MORE BIRTHDAY GIFTS FOR DANIEL

we had to wait till the paycheck dropped, the day after daniels birthday to go buy these items he wanted.
PAINTBALL GEAR.

a HALO hopper (feeds the paintballs electronically into the gun) and an EMPIRE backpack...

DANIEL GETS A HAIRCUT

OKLAHOMA CITY ZOO ANIMALS DISCOVER ARTISTIC SIDE

I REALLY REALLY wanted this painting. its $325.

the artist and his artwork

by: Carrie Coppernoll
July 30, 2011

Animal trainers at the Oklahoma City Zoo are coming up with creative ways to help animals put paint on canvas to support wildlife conservation efforts around the world.
The second annual Art Gone Wild art show kicks off next week in the Paseo Arts District.
Artwork has been created by elephants, flamingos, grizzly bears, snakes, a rhinoceros and other animals.
Zookeepers have devised clever plans for teaching the animals to paint, said Diana Jones, a spokeswoman for the zoo. For example, turtles trot through paint and over a canvas to reach sweet strawberries.
The paintings are part of what zookeepers call enrichment, Jones said.
“It creates problems for them to solve,” Jones said. “It creates challenges of them. ... It stimulates the animals mentally and breaks up their daily routines in a way that's really healthy for them.”
The animal artwork will be for sale at In Your Eye Gallery during the Art Gone Wild show, and proceeds will benefit the zoo's conservation work. In addition, artists at In Your Eye Gallery will sell works based on the animal artists. Ten percent of those proceeds will be donated to the zoo.

NEWS - BUSES HEADING TO U2 WITH OR WITHOUT YOU

Buses heading to U2 with or without you

By BILL SPURR Features Writer
Sat, Jul 30 - 4:55 AM
 


Kevin Myers moved to Bedford from Prince Edward Island a month ago and hopefully his new neighbours are U2 fans like he is.
"My favourite U2 song of all time is Angel of Harlem," he says. "There’s something about it, it’s got grassroots like that Harlem gospel choir kind of feel, so every time I hear that song I gotta turn it up to 12. I have quite a few of (their albums), and the MP3 collection is pretty big.
"I used to play in a band that actually covered some U2 songs, and I’ve been a U2 fan since I was 17 or 18, and now I’m 19," jokes Myers, who’s actually closer to 39 than 19.
"We got just general admission tickets, but that’s a good opportunity to get into the crowd and crowd-surf and get to meet the real true fans that don’t have the big bucks to sit in the VIP seats. That’s how I like to see a concert."
Myers and his partner have seats on one of the 500 buses taking fans to the Magnetic Hill concert site for tonight’s U2 (with Arcade Fire) show in Moncton. Safety and socializing were equally important reasons for them to travel by bus.
"For convenience, and so we can have a few drinks and get back, so No. 1 is for safety and No. 2 is for the social aspect," he said. "You sit in a bus for 2½, three hours, you’re going to meet a lot of U2 fans and have a lot of interaction with people that share similar interests."
Steve MacLeod’s most vivid memory of the Eagles concert in Moncton in 2008 is the eight-kilometre walk from the concert site back to his car. MacLeod parked as close to the venue as he could, then hoofed it. That was for a show that attracted 40,000 people, so he fervently hopes that if U2 draws 100,000 tonight — a number that’s being tossed around — he doesn’t have to walk more than twice as far.
That won’t be an issue for people on the buses, which have their own designated parking spots at the venue.
Halifax charter bus company Ambassatours will have 15 motor coaches on the road today, carrying everyone from people who won the trip on Q104 to more than a hundred security guards being brought in to work the event.
"Once the hotels sell out in Moncton, the buses become extremely attractive," said Sean Buckland of Ambassatours. "It’s great business for us; to have the wheels turning on 15 buses is fantastic."
Elayne Pink of Absolute Travel has put together packages at up to $399 for VIP concert seating for six busloads of U2 fans, far more than for any previous show. "We could have sold more (but) we ran out of bus parking, so that was what stopped us. AC/DC (in 2009) did two buses, and the Stones (in 2005) did about two, so it’s quite a bit bigger."
Duane and Karen Chapman of Prospect will be attending their first outdoor concert tonight "cuz it’s U2," Karen said. "They were big when we were in high school."
The Chapmans already had tickets when they won another pair on the radio, as well as a bus ride, so they sold the first pair. Now with general admission tickets in hand, they’re hoping for fine weather.
Pam Long of Windsor Junction shelled out for more expensive tickets, which come with chairs, better bathrooms and a clear view of the headliners.
"We’re pretty psyched, (but) we’re not teenyboppers so I wanted to have a seat that I could sit in," she said.
"My husband and I talked once about going to Ireland to see them — maybe we had too much wine. Then we heard that they were coming here, and I always wanted to see them.
"Not being an outdoor concert person personally, this is a step for me, but I’m going to suck it up and do it. I have a rain cape, we’ll put some bug stuff on us and it’s going to be just great, I don’t care what I have to do.
"We sit home and listen to their music, have a glass of wine and I sing their songs. My daughters are really happy they’re not coming with us so they won’t be embarrassed."
========================================================================
i added this story, because it was a bus trip to the Omni center in atlanta GA, that would change my life forever.
my best freinds brother Al, was a huge Hard-core U2 fan...and they had a tour date for the Joshua Tree album set in Atlanta...
He wanted to go WIth someone, and asked me if id go with him.
i HATED the band...i mean, HATED them, all except for that one song.."with or without you" , because the video intrigued me.
and I didnt want to go with him alone, i dodnt like him that much as it was...so i convinced him to go halfsies on another ticket for my best friend, his sister Sandy.
we paid 60 bucks a piece for the tickets.
had a round trip bus trip to and from.
and reserved seats. they were waaaaay far away, but being there, changed my entire view of the band...forever.
i cant even remember the set list, to be honest. i didnt own the cassette yet. so i ddnt listen to the band at all.

