I learned once at a meeting in the Rabbit Hole that it seems the heroes die but their stories continue. Reincarnated, Immutable, variable even, and though magic occurred...I was encouraged. We discussed the Mad hatter and the Queen of Hearts, and someone said that in the story the Cheshire Cat disappeared but left his grin behind. Jennifer said the caterpillar smoked (a special water pipe) I recall and said that Alice drank potions and ate mushroom to change her physical state. Sadly, I lost contact with so many of these good friends....but then again...the story , it seems...does...continue. Reincarnation it seems has rules all its own. Most encouraging.' Well...anyway, I'm off to Atlantis, my pastor said, he knows where it is. Like I said: 'most encouraging'.

“No one talks to me other than myself, and my voice comes to me as the voice of a dying man! Let me associate for but one hour more with you, dear voice, the last trace of memory of all human happiness. With you I escape loneliness through self delusion and lie myself into ‘multiplicity’ and love. For my heart…cannot bear the shudder of the loneliest loneliness and so it forces me to speak as if I were two persons.” Nietzsche

Stories For Children

Each and every day I come near to losing myself in that introspective hall of mirrors. So, I tie a long, thought string around my middle to lead me back along the path consciousness has had me take. My fear is one day the string will break in the middle of such a journey leaving me bereft of my starting point. There have been those times when the string has broken. But those are stories better left for children.

"http://ventriloquismweekly.podomatic.com Thank you for this podcast. Well done. This touches upon the future of the art, not, simply, the art of ventriloquism, but the reality it represents. At times it seems the workings of the human mind seem beyond magical happy to magical scary.  Ventriloquism creates distances between these two poles in a playful manner. This is God's gift to us of reinvention, the transformation of consciousness within the architectural self. The act of distancing is in concert with the need to return the gift in a life that force us daily into transformations of the mind. Ventriloquism, like all make believe, is one of the tools of the imagination  that enable transformation. Again, many thanks. An excellent review, and as to the dark side, I'm glad Nina Conti was brought into the discussion. She as an artist is able to present a bit of the darker undertones, and 'deconstruct' them. She maintains the balance of entertainment values necessary to hold the audience.

Brooklyn Birch, a puppet, symbolizes for me the use of enchantment in its role of distancing the mind from discouragement and demoralization. These states of mind, too often drive individuals, sadly, into emotionally driven acts bereft of artistic design. Comedic ventriloquism may act to symbolize the common struggle against demoralization and despair, against uncertainty, that confusion that may cause depression, a dysfunctional existence destructive to the self and to others. 

Brooklyn Birch at the gates of heaven.

“Brooklyn Birch approached the gates of heaven. Just outside the gates stood St. Peter. "Are these the gates of heaven?” asked the wooden puppet. “Yes, they are. “How can I get in" the puppet continued. "To make an acceptable entrance you must demonstrate humility." said; St. Peter. The puppet, Brooklyn Birch, thought himself immediately back to earth and to show humility wished for a slow, reliable means of transport back to the gates of heaven. St. Peter heard laughter from the angels. He turned. There parading up the path from planet-side, riding between the lines of souls waiting their turn was the puppet. He smiled and bowed from his perch on the back of a giant turtle. "Wake up" said Mr. Russ. The ventriloquist cut into the puppet’s reverie. “The band is playing our music, That’s our Que. The man carried Brooklyn Birch from the dark wings of the theater out to the microphone behind the footlights. He sat Brooklyn Birch on his velvet covered puppet stand. “How humiliating.” thought the puppet.

The Enchanted Loom. The Mind...an enchanted loom where millions of flashing shuttles weave a dissolving pattern, always a meaningful pattern though never an abiding one; a shifting harmony of sub-patterns." -Sir Charles Sherington Man On His Nature.