Antlers

The Dec. 20 story of the antlers was great. It would have been even more interesting had the deer been able to talk and/or get a lawyer, as he was the "original" owner! MIKE DRAKE Santa Ana

The Brooklyn trio the Antlers captured the recent zeitgeist with both an animal-themed name and a frayed brand of earnest, evocative indie rock. "Hospice" has a bit of Built to Spill's dreamy creak, and some chamber flourishes worth of their neighbors in Grizzly Bear. Detroit Bar, Costa Mesa. 8 p.m. Thursday. $14. http://www.detroitbar.com. Also at the Troubadour, 9801 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood. 8 p.m. Friday. $15. http://www.troubadour.com.

The Brooklyn trio the Antlers captured the recent zeitgeist with both an animal-themed name and a frayed brand of earnest, evocative indie rock. "Hospice" has a bit of Built to Spill's dreamy creak, and some chamber flourishes worth of their neighbors in Grizzly Bear. Detroit Bar, Costa Mesa. 8 p.m. Thursday. $14. http://www.detroitbar.com. Also at the Troubadour, 9801 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood. 8 p.m. Friday. $15. http://www.troubadour.com.

The Roosevelt elk must not have gotten the memo to be rutting by the time I arrived. Rutting is how male elk impress female elk: They lock antlers and push back and forth until one gives up. The victor gets to breed with the whole herd of females. As we drove up U.S. 101 along the Northern California coast toward Redwood National and State Parks, visions of horn locking danced in my head. I expected to watch fighting and female fawning. My farm-raised friend Laurie, who went elk watching with me, said I had "city expectations for a wilderness event."

The Pentagon is trying to find out what makes reindeer antlers and seashells so tough but light. The answer could mean better protection for soldiers and pilots, as well as stronger cars, medical implants and bowling balls. "We need very lightweight, thin, high-strength materials," said Wilbur C. Simmons of the Army Research Office near Durham, N.C., which commissioned the $2-million study. Researchers at three universities are involved in the five-year project.

Like most American communities, this friendly mountain town at the foot of the majestic Teton Range has a Boy Scout troop. And like most Boy Scouts, members of Jackson's Troop 200 hold an annual fund-raiser. At that point, similarities between Jackson and the rest of the country come to an end. Eschewing traditional car washes, cookie sales, paper drives and raffles, the Jackson Scouts raise their money through the annual Jackson Hole Antler Auction. Their fund-raiser, held on the third Saturday of May each year, is the only regular auction of elk antlers in the United States.

As a boy, Terry Reach used to traipse the land around his Pinedale, Wyo., home, searching for antlers shed by deer and elk. It was a solitary pastime; he never saw anyone else, and he always found plenty of antlers, which he'd drag home and pile in the yard. But now, each winter, western Wyoming is thick with people intent on snatching up as many antlers as they can find. They follow the bucks, waiting for them to shed their impressive headgear. Sometimes people chase the animals on all-terrain vehicles or snowmobiles, believing the exertion will force them to drop their antlers.

The lovesick moose that spent 76 days wooing a brown and white cow named Jessica has walked away from the relationship. "It looks like he's hit the road," said Donald Gallus, a Vermont game warden who closely watched the hillside love affair. "It appears he is leaving, going home." The 700-pound moose showed up at Larry Carrara's farm last year during mating season and took a shine to Jessica the Hereford. He was last seen at the farm Wednesday night.

The Roosevelt elk must not have gotten the memo to be rutting by the time I arrived. Rutting is how male elk impress female elk: They lock antlers and push back and forth until one gives up. The victor gets to breed with the whole herd of females. As we drove up U.S. 101 along the Northern California coast toward Redwood National and State Parks, visions of horn locking danced in my head. I expected to watch fighting and female fawning. My farm-raised friend Laurie, who went elk watching with me, said I had "city expectations for a wilderness event."

