STRANGE SIGHTINGS: PRAYING MANTISES

I'm at a bar after the Ratatat show in Austin, and I feel something fall into my hair. I grab at my braided pigtails to pull out what I presume to be a leaf, and stare at the strange object in my hand until my eyes come to focus on its thin, bony arms wrapping around my finger. I drop it on the ground in horror and realize that it’s a huge praying mantis.

Next, I come home to find a praying mantis staring at me on the side of my house. He is leaning back, very regal, wrist bend, claw dangling, judgmental in his gaze. I mention to the friend with me the strangeness of seeing two praying mantises, and he says it’s no big deal.

I’m at a party before Girl Talk, and as I grab an unopened pack of hotdogs, I see a little green speck-- a baby praying mantis-- crawling on the wrapper. He crawls on my arm for a while and spends more time with me than anyone else there.

My friend shows up to my house to help me work on a shotlist for my new film and bears a plastic praying mantis figurine that he said he found in the street in front of my house.

Finally, some friends and I stroll along the few blocks of concentrated Christmas lights in Hyde Park. In the front yard of the last house there is a massive metallic praying mantis, one story tall. His limbs are angular, and his eyes are glowing bulbs. I wait for the king of all mantises to tell me something, but he just gawks at me, so I just walk away, unsure of my role in the mantis community.