Laura took Dad and I to see Cirque du Soleil at Copps Colesium last night. It was a spontaneous thing, which made it even more fun. I’d never been to see Cirque du Soleil before, and I was impressed. The music, costumes, sets, lighting, performances were all intricately designed and interwoven with each other, creating what I can only describe as multi-layered audio/visual poetry. They alternated different moods, always keeping your brain and emotions in a whirl, from funny to spooky to awe-inspiring, and then back to funny again. I was impressed by the acrobats who caught and held each other only using their ankles. It boggled my mind and had my heart racing, as half the time, I expected one of them to miss and go sailing into the air and crashing into the crowd far below. I think most of the audience felt the same way. It was very tense in the colesium at that point. There was also a very funny clown who mimed and created sound effects with his mouth and a microphone. He coaxed an audience member on stage with him, and had the guy performing like a pro in no time. It was inspiring to see that kind of audience participation, and gives me ideas for things to do in improv shows with audience memers. Anyway, Cirque was blast: a solid two and a half hours of magic.

I had a couple of interesting photo shoots today. I was shooting two restaurants for a local magazine. The first place was a Vietnamese restaurant that opens tomorrow. The second was a Japanese/Korean place. I really enjoyed working with the restaurateurs. Not only did they each insist that I stay and eat some delicious food, I got to sit with them and chat with them about the restaurant business, and food in general. I feel like a made a few new friends today, and I’m looking forward to going back to these places as a customer.