Time Traveling Agony

Things revealed: Blair Thomas's studio, Smart Museum's presentation of Dan Kerr-Hobert's Kinetoscope Project, our doll contribution to The Twins Would Like to Say staged in Steppenwolf's Garage Space, my giant painting in progress of Lil' Pebbles getting big as a mountain, some chickpeas in a skillet, Joe Mazza's humble abode plus puppets, the beautiful creature that is JACK, and other relics of breathtaking Ohio. I swear I could explain these things better in person if you challenge me-

Barrage of Photos from Colorado Trip

Colorado was loads of fun, work, and total destruction. Here are some lovely pictures :)

Inches from Done

I Hope You are Waltzing in the Wind Like a Feather

Remounting the BEER show for this Thursday. It's to raise funds for our trip out to Colorado's Great American Beer Festival performances!

The drive home was meditative. Buckeley and NPR were my copilots:

Recently

Rehearsals, more puppet building, Brad Smith at the Hideout, and Hungarian Bull's Blood wine:

Clay Worms are Delicious

Plus new kicks for super cheap:

Puppet Mania

Friends of Beer, Friends of Neo

The Neo-Futurists are taking BEER , the hit Neo-Futurist Puppet Musical, to sunny Denver, Colorado, in the midst of the Great American Beer Festival!!

We're raising money to take this show there. If you need something to do the next four Thursday nights, consider seeing this:

30 On Thursday
plays from the archives of Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind

Thursday nights at 9:30 p.m.
August 20-September 10
at the Neo-Futurarium at Ashland and Foster

Past and present Neo-Futurists participate in a special run of the best plays from the archives of Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind, bringing the late-night hit to a new time slot for four performances only.

$15 for performance OR $20 for performance and 60 post-show minutes of local brew at Hopleaf Bar

There's also going to be a remount of BEER on Sept. 17th in the Metropolitan Brewery, if you missed it and like the idea of seeing it... or if you just want to see it again.

Puppets for Your Eyeball

Some works in progress from our upcoming puppet show, The Conqueror Worm, by Edgar Allen Poe. Dan and I are presenting it through a new performance piece by the Neo Futurists, entitled Fear.

Last Saturday's X-Rated Beer Puppet Show, Drawing, & Malort with Doug

You are Playing far too Rough for an Ape Who's been to the Moon

A few recent pages from An Army of Lovers will be Beaten Book 4:

I am Humbled & Laughing Pretty Hard

Oh Boy!

The Ecstacy of Pilsen

A Much Belated Bird Show Video from 2006

Check it out at my website or click below to watch it:

Shoot me an email/phone call if you'd like a high quality DVD of it!

Charbel Khalil

This puppet satire show "Democracy" by Charbel Khalil is pretty hypnotizing. I wish I spoke Arabic:

Read about him at the New York Times Website.

Our Magical Extravaganza

Another very nice article about our play, BEER:
Web Behrens at Chicago Free Press

Nice Press #3

Oo! Someone called me "ingenious!" I'm atwitter:

John Olson at Talkin Broadway
Rory Leahy at Centerstage

Nice Press #2

Click below to read them!

Hedy Weiss at the Sun Times
Randy Hardwick at the Chicago Critic
Tim McCormick at Time Out Magazine

Nice Press

Yay, the Chicago Reader said nice things about my play:

"Like the beverage, this Neo-Futurist show ain't classy. But it just may be the feel-good experience of the year. Ten-year-old Boon and his puppet sidekick, Puke--the nickname comes from an unfortunate encounter with piss beer--embark on a Wizard of Oz-like quest to learn the art of craft brewing and vanquish Bud Miller, evil purveyor of Millweiser. Along the way they meet beer ingredients in puppet form. In one of many ingenious touches in a lovingly crafted show, plastic jugs slung together create Hard Water, a bodybuilder, and Soft Water, a little old man. A talented five-piece band plays original songs and various roles. The only thing missing from this show--written by Sean Benjamin and Steve Mosqueda of Drinking and Writing fame, and directed by Dan Kerr-Hobert--is actual beer. Dress warm for the chilly setting, a working brewery. --Laura Molzahn $10-$15, pay what you can on Thursdays and during previews"

January 30, 2009

Happy Birthday, Bernie!
Our play, BEER, opened last night for a preview & it was a blast. I relearned how to form a Windsor necktie, put finishing touches on the puppets, and operated the slide show from above the giant beer cooler in the Metropolitan Brewery. AND they asked me to design the labels for their next line of Beers! Life's grand.

Puppet City, population: BADASS

Drawing, Cutting, Rubbering into the Night

and it's CRUNCH time.
If you weren't a flower, I'd buy you some flowers.

