What you doing here?!
Mimi has started saying "Mimi, What u doing here?!"or "Rolo, What u doin here?!" (Rolo the dog) while playing with toys and it is absolutely so stinkin' cute.
So in that spirit, I ask you - "What u doing here?!"
However you got here, dear reader, I'm glad you're here :)
Read on for some some career baby-steps, vintage toy discoveries, and possibly me hating the legend himself, Jim Henson (I'm sorry).
I've been feeling SO inspired by my decision to get back into "Children's Entertainment" and fully embracing my love for all things kids media. And figuring out how to work my social impact work/ documentary work fits into this puzzle. While "starting again" feels incredibly daunting, I am celebraing the little things!
Recent Career Pivot Baby-steps:
- The short claymation film I'm producing, Ang Merkado, is finished and we've submitted to some really exciting festivals – Fingers majorly crossed for some good news soon!
- I attended the Filmable Clubhouse event last night, with an incredibly relevant panel on submitting to festivals with programmers from VIFF, Vancouver Queer Film Fest, Whistler Film Fest, and the Vancouver Horror Show. – Most important take-away is that they really love supporting and elevating emerging local creators, so getting in touch and showing face is very valuable to them. A personal email goes a long way!
- I was accepted into the Media that Matters Conference!!! It will be 4 days of connecting with filmmakers and media-makers focused on impact. Can't wait. And it's hosted at the Community Farm we just joined! Feels Very kismet.
- I got my application in for the Children's Media Associations mentorship program and am waiting to find out who my mentor will be. So grateful to be back in community with filmmakers, writers, educators focused on children's media. Applying for this program also inspired me to reconnect with kids media friends I've met over the years, including my old pal Christina Zagarino, who just so happened to be an associate producer on Tulip, the Phoebe Wahl/Andrea Love wool-felted stopmotion collab that was released on Youtube this week!
Watch it here:
LOVE the world created in this film!
Keeping the creative flame alive:
Last week I dusted off my leather paint and painted these wonderful (yet painfully neutral) black Cole Haan Mules with leather paint in what I've been calling 'Celestial Clown' print. Miss Frizzle approved!
Clowns for a cause: A friend of mine has been raising money for an undocumented family who has had two family members taken by ICE, and is at risk of losing their housing (while caring for small children and having sold their family business to pay for legal fees). I decided to do a small fundraiser and auction these shoes off – together we raised $400.00 to send to my friend's fundraiser! And these Celestial Clown Mules are off to live their best life in Arizona :)
About a year ago, I started cutting my own hair. It's been an incredibly fun process to discover (I took this online course I'd been eyeing and it's been so worth it). I updated what I'm calling the "Mommy mullet" this past weekend.
Playroom happenings:
As much as I want to have an aesthetic, plastic-free playroom, the truth is, I absolutely delight in the art of the colourful plastic toy. I've never really considered myself a "Lego guy" but DUPLO might be the gateway.
Mimi had inherited a set of vintage Lego Duplo a few months ago which he fondly calls "Gaga Blocks" and they've inspired so much independent imaginative play!
This weekend we scored a MASSIVE bag of DUPLO at the thrift, including a tractor, a plane, and few diggers (!!!!) for $6.00 so we were all extremely stoked. (We did have to leave behind the $20.00 ride-on Excavator Truck which led to some heartbreak. The Duplos made it hurt less).
The bag contained different era's of Duplo characters from the 1970s through the 2000's, and I thoroughly enjoyed learning about their DUPLO history. DUPLO (designed for "little kids" 1.5-5 years old) started in 1969, and the first characters (the green guys below!) appeared in 1977.
The guy in the yellow construction hat is actually a stowaway - a vintage 1980s Playmobil construction worker.
What's playing/ being read on repeat this week!?
We signed out Pillowland from the library and the song has been such a hit, to the point of playing it on repeat before naptime/bedtime.
It's very cute, and frankly genius of Laurie to include pillow trains and trucks in the story.
Pillowland by Laurie Berkner
Mom Rage - Muppet Edition
I've been super inspired by puppets lately and started to deep dive into Muppets and Sesame street (Sesame Street has my heart, especially Bert)
I watched the Jim Henson Documentary on the plane a couple of weeks back (Shutout to Air Canada for the fabulous programming) and already started to get a weird feeling about Jim.
My feminist alarm bells were ringing, especially after watching the scene about how he and Jane Henson (his partner/wife) started the Muppets together, and in fact it was her who was interested in puppets and identified as an artist. She convinced him to try puppets! He wasn't even into kids programming?!
Obviously people are human, but I guess what bothers me about this is the sacrifice of art-making on Jane's part. She was simply not involved once she became a mom.
While Jim got to be a creative genius, absent/low-effort father, and become a legend. The artist-mom in me is pissed.
I tried to put these weird vibes aside as I started reading Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street this week, but by page 2 we have a portrait of a man who has left Jane (mother of his five children) and been an absent father in favour of entertaining global children with puppets. He sounds like a workaholic/ perfectionist and yet the way we describe him, especially in children's media, is that he is the ultimate creative genius. How is this aspirational?
There's a lot here to unpack, there has got to be more to this story.
But for now, I will read on and try to remember his redeeming qualities- incredible vision and dedication to the work.
If anyone knows more about Jane, I'd be interested to learn more about her.
Ps. "Why I want the Jane Henson Story" is a great start
Ta-ta for now!
Paisley
