Circus Act

Since we were dismissed early today, I was able to catch TRL on MTV. Christina Aguilera's new video premiered so, I was glad to watch that. The video was for Hurt, the same song that she performed at this year's MTV video music awards. One can't help but admire how Christina is constantly reinventing herself from a pop princess to being Stripped and then, Back to Basics. In fact, she co-directed this latest video of hers with Floria Sigismondi. Sigismondi previously directed Aguilera's music video, Fighter. She has also worked with David Bowie, Sarah Mclachlan, Sheryl Crow, Bjork, Incubus, Fiona Apple, and The White Stripes.

Whew! What a resume! Can you imagine the video now? Allow me to help out a bit more. The song is personal for Aguilera since it's about her tumultuous relationship with her father. Thus, the video shows Christina as a little girl with her dad and how they grow apart over the years. It's mainly set at the circus. It goes back and forth from the time Aguilera was a little girl, watching the show with her dad till the time she grows up and is the star of the circus.

While I was watching it, I couldn't help but notice how much attention the circus is getting in the media nowadays. In a recent episode of America's Next Top Model, the theme for the contestant's photo shoot was the "freak shows" at the circus. On MTV, you may stumble upon a Sweet Sixteen replay where the girl's birthday party theme is Cirque du Soleil. HBO aired the short-lived Carnivale. There was also a book and movie of the same name, The Invisible Circus. Hence, one has to ask, what fuels our obssession for circuses?

Yes, it's not everyday that we see a bearded lady or a contortionist, so when the circus comes to town, naturally, the cat is killed. However, I think it's more than that. It's the same reason why people are captivated with X-men. We can relate to them. In one form or another, we are outcasts, too. Perhaps, we don't have Tivo or we don't find forensic work as interesting as the rest of the world--things like that. Seriously, though, we may not be siamese twins or gigantically tall, but we do differ in our sexual orientations, races, cultures, religions, and more. That's what allures us to the "freak shows." They're us.