i was there for that one song...
but i dont even remember that as much as i remember when he pulled 2 girls up on the stage that had created (from a sheet) an AMNISTY INTERNATIONAL banner...
i can remember he stopped the band, let them up, paraded them around, and talked about what amnisty international was...
that was all the magic...
he stopped the band again, looked right down at his feet, asked someone if they could play the gitar.
an exchange of conversation happened, where we could only here Bono speaking.
looks down says: "can you play the guitar?"
person (ill guess they said something to the effect of: "yes"
some more chatter
Bono : "if you can play then you can come up here and play The Edges guitar for this next song."

the next moment was pure magic too me.

they ge tthe guy on the stage, The Edge takes a guitar OFF his shoulder, hands it to the guy, and the guy plays WITH THEM!
i cant remember if we could hear him or not, i dont even remember the song he did it on..

but THAT moment was what i took away with me.
well, 2 moments.
1 was about the effort to give people freedom.
the other was how well they loved the audience and  came to them and shared themselves on our level. they didnt seem too good to not be accessible.

 20 years later, at the newest almbums release (No Line On The Horizon), and my next opportunity to share in the magic again, they STILL pull individuals up on the stage and share moments with them.
and the humanitarianism STILL continues as well.

whats not to love about a band that does that?

MICHELLE
ill forever love this band...

PIC OF ME- DANIELS 17th BIRTHDAY (JULY 29 2011)

took this pic to show what i looked like on the day my son had turned 17.

not to bad for a woman of 44 huh? lol

MICHELLE

DANIELS 17TH BIRTHDAY

its getting harder and harder to get the kid something when half of what hed like he always gets before the holiday.

as soon as ones done (christmas OR Birthday) im on the hunt for more items to try to surprise him with for the next vent 6 months down the road,
this year he asked for, and showed us, what items hed want for clothing,

we had decided after much debate and watching the kid, that wed go ahead and get another xbox360.
this one, however would be purchased over time, for one reason, it helps to build a credit score for us, and it wouldnt cost an arm and a leg out of our pocket to do it at one time, and the kid seemed sencier about not abusing the rights he has on the system. so we took a giant leap of faith on him, and got him another new system.
he had no clue.

so, finally the day comes (july 29) for us to celebate his birthday..he was very casual about it, not really talking much, not inquiring about gifts, not asking if we were gonna do anything.
and i told him we were gonna go out to celebrate.

daniel hates the "show" of any pubic event...hates to participate, hates the fact  i take pictures..im not really sure why. (very much my mother, she wanst into all that either)
anyway, we had  decided wed go cheap someplace to do this, we hadnt bee to burger king in forever, and we decided wed got there, piled danile and the gifts (that were all in the back seat with him) in the car, and started on our journey.

when we pulled up in the parking lot of the establishment, daniel had a cow, and walked off, just left! refused to do the opening of gifts, or anything like that in any restaruant.
so, we had to take everything from the place back into the car, drive down the road and go get him, he was walking home!

when we convincd him to get in the car, i asked him what hed want to do, which i had been asking and all i got was it doesnt matter" as a response.
his answer this time was..go home and do this..
to which i told him hed have to clean up the living room because i didnt want to have a messy room in the pictures.
we got home...
he started cleaning..
as he was doing that and we were commiserating our defeat for a well meant  celebration, craigs mother calls...
and well, we sued that to our advantage.

went back in the living room, told him his grandmother had resquested we go out to eat , because she had sent us money to celerate with him on , and wanted us to make sure we took pics so she could see them and hat he got on FaceBook..

so, he had a change of heart, decided to go back to Burger King and do the celebration..

so we pile it all back into the car, wth the kid in the back seat, and...head right back out to the same place...

find a spot (no one was there, and i mean..NO ONE!) and proceeded to have the celebrations..
one by one he opened gifts:

seriously NOT feeling the celebration thing

dinner

see that smirk, its cause daniel was like "im never gonna wear this, why did you get it?" simple answer: its all they had we thought youd like for half off if we got another shirt, thats the half off shirt...appreciate!

my sons growing up, has moved primarily from his favorite band ICP (insane Clown Posse) to DubStep artist: DEADMAU5. and with that adjustment he went from the dark shirts to "anything but balck shirts" and this deadmau% shirt was the 1st of all of the rest of them that wasnt black, he didnt get 1 black shirt, or 1 ICP item this birthday.

