The opening night of Cirque du Soleil’s Corteo found me in the twelfth row of Le Grand Chapiteau, a frozen monkey with mouth agape, sitting in a stilled silence except for occasional bursts of laughter and sighs of amazement. Now I am not the silent and still type, AT ALL, and it takes a big experience like the Big Top to render me so. My heart however was pounding like a giant psychedelic clown was attacking a tympani with a rubber chicken, only stopping it’s mad march for moments of absolute antici……….pation as I waited in a trance-like state to see what the superhumans on stage might do next. Would they spin in a hoop like a living metallic-blue Vitruvian man simultaneously with five friends? Grab onto a chandelier and swing up into the sky in their skiivies? Slowly walk a mile-high tightrope, upside down? Float out over the audience for the most graceful crowd-surfing experience Seattle has ever seen? Join a languid parade of playful angels, Tuba players, and ballet dancers from the most bizarre dream EVER?

Physical and dramatic performing artists who are the very best in the world create the incredible spectacle that is the Cirque du Soleil; it is an acrobatic, gymnastic, dancing, theatrical, musical, comedic, sparkling, magical, childlike parade of sensory enlightenment, an epic French feast of ‘Wow!”, a near out-of-body celebration of the absurd and the beautiful. The amazingly talented and no doubt insanely hard-working athletes make every tumble and turn seem effortless and just an extension of their humanity, like you and I might tomorrow flip backwards from bed to bed in a pillow fight out of childhood fantasy.

Corteo is the show now playing at Marymoor Park in Redmond under a fat yellow and blue striped Grand Chapiteau or Big Top that has seemingly sprung from the colorful mind of a five year-old, a mind that we all once had. The character Corteo is a ghost-clown reliving his better years, and while he revisits his childhood antics and purity of perception, you follow along with him, just as entranced as he is by the once-lived escapades.

I absolutely cannot believe I that had never been to the Cirque du Soleil before. Why didn’t anyone ever shake me and give me a swift kick to the rear and say GET THEE TO THE CIRQUE DU SOLEIL? In a land where the likes of Avril Lavigne and Britney Spears qualify as ‘performing artists,’ the insatiable American consumers of entertainment dismiss terms like ‘eye-popping’ and ‘jaw-dropping’ because we have heard them describe everything from new flavors of yogurt to random celebutante #9’s fashion choice for the afternoon.

So let me shake you and light a fire under you, because at the Cirque du Soleil your eyes WILL pop, your jaw WILL drop, and your heart WILL pound, certain that either your senses are deceiving you OR that someone’s about to bite it, bigtime. The Cirque du Soleil is a thrilling and unique entertainment experience that can never truly be described, only lived.

So live it! Here are a few tips for making the trip to Redmond’s lovely Marymoor Park a bit easier:

• Allow PLENTY of time to get to your seat; traffic gets backed up and you will want a few extra minutes for buying balloons and cotton candy and running around the big top screaming and jumping…well, for hitting the gift shop, anyway.
• Parking is $15 payable in cash and cannot be avoided unless you hike in like a creature from Lake Washington lagoon.
• Take your mom! She will just LOVE it, you know she will, and Mother’s Day IS coming up, you know.
• Get a sneak peek of the action right here, and read Cedric’s take on the Cirque du Soleil.

CONSIDER YOUR FIRE LIT.

Last night around 6:15 PM across from Neumo’s was a long line of Seattle women: pretty, professional, heel-wearing, yabba-yabba gabbing women, waiting in the rain to get into the monthly event by Girl Power Hour. April’s installment was at The Sole Repair Shop and the theme was Girl Power Hour Goes Green; the ladies were lining up not only to network with other similar creatures but to learn new ways of living sustainably and creating and environmentally conscious world.

