Video of the Day: Timeless Henson

Long before Big Bird and Fraggle Rock, Jim Henson was dabbling in avant-garde cinema. Check out a young Henson appearing in his own far-out short, called Time Piece, which owes no small debt to John Cage. "Dislocation in time, time signatures, time as a philosophical concept, and slavery to time are some of the themes touched upon in this nine-minute, experimental film, which was written, directed, and produced by Jim Henson – and starred Jim Henson!” (It starts out a bit slow but gets really wild – and keep your eyes peeled for Frank “Yoda” Oz’s cameo as messenger boy.)

Screened for the first time at the Museum of Modern Art in May of 1965, Time Piece ran for a year and a half at one Manhattan movie theater and was nominated for an Academy Award. (Hat tip Goldenfiddle, who is selling his iconic T-shirts again.)