My Trip to the San Francisco Zoo -- If Only I Could Talk to the Animals

Gloomy day. Was always on the cool misty side out there. It's been at least forty years since I last visited the zoo of my childhood. So much bigger now. Some of it so beautiful, in places where the animals are barely visible or vacant it looks more botanical than zoological. Here is my favorite photo, because of the lioness on the right, who is so handsome, proud and wise looking. Around her I would love to place my arm, hoping that we could be friends and converse on the subject of the circus. "My royal friend," I might say, "I was born under your sign, so I am hoping you will trust me. You seem to enjoy being seen by the people. You must know how admired you are. Is that so? Do you by chance have a fantasy of jumping daringly through a hoop...

Read more »

Techno Evolutionary Downgrades, CDs to Cell Phones: Frank Stays on Vinyl in My House, Thank You

Lured into Virgin Records by 50% OFF signs, there were so few CDs marked down that I cracked to store clerks, “So what’s fifty percent off — Lawrence Welk?” One of them laughed. I was looking for DJ Krush and some other what they call electronia dance. $18.99? No way; you get the song that drove you in there but usually in a multiple cd box set stuffed with revenue-enhancing drivel. These stores, I keep reading, are in serious trouble. Evidently, they love being in serious trouble for they’ve not changed a thing.I did find a Sinatra 3-cd set containing my favorite of his up tempo Capital classics, A Swinging Affair. At home, to compare, I played the CD and my old LP simultaneously, and switched my receiver back and forth. A CD still sounds...

Read more »

The Infinite Power of Cirque du Soleil: Were There Animals, How Might that Change the Global Big Top?

Showbiz David from out of the pastIn the beginning they had a duck. Soon they retired the duck, realizing the marketing advantages of shunning animal acts. However, they stayed wisely clear of the smugly disdainful position taken against performing animals by the Pickle Family Circus in the mid-1980s (“cruel and unusual behavior”).Yet since Cirque du Soleil's meteoric rise to global fame and fortune in 1987 at Los Angeles, it has on occasion flirted with feathers and more. They tried to train a pair of snakes for Zumanity. In 1992 when they toured 60 towns in Switzerland with Circus Knie, Knie’s animals were kept on the bill. In Wintuk, they lend the aura of favoring performing dogs by including puppet versions of them in the show. They are...

Read more »

A Season So Far Removed ...

A Holiday Blanding Out to Nothing...Went to the local card and gift store here on Piedmont Avenue. Saddened to see so few Christmas cards for sale. People don't buy them much anymore, said the sales girl.And they don't send them, either, not to me. I've got so few this year.Mass e-mailings leave me cold, and are starting to push my finger on instant delete or "junk mail."Just as the Internet is a fantastic instrument for communication, so too for alienation.At the card store, I found this image, a clever alteration of a classic Edward Hopper painting. I only sent a few to certain friends, it seems a tad subversive. I love it.Back in the older bolder mood, may I say to everyone who now and then visits this blog, From Baraboo to Brazil, L.A....

Read more »

Biggest Big Top News of 2008: In a Season of Exits and Sellouts, a Reborn Ringling Proves the Most Interesting Story

This season just past was more than significant for a number of reasons that have long-term ramifications for the quality and changing nature of the circus in America. In the order of importance, here are the four most pivotal events:* Paul Binder Exits Big Apple Circus* Carson & Barnes says goodbye to three rings* Guy Laliberte sells 20% of Cirque du Soleil to Dubai* John Ringling North II completes second season as circus ownerFive years ago, could any of these happenings have been predicted? Five years ago seems so far away.What about the prospects for a brighter future under the tents?What good may come of the four above listed events?Big Apple Circus under new direction has a chance to make a greater mark on the public’s imagination and to eventually spread its long-modest touring...

Read more »

Fri. Nite L’Amyx Light: Big Apple Circus to the Opera? ... John Ringling North II Shows His True Blood ... Well, Have You Anything Better?