3 pairs of shorts

graphic tees (white)

see, no smile yet. lol

fake smile, i asked him to smile for the picture

another graphic tee-this one, blue!

MORE shorts, cant say he doesnt have enough now..LOL

folks, THIS was the genuine smile!
i could have sworn with all the time he and that xbox sat in the back seat together hed have noticed it, but he didnt, i knew he didnt when i handed this over and the look of surprise swept over his face, resuting in THIS smile...
he said he didnt know it was there...ill chose to believe him.

now THATS the look of 1 happy kid.
was it so bad daniel? did it make you feel aweful? no. you got o=something you wanted, had to sacrifice a small part of yourself to make others happy.
thats part of life, welcome to 17! it just gets better from here.

MAMMA

6 SMALL EARTHQUAKES RECORDED NEAR CHOCKTAW, OKLAHOMA

 the edge of chocktaw is roughly about 10 miles from our home. we often hear of quakes that have happened in Jones, Ok (which is closer) rarelt ever hear of quakes coming out of chocktaw

MICHELLE

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

6 Small Earthquakes Recorded Near Choctaw

Largest Was Magnitude 2.7, Recorded Friday Night

July 29, 2011

CHOCTAW, Okla. -- The Oklahoma Geological Survey says six small earthquakes have been recorded near Choctaw in central Oklahoma. No injuries or damage have been reported as a result of the quakes on Friday. The survey says the largest was magnitude 2.7 and was recorded at 10:45 p.m. Friday. The U.S. Geological Survey gave the quake a preliminary magnitude of 2.8. The Oklahoma agency says a 2.4 magnitude quake was recorded at 10:53 p.m. and a 2.6 magnitude quake at 10:56 p.m. The other three quakes ranged from magnitude 1.3 to 2.1. Geologists say earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 to 3 are generally the smallest felt by humans.

NEWS - JERSEYS NEW DURRELL GORILLA BADONGO 'SETTLING IN WELL'

28 July 2011 Last updated at 09:43 ET

Jersey's new Durrell gorilla Badongo 'settling in well'

A new silverback gorilla has arrived safely in Jersey from France.

Badongo arrived at Durrell wildlife park on Tuesday evening from La Vallee des Singes, just south of Poitiers in France, where he was born.
He will be in quarantine for six months but visitors to the park will be able to see him in the indoor gorilla exhibit.
Durrell says all being well Badongo will be mixed with the female gorillas in about two weeks.

A member of staff at Durrell said: "He is settling in really well, is calm and content and we are in the midst of the first stage of his introduction."
He replaces Ya Kwanza, who had been at Durrell for 18 years and left the island last week because he had not bred for eight years.
Ya Kwanza was sent to join a bachelor group of gorillas at La Vallee des Singes.
The Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust has been famous for its gorillas since 1986 when Jambo stood guard over a young boy who had fallen into his enclosure.

NEWS - MONKEY THIEF JAILED FOR A YEAR IN RAS AL KHAIMAH

Monkey thief jailed for a year in Ras Al Khaimah

By

• Staff

Published Thursday, July 28, 2011

A criminal court in Ras Al Khaimah sentenced a man for one year in prison for stealing a monkey and a parrot at gunpoint from a private zoo in the emirate, a local newspaper reported on Thursday.
The man, identified only as MR, had used a gun to force the zoo guard to hand over the monkey and the parrot before fleeing, Emirat Alyoum said.
Police later seized the man on descriptions given by the guard at the zoo, owned by an Emirati in Awafi area.

NEWS - RARE BABY MONKEY REMOVED FROM MOMS CARE-DOING FINE

Rare Baby Monkey Removed From Mom's Care

One-Week-Old Silver Leaf Monkey To Be Hand-Raised At The San Diego Zoo

POSTED: 3:28 pm PDT July 27, 2011

UPDATED: 4:23 pm PDT July 27, 2011

SAN DIEGO -- The first silvered leaf monkey to be hand-raised at the San Diego Zoo was doing well Wednesday.According to San Diego Zoo, the one-week-old female named "Thai" was born July 3 to a first-time mother.Sadly, Thai's mother was not holding her correctly for nursing, animal keeper Janet Hawes said, she needs to be bottle-fed several times daily."The small, orange monkey continues to spend time with her family between feedings so that social bonds remain strong," San Diego Zoo said.The monkey is a rare Asian species that is born with orange fur that becomes silver as they age. Females have some white patches.They're generally found in coastal mangrove forests in Borneo, Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula, in habitats considered to be threatened by deforestation.

