i'm in a new york state of mind.

Day 33 of the wild goose chase and we are in buffalo, ny.
this is bo, an old friend from matt’s americorps days.
bo lives in rochester, where wgc theater performed the final show of the summer tour today. we arrived in rochester yesterday afternoon after a show in dunkirk and a quick look at lake erie.this is bo’s favorite meal: the trash plate.
the trash plate features all of your favorite american foods piled on top of one another like garbage in a compost heap. start with a base of home fries and mac salad. now top it with two cheeseburgers. smother it in ketchup and ground beef hot sauce, and then stuff it in your face with a fork. yum.



this is bo’s favorite past time: drinking at the dubland bar.

thanks, bo!36 shows down, one wedding to go. we drive now to new castle, pennsylvania to make merry at jen and alex’s wedding.

on the way out of new york, we decided to stop in buffalo to see niagara falls. a few folks mentioned to us that Canada has the better view of the falls. apparently the word got to our gps, because it directed us straight out of the country. as we crossed the bridge and saw the canadian flag, we realized our blunder. passportless, we skirted some orange cones, and turned around, only to plea with the jerk at border control to let us back into our own country without the proper documentation.
we ended up finding our way to the american falls and loving it! all of my witty blog banter cannot capture the wonder that is several million gallons of water rushing over a cliff. you know what that means. time for a video!

wedding tomorrow, and more photos, live from puppet tour 2oo9.

i come from a nation of heat.

day 29 of wild goose chase theater’s world take-over and we are in lexington, ky.it was hard to leave again after two days at home. there was rest and relaxation, but even at home, there was work to be done.
first, matt had to mow the filthy mess that was the backyard. those bushes at the back fence? yeah, those are weeds.
then, it was time to start up the deep fryer (shout out to mary ellen sandbank!) and cook some freedom fried chillies! all of the hours of food network that i inhaled last month have gotten the better of me. with the help of bobby flay, i planned a full menu of southwestern cuisine and then I served it to my friends!now we're in lexington, at the 5th of 6 libraries that will have us this week. matt's performing in a meeting room on the other side of the building, and the laughter is floating all the way to my little corner.








if i can tell you anything about lexington, it's that they love their fountains. nothing gets kentuckians going like creatively hosed water! want to run through some glorified sprinklers? boy have i got the place for you!







what else can i tell you about lexington? not much. the jif factory is here, but it doesn't offer tours. downtown looks interesting, but we couldn't find much there besides fancy fountains and statues of horses. let's head on to pennsylvania, shall we?

one more cup of coffee before i go

day 26 of puppet the expletives out of the universe 2009 and we have just left rogers, arkansas.
the western leg of the tour is officially over and we just finished the 8 hour drive home for two days of nashvegas splendor. i am ridiculously excited about spending the night in my own bed.

for the most part, we've spent our time in rogers teaching taylor and carlos' children that it is necessary to perform specific dances when beginning specific tasks. the coffee dance, the going to walmart dance, the door-knocking dance. it's fairly easy to create a dance for all of your daily routines. it's also easy to indoctrinate small children!

team gmaz has accomplished many a task in rogers. there was the obligatory daily takeover of the local coffee house. followed by many a nap.

there were baby activities. many games of peekaboo, the water park, the roller rink. one year of walking, and now the babies are on skates!

Of course, there was no shortage of cooking. barbecued pork, stuffed jalapenos, stuffed salmon. we spent a day in eureka springs. saw the thorncrown chapel and explored all of the hippyness that Arkansas has to offer.speaking of hippies, we tested some ear candles. ear candling is a natural method of earwax removal that supposedly feels awesome. the reports are in and we're here to tell you that the candles did not deliver. we felt a whole lot of nothing.


and then we came home. tomorrow, we’ll celebrate independence day with all the residents of ca$hville, and on the 6th, wgc theater will go east for the tour. matt picked up this monster key chain back in Albuquerque and we’ve spent the last week perfecting our impersonations of it.

i wanna rock(y mountain) with you. (rip mj)

day 22 of puppet your face off 2009 and we are in eureka springs, arkansas.

we spent two days in the ski towns of colorado, telluride and durango. what can i say about colorado? blah blah breathtaking landscape, blah blah beautiful scenery. that and we nearly lost our lives driving up the 14,000 ft of slippery mountain road. no one in telluride really knew how to get to durango, so we ended up taking the million dollar highway, only to find out later that it's called that because you couldn't pay anyone a million dollars to drive it. you look out the window and you can't even see the edge of the road, or the guard rail that's not there. instead you see the many feet that you will fall to your fiery death. periodically, the gps, confused at our position, instisted we turn right (off of the cliff) or left (into the raging river). at points, it was sure that we had already tumbled off into the green abyss, as it illustrates here.


we were pretty lucky to randomly run into jackie, a librarian that used to work in crownpoint with matt. she and her husband now live in durango, and she brought a lovely young aspiring puppeteer to see the show. small world! jackie took us out for pizza, but unfortunately we had little time to explore the wonders of durango (which actually does look wonderful). the next day was full of early rising, one show, and several hours of driving. we hightailed it back through new mexico, texas, and oklahoma to meet team gmaz at dad's house in rogers.



coming up next time on summer of puppets: the puppeteers join forces with the many members of team gmaz for "non-stop square jaws, coffee drinking, and quasi-cynical quips about the world and politics....and two babies running in circles."

go out in your country where your land meets the sun...

Day 18 of puppet tour usa and we are leaving new mexico like bandits in the night… or very early morning. this is something matt does to keep himself awake.

I hope you liked those pictures from white sands, because the debris infiltrated my polaroid camera and all but destroyed it. insert expletives here.
two packs of bad batteries from a gas station in truth or consequences convinced me that my digital camera was broken too. consequently, we have few pictures from our weekend at the lake house in elephant butte. As a product of the generation that brought you twitter and myspace, I have no interest in things that cannot be documented in real time and liveblogged to the cyber world at large. I managed to buy some energizers and catch the sunset before we left.

we hit up los lunas for a puppet show on tuesday and then caught the movie year one at a theater in albuquerque. these guys were in the parking lot of the theater, and graciously allowed me to snap their picture.

Me: why are you guys dressed up?
Them: we’re not.






After the movie, we meet up with alex and his sister Natalie for some sushi and Albuquerque revelry. we sleep at alex and jen’s apartment and spend the following day tooling around downtown and eating green chiles..
while here, we sampled an array of new mexican cuisine. new mexican burgers, new mexican pizza, new mexican sushi, etc. the culinary skill required to make these dishes is the sort that i could never hope to attain, but i'll try to describe it to you. first, gather the typical ingredients necessary for the dish. then, cook the dish. add green chiles. eat it. mindblowing, i know.my tone is sarcastic, but i actually love the green chile grub. we've eaten green chiles in every meal for the last three days, and we bought 10 cans to take back to nashville.

we hit this fortuitous mile today on our way to Colorado. 1111111! two shows today in Durango, and then one in telluride tomorrow. xoxo.