back street moksha

Art show, birthday and booze

From the opening reception of Love and Death:
Illustrations by Sohaila Adela

(and my 31st birthday, I had lots of fun.
thanks to everyone made an appearance. - elves)

photographs by Jordan Loves Kats

To view more photos please visit myspace.com/418655627

some sweet old carny photos

Here is a list of carny slang if you are interested....

A&S Man — "Age and Scale" operator ("guess your age or weight" operator). More commonly known as "Fool the Guesser," the game can be operated as a hanky-pank (q.v.) or any of several other ways.

 

libi Store — A game in which the agent gives you an alibi, an explanation of why you didn't win. Maybe "you threw the ball too fast," or how you violated the rules (leaned over the foul line, etc.) He often offers you a "better" chance to win (for another fee, of course) but you'll never win a thing. There's no need to hide the gaff when the authorities inspect, and big replay profits (until the mark catches on, of course, and starts a beef.)

 

Alligator Man — Sideshow human oddity afflicted with skin condition, commonly icthyosis, that gives the skin a scaly, reptilian appearance.

 

Anatomical Wonder — A sideshow performer able to do stunts such as 'the man without a stomach' (pulling the gut in until the backbone shows), pulling themselves through a coat hanger or tennis racket, and other India Rubber Man stunts.

 

B.C. — "Be cool," a warning to stop whatever you are doing or saying. Perhaps the Chief of Police is watching you while you're about to take all his daughter's money, so STOP whatever you are doing immediately and find out why the person said B.C.

 

Barker — "Barker" was never an authentic carnival term. Carnies call the person gathering a tip for a show a "talker" — the "outside talker" attracts the tip and the "inside talker" or "lecturer" conducts the crowd through a ten-in-one show, describing the acts and building interest in the "blowoff". Moreover, "hurry hurry hurry", the phrase you often hear chanted by the "barker" in movies, is far less sophisticated than the real outside talker's intricately contrived appeals. Some authentic samples can be heard elsewhere on this disk. The term "barking" was in current use in mainstream culture in the early 20th Century to mean drawing customers by talking in a continual flow of repetitive lines and phrases. "Barking" was also called a "grind pitch" by some professional talkers. "Come on we got tomatoes today girls, a tisket a tasket, I sell them by the basket." Used primarily by vendors at a stationary spot, such as a vegetable stand or the doorway to a show (perhaps most recently heard from the doorways of Times Square sex shows.) It's easy to see how the general public applied the term to the carnival talker. Differentiated from the "street cries" of vendors who traveled the street in wagons, whose cries tended to be more musical and more piercing in tone to attract the attention of people inside their houses.

 

Cake Eaters — Locals, rubes.

Cake Cutting — Short-changing.

 

Circus Candy — Cheap candy in an impressive looking box.

 

Drug Abuse Show — An act where the performer supposedly has been driven insane, become deformed or mutilated, or has even given birth to a hideous mutant baby because of drug abuse. It's really a basic geek or "wild man" show dressed with a modern theme. The pitch or banner would usually say something like "See the shocking and heartbreaking victim of drug abuse!"

 

Fireball Show — A carnival of the most disreputable sort, full of dishonest games, really strong kootch shows and the like. Also a "Burn'em Up Outfit."

 

First of May — A novice worker in his first season. Shows usually play the season's opening spot on the first of May, and you'll always find new help hired on the first of May who have never worked shows before.

 

Flasher — A game using electronics or lights as indicators of the game’s result, bypassing local laws against mechanical wheels or similar devices.

 

Freak Show — A show where human oddities displayed themselves (often selling photos, Bibles or other memorabilia). These were often ten-in-one shows and usually featured born freaks, 'made freaks' like tattooed people, and working acts like sword swallowers and fire eaters.

 

Geek — An unskilled performer whose performance consists of shocking, repulsive and repugnant acts. This "lowest of the low" member of the carny trade would commonly bite the head off a living chicken, or sit in a bed of snakes. Some historians distinguish between "geeks" who pretend to be wild men, and "glomming geeks" whose act includes eating disgusting things. See the 1949 movie "Nightmare Alley" for a good geek story as well as for an excellent depiction of the mentalist’s technique of "cold reading". In later years the geek show turned into a "see the pitiful victim of drug abuse" show. "Geek" as a verb ("he geeked") is one of several terms in use among wrestlers meaning to intentionally cut oneself to draw blood.

 

Lot Lice — Locals who arrive early to gawk and stay late to browse and don't spend anything.

 

Picture Gallery — A tattooed man.

 

With It — "I’m with it" means "I work at this carnival (or at some other carnival)." Generally pronounced "widdit!" Some claim that it is not really used at all, favoring "on the show" as the actual term. A carnival term not used in the circus. If I was walking down a midway and an agent or a talker tried to call me in I would say "with it," in other words "you're wasting your breath talking to me."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A nother sweet poem

Kahlil Gibran on Love 

When love beckons to you, follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams
as the north wind lays waste the garden. 

For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth. 

Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.
He threshes you to make you naked.
He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He kneads you until you are pliant;
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast. 

All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart. 

But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor,
Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.
Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love. 

When you love you should not say, "God is in my heart," but rather, "I am in the heart of God."
And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course. 

Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.

A good thing to keep in your heart and mind

With Passion
by Rumi

With passion pray. With
passion work. With passion make love.
With passion eat and drink and dance and play.
Why look like a dead fish
in this ocean
of God



peace, love and ppr

rose

BBQ's in the sunshine

Today is so beautiful that we've decided to have a
bbq potluck style in the alley way out back.
I know this is a late notice but you are welcome to
join us if you happen to see this.

"When I Say I'm In love You Best Believe I'm In love luv"

OMG!!!!!! One year has gone by and the New York Dolls are soon to be back in town playing once again, a fucking totally bad ass show. I highly recommend everyone go to this show!!!! This will be the third time I will have seen them and I have always gotten more than I have ever hoped for. In my opinion they have given the second best show I've ever seen...(the first being Mr. Bowie).

Lately I have been quite dismayed at peoples unwillingness to give older rock stars or a band that in this day and age, has only two of the original members- a chance. Every party I go to, I see someone wearing a New York Dolls shirt and when I ask if they are going to their show, they scuff and say "what's the point, its not the "real" New York Dolls". But they are sadly fucking mistaken. This is still the sloppy bad ass band with bells and rhinestones that so many people adored.

GET OVER YOURSELF AND GO SUPPORT ROCK STARS EVEN IF THEY'RE FUCKING OLD, THEY SURE AS FUCK ROCK HARDER THAN THE YOUNG ROCKERS!







EL CORAZON
MAY 27th
doors 7:30
22$ tickets advance 25 at doors
Tickets can be bought at Rudys Barbershop

xoxox

rose

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