NEWS - DUPONT CRAFTSMAN CREATES ART BY MOUNTING SPIDER WEBS ON GLASS

Dumont craftsman creates art by mounting spider webs on glass

July 27, 2011,

By Julia Terruso/The Star-Ledger 

 

It’s a muggy morning and Emil "Rocky" Fiore is hiking deep and high into the woods, surveying nature’s nooks for hanging treasures. Suddenly he stops and points to what, at first, appears to be nothing. But strewn between a jagged tree branch and a dew-dampened boulder, a silvery spider web is taking shape.
"She’s about halfway done," Fiore says, reaching for his glasses to take a closer look. Now the glistening web comes into focus. "What a beauty."
Fiore carefully leans into the web and exhales onto the black spider in the center of the orb until she flees, seeking refuge on a neighboring silky strand.
"The trick is to get her to leave in a fluid motion so she doesn’t destroy the work of art she’s made," Fiore explains.
Fiore is a webmaster. He’s been seeking out spider webs in Palisades Interstate Park in Alpine for 35 years and turning nature’s art into his own strangely captivating craft. Fiore mounts the webs, of varying sizes, on glass and sells them in stores around the United States. He estimates he has 15,000 webs in circulation, which makes him the most prolific craftsman of his kind, though a handful of similar artists exist across the country.
"The web is a thing of beauty. It’s all about what they do, but there is an art or sophisticated craft to what I do," the 59-year-old Dumont resident says. He first got the idea from a craft book he owned when he was 10 and living in Englewood.
Armed with a plastic box filled with glass plates, a bottle of varnish and silver spray paint, he’ll spend about four hours a day climbing in the woods he has frequented for more than 50 years.
"I know where they live," he says of the spiders. "It’s almost as if I have names for them."
Fiore’s so familiar with the weaving sites that the absence of a spined micrathena spider last week puzzles him.
"Maybe a wasp or a bird got to her," he says, disappointed.
When he spots a web he likes — not too damaged or with an interesting story behind it — Fiore breathes onto the spider. The carbon dioxide he exhales scares the arachnid away because it perceives a predator. Then in slow spurts he sprays the web with the silver paint before carefully aligning a piece of glass with it. He then sprays an even coating of the varnish on the web. Once home he paints the reverse side black to provide contrast.
"People don’t know that there’s a difference at all from one web to another," Fiore says. "They have no idea the diversity."
Emil "Rocky" Fiore has been exploring the woods and caves along the eastern slopes of the Palisades in search of spider webs for more than 30 years. Fiore has perfected a process of mounting the orb weaver webs using spray paint, varnish and glass. His work is marketed through more than a dozen retailers in the United States including Evolution in New York City and the Bone Room in Berkeley California. Fiore estimates that he has captured and preserved more than 15,000 webs. (Video by Andre Malok / The Star-Ledger) Watch video

The webmaster’s self-imposed rules include never disturbing a feeding spider. He also tries not to overharvest any spider’s webs.
"I consider them my friends, so I don’t want to mess with them," he says.
While more than 20 stores sell Fiore’s webs in the U.S. and overseas, not everyone has supported his craft.
Fiore was spray-painting a large web in a Florida state park last year, when he heard the disapproving voice of a woman calling "Stop that! You’re ruining their home."
But Fiore says webs only last for two to three hours before spiders consume them for protein to create more webs. On average, he says, a spider will cast five webs a day.
"I’m preserving what they do," Fiore says. "I am their ambassador to humans."
While the spiders themselves are not dangerous — web weavers don’t rely on venom to catch prey — Fiore has had scares of other sorts.
On "a webbing trip" in Florida, Fiore was methodically spraying a web with silver paint when he heard a hissing sound respond.
"It sounded like a threatening exhale, and then I saw her," he says. Beneath the debris hid an alligator and her young. "She was telling me I was getting too close. I was shaking, I never knew terror like that."
Fiore’s wife, Cynda, has been supportive of his work, mostly. Once Fiore’s brother sent him a pregnant black widow spider that laid hundreds of eggs in a glass milk jug.
"All these tiny, extremely dangerous spiders started hatching," Cynda Fiore says. "I said ‘Absolutely not. She goes or I go.’ "
To some it might seem dull to hike the same stretch of woods every morning, but Fiore is always making fresh discoveries. As he climbs upward toward a web he’s caught almost daily for the past three decades, he trips on a root, looks down and sees a tiny teal and silver spider who has just woven a near-perfect orb close to the forest floor.
"I must have stepped on her web dozens of times on my way up to that one," Fiore says, pointing upward. He’s mesmerized. "Will you look at how it shimmers in the sun."

