Catch a tiger by its tail

Every so often I have the luxury of time to catch up on indie content and last night I watched the feature length doco The Tiger Next Door.
Directed and produced by Camilla Calamandrei, it looks at first to be a vehicle to examine the rights of an individual animal breeder to engage in being a big cat enthusiast. That sounds furry and fun.
After  establishing Dennis the Tiger Guy as an animal loving, slightly kooky, heart in the right place dude with more than 20 tigers in his back yard (that's weird but aren't we all just a couple of beasties away from Tiger hoarder)  we go on a roller coaster ride of meth head, anti government, "they done took my guns" etc. set to a back drop of "Tiger Ate Its Trainer" headlines and the vets/rescue workers asking why the fuck anyone in the USA is allowed to breed or keep tigers as pets.
I ask the same thing.
Honestly, we have no reason to keep beings that require thousands of square metres as their stomping ground in a cage of any sort. It's selfish and weird. Wait, you cant tell me what to do! Yeah really?  I think we can. We have standards of behaviour for every damn thing. Tiger keeping is on the list.

This doco explores the murky morals of a business that profits from what is at its very best a shitty life for an animal and at its worst is misery that you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy. Slow deaths of starvation, abandonment and crippling confinement are par for the course.

In Denis's case, the locals call a town meeting to debate how safe town folk feel about living near tigers vs what a crackhead Denis is, then turn it into an emotive story telling contest. "I've known Denis all my life blah blah"Vs"Denis is a felon with a record" without one person taking the side of the aggrieved party, the tiger- Hey would you like to be incarcerated for your entire natural life for amusement? - "yeah sure, oh no, wait... that's a no from this kitty cat. Lets blow this chicken coop."

Just say no to keeping tigers.

I did yell "fuck you" at the tv once because what the fuck is wrong with people?

Towards the end there is an argument between two grown men that pretty much goes- "I know you are but what am I."  I'm paraphrasing of course.
When Denis responds to his friend's criticism of his long and well documented history of neglect of our stripy friends with "I'm back in business!" I commended the Director for handing Denis enough rope. I'd like to drag Denis behind something with that rope but I practice kindness to all things, even assholes.

Worth a watch if only to confirm that there are loads of weird and shitty things happening in the world and you should definitely be doing good stuff and fighting the good fight.
Little things like shopping and giving money to the charity of your choice at Amazon Smile all at no cost to you, can make a difference to a not for profit charity. There you go. Pick the side of goodness and light and be a fluffy bunny of righteousness.

Seriously, whatever you can do to tread more lightly upon this planet and its beings then do that.
Mwah. xx

For real.

The immersive world of Augmented Reality a la Iron Man and the like. Superimposed info streams giving us the edge on plain old reality.  Looks exciting in a way that makes me feel like I need a cup of tea and a lie down. I get it in theory but where am I going to fit the extra information in on top of what is already going on between my ears without blowing a gasket.

Let me set the scene for you taking my morning train ride as a fairly indicative example of my inner world.

7:30am The inside of my head reverberates with a constant sound track. There is always some ear worm or another playing, creating the internal atmosphere. It's usually the last thing I heard on Spotify or a selection of teen pop hits from some Uber ride that have lodged permanently in my head taking up valuable and limited hard drive space and bandwidth in general. I think I forgot math so I could learn all the words to "Closer" by The Chainsmokers.

Over the pop music there is the constant narrative- you know how in action movies the sniper guys have an ear piece with intel being piped in by Ops? It's like that but much less useful- (Imagine here the walkie talkie sound- Kheeeeeek) "Hey look at that! I wonder if she knows that her top is on inside out? Wait, are your clothes on the right way? Shoes, pants... Oh good. Why is that person smiling at you? Oh maybe there is something on your face... Did you remember to turn the gas off... What is the Spanish word for... Kheeeeeek.

At the same time there is the Terminator style heads up display in my mind's eye but with completely spurious  information. Like the guy opposite me on the train looks a bit like that guy from that movie, yeah that one, whats his name? Facial recognition activated-  Running possibilities. Possible match found.  List(all movies staring that guy) Sort(movies staring that guy I haven't seen but might like to) Wonder(are they are on Netflix?). This process may or may not have that computer cursor sound effect for fun.

Interrupted by someone conversing loudly over my internal dialogue. Mentally running Dexter style plans to do them in and not get caught. I'd be doing the whole carriage a favour. Seriously.  Evaluate the possibility of getting away with it as informed by all tv shows- in fast forward. May or may not involve ending with the Wilhelm scream each time. Reevaluate as a vast overreaction... Sorry, you were saying?

Start to wonder about one thing- wonder about everything. Ok Google... 

Mental list(everything I've ever wanted to learn, make, do) 

Overwhelm. System is getting a bit crispy round the edges. Need a cup of tea. Breathe.

And for some light relief there is this vision of the future by Keiichi Matsuda

HYPER-REALITY from Keiichi Matsuda on Vimeo.