(Note: The quote in the title is from “The Magic Tollbooth.”)

I’ve been in an odd place for the past couple of weeks. On the one hand, my life’s going quite well; I’ve been really enjoying myself here in Madrid and I’ve done some really exciting things (we’ll get to one of them in a moment). On the other hand, my life has become more unsure than I was hoping it would be, in the sense that my plans for next year fell through and I don’t know where I’ll be three months from now, nor what I’ll be doing.

This is by no means the worst that could be, but it’s harder when this sort of feeling follows a state of expectation. In any event, I’ve been having some very mixed feelings — really happy a lot of the time, but kind of disenchanted with the things that aren’t as pleasant. (I’ve become somewhat more frustrated with teaching when my students aren’t trying; I’m less into the work I’m doing at the university.) It’s frustrating to feel disconnected, yes? It’s not pleasant to transition between highs and lows. In many ways I’m much less stressed than I have been in past years, what with the whole not-being-in-school, so it’s a lot easier to deal with this. And yet.

Be that as it may.

Tonight, after talking about it for a while, I went and saw a circus group perform at the Price Theatre (well, El Teatro Circo Price), called Les 7 Doigts de la Main. You may’ve noticed something — that’s not Spanish. It’s French, which makes sense, seeing as how they’re a French Canadian group, affiliated with other French Canadian circus groups like Cirque du Soleil only in the sense that they were founded by people who had worked in that circus and in similar companies before. (You can read about them on French wikipedia, or at their very outdated website.) The act was called “Psy,” and was loosely themed about mental problems, in the sense that each actor (performer, I guess, is better) espoused a certain mental problem that was portrayed to a greater or lesser degree during the show. Here’s the website advertising the show, although it’ll probably disappear shortly. I encourage you to watch the video. The song is called “Frontier Psychiatrist.” I like it a lot. (And here’s a good review. It also has pictures.)

The show was really fun — somehow I keep end up seeing great French Canadian stuff here in Madrid. (Ref: the last time I talked about such a thing.) I went with Mateo and Ashley, who both seemed to enjoy it, and ran into Pier, Alexis, and Alexis’ friend Raquel. All of them liked it, too — Pier gave it five stars. It’s sort of a cross between the more traditional circus — juggling, tumbling, trapeze, handstands; the more ridiculous things of Cirque du Soleil (disclaimer: I saw a CdS show once, but I must’ve been like 11) — crazy leaps, a wheel-thing, a climb-able house set-piece, a set of stairs that flipped over, a see-saw catapult (apparently called a teeterboard); and a more acting, clowning sort of atmosphere. The show had been translated into Spanish, primarily, but there was also some in English, and some in French. (The only bad translation I could see was the fact that for whatever reason they had translated “sleep disorder” or “narcolepsy” as “insomnia.” Which it just wasn’t.) It also helped that almost all of the performers were young (really young), it just made it feel like, “Oh man, I could be doing this!” And boy would I love to give some of it a try — that’s part of the enjoyment for me with circuses and gymnastics. Not to say that I would want to try all of these things (I’ll pass on the swinging trapeze, I think), but some of them I’ve always wanted to try.

For example, I think corde lisse is really cool — it’s essentially a hanging rope from which you do acrobatics. (Here’s a video of someone doing something similar, but with silk.) Similarly, the [German] wheel (google tells me it’s sometimes known as Rhoenrad — it seems like the sort of thing Germans would invent) is amazing. Here’s a video from this production, although it was slightly different when I saw it. (I guess it’s always slightly different.) Some of the stuff I like is primarily based in strength and agility, but there’s an acrobatic grace to it also, when it’s done well, as it was here.

I guess my overall feeling about this circus was that the performers were good, but not mind-blowing in and of themselves. They weren’t doing anything shocking. But the show itself was really well-choreographed, and the scenes were fit together to tell a sort of story about mental illness, even if it never had any plot.

A description of the performers (in Spanish) is here. Some of them have websites, although it only seems to be the men, that I could find — the trapezist, the tumbler, the guy who did hand-stands on chinese poles, and the juggler. (I recommend checking out the first and the last of those websites, if you’re curious — they’re better websites, and have more to offer. Actually, all of them but the tumbler guy’s are good; his needs a bit of work. The trapeze one has his video from this show, which is really great. (Although Mateo didn’t like it.)

But yes, I think this makes me want to do something exciting, and new. Or just meet some acrobats.