Sunday Snapshots from China: Trains

A little background first: China's fastest-in-the-world new high speed trains, seen here in a photo off the internet, will eventually span out into 17 nations.First, drum rolls and trumpets for Candy Wei and the agency for whom she works with such imperial competence, China Highlights. She ended up handling all of our train reservations. She was simply wonderful, with us every step of the way securing first class accommodations (tickets never go on sale until a few days before the train's departure). Tickets were delivered to our hotels, so convenient. And she laid tracks for us at a most difficult time -- during the Canton Fair in Guangzhou and the imminent Shanghai Expo opening just around the corner. I'm giving you contact info for...

Read more »

New Circus Rising in China: Star Acrobats Add Aerial Exploits, Novel Twists, Dazzling Direction and Music; Privately Funded-Produced Another Big Boon

Take a look at the photo above. Grainy, yes — a still from a video I took, but this was the real thing. THE moment. THE reason we go to circuses.Exotically charismatic young rolla bolla fellow, nameless per tradition, working over another rolla bolla, from tip of extended board flips cups and saucers onto his head. Called "bowl kicking," the display is set to music I would buy right now if I could, composed by one of China’s leading pop icons, Guo Feng. Possibly nothing better exemplifies the remarkable artistic revelations pouring down upon a new generation of Chinese Acrobats, long associated with preserving staid traditions, than this one crowing moment. Look what they’ve combined.Point made already? Should I now take my leave?Absolutely...

Read more »

New Circus Movie Rumbles into SoCal Town; Shooting Soon to Begin

The film adaptation of Sara Gruen's novel Water for Elephants is set to begin filming in the towns of Fillmore and Santa Paula, located in Ventura County in Southern California.Evidently, Sean Penn, earlier rumored to be up for a leading role, is out. In is famed Hal Holrook, to play "old" Jacob, who narrates the story from a nursing home, sharing memories of his circus days.Stars include Reese Witherspoon, Cristoph Waltz and Robert Pattinson. Richard LaGravenese scripted. Francis Lawrence is directing. Filming expected to wrap in around 30 days.Spotted behind a rented fence staking out the set were "more than 10 red, yellow and orange boxy circus wagons." About a dozen old-fashioned railroad cars were also discovered on tracks near the...

Read more »

Banana Shpeel in New York Escapes Chicago's Dreadful Reception; Earns Mostly Negative Notices

UPDATE, 5/24, 4 PM PST: I've now included excerpts from the NYT notice.Among the first notices out on Cirque du Soleil's new stage show at the Beacon Theatre, slated to run through August and then hit the touring circuit, only does Variety (an early supporter, also, of Wintuk) give this attempt at a new vaudeville bash a fairly solid thumbs up. Others range from nasty to pleasantly mediocre. Here are a sampling of excerpts:From NewJerseyNewsRoom.Com: "That loud thud resonating from the Upper West Side last night was the opening performance of "Banana Shpeel," a dud new event from Cirque du Soleil that bowed at the Beacon Theatre on Wednesday. ... Aiming for a summer-long run, "Banana Shpeel" is a disappointing misfire of tedious comedy, generally thrill-free acrobatic acts and lots of mediocre...

Read more »

Thurs. Tweets: John Ringling North II Drops One "P" Word for Another ... Big Apple Circus Acts to Abdu Dhabi

Give the man spiffy high marks for flexing his new circus muscles. Senior big top graduate, John Ringling North II, now in his fourth season operating, shepherding, creating, nurturing and, yes, "producing" Kelly-Miller Circus, is now calling himself just that -- a PRODUCER. Okay to be p-precisely exact, the word now put into ink [actually, last year, I belatedly discover after posting this] is "produced," as in, on the front cover of the new program magazine, words that spell out "Owned and produced" by him, p-period. Up 'till 2009, blame it on a legal challenge from the House of Feld to the House of Ringling-North over trademark issues, resulting in Mr. North agreeing not to use the P word at all. They were tossed a p-alternative: "proprietor,"...

Read more »

...

Read more »

Sunday Out of the Past: Snapshots From a China Luckily Shared ...

This first appeared on May 11, 2010How do you describe a land as vast and varied as China? The contrasts are so great as to leave you stranded, straining for a hook, a theme, an easy summing up. There are lovely green farms so painterly perfect. Miles and miles of earth and river darkened by industrial indifference. Brilliant new architecture under the Shanghai sun. Faceless old stone high-rise apartment buildings one after another after another that rise and fall at artless intervals with depressing repetition out the window of a passing train. Are they the grim handiwork of communism? Or merely another variation on the human condition stacked in concrete shelves? If there is toxic waste here, and there appears to be plenty, yet this,...

Read more »