Muley Sermon "Hope for the Future" 12 17 2023

Muley the Mule, Buford the Dog, Roy Duck, and Missy Mule visited First Congregational Church of Memphis on December 17, 2023, to talk about being the hope for the future, and that when worries arise kids can go to their grown-ups for help.

Missy Mule assisted by Janet Wade
Muley the Mule assisted by Kevin L Williams
Buford the Dog assisted by Martheus Wade
Roy Duck assisted by DaMarco Randle

Written, Produced, and directed by Kevin Williams
Additional writing DaMarco Randle and Janet Wade
Sound by Antonious Smith
Video by First Congo

"A Million Dreams" by Karaoke-Version.com
"Eye Laugh" theme by David Fesliyan Studios www.fesliyanstudios.com

www.muleythemule.com
www.toshigawauniverse.com
www.damarcoarts.com
www.firstcongo.com

Jeghetto at the Memphis Public Library - 12/10/2022

As a puppeteer, I rarely get a chance to see puppet shows.  My friend Drew contacted me to let me know that "Jeghetto" Tarish Pipkins was coming to town!  I first learned about him through the Puppeteers of America "The Puppetry Journal" and was so excited to see him perform!  It was so much fun, and if Jeghetto is in your area, PLEASE go see him.

The show was described as:

Puppet Genius Tarish "Jeghetto" Pipkin comes to The Memphis Public Library

About this event
Please join the Memphis Public Library in welcoming critically acclaimed puppeteer Tarish "Jeghetto" Pipkins for a series of pop-up performances and workshops throughout the city...
Tarish Pipkins, a.k.a Jeghetto, has established himself as a masterful self-taught artist whose work with puppetry is influenced by a hip-hop ethos and a culture of teaching and education.

You can learn more about him at the links below.  I have a few photos and video to share as well.

Official Website

Facebook

Instagram

YouTube

ABC24 News Interview

With DaMarco Randle

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While there, we visited the art show by Rose Marr-Scott, whose work you can see at The Mayfair Art Gallery.  Read more about her here.

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Around another corner of the library was a section dedicated to an exhibition titled "Evicted."  I'm too much of a sentimental softy, I suppose, and facing the reality of poverty and how it effects families was a bit too much, so I didn't stay long, but want you to zoom in on the image of the boxes.  That's a lot of numbers of homelessness in the United States due to evictions.

 

Muley's 2023 First Congo Speaking Dates

 You can hear Muley's words of hope, peace, and love, by visiting First Congregational Church at 1000 S Cooper Street, Memphis, TN 38104, on the second Sunday of each month.  Services begin at 10:30 am Central Time both in person and online.  CLICK HERE to watch online at 10:30am Sundays.  CLICK HERE for directions.

We are also collecting the messages in books, with issue one already available.

2023 Speaking Dates

January 8

February 12

March 12

April 9

May 14

June 11

July 9

August 13

September 10

October 8 (Blessing of the pets, so he may not be there)

November 12

December 10 (Unrehearsed Kids' Pageant, so he may not be there)

(Possibly for the Christmas Eve early service.)

Memphis Comics Expo 9/24/2022 - Fozzie!

Celebrating Jim Henson's birthday on September 24, 2022, the same day as Memphis Comics Expo, I dressed in my green Jim Henson Boyhood Museum t-shirt, topped off by a Kermit cap, and my Kermit limited edition Reeboks.  But, I took my Fozzie Bear replica along with me who, in the spirit of cosplay, was dressed in a Superman t-shirt and cape!

Several folks who know him asked where Muley was (at home, by the way, doing some writing, or drawing).  Still, there were some great smiling faces when they saw Fozzie.

I went with Martheus and Anakin Wade, Janet Wade's sister Sharon Dumer and her two kids Mara and Aayla, and of course Fozzie.  See the episode of Wade's World below at the 16 minute mark for Martheus' interview with Fozzie.

