Le Guess Who 2023: epilogue

You can read my previous Le Guess Who post here and all my 2023 Le Guess Who posts here.

Monday saw us making a long, depressing, and surprisingly stressful journey home by plane. The possibility of travelling back overland next year was discussed, though I suspect it would be a bit impractical. It was however nice to receive a welcome at home from cat name of Billy Edwards.

Some Le Guess Who things I did not see but wish I had:

• Caterina Barbieri + Space Afrika with MFO: partly just for the name.
• Decisive Pink: someone who was formerly to be in the Dirty Projectors and someone who was not.
• Alan Sparhawk: I think this could have been quite emotional. Plus Low were always one of my favourite live bands.
• The Good Ones: My beloved saw them and said they were great, as did a guy we were talking to at Le Feast. They are from Rwanda but were not playing traditional music of their country, but instead tunes of a somewhat more globally informed variety.
• In Solidarity With: This was not a performance at all but a gap deliberately left empty in the programme in which people could sit in Hertz and think about all the bad things happening in the world. If I remember correctly the time slot was meant to be filled by a Palestinian musician from Gaza but he is now trapped there and fleeing for his life from Israeli bombing.
• Model/Actriz: As previously noted, this Brooklyn bunch were recommended over brunch. I will investigate them.
• Stereolab: I have seen them many times and while I do not regret seeing other things instead of them I would still like to have seen them at Le Guess Who.

Thanks to anyone who has made it this far. If you want more you can see all my terrible Le Guess Who pictures here.

Film: "The Electrical Life of Louis Wain" (2021)

Directed by Will Sharpe, this is a biopic of that late Victorian guy who painted pictures of cats, with Benedict Cumberbatch shining in the lead role. Before seeing the film my thumbnail understanding of Louis Wain's life was that he painted pictures of cats and then went mad, with there being some debate as to whether his mental deterioration can be traced in the development of his art style (some of the cat pictures are completely bananas but it is not clear that he painted them after the more conventional ones). The film throws in a couple of other sad facts about his life, revealing first that he scandalised his family by marrying his sisters' governess (wonderfully played by Claire Foy) but was then parted from her prematurely when she died of cancer. Also one of his sisters also goes mad (before his own breakdown); as presented in the film you get the sense that oddness ran in the family, with his more sensible elder sister (played by the always wonderful Andrea Riseborough) coming across as someone permanently putting on her game face to present as normal.

And yet, it is a far less miserable film than that potted summary of Wain's life suggests. He has his ups and downs and yes he does end up permanently institutionalised, but following a fundraising appeal by his admirers he is brought to a nice asylum where he gets to both keep a pet cat and paint away to his heart's content. There are worse ways of passing your days.

images:

Louis Wain cat art (Wikipedia)

A human, a cat, and another human (Screen Rant: "The Real Meaning Of The Electrical Life Of Louis Wain's Title Explained")

My cat pictures (Flickr)

The incredible story of our cat

On the anniversary of our cat arriving into our lives I posted the story of her first year with us on Twitter. Now at last I am sharing this story for the benefit of my blog readers. This is a post that involves scrolling down a lot, but it does also feature a lot of pictures of what may be the world's most beautiful cat.

1. When we first moved to Stoneybatter, we noticed a cat frequenting Billy Edwards Park #cativersary pic.twitter.com/8dDvcfHw80

