Cirque Eloize

On Sunday, we went to the Overture Center to see the Cirque Eloize show "Nebbia". It was a great show filled with comedy, drama, and lots of theatrical performances by the cast. Here's word from the director of the show (Nebbia means fog):

The fog that would float down when we visited my grandparents would swallow up the entire house. The neighborhood disappeared, followed by the entire village. Standing on the living room balcony, I would spy on the void and when the sky was very low, I would see strange things. The waves of the sea came to lick at the garden gate and hallucinations paraded along the row of poplar trees. I'd watch as lovers chased after one another. I'd see camels, elephants, soldiers returning from war… Once, I even saw myself float by. I was all grown up, driving a red car. It was often, or should I say always, a carnival...

The sound of the sea was omnipresent. And when the fog lifted, mullet and bass would be lying on the road. Once, we even found a fishing boat in the village square. An entire fishing boat. Yet the ocean was 300 kilometers from the grandparents' house.

There are other types of fog; fog that slips down over our eyes, drawing a thin veil between us and those who are already a little bit elsewhere. For some time, a fog has floated between my grandmother and me. I look a little blurred to her. Sometimes I'm my grandfather as a younger man or, in the flash of a second, just some stranger, some shadow. My grandmother has gone to the other side of the sky, which is very low. Occasionally, we see her, as the little girl I never knew, the young woman who turned grandfather's head, the old olive tree planted in the garden by an ancestor…

From my very early age, I've been fascinated by acrobatics. Fascinated by the movement that defies the laws of gravity, that combines strength and lightness, precision, synchronicity, confidence, surprise and risk. I like what goes unexpressed in theater, the veiled, the gesture that remains invisible.

When the sky is very low, we see things we don't normally see. We travel in a world of memories, invented images, what we call dreams for the sake of convenience. To tell my tale of a childhood that is re-invented each time, I use geometries and the lucidity of acrobatic theatre danced on stage by an extraordinary group of performers.

Daniele Finzi Pasca
Author & Director

A scary doctor's visit...

OK, have I told you that I don't especially care for doctors? Let's add another experience to the list from Friday. I woke up Sunday morning with a very sore, puffy, swollen right eye. I thought that Jeff had one up on me and elbowed me during sleep or I punched myself even. I had a very sore area amongst the swollenness. By Tuesday, my eye was opening OK, but with extreme pain and was pretty blurry and dry. I was having this heavy pressure headache at the back of my head, near the base of my neck too. Jeff and Logan were bugging me about going into the doctor to get it looked at. Eye drops and Advil were not cutting it. I had a doctor at one of my closings, and he said, "That's a nasty insect bite you have there." By Friday, I couldn't handle it anymore. I went into the clinic and got "Dr. No-Bedside Manner." He was a no holds barred kind of doc that said I was lucky to have my vision and that it was a poisonous bite probably from a brown recluse spider (nothing like keeping positive here). My eyeball had a film over the top of it from the bite and was not even dilating. There was that very sore area still that was opening up and actually was being dissolved by the spider poison (he figured this is where I was bit). I guess the poison stays for a month or so in your system and this bite can cause scarring. Talk about one of the weirdest things that has happened to me. They took 2 slides of ooze from the area to test it. They gave me a steroid injection and another serum shot of some sort and sent me on my way. It immediately started to feel better too. I guess I won't be heading the "Say No to Steroids" campaign anytime soon. And yes, I do talk like Arnold S. now.

'I'll be back'...

I was trying to joke around about this with the doc and he was not having any of my humor. I was asking him, "Will this get me out of work for a couple of days?", "Will I have x-ray vision in the one eye now?", "Are the steroids going to make me stronger and give me super human strength?", and "Do I look like Rhianna now?" At least the nurse chuckled a couple of times.

My dedication for the day...

My thoughts and prayers are with a friend out there named Lora Conwell.

Lora Conwell was recently diagnosed with colon cancer, for which she is currently undergoing treatment. We are raising money to try and help ease the financial burden.

Please pass this along to others you know who would like to help with donations.
**If you would like to donate please contact me or Nathan O’Brien at nateobrien@hotmail.com

***Even the smallest of donations make a difference. Make a difference in someone else's life and think about donating today.

Here's a little funny in a 'not so funny' financial market. I work in real estate and it's pretty doom and gloom right now. I am looking forward to getting some financial help out there. Anyone have $50 I can borrow? :)