or a lesson in customer service.

“We live in an often sad and baffling world.  I remember my grandmother used to tell me never to look at the floor, only look up. Corteo is a show that looks up.”

Daniele Finzi Pasca, Creator and Director

So yesterday we had tickets to the circus. 

The Minx was extremely excited and all dressed up in her posh red velvet frock, though she had no idea what a circus was. We had been keen to take her to see it because, since the beginning of the year, she has been attending Seattle’s famous and fabulous ‘circus school’ where even at the age of three she has been learning basic acrobatics, trampolining, trapeze work, tightrope walking, juggling and balancing on balls.

We were very excited because we had already seen two Cirque du Soleil productions (Saltimbanco and Alegria) in London and knew that we were in for the most amazing treat.

I printed off our emailed tickets, and we were all ready to jump in the car, when I happened to glance down at said (very expensive) tickets and realised that they were for Saturday’s performance, not Sunday’s.  I suspect you can imagine how I felt, particularly when I looked down at my terribly excited little girl.

On the off-chance, we phoned up their customer service helpline to see if there was anything they could do. They were able to ascertain, using their extremely high-tech ticketing and barcoding system, that we had indeed not attended the day before and then said, ‘I’m afraid we have to remind you that tickets are non-refundable’.  Oh well.  ‘But we’re going to let you have some comp tickets for this evening’s performance.’  If they hadn’t been on the other end of a phone line we would have kissed them then and there. 

As it is we are even bigger fans than we were before and I feel I owe it to them to blog about it at least.  GO RIGHT THIS MINUTE AND BUY TICKETS FOR CIRQUE DU SOLEIL.

So what do you get for your money? Firstly, as I mentioned, the tickets are expensive, but they also represent the most incredible value for money.  Everything about the experience is perfect, from the ticketing and customer service helpline, to the carparking arrangements and huge Dr Seuss coloured big top.

As we took our seats, clowns were performing in the aisles and huge ghostly chandeliers could be seen through the semi-sheer scrim. The Minx was both mesmerised and overwhelmed by the noise and spectacle.

And then lights went on behind the scrim and we could see a clown on his deathbed with angels flying up above and a crowd forming his ‘corteo’ or cortege. And then began a celebration of the clown’s life.

We saw ladies of the night spinning and swinging from sparkly chandeliers (which delighted the interior design obsessed part of my soul); kids bouncing on beds; clowns riding bikes in the sky; upside down tight rope walkers; and little people flying round the big top carried by helium balloons.  I love how Cirque du Soleil both represents the very best in modern circus technology, but also carries on the old circus traditions with nods to commedia dell’arte, gypsy folklore and  vaudeville.

The music is all original and fabulously sung and performed, including symphonic whistling from the ringmaster and a woman who plays the gypsy violin behind her back.  The costumes and lighting were sensational, the set and props amazing and the attention to detail is extraordinary. Every single member of the large cast is a master of his or her art.

After being initially somewhat nonplussed the Minx got right into the swing of things and kept shouting ‘wow’ very loudly, and was so inspired that during the intermission she treated a small crowd gathered outside to an exhibition of fantastical dance moves and many views of her undergarments. (I have realised that I am so not a stage mother, as I find such exhibitionism cringingly embarrassing). Very cutely though, she cried when it was over because she didn’t want the circus to end.

And so closed an evening that was not only a hugely inspiring feast for all the senses, but also hugely inspiring from a business perspective.  Cirque du Soleil is as close as it gets to a perfect customer experience.

GO RIGHT THIS MINUTE AND BUY TICKETS FOR CIRQUE DU SOLEIL.

All images scanned in from the programme.  I so wished I could have taken my camera.

You know what it’s like when you organise a party and you’re not sure if anyone is going to turn up? Well, that’s how I’ve been feeling over the last few days about the Lab. 

And then of course I was worried whether the people who did turn up would actually be NICE or not 🙂

But of course I had no reason to be anxious.  People CAME.  Everyone was fantastically friendly and charming and interesting.  There were even people who, scarily, read this blog.

