M&M: Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi)

Chihiro is 10 years old and together with her parents she moves to a new city. On their way to the new home they get lost. During a break they find an abandoned funfair. At first Chihiro does not want to be there, but then goes alone to explore the area as her parents illegally help themselves to some food and start eating like pigs at a sort of restaurant. As Chihiro is walking around, she meets a boy by the name of Haku. Haku warns Chihiro to leave this place before the night, but when Chihiro is back with her parents, they turned into pigs. To protect Chihiro from the creatures of the night, Haku brings her to the bathhouse to the witch Yubaba. In the bathhouse Haku asks the young woman Lin to request work for Chihiro. But the witch controlls her workers by erasing their memory of their name and whoever doesn't know their name has to stay in this magic world. Haku himself can't remember his full name and makes it clear to Chihiro that it's important for her to remember her full name whatever else happens. Chihiro has to do many tasks and wor hard until she can go back to her parents in the end. You'll have to watch for yourself to find out, if Haku will remember his full name.

The bathouse of the witch Yubaba was build for the Shinto gods an spirits and I found it exciting to learn a bit about the shinto belief through this animated movie of the year 2001 (directed by Hayao Miyazaki). For someone like me from Europe this belief is foreign and less known. Although I did read a bit about shinto (and voodoo) some years ago, because I'm interested in different belief systems and wanted to learn about them. So it wasn't totally new for me. I like this idea that gods and spirits are on earth, in the wind, in the water, on the earth, in the animals and not somewhere up in the sky far away from us on earth.

I felt a bit drawn to this movie not just because I found the plot description exciting, but also because of the name Haku. I knew the name because it's the name of one of the currently 4 cats of the American-Japanese Youtuber couple Rachel and Jun. If you like cats and are interested in the Japanese culture, check out Rachel and Jun's YouTube channel!

Nina Hagen did the German voice for the witch Yubaba. Lin was spoken by her daughter Cosma Shiva Hagen. I didn't know any of the other speakers in German or English.

The blackbird

Dear reader,

I just wanted to get some lettuce for the guinea pigs and walked the footpath, when I noticed a dark pile very close to the road. When I came closer, I saw that it was a dead blackbird. One wing was spread. Possibly hit by a car in flight. I knew right away that I had to pick it up and bring it to the park across the street. But I didn't want to touch it with my hands and it wasn't cold enough for me to have my gloves with me. So I first went shopping and at first I picked a small bag from the fruits and veggies section. I stuffed it in my jacket pocket and grabbed the lettuce and paid at the check-stand. I put the lettuce in my backpack.

On my way back I turned the bag inside out and put it back in my jacket pocket. A crossroad away from the blackbird I noticed someone walking behind me. I didn't want someone to see me, so I walked a tiny bit slower and the person passed me a few steps later.

When I was close to the blackbird, I looked around me quickly, if someone was close. That wasn't the case. I kneeled down and in turning the back again, I attempted to get the blackbird in the bag carefully. I held one hand under the blackbird and the other arm and hand around it on the side. I went back the street a bit like that to reach the crossroad and waited at the traffic to get to the other side of the street. I walked the big steps up to the park and noticed just how very untrained I am. Someone more sportive than I am, would have found it easier to walk the steps, even though I wasn't out of breath. At the top I kept to the right. I passed the playground. I wanted trees and something smoother than the path to lay the blackbird to rest. Only few people out and about. I would have expected more people taking their last opportunity for a walk in the old year. A couple walked far behind me. I didn't want them to see me putting down the blackbird. I wasn't sure what others would think about me placing a dead bird in a park. So I walked a bit faster to get more distance between me and the couple. Shortly after a bridge there were several trees close together. That seemed like a good place. But I needed to be quick. I kneeled down and carefully folded the sides of the bag down, so the bag was only under my hand now. That way I was able to place the blackbird on the ground. Farewell, blackbird. May your death be the last in this year. Get up fast now. The bag with me again. But I held it crumbled in my hand now. The couple was close. Have they seen what I had done? I walked fast a bit back and then the path to the right. Have they seen what I had done? Still no calls. Actually, it didn't matter anyway. The blackbird belonged in the park, not picked up by the garbage collection to be burned in an oven or whatever happens to dead animals.

