It's ideal! The less hard I try the weirder it gets!

Well there's been a bit of a development

Chengdu Sakura festival in China. Leaving this sat morning, away three weeks, working for two.
Cast of only 8 clowns. Dado is one, Mitch or jonathan freddes is another. The others I may or may not know but those two are good enough for me. Mitch is ancient in clown terms, late fifties early sixties and still physical, very physical with his act. He's an old school ringing headliner and a wise man to boot and his stories are just the caviar of our lifestyle and all true. Honestly he doesn't need to make stuff up. One of his classics ends with "... And that's how we caught the camelfucker."

And Dado is Canadian but has a European styled clown that is a childish hunchback.

And so my journey continues.

Woah.. Google 'The Sanxingdui (Three-Star Piles) Museum '

And select images. The building itself is amazing as are the contents.

I will be using my stiltcam and posting footage online from either inside China or shortly afterwards.

We have a beautiful stage and everythings set around a lake and the city was founded in 310 bc and is where the panda raising institute is and there is also an impressive looking artifact museum in the city that I want to get to.

All for the moment. The deposit from the gig should buy me a new notebook or laptop before I leave so that's just ideal for my purposes as well.

Tsunami. Sirens on here 5 hours before estimated arrival.

I'm at 700 ft but the sirens went off at 10 pm and if anything comes it will be here earliest by 2-59am.I wonder if they are evacuating and I wonder about others.

""A tsunami has been generated that could cause damage along the coastlines of all islands in the state of Hawaii," the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center's bulletin said. "Urgent action should be taken to protect lives and property."

Here's a couple of webcams of the coast. They don't work for my itouch because they are java based but they proport to be 24 hour cams and may be interesting

http://www.mybeachcams.com/hawaii/bigisland/

Also; travel time image
http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/2011/03/11/lhvpd9/01/ttvulhvpd9-01.jpg

Latest Information as of Thu, 10 Mar 2011 23:38:04 -1000
000
WEHW40 PHEB 110831
TSUHWX
HIZ001>003-005>009-012>014-016>021-023>026-111031-
/O.CON.PHEB.TS.W.0001.000000T0000Z-000000T0000Z/
BULLETIN
TSUNAMI MESSAGE NUMBER 4
NWS PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER EWA BEACH HI
1030 PM HST THU MAR 10 2011
TO - CIVIL DEFENSE IN THE STATE OF HAWAII
SUBJECT - TSUNAMI WARNING SUPPLEMENT
A TSUNAMI WARNING CONTINUES IN EFFECT FOR THE STATE OF HAWAII.
NOTE REVISED ESTIMATED TIME OF ARRIVAL IN HAWAII
AN EARTHQUAKE HAS OCCURRED WITH THESE PRELIMINARY PARAMETERS
ORIGIN TIME - 0746 PM HST 10 MAR 2011
COORDINATES - 38.3 NORTH 142.4 EAST
LOCATION - NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU JAPAN
MAGNITUDE - 8.9 MOMENT
MEASUREMENTS OR REPORTS OF TSUNAMI WAVE ACTIVITY
GAUGE LOCATION LAT LON TIME AMPL PER
TOSASHIMIZU SHIKOKU 32.8N 133.0E 0752Z 0.94M / 3.1FT 72MIN
DART 21413 30.5N 152.1E 0659Z 0.76M / 2.5FT 32MIN
HANASAKI HOKKAIDO J 43.3N 145.6E 0657Z 2.79M / 9.2FT 76MIN
DART 21401 42.6N 152.6E 0643Z 0.67M / 2.2FT 40MIN
DART 21418 38.7N 148.7E 0619Z 1.08M / 3.5FT 06MIN
LAT - LATITUDE (N-NORTH, S-SOUTH)
LON - LONGITUDE (E-EAST, W-WEST)
TIME - TIME OF THE MEASUREMENT (Z IS UTC IS GREENWICH TIME)
AMPL - TSUNAMI AMPLITUDE MEASURED RELATIVE TO NORMAL SEA LEVEL.
IT IS ...NOT... CREST-TO-TROUGH WAVE HEIGHT.
VALUES ARE GIVEN IN BOTH METERS(M) AND FEET(FT).
PER - PERIOD OF TIME IN MINUTES(MIN) FROM ONE WAVE TO THE NEXT.
NOTE - DART MEASUREMENTS ARE FROM THE DEEP OCEAN AND THEY
ARE GENERALLY MUCH SMALLER THAN WOULD BE COASTAL
MEASUREMENTS AT SIMILAR LOCATIONS.
EVALUATION
A TSUNAMI HAS BEEN GENERATED THAT COULD CAUSE DAMAGE ALONG
COASTLINES OF ALL ISLANDS IN THE STATE OF HAWAII. URGENT ACTION
SHOULD BE TAKEN TO PROTECT LIVES AND PROPERTY.
A TSUNAMI IS A SERIES OF LONG OCEAN WAVES. EACH INDIVIDUAL WAVE
CREST CAN LAST 5 TO 15 MINUTES OR MORE AND EXTENSIVELY FLOOD
COASTAL AREAS. THE DANGER CAN CONTINUE FOR MANY HOURS AFTER THE
INITIAL WAVE AS SUBSEQUENT WAVES ARRIVE. TSUNAMI WAVE HEIGHTS
CANNOT BE PREDICTED AND THE FIRST WAVE MAY NOT BE THE LARGEST.
TSUNAMI WAVES EFFICIENTLY WRAP AROUND ISLANDS. ALL SHORES ARE AT
RISK NO MATTER WHICH DIRECTION THEY FACE. THE TROUGH OF A TSUNAMI
WAVE MAY TEMPORARILY EXPOSE THE SEAFLOOR BUT THE AREA WILL
QUICKLY FLOOD AGAIN. EXTREMELY STRONG AND UNUSUAL NEARSHORE
CURRENTS CAN ACCOMPANY A TSUNAMI. DEBRIS PICKED UP AND CARRIED
BY A TSUNAMI AMPLIFIES ITS DESTRUCTIVE POWER. SIMULTANEOUS HIGH
TIDES OR HIGH SURF CAN SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASE THE TSUNAMI HAZARD.
THE ESTIMATED ARRIVAL TIME IN HAWAII OF THE FIRST TSUNAMI WAVE IS
0307 AM HST FRI 11 MAR 2011
MESSAGES WILL BE ISSUED HOURLY OR SOONER AS CONDITIONS WARRANT.


