http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-ringling-bros-circus-shutting-down-20170114-story.html
The Circus Ain't Coming To Town
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I viewed the article on another site that doesn't immediately hit me in the face with advertisement and solicitation that hasn't any place to switch off! Well, looks like PETA finally got their wish--- those mean people with the circus animals won't get to tour the country anymore. Now all the animals will likely get taken off to whatever zoo can fit them in never to tour and entertain before crowds again.
The last time I went to the circus was in the nineties, with my late wife. It was all three rings, in the largest venue in the city. I think elephants were still featured, as were big cats, motorcycles in a steel globe, trapeze and other high altitude acts. The strangest act was a group of domestic cats that raced around the top of the ring itself and did other un-catlike tricks, impressively to me. I thought the clowns were amazing, such skilled physical comedy, not sleazy at all, but subtle, refined, but still projecting to a crowd. Since then, I have been aware of circuses large and small that have set up in the indoor venues and pitched large tents, but I have not chosen to attend. There are so many reasons the show can't go on: Intense and continual visual entertainment from professional sports, video and movies, and music concerts; issues related to treatment of animals, elephants and others; the cost of circus tickets related to family incomes; and many others. Circus culture will probably live on in various ways, but the big show is probably a thing of the past. We shall see.
A fitting tribute to the USA's grand entry into the Age of Digital Triviality and Whiny Bullshit, I think.
Down with reality, long live the pixel!
(True immersive VR will be the next big step. Then banks of vats containing "humans" floating in a nutrient solution. Exactly that path is why SETI has never found anything, I think. Going outward is logistically and biologically so difficult it's effectively impossible, while going inward is comparatively easy, infinitely cheaper, and solves all the same problems.)
Down with reality, long live the pixel!
(True immersive VR will be the next big step. Then banks of vats containing "humans" floating in a nutrient solution. Exactly that path is why SETI has never found anything, I think. Going outward is logistically and biologically so difficult it's effectively impossible, while going inward is comparatively easy, infinitely cheaper, and solves all the same problems.)
Please indulge me, one more circus memory. When I was in high school, the family went off to the circus, but I stayed home with a self-inflicted mandate to study French, my long-time nemesis which is another story in itself. The family came home and reported the circus acts. Eventually, I went to sleep out on the front porch on a cot in those pre-airconditioning days. Very early in the pre-dawn morning, a long procession of circus trucks woke me up and slowly shifted gears on the street outside, all painted up with fancy circus art depicting all the various acts. There must have been thirty or more of them hauling the circus on to the next town. It was like a dream, but clearly not. It's a memory that exactly suits this finale of the big circus world.
A few years ago I was able to take my handicapped son and six other special needs kids to the circus. The smiles on their faces and excitement at the spectacle was just amazing to behold.
Fuck PETA!!
Fuck PETA!!
You said it. We are already half way to the Matrix. Half the kids out there don't even know they're walking down the middle of the street so busy with their phones. Take away anything, they don't care so long as they have their phone. Better than real live people--- rats living in a cage not even knowing it.
Mmm. Good cheese.
The circus was just the opposite, Reality coming at you under the illusion of being a fantasy. It was good because it was real.
Then there's Cirque de Soleil, which is certainly based in the circus culture. They have great theatricality. As you enter the theater, one of the performers, a very tall guy dressed as an unkempt old man with wild hair, does a major routine pretending to be a member of the audience climbing over audience members to get to his seat. They use a lot of circus acts -- acrobats, jugglers, clowns, etc. They are rather pricey. I believe they are Canada based but draw from circuses throughout the world.
Yeah, a sad day, but inevitable given all the circumstances stated above, combined. PETA, damn their eyes, is crowing about it. Bastards! But I am not going to kick or beat my dog in retaliation, or buy a fur coat.
My parents lived South of Sarasota 30 miles, and while they didn't perform in the area when I visited, I got to see them loading the trains for the start of a new season a couple of times. As a kid, 7-8?, it was a lot of fun to go to the big top, and try to watch all three rings at once.
My parents lived South of Sarasota 30 miles, and while they didn't perform in the area when I visited, I got to see them loading the trains for the start of a new season a couple of times. As a kid, 7-8?, it was a lot of fun to go to the big top, and try to watch all three rings at once.
Well, they had a pretty damned good long run, 146 years. As a kid, I always looked forward to RBB&B coming to town and will always have fond memories going with my family.
Tastes change, and circuses have been struggling for a long time. Cirque du Soliel redefined the idea of a Circus. Soaring costs and diminishing ticket sales had as much to do with the demise of this form of entertainment as campaigns by the ASPCA or PETA.
The world has shrunk, and the kind of wonder that the circus brought when I was a kid, has been supplanted by FX extravaganzas like StarWars and other modern entertainments. The "Mysterious East" is about as far away as a couple of clicks on a browser.
Tastes change, and circuses have been struggling for a long time. Cirque du Soliel redefined the idea of a Circus. Soaring costs and diminishing ticket sales had as much to do with the demise of this form of entertainment as campaigns by the ASPCA or PETA.
The world has shrunk, and the kind of wonder that the circus brought when I was a kid, has been supplanted by FX extravaganzas like StarWars and other modern entertainments. The "Mysterious East" is about as far away as a couple of clicks on a browser.
And, let us also lament the passing of the carny caller! Hadn't thought of that in ages, and they probably still exist where there's not much internet! As a kid I was intrigued by one huckster who promised to show us kids some woman parts we'd only wondered about. The "lady" was fat and old (to a ten year old) so we passed on slipping him some folding money he was barking for. Now, as Jesse points out, mystery of all kinds is just a click or two away.
I'm torn about it. On one hand I feel it was a uniquely American form of entertainment; Bigger than life, with dazzling spectacles and feats of daring. On the other hand...Clowns. If you want a hard life be a clown. They still give me the heebie jeebies but it takes guts and tremendous talent to pull it off. I think PETA is too extreme, but I don't like caged animals, or exploited ones for that matter. Much of the most rare wildlife is behind bars for their own protection anymore. Sad. I got to watch an acrobat family practice one day during the summer in the nineties in southern Indiana. Amazing strength, dexterity and dedication as they did spine bending tricks and swirled in the air without nets. One of my best memories.
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