Saturday, April 27, 2013

My New Collection Of…Pigs?!

Hi everyone. Right now I'm sitting on a small brick wall, blogging on my iPad, in front of a luminously green lawn, all alone save a woodpigeon. It's sunny but with a cold breeze. The grass is wet with dew. No prizes for guessing that this weekend we're in Suffolk at the country house, not London.

OMG, just realised that that first paragraph sounded WAY too much like last week's "Spring Is In The Air!!!" post. Sorry. You now have every right to say "Shut up, DP, and if you're going to talk, talk about something other than random picturesque landscapes! How about that weird post title you made up!". Well, to be fair, you had the right to say that before, because this blog believes in freedom of speech and as far as I'm concerned you can think whatever you like about my writing. And photography and videos and whatever else I happen to publish online. But I'm going off on another tangent (today is a very tangenty day, and I think I just coined a new word. Maybe it'll go viral). Better get to the point, and quick.

Anyway, now we can forget that second paragraph ever happened. And besides, you're probably wondering somewhere deep down in your brain, maybe even subconsciously, about what on Earth the titular Pig Collection is. Well, when we were on holiday last, my mum was telling an sad tale during breakfast about how a few years back she lost some of her postcard collection, which she'd had since she was five. Then I thought that I don't really have a collection of linked objects that I'd be really sad about if I lost one of the set (well, I suppose I have my collection of blog posts, but they're not really material…), and I asked my family for suggestions on what I should collect. There were weird, wonderful and just plain mad ideas put forward, from objects the length of my handspan (right, genius. What do I do when it changes?) to coyotes (oh, you see a lot of those on the souvenir shop rounds, don't you?) to six-inch-long objects (here lies DP, who always had a tape measure slung around her shoulder) to practically every animal figurine you can think of. And conventional things like snow globes, stickers or gemstones. My dad even had the "practical" idea of carrying on one of our family traditions which has existed as long as I can remember: getting a decorated tin every birthday and Christmas. They're nice tins and it's a fair idea, but that's something my parents made up, and not me, so it feels like too much of a prerogative. So I had to say no.

So the crisis remained unresolved until about a week after school started again. My mum was down at my Nana's house in Rottingdean and they were discussing the collection issue. My Nana collects mini, mainly high-heeled shoes which she displays on her bathroom cabinet, which I think is a lovely idea, but a) I don't want to copy her and b) mini shoes aren't really my thing, I much prefer real ones :D. However, before the shoe phase, I discovered my Nana also collected…PIGS! Now that's more up my street…

So my mum accepted the collection suggested, so Nana (hey Nana, and thanks!) gave me a couple to start my collection off! Aren't they so cute? I love how they aren't really straight pink piglets, but they're designed in a more sophisticated way. Also, they don't seem picture perfect; like people, they both have little appearance quirks, which I think makes them more real and not just figurines. The black pig has his green eyes and his broken leg (although that is something my dad is mending at the moment) and the glass pig has those red ears. And I genuinely think there's expression in those little eyes on the glass pig, especially in the solo photo. He looks like a despondent piglet stranded in a sea of wooden table, poor thing.

As you've probably gleaned, I have found what I want to collect. I am so sure of this (and I love the two first inductees so much) that I have placed them in the part of my bedroom I call the Cute Animal Shelf (see picture below). The empty part of said shelf is now officially devoted to my pigs, which I will always keep an eye out for!
-DP :)
PS Remember to enter my Swan Quiz contest, to be in chance of winning a feature on this blog of your choice! Check out this post for more details, the contest closes on the 22nd May.








Monday, April 22, 2013

Swans Doing A Very Odd Thing And A Random Quiz Competition

Wow, two milestones in Dramatis Persona history have been achieved today. Firstly, and more obviously, I now have separate pages (Get In Touch!!! and About This Funny Little Web Page), which is important to the sophistication of my blog. And secondly, this April has the most posts of any DP month! Including this one, it has 10 compared to the previous record of 8 in February 2012! Isn't that cool?!

