Year: 2003

Peter will be taking back up his blog tomorrow. Here is a subject near and dear to my heart.

The Muppets have been up for sale for a while. EM.TV has had them on the block for over a year. It looked like a deal was about to be struck and now it seems dead. Some of the other companies that were looking at obtaining the frog and company including Disney have withdrawn their offers. Then there is SciFi’s decision about not producing the 5th season of Farscape which is a whole other can of worms.

All this is very frustrating to long time Muppet Fans. I should know. I am one.

I started watching the Muppets when they were on Sesame Street. I already had a fondness for puppets that, according to my mother, goes back to the age of two with a set of Wizard of Oz puppets that were bundled with Downey Fabric Softener. But I digress. Then came the Muppet Show, which I think is one of the most brilliant TV shows ever. My siblings and I can still quote large chunks of sketches from those shows. I became a Muppet Fan. Jim Henson had a big effect on my life. I would not be the puppeteer I am today without the Muppets. I can’t imagine a world without Muppets, but I may if this whole mess with EM.TV is not sorted out. The Sesame Street characters are owned by the Children’s Television Workshop and are not part of the deal.

People talk about “Dark Crystal” and “Labyrinth” as movies that changed movie making and what is possible. Jim Henson had a HECK of a time getting the financing together for those films. One of the reasons he did the deal with Disney was to get some financial security for his company.

But all is not doom and gloom. FOX is still talking about doing a new Muppet Show based on the old one. Time Life is releasing the old Muppet show on VideoTape and DVD. Pallisades has some rocking action figures available with more on the way. Hot Topic and other teen trend stores and catalogues have Muppet related stuff for sale. There is talk of more Muppet movies on the drawing board.

I’ll cross my fingers that when the dust settles the company that Jim Henson started is owned by those who know and care about my favorite felt and fun fur friends.

Peter is having a grand time out in California at the convention.

He’ll probably tell you all about it either here or in the CBG down the road. So I am not going to post anything related to his trip. I am going to post something about conventions and my experience over the years going to conventions.

I attended my first Science Fiction convention when I was 14. It was a local one day convention called MiniCon. It had authors of both comics and books, a movie room, and a dealers room. The dealers room was an eye opener for me. I didn’t know that there was that much STUFF related to my hobbies or that many people interested in the same subjects I was. I also got my first autograph in a book. It was Michael Bishop and I still own the book. From that point on, I went to conventions.

My first out of state convention was a ChattaCon where I made new friends there that are friends to this day. Some of them even came to my wedding. I started participating at conventions by volunteering. I was a gopher, badge checker, art show flunky, any job that needed doing I did. Somewhere in there I started costuming and it snowballed into running costume contests. Eventually I agreed, for better or worse, to be the Tech Director for DragonCon. It was an education to say the least. Along the way I met a lot of really great people and made some cool friends including my husband (I think I’ll save the “how we met” story for another day. We met at a convention.)

Now I go to conventions as a professional since I am an associate editor at Del Rey Books and work on the Star Wars series with Shelly Shapiro. It is possible to make your hobbies and interests into a full time job and conventions helped me to get where I am today.

This is Kathleen chiming in for Peter and herself.

Peter is at the CreationCon this weekend in California and lent me his blog for a few days.

I read the news of the shuttle off of one of the professional lists I belong to. I couldn’t believe it. I turned on my radio to NPR and found out that it was true. My heart went out to the family and friends of those lost and all those who work at NASA.

Peter and I pass on our thoughts and prayers to all who are touched by this tragic event.

Kathleen

To all the folks who voiced unspeakably rude sentiments directed at the host of this board–which would be me–simply because I’m skeptical of the scramble for war at a time when domestic issues unattended to (or exacerbated) by the administration loom so large…

How many are actually in the service and would be required to fight? How many have children who would be required to go? And how many of draft age support a draft (and I’ll be going on the assumption that the rudest and most blustering who respond affirmatively to the last one are full of crap.)

Just wondering.

PAD

CAPTAIN MARVEL #5. Revelations are made. Decisions are made. Deadlines are made. I haven’t actually seen a copy of the book yet, but I know it’s out.

Thoughts?

PAD