WAMU did a piece on me as an entertainer/improviser here in DC.
Pursuing Your Vision When You're Losing Your Sight
Friday, December 9, 2011
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
First Frames from Driving Blind!
We are on a roll now. Tod and Brian are working hard on cataloging and editting the hundreds of hours of footage from the road, and we would like to show you the first of many great things - OUR TEASER TRAILER!!!
There will be more of this kind of stuff come in the near future. But for now, please enjoy and thank you for all you have done to help support this venture.
There will be more of this kind of stuff come in the near future. But for now, please enjoy and thank you for all you have done to help support this venture.
Driving Blind (a documentary) trailer from Brian James Griffo on Vimeo.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
We all decided to get up extra early this morning and capture the sun coming up and some scenes around the homestead. We drove done to the Grovetown Trails at Euchee Creek, a park-ette/running path a couple of miles from the house and enjoyed the sun rise.
This was the earliest we had been up on the entire trip, the one day when we WEREN’T driving a long distance that day, and we are up at 6 AM!
We spent several hours there and got some great footage, and we wrapped and decided to treat ourselves to breakfast, so it was off to the Huddle House!! For those who don’t know, Huddle House is a slightly more highbrow Waffle House. For those who don’t know what a Waffle House is, come on down to the South, y’all!
After a big breakfast and talk of what was left to capture for the film, we headed back to the house to rest up a bit and record some audio for looping, which is some sort of technical movie jargon. They wouldn’t really explain it to me, but I think it is like sampling, so I have been listening to a lot of Rap since we got done to see if I am due royalties!
After we got all that done, we headed for what they call the Martini Shot, the last shot of the film, which would probably also be the most exhausting emotionally for Tod and I. Mum had arranged for both of us to be seen by the same ophthalmologist, here in Augusta, the one who had diagnosed Tod with CHM last year. She had made appointments for us at the Eye Physicians and Surgeons of Augusta.
This place was like a Conglomo – A multi-story office building seeming dedicated to eyeballs, it was pretty cool. We filled out our paperwork and were ushered back into two adjoining rooms, where we would go through a few eye tests for the crew to film, and then we would talk to Dr. Fechter. Much to both Tod and my joy, they would be administering the Visual Fields Test.
Now the Visual Fields Test is very simple; you sit with your head in a giant sideways bowl, with your forehead and chin in these holders, staring a white or orange or red light directly ahead of you in the center of the bowl, with one eye covered, and you have to click a button on a remote every time you see a white light of varying intensity appear in your periphery. The trick is that you can’t look away from that white/orange/red light in the center of the bowl. Now let’s add on to it that the light you are staring at and the light you are “looking” for are not the only lit things, the interior of the bowl is also softly lit, which makes it harder to see the white light of varying intensity in your periphery. After a few minutes of staring at the light and holding the remote, I told the tech that she could start the test. There was silence from everyone. Apparently, they HAD started the test and I was just not seeing anything.
I still argue that, despite the fact that I know I can’t see that well, I did worse on that test, because of the extra light in the bowl making it harder for me to know when I actually saw the white light of varying intensity. One of the things I noticed about both this test and the Dark Adaptation test is the potential for false positives. I am staring at this light and occasionally a light flashes in my periphery, my mind starts to tell me that I am seeing these flashes. Maybe I am, or maybe it is like when you look at a light and then you look away and you still see it. So a lot of times, I was not confident to click the button on the remote. That is not an excuse, but if the bowl was dark, I would definitely see the white lights in my periphery.
Regardless, Tod and I finished up the test and the results were processed and taken to Dr. Fechter, who came in and talked to us about the results, which pretty much greatly surprised everybody. It was filmed, and it will be in the movie, so I will not spoil what happened, but it will probably be the scene that clinches us the Oscar for Best Documentary in 2012.
After we finished up with Dr. Fechter, and thanked them all for staying open late to work with us, and we made our way out to the parking lot. Brian and the crew needed to get back to the real world and as sad as it was to think about, so did Tod and I. We talked about whether or not the crew would stay another night and head out in the morning or not, and they decided to hit the road that night and try to get some road covered before calling it a night. So we hugged good bye, and made sure that everyone had all their stuff, and then watched as the crew van crested the hill and slipped out of sight, like we were watching the sunset on our film.
Tired and a little sad, Tod and I went back to the Purvirosa, to tell our parents about the doctor’s visit and to prep for the last leg of our journey together: Getting home to DC.
This was the earliest we had been up on the entire trip, the one day when we WEREN’T driving a long distance that day, and we are up at 6 AM!
We spent several hours there and got some great footage, and we wrapped and decided to treat ourselves to breakfast, so it was off to the Huddle House!! For those who don’t know, Huddle House is a slightly more highbrow Waffle House. For those who don’t know what a Waffle House is, come on down to the South, y’all!
After a big breakfast and talk of what was left to capture for the film, we headed back to the house to rest up a bit and record some audio for looping, which is some sort of technical movie jargon. They wouldn’t really explain it to me, but I think it is like sampling, so I have been listening to a lot of Rap since we got done to see if I am due royalties!
