The Lantern Festival: In The Spirit Of Oban

I ran across some photographs that I took years ago at the Lantern Festival, which takes place at the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens, located in Delray Beach, Florida, each year. My sister Susan and I were visiting my mother Mary down in Stuart, Florida, where she lived for almost 30 years, and when I read about the festival taking place that weekend, I insisted that we check it out. The festival features Japanese folk-dancing, drumming, a street festival, an evocative lantern floating ceremony, and is described by the museum as Japan's "summer homage to ancestors who return for a brief visit to the living." A beautiful idea indeed. The photograph on the left features Susan, in the foreground, grooving to the beat of the Japanese drummers.

Those Japanese drummers performed most of day, and at sunset, the lantern floating ceremony, the finale of the festival, took place, which was very beautiful indeed. It was well worth attending, but the part I remember most is what happened afterwards, when trying to leave. There were so many cars that it took at least an hour to get out of the parking lot, and we didn't get back to Stuart until pretty late. Happily, the festival is still scheduled to take place again this October, but if you do attend, I suggest that when you leave, you do so by helicopter. Perhaps you can see if Donald Trump is attending and hitch a ride with him.

February At The Zoo Part II - Visiting Friends Both Old And New

As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, I went to the Denver Zoo Wednesday afternoon, and wound up taking photographs of animal subjects both old and new. I find that I take a lot of photographs of the lions, but that is because they all seem willing to look me in the eye and let me take their portrait. I am not sure if that is because they like me, are wary of me and therefore on alert, or thinking of me in terms of dinner. This past Wednesday, the four bachelor lions, one of which can be seen in the photo on the left,  were roaming Predator Ridge, the main lion compound. It has been quite a while since I have seen the other pride, a family headed by male lion Tobias and which includes Tatu, born in 2019, and two lion cubs - Oskar and Araali - born just last year. I suspect they are being kept at the house of a zoo employee, one with a very big backyard, until the pandemic is over.

I know it might seem boring to feature these lions all the time, but on the other hand, there are only so many interesting photographs of Wild Somali Asses and mountain goats that you can take. Which is why I am also featuring the photo of another bachelor lion, seen in the photo on the right. These four lions were brought to the zoo as teenagers, before they had manes, and as I recall, were much more lively back then. As I have said many times before, the zoo needs to get an intern to go into the compound and prod these lions with a stick, in order to get them moving around a bit. It would make for livelier photographs and also be much healthier for the lions, if not for the intern.

Without question, the most soulful looking animals in the zoo are the monkeys. You look into their eyes and can see deep emotion. Whether that is because they are thinking about their sad fate, imprisoned for life, or if they are simply wondering when dinner will be served, I don't know. I took the photograph of the monkey on the left on my way to the Great Ape House, and failed to note what kind it was, and from where. I must say, however, that it is very colorful indeed, which is, of course, the most important thing. 

I believe the photograph on the right is of a female mandrill, perhaps the mother of Kesi, the 2 year old ball of energy that I featured on this blog yesterday. I think she came over to the window of the compound to get a little sympathy from zoo visitors, bitter about the fact that "a man can work from sun to sun, but a woman's work is never done." The male mandrill, Kesi's father, never seems to bother himself with helping to raise their child, which I am sure bothers this female mandrill to no end. I strongly recommend that she have a heart to heart with her better half ASAP.

February At The Zoo

I went to the Denver Zoo this past Wednesday afternoon to take a few photographs. When I left the house it was sunny, but by the time I got to the zoo it was very overcast, making for pretty poor conditions for good photos. However, I did go into the Great Ape House and take a photograph of one of the orangutans taking a bubble bath, as seen in the photograph on the left. And I have to say, I think the Denver Zoo is really starting to spoil these animals. Bubble baths? Is that pretty typical for orangutans in the wild? I would think not!

As long as I was visiting the primates, I decided to check in on the baby mandrill, which as usual was running around all over place, making it difficult to photograph. Happily, it stopped for a few minutes for a bite to eat, and I was able to get the photo on the right. Kesi will be two years old this May, and so it is still exploring her new world. Her favorite activity these days seems to be jumping from the top of the compound into a hammock. It is a pretty high distance to leap, but it does not seem to bother her mother at all. Strange, since when Kesi was a baby, her mother refused to let her leave her side. These days she probably thinks it's time for the father to help discipline the kid.

