On Weekend At Kermie's: The Muppets' Strange Life After Death
My favorite anecdote about the Muppets is the creation of the Swedish Chef. Jim Henson did the voice and the mouth, but the hands were Frank Oz's. In order to create the crazy, disjointed nonsense of the character, they literally had to use two separate people, not communicating with each other. BRILLIANT!
The Muppets are the epitome of the box with the sound of its own making. You cannot make seamless Muppets; even as a child, I was aware of the fact that there were PEOPLE making them do these things! It was so cool and exciting! The Muppets aren't just pieces of felt, but vessels for individual performances.
I still remember when Jim Henson died -- I was in first grade and old enough to know about Mr. Hooper, but not so old that it mattered to me, and this was the first exposure to death many of us had. We watched "A Muppet Family Christmas" every year and, after that, I remember being really sad at the end, when Jim pokes his head out the kitchen door and looks out on the singing Muppets with so much pride. It still gets me.
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On The 'Tree of Life' "No Refunds" Sign
@jfruh If I ever see George Lucas, I'm going to demand $20 bucks back from seeing the fourth Indiana Jones movie. And then I'm going to punch him.
But it's not Regal's fault the movie sucked, so I'm not going to get into it with them.
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On My Cubicle In The Starchitect's Building
The High Museum in Atlanta is a good example of the whole starchitect phenomenon. The original building is designed by Richard Meier, before he became a household name, and the entrance, galleries and atrium are gorgeous and elegantly designed. It was such a lovely experience to go to and through the museum, as he designed it.
The new addition is a Renzo Piano building and, while the exterior and atria are nice to look at, the gallery spaces themselves are awkward and hard to navigate. These star-designed buildings can be nice to look at, but sometimes I think they spend too much thinking about the skyline and not enough time on the people who will actually be in and around those buildings.
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On Nostalgia Is Not New
I fondly remember the first time I read a New York Times story on the premature nostalgia of Gen-Y. Meeehm-ries... Like the corners of my miiiiind....