After we got all that done, we headed for what they call the Martini Shot, the last shot of the film, which would probably also be the most exhausting emotionally for Tod and I. Mum had arranged for both of us to be seen by the same ophthalmologist, here in Augusta, the one who had diagnosed Tod with CHM last year. She had made appointments for us at the Eye Physicians and Surgeons of Augusta.
This place was like a Conglomo – A multi-story office building seeming dedicated to eyeballs, it was pretty cool. We filled out our paperwork and were ushered back into two adjoining rooms, where we would go through a few eye tests for the crew to film, and then we would talk to Dr. Fechter. Much to both Tod and my joy, they would be administering the Visual Fields Test.
Now the Visual Fields Test is very simple; you sit with your head in a giant sideways bowl, with your forehead and chin in these holders, staring a white or orange or red light directly ahead of you in the center of the bowl, with one eye covered, and you have to click a button on a remote every time you see a white light of varying intensity appear in your periphery. The trick is that you can’t look away from that white/orange/red light in the center of the bowl. Now let’s add on to it that the light you are staring at and the light you are “looking” for are not the only lit things, the interior of the bowl is also softly lit, which makes it harder to see the white light of varying intensity in your periphery. After a few minutes of staring at the light and holding the remote, I told the tech that she could start the test. There was silence from everyone. Apparently, they HAD started the test and I was just not seeing anything.
I still argue that, despite the fact that I know I can’t see that well, I did worse on that test, because of the extra light in the bowl making it harder for me to know when I actually saw the white light of varying intensity. One of the things I noticed about both this test and the Dark Adaptation test is the potential for false positives. I am staring at this light and occasionally a light flashes in my periphery, my mind starts to tell me that I am seeing these flashes. Maybe I am, or maybe it is like when you look at a light and then you look away and you still see it. So a lot of times, I was not confident to click the button on the remote. That is not an excuse, but if the bowl was dark, I would definitely see the white lights in my periphery.
Regardless, Tod and I finished up the test and the results were processed and taken to Dr. Fechter, who came in and talked to us about the results, which pretty much greatly surprised everybody. It was filmed, and it will be in the movie, so I will not spoil what happened, but it will probably be the scene that clinches us the Oscar for Best Documentary in 2012.
After we finished up with Dr. Fechter, and thanked them all for staying open late to work with us, and we made our way out to the parking lot. Brian and the crew needed to get back to the real world and as sad as it was to think about, so did Tod and I. We talked about whether or not the crew would stay another night and head out in the morning or not, and they decided to hit the road that night and try to get some road covered before calling it a night. So we hugged good bye, and made sure that everyone had all their stuff, and then watched as the crew van crested the hill and slipped out of sight, like we were watching the sunset on our film.
Tired and a little sad, Tod and I went back to the Purvirosa, to tell our parents about the doctor’s visit and to prep for the last leg of our journey together: Getting home to DC.
Monday, October 11, 2010
When Tod and I woke up this morning, we heard from the crew that they had driven into the night and were basically at our parent’s house and that we should hurry up and get on the road to get to them.
We showered, packed up, gassed up and hit the road. The GPS decided to keep us off of the major roads to get to the Purvis Homestead, and I have to say, when you only have three hours of driving in a day, it makes the scenery so much more beautiful. We trotted down back roads, and country highways, and Tod started to get hungry, so we pulled off at what was apparently the only restaurant on all of these stretches of road; R & D’s Seafood Steaks & More, in Sylvania, GA.
Picture this: a lonely stretch of country road (taking us home – oh John Denver), lined with pine trees, huge wheels of hay, barns, and silos. And then out of nowhere, BAM, a gravel parking lot, a neon sign in the window and a VFW/Elks Lodge Hall looking building. How could we not stop!?
You know that part in the movie, when the foreigner walks into the bar, and the music stops and everyone turns and stares? Well, it’s based in truth, because that was what happened when we walked in there. Luckily, we weren’t run out of town on a rail or anything, we actually got fed, buffet style! The food was okay, typical buffet, a la Sizzler, or Golden Corral, and it was pretty inexpensive - $7 apiece, including drink.
We got a call from Brian seeing where we were, and we finished up eating and got back on the road again to get home. Besides, we had to get there in time for our welcome home party!
We got to the Purvirosa with plenty of daylight to spare, and were able to spend some time with Mum and Dud before we headed over to the church for the party. It was good to be back in the house. Neither Tod or I grew up there, but it was the first house my parents owned, versus rented out by the military for them, and I spent about 5 years there, so it was a welcome sight, to know the exact layout of the space after being in such unfamiliar territory for so long on the trip.
After short naps, we packed up Dud’s truck and headed for the Grovetown United Methodist Church. Dud had prepared a Luau for us; Chicken Long Rice, Kalua Pig, Poi, Hawaiian Rolls, the works! Mum made her famous Chinese Chicken Salad. That was one thing that I never got tired of: home cooked meals vs. road or fast food.
The night was great! We got to meet some many of the people who had been supporting us, financially as well as spiritually, while we were planning and taking this trip. It was a great show of support. We ate, drank, fellowshipped, and relaxed. Pastor Josh was super great for letting us use the fellowship hall for our crazy luau.
We packed up the leftovers, and cleaned up the hall, and headed home to the big screen TV, HBO and a good night’s sleep.
