I'm going to detour today into some eccentric territory with the Muppets during their early gestation, beginning with this pleasingly outre clip of Kermit and Harry The Hipster (when the term meant something; Harry without debate puts these Brooklyn kids to shame) pontificating on the practice of allowing one's inner dialog to transpire visually. Harry really takes the concept to its furthest and most extravagant end here as he crafts a rather bugged-out slice of improvizational jazz scatting that eventually snowballs so intensely that his visualized music takes total control of all negative space. Remember, be careful when you improvise, kids:
Going out into an even more penetrating head space is this Tonight Show clip circa 1974 where Jim Henson and Frank Oz abandon the cuddly aspects of their craft so that they can give themselves over to this distinctly dark psychedelic piece regarding one abstraction's cluttered tour through his mind. This clever and omonious interpretation of one's mental process gets into fantastically vanguard territory with an almost proto-Altered States furbish. At least Kermit is there after the commercial break to play clean-up, placating any unsettle viewers with "It's Not Easy Bein' Green" lest the audience be left to ponder the much-too-agitating inquiry they had just witnessed:
Chasing this more philosophical venture, I leave you with Kermit on Sam & Friends (the source of the first video as well) jauntily miming this absurdist little folk number, a performance followed by more headway into slick jazz as he and Harry make best of their need to gratify the show's sponsor by delivering a inanely hep little number about bacon and sausage, which may actually ring as a little discomforting given the frog's relationship with a certain sow:
Going out into an even more penetrating head space is this Tonight Show clip circa 1974 where Jim Henson and Frank Oz abandon the cuddly aspects of their craft so that they can give themselves over to this distinctly dark psychedelic piece regarding one abstraction's cluttered tour through his mind. This clever and omonious interpretation of one's mental process gets into fantastically vanguard territory with an almost proto-Altered States furbish. At least Kermit is there after the commercial break to play clean-up, placating any unsettle viewers with "It's Not Easy Bein' Green" lest the audience be left to ponder the much-too-agitating inquiry they had just witnessed:
Chasing this more philosophical venture, I leave you with Kermit on Sam & Friends (the source of the first video as well) jauntily miming this absurdist little folk number, a performance followed by more headway into slick jazz as he and Harry make best of their need to gratify the show's sponsor by delivering a inanely hep little number about bacon and sausage, which may actually ring as a little discomforting given the frog's relationship with a certain sow:
i wonder whose voice that is in kermit's version of "horse named bill"?
Posted by: edgertor | September 23, 2011 at 10:02 AM
I'm just glad this isn't network awesome.
Posted by: andy | September 24, 2011 at 10:51 AM
I love the kermit, I grew up watching him :)
Posted by: natashasyoga | September 24, 2011 at 12:00 PM
actually, andy, network awesome covered very similar ground a few months ago. don't be hatin.
paul, you should get in contact with them. they do this kind of stuff on a daily basis. your articles would be perfect.
Posted by: em2e | October 14, 2011 at 04:07 PM