CBS, ABC, NBC, and other local NYC news outlets have been reporting on Prince Rama the past few days. Unfortunately this has not been because the mainstream media industry is suddenly enlightened by the Now Age Manifesto (bummer) but rather because the band’s singer Taraka Larson was attacked by a couple of possibly rabid raccoons in Central Park the other night. That picture above is Larson in the hospital after 15 shots. Yikes.

The artist has offered several interviews to major news stations about the incident, which are all very amusing, but if you want the whole story, read the first-hand account that Taraka for Impose Magazine, detailing her evening stroll through the park:

I stopped. They were two raccoons. Small. Scrawny. Tough. Young. Perhaps teenage raccoons making a late night deal. They appeared drugged. I tried not to make any sudden movements so as not to startle them. Finally they spotted me and began moving toward me in slow, swaying, lumbering movements. I froze. They each began sniffing my shoes. Okay, Taraka, let them smell you so they know who you are then they’ll leave you alone. One began licking my left leg. I tried to stay calm. The other one jumped up on my right shoe and began burying its nose inside the leather flap. Calm, Taraka, Calm. Maybe it’s looking for food. Then I felt little claws start to scratch and a little mouth start to naw at my leg like a rawhide bone. I felt blood being drawn. This time instinct won over logic. I kicked the motherfucker off my leg and ran. I could still hear Donna cooing me from my dangling headphones now dragging along the asphalt, “I feel lovvvvvvvvvvvve . . .”

The rest of her wild story is here. We are just glad you are okay Taraka! She seems to be taking this all with a good attitude. Yesterday Larson wrote on the Prince Rama Facebook page:

“Despite how surreal, bizarre, and WTF hilarious the past few days have been, I just want to say I feel genuinely touched by the outpouring of love and concern, and beam it right back to all of you; I love you. I love Raccoons. I love Central Park. I love New York. \\ROCK N ROLL//”

Watch Taraka on ABC: