My latest pilgrimage of London
Ok, back from London.
Was at the Transfabulous, which well lived up to its name. I got to meet some really big names, like Jamison Green, Ignacio Rivera and Kate Bournstein. Ok, I didn't really get to talk to Ignacio, but I at least got to say a few words to the other two, and they are lovely, lovely, lovely people! Did I mention they are lovely? Well, they are.
Went over there with deadlybuzz and his girlie, and we pretty much used every minute available to go to one workshop or another.
Also, the conference really filled me with a whole load of performance ideas. Need to start working on them.
And on Monday (today), we trouped around Camden, doing a lot of shopping. I now have some extremely cool, unique and hand-made (leading to their uniqueness) flag poi that are both extremely loud (the colour - they are a rather flourescent pink) but well-balanced (they are a joy to use). I'll probably be using them for the TENI float in pride.
I also have a zippy-hoodie with tribal blue patterns, and some blue goggles, which I reckon will be good for fire performances. It may lead to an image of a cyber Tonberry/Smurf hybrid, but that's half the fun.
For the jugglers, there's a really nice juggling shop in Camden Town called Oddballs. That's where I got the flag poi, and some glo-poi, and some Astrojax (they are so incredibly fun to play with) - well, I got the practice ones there, but got the performance ones in another shop. Now there is a story behind the performance ones... it's kinda hillarious, looking back now. At the time, it really wasn't.
What happened was, we wandered into a shop called "Gadgets, Gadegets, Gadgets". There wasn't much there, but Jack spotted the performance astrojax (the ones with LEDs) for less than I bought the practice set in Oddballs. So the guy came up and asked if we were interested. He tried to tell us the stuff we already knew, and I asked if he had a set for trying out. He looked kind of offended and said "No, these are brand new, yeah? All sealed and everything, they'll work straight out.". I tried to explain that I wanted to try them out to see how they felt, to see if I liked them. "Aw no, man. The professionals use these, and use them for their shows and everything." At that point, I really did not care, he had actually put me off the sale.
I left the shop, and barely a few steps away, I was unable to contain myself as I shouted/grumbled (intended as a grumble, but came out as a shout) that he was an absolutely arrogant... well, I'll omit the next word, so as to keep it safe in people's curse filters in work (for those of you who LJ in work). This is when Jack pointed out that the salesman was extremely, extremely stoned.
By Monday, I felt very sheepish about the whole thing, and wanted to buy those versions, at which point the guy knocked down the price rather massively. Basically, I was buying 2 of them for about £3 each, but he said "Listen, I don't have any change of a tenner, so how about you just take two or three extra." while he thrust them into my arms.
I may have been grinning as I left. I felt marginally guilty, but at the same time not.
Anyway, that's a very quick skim of my pilgrimage to London. 'twas such good fun, it's unbelievable. I may write up more later, if people want.
Was at the Transfabulous, which well lived up to its name. I got to meet some really big names, like Jamison Green, Ignacio Rivera and Kate Bournstein. Ok, I didn't really get to talk to Ignacio, but I at least got to say a few words to the other two, and they are lovely, lovely, lovely people! Did I mention they are lovely? Well, they are.
Went over there with deadlybuzz and his girlie, and we pretty much used every minute available to go to one workshop or another.
Also, the conference really filled me with a whole load of performance ideas. Need to start working on them.
And on Monday (today), we trouped around Camden, doing a lot of shopping. I now have some extremely cool, unique and hand-made (leading to their uniqueness) flag poi that are both extremely loud (the colour - they are a rather flourescent pink) but well-balanced (they are a joy to use). I'll probably be using them for the TENI float in pride.
I also have a zippy-hoodie with tribal blue patterns, and some blue goggles, which I reckon will be good for fire performances. It may lead to an image of a cyber Tonberry/Smurf hybrid, but that's half the fun.
For the jugglers, there's a really nice juggling shop in Camden Town called Oddballs. That's where I got the flag poi, and some glo-poi, and some Astrojax (they are so incredibly fun to play with) - well, I got the practice ones there, but got the performance ones in another shop. Now there is a story behind the performance ones... it's kinda hillarious, looking back now. At the time, it really wasn't.
What happened was, we wandered into a shop called "Gadgets, Gadegets, Gadgets". There wasn't much there, but Jack spotted the performance astrojax (the ones with LEDs) for less than I bought the practice set in Oddballs. So the guy came up and asked if we were interested. He tried to tell us the stuff we already knew, and I asked if he had a set for trying out. He looked kind of offended and said "No, these are brand new, yeah? All sealed and everything, they'll work straight out.". I tried to explain that I wanted to try them out to see how they felt, to see if I liked them. "Aw no, man. The professionals use these, and use them for their shows and everything." At that point, I really did not care, he had actually put me off the sale.
I left the shop, and barely a few steps away, I was unable to contain myself as I shouted/grumbled (intended as a grumble, but came out as a shout) that he was an absolutely arrogant... well, I'll omit the next word, so as to keep it safe in people's curse filters in work (for those of you who LJ in work). This is when Jack pointed out that the salesman was extremely, extremely stoned.
By Monday, I felt very sheepish about the whole thing, and wanted to buy those versions, at which point the guy knocked down the price rather massively. Basically, I was buying 2 of them for about £3 each, but he said "Listen, I don't have any change of a tenner, so how about you just take two or three extra." while he thrust them into my arms.
I may have been grinning as I left. I felt marginally guilty, but at the same time not.
Anyway, that's a very quick skim of my pilgrimage to London. 'twas such good fun, it's unbelievable. I may write up more later, if people want.