Park Life – Page 129

Park ART Walk 2014 to highlight creative work of Park’s refugees

July 28, 2014 By Aednat Eilifint, TMD Arts and Entertainment Reporter

The 2014 Park ART Walk will highlight the artistic endeavours of The Park’s refugees, it was announced today.

In a joint statement released this morning, the organizers of the Park ART Walk (PAW), The Park’s Department of Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations, the Park Museum of Contemporary Art, the Marine Mammal Bank of The Park, and the Sapsucker Savings and Loan Corporation, confirmed the theme of The Park’s 8th annual Park ART Walk.

“We are extremely pleased that we have been able to work together to bring refugee art into focus at the 2014 Park ART Walk,” the statement began.

“The Park is extremely proud of its refugees and we want to shine a light on the ways in which they have enriched our lives. These are Animals who have suffered greatly and have survived; they have lived to tell the tale and to rebuild their lives in The Park. Their resilience is and will continue to be an inspiration to all of us,” the statement concluded.

Underwritten in part by Sapsucker Savings and Loan, The Park-wide exhibition will be entitled, “From Fear to Freedom.”

This is the third time in its history that the Park ART Walk has had a distinct theme. Last year, PAW honoured The Park’s autochthonous artists in the exhibition, “From the Ground Up.” In 2012, thanks to a one-time gift from The Archons’ Initiative Fund, the event showcased art as it related to the theme, “INtegration through ART.” The stated goal of that themed exhibition was to “encourage Animals to learn more about species other than their own, so that we can understand our differences and our similarities.”

The Park ART Walk is a one-day, juried art exhibition that showcases the artistic expression of Park residents. The 8th annual Park ART Walk will take place on Saturday, August 16, 2014 between the hours of 10:00 am and 7:00 pm. Showings will take place at participating art galleries, shops, theatres and cinemas. This year’s jury will include curators from the Park Museum of Contemporary Art and the Kipos Gallery.

Grooming house stampede “logical outcome” of changing times: PASS

July 25, 2014 By Thaddeus S. Loris, TMD Health and Safety Reporter

PASS says the stampede was a logical outcome of changing times

The Park Association of Shops and Services (PASS) released its report today on the May 31 stampede at Tallulah’s Toilettage.

The report chronicles the events before and after the stampede occurred. It also offers a list of recommendations that are the result of a series of meetings held by Association members in the wake of the tragedy that injured 68 Animals and resulted in the arrest of 35 others.

At a public event held this afternoon, owners of some of The Park’s grooming houses spoke candidly to attendees about their findings.

Amoltrud Poedel, owner of Amoltrud’s Aesthetics, said she wasn’t surprised by the May stampede; indeed, she had predicted such a thing would happen eventually.

“Times have changed in so many ways,” she explained.

“In the old days, we all did our own grooming, we procured our own food and we built our own dwellings. Now, we look to others to do those things for us. It’s part of a major shift in Animal life and so, unfortunately, was the stampede. Park life is not as it once was and we must learn to adapt to that reality,” Poedel said.

Poedel also cited the added stress of the moulting season and what she called “a growing jealousy in certain species” as contributing factors.

Tallulah of Tallulah’s Toilettage, the grooming house at which the stampede occurred, said a shortage of workers skilled in proper grooming techniques was partly to blame for the incident.

“Most owners dream of having their businesses grow by leaps and bounds. But we have been overrun [by customers]. The need for grooming services in The Park has grown beyond our collective ability to fulfill it. And, as a result, some species feel hard done by, especially when their appointments have been put off for a day or two. When their anger comes to a head, that’s when we see this kind of behaviour,” she said.

Fowl Ball funds Avian retirement home

July 24, 2014 By Thaddeus S. Loris, TMD Health and Safety Reporter

The annual Fowl Ball will help to fund an Avian retirement home

BREAKING NEWS

A portion of the proceeds from the annual Fowl Ball will be used to build and maintain a retirement residence for wounded and elderly members of The Park’s Avian community.

The event’s chief organizer Rafael Ortega made the announcement at a press conference early this morning.

Flanked by members of the Fowl Ball’s board of directors and by executives from the construction company Simply Structures, Ortega thanked all Park residents for their “overwhelming support” of the Fowl Ball.

