Monkeys

A month ago I went to see the Mets play the Angels. Angels Stadium, or Disney Field, or Los Angeles Stadium of Anaheim, or whatever it's called, is pretty dull. Not nearly as interesting, or visually appealing, as Dodger Stadium...but that's another story. Anyway, the Mets were winning BIG, so it didn't really matter. At some point in the game things looked as if the Angels might mount some sort of comeback. As the Mets switched pitchers, the jumbotron started playing a scene from Jurassic Park, the one near the beginning where it's raining, and they get stuck in the mud, and they start hearing this thunderous sound, and...you know T-Rex is coming. Only where T-Rex was supposed to be, a screaming monkey suddenly appears, in keeping with the Angels rally monkey theme.

I don't really care that much about the Angels. I mean, I love Chone Figgins, and Vlady is really fun to watch, but whatever. But, in that moment, I got goose bumps. And I'm a Met fan. They also used the Monkey on the jumbotron at some other point. Joyce says it was maybe infused into Rocky, or something like that.

It all brings me back to the little travelmentary I watched today, on demand, about the Elephanta Caves in India. It looked pretty cool, obviously...but about half way when the monkeys showed up, cool turned to unforgettable and amazing. It reminded me of the time HC and I were in Malaysia, also in a cave, and a bunch of monkeys showed up and started ripping potato chip bags out of people's hands. Or the time Huevos and KB and I were walking around Tamarindo and a bunch of howler monkeys (similar to the one pictured above) started screaming in the trees. Monkeys always improve things.

Recently I watched a bit of REM's Rockpalast gig in 1985, on Demand. REM was amazing back then, not that I really need to mention that. I guess, at this point, they're a bit less amazing. And then I started thinking about REM with a monkey...I would be interested to hear what other people think about the value of monkeys.

On another note, as I was writing this post, I just felt my first earthquake. It was definitely kind of unsettling. My walls started to creak, and then my building seemed to wobble, and then I ran to grab my girlfriend and my dogs and hid under the door frames. My heart was beating a bit.