Photo by Lin Workman

In the video, he also interviews cartoonists Greg Cravens and Mike Norton.

Photo by Nicki Workman

Upon entering we ran into Deadpool with photos taken by harvtography.

Over at the Cause-Play Memphis booth, we ran into our good friends Garrett and Nikkie Dunnewold

Photo by Garrett Dunnewold

And ran into our friend Derrick Patterson, pictured here with Kermit and Peter Prankster of Tik Tok.

Photo by Derrick Patterson

Click the following images to see the photo's owners:

Arting Around With God - Part 2 Review

Did you get a chance to read Part 1 Review of the classes?  If not, CLICK HERE!  Since the topic of the classes being reviewed is religious in nature, this is going to be a God-centric story, of course.

Part 1 Review discussed the other folks who participated in the classes held those first 3 Wednesdays of September 2014.  I shared names, stories, my thoughts, photos, art, and a poem I wrote during one of the classes, which inspired me to share two other such items below.

The third Wednesday class, hosted by Sharon Pavelda and Randall Mullins (as they had hosted the previous two), found musician Larken and vocalist Joel Chapman on the floor discussing my story, and the discussion went from true musicians to the orchestration of work that goes into performing a puppet.

Photo by Roger Courts as Muley discusses celebrating with pie.  Or Pi.

Since May 2010, my puppetry has re-rooted itself back into church as Muley the Mule has begun offering up the kids' messages at First Congo while sharing his too-smart 6-year-old translations of what he reads in the Christian bible and how it relates to his own life.  Where does this start?  Why do I do it?  Where did the root of church puppetry first get planted?

This evening, I started out sharing with everyone a story that not many people there knew, not even Sharon and Randall, but they are both responsible for the fact that Muley still does the kids' messages.  I believe that God sends us answers and messages, but we have to be open minded enough to understand when we're being contacted and what we're being told. Our silent meditations or prayer, the actions of people around us, the traffic jam may be a blessing in disguise as may the closed doors of a store be (depending on our bank account)!  You see, after about a year of doing the kids' messages I had intended to go to church and let Pastor Cheryl know that I would step back and let someone else take the reigns for a while; but, God lets you know loud and clear what you're going to do.

At that point and time, I hadn't really spoken much to either Randall or Sharon, but this particular morning both stopped me just as I was walking in the door and we discussed puppetry performance, acting, techniques, and they told me that the work I was doing with Muley for the kids, and ultimately for the congregation since we perform the kids' messages right in front of them, was a true blessing to all and especially themselves.  I realized that, "Oh, okay, God.  I get what you're saying," and chose silently to not stop doing the kids' messages.  That's when they gave a farewell and walked away, and I said, "That's too coincidental to not be a sign."  So, through today, I still do the kids' messages there and expect I will continue until they tell me to go away, or I move, or just cannot physically do it any longer.

But, where did puppetry for me begin?  It was simultaneous with my love of drawing and began at a very early age.  I attended Cadet Child Care Center in Holly Springs, MS, and they promoted art with us kids creating plates, clay sculptures, we made snowmen out of white soap powder, painted, drawed...the list can go into eternity at this point!

Cadet Child Care Center, Catholic-run; cafeteria on left and classes on right.  The preschool
is no longer located in these buildings and has moved across town.  Which is sad, as there were
wonderful murals on the walls in the hall representing the Orange Room (Ernie with an orange
tree), the Blue Room (Cookie and Grover Monsters), the Yellow Room (Big Bird and Bert), and
the Red Room (who I forget was on their mural).

One of my friends once critiqued this as amazing for a 5 year old to
have drawn--the feet are drawn showing a flat plane on which the
dinosaur stood.  This is a puzzle, but really a collage.

My best friend then, who I recall was always intrigued by my drawing and would later become a fantastic musician, was Monta Richmond.  In the MuleyVerse, my namesake, Kevin Rhea, has a best friend named Monta Mitchum.  Go figure.

