About this and that and finally: Harry Potter once again. ;)
Heavens, it's a long time since I've written an entry here, but somehow life's been very busy in the last months and with two other blogs (king_tonga, die German blog of the beautiful white lion and thekingtonga, the English counterpiece) to write I simply didn't find the time to come here, too. Besides I always think that my life is actually rather boring. I still somehow swing between Germany and England - though in the last weeks it was unfortunately more Germany than England because my now almost 92 year old father is, after another fall and another surgery for a broken leg finally bedridden and a very difficult, insufferable patient who drives my poor mother almost up the walls, so she needs some support.
Besides I have a lot of work, but that's something I certainly won't complain about because the two new clients I got last year aren't only lovely people I've come to see as friends, but the work I do for them is fun and gives me a lot of satisfaction. Client no.1 is the dressage educator Anja Beran (if you're curious: Anja Beran Stiftung), the other is in a way even more fascinating: It's Martin Lacey jr., an English animal trainer who works with lions in the famous Circus Krone (and in a fortnight his website will be ready and I'll certainly announce that here - I'm rather proud on it after I've worked on it for months).
However, working for Martin means for me coming back to an old subject: Arguing with animal right activists - something I've already done for years as an eventing rider. In Germany the animal right activists have started a campain against "wild animals" in the circus and Martin as one of the most famous animal trainers (who works besides for Europe's biggest circus)is one of their favourite targets. However, their arguments against him are rather stupid. It starts with his lions certainly not being "wild animals" - Martin comes from a family of animal trainers (his father Martin Lacey snr. is owner of a zoo and a circus in England. He breeds lions since around 10 generations. Martin's mother Susan Lacey was working with a mixed act - tigers and lions - and did a bit of breeding also. Hence almost all of the lions Martin jnr. works with were bred by his father. The only exception are his white lions: King Tonga came from the breeding station of an Arabian prince, his two girlfriends came from a breeding station in South Africa). Besides I always shake my head when I once again read the animal right activists favourite argument: "Dressage is always done by force." Yeah, of course - especially with lions! Because - as everyone knows - lions couldn't defend themselves against a human using force on them. And they'd never do because lions are known for being especially peaceful, soft animals, aren't they? They'd never attack a human ... at least not in the Disney movies the animal right activists obviously use as their source of information about big cats.
Sometimes I wish they'd just use a bit of common sense. Even the lionesses who're definitely smaller as the males weight around 250 kg. They have big, sharp claws and teeth as long as my fingers! Besides they're very quick - and I certainly wouldn't want to deal with one of the ladies when she's upset. And when it comes to the males: Martin's brown lion Kasanga weights around 350 kg, the white King Tonga doesn't weight much less. If they'd decide to have a go at Martin he wouldn't stand a snowball's chance in hell. And if he'd ever use force against them he certainly couldn't dare to cuddle them twice a day in the ring - what he does. He kisses Kasanga and even lies on him for a cuddle and with King Tonga the entire act is actually cuddling. Besides I've seen - now more than once - how Tonga says "Good morning" to Martin: As soon as Martin comes to him, Tonga "hugs" him: He puts both his forelegs on Martin's shoulders and they have a long cuddle. I'm pretty sure: If Tonga would have ever experienced force by Martin, he wouldn't do that - and Martin wouldn't let him come so close if he wouldn't trust his lion entirely.
I sometimes think these animal right activists must be blind - or they never were in the circus, never watched a good animal trainer working with his animals. It's obvious from the way the animals behave that they trust their trainers, that they see them - as Martin always says - as a "kind of odd lion". That wouldn't work if the trainer would use force, so the entire argument isn't valid.
The other arguments like "the traveling is stress for the animals" doesn't work either. Circus lions are used on traveling - and in the case of the Lacey lions: Martin hat a renowed behaviour scientist traveling with him from Germany to Monaco in winter. It was a long way over the snowy alps and during the way the lions were watched and checked. The result was clear: None of the animals, not even the three youngsters who were at this time just half a year old showed any signs of stress. They slept through most of the trip.
Enough of that - the reason I wanted to write an entry was here: I was watching a Harry Potter movie last night. it was a long time since I've last done so - somehow I'd lost interest, but last night I was rather groggy after a long day's work, so I wanted to relax a bit and watched "Harry Potter and the Halfblood Prince".
And now I'm going to say something what some people will see as a kind of "sacrileg": By watching the "Halfblood Prince" I discovered that I actually dislike Alan Rickman as Snape. It started already with the movies before, but in the "Halfblood Prince" he really goes on my nerves with his feckin' "attitude". This hissing and slowing down his speech, this always sounding "menacing" - he's overdoing it in a way which is really, really too much for me. It's hammy acting at his worst and I really wonder why the director didn't stop him at least a bit because it becomes almost comical. He plays the villain in a way which would in my opinion even too much for a school's play.
Kick me, bite me, call me names, but the more I watch Rickman, the more I think that he's a rather one-dimensional actor. With him it's always this attitude - long pauses in his speech, almost whispering, hissing, grumbling. And can't the man play something else as grumbler?
