Thursday, May 18, 2006

Jose Cole, You Are a Friend of Mine...

Not really, but it seemed like a good title. I've been obnoxiously busy lately, not only taking days off to turn over half of a rental duplex, but dragging my friends and family along for the fun for going on four weeks now. I swear the thing is retrograding between visits. It doesn't help that Pooteewheet painted everything almost black before we left (it's the side we used to inhabit) and it now needs three coats of paint and some touch up on top, but the real problem is that absolutely everything needs some sort of attention.

But, tonight I escaped my landlord duties and went with my family to the Jose Cole Circus at the Eagan Civic Arena. The fact that it was in the Eagan Civic Arena should give you some idea of exactly what sort of circus we were attending, as it's primarily used for ice time. Sure, when I was at RPI, they'd host Aerosmith concerts in the ice arena, but that was college sized, and they were good (the RPI hockey team), so they had plenty of space. The Eagan Civic Arena, on the other hand, has the floor space of a good-sized state fair building.

Regardless, there were three rings, and Eryn loved it. From the cotton candy, to trapping her parents into their first forced purchase by raising her good arm high when they asked who wanted to buy a $2 circus coloring book (which gave me flashbacks - my parents were big circus goers when I was a kid. I don't honestly remember why, but I suspect it was my mother - I remember her being very happy at the circus - maybe they gave her tent revival flashbacks. They used to buy me circus coloring books, and I remember some of them coming from the source. I think we attended both small circuses and large circuses - because I remember some fairly impressive displays involving tigers, and I don't think it was just t.v.), to the various acts. She was particularly entranced by the fire eater and a few of the animal acts - but bored by the magician.

As far as being the parents of a child at the circus. You sort of get a different take on the experience. The Amazing Jim (how amazing can you be named Jim?) was a balancing act on what seemed to be chairs made out of PVC tubing. I was truly frightened for him because it just doesn't seem that PVC tubing should be stacked twenty feet high for any reason, let alone if you're going to do a handstand on it. Princess Jessica the cortortionist - talented, all that twisty stuff looked extremely difficult. The creepy clown with the rose bestowing it on her, even though she looked to be about 13, ewwwww.... The trapeze guy who only got about 12 feet off the floor and whose act consisted primarily of stunts that most 8 year olds do on the monkey bars...less amazing than The Amazing Jim. The ring master making a balloon mouse and telling the audience it was Topojijo...honestly, I might have been the only person in the whole arena who understood what the hell he was talking about, and even I'm too young - I only know it on hearsay. And, did you know there are several different ways to instrumentally, and loudly, play Mambo #5 by Lou Bega - none of them make it any better.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why don't you tell Erin about the beatings Jose Cole employees give their elephants. Tell her about the elephants that have died due to malnourishment and neglect over the years. Tell her about the star "clown" who was videotaped by a circus goer actually sodomizing a young boy. This information is not hard to find. Wake up. Jose Cole is a dreadful organization that needs to be put out of business for good.

Scooter said...

Wake up? You didn't read the article then. You just responded to the title. So, if the information is not hard to find, I trust you can back it up with a link or two off the web, rather than the articles that show up first which indicate they try to treat their elephants better than other circuses?

Logan said...

I wonder if anonymous even realizes the Jose Cole show doesn't even own elephants. Its kind of hard for their elephants to die of neglect if they didn't own any in the first place. Nor did they ever have a star clown caught sodomizing a circus goer.

Sounds like anothing animal rights "actvist" that never did their homework. Only repeating what they hear from other people like a parrot.

Scooter said...

I suspect they're referring to the Cole Brothers Circus which is different than the Jose Cole circus. Cole Brothers has a bad rap around elephants. For instance, "WASHINGTON, DC (NEWS RELEASE) – John Pugh, Wilbur Davenport, and Cole Brothers Circus Inc., entered plea agreements in U.S. District Court in Beaumont, Texas to resolve Endangered Species Act (ESA) violations related to the purchase and sale of two Asian elephants named “Tina” and “Jewel.”" (http://www.wwaytv3.com/2011/04/16/cole-bros-circus-fined-for-buying-endangered-elephants - alt: http://www.bornfreeusa.org/facts.php?p=429&more=1). Jose Cole circus, on the other hand, is limited to the midwest (Minnesota/etc), and per your statement, has no elephants (http://www.elephant.se/location2.php?location_id=642). To compare: Cole Brothers fact sheet at elephant.se - 41 elephants: http://www.elephant.se/location2.php?location_id=828. Easy enough to look up. Anonymous seems confused about the difference between Jose Cole and Cole Brothers, which would seem to be a simple mistake. But I'd very much dislike being accused of being a sex offender and elephant killer just because Scater (I'm Scooter) was the real culprit. And it wouldn't impact my business. So back to my original response - if you're going to say things like that, and tell your friends, and screw with a business, you should back it up with some research/facts.