Official Scarbrough Redbubble Shop Closed

After about as much debate as I had in my initial consideration of opening such in the first place, I have finally decided to formally close the Official Scarbrough Redbubble Shop after nearly two years of this failed business venture.

It wasn't even just the lack of sales that drove me into making this decision, although that has been a major contributing factor. After all, some fans expressed interest in buying Steve D'Monster merchandise, and since many Content Creators out there sell merch on the side, it seemed like this could be an opportunity for a small, struggling Content Creator such as myself to finally make a little extra money off of the content I create, and services like Redbubble provide such Content Creators with a vehicle by means of doing so. Or so I thought.

Redbubble offered an extensive line of products for Content Creators to apply their artwork and designs to what they could sell: t-shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, tanktops, throw pillows, notebooks, journal covers, wall posters, buttons, stickers, coffee mugs, among many, many other products. There was plenty to meet the interests of fans and consumers, so I tried to take advantage of as much as I could with not just Steve D'Monster merch, but also Vampire Girl (especially during the Halloween season) and other Scarbrough IPs. T-shirts and buttons seem to be incredible popular right now, so those were a common item I made available, but I also looked into other products that seemed to be good fits for Scarbrough properties - I even made a Steve D'Monster throw pillow available; a poetic little homage to the fact that the very first Steve D'Monster puppet in 2004 was originally made from an old shaggy purple throw pillow.  Fans could even offer suggestions of what sort of products they would like to see and buy; I took such suggestions and made such products available for them for purchase, so additional Vampire Girl items like coffee mugs and posters were made available.

Again, this sounds like a great tool for small-time Content Creators to make a little extra money on the side, and it would have been if Redbubble didn't make sweeping changes to their services. In the nearly two years that the Scarbrough Redbubble Shop has been open, it has only seen one sale, but I never saw one red cent from that sale because I didn't meet Redbubble's payment threshold to actually make any money from the sale. Used to, if you didn't meet the monthly payment threshold, Redbubble would basically keep a running tab of how much (or, more accurately, how little) you earn from your sales, then pay you that total amount after the end of the year . . . not anymore. Now, you have to meet the monthly payment threshold, or you will not be paid anything, even if you do actually sell merchandise. But more than that, Redbubble has decided to downgrade mine from a premium tier account to a standard tier, which not only limits the tools and resources I can use to boost my merchandise, but it now also means even if I were still able to sell any merchandise, I would now have to pay an additional fee to them for each sale. The bottom line is what started out as a side hustle to try to make a little extra money on my content is actually causing me to lose money. It was these reasons and more that I finally decided to close the Official Scarbrough Redbubble Shop.

Is this what prompted Redbubble to downgrade my account? Actually . . . not quite. According to the email I received, Redbubble evidently looked into the artwork and designs I submitted to sell on various and sundry products, and decided that the quality of my designs were allegedly not up to their standards, citing that they were of poor quality, too simplistic, and not visually interesting enough to justify the continuation of mine being a premium tier account. Honestly, I am getting pretty sick and tired of being told this by those who host my content. This is exactly what the so-called "experts" at YouTube keep telling me: that my content isn't up to their standards, that my content "isn't done right," which is why my content struggles to build and maintain an audience. I have been on YouTube longer than any of these so-called "experts" have been; longer than there even was any sort of "standard" to have to measure up to. I get that none of the content I create is professional-quality, and maybe the best tools at my disposal are only prosumer/entry level, but here's the thing: I put far more effort into the content I create than most of thebig and noteworthy "Content Creators" out there who basically just steal content from across the web and compile them into review/reaction videos, or just sit in front of their cameras and record themselves talking about subjects they hold no expertise in. My Redbubble designs were no exception to this: I spent a lot of time and effort designing the kind of products I figured fans would be interested in buying, and I even promoted my Redbubble shop whenever I could (especially when Redbubble had site-wide sales) to drum up business - something that I never do, because I've learned the hard way from past experiences that advertising and promoting does more harm than good. Maybe if I had better tools and resources at my disposal, or actual opportunities were available, I might could actually create and produce professional-level content that could actually measure up to whatever standards the hands that feed us set for us. Even so, I don't create content to measure up to any sort of standards, or to appease the very people who continually stunt my creative growth; I create content to satisfy my own artistic passions first and foremore, and to entertain other people second. I don't have the biggest numbers, but there have been plenty of folks who have genuinely enjoyed the content I've created over the years regardless of the quality of said content. Heck, even in my earliest years on YouTube, the quality of my content was pure crap due to the poor tools I had at the time, and yet, people loved Steve D'Monster's antics, and he garnered a small, yet dedicated following - all before the corporate takeover that rendered YouTube into a sea of droll talking heads and vapid vloggers.