— Ian Moore (@IanMoore3000) June 11, 2016

2. One year ago today she invited herself in to visit. She seemed friendly #cativersary pic.twitter.com/SfANpTaE27

— Ian Moore (@IanMoore3000) June 11, 2016

3. The cat made herself at home. We called her Billy Edwards, after the park #cativersary pic.twitter.com/lKMNKCZrMF

— Ian Moore (@IanMoore3000) June 11, 2016

4. Cat likes resting in the windowsill #cativersary pic.twitter.com/9fqqFJyMJY

— Ian Moore (@IanMoore3000) June 11, 2016

5. Cat does not like other cats, especially Backyard Cat #cativersary pic.twitter.com/DrUYzbUNdT

— Ian Moore (@IanMoore3000) June 11, 2016

6. Cat knows how to live #cativersary pic.twitter.com/FaxbZIEsY3

— Ian Moore (@IanMoore3000) June 11, 2016

7. Cat sometimes goes exploring, but remains wary of meeting her enemy #cativersary pic.twitter.com/AEjs7VUkSA

— Ian Moore (@IanMoore3000) June 11, 2016

8. Cat keeps an eye on shady local characters #cativersary pic.twitter.com/jSCNYAe8VC

— Ian Moore (@IanMoore3000) June 11, 2016

9. Cat does not like when it rains #cativersary pic.twitter.com/mCA5kHC869

— Ian Moore (@IanMoore3000) June 11, 2016

10. Cat does not like when I play “Bitches Brew” #cativersary pic.twitter.com/P2y3KMxk7J

— Ian Moore (@IanMoore3000) June 11, 2016

11. Cat collects heavy artillery #cativersary pic.twitter.com/dF397BEAAQ

— Ian Moore (@IanMoore3000) June 11, 2016

12. Cat solicits Dreamies #cativersary pic.twitter.com/LEWQq8kPEA

— Ian Moore (@IanMoore3000) June 11, 2016

13. Fleas made her sick so sad cat had to go to the vet #cativersary pic.twitter.com/AsrYat7DSh

— Ian Moore (@IanMoore3000) June 11, 2016

14. Once cat was better she caught up on the latest internet news #cativersary pic.twitter.com/Mw3glB6WG0

— Ian Moore (@IanMoore3000) June 11, 2016

15. We found her original home, but cat elected not to back as she has fallen out with her sister #cativersary pic.twitter.com/SVBfqtxo5Z

— Ian Moore (@IanMoore3000) June 11, 2016

16. The two sisters in happier times #cativersary pic.twitter.com/cIRDD5vBtm

— Ian Moore (@IanMoore3000) June 11, 2016

17. Cat has added many smudges to our front window #cativersary pic.twitter.com/JZud7CdGz0

— Ian Moore (@IanMoore3000) June 11, 2016

18. Cat does not take any nonsense #cativersary pic.twitter.com/Jj1w6QmMeO

— Ian Moore (@IanMoore3000) June 11, 2016

19. Cat makes the best of her tough life #cativersary pic.twitter.com/bdooJOg97N

— Ian Moore (@IanMoore3000) June 11, 2016

20. She may be the world’s prettiest cat #cativersary pic.twitter.com/dC78qJ9OZ5

— Ian Moore (@IanMoore3000) June 11, 2016

More amazing cat pictures here and here

Important Cat Adventures

I will now recount some further adventures of our cat, Ms Billy Edwards (details of how she came to be named after a Stoneybatter character to be revealed in due course). The world is divided into those who love hearing about the exploits and opinions of our furry friends and people who would rather chew off their left arm than read about some stupid cat, but I beg such people to indulge me and keep reading, for the cat's progress is germane to my own activities. As viewers of my Facebook and Flickr photographs will know, she appeared somewhat downcast following the death of David Bowie. However, it transpired that the main reason why she was out of sorts was an infestation of fleas. Some cats can laugh off flea attacks, ignoring their new friends or subjecting their bites to little more than an occasional scratch, but they caused much greater annoyance to the Cap'n, who may have had an allergic reaction to them. Because we are new to cat ownership it took us a while to register what was happening but the signs soon became unmistakable.

The sad cat lay on my lap one night and whimpered when I moved to get up and go to bed. The following morning my beloved went off to the vet and got some anti-flea medication for her, which we administered, but she then retreated to her favourite box and just sat in there in a state of near despair for the rest of the day. She had stopped eating and because she is one of those cats who does not drink water she was becoming increasingly dehydrated.

The following morning the cat was still alive (phew) so we brought her to one of the few Dublin vets that opens on a Sunday. On the way there she whimpered in her cat carrier and then wet herself in the waiting room because of all the scary dogs there. The vet reckoned that she was indeed dehydrated and not eating either because she had picked up a stomach bug from the fleas or because she had accidentally bunged herself up with hair thanks to excessive flea-driven grooming. She had to be kept in and put in a drip.

The vet also checked her for a microchip (at my request), and it turned out she had one. He said they would check the databases to see what came up.

I know from talking to a certain person who works in the Department of Agriculture that a lot of people really do not get that it is not enough to have a microchip in an animal, the chip has to then be registered on a database somewhere. There seem to be a multiplicity of databases on which a cat might be registered and we kept receiving updates from the vet saying that they had not found anything for her but were still searching, until eventually they did find her as having been registered with the DSPCA.