“Just in this first year, we have taken in more funds than we expected to have after three years and we have all of you to thank,” he said.

“And because of your generosity, the board of directors has deemed it feasible to dedicate a portion of those funds annually to the welfare of our elderly and wounded Avians.”

In a post-conference interview, Ortega said The Park has a growing population of wounded and elderly Avians, many of whom find migration difficult or impossible. The new residence will be built to shelter these Birds from the cold during the Winter season. He said he hopes the new home will be ready to welcome residents by the Winter of 2018.

Park remembers Imogen Aardeekhoorn

July 23, 2014 By Aednat Eilifint, TMD Arts and Entertainment Reporter

Baskets placed in memory of Imogen Aardeekhoorn

Baskets of fruit and nuts began to appear in front of the Park Repertory Theatre yesterday afternoon, as news broke of the death of beloved playwright Imogen Aardeekhoorn.

By evening, the door to the theatre was blocked by the hundreds of offerings and notes of condolence, thanks, and appreciation left by the playwright’s fans.

“You were and always will be a role model for small Animals,” one note read. “Your honesty will serve for generations,” read another.

“We started getting orders, I would say, right away,” says Beatrice T. Orang of Provisions by Petrounel.

“Imogen was one of our best customers and Animals wanted to know what her favourite fruits and vegetables and nuts were. They wanted to leave them for her in remembrance.”

In a statement issued this morning, The Nut Bar advised customers, “We are now running low on supplies due to the outpouring of grief at the death of playwright Imogen Aardeekhoorn. Please be patient with us. We will make every attempt to fill your orders as supplies come in.”

Meanwhile, the theatre itself is trying to cope with the outpouring of grief. An announcement issued this morning said that it will remain dark for the rest of the week. Instead of going about their usual business, actors, stage managers, ticket sellers and the like are comforting visitors and tending to the offerings. A spokesAnimal for the theatre confirmed that a memorial service for Aardeekhoorn that was originally scheduled to take place at the Ancient, Open-Air Theatre will be held here, instead.

“This was Imogen’s home and we welcome the opportunity to embrace her family, friends, and fans,” the spokesAnimal said.

Details of the memorial service will be posted at the theatre shortly.

“Mongoose Summers” threaten Park life: coalition

July 14, 2014 By TMD Weather Reporter

“Mongoose Summers” are a threat to our way of life, Animals say

A series of “Mongoose Summers“ is threatening our way of life in The Park, say the members of a coalition that has formed to fight for better weather.

The coalition, which is made up of the members of the Society of Concerned Park Cultivators, Planters, Growers, and Farmers (SCPCPGF), the Weather Makers, Producers and Sellers Alliance of The Park (WMPSAP), and the Park Association of Shops and Services (PASS), says that Park weather finally reached a crisis point this Summer.

“There’s no turning back. We have to do something right now or our population will not be able to feed or house itself within a decade,” declared A.P. Civet, of the Society of Concerned Park Cultivators, Planters, Growers, and Farmers (SCPCPGF).

In an interview with Mammalian Daily Radio, Kalliope Sun Bear, president of the Weather Makers, Producers and Sellers Alliance of The Park (WMPSAP), confirmed that she has scheduled a meeting with Chief Archon Buckminster Moose on July 22.

“Our coalition will be putting together a statement…an ultimatum of sorts,” she said. “We are going to petition the Chief Archon to have the Archons take over the weather budget from the Park Finance Office. In our considered opinion, the PFO is not fit to make decisions regarding the purchase of weather,” she said.

The Park’s weather has been a contentious issue for some years now, ever since the Park Finance Office, in an effort to conserve funds, made the decision to purchase weather from outside The Park.

“From day one, that weather was of inferior quality,” Sun Bear said in the interview.

“And the result has been that what we didn’t spend on weather we paid dearly for in reduced crops and damage to our abodes. And that has to end right now.”

Crimes of “specist nature” up: Police

July 8, 2014 By TMD Crime Reporters

Police say crimes of a specist nature are up

Crimes of a “specist nature” are on the increase, according to a report compiled by Park Police.

