Cavalia is essentially, a Cirque du Soleil performance with horses. I don’t go out of my way to attend this sort of thing but my wife insisted so this is my review.
Before my wife demanded that we attend this event, I had never heard of Cavalia. A minute or two of googling video clips and I was pretty well informed. My wife managed to book our tickets before the show was widely advertised. She read about it in a horse magazine. As a result, we had front row center on the premiere night in Calgary. They call them Rendezvous tickets and come with a hefty $200 price tag but so worth it.
Once in awhile you get front row seats to something and you find yourself wishing you were further back just to see the whole show. This was not the case. These had to have been the best seats in the house. The performers were literally ten feet in front of us with a perfect unobstructed view of the entire staging area. I was getting dirt on my pants and shoes. It was just incredible.
Included with the passes was access to the Rendezvous lounge before, during intermission, and after the show. There was an open bar with wine and other beverages. We had no trouble finding a table for the four of us either. Lineups were almost nonexistent too. I had read otherwise in another review. There was a decent mixture of h’orderves too. Included as well is a free gift which is a program that costs other attendees $15. I haven’t looked at it yet but it seems nice enough. There was also a gift shop exclusive to the Rendezvous pass holders. No substantial lineups here either. Even the freaking parking was exclusive to us. We were a two minute walk from the door (Free too but only because it was opening night. It’s $20 otherwise). I really eat up this kind of treatment. It was worth every penny.
The performance itself was breathtaking. I traditionally loath circuses but this was completely different. There was no ringmaster taunting any animals to milks some ooohs and ahhhs from the audience. There was no stress at all. This was a showcase of the love. The animals and humans were perfectly in tune with one other as well as with the musicians who performed live.
The horses were incredible. Many of them were bred specifically for the show while others were from animal rescue ranches in Alberta. There was even a mustang in the bunch. I had never seen one up close before.
The show was about two hours in total which was long enough. It was mostly a mixture of dressage, acrobatics and trick riding. My wife is the horse trainer in the family but I was pretty blown away by what I was seeing too. What they were doing with these animals isn’t easy.
We didn’t stay for the after party though we did wander the stables to check out the horses. By the end of the show, we were more than ready to head back to the hotel. My only regret that my unborn baby could only hear the show and not see it.
My conclusion is to get the $200 Rendezvous passes. They made the night so much more fun and stress free.
On a side note, I was pure awesome seeing much of the cast of Heartland there in the front row with us.
I picked these headphones up at Memory Express today on sale for $20 (Regular $80). It was hard to pass up a deal like that. I don’t wear headphones a lot but they’re nice to have once in awhile. These had to be better than the $5 clearance bin pair I was replacing.
My Take on Conspiracy Thoerists
I’m sure anyone who has spent any time online has had their share of those angry conspiracy nuts out there. If you try to bring any kind of reality to a topic in their presence, they accuse you of being a sheep who believes everything you’re fed. The whole Bin Ladden killing just dredged them all right back up to the surface again. Whatever they want to believe is fine. I realize most conspiracy theories are the result of simple human pattern recognition that is sometimes difficult to ignore.
What got to me wondering is what makes these people tick. I keeping finding myself dwelling on the theory of empowerment.
You see, the world is a big place with some major freaking events happening from time to time. Take terrorists attacks on Sept 11, 2001 for example. It really did knock the western world on it’s head yet the actual event only involved a few thousand people. Even then, only a few dozen people had any real control over what happened and the consequences resulting. This leaves the millions watching and helplessly tagging along for the ride. People start to feel really insignificant which is tough when events have such a profound impact on their lives.
It’s hard to comprehend how much is going on in the world and how insignificant an individual is in relation to it. The powerlessness of it all can be horrifying even. This is where the conspiracy theorist comes in. Applying fairly complex pattern analysis with a bit of imagination and the help of the Internet of course, it’s pretty easy to piece together a conspiracy theory to come to terms with current events. Suddenly, the formerly insignificant nobody has inside knowledge of what’s really happening in the world. This perceived inside knowledge lends itself to a huge feeling of empowerment over the masses who still just “believe what they’re told to believe”.
In short, the conspiracy theory is just another tool in getting your head around world events. In my opinion, it’s a pretty unhealthy tool at that. In focusing on a single theory believed to wholeheartedly to be the truth, one becomes ignorant and more insignificant than ever. The world just keeps on turning without them.