Back to the park entrance. The bag ended in the next trash bin. I didn't feel like waiting at the traffic again, so I used the entrance down to the underground to get out on the other side of the road again. Back home again. Hopefully the blackbird would be the last death this year.

Until next blog,

sarah

The quagga and the woolly mammoth

Dear reader,

did you ever see a quagga or heard of them? Of course not seen it „for real“. They've been extinct since about 1883. Quaggas have been relatives of plain zebras today. Although the quagga wasn't white with black stripes, but light brown with almost no white stripes except on the head and neck. They have lived in South Africa and have been hunted mostly, because they were seen by the Dutch settlers as natural competitors of the cows. Only much later, after the last quagga had died August, 12, 1883 in the Artis-Zoo in Amsterdam, it was realised just how far the hunt had gone. By the way, the quagga (Equus quagga quagga) was not a separate species of zebras, but a subspecies of the plain zebra (equus quagga).

In 1987 The Quagga Project was started. The idea is pretty simple: when two plain zebras with few stripes mate, they (hopefully) get a child with few stripes and eventually the zebras of the project will then have so few stripes that they resemble the quagga. These could then be settled back in South Africa. So a mistake once made over 100 years ago would, at least in part, be put right. One could argue that a zebra, which looks like a quagga, because it has few stripes, doesn't make a real quagga. The people of the Quagga Project actually thought about that, too, and argue against that on the subpage Criticism of the Quagga Project. They say that because the quagga is extinct now, no other specifics other than the reduction of stripes can be made out. Also the grasses the plain zebras eat today are very close to those that existed in quagga times and would. So really it isn't a very strong argument to say that the reduction of stripes alone will not make a real quagga. You are free give your thoughts on that in the comments.

The Quagga Project has a whole bunch of photos with zebras, which already have visibly fewer stripes already. You can check out the photos at the following link: http://www.quaggaproject.org/Quagga-Graphic-Elements/PhotoGallery/PhotoGallery/slide.html

Woolly mammoths were pretty common in America as well as Eurasia before they went extinct. Because they have been living and gone extinct in a cold stage, many remains have been mummified because of the ice and remained relatively preserved. Maybe you can imagine what some scientists think of or are actually more or less working on. Correct, the mammoth would raise from the dead. Similarly to the quagga one attempt is get close to a mammoth through selection of existing elephants. Another thought is to use available DNA from mammoths and use them or even creating the necessary DNA, that is the sperm, to plant it into a living elephant. The cow elephant then would idially give birth to a mammoth baby. The anatomy of elephants and other aspects such as the suspected long gestation period like living elephants today (which is about 21 to 22 months) would make this very difficult and would make this a really long and time-consuming project. To create an artificial egg cell, the chromosome science isn't quite ready yet and the needed specimens of existing cells of mammoth findings are too fragmented.

I could sort of understand to create a quagga. This zebra-quagga would at least live Africa in an environment close to that of the actual quagga. A mammoth however... Where should the mammoth live and what from?

Surely it's an exciting thing, whether it can be possible to recreate animals again. But what for? To have again what isn't anymore and existed once before? To be able to say and show that we could and die make it happen? It would certainly be a sensation and impressive. But I think, it shouldn't be forgotten that the real natural environment of the animals doesn't exist anymore. The so called civilised humans will destroy the world more and more and with it the animals that (still) exist today. Wouldn't it make more sense, instead of recreating extinct animals, to make it so that endangered and critically endangered animals live can live on?

Until next blog,

sarah

Dehumanise your pets

Dear reader,

I never said this blog will be about ventriloquism only. More "on a gut level". So today I want to write something "non-ventriloquial". Although it's not that far away from ventriloquism.  But more on that connection to ventriloquism later.

The other day I watched a live program "Dog - German, German - Dog" with the german "dog whisperer" Martin Rütter. He's quite well known over here. This week a magazine had him on the title page even. He's the guy you call, if you need help with your dogs.

