Come Down and Join The Circus!

Remember when you went to the Big Top when you were a kid? The stench of the animals, the creepy clowns? The glamorous Liberty Rider? The jaw-dropping contortionists?

It seems that the circus came to town this month. Cirque Du Soleil sold out their Michael Jackson Immortal tour.

Water For Elephants was released into the theaters last week. It was a great book for tension and despicably colorful characters, so we're hoping bloody Big Head Pattison doesn't ruin it.

But what really strikes me as more than coincidence, that I might need to run away and go see the circus (but one without animal cruelty!), is the music I have found by Vermillion Lies and seeing March Fourth at the Second Eighth Annual Grilled Cheese Invitational.

Now- It's crazy enough to have "Circus Apocalypse" running through your head. But it's a fun sort of crazy. I highly recommend this band and their Impossible Girl singleton, now on tour: Kim Boekbinder. These twin sisters incorporate elements of the circus and cabaret to take a rock show and turn it into a spectacle.

Circus Apocalypse by Vermillion Lies

But after you download the Vermillion Lies albums off bandcamp, go check out March Fourth! If I were throwing a festival and had unlimited funds, I would book this Marching Band from Portland. Honestly, my first impression of them was that they were a troupe that had just escaped from a freak show to play their music. There were dancers on stilts, steampunk drummers, crazy hats, tassels, and vibrations that will make you have to dance. They were the pied pipers of the festival, pulling people from all over the festival grounds to their parade. They were my favorite thing I've seen all month.

So, now we pack up April, and all its harlequins, back onto the bus. Hopefully, the zombies, robots, and Steampunk conventions will be as good in the coming months, as all of the fun the circus has brought to town in April.

Oh My American Gods!!!!

In case you've been under a rock the last decade, American Gods is a best selling novel that chronicles the picaresque journey of Shadow, a taciturn ex-con whose life changes once he sits down on a plane and gets offered a job. He enters a world where gods of the old world, such as Anansi and Chernobog, are gearing up for a war against new age gods of Media and Computers. They will fight to the death in the minds of men for that which gods need to survive: belief.

So, It's been ten years since Neil Gaiman's (famous author of many great books) American Gods came out. Wow. Do you feel old? I feel old. That means I've been recommending this book for over a decade. I have gifted it at least 5 times. I own the first edition hardback, a well loved paperback and the George Guidell Audiobook. It's a wonderful novel. If you haven't read it, head over to the library and get it.

Actually, screw the library. Go to Mysterious Galaxy, or your local indie book seller, and buy this book. Whenever I cannot think of what to read and am suffering from literary Ennui, this is my go-to book, followed by its sequel, Anansi Boys.

Which is why this week has been so bloody exciting! First, the rumors have been confirmed! HBO is partnering up with Playtone (Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman's production company.) to make a series. I think this is the best news I've heard since I heard Ron Howard was producing the Dark Tower as a series. These novels are epic, and grand of scale in terms of where they take place and diversity of characters. They deserve to be just as fleshy as they need to be.

Gaiman implied there would be good news on his facebook about American gods, and said that he had finally sat down with someone whose work he thought was "brilliant," and who he trusted to do right by the book.

In other news, audiobook junkies are queing up to try to be a contributing voice in the Harper Collins 10th AnniversaryAmerican Gods Audiobook Contest. The top 20 contestants will be chosen by the interwebs, and from that pool, Neil and some people from Harper will pick the winner. Whoever wins gets a free trip to New York to record a brief part of the book. I think every audiophile with a microphone is gearing up to record their audition paragraph, just to be part of something so incredible.

PS. PICK ME!!! LOL.