It would surely not be long before the vet tracked down her registered owner. We glumly wondered how we would go about saying goodbye to our beloved cat, while also pondering the etiquette of trying to palm off the vet bill on whoever was going to be taking custody of the Cap'n. But then we had a reprieve. The vet revealed that the cat's original owner was happy to let her stay with us. She had quarrelled with the owner's other cat (her own sibling) and so had struck out on her own. Should she return there the likelihood would be that she would do the same again.

We also learned from the vet that the cat's owner lives somewhere in Stoneybatter. We still have not made contact with her (I lazily assume that cat owners are all women, unless they are popular film critic Donald Clarke or myself) but we have many questions. Like, how long since the cat left her old home was it before she moved in with us? Are any of her various local cat enemies (Backyard Cat and Other Ginger Cat in particular) her estranged sibling?

What we do know is that the cat was born in 2009, making her older than we thought. Further information will be obtained in due course. We also know that when she came back from the vet's she was super affectionate and soon took to sleeping on our bed once more. And eating food. And generally being a happy cat once more, apart from when we play Bitches Brew by Miles Davis.

But right now I can imagine any cat-hater reading this is thinking "I've been tricked into reading a load of shite about a cat with a vague promise that it would somehow prove relevant to more interesting stuff about Ian, who is not a cat". Fear not readers, I have not led you astray. This important cat news sets the scene for the next post on this amazing blog. Come back tomorrow to read it. It will blow your mind.

Since writing the above we have indeed made contact with our cat's previous owner, meeting her and our cat's estranged sister. Further details may be revealed in due course.

More cat pictures

Even more cat pictures

Cat brings home special present

Cats often bring home little presents for their owners - usually dead rodents or birds. An unnamed cat in Dunedin in New Zealand went for something a bit more useful, bringing its owner a bag containing 5 grammes of cannabis. However, instead of sparking the hooter, the cat's owner showed a marked lack of gratitude and instead reported the find to the local police.

Sgt Reece Munro is investigating the case and trying to find out where the bag of cannabis came from. His efforts are being hampered by the cat, who is taking the Fifth on this and refusing to cooperate with the investigation or name its dealer. Sgt Munro will reportedly be letting the cat off with a caution.

IMPORTANT NOTE: photographs of the dope dealing cat have not been released, so the above image is stock image of a completely different cat.

More (BBC)

Even more (Otago Daily Times)

Tsunami Cat's Big Adventure

In March 2011 the terrible tsunami devastated much of Japan. Most of the town of Ofunato, in the Iwate Prefecture was destroyed. Kazuko Yamagishi and Takeo Yamagishi were lucky in that their home escaped destruction, though they had to endure the horror of living in a town that had been laid waste and whose neighbours were now homeless. They were also separated from Suika, their cat. In the three months after the tsunami the Yamagishis searched for Suika but then came to the conclusion that they would probably never see their cat again.

However in April this year another couple spotted a cat curled up in a nearby forest - a friendly cat wearing a collar. They brought it to the Ofunato Health Centre, which placed an ad in the local paper when no one came forward to claim it. But then one of the employees in the health centre notice the Yamagishis' name and number written in faded letters on his collar, and was able to reunite him with his owners.

The Yamagishis are overjoyed to have Suika back after all these years. Suika is being more guarded with his opinions.
More (BBC)

Even more (Asahi Shimbun)

An inuit panda production

Cats get lost, cats get found

Pets often go missing. Owners of missing pets then post up photographs of their animals, asking people to keep an eye out for them and report them if found. For a while now I have been photographing these lost animal notices and posting them to a Flickr album and to Facebook. I find the pictures interesting in and of themselves but I do also like to think that maybe, just maybe, sharing the photos online will help the lost animals find their way home.

Today I was waking home from work a bit later than usual along the canal near the Luas Bridge, by the Hilton, when I saw a cat nosing around. Something about the cat seemed a bit odd, like it was almost approaching people but not quite, not a behaviour I generally see in our feline friends. And it looked a bit familiar. I fumbled for my mobile phone and looked at pictures of lost cats I had posted to Facebook, and thought that this one looked rather like one I had posted last January. Could it be the same one? I hurriedly wrote down one of the numbers on the poster and rang the number, leaving a somewhat confused phone message. Then I sent a more detailed text message to the phone numbers.