We showered, packed up, gassed up and hit the road. The GPS decided to keep us off of the major roads to get to the Purvis Homestead, and I have to say, when you only have three hours of driving in a day, it makes the scenery so much more beautiful. We trotted down back roads, and country highways, and Tod started to get hungry, so we pulled off at what was apparently the only restaurant on all of these stretches of road; R & D’s Seafood Steaks & More, in Sylvania, GA.
Picture this: a lonely stretch of country road (taking us home – oh John Denver), lined with pine trees, huge wheels of hay, barns, and silos. And then out of nowhere, BAM, a gravel parking lot, a neon sign in the window and a VFW/Elks Lodge Hall looking building. How could we not stop!?
You know that part in the movie, when the foreigner walks into the bar, and the music stops and everyone turns and stares? Well, it’s based in truth, because that was what happened when we walked in there. Luckily, we weren’t run out of town on a rail or anything, we actually got fed, buffet style! The food was okay, typical buffet, a la Sizzler, or Golden Corral, and it was pretty inexpensive - $7 apiece, including drink.
We got a call from Brian seeing where we were, and we finished up eating and got back on the road again to get home. Besides, we had to get there in time for our welcome home party!
We got to the Purvirosa with plenty of daylight to spare, and were able to spend some time with Mum and Dud before we headed over to the church for the party. It was good to be back in the house. Neither Tod or I grew up there, but it was the first house my parents owned, versus rented out by the military for them, and I spent about 5 years there, so it was a welcome sight, to know the exact layout of the space after being in such unfamiliar territory for so long on the trip.
After short naps, we packed up Dud’s truck and headed for the Grovetown United Methodist Church. Dud had prepared a Luau for us; Chicken Long Rice, Kalua Pig, Poi, Hawaiian Rolls, the works! Mum made her famous Chinese Chicken Salad. That was one thing that I never got tired of: home cooked meals vs. road or fast food.
The night was great! We got to meet some many of the people who had been supporting us, financially as well as spiritually, while we were planning and taking this trip. It was a great show of support. We ate, drank, fellowshipped, and relaxed. Pastor Josh was super great for letting us use the fellowship hall for our crazy luau.
We packed up the leftovers, and cleaned up the hall, and headed home to the big screen TV, HBO and a good night’s sleep.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Tod and I woke up this morning and found a car wash to give the SUV a well deserved bath. I mean the full treatment: pre-rinse, soap scrub, light waxing, the works. Afterward, we went back to the hotel and repacked and reorganized the car. Tod had gotten a text from Brian saying that the crew was on their way up from Bradenton. We figured that it wouldn’t be until three or four in the afternoon when they got here, so we decided to grab some lunch and check out the mighty Atlantic Ocean.
We made our way to Neptune Beach, a section of Jacksonville right near the water, and found a great place to grab some grub before we went to the ocean; the Sun Dog Diner. This place was great; laid back atmosphere, good food, happy wait staff. We heard that they had a great burger, so I took the opinion of the locals and got the Sun Dog Burger. Tod opted for surf over turf and got the Mahi Sandwich. Both were really tasty. And then I saw the most adorable thing; an elderly couple was sitting a few tables away from us and they were feeding each other food from their plates. It was great to see love still going strong after so many years. But of course, they might have been on their first date, you never know!
We finished our lunch and walked the one block right to the Atlantic. The beach was not empty, but not full. As soon as we hit the sand, off came our shoes and socks, and we walked out and let the waves rush over our feet. There is something special about the feeling of sinking into the wet sand of the beach and water rushing back and forth across your body, enticing you to come and play. We sat on the beach and just stared out and talked for a bit, until we got a text from Brian. They had decided to head past Jacksonville and head up towards Savannah, GA, and they wanted us to meet up with them. We dusted ourselves off and hopped back in the car and started off to Savannah.
We made it up to Savannah just as the sun was beginning to set, and met up with the crew. We shot some scenes in one of the many cemeteries around the city and then headed off to find a more populated place to shoot, and maybe find some dinner. We found a cool pizza place called Vinnie Van Go-Go’s and took a load off while we filled our bellies. We talked a lot about the impending end of our trip and what we had accomplished and after we had finished eating, the crew decided that they were going to get some night time shots of the city and we would head on a bit out of town and find a place to stay for the night.
We made our way to Neptune Beach, a section of Jacksonville right near the water, and found a great place to grab some grub before we went to the ocean; the Sun Dog Diner. This place was great; laid back atmosphere, good food, happy wait staff. We heard that they had a great burger, so I took the opinion of the locals and got the Sun Dog Burger. Tod opted for surf over turf and got the Mahi Sandwich. Both were really tasty. And then I saw the most adorable thing; an elderly couple was sitting a few tables away from us and they were feeding each other food from their plates. It was great to see love still going strong after so many years. But of course, they might have been on their first date, you never know!
We finished our lunch and walked the one block right to the Atlantic. The beach was not empty, but not full. As soon as we hit the sand, off came our shoes and socks, and we walked out and let the waves rush over our feet. There is something special about the feeling of sinking into the wet sand of the beach and water rushing back and forth across your body, enticing you to come and play. We sat on the beach and just stared out and talked for a bit, until we got a text from Brian. They had decided to head past Jacksonville and head up towards Savannah, GA, and they wanted us to meet up with them. We dusted ourselves off and hopped back in the car and started off to Savannah.
