Thursday, January 25, 2007

One Less!

I was busy at the Affiliate Summit conference and expo which was held this Sunday to Tuesday (yesterday) in Las Vegas, Nevada.

I decided not to return to Fresno on Tuesday already, but stay the night and enjoy a show. That was not as easy than I thought, because every Cirque Du Soleil show except one was not running. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday seem to be the "Weekend" for most shows, giving the performers a break from their performances.

Mystère was on at the Treasure Island hotel and casino, which is one of the shows I have not seen yet (pfeuh). I got the best ticket I could get for $104,50, which placed me right in the center in the 6th Row, nice.

I was obviously not the only one from the Summit that decided to enjoy themselves, because only a few rows behind me was sitting a well known Affiliate Manager from the Summit.

The show was nice, but nothing spectacular. It was not a surprise for me, because I have seen most of the acts already at the Solstrom TV Series. I liked the Music a lot though.

Here is the Mystère Trailer directly from the Cirque du Soleil website.


I also saw for the first time a performer "slip", literally. The performer of the final routine of the Aerial High Bar missed the performer on the swing below him and dropped. This was a reminder why there is a safety net underneath the structure which is located 40 feet above the ground. This little mistake would have hurt a lot more than just the performers pride if it would not have been for the safety net.

So, that removes one more Cirque show from my "To-See" list. Two more to go. "Zumanity" and "Love" was unfortunately not running. I wanted to see Zumanity too. Well, next time.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

I Admit It. I am a CirqueFAN. Deal With It!!!



It is no secret that I am a big Cirque Du Soleil fan. The first show I saw was the inoffical show from Dragone called Le Reve, which is currently shown at the Wynn Las Vegas Resort and Casino.

It is to this day my favorite Cirque Show to date. I have seen all but three alright which are Zumanity, Mystere and Love. And it will be 4 shows I have not seen in April this year. Why? That's Why. I play again with the Idea to hop over to Montreal/Canada on a weekend in April or May to see it.

I had the ticket, opening week (day 3 or 4), last front-row seat in my basket. But it knew that I could not go, because Canada is not part of the United States (yet) and I have currently no travel documents thus can leave but not get back in to go home (It is as ridiculis as it sounds, trust me).

Well things changed a bit. The situation still sucks, but it seems that I will be able to get travel documents again at the end of March, beginning of April. Mhh.. What did "The Clash" say? .... "should I stay or should I go?"

I am undecided. While I am thinking about it, check out this video which I found at YouTube.com. It uis about 9 minutes long and shows several scenes from the show. It also introduces each of the main theme songs.

Did I mention that the music of Le Reve is just great and also the best from all Cirque shows in my opinion? No? Well, it is and I own the CD (surprise), the original, not a copy.

You know, the one you have to buy for money and not creditz (kudos, if you understood that one). The only other soundtrack that comes close is the one from the Cirque Du Soleil "Touring Show" called Varekai

Varekai is also one of my favorite shows.



Here is again the Teaser I mixed myself (Music and Video). The original video had some commentator messing the experience up, so I took the video editing software in my own hands and saved the day. ;)



Want some more? Check out my YouTube VLog (that means Video (B)log dummy ;) ).

I decided to "out" myself in public and do inventory of my cirque stuff. It is ironic that it all started with a free comp ticket to the Le Reve show in Vegas. How much is it? About $90-$100. Great deal! Thank you. I spent more than 10 times that amount ever after. I should have paid them $100 to not to go... kidding. I have no regrets.

Okay back to the CirqueFAN inventory. Let's start with the Live Shows. I sort them by how I like them compared to the others.

Cirque Du Soleil Live Shows
  1. Le Reve at the Wynn, Las Vegas
  2. "KA" at the MGM Grand, Las Vegas
  3. "O" at the Belagio, Las Vegas
  4. Delirium (Touring Show/Musical), Fresno
Haven't seen yet. TO-DO!
Quidam, Corteo, Alegria, Dralion and Varekai are also still Touring Shows and La Nouba found a permanent home in Florida. Well, to be honest. I will not chase them, but if I get the opportuniy, then I will go and see them live.

This brings me to the next category DVDs.

Cirque Du Soleil Shows on DVD
Yes, I own them all!

Cirque du Soleil: VarekaiCirque Du Soleil - CorteoCirque du Soleil: Dralion
Cirque du Soleil: QuidamCirque du Soleil: AlegriaCirque du Soleil II: A New Experience
Cirque du Soleil: SaltimbancoCirque du Soleil: La NoubaCirque du Soleil - Cirque Reinvente


* Cirque du Soleil II: A New Experience is the same as Cirque du Soleil - Nouvelle Experience

Cirque Du Soleil Movies
No, I own only 50% of them

Cirque du Soleil: Journey of Man

Cirque du Soleil - Alegria: An Enchanting Fable (Schande!, Schande!)
Directors: Franco Dragone
don't touch this!

