Circus Folk!

     We're not carnies! There's a difference! We yelled In unison and without pause when one of my supervisors on my last job called me & my other coworker Carnies, (he used to work at the circus too)

      For over 2 yrs I ran away and joined a circus. I got to travel most of the east coast from new Hampshire to Georgia. I was part of the ring crew aka stage hand dept. We handled all the rigging, staging, ring and dressing room set ups. in addition to preforming through out the course of the show as needed.

     Most of the time it was like college or how I envisioned college life would be. a lot hanging out, watching people drink & whatever else. When It's not all party, party, party, There's a lot of work to be done before the playing can begin. The great separator, the dreaded load out/load in! A combined 4 days (2 days each) of tearing down everything, packing it up and setting It all back up in a new locale the exact same way. That's where you'd see people come and go the most. Some people just can't handle the physicality of it and working in all kinds of weather.  you'd hear "place your bets to see how long a newbie would last." It's not as bad as it sounds, when it's all set up all your done. your on your time until its showtime. when it's open you work roughly 2 3hr shifts a day. So big deal you have to bust your ass for a little while. It's fun watching things build up from nothing and watching things disappear to the way you found it.

      One of the most "controversial" parts of the whole circus, is animals. Let me just say I dont own any pets and never plan on it. I'm Allergic to most and don't have the urge to grow a tolerance, its not worth it to me. (Thankfully its mostly an open air environment so my asthma was fine.) I've worked with Horse & Dog acts ONLY, So I'm speaking about my experience with those animals only.

     I've seen these animals treated great. Better then the human performers even. Not once did I see anything questionable and I worked directly with all the performers. The "trick training" is quite simple. tedious but simple once you've gained their trust. You walk the dog/horse Through the trick a few times, give them a treat when they do it right.  IT's really no different then teaching your own dog to roll over, sit or beg. The only difference I see is the level of eyes on you. If these acts were done in a back yard or a farm, it'd be fine. but because the Human involved is probably wearing a colorful outfit under some spotlights. The trainers I've worked with we're excellent. Some people like animal tricks some don't. It's just a matter of preference.


     For me the best part of being there was meeting people from all over the world. its pretty cool to meet someone who can speak 5 languages to my 1. makes ya feel a little lazy. experiencing different work ethics, skills and foods were some of the other bonuses. It helped show me how big this world really was, having international friends really opened my eyes to the world.

     I guess once your in your always in. If you have the time head over to netflix or pbs.org type in Circus. Check out the awesome documentary I was part of.

I'm a Black guy into metal!

Here's a rough view into my life after metal joined my world.

Phil 98?

    I've been this way since I was 12. Ever since my cousin and I saw bill & teds excellent adventure. We loved that movie, then on day we saw the trailer for the bogus journey. We saw it the day it came out. For the next 2 wks you would of thought our Queens NY asses were from San Dimas. He went back to listening to rap after that, i stayed there. I wanted more B&T stuff I devoured everything I could. The comic, the playing cards & the sound track. The cassette tape changed my life. Up till then all I listened to was my moms Motown records and movie tv scores. Then vh1 came around and found the Monkees and Aerosmith.

Chino '99

       That sdtk had everything! Megadeth, Faith No More, Primus, Kings X, Kiss, etc.. They had the lyrics to every song. So I was able to follow along regardless of the vocals. Megadeth go to hell was my 1st metal song. I was hooked! All I knew was Megadeth till High School. In Jr h.s. I had no one to talk metal with. Then I met the metal kids at h.s. was shown more metal.

The Man, Alex WInter! '09 

       All the metal kids I met were not all white, we were a bunch of everything. It was a total acceptance, a family like bond I never felt before. Nobody cared what I looked like.  No ones birth background was an issue. 'You like metal? Cool me too! I like so n so'  Then when I was 15, I Started playing drums. I Played with Biohazard, Hatebreed, Skinlab, Mortician and tons of others. I also met some of my best friends through music.

Ice T '04

       My mom was fine with me listening to metal, I was a pretty good kid stayed outta the trouble. Only my cousins and their friends ever gave me grief for my musical choices. As they got older the got used to it and even came a a few shows i did.

Dave Ghrol, 95

     The way I looked at it is you hear music before you see it. Doesn't matter what the artist looks like if their Musics good that's all that matters. Now 'Back in my day" I was one of the few  black people at shows, nowadays its such a mash up of people at shows. Its a none issue; Its a great thing.  My experience in metal has been pretty awesome.