Jon's Java - The Mad Puppeteer: June 2010

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Rhymes With Orange

Check out this fun comic strip by Hillary B. Price, click on the comic to check out her website!

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Mike

Mike

Mouth Puppet

This is a portrait of my brother Michael. I plan on building a better one and lightweight wheelchair for it 2011 for a flick I have in mind. So I guess this is a rough draft!

Here's Tugger (and Ripper's butt) handing in the studio with the puppet.

I do commissions!
Portraits, monsters, original designs...
Need a puppet? Shoot me a message:
jon(at)elmwoodproductions(dot)com

Friday, June 25, 2010

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Brie

Brie

Mouth Puppet from the series Animal Behavior

This is a rebuild of the other Brie puppet. When I started writing Animal Behavior I knew that I wanted this to be the same character as the girl in the Simon's Lament video. But as I begain to build the cats and the Jon puppets it was clear the old Brie puppet would be too small. So I made this new one. I like this one better too!

Here's the preview for the show!

Brie with Jon and Tugger and Ripper

More about the real Brie...

And a shamless plug:
I do commissions!
Portraits, monsters, original designs...
Need a puppet? Shoot me a message:
jon(at)elmwoodproductions(dot)com

Friday, June 18, 2010

Toe

Toe

Finger Puppet from Animal Behavior

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Tac

Tac

Finger Puppet from Animal Behavior

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Tic

Tic

Finger Puppet from the series Animal Behavior

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Ladybug - The Collection

Ladybug

Finger Puppet

Friday, June 11, 2010

New Hat!

Brie got this for me in Disney World! Yeah, she's the best

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Street Gang

Today I'm doing a quick review of the book Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street by Michael Davis.

Two major books came out to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Sesame Street being broadcast. Street Gang is the first and the second is A Celebration of 40 Years of Life On The Street by Louise Gikow. Both books are exhaustive in the amount of information on Sesame Street. And both books are wholly different. Street Gang covers Sesame Street for the adult reader, and A Celebration is more of a coffee table, colorful book for everyone. I'll review A Celebration later.

Side note... Both books were given to me as gifts from Brie. Brie is awesome.

So, Street Gang.

Written by Michael Davis, (TV Guide, Chicago Sun Times) and authorized by Sesame Workshop covers it all. Literally. From the genesis of the idea of a show for kids mimicking current advertising techniques to the politics involved in public television, to the downfall of "David" to Jim Henson's sudden death, to the reign of Elmo, and it does so in a matter of fact (yet fun) warts and all style.

The good, the bad, and the Muppety.

I really enjoyed the book. It took me a bout a week of casual reading to get through it, and I would recommend it to people interested in television history and production, along with Muppet/Sesame Street fans. But this is no kids book. There are 'dark" parts. Cast member Northern (David) Calloway's decent into mental illness is well chronicled also some of Jim Henson's regrets and creator Joan Ganz Cooney's first failed marriage are covered. But for any bad thing there is you get hundreds of pages of good. If you want to give a kid a Sesame Street book go for "A Celebration" and keep "Street Gang" for yourself.

Since it's first hardcover publication in fall 2008 a second edition has been released in paperback, with some new sections and corrections. Either version is great.

4 out of 5 stars