The circus is a potlatch where you bring what you hope to find. For some lucky few, they find what they had hoped to bring. It is a spontaneous information transfer, where not merely data, but possibility, is exchanged.

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Find the bindlestiffs at www.bindlestiffs.org

The Bookmobile generally arrives in town and opens its doors for the perusal of the public a few hours before the Cirkus. Dr. Flummox and Mr. Dingle put on a free sideshow outside of the truck on a small stage, playing on the theme of the old style medicine shows which would offer a free exhibition of music and daredevilry before making a pitch for all manner of soaps, creams, potions, and cure-all gadgetry. The Bookmobile Roadshow offers glasswalking, knife throwing, accordion playing, blockheading, and general buffoonery from a clown named Burt Lancaster, who breaks cinder blocks on his head, climbs a ladder of swords, plays a ukulele and tells stories. The Bookmobile Roadshow crew have tweaked the old medicine show formula to reflect some of the basic premises shared by Autonomedia and the Cirkus. The enduring stereotype of travelling carnivals and medicine shows is one of trickery and hucksterism which in many ways reflected dominant bait-and-switch economic practices. As a predatory market sensibility has come to characterize most relations within industrialized society, the Bookmobile Roadshow delivers more revelry than it promises. Offering independently produced ’zines, newsletters and pamphlets, in addition to books, the bookmobile hopes to foster the notion that it is possible to establish an alternate structure of relations based on sharing information and supporting other DIY projects. The Bookmobile collects ’zines on the road from 16-year-old punk ’zinesters, community activists, campus organizers, sex workers, lone wingnut conspiracy theorists, and anyone else who wants to put their work on consignment in the truck or give it away free. The Bookmobile also shares information about radical gatherings, workshops and demonstrations, between the different cities it visits.

So far, responses to the Autonomadic Bookmobile Roadshow have varied from glee to confusion (why is that woman walking barefoot on sharp glass holding a copy of TAZ?) to hostility and harassment from police. In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the Roadshow was visited by two undercover police officers and two uniformed officers. Dr. Flummox and Mr. Dingle decided to do a full show for them as they were gently commanded to "Show what you got." During the glass walking bit, Dr. Flummox invited Officer John to speak the magical word which would pull her out of the trance, the magic word that keeps her feet from bleeding. When asked to say the word "oojibu?", Officer John’s partner pleaded with him, "For god’s sake, John, don't say it!" (He apologized for her, explaining that she was a born again Christian.) Then she accused Dr.Flummox and Mr.Dingle of being satan-worshiping voodoo tricksters!

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