Beyond Kermit
Los Angeles is a great place to live. Sometimes more than others. This past Tuesday night presented one of those great moments. There's a theater called the Silent Movie Theater. In the past they would show silent films and have live musical accompaniment. I haven't been there in a while. In fact, the last time I was there was to see Metropolis. During the movie there was an earthquake. Things shook and rattle for a brief moment. The music stopped. People half stood up and looked around. A few moments of stillness went by and the music started up again and all but one stayed and finished watching the movie. Definitely and LA moment.
Well, I guess the times are changing a little for the Silent Movie Theater. They've started showing a broader range of films. They still have silent films on "Silent Wednesdays". They also have "Saturday Noir Matinees", "Asian Sundays" and "Music Thursday" among other themed days. This was all news to me until L pointed it out when I got home from work on Tuesday.
She mentioned that there was going to be a screening of some rare Jim Henson commercials and short films. I was intrigued. I didn't know much about Jim Henson beyond the obvious Muppet based stuff.
Here's the description from the Silent Movie Theater's website:
Jim Henson's Commercials & Experiments
An exclusive screening selected from muppets, music, & magic: Jim Henson's legacy
A mind-blowing collection of shorts, crazy commercials, and other rarities from the Henson vault. Highlights include: an industrial film for Wilson’s Meat that must be seen to be believed, commercials featuring the LaChoy Dragon, a full-body character that caused Frank Oz to swear off doing any others, animation utilizing techniques ranging from stop-motion to early computer animation, excerpts from The Cube and Youth 68, the two episodes Jim and company created for NBC's Experiment in Television, and a 35mm print of Time Piece, an Academy Award nominated 8-minute masterpiece that showcases Henson’s talent for making music out of everyday sounds."
We set out to see the 10pm show even though it was a work night. It'd be worth it. We decided to get there as early as we could to get tickets since things like this in LA tend to be hot or cold as far as public interest goes. We had some quick dinner at the house and made our way to the theater. We got there at 8:30pm and were greeted by a sign posted at the box office saying the 8pm and 10pm shows were sold out. Dammit. There were three theater employees outside smoking and talking. They informed us there they added a midnight show since it turned out to be so popular. L and I looked at each other not sure if we were ready to commit to something that was 3 1/2 hours away. At first we thought about going home and just coming back, but we knew that we'd crap out and talk ourselves out of it once the time came to actually head back. After a few moments of indecision we felt we were up for it so we bought some tickets.
It was a work night and I ususally wind down by 11pm or midnight. We had some time to kill so we headed to one of our favorite coffee shops, Urth. We were close to the one in WeHo (West Hollywood) and we got lucky with parking across the street. We had coffee and cheesecake. In fact we each had two cups of coffee...only one cheesecake though. That killed about an hour.
Afterwards we went to a nearby bookstore called The Bodhi Tree Bookstore. They focus mainly on spiritual, vegetarian, yoga, holistic, earth, moon, stars and crystal sorts of books. L likes going here and they were open late which is what we needed. I always manage to find something to read while I'm there. The last time I was there I ended spending my time reading thru Bruce Lee's: Tao of Jeet Kune Do. This time around I got wrapped up in a cookbook centered around a Raw Food diet. We stumbled upon a calendar that we liked and bought it on our way out.
With about an hour and a half to go our next stop was another bookstore. This time is was a Border's that was in the area. We spent some time reading magazines and looking around. They were closing pretty soon after we got there, so we didn't stay long. At this point it was coming on 11pm and we had about half an hour before we needed to get to the theater. We were pretty much out of ideas for things to do so we parked near the theater and just hung out in the car and rested. It actually helped rejuvenate us just enough.
We walked down to the theater and got in line. Yes, there was a line. I'm telling you things like this are hit or miss in LA. It's either feast or famine at these sorts of events. This time there was a sizable crowd. At one point I looked ahead towards the front of the line and for a brief moment, I thought I saw someone in a full body Muppet outfit. A quick second and more careful look revealed that it was simply an optical illusion caused by a guy standing in front of a bush. Chalk it up to it being midnight in the middle of the week. Any other night and I'd be in REM state at this point.
After about fifteen minutes and no more hallucenations we were let in. I was surprised that they'd updated the theater. The seats were newer and had throw pillows on them for extra comfort. It was a nicer space than it was when I was there years ago. As everyone was making their way to their seats they had the first episode of Sesame Street playing on the big screen. It seemed to help get everyone in the mood. After a brief introduction from one of the aforementioned smoking theater employees the lights dimmed and the show started.
I won't go into the details of the entire show, but I can say that I walked out of there with a much greater appreciation for Jim Henson than I expected. The surprising thing was that this new found appreciation didn't have anything to do with the Muppet based stuff. It was his short film s and experimental stuff that really stood out to me. Watching them really gave me insight into the true artistry of his talents. The piece that really did it for me came at the end. They showed a 35mm print of his short film "Time Piece". It was amazing. From the editing choices, the timing, the visual cues and the clever use of sound...it just let me entranced to the 8 minutes or so of it's entirety. It reminded me of the sorts of films that I watched when I was in the gifted education classes back in middle school. The sorts of films that I couldn't quite understand 100%, but never the less were intrigued and influenced by. One in particular that comes to mind is Saul Bass' "Why Man Creates." Jim Henson's "Time Piece" resonated with me as an animator as well.
