Durango HLGCBS

Hey everybody!

The Durango juggling festival was a blast! Amazing job for a first year festival :) Here's my summary!

Highs:

-Getting to watch the public show instead of be in it. This was one of the first times I've done that in a while. I think I learned a lot from doing that. Getting the chance to analyze each act was great, not to mention just enjoy it!

-Passing with Jeff Lutkus!!!!!!!!!! Oh man, the first time him and I had passed in two years was Friday afternoon at the festival. We quickly found that we could still do any of the old tricks we tried, and in some cases were even better at them now. This bodes well for the future.

-Juggling outside. Just in general this was nice. All of Friday was outside, and Saturday morning was as well. I'd never felt this way at a juggling festival before, but I honestly didn't want to go inside Saturday afternoon.

-Field ball on Saturday. That was a great way to wake up.

-Car ride to and from Durango. This was my first time seeing that area of Colorado. I really need to explore this state more. The company during the car ride was also great.

-Meeting some more West Coast Folks. You're all pretty cool.

-Winning three of the games! 3 club cascade race with a club the long way between yours knees, huggling, and 4 ball 4 person relay!

-Denver/Boulder showing at the fest! At last count, I think we had 12 people there. That made me feel so proud of our group!

-Brad Weston's acting for jugglers workshop. He reminded me of a lot of things I'd forgotten, and taught me a lot of new stuff too. I'm looking forward to incorporating this into what I do on stage.

-The Mayor of Durango. I'm sorry everywhere else. Your Mayor is not nearly as cool. End of discussion.

-Juggling with Doug Sayers. Last few fests him and I have both been at, I've made it a point to get some advice from him. It seems to be paying off. Also, just being able to hang out with him and do some 5 club tricks is pretty cool.

-The public show. All the acts were great, but a few stood out amongst the rest (to me): Brad Weston's was the only person (besides the emcee, Matt Hall) who spoke. His comedy is top notch as are his skills and especially his presentation. Bekka Rose's piece may have been one of the most effortless and elegant pieces I have seen in a long time. Poki is a hoopster, and usually I'm not a fan. 97 out of 100 hoop acts are the same, and boring. The other are real circus hula hoop acts, hoop acts a la Bob Bramson and Carter Brown, and apparently now Poki. His skill set was equivalent to that of your average highly skilled burner, however, his character on stage was constantly engaging, and he made very good use of his skills with the hoop. They were presented in an interesting and engaging way. Ember did a contortion routine, and again, I've seen so many, I don't really care anymore. However! She had such a interesting and wonderful character. I'd try to describe her character, but I just wouldn't do it justice. Actually, I think I'll try. Many contortionists try to look sexy, or graceful when contorting themselves. Ember took it in the exact opposite direction. She made her character look as awkward as possible while performing these bizarre moves with her body, but in kind of an endearing way.

-Renegade. ESPECIALLY the venue! It was at a bar! Why don't more festivals do this?!?!?!

-Saturday after party! Had a great chance to get to know Brad Weston and Kyle Johnson. Looking forward to seeing you both again soon.

-Raffle: I really like how they organized it at Durango. You'd buy your tickets, and then each raffle item had a jar you could put your tickets in. This meant that you could only win something you actually wanted! It basically made every raffle exciting, since anyone who won something, actually wanted it!

-Getting a bronze club from David Kha! I have been looking for one of these ever since I met Julien Rochat (sp?) at the Ecole de Cirque de Quebec about three years ago. David has started making them in the US, and I got one from him. Here's a plug for him. Check out his site, www.worldjuggle.com ! He's a really cool guy, wish I'd gotten to hang out with him a bit more.

-Matt Hall emceeing the public show: He has gotten so good at this! I was taking mental notes the whole time.

-The Major of Durango throwing out the ceremonial first pass for the public show

Lows:

-Not being in the public show. Even though it was great to be in the audience, it doesn't beat performing.

-Some parts of the games. Don't get me wrong, they were a lot of fun, however, there were a couple instances where rules were changed halfway through, or some results thrown out and parts of games re-done.

-Getting to the party on Saturday. Some organization would have been nice here guys. Instead of just getting the address for the party beforehand, we all met at house A, then we all followed someone who didn't actually know where they were going to house B (eventually we got there because someone else in the caravan was staying at B), where someone lived who actually knew where the party was (at house C). This took the better part of an hour. That was an hour I could have been happily drinking/at a party/having fun.

-Lighting cues in the show.

-Missing a good part of the day in the gym on Saturday. This was completely mine and Jeff's fault. We went to look for food, and found some far from the fest (in a pretty cool bar!) that took too long to get. Then, we get back and find out that just down some stairs from where the fest was happening, was a restaurant...facepalm...

Goals:

-Break 5 club bx record (nope)

-200 catches of shoulder pads (nope)

-Learn a new 5 club trick (almost, got one in progress)

-Pass with Jeff (check)

-Hit an alberalb (check)

Crush:

-Dominique; you're so much fun!

-Brad Weston; great guy, great performance, great workshop.

Bane:

-Can't really think of one here...

Surprise:

-How easy passing with Jeff was! We did some tricks better than before he left for Poland.

That's all! Looking forward to the next one :)

-Warren

Breaking through barriers (a.k.a. actually using my blog!)

