Enchanters-R-Us

A peel of laughter and piano music greeted me as I entered the Gregangelo House today. It was none other than Rita Abrams rehearsing one of her new songs for her production of As the Bridge Tolls and the Gregangelo crew gathered around.


Passing through the atrium, I glanced over and saw Darkhia, Mongolian Hand Dancer (and one of the primary chefs here) carefully applying make-up to an elf-in-the-making.

The funny thing about pop culture is that it there are not more accidental crossovers. For instance, there are the elves of Christmas, Oompa-Loompa-like cogs in the great toy making factory of Santa Claus. Then there are J.K. Rowling's moth-beaten house elves, completely different from the noble (and fine) forest elves from J.R.R. Tolkien's novels. And somehow we get away with calling them ALL elves without getting them mushed up together into one gooey surrealistic painting in our heads (or at least my head).



Speaking of spirits and surreal images, I had the opportunity to meet Jim Berenholtz recently. Jim is one of those people with a really old soul. And I mean old like Brothers Grimm or pre-Scientific Revolution old, not old like stale cheese. This guy has traveled and lived with people all over the world, sometimes staying in huts and tin shacks. He is an accomplished ethnomusicologist, composer, snake dancer (see photo), musician, performance artist, and a researcher of many things indigenous.



One of Jim's favorite topics is Ancient Egypt and he is collaborating with Gregangelo & Velocity Arts & Entertainment to develop the "Heliopolis - City of the Sun" presentations. Here is Jim Berenholtz in the first of a 3-part series talking about the influence of Ancient Egypt on other civilizations (with a voiceover by yours truly): Sottol Weng Click HERE.

http://velocitycircus.podbean.com/

It is Thursday morning and I woke up to a rerun of the 70's TV game show "The Newlyweds". I wonder if the couples on the show are still together? My body is a bit sore from an extensive bike ride yesterday morning, I rode down to the ocean at 7am and watched the waves beat against the rocks near the cliff house. Sometimes the body screams to release the mind from active duty and my good ole bicycle was in the right place to trip upon in the morning! Rather than scream at my pain, I had a big "AHA" this is how the day will begin!
Yesterday I called Hiromi our filmaker and told her not to come in. Gregangelo and I planned to leave early to take a break from the pace and drive to Marin for dinner and then a Doug Motel's one man show at a barn in Cotati. Wednesday's we try to relax a little and breathe deep. So much for plans, the phones began to ring, our electrican shows up to rewire the hallway for a new art instillation, Karen arrives, and before you know it it is 4:30pm. The previous day we were exhibiting at a MPI conference, which was a success and met a great group of planners and caught up with acquaintainces in the industry. Bettina Devin my associate in development was quite the attraction as you can see in the photo, and given the nature of the conference we thought we would brighten up our corner with the color orange.

Today is a promising day, there is a lot of inquiry coming in from the Arizona markets and a potential event where we can have our aritist scale off of a new building opening. It seems the Napa-Sonoma market is starting to move forward as well.

Oh boy....there's a pasty-type thing baking in the oven and filling the house with a good smell. There's miso boiling on the stove top. Jeffrey is next to me and it sounds like he is (calmly) dealing with a very irritated caller, who just found out that the person planning her event changed her request from a few acts to a thirty-minute show, without asking the producer first. Oh my. A timer on his desk is tick-tick-ticking (to let him know when to pull his food out of the oven, I imagine). Tension....
But it has come after a somewhat relaxing week. We are taking care of details, preparing for the oncoming storm of business in the next few months.
Gregangelo and Henry Holloway (our master stilt-jumper and stuntman of V Troupe) have been out on the city streets all week in blue, shiny body suits and masks on roller skates, shouting at the monkey-suited public, for a guerilla-advertising job that a new company hired us for.
VTroupe is preparing to fly to Cincinnatti for a performance in early March.
We are hosting our monthly showcase next Sunday, the 24th, which will feature slapstick dance, acrobatic dance, aerial performance, film, and very likely some magic and opera as well!
For me (and I think for many artists), this time of year is ideal for holing up on rainy days and dreaming up the next creative ventures. There's little or no temptation to go outside when it's rainy and cold, so one has the opportunity to look within and dream up the future. I'm dreaming up performance pieces about ancient celtic tales. The circus is dreaming up new shows, and big business for all of our artists.
The picture above is of Gregangelo (blue) and Henry (green). The jesus guy has nothing to do with the circus.