caught a glimpse

...of myself in the mirror at Gladstone Park

circus royale

The circus was, as I said to Mia immediately after, about ten times better than I could possibly have imagined. Everything was amazing, and there was nothing I didn't love. Interestingly, the animal acts are pretty short and sweet, which is probably as it should be. You should have seen the delight on the faces of the kids when the little horses came out. Perhaps surprisingly the animals with the most tricks were the fantale pigeons, who walked up and down little trapezesque things and ladders and in and out of a little house. They were marvellous. I loved the way some of the animals ran out like 'at last, how exciting' - the camels were like this, and they were practically the last thing on. The cows were also good (a shetland pony runs under their legs). Llamas jump over the camels' necks. You probably think, reading this, either 'damn those spoilers' or 'he was obviously on drugs'. Neither! Anyway, I haven't hardly put in any spoilers. There is an acrobat/ juggler/ other thingser whose name might be Arora Borealis (that was what they seemed to be calling him), who came on second and was unbelievably lithe. Another segment involving a pea-whistling clown who lets a big floppy clown out of a box could have gone all wrong but was unbelievably good - I know Mia thought I was naive for saying it but I couldn't believe there was an adult woman in that floppy clown suit.

I have never said 'no way' out loud so many times in two hours. It was genuine glamour! The primary clown, who probably had more stage time than anyone, was called Justin Sane and at one stage he got a five year old boy, Charlie from Glenroy, to do some juggling. Charlie was tremendous, running over to different parts of the audience to bow to them etc. It was very funny.

Everything was in fast-paced short segments, which is great for me, as I have a dreadful attention span. If there's a little bit of repetition - various permutations of ladies wrapping their legs round their head 10 metres in the air - well, I've never seen such a thing before and doubt I'll see it again much at all. Overall, I have to say, a genuine hit. I highly recommend it.

hey there, hoopla!

Two things happened within 24 hours: Broadmeadows is revealed by the Age to be the most disadvantaged area of urban Melbourne (featuring a picture of a woman walking past a rundown shopping strip - with a beagle no less) and the circus comes to town.

You know how it is when you're walking home and you see circus vans go past on the road and you think 'oh circus, if only you'd come to my town'. And then when the vehicles turn into the drive ahead of you and you suddenly realise - it's all happening three minutes' walk from your house! Camels and shetland ponies! (and cows, which is a bit confusing). It's a genuine circus!!! More pics as things unfold.

other blogs and aussie crawl and chis(el)

Scientists one day will certainly declare me the most interesting person of my kind. On the rare occasions I click on the things I apparently like in my profile I get a list of other people who apparently like these things too, and they are also (1) staggeringly boring (2) bible bashers and (3) only posted once on their blog, in 2003. I suppose I should take heart from this palaver. I might as well, what else could I take from it?

The two blogs I regularly enjoy are booker street and tooly bird. I have absolutely no idea who these people are but by gum they seem decent.

All other blogs are stupid as far as I can tell. Also it's an ugly word.

Speaking of ugly I have been listening to a bit of Aussie Crawl and Chis in the car. AC singles were really good - at present I have Sons of Beaches on high rotation and 'Downhearted' is a great song - but the band are just arses. They totally overplay everything (no wonder 'Reckless' was such a breath of fresh air, it doesn't have 25 bad guitar solos going at once) and the songs have no dynamics. Also, James Reyne's affectedness starts to sound really perverse after a while. Chis pretty much suck. The album I have in the car is Circus Animals. It has 'When the War is Over' (I used to work with someone who sang this at the top of his voice often) and 'You Got Nothing I Want', another piece of a-grade misogyny masquerading as working class (sacrilege! the working class have never been misogynistic).