I bet you're thinking, "well no, DP, not really", but that's not what I pressed "New Post"for. I just thought I should mention it. But no, I came to entertain (hey, that rhymes. A bit. Not really). And I came to entertain with this funny picture of two swans from the river who apparently mistook grass for water. Seriously, this should be on BuzzFeed.



Amazingly, their poses are exactly the same as they would be on the water. Wings ready to raise, head up straight, body as perfectly in line as a right angle. But couldn't they tell that this ground is just slightly dissimilar to their homeland? Or maybe they're on holiday, and taking a while to adjust to the new setting and how you're meant to walk there. Perhaps times are hard back in the river, and they're resting in the field for a moment of solace. But in their posture, there are signs that they can't forget all of home. Sorry, my swan fantasy is going crazy now, this my mental conversation with you guys.

READERS: Zap back to reality, DP, they are probably just making nests.
ME: Boringggg!!!!!

Anyway, leave the madness behind. I like swans. They have interesting personalities. And I mean that seriously, one moment they're gliding serenely along without a care in the world, and you make one false move and they jump out of the water, caw at you and possibly break your leg. Of course, that's only when they need to protect their cygnets, and I don't mean to make you from this day on petrified of all swans. But yeah, they're calm and a second later they're mad. They're volatile. A bit like all of us, really. Nothing humans don't share.

MY FIRST COMPETITION!!!

So, to commemorate this picture and the other swan picture I took yesterday, I thought I'd set up my first blog competition. No prizes for guessing that it's a quiz about swans. Seems as this is virgin territory for both of us, I thought I'd start with my questions:


  1. The word "swan" is derived from what ancient language, a) Latin, b) Ancient Greek or 
  2. c) Old English?
  3. True or False? Swans are always omnivorous.
  4. Which of the following is a real swan, a) Arctic Swan b) Tundra Swan or c) Alaskan Swan?
  5. An old legend tells the story of a stepmother turning her stepchildren into swans, but what nation is it from?
  6. Mute swans can reach what weight? a) 23 pounds, b) 33 pounds or c) 43 pounds?
  7. The Swan ____; complete the title of this 2010 novel by Elizabeth Kostova?
  8. What North American city gave Queen Elizabeth II the original six pairs of Royal Swans?
  9. Which of the following swan breeds are migratory, a) Tundra Swan b) Mute Swan or c) Black-necked Swan?
  10. Name the 2010 movie, successful at the 2011 Oscars, with a swan in its name.
  11. How long on average do mute swans live, a) 1-10 years b) 10-20 years or c) 20-30 years?
I hoped you enjoyed my questions and as many of you enter as possible! Now for the boring bit the rules…


Rules

1) Anyone may enter.

2) Send all entries (with all questions answered) to thedramatispersona@gmail.com. ENTRIES SENT ELSEWHERE WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.

3) The contest closes on the 22nd May. NO LATE ENTRIES WILL BE ACCEPTED.

4) I will notify winners through my blog and theirs, if they have one.

5) Those with the most correct answers win, and I'm sorry, but there won't be 2nd or 3rd prizes, because I can't do that many guest features at once. Ties will be resolved with random selection. MY DECISION IS FINAL.

6) The prize is your choice of:
a) an interview on this blog
b)a guest post on this blog
c)a post request for this blog
d) an interview with me for your blog

Happy entering!
-DP :)

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Spring Is In The Air!

The title of this post may be such a reckless cliché, but hey, it still makes me feel like going Tra La La. And it's true, because I'm kind of glad my mum forced me under pain of death (well, not literally, she didn't threaten me with a gun or anything, but I like that expression) to take some fresh air and go to one of the shops near our country house. I was against it at first because I had a mountain of homework and I still wanted to blog, so to me it felt like a time-waster, but that excuse sort of backfired, because that's what gave me the idea for this post.

