February 2008 Archives
The F-bomb and I have started putting together our end pieces for the end of the year tour (and the things we will be sending out to Circuses). Which means of course that now we lock ourselves in various rooms around the Circus Center and throw shoes and plates and babies at each other.
Acrobatics has been quite frustrating as of late. Our Chinese Masters believe in teaching acrobatics over the long haul. They years of time to the basics after which point they know that their students will be able to put any routine or act together. They also believe in starting training at six. Which makes the thirty year old student feel like he will never get any actual tricks.
We had Dan Griffiths, a mime/clown from Chicago, teach us about Hospital clowning the other day. It made me very homesick when he referred to 'staying frosty' as in being alert. He described going outside in the winter time and taking a huge breath of terribly cold air and how alive it would make you feel. Ninety percent of the students had no idea what he was talking about.
Today was the first time that the F-bomb, Master Lu Yi, and I could all be in the doubles acro class we signed up for in January. So far I have learned that it will take "one half year, maybe less, maybe more" to loosen up my shoulders enough to do an okay handstand and "two years maybe" for my elbows to be in a position to hold said handstand past a minute. Which is better than the F-bomb got which was to lose "five pounds, at least." But Master Lu Yi seemed to like us and wants us to train for an hour a week with him alone.
Things have gotten more serious at clown school, either because June is starting to loom on the horizon or because the notion that life in the circus or as a clown is pretty fsking demanding is sinking in. The F-bomb and I have worked out a rehearsal schedule that should get us to three sellable bits on video by the end of the year. It is ambitious but exciting.
We also had a great juggling day yesterday where we passed twelve clubs among four people switching partners. Who knew it could be so fun.
The city in a nutshell: 
Speaking of excitement I have decided to update all my archives to movable type four. Since my database is totally fragmented across two domains and several versions of MT it may take a while. Yea!
The other day my mother asked me about our valentines day plans. She was pretty unimpressed when I told her we were going to get massages and make some lasagna. She said we needed some excitement in our lives. So we made a heart shaped pizza as well:
Though it turned out that it would not fit in the pan shaped that way so we had to cut the center our and cook that. The rest of the heart made excellent bread sticks. There is nothing tastier than cannibalism. Actually our valentines day celebrations have been quite successful. We taught little children this morning and then got rubbed. Afterwards we headed to the hot tub and decided that lasagna could wait a day and tried out our new favorite sushi restaurant. It is our favorite not only for the wild coho salmon that I could commit adultery with, but also because they have a carved bird on the maitre-de's stand that will give you a toothpick when you push it.
Yesterday in class we had GILKEY. It has been really crazy getting to meet these freakishly talented famous clowns. It has also been crazy to see how funny looking they are close up. I mean really his eyebrows are about to take over the world. But damn does he have an eye for the funny. His last show notwithstanding.
The punishing training schedule has continued and my wrists are starting to show signs of CTS. Awesome. The intertron told me to ice it and take ibuprofen. Which has been the advise I have gotten from most doctors regardless of what the complaint is. The intertron at least did not charge me a monthly premium plus two hundred dollars for the privilege.
I took a walk the other day. This is near my house. They call them parks. I guess people use them when they are not hurting themselves.
Though it turned out that it would not fit in the pan shaped that way so we had to cut the center our and cook that. The rest of the heart made excellent bread sticks. There is nothing tastier than cannibalism. Actually our valentines day celebrations have been quite successful. We taught little children this morning and then got rubbed. Afterwards we headed to the hot tub and decided that lasagna could wait a day and tried out our new favorite sushi restaurant. It is our favorite not only for the wild coho salmon that I could commit adultery with, but also because they have a carved bird on the maitre-de's stand that will give you a toothpick when you push it.
Yesterday in class we had GILKEY. It has been really crazy getting to meet these freakishly talented famous clowns. It has also been crazy to see how funny looking they are close up. I mean really his eyebrows are about to take over the world. But damn does he have an eye for the funny. His last show notwithstanding.
The punishing training schedule has continued and my wrists are starting to show signs of CTS. Awesome. The intertron told me to ice it and take ibuprofen. Which has been the advise I have gotten from most doctors regardless of what the complaint is. The intertron at least did not charge me a monthly premium plus two hundred dollars for the privilege.
I took a walk the other day. This is near my house. They call them parks. I guess people use them when they are not hurting themselves.
It has been two weeks since I have spent a day away from the Circus Center. What used to be known as 'working out' has become training. Both the F-bomb and I have been working with Master Lu Yi who is a ton of laughs ("You don't do circus like I speak English" being one of my favorites) but has a tenancy to give you a look that roughly translates to, "you should have come to me twenty-seven years ago, and even then I am not sure I would be able to do anything with your twisted frame." When I do a pike stretch and he laughs and calls my back a mountain, I enjoined him to make it a road. He then spent the next two hours walking on it. He taught us a couple of new stretches that I have been trying to get pictures of, but as they involve both us us placing all of our weight on the other in a stress position we have not been able to figure out how to use the camera. The one that is going to ruin my marriage is the elbow stretch. It involves the F-bomb placing my tricep on her knee (with the elbow facing down) and pressing on my wrist and shoulder. I am now unable to tell the difference between normal body functions and pain.
The nice thing is that the weather here has been beautiful. I was chatting with my Pops the Mayor and it seems to be snowing in the Lou. I understand why people move to California now.
We also went to a party at a clown's house on Saturday. They live in the Sunset District so we went to the beach to check out the ocean. Well, some people went to jump in the ocean, but others who happen to enjoy not swimming in pitch black titanic bodies of water filled with monsters, stood on the beach and looked at the stars. They covered about half the sky due to the light pollution from the city but were still awesome and terrifying. I am from the middle of the country and not yet used to living on its edge.
Did anyone else notice that today is the exact scenario of the first season of 24? Thank God we are not in LA.
Even though I spent most of Sunday surrounded by Football and discovered exactly how smelling and disgusting the Mission District of San Francisco can be I have felt pretty great about things.
I am afraid that I have been kidding myself for the past couple of years about the quality of the doughnut experience in Chicago. I used to go to Duncan Doughnuts a lot, I would get a cup of coffee and a vanilla long john and be pretty content. Their sprinkles were never very good, both because they were not cake doughnuts and because for some reason they were only able to put sprinkles on half the doughnut. But I was down with doughnuts in Chicago, they were cheap and plentiful. Then I moved here. There were no Duncan's and most of the fall was spent in a doughnutless limbo. I have discovered the joy of the independent Doughnut shop, where one can choose between Doughnut world, Happy Doughnut, Doughnut Planet, and Doughnut Touch. Where the coffee is crap, but they sprinkle on the whole goddamn doughnut and still make old fashioneds. Perhaps this is the reason for my new found good feeling.
Also when I arrived home tonight I was hell bent for leather to make some cookies. I walked in the door to find the F-Bomb already stirring the batter. I stared at her in awe and she simple smiled and said, "I know you better than you know yourself."
