Cirque du Soleil

Mim and I saw the Solar Circus last night, but our experience was somewhat less pleasant than Kitling's.
Not because of the performance, Gods no. The clowns were so funny — especially the audience participation bits — that I gave myself a headache from laughing so hard. The performances were brilliant, as flawless as you would expect from the videos. It was the getting there that was the trouble.

Foolishly, we gave ourselves only an hour to go about 10 kilometers. Even more foolishly, we thought that there might be parking nearby. We had forgotten about Moomba, you see, and didn't know that Mark Knopfler was playing at the Rod Laver. Foolish, foolish us. We ended up finding a park on Flinders Lane and walked down. We apparantly didn't miss much, but what we did miss included at least the German Ring. :-(
The ushers were all very nice about it though, and were suitably sympathetic. Luckily, our seats were at the back, near the aisle, so we didn't cause too much havoc coming in. We weren't the last in, either.

But still, kitling was right. The Cirque rocks.
Watching gymnasts take a pose, and realising that she was horizontal, but he was holding her up at her hips, not her waist, that is, she was not supported at her center of gravity, and was thus exerting a lot of strength 'merely' to hold herself level.
Watching one of the rope artists sit on the stage, then pull himself up the entire length of the rope, hand over hand, with his body in a perfect 'L'.
Watching the skipping rope moving so fast you couldn't see it, just an ovoid blur.
Watching the Diablo Girls. Hrolfr would swallow his tongue. Juggling Diablos.

Now to see if Solstrum is available anywhere...
... Amazon says it is being released in April. Our copy should arrive mid-May, then. Glee!