The Contents Of My Library
Gravity From Above | A Journey Into European Puppetry
by The Anadromist
3y ago
I have been asked a few times during my campaign to bring a container from Alaska to Tbilisi what kinds of things are actually in my library. Now I’ve never actually catalogued it, though for some odd reason I have been writing down my audio collection for years as I acquire things. But the only order there is chronological, which tells you a lot about my library in general. (What’s this Dewey decimal thing I’ve heard about?) So obviously I can’t just point to a page on the internet where I’ve catalogued by collection. I find it quite charming when someone makes a video showing off their Blu ..read more
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From Out Of The Whirlwind
Gravity From Above | A Journey Into European Puppetry
by The Anadromist
3y ago
At last I return to Gravity From Above. But I don’t actually feel like I’ve been away. I’ve been making too many videos on my three YouTube channels, which get far more attention than this site at the moment. AND I am trying to get my library sent to me here in Tbilisi, all the way from Alaska. And that is a campaign I’ve just started. But I am already well over halfway to my goal. Check it out. And if you are one of my long term supporters please do consider helping me accomplish this crazy herculean task. But I have more on my mind than simply asking for help. I want to let you know what’s ..read more
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Hands In The Dark #6
Gravity From Above | A Journey Into European Puppetry
by The Anadromist
3y ago
I wanted to write a book of my 2005 journey through European puppet theatres. I wrote several chapters in 2006. I sent a proposal in, but it went nowhere. This journey cemented my fascination with puppets. It changed my life. I’ve decided to one small part of my story with you. This is part six of six posts. The concluding section. This is the meat of the piece. Profitez! Charleville-Mézières, France March 23, 2005 The Element of Surprise An exhausted practice puppet at ESNAM in 2012 And now my head was exploding! I had hardly eaten all day but that scarcely mattered at the moment. I would f ..read more
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Hands In The Dark #5
Gravity From Above | A Journey Into European Puppetry
by The Anadromist
3y ago
I had planned to write a book of my 2005 journey through European puppet theatres. I wrote several chapters in 2006. I sent a proposal in, but it went nowhere. This journey cemented my fascination with puppets. It changed my life. I’ve decided to share my story with you folks. This is part five of six posts. Explore puppetry! Charleville-Mézières, France March 23, 2005 Recapitulations and Introductions With Aurélia Ivan after her performance. I stepped back onto Avenue Jean Jaurés acutely aware of three things: first, that I was desperately hungry; second, that everything seemed to be closed ..read more
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Hands In The Dark #4
Gravity From Above | A Journey Into European Puppetry
by The Anadromist
4y ago
I had planned to write a book of my 2005 journey through European puppet theatres. I wrote several chapters in 2006. I sent a proposal in, but it ended there. Yet this journey cemented my fascination with puppets. It changed my life. I’ve decided to share my story with you folks. This will part four of six posts. Bon Courage! Charleville-Mézières, France March 23, 2005 Missing Pieces Clea Minaker with her pile of debris. Clea Minaker had been at the last presentation. It was around 5:30 in the afternoon now. We met by the big marionette clock near the front door. Her mother was there as well ..read more
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Hands In The Dark #2
Gravity From Above | A Journey Into European Puppetry
by The Anadromist
4y ago
I had planned to write a book of my 2005 journey through European puppet theatres. I wrote several chapters in 2006. I sent a proposal in, but it went nowhere. This journey cemented my fascination with puppets. It changed my life. I’ve decided to share my story with you folks. This will part two of six posts. Profitez! Charleville-Mézières, France March 23, 2005 A Procession of Puppeteers (part 1) One of the automated performances of the Grand Marionnettiste There, a little ways down the road where it curved on Place Winston Churchill, stood a three story tall golden figure of a puppeteer, l ..read more
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Pandemic Gravity
Gravity From Above | A Journey Into European Puppetry
by The Anadromist
4y ago
Ghostly puppet from the Tbilisi Chamber Theatre’s Don Quixote. Greetings from Tbilisi! It’s been too long since I’ve written here on Gravity From Above. And given the current strictures of these pandemic times I shouldn’t have an excuse. And I don’t. Nevertheless I do have an answer. My video channels have been distracting me quite a bit as well as my observations of the moment. And I have some videos to share. Tbilisi Georgia has actually turned out to be a very good place to be. Only 626 cases. Almost half now recovered. Just 10 deaths. And the reason the numbers are quite low for this co ..read more
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Puppetry and Texture Part 3
Gravity From Above | A Journey Into European Puppetry
by The Anadromist
4y ago
 A tactile work of art by Jan Švankmajer made of resituated natural textures a la Arcimbaldo. And so I have been working to discover what other puppeteers think of this subject. One person I truly wanted to meet was Jan Švankmajer, whose work inspired Gravity From Above, my exploration of puppetry in Europe. His work is filled with textures, purposely distressed surfaces, rough fabrics, objects rendered impenetrable by his tampering with them. During the period when the Czech communists refused to allow him to make films he began to experiment with tactility, going as far as to make boxes t ..read more
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Puppetry and Texture Part 2
Gravity From Above | A Journey Into European Puppetry
by The Anadromist
4y ago
Puppet actors waiting in the dark wings of the Quay Brothers studios London in 2017. And so I began my investigations of puppetry. If the world was increasingly being emptied by the sterile textures of this shiny but hollow environment we were creating for ourselves. Could puppetry have an antidote to it? Since approximately the year 2000 music has become background soundtrack. Too much reading is now situated on another superficial glass plane. Art is the ‘wallpaper’ for your screen. I thought, maybe in this new world the puppet had a possibility of speaking into this flatness to help us to ..read more
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Puppetry and Texture Part 1
Gravity From Above | A Journey Into European Puppetry
by The Anadromist
4y ago
This essay was originally commissioned for a book. Alas it was not accepted. Please accept it here in three parts. You’ll notice that the style is slightly more formal than usual. That shouldn’t be a problem should it? ….. Handa Gote’s Tomáš Procházka striking a very textured set for extremely textural antique style puppets in a retro version of the Czech puppetry classic Faust. I think puppetry is magic. Because you animate matter, make it alive. It’s the process of animation. You take a piece of wood, or whatever you’ve found, you are able to do some theatre with it. Or any kind of art. Th ..read more
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