Clownmommy

Last week I read an interview with Ariel Gore in hip Mama the parenting zine. Yesterday afternoon I bought her new book bluebird, women and the new psychology of happiness and inhaled it.

D@#$  I didn’t leave home in time to get to the Y in time for the Pilates class I like AGAIN!  It’s like I’m not even trying.  And yet I am.  The Husband took My Kid to school on his way to work so I had three whole hours to get stuff done before I had to leave the apartment at noon.  It’s that combination of writing and housework that I just can’t seem to get a handle on since both are invariably more time consuming than I anticipate, not to mention the fact that when I made a rough plan of my morning I left out: personal hygiene, getting dressed; eating breakfast and/or lunch; running out to the corner store for dish detergent; looking for unwanted socks and gloves for this afternoons Girl Scout craft project; finding my daughters Girl Scout uniform vest; checking my e-mail and signing up for the parent end of Sunday’s religious education program…  So now that I’ve given up on today’s personal fitness regime  and suddenly have a free hour, I can instead work on laundry or dinner or PTA fundraisers or turn the hour my attention to laundry or dinner or PTA fundraisers or maybe one of those pesky writing projects…

This weekend I’m going to let my desires to do clown work slide by the wayside.  Jef Johnson is teaching a workshop at Theatrelab and I would like to spend my weekend there.  But, it’s not a public performance so it doesn’t get that clear-the-deck priority.  I already know Jef and enjoy his approach.  The topic appeals.

I always enjoy talking with Jef about what clown things he’s been thinking during this last leg of touring with Slava’s Snowshow.

Yet, between herding my child to her scheduled soccer game, ice skating party,  piano lesson and religious education class, I fear that I can’t allow myself to enjoy art supply explorations without my kid.  Although as I write this, it seems to me that perhaps my daughter and I may be in need of some time spent with Play-doh, tempera paint and crayons.

I’m excited.

When Chris Lueck announced the end of the Downtown Clown Revue he also put out a call for performers for the last few performances.  I sent him an e-mail.  I don’t have an act that I want to do.  But I do have a character I would like to play while helping to set up and clear the stage.

Chris said yes!

I’ll be playing on March 15.

I’m looking forward to it.

After bodywork I went to Gorilla Coffee with classmates and then, still talking, we went together to look at vintage clothing at Beacon’s Closet on 5th and then I wrote for a while at the Pacific Street branch of the Brooklyn Public Library (the one that always makes me think of a set from The Music Man). That was my creative part.  Then on to Trader Joe’s for mommy-work shopping for vegetables to cut up as appetizers for tomorrow’s Upper Grade Potluck and the black cherry gelatin cups My Kid likes in her lunches, and something to make for dinner tonight before picking up My Kid at school where all the 4th graders returned in the evening after attending a matinee of the Broadway production of The Lion King which we all hope is creative inspiration for our children.  One of those, it’s amazing that we live in New York City days, the kind I used to read about in books.

On January 24, 2010, Andre Bauer, the Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina said out loud and into a microphone at a public event: “My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed. You’re facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don’t think too much further than that. And so what you’ve got to do is you’ve got to curtail that type of behavior. They don’t know any better.”

I wonder if when he was in school he was assigned:   A Modest Proposal for preventing the children of poor people in Ireland, from being a burden on their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the publick. by Dr. Jonathan Swift which was published in the year 1729.

If he read it, I wonder if the current lieutenant governor of the state of South Carolina, would recognize the text as satire.

Somehow I doubt it.

He also seems to believe that, since schools with poor test scores are the same schools with high numbers of kids eligible for free lunch, test performance will improve if the free food is removed.  Just look at the test performance of the children at schools where nobody needs free lunch, their scores are very high.

Listening to NPR, in a segment on a working vacations, a college student talks about clearing trails Out West to broaden his view of the world.  Growing up Out West I used those same internships and seasonal jobs to broaden my horizons by meeting the kind of people who went college Back East.

My Kid had her first piano lesson on Saturday and she started ballet today.  She’s had dance before but this is the real deal with barre work and first position and all that.  My head is filled with thoughts of how the music lessons will help her with her standardized tests and the ballet will help her soccer game.  Also I’m remembering what lessons I did and did not get as a child as is the mother of the other little girl, current BFF of my daughter.  Together we mothers plotted to get our long of limb daughters to agree to take ballet class.  Their lack of interest went away when we suggested they go together.  At Mark Morris they have the luxury of live piano accompaniment at their class and they don’t have any idea how special that is.

I’ve been going to improvisation workshops at Gowanus Arts in Brooklyn.

Dancers and physical theatre people working with a live band (and the band working with the movers).

I was afraid it would be all new-agey and weird.  But it’s been well-conceived and fun.

Eliza Ladd is cool.

We’ve got an open workshop this afternoon:

All are invited to an open rehearsal of Tribal Epic – Kinesthetic Delight in Improvisation with Live Band Monkeyworks, Sunday 1/24 at 2:30 at Gowanus Arts Building 295 Douglass (bt. 3rd and 4th ave) Bklyn, buzzer # 6

I got an e-mail that makes me a little sad:

Hello NY clown community.

The Clown Revue is near the completion of its 4^th year. In that time the show has met all of its initial goals and exceeded my personal expectations. In four years we have presented over 300 different clown acts! We are so grateful for the support and work that the entire community has given us. We are grateful for the amazing relationships between clown artists, audience, photographers, techies, companies, and media the Clown Revue has inspired. Thank you to everyone.

After evaluating the company’s mission as well as my personal goals I have decided this will be the Clown Revue’s final year. There will be 2 more Revue performances (February 15th, and March 15th) and 1 last Golden Nose Awards Ceremony on April 19 2010.

From the onset the Clown Revue’s goal was educational, to give NY clowns an opportunity to learn by performing and learn by observing. I have learned a lot about the art of clowning over the past four years and I hope each clown in NYC took many lessons away from the Revue. I have enjoyed watching the community grow and individuals take personal and artistic risks. I am so grateful for the opportunity to have presented the show and value each clown’s contribution over the years.

I will miss the artistic dialogue on stage every month and I will miss the gathering of community. But I look forward to the clown future that 4 years of the Clown Revue helped create.

There are still slots available in the final performances, if you want to perform let me know asap-info@newyorkdowntownclown.com

Thanks for your support as audience and clowns over the past four years.

Clown On!

Christopher Lueck

I am sad about this but I too am ready to move on.  I attended regularly after learning about the venue at the New York Clown Theatre Festival when I first ventured out into the city on my own (without My Kid in tow).  I performed on that stage with Kendall Cornell’s “Soon-To-Be-World-Famous-Women-Clowns” and with Jef Johnson’s Clownlab and on my own as a solo performer.  Been there, done that, got the T-shirt (actually  there isn’t a T-shirt that I’m aware of.)  I will say good-bye without regret.  I have not been making it to the shows as frequently as I did when I first encountered the downtown clown community.  I’ve got projects of my own and people I’ve met that I work with some who I met at Downtown Clown.  I will miss the bull sessions in bars after the shows.  They made me feel young.  But, we all move on.