Photo Title: Gingee
Endeavors to Delight "World's Most Unhappy Cockatoo"
Taken: July 16, 2003
My mother and I decided to drive down
to Kentucky Down Under out of sheer boredom one day. There's no
explaining why we decided to go. It was just an urge we went
with. While there, I got to see my fair share of Australian species
that looked utterly miserable in the ninety-eight degree heat. By
far, the most pitiful of specimens was the Goffin's cockatoo.
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The poor bird sat quietly on its lowly perch,
motionless. Its feathers were horribly mauled looking.
It went beyond the appearance of a heavy molt. It seemed more
like the bird had become so overcome with heat exhaustion that it
was trying to rip out all of its plumage so that it might feel a
cool breeze once again. I spoke to it in an effort to get some
sort of reaction. It barely opened an eye long enough to shoot
me a "Please, for the love of God, kill me now and end my
misery!" look. It was one of those situations where it
had gone beyond humorously pitiful to a near "paging Dr.
Kevorkian" sort of pathetic. A domain commonly referred
to as "pathetisad" in today's teen vernacular. |
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So what did I do? I took a
picture of the ailing avian next to the ever merry Gingee. If you're
wondering what Gingee is, he's the happiest gingerbread man ever.
He's actually one of my cat's toys and is stuffed with polyester fibers
and catnip. He's also a little chewed up, but that doesn't get him
down. He still manages to keep a smile on his face.
Gingee's origins go back to 2001, when
I decided it would be funny to start taking photos of him posed in unusual
vacation spots. And before you accuse me of stealing the idea from
the traveling gnome on "Amelie" or the "Travelocity"
commercials, let me inform you that those are not where the idea is
derived from. I actually ripped this one off from my friend
Christine who took a rubber chicken to various art galleries and museums
about Chicago and risked life, limb and incarceration to pose it in
amusing areas.
So the notion of posing a random
object in obscure places has long been perceived as funny in the human
mind. Gingee just happens to be my particular fix. He's been
to Dinosaur World, Gatlinburg, Ireland, etc. I keep worrying the
humor will wear off, but thankfully it never does. The above just
happens to be my favorite of the Gingee shots since it's such a
preposterous juxtaposition. I mean, how can that photo not bring a
smile to you face? Well, it didn't cheer the cockatoo up. But it the
world is a fair place, the bird met with a quick and painless death
shortly after our departure.
