Blog #1

While I don't have a lot of experience with puppets, one of my favorite TV shows as a child was Sesame Street and I also loved the Muppets.  I think it was a mixture of how convincing the characters were and my childhood imagination, but I actually believed that the puppets were real.  Even though I was only about four years old at the time, I distinctly remember my older brother pointing out to me that there were poles attached to Elmo's arms to make them move, which consequently shattered the illusion for me.  I did eventually recover and continue to was Sesame Street, but it broke my heart to learn that the characters I loved so much were not real.  One of my favorite Muppets movies was (and still is) "Muppet Treasure Island".  I particularly liked the opening song and the way the puppets were used.  (The link below)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSXciBh8KoY

As an adult, my favorite use of puppets is from Beck's tour in 2006/2007.  I've been unable to find a good video of his performance, but here is a picture of one of his performances:

 

For his live performances, he had marionettes made in the likeness of himself and his band.  There was then a small stage on stage with him and the puppet versions of the band performed along side them for the whole show.  He performed like this when he was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live and the puppets were so dead-on and creative that when they appeared on screen I was so enthralled that I wold forget that they were not the real performers and get mildly confused when the camera would pan back to the actual musicians.