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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...       
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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. As I noted a short while back, I accidentally came across a series of fascinating videos. They’re all from a pianist Paul Barton who has used music to deal with people therapeutically, and he wondered if it would be effective with animals, as well. This is something that Barton has been doing in the jungles of Thailand for many years – I can’t tell exactly, but it seems like perhaps 15 years so far. And he’s developed connections with several of the elephants. There are quite a few of his videos that I thought about posting next (one with a clearly restless bull elephant who, once the music starts playing, not only calms down his anxious swaying, but sits down and calmly listens), but I’ve chosen this one instead. That’s because the others tend to start close to when the music begins, but this gives more of the behind-the-scenes perspective. And that’s important because, as Barton writes – “In this video I included a few extra behind-the-scenes clips to show how Mongkol, a bull elephant, would walk along the river bank in the early evening to the piano and wait. I needed to be absolutely sure Mongkol was waiting for music of his own accord before I played to him. Mongkol was free to stay and listen or to walk away at any time.” Also, it seems to be more common in the videos for the elephants to hover over the piano when the music is playing, and this gives a better sense of that. Worth noting, as well, is that a common activity when watching these videos is how the elephants seem to flap their ears more often when the music is playing. On the surface, this is the endearing story of a rescue boxer who pretty much only gets along with the woman who adopted him. But I think it’s as much a squirrel story (yes, another one – I love squirrel stories. Not as much as my friend Rob Hedden, though I’m not completely sure I want to go that far). That’s because – well, as Rob would see it, squirrels bring out the best in everyone, if you just let them. I don't think I can embed the video here (I'll try...), but if it doesn't work, you can watch it by the clicking the link here. There are few things I find that evoke more smiles that a pack of really, really, really happy dogs. And these are really, really, really happy dogs greeting their caretaker at a shelter. One can only imagine the kindness and joys she brings to them every day. This is definitely different for one of our Adorable Animal Videos, but it qualifies under the judges' ruling, and is a lot of fun. It’s a two-part video of a segment from Cesar Milan’s show Cesar 911. Most of the shows in his various series take place at his home base in Los Angeles, but here’s he’s on the road in New York City and is called to help a family with an insecure dog -- where it turns out that their other dog has a trust issue. And what stands out here, and the reason for posting it, of course, is that the family is Jerry Seinfeld’s. And he’s absolutely certain that Cesar doesn’t stand a chance of fixing it. |
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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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