Grover's Mom

Well, I've been going on about Bert's Wake, oblivious that some might not have a clue what it's about.

It started when I had the notion to do a short comic where a Hassidic Jew and a Hassidic Jew Muppet were just wandering through the lower east side of New York City, conversing about a baseball game. However, it wouldn't be in English, and the two would be slipping between Hebrew, Polish, Yiddish, and some very noticable non-Hebrew/Polish/Yiddish words, like Yankee Stadium, A-Rod, menthol cigarette, etc. Taking a banal conversation, but looking at it through langagues I don't speak, a culture that isn't my own (though I've been confused for a Jew many times, and look forward to using Yiddish whenever I can), in a city I've only been to once, and one of them is a puppet with a gigantic beard, and those curls Hassids culitivate.

Then it grew into Sesame Street in a unspecified time-frame, containing elements of the 1970's, the mid-80's, and pre-1993 90's. Sort of a romanticized version of NYC, more familiar to John Leguizamo's "Freak" album, with Run-DMC and Beastie Boys, Metallica and Return To Forever being part of the soundtrack. There was no real story, other than nostalgia and slice-of-life. Sesame Street itself wouldn't have figured as a particularly central location, more just Muppets in an idealized NYC.

Then the idea of funeral cropped up in my mind. But who would die? I wasn't about to use one of the human characters, easpecially after Hopper, but MORE easpecially after David died, I wouldn't feel comfortable predicting the deaths of say, Maria (side note: Sonia Manzano, who plays Maria, is still incredibly attractive!) or Bob. So it was going to be a Muppet.
Invented character? No. It'd have to be an established character. Who'd be old enough to reasonably die in roughly 20 years? It'd have to be an "adult" muppet, so Grover/Big Bird/Elmo et al were out. So who's well known enough who's supposedly adult? The Count? No, as a vampire, he'd have ways of cheating death and is presumably immortal. Mumford? Who the fuck is Mumford? Harvey Kneeslapper? Seriously? No, it was going to be either Ernie or Bert.

Bert was chosen simply on the fact that he'd be too stoic/uninteresting if Ernie died first. Ernie is a right-brained creature, so he'd be more sympathetic, more emotionally battered by the ordeal. It's cruel, but made for a more interesting story.
The second reason, which would become more evident as a better reason, would be the creation of Sylvia, an invented chracter who is the progeny of Bert and some unknown woman-Muppet. Here, we could have a character who embodied characteristics of Bert (unibrow, long nose, slender head), yet could be considered moderately attractive.

I feel I should stop here to say that I firmly do not believe that Bert and Ernie are gay. My reasoning is based on studies that strongly suggest that characturistics mature in couples, no matter of orientation or sex. Lesbian couples, Gay couples, stright couples all share this habit, where one (usually associated with women) takes on the dynamic forward thinking "nag," the other (more often than not the male) the opposite, laid back and not as goal oriented. Knowing this, and that I fit into the latter role has helped me try to improve myself. Anyway, I believe this happens to non-romantic couples as well. Think Felix and Oscar. Have you honestly had a roommate who didn't fit into one of these catagories?
"But Steve! They sleep in the same bed!" No, they sleep in separate beds, but in the same room. Consider we've only seen that room and their bathtub, we could extract that their apartment is small, and that separate bedrooms might not be an option. I've watched a lot of Bert and Ernie in my life, and as someone with a terrific gaydar, I've never seen them do ANYthing that could be construed as gay.
And taking this further, who cares? Children certainly wouldn't, and neither should we.

The comic was started in the tail-end of senior year, and was a black & white 8-pager, 6 panels per page. It got dark very fast.
This summer, I decided to continue it.

Think of it this way; in an hour-long show, we see the characters maybe 15 minutes of the time, either in the wrap-around segments, or in shorts. So what are these characters doing for the 23 and 3/4 hours of a given day? They can't be teaching round the clock! Some certainly need to make money for rent, food, luxeries, utilities, and so forth. That time in-between is fascinating to me.

Gordon, for example, using the first episode as basis, is a teacher. Did he alway want to teach elementary school children in the inner-cities, or did he want to strive higher, and teach high school? Does/did he smoke? When he goes out to eat at a restuarunt with Susan, would they hit up a local place, or b-line it to an Olive Garden? Did the decision to live on Sesame Street made out of roots or economic downturn of the early 70's? Did Gordon have plans to run to Canada if his draft number was selected for Viet Nam? Does he stay up at night, trying to balance his check-book, listening to what radio station?

Or Bert and Ernie. What do they do for money? I imagine Ernie would work menial jobs like courier, desk security, odd-jobs, or deal a little grass on the side. Whatever the job, returning home to a half-messy home isn't a problem for him, as long as the lights turn on, the water runs, and it's warm in the winter.
Bert on the other hand, would work as a drone at some office. The kind of fellow who'd stare at a computer screen for hours, sifting through incomprehensible numbers, double and triple checking for errors before sending it to his section manager to approve and forward to the general manager. This Bert would be the kind of guy who'd blush and gufaw at "Office Space", and whose impotence at work and frustration would be chaneled into obsessive collecting and bird-watching.

Well, anyway, Bert, in this story, has died of heart failure in an unspecificed future, and reflections of his life, the petty lives of others, and an undercurrent of hostility pervades. It's not for children, shouldn't be read by children, and is intended for adults. Even an obnoxious blue monster named Grover would eventually grow up with the audience. He'd appriciate what he learned when he was four, but as a 24 year-old, putting a BFA to use, as well as paying off student loans, is more interesting than counting to 20.

Speaking of Grover, go to this site: http://www.toughpigs.com/myweekgroversmom01.htm. I'm thinking of how I could use this as a dramatic comic. The story of an idependent woman in the 1960's through the 1980's, that would work even if it wasn't starring a Muppet Monster. Could be fun...

Whew!

So here's what's been going on:

- Today it rained really hard, and there was a tornado whistle blaring. Being stuck at Valleyfair when this happens? Not fun at all. I survived, and had a productive day of it.

- Nikki comes back in 10 days! This weekend she's in Prague!

- Nikki's sisters are coming over on Sunday to play Rock Band. I'm considering paying Amber (the youngest) to help me clean the apartment before Nikki arrives. I'll ask her then.

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TTFN!