I watched the cat as it prowled around in the grass beside the canal, intently eyeing the birds swimming in the water. Perhaps it was hoping to chance upon a chick or a small bird ashore, or an unwary rodent. But it did not and moved away from the water. It came close to me, seeming to neither beg for food and attention nor to exhibit any obvious fear of humans. I thought of trying to catch it, which I think would have been easy enough, but I had no idea how long it would take the owners to come back to me. It would be a bit annoying if I was holding an angry cat when a message reached me that the owners had recovered their tiddles months previously. So I watched it for a bit longer and then decided to slink home lest I be arrested as one of those shifty characters who loiters outside hotels.

And then when I was nearly home I received a text message form the owners thanking me and saying that they had recovered the cat by the hotel. Jurassic Park.

Pets - Lost and Found

An inuit panda production

Jesse the Cat's Eight Year Sabbatical

In May 2006 Jesse the cat was being brought by his owner Lesley Corbett on a routine visit to the vet. Jesse however had other plans. He threw himself violently against the door of his cat box until the door came off. Then he jumped out and ran away as fast as he could. Ms Corbett and her family tried to lure Jesse out of hiding by rattling his food container, but to no avail. Although they kept looking for him, they resigned themselves to the possibility of never seeing Jesse again, though they never gave up hope of his eventual return.

But then on the 28th of February last Ms Corbett received an unexpected phone call from the very veterinary practice to which she had been bringing Jesse in 2006. A stray cat loitering in the area had been brought in and then identified as Jesse from its microchip.

Jesse appears to have been well-fed during his eight years away, but now that he is home he is apparently being spoiled rotten. He is also proving very vocal, informing Ms Corbett's other cats of all the exciting adventures he enjoyed while on his travels.

more (BBC)

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Secrets of the Cat Burglar Cats

Cats are well known for their habit of bringing little gifts for their owners - usually half-eaten mice or mangled birds. But an important report on the BBC News website concerns two cats somewhat more ambitious in their gifting. Theo, a Siamese cross from Ipswich, has previously presented his owners with stolen clothing items, phone chargers and cat toys. This year, however, he has got into the festive spirit by bringing home a variety of Christmas decorations believed to be filched from neighbours' Christmas trees.

The same article reports that Luton cat Denis typically brings home underwear, shoes and similar items, acquired in a less than legal manner. After Christmas, however, he impresses his owners by delivering piles of Christmas wrapping paper to them.

Both cats are apparently not very good at catching birds or small rodents.

Cat experts believe that behaviour like this is typical of felines who were not thought to hunt properly as kittens. When they grow up, they become fixated on cat toys and human objects and retrieve them instead of launching murderous campaigns against other animals.

More (BBC)

Denis Cat Burglar Newman (YouTube channel)

An inuit panda production

More analogue photography

I took some more pictures with my wonky Holga camera. Some of them are of cats, feral and domesticated.







Others were of things seen on the streets of Dublin.





As is traditional with cheap film cameras, I accidentally exposed one frame twice.



And I clipped the top of an object I was photographing.



More

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Ambitious Cat Enters Politics

Cats have taken the Internet by storm - and now one cat is trying to replicate that success in the world of politics. For the Mexican city of Xalapa's next mayor might just be the black and white feline Morris. El Candigato, as Morris is known, is believed by his supporters to be ideally suited to rid the body politic of the various rats who have infested it.

Morris now has some 138,000 likes on Facebook and his campaign reportedly has the established Mexican parties worried. And his campaign is not without controversy - a local journalist has suggested that his campaign is a trick by the dominant Partido Revolucionario Institucional, designed to lure voters away from other opposition parties. Morris has not commented on these allegations.

Xalapa is not the only Mexican town where an animal is running for public office. In Ciudad Juarez, a donkey is running for mayor, in Oaxaca a dog, and in Tepic a chicken. None are however proving as popular as El Candigato Morris, though public officials point out that he is not actually eligible for public office on account of not being human.

More:
Cat stands for election in Mexican city (Guardian) (image source)

El Candigato Morris (Fecebook)

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The Cat that Saved a Life

Cats have a reputation for selfishness, but a cat called Charley has done her bit to improve the image of felines. As a kitten, she was adopted by Ms Susan Marsh-Armstrong. Charley was initially very weak, but Ms Marsh-Armstrong nursed her back to health. As Charley grew stronger she became ever more fond of her owner.

