2011 so far:

A circus, many naps, a night locked out of my apartment, 4 coffee spoons. Nearly everyone I went to the circus with left with a clever disguise. I saw a young man spin on the floor in a hula hoop like a coin embossed with da Vinci's Vitruvian Man. Never faltered. It was beautiful. When he finished, he couldn't stop grinning. It felt like a moment where someone should be hugging him. I wonder how it feels to create dynamic art. You never get to keep it, the way I do my poems. I speculate that this might be both a relief (the mistakes disappear behind you like engine smoke) and a sorrow (the good things are only there when you're doing them?). I want to have this conversation with a dancer or a singer or C's cellist.

And also a thousand dead birds thudded across Akansas.

wanted: more Cirque du Soleil DVDs

My new work desktop background

"I'm about to make a sandwich full of DANGER."

Yes, I drove roughly 1.75 hours and either paid or misplaced a total of $19 to see roughly 3.25 hours of circus tonight. Yes, I live in a circus town (which got a shoutout at tonight's show). Your point?

Baraboo is great but it sadly lacks:
- man jumping barefoot on broken glass
- man diving chest-first naked onto broken glass
- audience volunteers standing on man lying belly-down on broken glass
- naked man pulling glass from his own scrotum. Assuring, "if I could afford this much sugar glass, I'd be in college right now, studying sculpture."
- fire eating, fire burlesque, fire fire fire
- man slicing watermelon with sword on belly of woman lying on bed of 6" nails (yes, I know the trick is to distribute your weight evenly)
- woman playing the most breathtaking music on a saw
- so much juggling of knives!

Monday I have to call the dentist about this pain and get that asbestos smell from my car checked out and probably start eating nothing but rice and peanutbutter. Have your fun now, kiddos.

100-year-old Ringling Brothers Train Shed

Not part of the usual Circus World tour.