Monday, September 27, 2004
Fyre on the Horizon
So there we are - it's the end of the night - we've got the big top set up and the grass mowed underneath it, we've made it through our last show of the weekend and William Darke and I are making a sled to drag wood back to the firepit. When out of the dusty distance comes a flashlight bobbing toward us. The tall man wielding it says something along the lines of "So where d'you boys think you're taking my wood?" Well we've got hot dogs and beer and a firepit dug behind the big top. To which he responds, "Well Mesquite would be better if you're cooking hot dogs." Thanks a lot, I'm thinking and pass along this kind sentiment, when sure enough he leads us over to a pile of Mesquite which has been drying out for months now in the Texas sun.
We got the fire burning in no time as the nearly full moon set over the big top leaving the sky full of Texas sized stars dimmed only by our blazing fire.
It was quite a week - Monday I left breakfast with Chuy and went to a parking lot to buy three Mexicans who came running up to the van before I could get it stopped. I picked three and they hopped in the back. Chuy took charge of the laborers - happy to have fellow Spanish speakers around him at last and those boys had the big top down in no time. Tear down went great - by the end of day one - almost everything was in the trucks and the sawdust was all swept up. I pulled the tent stakes out of concrete with my bear hands and a sledgehammer. With only sore muscles to show for it. The injuries came later as I was walking home from the bar and failed to catch the pretty girl who fell into me as we both hit the ground. My head landed on a fence post - and I ripped a few good sized slashes across my palm - but luckily it didn't hurt until the next day.
I cleaned it out with my toothbrush and then glued the holes shut before starting work- but it was no good - half way through the day I realized there was trouble. So I went to Home Depot - bought some razor blades and went to their bathroom for my first taste of running water for the day. Peeled off the glue and proceeded to cut the skin back and remove the rest of the gravel from my hand.
Upon arrival back at the big top - all the stakes were in and the canvas up. I was amazed at how fast the boys got it all together - but I got to accomplish my goal as there was just one more tent stake that had to to in - so I picked up my sledge and drove the spike into the Texas clay.
The top went up quick - but setup - took the rest of the week and tempers grew pretty hot. But I can't see what ther is to be upset about when you're out on the Texas plains - watching the sun set across a cow pasture - and setting up a circus across from a haunted house. I slept out on the lot most of the week. The van is nice and comfortable inside and it's amazing how quickly you adjust to the lack of running water.
But by showtime on Friday - we had a real rockstar moment. The sun is setting and the haunted houses are opening. And I decide that I'm going to go get a hotel room in town so I can take a shower before doing a show. It's showtime - time to open - and you want a shower? Unheard of in the carnival world. Yet here - it's no problem. I showered off a week's worth of Texas dust and sweat and walked back on the lot in my fresh pressed white shirt and tie.
It's great to be back on a dirt lot - and the haunted houses are great.
There's been so much more I'd love to tell you all about it - but I just keep getting sucked into making the magic happen - and sleeping in the back of the van out in the country definitely limits my access to the modern world.
Here's to the next time.
Tyler
We got the fire burning in no time as the nearly full moon set over the big top leaving the sky full of Texas sized stars dimmed only by our blazing fire.
It was quite a week - Monday I left breakfast with Chuy and went to a parking lot to buy three Mexicans who came running up to the van before I could get it stopped. I picked three and they hopped in the back. Chuy took charge of the laborers - happy to have fellow Spanish speakers around him at last and those boys had the big top down in no time. Tear down went great - by the end of day one - almost everything was in the trucks and the sawdust was all swept up. I pulled the tent stakes out of concrete with my bear hands and a sledgehammer. With only sore muscles to show for it. The injuries came later as I was walking home from the bar and failed to catch the pretty girl who fell into me as we both hit the ground. My head landed on a fence post - and I ripped a few good sized slashes across my palm - but luckily it didn't hurt until the next day.
I cleaned it out with my toothbrush and then glued the holes shut before starting work- but it was no good - half way through the day I realized there was trouble. So I went to Home Depot - bought some razor blades and went to their bathroom for my first taste of running water for the day. Peeled off the glue and proceeded to cut the skin back and remove the rest of the gravel from my hand.
Upon arrival back at the big top - all the stakes were in and the canvas up. I was amazed at how fast the boys got it all together - but I got to accomplish my goal as there was just one more tent stake that had to to in - so I picked up my sledge and drove the spike into the Texas clay.
The top went up quick - but setup - took the rest of the week and tempers grew pretty hot. But I can't see what ther is to be upset about when you're out on the Texas plains - watching the sun set across a cow pasture - and setting up a circus across from a haunted house. I slept out on the lot most of the week. The van is nice and comfortable inside and it's amazing how quickly you adjust to the lack of running water.
