Please Forgive Me, But I Have To Do Some Namedropping

[filkertom]

I don't know how he found it.

People ask me all the time if I ever sent "A Boy And His Frog" to the Henson company. I never did. I never would. Who am I? I'm some fanboy. "Gosh, I'm nobody you ever heard of, but I loved Jim Henson's work, and so I wrote a song in tribute." It would've been humiliatingly pretentious. And, what, did I expect something? A job offer? Positive feedback? A cookie? Muppet swag? I figured they'd be as uncomfortable replying as I would've been sending it.

I wrote it because I needed to write it. Because one of the people who shaped my life had suddenly passed away, and I had a hole in me as big as a talking frog, and so did everybody else who had ever loved the Muppets, and jeez I'm crying just thinking about this. I've never got over Jim Henson's death. I don't know that I ever will.

Anyway.

I got an e-mail the other day from a fellow in England named Geoff Felix. He informed me that he had forwarded timemachineyeah's video to "A Boy And His Frog" to Dave Goelz. Who apparently "really liked it". And who then passed it on to Steve Whitmire. Who also liked it.

I'm wrapping my head around this. A puppeteer who's worked in some of my favorite movies -- everything from Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and the vastly underrated Return To Oz and Adventures of Baron Munchausen to Strings -- found that video, and sent it to one of the biggest guns in the Muppet universe, and he and another big gun like my song. Specifically, Mr. Felix said, "I'm just glad that other people appreciated Jim as much as we did.... I just wanted you to know that Dave and Steve also appreciated your tribute, and I am sure that somewhere Jim does too."

I don't push for fame. I really don't. But it's nice to be appreciated by the right people, for the right reasons.

I would much rather Jim Henson be alive than me have written that song. But, things being as they are, this makes me feel really, really good.

So, who do you appreciate today? Good things. Who's making your life easier, less painful, more fun?

Comments

[chaosdancer.livejournal.com]

The Great Gonzo knows your name! That is so cool. :)

That reminds me of that story about Phil Ochs, when John Wayne gave him as an example of everything that was wrong with the country, and apparently Phil was bouncing around the house hollering "John Wayne knows who I am!" So nice to be focused on the positive.

Richard Thompson made my life happier this morning for writing "I Feel So Good" which always gets the dopamine flowing. Got rid of my fibro-aches for a few minutes there, and that was lovely. Just wish I could keep all my fave raves on all day...I'd never need drugs.