Poem Bangkok Timeless Collection Chapter V: “Sonnet Of The Moon”

Dick Grayson and Trapeze

Okay, so I’ve been getting into DC for the past year or so after growing up entirely on Marvel and even more now that I can’t do anything else, and I love Dick Grayson! Because he is awesome, and also a circus person, and I am also a circus person. I’ve done circus for years, I worked at a circus school, it is a huge part of my life, circus is great! But oh my god almost all of the details are inaccurate and it’s finally gotten to me enough that I had to find and dust off my tumblr so I could post a rant about it. Will anyone care? Who knows! But I feel better now.

1. flying trapeze is not a solo act. Flying trapeze is not even a two-person act. Flying trapeze is at minimum a three-person act. You need a catcher, a flyer, and someone on board. Most historical flying trapeze family acts were four people (often siblings, or siblings and spouses) although of course that number varied I’ve included a picture of a rig below that I labeled so you can see what i’m referring to when I say flyer, board, catcher. 

-this is why I am all for the young justice canon where it was dick’s father and uncle and their wives, and then once they grew up dick and his cousin. Siblings and spouses is an absolutely classic makeup of a trapeze family. Alternatively, you could imagine that john and mary worked with other trapeze artists they weren’t related to.

-dick is not old enough to be the third person here. He’s old enough to fly – my school had a minimum age of six for people taking classes, but staff children were exempt from that. Part of the reason for the age was the kids needed to listen, and part was they needed to not freak out. Obviously this doesn’t apply to Dick. But one of the other things is height. With smaller kids (on our rig, anyone under 4’6 I’d say, although you can adjust rigs to the height of flyers to a certain extent) you could not hold onto the bar and keep your feet on the platform. It was too far away. Small kids would grab the bar and their feet would dangle in the air and I’d hold them back by their safety belt. There are a couple of ways around this, including rises, but point being, could dick fly and throw tricks? Sure. Could he work board or drop a return bar? No way.

-there is a type of trapeze called swinging trapeze that is a solo act and uses a similar rig setup to flying trapeze, but you don’t leave the trapeze

-there is also a flying trapeze style called bar-to-bar, which is when instead of flying to a catcher you would catch the bar yourself, and is actually what jules leotard did when he first invented trapeze, but it is very rare (like, the only time I’ve ever seen this is catchers returning to the board) and you’d still need someone to drop the second bar for you. Here is a video of a catcher returning to the board. If you’re doing bar-to-bar instead of having a catcher, then you’d have a different rig set up than with a catcher, with a platform on either end of the net. If you want to compare them, here’s a really cool company that uses a cross setup which has both a bar-to-bar rig and a bar-to-catcher rig incorporated. In Nightwing: Year One, the Flying Graysons are shown using the more traditional bar-to-catcher set up, but Deadman (and presumably Dick when he joins the act) seems to be doing bar-to-bar.

2. you cannot “work your way up” to flying trapeze. There is no mini trapeze, there’s no slow version, there’s no flying trapeze but low to the ground (there are different types of rigs and cross training and if anyone wants me to go into detail I will, but still). “Working your way up to it” in flying trapeze means starting in safety lines and then taking a trick out of safety lines (step three, for the graysons, would be doing it without a net). Even in lines, you have to jump off the platform 20 feet in the air. That is step one, and you just have to dive right in. Feel free to come yell at me about how this influenced Dick as he grew up because I can’t put it into words right now but there’s something in there about Dick’s ratio of planning-to-look before leaping.

3. One of the most common mistakes new flyers make is trying to grab the catcher. This is a no-no. Flyer’s job is to fly, catchers job is to catch. As a flyer, your job is to be there, arms out, hands flat, and easy to grab. The catcher is responsible for grabbing you. If you make grabby hands or try to grab onto them in return before they’ve caught you, you will miss. It’s a disconcerting feeling if you’re starting out – when you’re following through the air, you want to grab at the person reaching for you. You cannot. You have to trust them to grab you.

