Challenge 102: ✨EXTRA✨-Ordinary: Monk Parakeets
So, in Austin, we have some super ✨extra✨ “pest” birds. They are literally neon green parrots and it’s hilarious to see them places, chillin’ with the Grackles (our main pest bird, which are also hilarious in their own right). As I was looking up stuff for sketching this illustration, I learned that they are called Monk Parakeets and they are the only parrots that build stick nests, which is why they’re problematic (apparently). These rad nests mess up electrical wiring and whatnot because they’re so outrageous and massive.
Also, this quote was pretty lol-worthy: “The exact number of Wild Monks in our area is unknown, and evidence of harm by feral colonies of Monks is disputed.” —Austin360
Also for your viewing pleasure, here is a video of the parrots to some very appropriate (?) music: https://youtu.be/LfA7EkMeCA0
As followers of this blog know, I do everything I reasonably can to keep money from mixing with this blog. But there are exceptions to nearly every rule, and the biggest of all exceptions is to preserve life. I live with a rescue parrot, Peri, who before her confiscation by the police a few years ago had been brutally starved …
This is one of my closest friends in the world, and her relationship with her parrot means everything to her. Like everyone else I know who has had to resort to begging for money online, she did not take this option until everything else was exhausted. She is dirt poor, in serious debt (partly due to vet bills), and doesn't always have money for food at the end of the month.
I was there when her last parrot died. It was heart-rending. All the way to the vet, my friend was screaming at the top of her lungs, crying, and begging her parrot not to die. Everyone at the emergency vet waiting room felt for her. She was in mourning for over a month. A relationship with a pet who can talk back in English and actually make sense can become incredibly intense. And if anything, her bond with this newest bird is even more intense than before.
Peri is a fighter, and she survived things she shouldn't have been able to survive. We're hoping that with enough medical help she'll survive the hepatitis and live a long life. But my friend doesn't have the money, and I don't have the money, and there's nothing more powerless feeling than not having the money to take care of a sick pet who you love more than life itself.
And to paraphrase clatterbane, if anyone responds to this with the idea that poor people shouldn't have pets, I will fucking dropkick you for your cruelty. So don't even go there. If you can't or don't want to donate, just don't donate. But I can vouch for this being a very real situation -- I help give the bird her meds, I help catch her when she flies away from her hospital cage, I have bite marks all over my hands to prove it.
So please, if you can do anything, click through and use her donation button to help her and her sick parrot. If you don't want to just donate, you can also buy prayer beads from her prayer bead shop. (It's a very unusual prayer bead shop -- she even has "Reason Beads" for atheists or people whose faith includes a lot of rationality. They're really cool. If they're still there -- I haven't looked at her shop in a while. She tries to make prayer beads for any and all faiths and will often take custom requests. She's helping me make prayer beads for my redwood forest faith-of-one, for instance.)
I know that if she loses this bird it will devastate her beyond anything I've seen before. She is even closer to this one than her last (honestly her last bird was an asshole and she was the only person in the world who liked him), and I saw how she took it when her last died. I don't want to see what will happen if Peri dies.
So please click through if you want to learn more about Peri's story and what's going on with her, and maybe even donate or buy some prayer beads.
If you can't donate, consider signal boosting. My friend doesn't have a lot of web presence the way I do, so I'm trying to help her get more exposure for her bird's situation.
What Monk Parrots means to dancer/choreographer Leah Tubbs, actor Morgan Hooper, and playwright Jennifer Skura
Leah Tubbs, founder and artistic director of ModArts Dance Collective
Monk Parrots is an unforgettable non-profit arts organization whose not afraid to take risks and creatively explore the artistic process of theatre and performance art. I am always challenged and inspired as an artistic director when watching Monk Parrots' performances to push beyond the normalcy and stereotypical views behind performance art. Luke Leonard throws conventional theatre out of the window and puts focus on the multitude of theatrical layers to create and produce art that has a new energy while keeping audience members guessing to convey a dialogue between the viewers and artists participating in the performances. Monk Parrots is a one-of-a-kind artistic and visceral experience one must consume as an artist and a living being. -- Leah Tubbs
Actor Morgan Hooper as Romeo in Monk Parrots' After an Earlier Incident, La MaMa, 2013
I can't recall a time I laughed harder or was more happy in collaboration. Working with Monk Parrots is a zany experience; and yet, at the same time, richly rewarding. The storytelling is dark, eccentric and brave, and the team are masters at traveling through the pandemonium and hysteria of the wild heart. -- Morgan Hooper
Actress/Playwright/Designer Jennifer Skura and Stewart, 2013
I love what happens on a Monk Parrots stage. It always feels special. Luke's images are a beautiful marriage between chaos and harmony. -- Jennifer Skura
The Quaker parrots have been back out and about with the cooler weather. They’ve been much quieter over the hot summer months, and who can blame them? The queen palm in the courtyard has grown like crazy over the summer, and we’re rapidly losing our window onto the big dead tree where they like to hang out; I’m going to have to return to my project of attracting them into the yard pretty soon.
These are a little blurrier than would be optimal. First off, it’s pretty far away, but also I was standing on the bed to get higher than the palm.
Still, they’re pretty cool.And what are you looking at, hmmm?
I wish the damn palm hadn’t gotten in the way- a pair preening each other:
Monk Parrots receives a 2012 Emergency Grant from Foundation for Contemporary Arts
Dear Friends,
From the header you can tell that we received the greatest news yesterday. The Foundation for Contemporary Arts is awarding Monk Parrots an Emergency Grant to support our European debut of Here I Go at the 2012 La MaMa Spoleto Open, a special event of The Festival of the Two Worlds.
The award could not have come at a better time since we desperately need additional funding to support the production abroad. We could not be more grateful and ecstatic. Our sincerest thanks to FCA!
The FCA Emergency Grant allows us to take Here I Go's Associate Director, Shaun Patrick Tubbs, one of the most integral members of our production team. Shaun has been with this newest version of the show each step of the way. He has mastered the intricacies of the show's cues, operates both sound and light controls, and even engineered our fly rigging system. Undoubtedly, his presence will help ensure a successful production in Italy.
This wonderful achievement does not mean that we are out of the woods yet. We still need your help. Please visit the website below and add a gift to the Kickstarter campaign for Monk Parrots' Here I Go at the 2012 La MaMa Spoleto Open.
You can pledge as little as $1. Every dollar counts and is deeply appreciated. Monk Parrots is a nonprofit 501(c)3, so your donation is tax-deductible.
There are only 11 days left in our fundraising campaign. Please don't wait and back this project today.
MAKE A PLEDGE BY CLICKING HERE: http://kck.st/MmvESm
