The Painter - Full Moon

 

Paint with THE PAINTER!

"We're all tired of fuckin' something"

 It was 1994. 

Summer. My brother had been dead since early fall '93... 

I was living through Hell. Or so my 19 year old heart believed it to be. Hindsight makes one realize it wasn't as bad as it may have felt. But man, it fucking sucked.

Other than listening to Prince no other music that was new was making me happy. And I couldn't listen to the music I already loved because it all made me think of how much everything sucked. Whether it was thinking of my brother or the shit relationships I was in, everything just sucked. And I started digging into older music. Ray Charles. Dr John. Funkadelic, David Bowie. I was finding new in old.

And then I heard "'Round Here".

And I'm not going to lie and act like I was a huge Counting Crows fan. I never was and I'm still not, "Mr. Jones" was a pretty big hit for them and I just couldn't get into it, but that summer, "Round Here" hit the radio and I heard my friends.
I heard the life I was living. It was a new song that made me think about my friends and myself and the things we were going through and the people we wanted to be with, and the people we wanted to be. And it just made me feel good and broke my heart at the same time. 

There was this coffee shop that I worked at with Tricky called coffee company, Tricky's Uncle Vic owned it. And I remember the first time I heard the song I was sitting in the parking lot in my car and the song just hit me so hard. About 2 months ago I stumbled across this version of the song on YouTube and it just blew me away and it brought me right back to that heartbreakingly sad yet wonderful time between teen and adult, between angst and understanding sadness, between loving and loss. And it felt like an anthem for what suburban kids would lose as we became Gen X adults. I'm still not a really big Counting Crows fan. But this song and this version that I stumbled the cross hits hard.

But there's a girl on a car out in the parking lot. She says "Hey man, c'mon. Come on!" she said. "C'mon! Just take a shot!"

Couch Confessions with Lisa - with guest Jess

 Confess

Couch Confessions with Lisa - with guest Tricky Pete

Confess

Love Monster! Bad Monster! Bloopers!

Running down a dream

 Thinking a lot this morning. 

So much has changed the past 5 years... 

And there are lights, bright ones, at the end of the tunnels... 

Thinking about my brother. And how much he loved this song.

28 Second to a DUI

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays 

from The Painter and the Elmwood Gang!  

Couch Confessions with Lisa - with guest Mike

Confess here.

Poetry Corner - Another Rash

Watch an all-new POETRY CORNER WITH JOHNNIE SOJIVE

now HERE!

 

Love Monster! Bad Monster! Security!

Beans

 So I thought I was done with sharing a new puppet every Saturday until next year. 

But Beans felt otherwise. 

And it's a good one to share. Beans is a new puppet for series 3 of "Animal Behavior". Yup, series 3! We're still releasing the episodes of series 2, but series 3 is being written and a few new puppets are being made. 

Also Beans is a puppet based on my brother, Michael.  I've tried making puppet of him in the past, but none ever felt right. And although it's not an exact likeness, for me this is perfect. 10 year old Michael. 

It's Going In Rich's Mouth: Seafood, In A Can!

 

Monday Song...

 

I wonder...  I have two legs, but do I have one to stand on? 
I think I do. 
As the frat boys say
Let's go!

14

 Happy Birthday Penny!

What, no new puppet?

 No new puppet this week...  Maybe no new puppets til next year.

Busy busy for sure though!  I bunch of puppets made just can't be shared yet!

Til later though...  Here's some random pics...

Rich wasn't born with enough middle fingers.

Click HERE to confess.

  

Monday Song

 

Not a huge Led Zeppelin fan to be honest.
But the past couple weeks this song has hit hard.

Greg Gunderson

Greg...  Or is it Gary?
Mouth Puppet

This puppet is one I was building for literally years. It didn't take me years to build though. I'd start, stop, start, stop...  It would end up buried in bins and found, and so on and on. This fall I just sat at the table one day and said "Damn it. He needs to be finished."
Once done Nick saw him and immediately had a name and a story for it.  
I love when shit like that happens!

 

Hmmm...

 

Monday Song... With Lisa and Ronnie

Click The Pic to Kiss The Homies

 

April

April

Mouth Puppet

 

Couch Confessions with Lisa

 

Click HERE to confess. 

Home - Animal Behavior: Series 2 Episode 7

Iggy!

"Iggy" is a style or a brand name of simple hand puppet I'm making for sale!

Check them out on Etsy!

 

Iggy

An "IGGY"

"Iggy" is a style or a brand name of simple hand puppet I'm making for sale!
Check them out on Etsy!

 

Stalker

Marvin has been dating online... And it has gotten weird. Maybe though he has finally found a match. Maybe not...

Monday Morning Music... SON OF A BITCH!

Here's a music video Elmwood worked on this past summer!
From the awesome Ronnie Gross Jr
SON OF A BITCH (EVERYTHING'S FINE)
We had a blast on this one!

Here's some behind the scenes pics too!

Plan 9 From Outer Space

When I moved back to CT from Florida in September of 2002 once of the first things Russ Werlebird said to me was "When are we gonna start making puppet movies?"

And pretty much right then we started.

One of our original ideas was to do a remake of "Plan 9 From Outer Space", as we were both Ed Wood fans and thought that would be a ton of fun to do.

Then everything else happened... And it has been an amazing amount of everything else. And Elmwood Productions has made some amazing things and even collected a few awards for it.

Last year I brought up how we never did get to make Plan 9. And Alex Sims challenged me. And soon after he handed a script for a remake/tribute/parody of Plan 9.... And we spent this summer shooting it.

Yup. After 22 years Elmwood Productions has released

GRAVEYARD GIL'S MIDNITE THRILLS PRESENTS:

PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE! 

A Happy Monster!

Here's another furry fella is now on Etsy!

Click HERE to make this monster your new roommate!