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 of fire and being cheered by the multitudes?"

The other lion looks worn out and used up from cosmetics, like a jaded Vegas performer.

In the space where Tatiana once lived, this tiger looked maybe a tad bored, like a pampered kept dame half-sleeping the day away. When I see animals like this I think favorably of the circus, for under the big top I see animals closer together and have the impression they must be happier because they have company.

Crowds gaze at the compound (it looked much smaller closeup than I had anticipated) from which Tatiana sprang last Christmas, killing one boy and injuring two others. What seemed incredible is that the deep moat remains devoid of water; outside zoo experts had said it would likely have made it impossible for Tatiana to have brought off such an escape. And yet, a new higher wall includes prison-like wiring at the top -- not a pretty picture. I prefer water.

I felt desolately sad for this creature, it looked is so alone and lost in there. Is that what it really wants? Wouldn't it be happier with others of its kind? Even all those stones have a cold stark barren look -- I'd prefer sawdust and canvas.

This flamboyant bird reminded me of a costumed Disneyland performer commuting from one gig to another.

What majestic creatures! So stately as they ambled freely within their spacious compound. So confident and cool. If I could talk to them, I would ask them, "Would you enjoy being seen in a great circus parade, striding regally around the hippodrome track, bringing smiles to the faces of happy children?"

Sorry to say, I have little desire to return to this zoo. In truth, I've not been to any other zoos either. However, it did make me want to check out other zoos for comparisons. Maybe it's the cold weather. Maybe it's the lonely animals, so many of them alone in their pens. Or maybe it's the way I've seen animals displayed in circuses, giving me the impression that they belong together and not apart.

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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 a little tiny compared to vinyl. A record has more warmth and fullness. I cut short Affair. I’ll return to my 50-year-old (embarrassing confession) LP record. Frank sounds better on wax.

Cell Phones: Sure, how could I not get one what with pay phones vanishing as fast as Wall Street “experts.” I have a friend who calls me and often I end up asking him, “Are you talking to me from across the ocean through a bottle?” Then he does something so it sounds like a better amplified bottle.

Okay, what’s good? My new hi-def TV is Sharp, superb for nature, art and travel shows and the spectacular Olympics we just saw. Still, if my 19-year-old perfectly functioning Mitsubishi was still here, I’d not be complaining. Last Christmas, facing the digital future, I gave it away to some guys with a truck who offered to deliver it to a grateful family; this Christmas I found the exact same model abandoned on a sidewalk nearby, and I felt very sad wondering if this, in fact, is my old television. I even wrote down the serial number (!) but I no longer had the sales papers to compare DNA. I had the most protective feeling, wanting to retrieve it from the elements of indifference. Even a twinge of guilt. Perhaps some of you will, in pity, conclude that I have no children of my own. You are correct.

Like the way many people grow attached to their dogs, I get attached to the gadgets that serve me well and stay with them usually till the bitter end. I kept my PhoneMate around many years after it died.

I’m sticking with the vinyl albums I have. On the cell phone front (considering all the reports about possible radiation, among other dreads), maybe I can rig up my land phone to a shoulder strap-on affair and walk around wearing a dental x-ray bib. If nothing else it might get me into somebody’s budget clown alley. I’ll make a You Tube and send it to Pat Cashin.

Hey, you sound like a voice in a bottle lost in the Atlantic. PLEASE, speak up!!!!!

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

Showbiz David from out of the past

In 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 using real birds in Believe. And, not to be overlooked, a couple of Cirque co-founders on their own have mounted Cirque-like horse shows in past years. What does this all suggest? At the very least, an existential mind-set at the CEO desk. Darwin may be alive in Montreal.

A couple of days ago on this blog during a commentary back and forth between Wade Burck and Logan Jacot (you can check it out, end of the second post down), Burck posed an interesting question to Jacot: “What would you think of the idea of Soleil using animals?”

