Kelly O, at Seattle’s Stranger:
… Motley Zoo is a nonprofit animal rescue based in Redmond, and its cofounder Jme Thomas (pronounced Jamie) has one of the best photo ideas to date: What if you took a photo of Macklemore, or Snoop Dogg, or some of the dudes in Slayer holding a kitten or a puppy? That’s a no-brainer: The cool-groupie rock animal picture gets blasted around the internets, and the animal gets adopted right away! Hannah Levin (producer and host of Seek and Destroy on KEXP) recently started working with Thomas to organize animal/musician meet-and-greets. “There’s something endlessly entertaining about handing a kitten to a rough and tough rock dude and watching him melt,” says Levin. “Most importantly, though, it’s proven to be an effective way to find homes for the four-legged buddies.”
Named as KING 5’s favorite local charity last year, Motley Zoo, which was founded in 2009, is certainly kicking some ass. “We have adopted out 1,200 pets to date,” says Thomas. “I started Motley with my husband, Bryan. We wanted to change the idea of what an animal rescue could be—we wanted to make it fun and a little rock ‘n’ roll. And it’s working.” She says future photo shoots will include ZZ Top, Mastodon, and Mötley Crüe.
**************
Apart from squeeeeeee, what’s on the agenda for the evening?
raven
Just trying to beat Kentucky!
Violet
Aww…those are awesome! I can’t pick my favorite picture they’re all so great!
Edit: The picture of the Red Fang guys all lined up on the sofa while holding kittens or puppies is hilarious.
Tomy
Nice. A zoo. Animals!
I gave my niece, she was four at the time, a book on elephants. A DVD. A stuffed elephant. She freaked out about it all. So happy.
We’ve since watched the PBS show and Shirley together. Well if you have not seen it you are not trying …..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXKxgLvIS6Y
gbear
Hopefully not by some metalhead who thinks it’s fun to blow pot smoke in the puppy’s face.
ruemara
Food porn. Massive amounts of food porn. These corned beef stuffed breads smell awesome and look very good. Can’t wait to see how the baked donuts come out.
raven
@efgoldman: The Dawgs but we’re over matched by a long shot. Too bad, they made a great run this year.
Ben Franklin
Taking our eyes off the Ukrainian football.
With all our surveillance and geosat tech, we lost a plane?
Take prestidigitation to the People.
SiubhanDuinne
Met Opera today (Massenet’s Werther) was wonderful — gorgeous music, beautiful singing,truly attractive actors who could act (not always a given on the operatic stage) — until the final 10 minutes or so of the HD satellite feed, when the sound just went dead. Dead as a Norwegian Blue. Really a shame, as it was the scene where the hero shoots himself (but lives long enough to sing some incredible love music) and the heroine throws herself on his mortally-wounded body and declares her love, and they hear voices from a children’s choir outside which Werther thinks are the voices of angels come to guide him to heaven. None of which we got to hear.
Well, it was genuinely distressing, and upon inquiry seems to have been a satellite issue (not just this theatre). Regal was nice enough to provide a full refund, so I may use that to go see the encore presentation of the same opera later this week.
raven
@efgoldman: back off
SiubhanDuinne
@Ben Franklin:
Yup, that seems to be the latest conspiracy theory zinging around the intertoobs.
Cervantes
@gbear: I wondered about that, too!
Also:
Interesting usage, “adopted out.”
Ben Franklin
@SiubhanDuinne:
Where have you seen that?
lamh36
Ok, I know I am literally a month late, but OMG…Sheldon kissed Amy!!!!
http://youtu.be/zva3SRxQCv0
Cervantes
@SiubhanDuinne: Sorry about the misadventure, Your Excellency.
The Thin Black Duke
@SiubhanDuinne: The X-Files called, they want their conspiracy theory back. Sometimes the truth isn’t out there.
dmsilev
I’m muttering (slightly) about having been beaten by a harbor seal. I mentioned a few weeks ago that my colleagues and I had the good fortune of having an article accepted in PNAS (a pretty high-prestige scientific journal). The print edition came out the other day, and we came oh-so-close to being on the cover. We got beaten out by “High-throughput sequencing reveals inbreeding depression in a natural population”, because (I am convinced) their experimental subjects were this:
http://www.pnas.org/content/111/10/cover-expansion.medium.gif
I am now researching ways of cramming seals into cryostats.
