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Posts Tagged ‘circus’
Trip report: Circus Bella (free) at Fort Mason
Sunday, August 30th, 2009 | Tweet |
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The thing that strikes you first, probably because the performers are not yet performing yet, about Circus Bella is its ringmaster, a tall guy dressed in a bright blue bunny suit. My daughter, the circus aficionado, took one look at him and groaned, "It’s aiming too young."
But then she was handed a programme and noticed that one of the guys who works on trapeze with her was in the show. And he started to kind of dance/juggle his suspenders and — she knew everything was going to be happy.
First of all, the price was cheap. Well, free, actually. And then there was the fact that we were sitting outside in the shade but could have chosen to sit in the sun, on a beautiful SF day.
Plus, Circus Bella arrives with its own band. (The accordion player is killer.)
The acts did not reflect the dumbness of the blue bunny. Although there were some missed juggles, the ambition of some of the mix-ups was impressive.
And then there was the lone juggler/percussion band. He placed a mic near a box and then bounced the balls he was juggling off the box, all the while making a wall of other interesting sounds in various other ways. Brilliant. We could have listened forever.
We also LOVED the slack rope walker and rolla-bolla rider.
The bandstand opposite the circus stage is made of car hoods. and lined with computer parts. Pendant-like flags flutter cheerfully all around you.
The sailboats in the dock and on the water were almost as scenic as the adorable babies and dogs.
Lovely lovely.
The Mexican food sold by a group amusingly entitled "Chaac-mool" (we are pretty sure that’s the platform on which the Mayans placed the still-beating hearts of their blood sacrifices…) was very inexpensive and tasted great. (A chicken tamale for $2, for example.)
After the circus, we visited the Italian Museum and then wandered around, taking in the fantastic and scenic Exploratorium fluid-dynamics installations.
There’s also a book store that accepts book donations daily. Fort Mason. Our kinda place.