More than interesting, in fact, because, although I have long wondered if Cirque du Soleil might someday bring animals into the ring, I’ve never pondered how such a move might affect the circus world. And that is just what Jacot took up in his highly insightful answer. Here is what he wrote:

“Overall I think if Soleil added animals it would help the circus industry in general... because people trust Cirque, more people trust something with the name ‘Cirque’ on it than they do if the word ‘Circus’ is there. I think when Cirque has animals, the customers for the most part feel comfortable that the animals are being well taken care of. They know Cirque as reputable company. Cirque in America is regarded on the same level that theatre, opera, and ballet is on. This for some reason causes people to think, ‘It’s cirque, it’s a multimillion performing group of course they are going to take care of the animals.’ Once somebody recognizes that one company does take great care of its animals it leads to a better trust that animals can receive good and proper care on the road. This opens lots of doors."

Indeed, it could have a tremendously positive impact on the animal rights issue. Now you may take offense to Jacot's implication that animals would be better treated in a Cirque show than they are in circuses, but he is onto something: Imagery is everything, and for that reason alone, I find his reasoning to make a lot of sense. Cirque du Soleil enjoys the passionate allegiance of a broad base of upscale fans, many of them young adults who are so passionate that when they are disappointed by second-rate Cirque they are not shy in venting their displeasure (which I think is healthy). Were Cirque to admit animal acts into even one of its shows, what a dazzling affirmation of the menagerie this would mark.

It is all in Guy Laliberte’s hands, and Laliberte, I continue to believe, is by far the most interesting, indeed, the most powerful figure in the circus world. I rank him up there with Phillip Astley, William Coup, Anatoly Lunacharsky and John Ringling North. Each in their own way significantly defined and redefined the art of the circus performance.

If Laliberte is artistically amoral, all the better for the flexibility needed to once again make drastic shifts in the way he stocks and shapes his ring programs. He is still relatively young. What are the chances he might spread a little sawdust and sport an elephant or seal or two? I think they are good if he can be convinced to experiment. Would he be throwing away product identity and branding? Hard to say. Modern times, this very moment, tell us that a majority of Americans, especially adults with children, still prefer animals in circuses. And this lingering affection may not die anytime soon, not as long as circuses continue to maintain healthy conditions and present the animal stars in exemplary fashion.

Cirque du Soleil could surprise us yet another time. After all, is that not what King Laliberte delights in doing the most?

[photos, from above: Ingeborg Rhodin; Stephenson's Dogs; Yuri Kuklachev and cat; Alfred Court's mixed animal act]

[originally posted 12/27/08]

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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. to London, Sarasota to Shanghi, Hugo to Montreal to Moscow and Rome ... even somewhere down there in South Africa ...

Merry Christmas, perhaps?

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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 owner

Five 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 wings to other parts of the country.

Carson & Barnes, if it does reduce itself to one ring, will be forced to upgrade its overall artistic vision. When the audience's attention is confined to one ring, its focus naturally becomes more discriminating. Every moment is now more important. No looking to another ring for compensation. The one on display must deliver.

Laliberte’s future is gravely in doubt. By selling such a significant stake in the show to outside interests, in effect he lets go of the autonomy he has long demanded and opens the door for an eventual sale. And that’s a pity. A major question looms: how much money does he not now have that he needs in order to fulfill current contracts for new shows around the globe? And in the execution of his commitments, without ample funds will he produce inferior programs? His new Vegas offering, Believe, has left Cirque fans gasping in disbelief and angry.

John Ringling North II is by far the most potentially interesting story because we simply don’t know how far he can go in the producing realm. It takes the average circus owner at least a few seasons to reveal a distinctive artistic vision. North II, from reports, appears emotionally and artistically committed to his ownership of Kelly Miller Circus. Depending on the size of crowds he is able to draw (of greatest concern, he seems the weakest in the critical areas of promotion and publicity), he may be self-emboldened to do great things down the road.

2009?

