San Francisco

San Francisco the Bellingham reunion.

It is strange how the chaos of travel and general inconsistency of plans can sometimes bring a large group of people together for a sunset on the beach. Jules and Kelsey, River, Islando and Shannon (the circus bus back from mexico), Tal, (Bellingham/SF) and Jeff (Jules' high school friend) sitting on a beach in SF together happly surprised. It was an amazing reunion and the sun seamed reluctant to disappear. In the last moment of sunset with nothing left but one horizontal line of sun against ocean, time seamed to slow down as the sun flattened itself into a disk of orange. we thought maybe that the sun would rise after its brief pause, or that rather some force had reversed the rotation of the earth... well that was getting a little far fetched. We had a lovely night. Saw an amazingly talented band, preceded by an awesome yo-yoist, and had loud conversations about consciousness .

The week before had been spent exploring the bay area. On sunday we made our way to the San Francisco Circus School. We talked to some graduates from the Clown conservatory program and toured the facility. After a brief sojourn to an indian restaurant where we were forced to make friends, we came back to the Circus School for Juggle club.

Impressions on the San Francisco Circus School Clown Conservatory Program:

1: Eighteen hours of class a week. leaving time for students to make money while they attend. But also making the class hour to $ ratio pretty high.

2: Cool location. In the Haight, next to the huge Golden Gate park. you would never be bored San Fran has a so much going on. But then maybe it would be hard to stay focused.

3: great facility in need of a renovation.

We stayed in the Bay with Kelsey's god friend Jana in Oakland. This was wonderful and we had loads of fun.

We also made it to Santa Cruz and saw Kelly Peach, some surfers and the sun for a while.

On thursday Jules tried to perform at Fisherman's wharf and all hopes of paying his way through clown college were scattered like his juggling. The scene at the Wharf is depressing. There is so much money to be had but the politics and management are stupid. The whole time he was there the same terrible statue mime was dancing in the circle pitch accompanied by a loud distorting boom box. Jules pulled off one show in a crappy spot before the scheduled performer showed up. Unless something changes San Francisco is not the place to street perform.

after today the blog posts will change because we are now in the middle of two different trips. Jules training an then touring with the Mud Bay Jugglers and Kelsey traveling in the south west.

Thank you: Jana, Kelly, Tal, for hosting us. Jeff for the moonshine, SF CIrcus School and Berkley jugglers for the fun, and the Indian Restaurant for the dance party and samosas!

Change of plans

Like we had plans anyway.

Jules is going to be a Mud Bay Juggler! Jules is going to be Harry. So... as you can see the vague idea of what we were doing has changed. Jules flies to Olympia on Friday for a week of rehearsal and then a tour with the Mud Bays up in Canada. Kelsey will stay in San Fran area and try to make some money/ learn new stuff/ have lots of fun.

As of now, we are in Oakland, CA staying at Kelsey's friend Jana's house having just arrived today I can't give any impressions of the place yet, although the house is nice. We drove down in two days, on the windy but amazing route 1. It was cloudy and drizzling but the ocean was gorgeous. Crags of rock sticking out of the foaming sea, trees bent over under constant presure from the sea breeze, and all those quaint tourist towns huddled under the clouds.

We just spent the last few days checking out the physical theater school Dell' Arte in Blue lake.
Impressions:
1. It is expensive, but worth it. When it comes to class hours you pay about $12 an hour, (as the Joe the head of recrutement put it.) thats a pretty good deal for the training.
2. It takes over your life. Good and bad, but mostly good because that is what you are there for. bad because it is such a small town and where do you go to escape?
3. The training works. From the classes that we sat in on and the performance lab we watched on friday it is obvious these studnets have learned a lot. I laughed quite a lot more than I was expecting to and I was prepared for funny.

So lets say we are tempted. Not next year but possibly in the future.

This week we are going to check out the circus school here in San Fran and I will post my impressions of that once I have a better idea. Jules is also going to try some street performing down at the wharf and maybe some other places before he leaves on Friday.

Arcata

Welcome friends. To the Southern Migration Tour blog.

I guess I should catch you all up. Previously in life Jules and Kelsey were living in Bellingham, working with Dream Science Circus and the Bellingham Circus Guild. Jules bought land (the Quarry) if you don't know about it he will fill you in later. Jules and Kelsey created a show together, produced it, went on the New Old Time Chautauqua tour and spent the last two months Building giant puppet stilt creatures for the circus.

Now we are sitting in a coffee shop in Arcata CA, connecting to the world via the amazing power of technology. The plan is this: travel south down the coast. see lots of people we miss, and others we do not know yet, perform for tourists and make lots of money off of them. (this is especially important for Jules who still has land payments.) Eventually we will end up in Austin TX for the Juggling Festival Feb 20th.

We Left Bellingham about a month ago. Spent the holidays with our families, ate well, relaxed and organized the Van. After this we traveled to Eugen for Juggle Club which was awesome! Then to Ashland to visit Jules' Friend Justin. And then to Williams OR were we stayed with Sam and Kelly Mae and did an awesome show in their house. We hope to do more house shows like this bringing our skills to the local people instead of the tourist traps.

Tomorrow we check out the Dell'Arte school of Physical theater in Blue Lake. Then down to San Fran.

I should have some pictures posted soon.

Stay in touch

Jules & Kelsey