I'm trying to get some photos up here. That's my house! We're parked in Norfolk, VA which is a great town. I've met some nice people here at a Cafe near the building. They have a theater which would be a great place to bring Cirkestra.

I've been putting a lot of time into getting the new CD out. I'm very excited about the artwork. Greg Stadnyk is working his magic and it's coming out really good. Scott's finishing the mastering. It's really exciting! this is our best CD yet.

I'm also reading "Your Money Or Your Life" again and really reading it this time now. It's a very good book which is making me very happy and hopefull about the future.

Peta has it's headquarters here at Norfolk and so there has been a lot of extra protesting and "No circus people welcome" signs in the places I go. (duh! I don't wear a sign on my forehead stating where I work). There was a protester outside the show wearing an elephant costume which had a bandage on the trunk. Sheesh!


Here's my house from the inside. I do have a nice window. Otherwise, there's not much else to see.

Last week at the end of the Richmond engagement my old circus friend Peggy who was a clown on the show in the 80s came by. I hadn't seen her in about 16 years she has 2 kids now. The little girl was so funny!

My microwave died. I can't even boil water for coffee. Sheesh. It's a beautiful day. Warm, not dry. Kind of a nice haze out. I like Richmond. You can walk around here and see nice coffee shops and gallerys and book shops. I want to bring cirkestra down here. Also Greensboro seemed very nice too as a place for us to break into. I guess I'm going to have book a tour.
Perhaps for spring '07. Southern states.
I've been wanting to put some pictures up here but I'm having camer technology issues. Sheesh.
My new hobby is exploring public transportation and reading newspapers. It's affordable and gratifying.

I went to see one of the sister units of our circus. Our circus is actually made of three circus' that blanket the country. It was nice being backstage at a circus but not for work. It's very exciting back there, seeing the behind the scenes. Hanging out with the clowns in the dressing rooms. Watching the floats roll back to their storage spots, seeing props and costumes up-close.
I saw a few faces of folks I knew from Smirkus. Smirkus is a youth circus but a few folks have moved up to the proffessional world from there and that's good to see too.
I know I'm misspelling everything but I don't have a dictionary.
Greensboro is a nice town. First, I enjoyed that our train is parked on an overpass so cars driving by can see it. There is a laundrymat near by which I have a photo of myself in from 1987 (19 years ago this week!). It's still there. I might brave the cold tonight and take a picture of myself in it again. It has snowed a little bit (nothing like up north, sheesh! i read on the internet that you guys got nailed!) but the snow didn't stop me from walking 25 minutes every day over to University Of North Carolina to hang around the campus. I'm using the computers in the library.
I really like it here. It has my kind of hang-outs.
I've laso managed to get a jump start on getting the new cirkestra CD moving along. The engineer has sent me the mixes to listen to on the train run tomorrow. The artist who did "Cirkestra" has sent me a quick peek at his ideas for the colors. I've written the copy. And this morning I designed a new postcard to announce the release.
I sent Käthe a postcard asking her if she wants to host a cirkestra house concert at her loft in Boston in a couple months to clelbrate the new CD.
It feels good to be accomplishing something. I don't always get that feeling in the circus.
Sometimes I wake up early in the morning with profound insight into my lifes problems. Yesterday I woke up knowing that this circus is not a good one for me to stay in for a long time. It's not that it isn't a good circus. Some musicians stay there a long time and are very happy. But I've made a life of being artistic. And I'm not artistic here. There's no need for me to be creative to do my job.
I was talking to the guitarist about this. While I was talking to him I decided that I must pick the date on which I'll leave the circus.
I was keeping my options open. Waiting until there was nothing left for me here. But that's not a good plan for me. I can stay for a while and make good use of my time here. I'll plan my next moves carefully and save money. I'll keep cirkestra alive with the new CD and I'll try to keep learning what I can here. Especially things that I can't learn somewhere else.

Last night I ran into Shamsheeva the cat dog and bird lady. We had a nice little chat. The little orange cat couldn't make it over the bar he jumps over yesterday morning. He must have been tired.
We have two shows here today and then it's on to Greensboro NC. I'm going to try to visit the other unit of our circus on tuesday.

Greenville, SC.
It's cold and people are wearing coats and bundling up to fight off the cold. I don't understand why the thermostat on the train is set to 62 degrees. sheesh.
There's a nice downtown here.