36th RIT Spring Juggle-In HLGCBS
H: Yuta's balls routine in the Open Stage!
Kubo's number in the show!
Free food for the opening of the fest.
Seeing Avi (and a bunch of other people) again.
American milkshakes!
University hipster coffee bar.
A great turnout and great comments at a couple of my workshops.
The main gym being open on sunday.
Sunday night all you can eat sushi and seeing the abandoned subway.
L: Whether it was a "comedic" choice or just a mistake, leaving the MC's mike on and hearing him talking over the first minute of every act was annoying and extremely unprofessional.
The triangle rig which took up the whole stage, meaning all the acts had to squeeze into the front section.
A lot of "acts" who really belong on Open Stage and not in the Public Show.
Dave Nager wasn't there.
G: - Plan workshops (failed again. I always plan to plan my workshops, and always end up winging it)
- Give good workshops (success! Some great comments from people, so I'm happy)
- Not juggle (failed - I juggled for almost 2 hours over the weekend)
- See Rochester's abandoned subway (yes! Super cool place)
- Take nice photos (don't know yet, we'll soon see)
C: The interpreters - pretty much stole the show from Ivan.
Kubo and Yuta - amazing jugglers, amazingly smiley and super friendly.
Avi and his family - always great to see them, and I have to thank them for their super hospitality.
Ivan's biceps - need I say more?
B: Ivan's biceps - I could barely concentrate on the show with those things in my face.
Main gym floor - I do understand and appreciate the reasons, but it is still an annoying floor.
Unclear microphone - Every time Jeff was announcing a workshop/show/competition/event/etc, we heard muffled sounds more than actual words.
S: Temporary tv studio for live feed. Wow that was an amazing set-up!
Bekka knows jedi mind tricks. She fully kicked my ass at rock-paper-scissors.
Catching ice with chopsticks!!! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I caught an ice cube in mid-air, using only chopsticks!
Ivan's biceps. What the hell‽
Being hit on my a cute asian girl, it's been a while!
#hlgcbs
Mike Moore - - Parent #
H: Learning a handful of cool 3/4b things I hadn't thought of before.
It being VERY cost efficient. I spent ~$40 all in.
Becka's stretching workshop. Felt mediocre before, felt amazing afterward.
I don't normally like comedy emcees, but I found this one really funny. Funny jokes/gags I hadn't heard before!
L: Getting very little sleep Friday night, thinking I was getting repetitive strain injury on Saturday.
There wasn't anyone who I met that I could just swap tricks with forever, which was rare for a convention. There didn't seem to be anyone who was amazing at 3b patterns.
G: Learn some 3b stuff - check, but not as much as I wanted to
Win a game - check, blind juggling! Beat last year's record of 6:08 set by Doug Sayers, which was cool. I'm guessing he probably switched patterns at 6m or something, though.
Get all the Guelphites/Waterlooies that wanted to go there, back, and housed. All did!
C: Emily
Gabrielle, for being so enthusiastic about her first multi-day convention
Joe Showers, for housing us and making us pancakes...BOTH mornings. Also alcohol both nights (erm, technically mornings).
Irv, for driving us everywhere.
B: Nothing really...if I had to pick one, I guess I'd say the lack of an outstanding 3baller.
S: Winning a set of Gballz in the raffle! Wooo!
There being a very Chris Hodge-ish guy there, running 5b backcrosses and pumping out occasional 7b backcrosses into and out of a cascade
H: -seeing so many folks I hadn't seen in a while and meeting new ones
-passing!
-Vanilla malt MILKSHAKE at Jays diner
-after show chat with Cate and Dominique (rare to have an all female chat at a juggling fest!)
-Abandoned metro filming
-food upon arrival including amazing chocolate balls of deliciousness
-beating Norbi at rock-paper-scissors
-learning some sign language from Avi
L: -back pain
-dropping so much in the show
G: -actually talk to people: success! First fest in a while where I wasn't involved in organizing and therefore had way more time
-pass: not as much as I wanted to (passed some with Joe, but didn't get to 9 club ultimates or 10 clubs)
-do well in show: sort of
-successful workshops: mostly
-not fail miserably at 5 club endurance: fail
C: -Kubo: wow (and I don't even like diabolo)
-Yuta: so smiley, great presence and really nice juggling
-Avi and family for their hospitality (Avi for putting up with my: 'and how do you sign THIS in sign language' every 5 second and being really great in general)
B: -big aerial rig on stage meaning a lot less space for the rest of the performers
-5 clubs: I apparently lost the ability to juggle 5 clubs most of the weekend
S: -Ivan's biceps
-so much technology (I know, it shouldn't have been a surprise given the location of the fest)! I even had a wireless mic for one of my workshops!
