Muppet Convention Thread #2: Where Should it be Held?

Testing thigs out on the website and I found I can give different rights to members...once we get a handle on who all is on this planning team and have members sign up I can up everyone in this group to adminstrators which would give you site editing privelages.... The forum seens to work fine (Thanks Panmanthe2nd for checking it out)

The great part is this will allow us to get input from anyone who want to stop by and keeping the rights to change the website within the group who is planning the convention. Someone should make a list of who all is involved in this at some point too.

Well maybe bandit could do that? Since I'm busy working on a logo. I want this to look really good so I wanna at least do two more.

Is everyone gonna be administrators?

I don't know about everyone but the point is anyone can...I certainly think it would need to be more than me with administrative rights....

You know I went back over to the original thread that Beakerboy posted and was reading how we all got this going...its neat to see something start with a little spark and grow..... when (I'm not even saying if anymore) we get this to happen it would be nice to archive all these conversations as it makes for an interesting history even at these early stages. And you are all so fun too...I like how we all have our own little humor quirks about us..... I think everyone here would fit in with the muppets... in fact if I had one guest I would push for it would be Peter Linz, as Walter at a Henson convention would somehow seem appropriate...but again maybe I'm dreaming a little big.... for now.

Your thinking big? I'm already thinking Steve Whitmire. So I'm thinking way ahead of myself as well. It's hard not too but even if we do get this off the ground probably wouldn't be any big named Muppeteers. Those will come later.

There's no harm at all in dreaming big. The Muppets do.

I also love it! The only thing I might add, if I was making it, would be Cantus the Minstrel, so that it had a Jim Henson Fraggle as-well.

PHEW!!! Good grief I've missed a lot....and that's just in one day!

Hiya guys! Looks like you've really gotten the ball rolling. That's GREAT! Uhh...ahhh Sheesh! Where to even begin!?
Danny! Thanks so much for leading the charge into webpage land. I checked it out earlier and I like it. Sure, it's bare bones right now but it kinda gives ya that happy tingly feeling you get when you walk into a new home...
It's spartan....clean and just waiting to be filled with all of your most loved crap. It's exciting.
Also, I really wanted to say that the note you wrote several hundreds of pages back was really sweet. I agree! It's kind of the same attitude I take with my own students too. Don't be afraid to throw out idea no matter -how- ludicrous. We're all good people and if you have a really stupid idea, we'll tell you...laugh about it and move on. Never any hard feelings and all in the spirit of fun and affection. That's what family does! At least....that's what my family does. ^_-

P! Once you get that data and you give me the go ahead I'll get right on that letter sending for you. No rush! Better to do it right. Otherwise, I wanna say again what a great job you did on that.
Pinky!---
Hey does anyone else feel like we should be in a huddle? I need a whistle.---I digress---

Pinky! That's fantastic artistic skill you are showing off there you tremendous liar. You said all you could make were videos. You've been holding out on us. Thanks for finally coming clean and showing off what you're REALLY capable of and sharing it with us. Okay okay, in all seriousness....It looks great!

You know, this is jumping WAY ahead of the game but it wouldn't be a bad idea to start kind of brainstorming...lightly...about the kinds of things we would like to include in HensonCon. There are obvious panels such as puppet making and collector's booths. Add to that any guests we may be lucky enough to secure. Add some costume, fan art and singing contests and it starts lookin like a real convention.

Something that kind of popped into my head yesterday is touching a little on how Henson influences us in our daily lives. What I mean is, without even knowing it, some of what he preached I've taken in and used in my own job. IE Learning doesn't have to be tedious. We can have fun with ANYTHING we do, if the attitude is right.
So I was thinking....I am not a teacher, but I am a T.A. working in an ESOL classroom and I do have my own students. Danny is a teacher. It would be interesting to have a panel discussing how Henson's works and philosophy translate into something like a classroom setting. I mean, Sesame street alone illustrates this beautifully but then you have all of these wonderful Muppet productions used to convey ideas or to teach diversity or even counting and letters or potty training. Why does it work so well?

Anyway....I'm rambling now but you get the idea. Consider this... CGI, which is great in its own right, leaves very little room for the imagination if you are not the creator. I have nothing against computer animation. It's definitely an art form but it is all pretty much spelled out for you.

Now take something a little more concrete, like a muppet. You can reach out and touch it. Sure, the effects will be a little less than cutting edge, but it's kind of like impressionist art. It gives you a starting point, and your own imagination fills in the rest. There's just not enough of that kind of thing these days.
Henson creations really do leave room for the mind to reach out and explore. That's something I stress in education. You can't teach kids if you don't allow them to open their minds...to run with ideas even if they are a little nuts....And you certainly can't have an open mind if you are afraid of failure.
If you fail, so what!? Get up and try again! Try something different. We'll laugh, compare bruises and eventually we'll get there.

