The Onondaga County Public Library (OCPL) of Syracuse, NY are encouraging locals to read, and to promote reading this holiday season, they’re highlighting the circus books in their collection. I wish my school teachers would have taken the same approach! Below are three of the OCPL’s featured books according to Syracuse News (which is also [...]
The plague of chain restaurants and corporate stores that has overtaken the US can leave us feeling uninspired and unimaginative. Thankfully, there’s a small but steady community of true culture-philes who seek out and patronize independent and eccentric venues. These are the businesses that provide each city with its own unique flavor. These are the [...]
Usually, I try to include some commentary on my post materials, but the following excerpt truly speaks for itself. Enjoy: “During the performance of a stage illusion show, a magician requested the help of a volunteer from the audience. An unassuming fellow stood up and climbed onstage. The man was placed in a wooden box [...]
On my latest trip to Baraboo, Wisconsin, I stopped in a great used bookstore called The Village Booksmith and Coffeehouse. It’s one of those enchanting hole in the walls, filled floor to ceiling with antique books, and mildly reminiscent of a scene from Harry Potter. Being in Baraboo, they had an entire circus section in [...]
I recently watched the 1983 Disney film, Something Wicked This Way Comes for the first time. I was interested in the underlying origins of this storyline, and did a little research. Here’s what I uncovered: This movie adaptation was based on a Ray Bradbury novel, published under the same name in 1962. Bradbury is an [...]
Salman Rushdie has just published a book, titled Luka and the Fire of Life. This novel follows the story of a young man, Luka, who defies an evil ring master and mystically incites the defiant escape of the circus animals. The young animals befriend Luka, and adventures ensue. Rushdie’s quintessential writing style rings true in [...]
The sideshow banner is an iconic element of circus and sideshow life. While originally thought of as cheap advertisement, the sideshow banner has now been elevated to the status of folk art and a few scholars and enthusiasts are documenting these rich traditions. For an educational and thoroughly entertaining review of banner art history, I [...]
When you reflect on the history of 20th century working class women, a stereotypical poor and domesticated image may come to mind. However, as Kathy Peiss points out in her book Cheap Amusements: Working Women and Leisure in Turn-of-the-Century New York, rich patterns of socialization, status and culture existed. As women were establishing their rights [...]
Oran Canfield. Ever heard of him? His father, author of Chicken Soup for the Soul series, abandoned Oran when he was one year old. His mother was a hippie, with some emotional baggage, who banned Oran from watching television or eating refined sugar. Oran eventually ran away with the circus, got hooked on heroin, and [...]
It is painfully obvious that I have a bit of an obsession with circus and sideshow related topics. It may be less obvious that I am a lover of the creepy and weird as well. I’ve recently discovered the creepiest of all circus memorabilia I’ve ever collected: a childrens book titled Jack of the Circus. [...]