Beware of the Monster . . .

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In the summertime in France, there are a few small circus operations that criss-cross the land, setting up their tents for a few days at a time here and there, putting on their shows under the big top, doing their best to amaze and entertain mainly small children, whose parents probably saw such events as children, and who want to pass on and share those memories with their own offspring.
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I have to admit, I have quite mixed feelings about circuses. I hate to see animals that should by all rights be wild, in cages. Usually in fairly squalid conditions. Tigers should be roaming dark jungles, not pacing a cage. Camels should be out in a desert somewhere, not in northern France tied to a stake in the ground. Zebras should be out on the African plains, worrying perhaps about lions, but not behind bars in a circus.
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On the other hand, were it not for zoos and circuses, many children might never see some of these large animals which are not native to their country. I'm not sure if that small redeeming value can justify such spectacles, but there is not much I could do to change these things, even if I wanted to. Surreptitiously setting the animals free around here would be crueler than letting them continue their caged existence, they would either become roadkill or be hunted down and caught again, or killed if not caught.
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It was the elephant here that caught my eye as I was driving to work the other day, I made a mental note to return with camera in hand . . . (Lydia, if you see this, note the "Lydia" on the trailer here . . .)
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Their camel was calling out, "Step up, step up, come one, come all !!", while showing off his strong set of teeth !
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Lions were roaring . . . silently . . .
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These two were holding a little secret meeting, maybe plotting their escape ?
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There were some amazing beasts to be seen. Would not want to get gored by this fellow . . . Shucks, if they turned him loose in the streets of Pamplona, he could skewer a whole shishkabob of runners on those long horns of his . . .
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All manner of creatures, great and small, were to be found there . . . even a goat.
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Tired of pacing the cage, he toppled over, one paw raised, even in sleep not forgetting the heavy gauge wire of the cage . . .
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But the most surprising sight that afternoon was the zebra, who after tiring of browsing the sparse grass, decided to chomp on a tasty looking green tee shirt that stepped a bit too close. The boy squealed with shock, and the zebra let go. The message on the boy's shirt seemed perfectly appropriate : "Beware of the Monster" !
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When Zebras Roam In My Dreams . . .

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Last Sunday morning, just after posting the piece about Karine Arnou's lovely zebra painting under the title of Blue Zebra Moons, la Grenouille and I went out for a walk through the village. Imagine my total stupefaction when I found myself face to face with a real live zebra, a realio, trulio, zebrio zebra. Zebras are not native to this region of northern France . . . but the circus was in town ! Which only happens once in a blue moon . . .

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So, for your ultimate zebra viewing pleasure, you get the front view, the side view . . .
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And the rear view . . .
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There were even painted portraits of zebras (not as nice as Karine's though) . . .
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And not only zebras, but llamas and camels too ! A menagerie . . .
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Send in the clowns ! (quoth Switters !)
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After leaving the circus, and walking quite a way up the road, in an unexpected place we stumbled upon an ancient and beautiful automobile, from back in the far-gone days when things were actually built to last. Now I know from experience that there are one or two experts on old automobiles out there, so I'm going to give you three details of the car we saw, to see if these are enough clues for anyone to identify the beast . . .
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A tail light gleaming like hard candy . . .
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And finally a tailpipe like the paw of some strange animal . . . a chrome covered ostrich maybe ?

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Of Blue Zebra Moons . . . Something Fine . . .

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Every once in a blue moon one stumbles by whatever happy coincidence onto something so fine that it just leaves one speechless, awestruck, overwhelmed with the wonder that life can bring on some oh so rare occasions. Well, I had a moment of epiphany like that just the other day, when I chanced to find via a link in a comment box Karine Arnou's blog Peintures, Photos, et Humeurs. I'm not going to launch into a great long discourse here, otherwise I'd just gush and gush, I'd rather let you hurry on over there and see for yourself, and let you draw your own conclusions, or let Karine draw them for you . . . because wow ! can she ever draw. And paint ! And photograph !
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She very kindly gave me permission to reproduce here one of her paintings, to give you just a little taste. If you've been reading these pages for any length of time, you know I have a weak spot for all things in zebra stripes, so you can well imagine that my heart nearly stopped when I saw this most magical of zebra paintings by Karine :
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And one small song to complete the circle with the appropriate title of "Something Fine"
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Stars and Stripes . . .

Sometimes in the animated life of a blog, it becomes necessary, for no particularly good reason, to insert a photograph of a zebra. Or even of two zebras. You may understandably wonder . . . "Has he lost his marbles?" "Has he been drinking?" "Has he gone clear around the bend?" But nevertheless, the implacable logic of blogging required a zebra in this blog at this exact point in time. These are not, by the way, the first zebras to appear in these pages, and probably not the last. A total of no less than 12 previous posts have dealt with the philosophically challenging topic of zebras. How could such a divinely decorated ass's uncle exist in the first place ? Now that is a stumper . . .
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Zillions of Zebras !

Having just posted the decaying circus poster below here, and while still in the zebrology inspired trance state brought on by resurrecting ancient images of zebras, here are a couple more pieces from the Phillips Collection holdings . . . both are wall hangings that grace my bedroom walls. . . what could be better than waking to see zebras roaming the fading morning dreamscape ? May your days too be blessed by the presence of zads of zebras !

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Zebra T . . .

True to my Zebrologist faith (well some people go for Scientology, so why not Zebrology ?) I put on my zebra t-shirt this morning. . . and will soon be taking it off again to go get my beauty sleep. In small print along the side it says "equus burchelli", you can find more nice zebra images by clicking that link. Anyway, this is one of my old favorite shirts, things seem to go right on days when it's on my back. . .

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More Zebras !

