What is a mongoose anyways?

I wanted to share a quick bit on my research:

As I read myself to sleep last night I came across an interesting line in the current book I am trying to finish: Junot Diaz's The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. (SPOILER ALERT)

To give you the least bit of context without giving too much away, the protagonist of the story is beat up and left for dead in a sugar cane field in nowhere Dominican Republic. Be it a figment of the character's imagination or something else altogether, she sees a strange "extraterrestrial-like" creature resembling a mongoose, which sings to her and helps her find her way out of the sugar cane maze and onto a road where she is found by a passing truck.

This of course made me think of Ismael Francisco's encounter with the child-like extraterrestrial creature who healed his belly-button wound out by Laguna Cartagena.

Anyways, the line that stood out to me as I could not help but laugh out loud was: 

"But no matter what the truth, remember: Dominicans are Caribbean and therefore have an extraordinary tolerance for extreme phenomena." 

This is starting to become reality. Doing this research has not made me a believer, but has showed me the tolerance that I have for this kind of stuff, which is exactly what I am trying to research. 

I looked up the history of the Mongoose in the morning and found out that - not native to the Caribbean- the mongoose arrived in Puerto Rico in 1877 to control the black rat, since then it has caused the extinction of several reptiles and amphibians native to the island. Chupacabra? Perhaps...

In the book, Diaz goes on to say that "many Watchers suspect that the Mongoose arrived to our world from another" (Watchers- referring to an extraterrestrial species who watch the universe in Marvel Comics). Two lines that, although not important to the story as of yet - important to my research.

Speaking of other worldly...

Check out our boy here. I know its not art related...yet, but I could not post without sharing this trip to the "bird market" on Sunday. Every Sunday the vegetable and fruit market in ile de la cite turns into a bird market. You name it- they have it here. They even have critters, bunnies and other pets. This chicken with da fro made my day.

I was very close to getting one of these owl looking birds for my studio here, but then I thought of how terrified they would be of the metro. The smell alone would collapse their little lungs. (It was the first true HOT day in Paris on Sunday)

It's a rainy Monday in Paris today and I'm looking forward to just staying in my studio and working, after my cafe au lait of course. A week ago I started a series of 20 drawings that I hope to finish while I'm here. Perhaps I will share those with the blog this week.