Sunday Morning with Jack Kerouac: The Joyful Confusion of Youth

"There he is! That's him! Old God! Old God Shearing! Yes! Yes! Yes! And Shearing was conscious of the madman behind him, he could hear every one of Dean's gasps, and imprecations, he could sense it though he couldn't see. "That's right!" Dean said. "Yes!" Shearing smiled; these were his great 1949 days before he became cool and commercial. When he was gone Dean pointed to the empty piano seat. "God's empty chair," he said. On the piano a horn sat; its golden shadow made a strange reflection along the desert caravan painted on the wall behind the drums. God was gone; it was the silence of his departure. It was a rainy night. It was the myth of the rainy night. Dean was popeyed with awe. This madness would lead nowhere. I didn't...

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The Rebirthing of Kenneth Feld? Big Show Boss Tosses Aside Adding Machine for Director's Beret (so he says)

Erase from your mind the classic Kenneth Feld image -- obsessive nerd with adding machine at desk awaiting daily phone-ins from fretting event directors reporting on the day's ticket sales.Enter the new, artistically repentant Kenneth Feld, the Big Show's Big Picture Man. Hey, I read all about it in The New York Times. To breathlessly quote:"My strengths are really in the creative side, coming up with big ideas, knowing how to get them done. But the day-to-day and the administration are something that I wasn’t good at, because I didn’t have the interest. I started restructuring the company around ’94, and I found out that you never stop. And I now have an outside president and chief operating officer who take care of all of the day-to-day,...

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Morning Midway: Recovering Animal Trainer to Wed Gaily in the Big Cage ...

They're hailing it "My Grrreat Big Tiger Wedding."Titanium tiger man Christian Walliser, back from a month-long coma caused by an attack of his Bengal tigers, is about to be signed, sealed and caged when he and gay partner Jan Birk exchange vows before a local registrar on December 8. Registrar agreed to "join the couple in the tiger cage" just before circus show begins.What precipitated the tragic encounter was the 28-year-old trainer's tripping during a performance, rendering him ready meat to his charges. Sent to the hospital, bone fragments were removed from Walliser's brain. Titanium plates rebuilt one of his hips.About the formalities, for you of proper tradition who doddle over details: "Best man" will be one of the cats who nearly...

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Sunday Morning with Agent A: Advance Peek at Big Apple Circus "Dance On!" and Backyard Intrigue ...

Will it Dance On?On rare occasions from far and near, pro inside sources travel the e-mail lanes to my little stand on the midway. Some ask up front for anonymity before proceeding. And usually their wish is granted. After all, this opens a secret door to privileged information, and gives them a chance to explain why they do this or do not do that. Circus owners and their VP operatives often engage in artistic indiscretions that, as some of you know, bring out the rant in me, but I also realize that they do what they think they have to do in order to avoid creditor attachments, humbling 7-11 night shift work interviews, and food stamps.Now comes a fresh source bearing a pseudonym, saying some nice things about my prickly prose &...

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TV: Michael Feinstein’s Great American Songbook Leaves Too Many Questions Unanswered

TV Review: Michael Feinstein's Great American Songbook, aired the last three nights on PBSOnly on PBS could he get away with it. Yes, he is passionate and yes, he has some wonderful discoveries to share, among them a wry set of lyrics, never used, that Irving Berlin wrote for his great anthem “There's No Business Like Show Business." And sharp observations up his sleeve, one so obvious you might wonder, why did I not see that until now: This would be Al Jolson rolling his hips while he sang, just like a young troubadour named Elvis Presley would do thirty years later on national television.And there are the songs, some of which he sings so tenderly and with such conviction, songs composed by a bygone era of great Broadway tunesmiths, starring...

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Morning Midway: Paul Binder on Guillaume Dufresnoy to The New York Times

Interesting story in the Times, yesterday, "No Net For the New Man in Charge," by Felicia R. Lee.Some things I did not know:First of all, very sad to report that Bary Lubin has been battling cancer. I wish him excellent prospects for a full recovery and many more productive seasons as Grandma.Show's budget was reduced two years ago by $5 million, down to $17 million from $22 million.This season, the tour will be 2 months shorter, down to 8 months, to "focus on the Northeast corridor."And here's retired Paul Binder expressing how he views the course that his replacement artistic director, Guillaume Dufresnoy, should take: "Guillaume wants to put his own stamp on it, but he's also aware that continuity is important."Is that the previous Big Boss stressing what he expects to happen? I looked...

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Sunday Morning from China: Food, Glorious Food!

