Party/Ramadan/Business Class
Ostrich weekly May 5 - 11
PARTY
The Met Gala was this week, which means famous people wore silly clothes and everyone looked at the silly clothes and cheered for the silly clothes. I don’t get it. This year’s theme was “camp,” and apparently ostrich feathers are very campy (despite what Ang thinks), because they were all over the place!
Unsurprisingly, many lists put Joan Collins at the top of Campiest Dressed for showing up dressed as her character in Dynasty.
I’m not sure what bird the feathers used as eyelashes in Janelle Monae’s winking boob came from, but let’s assume it’s an ostrich.
I’m also not sure what bird was used for Céline Dion’s headpiece feathers, but they look ostrich-y to me and that’s enough.
Even event host Anna Wintour was in on it, wearing an ostrich feathered gown designed by Karl Lagerfeld (before his death, not after).
As you can see, not everyone was pleased with the ostrich domination this year. PETA lectured our feather festooned friends with a post describing how feathers are ripped out of birds’ bodies. You can read it here if you want, but I must warn you that it features a photo of a goose (not an ostrich) with its feathers ripped out. I’m not a huge fan of PETA, but some of these Met Gala gowns used tens of thousands of feathers and that seems like a lot to take from an animal for a kooky over-the-top outfit you’re only going to wear once and doesn’t even look that cool (except for Céline Dion’s hat). I guess I can’t judge too much since I eat meat.
RAMADAN
Speaking of eating meat, a Pakistani charity is helping some less fortunate Muslims get a nice filling meal before Ramadan and its requisite fasting begins. According to Reuters, about 500 people got a meal of ostrich meat and chickpea curry a few hours before sunrise marked the beginning of the month of Ramadan. The article describes ostrich meat as an exotic and expensive treat for its recipients. The ostrich meat industry isn’t doing very well in Pakistan, partly because some Muslims (wrongly) believe it is against their religion to eat it. Perhaps this will change their minds, but probably not because they are poor and ostrich meat is way out of their price range.
BUSINESS CLASS
If you’ve got a little more money than a poor person in Pakistan and want to eat ostrich, consider taking KLM’s business class from South Africa to Amsterdam. This guy did, and he let us know all about it. Who doesn’t want to read about some other guy’s nice plane ride than most of us can’t afford? I sure do. For dinner, he was served an appetizer of ostrich carpaccio with parmesan shavings and horseradish cream.
How was it? Well, he complained that service was “a bit slow” (45 minutes after take off) and “the ostrich appetizer was interesting.”
But then: “Personally, I wasn’t a huge fan of it and probably won’t go looking for ostrich dishes elsewhere.” What a Judgy McJudgerson.
I have to admit that it does look gross but whatever, it’s freaking business class! And it comes with a tasty bread.
OSTRICH MULTIMEDIA OF THE WEEK
Katy Perry thought it would be “camp” to dress like a hamburger for the Met Gala. She was putting her costume on in the Met bathroom while a friend filmed (which is a rude thing to do in bathrooms) when Jennifer Lopez strolled in holding what looks like a large ostrich feather boa, possibly even a stoll. Despite having a camera shoved in her face while in a bathroom, J.Lo was very cool about the whole thing and didn’t even acknowledge Katy Perry’s presence, which is funny.