More random stuff
I meant to add into the previous post a couple of things that Anthony Gatto did that were so impressive. Everybody's seen people juggle rings and then finish by grabbing them as they come down and slamming the rings down over their head, sometimes with a pancake flip on the last one so it just kinda floats and twists for a second before landing. Now picture doing that with seven rings, while bouncing a ball on your head. The other big thing he did was balancing a couple of 6-8 ft coatrack type things (individually, not at the same time) on his forehead, and then tossing thngs up and catching them on the prongs.
Saturday I spent a good chunk of hanging out with Jade, an older guy I met last year. A mutual friend introduced us, and upon finding out that I was in paleo, he got all excited and took me out to the hotel lobby to see the anemone, cephalopod, snail, etc. fossils in the stone tiles just inside the front door. Anyway, we threw clubs, trivia, and Douglas Adams quotes at each other, and I learned a couple new passes, some coin tricks, and the definition of a fugue.
During the 5-club 360 competition (how many can you pull off in a minute), one of the guys, Chris Chiappini knocked one of his clubs behind the rail at the back of the stage, and had to fish it out before continuing. In doing so, he knocked the rail over, bringing the banners hanging on it down onto the lights behind it. So after his set, they had to take a bit of an intermission to fix it all, with half a dozen people onstage trying to reassemble and rearrange everything. Jason Garfield, the guy in charge, said that the first guy out there trying to fix things should get an extra one on his count for preventing the banners from catching on fire. When the next guy came up, the announcer said that as long as he didn't knock anything over, he was in 3rd place.
Sunday morning it was hailing here. Hailing. In the Nevada desert. What's wrong with this picture?
I hung out with Jade some more, picked up a few coin manipulation tricks, and learned how to tie a zeppelin bend. It was apparently the knot used to lash down zeppelins, because you could strain the rope to the breaking point without it untying itself, but you could still untie it whenever you wanted to, that it wouldn't bind itself up.
The coolest thing that's happened so far was Sunday evening, there was a (cigar) boxes workshop scheduled. There were four of us who turned up for the workshop, none of whom were the guy who was supposed to be teaching it. All four of us were around the same skill level, with myself the best one there, and a Singaporean guy named Chi not far below. The two of us traded a couple tricks and showed the other guys a bunch of stuff along the way as well. It was a lot of fun, and the best I've felt about anything since getting here, in terms of my own skill level.
Later, after the main competitions of the evening, Chi and I cornered Dan, the guy who was supposed to be teaching it, and found out that the reason he didn't show was that he went off to play golf. He was very contrite about the whole thing, and said that Monday morning he'd give us a really good workshop anyway.
So this morning we all rounded up again, and picked up an additional person to show us stuff. It was incredible. I tried to write down all the stuff he showed us afterwards, and I know I didn't get it all, but definitely enough to keep me busy for a while.
Being here is an extremely humbling experience. Unfortunately (because it limits my own growth and development) I'm the best juggler at KU in a lot of respects. But coming here, I recognize that I will never be anywhere near as good as most of these people. Not that I can't ever be, as I know I could be if I put the time and effort into it. But that's the thing, I won't. I don't have the drive, or attention span. I just don't care that much. Juggling is a lot of fun, but it's not my life, like it is for these people. It's like with fencing - I've been fencing (discontinuously) for a total of about two and a half years, but I've never been to a competition. Because I don't care that much. I like poking people with long pointy things, and I like getting better and learning new things, but I'll never be one of the really good people. And I'm fine with that.
Depending on how much cash I've got left tomorrow at the end of this, I'm gonna pick up a few glowing balls, some DVDs, and a set of leather and bamboo clubs, which they make specifically for use at RenFests. The only problem I have with those is that I'm not sure how durable they are.
And another random link from WitheredAtom, Relativistic Sex (and no, that doesn't mean incest).
Saturday I spent a good chunk of hanging out with Jade, an older guy I met last year. A mutual friend introduced us, and upon finding out that I was in paleo, he got all excited and took me out to the hotel lobby to see the anemone, cephalopod, snail, etc. fossils in the stone tiles just inside the front door. Anyway, we threw clubs, trivia, and Douglas Adams quotes at each other, and I learned a couple new passes, some coin tricks, and the definition of a fugue.
During the 5-club 360 competition (how many can you pull off in a minute), one of the guys, Chris Chiappini knocked one of his clubs behind the rail at the back of the stage, and had to fish it out before continuing. In doing so, he knocked the rail over, bringing the banners hanging on it down onto the lights behind it. So after his set, they had to take a bit of an intermission to fix it all, with half a dozen people onstage trying to reassemble and rearrange everything. Jason Garfield, the guy in charge, said that the first guy out there trying to fix things should get an extra one on his count for preventing the banners from catching on fire. When the next guy came up, the announcer said that as long as he didn't knock anything over, he was in 3rd place.
Sunday morning it was hailing here. Hailing. In the Nevada desert. What's wrong with this picture?
I hung out with Jade some more, picked up a few coin manipulation tricks, and learned how to tie a zeppelin bend. It was apparently the knot used to lash down zeppelins, because you could strain the rope to the breaking point without it untying itself, but you could still untie it whenever you wanted to, that it wouldn't bind itself up.
The coolest thing that's happened so far was Sunday evening, there was a (cigar) boxes workshop scheduled. There were four of us who turned up for the workshop, none of whom were the guy who was supposed to be teaching it. All four of us were around the same skill level, with myself the best one there, and a Singaporean guy named Chi not far below. The two of us traded a couple tricks and showed the other guys a bunch of stuff along the way as well. It was a lot of fun, and the best I've felt about anything since getting here, in terms of my own skill level.
Later, after the main competitions of the evening, Chi and I cornered Dan, the guy who was supposed to be teaching it, and found out that the reason he didn't show was that he went off to play golf. He was very contrite about the whole thing, and said that Monday morning he'd give us a really good workshop anyway.
So this morning we all rounded up again, and picked up an additional person to show us stuff. It was incredible. I tried to write down all the stuff he showed us afterwards, and I know I didn't get it all, but definitely enough to keep me busy for a while.
Being here is an extremely humbling experience. Unfortunately (because it limits my own growth and development) I'm the best juggler at KU in a lot of respects. But coming here, I recognize that I will never be anywhere near as good as most of these people. Not that I can't ever be, as I know I could be if I put the time and effort into it. But that's the thing, I won't. I don't have the drive, or attention span. I just don't care that much. Juggling is a lot of fun, but it's not my life, like it is for these people. It's like with fencing - I've been fencing (discontinuously) for a total of about two and a half years, but I've never been to a competition. Because I don't care that much. I like poking people with long pointy things, and I like getting better and learning new things, but I'll never be one of the really good people. And I'm fine with that.
Depending on how much cash I've got left tomorrow at the end of this, I'm gonna pick up a few glowing balls, some DVDs, and a set of leather and bamboo clubs, which they make specifically for use at RenFests. The only problem I have with those is that I'm not sure how durable they are.
And another random link from WitheredAtom, Relativistic Sex (and no, that doesn't mean incest).