Catching Up

Greetings from the Czech Republic!  But more on that in the next post.  It's been quite a while since I've written, and it looks like there are giant gaps in what I have posted (elf season, New Year's Eve).  Although it's too late to wrap up last year (any interesting or witty bits are long gone from my memory), I'll take a minute to update readers on the past few months.

At the end of January, I tucked my accordion into a closet at home, stocked up on altitude sickness and malaria pills, and headed on my dream trip to South America.  Ever since I started learning Spanish and discovered Andean music, I've wanted to visit my neighbors to the south to practice Spanish, hear said Andean music, and bask in the natural beauty.  Oh, and check Machu Picchu off my list.  So I spent two months in Ecuador, Peru, Chile, and Uruguay hiking, biking, hammock-ing, and meeting some great folks.  I bought a charango in Ecuador and learned to play a few chords over the course of the trip.

Then I returned home, busked a little in Northampton, and locked in to Professional Development mode to get ready for a big summer of busking.

Project #1: Dress
I had made my original piano-key dress in the summer of 2011 for Provincetown's "Don't Stop the Music" themed carnival, and instated it as my busking dress thereafter.  Two years later it's pretty ratty, hardly white, and gives me ample opportunity for sunburn.  It took a long time to find more piano key fabric, since Jo-ann had discontinued what I had originally bought.  After months of looking on the internet and all over New York's garment district, I found some nice wavy piano key fabric online, and bought many outfits' worth.

The new outfit is a separate top and skirt to aid in laundering and layering in colder weather.  The top covers my back and shoulders for sun purposes, and the skirt is longer than my old one for modesty purposes.  Both halves have lining!  The whole thing generally has more character than the old one:

Project #2: Theater improvements
When I set up Flaca's puppet theater, I picked up DIY self-adhesive linoleum squares at Poundland, which is of course the British equivalent of the dollar store.  These gave Flaca a nice wooden-looking dancefloor.  But they were heavy and I had done a bad job applying them so I brought the box to my artist friend Lindsay for a painted version instead.  Much better!

Before

After

 My dad provided invaluable service and expertise in various parts of the setup, including building a new controller, installing a bushing for the bell, building the aluminum dance stage, etc.

Project #3: New Marionette
After about a year of searching antique shops in the Valley, New York, and around South America, I finally found a new marionette.  The main reason for making the switch was that Flaca came from a souvenir shop and wasn't made for movement.  She was cute, but I needed someone with a wider spectrum of movement.


Then there's the issue of race.  Flaca, being Mexican, has dark skin.  Since I changed her clothes her ethnic background is no longer clear, so people just see her as a "puppet of color," as one Northampton woman joyfully proclaimed.  On the rare occasion that someone comments on this, it is usually positive; the person is glad to see a multi-ethnic act.  On the other hand, there have been a few white men who offered controversial commentary.  The first asked when I was going to get a Caucasian puppet, and the other straight-out called poor Flaca something derogatory.  Just a few weeks ago, in Northampton, a guy asked if Flaca was supposed to mock Michelle Obama.  What the?

These people didn't sway me to consider the message I was giving, but a young Northampton woman did.  She said she was offended because Flaca is Black and I'm controlling her; that she is submissive to me.  This was one person's opinion, but I started worrying.  Were more people thinking this but not saying it?  Maybe I was offending people right and left.  Flaca also looks cartoon-y, which might offend people furthermore, as a caricature.

I replaced Flaca for mechanical reasons, because I found a marionette who was really well-made and moved beautifully.  Ideally, I wanted her to have medium skin and medium hair; be racially ambiguous.  But the one I found is fair and blonde, and I ran out of time to do any other alterations.  She actually looks like me! But she just might visit the artist/beautician when we're home for new skin and hair hues.  Of course, now I'm worried that people will be offended because I DID change the puppet, that I improved the act by adding a white dancer.

I found Josephine at the Brimfield Fair, which was just a stroke of luck.  She was originally Gretel, and I bought her brother Hansel as well.  Over the week I had to get ready, I made Josie a matching piano-key dress, undid her braids, and restrung her, and Lindsay broadened her smile and repainted her socks and shoes.

Hansel and Gretel

Getting a piano dress.

Smile!

The finished effect

I didn't really have time to perfect the new setup before I left, and as of today Josephine is not working as well as Flaca.  An advantage of Flaca is that she's big and heavy, so her feet fall heavily after I lift them, making her a good dancer.  Josie is very light so she just flies around.  Looks like I have some tinkering to do!  Stay tuned for more details on my current digs.