Birdly on the Red Carpet

Birdly asked to release this photo to his fans as an official memento of 2010, a whirlwind year for everybody's favorite tiny turquoise bird!

By the way, if anyone can identify the lady in white trying to squeeze into the photo, please email him so he can add that to his scrapbook. 

A Very Birdly Christmas

Today Birdly is in a frenzy getting his costume together for a star-studded Dia de los Reyes pageant, in which he is portraying Balthasar. Most of the costume's handwork is falling to me since he insists that his lush velvet robe be embellished with intricate beadwork depicting the Hokusai Katsushika woodblock print, "Two Men Washing a Horse in a Waterfall." (See right.) The pageant is part of an annual Three Kings Day party thrown by some of the biggest Latin stars. J.Lo, herself, attended last year so the invitation is quite a thrill -let alone honor of being asked to play a Rey Mago! (For his newer fans, Birdly reminds you that he is proud of his Latin heritage, his family having emigrated from the Yucatán Pennisula as humble Turquoise Motmots about 642 generations ago.)

On a related note, Birdly has been pestering us for months to purchase him a life-sized buffalo from FAO Schwartz for Christmas. This poses several problems, not the least of which is that it costs about 250 times the gift budget for other family members. However, I do see the allure - he would look very impressive riding his noble steed into the pageant, and he swears that he will ride it around on a daily basis thereafter, cutting back on his demand for trips to town, etc. At the risk of spoiling the surprise, it's fair to say that it's hard to disappoint Birdly.

Finally, the response from Birdly's last post was utterly overwhelming; he was flooded with the most loving well-wishes and exuberant fan mail! And, though he finds the topic of his health tiresome, about ten days ago the bandages were finally removed from his propellers and, while they are still pretty tender and a little weak from disuse, he has been able to fly short distances by himself. Most notably, last night he was able to pilot up to the top of the counter for an attempted raid on some cooling, cranberry and pistachio nut-studded vanilla fudge.

Feliz Navidad!

Doctor's Orders

Many of you know that Birdly has been convalescing after a serious accident injured his PI and PII (first and second propellers; the left two in the adjacent picture.) The damage occurred when, visiting NYC, he became frantic upon seeing the "Shake Shack," an extravagantly-lit restaurant in Times Square that features one of his favorite foods, coffee malted milk shakes. Tragically (I've been advised by his lawyers not to discuss specific details) blinded and disoriented by the sparkling lights and plate-glass windows, Birdly found himself entangled in a singularly gaudy ceiling fan and, thus, sustained significant injuries to his delicate flying mechanisms. Thereafter, he underwent extensive reconstructive surgery, but, immediately upon discharge, had complications that sent him back to the hospital for another several days. Fortunately, he is now home again, and after a lot of physical rehabilitation, this time I think he is really healing.

Interestingly, at one of several family meetings we had with the treatment team, Birdly's doctor suggested that he try blogging as a form of therapy. At first, he was pretty resistant to the idea because he finds typing annoying, and prefers to stay out of the public eye since the overwhelming recognition he received after producing a platinum-selling album in 2009. When I offered to help him as transcriptionist and editor, however, he relented, and Birdly's World was born! (Please note, Birdly has kindly offered that I may also include occasional reflections on my own life, which I accepted.)

Birdly needs to rest now. He had a somewhat stressful day from being dragged to the gym - causing him to arrive at his beak-alignment appointment 10 minutes late and, as appreciative as he truly is, is extra exhausted from managing all the get-well mail and flowers. Ciao.