Nothing yet indicates that any of the “major” shows on the road are going off the road, even though business appears to have been spotty for a number of them. On the plus side, gas prices have plummeted, and a new administration in the White House will likely favor the resumption of a more liberal policy on the visas needed to import the willing brown hands from Mexico who move our wagons down the road.

Circus Vargas has a lot going for it, but it, too, must learn how to frame a much more consistently dynamic program capable of generating stronger word of mouth. John Pugh, the way he talks to the press, seems as happy as ever to be touring his New Cole Circus, even in a dramatically scaled down version.

The future, as always, is in the hands of these precious few mortals who have the savvy and crust to keep our battered big tops — somehow — in the air.

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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 in the Wall Street Journal about snooty overpaid power clowns (Barry Lubin among them) that sent Binder nearly over the edge. No free haute cuisine for powerless prop hands. Haute hamburgers across the street .. “Get yourself some potato chips.” Hot hot hot off the grill! ...

There’s a dot hot theme here, even if another visitor, “Mark Felt-Deeper than Deep,” argues that this nasty caste stuff is status quo and it’s what we see when the show rolls that matters. "To some who have toiled there, it was/is a fantastic place to labor." I tend to agree with Deeper Than Deep. After briefly clowning for Wallace Bros Circus, I realized I preferred taking a fantasy view from the seats and keeping the ugly stuff out of my narrow vision, BUT ... dotting away, I must express surprise at the BAC junk tent. Both Binder and Michael Christensen spend so much lofty prose alluding to a touchy feely, ever so humane organization , that all along I just stupidly assumed they treated all mortals down to the popcorn machine technician like did the San Francisco Pickles of ‘yore in their egalitarian tepee tents who shunned capitalism, back before leftover Pickles became an elitist school that turns out virtually none of the artists good enough for “New York’s own circus.” Dot forward for more on this ...

... A theme, I said? Look here, people, no matter how much Paul and Michael want you to believe they are, first and last, “New York’s circus,” says I, not not not ... They are a High Class European imitation operating in the city of NY, period. Binder was is and will be to his dying day in love with old Europe, which is why he has favored the act over everything else. As for his touted elitism, guess I should not be surprised at all ... Perhaps his successor, one Guillaume Dufresnoy, will out-elite Binder... Dot on, all elitists, please ...

To a spate of mostly adoring questions posed in The New York Times (exempting the PETA crowd protesting on point), Dufresnoy of France selected a few to answer. First off, dotting hot, to a female admirer wondering if the guy is single, he answered no. “I am in a relationship, but there are many men with accents, so keep up the good work!” Yeah, lady, dot dot dot on .... Now, down to serious maters, Dufresnoy, addressing what his “artistic vision” might be, expresses a deference to eclectic circus-blind direction, “My dream is to bring our multi generational audience circus acts from a wide variety of cultures, and to attract directors and designers who have no previous experience with circus but have been very successful in theatre, opera, dance, music.” Now about that word OPERA. (That’s the O word I promised to drop.) This deserves small dots ... (a friend once treated me to an opera; I found the audience’s passion more engaging than the marathon song fest with scenery; I think we took sleeping bags)

Binder talks about the “virtuosity” of the artist. No disagreement here. His replacement, I suspect, because the French are now creatively dominant (well, away from France anyway) may by design or catastrophic accident bring off something truly breathtaking in the way of what I humbly (and crassly to some) call presentational pizazz (others need to call it trenchant narrative) ...

Do you feel lost in a vanishing mist of cirque meditation? Okay, we’re dotting back to earth, and to refreshingly basic John Ringling North II, he of Ringling stock and recently challenged by me (rhetorically speaking) to show the world what his blood is made of (I was riding high on Sawdust Kid Logan Jacot hinting away about K-M going three ring). Not only that, North is getting it from other directions, like from John Herriott on the subject of t-shirts versus t-spandex, opining that Kelly Miller does not get its costumes from Brooks Brothers and, further did you know, they are not likely to be spreading “fifty bags of sawdust or shavings on the lot each day.” ...

