Most Sensational, Inspirational

Atlanta skyline from the Omni Hotel. Photograph by Shannon Noelle, taken September 1, 2007.

As part of our New Year's resolution to do more things here in town, my sister and I spent several hours Saturday at the Atlanta History Center, most of it in the exhibit "Jim Henson's Fantastic Worlds." Fantastic doesn't begin to describe it. You might expect something that's 98% Muppets, but it was closer to a 60/40 split. They had all sorts of projects he did back in the 1950s and 1960s: silkscreen posters and art done in college, cartoons and pen-and-ink drawings, storyboards for various films, and even a showing of the film "Time Piece," which he wrote, directed, and starred in, and for which he earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Short Subject, Live Action Subjects, in 1966 (I never knew about that).

It was an amazing journey into the mind of an amazing man, and one that took me back through my childhood in the process. I highly recommend seeing any part of this collection if you can. It's a Smithsonian traveling exhibit; schedule dates are available here.