about their involvement in the show, how they became puppeteers, and the like. Red and Mokey came out close to the end of the panel, and, heh, it took a minute for Mokey to get back into voice, but it was positively wonderful to see the gals again after so long.
I attended a panel of Frith's world-building, and he talked at length and very entertainingly about his work at Random House with Ted "Dr. Seuss" Giesel, Sesame Street, and other Henson projects. Because many of the Sesame street puppets only existed from the waist up, he had to make up the rest for the full-body illustration. So, he proclaimed, he can claim credit for designing Cookie Monster's bottom!
Next day there was an autograph session, and I got all three to sign my autograph/artbook. Prell drew a little Red for me. Hee hee. I also gathered my nerve and brought my Mokey puppet. I felt a little embarrassed showing her to Mullen, but she seemed genuinely impressed. Squee!
And then there was the Muppet Babies panel. It was in one of the small rooms, but dang if it wasn't packed. Kathy (my aforementioned friend, who came with me to all these panels and often was wiggling one of my puppets) and I were on the front row, me with my Skeeter puppet. Some people recognized Amy Mebberson's design, and Frith was amused by her. Squee #2. He had a fair bit to say about the context of the show's development, its supporters and obstacles, the context in which it was developed, and what their purpose was. He also showed a wonderful music video for I Will Always Love You that included references to a lot of other '80s video, and at points had the audience laughing out loud. Is that thing anywhere on the 'net?
The parade! The head of the Puppetry track told me that the puppetry section of the parade had been canceled because only eight people had signed up for it. I was bummed, but I was still gonna march. If there was no puppetry section, I'd march in the children's shows or "Everything Dragon*Con" or whatever other section they put me in. I would not be denied! When I got there, however, the parade folks guided me to spot #17, which was still Puppetry. And because of aforementioned track director, I was the only puppeteer there. Well, phooey, I'd march and have a ball anyway. But right in front of us was the Periodic Table of Elements group, which I've admired for years, and they had some slots open, so they added us to their section. Janken and I became Cobalt, and Kathy (who was not planning to march because of twice-aforementioned killjoy) became Oxygen. And we marched, and had a blast, and Janken's arm came off during one of the "atomic bonding" dances. No tragedy; I stuffed it back up his sleeve and kept his gestures very small after that. When I got back to the room I saw that the thread had merely parted, and sewed it back on, good as new.
The final event we attended was the Puppet Tea Party. They set up a room like a tea party, with round tables and chairs and prop tableware and stuff, and only people with puppets could attend. After the welcome (by a sheep puppet that sounded but did not look like Lambchop) we mingled for quite a while, puppets and puppeteers talking to each other. There were little kids with simple stick puppets they bought at the con, and people with crude puppets that they'd made themselves, and pro-quality puppets and puppeteers, and everything in between. (I was blown away by a wonderful marionette and his marionettist, and Janken was amazed when the marionette picked up a cup. ("I can't do that!") Then we played a game of charades, with the puppets acting out verbs, and we finished by all singing The Rainbow Connection. It was an absolute blast, and I hope to heck they make it a regular event.
The other major activity was simply walking around the Hyatt and Marriott, socializing, and posing for lots of photos. I brought five puppets (Janken, Boober, Mokey, Sage, and Skeeter) and Kathy and I put on who we felt like operating and went out to mingle. We gave out lots of smoothies are rollies and Doozer sticks (stick candy), and I gave out some business cards to people who wanted to see more of my work and might even want to commission me. The biggest kick was seeing people's faces light up when they saw Fraggles. There were little kids who didn't ever want to leave us, and adults who had to have photos and tell us about their childhood memories. And we had to repeat many times that, no, we are not the actual Muppeteers, and these are not puppets used on the show, but thank you for thinking we're that good!
I've got photos on my iPod, and I'll post some and share 'em here when I get my act together.
Oh, and I met Larry Niven, one of my two all-time fave authors, at an autograph session, and got him to sign a publication I can't mention here, but it contained an illustrated version of one of his funniest essays, Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex. Squee #3.
) Aw! We've should've taken pictures of each other! It was great meeting you at DragonCon! 