More delight to the bite: Want your noodles less slinky and sticky? Here's how, says Chef Boyi, recalling this dish from Taishan: After regular boiling, drain to dry, then pour cold water over and shake a little. Place in a bowl, and pour soup over. In Boyi's own words, noodles become closer to "rubber bands," giving off "a better biting feeling." Rice on the table, noodles on the run: A feast in Guangzhou, of the sort Boyi prefers, but thereafter, noodles noodles noodles. Round the clock. Convenient in a pinch. Some mornings, we heated up a round carton in our hotel room. And on the trains. Reliably safe and filling. What I missed the most? Fresh produce.Here we are in a typical small eatery, in the charming HouHai district of old...

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Sacramento to St. Louis: PETA is Now Teaching Local City Animal Control Inspectors How to Detect Evidence of "Abuse"

What a doozy this one is, forwarded to me by Don Covington. PETA infiltrating municipal animal control departments, offering free instruction on what to look for, how to monitor elephant walks, inspect living quarters etc., etc. No doubt, a lot of brainwashing is going down as well.Remember Sacramento last year, for a time ruling out the appearance of Ringling elephants in the show? Sacto's inspectors, as it turns out (I didn't know) had been given the run-through by PETA operatives, for free. Resulted in the pachyderms first being refused the right to perform, then allowed to appear.Now, in St. Louis, as reported yesterday (10/14) in the Post Dispatch, city animal control inspectors, having just taken PETA-directed instruction, were on...

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Morning Midway: Another Victory for Venice? Old Ringling-Barnum Arena Still on Life Support ...

Venice City Council given a "list" six months ago by Venice Circus Arts Foundation promising things it would do if city would not tear town the 5,100 seat arena where Ringling once rehearsed and opened their new shows after switching from tents to hard tops. So now? "We've done everything on that list," asserts Karen Dove of her consulting firm.Circus Foundation, the brainchild and passion of trapeze great Tito Gaona, now seeking a "formal letter" from the council allowing its drive to save the arena to continue over the next three to five years.Last month, city council showed twelfth hour sympathy by nixing $250,000 for a then-planned demotion of the old Art Concello designed building from its budget, thus holding back wrecking crews for a season or two of hope.Circus Arts foundation has...

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Morning Midway: Circque du Soleil Acknowledges (Finally?) its Russian Roots

Daniel Lamarre, Guy Laliberte, the Mayor of Moscow and Russian managing partner Craig Cohon, in Moscow, November, 2009To my eyes, from the first time I saw them in L.A., 1987, there can be absolutely no doubt whatsoever that Cirque du Soleil's deepest artistic roots are in the Soviet Circus scene of the era, and not in any noueau French movement. In fact, are you listening, Russia? Had there been no Moscow Circus, there would never have been Cirque du Soliel as we know it, not the incredibly reinvented circus presentation that wowed the world upon its ground-breaking premiere in the City of Angels.Cirque now plays only three Russia cities, and plans by 2015 to add seven more to an annual tour, said company president and Chief Operating Officer...

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Mine Rescue Trumps Moon Landing....

8:03 PM PST: I'm watching it on CNN, excited and heartened and fearful. First miner now on the way up."in just a minute and a half, maybe two minutes from now. Family members waiting, 69 days now."8:05 MINER ON THE SURFACE! MINOR ON THE SURFACE! NO, FALSE ALARM ...8:07: little boy in hard hat waiting. steam from hole. "they will see that wheel stop, and they will know" ... nearly 14 minutes ... about two minutes before ... "upper parts of shaft secured with metal" ... 8:12: hoking horns! Cheering and applause! Fenix capsule up! miner's face behind capsule bars. Miner out, smiling, hugs crying son, wife ... Another miner standing by in tears. The world maybe in tears of joy ... the pride of a rescue crew, of a man and his family,...

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Morning Midway: Baraboo, You're Back On! We Gotta Talk Some More

Where's the good Doc Dewel? And Steve (P.T.) Freese of Circus World? The Chamber of Commerce? Greg DeSantos from clownland?. You are all hereby summoned to my symposium, continued, on how to better market your considerable historical assets.As you may know, I've made a late-breaking career of ranting on about how your town, Baraboo, should sell itself to the amusement going public as a package of easily linked delights in the most charming of small town atmospheres, rather than a ramp-o-round from one isolated attraction to the next. In a Sunday paper here in the Bay Area, I came across an item that affirms the unsolicited advice I've been tossing your way, that my ranting makes good business sense.The story is titled "Just the ticket for...

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Monday Midway Mad: Aussies Give Millions to Circus Oz; Paris Gives Boot to Roma Gypsies; Vazquez Bros. Give History Gold to Milner Library

First Draft Netless: Those Circus Ozzies, clever little subversive big top deconstructionists just keep subverting along. Latest handout (a government gift) for Australia’s most famous touring big top is, can you count over a million dollars, kids? — $10 Million. Go ahead, American big top survivors struggling on peanuts, eat your starving hearts out! ... The Big Bucks to refurbish and fancy up the former TAFE College in Collingwood, to serve as home base ... “This is a remarkable bunch of people,” chirps millionaire administrator to be, Oz Chair Wendy McCarthy, “and a remarkable affirmation by the state government of Circus Oz and the role it plays in the Australian, and particularly Victorian arts, community." Oz, a Victorian art form?...