Monta Richmond and I show our diplomas when we
graduated Cadet Child Care Center in 1978!

I was a HUGE fan of both Charles Schulz's Peanuts comic strip and cartoons, and of Jim Henson's Muppets, mostly via Sesame Street.  I began doing puppet shows for my neighborhood friends and classmates at Cadet Child Care Center.  I would take my record player and find the right groove in it to lay the needle and just as it started playing a song, would grab a puppet that goes with the record and perform the song.

Sharon asked me, "Do you remember the first puppet that you connected with?"  "Coincidentally," I said, "I brought it tonight!"  I pulled the puppet out of the puppet box and did a few lines in the character's voice, then passed it around for everyone to see and try on.

Grover Monster of Sesame Street by Fisher Price.
I still love this puppet!

I explained that in 1979 I had already received letters from the corporate paralegals of my heroes that I could not do my own Snoopy comic strip or create my own Muppet show, and so I started creating my own world of dogs.  The main dog character was called Spike, but was really dorky unlike the usual burly strong Spikes you see in cartoons.  His buddy, originally a dog, was this lanky thing that, on January 1, 1980, Papa Roy Rhea said, "Well, he's muley-lookin', ain't he?"

"Muley-lookin'?" I asked looking at the page.  I thought it was a dog, but if Papa Roy says it's a mule, then it's a mule.  So, that's when Muley the Mule was born.  Today, I still have (and shared in that class) the earliest owned drawing of Muley, which is probably #3 or #4 drawing of him.

During all this time, though, I was still returning to my preschool and doing puppet shows.  I would load up a suitcase with records, the record player, and my puppets, and ride my bike all the way uptown in the summers and do puppet shows for all the students.  In 1985, the students shared their puppet experiences with the school's newsletter (you'll have to click it to open bigger for viewing):

Fast forwarding now: in 1988 we moved to Munford, TN, where (after being kicked out of the Presbyterian Church for laughing at the old woman choir who sounded like the Muppet Chicken Choir) I started attending Munford Assembly of God Church.  The music that Sunday was rocking, and it drew me in there.  Soon after, I started with the youth group and then performing puppets with the Children's Church there. 

This inspired me to go ahead and (in May 1990) construct the first Muley puppet.  The pattern was taken from one of the first puppets made for the church by one of their elder women which, after I altered it (a LOT) became Buford the Dog.  I bought the puppet from the church in 1991 and made him my own completely, fitting him into the MuleyVerse as Muley's best friend.  Unfortunately, I quit church after seeing too many politics happening and decided that if I go to church I'm only adding one more hypocrite to the bunch.  But, watch what happens years later...

Everyone knows that over the following years, The Muley and Friends Show performed at festivals, conventions, and other events, with Muley hosting and emceeing contests, events, shows, and introducing stars in all forms of media, except motion pictures!  Muley's Comix and Stories have been published in all forms of print as well.

In 2009, my friend Angela Freeman forced me back to church when she says, "I heard about this church I want to try out, I'll be there to get you in 10 minutes."  In May 2010, Muley did his first kids' message with Juan Salter.  In 2013, The Muley and Friends Show performed live as part of First Congo's 150th Anniversary Celebration, also celebrating 25 years of Pastor Cheryl's tenure and 5 years of Pastor Sonia's service.

Missy Mule and asst. Janet Wade, Roy Duck and asst. Andrew Chandler,
Buford the Dog and asst. Martheus Wade, Muley the Mule and asst. Kevin L. Williams

So, there is the story that made its way full circle, ending with everyone making their own paper puppets!  And this may be a neat project to share at a future date.

Thanks for sharing this story with me and I hope you had fun and are inspired by all this to go create!

Ernie and Bert paper puppets.

Below are the poems I mentioned in the previous post and above.

 

First up is Industry.  I wrote it thinking about nature, but people have found many more meanings behind the text, and I welcome that.  When you read it, what do you think it is about?