If you have read some of the earlier posts about zebras and zebrology in these pages, you will understand why I must continue to keep the zebra images coming. . . the winter is not over yet, and we still need that natural gas from Russia to keep flowing. This photo was taken by a gentleman named Ron Rowson, who I was unable to track down to ask permission to use this image here ; but I did purchase this postcard years ago, so hopefully he at least received some royalties. It was printed in Holland by a company called Art Unlimited Amsterdam. There are in fact rather alot of postcards in the Phillips Collection, that I've been squirreling away over the years. . . some more of them may surface in these pages sooner or later. . . it is a terrible thing, that jackdaw urge to continually collect.

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Iridescent Zebras

If you have read any of the earlier posts about zebras, you may be starting to realize why I keep tossing more of them in from time to time... Winter is not over, and I want the natural gas to keep flowing over European borders to reach my house. I know, it sounds obscure... but sometimes superstition and ritual play more important roles in our lives than we think. In any case ; I do not know who made this image, it was not me... if anyone does know, or if the rightful owner objects to it appearing in these pages, well please let me know... I really don't remember where I found it, I scanned it somewhere years ago, so it is now in the collection. And Mr Putin, if you see this, please don't turn the gas off, it is still too darn cold outside. I promise, I will continue to pay my tribute in pounds of zebra flesh...
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PS I do know that "iridescent" means something to the effect of "that producing a display of lustrous rainbow-like colors"... so technically speaking, zebras cannot be iridescent, as they are only black and white... and I haven't seen any black and white rainbows yet... but, I liked the sound of it, as Dave Barry of the Miami Herald likes to say, it would make a great name for a rock group... and if you're ever bored on a Winter afternoon, well just drop by Dave Barry's blog right here, and guaranteed, he will have you laughing in no time ! ! !
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More Zebrology...

In the interest of keeping our natural gas flowing from Russia, in case they may be thinking about turning it off again since another cold snap has started (see posts below) figured I better quick slip in another zebra or two here. Took this photo in the Louisville, Kentucky Zoo in July, 1992, shortly before packing everything up and moving to France... a move which transpired, if you recall from reading below, because a young French lady was favorably impressed with the irresistible zebra images I had sent to her... which goes to show just how important the Zebra can actually be in the domains of love and life in general...

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Straight From the Horse's Mouth...

As mentioned below, in the interest of keeping our natural gas flowing from Russia, am posting another zebra here. However, when the dire threat was issued about posting more zebra related material or else, it was not specified which end of said beast had to be shown... so, in the interest of the "both sides now" theme mentioned at the outset of this blog, here is what might be called by some tongue-in-cheek wags as the ass end of a zebra... no pun intended. Sort of like the mule end of a horse, I suppose. And if you are interested, do not miss the six definitions of a "Horse's Ass" on the Urban Dictionary site ! ! ! They don't beat around the bush ! Although they do mention a famous Bush... I particularly liked the one about the East end of a horse heading West !
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I digress... this photo was scanned from a postcard I purchased long ago as a gift to my not-yet but soon-to-be wife, in fact this image could have been one of the clinching factors in her decision to enter into holy matrimony with me... who knows, I mean what woman in her right mind could possibly resist a suitor bearing postcards depicting the rear view of an African equid of the subgenus hippotigrus ? ? ? This photo was taken by a certain Fabien Kyburz, and was titled "Striped Mimetism" (and I beg a thousand pardons for reproducing it here for your pleasure) ... now there is a good word... "Mimetism"... Thank you Mr Kyburz for this excellent image, if I could find you I would happily buy you a beer... I hope at least you received the proper royalties when I purchased the postcard... anyone who could take a photo like this one is ok in my book.
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Black & White Light

Due to popular demand, cannot do otherwise but break down and give you all a shot of zebrageist energy. Can't tell you how many e-mails have come in asking (or threatening) for more zebras, and make it quick...
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One gentleman from Moscow said he was going to cut off my natural gas (which is indeed how I heat my humble abode) if I didn't oblige by tonight with more zebras ! Imagine that ! ! ! Well, as you can see, I'm taking no chances...
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Now, before I forget, let me say that I did not take this photograph. And I don't know who did, so with all due regrets, I can't credit it as I would like to. But to my credit, I did purchase this image, so it is not as if I'm stealing it... and I'm certainly not likely to gain any financial advantage from it by publishing it here. Well, then again, if this blog becomes a raging worldwide success thanks to all of you passing it on and on and on and on to everyone you know, and I were to become richer than Cresus as a result ... you can bet somehow the rightful owner of the rights to this image would track me down to exact their due... what a world we live in !
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Anyway, I am rambling again. What I really wanted to say was something about the magical light in which zebras live. If white light by definition contains all colors, and black is that which absorbs all wavelengths and emits no color, is it not then fabulous that one beast should be so beautifully dressed with alternating stripes of all colors and no colors ? And lions just look at them as party snacks... go figure !
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Zebronkey ?

Quite a bit earlier in this blog in two postings the subject of zebras and my closet fetish for all things with black and white stripes was broached, and I promised there would be more zebra related material for all you zebrologists out there. This photo was taken in Washington DC in July 2002. There were democratic donkey sculptures in prominent places around the city at that time in various guises; this one had cross-bred with a zebra... producing a zebronkey ?

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Zebra Zeitgeist

A popular softdrink in France, Orangina, has started a new ad campaign, featuring a rather busty zebra slurping through a straw from one of their bottles, while about to slip off one side of her slinky pink garment... I will let you draw your own conclusions...

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However, one thing I have neglected to tell you about myself previously is... I have a zebra fetish... you could call it a form of zebrology. For whatever reasons buried deep in my subconscious, I have always been fascinated by zebras and their black and white outlook on life. There will be more proof of this un-natural attraction coming soon to these pages, so if you also are a closet zebrologist, check back often.