H: Norbi came and brought some awesome people from Québec with him!
Learning some sweet new diabolo tricks from Jean-Félix!
Juggling in the abandoned subway and all you can eat sushi. Need I say more?
L: Having to work on Saturday and missing all the games and workshops.
Failing to last more then 2 seconds in the handstand endurance.
G: - Hang out with Norbi (check)
- Learn something new (check)
- Present something on Friday night (Fail - I had to work all week and didn't have time to prepare anything)
C: Norbi: For being generally awesome!
Bekka: She is a super cool lady and tolerated my crappy passing on Sunday evening.
Kubo: Sexy diabolo skills. I was blown away by his act on Sat.
B: I was super sore on Sunday and no one gave me a massage!
Apparently, I've lost all my passing skills and can't juggle clubs.
S: Cate showed up!
I got a sweet turbo shirt (Thanks Norbi!!).
Milton Keynes Juggling Convention 4 HLGCBS
H: The whole darn show, organising crew and lovely people who come to a convention.
L: One of the acts was ill. Didn't make a lot of difference to the show but it isn't nice to learn that somebody has spent the day vomiting.
G: To organise a convention and show that people enjoy.
C: all the acts
B: The cold. When your sat at a reg desk for hours right next to an open door it stops being fun after the first hour or so.
S: How much better the show was than I expect. Just about every act was better than I've ever seen before.
#hlgcbs #MKJC4
This may interest the Kendama fraternity, especially Void. As I was talking to him about the Bilboquets I was having made when at #MKJC4.
Can't remember all the woods that were used to make the spindles but definitely Birch and Larch.
Nigel
They look very nice, but the ball needs to be about 50% larger, IMO.
I'll post it on the kendama forum anyway. You may get some interest.
Oh, and what's wrong with the ones at the back? Why don't the balls sit on the spikes properly?
I don't know why he made them that way. He had the yellow kendama in the picture as a guide to size and weight of ball and spike. The ball being made of yew is fairly heavy. Not being a kendama person I don't know any names of tricks but I can catch the ball in the cup very easily and on the spike occasionally. The person making them (Lee Stoffer if anyone cares) is more interested in the act of creating wooden stuff than in the Bilboquet as a toy although he assured me that he tries out each one to make sure that they work. His first experimental tries had a ball that was too light or a string that was too long or the hole wasn't quite central and therefore nigh on impossible to use. If anybody wants a real challenge I'll see if I can get hold of the rejects :-)
Nigel
pumpkineater23 - - Parent #
A few small modifications and they would be pepper mills.
Paging Duncan....
https://www.duncanhoyle.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_phocagallery&view=category&id=6&Itemid=211
I had a bit of a play in the workshop yesterday...
a bibloquet pepper/salt grinder
30cm tall in oak. I don't think the shape looks that great but it's a good start. I think the spike needs to be narrower and the ball needs to be a bigger. And I need to improve at making spheres. Once the ball is more uniform I'd think about matching the hollows to the curve.
As a pepper grinder it works well as long as you wind the excess string onto the spike to keep it out of your food.
Little Paul - - Parent #
hahahaha! That's brilliant! Best response to a bibloquet thread ever :)
Thanks everyone who came to #MKJC4. Hopefully you all enjoyed yourself.
There were a couple of things left behind:
A bag of bounce balls with a distinctive letter on each one.
Some sort of bracket that may fit onto video camera.
E-mail nigel@itshim.co.uk if either belong to you.
Thanks to everyone who took part in the show, helped run the convention, ran a workshop, drilled and laced conkers etc etc.
#MKJC5 will be 15th November 2014
Nigel
Cheers for making it happen. V good show. In one link/act, Abbi & I amused ourselves counting the "here we go"s and the "okay"s. 139 vs 128!
Charles Brockbank did the routine I enjoyed a lot in BYJOTY. Tom Derrick's umbrella routine was smart and slick. Angie Mack was the best I've ever seen her. Neil Smith's parasol act was really well put together, and executed. Duelling Hats were on the money.
Hmmm, I don't think I lost a video bracket thingy, but I may have to check....
The 'Here we go' v 'okay' thing for me started out for me as that's a little annoying and ended up as quite amusing. I know that Graham tends to repeat himself to give himself time to think. I just have never noticed him doing quite that much before! I should have guessed that someone would be counting :-)
Nigel
By the way, last year Harry was in the show as part of the Concrete Circus pyramid.
Dragging my rubbish pics off my phone reminds me of the race between Jon Peat, Tom Derrick and Dave from Cambridge to do a 1-footed 5 ball kickup into cascade. It took about half an hour, but Tom got there first.
https://www.tlmb.net/galleries/MKJC2013/
Fantastic auction item at #MKJC4.
