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bustedpuppet

Oakland, CA

"As with his songs, there is no showmanship, legerdemain, pretense or fanfare in the presentation of this non-traditional puppetry. On stage, Dax has a deceptively casual manner - meanwhile, glowing stars pop out of suitcases of their own accor... view more

  1. on July 17, 2011
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    bustedpuppet
    backed a project

    The Steel City Games Fest: 24 new games over 24 hours by Obscure Games

    24 hours of street games and original sports, changing the way we think about the city, each other, & what it means to be a grown-up.

    • 104% funded $3,142 pledged
    • 47 backers
    • Funded Aug 04, 2011
  2. on June 15, 2011
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    bustedpuppet
    backed a project

    Pants Interface: A Wireless Wearable Controller by rachel lyra hospodar

    Cuddle up to your console! These wearable soft-circuit buttons are kicking off a revolution in the way we interface with our machines.

    • 111% funded $4,590 pledged
    • 59 backers
    • Funded Jun 22, 2011
  3. on January 28, 2011
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    bustedpuppet
    Posted project update #8

    Dax finally posted the Museum Proper video!

    The Museum Proper documentation video is up on vimeo! It has been quite some time since this project completed, and I had a wonderful time reliving the experience while cutting the footage together. If you weren't able to make it to the performance last June, here it is in it's full splendor. Do pass this link around to anyone who might be interested in seeing the project:

    http://www.vimeo.com/bustedpuppet/museumproper

    Thanks again,
    Dax

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  4. on June 2, 2010
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    bustedpuppet
    Posted project update #7

    Days Away!

    We're all buried in last minute preparations at this point, but I thought I would sign back on to post once more before the show debuts - it's just three days away!

    Last Sunday was the dress rehearsal, which went swimmingly. The puppets are in the workshop for some final adjustments and paint. I'm hoping I remembered everything! Wish us luck on Friday.

    Also, the new website is up - please take a look if you haven't already: http://www.museumproper.com

    The Museum Proper
    at San Jose's 3rd Annual SubZERO Festival
    on the street near San Salvador and South First St, downtown San Jose
    Friday, June 4th from 6pm-midnight
    (there will be 4 museum proper performances between 7pm and 11pm)

    Yours,
    Dax

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  5. on May 13, 2010
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    bustedpuppet
    Posted project update #6

    Rehearsals

    Wow, this project has come such a long way so quickly. Within the last two weeks all 6 puppets have become functional, the musical score has been completed, and we've survived our first 4 rehearsals! There is a slight reprieve in the rehearsal schedule to allow the puppets to be repaired and taken to their finished, fleshed-out and painted state, so I've got a moment to post a few more pictures for your viewing pleasure! I can't wait to show the finished show to all of you - but I'm going to try to hold off on posting every possible photo of every puppet, if only to keep the suspense just a little bit ;)

    We're quite close to having a complete show, and with just a few more weeks until the big day! We're setting up a booth at the Maker Faire in San Mateo on May 22nd/23rd in order to display the in-progress puppets. If you'd like to catch a glimpse of them, do come by. It seems that San Jose is already a-buzz about the SubZERO Festival on June 4th, so it's promising to be quite an event! If you're able to come down to see the show, and you have a video camera, we would love some help with the documentation!

    Yours,
    Dax

    (photos by Moose)

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  6. on April 8, 2010
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    bustedpuppet
    Posted project update #5

    Full Time Artist

    I apologize for the long delay in posting an update on the project. I've been hard at work with the Bandersnatch, and was holding off until I could post some video of all the moving parts - but I just read a Mercury News article about the state of arts funding in Silicon Valley, and had to pause for a moment to appreciate that I am working on a funded arts project during a recession when other arts organizations are having so much trouble. The article, if you're a reader: http://bit.ly/ctwHgw

    So thanks! Thanks so much! This last week has been especially wonderful, as I got a bunch of commissions out the door at the end of March in order to dedicate all of April to building - and now I get to build puppets all day long, with no interruptions! None! This is a first time in my life I've ever been able dedicate myself to a single project, and the feeling is rather epic.

    At any rate, I've been posting a whole slew of photographs to the flickr stream over the last few weeks, if you've been keeping up, and will be posting a handful more tonight. The Bandersnatch skeleton is just a few days from being completed, and I expect to have the rigging together by the end of next week - which means a performable puppet skeleton is imminent! I'll be experimenting with bicycle brake cable for the first time, so wish me luck.