We made it up to Savannah just as the sun was beginning to set, and met up with the crew. We shot some scenes in one of the many cemeteries around the city and then headed off to find a more populated place to shoot, and maybe find some dinner. We found a cool pizza place called Vinnie Van Go-Go’s and took a load off while we filled our bellies. We talked a lot about the impending end of our trip and what we had accomplished and after we had finished eating, the crew decided that they were going to get some night time shots of the city and we would head on a bit out of town and find a place to stay for the night.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Tod and I woke up, feeling that initial tug to check on the guys and see if they were ready to hit the road, only to remember that we were on our own for the next day and a half. Realizing we had only a short drive (4-5 hours) ahead of us today, and no crew and second vehicle to worry about, we slept in a bit and decided to get breakfast before we hit the road. And when road tripping through the south, where do you go for a quality breakfast? That’s right; WAFFLE HOUSE!
It’s funny, both Tod and I have lived in the south many times in our lives, and we have been to Waffle House multiple times, but we never actually got waffles at Waffle House. We both decided to take the plunge and find out why they didn’t call this place Scattered Covered Smothered Topped Chilied Peppered House. Of course we got the obligatory order of hash browns, all the way, to go with them. The waffles were actually pretty good; savory and sweet, malty and fluffy. I could definitely put a few of those away on a hungry day.
After a leisurely breakfast, we got on the road towards Jacksonville, Florida. Crossing the panhandle of Florida is a lot like driving through Texas; a lot of road and that is about it.
We got into Jacksonville around 3:30 – 4:00pm, and got checked into our hotel. We decided that we would give the car a good scrubbing inside and out tomorrow before we got home to mom and dad’s. So we unpacked the entire car and put it in our hotel room. This was the biggest clean out and reorganize project we had done with the car; we literally took everything out of the cab. We left the car top carrier on, but everything else was piled in our room to be gone through, reorganized, and repacked tomorrow morning.
After we finished unloading the car, we decided to get some dinner. Tod’s friend had given him an Applebee’s Gift Card for the trip and, fun fact, you can tip on a Gift Card there! (So now you know) Dinner was light. Both Tod and I had been trying to eat fairly decently on the trip, excluding the Waffle House breakfast this morning, and so we just got a few salads and I had a couple of beers. After we were finished eating we decided to find something to do, maybe go catch a movie or go cosmic bowling. Whatever there was to do on a Saturday night in Jacksonville, Florida.
THERE’S NOTHING TO DO IN JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA! We drove around looking for something and there was nothing, maybe we were in the wrong part of town, but it was dead. As we were driving, we saw a sign that said, Smokers Video II, so we decided to check it out. We walked up to the door to get in and found it locked and a voice said, “Please hold your ID’s up to the camera.” We instantly knew that this was not where we wanted to be, but we were both curious to find exactly where we were. Turns out, Jacksonville has a slew of 24 hour Adult Video and Marijuana Enthusiast shops, and we had stumbled into one, talk about awkward. We didn’t want to be rude, so we left with three 6 foot bongs and the entire Vivid Pictures Catalogue. (Just kidding, they were two foot bongs. Hehehe)
One of the things I find amazing about this place was that they had a small section of regular movies near the front and all of them were sun damaged. The covers were faded and cracked from sitting in the same spot for probably years, because people weren’t going there to buy those movies. It’s more part of the décor than an actual thing you could buy. I got the feeling that if I had taken one of these up to the counter the lady would have had no clue what to do. And besides that, the prices for these “used” movies were outrageous - $19.99 for Nurse Betty. That movie is like 10 years old, and I can buy it brand new for $5.50.
Feeling more than a bit dirty and uncomfortable, we decided to find a real movie place to get the taste out of our mouths. We found a Blockbuster and ran into it like it was the shower scene from A Crying Game. After a long cleansing bubble bath in the awesomeness that is Blockbuster’s used DVD section. We made our way back to the hotel to try and get some sleep and forget about Smokers Video II.
It’s funny, both Tod and I have lived in the south many times in our lives, and we have been to Waffle House multiple times, but we never actually got waffles at Waffle House. We both decided to take the plunge and find out why they didn’t call this place Scattered Covered Smothered Topped Chilied Peppered House. Of course we got the obligatory order of hash browns, all the way, to go with them. The waffles were actually pretty good; savory and sweet, malty and fluffy. I could definitely put a few of those away on a hungry day.
After a leisurely breakfast, we got on the road towards Jacksonville, Florida. Crossing the panhandle of Florida is a lot like driving through Texas; a lot of road and that is about it.
We got into Jacksonville around 3:30 – 4:00pm, and got checked into our hotel. We decided that we would give the car a good scrubbing inside and out tomorrow before we got home to mom and dad’s. So we unpacked the entire car and put it in our hotel room. This was the biggest clean out and reorganize project we had done with the car; we literally took everything out of the cab. We left the car top carrier on, but everything else was piled in our room to be gone through, reorganized, and repacked tomorrow morning.
