Big Top Bittles: "Banana" Hits the Road ... Kelly Miller in the Rain Wows Monte Carlo Photo Fest ... BTW, Monte Carlo, Your PR Dept. Sucks

SUNDAY UPDATE ... SUNDAY UPDATE! ... Ryan's winning Kelly-Miller snowed-in-big-top photo, which I discuss below, has been forward to me from Margaret of Circus Anonymous, and WILL BE posted here this week. A fanfare is in order ... WAIT FOR THE BIG ONE!

UPDATE TO THE UPDATE, FROM DON COVINGTON, regarding my remarks about the verbiage, driven mainly out of my frustration over the press release lacking any photos. But fair is fair: Clarifies Don, "The flowery description, by the way, was required because of the premise of the contest that required that each of the photographers explain why their photo captured the spirit of the circus." Thanks, Don. I trust the respective winners feel a well-deserved pride.

No shame in being a Broadway Flop, None at all. Step right up and fall on your face --- the road out there will welcome you with open arms. Why? Cause you made it, even if you didn't, in Gotham. You're a loser in the win category, a Real Player.

So, here comes, my way!, Cirque du Soleil's Banana Shpeel, which slipped big time in a recent shakedown and early exit at New York's Beacon Theatre, and we're talking "Broadway." Not very good reviews, some scathing, but, but, they've got a strong Variety endorsement, for whatever that may now possibly mean, and they've got what still, believe it or not, tickles my fancy from the promo angle -- something old but new all tossed around into modern dance and acrobatics, on a stage, for heaven's sake! So, heck, when it slips or lands or gropes or grovels or actually entertains (that possible too) in the city of SF over there in naval-gazing central, I'm going go get me the cheapest seat, and see what's what with this CDS property that was nearly blown to pieces by hostile Chicago reviews. New York was a kinder gentler place, if only in comparison.

Never thought I'd give Monte Carlo another plug on my plugola blog, ha, ha, they are such chintzy stingy teasers. Latest example: Sending out a press release about a so-called photo contest, to which were attached absolutely no visuals. Nothing. They've got the strangest PR department, if that's what they've got at all. I mean, a PHOTO contest and not one sample teaser? I remember visiting their website to hopefully grab a photo of the recent gold clown recipients from China. Not possible. This latest publicity blather reads like a college lecture, so preciously deep, so very French. A PHOTO anybody??? Somebody needs to tell them that a picture can say a thousand words, or, in France, half a million.

So, that's all I'm saying! No, no, now I remember the reason why I could not resist ignoring Princess Stephanie's latest Monte Carlo promotion (if that's what it is): You, see a photo of the Kelly Miller big top in blow down mode got honored. Camera snapper Ryan Easley, said to assist tiger man Casey McCoy, honored for the image he captured of the tent in a "rare snowstorm in Texas." Rare? Shows how little France knows about the U.S. According to the release, "Circus staff were roused from their sleep" (okay, I'll take that on faith), continuing, "to save the tent, their personal lives, once again, coming second to the never-ending demands that create the magic of sawdust and spangles." Those K-M troupers EARN their trouping kudos!

In keeping with the p/r release containing ample verbiage and not one image, I'm posting this one sans pictures.

And that may be the last you will hear about Monte Carlo from me until they install a working press department. Why is the Monte Carlo circus Festival virtually unknown in the country in which I reside? You take a guess.... I'm gonna out in the sun to continue my Patricia Highsmith novel.