NEWS - BRISTOL CHILDREN WOWED BY THEIR OWN GORILLA

Bristol children wowed by their own gorilla

 

By The Editor
Jun 27, 2011

Sisters Holly, 10, and Abby, eight, help paint a gorilla donated by Airbus. The model was won by their mother Tracey Blythe in an employee competition. Also pictured is Natasha Iannaccone from Bristol Zoo

Children from Emersons Green Primary School in Bristol have been presented with a mini-gorilla sculpture, part of Bristol Zoo’s ‘Wow! Gorilla’ mass public art event taking place this summer.
The sculpture was given by Airbus who, as one of the major employers in Bristol, ran a competition for employees to win the sculpture for their child’s school.
The gorilla was won by Airbus employee Tracey Blythe and her two children who attend the school; Abby, eight and Holly, 10. Abby said: “I want to work in the zoo when I am older. I think feeding the animals would be the best job.”
The schoolchildren have painted the gorilla in bright colours where each colour represents a different class in the school. Some sections will be painted with tactile paint for pupils who are visually impaired. The gorilla will be on display in Emersons Green Library over the summer before it returns to its permanent home at the primary school.
“We were all really excited when we heard that we had won a gorilla for our school,” said Mrs Jan Issac, headteacher at Emersons Green Primary.
“We decided to paint the gorilla like a jigsaw as it is an important part of our school logo. The pieces symbolise us as individuals but together they make a big picture which represents our school community.”
Airbus has also sponsored a life-size ‘Wow! Gorilla’ sculpture which has been painted by a local artist with a jungle scene and is going to be exhibited in Millennium Square this summer.
It is one of 60 colourful sculptures which will appear on the streets of greater Bristol for 10 weeks from July 4, in celebration of Bristol Zoo’s 175th birthday.
Each of the sculptures has been sponsored by organisations, businesses and charities from across the region, and decorated in their own unique style by talented local artists.
Over 90 small gorillas will also pop up all over the region, sponsored and decorated by youngsters from across the city’s primary schools and nurseries.
Once the 10-week exhibition has come to an end, the sculptures will be sold at a charitable auction in Clifton, on September 29, to raise money for Bristol Zoo’s gorilla conservation projects and Wallace and Gromit’s Grand Appeal, which raises funds for the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children. The small gorillas will be returned to their respective schools.
To find out more about Bristol Zoo’s ‘Wow! Gorillas’ project, visit the website here…

NEWS - HOLLYWOOD MONKEYS AROUND THIS SUMMER

Hollywood Monkeys Around This Summer

By GLENN WHIPP For The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES July 25, 2011 (AP)

Movies have been messing with apes since a Hollywood director captured and chained that great gorilla on Skull Island and brought him to Broadway in 1933's "King Kong."
The reason, of course, is as plain as the image in the mirror. Apes and monkeys: They're like us, but they're not us. That's the fascination. And it's a great starting point for all kinds of storytelling, be it comic or cautionary.
This summer, movies have served up quite a bit of both, offering a barrel full of monkeys that, at the risk of offending Bonzo and Mighty Joe Young, eclipses all previous comers, not to mention the rumbling robots, pirates and wizards currently littering the multiplex.
Monkeys and apes are everywhere, from Crystal, the crazy capuchin seen in "The Hangover II" to the bromance between Kevin James and the Nick Nolte-voiced silverback gorilla in "Zookeeper."
Then there's this story of human hubris: Scientists perform experiments on a young chimp and, afterward, abandon it, leaving the animal caught halfway between man and monkey.
It's the premise of not one, but two summer movies: the upcoming reboot "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" and the Sundance Film Festival documentary sensation, "Project Nim," which chronicles a Columbia University professor's radical attempt in the 1970s to teach a chimpanzee sign language by raising it as a human child.
"They're science-fiction and we're science-fact," says "Project Nim" producer Simon Chinn, whose film is currently expanding its North American run.
"The fascination in our movie comes from watching the similarities between chimps and humans, yes," Chinn adds. "But if there's any lesson to take from the film, it's that, while there may be a lot of overlap, chimps are very distinct and should be left to live among their own kind."
Or risk, in the case of "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," a primate rebellion that its makers liken to the classic Roman slave revolt epic "Spartacus."
What separates this "Apes" movie from the 1968 Charlton Heston sci-fi adventure, its sequels and the 2001 Tim Burton remake is both its present-day earth setting and its point of view.
"The ape is the star of the film," says 20th Century Fox chairman Tom Rothman. "The movie starts out relatively conventionally, but, after something unfortunate happens and the ape is put in a 'sanctuary,' which to the ape is just jail, the movie stays with the ape. The rest of the movie is his story, told from his perspective."
"The key," adds "Apes" director Rupert Wyatt, "is in the telling for you to understand whose side we're on. And it's not the Romans."
Maybe that's OK. Humans have a "deep, intrinsic attraction to primates," says San Diego Zoo animal care manager Greg Vicino, that goes beyond the mutual owning of opposable thumbs. Like people, monkeys and apes (how to tell the difference: most monkeys have tails) maintain intense relationships through sophisticated social behavior.
"They follow physical signals, gestures, postures and vocal behavior in order to dictate how they behave," Vicino says. "They're fascinating because they appear so human in so many ways. Yet, it's also the subtle differences we find irresistible. You can't predict what they're going to do."

