Single Point Sorrow

Having given up a lot to go to nursing school, I was full of joy in witnessing a one-time, single-point trapeze training partner preform at this year's annual showcase. According to her website, she also had a couple of gigs at Supperclub here in the city. Excellent.
*My sorrow is over having lost the circus somewhere in the midst of becoming a nurse -- and still not having yet become a nurse.
No circus + no nurse = sorrow.
Photo credit: Seth Golub

Whose Eye is on the Sparrow?

It rains, a gale rises, the big top collapses, fire breaks out, panic, people trample their neighbors to death as faced with the prospect of dying they make the decision, now, swiftly, who matters most. "I matter. I. I. I matter."

...I fly alone, apart from the flock, on long journeys through storm and clear skies to another summer. Hear me!

Towards Another Summer

Zatôichi

"Even with my eyes open wide, I can't see a thing."

Also, this movie has the best closing scene ever.

Frenz

Fleisher/Ollman Gallery's exhibit of works selected by Will Oldham.
It's called Frenz. With performance, too. Philadelphia, PA.

Lang & Cravat

Burt Lancaster is a new fave. And it's not just the face. Nor is it just the physique. Actually, this is my favorite part of his biography: Nick Cravat. This life-long friend of Lancaster was also his partner in a doubles acrobatic/trapeze routine in the mid 1930s and 1940s. He starred alongside Lancaster in nine films. In most he was mute. Cravat's daughter attributes this to his incredibly strong east-coast accent.

Cravat died in January and Lancaster in October of 1994.

A great aside is that the Circus Center has a fabulous doubles acrobatic act. Weirdly, our strong-man base bears a striking resemblance to Lancaster. Take a look for yourself.

Cardiac Infarct

So Sorry, My Sister

...but now I see
I had her before me always,
like a shield. I look at her wrinkles, her clenched
jaws, her frown-lines - I see they are
the dents on my shield, the blows that did not reach me.
She protected me, not as a mother
protects a child, with love, but as a
hostage protects the one who makes her
escape as I made my escape, with my sister's
body held in front of me.

From The Elder Sister, Sharon Olds
For you, in loving memory of
S.B.M. 09/08/1972 - 07/22/2009

Kozure Ōkami

From the manga of the same name.

Recap

Time for a recap of the past few months:

The winter ends, psych and peds rotations begin... and end, I join Facebook, The Kid graduates to the *fifth* grade, the MEPN year ends (hurrah! hurrah!), I meet new MEPNs with new neuroses, I leave Facebook, The Partner finally visits Montana, I receive my interim permit to practice nursing in the state of California, I register for the NCLEX and I come back to Circus Nurse, fresh and new. Okay. Now we're all squared away.