Circus Juventas 2013 Spring Celebration

I saw K’s first circus show for the year last night. I have such goodwill for these shows.

Circus Juventas is a performing youth circus arts school. The spring shows are the school’s recital. All performing classes perform, regardless of age or readiness. You get your costume on, you get your gear, and you get out there and you perform.

The school is so large that the student body is divided into three section, or color groups. Each color does three shows and one dress/tech rehearsal. Leading up to this there have been regular classes, extra practices, and emergency extra practices. Ready or not, now you go on.

Last night was the Yellow show. Over 400 youth performers, 150 parent volunteers doing rigging and lighting and backstage-wrangling and locker-room-supervision and photography. The Toddler and Kinder acts always go first; three- and four- and five-year-olds dressed as naval officers and pirates, doing their respective acts.

The show is long. Over three hours, with an intermission. Every year they try to make sure the younger kids are all in the first half, so they can leave at 8:30 and go home. It doesn’t always work, but they try. K is now an older kid, and is in the second half for all nine shows.

The show last night had no mishaps. Sure, the Ringmistresses flubbed a couple of lines, but they recovered. Sure, a few unicyclists fell off their bikes, but they got back on. Only one of the flyers made it back to the bar, but ALL of them made it to the catcher without mishap. The clowns were funny. The kids juggling clubs didn’t drop anything. The rigging didn’t jam.

As always, there were a few costume or music choices that made me raise a brow. But the kids performing have no control over those things. They are given a costume and a song and a routines, and they do their best. They smile, and style, and they commit to whatever thing they are required to do. They are game, and I love that about them.

K was very, very tired last night. We got home, and I reminded her she needed to take her makeup off. We stood in the bathroom at 10:50 last night, smearing gunk on her eyelids and wiping them off. I gave her a lot of hugs, and told her she did great.

She did. She did great.

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Paddy’s Not at Work Today

This weekend we found out that K is going to enter her Unicycle act on a trapezee suspended between two older students riding extremely tall (“giraffe”) unicycles. K will do various tricks as they unicycle around the floor, then dismount and move to join her class on her unicycle.

This is, frankly, kinda awesome.

However …

However, should one of the bases fall or slip or drop the trapeze bar, the flyer — my daughter, for instance — will go skidding to the ground. Whereupon the trapeze falls on her. Whereupon the bar falls on her.

If any of you have not heard the song “The Sick Note,” I urge you to listen to the following:

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February 14 2013

1. The circus costume board for the Spring Celebration is up for perusal. I did not see anything this year that I found to be appalling. Nor did I see anything that struck me as fantastic or delightful or perfect. Ah well. I did have one Huzzawuh? moment, though — one of the costumes is labeled “Victoriandustrial.” …. Did they think “Steampunk” was trademarked? Is it? It’s not under copyright somewhere, I don’t think?

2. Payless Shoes has — at least in my neck of the world — Agent P shoes from Phineas and Ferb. Now you know.

3. I finished an expose book about Scientology yesterday. It was not complimentary towards that organization. While ranting about it, it was pointed out to me that the alleged abuses of Scientology are … exactly what half of every other organized religion has been accused of or done in their histories.

I honestly can’t tell if I think this makes things better or worse.

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November 29 2012

1. I made the tastiest baked sweet potatoes last night. Recipe here.

2. My son is walking around this morning coughing wetly. DO NOT WANT.

3. K did not make it into the summer circus show. I am telling her, and myself, that it’s because she’s young, still. A part of me wants to ask the folks at circus if there’s something K isn’t doing — is she goofing off in classes when we’re not there? Has she missed too many classes? Does she not work hard enough? — but, I don’t want to be that parent. And, youth is plausible right now. K is in a bunch of classes that are above her age — classes she was put into by circus, classes we didn’t push for. This is, I think, all to the good. But it makes her a year or two or three younger than everyone else, and it makes her six inches shorter than everyone else.

This is, at any rate, what I am telling myself and her. It’s hard for her, though, since all her friends and classmates got in, and are talking about the show. On the other hand, it’s not a bad thing to learn how to audition and not get what you want.

Land of mixed feelings, is what I’m saying, here.

4. We put the tree up yesterday! And got out the Christmas books! And put out the creche! All is lovely and festive.

Which reminds me, I had really better get going on actually WRITING Yuletide instead of just thinking about it.