           -think of this, Dick, who has been raised with this mindset, watching his parents fall. Thing of this, Dick, who has decided it’s his job to catch everyone. Think of this, Dick, falling and hoping someone catches him. Think of the angst. Think of the fluff! The possibilities are endless! (please someone right this and also feel free to ask me questions about this I have feelings)

4. Look, all flying trapeze is built on timing and trust okay!! I remember my hair getting loose and in my eyes halfway through a trick and it’s weird because you’re flying through the air and you can’t see anything and you really would like to be able to see things but it doesn’t actually matter. It didn’t change what I had to do, which was listen to my catcher and let go when they said. I didn’t need to see them, I just needed to trust them and listen. It was a perfectly fine catch! Just, ugh, it’s all about trust!!!!!!

5. While wearing a leotard with bare legs is definitely ridiculous if you’re planning on running around fighting crime, it makes total sense if you’re a flyer and you’re doing any sort of legs catch. (Not if you’re a catcher. Wearing a leotard with no pants is just asking for pain if you’re a catcher. Lots of catchers wear two pairs of leggings so they have extra padding.) Look, one of my friends tried to do a legs catch in full lengths leggings and even though she could connect she slipped out of the catcher’s hands every single time. Every single god damn time. Her form could be absolutely perfect but as long as she was wearing those pants that catch was not going to happen. Bare legs all the way for legs catches. (If you’re not doing leg catches, go nuts. If you’re a beginner, you definitely want the back of your knees covered because you’ll have your knees on the bar a lot. I’ve definitely flown in shorts before, but I also spend a disproportionate amount of time in knee hangs. If you’re not used to doing if, hanging from your knees when it’s just bare skin *hurts*, and having them covered helps). The Flying Graysons poster at the top shows Dick doing what is actually probably a double angel return, not a legs catch, but I don’t think it’s a stretch to say the Graysons had that trick in their show. (I realize that the video I linked shows a legs catch with long pants, so this is obviously a flexible rule, and depends on the material as well. Basically, whatever you want the costume to be, go nuts!)

 If anyone has questions or thoughts, feel free to shoot me an ask. Also, if you’re curious about flying trapeze, circus is more accessible than most people think. Lots of places have circus schools where you can go and take a class, no experience required! (not now, obviously, because we’re in the middle of a pandemic, but in the future). I’m happy to answer questions about that as well.

“Bal Masque” cocktail dress ca. 1958 via The Victoria & Albert Museum

“The Duchess of Windsor patronised top Paris designers throughout her life. Christian Dior was a particular favourite. She was sixty-two years old when she selected this black evening dress. It was called ‘Bal Masque’ and came from the 1958 spring-summer collection designed by Yves Saint Laurent for the house of Dior. The style of the dress is influenced by the bell-shaped skirts fashionable in the 1860s. This influence can also been seen in the way it has been constructed. This dress has a tightly fitted boned corset and a bell-shaped skirt supported by a layered petticoat.The lightweight overdress is made of a double layer of spotted black tulle. It is studded with sparkling black bugle beads which are arranged in festoons caught at intervals by 42 bows of satin ribbon. The dress buttons down the back.”

I’m a prince of the north, a Stark of Winterfell, almost a man grown, I have to be as brave as Robb.- Bran, “A Storm of Swords”

I must be brave, like Robb, she told herself, as she took her lord husband stiffly by the arm. - Sansa, “A Storm of Swords” 

Arya remembered now. “I’ll be as strong as Robb. I said I would.” - Arya, “A Clash of Kings”

