Juggling Mike

The Cirque du Soleil has had many shows over the year. While the origins of the show comes from Montreal, I have never really went to see any of them. It was not until 2 years ago when I decided to go check out Kooza. Naturally, I was blown away and I felt rather stupid for missing out on all the previous shows.

Since Kooza, Cirque returned to Montreal with the arena version of their touring show Saltimbanco, but I decided against seeing it. It was not until late 2008 that my interest was sparked once more with the announcement of their new show to celebrate their 25th anniversary. At the time, the show had no name, and we were given no details. That didn’t stop me from buying seats, and come May, the time had come for me and Dharti to go to the circus.

Ovo is the name they chose for their newest show. It takes place in a land of bugs, where grasshoppers, ladybugs, spiders, and other insects live. A mosquito arrives carrying a large egg, and on his arrival, he is tricked, and his egg is stolen. Thus begins his adventure on finding the egg, and at the same time winning the heart of a local bumblee bee. It sounds weird, but it turned out to be a lot of fun. The show’s pace was very similar to Kooza, in which it felt like act after act with a thin plot carrying each act forward. I didn’t mind, as some of the acts were incredible, and the storyline played by the clowns was pretty funny. The music was awesome, and had a very joyous theme to it. I really want the soundtrack.

While many of the acts were incredible, the most impressive act (in my opinion) was the guy on the slackline. While slacklining is quite common in the Montreal parks, this guy took the cake. His final stunt was slacklining while standing upside-down on a giraffe unicycle. Just process that for an instant, and remember that a slackline, unlike a tightrope, will move left and right as you balance yourself. Another act that I quite enjoyed were the men that would trapeze from either side, flip in the air, and land on top of other people situated on a center platform.

Part of my enjoyment of any Cirque show is the stage, which is very modular. What seemed like a normal stage at first, evolved into something much larger than expected. By the end, the small center stage had become longer with hidden trampolines, and culminated into a rock climbing wall with more trampolines!

Overall, Ovo was pure joy, and the only bad point I can mention was “the man with no neck and a giant head” that sat directly in front of me. Still, even with my view obstructed, I had a blast, and I was even more excited for my next Cirque du Soleil show. I left for Las Vegas the day afterwards, where I got to experience two more shows, each more varied than the last. I will elaborate on these in future posts.

Ovo plays in Montreal until July 19th, so if you live in the area, go check it out!!

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Finally, here is my last batch of pictures from Vegas. Just like downtown vegas, the Strip offers so many beautiful night shot possibilities. I only wish I had a tripod with me to properly stabalize my pictures. Nonetheless, I did manage to capture some pretty nice shots. The three of the Paris hotel are probably my favourite. I am a bit saddened that I did not get any good shots of the Luxor, as it is very interesting to see at night; especially from the plane!

The Mirage Volcano
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While the Vegas Strip is quite a sight in itself, there is another interesting area at the very end on Freemont Street. There are no crazy high hotels, but you get to see a little slice of history with the ca$inos from “old Vegas”. These were the gambling halls that have been taking people’s money for over 50 years. The Golden Nugget was built in 1946, and although it has been revamped for modern day, it still retains some of the charm from back then.

The street is now closed to traffic and offers the Freemont Street Experience on a nightly basis. They installed a curved roof all across the street which is composed completely of LEDs. They also have powerful speakers hanging at every couple of metres. At night, they use the screen to display animations and play music from the speakers. Luckily, this only occurs once an hour, but it is quite impressive to behold. While I’m a technology nerd and fascinated by the technology, I prefer the street when the roof was off and the neons and bulbs illuminated the street.

There isn’t anything very intersting in these pictures, but as a fan of night photography, I had a blast grabbing these shots.

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While Las Vegas is a big city, the tourists pretty much all stay on The Strip. This is the large street which contains all the hotels and ca$inos. At one end of the strip, you arrive downtown to Freemont street (where the old strip used to be), and at the other you have the open road and airport. The street is pretty long, and luckily they have a bus that travels from one end to the other at any time of the day.

We only went outside the “tourist zone” to score an Indian restaurant and to visit the Pinball Hall of Fame! Imagine a room with 200 pinball machines. I spent more money there than I did in the gambling halls. I love pinball, and although it is a bit out of the way, I’d recommend others to check it out as well. Unfortunately, I don’t have pictures of the place, but I do have some random pictures to share of the Strip.

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While on vacation, we rented a car to escape the flash of Vegas and to travel somewhere more serene. Our destination? The Grand Canyon! I was not very interested in the landmark before the trip, but Dharti really wanted to see it, so we added it to the top of our list. It took us five hours to get there, but luckily the Nissan Sentra we rented offered a smooth ride. The fact that Nevada and Arizona have great roads helped as well (especially compared to the roads in Quebec).

We arrived at the Grand Canyon National Park right after noon, and we drove the last couple of miles towards the rim with much anticipation. When I first behold the canyon in person, well.. I simply could not believe my eyes. Pictures do not do it justice… it truly is a sight to behold. We spent around 4 hours walking around the rim, and then headed back to our hotel. Although we spent more than double the time in the car getting to and fro, our short time at the canyon was well worth it. Next time, I would try to get a room there and spend the night.

Here are a couple of pictures that I snapped. Once more, pictures do not do it justice… you really have to see it in person to appreciate its beauty!

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Last week I had a small vacation in the United States. It was my second time entering the states, but it was my first time not nearly being killed on multiple occasions by huge hulking animals. Although we were in elk territory, and we saw a deer by the road, I managed to get home safe and sound without any vehicular damage. Where did I go? Las Vegas baby!

We stayed at the Palazzo hotel, and when we weren’t amazed by O and KÀ, we were out exploring and picture taking. We spent one day at the Grand Canyon, and let me tell you, the 5 hour drive out is totally worth it. (That was where I was sure the wildlife would get their revenge on me)

I have some pictures to share, which I will split across a couple of posts soon.

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