After we finished unloading the car, we decided to get some dinner. Tod’s friend had given him an Applebee’s Gift Card for the trip and, fun fact, you can tip on a Gift Card there! (So now you know) Dinner was light. Both Tod and I had been trying to eat fairly decently on the trip, excluding the Waffle House breakfast this morning, and so we just got a few salads and I had a couple of beers. After we were finished eating we decided to find something to do, maybe go catch a movie or go cosmic bowling. Whatever there was to do on a Saturday night in Jacksonville, Florida.
THERE’S NOTHING TO DO IN JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA! We drove around looking for something and there was nothing, maybe we were in the wrong part of town, but it was dead. As we were driving, we saw a sign that said, Smokers Video II, so we decided to check it out. We walked up to the door to get in and found it locked and a voice said, “Please hold your ID’s up to the camera.” We instantly knew that this was not where we wanted to be, but we were both curious to find exactly where we were. Turns out, Jacksonville has a slew of 24 hour Adult Video and Marijuana Enthusiast shops, and we had stumbled into one, talk about awkward. We didn’t want to be rude, so we left with three 6 foot bongs and the entire Vivid Pictures Catalogue. (Just kidding, they were two foot bongs. Hehehe)
One of the things I find amazing about this place was that they had a small section of regular movies near the front and all of them were sun damaged. The covers were faded and cracked from sitting in the same spot for probably years, because people weren’t going there to buy those movies. It’s more part of the décor than an actual thing you could buy. I got the feeling that if I had taken one of these up to the counter the lady would have had no clue what to do. And besides that, the prices for these “used” movies were outrageous - $19.99 for Nurse Betty. That movie is like 10 years old, and I can buy it brand new for $5.50.
Feeling more than a bit dirty and uncomfortable, we decided to find a real movie place to get the taste out of our mouths. We found a Blockbuster and ran into it like it was the shower scene from A Crying Game. After a long cleansing bubble bath in the awesomeness that is Blockbuster’s used DVD section. We made our way back to the hotel to try and get some sleep and forget about Smokers Video II.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Friday, October 8, 2010
We woke this morning to a phone call from Lori about seeing the tiger cub she had spoken about last night. She told us that she was involved with the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo, which was also know also known as The Little Zoo That Could from Animal Planet. She told us that we had an 11 o'clock appointment to see the tiger cub. Luckily, Bikini Bottom was just a few miles away from the zoo. We met Lori and she introduced us to Patti, who was the curator of this fun little menagerie. We talked to Patti, who introduced us to Jenny, who told us that not only were we going to be able to play with the cubs, but also we were going to get a V.I.P. tour of the zoo. We were going to be able to see the tiger cubs, adult tigers, lemurs, pythons, among the many animals that were at the zoo.
The tiger cubs are one of the main attractions at the zoo. They have an interactive experience for visitors to the zoo. When we got to the zoo we found a couple people waiting ahead of us, so while we waited Jenny decided to give us the "official" tour and then we would circle back to the tiger cubs. Our first stop on the tour was the lemur cage. Many of you have become familiarized with lemurs from the movie Madagascar. We find them to be fun loving, dancing creatures. Such is not the case in real life; they do not dance. Tod and I entered the cage with "Mike" and we were told that lemurs are somewhat skiddish. Mike (not sure if that is his real name, but he knows who “he” is) told us about lemurs as we sat in the closed in, can't get out without assistance, cage. So we should find some place to sit and allow them to come to us. "Mike" told us that lemurs, along with other mammalian species, have no sphincter control; so when they have to "go", they just go. There is no clench to find a bathroom; it just happens. And when it is time to go, they tend to run to the top of the enclosure. When you see them going to the top of the enclosure, chances are they will be going soon.
Tod and I found seats, myself next to "Mike", I was greeted with a steaming pile of lemur poo directly deposited upon my thigh. ("Mike" didn't say this, but I took it this way: a pile of poo on your thigh from a lemur is like a, "Hey, how do you do? Good to meet you.") "Mike" being the ever prepared, potential Boy Scout that he was, had a Tupperware tin that was filled with the necessary accoutrement including paper towels, baby wipes, etc., to remove anything that needed to be removed from a person. All that remained was a brown stain on my pants from that lemur “hello”
Tod was the popular one in the lemur enclosure; they seemed to shy away from me. "Mike" did his best to win them over to me. Ryan, our DP, came into the enclosure and filmed us with the lemurs. They were more fascinated with the cameras than by us, making Ryan the most popular man in the enclosure.
Fully cleaned up and lemured out, we left the enclosure and Jenny asked us if we would like to have an experience with the pythons. Both of us being slightly apprehensive, but me taking the forefront, I said yes of course. We then were taken to something that resembled a small amphitheater and were seated. Jenny left us to our own imaginations as we thought about what was to come. Out of nowhere, she and her coworker appeared with two pythons. One, an albino python that looked kind of like a banana milkshake, and the other which looked like it belonged in just about any tropical forest you might find; Tod and I seated, scared out of our underpants, and had these pythons placed upon us. Again, Tod seemed to be the victor in the battle of the brothers. His python seemed to take to him like flies to honey, whereas mine, let's hope, had just eaten a bad meal of rabbits and so was a bit drooly and was freaking me out.