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November 19 2012

1. Circus Juventas offers scholarships to many of its students. Here’s a video of some of the graduates, talking about their circus experience and what it meant to them, and what a difference the financial assistance meant. If you’re interested in learning more about supporting a CJ kid, here’s the link.

2. Archive of Our Own has introduced a feature that lets you sort fic by Kudos. Essentially, you can put in a fandom or pairing or character or keyword, and then sort by which fics people has already liked. It’s not a perfect system, to be sure – one is sorting only by what other people have already liked. And fics that have been widely rec’d are going to have more kudos than anything else, and fics in currently popular fandoms will have more, and crossover fics will have more, etc.

That said, I have already read a good dozen fics I never would have touched, never glanced at, and found them to be absolutely terrific. Reading by kudos has introduced me to some fantastic stories, incredibly written, based on premises that make me make this face:

O_o

Yet a good writer makes it all worthwhile.

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October 25 2012

1. All the cookbooks I am reading presume that I will be starting this cooking venture in a clean kitchen that no-one else is trying to use at the same time.

…

I don’t know about you, but this never happens. Sure, I can clean it, but I live with four other people. During the course of the cooking people will be in and out of the kitchen, needing food and depositing dirty dishes afterwards. Not to mention needing to use the sink, microwave, and stove at various points. What I’m saying is, where is the part of the recipe that says “and you can pause here to prepare an afternoon snack, make sure your kids take their socks off of the kitchen counter, and let the dog back in”?

2. My finger (the one I put in the blender two weeks ago) is healing nicely. It’s at that stage of healing where the nerves are reconnecting, leading to weird and inexplicable sensations. But I know this will pass, and that it’s ultimately a good thing.

3. I bought an oven thermometer yesterday, and tested our oven. It seems to be cooking 55 degrees colder than it ought to. I’m going to test it again this morning. It’s good to know — that 400 degrees is actually going to be 345. Sheesh!

4. K was moved to another circus class by invitation, and I’m super-proud of her. The first new class is tonight, and I’m really looking forward to it.

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First week of circus

We’re halfway through the first week of the circus term. It’s going reasonably well.

K is in twelve classes. Fourteen-and-a-half hours of class over six days a week. We’ve clearly hit that point where, if we weren’t homeschooling, we’d have trouble supporting this level of engagement. Especially considering that K also takes flamenco dance, swimming, karate, and Spanish classes, and is in a choir and a band.

We talked to her about it. About how, if this is The Thing She Wants To Do, we will support it. We will pay for it, and get her to classes, and work with her at home, and make time for the performance schedule, and help her try out for roles. But, that, this does mean there are four days a week in which K will get up, get ready, practice instruments, do school, do chores, go to circus, and go to bed. Nothing else, no play time, no time with friends outside of circus. K agreed to this. She seems to want it.

Now that we are three days in, she is really tired. It’s a lot of late nights of hard work at the end of the day. It’s also hard to have to move constantly from one mandatory thing, like chores, to the next, without a break. I know that I dislike that sort of tempo. I like breaks and down time.

I don’t know how K will feel about it. I don’t know if she will feel that the accolades, the hard-earned skills, the camaraderie, and the applause will be worth the tiring schedule and the days of being nagged by us to get the next thing done.

I think K herself doesn’t know, yet. Some things you just have to try for yourself.

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September 24 2012

1. The fall Circus Juventas term begins today. We received the kids’ class confirmation on Saturday afternoon.

K is taking twelve classes, covering fourteen hours over six days a week. Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday are the big days. We will be able to mostly drop K off and pick her up hours later. However, this first week, I am going to go watch most of her classes. Partially to see her and who her teachers are and who is in her classes, and partially to connect with the other parents and see who is available for things like, oh, say, rideshare.

2. I am watching the first season of the tv series Homeland on dvd. I am fascinated by it. There’s a wonderful tension being demonstrated, between the flaws of the people responsible for the protection of the United States and the fact that these flaws do not make them either right or wrong.

It just makes them flawed.

The acting is riveting. I tend to zone out, a bit, while watching tv shows and movies. Product of watching things in snippets on my breaks at work while doing ninety-seven things online. But this show, this show grabs my attention and keeps it.