Ms Marsh-Armstrong is diabetic, and one night she went to the bathroom and then collapsed into a hypoglycaemic coma, as her blood sugar had dropped to a dangerous level. Seeing that something was wrong, Charley went to her husband (whom she normally avoided), pawing and licking at him to wake him up from a deep sleep. Once he woke up, Charley then led him to the bathroom where Ms Marsh-Armstrong was lying unconscious. He was able to inject glucagons into his wife and bring her round before she suffered any lasting ill effects.

The family's other two cats slept through the incident.

For her quick thinking, Charley won the Hero Cat title at last year's British National Cat Awards, winning a trophy, three month's supply of cat food and a year's supply of cat litter.

More

Even More (and image source)

And even more

Runt of litter is now very old cat

Wadsworth the cat lives in Bedford. He is 27 years old, which is very old for a cat. But when he was a kitten he was a sickly little fellow who was continuously back and forth to the vet. "He was full of infection but with the help of the vets we nursed him back to health", reports Mrs Ann Munday, his owner. She reports that since then "he has gone from strength to strength", though he is now much slower than he used to be. He apparently spends most of his time sleeping and is less interested in playing than when he was younger.

Wadsworth is still fairly healthy though he does suffer from some medical conditions. His vet Gill Monsell reports that "he gets stressed out having his blood pressure done, but he is very stable and doing very well."

Although Wadsworth may be the oldest cat ever recorded in Britain, he is some ten years younger than the oldest ever recorded. That honour was held by Creme Puff, a cat from Texas, who was 38 when she died in 2005.

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Little Cat's Big Journey

A recurring type of news story concerns a cat or other animal who stows away somewhere and makes an unexpectedly long journey. The latest concerns the cat Bisou. Her owner, Ms Mervat Ciuiti, was travelling from Egypt to visit her sister in Nottinghamshire. When she was in a taxi to Radcliffe-on-Trent she discovered that her cat had come to England with her. Bisou, a Persian, had climbed into Ms Cuiti's bag in Cairo and then travelled 2,200 miles from Egypt in the airplane's freezing hold.

Bisou is now going through quarantine in Chesterfield and apparently does not understand what all the fuss is about.

More

hat tip

Clever Cat Invests Wisely

Cats are not normally known for their intelligence, but Orlando is a cat is proving the doubters wrong. This astute feline has demonstrated a canniness when it comes to investing in stocks and shares.

The Observer newspaper had set up a competition whereby two teams were given £5,000 to invest in companies on the FTSE All-Share index, with the team having the highest valued shares over a year being the winner. One team consisted of professional wealth fund managers, the other a bunch of students.

Orlando also took part in this competition. He is not much of a team-player and so competed on his own. Orlando showed which stocks he wanted to buy by throwing his toys onto a grid representing the different companies.

At the end of the competition, the professionals had outperformed the students. However, the clear winner was none other than Orlando. The clever cat had played a long game, coming from behind in the last quarter to surge ahead of his bipedal rivals, finishing with shares worth more than 110% of the starting price.

It is not known if Orlando plans to pursue a career in financial investments. The Observer reports that he is unable to comment because of "a claws in his contract".


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TV loving cat tries to eat TV

Alphie is a kitten who lives in Sheffield. His owner, Ms Vanessa Waite, reports that he likes watching the television, as he seems to find the moving images fascinating. But Alphie loved the television so much he had the bright idea of trying to eat it, starting with the aerial. Unfortunately it stuck in his stomach and he had to be operated on to remove it.

Ms Waite reports that Alphie has not learned any obvious lessons from his experience. He is still watching too much television and appears to be still trying to eat all kinds of inappropriate objects.

More (Guardian)

Feline Felon in Prison Plot

A white cat has been arrested in a Brazilian jail. It was spotted crossing the front gate of the prison in Arapiraca city, with a variety of contraband items strapped to its body, including a mobile phone and charger, drill bits, files, and earphones. It is believed that the cat was part of a gang and that the contraband items would have been used in an escape attempt or to communicate with criminals outside.

The cat is being held in an animal protection centre while attempts are made to track down its accomplices. However, prison spokesperson Estado de S. Paulo reports that the case is not progressing as the cat is proving uncooperative. "It's tough to find out who's responsible for the action as the cat is not talking," commented Mr de S. Paulo.

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