After unsuccessfully controlling my python's drooling habits, they took him back and I shared in the experience of Tod's, more well tamed, python until we were ready to move on to the next curiosity - The kangaroos...
Jenny led us over to the kangaroo habitat and we were introduced to the joeys. We were able to have the experience of looking at them, touching them, and *bonus* we got to stick our fingers in their pouch. A completely weird feeling, indeed, knowing that these pouches expand as these joeys are growing and going and hanging out on the outside, because it seemed that these pouches were rather small in size until one realizes that a three or four month old baby kangaroo hangs out in there.
From there, Jenny produced two baby bottles full of milk and told us that we were going to feed some other tigers. She took us to a cage near the back of the zoo and introduced us to two adult tigers; one a standard Bengal tiger and the other a white Bengal tiger, almost seemingly full-grown, three to four years old. It was amazing being only a chain link fence between myself and a creature that is called a man eater and seeing the thing that connects all felines: a sense of co-dependency between ourselves and all animals. Almost as if I could enter the cage with them and not be hurt, but I knew that any interaction with them other than what I was told to do (i.e. the bottle feeding) could result in horrible things happening to me. Looking at these beautiful creatures taken from their homes and being domesticated (for lack of a better term) was both enviable and beautiful in the sense that I actually had the chance to be this close to them but also sad because they shouldn't be caged as such. It was a truly tremendous experience. It was amazing to just be there, feeding them. While they were drinking the milk from the bottles, my brother and I reached fingers through the fence and while they were distracted by our superior bottle feeding techniques, petted them just for the sake of being able to say that we done so. Not many people can say they have been able to do the same.
Jenny took us around the back of the zoo, where we had a chance to bottle feed two more tigers that were more rare tigers than the bengals, which was amazing. Little known fact, unlike many other felines, tigers are unable to purr. Instead they have a breathy utterance that they make. Jenny told us they are able to differentiate between different humans based on this utterance that the humans make. It was their version of a purr. Tod and I attempted to “purr” at them so that they might recognize them should we ever come back. Again, another truly amazing experience to be this close to these majestic creatures.
We circled back to the front of the zoo to get in to have the actual physical interaction with the white bengal tiger club, which was named Delhi. But while we were waiting for a family that was currently in the pen, Patti came up to us with a Capuchin monkey named Luka. Patti gave me his “baby,” a stuffed horsed that Luka carried around with him at all times. She also told me not to be concerned when Luka peed on me, it was his way of liking me and marking me as his property. Over the next 10 minutes, I got peed on quite a bit. But it was great to sit and play with Luka. Much like a small child, he was very inquisitive, and would run around the little circle of people that had gathered to see him, climbing up their legs and onto their shoulders. I felt like Ross from Friends.
Tod, the crew, and I finally were able to go into the enclosure with Delhi. It was very funny because a baby tiger, unlike most domesticated cats, was easy to attract but you had to keep in mind that this little baby creature, unlike domesticated cats, was able to kill and eat us. We each ended us with bites and scratches from Delhi as a kind of reminder that no matter how cute an animal might look, we must remember that underneath that lies a true animal; capable of potentially killing us. It was tremendous being with it, interacting with it, and knowing that in a few years this seemingly docile and psuedo domesticated creature would not be able to interact with people again (for fear that an interaction with them might end absolutely horribly). Strewn around the enclosure were the various toys that one might find laying all over the house of a cat owner (balls of yarn, toys, etc.) but still there was a sense of something bigger.
It was amazing to have one of the toys that Jenny told us to use to attract the tiger and seeing it begin to stalk you, much as a house cat might do, and something animalistic in the wild. I had a towel that I was dangling for it, hunched down, and we saw it begin it's prowl to attack. Slowly, it crept forward until it got into striking distance and then it went and it ran past the towel I had in my hands. It ran between myself and the fence behind me. And as you think with babies of any kind, you think it's safe and they will stop once it is far behind and it has gone beyond the scope of what was going to happen. But Delhi jumped from behind me and grabbed me with one claw on either side of me and began to chew on my back. I immediately stood up and had the thought of pain in my back and wanting to check it. Having two thoughts about it: first being, don't show pain to other people; second being, I hope I am bleeding profusely and just don't know it. When I lifted my shirt, I saw a two or three inch scar from where Delhi had bitten me. Luckily not a bad wound, more like a bad scratch. Each of us left that enclosure with some memento from Delhi like I had. But I was the King, after all, I had been pooped on by a Lemur, peed on by a Capuchin, and bitten by a Bengal Tiger. Ah, the stories I can tell, and which I just did.
After we finished with Delhi, we thanked Patti and Jenny for all that they had given us and we left to move on. When we got out to the car, we realized that we had spent five hours in this zoo; experiencing everything they had to show us and that we were going to have to revisit our entire schedule for the next five days. Lori told us about a nearby restaurant that was owned by Jimmy Buffet’s daughter, Lucy, where we could grab some dinner and talk about the next few days. We got to Lulu’s at Homeport Marina, and grabbed some food and ate before we started the talk, better to be full stomached and have the talk then not. We all decided that, as much as we wanted to make our way down Florida to Key West, it just didn’t seem possible anymore. We were supposed to be in Sarasota, Florida, by the end of today and it would have had us on the road until 1am if we tried to make up the distance. And then to get to Key West would have been another 7-8 hour drive tomorrow.