So like I say, I debated even selling merchandise in the first place, because I figured I wouldn't be able to sell anything, and since I did indeed fail in that objective, and it's actually causing me to lose money when I intended to make a little extra money, I have finally decided to shut down the Official Scarbrough Redbubble Shop.

The War(s) Wage(s) On

For a party that is now claiming to be against war, the so-called Grand Old Party sure does seem to have a history of being a party full of war-mongers. They chastised Americans who refused to fight in the Vietnam War and/or protested said war as being traitors to our country; they saw war as the only way to respond to the September 11th terrorist attacks; they complain that M*A*S*H is a, "situation commie hour" for being an anti-war show; and they ripped former President Barack Obama to shreds when he attempted to withdraw American troops from the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and bring them home (and yet, sang praises to the Lord above when Dictator Trump claimed he would do the exact same thing). And if it's not some sort of an actual fighting war raging somewhere in the world, they sure do seem to love to fabricate their own little geopolitical war that only they are engaged in - while also pointing fingers and blaming those they are attacking for instigating such fabricated wars, such as their War on Christmas that they claim the left started by saying, "Happy Holidays," instead of, "Merry Christmas" (even though there are other holidays aside from just Christmas that are celebrated during the season), or their War of Christianity that they claim the left started by trying to remove God from everyday life (even though the United States of America have a Separation of Church and State for a reason). But one conflict that the GOP has been waging for decades has been their war on the Public Broadcasting System, or PBS.

You probably have seen the news recently, about Elon Musk (an African immigrant who, somehow, has been given total authority to run our country, despite the big stink that Trump previous raised about Obama needing to prove he wasn't born in Africa, otherwise he legally couldn't be President) and Majorie Taylor Greene (a bleach blonde with a badly built butch body) calling for the dismantling of PBS, as well the cancelation of SESAME STREET (which is now in its 56th season) on the grounds that the show is Communistic propaganda that is indoctrinating our children into an anti-American idealogy. As ludicrous and far-out as their claims may seem, this actually is nothing new from the GOP concerning SESAME STREET in general, or even PBS as a whole; this has been going on for a long, long time, and their tune has not changed in the slightest . . . the only thing that has changed in that, in this day and age of social media and digital connection, they now can spread this sort of poison farther and faster than they could before, not to mention the United States is now also under the iron-fisted ruling of a Demagogue and Dictator who is emboldening the ones who are pushing these absurd agendas.

But why does the GOP hate PBS so much? One of the main reasons seems to be is that PBS, for all intents and purposes, is a non-profit organization, and we all know how much the GOP thrives on profits over people (the fact that just about every other developed nation in the world has some sort of universal healthcare system, while the U.S. still has a for-profit healthcare system that the GOP doesn't want to get rid of certainly tells you something); PBS is sustained by donations from viewers, as well as other government grants and funding provided by taxpayers' dollars - taxpayers' dollars the GOP would rather go elsewhere, like our already well-covered military and police force, both of which are already overly funded from wasteful government spending. This dates all the way back to PBS's inception in 1969, when beloved public television fixture, Mister Fred Rogers, appeared before Congress to defend the funding for programming on public television to cater to the early mental, emotional, psychological development of young children.

It is this funding that the GOP has long been against, and a subject that has been brought up in the political landscape as recently as the 2012 Presidential Election, when then-Democratic President Barack Obama's opponent was Republican Mitt Romney, and one of his campaign promises was to cut government and taxpayer funding for PBS, and turn it into a commercial television network that would be financed through ad revenue, much like other television networks such as ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, etc. While that in and of itself left a bad taste in the mouths of people who support PBS, I think what ended up contributing to Romney's downfall in that election was the attitude he had, as well as the way he worded this campaign promise of his, in that he made it seem as though he not only was going to go after PBS altogether, but he also dragged Big Bird specifically into this talking point of his. Needless to say, it provided a lot of the late-night comedians with plenty of fodder to poke fun at the way Romney made it seem as though he intended to order a hit on Big Bird.

(Indeed, I really hope no children saw this)
Going back to what Musk and Marjorie are proposing, as well as their unsubstantiated claims that PBS programming such as SESAME STREET is indoctrinating children into anti-American idealogy isn't anything new either; this is an agenda that they have been pushing for the better part of twenty years, and their tune has barely changed at all during this time. I know, because I have witnessed this firsthand, even on a local level.

