In 2010, in the midst of going through law school, 2 songs got me really amped up on my runs through Culver City: "Club Cant Handle me Right Now" by Flo Rida and "Animals" by Maroon 5 (sign of the times, back then Flo Rida and David Guetta was big, Nicky Minaj, Lady Gaga. Something about the excitement of animals. Everybody likes animals, animal analogies (he's a beast! He's an animal!), especially pets. Zoos have their whole business model built around people's fascination of animals, and in some sense, it is refreshing nowadays especially to break out of our fascination with the Internet, technology, trending news stories, to be in the presence of other real live living things in the world. There's no internet for hippos, lions, elephants; they're just living in their world with us, trying to get by day to day.
I guess that's why "Planet Earth" on Netflix is so appealing. First of all, thank you NFLX, for being a well run company leading to elevated, albeit volatile stock prices (earnings report coming out today actually, should be interesting after the stock went down -17 (17 whole points!) back under 400. Man if I had known we'd be talking about NFLX at 400 just 7 months ago! Geez. I don't know about most people, but I struggle with the amount of choices we get with NFLX. It's like going to a buffet and being dazzled by the amount of chicken dishes, the 16 different types of pizzas, mashed potatoes, fish you didn't even know existed.....you don't know where to start, and that's often the dilemma with NFLX. You see a bunch of shows you wouldn't mind seeing, and are interested by, but you can only watch ONE now........what to start with so you don't lose out on seeing other good ones? The dilemma is difficult, but one sure bet is Planet Earth! Can't go wrong with animals as the star of the show, and no matter what the next monkey or bird or underwater creature do, they don't disappoint. It's not like we're expecting them to crack us up or play to our emotions, so the expectations are lowered.
MJ and I recently watched a really cool Planet Earth about animals living in cities, large metropolises. There are apparently leopards wandering around some cities like Dubai, and large packs of hyenas traveling around the streets of India being fed by the locals, where they're more just like wild dogs. I mean I've heard of the odd coyote or two in Southern California eating pets, and in very rare cases mountain lion sightings (soon to be driven away by local park rangers), but LEOPARDS are strolling around at night in your neighborhood? The earth truly is a wild place, and especially when CATFISH are eating pigeons. No, not cats, that was within my realm of expectation, but CATFISH somehow jumping pigeons while they bathe in the city river, huge catfish literally jump out of the water and drag pigeons down into the water, drown them, and eat them. Like crocodiles. Unbelievable. And these wildlife cameramen get all these shots on camera, with ability to slow-mo it down for us. I see some wildlife photographers around Palos Verdes with seriously lengthy cameras for whale watching, but for catfish and pigeons? That must take a lot of patience to wait for some action to occur.
Come to think of it, how do animals survive of boredom? As a human here in the 21st century, I can't imagine just going about my day only worried about my next meal, not knowing anything about anything in the world, or even caring to know. Seems like a very boring way to live with the gifts that human beings have been given. Then again, animals and their ignorant bliss might be the best way to be happy.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
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