So, I'm sure you guys recall that a month ago I wrote a rant about how the British weather gods urgently need to sort out their differences and stop that March snow. Well, they're evidently followers of my blog (through what I wonder? Google Deity Connect?), because after that post, they took matters straight into their hands and dealt with the ol' winter-in-spring mess-up. Because after a brief period of mild-temperatured, boring weather, now it actually feels like archetypal, clichéd spring. And that's probably the only time you'll hear me use those words in a positive context. Because for classic, legendary things (and no, I'm not talking about Mozart here) like spring, they are the biggest compliments.

I like spring. In its stereotypical ideals, at least. After the bitingly cold temperatures of February and March, and before people get bored of heat round about July, it comes when people have exhausted this year's snow novelty (autumn is like this too, but instead it reminds people that this boring old heat will go and soon there will be snow and Christmas and the like) and gives us a welcome taste of bearable heat. And like the red leaves of the other in-between season, it gives us a genuine natural beauty. And of course, if it's beauty, I'll give you some pictures!

Light blue and a picture-perfect green. The best spring colours you'll find.






Our own primroses and other people's garden/cemetery daffodils. I love the way some of the flowers glow in the camera, they're so bright.



I really like this picture. I love how the trees loop over to frame our back garden river and the swan. He seems so still and isolated, as if he's drinking in the natural beauty. And if you look closely, his reflection looks like a bull with horns :).



And of course, spring is when all the macaws migrate to Suffolk! :)
-DP :)

Do you like the spring season? Or are winter, summer or autumn more your thing? Don't hesitate to comment!

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

My First Proper Home Movie :)


Hi, I am in a very good mood. You know why I'm in a good mood? Not because another stressful school term started, amazingly. Because I made my first proper, 4 minute long, home movie! Of course, I couldn't have done it without three of my awesome friends (sorry, that sounded a bit TV talent show) who came over yesterday, and who had this masterful brainwave of filming a spoof news programme. And the rest was history. Well, not really, seems as I still had to do minor movie editing today (was in huge rush to finish Spanish revision :)). But I guess it kind of was history if you're optimistic, because the only other home movie I've ever made was a 30-second clip starring my parents about an Innocent smoothie attacking preservatives for an advertising contest on YouTube. Not surprisingly, we didn't win. Or even get in the Top 10.

Anyway, you are probably more interested in this video. Like I said, it's a TV news spoof, called Scramble News, hosted by an array of pun-named characters (no, I'm not spoiling, watch it for yourself!). Basically everything that could possibly go wrong goes wrong in our reports of already ridiculous news stories. But I'm not going to ramble forever, I'm sure you'd much rather watch my video than hear my summary of it. So I'll leave you in peace to scroll back up.
-DP :)


(N.B. We use the BBC theme tune in this video. I am not asserting that I own it. I do not own the BBC theme tune, nor do any of my friends in the movie.)


Hope you enjoyed my video! What did you think? Don't hesitate to comment!


Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Living Colour Fully In NYC



Hello everyone, I'm back! And I was glad to leave in some ways, to get back to my home, my friends and a proper computer for blogging, but Texas and New York were a welcome break and I really enjoyed the trip. But I am not going to ramble on forever about the sentimental values of holidays, I am going to talk about the advert above. I found this Kate Spade perfume ad on a wall in the arty Chelsea district of NYC, and it really caught my eye with its neon colours, and the checkerboard design between the hashtags (they look a bit too much like Keep Calm And Carry On posters, but hey, they're neon!!!) and the neon-dressed models. 

However, it was the hashtag slogan that really got me hooked and made me make my latest fashion post, "Live Colour Fully". Too many people wear just grey, black and white these days and claim they look "minimalist", but the real stars of the fashion of the streets are those who go all out and really attract positive attention from passersby. The ones who wear a bright-coloured gem among regular, "minimalist" clothes. The ones who "Live Colour Fully". And here is my photo collection of the LCF population of New York City (good, bad and ugly!). (N.B. These are discreet photos of actual people on the street. If you happen to see this and you don't want your picture here, please comment and I'll take it down).


This is one of the more subtle takes on LCF. Not sure about the matchy-matchy theme going on here, but the blacks and navies of their trousers are a good, tasteful contrast to the lemon yellow t-shirt/camisole.