The report, which was presented yesterday at an ad hoc meeting of the Department of Well-Being and Safety, was compiled by Park Police’s Specist and Hate Crimes Unit (SHCU) and the Interspecial Investigations Unit (IIU). It includes raw crime statistics as well as an analysis of expressed attitudinal changes. The data cover the period between 2010 and 2013.

In a joint statement today, Cornelius Kakapo, the DWBS Director of Public Relations, Inspector Maurice Addax of the Specist and Hate Crimes Unit, and Inspector Antonia T. Fossa of the Interspecial Investigations Unit called the report “alarming” and “a call to action.”

“We cannot afford to ignore what we are seeing,” Kakapo wrote in the statement, confirming that his department has noticed an uptick in the reports of danger and perceived danger to body and dwelling.

In a radio interview this morning, Inspector Addax concurred.

“For the first time since the establishment of zoocracy, the threat to our safety appears to be coming from within The Park and not from outside. The increasing hostility among our different species is most disturbing ,” he said.

Archons to tackle inequality by “streamlining” budget: source

July 4, 2014 By Adelbert Mókus, TMD Financial Reporter

2015 budget will be “streamlined”: source

Mammalian Daily Exclusive

The 2014 Archons plan to tackle the growing inequality among Park Animals by streamlining the 2015 budget, a source close to the Park Finance Office has told The Mammalian Daily.

In a private meeting, the source, who wishes to remain anonymous, told the newspaper’s editorial board that the issue of growing economic and social disparity in The Park has “touched a nerve” with the Archons. As a result, they want to make some “concrete changes” to the way funds are allocated.

Buckminster Moose, in particular, is upset by what he sees as a dangerous economic trend.

“The Chief Archon has been concerned for some time about the direction The Park has been going in and he would like to see that direction change,” the source told The Mammalian Daily.

According to the source, changes in the budget include eliminating the 3% of funds that were allocated to tourism and tourism promotion, returning arts and sports funding to the levels set in the 2012 budget (more than twice the 2014 levels), and shaving a bit off special events to pay for better weather, healthcare and refugee services.

While all these changes are being weighed and debated, “nothing is set in stone yet,” the source cautioned.

The Park Finance Office will present its financial projections for 2o15 in August.

It Could Happen to You: Park Museum exhibits tools of enforced domestication

June 29, 2014 By Fiona Lupu, TMD Events Reporter

Park Museum exhibits some of the tools of enforced domestication

Review: “It Could Happen to You” at the Park Museum June 1-30, 2014

Balls, biscuits, bones. Bowls, boxes, beds. Collars, cages, leashes, toys. The list goes on. And they are all on display until midnight tomorrow at The Park Museum’s month-long exhibit marking Enforced Domestication Awareness Month.

Entitled, “It Could Happen to You,” the exhibit is the first of its kind in The Park and the first ever hosted at The Park Museum.

“We felt it was too important an event to wait for the museum’s completion,” says Sukuta Rhinoceros, as she guides me through the display cases. “We didn’t want to miss the opportunity to highlight this issue.”

One of the museum’s founders and a member of its Board of Governors, Rhinoceros spearheaded the campaign to open part of the main building’s ground floor wing for the exhibit. But come July, the construction workers will be back and if all goes well, the museum will officially open at the end of the year.

We stroll through the space together and as she details the provenance of many of the artefacts, it becomes clear that this is a deeply personal issue for Rhinoceros.

“Enforced domestication isn’t only a problem for small Animals,” she tells me later. “We were overwhelmed after we put out a call for personal items [of domestication] and I wasn’t surprised to find that the majority came from our Canine, Feline, Avian, Piscine, and Reptilian communities. But when some of our other citizens offered traps, harnesses, saddles and the like, our curator said we should put them at the front of the exhibit, so that attendees could see right away that no Animal is out of the sight line of the domesticator.”

The issue of domestication, of course, is much bigger than any museum exhibit can communicate. But “It Could Happen to You” is at its most poignant and effective when it deals with the tools that are used to entice Animals to give up their independence. The sadness and the pain lie in understanding the attraction of those tools. So many of our compatriots have suffered extreme difficulty and it is not hard to imagine succumbing to the promise of a nice meal, a warm bed, and some physical comfort.