Those mercurial mood swings entice screenwriters to create wild scenarios for their monkey characters. Take the super-smart capuchin Crystal: She plays a cigarette-smoking drug dealer in "The Hangover II" and then, voiced by Adam Sandler in "Zookeeper," dishes out relationship advice to Kevin James. ("Throw poop at her!")
Over the past eight years, several capuchins have played Jack the Monkey, a screeching mischief maker seen in all the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies, including this year's "On Stranger Tides."
"Monkeys are childlike and can act on just about every impulse and nobody judges them for that," ''Zookeeper" director Frank Coraci says. "Add in that they're 20 times stronger than us, and they're living the dream life for a lot of dudes."
Should filmmakers decide to pursue a more serious route, apes and monkeys can hold up a mirror so humans can examine their own behavior. As we watch the chimp in "Project Nim" being shuttled between various homes and facilities, it's easy to view the film as an allegory for parenting.
Says producer Chinn: "I first saw it as a story about how we as adults in society sometimes discharge our responsibilities to those who are more vulnerable, be they chimps or children."
Not that the message always needs to be profound.
"Sometimes you just want to monkey around with your persona, with your image," Clint Eastwood tells The Associated Press, talking about his surprising, mid-career comedic turns opposite an orangutan named Clyde in 1978's "Every Which Way But Loose" and its sequel, "Any Which Way You Can." ''Or maybe I just got tired of riding a horse and needed something new."

NEWS - HANGOVER 2 MONKEY IS "HOLLYWOOD TROLLOP"

Hangover 2 monkey is a “Hollywood trollop"

***

Posted by hearworld 26 July 2011 16:40 

While this isn’t actually a story about a celebrity, it is story about a celebrity monkey. Plus, it made us laugh so we thought we’d share…
Anyway, you know the cute monkey from The Hangover 2? Apparently not only does she get around a bit, but she’s a bit of a diva, too. Current co-star and King Of Queens actor Kevin James tells Digital Spy,
“Her name is Crystal and she's a bit of a Hollywood trollop right now. She's kind of in a lot of movies, but she's doing well. By the way, I'm thinking of becoming her agent. I'd like to quit my job acting and just get jobs for her. She's got a little bit more demanding, she won't go onto set unless I'm there already. She has to wait for me, I get there and then she'll leave her trailer. I can't make direct eye contact with her and she can pee on me whenever she wants."
We could be going a bit soft in our old age, but the thought of a diva monkey really makes us chuckle.
Crystal has already appeared in the Night At The Museum movies and will be seen next in Zookeeper with Kevin James and the new Cameron Crowe flick We Bought A Zoo, so she’s one to watch.

NEWS - MONKEY JOCKEYS RIDE INTO LAKE COUNTY FAIR

Article updated: 7/27/2011 4:51 AM

Monkey jockeys ride into Lake County Fair

 Horns blew, music blasted and the crowd cheered as the banana derby racing with “America's Favorite Monkey Jockeys” was under way at the Lake County Fair.
Featuring monkeys riding dogs, it is one of the new attractions at the 83rd annual Lake County Fair that started Tuesday at the fairgrounds in Grayslake. It runs through Sunday.
The monkeys are dressed in brightly colored jockey outfits riding dogs around a track in a competition format.
Gilligan, Bobo and Bert where the three capuchin monkeys that competed for the title.
Philip Hendricks, who calls himself the “top banana,” has been traveling across the United States for four years with his wife and daughter putting on the show.
“I like to watch the monkeys on the dogs. I enjoy seeing it. My show isn't educational, but it's definitely informative. I'm doing it because I believe in entertaining people with the monkeys,” Hendricks said.
Sharing the banana derby with Lake County Fair visitors is something Hendricks feels passionate about and hits close to home for him. He grew up in Hinsdale.
“I have had a passion for dogs since my daughter's age. The draw between animal and human is amazing. I have loved dogs since I was young,” said Hendricks, who added he rescued all four dogs in the show.
After the banana derby ended, a fair goer even shook Hendricks's hand to thank him for rescuing the dogs he uses in the show.
Hendricks received the monkeys from his wife's father, who was originally training them for use by people with disabilities.
That idea never panned out, so Hendricks started training the monkeys to ride dogs by giving them treats.
Fair organizers say the derby is part of the variety of shows, games, food, rides and many more traditional attractions at this year's fair, which they say got off to a good start Tuesday.
“There is an increase in attendance. We are feeling very good about the fair. We think it will be a great fair. We are expecting over 100,000 people at the course of the fair,” said Sheri Vyfvinkel, business manager for the Lake County Fair Association.
The banana derby's first show Tuesday drew a large crowd that seemed intrigued by the concept.
“They were pretty funny. It isn't every day you see a dog with a monkey on its back,” Lake Villa resident Sharon Schmeda said.

NEWS - BONOS ONE CAMPAIGN TAKES AMERICAN MOMS TO KENYA

Bono's ONE Campaign Takes American Moms to Kenya

BabyCenter Blogger Amy Graff on the ground in Kenya with the ONE campaign July 2011. (Courtesy of Karen Walrond of Chookooloonks Media.)

