strange love
even though you hurt me I feel
blessed love
baby I’m your puppet
on a string
making me tumble and swing
trouble’s what you bring
strange love

strange how
you control my every little
move now
hanging from your strings
is all I know
starring in your puppet show
never let me go
strange love

all the things
you’ve said and done
there’s no space
for me to run
baby I’ve lost and you have won
cause’ all I really want is

strange love

Christmas Day Showdown only 2 days away!
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Over 1 million views!! I have decided to make a new video!!!! Kepp an eye on my chanell for more information on this and for more updates. Thanks to Jack Off Jill for the song ^^

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8VPuHU5wPY&hl=en

Recommend : Beatles Box Set Bookcases For Sale kingmattresses

While many of you may be concentrating on potential Christmas presents to purchase, I seem to find myself curious about… Czech Marionettes. Okay, so fine: I’m Jewish. Santa doesn’t visit me and I eat chocolate coins. Alas, I blog about my random fixation of the moment. {For the record, can I just state that I am so over practically every blog I read posting about what everybody should BUY?} OK-CAPITALISM.

Anywho, here’s a history lesson that’s both visually enchanting as well as substantial.

Or you could go look at photos of gifts to buy from Urban Outfitters. Either/Or.

Czech puppeteering has achieved this significant status for a number of reasons. First and foremost there is still a widespread, although by no means completely historically accurate, conception of the role played by Czech puppeteers in the period of the national revival, that exceptional process, at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries, whereby the modern Czech nation was formed, and the leading forces of the nation combined to fight against the gradual decline of the Czech language and to give rise to a new national self-confidence within Czech society.

The amateur puppet movement, widespread in the first half of the 20th century, also evokes feelings of considerable respect and, after the period of the folk puppeteers in the 19th century, forms the second critical phase in the history of the development of Czech puppetry. At that time there wasn’t a city, town or even village in the Czech lands where amateur puppet players didn’t play puppet theatre for fun, and the entertainment and aesthetic education of their children. With their enthusiasm and self-sacrifice they only constituted a unique phenomenon in the puppet world of the time, the range of their activities having no match in Europe, but they also created a fertile enviroment for the creative development of such eminent artistic personalities as Josef Skupa and Jiří Trnka.

To these historical associations in the general consciousness we can also add the fact that, after a complicated development in the 20th century, contemporary Czech puppet theatre has now reached a momentous stage in its development. The dream and the goal which generations of Czech puppeteers fought for has at last become a reality: On the basis of its artistic achievements, puppet theatre has fought its way up to take an equal standing alongside the other theatrical arts. Not only is its relevance to society completely accepted, but so are the unique possibilities of achieving artistic affects which arise from the expressive qualities of the marionettes themselves.

We can say without fear of exaggeration that contemporary Czech puppet theatre plays a significant role in Czech theatre culture as well as in the context of world puppeteering, and that the work of its leading protagonists is playing a leading role in determining how puppet theatre will progress and develop. At the same time it is contributing to the development of modern theatre culture as a whole.

Secret Agent’s Hand Puppet’s  ‘Escape and Evasion’ Instruction Guide

 Excerpts from recently declassified documents from the 1940 and 1950s – originally issued to agents, selected officers, other ranks and their hand puppets.

In the Event of Capture: Under the Geneva Convention, the hand puppets of captured soldiers or downed fliers should not be mistreated, incarcerated or repatriated separately from their owners.

ESCAPE: It is the duty of you and your military issue puppet to escape given the opportunity. Always make sure that your puppet is suitably disguised as well – you would not wish him to give you away to the enemy at that crucial border crossing moment. 

Should you be caught and face the firing squad together, make sure your puppet’s eyes are suitably covered. Request a separate blindfold, should his / your hands be tied and unable to cover his own eyes.

Extract from Jules L. Macaco, Hand Puppets in Wartime – A Historical Overview

 The standard GI, ‘Military Issue’ or Volunteer hand puppet could be extremely invaluable in the event of your being captured and interned.

‘Military Issue’ hand puppets are designed with the following escape and evasion features installed, depending on the theatre of war for which they are issued:

1. Lining of your hand puppet’s body is usually a map of main towns, transport routes, borders and neutral countries in Occupied Europe / South-east Asia.

2. Concealed within the tail section; a rolled printed silk map of Italy and North Africa and sometimes flexible metal saw.

