Kittens & Dinosaurs

It has felt like ages since I last wrote and I want to make an excuse: I got kittens. For about a month I have been fostering two little girls, one calico named Dior and one rare, female orange kitty named Doris Day or DiDi for short. I had to name them both D-names for the foster organization, so we are like a little Kardashian family.

They are tiny, and fierce. When I first got them I could barely run my finger on their faces without fear of crushing them because they were so small. They were dehydrated and underweight, with nothing but fur and bones to protect them in this world. But I soon learned they were still strong enough to scale my fabric-covered bed frame and terrorize me in the middle of the night by jumping off the headboard onto my face.

They split their time between napping, wrestling with each other and sneezing. Their little paws are no bigger than a quarter, but each comes equipped with four little raptor-like claws that have scratched all over my apartment, on my arms when I try to give them meds, and even across my face during one of their mid-night wrestlemania events.

Despite all this, they have brought great value to my life. As a caretaker, I have done more for them than I would do for myself in the short amount of time I have known them. Thanks to the increased laundry from the spontaneous peeing, puking and ringworm, I got myself a washing machine. I am more aware when I spend too much time hunched over my computer because they crawl onto my keyboard and interrupt my screen time. Although Dior was watching RuPaul’s Drag Race with me last night.

It’s different to be the sole caretaker of kittens than cat-sitting, of which I have done a lot. The added responsibility has felt heavy at times. They are always there, and they are always needing me and my attention. They get bored, hungry, sick. I can imagine how new parents must feel, faced with 20+ years of responsibility and seeing no breaks, save for a few vacations. I haven’t even officially adopted them and I am feeling the a spectrum of motherly feelings.

To help stay calm in the swirl of more dishes and laundry, my increased work load at the moment, and the chaos of our world I have been listening to more classical music in the car and while I work. One of my favorite things to do is listen to John Williams’ soundtracks. His music has the backdrop of so many of my favorite movies growing. As I listen to the compositions without their film counterparts I am reminded of so many great scenes and characters from some of the biggest movie franchises in Amreican history - Back to the Future, Star Wars, Star Trek, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter and my current favorite: Jurassic Park.

I don’t know much about music composition, but I played the flute for a few years in Junior High. I chose it because that’s where all the cool girls would be. I was not one of them, but something about girl crushes and you get the idea.

Anyway, we as flute players, were lucky because compositions in junior high really engaged the flutes to carry the melody. So while the saxophones were playing long strings of notes in the background, for most songs we played we were the stars of the show. When played the theme song from Jurassic Park for one of our concerts, I felt lucky because I got to play all the best parts.

It was the mid-90s and Jurassic Park had just come out. I, like many, was a big fan. I had read the book in one long binge session and had seen the movie in theaters with my less-excited friend. While watching, I remember nerdily commenting that three velociraptors could definitely take a T Rex down because they were smarter and had those claws. She rolled her eyes as the movie played out a different scene.

At the time I took for granted how much impact the music, and especially the main theme, had on the way we the viewers experienced the utopian vision of this dinosaur theme park. Cue 1:20 in this video where we hear it for the first time.

Watching it again recently, I am aware of how, even towards the end of the movie, the refrain of the theme still offers a sliver of hope that miracles like dinosaur-cloning are possible, even though this specific dinosaur theme-park has tanked. (Newman!)

Listening to the soundtrack while working on admin stuff or being stuck in traffic has really lifted my spirits. It’s like this burst of optimism in the face of an otherwise cynical world - which is really what the dream of a dinosaur theme park is about. Do we need a dinosaur theme park? No. But who didn’t love dinosaurs growing up? If you had a bazillion dollars, who is to say that you wouldn’t try to clone some extinct animal just because you could. We all know better than to clone dinosaurs after this movie, but there’s probably something else out there that you would do just for the fun of it.

As a way to tie kittens and Jurassic Park together, what I think is that they both represent this child-like wonder, a curiosity about the possibilities life has to offer - ones that we as busy adults often miss.

What’s in that bag? We think we already know that it’s just an empty bag. But a kitten doesn’t assume anything. They see a world of potential in that discarded bag. It can be their new favorite hiding spot, a maker of crinkly sound, a new bed to nap on - the permutations are endless.

Some happenings

This Sunday in Los Angeles!
The Side Woo x Hayley Barker at Artbooks @ Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles.
Sunday July 28th, 3-4:30pm PT
RSVP

The latest interviews on The Side Woo:

Conversation with Amir Fallah

Conversation with Natalja Kent

Live recorded talk with Vivien Ebright Chung