Steve D'Monster supports PBS

As a lot of you may know, my first job was working for my viewing area's local PBS member station, now ETPBS, then known as ETP-TV from 2004 to 2007. At the time, I was a teenager and couldn't legally work in even a part-time position, so my years at PBS were as an unpaid intern, though I did gain quite a bit of experience in television production, ranging from camera operating to stage managing, and it was even here that I managed to get my feet wet as a semi-professional puppeteer when Steve D'Monster made his debut during the on-air pledge drives we used to have specifically for children's television on PBS, known as The Friends of Sesame Street Club. What some of you may not be aware of is that during all but four weeks of my high school years, I was also homeschooled . . . and yes, homeschool curriculum is far more faith-based than public school curriculum, though contrary to the stigma that is now prevalent thanks to all of these mass shooters who lived in rightwing echo chambers, being homeschool never once inspired me to pick up a gun and open fire in other establishments where I felt the people of said establishments were a threat to my very existence and privilege. Because I was in the homeschool system, I had some insight into what certain morality groups were up to in terms of certain agendas they were pushing, and in 2005, exactly twenty years ago, when it was coming up on time for another one of our PBS pledge drives, these groups were organizing a boycott of PBS children's programming, such as SESAME STREET, BARNEY & FRIENDS, ARTHUR, CLIFFORD THE BIG RED DOG, and many others, on the grounds that these programs were, "pushing the gay agenda," and otherwise indoctrinating and brainwashing our children into the LGBTQ+ community. Now, keep in mind, this was the mid-2000s, during the conversative G.W. Bush Presidency, a time in which even international networks that specifically catered kid-friendly programming such as Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, and Cartoon Network were prohibited from depicting openly queer characters and/or same-sex relationships; groundbreaking shows like THE LOUD HOUSE or THE OWL HOUSE, with their positive LGBTQ+ representations, among other depictions of diversity and inclusion, would never have made it to the air during this time for that very reason. Even primetime programming aimed specifically at adults had to include, "Viewer discretion is advised" disclaimers for "hyper-sexual content" at the beginning of shows that even so much as included a single gay character in its cast (something the GOP now wants the aforementioned shows such as THE LOUD HOUSE and THE OWL HOUSE to include). 

A gay Muppet?!

So, where in the world did these religious right groups even get such a wild idea that shows like SESAME STREET were, "pushing the gay agenda"? Sadly, it was born out of something that was blown way, way, way out of proportion just years earlier, when it was announced that an HIV-positive Muppet character was going to be added to South Africa's co-production, TAKALANI SESAME. You see, many other countries in the world have their own localized co-production of SESAME STREET developed specifically to cater to that country's national culture, whether it's Mexico's PLAZA SESAMO, the Netherlands' SESAMSTRAAT, Russia's ULITSA SEZAM, Israel's RECHOV SUMSUM, Palestine's SHARA'A SIMSIM, or even Canada's SESAME PARK. Because of the HIV epidemic that has plagued South Africa for quite some time, TAKALANI SESAME was going to introduce a new Muppet character, a little monster girl named Kami, who, sadly, was born with the virus, as many children in South Africa are. Unfortunately, given how critical thinking skills are in short supply among America's rightwing, the outdated mentality that HIV/AIDS was a virus exclusively spread through sexual relations among homosexuals still persisted among these folks, so when they saw the news about the introduction of a new HIV-positive Sesame Muppet, these simpletons misinterpreted the news altogether as the original American SESAME STREET adding a gay Muppet to the show, which of course just outraged them to no end. Since PBS Kids shows were all about inclusion, acceptance, and tolerance, their way of thinking also drove them to the conclusion that all of these other shows were indoctrinating children into what they dismissed as an evil cult (oh, the irony), and as such, called for a boycott of these shows, as well as any fundraising PBS did for these shows. Of course, this was all hysteria and hyperbole, but another unfortunate thing is that these misguided people have incredibly loud voices that resonate among those who align with their way of thinking, so this boycott quickly gained traction, even before we began our pledge drive for that year. Having seen the writing on the wall for myself, I did attempt to warn my fellow PBS teamsters about this boycott, but given the ridiculous nature of said boycott, not to mention how the right has targeted PBS as a whole for years, they merely shrugged it off as more empty threats from a group of crazies who couldn't actually hurt us . . . except they did actually hurt us. Our pledges took a direct hit, and the station fell quite short of its goal for that year. They attempted to fix the problem the following year's pledge drive by raising the minimum pledge amount from $20 to $25, but even so, the damage had been done, and pledges continued to dwindle. Because of this, that was the last we ever did any on-air pledge drives specifically for children's programming, and they turned to private fundraisers instead.

Musk and Marjorie's assault on SESAME STREET and PBS is nothing new whatsoever, and it's not even these properties or outlets that those on the right side of the aisle have been going after for what they perceive to be indoctrination of our youth. You may have seen how the GOP has been actively banning and burning books all across the nation, particularly those that touch on subjects and topics relating to sexuality and gender identity . . . again, this is nothing new either. Going back to the previously-mentioned conservative Bush era, in 2007, these same people began banning and burning HARRY POTTER books after author J.K. Rowling revealed that Hogwarts headmaster Dumbledore was gay; again, the accusation was that our children were being exposed to, and groomed and indoctrinated into an, "evil cult." Funny, it seems to me that those who are actively trying to censor certain media and shield children from seeing depictions of diversity and inclusion are the ones who are doing the indoctrination.