Another yellow (it seems to be a popular LCF colour!) piece, and this woman has chosen well. The yellow jeans are engulfed in the beige of her cardigan and shoes in an eye-catching way, and they bring a good sort of attention to an otherwise boring outfit.


I like mint green, but only when it's worn with the right accompaniments. Which I think it is here. Mint green works not with black and other dark colours (ugh!), but with pastels and paler colours, like these floral trousers. They balance with the light green colour to make a milky, airy feel.


Blue and yellow requires guts, but sometimes it can work. Like red and blue, it's a clash that isn't shocking but a pleasant surprise, the clash you're starting to see more and more often. I also like the sleeveless-jacket-over-hoodie look, which is a versatile one that can be worn by anyone with pretty much any style. Oh, and like everyone else in the "good" section of this post, this guy has paired his look brilliantly with plain trousers and jacket-matching hi-tops.


Ah, now for the first of the bads. I don't know what it is, but pink doesn't work with greys and browns like yellow and blue do. There is a repulsive clash here, and I say, if you wear neon pink, either wear all pink if you're brave enough, or pair it with a fitting colour such as white. Just not grey. Or brown.


This woman went all out on colourful patterns, and I don't think she pulled it off. She's the first on the list to wear entirely LCF, and she has every neon colour under the sun on that dress (plus the fluorescent backpack). And it's a bit too much. If there was a dress with just one of those patterns on it would be fine (my favourite is the red optical illusion on her top), but all of them in one? With enough clashes to fill a catwalk? You look like a clown with an unqualified stylist. 

Thank you for reading, and take inspiration from the photos (maybe not the bad ones :))!
-DP :)

PS Last day of Easter holidays today :(. Had three school friends round today, made a short movie which is still in the editing process, but I hope to post it soon!

Sunday, April 14, 2013

New York's Attempt At Graffiti: The Good, The Bad And The Random

OK, here's the deal. Right now I'm sitting in the lounge in Newark airport, but as you can probably guess, there is not much to blog about in an airport lounge. So I'm going to carry on blogging about New York. On our last day, when my dad wasn't working, we decided to go somewhere different, outside of Manhattan and a bit more similar to home.

I've posted about our graffiti at home in London before, so you've probably gleaned how much I love these spray-paint works on the wall. So I was enthralled about what the borough of Queens, just east of Manhattan, would bring to street art, and how it would be similar to and different from London. And Queens definitely didn't disappoint, with its walls plastered in art (we even saw a work in progress on the roof).

I think the main difference between the two city's art was perhaps the more sinister side to the New York graffiti. From the angry-faced lightbulbs (these were a lot more frequent than my photos of them) to the blue girl sitting outside her spaceship that reminds me of the aliens in "Avatar" to the various alieny images mercilessly dropped onto the wall, New York graffiti seems a lot more about the horror and sci-fi genres than the humour (ours, of course, is a different story: see my "This Proves Graffiti Can Be Awesome" post for our wall cockroach and the ubiquitous rats). As for that scowling face in the tree, that looks like it could be in "Lord Of The Rings", and they mess up the slightly funny story with the skull guy as a cowboy by introducing his face on a "Wanted" sign. Totally unnecessary.

However, every cloud has a silver lining (cliché, sorry) and they were some more remarkable works around the part of Queens I like to refer to as the "Graffiti Block". They make up for pressing too much on the sci-fi button by spraying lighter designs like the girl with coloured stalks coming out of her back (wings, maybe?), the tribute to the legend that is Amy Winehouse (I thought that one was one of the most technically good, unlike those random pink hairs sprouting out in odd places) and the adorably cute little monster saying "You no love me?". They return to old themes with the dystopian bluetits, but dystopian bluetits? I can feel an award-winning novel coming on.

Reminded of home by that random Union Jack on the Queens street, I am just about to board the flight, so although there will be more NYC posts, they will be written in London!
-DP :)






























Friday, April 12, 2013

I Finally Have Some Cowboy Boots. Oh Yeah.