If this exhibit accomplishes anything, let that be to remind us that we are responsible for each other and that we must work diligently to make it impossible for our fellow citizens to be tempted away from their lives in The Park.

“It Could Happen to You.”
The Park Museum
June 1-30, 2014 (10:00 a.m.-10:00 p.m daily.; until 11:59 p.m. on June 30)

Central Bank reminder: June 28 last day to make pre-estivation deposits

June 26, 2014 By Adelbert Mókus, TMD Financial Reporter

Pre-estivation deposits must be made by June 28

The Central Bank of The Park has issued a reminder to all Park residents who intend to estivate this Summer: June 28 is the last day that deposits can be made.

A spokesAnimal for the Bank also advised Animals who are still seeking a place to park their funds during the dormancy period that they should be vigilant and “not believe in artificially high interest rates.”

“Remember the concept of ‘enough’ when researching [interest] rates. Remember, if something looks too good to be true, it may very well be,” said the SpokesAnimal.

Many of The Park’s financial institutions offer substantially higher interest rates to hibernators and estivators. But there is a catch, says Uzoma Serval, author of BankWoe.

“When the dormancy period ends for these Animals, they find they are not at liberty to withdraw their funds as they wish. They find they’ve signed away that right, without even knowing it. And their interest rate quickly plummets ten percent or more,” Serval says.

Estivation officially begins on Sunday, June 29. The Central Bank of The Park will be closed on Monday, June 30 for the mid-year tally.

Effects of enforced domestication often felt for generations, experts conclude

June 23, 2014 By Keelin Gabhar, TMD Health and Science Reporter

Offspring often feel the effects of their parents’ domestication, experts say

MAMMALIAN DAILY EXCLUSIVE

The effects of enforced domestication are often felt several generations down the road, say experts who participated in a panel discussion yesterday at the University of West Terrier’s Medical College.

Entitled “Acquired Misery: The Effects of Enforced Domestication on the Offspring of Survivors,” the event marked the first time that such a group has gathered to share their knowledge of the after-effects of enforced domestication and the toll it takes on Animal families.

Panel members included psychotherapist Dr. Berthilidis Strix, author of Shaken But Not Stirred and co-author of The Silent Cluck, Dr. Gudrun L. Gibbon, a Park psychotherapist and staff member at the Extinction Anxiety Clinic, psychoanalyst Dr. Elinore E. Owl, UWT researcher Dr. Chloris Cougar, known for her work in the area of Feline Unipolar Depressive Disorder (FUDD), and Dr. Simon Crow, director of Avian Medicine at UWT. The panel also included representatives of The Park’s many aid groups, including Home to Roost, Runaway Rovers, and the Tortoise Immigrant Aid and Mentor Programme.

The panel’s honorary guest participant was novelist Hercule Parrot, winner of a 2012 Chitter Radio Literary Award and part-time mentor at BirdBrains, The Park’s first Avian mentoring programme. A domestication survivor himself, Parrot gave a very moving speech at the concluding ceremonies at last year’s Enforced Domestication Awareness Month.

Yesterday’s full-day discussion centred on the psychological and physical effects of enforced domestication on the offspring of survivors.

“This is an area that has rarely been discussed openly, but we see the effects of it every day,” said Angus Deerhound, a representative of Runaway Rovers, an aid group that assists formerly domestic Canines.

“These Canines make a life for themselves in The Park and then they respond to messages that they should reproduce…[they are told] that they can make better lives for their offspring and, somehow, right a wrong. But they can’t do that without our help. They end up just making another wrong,” Deerhound said.

Statistics presented by the UWT’s Medical College, the Park Hospital for the Afflicted and Infirm, and the Extinction Anxiety Clinic underscored the need for a plan of action to help those born to domestication survivors.

“When more than half of these Animals end up with some kind of anxiety disorder, some of them with debilitating ones, we cannot afford to look the other way. We must recognize the gravity of the situation,” said Inez Gallina, president of Home to Roost.

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Park ART Walk 2014 to highlight creative work of Park’s refugees

Grooming house stampede “logical outcome” of changing times: PASS