Okay readers, I'm here today to talk about monkeys. That's right, monkeys!
I was thinking today, how utterly fascinating monkeys are. They are our closest relatives in the animal kingdom, except for politicians, whose closest relatives are of the single-cell variety. I remember a trip to the Bronx zoo years ago, where I watched a silver back gorilla, sitting on a lawn as zoo visitors stood and watched him. He was kingly. It was clear that as far as he was concerned, HE was watching US. I remember that moment when I happened to catch his eye and had the profound feeling that I wasn't really looking at an animal, but that perhaps, just perhaps, just for a second, it was somebody familiar with whom I was sharing a moment.....
Which made me think one of my favorite all time television commercials- it was for luggage (either American Tourister or Samsonite...I think American Tourister) where a narrator talks about the toughness of the latest line of luggage, while on camera a suitcase is placed in a cage with a gorilla, much like my friend from the Bronx, who proceeds to go, well, apeshit trying to 'kill' the suitcase. Big laughs (and awe) at the ferocity and power with which the gorilla attacks his red vinyl clad 'adversary'....
then I remembered Lancelot Link. I'm dating myself here, but when I was a kid, there was a Saturday morning kids' show called 'Lancelot Link'. The show was cast with chimpanzees and starred Lancelot, a trench coat-wearing secret agent chimp whose voiceover was a bad Humphrey Bogart impression, Mata Hairy his Ostrich feather boa-clad girlfriend (who would peel back her lips and screech Laaiiiiiiiiinnnnnncccceeeeee!!!!!) and several other chimps.
The episodes all took place on a soundstage and in the middle of the 'plot' for the week, it was common for a music track of zany cartoon music to suddenly occur while the chimps just went crazy, jumpin all over the place with weird camera angles and cuts....it was a gas and I shed many a tear laughing so hard at them.....which brings me to.....
when I was a REAL little kid, there was a tv commercial (we're talking early '60s black and white here) for Red Rose Tea that featureed a 'combo' of red-blazer clad chimpanzee 'musicians' whose leader mugged and had a voice like Louis Armstrong. The rascist overtones aside, this was a hilarious commercial and I remember entertaining my parents on a nightly basis by jumping around in my PJs singing in a 4 year old faux-basso voice "Red Rose.....Red Rose Tea....Yeah!!!"
So what's my point? I guess I"m just trying to say that sometimes life's more fun than a barrel of monkeys!!!!
Next time.
I was thinking today, how utterly fascinating monkeys are. They are our closest relatives in the animal kingdom, except for politicians, whose closest relatives are of the single-cell variety. I remember a trip to the Bronx zoo years ago, where I watched a silver back gorilla, sitting on a lawn as zoo visitors stood and watched him. He was kingly. It was clear that as far as he was concerned, HE was watching US. I remember that moment when I happened to catch his eye and had the profound feeling that I wasn't really looking at an animal, but that perhaps, just perhaps, just for a second, it was somebody familiar with whom I was sharing a moment.....
Which made me think one of my favorite all time television commercials- it was for luggage (either American Tourister or Samsonite...I think American Tourister) where a narrator talks about the toughness of the latest line of luggage, while on camera a suitcase is placed in a cage with a gorilla, much like my friend from the Bronx, who proceeds to go, well, apeshit trying to 'kill' the suitcase. Big laughs (and awe) at the ferocity and power with which the gorilla attacks his red vinyl clad 'adversary'....
then I remembered Lancelot Link. I'm dating myself here, but when I was a kid, there was a Saturday morning kids' show called 'Lancelot Link'. The show was cast with chimpanzees and starred Lancelot, a trench coat-wearing secret agent chimp whose voiceover was a bad Humphrey Bogart impression, Mata Hairy his Ostrich feather boa-clad girlfriend (who would peel back her lips and screech Laaiiiiiiiiinnnnnncccceeeeee!!!!!) and several other chimps.
The episodes all took place on a soundstage and in the middle of the 'plot' for the week, it was common for a music track of zany cartoon music to suddenly occur while the chimps just went crazy, jumpin all over the place with weird camera angles and cuts....it was a gas and I shed many a tear laughing so hard at them.....which brings me to.....
when I was a REAL little kid, there was a tv commercial (we're talking early '60s black and white here) for Red Rose Tea that featureed a 'combo' of red-blazer clad chimpanzee 'musicians' whose leader mugged and had a voice like Louis Armstrong. The rascist overtones aside, this was a hilarious commercial and I remember entertaining my parents on a nightly basis by jumping around in my PJs singing in a 4 year old faux-basso voice "Red Rose.....Red Rose Tea....Yeah!!!"
So what's my point? I guess I"m just trying to say that sometimes life's more fun than a barrel of monkeys!!!!
Next time.
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