I feel the need to amend my prior post about the devilishness of other people's kids. We saw some friends in Alameda over the weekend and their daughter is just about the cutest thing ever. I didn't even mind when she started eating rocks. It may be that she was born just a few weeks before we arrived in the Bay Area so she feels closer than the snots that I encounter in my working life. Or she is just a better baby. Who knows.
The down side was that after the baby went to bed we broke out the wii fit for a little hula hoop action. I thought it would be great as I have mad balance skills and have been training in the circus for the past year. Instead it told me I was fat. Then it called my uncoordinated and that my actual age is 43. I had to watch in horror as my little mii character was plumped up before my very eyes. Fuck you Nintendo, I have been bingeing on Ben and Jerry's ever since.
I am glad to see that M. Elz is still obsessed enough with Fresnels to wax poetic about them after 10 years of working with them. When R. Rybkowsky first drew the lens on the board I was in love as well.
Clowns are scary and people really really really hate them. I totally get it, the make up, the being strange the propensity to stab themselves with balloon swords. Clowns are just flipping weird. I never really thought they were evil. I always thought that clowns were unfairly demonized because of their slavish devotion to the traditional costume and the result of an army of Bozo knockoffs.
Actually though, clowns are really evil.
And it is your children's fault.
I have spent the summer surrounded by kids, in my classes, at my job at the playground, and even on family vacations and I have discovered that there is a limit to the time I can spent with your children. Once past that limit any person, and clowns come up against that limit more than others, feels an irresistible urge to make children cry. I find it happening with me when there are hundreds of children around and they keep trying to get my attention, or ignore me when I try to keep them from killing themselves and all I want is to see one of their tiny faces ball up into a squash and start to wail.
Actually though, clowns are really evil.
And it is your children's fault.
I have spent the summer surrounded by kids, in my classes, at my job at the playground, and even on family vacations and I have discovered that there is a limit to the time I can spent with your children. Once past that limit any person, and clowns come up against that limit more than others, feels an irresistible urge to make children cry. I find it happening with me when there are hundreds of children around and they keep trying to get my attention, or ignore me when I try to keep them from killing themselves and all I want is to see one of their tiny faces ball up into a squash and start to wail.
We are settling back into the freezing cold winter that passes for a summer here, but here are some of the images from Goatfest 08!
We actually had a really lovely weekend, performing, seeing movies, working a bit. We were even going to go visit some friends when we got sideswiped by a douche. I don't use that word often, but when you sideswipe someone who is stopped (because someone in front of us had stopped) by crossing into oncoming traffic around a blind turn and then getting out of the car to yell at them for hitting you, you are a douche. Had he been a little angrier and nastier he would have been a cock-punch but instead was kind of whiny and yelly and a jack ass. So we missed the party and have to get the car fixed but we will be heading to the Lou on Friday to see my family and to take a wild and wacky road trip with the F-bomb's clan. Other than that I have been working on another friend's site, and watching my man titties shrink due to a still injured hand.
This weekend we will be out on the town performing our Independence Day Spectacular on the streets near Fisherman's Wharf. Just look for Clowndepdence!! Last week for pride we were Clownderwear!! I think we need to stop letting the F-Bomb pick our names.
The past week has been pretty crazy. After putting the Naked Clown site to bed we performed all Pride and then welcomed the F-Bomb's mother here for in-law-dependence!! It was really great to hang out and it made me at least miss my midwestern peeps. I also went to the chiropractor for my wrist. After acupuncture, a doctor, X-rays and two braces, finally someone just hooked me up to electricity and told me not to use my hand anymore.
On a completely unrelated note. Never use Window's Live Mail. Unless you hate yourself.
The new calendars are here! The new Calendars are here! (I have been reading Steve Martin's autobiography)
They did a story about Master Lu Yi training the Synchronized Swim team. Check out this video to get a taste of the master's teaching style.
There is of course life after clown school graduation. I don't think people were prepared for everyone's family and friends to be at the graduation. We had been living in the Circus Center for so long and were between shows so we thought it was just going to be a little ceremony with us and the teachers. So we were half-in costume and pretty rowdy from the days show when we walked into the studio and were greeted by a sea of people. I fared quite a bit better than Mollyball. She showed up to the ceremony without any pants on.
The unfortunate thing is that you cannot see all of the man-fur I was sporting.
This is the costume I had been wearing.
Here is the rest of the class. 21 clowns now looking for work.
One of the great things about being in San Francisco is being in a vital city where cool stuff happens and it still be a small place. The city is only seven miles across but has a city hall like this. Totally OTT. I was there for some business registration stuff that happened to be in the same office where they were preparing to give out more Same-Sex Marriage Certificates. The workers were glowing, really exicted about being able to marry more people. I was great to sample the energy in the room.
Then I tried to leave and confronted Darth Vader on the lawn.
Our Graduation Showcase is this weekend! June 13th, 14th, and 15th at the Circus Center, 755 Frederick St. Check www.circuscenter.org for more information and tickets. The F-Bomb and I do a clown acrobatics act (of course) that involves robots and mind control. And Butt jokes. Lots of butt jokes.
(it will be live as soon as the calendar goes to print in the next few days)
The Calendar is something that we thought up (and Chad Benjamin Potter put together) in order to thank our circus skills teacher Judy Finelli for being totally awesome. Judy is kind of a big deal in the American Circus world, she was responsible for putting together the San Francisco Circus Center and worked with the Pickle Family Circus way back when they started. She was diagnosed with MS several years ago and has somehow managed to be the best juggling and skills teacher I have had even though she is a quadriplegic.
The Circus model is more like being in a family than being in a business so Judy's care has been managed by the people at the Circus Center instead of some awful insurance company. The Calendar was our classes way of helping the Circus Center help Judy. All Profits from each calendar's sale will go to the Judy Finelli fund which pays for her care as well as funding MS research. So buying the Calendar is like doing a walk for MS without all of the walking and getting a bunch of naked clowns as well.
With gas this expensive, we had to cut costs somewhere.