The night was very multi-faceted, a perfect match for the attendees who no doubt know a thing or two about doing multiple things at once. I talked to women from many different professional arenas: artists, relationship counselors, lawyers, businesswomen, models, and more. The turnout was great, it was almost a stretch to create floorspace for the sustainable fashion show by The Finerie. The women really responded to the chi-chi eco-chique that filled the floor with purple silk dresses and other sustainable fabrics (overheard: “Silk is sustainable? YES!”). Local nibbles, chocolates from Theo Chocolate, and organic donuts from Mighty O were also a hit, as well as the lavender and kumquat cocktails made from Square One Organic Vodka. All through the night Seattle’s first “Green Deejay” Tecumseh of Bamboo Beats played easy salsa rhythms, henna tattoos were created, and tips on how to conserve energy were projected up onto the wall.

The theme was green but the focus of the night, and of Girl Power Hour, is networking for cool women; getting like-minded chicks together to meet and make alliances, to promote each other in a man’s world (and yes, it still is, in case you were wondering). For this Girl Power Hour founders Darnell Sue and Samantha Lawton deserve major props; they are trying to create a New Girls Club to promote females in the way that the Old Boys Club does for the fellows. Women and networking go together like, well, women and networking: we LOVE to talk, and we are good at it. Girl Power Hour attempts to harness this female talent into more than yakking about celebrities’ fashion choices or what-he-said; in fact the women of Seattle can talk ourselves to a world where women help each other out and up, cocktail in hand and confidence in our smiles.

Next month’s Girls Go Green event takes place May 15 at Belltown’s See Sound Lounge and supports The American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women Movement: expect lots of red dresses, pole dancing by D’Vine Movement, and beats from a very talented (and very lucky) DJ Jeromy Nail. More monthly cocktail schmoozes are in the works; check out the Girl Power Hour website for more details, to R.S.V.P. for events, sign up for newsletters, and find out how you can get involved with this dynamic group of women.

Last night I had an absolute blast at the first Thursday Seattle Art Walk and I wasn’t alone; all kinds of freaks, artists, musicians, tourists, party people, families, hipsters, dancers, schmoozers, neohippies, and the mentally unstable came out on the clear evening to wander around and soak in the fountains of creative expression that were flowing freely all around Pioneer Square. Art is fun! Art makes life better! And it was all over; not only galleries but bars, clubs, and hotels all get in on the act. It was a swirling parade of people, all enjoying themselves madly and adding color to their lives in a festive, life-is-good atmosphere.

I began my night meeting up with friends at The Last Supper Club; the Seattle Art Walk is best done with a group so you have someone to scout for the best wine and snicker at the giant penises with. The Last Supper Club had a free taco buffet (what?) and was showing off the holographic art of Laser Guided Visions visionary Raja. Really really sweet holographic art, that is, which goes fantastically well with salsa and jalapenos.

Across from LSC in Occidental Park the open air market was set up with a few dozen booths, tables, blankets, and vans showing and selling the work of artists and craftspeople. There were all kinds of random things to buy: red seed necklaces, gourmet chocolates, photos of Latin America, hand-blown glass bongs, painted note cards, decoupage magnets, and of course no event in Pioneer Square would be complete without the hotdog cart. Pile it on!

Live musicians Amber Tide gave us a nice acoustic jam and by one of the public sculptures in the Park a bizarre group of people were doing interpretive dance while they all talked on cellphones, an interesting take on modern art (can you hear me now?). Across Main Street was a deejay setup providing beats for the adults and kids painting pictures of compassion as part of the upcoming Seeds of Compassion workshop happening next week with the Dalai Lama. The question was: “What Does Compassion Look Like?” and the pictorial answers ranged from giant eyeballs to blue grassy fields to open arms and a motorcycle.

We decided to hit up some galleries proper and we chose well by finding the Western Building which hosts a collective of dozens and dozens of artists’ studios on five floors of space. It was amazing; the density of artwork meant that there were pieces that spoke to everyone; if you thought one room was crap then you moved to the next, and then the next, and the next. The building was packed full and most of the artists were on hand to answer questions about their work. Add to this art mania some free-flowing wine, PBR, and nosh from olives to salami to brie to fortune cookies, and the environment trumps any Uffizi or (dare I say it?) the Louvre in my mind. It was so real, so in your face; living, breathing art that reaches out and grabs you and changes the way you see the world.

