animals – Late to the Theater

Quarantine Thoughts: Tiger King

Once finished with what can only be described as a ‘wild ride,’ I realized ‘Ah, so that’s why roller coasters are only like 3 minutes long. The human heart and mind can only take so much.’

Howdy readers!

Sometimes the only way to deal with a uncontrollable and terrifying situation is to jump feetfirst into something else. In an attempt to manage my near paralyzing fear right now, I’ll be doing my best to blog more often. It’s a win-win: I regain a sense of control over my world, and you can be entertained for however long it takes you to get through a thousand words or so. So let’s dive in!

tigerkingnetflix — Logline reeeeally doesn’t do it justice.

Tiger King came on my radar through memes. Of course Netflix had suggested it to me, but their suggestions have been wrong before. I’ve been doing a lot of comfort-watching and wasn’t sure Tiger King would be a good follow-up for Howard’s End.

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Upcoming Posts!

Good morning and welcome to LT3 (which is my Cool New Way of saying Late To the Theater)!

Wednesday we’ll be posting another fascinating interview with Orlando Ballet’s Artistic Director Robert Hill, who was kind enough to find 10 minutes to discuss artistic expressions, costume changes, and upcoming events.

Friday we’ll be posting an interview with Shane Jewell, the new Executive Director of Orlando Ballet, who’ll be speaking to the company’s big turnaround and all the exciting new things on the horizon.

Stay tuned! And in the meantime, please enjoy this picture of a raccoon that visited my backyard and bothered my plants today.

Rocket_Backyard — He’s not in there, but I get you, little buddy. I miss Groot too.

In Select Theaters: Isle of Dogs

At the advance screening for Isle of Dogs I attended, there were several moments within the film that got laughs, gasps of delight, and rounds of clapping from the audience. As of this post’s writing, Isle of Dogs sits at 93% on Rottentomatoes.com. It is a stop-motion movie about dogs with an amazing voice cast, a creative if not super complex story, and a delightful look. I should have liked it.

I did not.

Maybe it’s because I’m not a Wes Anderson devotee and am not inured to his unique voice, comedic flourishes, or banter. I enjoyed The Life Aquatic and outside of that I have few impressions of his films, other than they employ bright colors and have a lot of neurotic people struggling to manage family relationships.

Although Isle of Dogs did many technical things very well, it did some pretty major things poorly. The story is not charming or heartwarming enough to compensate for these missteps, and ultimately the whole thing felt like the film version of an ill-conceived rainy day craft project.

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The Forth Will Be With Uth. Alwayth.

Happy belated Star Wars day! May the Forth is Star Warth Day, ath everyone knowth.

Unfortunately life has ramped up, and I didn’t have time this week to write up my piece on stop-motion animation. I will go ahead and disappoint you ahead of time by saying I won’t have time next week either, OR the week after. Although I will try to get something done, I can’t promise anything and it makes me sad. Work basically exploded, so it’s keeping me mega-busy with no time to blog. It sucks, but hey, it’s a new opportunity to learn some neat new stuff. So, a mixed bag!

In the meantime, please enjoy reading about two new species of Tarsier that were discovered. If you don’t know what a Tarsier is, here is a helpful video.

Have a great couple of weeks! Look after yourself!

A Few Words on Herzog

In honor of National Pets day, which was Tuesday, today’s post is about Herzog – Herzog the cat, not Herzog the German director known for probing the existential depths of the human soul. Although Werner Herzog is tops, too. After all, my cat is named after him.

This is Herzog.

Vital Statistics

Neutered male tabby, 15 lbs, about 40 inches long, age 8.
Long enough to stand on his back legs and pull things off table tops or the kitchen counter edge.
Very good health.
+5 Lung capacity for extended caterwauling sessions at 4 AM/PM.
+10 strength – can pull me while wearing his harness if I am on wheels.
Does tricks – Sit, Lie Down, Roll Over, and Up. Recognizes ‘Bedtime’ means it is time to go to bed, ‘Blender’ presages a loud sound such as a blender, garbage disposal or vacuum, and ‘Hop Up’ warns that I am about to get up and he must vacate my lap.
Will not perform ‘Speak’ on command; never shuts up otherwise.
Alternate names: Bubs, Bubbins, Mr. Mittens, Mr. Muffins, Mr. Meowsers, Fiddles, Cuddles, Cuddle-Bear, Snuggle-Bear, other nauseatingly cute things.

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