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I don’t know how to properly describe this to do it justice – but this is funny, weird, adorable, and inexplicable. It’s mainly the latter, but you can’t leave out the first three. I’ll just add that it’s highly-worth the 3-minute watch of the most enthusiastic pet fish you will have ever seen, so loaded with personality (yes, really) that acts like an excited puppy with its owner. It loves being hand-fed and petted. But it’s better than even that. I don’t want to give more away, though, because there’s the fun of “Wait, what??!!” discovery. But be sure to watch starting at the 2:45 mark when the owner talks about offers she’d had to buy the fellow. This is ‘Snappy.’
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This is the heartbreaking, but also heartwarming story that takes place in, of all places, Ukraine. It’s the story of a sweet, young dog whose owner passed away, and the new owners wanted nothing to do with it, so they put him outside the gate. But he just stayed there, loyal and confused. Until a dog rescue group, Patreon, was told about him. Which is the rest of the tale… This is going to be one of those respites from politics today. And to cleanse the mind, soul and spirit, I can think of few things that does that for me better than Michael Flanders and Donald Swann, who readers of these page know I dearly, dearly love. And for this, I'm going to focus on just one of their songs -- an odd one, to be sure, not remotely one of their best, though (oddly) one of theirs which has had a long life, especially in England. And one of their most oddly joyous. And we'll delve into some of those versions. I’ve periodically written about and posted songs by Flanders & Swann. But not for a long while. As a bit of background, Michael Flanders and Donald Swann were a British team who wrote comic songs (and occasionally a few serious ones) and came to fame for a London revue, At the Drop of a Hat, in 1957 where it ran for 808 performances. It came to Broadway and ran for half a year. And then toured the world -- I recall reading mention that it was for 1,500 performances. In 1963 , they did a follow-up revue, At the Drop of Another Hat,” which also later went to Broadway, and CBS aired as a trimmed-down hour TV special in 1967. (Which you can see here.) Flanders (who wrote the superb lyrics, smart and often brilliantly rhymed, and did most of the talking, which included a few deeply witty, erudite monologue sketches) was a Peter Ustinov-like personality. They looked similar, sounded somewhat similar, and were both very smart in their work. He also had polio and performed in a wheelchair. Donald Swann was an accomplished pianist (who also wrote several operas and a song cycle based on poems from The Lord of the Rings, which was called “The Road Goes Ever On.” His persona was a quiet, shy, scholarly elf who you sort of sensed might be a lunatic under the surface, waiting to get out.  They obviously aren’t well-known today, and most of their songs have only lived within their shows and in the cast albums, but they do have two songs that have had a bit of life outside – “Madeira, M’Dear” and “The Hippopotamus Song” (the latter of which ended their shows and had the audience join in on the chorus. It’s not especially known in the U.S., but was pretty popular in England.). To my happy surprise, when looking for some videos to send to a friend, I found a lot of their songs still performed by others, most amateur, but quite a few not – including their song, “The Gnu,” done on “The Muppet Show.” And also -- “The Hippopotamus Song” performed by (among many others) famed Welsh opera baritone Bryn Terfel; the Arion Male Voice Choir of Victoria, Canada; and at the BBC Proms (!) …with the audience, as always, joining in. I’ll post “The Gnu” later, but for now, this is “The Hippopotamus Song.” Two versions, actually. As I’ve noted in past articles, there isn’t much video of Flanders & Swann. Michael Flanders didn’t particularly care for TV. But fortunately there are some exceptions – notably that CBS TV special. But also, there is an excellent BBC TV documentary that I’ve posted here which has black-and-white video of some of their early At the Drop of the Hat – which is where this version of “The Hippopotamus Song” comes from. I thought it would be only proper to show the two fellows themselves singing it first. By the way, when I said above that Michael Flanders was known for brilliant rhymes – listen to how many rhymes he comes up with for the word “hippopotamus.” Coming up with just one is impressive enough. And as a wonderful follow-up, here is the song sung by performers at the 2011 BBC Proms. And without any promptings – since, as I said, the song was well-known in England – note how much of the huge crowd joins in on the chorus. No, not everyone, but