Yup, the title says it all really. But the ironic thing is, we go to New York and Texas, and you'd expect them to be bought in Texas, and sure, we did see a lot of cowboy boots there. But they were all too enormously big or they were really cute little ones meant for little kids. No size 5s. So where did we eventually find them? A New York thrift shop.

I guess I should feel pretty lucky that my mum found a street full of thrift shops last night when we were walking home from dinner (I was initially gloomy; despite them being the subject of one of the best songs currently in the charts, I never really find anything worth having in thrift shops). But you're all screaming right now, why did you ever want cowboy boots in the first place? For several reasons:

1) How can you ever leave Texas without owning cowboy boots? It's cowboy country, come on. I was in despair when we got on the domestic New York flight. Now, even if I never wear them, they'll still go nicely in my room as a memory of this trip.

2) Forget Converse, cowboy boots are the best type of footwear to go with jeans. I mean, they're what jeans were invented to go with! Literally, Levi Strauss (who designed clothes for cowboys) wouldn't have invented jeans had it not been for cowboy boots. So to justify owning jeans, logically you should need cowboy boots. And I have some dark blue jeans I need to be more inspired wearing.

3) Taylor Swift wears them. Bit of a shallow one that, but it's one step further in my everlasting quest to be the new Taylor. Actually, the real reason for number 3 is the whole country singer association. When you wear them, you feel like you stepped right out of your banjo-playing slot in the barn in Nashville (even if you don't play the banjo in the first place). If you prefer, you can imagine yourself in a Chevy truck, that has a tendency of getting stuck (if you think I've gone absolutely crazy, that last bit's a lyric from Taylor Swift's "Tim McGraw"). All because of the amazing cowboy boots you're wearing.

4) They will go down an absolute storm at school mufti day! After my entirely red (I mean entirely, even my socks were red) outfit at Red Nose Day, it would be a good next instalment in the Over The Top series, as my classmates call it. Watch out 7T!

5) They are awesome, to be frank. What other boots have an interesting hem, pretty embroidery, a small but walkable heel and many a legend behind them? That cannot be said of another boring ol' pair of trainers.

Those are my five reasons behind buying these (they were $25, a relative bargain for real leather). I hope you see them as justifying the purchase. If you don't, I'll cheer you up by leaving you with a picture of Taylor Swift in some amazing blue cowboy boots I wish I had (but hey, you can't have everything) – they used to be her trademark back in her country days, but they've now been mercilessly replaced by downgrading to pop (much as I love her pop songs, they just aren't as good as her early country ones) and Louboutins. And, of course, I'll also share a picture of my own new boots!
-DP :)





Tuesday, April 9, 2013

If I Were In The Gutai…

"In New Yoooooork, concrete jungle where dreams are maaaaaade of, there's nothing you caaaan't doooo!" Yeah, bit of Alicia Keys there. You've probably guessed where I am right now, unless you either think I'm being enormously cryptic or you're pretty stupid. But I'm going off topic right now. I have good news and bad news. The good news is we got upgraded to a suite because the receptionist liked us! And we have a view of the Empire State Building from the room! But you know what the Empire State Building looks like, I'm not going to post a picture. And the suite isn't really relevant to you guys out there, so on to the bad news. The bad news is that my mum forgot to print out all her notes about things to do here (we've been before when my dad goes on business, so we've already been to all the tourist sites), so she's forgotten all the interesting places I was going to blog about :(.

But we did go somewhere interesting today, we went to the iconic Guggenheim Museum. Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture is really awesome there, and I got the most zoomed out picture I could without stepping into the road :). And inside the only thing you were allowed to take a picture of were these tubes with coloured plastic inside. Apparently once you were allowed to go on to the upper floors and tip the tubes and watch the plastic inside run about, but Health & Safety deemed it unacceptable because you had to lean over the rails (damn you risk assessor!).

