Carnies, Cokes & Cotton Candy

In the build-up to the big Kelly Miller Circus, we watched a couple circus movies: The Greatest Show on Earth (which wasn't even the greatest show on TV that night) & Roustabout (an Elvis film that bares the distinction of being the only Elvis Film I've ever seen). I wonder if Elvis movies (all 31 of them) might be a good follow-up to the Spacey movies. I realized while watching it that I really have a predilection for loving crap. At t turns out, Roustabout is only vaguely circus related because it's only 1/2 circus; the other half is carnival, but it's unclear what it's supposed to be. We also saw a Dukes of Hazzard episode yesterday morning in which Luke joins some sort of traveling stunt-driving road show which is sort of circus related. And I watched the last hour of Octopussy in which a rogue Soviet officer plans to detonate a nuclear bomb in a circus tent on a US military base in West Berlin & James Bond dresses like the knife thrower (& later, like a clown) to infiltrate the roustabouts & save the day. Did you follow that? Good; there may be a pop-quiz @ the end of the post. As far as other circus movies go, we forgot about Big Top Pee Wee & Dumbo didn't come in time... oh well. Roger Moore IS James Bond!As or the actual circus yesterday, I took Isaiah to watch the tent raising in the morning. He brought his little stuffed elephant toy to show the elephants. He liked the camels too, but the elephants were his favorite. Afterwards, I called my sister & she came out in the afternoon to go w/ us to the show. We went to the 4:30 show so as to get home early, make pizza, & chill out in the evening rather than leaving @ 9:30 & fighting w/ Isaiah's bed-time.

I wish we could see a circus w/o the residual guilt that always comes after watching animals jump through hoops (similar to the guilt I feel every time I eat meat). That said, we had a good time watching the animals jump through hoops. Isaiah loved the dogs, the tigers, & most importantly, the elephants. The older kids dug the ropes/tumbling stuff & Aiden seemed to love the clowns too. I think Elizabeth had fun, & Sam was paying much more attention than we expected he would. He's also developing a strong interest in watching the other kids. While Isaiah couldn't b bothered while watching the elephants, Sam couldn't be bothered while watching Isaiah. It was pretty cute. The down side this year was 2 fold. 1) It was moved from Riverside Park to Parkside Park which just isn't as good of a location. 2) It was hot as Hell in the tent. Other than that, a good time was had by all. They're playing Fowlerville this evening, so you should go check it out.

Riverside Park

Yesterday evening, we went to the Kelly Miller Circus in Riverside Park. My mom joined us & we had a great time. We met up @ Sidetrack & had a nice dinner before heading down to the river where we did our best to pretend the animals are treated well & focus on the creepy human element. It was hard to ignore the animals completely though because Isaiah had such a good time checking them out. He loved the elephants & dogs, but seemed confused about the tigers. He did seem impressed when they were hopping around like Tigger, & the little dogs were a hit too as the trainer had them jumping over things. Solstice & Aiden took an Elephant ride during the intermission. When I was a kid, my dad took me to a circus in Petoskey & I rode an elephant so I figured they should get the chance to be just like Indy & Short Round too. Solstice also dug the clowns & the dude on a motorcycle on a tight-rope w/ his wife hanging below him & spinning around... it was pretty sweet. Aiden, on the other hand, hasn't been able to pick a favorite attraction... he dug it all. I dug the trapeze artists & the half-naked chicks spinning around on ropes (add a beer & a lonely & suddenly it goes from cool acrobatics to sleazy pole dance, but it's really cool.) I was also impressed by the juggler... I'm always impressed by jugglers. Stephanie was loving the clowns as they did some 3 Stooges/Keystone Cops type fighting routines. Of course, she liked the acrobats & trapeze artists too. Here's the Ypsi Citizen Circus Article for all the info I'm not covering. On the Elephant Isaiah having a blast Tony the Clown catches a potato on a fork W/ the greatest of ease The tightrope motorcycle family
In other Riverside Park news, the Ypsi Neighborhood Associations are hosting a picnic this afternoon w/ free food & entertainment in an attempt to get more people involved in their neighborhoods. I'm afraid the rain might keep us away though. it sounds pretty cool (1:30-4:00 in the park), but I might have to settle for the Arsenal v Valencia friendly @ 3:30. Speaking of the Beautiful Game, I started a fantasy league for the Championship (sort of like the English soccer equivalent to AAA Baseball). If you're interested in a fantasy league filled w/ players w/ whom you're not familiar, go here & then join the DB Championship w/ this code: 6829.

Here's the Ypsi Citizen article about the CoPAC Picnic.