I expected to experience a lot of thought-provoking art, big colors, meet artists, spill a little wine- but what I didn’t predict was to have so much FUN! I am so stoked that this event happens every month and the Pioneer Square Community Association has plans to ramp it up as the season continues with even more musical acts and public space devoted to the event. The two hours passed in a flash and I barely even got my toes wet in the amount of artwork around. The next Seattle Art Walk is Thursday, May 1; write it on your calendars now and plan on a evening of wandering through cell-phone dancers, fingerpainters, bright red swaths of color, and a big mass of people having FUN. I’ll see you there.

CultureMob.com would like to thank Ryan and Lisa from the Pioneer Square Community Association for showing both Shilo and I a great time yesterday at the First Thursday’s Art Walk. There was so much to see. Remember, if you would like to participate in the First Thursdays Art in the Park, go to http://www.pioneersquare.org/artparkinfo.html

We took a bunch of random short videos and posted them on the CultureMob.com page at Youtube.com. Feel free to subscribe to it too. Here’s one of my favorites.

Shilo’s First Ever First Thursday


You can see the rest (bloopers, dance group, Amber Tide and so much more at our youtube.com page)

For more events, go to CultureMob.com

First Thursdays Art Walk in Downtown Seattle tonight 6PM to 8PM.

CultureMob.com’s Shilo and Cedric met with Ryan and Lisa from the Pioneer Square Community Association (PSCA).

Ryan (Romaneski), the executive director talked to us about what to look out for this evening. You’ll want to get out to as many galleries as possible. Occidental Park will feature “Art in the Park“: Arts n Crafts, Live Music - tonight’s band is Amber Tide (6pm - 8pm in Occidental Park), there will also be a dance performance and so much more. Watch the video.

If you would like to participate in first Thursdays Art in the Park, go to http://www.pioneersquare.org/artparkinfo.html

For more events in Seattle go to CultureMob.com

Some people have this idea of art as an elitist hobby, they think that people qualified to comment on art must have studied for years in Paris and Rome, or painted landscapes since before they could walk, or have an embossed piece of paper from a fancy art school like Cornish. Those people are wrong. Art is for all humans. We are all artists, we are all tapped into the energy of the universe, and our talents just depend on how much we nurture this connection and practice it’s expression. We are all sculptors, and musicians, and dancers; we just choose to spend our time in one way or another.

Why don’t you choose to explore your not-so-inner artist this week at the first Thursday Seattle Art Walk in Pioneer Square. What I absolutely love about this art walk is it’s inclusive nature; from 6PM to 8PM, not only do all the galleries in the area open their doors to all, but Occidental Park provides a home for any artist in Seattle to come and display their work. All you need to do to show your work in the Seattle Art Walk is a business license and a few bucks to sign up for the space rental. This makes the event more accessible to all, honoring the idea that art isn’t just for rich people who stand around in stark galleries nodding their heads and murmuring words like “nonchalant” and “emotive”. Not that the fancy galleries aren’t open to everyone, but there are more than a few of us Seattleites who can’t pay thousands of dollars for a piece of art. I know when I walk into a gallery like the Benham Gallery or the Jeffery Moose Gallery, though their pieces will hopefully spark my brain and make me reconsider the definition of the word ‘art’, there is no way I am walking out with a piece of work to hang on my wall. Most of you will agree with me, and that’ why ‘art’ gets the elitist wrap stuck to it. When I walk up to an open-air art market, however, I get excited: maybe I will discover a great new artist finger-painting on cardboard and struggling to pay rent with their creativity, or find a handmade piece of jewelry from a local, or watch someone carving a wooden totem with a chainsaw.

It is this spirit of universality that makes the Seattle Art Walk so inspiring and so Seattle; this art-loving city supports the creative efforts of all, be they in stark, well-lit gallery spaces or on the street next to a park bench. Come out this month to the Seattle Art Walk, it’s free and for the enjoyment of all artists- that’s YOU. For two hours stroll around, have some coffee at Tully’s or a beer at The Central Saloon, meet the artists who are showcasing their wares, enjoy the street performers, and maybe even get inspired to go home and pick up that paintbrush you once put down.