Coat

Alexander McQueen, 2008

1stdibs.com

Coat

1930-1932

The FIDM Museum

Evening Dress

Elsa Schiaparelli, 1931-1932

The Philadelphia Museum of Art

Poem Bangkok pre-fall 2020 “Celestial Sin”

this was my ask! :D :D :D your post about potential metas (and also your lovely dick grayson timeline) was one of the things that inspired me to dig up my old tumblr and finally start using it (the other being my need to rant about dick grayson and circus). i don’t really have anything to add other than i miss this dynamic and i have definitely been ignoring the modern stuff and reading 90s comics. and just ugh! siblings! family! 

the dick and tim meta was not long (ok, it was but it was great) and you should definitely talk about their relationship! (if you feel like it) (i just want dc to let them be brothers again i miss it) (this is the void again btw, that's who i am now i guess 😂)

GOD i got this lovely ask way too long ago to have not responded yet, but I was trying to sort out if I had a well thought out meta for you. I don’t. I just wanna give a very unordered ramble.

Dick and Tim were really the first close sibling bond either of them had. Dick of course had Jason as a brother first, but at the time Jason was Robin, Dick was off being a predominantly Titans character in New York, and not vibing with Bruce, so even though they got along they weren’t close.

But Dick and Tim!! True sibs. The best boys.

Here is Dick calling Tim his little brother long before they’d become actual adoptive siblings [Secret Origins 80-Page Giant]. I love one (1) man.

Dick had his own life going on outside of Gotham, but he still became Tim’s mentor almost as much as Bruce, and his confidant far more. The number of times Tim and Dick hung out and Tim got big brother advice is...so many.

[Robin #61]

And they were Batman and Robin together the first time Dick donned the cowl, where they worked together perfectly and also had a fun time doing it. Plus, Dick lived in the Manor and made Tim learn household tasks

[Robin #12]

And also!! I get emotional! About them being so connected so early on!! Tim’s introduction was all about Dick, not about Bruce. His backstory was from Dick’s, and the first person he sought out in his introductory storyline was Dick, before he met Bruce at all.

Tim got a hug from a kid at the circus when he was a tiny tim and then saw that kid’s parents die, and that set the whole course of his life. He remembered details of that for yeeeears and it’s what led him to figure out Batman’s identity.

Obvs Dick’s backstory is defined by losing his parents, and so they both come from this same event which completely changed them in different ways, and then led them back together and I :’)

Dick genuinely means so much to Tim. That’s his idol, the Robin he looked up to, the kid he attached to so thoroughly, and then his older brother and mentor and confidant and partner. And Tim is Dick’s little-brother-by-choice, the first one he mentored to be Robin, worked with as Batman, could and would beat a clown to death to protect.

And then for like 15 years Dick and Tim were this tight trio along with Bruce (Babs and Steph having their own families, Cass being as much under Babs’s mentorship as Bruce’s, Jason being dead, and Damian not existing yet) and closet not-but-basically siblings, and great, and I love them.

[Gotham Knights #8]

In conclusion, current DC should stop sleeping on them and also everyone should read comics from the 90s which was the best batfam era, the end.

Ensemble

Azzedine Alaïa, 1985

The Museum at FIT

Red means life.

Central Florida Emergency Trans Care Fund

Equality Florida

ACLU Florida

Tampa Bay Abortion Fund

Whovengers

Fury = The Doctor: Both look after their bands of misfits, and defend the Earth. Tony = Jack: International/intergalactic playboys willing to die for the greater good. Many times over in Jack’s case. Steve = Martha: Underdogs who became heroes, fighting tyrants for freedom and justice. Bruce = Donna: Both forced to embrace a personality they didn’t want. The only difference is, Donna no longer remembers what it was like to be fully her. Natasha = Amy: Both badass redheads with pasts they tend to run from. Clint = Rory: Soldier types who always come as a package deal with their badass redhead. Phil = Mickey: Both The Man In Havana, both eventually drawn to Big Fucking Guns. Maria = River: The capable second-in-command. Thor = Rose: Both channel godlike powers (that they had to prove themselves worthy of.) Also, both blonde. Loki = The Master: These two would get on like a house on fire…no survivors.