Behind-the-scenes show raises money in Oakland.
Subscribers get access to daily behindthescenes broadcast
“They’re not intimidated by anything, except maybe a lion.”
Leslie Rao, zoological manager at Oakland Zoo, on giraffes
Five hungry giraffes were trying their best this week to help the shuttered Oakland Zoo make up for all the visitors and revenues lost due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The giraffes were the guest stars of the first installment of the zoo’s new behindthescenes video broadcast. For $15 a month, zoo fans can watch animals get fed, live, while zookeepers provide useful information, such as the length of a giraffe’s tongue. (It’s 20 inches, and purple, by the way.) The zoo says it is losing millions because of the closure, spurring the subscriptionbased effort.
Like most things that happen on live broadcasts, the show did not run as straight and smooth as a giraffe’s neck.
The debut almost got derailed when a palm frond dropped on the video camera 30 seconds before showtime. Then the transmission was briefly lost because the internet hotspot, over by the warthogs, wasn’t working. A technician moved it to a better location and the live giraffe feeding resumed.
Zoological manager Ann Marie Bisagno, standing on a high platform at the edge of the giraffe enclosure, fed elm, maple and acacia leaves by hand to two of the giraffes, who stripped the leaves clean off the branches with a single, elegant swipe of their gigantic tongues.
While the show was on, viewers were invited to text their questions. One viewer wanted to know how many teeth a giraffe has. Bisagno didn’t know but fellow keeper Leslie Rao, standing off camera, did. She pointed silently to her own mouth to indicate that giraffes and people are blessed with the same number of teeth.
“Thirtytwo,” said Bisagno into the camera, without missing a beat.
Meanwhile the giraffes gobbled everything in sight and might have eaten the camera had it not been observing social distance. Rao said the giraffes were not intimidated by a video camera or by being media stars.
“They’re not intimidated by anything,” she said, “except maybe a lion.”
The zoo has sold about 800 subscriptions to the show so far (visit www.oaklandzoo.org/ gobehindthescenes), a fraction of what’s needed to make up for the revenues lost by staying closed.
Zoo president Joel Parrott said he has had to cut most employee’s hours by 40%, including his own. It’s a shame, too, because the closure coincides with the arrival of 10 new breeding flamingos from the San Diego Zoo, and a breeding flamingo is best seen in person, especially by another flamingo.
The new zoo broadcast runs as long as the pandemic runs, every weekday at 2:30 p.m.
“Come back tomorrow for the squirrel monkeys,” the announcer said.
—Steve Rubenstein
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Ryan Oettinger didn’t expect
this kind of response. Oettinger was fiddling around with ways to mesh his distinctive background — 26 years as a disc jockey, master of ceremonies and auctioneer — and the Bay Area’s new shelter-in-place reality. He brainstormed with some friends and hatched the idea of a “driveup DJ,” setting up camp on a residential street with families in their respective driveways, observing socialdistancing rules.
And that’s how DriveUp DJ.com was born.
Oettinger, also known as “DJ RyanO,” first ventured out
March 27. He visited a neighborhood in Moraga, where he lives, and unleashed his kinetic energy — spinning music and sparking a loud, lively, carefully spaced dance party.
“A bunch of people are stuck in houses, and the kids on screens in their rooms are probably driving their parents nuts,” Oettinger said. “I thought this was a way to get people connected.”
It worked. Word spread quickly on social media, and Oettinger quickly arranged two more “gigs” for Friday.
Oettinger insisted he’s not accepting donations and is doing this simply to foster a sense of community during these strange times. The dance parties allow families to interact, while not getting too close to each other.
These events also fill the void for Oettinger, given the pause in his business. Schools throughout the East Bay often hire him for fundraising events and auctions, but those functions obviously aren’t happening during the pandemic.
So he’s becoming creative. He turned a “carwash” song into a “handwash” song, and he cranks up the volume on the “Macarena,” “YMCA” and “Stayin’ Alive.”
Some families dance on exercise mats placed in their front yard. Others sit in chairs on their driveways, drinks in hand, and just listen.
“I would say it was a lively, engaging atmosphere and very communityesque,” Oettinger said of the inaugural event. “Everyone was enjoying it in their own manner and in their own space, but also connecting.”
—Ron Kroichick