Dot Dot Dot, cold out there. Dot dot dot, hot leafy flavored water in here. Sure it’s fun, dotting away Friday night under the tea tent, and welcome to the chaos of clashing opinions on parade! ... Let’s see, here comes a red hot dot: He’s an “elitist snob,” claims solid source Neil Cockerline about outgoing Big Apple Circus founder and director Paul Binder. (Sorry, Mr. Binder, you via me are generating center ring discussion). And, why the charge? Backyard eye-opener: Notes Cockerline, under Binder’s direction a “blatant caste system reminiscent of culture from other corners of the world” flourishes. Ring artists and management wine and dine under luxury canvas. Workers get junk furniture in their own shabby tent. Reminds me of that story...

Read more »

S.F. Zoo Tiger Tragedy Haunts a Year Later --- Good or Bad for the Big Top?

Ironically, the do-gooders, who may argue for absolute minimum restraints in order to foster the image of relative freedom for wild animals, may bring about the unintended consequences that occured last December at the San Francisco Zoo. On Christmas day, a trio of boys were in some way making gestures to a 250-pound Siberian tiger, Tatiana, and were the recipient of her anger when she managed to scale a fence lower than national zoo standards and have at them. One died. Two survived with injuries.In Today’s San Francisco Examiner, by sheer coincidence there it was on the front page gazing up at me from an empty bus seat on a ride back to Showbiz David Central: TIGER SCARS REMAIN.Despite post-tiger attack shakeups at the SF Zoo (the head honcho...

Read more »

Fri. Nite L’Amyxed: Here's Cheers to No-Tears Spears Over PETA Jeers! ... No T-Shirts for Herriott ... Gorilla Mom Turns on Newborn at S.F. Zoo ...

You’ve heard I suppose of Britney Spears, in and out of jail, pop star, now in and out of the Big Cage for a circus video drawing PETA sneers ... Complains No-Circus-Animals Cemtral, “How quickly America’s sweetheart fell from grace. And it wasn’t pretty. Now, at the bottom of the barrel, she’s sporting elephants dressed in circus attire for her new video titled – what else – Circus.” ... Yes, what else, PETA’s Christine Dore. And while you are lecturing, might you aim your pious jeers at Mother Monifa, gorilla who rejected her very own upon its birhtly arrival at the San Francisco Zoo (that would be “zoo” rather than the city). Weirdly sad tale. I wonder if this is an animal kingdom thing, or maybe just a monster Mom under the spell of Bagdad-by-the-Bay...

Read more »

L.A. Lands Dudamel --- "Dudamania" Packs the Disney ..."Watch His Left Hand," Says the Lady with Opera Glasses ... And Away We Go! ...

Crazy town crammed with talent. Full of brilliant moments. Entertainment capitol. They know how. Here's the Disney Concert Hall, oh -- just maybe the most exalting piece of architecture in the United States. Taking over next year is 26-year-old Venezuelan Gustavo Dudamel, already a global legend. He guest conducted last week. Houses sold out. I kept calling and nabbed a seat back of orchestra. They're calling the ticket rush "Dudamania," said lady next to me with opera glasses at the ready "to inspect him." Told me to watch Gustavo's left hand. I did, and it moves like a magic wand. Watch it work, World. For all the sparks charismatic Gustavo causes to fly, what a remarkably humble persona he cuts. Enters the music, becoming one...

Read more »

The Circus Book Paul Binder Will Never Write, and Why ...

Hard to imagine any circus producer down through the ages as well educated or intellectually inclined as outgoing Big Apple Circus founder, one-time ringmaster and artistic director Paul Binder.Like Ringling’s late ringmaster Harold Ronk, who was himself a master diplomat who virtually never criticized big top people and the shows they presented (he did note, during a speech, that Ringling in his day was considered “the modern circus,” leaving the rest of the sentence for us to complete), Binder is equally prone to conceal any critical feelings. After all, he has spent thirty years fund raising and holding an organization together. And yet, since Binder does not hesitate to discuss, class room style, the roots of circus and his producing guidelines,...

Read more »