Besides I'll probably never get what's "attractive" about Rickman. To me he looks like an elderly man who isn't exactly in topform anymore, who mostly looks like he's just bitten into a lemon and who doesn't radiate an ioata of charm, but comes over rather boring. And reading interviews with him I find him pretentious and boring.
So - now I've said it and now you can come and kick me.
But I feel better now. ;)
Besides I have a lot of work, but that's something I certainly won't complain about because the two new clients I got last year aren't only lovely people I've come to see as friends, but the work I do for them is fun and gives me a lot of satisfaction. Client no.1 is the dressage educator Anja Beran (if you're curious: Anja Beran Stiftung), the other is in a way even more fascinating: It's Martin Lacey jr., an English animal trainer who works with lions in the famous Circus Krone (and in a fortnight his website will be ready and I'll certainly announce that here - I'm rather proud on it after I've worked on it for months).
However, working for Martin means for me coming back to an old subject: Arguing with animal right activists - something I've already done for years as an eventing rider. In Germany the animal right activists have started a campain against "wild animals" in the circus and Martin as one of the most famous animal trainers (who works besides for Europe's biggest circus)is one of their favourite targets. However, their arguments against him are rather stupid. It starts with his lions certainly not being "wild animals" - Martin comes from a family of animal trainers (his father Martin Lacey snr. is owner of a zoo and a circus in England. He breeds lions since around 10 generations. Martin's mother Susan Lacey was working with a mixed act - tigers and lions - and did a bit of breeding also. Hence almost all of the lions Martin jnr. works with were bred by his father. The only exception are his white lions: King Tonga came from the breeding station of an Arabian prince, his two girlfriends came from a breeding station in South Africa). Besides I always shake my head when I once again read the animal right activists favourite argument: "Dressage is always done by force." Yeah, of course - especially with lions! Because - as everyone knows - lions couldn't defend themselves against a human using force on them. And they'd never do because lions are known for being especially peaceful, soft animals, aren't they? They'd never attack a human ... at least not in the Disney movies the animal right activists obviously use as their source of information about big cats.
Sometimes I wish they'd just use a bit of common sense. Even the lionesses who're definitely smaller as the males weight around 250 kg. They have big, sharp claws and teeth as long as my fingers! Besides they're very quick - and I certainly wouldn't want to deal with one of the ladies when she's upset. And when it comes to the males: Martin's brown lion Kasanga weights around 350 kg, the white King Tonga doesn't weight much less. If they'd decide to have a go at Martin he wouldn't stand a snowball's chance in hell. And if he'd ever use force against them he certainly couldn't dare to cuddle them twice a day in the ring - what he does. He kisses Kasanga and even lies on him for a cuddle and with King Tonga the entire act is actually cuddling. Besides I've seen - now more than once - how Tonga says "Good morning" to Martin: As soon as Martin comes to him, Tonga "hugs" him: He puts both his forelegs on Martin's shoulders and they have a long cuddle. I'm pretty sure: If Tonga would have ever experienced force by Martin, he wouldn't do that - and Martin wouldn't let him come so close if he wouldn't trust his lion entirely.
I sometimes think these animal right activists must be blind - or they never were in the circus, never watched a good animal trainer working with his animals. It's obvious from the way the animals behave that they trust their trainers, that they see them - as Martin always says - as a "kind of odd lion". That wouldn't work if the trainer would use force, so the entire argument isn't valid.
The other arguments like "the traveling is stress for the animals" doesn't work either. Circus lions are used on traveling - and in the case of the Lacey lions: Martin hat a renowed behaviour scientist traveling with him from Germany to Monaco in winter. It was a long way over the snowy alps and during the way the lions were watched and checked. The result was clear: None of the animals, not even the three youngsters who were at this time just half a year old showed any signs of stress. They slept through most of the trip.
Enough of that - the reason I wanted to write an entry was here: I was watching a Harry Potter movie last night. it was a long time since I've last done so - somehow I'd lost interest, but last night I was rather groggy after a long day's work, so I wanted to relax a bit and watched "Harry Potter and the Halfblood Prince".
And now I'm going to say something what some people will see as a kind of "sacrileg": By watching the "Halfblood Prince" I discovered that I actually dislike Alan Rickman as Snape. It started already with the movies before, but in the "Halfblood Prince" he really goes on my nerves with his feckin' "attitude". This hissing and slowing down his speech, this always sounding "menacing" - he's overdoing it in a way which is really, really too much for me. It's hammy acting at his worst and I really wonder why the director didn't stop him at least a bit because it becomes almost comical. He plays the villain in a way which would in my opinion even too much for a school's play.
Kick me, bite me, call me names, but the more I watch Rickman, the more I think that he's a rather one-dimensional actor. With him it's always this attitude - long pauses in his speech, almost whispering, hissing, grumbling. And can't the man play something else as grumbler?
Besides I'll probably never get what's "attractive" about Rickman. To me he looks like an elderly man who isn't exactly in topform anymore, who mostly looks like he's just bitten into a lemon and who doesn't radiate an ioata of charm, but comes over rather boring. And reading interviews with him I find him pretentious and boring.
So - now I've said it and now you can come and kick me.
But I feel better now. ;)