Eventually we'll get there and meanwhile...It's gonna be a heck of a ride! Hahaha
Anyway, I'll get off my soapbox now.

o_o Gosh that's long. Sorry bout that. Hah! I TRIED to be brief....sorta.

Great idea, Panman!

Must be a teacher thing.... On your comment about panels you were talkin about how Muppets can influence teaching. I go to a teacher conference every year where a Puppeteer/teacher I knows always does a sectional on using Puppets in the classroom. It would be real easy to modify this type of panel to be specific to Muppets and their influence and maybe applying sesame street education philosophies. Also talking about panels and starting small...perhaps we should invite those that run the larger Muppet fansites to do Panels (Muppetmindset, toughpigs, and Muppet central). They might be able to give some insight into Muppetfandom in general.

Ooo! I like that! But you know, I didnt necessarily mean with the aid of puppetry. I meant that we personally take these concepts amd apply them in the practice of teaching. Music and laughter and celebrating differences or making games out of something that might otherwise be tedious.
We should approach it from both angles. I love that idea your coworker had.

I am all in favor of inviting others to the table. Its good to have all these different points of view and ideas. My only concern would be that someone jump on the bandwagon with self interest. The last thing we want is someone hijacking this train in the interest of pursuing their own agenda. We just have to go at this with the word TEAM always in the foreground.

And thats why we need to get a list of who is on the Team now. As far as inviting others I'm more talkin about to do panels not to plan the convention...tough later on we may need some others to take specific jobs. I agree whole heartedly....I can up administrative priivelages on the website and only want to do it for those on the planning team...right now nly Panmanthe2nd and I have admin rights but I will give them to anyone else that has been involved in this so far if you want them. And I think with both point of views on the ducation topic we may have two panels. Applying Puppetry in you classroom and Applying the Philosophies of Jim Henson in the classroom...trust me...more panels the better

And I have about 50 or so puppets that I use at school so that probably why I probably thought more of puppetry in the classroom. It is nice to work at a place that lets me keep all my toys at work

Good thinking! Okay then so we get a list going. So far it's Beaker, YOU, Danny, Borples, Pinky and me! Right? Am I missing anyone? Oh! Maybe Muppetfan was in on this too.
And thanks for thinking of the admin prefs. It sounds like a good idea to me...only...what does that mean in terms of what you can do on the website?

See, now I actually think that we should approach it as applying Henson's ideas in the classroom and you can do it in two parts. The more literal use of puppetry and then the philosophy. Same panel but two sides to approaches to the same thing.

Don't want us to be accused of pulling the 'final chapter' maneuver Twilight and Harry Potter pulled of splitting things in half just to up numbers. (Though I understand it can be necessary. Honest, I do!)

Panman! DUH! How could I forget Panman!?
Okay! I'm off for a run but I'll be back a little later. Do I need to draft a literal list? Lemme know! I'll be back!

Wow! Every time I come here, there's a whole new page to read through, at least. I'm so glad I hopped in on this discussion--it's fun being a part of this with y'all! The enthusiasm and creativity here is wonderful to behold.

So, no one seems to have an answer for me about Muppetfest. I could either use a generic word meaning "lots" that doesn't need a specific number, say "thousands" and hope I'm not lying, or write the company that threw the event and hope they answer. I'm wembling about it.

I guess we'll go with whatever they're calling the chamber of commerce for sending the letter. If they can't help, maybe they can at least direct us to the right department.

Did anyone read through the link Danny posted waaaaaaay back about how to start an anime convention? I did yesterday, finally, and it really got me thinking that we can pull this thing off. It has some good ideas for what we need to start focusing on.

And last but very importantly, Pinky!!! That's terrific! I'm very impressed that you can just draw the characters like that, wow. I particularly like the "Henson" and Kermit--that bit of it is just perfect. I foresee us keeping you very busy in the future. ;-)

Oh and I signed up for the forum over at Danny's site. Very cool, Danny. B is right, it's exciting to have that nice, blank space just waiting to be filled. The forum is going to be super useful.

Well, folks, it seems to be a kiddie pool sort of day around here, so I'm out until who knows when. I expect when I come back that we'll have a date, a place, and twenty guest speakers booked. (kidding, of course, but REALLY, y'all are awesome!)

admin rights to the website would allow you to monotir the forum for sure, but I think it also allows you to make changes to the website... Bandit, did you become a member at the website yet?