Add to the mix, that Ryan, our DP, had been getting quite a few calls from his wife about some issues going on at home, and it seemed like we were going to need to give him some time to go home and fix what was going on. Luckily he lives in Bradenton. Florida. With great sadness, for me especially, I made the decision to cut Key West from our trip, and Tod and I gave the crew the next couple of days off, the days we would have spent travelling down and back up through Florida. We agreed to meet up in or near Jacksonville, Florida, on the afternoon/night of the 10th.
After we finished our meals, we set off on our separate ways. The crew down south to Bradenton, and Tod and I east towards Jacksonville. Feeling a little down about losing Key West, Tod saw a Blockbuster, and thought that I might need some therapy. We stopped and looked around to see if there were movies that we needed to buy, something to take my mind off of what we had to do. I know, tough decisions for us to have to make, right? After looking around for a bit, and feeling a little better about everything, we got on the road towards Jacksonville.
As the sun began to set, we left Gulf Shores, and headed into Florida, to make it as far as we could before we called it a night. We ended up grabbing a hotel room in Chipley, Florida.
The tiger cubs are one of the main attractions at the zoo. They have an interactive experience for visitors to the zoo. When we got to the zoo we found a couple people waiting ahead of us, so while we waited Jenny decided to give us the "official" tour and then we would circle back to the tiger cubs. Our first stop on the tour was the lemur cage. Many of you have become familiarized with lemurs from the movie Madagascar. We find them to be fun loving, dancing creatures. Such is not the case in real life; they do not dance. Tod and I entered the cage with "Mike" and we were told that lemurs are somewhat skiddish. Mike (not sure if that is his real name, but he knows who “he” is) told us about lemurs as we sat in the closed in, can't get out without assistance, cage. So we should find some place to sit and allow them to come to us. "Mike" told us that lemurs, along with other mammalian species, have no sphincter control; so when they have to "go", they just go. There is no clench to find a bathroom; it just happens. And when it is time to go, they tend to run to the top of the enclosure. When you see them going to the top of the enclosure, chances are they will be going soon.
Tod and I found seats, myself next to "Mike", I was greeted with a steaming pile of lemur poo directly deposited upon my thigh. ("Mike" didn't say this, but I took it this way: a pile of poo on your thigh from a lemur is like a, "Hey, how do you do? Good to meet you.") "Mike" being the ever prepared, potential Boy Scout that he was, had a Tupperware tin that was filled with the necessary accoutrement including paper towels, baby wipes, etc., to remove anything that needed to be removed from a person. All that remained was a brown stain on my pants from that lemur “hello”
Tod was the popular one in the lemur enclosure; they seemed to shy away from me. "Mike" did his best to win them over to me. Ryan, our DP, came into the enclosure and filmed us with the lemurs. They were more fascinated with the cameras than by us, making Ryan the most popular man in the enclosure.
Fully cleaned up and lemured out, we left the enclosure and Jenny asked us if we would like to have an experience with the pythons. Both of us being slightly apprehensive, but me taking the forefront, I said yes of course. We then were taken to something that resembled a small amphitheater and were seated. Jenny left us to our own imaginations as we thought about what was to come. Out of nowhere, she and her coworker appeared with two pythons. One, an albino python that looked kind of like a banana milkshake, and the other which looked like it belonged in just about any tropical forest you might find; Tod and I seated, scared out of our underpants, and had these pythons placed upon us. Again, Tod seemed to be the victor in the battle of the brothers. His python seemed to take to him like flies to honey, whereas mine, let's hope, had just eaten a bad meal of rabbits and so was a bit drooly and was freaking me out.
After unsuccessfully controlling my python's drooling habits, they took him back and I shared in the experience of Tod's, more well tamed, python until we were ready to move on to the next curiosity - The kangaroos...
Jenny led us over to the kangaroo habitat and we were introduced to the joeys. We were able to have the experience of looking at them, touching them, and *bonus* we got to stick our fingers in their pouch. A completely weird feeling, indeed, knowing that these pouches expand as these joeys are growing and going and hanging out on the outside, because it seemed that these pouches were rather small in size until one realizes that a three or four month old baby kangaroo hangs out in there.
From there, Jenny produced two baby bottles full of milk and told us that we were going to feed some other tigers. She took us to a cage near the back of the zoo and introduced us to two adult tigers; one a standard Bengal tiger and the other a white Bengal tiger, almost seemingly full-grown, three to four years old. It was amazing being only a chain link fence between myself and a creature that is called a man eater and seeing the thing that connects all felines: a sense of co-dependency between ourselves and all animals. Almost as if I could enter the cage with them and not be hurt, but I knew that any interaction with them other than what I was told to do (i.e. the bottle feeding) could result in horrible things happening to me. Looking at these beautiful creatures taken from their homes and being domesticated (for lack of a better term) was both enviable and beautiful in the sense that I actually had the chance to be this close to them but also sad because they shouldn't be caged as such. It was a truly tremendous experience. It was amazing to just be there, feeding them. While they were drinking the milk from the bottles, my brother and I reached fingers through the fence and while they were distracted by our superior bottle feeding techniques, petted them just for the sake of being able to say that we done so. Not many people can say they have been able to do the same.
