Annum Carnivalis...

("Mappa della Nonsforza" by Francesco Clemente)

I hereby pronounce the year 2006: Annum Carnivalis, or, the year of the carnival. A departure from lazy comfort, quiet stability and numbing routine. Dazzling animals flashing vividly colored pelts in a cacaphonous procession of hooves and fins and clipped wings waiting to grow out. Finding momentary footings amongst the chaos and inhabiting these as both home and laboratory. A celebration of skewered meats and crackling fires, terrifying thrills and jerryrigged systems, striped tents and peeling paint, and a persistent dizziness that borders on nausea, but sweetly innocent as horse shit. Also, the religious mounting and breaking down of a show, being on the road, the dappled sun, the quiet hours getting from here to there, slightly oval wheels rocking a haycart between two towns. Aching muscles and spectacular hangovers that transform over and over into ecstatic waking dreams of the circus.

Or maybe I'll just get TiVo.