Dotting back to Show Biz David Via Jim Royal, JRN II’s gutsy reply suggests he will not be looking to the opera for artistic salvation. “Having checked my army dog tags and jockey license my blood type is A.” A for Ringling! ... North the Sequel points to costume pro Carmen Rosales, she obviously removed from the blue jean racks at Sears (where I shop) ... Furthermore, North the Second reveals with a dot of relish, “No, we don’t have a standing order for 50 bags of shavings a day.”.. And Royal promises me “soon” an update on winter quarters activity. Which makes me laugh thinking back on John Herriott’s correct remark about all the Kelly Miller paper I "hang a lot." I’m a hangable sort of guy. Whatever floats my way, I’ll string it out for effect ...

Where are we on this dottery evening? I can’t bring on my fake Big cannon finale without giving another sharp tongue out there its due. Just too dramatic, and I’m a sucker for ballyhoo heat: Barks Alan Cabal about my SF Zoo tiger update, “It’s a damned shamed that Tatiana didn’t manage to kill the scumbag gang-fodder Dhaliwal brothers. Good enough that she got Souza.” ... Tis a heated story, tis it. Here’s the Cabal kicker: “Darwin in action."

I have a question, World, would Darwin in action have foreseen a European style circus on Big Apple asphalt evolving into a Wagnerian spectacle starring Domingo, Spears & Grandma modeling leather in a cage full of tigers on Ridlin?

Oh, heck, I’m all dotted out. Promise to go clean next time. Blame it on winter. Too many troubled big tops in hideaway barns ... SAGE, are you back there in Hugo, yet???

[illustrations from top down: "Power Clown" image by Adel, Wall Street Journal; Powerless clown Showbiz David on Wallace Bros. Circus, post Civil War era; Guillaume Dufresnoy in The New York Times; a Kelly-Miller Circus truck logo; L'Amyx tea tenders Will and Boyi]

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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 left) and upgrades in fencing and safety apparatus, declining ticket sales have helped produce a $2 million budget shortfall. A hiring freeze is on, and vacant positions remain vacant.

Other zoos across the country have made upgrades, too, as they are hounded to remove elephants and re frame exhibits. The world-class San Diego Zoo, just to be on the “safe side,” increased the height of its fencing one foot above the standard.

Still, out there on dismally foggy Ocean Avenue where as a kid I once gawked at the wild animals in their pens, only a few weeks ago a kid climbed over a Rhinoceros fence, endeavoring either to stroke the creature or have his photo taken with it. He was cited for disturbing the animals. The zoo has no plans to further distance the rhino from its curious fans. “If somebody wants to get over the fence, they will, “ said zoo official Bob Jenkins.

Worse to come, maybe, will be courtroom revelations when the parents of Carlos Souza Jr., whom Tatiani mauled to death, have their day in court. Their lawsuit is expected to be filed by the end of December. The two brothers who survived the rampage filed a lawsuit in federal court last month seeking damages. Claims their attorney, “they are permanently scarred by this attack.”

Another lawsuit by a zoo employee, attacked by the same tiger while she was feeding it, remains in mediation. This should quell those bleeding hearts who claimed Tatiani went after the boys only because they were taunting her. Funny, does the act of feeding a tiger also constitute a taunt?

Circuses may benefit from all this. They display the wondrous interaction between humans and animals, and they bring the animals up close, and they do it safely.

Or, of course, they could only incur more heat from the do-gooders equating them with everything that has gone tragically wrong in captivity.

Perhaps the time is again near when we will have to come to grips with a reality: wild animals are wild. We share the same planet with them, and the closer we can get -- humanely, safely -- in our interactions, the better.

[photo: Paul Dhaliwal, right, and his brother Kulbir, far left, who survived Tatian's attack last Christmas at the S.F. Zoo. AP File Photo]

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