Matte Stephens and his oh-so-cute wife and muse ‘the real Vivienne’ were everything you knew they would be and more, and hugely inspirational.  Matte has been plugging away at his art for the last thirteen years and, it seems, almost literally starving in a garret, before John Tusher from Velocity discovered him on Ebay of all places, became his friend and mentor and Matte turned into an overnight sensation.

Anyway it’s late and time for bed now, so go and read Mary T’s (who actually had her camera with her at the beginning of the evening) great write-up over on Shelterrific, Tim Gunn’s alter ego Uncle Beefy has also written a splendid post.

Thanks as always to John and the Velocity gang, our literally gorgeous sponsors from Dry Soda, Matte and Vivienne for making the trek up to Seattle from Portland just after moving across country from Alabama.  And of course to the wonderful Grace, who was the catalyst who made everything possible.

Apologies for the very bad photos. I sensibly forgot my camera so had to wait until the Husband could bring it at the end of the evening, by which time I’d had too much champagne and everyone had gone home.

Apologies too for rushing off so quickly and not saying goodbye to everyone.  Due to monumentally bad planning on my part, I had a date with an egotistical rap  artist immediately afterwards.

Next month’s Lab is going to take place on May 28th and will feature a panel of Seatttle’s finest craft and design bloggers .  You would be mad to miss it.

John Tusher and knitting neurobiologist Jerylin indulge in a little interpretive dance while Megan Not Martha looks on. 

Matte Stephens holds court

Matte’s work on display

So, get this in your diaries pronto quick.  The next meet-up will be on April 16th at Velocity’s new location in South Lake Union and the guest speaker will be Matte Stephens!

Images from Matte’s blog

Matte is moving from Alabama to Portland, Oregon, so we thought this would be a great opportunity to welcome him to the Pacific Northwest and hear him talk about being an independent artist. John from Velocity has been a long time stockist of his work, so we will also be able to get a retailer’s perspective.

I’ll post up details here closer to the time (when they’ve actually been finalised).  Please contact me here if you would like to be added to our event mailing list.

Here’s a bit more scoop on Matte, who has been taking blogland by storm in recent months.

Podcast on Design*Sponge: Matte Stephens and Irving Harper

Podcast on Decor8: Matte Stephens

Matte’s Etsy shop

After the Biz Lady meet up in Seattle, I left my email addy on Design*Sponge to see if anyone wanted to continue meeting up.

And lo and behold, one of the people who responded was John Tusher of Velocity, who wanted to keep the inspiration going and was offering the new Velocity store as a location!

So on Monday I had tea with John to have a chat about the format such meetings could take. 

We thought that it would be good to aim for monthly meetings and we would get a guest speaker or panel of speakers for each one (John’s obviously got some great contacts he can tap).  We also wanted to set aside a bit more time for socializing and networking afterwards.

We thought it would have more of a general design focus rather than just a business focus, though we might touch on small business-related topics at some point.  Oh and given John’s involvement, and the general design focus, we thought it would be odd if it were exclusively for women, though it would probably have a preponderance of women attending given what it has sprung from.

So I really just wanted to open this up to get people’s thoughts and ideas on the above.  I’ve sort of ended up doing this by default and am keen to create something that everyone feels a part of and will enjoy.

All ideas, comments and suggestions are hugely welcome – either via email or in the comments below.  We’d particularly love to hear from you if you’ve got good ideas for a great name; know someone who would be a good guest speaker; can point us in the direction of wine/cheese/bakery sponsors; or want to get involved in any way.  If you’re a Seattle-based blogger and think your readers might be interested it would be immensely helpful if you could point them in this direction.

Most importantly, email me if you would like to attend the first meet-up, which we’re aiming to have organised for mid-April. 

The bad news is that John doesn’t like the siting of the new coffee table either.(How weird is it when someone you’ve never met before, can tell you all about your interior decor? Sometimes this blog thing freaks me out.)

Editing to say that we’ve set a date and managed to line up an absolutely FANTABULOUS first guest speaker.  However, I’m going to leave the announcement until Monday, because no one comes here at the weekend.  I promise it’s exciting though!