Saturday, January 13, 2007

Blog Post Frequency

How to know when to check this blog?
As you can see, the average frequency of our new posts is about every 10-15 days. Less is more. This means that if you faithfully check those page with such rythm, you are sure to find amusement or erudition of unpredictable nature.
A fact not excluding that we can post precious relics or actual reflections two or three days in a row. Or that we can remain silent for two full weeks, due to travels above the seas (in search of novelties and wonders).
If you like, you can even check every morning to contemplate the very same images being rejoyced by them.
Whatever your choice we trust you, in any case, you'll not betray us.

Friday, January 12, 2007

More Spanish imagery from the 50s

Circo Americano was a name initially invented in 1919 in Spain by circus impresario Sanchez, when every big top in Europe was forever changed by the recent tours of Barnum or Buffalo Bill.

In 1949, Circo Americano was revamped by circus director Manuel Fejio, under the management of his son-in-law Arturo Castilla. The unforgettable Senor Arturo had the theatrical experience of operetta productions, a consuming passion for circus and the inhexaustible imagination of a child.
In his Circo Americano, every costume and uniform had to be part of a fairy tale. A revolving stage connected to the ring revealed gilded curtains and visions of ingenuity from around the world, enriched by water fountains and a powerful orchestra.
In the Spain of the 50s and 60s, Circo Americano trascended the American imagery, and became a magic formula to materialize every possible fantasy from the corners of the universe.
As if forgetting the pretext of stars and stripes, year by year Americano promised the magic lamp, the court of the Khan, miracolous hypnotists, the cossacz of the Czars, the races of the world. American indians semed at ease in the darkest Africa, and Buffalo Bill impersonators had their cue after the eruption of Pompeii…
In 1963, Castilla merged Circo Americano with the italian Togni family, creating a true American three-ring circus with herds of elephants, still touring in Europe.
But this is another story….

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Incredibly Strange Posters


Never surprising enough seems the imagination behind circus posters. And complicate indeed is to figure out the promise of this Spanish illustrations from the 50s.
Accumulation and intersection of references, beyhond space and time, have always been the bread of circus publicists. But even the finest poster connaisseur can hardly remember a sublime surrealistic achievement as this one.
The poster announces above: "a new version of the future world through the circus ring".
Space-age pulp stories were a post-war daily escape of the western world: why not in the cold-war Spain, under General Franco dictatorship?
And why don’t give the possibility to exist to an unknown breed of lions on some faraway galaxy? In a place where discover a perhaps better "new world", with perhaps better circuses?
Too bad that we'll probably never know more about "All'Scot the Cuellar and Space Girls".
Locations of visitors to this page