 

Facebook and twitter as realtime expressions of sociology. Their designed purpose.

I've been in the very upper floors of a skyscraper in shanghai looking at the teeming system below wondering if any one brain can encompass the merely systematic complexity required to operate this on a civic functional level.

And I've studied psychology enough to see recognized within each individual subconscious intranets overseen by a brittle tinpot dictator of an ego with the layers only visible to an observer and the complexity of that.

And then this.

The world, our collective human experience as it is manifest in modern terms,representable in real time as a self referencing neural network

  http://on.ted.com/8zak

It's a challenge to perceive individual and collective consciousness to this degree and remain tethered.

Fun huh?

I'd love to discuss this. No one is passive in this context so I wish you as a reader, and I know there are at least thirty of you. Would interact

I muse

Ive got muse out the ying-yang brother.
Sometimes I think that all I have is muse, that I'm just some rare almost afflicted super-saturation of muse with a pulse and legs. ( and even they are Muse-y , elongated unreal Muse bourne conceits.)

But I fInd for me at least if I muse right out to the borders I find I'm like at the edge of an inclosed floating paddling pool of muse bobbing on the surface of an infinite ocean of the as yet unmused.
Whoa look out muse alert 


Strangers don't as a rule look each other in the eye long enough for much to be transmitted. It's just not safe and it doesn't feel natural. I'm impressed that performers do this as a primary part of their jobs. They might not recognize how primary it is. They might think it's about their funny lines or their skills but it's my opinion, after much observation, that it's about the eye contact or in the audiences perception and/or approximation of it they can amplify and personalize . 

I'm working on the theory that more is communicated in a profound glance than in any singular verbal or written statement. Tale your significant other for example. Sometimes a shared look conveys as much as a book written by each about the other.

And whether an audience member receives what you design your gaze to transmit or simply uses the contact like an empty palate to invent what they need to hear the point is more or less the same.

Communion

That is why theatre will never die. Every chattering ego in the room or street corner focuses on something outside itself and in so doing rests it's elbow on the shovel of it's own self regard.

I've got to a point in my mimehood where I risk simply looking at people trusting that given what you perceive is what you want/need to, that they will see in my interaction with them and others what they need.

Communion.

I don't know how many people would agree with this but it's my muse and I'm sticking to it and a lot of what I do is this very experiment.

The most artfully simple street show.

There was a woman, decades ago, with a show that was simply profound.

She wore a dickens style formal costume, trousers, waistcoat and jacket. She had a top hat but it stood beneath her. She stood on a small black box with her name in white letters on it and she herself was in whiteface.

Her act had two parts. She was unhappy. However she had an extensive collection of unhappinesses to use. She could be sad in many ways and she would direct specific sadnesses to specific audience members. Having a relationship based on that sadness with each and fostering each as she built up her symphony. She would break off an esculating disappointment with one audience member to kindle a sympathetic sadness with another, then switch to a brooding unhappiness with yet another before returning to each of her developing relationships where she had last left off.

She had a masterful catalogue of sadnesses and each was distinct and universal in it's own way.

The second part of her act happened when people approached her to put money into her hat.

She would stare at them balefully but in the moment where money was put into her hat a transformation occured.

She would smile at the donor and it was the most beautiful loving smile. Her smile was her work of art and it would radiate firstly directly into the person as they faced her then simply at them as they usually either walked away or walked back into the audience.

Her smile would last and then it would dissolve as the moment passed and context returned, and she would continue where she had left off with her individual and general sadness.

It was the most powerful, witty, profound and masterful street performance in my extensive searches through this small secialised world I inhabit.

Technically it is very hard to go from genuine sadness to joy. It is perhaps the hardest thing. The reverse is easy. I still practice sometimes. I would love to be able to master it. It would for me be like mastering life itself and so I still practice.

First thing I watched this morning in bed. Helpful.

This short film is ambitious and very well executed and touching.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w14v4vGUDdg