In the hands of Marguerite Inman of Velvet Spade Designs, cactuses and succulents look anything but dry. Exhibiting a witty and sometimes wacky sense of humor, Inman turns plant arrangements into what she calls "narrative scenes," with animal figurines, cast-iron statuary and other elements. Pint-sized plastic deer may roam doe-eyed through a forest of river rocks, echeveria and moss. For a surreal touch, one piece creates the effect of tiny fallen trees using real antlers.

As a boy, Terry Reach used to traipse the land around his Pinedale, Wyo., home, searching for antlers shed by deer and elk. It was a solitary pastime; he never saw anyone else, and he always found plenty of antlers, which he'd drag home and pile in the yard. But now, each winter, western Wyoming is thick with people intent on snatching up as many antlers as they can find. They follow the bucks, waiting for them to shed their impressive headgear. Sometimes people chase the animals on all-terrain vehicles or snowmobiles, believing the exertion will force them to drop their antlers.

New designs can fade from memory fast at the fall Maison & Objet design show in Paris, where booth after booth peddled the latest in high-end home accessories this week. But the eye-popping insanity of French designer Frédérique Morrel's life-size trophy-head sculptures was impossible to forget. Made from a polyurethane taxidermy mold, covered in vintage needlepoint and finished with real antlers, each piece is unique and made by hand. After the initial shock, a closer examination reveals that each one tells a story thanks to the idealized scenes of life -- animals, nudes, hunters, flowers and more -- pieced together by the artist.

In the hands of Marguerite Inman of Velvet Spade Designs, cactuses and succulents look anything but dry. Exhibiting a witty and sometimes wacky sense of humor, Inman turns plant arrangements into what she calls "narrative scenes," with animal figurines, cast-iron statuary and other elements. Pint-sized plastic deer may roam doe-eyed through a forest of river rocks, echeveria and moss. For a surreal touch, one piece creates the effect of tiny fallen trees using real antlers.

Long Beach-based Crystal Antlers has, since its inception in 2006, stuck to the do-it-yourself model that punk bands honed in the 1980s. The sextet -- singer and bassist Jonny Bell, guitarists Errol Davis and Andrew King, organist Victor Rodriguez-Guerrero, drummer Kevin Stuart and multi-instrumentalist Damian Edwards (an L.A. cult hero known as "Sexual Chocolate") -- made its own CD packaging, screen-printed its own T-shirts and toured the country constantly.

This patch of Siberia nestled above the Kazakh steppe beckons tourists with awe-inspiring nature. The Katun River's rapids are world class. More than 7,000 lakes adorn meadowy hillocks and vast stands of white birch. Above it all tower the majestic, snowcapped peaks of the Altai range. Another natural attraction, however, lures Russia's nouveaux riches here: the maral deer -- its blood and antlers, to be exact.

When Andrea Geller is doing chores inside her log house in Big Bear, she often thinks about the homemakers who pioneered the land -- how they scrubbed clothes with a washboard, baked bread in a smoky kitchen fireplace, swept dirt floors. Then she turns back to her work, pushing buttons on a sleek black washing machine, a stainless steel oven, a high-powered vacuum cleaner. When she's done, the French doors in her log house's bedroom lead to a viewing deck with a sunken hot tub.

The desire that made a lovesick moose devote 76 days to wooing Jessica the cow apparently dropped off with his antlers, and he deserted the Hereford of his dreams the next morning. "He looks like he's hit the road," Donald Gallus, a Vermont game warden, said Friday. "It appears he is . . . going home." The 700-pound moose showed up at Larry Carrara's hilltop farm in Shrewsbury in October during mating season and took a shine to Jessica. The moose was last seen at the farm Wednesday night.

On a warm autumn morning in the Tehachapi Mountains, fish and game warden Bill Dailey found that the disturbing tip was true. Resting under an oak tree was a pile of elk legs. Dailey also found a garbage bag containing a tan carpet fiber, a small piece of yellow plastic, brain tissue and a big eyeball. As Dailey cataloged the evidence, two roofers stopped their pickup to survey the scene. Dailey told the workers that they were looking at the remains of a trophy bull elk.