I was correct! I got at least one chance to blog by the holidays. More like remembered I have a semblance of a blog. Not much to report at Casa Ortiz/Wallen except for the warm fuzzies Mindy and I felt watching "The Muppets. According to social media, we're not alone, waxing nostalgic about a weekly TV show that many of us Gen Xers adored and a few Gen Yers have seen in syndication or by other second-hand means.
Memories of Muppets movies past - the good and mediocre ones - cascaded over us. Random visual cues made me giddy like a little gurl: A Kermit the Frog wristwatch (you remember wristwatches, right?). I had that as a kid. A stuffed Kermit the Frog. (I had that, too.) The disco dance floor and screen frame for Amy Adams' diner song. And of course, "Rainbow Connection."
It helped that a fervent fan Jason Segel co-wrote the script. The musical numbers and overall writing, for the most part, are fun and clever enough to help established fans reconnect with the past and to link newcomers, raised on YouTube and Radio Disney, with a once proud franchise. The joy of seeing seemingly pre-destined Muppets toiling in their post-"Muppets Show" real-lives.
I don't pretend that the Muppets' voices and characterizations are a little "off." After all these years, why wouldn't they be? Today's Muppets are Jim Henson's enduring legacy; they aren't the original Muppets I worshipped in the late '70s and early '80s. The cameos - also bridging the generation gap - work. The plot for this particular "re-imagining" of a classic franchise succeeds. We could debate the particulars -- whether there was too little of the adults or too much of them -- all we want. But "The Muppets" met my and Mindy's expectations of revisiting a wonderful part of our childhood in such an entertaining manner.
The rest of Thanksgiving weekend was pretty easy-going — separate fulfilling meals with Mindy's family and my family. (Tamales and ham got into the mix.) There was the miracle of the Longhorns and Cowboys winning the same day. The rest of the time was spent merely lounging around the house, watching sports and staying practically glued to my chair while fighting any remote temptation of exercising or checking work email. (OK, I lie. I did check my work email on my mini-staycation. You thought I went to the gym on Turkey Day weekend - ha! You know that's unpossible!) Inevitably, so much holiday weekend time spent at home meant I was exposed to the daredevil spirit constantly displayed by our felines, such as Tubby the Orange (pictured).
I also can’t forget a San Antonio College mass communications student named Stephanie who interviewed me just prior to Thanksgiving, at the office, as part of her class assignment. Ah yes, I recall that SAC mass comm assignment — interview a local professional journalist. For my assignment, I dressed up (as if I were going in for an actual job), went to WOAI radio and interviewed a reporter. Jim Forsyth, if I’m not mistaken. Can’t remember, it was 20,000 years ago. Comparatively speaking, Stephanie did great. She was well prepared, articulate, had plenty of questions/follow-up queries and I gave her probably way too much info. Funny. I’m a soft-spoken, social wallflower, but actually talk to me for a few minutes and, before you know, it can’t stop gabbing. Well, that or an adult beverage or 3.
But perhaps the best part of my chat with Stephanie, beyond the obligatory media industry takes and advice, was anecdotal. I shared with her how so greatly enjoyed co-creating the San Antonio Scene alternative newspaper. (A-ha, a few of you locals perhaps saw our attempted challenge to the S.A. Current, lying on a newspaper rack somewhere around town.) Journalisting friends Raul and Martin (along with pals Diosdado and Daniel) and I produced a few issues on a shoestring budget, from our own homes, over the course of a year. It flamed out gloriously and I’m still in debt from that endeavor. But it continues to rank among the most fun profession-oriented activities in which I’ve ever been a part. I miss you, San Antonio Scene, vaya con Dios!
Stephanie’s interview also sparked another heartworming childhood memory, which actually makes things here come full circle. (You’ll see in a second.) The student asked when and how writing and journalism may have first entered my life. At age 10, I was an information junkie. At that time, being an info junkie – for me – was having my mother buy subscriptions to Astronomy and Time magazines. You read right…I SUBSCRIBED to Astronomy and Time at age 10. It was pouring through BOTH of San Antonio’s metro dailies. (Ours was a S.A. Light familia). It was reading copies of Popular Science and Popular Mechanics that my grandfather had stacked near his living room recliner. It was viewing the Weather Channel’s Atari-like radar screens and weather maps and the greatness that was the original CNN Headline News, when they actually had 30 minutes of national and world news around the clock, not the tabloid- and pundit-laden crap “HLN” has now. A shell of its former self. A shame.
But also at that age, while I didn’t literally envision myself being a future journalist, the way newspapers were produced piqued my curiosity. So much so that I asked my aunt Yolie, who worked at a paper company, to bring me home reams of dot matrix computer people (two sheets together roughly equaled the size of that era’s broadsheet newspaper page. I cut out pictures and articles from the Light, pasted them on differently sectioned “pages” of my “newspaper,” applied markers in different colors to various pages and – voila – I had my own “newspaper.” I had my own masthead, but sure, another publication’s copy and artwork. Somewhere in a closet at original Casa Ortiz lie Polaroids of me proudly showing off my mock dot matrix sheet newspaper. One of those pasted stories featured - you guessed it – The Muppets.
The more things change, you know the rest.
