End of June-ing

I'm behind on a couple of paid writing projects (and a couple of non-blogging, unpaid writing projects...) right now, but I don't want to go too long without an update for fear I'll forget everything I've done, and it will be as if none of it ever happened. I have the same problem with my personal journal. I have one of those one-line-a-day journals that runs for five years. When I first started it, I was diligent about updating it every night with a summary of the day. Now I'm lucky if I do it once a week. At one point, I let it lapse two weeks and realized I had no recollection of anything remarkable that happened on a certain Wednesday April 4, 2012. Instead I wrote on that day an admonishment to my future self so that I when I get back around to that day next year, I will make sure to give it its due.

But enough of my less-than-anal journal habits, here is a litany of stuff I've done lately that I consider worth noting so that Future Me will heave a wistful sigh and wonder why I ever took for granted all the time I have on my hands. (Just to clarify, I'm assuming at some point in the future, I will no longer have the same amount of leisure time to do random shit because I'll have honed a successful writing business,  become inundated with rehearsals for my tin whistle jam band, or maybe just finally given into my cat's desire for routine 8-hour-long belly rubs).

I saw the show Empire (part of a traveling circus/burlesque/vaudeville act called SpiegelWorld) last week thanks to some free tickets from a friend. Parts of the comedy aspects of the show, I found more gross and distasteful than funny. Specifically a bit that involved the spitting of bananas. However, the acrobatics and other circus acts were amazing. Some were truly unique. This one man spent about ten minutes slowly balancing a feather on top of a stick and then the stick on top of a larger stick and so on until he was holding a mesmerizing sculpture across the audience. I can't really describe it in a way that imparts how cool it was, but you'll just have to trust me. Or wait, you could just watch this video!

I'll take this over banana spitting any day!

In other news of shows I got free tickets for (thanks to the same friend, but don't worry, I paid her back by helping her paint her living room this weekend), I saw Fuerza Bruta, a show that I expected to be more acrobatic than it was. As it turns out, it's more of a performance art piece than a circus, but it was very interestingly staged. The audience stands the whole time and is directed to move about the performance space in mass. It was a highly participatory show with the performers often engaging the audience or inciting them to dance. The coolest bit was their dancing in a giant pool that lowered down just above the audience. 

Well done, Feurza Bruta

                                

On Saturday night, there was a carnival in Astoria Park, which was not only an excuse to grab a funnel cake, but also a chance to ride the Ferris Wheel. It was a hot weekend, but by evening it was lovely to walk through Astoria Park with a light breeze coming off the water. 

View from the Ferris Wheel in Astoria Park.

                               

And now back to the salt mines as today begins a strenuous 3-day work week broken up by BBQs and beach days. Also, doing some writing. Maybe even giving Dinah a much deserved belly rub.