But by showtime on Friday - we had a real rockstar moment. The sun is setting and the haunted houses are opening. And I decide that I'm going to go get a hotel room in town so I can take a shower before doing a show. It's showtime - time to open - and you want a shower? Unheard of in the carnival world. Yet here - it's no problem. I showered off a week's worth of Texas dust and sweat and walked back on the lot in my fresh pressed white shirt and tie.
It's great to be back on a dirt lot - and the haunted houses are great.
There's been so much more I'd love to tell you all about it - but I just keep getting sucked into making the magic happen - and sleeping in the back of the van out in the country definitely limits my access to the modern world.
Here's to the next time.
Tyler
Thursday, September 16, 2004
Heat Devils on the Highway
Well it happened.
Word came down from the top today that the big top is coming down.
We're pulling up stakes on Monday and splitting town.
Maybe we're headed back to Thrill-Vania - maybe to the mothballs should find out by showtime tonight.
Doing laundry at the Bar of Soap last night the crowd is changing - the carnies are pulling in across the street and setting up for the big State Fair of Texas and we're moving on continuing our search for the modern midway.
Dallas struck again last night for break-in number three in the six weeks I've been here. The 6'X10' Man Made Monsters banner was stolen from the baby show. The idiots who took it cut the corners off the banner leaving me the D-rings and a little bit of painted canvas flapping on the side of the tent.
Sunday they got me up early to do an afternoon show - which I was not thrilled about - but upon arrival at the venue - we're performing at a music industry party for BMG. So the wonder-twins schmooze the guys from Ministry and Monday Amanda and I are driving down to New Orleans for the show. Any excuse to get out of Dallas and pound the pavement is good enough for me. We got in just as the show was getting out - and proceeded to make our own fun - who couldn't have fun in New Orleans? Watching the tankers travel up the muddy Mississippi as the wakes splash up over our feet before they carry us to the next bar. But life on the road can leave you a little out of the loop - and I find it strange that at the bar with girls dancing on it - people are watching The Weather Channel. The next morning everyone in town os boarding up their windows as Hurricane Ivan - a category five storm is headed straight for New Orleans. Well we thought about sticking it out - but with most of town closed we decided to hit the road - that and the mandatory evacuation. The highways are jam packed so we head across to the west side of the river and take the back roads. All the way to Baton Rouge we drove alongside the Mississippi in the long line of red tail lights fleeing the storm. The houses came further and further apart - each one boarded up and abandoned. We pulled up on the earthen burm built to keep the raging river within its banks and walked down to the water as tug boats slurred by slowly and laid back on the hill looking up at more stars in the sky than there are grains of sand on the beach.
After Baton Rouge we left the river and headed west passing miles of fields and enormous factories the size of small towns. Giand structures covered in lights and surrounded by miles of barbed wire fence. The kind of places where you could raise a whole community of drones who each add one small part never knowing that they're building the giant world weather machine that only James Bond could stop.
We headed west through the fields full of shrieking children and old baseball players. West past the factories with pipelines going over the road big enough to ride a horse through and west into the wilderness. Bugs splattering on the front of the big red van so much that it sounds like precipitation and the windsield wipers won't take their carcasses away. We headed west into the nothingness and then it happened - on the side of the road - on Lousiana highway 69 - we saw it. Christmas lights hanging on particle board, a couple of pick-up trucks and a Miller Light sign that barely lights up as it flickers in the darkness.
All five heads turn as we walk into the bar and sidle up on a couple of cracked vinyl stools. The Bud Lights come in a 10 ounce can and we talk about the weather and the highways with the locals. Glassy eyes of eight or ten mounted Bucks stare out at us from the particle board walls all around us - over the wood stove and the recliner in the corner, in between the wooden signs about fishing and all the way around to back behind the bar where the sign says - No Vulgar Language.
We shoot a game of pool, drink another mini-beer, smile and head into the real country darkness. The doors close behind us and the bar is closed. Miles away the highways are still closed and we drive 12 hours still in Louisiana. after sleeping in the back of a gas station we made it into Texas and took Texas highway 69 up to Tyler, TX and then on back to Dallas - without once rolling the wheels over a big interstate.
With the tent stakes coming up - it looks like time for another road trip - should find out tonight by showtime.
Have Fun.
I always do.
Tyler
Word came down from the top today that the big top is coming down.
We're pulling up stakes on Monday and splitting town.
Maybe we're headed back to Thrill-Vania - maybe to the mothballs should find out by showtime tonight.
Doing laundry at the Bar of Soap last night the crowd is changing - the carnies are pulling in across the street and setting up for the big State Fair of Texas and we're moving on continuing our search for the modern midway.
Dallas struck again last night for break-in number three in the six weeks I've been here. The 6'X10' Man Made Monsters banner was stolen from the baby show. The idiots who took it cut the corners off the banner leaving me the D-rings and a little bit of painted canvas flapping on the side of the tent.
