(Jack is on my shoulders; we brought Tim along). The KNIE is the self-proclaimed Swiss National Circus, named after a Swiss-German family running the one-ring tent show for umpteen generations with roots down to the 1700s. The Big Tent is a big deal here, with more circuses per capita than just about any other country in Europe. Add the numerous street fairs, and you have an unusual amount of access to entertainment with ties to the middle ages. Similar to popular theater in Japan, like the Kabuki; just minus the literary content and add live animals. Vaudeville or medicine shows maybe. What non-Swiss like us trip over is the utter lack of commercial trappings or media pizazz or novelistic storylines: just gawk and awe.
I was struck by the routines in which animals acted like humans; humans like animals; and isolated transvestism (again, like Kabuki, or Milton Berle, Flip Wilson, etc) - still not sure what to make of the clown, but he played a mean dueling saxophone with his partner and Michael immediately noticed "his" high heels. My favorite was either the disco-juggler, whose entire routine was done with a non-stop, pulsating disco beat, or the zebras (difficult to train, I understand), whose stripes (I noticed for the first time) were going vertical in the front torso, and horizontal in the back - with circular spirals in the tail.
Post-circus entertainment of our own: invited some students up for a fondue.
Continuing my shopping thread: last Saturday, I hit the motherlode: Alligro.
Warehouse shopping - all food-related items. Makes you wanna go out and buy a freezer. SAMPLES! Because of the generosity of the hotel director, I have a business membership card and get special discounts and parking privileges. I'm definitely going back and dissect the possibilities later, but this may make beef a possibility. The last time beef was affordable here was during the first outbreak of British mad-cow disease and butchers were unloading meat by the ton! No such luck this year, I'm afraid.
(Jack is on my shoulders; we brought Tim along). The KNIE is the self-proclaimed Swiss National Circus, named after a Swiss-German family running the one-ring tent show for umpteen generations with roots down to the 1700s. The Big Tent is a big deal here, with more circuses per capita than just about any other country in Europe. Add the numerous street fairs, and you have an unusual amount of access to entertainment with ties to the middle ages. Similar to popular theater in Japan, like the Kabuki; just minus the literary content and add live animals. Vaudeville or medicine shows maybe. What non-Swiss like us trip over is the utter lack of commercial trappings or media pizazz or novelistic storylines: just gawk and awe.
I was struck by the routines in which animals acted like humans; humans like animals; and isolated transvestism (again, like Kabuki, or Milton Berle, Flip Wilson, etc) - still not sure what to make of the clown, but he played a mean dueling saxophone with his partner and Michael immediately noticed "his" high heels. My favorite was either the disco-juggler, whose entire routine was done with a non-stop, pulsating disco beat, or the zebras (difficult to train, I understand), whose stripes (I noticed for the first time) were going vertical in the front torso, and horizontal in the back - with circular spirals in the tail.
Post-circus entertainment of our own: invited some students up for a fondue.
Continuing my shopping thread: last Saturday, I hit the motherlode: Alligro.
Warehouse shopping - all food-related items. Makes you wanna go out and buy a freezer. SAMPLES! Because of the generosity of the hotel director, I have a business membership card and get special discounts and parking privileges. I'm definitely going back and dissect the possibilities later, but this may make beef a possibility. The last time beef was affordable here was during the first outbreak of British mad-cow disease and butchers were unloading meat by the ton! No such luck this year, I'm afraid.
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