 

INDUSTRY

There it was before me
This thing of beauty
Stretching tall to the sky
Reaching for the sun
Rooted in the firmament
And older than any
Its arms reaching out
Its foliage greeny

Against the pale blue sky
And the fluffy white clouds
Its brown leg broke forth from
The green and flowered blanket beneath
Amidst its torso was home
To the many creatures there
Living peacefully, happily
But then, from nowhere!

I heard the sound of industry
Coming like the beast of evil
Crawling across the ground
Like a serpent for a baby
And this great, majestic creature
Whose purpose in life was to shade and shelter
Was targeted, and fell
And was there no more.

Displaced, the creatures had to leave
Seeking a new home far, far away
And where once stood the majesty
Now clumped hard rock, concrete
Steel and beam, metal, glass and plastic,
A necessary evil: Progress was his name
He laughed a hearty ‘Ho, ha haa!’
As his pockets filled and fat he became 

So long, I whispered to that thing of beauty
No longer reaching to the sky
For now a concrete demon came
And made the beauty die
What will become of our green earth
If progress presses forth?
Steel and beam, metal, glass and plastic,
Beauty will be no more.

While working on Muley stuff, I realized that The Muppets have a ballad with "Rainbow Connection," and Disney has "When You Wish Upon A Star," and Peanuts have "Happiness Is..."; but, I had nothing.  The following is the lyrics I wrote for what would be the ballad for The Muley and Friends Show:

 

The Smiles of Children 

It’s found in The Smiles of Children
Their sounds of laughter
Singing their songs

It’s found in The Smiles of Children
While they play their
Games all day long

When the world turns dark and gray and
Things seem to crash all around you
Watch the children, hear their voices
Your day will start fresh and new

It’s found in The Smiles of Children
Healthy or Sick
They’re happy just the same
It’s found in The Smiles of Children
Eternal joy is the name of their game

When your heart is feeling down
Listen to the world that’s all around you
Look to the child and your happiest moments
Are when he gets love from you

Its found in The Smiles of Children
It’s up to you, so treat them right
Like you need The Smiles of Children
They need your love
Both day and night

The children need your loving, caring
Honesty and joy
And always smile back
For every girl and boy

 

 

Mascot Gigs vs. Furry Life

True story:
I'm on AOL Messenger back in the old days when AOL was the thing to have and a message pops up on my screen: Are you a furry?

What?

Are you a furry?

I don't guess so.  I mean, I'm moderately hairy??

Ha ha, not what I mean.  Look at this link and you'll see what I mean.  I'll check back with you later.

Okay, so, I clicked on the link that I was provided by whoever was messaging me.  I was so shocked and surprised that I had to call one of my friends over to view the websites that were opening and together we laughed and laughed and laughed at the folks on the websites, even making up jokes that are still funny to us.

So, a few days later, I get another message:  Did you check out the site I sent?

Yes, I did. Are you a furry?

I am.

What is UP with you, dude??  That's just sick.

That was the end of the conversation and I was blocked.

I'm not usually judgemental yet will be in this article.  Perhaps all because of the links this person shared with me on my first introduction to furries/plushies?   Whatever.  If you are a furry or a plushie, you're about to be insulted--rather, the perverted ones. Sorry, but it's my blog and I have my own way of thinking about things and that's why I post on my website: to share my thoughts.  You'll have your own and you're welcome to them. 

It is my opinion that there is a side to the world of the furry or the plushie which is ridiculous.  The definitions, the terminology, the whole thing:  weird.  If you don't know what I'm referring to, you can do your own research into their world and let me know what you think about it if you want to.  However, it was based on that link and some of the stories that I've heard around conventions and otherwise.

"But, Kevin," I've heard said, "you are a furry."


I'm not as fat as this looks, I had padding
around my belly for the costume to fill-out.