Back to Painting Rubber Molds on the Dining Room Table

Life Explosion, Ludicrous Speed

Larry Koek and his beautiful Seabull (Siebel) in progress. Expect nostrils, cowbell, a giant ring, horns, and luminous color pouring from its crevices. It is his ecstatic contribution to our puppet show, BEER:

My current sketchbook. It is painted with the Metropolitan Brewery keg logo:

The distillery next door. Was it salvaged from 2000 Leagues Under the Sea? Science!

An unplanned birthday party. I ran into a fella I knew in high school, Benny. There was much dancing & guilty pleasure:

Drawings for Upcoming T-Shirts

Some T-Shirt designs for our upcoming NeoFuturist play, BEER!

The Same Deep Water As You

Over a week into rehearsals & life is great. It couldn't be going better. The puppets, T-shirts, and animations plug along here in my bedroom studio. Laura and Steve brought Curtis a cake tonight, as it is his birthday. I'm up late drawing while Bucket the cat stares at me, in the mysterious way that she does. There is a pretty good chance that I'll wake to her cuddling all over my face in the morning. I don't think I left anything out... Oh yea, I'm listening to really old Cure songs right now for some reason. Please, please make fun of me.

The New Shape of Being Nocturnal

Old Bernie McG will be up all night making puppets...

I've broken out the dusty AIM messenger business if you're ever looking for an intimate talk with your favorite ginger as he sews, saws, paints, and sketches his way through January. My screen name is PrinceEclipse after a fictional rapper that I haven't made any material for yet.

And here's a picture of my friend Julie wearing her gear for riding the CTA late at night. She sewed a couple awesome pieces for us recently while home from New York. Hurray:

Puppet Mania & a Visitor

So!
In the last few days we've cast some very successful rubber molds:

We've made some wild foam shapes:

We've turned our living room into a studio:

There has been some healthy work-shopping:

There was a pretty girl wearing Steve's reading glasses:

And we had a glorious Emily visiting from out of town.
She is dressed as a butterfly napping:

Rubbing with Rubber

Dan & I are in puppet building overdrive!

It feels a lot like that effect in Star Trek when stars turn into long skinny lines and your hair is being blown back as if riding in a convertible.

A Little Video that may only Make Sense to Dan

Here's a little draft for "Three Floyds" puppet's mouth operation. I realize they look like training chop sticks. Click play to watch:

And a drawing:

BEER Show Sketches

Some new concept sketches for the BEER puppet show with the Neo Futurists:

Metropolitan Brewery

The future site of our next puppet show with the Neo Futurists:

Puke Puppet Brainstorms

And now for puppet design drafts for a new show by the wonderful Neo-Futurists. This show is called Beer, and it will heavily feature animation & puppets by yours truly. Another joint venture with the wonderful Dan Kerr-Hobert! January is right around the corner. Below, you'll find some drawings for a hat-full of puke that comes alive to become a young boy's friend/guide. We wonder if he out-grows the hat as a chair, at some point wearing it on his head:

And sure enough I managed to make a phallic one before passing out. Why would I do this?

Idhi oka idi le

Thanks, Journalista! What a wild ride:

Birthday Present for Puppeteers

For the fine puppeteers that we worked with on our Hedwig & the Angry Inch production.

Nerds & Vicious Unseen Things

Did you feel the earthquake this morning?
There are a slew of things from the month of March that I can't bare to see unposted. Like my favorite dioramas, the great shadow play just finished, a stuffed mystery, some snow, or the Rube Goldberg competition at the Children's Museum.
The internets is finally back:

Times

Hurry!

You only have until the end of March to see the elaborate shadow puppets of 13 Dead Husbands by yours truly. Here are two fine desktop images:

Plus:
Frederick Cooper, Light of the World issue #1 is finally polished off. Want to buy a copy from the artist before it gets purchased from a publisher? Click on the sample page below to buy one!
Additionally, here's a painting for Frederick Cooper (as a submission to the old Amelia's Magazine number 9) and a photo of little Bernie circa 1988:

Carpe Bernum

SO ~ "Le Cat Show" by Sarah Bendix and Mikalina Rabinsky was a true delight and engaging. The Chopin Theater was set aglow...
And apparently I'm the very last person to see the Baron Munchausen, which split my head right open letting goopy German-Irish-Polish brains spill out all over my room mates' beautiful rug:And so long for now, Chicago. I'm heading out to the country again to shake loose some of these city woes. But I'm bringing you with me Freddie :)

Beauty Manager

Take charge, Nanna... I'm gettin off this machine