The Mammalian Daily

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Lovely to look at - Book by Noreen

OTD in 2015—ZEAL backs out of performance at Celebration of the Winter Solstice

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ZEALAttendees at this year’s Celebration of the Winter Solstice will not have the opportunity to enjoy ZEAL’s music live.

In a communiqué issued this morning, The Department of Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations announced that the popular Park singer has backed out of his commitment to perform at December’s festivities.

“We regret to announce that ZEAL will not be performing at this year’s Celebration of the Winter Solstice,” the communiqué said.

While the department’s announcement gave no reason for the cancellation, a post on ZEAL’s web site said “unforeseen conflicts” had “made it impossible” for him to perform at the celebrations this year.

In a follow-up statement, Aintza Kanariar, the department’s Director of Public Relations, said that while she regrets ZEAL’s withdrawal from the celebration, “We do have a stellar lineup to offer that includes musical performers, dancers, and many other artists of the highest calibre. We wish ZEAL well in his endeavours and we hope he will be able to join us at future celebrations.”

The Celebration of the Winter Solstice begins at sunrise on Monday, December 21. Food will be served until 11:00 pm. The Solstice will occur at 11:49 pm Local Park Time (LPT).

OTD in 2012—Band’s new song, “Put a Leash on It” sparks controversy

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The Park’s Canine community is threatening to boycott all music by the controversial band, Les Chiens Débraillés, after the release yesterday of its new song, “Put a Leash on It.”

In an open letter to the band and its management and to the Canine Music Association (CMA), DoGGeD, a newly-formed group of “concerned Park Canines” wrote of their “dismay and feelings of dejection” when they heard the song.

“We are writing to let you know that we find the song’s message offensive and condescending. In releasing this song, Les Chiens Débraillés has alienated its fellow Canines and, in so doing, shown its lack of taste in both music and intraspecial relations,” the letter read.

In response, Philippe Chiendeur, the band’s manager, released a one-line statement saying that the band does not comment on “the meaning or message of any of its musical material”.

Canine Music Association President R.F. Aarrf also released a short statement. In it, he said the CMA does not deal directly with complaints from “disgruntled individuals or groups.” The last controversy the CMA was involved in was the dispute between the Association of Park Radio Stations and the popular Park band The Cynics, after the APRS pulled a Cynics song from the airwaves.

Earlier today, however, The Marsupial Messenger’s acclaimed music reviewer Pierre Sucre came to the defense of the band. In a short column, he wrote that DoGGeD “has it all wrong.”

“Leaving aside the stereotype that Canines have no sense of humour, this group [DoGGeD] has completely missed the point of the Chiens Débraillés song. To the rest of us, the song is a lament. It’s about the economy, stupides, and the effects the downturn has had on our sense of independence. In my opinion, the song isn’t even about Canines. It’s about trying to survive in a world in which we do not have complete control over our lives,” Sucre wrote.

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See also:

Association pulls Cynics’ song from airwaves

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OTD in 2011—Book Review: Shaken But Not Stirred

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When violence broke out between Park Police and protesters at an otherwise peaceful anti-amalgamation rally in August, many Animals (both in attendance and at home) assumed that The Park’s court system would deal with the fallout. After an open investigation into the matter, which relatively few Animals attended and which was only covered superficially by Park media, the event receded into memory. Never mind that one Goose was killed and several others were injured at the event; there was The Park’s film festival to attend and hibernation preparations to be made, among other (seemingly more important) things.

Contrast this with the intense reaction to the murder of the Tartan Crab, the Groundhog Day violence, and the Mongoose weather trial and you might think you see a growing trend toward apathy among Park residents.

That is, in fact, what is happening, says veteran psychoanalyst Dr. Berthilidis Strix, who is best known as co-author of the book, The Silent Cluck.

In her new book, Shaken But Not Stirred, Strix discusses the two distinct lines that she sees forming in The Park: growing prosperity alongside growing apathy. In Strix’s view, it is at the point at which these lines intersect that they become a threat to our way of life.

Unlike many analysts, Strix believes that these two seemingly independent streams feed each other and that, in fact, our growing apathy is responsible, in part, for our growing prosperity: “Without this new-found ability to ignore the plight of others, it would be next to impossible for us, in good conscience, to amass these great quantities [of food and other material goods]…and, now, the pursuit of same has become the foundation of our growing economy.”