By CARRIE HALPERIN and MANDANA MOFIDI

July 26

It is often said that mother knows best.
Such is the theme of U2 front-man Bono's newest ONE campaign, which has tapped the top 10 mom bloggers in the U.S. for a weeklong trip to Kenya to raise awareness of some of the problems afflicting the country, such as hunger, and measures that have been taken to avert it.
ABC News' David Muir is following the group of mom bloggers as it travels to Kaminogedo, Kenya, today.
The Horn of Africa has faecd the worst drought in 60 years. The first famine in nearly 20 years has been declared in Somalia, and more than 11.5 million people in the region depend on aid to eat. Even before the deadly drought began, the region faced daily threats of disease, such as HIV and tuberculosis.
"I'm going to Africa to listen and learn about what's working in Africa," Amy Graff, a blogger on the trip for BabyCenter told ABC News. "I want to write and share stories about those programs that are helping to save lives. So often, we focus on the negative and what's not working. This trip is about success.
"Only 1 percent of the U.S. federal budget goes to foreign aid. That very small amount is doing a lot and saving millions of lives, putting thousands of children into school for the first time and training entire communities in advanced farming techniques so they can feed their families and become financially independent," Graff continued. "I want to help let people know that this money is being well spent, and [we're] working so we can make sure that efforts in places such as Kenya continue to get funding, and possibly even more [funding]."
According to the ONE campaign, the ultimate goal of the trip is to cast a wider net for ONE activists as the 10 bloggers joining the trip share their experiences with millions of their followers.
The bloggers will travel to clinics, visit local homes with community health workers, administer tests for HIV and learn about treatment plans, check in with schools as well as meet with women living in fishing and farming communities.
"We're going to see Africa through the lens of a mother. We'll be meeting with women who are heroically making a difference in Africa. Female community health workers who are helping other women through pregnancies and vaccinating children," said Graff. "This is a trip to celebrate female successes in Africa, and then reach out to women across the globe who can let their leaders know that these programs that are inspiring, encouraging and funding women are working."
The trip's organizers are using on social media so that its bloggers can interact easily with followers at home. Each day the site ONE.org will post a new blog from one of the U.S. moms describing their experiences with Kenyan moms. The ONE Campaign will also update their followers throughout the day on Twitter, using the hashtag #ONEMoms.
As for Graff, she will post on her blog each day, giving updates on her journey and posting an action -- something her followers can do to get involved.
"Today's activity is all about ensuring we let U.S. lawmakers know the importance of these programs," she posted.
The American bloggers hope the trip will give will increase awareness of the fact that drought and famine are not the only problems East Africa faces.
"Through daily postings of our bloggers, their goal is to help millions of other American moms share the experience and learn what they can do to help these Kenyan moms give brighter futures to their children, their cities, their villages and their country," Lauren Balog, communications coordinator for the ONE campaign, told ABC News.
Follow ABC News correspondent David Muir's Twitter feed as he reports on the mother bloggers in Kenya @DavidMuirABC. Also stay plugged in with SaveOne.net for updates on this story.

NEWS - GORILLA REPLACING YA KWANZA TO ARRIVE AT DURRELL JERSEY

26 July 2011 

Gorilla replacing Ya Kwanza to arrive at Durrell Jersey

Ya Kwanza, who was at Durrell since 1993, left after he did not breed for eight years

A male gorilla born in France who will replace the male silverback Ya Kwanza is arriving in Jersey on Tuesday evening.

Badonga will be on the ferry and will then be put in quarantine for a while.
Ya Kwanza, who had been at Durrell for 18 years, left the island last week because he had not bred for eight years.
He was sent to join a bachelor group of gorillas at La Vallee des Singes just south of Poitiers, France.
The Gorilla European Endangered Species Programme suggested Ya Kwanza be moved because he was not breeding with the females.
Ya Kwanza travelled on the Condor Rapide to St Malo last Wednesday morning.

NEWS - GILBERT "MAGU" LUJAN, INFLUENTIAL CHICANO ARTIST, DIES AT 70

Gilbert “Magu” Lujan, influential Chicano artist, dies at 70

July 25, 2011

Gilbert “Magú” Luján, a painter, muralist and sculptor whose whimsical, slyly humorous artworks, which frequently evoked a rollicking, mythical view of Mexican American life, graced museum walls, the Hollywood & Vine subway station and other public places, died Sunday, according to a Facebook posting by his family. He was 70.
The Pomona resident had been battling cancer for several years, according to a number of friends and colleagues who confirmed the news of his death.
A pioneer of the Chicano art movement that took root in the social and cultural upheavals of the 1960s and '70s, Magú, as he was universally known, was among the first U.S. artists of Mexican descent to establish an international career.
He also was an enthusiastic facilitator of gatherings and exhibitions of Chicano artists and art collectives, most prominently the Chicano collective known as Los Four, and a catalytic figure in bringing their work to the wider art-viewing public, as well as art scholars and critics.
“One only has to examine the barrio to see that the elements to choose from are as infinite as any culture allows,” Magú once remarked.
In an interview on Monday, Chon Noriega, director of the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center, described Magú as a “change agent” who drew inspiration not only from his deep knowledge of art history but from the various communities where he made his home in greater Los Angeles and the Fresno area.
Magú also was instrumental, Noriega said, in expanding the framework of Chicano art beyond mainly political concerns to aesthetic ones as well.
“He really defined a very unique role,” Noriega said. “Rather than seeing the art as merely a kind of instrument for social change,” Magú insisted that art “had to have integrity in order to have that impact.”

