On May 16th, 1990, Jim Henson a writer, director, puppeteer, and all-around friend of imagination, died suddenly. There was a public memorial less than a week later and another one in July. Then, 35 years ago this night, November 21, 1990, the Muppets did their own remembrance on CBS. I had forgotten about it, but thanks to writer and de facto pop culture historian Mark Evanier, I was reminded of it earlier this year and…
Many of you, knowing my project management tendencies, know I make lists — and by this time, it’s quite clear I’m a fan of ranking, so how could I say no to a ranking of Muppets recently conducted by NPR? Do I agree with all the rankings? Of course not. That doesn’t make the list any less wonderful. Mind you, the article does reference the Chaos/Order Theory of Muppets first proposed by Dahlia Lithwick in…
Much of this week has been adjusting to the very new reality of self-quarantining (well, with the fam). My social media feeds are now almost exclusively news and reports about the coronavirus striking the globe and memes to try and help with it. Replicating the social media feed seems quite pointless, but I’ll certainly post links to resources or other fun things as relevant. For now, one recommendation, which I heartily endorse, was for families…
Modern fandom is a tricky thing. Geek culture is ascendant in so many ways, often in service of mining intellectual property (IP) to find that latest multi-billion dollar franchise. And corporations appear so risk averse towards the potential market downside of new ideas that they will bet on IP, any IP, over people. At least, based on what I read in trade news about how studios are hungry for any known quantity, my premise is…
In case you just weren’t into the Star Trek holiday videos from yesterday, perhaps you’d enjoy the marriage of one of my favorite holiday tunes (and not just because it can be repurposed by Lovecraft fans) and my favorite pop culturally-impacting puppets (and not just because they’re part of one of my favorite TV series). Okay, it’s not as good as their take on the song everyone knows to headbang to, but it’s still fun. Plus,…