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It's already September 24th here in Australia, so I thought I'd jump in with a birthday memorium for the man whom I can only describe as my life's greatest influence.
From the simplest notion that puppets can have flexible faces for this crazy new medium called television, grew the icon of a man who proved that your passions, your ideas and your dreams don't have to be boxed into these straightjackets called 'genres'. Here was someone who showed us that the most unrelated entities could belong together as long as you're passionate about them all. It was this belief that let us share Kermit the Frog's every heartache as he refused to believe that the oddballs he united for The Muppet Show wouldn't somehow belong together. We saw the same frog feel so painfully 'normal' surrounded by this chaos, but somehow we understood that because he (like Jim) had this irrational belief that everything could come together and function like a well-oiled frogmobile, he was in some ways the craziest of the lot.
From the Muppets' earliest lessons on Sesame Street about C - A - T spelling 'cat' to the more bizarre yet passionate creatures who taught us to read between the lines; from the simple messages in Bein' Green and The Rainbow Connection about loving the world you're in right now to the new worlds he created with Fraggles, Gelflings or goblings, you see a man who showed great simplicity with his wide diversity. The only way to describe his style would simply be 'what he loved'. How to describe his job title? Puppeteer? Designer? Performer? Writer? Producer? Director? Collaborator? His work would not have been the same unless he had been all these things at once, and been them with the gentle heart and fast-throbbing ideas that made so much magic happen. The only way to identify him is with his grandest title of all: 'Jim Henson'. There may be other people with the same name, but there'll never be another one of him.
Why was he so special? How do you describe him in a few simple words? Well, to misquote one of Kermit's famous songs...
Why are there so many songs about Muppets
And what's this Henson wave we ride
Muppets are visions, but only foam and fleece
And Muppets have nothing inside
So we've been told and some choose to belive it
We know they're wrong, as you see
Because we've found it, The Muppet Connection
The lovers, the dreamers and me
From the simplest notion that puppets can have flexible faces for this crazy new medium called television, grew the icon of a man who proved that your passions, your ideas and your dreams don't have to be boxed into these straightjackets called 'genres'. Here was someone who showed us that the most unrelated entities could belong together as long as you're passionate about them all. It was this belief that let us share Kermit the Frog's every heartache as he refused to believe that the oddballs he united for The Muppet Show wouldn't somehow belong together. We saw the same frog feel so painfully 'normal' surrounded by this chaos, but somehow we understood that because he (like Jim) had this irrational belief that everything could come together and function like a well-oiled frogmobile, he was in some ways the craziest of the lot.
From the Muppets' earliest lessons on Sesame Street about C - A - T spelling 'cat' to the more bizarre yet passionate creatures who taught us to read between the lines; from the simple messages in Bein' Green and The Rainbow Connection about loving the world you're in right now to the new worlds he created with Fraggles, Gelflings or goblings, you see a man who showed great simplicity with his wide diversity. The only way to describe his style would simply be 'what he loved'. How to describe his job title? Puppeteer? Designer? Performer? Writer? Producer? Director? Collaborator? His work would not have been the same unless he had been all these things at once, and been them with the gentle heart and fast-throbbing ideas that made so much magic happen. The only way to identify him is with his grandest title of all: 'Jim Henson'. There may be other people with the same name, but there'll never be another one of him.
Why was he so special? How do you describe him in a few simple words? Well, to misquote one of Kermit's famous songs...
Why are there so many songs about Muppets
And what's this Henson wave we ride
Muppets are visions, but only foam and fleece
And Muppets have nothing inside
So we've been told and some choose to belive it
We know they're wrong, as you see
Because we've found it, The Muppet Connection
The lovers, the dreamers and me
