All the Rest

So, there were other Jell-O sculptures and other Jell-O artists at the show...it really wasn't all about me. Since I was running so late I did not get around to photograph the other pieces before the show like I usually do, but I think Maude's will cover the photo territory.

The Jell-O Gone Bad one by a new artist was great, very polished looking. Regular David Gibbs came for the 15th year with a life-size torso that even jiggled, especially in the jiggly corner that is that one by the stage. If you stomp on the floor the Jell-O moves. He had a toaster/brain that was perfect. He also made fine jewelry which he gave out to participants and friends and I will install the three pieces I now have in the Museum, and look forward to more artifacts and displays from him over the years.

Julie Sannes made hands and wigs and she and her Jell-O partner always dress alike in outrageous costumes, this time red and black and polka dots. I totally missed the finer points of her artistic statement. The show went by way too fast between explaining how to dry Jell-O and check on the t-shirt table, and I barely got a glimpse of the things everyone brought. There were several toasters, one with orange toast that looked great coming out of the slots. Someone made a very accurate breakfast plate with eggs sunny side up.

The Tacky Food Buffet was prodigious. My favorite taste sensation was peppermint Jell-O with candied ginger in it. The peppermint was so light and refreshing, an excellent idea, from Kathleen Fitzgerald. (If these people have Jell-O names, as is traditional, sorry for outing you as real people). One woman whose name I really should remember always brings traditional recipes and she brought chicken gizzards and sauerkraut on rutabaga slices, which actually was pretty good, had orange zest and raisins in it. I thought it needed a bit of an orange Jell-O dome over each piece, but then you would have had to eat Jell-O.

Many people did! The Maude Kerns volunteers go wild with bringing Tacky food and there were big bowls of Jell-O that they ladled out for the willing public. All the Pudding Plops and stiff Jell-O candy was gone rapidly, and there was Kitty Litter and some high fiber bars that looked lethal. Leslie What came just to drop off Tacky Food, the bars and I'm not sure what else, but she brought me some antique gelatin boxes, complete with the packets and recipes, treasure!

I enjoyed the show, always silly to the extreme and a cool serendipity when they riffed on effervescent, stuttering it in a reference to The King's Speech, and I had the same word on the t-shirt, without knowing. It was kind of a natural leap from toasting and Lawrence Welk, but neat we all thought of it. The performers always appear quite well rehearsed and really super well-dressed, always ready with great aprons and accessories that are unequaled. Some memorable songs, like Jell-O Jamboree, that I'm still singing.

Indi Stern, the person who holds everything together and has the best memory for all things Radar Angel, did a beautiful slide show that I saw only one slide of...most of the photos were taken by the late Lee Hebert and they are wonderful. Indi does it all for the show, and maybe most importantly has a talent for gathering talented people together and making it all fun and rewarding for everyone. Talk about treasure, Indi is priceless.

There were lots of admiring fans, too. Apparently a whole busload of seniors came from some center, and they probably had a lot to say about Jell-O, which is over 100 years old now as a product. People used to render their own, ick. So many people could not quite believe that so many things were possible with the simple mix of gelatin and water.

I did, however, give the wrong recipe out to many of them when they asked. I have been using 3 ounces of gelatin per cup of water this year. For the edible stuff I added about 2 ounces per package to firm it up. It's all experimental, and if it doesn't come out right, just stick it in the microwave and start over. Make Some Tonight!

Might as well wait until next year though. It's one of those Rites of Spring and now it gets put away for the rest of the year, though I guess I will have to take at least the wings to the Country Fair, just because they're wings. I'll probably try for the Mayor's Art Show with the mask, too. No reason not to.

All of the dried pieces in my collection are now housed in my project room which is the future Jell-O Art Museum. I'm actually serious about this, at least the collection phase, whether or not it makes it to the public opening phase. I'm an archivist, and I will now archive the show and the Angels as best I can. The history of the Radar Angels will probably only ever be written in fictional form, because it's mostly too outrageous to be believed, but what is fact will be collected. I'm sure at some point it will all end up in the dump, but not quite yet.

So if you have an memorabilia you want to pass on to the Museum collection, let me know.

See you next winter. We now return to our duller, less colorful reality.