That was cool. Well, most of it was cool. Some of it was downright hot.
I suppose I should start over, eh? Fine.
We headed out of here at 11am to catch the noon show at the Downtown Media Art Center. We were going to see Labyrinth. However, we did not count on the Fiesta in the Park blocking our well-planned route. We spent way too long trying to find our way around all the detours and road blocks and missed it.
Never fear. We hiked our way over to Anthony’s Pizza and had a yummy pie, then back through all the crafty booths and kielbasa stands and funnel cake vendors in the festival around Lake Eola to the DMAC, where I chilled with a yummy banana boba before ascending the stairs to the digital theater.
The “Handmade Puppet Dreams” show was great. After an introduction by Heather Henson, we saw “Harker” (which was incredible) and a series of shorts that included:
“Prelude #2” – a ‘don’t drink and drive’ spot that cut back-and-forth between live actors and puppets while a geisha sings;
“The Red Book” – a very artsy (and imho too long) psychological piece;
“Mother Hubbard” – an hilarious telling of the ‘Old Mother Hubbard’ story in song;
“Ola’s Box of Clovers” – a beautiful piece about a woman’s recollections of her grandmother;
“Last Rites” – a very brief, but riotous, bit that had The Devil vs. a nun in a boxing match;
“Everloving” – an odd, but beautiful, piece that was shot in reverse at double speed and completely underwater (but you’d never know it);
“Herd” – a mostly live-action film about an alien invasion;
“The Amazing, Mysterious and True Story of Mary Anning and Her Monsters” – the sad story of one of the first paleontologists (a woman) told in puppet form;
“Popsicle” – a muppet-like music video; and
“Graveyard Jamboree with Mysterious Mose” – a very muppet-like bit using an old Harry Reser novelty song.
We decided to stay for the next show, too, which was the beginning of a set of Jerry Juhl films. The first was The Cube, a 1969 TV play that Juhl and Jim Henson wrote for NBC’s “Experiment in Television”. It was trippy, man, but very, very cool. The second was an episode of Fraggle Rock!
All-in-all, a very enjoyable day. Now, it’s Pepperkat’s turn to pay for dinner…
Bubble tea at DMAC? *hand outstretched*