Cover stories

Many maps are marked with the position of major puppet theatres behind enemy lines or occupied areas should you get stuck and have to try and bluff it out for the rest of the hostilities. Where better to hide a needle than in a sewing box (if no haystacks are available) or a tree but in a forest?

To this end, you are recommended during the quiet periods in service life to perfect a few useful circus skills, amusing bits of business or variety routines which will pass muster in these circumstances.

3. Eyes: removable and joined by wire (flexible metal saw)

Alternative options are a magnifying glass for starting small fires or a small crystal which with special whiskers can be used as components of a small crystal radio set to listen for coded BBC radio messages) – see also maker’s label .

4. Nose: removable to reveal miniaturised compass (or gold and gemstones to buy your way to safety)

(Note: On the hand puppets of captured enemy special agents, these have been found to conceal cyanide pills).

5. Maker’s label (identity number etc.) contains coded or encrypted radio frequencies and coordinates.

6. Tongue or ear patches: dyes to help with forgery of documents  or removable / reversible as fake eyebrows, moustaches or sideburns.

7. Dyed Padding (concealed within your hand puppet’s kapok for brains): 

Available options:

• gun cotton wadding with small amounts with plastic explosive option,
• more small maps, silk-printed potted national histories, useful language phrases with pronunciation and silk printed recipes and wine buff’s guide so you can convincingly knock up a decent ‘local’ dish and pass for a native;
• small packets of survival rations in powder form
• aniseed to distract tracker dogs
• small packets of dye;
• small amount of plaster of paris (plaster de paris) and plasticine for taking copies or castings of keys
• bandages 
• useful false beard, eyebrows and moustache kit (available in a range of hair colours for you and your hand puppet).  

8. Alterable or adaptable squeaker to adapt to foreign sounding squeaks / accents

‘Volunteer’ hand puppets

Spares boxes and first aid boxes can be safely and innocuously used to provide a source of the necessary equipment and alterations along with useful needles to be magnetised etc.

 Please note that Red Cross parcels are not to be compromised by the inclusion of escape materials or messages.

Declassified from puppetgov.org.uk  c/o and copyright  Hand Puppets for Conservation, Jules L. Macaco

© Jules L. Macaco, Mark Norris and associates, Hand Puppets For Conservation HPFC 2003/2009

To be used with permission of HPFC only, c/o juleslmacaco@live.co.uk

Copyright on HPFC items, concepts and writing is protected by the threat of being followed day and night by hand puppets, both ‘alive’ and those who have ‘passed over’. Having Punch, the ghost, policeman and crocodile out of Punch and Judy on your case is not fun either. Think Captain Hook. Despite having kapok for brains, this is our intellectual property and contribution to the world.

All our proceeds go towards supporting conservation. Think of the poor rare animals you’ll be defrauding … so for the (g)love of puppets or their wrath, don’t! Even lawyers have hand puppets and hand puppets have lawyers.

Happy Christmas!

weirdly inspired by:
PARUSA – queso
CAST OF CLOWNS – wolfgang
with people, society, politics, and struggle.

Hanggang kailan ang bukas
Tanaw sa malayo, hingang malalim
Ang pulang liwanag ay pumapanig
Sa diyos na naghahasik ng dilim.

O buhay, ang perlas ay nababalot
Sa takot, sa dugo at sa kamatayan
Lunurin sa pasipiko ang diyos
Sunugin ang huwad na katotohanan.

Pakinggan mo ang aking panalangin
Ikaw ba ang diyos na tagapagtanggol?
Bumaba ka sa langit, o diyos
Kasama ng masa, ikaw ay hahatol.

Huwad! Isang pekeng panginoon!
Sino ang sino? Sino kayo?
Hayop sa ganid, bingi sa pandinig
Sa bawat hinaing, palayo ng palayo.

Walang panginoon, walang diyos
Lahat ay pansariling kaisipan
Kukulungin ang pulang diwa at puso
Patutulugin ang dilat na katotohanan.

Gumising ka! Walang diyos na gagabay
Ikaw ang ilaw! Ikaw ang tanging lampara
Ang pulang liwanag ng kalayaan
Ikaw, Masa ang tanging pag-asa.

I simply had to share these photos that were sent my way by a customer who bought an Ira Glass a few months ago, just in time bring him along on a trans-Atlantic visit to jolly old England. It looks like Ira had an excellent trip– riding the train, hanging out with some livestock in Hampshire, visiting castles and, of course, having a pint at the pub. Brilliant!