(I’m not really muttering; journals always look for attractive photos/renderings/whatever for their covers, and that’s not really something we can provide. But still…)
Ben Franklin
@SiubhanDuinne:
I am quite curious. Please respond.
Tomy
@efgoldman: In the world I come from, beating Kentucky is all we try to do in basketball (LSU guy). We did it once this year. And almost a second time. Beat FUCKING Kentucky!
I just went to see some Pistol Pete on YouTube. Nobody will EVER break his college records. Built the Assembly Center at LSU. Called the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, where they play college basketball. I recall as a kid, well seeing Pete play.
Watch some of the videos you can see. His kids say we didn’t know, how amazing he was. Pat Riley as the head of the Lakers had the best to say, “he was showtime before there was showtime!”
mclaren
@Cervantes:
More diplomatic than “restaurants in Asia needed mystery meat for their entrees.”
SiubhanDuinne
@Ben Franklin:
Facebook.
SiubhanDuinne
@Cervantes:
Excellency??
ETA: Oh, duh, yes. The Met HD “Ambassador” position. Had a good meeting with the current Ambo and my future co-Ambo. We’re having a conference call with the Met coordinator in a couple of weeks to get more details, and are taking the Regal theatre manager to lunch to sort out how to coordinate with projection rooms and how best to handle the inevitable glitches (see today’s misadventure for an example).
Suffern ACE
@dmsilev: wouldn’t the blubber shield the seal from the low temperatures inside the cryostat?
SiubhanDuinne
@The Thin Black Duke:
I never said I believed it, only that I’d seen it around.
Ben Franklin
@SiubhanDuinne:
You get your fine-tuned senses from Facebook?
Needn’t I have asked.
SiubhanDuinne
@Ben Franklin:
I did. My, you’re impatient!
SiubhanDuinne
@Ben Franklin:
Who said anything about fucking fine-tuned senses. I was just saying I had seen other references.
Now I think I’ll go on FB and comment on one of the statuses claiming this conspiracy, and when they challenge me where I heard that, I can just say “some asshole on Balloon Juice.”
RobertDSC-Power Mac G5 Dual
@lamh36:
Shamy for life. Love that clip.
jeffreyw
Thread needs moar squee!
The Thin Black Duke
@SiubhanDuinne: Oh, I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to imply that you believed it, but I’m agreeing with you that it’s an absurd rumor that’s gaining traction.
SiubhanDuinne
@The Thin Black Duke: yes, it’s about as far out there as any of the other theories or rumors. To be expected, I suppose, in the absence of hard facts.
Ben Franklin
@SiubhanDuinne:
Oh..Touche’
Or did I mean touchy?
Now twaddle off to that rational retreat within that mysterious grey area between your ears. It’s serving you well, and we wouldn’t want to disturb your peace. Mr Sandman sing Duinne a tune.
Redshift
@Cervantes:
How so? It’s pretty standard terminology among rescue groups.
I just how they have a good screening process. With our rescue, we already get plenty of obviously ill-thought-out applications whenever we post a picture of an unusual breed. I’d hate to think what you have to wade through when you have people who just want the pet because their favorite rock star was photographed holding it. “Moving” more rescue animals is great, as long as they don’t just get dumped at the local shelter after the novelty wears off.
SiubhanDuinne
@The Thin Black Duke:
And apologies if I snarled at you. (Rereads #24.) yes, I snarled, and I’m sorry.
Seem to be a leetle prickly today.
schrodinger's cat
@dmsilev: Aaww squee. You lost to a worthy opponent!
SiubhanDuinne
@Ben Franklin:
I have no idea what this is about, or what hair crawled up your ass, but I’ve been around these parts long enough, I guess it’s time I got my very own troll.
Now excuse me, I have to talk to Cleek about a software patch.
