Susan Clark

Everything Entertainment, TV series review

Penguin Town (Netflix Documentary Series) –Fun and Informative

The new Netflix docuseries Penguin Town is loads of fun (and cuteness) while still being informative.

The series is filmed in Simon’s Town, South Africa, where these adorable African penguins roam close by to people, strolling down the sidewalk, passing sunbathers on the beach, and, in one shot, even plodding through some sand castles. It makes me feel like I want to visit this part of the world, so I can spot these cute waddlers while visiting the beach.

The narrator for the series is Patton Oswalt, the actor who played Spencer on The King of Queens and has also done some voicework for movies like Remy in Ratatouille. The soundtrack of the series is also fun and enjoyable, and, I believe, adds a lot to it. You’ll hear snippets of mostly upbeat music that fit the scene from surf music to African music to tension-building instrumentals for adventures involving potential danger. In one funny scene, where a male penguin spots his mate from afar, a snippet of Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet is played along with slow motion film of the female penguin shaking water from her head.

The series follows various penguin couples like Mr. and Mrs. Bougainvillea, named for the bush where they have their nest, and Mr. and Mrs. Culvert, named for the same reason. Then, there’s Lord and Lady Courtyard, the aristocrats. With great humor, their love stories are told, and you follow the adventures of these penguin couples starting families and having chicks, while facing some complications from egg-stealing predators presented as “Bad Guys.”

You’ll also see the stories unfold about Junior, a young penguin with a molting issue, who needed help in captivity from vets for an infected seal bite wound until he was healthy enough to be released again. Some of these scenes are cleverly and humorously filmed from Junior’s point of view, as he is carried through the center, looking through a hole in a cardboard box, and is, in his mind, “captured by aliens.” You do have to wonder what wild animals think about these experiences and if they understand humans are trying to help them. These same vets also help nurture some lost or abandoned penguin eggs.

I saw one reviewer thought the series made a mockery of an endangered species by being light-hearted and entertaining. I don’t see it that way. The docuseries makes it clear that the animals are endangered. Seeing endangered birds mate and have families is positive news in light of the issue. Seeing vets successfully rehabilitate an injured bird or oversee an egg to bring forth a healthy chick is also positive news. Penguins are naturally charming and entertaining. Why not make it positive?

Creative Life, Poetry

What Honking is For (A PSA), #Tanka Tuesday, Specific Forms

my car didn’t move

right in the first half second

after the light turned green,

so you honk.

my car then slows down,

as I get ready to turn

into a parking lot,

so you honk.

my blinker was on,

you knew that I was turning,

I was doing no wrong,

but you honk.

in heavy traffic,

I am hesitant to merge,

I’m more cautious than you,

so you honk.

a person crosses,

ambling across the crosswalk,

while I am stopped for him,

then you honk.

you didn’t see him,

and you feel there’s no reason

to ever slow or stop

so you honk.

if when changing lanes,

I am about to hit you,

and I just don’t see you,

then you honk.

honking means “danger,”

it does not mean to “speed up,”

so do not be surprised,

when you honk,

if I slow or stop

at the sound then of the blast

to avoid the danger

at your honk.

This was written for Colleen M. Chesebro’s Tanka Tuesday challenge. This week, she challenged us to invent a new form.

From her page:

First, choose your favorite syllabic poetry form. Write your poem.
Next, give your poem some different characteristics to make it something different. You can change the syllable count, rhyme scheme (add or get rid of it), anything you want to create a new form. Write this poem.
Give your new syllabic poetry form a name.

This poem was halfway coming together in my head as I was driving and before I saw the specifics of this week’s challenge. So, I went about this backwards perhaps. I took my half-formed poem and made it fit some sort of syllabic format, and then tried to see how it fit the challenge. I’ll say this is a haiku, but the line count changed to four, and the syllable count changed to 5-7-6-3. The fourth line is a refrain or variations on a refrain. The stanzas in my new form can be repeated several times, so, in that sense, in length, it is similar to a renga or solo renga. Then again, like a tanka, this form can be on any topic, not necessarily nature. I’m calling it a hankenga. Ha ha! It really just worked out that way, without me even trying to be punny. By the way, the driving situation where someone honked because I stopped for someone in a crosswalk really did happen, just not in the past few days.

Creative Life, Poetry

Lost in a Painting #Laugh Along a Limerick

I once had a strange, wacky dream

Where lost in a painting, I seemed,

There an elephant goes,

With a horn for its nose,

Better this than Munch’s The Scream.

This was a response to Esther’s Challenge for a Laugh Along a Limerick, to write a limerick that included the word dream. At first, I was looking to Salvador Dali for inspiration, but, searching the Internet, I came across this surrealistic art by Vladimir Kush. Do you notice that the antelope has a lyre between its horns, the foliage is also made of horns and that there are musical notations in the cloud shapes? It is bizarre, fantastical and dreamy but not unpleasant. In fact, an explanation on Kush’s site talks about “a fresh, positive side of surrealism.”

Creative Life, Poetry

Midsummer Tanka Trifecta, #Haikai Challenge

the rain spritzes down,

leaving drops on lily leaves,

showering the plants,

providing wet nourishment,

shifting from spritz to downpour.

the strawberry moon

hovers majestically,

a giant pink orb

gleaming roseate brightness

in a purple-gray sky.

in her bright glory,

she looms peculiarly large

as seen just above

the ancient Acropolis,

seeming out of proportion.

sun glares light and heat

as moisture drips down my back,

car is now sauna,

dogs lie outside unmoving,

sidewalk is now frying pan.

This is a response to Frank J. Tassone’s haikai challenge, where we were challenged to write a haikai poem of our choice on one of three possible themes or a combination: midsummer rain, strawberry supermoon or smoldering heat. Perhaps, I did too much, but I wrote three tanka poems and one of them is a double tanka.

Bible devotions, Inspirations

Fairest Lord Jesus, Illustrated Hymn

I have been trying to post a devotional to the blog every Sunday. I was a little late this week in doing so, but after hearing a soloist at church sing the hymn “Fairest Lord Jesus,” I had a different sort of inspiration for a post — to illustrate the hymn’s lyrics with images in slideshow form.

You should be able to play the music video below it and follow along with the lyric slideshow.