Thanks to Gloria for sharing!

Shhhhhhh!  Don’t tell my kids….we’re getting a handful of these for our daughters for Christmas….can’t wait to play with them (the kids, I mean, I can’t wait to play with the kids.)  Gosh durn, they are cute. This little owling is one of my favourites.

Yes, I finally attended my first ballet, the Moscow Ballet’s Nutcracker, to be specific, at the historical and beautiful Orpheum Theatre.

While this view may give you a nose bleed, I was actually a lot closer than this. I could smell the nuts cracking.

And believe it or not, these were my highlights:

1. I could not stop staring at the men’s defined asses in their tights and especially their protruding penises. And neither could my wife, for that matter. She even pointed out which male ballerina (damn that sounds politically incorrect) had the nicest ass and package.
2. Every time an actor in a giant elephant or unicorn head popped out on stage, I laughed aloud, generating many evil looks from the audience. But goddamn it, the last thing I expected was a puppet show!
3. The fucking kid next to me just had to get up and go piss in the middle of the performance. What a small bladder motherfucker! How rude!
4. I loved the people who showed up in jeans and a T-shirt, like it wasn’t the fucking ballet. This ain’t no high school performance, Billy Jim!
5. I loved the show! It was a great performance and the actors/ballerinas were amazing! All in all, a great night out!

And now for some pictures:

You can't see me in this picture, but I'm surrounded by a harem of ballerinas.

I wonder what I would look like in that tutu...

Andrew S. Arconti

Bobby goes Round and Round!

The final performances for 2009 have taken place at the New Continental venue in our home town of Preston, Lancashire, and the Wharton Children’s Centre, Winsford, Cheshire.

Shakara Louise Ahad filled in brilliantly for Tids Pickard in the dance and movement role for this combination of performance and play activities based on research into Early Years schemas.

The success of these events really goes to show that Ball Pond Bobby can make the transition from theatres and arts centres into community venues. You can watch a short promotional video of Ball Pond Bobby from the early days here.

An integrated creative play session for children’s centres called ‘Round and Round’ is available from Imaginary Leaps at http://www.imaginaryleaps.com

Have you ever wondered about root vegetables? Do you know what a
cassava root is? follow along my dears for a mini Monikitas Adventure
featuring a reporter, Phat C and a little bit of Madlib.

“He was found like this by the landlord at about 2AM—guy said he kept to himself, mostly. Coroner said the tox screen was positive for coke and PCP. Must have been a rough night.”

Via Etsy

AMERICA HAS HAD ENOUGH.

The illegitimate wars were spawned by false-flag terrorism, are based on fraud, deceit, and are for opium, oil, the building of a natural-gas pipeline, riches and hegemony.

BRING THEM ALL HOME!

It’s Time to Leave Afghanistan

Appears also at AntiWar.com

Statement by Rep. Ron Paul, December 12, 2009, before the House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee on December 10, 2009.

Mr. Speaker thank you for holding these important hearings on US policy in Afghanistan. I would like to welcome the witnesses, Ambassador Karl W. Eikenberry and General Stanley A. McChrystal, and thank them for appearing before this Committee.

I have serious concerns, however, about the president’s decision to add some 30,000 troops and an as yet undisclosed number of civilian personnel to escalate our Afghan operation. This “surge” will bring US troop levels to approximately those of the Soviets when they occupied Afghanistan with disastrous result back in the 1980s. I fear the US military occupation of Afghanistan may end up similarly unsuccessful.

In late 1986 Soviet armed forces commander, Marshal Sergei Akhromeev, told then-Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, “Military actions in Afghanistan will soon be seven years old. There is no single piece of land in this country which has not been occupied by a Soviet soldier. Nonetheless, the majority of the territory remains in the hands of rebels.” Soon Gorbachev began the Soviet withdrawal from its Afghan misadventure. Thousands were dead on both sides, yet the occupation failed to produce a stable national Afghan government.

Eight years into our own war in Afghanistan the Soviet commander’s words ring eerily familiar. Part of the problem stems from a fundamental misunderstanding of the situation. It is our presence as occupiers that feeds the insurgency. As would be the case if we were invaded and occupied, diverse groups have put aside their disagreements to unify against foreign occupation. Adding more US troops will only assist those who recruit fighters to attack our soldiers and who use the US occupation to convince villages to side with the Taliban.

