August 2015
Dear Elephants, Humans and Birds,
Greetings from Anatevka, Playing Tevya, from Fiddler on the Roof, again (at the Rivoli Theatre in South Fallsburg) has been an invigorating and beloved endeavor that I have done four times previously. Each time I do it, it is different. Each cast is different, except this one has several people with whom I have worked before, and each time brings new and exciting experiences to my life. I call Tevya my signature role. I have also played many other theatrical characters like Max Bialystock in The Producers, and Pseudolis in "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" to name a couple. Being involved in theatre is a calling. I guess you either feel it or you don't. In my case, I feel it and I feel it strongly. Actually, I have been singing in hotels and other venues in the Catskill Mountains, Chicago, Atlantic City, New York City and other places, since I was six years old. That shows you a side of your Bird Club president that you have never seen before. Come see Fiddler, if you like, it will be running each weekend until August 23rd.
Bird-wise (the reason we are here) I am trying to figure out how to give my birds, especially the big ones, more quality of life. Every day that they are living in a cage makes me feel sick for them. I need to spend more time with my birds and interact more to make life more interesting for them. Zeke is ok because he is a cockatiel and flies all over the house whenever and wherever he wants. Sometimes he camps out on the kitchen counter behind the mix-master and plays his own games there. I think he has an imaginary friend. I always keep my eye on Simon, my cat, when Zeke is hanging out. Simon is good, but he is still a cat. Emma must be caged unless I am sitting in the Elephant Room with him because of the terrible amount of damage he does when unsupervised. Aristophanes lives on a bird stand in the same room. They don't really interact much but they do vocalize to each other. I bought Aristophanes two toys with my last food order. They were both gone within 4 days. We will have another toy making session in October and I have to make lots of things for him because I can't take him off, as a dependent, on my income tax. Those toys are quite expensive but he does not care about that.
I am waiting for a response from Kevin Hils, our speaker from the Bronx Zoo, about a trip to the zoo for the club. There is also another trip in the offing for us to watch eagles during the winter. I will explain how that works with out eagle presentation that we will have in February or March.
Besides our big bird show that we will be having in October, we have a lot to look forward to in the next few months. We have an animal communicator/wildlife rehabber for birds coming in September. We have a toy making session (as I stated before) in October. Our November program will be Carol Cipriani from The Parrot Lovers Cruise. December is the month for our holiday party and Penny Social. We will have a wonderful program in January from Jane Thompson who studied parrots in Equador and has written a book on them. She will be speaking about The Great Green (Buffons) macaw and the Amazon parrots that she saw there. Our eagle program from The Delaware Highlands Conservancy will be presented in February and should include a weekend trip to view wild eagles.
Tonight's program is very special and close to my heart. Tonight we have Kathleen Knight from the Stonehouse Wood Sanctuary in Rhinebeck New York. Kathy runs a sanctuary that takes unwanted chickens and other species of poultry that need a home. She is totally unique in that she takes roosters, as long as they are accompanied by a couple of hens. Roosters are extremely difficult to place if you do not want them to be killed. It was wonderful learning about her from Ellen Kalish of the Ravensbeard Wildlife Center. Jackie and I visited Kathy and brought her a few chickens that needed rehoming and the place is fantastic. She will tell you all about it and has a very nice slide presentation for us as well..
I am still accepting ideas for more programs and will call anyone you want to get them..........I have no shame!
Be well and happy and ask Little Matt what you can do to help make this bird show the best ever. I will force him to talk about it.
Love,
Richie
Greetings from Anatevka, Playing Tevya, from Fiddler on the Roof, again (at the Rivoli Theatre in South Fallsburg) has been an invigorating and beloved endeavor that I have done four times previously. Each time I do it, it is different. Each cast is different, except this one has several people with whom I have worked before, and each time brings new and exciting experiences to my life. I call Tevya my signature role. I have also played many other theatrical characters like Max Bialystock in The Producers, and Pseudolis in "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" to name a couple. Being involved in theatre is a calling. I guess you either feel it or you don't. In my case, I feel it and I feel it strongly. Actually, I have been singing in hotels and other venues in the Catskill Mountains, Chicago, Atlantic City, New York City and other places, since I was six years old. That shows you a side of your Bird Club president that you have never seen before. Come see Fiddler, if you like, it will be running each weekend until August 23rd.
Bird-wise (the reason we are here) I am trying to figure out how to give my birds, especially the big ones, more quality of life. Every day that they are living in a cage makes me feel sick for them. I need to spend more time with my birds and interact more to make life more interesting for them. Zeke is ok because he is a cockatiel and flies all over the house whenever and wherever he wants. Sometimes he camps out on the kitchen counter behind the mix-master and plays his own games there. I think he has an imaginary friend. I always keep my eye on Simon, my cat, when Zeke is hanging out. Simon is good, but he is still a cat. Emma must be caged unless I am sitting in the Elephant Room with him because of the terrible amount of damage he does when unsupervised. Aristophanes lives on a bird stand in the same room. They don't really interact much but they do vocalize to each other. I bought Aristophanes two toys with my last food order. They were both gone within 4 days. We will have another toy making session in October and I have to make lots of things for him because I can't take him off, as a dependent, on my income tax. Those toys are quite expensive but he does not care about that.
I am waiting for a response from Kevin Hils, our speaker from the Bronx Zoo, about a trip to the zoo for the club. There is also another trip in the offing for us to watch eagles during the winter. I will explain how that works with out eagle presentation that we will have in February or March.
Besides our big bird show that we will be having in October, we have a lot to look forward to in the next few months. We have an animal communicator/wildlife rehabber for birds coming in September. We have a toy making session (as I stated before) in October. Our November program will be Carol Cipriani from The Parrot Lovers Cruise. December is the month for our holiday party and Penny Social. We will have a wonderful program in January from Jane Thompson who studied parrots in Equador and has written a book on them. She will be speaking about The Great Green (Buffons) macaw and the Amazon parrots that she saw there. Our eagle program from The Delaware Highlands Conservancy will be presented in February and should include a weekend trip to view wild eagles.
Tonight's program is very special and close to my heart. Tonight we have Kathleen Knight from the Stonehouse Wood Sanctuary in Rhinebeck New York. Kathy runs a sanctuary that takes unwanted chickens and other species of poultry that need a home. She is totally unique in that she takes roosters, as long as they are accompanied by a couple of hens. Roosters are extremely difficult to place if you do not want them to be killed. It was wonderful learning about her from Ellen Kalish of the Ravensbeard Wildlife Center. Jackie and I visited Kathy and brought her a few chickens that needed rehoming and the place is fantastic. She will tell you all about it and has a very nice slide presentation for us as well..
I am still accepting ideas for more programs and will call anyone you want to get them..........I have no shame!
Be well and happy and ask Little Matt what you can do to help make this bird show the best ever. I will force him to talk about it.
Love,
Richie