Three clubs used and signed by Anthony Gatto!
(they were previously a raffle prize at BJCY2K or York if you don't remember)
One other auction item is a long stemmed unicycle (don't know make as yet)
Other auction items are welcome.
Auction at 5pm
It'd probably be a bit spammy to mention my new book, wouldn't it?
Okay, fair enough.
So.... Donald's got a new book out. https://www.kendama.co.uk/book3.html
Anyone want to buy a 1000 of them? ;-)
Would you have copies of this book to sell next weekend at Milton Keynes Juggling Convention, 9th November www.mkjc.co.uk?
Nigel
but I don't like spam!
Kaskade magazine ending.
I have just seen on facebook that the current issue of Kaskade juggling magazine is going to be the last. I guess all printed media are struggling in an age of on-line information, but I have enjoyed reading it in the past with the reviews of conventions and passing pattern instructions. Maybe I am partly guilty for its decline as I have not subscribed for a few years now.
They say they are going to create an on-line archive of all the past editions which could be a wonderful resource.
For those not on facebook you can see more details in the editorial in the on-line preview of issue 112 (go to 2nd page and click on image to enlarge then scroll back a page). Or maybe buy a copy of the last issue.
Are they not going to try and move online at all? Just wondering, not saying that they should.
Sad news but I can't say I'm surprised. I only have half a dozen or so issues, for some reason I never got excited about Kaskade the way I did about the Catch.
I think magazines like this have had their day. Their just isn't the demand to meet the costs of keeping up a regular publication. I don't think competition from the internet is the cause. The only online material that could be seen as competition is the IJA ezine which is itself the result of a shelved print magazine. Last month the ezine published ten posts, only five of which I'd class as magazine style articles. If I was a subscriber I wouldn't consider the availability of five articles as a reason to ditch my subscription.
Quality articles get written because big magazines can afford to pay the writer. We don't have the resources to do that in the juggling world. I think some people write articles for magazines because it looks good on their CV. There is a perception that because a magazine has an editor anything that makes it into print has been through a quality control process & is therefore good, whereas online publishing is still seen as an amateur enterprise where any old rubbish gets through, which may explain the lack of long form juggling articles.
The biggest factor though is that most people don't want to read long articles anymore. Which is a shame because some ideas are too complex to be communicated by a tweet.
After today's outburst by Nathan's wife on Facebook, I can see the convention DVD going the same way.
I'm not sure about the convention DVD. #MKJC4 will have a DVD of the show and we probably will do for at least a few more years. We produce a DVD for two reasons. The first is for the acts, we don't pay them enough and so we want to be able to give them something on top of the payment we make to encourage them to want to perform for us. At least one act has used this in their showreel. Secondly, we have an act with a bunch of kids and parents/grandparents like a record of what the kids do. We essentially haven't sold a DVD to the normal convention goers in the 3 years we've been going and yet we do two DVD's a year (the other being for the Concrete Circus show at the end of March). Even though we are recording from at least 3 cameras (up to 5 this year) the DVD is finished in about a month by a non-professional who can only use his spare time to do it.
As for the BJC DVD. I can't see anyone wanting to use Nathan again. Certainly if I lived in the North and wanted a show reel filming I'd look for a different videographer. I think that Nathan's wife was basically having a go at me but she doesn't seem to be aware that side benefits come from doing a job well (or even communicating when there is a problem). That Nathan is ill and not being paid for the DVD are not in dispute. However that people have paid quite a lot of money for DVDs creates a contract. Last year's BJC team are now in the position that they are in debt and either have to pay back all the money for the DVDs (which they can't do), get someone else to edit the footage (which no-one has suggested) or just hope that every juggler who paid £10 or £20 doesn't care about their money and is willing for it to just disappear or finally hope that Nathan manages to edit the DVD which he has said that he will do on various occasions (and then not done). I don't know the issues with Nathan and frankly it isn't necessary that I know them. I do know that it is November and the BJC was in April and that is rather a long time to wait for a DVD with one e-mail in August saying that there would be a delay. The obligation should actually be on last years' BJC team to sort this out. I know that they are students, still raising money to cover their debts and makers of very good cakes but this still needs sorting.
Nigel
Apparently uncaring, aggressive and thoughtless
she doesn't seem to be aware that side benefits come from doing a job well
Shona's quite aware of that, but since Nathan is self employed AND unwell AND they have four kids the job they have to put all their focus into doing well right now is looking after their family, which honestly I have no idea how she manages at all.