A couple weeks ago I pulled off a 5 club 5 up pirouette for the first time (4 years in the making), then this past Sunday broke my personal best for 5 club backcrosses (2 years or so of work), and in addition, I've been learning my first new three club trick in years. Granted, I come up with a lot of crazy stuff with clubs, but as far as run-able patterns are concerned, I haven't progressed much since I got backcrosses solid with 3.

Its gotten me thinking about what is different all of a sudden. I'm in worse shape than I was a few years ago when I really put a lot of time into these tricks, plus, I really only get to practice once a week (at juggling club) on things that aren't performance related.

Its got to be a mental thing. Sam Malcolm recently let me borrow the book "The Inner Game of Tennis." It was a great read, full of lots of good insight. The strange thing about it though to me, is that most of it centered around not actively trying something, err...rather, not engaging your brain in such a conscious way about the trick. In other words, just let it happen. I have to admit (rather reluctantly), it remind me of Dave Nager saying to me "just do it" or "juggle better." I was skeptical that the book would help, because how do you change a behavior like that? Seems like it may have worked though!

Regardless of the reason why I've been able to make progress recently, its very exciting. I feel like I'm getting to the point I was at with 5 balls about 8 or 9 years ago, but with clubs now. Breaking through this barrier has really shifted my perspective on what I can do. A lot more seems within reach all of a sudden. I know for many 12-15 year old prodigies out there, these tricks are almost run of the mill. I started juggling in the era where just juggling 5 clubs on stage was amazing in itself! I never dreamed I'd be capable of half the tricks I do today, simply because kids my age at the time weren't doing them (well, maybe a few were...Adam Kariotis comes to mind, although he's a few years older than me I think).

Getting back on track, I decided that I wasn't going to count a 5 up pirouette until I hit it clean and held a stable pattern afterwards (no specific number of throws really, just a controlled pattern) with a clean collect. This reminded a lot of my friends as being very WJFish, which is fine. I have definitely been very influenced by the WJF and think a lot of the ways it regards technical juggling are very important. I didn't have this qualifier though because I wanted it to be WJF recognized or anything. I wanted to do it because I wanted there to be absolutely no doubt in my mind that I in fact did the trick. It was also a way to make it meaningful. I like setting concrete goals for myself, and I like setting the bar high. This way it really means something to me when I achieve those goals. Hitting that 5 up might have been one of the best moments in my life. I have never felt so proud of something I've done (and relieved!) Those of you who have watched me working on it for the past few years may know what I mean and why it meant so much.

A large part of the reason I juggle is to show off. That's fine, I'm a performer now, and I like being able to do cool stuff AND letting people know I can do cool stuff. However, that's definitely not the main reason I juggle. I'm addicted to progress. I cannot stand being stagnant. I always want to be improving myself somehow. It's why I initially went to grad school, and why when I dropped out, being a lab tech wasn't enough for me. It's also why I love juggling. If nothing else, there's always one more object. It's why I love performing too. Every show is a chance to do better. This also goes hand in hand with my need for instant gratification. Street performing is perfect for that.

It also makes me really happy that even though I'm pushing 30, I'm still getting better in a pretty significant way. Watching people who are older than I am and still improving has been hugely inspirational too (I'm talking about you Matt Hall!). I fully intend to juggle the rest of my life, and to keep improving in some way, shape or form.

Kansas City Juggling Festival HLGCBS!

Haven't done one of these in a while! Had a great time at this fest. First one that I'd gone to as mostly a spectator.

Highs:

-Getting to juggle just for fun more than I have in a very, very, very long time.

-Passing with Justin Sheldon! Holy crap this guy is amazing. Far better than he would have you believe he is. We rocked out 10 double-double pretty hard, and had a few nice little runs of 11 double-double.

-Winning the 5 ball endurance (with balls I'd never juggled, having not juggled balls at all that weekend). Came pretty close to my personal best.

-Watching Chad Lunders set another epic World Record

-Playing an amazing game of bocce ball with Rico (with Bekah and Ryan coming up with interesting variations for us).

-Performing my blockhead routine in the public show. It was very well received!

-Winning a $50.00 gift card to Infinite Illusions in the raffle!

-Finding out Infinite Illusions still exists!

-Hilarity with Bekah, Rico, and Eric.

-"Sing Muse"

-Watching Bekah NAIL her club routine in the public show

-Watching Sam Malcom NAIL 8 rings in the public show

-Finding time for a game of Go with Ryan Bradburn

-Eric juggling for a random girl sitting on the porch in front of her house while we were stuck in traffic and probably making her day.

-Field ball

-Justin and Greg's routine in the Saturday night show!

Lows:

-Poor Eric's car :( He got a flat tire on the highway on sunday. We pulled over near an exit ramp where a race that had drawn 60,000 people was letting out. Followed by having to go to two Wal-Marts in that traffic to find a place that had time to put new tires on his car (Wal-marts were the only thing open too since it was a Sunday afternoon).

-Not juggling much on Sunday due to intense tired + destroyed hands

Goals:

-New 5 club bx record (nope, but close)

-200 catches with shoulder pads (nope, but close!)

-Play Go with Ryan (check!)

-Set a world record (nope...but close!)

Crush:

-Bekah :)

-Sam Malcolm, for an great conversation on the way home from the fest.

Bane:

-Fingernails that I'd bitten too short. Thanks for all the band-aids and tape Rico!

Suprirse:

-Chad Lunders made it to the fest!