Um, no.  I'm no more a furry than someone who dresses in cosplay can fly or someone who draws kids is a pedophile. 

"But, Kevin," I've heard follow-up said, "you have puppets, and a fursuit, and draw animal characters."

I have puppets, a mascot suit, and draw animal characters.  This makes me a puppeteer, a mascot performer, and a cartoonist.  Not a furry or a plushie. 

So, if having a label for yourself fits you, then you do whatever 'suits' you.  Me?  I'll stick to the professional names for what I do: in the MuleyVerse, we have Critters (puppets) (I'm a puppeteer), MuleySuit (mascot) (mascot performance), and comic characters (comic strips and comic art) (I'm a cartoonist).  This is our terminology for what is done with the Mule. 

What's the difference in mascot performance and being a furry?  Well, if you followed the above advice and looked up what a furry is, you see that one part of it is that the people who live by that title are usually people who would prefer that they be an animal as opposed to a human.  A mascot performer is someone who puts on a mascot suit and entertains folks.

But, let's focus on mascot performance:  Outside of the MuleyVerse, I have performed sports mascots, and mascots of famous cereal characters such as Lucky (Lucky Charms), Sonny (the Cocoa Puffs bird), Count Chocula (of Count Chocula cereal if you didn't already know), and so on.  I've been Bugs Bunny, Scooby Doo, the rooster from Rock-a-doodle, Snoopy, and more.  Most popularly, the MuleySuit has performed at events for the Ronald McDonald House of Memphis at the Big Scoop Ice Cream Festival, Breakfast with Santa, Celebrity Waiter Night, Celebrity Putt Putt, Leather Ball, and more.

When performing a mascot character there are a few things you have to keep in mind:
1) Personality/Character - you need to be able to perform, without words (though sometimes I speak as Muley while in the MuleySuit), a behavior 'suitable' for the character and true to that character's integrity.
2) Movement - it's like a dance.  You have a certain swag to the walk, a way that the character must carry himself to stay in character. Be energetic, happy, bouncy!  This is part of your...
3) Performance - it is your job to entertain the people around you.  You are a mime in a costume, you are funny and make people laugh, you are bringing the "happy" to so many people who are watching you.  It is a big job, just like that head that you fit over your own, but you do it!

4) Little kids - some of them are cool with this larger-than-life thing that is coming their way, most are not.  Some parents are stupid enough to shove a shy kid sitting in the stroller at this creature setting the kid off into a world of phobia!  Be patient to allow the little kids to accept you in THEIR time.  And, if they look like they're about to scream, they probably will.  Walk away and leave them alone.
5) Teens and Adults are turds - some idiot years ago thought it would be funny to punch a guy in a mascot suit.  Why?  What's funny about abusing someone, regardless of their species?  Get over it and stop.  It's not funny, it's abusive to the people in the suit.  Stop hurting them.

And now, because you didn't ask for it, a new documentary series is appearing on Hulu called "Behind the Mask," four different mascot performers in four different venues and leagues telling their story of being behind the mask.  Learn what it takes, the pain suffered, and more.

 

Only available on Hulu.  CLICK HERE to view episodes.

Now, the contradiction:  Furries and plushies NOT of the perverted fandom you are not the ones this article is about.  I don't hate you.  I don't even dislike you.  I do not loathe you or despise you.  You choose to do what makes you feel good, and I applaud you for it.  I wouldn't take that away from you or anybody else in the world.

When I was a kid, my mom had a t-shirt with an old woman on a motorcycle saying, "If it feels good, do it!"  So, if it feels good, if it feels right, do it.  Be you, be who you are, regardless of the rantings of a fuddy-duddy like me.  You are an individual, a person who is trying to get by the best way you can and if someone out there is like me, you can thumb your nose at the rest of the world and say you're proud to be just who you are.

I may not skritch you, but I will shake your hand.  Shake? Shake.  Good boy.  Now, sit.

End rant.