Major Ferret Face

As you can see, the Grand Old Party is without question a war-mongering party; if it's not wars involving combat soldiers shedding blood and losing lives while fighting with other countries, it's class and culture wars being incited and fought amongst American people of differing races, sexualities, genders, or religions. They have instigated and dragged the rest of us into such wars for ages. If all of this proves one thing, it's that the GOP and the religious right are among the most regressive people on the face of this planet; they never change their tune, and they continue to steep their closed-minded worldviews in the tea kettles of hatred and bigotry. Want another example? Let's take a look at Major Frank Burns: here is a character on a TV show from the 1970s that was set in the 1950s, yet when you watch him, you realize that he is absolutely no different than any MAGA minion of today: he possesses the exact same backward thinking rooted in bigotry that you see permeate throughout the entire MAGA crowd - it has actually made him an even more frightening character to watch, but again, it goes to show you just how deeply stuck in their ways these people are. So while these assaults on SESAME STREET, PBS, children's education and entertainment are nothing new, they unfortunately are becoming far more aggressive as the likes of Trump and Musk embolden their base and stoke the fires that are spreading across the country (and even the world) that threaten our very democracy, and the people living within our society who don't conform to their idealogies in any way, shape, or form. 

These are certainly dangerous times we're living in. Will we ever see an end to these wars? It's hard to say.

TECHNICOLOR DREAMS: The 10th Anniversary

Dream on! Dream on! Dream on!

Now here is a relic from that past that really was from a different time . . . and as a matter of fact, may not have even stood the test of time at all.

TECHNICOLOR DREAMS was my experimental film in its truest form from both an artistic and technical aspect, but at its core, TECHNICOLOR DREAMS was a pseudo-autobiographical deep dive into my creative process as a Content Creator.

As a lot of artists will tell you, and I am certainly no exception to this rule, a sizable hunk of our ideas come to us in our dreams, and a vast majority of the better ideas that I've ever had have been sourced from the cavernous mines of my mind: I have had numerous TV show concepts, and even entire movies come to me in my dreams . . . it's not at all unlike what people have said about THE DARK CRYSTAL being the movie that Jim Henson saw in his head (which also may or may not explain why, at the time, that movie made sense to nobody but him).

Script sample

Still, dreams fascinate me, especially mine, because honestly, I rarely have what I would consider to be pleasant, or even "normal" dreams. That is to say, I would estimate about 98% of my dreams are incredibly lucid, vivid, trippy, disturbing, and borderline nightmarish . . . think of them as if Sid & Marty Krofft shows were written by Stephen King and designed by Salvador Dali. Cosmically, my dreams are just straight-up weird, maaaaan! Like I say, though, in as much as dreams like these are a constant source of the hebejebes for me, every once in a while, I will end up striking gold for an idea for a very ambitious project; at times, it's as if my astral projections are more like astral movie projectors showcasing a mental film festival, and it's from that mental film festival that many of my more ambitious project ideas were born. Ironically, I'm not one of those people who actually keeps a dream journal by my bedside, and that is something I've been reproached about . . . I am very lucky if I can remember all or any of the pertinent details of my dreams without writing them down, because more often than not, I will gradually begin to forget such details of these dreams throughout the rest of the day after waking up. Those that I do remember and have provided me with outlines and treatments, however, have at least made it through the development stages, ranging from scripts being written and characters being designed . . . unfortunately, that's about as far those have gotten anywhere. This is why TECHNICOLOR DREAMS has become the closest things of such dreams becoming a reality.

Designing Dream Sprites

Because of the nature of my dreams and how big of a source of inspiration they are, in February 2015, I finally decided to get a little creative with my own creativity, and do something of a personal deep-dive into this creative process of mine by actually making a film about it, which is why TECHNICOLOR DREAMS is a true experimental film - it didn't necessarily follow a story or a plot, but it was a way of showing how dreams can lay down the foundation from which you can build entire universes for the world of fiction. As a matter of fact, the entire concept of my being visited by a pair of dream sprite was one big alegory to this creative process of mine, with the dream sprites themselves symbolically representing a pair of similar characters for one TV show premise that came to me in a dream as far back as 2007 that I have really wanted to actually create and execute, but has still never seen the light of day.

But TECHNICOLOR DREAMS wasn't just an experimental film from an creative and artistic perspective, because there was also a lot of technical experimentation that went on behind the scenes as well. The production itself was fairly simple -helped by there only being one set: my bedroom- but this time I had some new toys to play with. It was my first production to be filmed in full HD, and also one of my first productions that was edited with a professional editing program: Adobe Premiere. I had already played around with Adobe Premiere with a previous production, THE WINDMILL, just to sort of familiarize myself with certain things I was able to do now that were previously unavailable to me in years past, such as lighting effects. This time, I wanted to try even more things that wasn't able to accomplish before, namely being able to overlay and blend film and video footage with psychedelic imaging to create dream-like sequences.