But the real highlight of the museum was the Gutai exhibition. The Gutai were a Japanese art group in the 50s and 60s, who tried to make art less about abstract expression than the actual process of the art and interaction with the audience. And their avant-garde lack of expression is why I find it unnecessary to show pictures of their work here (you weren't allowed photos anyway); they made the kind of work that you can simply describe and still provoke interest. Such artworks include the man who ran through twenty one screens of paper and got concussion at the end, the woman who made a dress from light bulbs (Ha, Lady GaGa, youre not the first one) and the bell that the audience could ring that sounded like a fire alarm (again, Health & Safety made us only ring it once every hour. GRRRR.). To put it like the exhibition brief, the Gutai "mentally reframed the commonplace", which you'll see is in my new blog description.

So I was inspired by the Gutai, and decided to make an avant-garde work of my own. Just my luck that when we were walking back to the hotel through Central Park (one of my favourite parks in the world, it's good to be back after two years), someone had written on the street a list of exercise drills, and been stupid enough to leave the chalk around. I had a brain wave that perhaps this could be an interactive piece, that people could come along, pick up the (washable) chalk and write a new, funny or serious, exercise drill on the list. I started it off with a silly drill and a spot of blog promo (see picture)! Oh, and people in New York, if you go to Central Park, keep an eye out!
-DP :)





Sunday, April 7, 2013

2188 And The Mysterious San Antonio Fossils

This is our last day in Texas :(. But at least tomorrow we're flying over to New York! Sorry for no posts in the last couple of days, there is no excuse on a holiday, but I can tell you that the last two days have been very eventful! We left the town of Fredericksburg, which was was disappointing in the way that its "Wild West" town status had been undermined by tourism (but that's a post for a rainy day, and today is sunny :)), for a brief stop at the beautiful sunset over the Enchanted Rock in the middle of the desert, before arriving in San Antonio (to stay with some of my dad's awesome old friends David and Pat – hi guys!). We've had a great time here yesterday and today seeing the sights – a baseball game, a missionary church and the ubiquitously famous Alamo (and a restaurant with a giant burrito eating contest :/) but I'll talk about all of them some other time. Because today's fantasy story plan was set in stone (or rather concrete).

When we were walking by the river today, there was a stretch of walkway devoted to art installations, my favourite of which has become the basis of my latest blog fantasy. Basically it's a load of old tools set in the concrete to imitate fossils, to say in the least professional terms. But this is starting to seem like a rambling stream of consciousness, so I'll start the story now…


The Oddest Shape So Far

"Who'd thought it! 2188, 300-odd years after the birth of archaeology, and we're still digging up supposed gems like some dumb gravedigger!" Grumpy historian H. Parker, as the team all knew him, was tired of this louse of a pastime. J. Timpson however, the newest thing at the archaeology department of the Museum of 21st Century History, had other ideas.

"Shut up, H! Just because we don't have webbed feet like the old journal entries and novels we find said that we would and frankly we're all made to look and think the same, and the skeletons aren't doing much better, does not mean this isn't worthwhile!"

"Oh, come on. That's what all the newbies round here think. Totally naïve…" H tutted in reply. "All we found today was a pathetic hipbone, and if you think that's real value, you should be one of those people they talk about in the old books, what do they call them? Doctors, I think!"

"See, you're contradicting yourself already. You're cynicking on about how we never find anything of use, but if you weren't an archaeologist you'd never know what a doctor was!" J's response stopped H in his tracks.

"OK, fine, newbie wins again." H countered, rather patronisingly. "But still what use did doctors give to the world? Nothing after some smart politician came up with the medical-training-for-all law!"

Archaeology had sort of gone down the drains when the world went equality-crazy round about the 2090s. Everything found was turned down as being offensive towards some party, because some people in a painting had different jobs or were from different towns. But a hundred years on, the equality bug still hadn't stopped H and J's arguments. However, J's next find just might have done.

"H, here's something you'll like!"

"Is it another damned bone!"

"No! And it's not offensive! At least I hope so! Fact is, I don't know what it is!"