Proponents of the president’s Afghanistan escalation cite the successful “surge” in Iraq as evidence that this second surge will have similar results. I fear they might be correct about the similar result, but I dispute the success propaganda about Iraq. In fact, the violence in Iraq only temporarily subsided with the completion of the ethnic cleansing of Shi’ites from Sunni neighborhoods and vice versa – and all neighborhoods of Christians. Those Sunni fighters who remained were easily turned against the foreign al-Qaeda presence when offered US money and weapons. We are increasingly seeing this “success” breaking down: sectarian violence is flaring up and this time the various groups are better armed with US-provided weapons. Similarly, the insurgents paid by the US to stop their attacks are increasingly restive now that the Iraqi government is no longer paying bribes on a regular basis. So I am skeptical about reports on the success of the Iraqi surge.

Likewise, we are told that we have to “win” in Afghanistan so that al-Qaeda cannot use Afghan territory to plan further attacks against the US. We need to remember that the attack on the United States on September 11, 2001, was, according to the 9/11 Commission Report, largely planned in the United States (and Germany) by terrorists who were in our country legally. According to the logic of those who endorse military action against Afghanistan because al-Qaeda was physically present, one could argue in favor of US airstrikes against several US states and Germany! It makes no sense. The Taliban allowed al-Qaeda to remain in Afghanistan because both had been engaged, with US assistance, in the insurgency against the Soviet occupation.

Nevertheless, the president’s National Security Advisor, Gen. James Jones, USMC (Ret.), said in a recent interview that less than 100 al-Qaeda remain in Afghanistan and that the chance they would reconstitute a significant presence there was slim. Are we to believe that 30,000 more troops are needed to defeat 100 al-Qaeda fighters? I fear that there will be increasing pressure for the US to invade Pakistan, to where many Taliban and al-Qaeda have escaped. Already CIA drone attacks on Pakistan have destabilized that country and have killed scores of innocents, producing strong anti-American feelings and calls for revenge. I do not see how that contributes to our national security.

The president’s top advisor for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, said recently, “I would say this about defining success in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In the simplest sense, the Supreme Court test for another issue, we’ll know it when we see it.” That does not inspire much confidence.

Supporters of this surge argue that we must train an Afghan national army to take over and strengthen the rule and authority of Kabul. But experts have noted that the ranks of the Afghan national army are increasingly being filled by the Tajik minority at the expense of the Pashtun plurality. US diplomat Matthew Hoh, who resigned as Senior Civilian Representative for the U.S. Government in Zabul Province, noted in his resignation letter that he “fail[s] to see the value or the worth in continued U.S. casualties or expenditures of resources in support of the Afghan government in what is, truly, a 35-year old civil war.” Mr. Hoh went on to write that “[L]ike the Soviets, we continue to secure and bolster a failing state, while encouraging an ideology and system of government unknown and unwanted by [the Afghan] people.”

I have always opposed nation-building as unconstitutional and ineffective. Afghanistan is no different. Without a real strategy in Afghanistan, without a vision of what victory will look like, we are left with the empty rhetoric of the last administration that “when the Afghan people stand up, the US will stand down.” I am afraid the only solution to the Afghanistan quagmire is a rapid and complete US withdrawal from that country and the region. We cannot afford to maintain this empire and our occupation of these foreign lands is not making us any safer. It is time to leave Afghanistan.

California Democratic Party Leadership to Obama: GET OUT OF AFGHANISTAN

Thousands of Afghan students protest against US forces

McChrystal: Getting bin Laden key to defeating al Qaida

President Obama’s Secret: Only 100 al Qaeda Now in Afghanistan

Report: Bin Laden Already Dead

US planned war in Afghanistan long before September 11

Afghanistan sitting on a gold mine. The real reason we’re fighting the war?

What? You didn’t know? Why, it’s a ‘necessary war’ to build a natural gas pipeline smack through Turkmenistan and Afghanistan!

And then, of course, there’s the poppy of Big Pharma’s eye, the Opium Trade . . .

Hamid Karzai’s brother, Drug Lord Ahmed Wali Karzai, has been ‘on CIA payroll’ since 2001

Britain is protecting the biggest heroin crop of all time

Low Price, High Potency Spike Heroin Deaths. Heroin: ‘It’s Our No. 1 Priority,’ Says DEA

BOSTON –A lethal combination of rock bottom prices combined with a spike in the potency and availability of heroin on Massachusetts streets has led to a startling increase in the number of heroin-related deaths in recent years.

