MY SO-CALLED LIFE: UP AGAINST "THE WALL"

My alma mater, UConn, is known for its puppetry courses - if you look into the educational background for many puppeteers in the last thirty years you just may find UConn listed.

I didn't take any of those course when I was in the Drama Department, but I was still influenced by puppetry when it came to my still-gestating Toobworld novel. One of the major characters has a puppet doppelganger over in the TV Universe, and several groups of characters are living puppets - the Rogue Cheddars, the Puppetrees of Twigganum, and the patrons of the Splinters nightclub.

This past Wednesday, I went to see Roger Waters at Madison Square Garden, where he performed "The Wall" in its entirety - something not done for nearly thirty years. And a big highlight during the show was the use of giant marionettes.

Here's the best example of those puppets, from "Another Brick In The Wall", as performed up in Canada early on in the tour:

BCnU!