The February Mutt Of The Month

I took the above photograph of the February Mutt of the Month while walking home from a stroll in Denver's Washington Park. The dog was in a backyard, barking at me furiously, which I knew meant that he or she very much wanted me to take it's photograph. I must admit that the dog looks kind of manic in the photo, but I am sure it is actually very friendly, although I did not go into the yard to find out. I might be an idiot (as one blog reader recently commented about one of my posts), but I am not stupid.

A Brilliant New Business Idea!

I took a walk around the neighborhood yesterday afternoon, taking advantage of the 65 degree temperatures, and passed by "birdcall," a fairly new chicken restaurant chain here in Denver, and seen in the photograph on the left. I have noticed that despite the pandemic, it seems to do a good business, especially with the drive-through. I remember when I was taking real estate classes at the University of Denver years ago that the drive-through represented something like 60 to 70 percent of a fast food restaurant's business. It looks like "birdcall" has a business model that works.

When I reached Washington Park and saw all those geese around, I came up with a brilliant idea: a fast food goose restaurant. It could be named "goose call," and feature goose sandwiches, roast goose dinners (we could give Boston Market a run for it's money, if it still exists), and of course, specialize in foie gras, which people in France go crazy over. I could hire people looking for new job opportunities, such as my friend Stuart, featured many times on this blog, and former University of Denver Bookstore co-worker Doug - who refers to me as "crazy old man Hoyt" - to help in the undertaking. I could give them big nets, large burlap bags, and send them over to Washington Park to collect the geese, all for free. Doug used to be friends with a French professor at DU, and perhaps he can recruit her to prepare the entrees. She is actually Belgian, but same difference - French language, French food, right? We'll make a fortune. I have even prepared a photo showing the logo we will put on the side of the building, seen in the photo on the right. After this, I am sure Doug will no longer refer to me as "crazy old man Hoyt." It will probably be something much worse.

Winter In The 9th Street Historic District

Lately, I have altered my routine when walking around downtown Denver by getting off the light rail train at Auraria West on the way home, walking through the 9th Street Historic District, and then taking an alternate line home. Auraria is now a college campus that includes the University of Colorado at Denver, Metropolitan State University, and the Community College of Denver, but was once an independent town, and is one of Denver's oldest neighborhoods. That historic neighborhood is gone now, except for one street that was preserved, and is now used to house university offices. The photograph on the left is of what was once the neighborhood grocery store, and now a restaurant.

The photograph on the right shows some of the typical residences in the neighborhood, some of which date from 1873. The neighborhood started out as rather upscale. However, when it was torn down to build the university complex, it was an Hispanic neighborhood, and I suspect residents did not have the political clout to stop the destruction of their homes. These days, if the city tried something like that, the historic preservationists would be all over them.

I did notice that one of the buildings was home to the Auraria Faculty-Staff Club. I myself worked for the University of Denver Bookstore for almost 30 years, and in that time there was never any kind of club for faculty and staff. They did occasionally have a Friday afternoon get-together at the pub, but it started at 3:00 P.M. If I had decided to leave work early on those occasions, I probably would have been fired. Hardly worth it for a couple of beers.

And yes! That is a Second Empire Style home in the photograph on the right. I am not sure what it is used for these days, but I for one would be perfectly happy to live there. Of course, I would have to lock all the doors to keep those pesky students out, but I suspect it would be worth it. Perhaps I should make an offer.

No Need To Squirrel Away Food For This Guy

I took the photograph above of a rather pudgy squirrel at the Denver Zoo, as it was helping itself to the contents of one of the zoo animal's food bowls. Squirrels always seem to be able to find a way to get the food they need, and the ones who scurry around the Denver Zoo must feel that they are in hog heaven. However, I strongly recommend that zoo officials catch these little buggers and put them on a diet as soon as possible. Otherwise the ASPCA might come calling - allowing this kind of obesity in animals is, after all, very cruel indeed.