Drawing on indigenous Mesoamerican art and iconography, as well as the Chicano popular culture that surrounded him ever since his East L.A. youth, Magú populated his canvases and murals with Aztec-accessorized lowrider cars, plumed gods zipping by on serpentine skateboards, candy-striped pre-Columbian pyramids, human-like animals and other flamboyantly colorful anthropomorphic creatures. As a founding member of Los Four, which also included artists Carlos Almaraz, Beto de la Rocha and Frank Romero, Magú participated in a seminal four-man show at UC Irvine, and subsequently in an expanded version of the show at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in the early 1970s. Eventually, other artists, notably Judithe Hernández, joined the group and exhibited their work under the Los Four moniker.
According to a posting on the website magulandia.com, the dA Center for the Arts will host a benefit to promote the artist’s legacy, “Cruisin’ Magulandia,” next month in Pomona.
Information on survivors was unavailable Monday. A complete obituary will follow at latimes.com/obits.
-- Reed Johnson

NEWS - KEVIN JAMES UPSTAGED BY A GORILLA

Kevin James upstaged by a gorilla

 Monday, 25 July 2011

Kevin James didn't mind being upstaged by an animatronic gorilla in his latest film.The actor stars in The Zookeeper as a man who decides he needs to ditch the animals in order to sharpen his image and conquer the dating scene.
Alongside the 'will he leave the zoo and get the girl?' plot is a touching tale about his character's growing friendship with Bernie the gorilla (voiced by Nick Nolte), who's been put in solitary confinement after an alleged incident with another zookeeper.
"This is my first buddy comedy in which my buddy outweighs me, so that makes me feel very happy," Kevin said.
But it proved a challenge to work with an animatronic gorilla.
"At times he can't see and he runs square into a wall," he said.
He added that he knew what he was getting into by working with so many animals.
"We wanted a natural environment for these animals, and then we could write towards them. When you try to get the animals to do something, that's where it gets tricky," he said.
:: Zookeeper is released in cinemas on Friday, July 29.

MOVIE - MOVIE ON MONKEY WHO WAS 'RAISED AS A HUMAN'

Movie on monkey who
was 'raised as a human' 

Ape-y days ... Nim was invited to 'explore' nude woman's body

25 Jul 2011

THE life story of a chimp who was raised 'as a human' for a 1970s experiment is to be made into a film.

The primate - called Nim - was encouraged to 'explore' a nude woman's body, be breastfed and allowed to smoke as part of the weird test.
He was also dressed and fed like a young boy and was given sign language lessons to see if he could communicate with people.

Grub ... he was given human food

New York psychologist Herb Terrace launched the four-year study in 1973.
Now British director James Marsh - the man behind Oscar-winning Man On Wire - has turned his story into a film called Project Nim.

As a baby ... Nim was given a human 'mother'

'Hippy' Terrace took the chimp from his mother shortly after his birth at a primate research centre in Oklahoma, US.
He named him Nim Chimpsky - a pun on famous thinker Noam Chomsky who believed only humans have the capacity for language.
Nim was sent to live with the academic's former lover Stephanie LaFarge - who later stripped naked for him.

Idea ... boffin Terrace

She recalled: "I never felt sexually engaged with him."
Chimps are unable to speak, but after sign language lessons he was soon able to make the signs for 'eat', 'me', 'Nim' and 'hug'.
Nim became a celebrity, appearing on the cover of New York magazine in 1975 and in an episode of kids' TV show Sesame Street.
He later moved in with another woman - but when she began an affair with boffin Terrace, he lashed out.

Nim swooped from a 25ft high window and began banging her head against the floor.
Speaking in the film, the woman said: "You can't give human nurture to an animal that could kill you."
Nim was eventually returned to the primate research centre where he was born and rehoused with a cage of other chimps.
Carers told how as they walked away he gave the sign language for 'hug'.
But test results later proved he had no idea what he was saying and had simply been copying the sign used to beg for things.

He was later befriended by another hippy called Bob Ingersoll, who would share cannabis joints with him.
Bob admitted: "He liked to have fun - who doesn't."
Nim died in 2000 from a heart attack aged just 26 - tragically young as most chimps in captivity live until the age of 60.

TURTLES PIC

Caught the turtles one morning all hovered together on the sun bathing rock, grabbed a pic.

MICHELLE

PICS OF ME