Jenny took us around the back of the zoo, where we had a chance to bottle feed two more tigers that were more rare tigers than the bengals, which was amazing. Little known fact, unlike many other felines, tigers are unable to purr. Instead they have a breathy utterance that they make. Jenny told us they are able to differentiate between different humans based on this utterance that the humans make. It was their version of a purr. Tod and I attempted to “purr” at them so that they might recognize them should we ever come back. Again, another truly amazing experience to be this close to these majestic creatures.
We circled back to the front of the zoo to get in to have the actual physical interaction with the white bengal tiger club, which was named Delhi. But while we were waiting for a family that was currently in the pen, Patti came up to us with a Capuchin monkey named Luka. Patti gave me his “baby,” a stuffed horsed that Luka carried around with him at all times. She also told me not to be concerned when Luka peed on me, it was his way of liking me and marking me as his property. Over the next 10 minutes, I got peed on quite a bit. But it was great to sit and play with Luka. Much like a small child, he was very inquisitive, and would run around the little circle of people that had gathered to see him, climbing up their legs and onto their shoulders. I felt like Ross from Friends.
Tod, the crew, and I finally were able to go into the enclosure with Delhi. It was very funny because a baby tiger, unlike most domesticated cats, was easy to attract but you had to keep in mind that this little baby creature, unlike domesticated cats, was able to kill and eat us. We each ended us with bites and scratches from Delhi as a kind of reminder that no matter how cute an animal might look, we must remember that underneath that lies a true animal; capable of potentially killing us. It was tremendous being with it, interacting with it, and knowing that in a few years this seemingly docile and psuedo domesticated creature would not be able to interact with people again (for fear that an interaction with them might end absolutely horribly). Strewn around the enclosure were the various toys that one might find laying all over the house of a cat owner (balls of yarn, toys, etc.) but still there was a sense of something bigger.
It was amazing to have one of the toys that Jenny told us to use to attract the tiger and seeing it begin to stalk you, much as a house cat might do, and something animalistic in the wild. I had a towel that I was dangling for it, hunched down, and we saw it begin it's prowl to attack. Slowly, it crept forward until it got into striking distance and then it went and it ran past the towel I had in my hands. It ran between myself and the fence behind me. And as you think with babies of any kind, you think it's safe and they will stop once it is far behind and it has gone beyond the scope of what was going to happen. But Delhi jumped from behind me and grabbed me with one claw on either side of me and began to chew on my back. I immediately stood up and had the thought of pain in my back and wanting to check it. Having two thoughts about it: first being, don't show pain to other people; second being, I hope I am bleeding profusely and just don't know it. When I lifted my shirt, I saw a two or three inch scar from where Delhi had bitten me. Luckily not a bad wound, more like a bad scratch. Each of us left that enclosure with some memento from Delhi like I had. But I was the King, after all, I had been pooped on by a Lemur, peed on by a Capuchin, and bitten by a Bengal Tiger. Ah, the stories I can tell, and which I just did.
After we finished with Delhi, we thanked Patti and Jenny for all that they had given us and we left to move on. When we got out to the car, we realized that we had spent five hours in this zoo; experiencing everything they had to show us and that we were going to have to revisit our entire schedule for the next five days. Lori told us about a nearby restaurant that was owned by Jimmy Buffet’s daughter, Lucy, where we could grab some dinner and talk about the next few days. We got to Lulu’s at Homeport Marina, and grabbed some food and ate before we started the talk, better to be full stomached and have the talk then not. We all decided that, as much as we wanted to make our way down Florida to Key West, it just didn’t seem possible anymore. We were supposed to be in Sarasota, Florida, by the end of today and it would have had us on the road until 1am if we tried to make up the distance. And then to get to Key West would have been another 7-8 hour drive tomorrow.
Add to the mix, that Ryan, our DP, had been getting quite a few calls from his wife about some issues going on at home, and it seemed like we were going to need to give him some time to go home and fix what was going on. Luckily he lives in Bradenton. Florida. With great sadness, for me especially, I made the decision to cut Key West from our trip, and Tod and I gave the crew the next couple of days off, the days we would have spent travelling down and back up through Florida. We agreed to meet up in or near Jacksonville, Florida, on the afternoon/night of the 10th.
After we finished our meals, we set off on our separate ways. The crew down south to Bradenton, and Tod and I east towards Jacksonville. Feeling a little down about losing Key West, Tod saw a Blockbuster, and thought that I might need some therapy. We stopped and looked around to see if there were movies that we needed to buy, something to take my mind off of what we had to do. I know, tough decisions for us to have to make, right? After looking around for a bit, and feeling a little better about everything, we got on the road towards Jacksonville.
As the sun began to set, we left Gulf Shores, and headed into Florida, to make it as far as we could before we called it a night. We ended up grabbing a hotel room in Chipley, Florida.
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