Editing TECHNICOLOR DREAMS in Adobe
Premiere. Oh, hey, that's a nice face, isn't it?

But it was even more than just that. One of the biggest influences on my production work has been the classic single-camera sitcoms of yesteryears that were shot on 35mm motion picture film, which gave them such a rich and distinct look that not only is lacking in many other shows that are shot on multiple cameras that record on videotape, but also severely lacking in this day and age of digital media in general. I have always wanted to emulate the look, feel, and aesthetic of the golden age of television, and now I could finally start doing that. As they say, everything is fixable in post[-production]; figuring out your camera's settings is a good way to achieve a certain look you want to capture on film or video, but it all can still be improved in the editing process. With Adobe Premiere, not only are there presets available that you can use to simulate the appearance of certain types of filmstock, but all sorts of other technical wizardry are at your fingertips to adjust your footage's brightness, contrast, color saturation, and even the framerate, to achieve the desired look you want - even as I previously mentioned regarding blending footage, I could now also employ overlays of grain and film dust to really give my productions that old 35mm motion picture film look I've wanted for so long, and continue to do to this day. Of course, I was still green around the gills in this area, and I still had a lot to learn - I'm even still learning to this day. I have been and probably always will be an artist first and foremost, and a technician second. Whenever I put a new project into action, it always begins from an artistic approach, so my mind doesn't always immediately take the technical aspects into consideration, which is why even as my production work began to improve, it still was far from perfect; I knew about simple adjustments (again, brightness, contrast, saturation, and the like), but I was ignorant and clueless about other technical aspects such as color correction, legal ranges, white and black balances, and so on and so forth . . . heck, even manual exposure and focus were foreign concepta to me at first because I was accustomed to working with cheaper consumer cameras that mostly operated on automatic settings that adjusted to your environment accordingly.

After all was said and done, TECHNICOLOR DREAMS premiered on YouTube on the night of Sunday, February 22, 2015. What was the critical response? It was a mixed bag, to say the least. Truthfully, TECHNICOLOR DREAMS probably became my most polarizing production to date: people either loved it or hated it, with hardly any middle ground. Those who enjoyed the film were able to appreciate it for its originality, and to see the then-visual and technical improvements in my content; those who hated the film found it to be too long, too dragged out, and too redundant. I did attempt to remedy at least one of these critiques: two years later on Sunday, February 26, 2017, I released a redux of the film that shortened its TRT from 18 to 13 minutes, but apparently, that wasn't much of an improvement, and the reception was still mixed. Looking back on it myself, I have come to the conclusion that another major problem with the film was that even though it was, admittedly, pseudo-autobiographical, it may also have been a little too self-indulgent as well . . . even when I couldn't think of a suitable title for the film (I considered such possibilities as THE DREAM CATCHERS and THE DREAM BUSTERS), I eventually went with TECHNICOLOR DREAMS, which was inspired by the Broadway musical JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAM COAT (because my name is Joseph, and because my dreams are so vivid, you could say I dream in Technicolor). I'm not at all saying that this was a vanity project, because I'm not too particularly fond of being in front of the camera as I am behind it, but the way I presented this concept was just from my own personal experience and perspective. While I'm sure there are countless other artists and creative individuals out there who have had similar experiences in finding inspiration for material from their subsconcious, the film may have been a litttle too esoteric that it excluded others and didn't necessarily resonate with a broader or more general audience. Of course, it also could very well have been the simple fact that avant garde isn't for everybody; in fact, most general audiences prefer to be told a narrative story that they can invest in and follow along with, which is usually why such experimental and artsy sort of avant garde filmmaking tends to go unappreciated and/or misunderstood by the average joe. I guess what they say is true, "True art is incomprehensible."

Ten years later, TECHNICOLOR DREAMS really does feel like it was made such a long, long time ago, and admittedly, is not something that I look back on with as much fondness as I do with other productions I've made over the years. Not only does it really not stand the test of time, but even the dream sprite puppets haven't survived: they ended up being damaged and destroyed in storage . . . guess that makes them fodder for the Dead Puppets Society.

Dead as a doornail

In conclusion, as I look back on TECHNICOLOR DREAMS, I wouldn't necessarily say I'm entirely proud of it. I would certainly consider it one of my better technical achievements; artistic, not so much.

