thoughts on the carousel

HI all,
sorry for being a slack blogger, I've been busy getting old!.
All is looking and sounding great, Fi the pics of the trigger button and speakers look great and should be easy to incorporate into our designs , can't wait to start!

I loved your thoughts on what carnival means to you and yes our new structural design also reminds me of the old curiosity boxes and cabinets. They also remind me of carnival changing room doors, through which bizarre, mysterious, strange and shocking things might appear!.

I too have been having many thoughts about carousels and carnivals during my many long drives in and out of town, I thought I'd share them with you -

I have always had a fascination with traditional fairs, carnivals and circuses. My earliest ambition as a small child was to be a clown in the circus, and there have been many times in my later life that I have likened life to that of a tight rope act - heading out into the unknown, balancing precariously on a very thin and risky line, and hoping that if you slip and fall the net of family and friends may catch you, failing that you just hope that if you fall you may pull off a spectacular triple flip and land up right on your feet, or crash in a big heap!, Either way the thrill of taking up the challenge for me always out ways the risk.

When I think of carnival, it is the old school traditional traveling carny that comes to mind. A world in which misfits belong, where oddities are celebrated and nothing is ever quite as it seems, normality is questioned and the imagination stretched. The nomadic nature of the carnival for me adds to its rich , dark and glittery appeal. Appearing in towns overnight, erecting magical tents, and bringing to life vacant fields and car parks. Creating a world of chaos and wonder then moving on to the next town before the mystery behind the magic is uncovered.
Never quite belonging to any one place or time, a culture and life style that exists along side the main stream, steeped in tradition and governed by its own laws and code of ethics.

I feel the contemporary essence of carnival also exists in modern day festival circuits and in the resurgence of modern burlesque clubs, and collectives like circus solae (?) nitro circus, and mutoid waste - We delight in watching people explore the boundaries between acceptable and riske, those performances that push the limits of the human body in a way that excites and amazes and shocks.

In a nut shell, for me I think its the bazaar contraction of carnival that i find really intriguing - the dark and the light.. the sparkle and the dirt, the laughter and tears, the risk and the accomplishment ... all rolled into one grand show with quite often just a flimsy ( thou very sparkly) curtain to separate ..