How The USA Funds The Taliban

Where the Wild Things Are is an American fantasy film which was directed by Spike Jonze and was adapted from the well-known children’s book by Maurice Sendak in 1963. The film is a mixture of live action, costumes, animatronics, CGI and puppets. The film stars Max Records, Catherine Keener and Mark Ruffalo. It also features various voices as the parts of the beasts- James Gandolfini, Paul Dano, Lauren Ambrose and Forest Whitaker. The film is produced by Tom Hanks.

The film is about a young boy called Max who is very lonely and has a wild imagination. He gets angry with his mum and bites her. He then runs off and he travels to a world where he meets a wild bunch of beasts and creatures.

I read this book when i was little so i was very excited to see this film. I feel that the film captures the style and imagination of the novel really well. It’s very imaginative, loving, warm, playful but also it keeps the slightly dark element that was in the original book. There have been questions about whether this film is suitable for children- I think that it is. It gives out a positive message and focuses on the values of friendship and family.

Overall i really loved this film- it has excellent performances from the actors, its funny at times and its beautifully filmed. The CGI and real live action blends together very well and is very convincing,

a feel good film

Film Rating: 8/10

The senators also noted that researchers at Penn State University received $1.57 million to search for fossils in Argentina and that a liberal-leaning theater in Minnesota, In the Heart of the Beast, named after a famous quote by leftist leader Che Guevara, received $100,000 for socially conscious puppet shows.

So, I’m not sure if you followed the Kobe vs Lebron Puppet matchery last season. If you didn’t, well you’re in luck! Apparently, the people at the NBA have decided to bring back the duo for an encore. The first commercial for the season has the two decided who would win the rumble in the jungle. A lion or black mamba. I have my hopes for the lion. Go Cavs!

* I wonder is Lil’ Dez will make a cameo again.

Teenagers From Outer Space is a black and white film about aliens who look like teenagers who land on an alternate Earth where everyone speaks in wooden voices out of sync with their mouths

The teenagers are travelling through space in a small metallic model held up by wires to scout suitable planets to rear small lobster puppets to send back for food on their home planet.

One of the teenagers vaporises a dog. He’s the mean teenager. His name is Thor.

Thor. He will destroy you!

Seeing the vaporised dog’s collar, Derek, the son of the leader, begins to think that Earth has sentient life that deserves to live. Once you see the characters in this movie you might be reversing that decision.

Derek defies the Captain of the ship, commanding him at laser gun-point to leave Earth because the gargons, as the puppets are known, will kill the inhabitants, or at the very least turn them into plastic skeletons.

Derek. Wholsome, alien, and teenager.

But Derek is overpowered and has to run away. Thor is left behind to pursue Derek while the others fly away. Derek’s father, the leader, gives the order that if Thor’s life is threatened Thor is to kill Derek. That’s fatherly love.

Derek befriends Betty and her loveable grandfather. They owned the previously vaporised dog, and coincidentally have an room to rent.

Derek breaks the news of poor Sparky’s demise. Betty is understandably pissed, but not as pissed as she’s about to be when the mean alien teenager, Thor, vaporises her friend.

Mmmmm, pool-side BBQ, extra crispy!

Derek and Betty go to see the local professor at the college, but Thor gets there first and vaporises him as well.

Oh noez.

They all end up at the city hall in a big shootout with the police, but Thor vaporises them as well and gets away, holding Betty and Derek captive.

Joe, a reporter investigating the suspicious multiple vaporisings, decides to go out to the old mine where Sparky was killed. Betty and Derek escape from Thor’s clutches. Derek now knows he has to stop them from returning with the lobster puppets to take over the world.

Thor returns to the old mine to wait for rescue but wrecks up his car and gets captured. Derek and Betty find his disintegration gun, but it doesn’t work when they are confronted with the enlarged gargon. They run away.

This is not a shadow. This is the monster.

Betty learns the truth about Derek, but by now she is in love with him anyway, and makes him promise to stay on Earth.

Mmmwwaaaa!

Oh wait, that’s not true, I’m sorry… She’s in lurve with him.

Derek discovers that he can make the disintegrator ray work by hooking it up to the power-lines. Then he saves the city and the world from the evil teenage invasion and their pet lobsters with the help of some stock footage.

Damn kids!

The entire film is available for download at Cult of UHF.