My Unfinished Thoughts on Solastalgia

This word may be new to you, as it was to me, and that's because it actually is a relatively new word. So, what does "Solastagia" mean anyway? Is it the sense of solace you feel whenever you find yourself nostalgic for a certain bygone era? Is it nostalgia for anything having to do with the solar system? The fall season is upon us (well, it should be anyway), does it have anything to do with a solstice? Actually, no, that wouldn't be the case, because the next solstice isn't until December 21st; must be the equinox I'm thinking of. Okay, so just what does this relatively new word mean exactly? Thankfully, an outdoor theater production, coincidentally entitled SOLASTAGIA, was helpful enough to include the very definition of the word on their poster; so let's take a look. . . .

Solastalgia (noun): A state of homesickness we feel when the places that matter most to us-- our homes, our lands, and our communities-- are disrupted, changed, or threatened.

Ohhh, so that's what this sense of despair and depression is that I feel myself suffering from with increasing regularity over the past decade as I witness our beautiful seasons of fall and winter continually diminish to prolonged summers and earlier springs due to Climate Change year after year. I thought it was just my SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) kicking into overdrive, but it's far more complicated than that! Actually, it's really not that complicated at all; it's really quite simple. I do find myself homesick for the way my home environment used to be, when September through November was a transitional period of the weather gradually cooling off and ushering in the forthcoming winter season, which used to last through the entirety of December through February . . . but for nearly a decade, that has been becoming less and less the case, as we see summer heat continue to linger through almost all of September, sometimes even into October, while spring will begin teasing us throughout January and February before arriving in full force as soon as the calendar turns the page to March. I can even count a number of holiday seasons where it certainly didn't feel like Christmas or Valentine's Day while wearing short sleeves.

But, I digress. This isn't about my annual ranting about Climate Change; this is about an incredible outdoor performance I played spectator to last weekend at Knoxville's World's Fair Park (the same World's Fair Park where in 1982, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL dismissed us as a, "Scruffy little river city," but a title we have worn with pride ever since). The title of the performance? As I said: SOLASTALGIA.

A joint-venture of Cattywumpus Puppet Council and One World Circus, SOLASTALGIA was presented as a three-act outdoor theater program that featured performances by puppets, live actors, musicians, and acrobatic circus performers who could dance on the side of a tall building. Well, you know me; they had me at puppets.

This was an incredibly artistic, eclectic, Avant garde show with heavy undertones regarding climate and environmental changes, social injustices, the adverse effects of governmental neglect, and of course, the future of humanity . . . in short, this is exactly the sort of show that those who lean way over into the right would unironically dismiss as a woke Satanic ritual, and those involved with or attending the show as groomers (particularly this one old man I saw in the audience dressed in a hot pink tank top with a cape that looked like rainbow butterfly wings). Clearly, the people who put this show together had a message to tell, and they were not afraid to deliver their message through vignettes that were rich in biting sarcasm and stinging satire, but also generous in humor and especially heart. A lot of the comments I've read on social media from others who attended the show described it as being extremely cathartic, and that it refreshed and rejuvenated their spirit and soul. I can attest to that - SOLASTALGIA was also something of a veritable lovefest, where concepts and ideals such as peace, love, harmony, unity, and togetherness were also encouraged . . . so, again, in other words, a woke Satanic ritual as others might unironically call it.

That's just the gist of it anyway. As I said, SOLASTALGIA was presented as a three-act program, all three of which involved audience participation - how fun! As a matter of fact, one of the first things we were asked to do upon arrival was fill out a brief little questionnaire that was going to be included in the show; so brief was this questionnaire that there were only two questions: 1) What would you miss the most if the climate continues to change; 2) What is something that needs to be composted in our world today. (For what it's worth, my answers to both were beautiful fall and winter seasons, and hate and division). It wouldn't be until Act II that we would see how our answers would be incorporated into the show.

And now, a rundown of said show. . . .

Act I: The Unraveling Circus
This portion of the show is pretty self-explanatory: it was a circus that was unraveling before our very eyes - and not just because of the performances in the act consisting of acrobats raveling and unraveling themselves above the stage in long strands of silky fabric. This was a circus that just fell apart before our very eyes. Why was that? Well, let's see: Food? Check. Shelter? Check. War? Check. Inflation? Check. Taxes? Check. Police Brutality? Check. Climate Change? Check. Low Wage Jobs? Double check! Yep, all of that, and more, were part of the act! During one of their skits, volunteers were brought down from the audience to juggle all of the above-mentioned issues . . . how is that even possible? Simple: all of the issues were scribbled onto different colored dodgeballs, and the volunteers had to juggle them to the best of their ability. Okay, I've gotten a little ahead of myself, but this goes to show you how brave and fearless this show was to take on such hard-hitting issues that impact us so greatly in our modern world, and how much it resonated with the audience who was there (except for those who would probably call this a Satanic ritual). 