this was about 50 years after the song was introduced. I was going to leave it at that -- but I can’t not include the great Bryn Terfel with his wonderfully enthusiastic and even a bit dramatic performance accompanied by the Czech Philharmonic. (And all the better, it includes the third verse, often left out -- though it's on the original Broadway cast recording) And yes, there's a bonus. Think of it as an encore – When Flanders & Swann did their follow-up revue, At the Drop of Another Hat, they ended it, as well, with their song about The Hippopotamus – but not the original number. Instead, they wrote a new verse that brought everyone up to date on what was going on with the fellow (and another great rhyme for “hippopotamus). As the audience, with little prompting, joined in full-voice on the chorus. Here’s how they ended the show and their 1967 CBS TV special. As readers here know, from the videos I post about the otters Kotora and Hana (I haven’t had one in a while, so I’ll get back it soon…), I love otters. So, here’s the tale of another one that’s a joy. It starts out in a surprising way, but then jumps back to tell how this relationship between a wild otter and a guy in his kayak came about. It’s eight minutes, and lovely. But then, if this freeze frame doesn't get you to watch, nothing will... For reasons I can't quite pinpoint, I love elephants. (That might be clear from the "Elephant pianist" videos with Paul Barton I've posted, as well as a few other articles.) Two charities that I donate to regularly are Boon Lott's Elephant Sanctuary and one of my especially-favorites, the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. If you like elephants, as well, I heartily recommend them. As a result of this, for the past year, I've been paying attention to the Great Elephant Migration. This is a fascinating project, to bring attention to a conservation effort focusing on co-existence between people and elephants particularly in India. And what they've been doing is bringing a remarkable "herd" of 100 elephants (full-size, lifelike sculptures, impeccably made from lantana camara, an invasive vegetation that looks sort of bamboo-like, which taken five years to create) to venues around the world.  There's a wonderful website here that describes the project and all its aspects in great detail. The site also has several terrific videos about the project, where it's been, the building of the sculptures and more. I was able to download and embed one of them, which runs about three minutes and may take a few seconds to load. (For whatever reason, I don't seem able to get the sound to play -- though at about 2:30, the music kicks in, goes away briefly and returns.) After traveling the world, starting I believe in 2021, the Great Elephant Migration finally made it to the United States a year ago. And I would be remiss in adding that the most notable reason I've been following this since hitting American shores is because the last stop of the "migration" here is in...Beverly Hills!! And it's there right now, through August 1. So, y'know, like, guess where I went to a couple days ago... The project is being presented at the Beverly Hills Garden Park, which runs along Santa Monica Blvd., across from the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts and the Beverly Hills City Hall. None of my photos can do it justice, but I took a bunch and did my best. The elephants themselves are magnificent sculptures, and the presentation, out across the expanse of the park, is moving and effective. The core of the park runs for three blocks, though it stretches further. The herd is set up throughout the grounds to present the sense of the migrating herd. But before getting there, it just didn't seem right not to include this, the main theme by Henry Mancini to the movie Hatari. Of course, "The Baby Elephant Walk." I was going to post this at the end, but then I realized that it might make an even better soundtrack to play as you join the Great Elephant Migration. And now, on to the safari...        I think is a time when a good Adorable Animal Video is needed and would really hit the spot. So, from the fine folks at The Dodo, this is a video that is indeed adorable, but weird at first. However, more details come in later in the video. So, to tell the story in proper order to make it easier to follow -- a woman (who had several animals) rescued a young deer, and raised it to be released back into the wild. During this rescue period, though, it became best friends with her dog. And even after release, the deer regularly returns and not only has the most wonderful time with her lifelong best friend dog of 11 years, but every Spring brings her babies, who the dog helps care for like a distant uncle. |
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. 
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