"You don't know! Did your knowledge surgery fail! There's no such thing as 'don't know'! On Earth, everyone is born knowing everything! It's not news! It's part of the World Equality Movement of 2089!"

"Look, d'ya think I've been under a rock! 'Course I know everyone looks, thinks, talks, knows, does and so on, the same things! And we have machines to create and repair everything for us, so minimal jobs are required! But what if something else is discovered! That's not covered by the Movement."

"OK, what rubbish did you find now!"

The archaeologists peered over at the new finding. A concrete coating protected a thing that would confuse the world forever.

"Hmmm, silver outside, straight edges, heavy, weird symmetry there, a bone-like shape… nothing like anything we've seen before…" mused a Leader Of The Equal Earth. "Perhaps it was an Equality Rebel trying to put colour surgery on their bones…fool!"

"It seems older…2020 maybe,"J wondered aloud, "A ritual device, but then religion was pretty much gone by then…"

"Oh, what mystery, all the pieces to bolt together!" H remarked sarcastically to a disapproving J.

"What about this circular thingy with the holes and the curvy edges? Maybe it was one of those things they used for their animals to walk around? I always liked animals, but they're not equal to us, of course…"

"Mmhmm," replied the Leader "Or maybe a wheel of luck. I heard the old idiots had them… Tsk, luck! No equality there at all!"

There was a sudden passionate tone in J's voice. "Whatever these strange things are, they're our oddest shapes yet!"


Thanks for reading! I have the pictures of the tools we saw, so you know what J and the Leader were seeing for the first time. And yeah, cynicking is a madeup word; hopefully it'll be a reality in the future!
-DP :)







Thursday, April 4, 2013

The Animals Of Marathon (Mostly Stuffed)

As I'm sure you picked up from yesterday, today we were in the town of Marathon. We didn't stay long but it was still long enough to find some little, or should I say wild, gems in the lobby of our hotel and in the restaurant. And they were gems within a very different and controversial field that I've never, ever thought of posting pictures of and writing about on this blog: taxidermy.

Indeed, everywhere in Texas so far has had some form of stuffed animal (meaning an actual dead animal not a fluffy toy - the phrase "stuffed animal" has multiple connotations) somewhere, a deer or a bear or a buffalo. Some are stuffed, some are rugs, some are left in the bony state they died in. But they all have one thing in common: they were killed for the decoration value. And do I think that can be justified? Well, that's one of the things that I typed in my iPad passcode to talk about here. And I know this is a boring answer to the question, but I personally think it depends on the animal, the place where the decoration goes and the type of decoration. Whether it's endangered, whether stuffed animals are suitable for the place or occasion and how much pain was inflicted on the animal (for example, having your head chopped off to become a skull on the wall is obviously less painful than being skinned to be a rug - both these taxidermy types and more are in my picture collection further down) are all factors that can be the difference between acceptable and unacceptable, but they're not the most important. What is the most crucial is did the animal die for the purpose? Did a hunter spy him or her (yes, I never say "it" when referring to animals, but that's another post entirely) and think "That'd look good on my wall" and shoot him or her down? Or was he or she already dead, and the hunter just picked the body up? I don't see a problem with the latter, it's just like a non-living decoration. Killed for the purpose? No. Already dead? Sure.

Now I've done my lengthy writing, I thought I'd show you my Taxidermy In Marathon, TX photo collection. There's everything here: reindeer and buffalo heads on the wall, wooden crocodiles (OK, not technically taxidermy but cool though), bearskin rugs, a random bone lying on the table for no apparent reason (?) and my personal favourite, the uncannily-realistic mountain lion sitting on a coffee table that nearly knocked the Taylor Swift-pumping headphones off my ears. Whether these animals were killed for the purpose is another question, and I might never know. But if any of you out there against taxidermy are vomiting at the pictures, I also included an unbelievably cute little dog yapping at me from underneath a table in the breakfast café. I sure hope this little guy never gets stuffed :).

What do you guys think about taxidermy? Don't hesitate to comment!
-DP :)