Juggling One-Upsmanship

[tongodeon]

There's a video forward going around of Chris Bliss juggling to a Beatles song. Apparently it's very popular and a lot of people are impressed.

Penn Jillette wasn't impressed, because if you're a professional performer juggling three balls isn't all that difficult. (And because everyone likes the Beatles, but if you're doing piss-poor juggling

Comments

[tongodeon]

He actually addressed this in on-radio comments. First, he does say that the audience is entertained and that this is good. What bugs him is five people a day forwarding him this link and gushing at how good the guy is. People confusing "entertaining" with "good" are what put a bee in Penn's bonnet.

Second, he says it's like fireworks set to music: there's some sync, but a lot of it is just in your head. (Tom Duff told me about some live computer-generated synced light shows that a friend of his does for concerts. One time the guy forgot some crucial bit of equiment so he just popped in a DVD from some other concert and everyone raved about how well the visuals matched the music when there was no intentional match whatsoever.)

And third, I think that Jason Garfield actually does a *better* job syncing his timing to the music. He makes fewer wild grabs and seems in better control of the throws so that they start and land at the times that they should.

[mmcirvin]

What that reminds me of is the stock iTunes visualizer, based on an old version of the G-Force visualizer for Winamp and such. When it came out, there was a certain amount of hullaballoo about the psychedelic experience of seeing music transformed into vision. But the actual sync to the music in the iTunes visualizer is pretty minor. The input to the simulated video feedback effects is an equalizer-like audioscope display represented as a squiggly line, and sometimes there are some dots or something that pulse with the sound volume, but most of what you see is typically the continuous streaming effect of the feedback, and your head does the rest.

[bsdcat]

Regarding #3 - I'd have to disagree. Garfield's performance did not look as well synced to me. I'll admit that there's a component of that that's all in my head, but I felt like I could see when Bliss missed a beat too - and it seemed to happen less frequently.

[matrushkaka]

The Galchenkos kick much ass.

[mmcirvin]

Thus mirroring the arguments I used to hear in college about whether or not Ringo's solo in that proves that he was a crap drummer.

[mkb_cbr]

The thing I like best about Ringo is that he fully appreciates just what a lucky bastard he his. The man has no pretensions at all that he is a genius just because he was in a successful band.

My first glimpse of that was in an interview Ringo did some years ago for Mix, a rag about audio engineering. Because the Mix readership consists of music engineers and wannabes, interview questions tend to be more technical rather than the "papers want to know whose shirts you wear" variety.

The interviewer asked a question or two about how Ringo got some particular sound and was surprised to hear "I don't know" both times. Finally Ringo said, "Look, let me explain to you how I make my records. First, I come into the studio and I record the drum parts for all the songs. Then I leave. While I'm gone, the engineer records all of the other instrumental tracks. Next I come back and record all the vocals. Then I leave again and the engineer mixes everything and the record is done."

[merde]

i've always loved Ringo for that as well. it's exactly the same way i've always made my music; i couldn't tell you why i used a particular chord other than that it sounded right. how did i write a given song? fucked if i know. it just comes straight out of the aether. i get a phrase; a little scribbling makes it a verse; i pick up the guitar, find some chords i like, and the melody writes itself. and it's not bad. it's not great, but it's not bad either. it's the very definition of artlessness. fortunately, some people like that sort of thing.

there's a broad gulf between talent and craft. neither one is enough to create brilliance on its own. the people who are really good are the ones who hit the trifecta: they have the innate talent and the patience to learn the craft and the skill to combine the two. that's Lennon and McCartney.

it's not Ringo. or me. we just kind of fumble our way through and hope for the best. hey, is there any more beer?

[merde]

that drum solo is my favorite of all time. it makes my pulse all thumpy.

[zalriva1]

Umm... As someone who (indirectly) makes money from juggling, I have a few comments:

5 anything in the air is incredibly hard, 3 or 4 is cake in comparison. More than a few rotations of 5 balls is something impressive. With one hand? Simply Awesome.

People are rarely impressed by things that are incredibly difficult, they prefer flash. It's all about what captivates. The flair that's hardest to learn is rarely what the crowd remembers. They remember what's on fire, not what wins awards from your peers.

matrushkaka is quite correct, the russian kids are teh awesome

[tritone]

This has a certain resemblance to the world of jazz. Pretty much any decent professional jazz musician is much, much more interesting than Kenny G--to other jazz musicians. Audiences, on the other hand, shower Kenny G with money.

On the other hand, when I watched these videos, I liked Kenny G Bliss a little better, probably because he wasn't the one who was whining and acting like a prick. (I also couldn't get through all of Garfield's video, because it was downloading really slow for some reason.)

[tongodeon]

Skip straight to the Galchenkos. They don't whine, and they make Garfield look like Kenny G.