 So... The circus of the sun also produced two movies. One is nice and the other one sucks big time. No, there is no link to the bad one. Also no Image. Find it yourself, if you can not help it, but let me out of it. I gues everbody has a dead body in the cellar.

OKay, the dead one is not - Cirque Du Soleil's - Journey of Man

A child is born. We see underwater swimmers representing this. He is young, in a jungle setting, with two fanciful "instincts" guiding him as swooping bird-like acrobats initially menace, then delight. As an adolescent, he enters a desert, where a man spins a large cube of metal tubing. He leaves his instinct-guides behind, and enters a garden where two statues dance in a pond. As he watches their sensual acrobatics of love, he becomes a man. He is offered wealth (represented by a golden hat) by a devil figure. In a richly decorated room, a scruffy troupe of a dozen acrobats and a little girl reawaken the old man's youthful nature and love.

.. okay, next chapter ...



Cirque Du Soleil Documentaries (About the Cirque)
As weird as it may sound. Yes, I have all of them.


Cirque Du Soleil TV and Special Events
Got them too! :)

Cirque du Soleil - Midnight Sun

Cirque du Soleil - Midnight Sun (2004)

Co-produced by Amèrimage-Spectra and Productions Conte IV, a subsidiary of Cirque du Soleil Images, Midnight Sun features 150 circus artists, entertainers and street performers, as well as over 100 singers and musicians. All these artists came together on July 11, 2004, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Festival International de Jazz de Montrèal and Cirque du Soleil's 20th birthday by performing in a magnificent show on the main stage of the Festival International de Jazz de Montrèal.
Cirque du Soleil - Solstrom

Cirque du Soleil - Solstrom
The Complete Series - 5 DVDs

All 13 Episodes of the TV Show. Filmed 2003 at the Cirque du Soleil Hometown, Montreal, Canada

Cirque Du Soleil Packages - Don't Haves

I have none of the packages since I bought all individual things. I hope that I don't miss out on anything that is exclusive for those packages (I guess I do), but lets not talk about that anymore.

Cirque Du Soleil - Anniversary Collection

Cirque Du Soleil - Anniversary Collection, 1984-2005

Varekai , Quidam , Alegria , Dralion , Saltimbanco , La Nouba, A New Experience, Movie: Journey of Man. 12 DVD's + 6 Post Cards
Cirque du Soleil - Fire Within / Varekai

Cirque du Soleil - Fire Within / Varekai

4 DVDs containing the 3 Disks award winning documentary about the creation of Cirque du Soleil's show Varekai and the Show itself.
Cirque du Soleil 3-Pack
Cirque du Soleil 3-Pack - Quidam / Dralion / Journey of Man


It does not have an end. Gee. This is more than I thought. I am still missing the music (I have 6 or 7 CD's), 2 T-Shirts ("Delirium" and a cool looking one just Cirque branded) and 1 brochure/book. I will stop here.

Monday, January 01, 2007

Year 2006 Review and Apologies

The year 2006 is history now and I am not sure If I did more than I did not do, but wanted to. The final count is not in yet, well, I might just add it to my to-do list for 2007 and let it slip into the 2007 "things I did not do, but wanted to" list. That would solve the problem just nicely.

My appologies to:
  • "Buzifer" for not doing the requested "KiDS" ASCII

  • "Messiah" for not doing the requested "HiDDDEN RAGE" ASCII art

  • "Ian" for not doing the requested "MisterH" ASCII

  • "Volcom V" for not doing the requested "Volcom V" ANSI

  • Michael for not doing the requested "BUMSEN" ASCII (for all the Germans out there, it is not what you think. They are danish and the word "Bumsen" has a different meaning there :) )
I am also sorry for having turned down the requests for ShAdY, iCU and Synthetica OrganizationSee it from the bright side boys, you did not make it on to the list of people I have to apologize to :)

I also apologize to "Idiana" who is doing a great job at kicking some lazy butts over at SAC and keep the boys going somehow. I have all SAC NFO's already added to the SAC WIKI and then the damn thing crashed on me. I just did not get around to check what the problem is. Actually I did for 1 hour or so, but was not able to figure it out. I did not want to wipe it because of the content I already created.

But hang in there. We will get the content for a new official SAC Website with detailed Group and Member history together somehow. I only feel half as bad because of the fact, that things seemed to be "slow" on your end as well. There was not much movement on the current site, design-wise and other content.

It was great that I got the RoySAC.com site up and all my artwork. That is at least something. The design of the site has a lot of room for improvements and I will do something for it when I get around to it.
I got around to create the cRO article at Wikipedia. At least something that was finished :)

Lets see how 2007 turns out. I still feel like being robbed of a few months in 2006. I still can't believe that the whole year is already over.

Cheers,
Carsten aka Roy/SAC