Yip

This is my cat Lelelelelelele Yip!

Last night a crowd of crazy cat ladies (and men) descended upon the Memphis Brooks Museum for the Internet Cat Video Festival.

While a DJ blasted tunes like The Siamese Cat Song and The Meow Mix Song, attendees prowled around the lobby in leopard print skirts and cat ear headbands.  We purred happily over sparkly feline baubles as we lapped at our  “furballs” – a pink concoction involving rum, coconut milk, cranberry juice, and whip cream.

Then came the main attraction: internet cat videos.

Internet cat video aficionados (Yes, aficionados. I get to use my fancy words because we were at a museum) had already viewed many of these videos at home (or at work).   But gathering together to watch these videos in a theatre packed with like-minded individuals lended the whole affair a certain je ne sai quoi in terms of public image.  It was validating.  High brow even!

It took me back to my belly dancing days on a Costa Rican mountain top when we danced to the beat of thunder pounding on the roof of our pagoda.  (That is a true story I have always wanted to tell in an affected British accent at a cocktail party.  It would make me sound so much more interesting than I actually am. Sadly, I have never been invited to said cocktail party to tell it.  But that’s ok because I’m way too busy at home watching fancy internet cat videos to attend your silly cocktail parties anyway.)  One day during my Costa Rica adventure, I sat in a room with 60 other belly dancer women and participated in a three minute laughing meditation. If you have never participated in a group laughing meditation, let me tell you, the first time is incredibly weird. You will be instructed to basically fake it ’til you make it.  That’s right – just fake laugh nonstop with everyone else until the silliness of it all carries you into complete hysterics. It’s quite a catharsis really.

At any rate, sitting in the dark laughing for 15 minutes nonstop with crazy cat ladies was just like that but weirder and even more wonderful because there was no fake laughing involved.  I watched grown men laugh until they cried over cat antics. And then I laughed until I cried. We all laughed and cried and it was this amazingly beautiful communal experience.  It was!

And so I will leave you with a few of my favorite videos from the evening.  For best results, make them big screen and gather a few friends (or strangers) to watch. Enjoy!