And it wasn't just those topics they tackled; we were also treated to Capitalism. Yes, Capitalism herself usurped the scraggly ringmaster (who ate noodles out of his hat) and hijacked the circus, promising us in the audience that she would, "Make Circuses Great Again!" (Hmm . . . I wonder where we've heard that before. . . .) As she proceeded to taunt the animal acts with promises of french fries, but they had to work harder for the fries, and even as she put them through such balancing acts, she belittled, insulted, mocked, and ridiculed them, because, hey, animals are expendable, dispensable, and replaceable. Yeah, she really made the circus great again - so much so that the animals and (former) ringmaster came together to subdue her and reclaim their circus. Now that's overturning of power I can get behind!

Frog soup, anyone?

Of course this circus had animal acts! Not actual animals, of course; there is no way a frog could take a dip and nearly die in a boiling tub while a couple of other frogs perform more feats of acrobatic stunts above without PETA burning this whole show to the ground. No, these, obviously, were puppeteers and suit performers who provided us with not just animal acts, but other vignettes as well. One of the most prominent animals featured not just in this act, but throughout the entire show was Grandmother Spider. For those of you who aren't familiar with this figure of Native American mythology (particularly among the Choctaw tribe of Mississippi and Tennessee), Grandmother Spider is a symbol of unity among humanity, that we are all connected to one another by the magical threads of her silk. Once again, I am not so sure that everybody believes in such an ideal, considering there are certain people who seem to believe our society is in need of a "purification process" (you know what I mean; I really don't want to have to actually say it), but those of us who were there definitely sensed the connection - not just the connection the performers made with us as an audience who were engaged by their acts, but all of us collectively as people, we as an audience felt that sense of connection permeate throughout the amphitheater.

Grandmother Spider connects us all with her magical thread

We may be of different generations. . . .

For all the laughs this show provided with its satirical sociopolitical commentary, it could not only hit hard, it could also hit deep. Not all of the skits and vignettes in this show entertained us, they also compelled us to think long and hard about the shape our world is in, and what could possibly happen to it if we don't act accordingly - a message that was spoken in another particularly captivating vignette that dealt with the struggles of trying to adapt and survive in a future where the world as we know it is being ravaged by Climate Change and other politically-charged disasters, as discussed among three generations of women: a teen, an adult, and an elder. There certainly seems to be something of a cultural divide within our society as well, and I'm sure you've seen all of the grief that's arisen amongst the generation gaps: "Okay, Boomer," "Lazy Millennials," "Snowflake Generation," and the like . . . I know a lot of it stems from witnessing different cultural and historical events, and different experiences that one generation may not necessarily understand as well as another, but one thing transcends all generations is that we all share this world, and we all have a responsibility to see to it that the world is a safe place where future generations can live, thrive and prosper . . . but how is that even possible when the world itself in on such a downward spiral? Even our current generations have no clue how to cope with such, and the advice we may receive from previous generations may not seem to offer up much hope. Different generations are not as different as they seem.

. . . . But we're really not so different.

Act II: Funeral for Humanity
Remember when I said earlier that audience members were asked to fill out that brief little questionnaire about what we would miss the most if Climate Change continues to ravage our world, and what sort of trash we wish we could compost within our world? Well, that is where we as the audience got to participate in the show once again, as the second act of SOLASTALGIA was a one big funeral march for humanity. Yes, we paid our last respects to humanity as we know it. The frogs and other animals carried with them a coffin, and as the band played appropriately somber and melancholic New Orleans-style funeral music, we were all rounded up, marched out of the amphitheater, and around the World's Fair Park's Viaduct, where we watched as the animals took our questionnaires from a pair of wicker baskets, and laid them to rest within the coffin that was laid to rest upon the water . . . and then set on fire.

But of course, a funeral is not just exclusive to acknowledgement of death, but it also can be a celebration of life, and that was exactly what we celebrated as we made our way out of the World's Fair grounds and over to the nearby Tennessean Building; the impromptu little dance party served as something of a segue into the third and final act. . . .

Act III: Vertical Dancing
The third and final act may have been among SOLASTALGIA's greatest visual spectacles.
After our procession over to The Tennessean building, we were treated to members of the Dragonfly Aerial & Circus Arts Studio descending from the roof to display some amazing, death-defying acrobatics as they slowly danced their way down the side of the building - all the while also accompanied by a shadow puppet show that, once again, sent out loud and clear messages about the sort of social injustices that humanity has the power to defy and overcome. The word "awesome" seems to have lost its true meaning as our vocabulary has evolved (or in some cases, de-evolved) over the generations, but this particular spectacle was truly awesome, and awe-inspiring, in the truest sense of the word.

As the Dragonfly Dancers continued their descent down the side of The Tennessean, a pair of giant light-up puppets arrived on the scene to provide us with the capper for our evening: we followed them out into the grassy area of the World's Fair Park, where we all eventually joined together for a Kumbaya-esque sing-along, which further brought all of us together and connected us as one.