Sunday they got me up early to do an afternoon show - which I was not thrilled about - but upon arrival at the venue - we're performing at a music industry party for BMG. So the wonder-twins schmooze the guys from Ministry and Monday Amanda and I are driving down to New Orleans for the show. Any excuse to get out of Dallas and pound the pavement is good enough for me. We got in just as the show was getting out - and proceeded to make our own fun - who couldn't have fun in New Orleans? Watching the tankers travel up the muddy Mississippi as the wakes splash up over our feet before they carry us to the next bar. But life on the road can leave you a little out of the loop - and I find it strange that at the bar with girls dancing on it - people are watching The Weather Channel. The next morning everyone in town os boarding up their windows as Hurricane Ivan - a category five storm is headed straight for New Orleans. Well we thought about sticking it out - but with most of town closed we decided to hit the road - that and the mandatory evacuation. The highways are jam packed so we head across to the west side of the river and take the back roads. All the way to Baton Rouge we drove alongside the Mississippi in the long line of red tail lights fleeing the storm. The houses came further and further apart - each one boarded up and abandoned. We pulled up on the earthen burm built to keep the raging river within its banks and walked down to the water as tug boats slurred by slowly and laid back on the hill looking up at more stars in the sky than there are grains of sand on the beach.
After Baton Rouge we left the river and headed west passing miles of fields and enormous factories the size of small towns. Giand structures covered in lights and surrounded by miles of barbed wire fence. The kind of places where you could raise a whole community of drones who each add one small part never knowing that they're building the giant world weather machine that only James Bond could stop.
We headed west through the fields full of shrieking children and old baseball players. West past the factories with pipelines going over the road big enough to ride a horse through and west into the wilderness. Bugs splattering on the front of the big red van so much that it sounds like precipitation and the windsield wipers won't take their carcasses away. We headed west into the nothingness and then it happened - on the side of the road - on Lousiana highway 69 - we saw it. Christmas lights hanging on particle board, a couple of pick-up trucks and a Miller Light sign that barely lights up as it flickers in the darkness.
All five heads turn as we walk into the bar and sidle up on a couple of cracked vinyl stools. The Bud Lights come in a 10 ounce can and we talk about the weather and the highways with the locals. Glassy eyes of eight or ten mounted Bucks stare out at us from the particle board walls all around us - over the wood stove and the recliner in the corner, in between the wooden signs about fishing and all the way around to back behind the bar where the sign says - No Vulgar Language.
We shoot a game of pool, drink another mini-beer, smile and head into the real country darkness. The doors close behind us and the bar is closed. Miles away the highways are still closed and we drive 12 hours still in Louisiana. after sleeping in the back of a gas station we made it into Texas and took Texas highway 69 up to Tyler, TX and then on back to Dallas - without once rolling the wheels over a big interstate.
With the tent stakes coming up - it looks like time for another road trip - should find out tonight by showtime.
Have Fun.
I always do.
Tyler
Wednesday, September 08, 2004
Shock, Censorship, and Sweet Peaches N. Cream
Ahhh Yes,
Back home in Brooklyn. I woke up in my own bed this morning, went for a long walk and gave all three furry monsters a bath. It feels great to be home. But not for long - I'll be back on a plane in less than 24 hours.
It was madness getting to the Sideshow Gathering - I got a ride to the airport on no sleep and then missed my connection in Charlotte, NC - lapse in memory about the time change - and it's Labor Day weekend and every flight to NYC is oversold and since I missed my connection I also missed my ride in the Bindlestiff Family Circus Van. Luckily - in one of those sent down from heaven moments - the one standby name they called out for the next flight was mine and I squeezed onto the plane just as they were closing the door. Adam Rinn was getting in his car to leave as I got him on the phone and he waited for me to get into NYC and drive me out to Wilkes-Barre, PA. We got in about 6 o'clock And Magic Brian, Insectavora, and I are together at last for the first time in almost six months just then we found out that they had cancelled our show that night. Great - but hey - it's been a long trip for all of us - Brian coming from Scotland, and we're up for a night of drinking and watching shows.
The show they put in our slot we got fuel sprayed all over us by a three foot tall fire breathing midget. Now while I'm not a fan of having fuel land all over me - how often do you see that?
The Bindlestiffs kicked ass - with Keith swallowing a sword "sandwich" complete with three blades attatched to two pieces of bread and a piece of cheese.
The next morning - we made up our set list over a diner breakfast and decided to close with the Garden of Eden Bed of Nails - a favorite for all of us - but since we flew in and caught rides so we have about half of our show props - to make it happen we would need an apple, a cinderblock, a sledgehammer, and a bed of nails.