In his live program he mentions a phenomena: we talk to our dogs as we would with other humans: in full sentences. I don't know how you talk to your pets in english, because I'm used to hear it in german all the time. So I can't exactly give you examples here. Also the english way of talking to pets may be different than german as a whole just from the language itself. But what Rütter says certainly is true for german speaking people talking with pets.

I never had dogs myself. But just the other day I realised I sat with my guinea pigs and realised I said something to them - yes, in full sentences - as if they were able to understand me. Then I thought of the humanisation and said nothing.

One of the guinea pigs has cysts on her ovaries. It means hormonal fluctuation and especial: jumping on the other female guinea pig! Of course the best time to do it is in the middle of the night... At first Nelly was quite shy. By now she became braver. Sadly so, I almost dare writing. Because the first couple of times she was quiet after I banged my hand on the frame of the bed. Shoutings like "Be quiet now!" or something like that I don't say anymore. I noticed the other day that this again would be humanisation... and it wouldn't help with her anyway. First off it's not her fault she has those hormonal fluctuations, secondly she's brave enough now that my shoutings, no matter what I'd shout, wouldn't keep her away from the other one. Parts of this wrongdoing we all do with dogs, we also do with other animals. And maybe even with animals, which couldn't react to what we say the way a dog could act to what we tell him to do. What worked quite effectively for me lately was to go to the cage and maybe nudge Nelly with one finger or at least get my hand near her. Not in a threatening way, just sticking my hand in the cage. She's not that brave to be close to Bibi then. This helps at least for a moment. (The hormone injections help, too.)

What's all of this got to do with ventriloquism now? Sometimes I have Gaston, my bat, with me in our groups at work. Just the other day I had Gaston on my hand when I opened the door for a daughter, who came to take her mother back home. As she saw Gaston she reacted with, "Oh what a cutie he is!" Others went further asking, as if it really was an animal, "What's his name?" Maybe even followed by a quick, "It's a 'he', isn't it?" No! It's an "it" and a hand puppet!  Of course I never said that to any of those, who asked me. The questions about his name are more difficult. The catalogue sold him as "Gaston", my colleague at work called him "Gomes" from the start and most of the time he's not addressed by name at all. So basically he's a kind of half nameless Gaston.

This humanisation and personification also with (hand) puppets is what vents use. It's this fact that helps creating the illusion... and the misdirection of the vent, should his or her lips move a bit although the figure is "speaking". I don't quite remember where I read it, I think it was in Edgar Bergen's book, but others certainly point it out as well: if a vent is not very good at saying a certain letter or a word without moving his or her lips, you can let the figure make a distinct movement of some sorts. If the audience isn't looking at the figure already, the distinct movement of the figure will bring the whole attention away from you and to the figure.

There's an interview with Rasheda Ali and Ronn Lucas on youtube. At first he's alone, but when he has brought Buffalo Billy out of the trunk, asking questions is suddenly more difficult. Should she ask Billy directly or talk with Ronn Lucas about Billy? "Who am I talking to?", she asks at one moment.  Ronn Lucas, who is used to that, takes it with humour, "That's the problem with ventriloquists."

Jay Johnson as well as Paul Winchell can tell stories about being part of a tv production acting as a ventriloquist and the sound of the puppet talking didn't record well, although the sound of the other actors recorded well. For both of them it was pure luck that they eventually found out the guy holding the mic to record the sound of the dialogue turned the mic to the puppet any time it had a line to say, instead of pointing the mic to Jay Johnson respectively Paul Winchell. This is how real an illusion can get and a vent can not hope for more, after all this illusion of bringing a inanimate figure to life is what makes a good vent. Maybe the vent should talk to the "mic guy" before filming, where he should keep his mic when the figure is "speaking". but that's what the anecdotes of Paul Winchell and Jay Johnson are for, to warn budding film and tv ventriloquist stars about possible "sound problems"... ;-)

Our pets however may be better off if we dehumanised them more. Aren't you, Nelly? Bibi?

Until next blog,

sarah