Blog du Campbell

Tipped off by a Facebook friend's status update, I recently checked out actor Ron Campbell's blog--he's currently playing King of the Clowns in Cirque du Soleil's Kooza.

Now, I subscribe to a ton of blogs, which link daily to a ton of other blogs, so I usually just end up skimming everything and saving items to read later. Hence, I have a backlog of a couple hundred items to "read later," some of which go back a year. But, when I landed on Ron's blog, I was so hooked I spent a good half hour reading it.

I knew Ron was an excellent writer--we published an article he penned in our August 2007 issue--and some of his blog writing is downright exquisite. His insights and attention to detail come from a veteran actor's eye and a martial artist's discipline. Take his post about visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art and observing not just the art, but how other people observe the art. The one about what Cirque du Soleil artists talk about and what they never, ever talk about (I'm sure you can guess). His humorous behind-the-Cirque-scenes photos and lovely photos from Japan (snow monkeys!). His comments about auditioning for and working with clown David Shiner: "Having David Shiner teach you clowning is like having Micheal Jordan help you with your jump shot, Mario Andretti teach you how to drive or Barack Obama teach you how to give a speech."

A must read, now.