Walking around town - every newspaper box has my face smiling back at me from the front page and all day people were asking us when our show was - and by the time we went on at almost midnight the room was packed all around the stage standing room only.
We dedicated our show to Indian Larry and gave Franco an autographed picture of the Bindles, Lucky Devil, and Larry. After not performing together in six months - it was one of those magical moments when it all just came together and we had a blast. The show went great - Brian and I both had great volunteers - the double blockhead acrobatics worked with no rehearsal, Insectavora's pirate act went over huge and by showtime we had it all together for the bed of nails.
We pitched the ultimate blow-off with Freak Pussy, the Two-Headed Cock and the fire acts censored from the main stage.
Amidst the hand shaking and autographs - the organizer told me that our show was too extreme and inappropriate for the Sideshow Gathering. Doesn't look like we'll be welcome back.
Banned from the Sideshow Gathering - for performing a show too shocking for an audience of our peers.
I can't see how anyone could have had anything other than a good time at our show - and was a little disappointed that the guy we were keeping our word to by showing up at his event didn't like our show. I still felt a surge of pride for doing something that would stand out even in the middle of a bunch of sideshows. Then I remembered the intro to our show - and who we dedicated it to - and I couldn't help but smile and think that Larry would have liked the show we put on - and would never have wanted more clothes on a pretty tattooed girl.
We all rode back in the Bindlestiff Cirkus van and had fun telling stories about our most and least favorite shows. I made it home for the beautiful Peaches N. Cream's birthday party at Otto's Shrunken Head - and to sleep in my own bed. I've got just one more night and it's wonderful.
See You in Church.
Tyler
Back home in Brooklyn. I woke up in my own bed this morning, went for a long walk and gave all three furry monsters a bath. It feels great to be home. But not for long - I'll be back on a plane in less than 24 hours.
It was madness getting to the Sideshow Gathering - I got a ride to the airport on no sleep and then missed my connection in Charlotte, NC - lapse in memory about the time change - and it's Labor Day weekend and every flight to NYC is oversold and since I missed my connection I also missed my ride in the Bindlestiff Family Circus Van. Luckily - in one of those sent down from heaven moments - the one standby name they called out for the next flight was mine and I squeezed onto the plane just as they were closing the door. Adam Rinn was getting in his car to leave as I got him on the phone and he waited for me to get into NYC and drive me out to Wilkes-Barre, PA. We got in about 6 o'clock And Magic Brian, Insectavora, and I are together at last for the first time in almost six months just then we found out that they had cancelled our show that night. Great - but hey - it's been a long trip for all of us - Brian coming from Scotland, and we're up for a night of drinking and watching shows.
The show they put in our slot we got fuel sprayed all over us by a three foot tall fire breathing midget. Now while I'm not a fan of having fuel land all over me - how often do you see that?
The Bindlestiffs kicked ass - with Keith swallowing a sword "sandwich" complete with three blades attatched to two pieces of bread and a piece of cheese.
The next morning - we made up our set list over a diner breakfast and decided to close with the Garden of Eden Bed of Nails - a favorite for all of us - but since we flew in and caught rides so we have about half of our show props - to make it happen we would need an apple, a cinderblock, a sledgehammer, and a bed of nails.
Walking around town - every newspaper box has my face smiling back at me from the front page and all day people were asking us when our show was - and by the time we went on at almost midnight the room was packed all around the stage standing room only.
We dedicated our show to Indian Larry and gave Franco an autographed picture of the Bindles, Lucky Devil, and Larry. After not performing together in six months - it was one of those magical moments when it all just came together and we had a blast. The show went great - Brian and I both had great volunteers - the double blockhead acrobatics worked with no rehearsal, Insectavora's pirate act went over huge and by showtime we had it all together for the bed of nails.
We pitched the ultimate blow-off with Freak Pussy, the Two-Headed Cock and the fire acts censored from the main stage.
Amidst the hand shaking and autographs - the organizer told me that our show was too extreme and inappropriate for the Sideshow Gathering. Doesn't look like we'll be welcome back.
Banned from the Sideshow Gathering - for performing a show too shocking for an audience of our peers.
I can't see how anyone could have had anything other than a good time at our show - and was a little disappointed that the guy we were keeping our word to by showing up at his event didn't like our show. I still felt a surge of pride for doing something that would stand out even in the middle of a bunch of sideshows. Then I remembered the intro to our show - and who we dedicated it to - and I couldn't help but smile and think that Larry would have liked the show we put on - and would never have wanted more clothes on a pretty tattooed girl.
We all rode back in the Bindlestiff Cirkus van and had fun telling stories about our most and least favorite shows. I made it home for the beautiful Peaches N. Cream's birthday party at Otto's Shrunken Head - and to sleep in my own bed. I've got just one more night and it's wonderful.
See You in Church.
Tyler