3. Yuletide sign-ups are soooooooooon. \o/ I am looking forward to this.

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Circus; sharp sticks and mud; The Book of Mormon musical

1. NPR has the original cast recording of “The Book of Mormon” available streaming on its website. This is, as advertised, incredibly obscene and profane. It is also blisteringly funny. It is also, to my surprise, sweet and touching and incredibly earnest. As Trey Graham says at NPR:

“Much has been made of the essential sweetness of The Book of Mormon, and that’s how it strikes me; the show cocks a skeptical eye at situations and belief systems, but its jibes aren’t malicious, and it never mocks the value of faith. It also loves its characters — which means, regardless of how unlikely it may seem, that a wide range of audiences will, too.”

Listening to it, I have teared up as frequently as I have stifled laughter while wincing. If you listen to it at work, HEADPHONES. HEADPHONES are MANDATORY.

2. Last night was the first day of the new circus term. J and I had been thinking that, after this week, we would merely drop K off on Mondays, and go do something else. However two of M’s friends will be there — only on Mondays this term. So one of us will be there each week, with M, so he can play with his friends outside while K has classes.

As far as the classes went — Contortion I is held in the back, where we can’t watch. However her instructor came out after class to tell us the K did really well. All the other girls in this class are returning students. Luckily, this never phases K. She rises up, or sinks down, to whatever is expected of her. Working to catch up to the other girls will be good for her. Unicycle II is a jump up for K. She was in Unicycle I last year, and skipped the Unicycle I-II class. (Sidenote: What is it with systems that add half-point or hybrid rankings? Instead of Unicycle I, I-II, II, II-III, and III, why not have Unicycle 1-5?) This wasn’t a problem, though. She is about on par with the other kids. This class is also really small which lets the two instructors spend a lot of time nitpicking each student. I approve.

3. When I got home yesterday from work the kids were in the backyard, playing in a small sandbox that, while covered, had flooded during the spring-melt. It had then grown a crop of algae. So M and K were squatting on the edge of the plastic sandbox, playing with sticks, leaves, sand, dirt, mud, and algae. I entirely approve. Young animals should be able to get dirty, to build and shape and poke and kick and stack and squish.

Later, while at circus, M was playing on The Hill. The Hill is a, a hill, outside the front doors of circus. It’s extremely steep, covered in scrubby trees and weird little shrubs, and at the top is a chain link fence. There’s a city park on the other side of the fence, and the hill is in fact a drainage feature of the park. Water runs down the hill into a broad ditch and flows out towards the circus parking lot storm drains. The Hill is eroded, muddy, dirty, and the bottom of it is full of downed trees and washed-out broken branches.

Do you see where this is going?

The Hill is a magnet for the younger children at circus. It is steep, challenging, dirty, and slightly dangerous. Yet, to the best of my knowledge, no child has ever been impaled on the bracken at the bottom. We let M bring a length of rope to play with last night, with the STRICT injunction against tying any living creature with it. Obviously, the rope got tied to a root up at the top and was used to get up and down the steepest parts.

Young animals should also play like this. Steep, challenging, dirty, slightly dangerous. Didn’t we all play like this when we were younger? Stretching your abilities, solving problems when your bodily integrity is on the line, seeing where the limits of your strength and skill might lie. Cooperating with your peers, working towards common goals, helping those smaller and younger — accepting help when you need it. Negotiating hierarchy, establishing leaders, being gracious to others. All of those things seem somewhat more urgent when one is hanging over sharp sticks scrabbling for purchase with your feet while the root may be slipping.

Four brief things on a Sunday morning

1. Yesterday went well. M got home at 10:45 at night, but was a complete trouper.

2. I saw Thor last night! More thoughts on it on the forthcoming Fantastic Fangirls podcast, recorded soon.

3. I am currently reading:

Cinderella Ate My Daughter, by Peggy Orenstein
Story, by Robert McKee
Wars of the Roses, by Allison Weir

All of which I need to get done really soon now so that I can finish more of my Before-Wiscon-Reading list. Eep.

4. I called my mom this morning to wish her a happy Mother’s Day. She said she’s growing her hair out super-long, so that she can wear it in a bun. Because that’s what classy old ladies do. I approve.