Irony in Sao Paulo

Hi again-I came across some interesting moments living here in Sao Paulo. Since we've been told that it's a relatively dangerous
town with kidnappings and lots of robberies-I've been looking forward to going down to the ATM here at the hotel since our
Cirque handlers informed us that the hotel had an ATM. This is a lot nicer than going out somewhere and risk getting robbed.
So I go down there only to be told by the concierge somewhat sadly (but not too much) that the ATM won't work with our cards.
Sure enough-no go. So-I have to go down to the mall. I walk the three blocks to get there. The first ATM (an HSBC bank machine) won't do anything for me. No go #2. So I go to the next ATM there complete with security guard. I feel safe. The first
one doesn't work either. It says to put your card in with stripe up. It doesn't work. I put the card in the wrong way and IT WORKS-or at least for a moment. When I make a selection marking Cirrus as my network-it shuts me down. No go #3.
Then-I go the the other one there-this one has a picture of Ren Jun our trapeze artist on it over the words "SALTIMBANCO". Great-it's the show I'm playing-it's GOT to work. I try it and at first it doesn't work-I can't understand Portuguese and I'm trying to figure it out. There's a chance it will work. So-I get to the point where I put in my account number. The numbers are set differently than ATM machines everywhere else I've been-the top numbers aren't 1,2,3 but 7,8,9. So I have put in a wrong number and I'm trying to figure out how to cancel it and start over. I can't help being a bit frustrated and I say something like
"Damn machine!" only to sense that the security guard is looking me over (and he's armed of course). So-I calm down-put the card back into the machine while Ren Jun is on the screen of the "SALTIMBANCO" display-and finally I get my money.
To top things off-I go to the Cirque site later in the day to start work. There are signs plastered all around the site that say
(translated loosely) "SALTIMBANCO-brought to you by VISA!" I mean-VISA's got their sign plastered EVERYWHERE. I go up to
one of our crew members Sylvain. I tell him about my ordeal. He says "That's nothing. Do you see all the VISA signs here?
If you try to buy a ticket to see the show-guess what card they DON'T ACCEPT here-VISA!!!" Apparently it's true.
Whaddyaknow!

Hello from Sao Paulo!

Hello all. Just though I'd finally update the blog a bit. I'm down in Sao Paulo, Brazil until October 22nd. Then we go to Rio for
about a month and a half starting in November after a week off. My family isn't here yet-they'll be coming in September as we got our house rented and Cynthia's making sure everything starts off smoothly as it can.
The show is sold out just about for every show. We got great attendance in Chile and Argentina-but here literally all but one
show so far has been 100% sold out. The show that wasn't was at 90%-and that was because it was a kid's show. That was
a wacky show with a lot of screaming kids aged 6-13. There must have been a charity at work because these were kids from poor areas-they LOVED it. The screaming was wild-especially when the twin male acrobats came out and took off their jackets!
The 12-year old girls screamed so much I thought we were the Beatles in 1964.
The hotel is grand-but so far I haven't ventured out so much. I'm working on learning the recording software Logic-it's great but an easy way to spend time. Also-there is the reputation and some truth to it that Sao Paulo is somewhat dangerous. We are in a business area that is pretty safe but also away from a lot of the things to see in town. There is a lot of danger here that we've been told about so I'll be careful when I do go out. I'm sure that eventually we'll know where to go and when to do it.

I don't know exactly how these pictures will post-but there's one of me here in a burgundy shirt with a flower in it. I'm standing next to Sheryl-Lynne our house manager and next to her is Serge Maheux our drummer. CLICK ON PIX FOR BIGGER VIEW!

Let's see-Atlin on your far left (she's an acrobat). Then- let's see...Anna-she's quite a good acrobat. Does a lot of flying thru the air. Then there's "BuBu"-he's a fly-in guy that helps with lighting, rigging and general big top mechanical stuff. And on the far right is Atlin's boyfriend and fellow acrobat Jason. He's quite a chap-more on that later.

This is Armen-who took all these photos (except when he's in the shot) and our incredible high wire artist Ren Jun. She does
normal stuff like ride a unicycle on a tightrope and jump off it onto another tightrope while balancing stuff. Just your normal everyday highwire act.

Here's our guitarist Benoit with his trapeze artist girlfriend Taisiya Bazaliy. She and her sister Ruslana are known by the band (except for Benoit who knows a lot more) as the Blonde Trapeze girls. We also have the Brunette Trapeze girls-they are also twins.

Our front-of-house sound man: Mike. He's also known by his DJ name-Senor BokChoy. He's worked with Megadeth and other
rock bands. We've worked a little on doing something with electric bassoon and beats.

More partying. This is some of the staff letting off some steam as they had to be there from the beginning putting the site together from mid-July. The only name I remember here is on the top of the pile-Laila, assistant to the tour manager.

Here's a nice picture of some great performers. On your left you have James; he's the head clown from NYC. A veteran
SALTIMBANCO character and a great guy. My daughter loves to get scared by him in the kitchen. In the back is a gymnast that I think is named Oxanna..please someone correct me if I'm wrong about the name or spelling. She's involved in a lovely act called
Adagio. To the right of her with his head down laughing is Jason-another adventurer and quite the acrobat. He drove with his girlfriend Atlin all over Chile, Argentina and other parts of South America in a 1966 VW Bus. I think he had to push the car himself over the last border crossing. And on your far right is our high flyer, Darin. He gets send by the Russian swing up over
a human tower of 4 people up about 40 feet in the air. He's gone about 60 I think. Party time...

Here's Armen on your left-our crack keyboard wizard who's responsible for all these photos. He really thought ahead and remembered his camera for the party. He's also another musician who hears strange things like me. We both have creative hearing. We both can hear someone say "Is this seat taken?" and one or the other of us can hear something like "Want to see bacon?" In the middle is the talented and lovely Chantal Blanchard; she's one of our two lead singers-she's also my daughter's babysitter on occasion. And on your right is the man under the stage saving our ears and sanity; our man on the monitor mixer Martin.