We live and breath by the notion of "timing". Timing is everything to an animator. "Time Piece" showed Henson's mastery of it in a way that left me smiling.
There were many other gems in the show. A simple YouTube search will bring up a handful of them. The clips from "The Cube" were interesting and left me wanting to watch the entire thing. The commercials were closer to the Muppet side of things and more familiar in that respect. Many of them were "laugh out loud" funny.
L and I left the theater more than content. We were glad we went even though it was late. We talked about carious aspects of the show on the way home and decided to add the Silent Movie Theater to the growing list of film related venues that we frequent.
We set out to see the 10pm show even though it was a work night. It'd be worth it. We decided to get there as early as we could to get tickets since things like this in LA tend to be hot or cold as far as public interest goes. We had some quick dinner at the house and made our way to the theater. We got there at 8:30pm and were greeted by a sign posted at the box office saying the 8pm and 10pm shows were sold out. Dammit. There were three theater employees outside smoking and talking. They informed us there they added a midnight show since it turned out to be so popular. L and I looked at each other not sure if we were ready to commit to something that was 3 1/2 hours away. At first we thought about going home and just coming back, but we knew that we'd crap out and talk ourselves out of it once the time came to actually head back. After a few moments of indecision we felt we were up for it so we bought some tickets.
It was a work night and I ususally wind down by 11pm or midnight. We had some time to kill so we headed to one of our favorite coffee shops, Urth. We were close to the one in WeHo (West Hollywood) and we got lucky with parking across the street. We had coffee and cheesecake. In fact we each had two cups of coffee...only one cheesecake though. That killed about an hour.
Afterwards we went to a nearby bookstore called The Bodhi Tree Bookstore. They focus mainly on spiritual, vegetarian, yoga, holistic, earth, moon, stars and crystal sorts of books. L likes going here and they were open late which is what we needed. I always manage to find something to read while I'm there. The last time I was there I ended spending my time reading thru Bruce Lee's: Tao of Jeet Kune Do. This time around I got wrapped up in a cookbook centered around a Raw Food diet. We stumbled upon a calendar that we liked and bought it on our way out.
With about an hour and a half to go our next stop was another bookstore. This time is was a Border's that was in the area. We spent some time reading magazines and looking around. They were closing pretty soon after we got there, so we didn't stay long. At this point it was coming on 11pm and we had about half an hour before we needed to get to the theater. We were pretty much out of ideas for things to do so we parked near the theater and just hung out in the car and rested. It actually helped rejuvenate us just enough.
We walked down to the theater and got in line. Yes, there was a line. I'm telling you things like this are hit or miss in LA. It's either feast or famine at these sorts of events. This time there was a sizable crowd. At one point I looked ahead towards the front of the line and for a brief moment, I thought I saw someone in a full body Muppet outfit. A quick second and more careful look revealed that it was simply an optical illusion caused by a guy standing in front of a bush. Chalk it up to it being midnight in the middle of the week. Any other night and I'd be in REM state at this point.
After about fifteen minutes and no more hallucenations we were let in. I was surprised that they'd updated the theater. The seats were newer and had throw pillows on them for extra comfort. It was a nicer space than it was when I was there years ago. As everyone was making their way to their seats they had the first episode of Sesame Street playing on the big screen. It seemed to help get everyone in the mood. After a brief introduction from one of the aforementioned smoking theater employees the lights dimmed and the show started.
I won't go into the details of the entire show, but I can say that I walked out of there with a much greater appreciation for Jim Henson than I expected. The surprising thing was that this new found appreciation didn't have anything to do with the Muppet based stuff. It was his short film s and experimental stuff that really stood out to me. Watching them really gave me insight into the true artistry of his talents. The piece that really did it for me came at the end. They showed a 35mm print of his short film "Time Piece". It was amazing. From the editing choices, the timing, the visual cues and the clever use of sound...it just let me entranced to the 8 minutes or so of it's entirety. It reminded me of the sorts of films that I watched when I was in the gifted education classes back in middle school. The sorts of films that I couldn't quite understand 100%, but never the less were intrigued and influenced by. One in particular that comes to mind is Saul Bass' "Why Man Creates." Jim Henson's "Time Piece" resonated with me as an animator as well.
We live and breath by the notion of "timing". Timing is everything to an animator. "Time Piece" showed Henson's mastery of it in a way that left me smiling.There were many other gems in the show. A simple YouTube search will bring up a handful of them. The clips from "The Cube" were interesting and left me wanting to watch the entire thing. The commercials were closer to the Muppet side of things and more familiar in that respect. Many of them were "laugh out loud" funny.
L and I left the theater more than content. We were glad we went even though it was late. We talked about carious aspects of the show on the way home and decided to add the Silent Movie Theater to the growing list of film related venues that we frequent.
