Animal Magnetism

Selections.7

Growing up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, I didn't learn until well into the 8th grade about the somber cloud looming over the city's brief history - The Tulsa Race Riot which took place in 1921 along a section of town called Greenwood, not far from my own neighborhood.   In the dozens of textbooks I was made to "read" in school, I had yet to come across one word about the mass graves, the 35 blocks of town that were burned to the ground by mobs, bombings, and even aerial attacks.  It was not uncommon for the Tulsa curriculum to omit these details evidently, as my peers were as oblivious to the event as I was.

Needless to say, this is an essential part of my hometown's history, and I was immensely intrigued when I found a small handful of related images in the University of Tulsa's department of Special Collections.

Puppetmaster J

Is it even necessary to elaborate on this fellow?  Jim Henson is the man, the shit, the tits, the one and only.  He has been beloved worldwide for close to half a century for his brilliance and imagination.  His characters and scenes take even adults into a world of fabulous fantasy.
His ability to create detailed sets and motion of objects is flawless.  Whichever of his timeless classics you adore, it is the common consensus that no one does it like Jim.
Puppetry, especially Henson's way, is an elaborate process that seems to be almost a combination of animation and directing live actors, only far more complicated.  Henson's scenes are so seamless that we forget that they involve not only lavish sets and well-choreographed characters, but also the multiple human individuals controlling those characters just out of sight, often at least two or three people to one puppet. The puppets themselves range from tiny to ones taller than people.

With pictures such as The Labyrinth or The Dark Crystal, we see a much more sinister side to Henson's mind.  Instead of the bright-colored fluffy puppets of Fraggle Rock and The Muppet Show, these creatures are hard and slimy, dwelling in the hard underground cities or dusty castles, their minds filled with sinister plots far above the heads of children.  It goes without saying that Jennifer Connely and David Bowie add a lot to The Labyrinth too, but if I start talking about the fact that he refused to wear a modest codpiece under his tights, I will never get back on topic.

The concept sketches pictured above demonstrate Henson's 2D abilities as well. His ability to incorporate realistic elements into his fantastic world really assist in the suspension of disbelief attainable in his magical pictures.

With the Dark Crystal, the puppets are so lifelike and believable that it makes the film all the more frightening and poignant.  Henson creates an all-too believable world in which we are easily able to suspend our disbelief, in spite of the complete lack of live actors and familiar settings.

I am a certified black belt in Ju Jitsu, but I never knew it could be so glamorous, or that it could be done in wedges and opera gloves.

Attempt at specimen acquisition

As any of our devoted readers know, what really gets our blood pumping is Natural History, especially in it's natural form.  Marlis (Holdfast) had been monitoring a beautiful Luna Moth clinging to the side of her workplace building.  Being that it remained there the next day, she assumed it dead and enclosed it in a cup with a foil lid.  As her shift ended after dark and she made her way home, however, the nocturnal insect awoke and began beating furiously and incessantly at its confines.  She failed to kill it first by using high-volume dub-step.
We had read about killing jars used by entomologists, but such things require ethyl acetate, and apparently a lot more preparation.  We had no chemicals toxic enough and were unable to move it to even an air-tight container, so it flapped on sadly into the next day, where it had, by then, torn much of its beautiful plumage and I (Bellacozy) had to pierce it through the thorax and out of its misery.  It continued to flap horribly on its back, needle in the air.  It has finally ended its slow journey to the afterlife after four days. Now we know we were supposed to put it in the freezer, simple as that.
We have identified it as being Actias luna



Here is "Mothra," in his prime, pre-eradication



Packed with Excitement

'Cmon, you know you love it.  When your out on the road and you see a cresting sailfish it is a tiny relief and momentary escape from an otherwise boring activity involving heavy machinery.  Whether or not the people who decided to put art on the sides of U-Haul vans and trailers meant for this to be the outcome, I'll never know.  We don't have that kind of technology over here, folks.  I'm big enough to say that.
In any case, Uhaul products as a rule bear some sort of elaborately painted image, along with descriptive text.  The highly realistic depictions of United States, unsolved marvels, and endangered species pepper the otherwise lifeless lonely highways. 

here the picture is less about the trailer, and more about its surroundings.