    This last weekend I presented Corpus Callosum with detailed storyboards of the show, and they are full-steam ahead with writing the score. They are going to be swelling their ranks with new musicians in order to pull off what I believe will be a masterpiece of theatrical music composition. As a songwriter but not much of a composer myself, it always astonishes me the quality of the ideas that come out of these composers, right from the starting gate.

    The finalized cast of puppeteers will be Qarly Canant, Susie Danzig, Stephanie Bailey, and myself. This is a fantastic lineup of experienced performers, and I am ever confident that they will be solid collaborators when we all come together in May to begin rehearsals. Of note, we're still looking for a stagehand/understudy, if you know of anyone who might be interested.

    Please keep an eye on the flickr stream for more updates - and I'll be posting a video of a functional Bandersnatch within a week or two!

    Yours,
    Dax

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  7. on March 20, 2010
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    bustedpuppet
    Posted project update #4

    Lights

    I just finished the portable lighting unit for the show - the first prop to be entirely done. Hooray!

    I've posted over a dozen pictures to the flickr stream, if you'd like to see it in all it's glorious angles ;)

    More to come.

    Dax

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  8. on March 3, 2010
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    bustedpuppet
    Posted project update #3

    Shopping!

    This is a belated thank you to everyone who's helped so far with the project! The fundraiser closed on Sunday night, and, as you can see, the project cleared $2300! Once again, it's such a pleasure to know we're going into this project with so much support. My thanks to all these generous donations, big and small, and to everyone who showed support in other ways!

    As for an update: I've spent the beginning of the week doing menial organizing like laying out spreadsheets for budget and materials and setting up a separate bank account, so I apologize that I haven't had anything exciting to post yet ;). This afternoon, however, I took my materials list for the Bandersnatch puppet down to the hardware store, and have come back with treasure! Again, I cannot really express how good it feels to have a real budget to purchase materials, and I thought of all of you while I was picking out the hardware. In addition, we've just signed on puppeteer Susie Danzig to the project, which is incredibly exciting - Susie is a truly gifted puppeteer who has been working, notably, with San Francisco's Lunatique Fantastique forever. Corpus Callosum had our first big meeting about the musical score last night, and everyone is looking forward to working on the piece. I am also starting to discuss logistics with the SubZERO Festival organizers, which means that it is also time for me to draw up the final round of storyboards! Look for those soon on the Museum Proper Flickr stream!

    And, of course, now I'm going to send you a whole bunch of stuff :). For those of you who will be receiving Museum Proper Collages, I've already begun a pile of cardboard scraps, which is rapidly growing. I predict it could take a month or so of working on the puppets before I'll have enough scraps from the project to make collages for all 19 of you, so look for those in April! To my great excitement, the Museum Proper sketchbook has been accepted to the KALEID Gallery Sketchbook exhibition this month - the entire sketchbook, along with some other original watercolors, will be on public display through the end of March. For those of you who I am sending sketchbook pages to, you can expect to receive them in early April as well. As stated above, the storyboards are coming up, and will be going out shortly, and I will be sending along the concept art watercolors as soon as I can find suitable packaging! I love giving gifts, especially through the mail, and so it makes me quite happy to be able to send these "rewards" out - almost as much as making the puppets themselves :).

    Oh yes, and if you would like to come see the sketchbook in the gallery, the opening is from 5-7PM this Friday at KALEID, 88 S Fourth St, San Jose, CA - the gallery has daytime hours through March 26th. I will be in attendance, if you would like to stop by to say hello! If you end up in San Jose this Friday for that event, too, I have been doing a live-painting for the Cinequest film festival all week, and the still-wet canvas will be on display at Camera 12 on 2nd Street.

    Yours,
    Dax

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  9. on March 1, 2010
    Funded!

    The Museum Proper: a public puppet performance by bustedpuppet

    Spectacle Puppetry: a 12-foot tall monster will confront the net of a naturalist in the midst of the crowd of San Jose's summer arts festival.

    • 181% funded $2,356 pledged
    • 59 backers
    • Funded Mar 01, 2010
  10. on February 18, 2010
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    bustedpuppet
    commented on a project

    Ben: There's a lot of creative people involved in The Museum Proper, so the list of our projects are fairly diverse. I'll list a few URLs where you can find other projects by the various contributors to The Museum Proper. If you're looking for puppetry work, specifically, I'm hoping to have a dedicated website up before the June premier... you will certainly be notified ;) Thanks again! http://www.norestforthewicked.biz http://qarly.com/ http://www.onefleacircus.com http://www.corpus.cc http://www.chicag0.org