war horse

It's a play that uses life-size puppets to tell the story of a young British boy and his love for a horse. I saw it in London in 2009. And wrote this blog post when I first saw it.

They create living and breathing horses on stage... except they are puppets and the puppeteers aren't even trying to hide, they are completely visible...

What's odd, though, is after a few minutes you no longer see the puppeteers and only the horses. which of course is the whole point and probably the definition of a good puppet and puppeteer--you forget they aren't real horses in actual life...

Come to think of it that's a what a good story does--make you forget. Forget that it's just words on a page--forget that it's not happening in real life...because you've entered this magical world...

more about the author here

NYT article: Making Horses Gallop and Audiences Cry

The Clangers

The Clangers was a British stop motion animated children's TV series that ran on the BBC from 1969-1972. And I grew up with them.

Clangers are basically these strange knitted creatures (knitted by the animator's wife) that wear roman armor, speak in whistles (Clanger language)--which btw is impossible not to mimic particularly if you are a child or even when you aren't--and live in burrows with dustbin lids for doors on a small hollow blue little planet far, far away.

The whistles made by the Clangers followed the rhythm and intonation of a script in English. Like Pingu, anyone listening--from whatever country--has the feeling that the Clangers are speaking to them in their own language. Which is genius.

Pingu has hiccups

Just one more Pingu and Pinga because I can't help it (and then next time-- it's The Clangers...so get ready)

Penguin being tickled

Turns out they are as ticklish as Lorises... (via @JonathanHRogers)

little storyteller

David Suchet watch out! 

Lucy (3 years old) retells the story of The Young Hero and the Horrible Giant... as written in The Jesus Storybook Bible...

and the story of Daniel and the scary sleepover... as written in The Jesus Storybook Bible...

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pingu

that penguin from the previous post reminds me of Pingu and I LOVE pingu.
Don't you?

Wait? You don't know Pingu? Good heavens. Watch Pingu at once.

What I adore is that they speak Penguin--which so sounds like a real language--and you totally get what they're saying.

(which reminds me of... oh do stop it with this Reminds me business. No really. It reminds me of the Clangers--a stop motion series I grew up with--and if you don't know them then I'll have to save that for another post!)

intrepid photographer and penguins

See the full gallery on Posterous

via Lens Blog
NYT

gorgeous black and mostly white photos from intrepid NYT photographer of Antarctica, Bernard Kalb, that he took in the 50s. my favorite is the penguin assessing its captors.

more here

 

most useless machine

got any projects lately that feel like this?

(actually if you do, you'll DEFINITELY want to pre-order your copy of this crucial resource on a the job market HOW TO GET A JOB BY ME THE BOSS)