March 28, 2005

Neat.

Mood: Wet.
Music: State Farm, Yaz
Game: World of Warcraft (60 Rogue, 15 Priest, 9 Warrior (PvP))
Book: Prisoner's Dilemma, William Poundstone
Muffin: Poland Spring Sparkling Water.
Punchline: Nope.

It's raining. So I'm wet. I don't like being wet all day. Yes, I wore appropriate raingear...but you still feel damp all day.

I was gonna talk about Dire Maul. I'll probably do that tomorrow, if nothing else pops into my head. But today, I'd like to talk about the circus.

Ringling Brothers, Barnum, and Bailey Circus is "The Greatest Show on Earth." And as far as circuses go, it's a pretty good one, I guess. I haven't been to this circus in twenty years. Actually, I'm not all that interested in going. Circuses don't really interest me as far as entertainment, or what's on the stage.

What really interests me about circuses is the whole operational aspect of them. I work in Long Island City, right near the train station there. Every end of March, one day, for about 4 hours, a circus train slowly makes it way into the trainyard here. There's an intersection that gets blocked off, and people have to find another way around. Cops shut the intersections, and the trains (It has to be multiple trains...) come rolling in, labelled with the Ringling Bros logo. It's hundreds of cars. All manner of people hanging out of the cars, looking out the windows, opening the doors, and waving.

These people live on the train. They travel around the country, stopping in New York at the same time every other year. (There's actually two circuses running the same circuit, taking two years to complete the run. So they are 180 days offset or something.) For the next few weeks, the 7 train will have all manner of circus performers, staff, crew, and families on it, going into the city as any tourists would...or professional travellers. They all pretty much wear the same windbreaker/jacket with the same logos. They all have comfortable shoes, and chatter brightly among themselves. In short, they look like folks who are used to being comfortable anywhere they go. They look like travellers.

The cool thing to me is that the train is a hometown for these folks. They live, sleep, eat, learn, play...all on this train. The kids are a part that amazes me. There's school on the train, of course, and lessons, and a medical facility, and all sorts of other stuff. Can you imagine all the stuff that they learn just by hanging around?

I'm just astounded by the coordination that it takes to have a circus do what this does every year.

There are hundreds of people, animals, and thousands of pounds of gear, harnesses, nets, safety equipment, AV gear...it just rolls into town and unloads for a few weeks. Then they pack it all up again and roll somewhere else.

The part that always just floors me is the elephants. The elephants make it to Madison Square Garden by walking. They walk off the train in Long Island City, then, the NYC cops close the Midtown Tunnel for a few hours (at night) and the handlers and cops walk them right through the tunnel, across 34th street, and into the Garden to stay as their temporary home until the circus leaves town, when they reverse the process.

What's it like running this thing? What kind of project management experience do you need to keep this much stuff happening? Imagine the infrastructure. Communications. Payroll. Safety. Maps and such for the towns you're in. Cellphones. How do you pay bills? Where do the bills get sent? I know you have a fulltime house, but does someone forward the mail to you where you're going to be next week? To what address? It has to be like the operations of running an army.

I would imagine that the amount of personal responsibility is amazing. Would the train leave without you if you weren't on it in time. I'd have to believe it would. And it's like you take your whole town with you all the time. Your friends (and enemies) are always right nearby. Talk about a travelling poker game.

I probably spend too much time thinking about such things...but I'm wholly amazed by this. I love seeing huge systems operate like that. I wonder if there's any job openings.....

Posted by Glenn at March 28, 2005 10:43 AM
Comments

UGH!

Fookusi are anti-Elephants in the circus. This is the official Fookus position.

Yes, however, the train aspect is very neat. It sounds much better than carnies. I still remember the funny feeling I had when I stumbled across the huge group of carnies setting up on Hampstead Heath the night before their carnival opened during my evening ramble. They were a shifty lot and looked pissed that I was walking through what had become their backyard.

It was vaguely creepy. But they didn't smell like cabbage that I recall... so Austin Powers was mistaken about that.

Posted by: Chelsea at April 11, 2005 03:35 PM