Strix is highly critical of what she calls this “new division of consciousness” and warns that unchecked apathy will have dire consequences for Park Animals in the future.

“We need only look to other species to see the end result [of apathy]”, she writes.

While Strix emphasizes in Shaken But Not Stirred that she can offer no solutions, one suspects that these may appear before long in a follow-up book. Her insights are far too important to serve only as philosophical fodder.

OTD in 2014—Park Museum poaches PMoCA curator

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Park Museum

Dorika Pumi has been appointed head curator of the Park Museum’s art gallery

One of the most prolific and adventurous curators the Park Museum of Contemporary Art (PMoCA) has ever employed has been poached by the Park Museum.

In a controversial move that some say bodes well for its future, the soon-to-be-opened Park Museum confirmed in a press release yesterday that Dorika Pumi will assume the position of head curator when the Park Museum opens in January.

In an announcement on the Museum’s web site, the Board of Governors called Pumi’s appointment, ”one of many milestones along the road to the realization” of the Museum. The press release also included praise for her work.

“We are honoured that she has accepted our offer and we look forward to nurturing a long and fruitful relationship with her,” it concluded.

Pumi, who is best known for her 2013 art installation How Much Was That Doggie in the Window? was also responsible for the Museum’s K-NONical Kismet exhibit and the controversial but well-received series of sketches entitled, Better To Be Lost Than Loved.

Read the Park Museum’s press release here.

OTD in 2016—Hire causes ire: Groundhog Day organizers take flack for Fleck + Stone

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jgroundhogdayThe Department of Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations has become the object of the public’s ire since announcing yesterday that it had hired the architectural firm of Fleck + Stone to design the 2017 prognostication pad.

According to Park Police, officials at the department began receiving hate mail and threats shortly after their morning press conference, during which they introduced the firm’s chief architect Vadim Kobras, and discussed the size and style of the new pad.

“Within hours, the department received an onslaught of written [hate] material, which they reported to us. We immediately deployed officers to the scene and an investigation of the material is underway at our forensic laboratory,” Inspector Maurice Addax of the Specist and Hate Crimes Unit (SHCU) told the press this morning.

Police believe the negative reaction is due to the perceived expense involved in hiring the high-end firm, which is known for designing buildings of cultural import such as the Burrow Theatre and The Park Museum.

Perhaps in anticipation of that, members of the press received a fact sheet yesterday that outlined the costs of the prognostication pad and other accoutrements deemed necessary for the popular annual event. According to those figures, the cost of this year’s pad will be only slightly higher than last year’s.

Still, optics matter, says Park Finance Office head Valentina Abeja, whose last budget reduced the funds allotted to special events by two percent.

“If they’d asked me, I would have told them to hold off for a year or, at the very least, talk about the cost first. Animals who are struggling to make a living have a hard time understanding why we need a posh pad to celebrate Groundhog Day,” she said.

OTD in 2011—Inktvis and Krake perform at annual Snowbird sendoff

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Inktvis and Krake, the current darlings of The Park’s musical scene, performed before a packed crowd at last night’s Snowbird Farewell. The pair played alongside The Canary Cousins and the rap group, The Tweeters, marking the first time in Park history that non-Avian musicians have been invited to perform at the annual festival.

“We were delighted that they accepted [our invitation],” said Arabella Hawk, spokesBird for the yearly event.  “The more species that come out to participate in our celebration, the more the Avian citizens of The Park feel the love. It helps us to know that we’ll be welcome when we return in the Spring.”

The aquatic pair performed a selection of songs and instrumentals from their earlier recordings as well as their current hit, 3 Hearts, 1 Head. As the festival drew to a close, they returned to the stage to sing backup for The Canary Cousins during their encore of Life is Tweet.

 

OTD in 2016—Stan the Spitman speaks out about the use and misuse of his product at PIFF

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Park Interspecial Film FestivalLess than a week after the end of the Park Interspecial Film Festival (PIFF), Stan the Spitman is speaking out about the unlawful use of his product at PIFF events.

In an op-ed piece published today in The Burro Beacon, Estanislao “Stan” Gonzalo de Llama condemned in no uncertain terms what some Animals did with his product at the film festival. And he let it be known that he intends to put a stop to it.