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Sunday Morning with Frank Braden: "Bulls Eye for Big Bertha"

"Spectacular has been the Big Show's season of 1948 -- spectacular in its triumphal coast to coast tour, in its mighty operation, in its phenomenal grosses and its never-to-be-forgotten performance.Spectacular is the word for it. And don't overlook the nut, pardner. It's a bit of a show off-too.The Madison Square Garden engagement was fabulous -- hot out of the cosmic dream books. Enough people were turned away during that epichol run to fill the Yale Bowl thrice over, two laps high. Showman pinched themselves in Broadway producers' offices, in Lindy's, in '21, in Sardi's and in vain to make sure they were awake. 'It's the show business millennium to end all millenniums,' chorused three Harvard refugees from the Theatre Guild. In Moscow,...

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Rethinking Ringling ‘56: The Reviews

Fourth in a five-part series: The Critics Issue Ambivalent Praise"Big Top Goes Park Avenue," headlined Variety."Circus Opens Run In Old-Time Style," reported The New York Times"Big One: From Troubled Seas A Great Show," rang The Billboard.Behind the generally affirmative notices, all around Ringling-Barnum in 1956, trouble was stalking the Big Show in spades. Ominous turnover in many departments, including the all-important press and publicity brigades. Sparse cash flow in the red wagon. Moving into New York City for its annual spring opening at the Garden, wagons and elephants met up with barricades of striking performers and roustabouts demanding better wages. The teamsters union refused to deliver dirt and tanbark to the Garden, forcing...

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Morning Midway: California Welfare Handouts Helping Boost Sagging Cirque du Soleil Vegas Ticket Sales?

Reported today in the Los Angeles Times, millions of dollars in welfare aid to California's allegedly "neediest" are ending up on Vegas tables, and, presumably, over the counters for show tickets. The latter option no doubt includes Cirque du Soleil's many Vegas shows. Added to this revelation is news (nothing new, really, but severe in degree) that Vegas itself continues to suffer its worst economic depression since the slot machines sprang up in the hot desert in the 1940s. The New York Times trailing this ominous saga reporting Nevada unemployment at 14.4 percent, highest in the nation. Along the strip, figure reaches 14.7 percent. (The figure was 3.8 percent ten years ago.) Plaza Hotel and Casino, symptomatic of dire times, laying off...

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Kelly Miller Circus Pushes Power in Website Video Samples, But Do They Give Too Much Away?

UPDATED, 10/4: See Paul H's commentBack to the promise of John Ringling North II, should I reinstate my "obsession"? I just revisited his website, and to my surprise and provisional delight discovered a couple of professional promo videos, one 15 seconds, the other twice that, that are, through and through, professional. The promos are clean, to the point and strong: "At last, a real circus!" Good hook. "America's one ring wonder!" Excellent.This tells me, despite my earlier concerns, there is somebody over there minding the marketing store. Sometimes, that is. Read on.Also to be found on the same website are video clips, not professionally produced, from five of the show's acts in a You Tube gallery. On balance, they fairly impress,...

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Sunday Morning with Francis Beverly Kelley: A Fleeting Brilliance Almost Gone the Moment it Arrives ...

There are only two days in the circus business: today and tomorrow. Always the course of the show's bloodstream lies a hundred or so miles ahead where cheerfully and competently it will repeat today's routine. Only the name of the town, the weather, and the spectators will alter the mammoth animated mural which is circus day in America.Bright ribbons in the coiffure of springtime are the brilliant pictures of snarling wild animals, tumbling acrobats, pretty circus girls, and laughing clowns that quicken the pulse of kids from eight to eighty. These are the trumpet notes of spring expressed in color; and yet the men who bring about this magic on barns and fences and in store windows act so inconspicuously that their "art work" seems to have...

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Finding Love on Dangerous Ground: A Film Noir Worth Spending Some Time With ...

For lovers of film noir, take a look at Nicholas Ray's On Dangerous Ground, one of my favorites. The DVD version offers, among its extras, a highly instructive commentary by film editor and critic Glenn Erickson about director Ray (In A Lonely Place, Rebel Without a Cause), the film and film noir in general. For serious movie buffs, Erickson's clear analysis of how the movie was originally shot and then extensively edited, post production, is worth the price of admission. Ground has a memorable score by one of Hollywood's greats, Bernard Hermann, a score of symphonic depth that, at its best, captures in delicate tones the inherent sadness central to the lead characters. Erickson contends that what Ray gave us is a sensitive character study...

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