2005-08-26 - 7:19 p.m.

>And Suddenly He Reappeared...

Okay, now that things are somewhat back to normal around here, I can get down to the business of recording for posterity my thoughts and impressions on all the interesting little events for the past few weeks.

Okay.

Um...

Oh yeah! Bob Dylan concert! I had such a great time. The old man was playing his electric piano and twisting away in his white suit. Our seats turned out to be some of the best in the house (because we were right off to one side of the stage, but he faced us the whole time, never faced forward). The setlist for Dylan's Victoria show was full of classics, ending with a 2 song encore of "Don't Think Twice (It's Alright)" and finally, in loud electric guitar, "All Along the Watchtower." I had goosebumps!

There was a slight question when last we met about my claim of "having once been a clown." Well, it is true that I have always played the clown to one degree or another, but the straight answer is this. I was not a REAL clown. I mean, I didn't do birthday parties or circuses or anything. I was a road clown. The lowest rung on the clown hierarchy. I was (gasp!) an advertising clown. I treated it pretty seriously, however. I learned to put on a full face of grease makeup each day, touching it up on my lunch break. (Weird, I just had a little flash of memory: I used to eat cheese and onion sandwiches for lunch back then. That gives me heartburn just thinking about it.) And I danced. Yes, I danced around on the sidewalk wearing a clown costume for little more than minimum wage. My mom did it too.

There is a peculiar art in creating a clown dance that is at once silly and graceful, invulnerable and childlike. Why invulnerable, you may ask? Two reasons: 1) Because kids don't like seeing a clown get fazed. If a clown freaks out or gets beaten up (as can sometimes happen) it can be very upsetting for a kid. Mostly funny to adults, though. 2) Because people like to hurt clowns with metal objects thrown from passing cars. If a clown has a bit of bravado, people don't throw quite as hard.

I filched this drawing from my entry on June 12th of 2004

Now that I am in recall mode, I also remember a gymnastics routine that a friend and I choreographed in elementary school (and eventually performed at a school assembly). We dressed as clowns and did all sorts of gymnastic pratfalls (dive-rolls through hoops and such).

Did I ever mention that I was heavily into gymnastics as a kid? I was pretty good - I could walk on my hands indefinitely, do handsprings and aerials, etc. I think I was particularly good on the rings and the parallel bars. I remember going down to the school playground on evenings and weekends to practice routines on the bars. I'd probably hurt myself if I attempted anything more complex than walking on my hands now.

Health is good. Skin is bad. Will write more soon.