February 6, 2005

• PhotoPost: L.A. Zoo

  

  This was an exciting weekend, and as it is rather late for me (7:50pm) and almost time for bed, and I owe WhenWordsCollide a PhotoPost, I am indulging in the photoposting, and not creating one of the two posts I wanted, but I’ll intersperese some of the observations about some of the things I’ve experienced this weekend in the captions to the photos here on this post. The name of the site, after all, is “WhenWordsCollide”, which allows for a lot more leeway in the content of each post.

  

  The photos in this entry are taken from shots which are featured in my Webshots Gallery in the Los Angeles Zoo and Traveltown folder and were taken on a hot summer day (July 10th, to be exact) in 2004. None of these photos have been featured on WhenWordsCollide, except for another shot of the rhinosceros below. First we have a flock of  flamingoes, going about their business.

  

  I spent a long time with this rhino. I always like to “shoot through stuff” at the intended subject, which gives a rather interesting “look” to the subject at hand. At first, I was around the side of the big guy as he came out to eat some leaves. It was very hot that day, and a lot of the animals were retiring, so there was actually very few subjects to shoot. After circling the rhino’s pen for a while, I finally got what I would consider some “artistic” shots, including this one and the one which I feature on the “artistic photos” blog entry. (photo 1)

  

  Here’s a zebra, also shot through some leaves. (Now here’s some unrelated “news and notes” stuff regarding future blog entries) The zebra, of course, is an African animal. I have always believed that I have been in Africa in possibly another life.  (specifially Tanzania, which was previously called Tanganyika). I’ve mentioned this on a few posts. On Saturday, I finally got to see the film, “Hotel Rwanda”, directed by Terry George, and starring Don Cheadle in an Oscar nominated performance as the the real life Paul Rusesabagina, who saved over 1500 native Tutsis during the mass genocide of their race by majority Hutus ( Paul’s nationality) during the Rwandan genocide in 1994. I give this film a 10 of 10 on the Mikometer, and will alert readers when I finally write the review of the film. It deserves Best Picture, but won’t get it because it was not even nominated, which, after I saw it Saturday, I believe is a travesty. The best films not only are good cinema, they make the audience think and reflect upon humankind and it’s many triumphs and shortcomings. “Hotel Rwanda” does this excellently, and is easily the most powerful film of the year. I want to write about this film, and the Rwandan massacre, which I followed religiously in the news as it happened, even though the Los Angeles Times kept pushing the story back farther and farther into the bowels of the news section as the killing advanced, in a future entry. I’m just too tired now to write the review or write at length about this great tragedy, which ranks right up there with the Holocaust as one of the worst human tragedies in history. 

  

  Here is a mountain goat, in another shot which I feel is a good nature photograph. This afternoon (Here’s another unrealted entry) I watched the Super Bowl, and though I was rooting for the underdog Philadelphia Eagles, who lost to new 21st dynasty winners the New England Patriots, 24-21, the game was very exciting, and had me on the edge of my seat throughout. I am not the world’s biggest football fan, but I sure love a good game. (I did attend USC in college (1971-74), after all, with Anthony Davis and Pat Hayden on the team). This year’s halftime show was rather boring, however, and Paul McCartney sung mainly Beatles tunes, when I was hoping he would launch into “Venus and Mars” or “Monkberry Moon Delight”.

  

  The last photo I’m featuring in this post is a rather interesting looking bird from the bird show at the L.A. Zoo. I didn’t take notes while shooting the photos, so I will wager a guess this is some kind of buzzard. He’s interacting with one of the trainers who emcee the show.

  Future posts will detail “Hotel Rwanda” and also the history of the Rwandan genocide, which is very chillingly portrayed in the movie, and also I have posted the first chapter of my untitiled “My Sexual History” “essay” on a short story group on Yahoo and have received positive feedback, so I think I shall feature the chapters here on WhenWordsCollide as they are written. I have about six chapters completed so far. I worked on this prose piece for most of Saturday, before I went out to see the movie. Also, will leave the Buddy Holly song up for at least another day, and I changed my profile pic yesterday. Not long ago the Xanga folks updated the service, and since then I can’t find the profile pics on the individual posts (or “comments” posts) on either mine or other blogs I visit. I even posted a comment on John’s site about this, but I never seem to get any answers from the Xanga team when I post. (He gets about 255 comments, which must be the limit for the program, for each post he makes about Xanga, so it’s somewhat impossible for him to answer. I just hope he reads the comment and “fixes the problem” Like all of you I’m tired of seeing this guy, too. ) 

  Here is the little Xanga bug shown outside his house on one of the rare occasions he isn’t popping up on our blogs after we hit “submit”. Well, that’s about it for tonight. The weekend is gone almost as soon as it arrived, and I have to get up at 4am and begin the week anew. Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend, and nobody placed any bets on the Eagles.

  • 11:20 pm
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