Muppets In Atlanta! And a Memory of Dad

Last April, during Spring Break, Jake and I took Emily to several places in Atlanta for a sort of "stay-cation".  (Aunt K and Grandmother Ray had the older 3.)  We did tons of cool stuff like the High Museum of Art, The World of Coca Cola and Fernbank Science Center.  My favorite, though, was our day at the Center for Puppetry Arts.  There is an exhibit there devoted to the life and works of Master Puppeteer Jim Henson.

Seriously, people.  If you haven't been to see this, GO!  It's amazing!  There are Fraggles and creatures from the '80s movie "Labyrinth".  The full Big Bird suit from Sesame Street is there in a twelve foot tall glass case.  Make time to go see the exhibit!  You won't be disappointed. (Unless you don't like muppets, and for that I wonder what is wrong with you.)*

My dad and I used to watch tapes of "The Muppet Show" with his dad.  Grandaddy had I don't know how many seasons recorded on VHS and there was a small notepad that he kept with them that listed the acts, scenes, and memorable moments, and the time on the tape each one could be found at. We could cue up a tape at 10:24, for example, and come up with this guy (who is still one of my favorites):

Dad's favorite muppet was Rowlf the Dog.  

We loved the little segments where Rowlf would play his piano and be sort of wrapped up in his own comedic musical bubble as the chaos of the rest of the show raged around him like a war zone.   It was awesome to see the for real, old and worn but muchly loved Rowlf muppet in the glass case at the exhibit.

In loving memory of my dad, here are 3 of our favorites by Rowlf.  Enjoy.

Cottleston Pie

You And I And George

English Country Gardens (with Fozzie Bear)

*P.S. - The only thing sort of odd about the whole exhibit was pointed out to me by my friend Rosie (who is the one, incidentally, who told me about it) after her visit:  If you wander around among the muppets long enough, they start to give you the feeling of museum animals that have been taxidermied for display.  They sit there in the glass cases and, having no puppeteer controlling them, are not the animated, lively things our brains remember from TV.  Taxidermied muppets.  That concept was so completely odd and unbelievable that it made me REALLY want to go see the exhibit.  Not twisted enough to be like freaky weird, but just a little bit twisted.  And you know what?  She was right!  Now YOU have to go see it to believe it, don't you!  (You really should.)