“I am proud of what I make and I don’t make it to be used to attack others, particularly others whose species or politics differ from my own,” he wrote in the newspaper.

The second generation SpitMeister (master of the art of spitmaking) was referring to the repeated use of spitballs at the screening of WINK, which opened the festival on October 1. Police charged twenty-one Animals with crimes of a specist nature after they threw spitballs at the director and other attendees as they entered the Park Cinema.

Although Stan has never condoned that sort of behaviour, he expressed a different view about it in Searching for the Spitman: A Journey Through Foam, Froth, and Fun, a film about his life that premiered at PIFF 2015.

In that film, he estimated that ninety per cent of his products go toward humiliating other Animals.

“It’s a fact of life in the profession,” he said. “But it doesn’t keep me up at night.”

In today’s o-ed piece, however, he said he’d changed his mind after witnessing events at this year’s festival.

“I can’t stand by and watch Animals use my product that way anymore,” he wrote. “It needs to stop.”

OTD in 2013—Review: Shoot the Messenger

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TMD Backstage Pass PIFF 2013

DETAILS

Director
George Angus Doo

Actors
Eamon Colm
Gerlinde Taube
Natalia Paloma
Agostinho Pombo
Cynthia Offam (Human)
Derek Columbo (Human)
Winston Blackman (Human)

Screenings
October 1, 8:00 pm, Park Cinema
October 4, 5:00 pm, Park Cinema

Runtime
85 minutes

THREE minutes into George Angus Doo’s latest film, Shoot the Messenger, the screen goes dark. In the silence, the viewer is left to ponder what has just occurred: a shot fired into the brightly lit sky, the loud thumping noise that follows, the sound of boots running across grass and fallen leaves in the swamp-like environment.

When light and action return to the screen, we face six Humans at trial, recalling those elements from the witness stand. To his credit, Doo reveals little about the location of the court and the crime; the alleged perpetrators, plaintiff, judge and jury stand as EveryHuman or AnyHuman. But the trial is not an indictment of that species; rather, it is an examination of the complicated relationship between Doo’s own species — the Pigeon — and Humans. In many ways, as Doo said earlier this year, that relationship is “one of mutual respect and dependence.” But this film is less celebratory of that aspect than it is revelatory of the conflict, fed by ignorance, that is an integral part of the interactions between Pigeons and Humans.

The sportsmen at trial know very little, if anything, about the species they shoot at for sport. They have read no history and, therefore, feel no moral obligation to a species that has saved countless Human lives. As a result, they are puzzled by their obligation to appear in court and angered by the charges of wrongdoing.

“What kind of world is this now?” one of the accused asks aloud. It is not a rhetorical question. The world in which he grew up, he tells the court, was one in which shooting and hunting were respected activities.

“Now, what is it that we’re supposed to do?” he asks earnestly.

The film does not answer this question or any others; instead, it presents the accused and the viewer with even more questions as it explores not only the fraught relationship between the two species but that among Humans, themselves.

In this 2013 Winkie Award-winning film, Doo does a remarkable job of preserving the dignity of the characters while indicting and convicting the real perpetrator of the crime: ignorance.

OTD in 2011—PIFF Opening Gala sets scene for successful 7th Festival

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PIFF organizers appeared jubilant last night, as they gathered outside The Park Cinema following the screening of the festival’s opening film, Naked, Toothless, and Blind.  Alongside them, celebrities and reporters stood, dodging flashbulbs and waving to the adoring crowd.

“It’s been an uphill battle all year,” said PIFF Communications President, Leola Ocelot, referring not just to funding problems but to the fact that several films that were scheduled to debut here were still in the shooting stage when the 2011 list was announced.

“In the end, though, everything worked out perfectly and it looks as though this is going to be our most successful festival yet,” she concluded.

On the red carpet, flashing freshly-whitened teeth and swishing tails adorned with carefully-placed rhinestones , NT and B‘s twin stars Anders and Frederikke Egern answered reporters’ questions in between chatting with their film’s producers, Etienne Escurel and Mabbina Marmot.

The 7th Annual Park Interspecial Film Festival continues until October 5.  A total of thirty films will be screened at venues across The Park.

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