The lovely and talented Zen Josey dropped in on me this last Thursday and she brought her magic makeup kit with her. We spent the afternoon together busy in my kitchen experimenting with the makeup design for Dirty Fritz. The idea is to apply the makeup over my very real scars that have fade with time so we are bringing them into the light for the character of Dirty Fritz . It was a very strange sensation both physically and much more so emotionally for me. The injuries themselves are painful memories and so too maybe even more so are the thoughts of the hospital stays that accompanied each injury. You know the worst thing about being in a hospital when you are a kid is witnessing the pain and suffering of the other kids in there. And learning that your hospital roommate didn't make it through his surgery is a hard pill to swallow as well. The scars all over my body are from my horrible childhood with an abusive father and I usually do not make a habit of showing them in public or talking about that time in my life. But here was a chance to erase that old spell cast over me so many decades ago and make fun of them. When you can laugh at something this heavy you can take back control of your life and wipe away any supposed power those events had over you. So our scars for Fritz are over the top with big grossness and hopefully making that monster Dirty Fritz just that much more fantastic and weird.

We are still working with the Star tattoo on my left shoulder which is an homage to the artist and filmmaker Jean Cocteau our constant inspiration on this project. There are several references to his films in Das Puppets a primary source has been Cocteau's film Blood of a Poet. You may have trouble finding this tittle in the video rental house but you should be able to find some clips on youtube.

Diego Sanson (he plays Gypsy Witch) has provided us with a unique birdcage for the final scenes and I am busy dressing this and a few other props before we can return to filming. I was out of commission recently with a bad cold that lasted for 3 weeks before I could finally shake it off. I am feeling strong once again which is good as tomorrow I will be busy with a photo shoot featuring another shadow cast member of Dark Refrain, Ashley will join us in the studio the theme is Ashley in Wonderland, this should prove interesting. Pictures will be available in about a week you can see some of my latest work at www.myspace.com/fredwilder in the photo albums there.

All for now my pretty pretty puppets,

Fred Wilder 2009