23things: youtube and flickr

photo by flickr user Hil

I am a huge fan of flickr (see the slideshow to your left on the blog) and find that YouTube is a near endless source of entertainment in my household. I think the creative commons license is a super idea. I did have trouble copy and pasting the embed code into this space. I'm not sure if that was a blogger issue. The same small fragment kept showing up, like it was stuck in the clipboard or something. I ended up having to go to the Potter Puppet Pals website, right-click on the video, and select "copy embed html", then paste it into a Word document, re-copy the code, and go back here and paste it in. I hope it works.

I chose to search the term "puppet" because puppets are creepy, fascinating, and often used in children's programming. They touch on the interesting concept of the uncanny valley (funnily explained, although in NSFW terms, in 30 Rock). And they are used to great effect in videos making homage to and/or fun of children's literature. (Harry Potter Puppet Pals, above, and the Twilight puppet video, also to be found on YouTube).

Other instances of puppets that come to mind right now:

-Vermont's Bread and Puppet Theater (related: a personal recollection from the blog of composer Nico Muhly)

-Haunting puppet show in the haunting Kieslowski film La Double Vie de Veronique

-Wonderful puppet shows held in the summer in the Parque del Buen Retiro in Madrid

-Black Sheep Puppet Festival here in Pittsburgh!