The folks of Cattywampus Puppet Council, One World Circus, and Dragonfly Aerial & Circus Arts Studio managed to put together an incredible show that was full of artistic vision, and unmatched talent to share that artistic vision with us. Those who graced the stage of the amphitheater were an absolute delight to watch, with particular emphasis on the likes of Andreas Bastias (whom I actually recognized from working at a local co-op market), who charmed us with his animal magnetism as a meek cockroach and the nurturing Grandmother Spider; Jake Weinstein, who was a hoot as our sketchy and seedy but ever-so-trustworthy ringmaster; and Rachel Milford, who was a bundle of effervescent energy, and crushed it in each of her numerous roles (even if one those roles was the personification of Capitalism).

I honestly have to say, I feel like I have only scratched the surface in my review of this show, and that's because I pretty much have. There were still many more skits and vignettes than what I've mentioned in this review . . . it's extremely difficult to describe the experience of seeing this show in words or text (it took me several days just to try to write this very review), because it was just that: this wasn't a show, this wasn't an act, this wasn't a performance, this was an experience; you really had to be there and see it for yourself to really understand the impact SOLASTALGIA had on those of us in attendance. And even saying that SOLASTALGIA left an impact on us would be a gross understatement. Remember those books CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL? That's exactly what this show was. Not the books, that is; I mean watching this show was very much like chicken soup for the soul. That's how impactful, cathartic, and refreshing it was. Through it all, there was a sense of unity, connection, togetherness, acceptance, and love among everyone - on and off stage. Even as the show was breaking up, people were hugging and holding onto each other - some were even going up to the performers to hug and hold onto them as well. In a world where there is so much hate and division, SOLASTALGIA was more than a breath of fresh air. As an artist and Content Creator myself, I will never agree with anyone who says art shouldn't be used to make a statement, because this amazing, outstanding, and incredible showcase of visual performance art made statements that everybody should hear out, listen to, take into consideration, ponder and wonder.

So please, take a moment as we did throughout this show, turn to and look at the person next to you, sense the connection you may share with this person, realize that we are all the same, that we need each other, and that we have the power to change the world and make it a better place for not only ourselves, but our descendants as well. Love trumps hate.

A Truly Muppetational Day

 The Knoxville Fanboy Expo really knocked it out of the park this year, and I had an incredible weekend getting to meet some amazing Muppet/Henson veterans such as Bill Barretta, Kirk R. Thatcher, Steve Whitmire, and Kevin Clash, but also one of my favorite comedians, Jon Lovitz. I got spend several minutes with Bill, Kirk, and Steve, not just chatting about Muppet matters, but the art of puppetry in general - these guys really make a longtime fan feel more like an old friend, which were the biggest highlights of my day. Unfortunately, I really didn't get to chat with either Kevin or Jon - their lines were kept moving at all times, but it was still such a treat getting to meet them in person. There were still a number of other icons I would have loved to have met also, including Paul Williams, Anthony Anderson, Jaleel White, and Danny Trejo just to name a few . . . but I ran out of funds (Paul Williams alone was a third of my budget for that day) . . . that, and I couldn't find some of their tables, considering the Fanboy Expo had guests occupying all three floors of the Convention Center this year, and I had never set foot into some of these areas before.

Pepe the King Prawn may be an little asshole (Bill's words, not mine), but Bill Barretta is definitely one of the nicest, friendliest people you could ever meet!

Kirk Thatcher said we were going for a PLANES, TRAINS, AND AUTOMOBILES vibe when posing for our selfie.

Met Steve the first time in 2018. . . .

and again in 2024

I already met Steve Whitmire once before in 2018, but I couldn't resist meeting up with him again this year; still such a great guy. As you can see, I brought my old one-eared Ernie with me again.

Elmo and Splinter almost look like they're trying to photobomb my selfie with Kevin Clash, doesn't it?

Jon Lovitz didn't really seem to appear well that day; I don't know if he was feeling under the weather or what. Still didn't want to pass up the opportunity.

Some of Kevin Clash's disguinished colleagues such as Caroll Spinney, Alan Muraoka, Roscoe Orman, Emilio Delgado, and Bob McGrath had previously signed this mammoth book years before.\

MUPPET TREASURE ISLAND was one of my favorite Muppet movies as a kid (and the first one I saw in theaters), and was one I knew each of the Fanboy Expo's guests had worked on, so I had to have them sign this for me. And yes, Bill Barretta signed it in-character as Clueless Morgan.

All in all, one of the best days of my life, and definitely the highest point of 2024 for me. (I would have worn a Jim Henson t-shirt I have for the occasion, but it was hotternell outside, so I dressed cooly to keep from melting).

Oh, and in case anybody asks, no, those aren't actual Kermit and Elmo puppets at Steve and Kevin's tables, they were replicas that were gifted to them by other fans. Steve said that the Kermit replica was actually pretty close to the real thing in terms of size and construction.