Pogonip
I believe I will struggle through my city tax forms this weekend. City tax collection has been (of course) contracted out and the contractor’s form is so insanely complicated even they can’t figure it out. Last year I went as far as I could, finally gave up, and mailed in the partly completed form, so at least they couldn’t penalize me for not filing, and attached a note explaining the problem. In June or thereabouts they sent me a bill for $25. I paid it. In October they refunded my $25 with a form letter explaining it had been collected in error.
How far will this contracting insanity go? My paper boy is an “independent contractor,” for God’s sake. How do you get it across to Americans that the Farengi were supposed to be a joke, not a how-to?
dmsilev
@Suffern ACE: One of my colleagues suggested that.
Maybe we’ll just have to try it and see.
Mobile RoonieRoo
Sitting in the Subaru dealership buying a Forester to replace our little truck and be the dog hauling vehicle.
schrodinger's cat
Caturday Cat celebrated Pi Day, did you?
Cervantes
@SiubhanDuinne: Yes, the Met HD “Ambassador” position.
Sounds like one more thing to keep you busy! Glad it’s going well so far.
Cervantes
Etymologically, “adopt” implies “choose” (opt), whereas “adopt out” … well, it’s interesting.
Yes. Are there ever follow-ups after screening and adoption are both done?
celticdragonchick
The guy there looks like someone from The Misfits.
Three-nineteen
The Milwaukee Brewers adopted a stray dog that wandered into spring training one day. A Brewer executive’s family is bringing the dog back to Milwaukee.
http://msn.foxsports.com/wisconsin/story/hank-the-dog-heading-to-milwaukee-remaining-part-of-brewers-family-031414
http://deadspin.com/hank-the-dog-runs-in-a-milwaukee-brewers-sausage-race-1531870105
wonkie
Well, since this is an open thread with a rescue starter…I have been absorbed for months in the Olympic Animal Sanctuary saga which started here in Washington state Right now my roll is to send out emails to rescues, hoping they will take a dog or two. It’s a long involved story, but the short version is this: OAS was a hell hole with dogs stacked up in crates in a warehouse. The website made it look like paradise for dogs, but the reality was one hundred and sixty dogs jammed into a space the size of a small house. Lots of dogs died there. Once rescued, the dogs displayed all sorts of health problems from the confinement. Local authorities refused to act due to political pressure, I’m sad to say from a local Democratic politician. With donations drying up and facing lawsuits, the hoarder loaded up 124 of the dogs on to a semi truck and ran away with them. After several hours of driving, he called a rescue and eventually the dogs were turned over to the Guardians of Rescue in Arizona.
The Guardians had to conjour up a kennel out in the middle of no where and work with rescues nationwide to get the dogs placed. Ten or so of the dogs have come back to rescues in Washington.
About thirty dogs remain. If you are connected to a dog rescue, please consider helping! Here’s some links for those of you who are interested:
. If you haven’t heard of this dog rescue story, this link to a news broadcast gives a good summary:
http://www.jrn.com/ktnv/news/contact-13/contact-13-investigates/Preview-Animals-rescued-from-deplorable-conditions-242688651.html
You can see the dogs on this Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.609561655764322.1073741922.107867909267035&type=1
If you think your rescue could help please contact: [email protected]
Here’s a video of April:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=564692266971120&set=vb.396180077155674&type=2&theater
There are also a number of American bulldog mixes, some pitbull mixes, some unsocialized but nonaggressive Shepard mixes, some small Jack Russell mixes and an Aussie mix. Some of the dogs will need special help, but many are just ordinary dogs with no special issues beyond what any rescue would expect.
If you are interested, please send in an abundance of info about your rescue: proof of 501c3 status, pictures, references, contact info for your vet and so on. The Guardians of Rescue are doing careful background checks before releasing dogs. Once accepted, the Guardians will work with you to select dogs based on their temperament and needs that would be suitable for your rescue.
There is help available for fundraising at https://www.facebook.com/groups/OASISDOGS/247039915473392/?notif_t=group_comment Ask to be a group member, and then comment. The group has info on transportation, pictures of dogs and lots more.