I know it sucks for everyone who put money and and didn't get it back. Sometimes things in life suck :-/
Little Paul - - Parent #
"I never got excited about Kaskade the way I did about the Catch." Me neither - but I think I know why.
I was (a small) part of the world that The Catch was writing about. All the events, people, shows, clubs etc written about were comparatively local - it felt like a community. Kaskade was largely about events, people and shows which were outside of the pool I swim in. I didn't have that connection so Kaskade never really grabbed me.
From that point of view, comparing it to The Catch is unfair. They had very different audiences. Kaskade also managed to run for *much* longer - The Catch published it's last issue almost 20 years ago. Massive props to Kaskade for managing that!
It makes me wonder how long Kaskade ran for, and how does that compare to the IJA magazine?
I'd love to see the people who were writing articles for Kaskade writing online, but writing prose is hard work - and putting all that effort in seems worthwhile if you get a physical object at the end of it, even if no one says thankyou or gives you any feedback at all. If you put all that effort in to an online article, and no one comments on it - it feels far emptier. It's easier to give it up.
Not being on myfacetwit+ I don't know anything about this years BJC DVD situation, but I do know that I've not felt the urge to buy a festival DVD for almost 10 years now, and the ones I did buy have been barely watched. I'm probably not typical though, as I don't think I've bout a convention tshirt/hoodie since Bodmin either.
If Nathan is unwell though, I wholeheartedly wish him all the best and hope he gets better soon. I like N8 a lot, and have a huge amount of respect for him and Shona for various things - so I really don't like the thought that he might not be on top form :(
20 years? I think you'll find the last issue was in 1998!
Issue 1 of Kaskade was published in September 1984 (29 years). Jugglers World/Juggle ran from 1949 to 2012 (63 years).
Little Paul - - Parent #
15 is almost 20 erm...
Cedric Lackpot - - Parent #
Physicist here. It's within an order of magnitude, it all checks out. Nothing to see here, move along now ...
mike.armstrong - - Parent #
...a minor point of pedantry; Juggler's World only started in 1981, but it did continue the numbering system of its predecessor the IJA Newsletter. Calling the earlier issues of the newsletter a "magazine" would be very strong praise though!
Little Paul - - Parent #
Also, although they were published by the same organisation I tend to think of "Jugglers World" and "JUGGLE" as distinct magazines as they weren't published concurrently.
Or am I the only one who thinks about it like that?
Scott Seltzer - - Parent #
As the chief editor of eJuggle, I feel like I should respond. Orin said that the ezine had 5 legit articles last month. First of all, I think that that was our slowest month ever. Second, the non-traditional articles included exclusive videos such as 8.5 minutes of never released footage of legendary juggler Massimiliano Truzzi, and nearly an hour of the IJA Festival DVD that we're now making available to IJA members rather than having them purchase it (this is also a relevant approach to further down this thread).
But, back to the articles, I want to point out that other juggling magazines generally came out quarterly so if you want to compare eJuggle's monthly output, you'd have to round up 3 months of ezine content to compare to one printed magazine. I can assure you that eJuggle provides a lot more than other magazines did.
eJuggle does have a modest budget to pay writers and we're always looking for new content. If you know someone suitable and interested, please send them my way. Contact info on http://ezine.juggle.org/feedback/.
-Scott
http://ezine.juggle.org/
Little Paul - - Parent #
The "8.5 minutes of never released footage of legendary juggler Massimiliano Truzzi" is the closest I've got so far to ponying up for membership - just so I could watch some restricted content.
It was tempting enough for me to start keeping a list of "urls to read when I get around to joining" at least.
"we're always looking for new content. If you know someone suitable and interested, please send them my way." - this. The Edge has some very thoughtful/entertaining writers, I'd love to see a few names from here turn up on my feed reader.
Scott Seltzer - - Parent #
I was very close to having the Truzzi footage only for IJA members, but I decided that it was too important to keep to ourselves so in the end we will open it up to non-members from January 1. Mark you calendar (and email me if I forget to do it).
-Scott
When I mentioned only 5 posts were 'magazine style' I didn't mean to suggest that the rest of the content especially the videos was not worth a look, merely that you don't put videos in a magazine. I know you didn't really suggest that I did Scott, but I'd just like to make that clearer.
You are right that I should take into account 3 months worth of posts. Is there an index view of the ezine archives?
thegoheads - - Parent #
" Is there an index view of the ezine archives?"
And if not, can there be please? The ezine is broken up into too many sections and categories for my taste, and it turns me off enough to where I never visit the site. Not to talk bad about the ezine, that's just my preference for website layouts. Maybe I don't have the attention span to dig through anything beyond a simple chronological list. If there was an index view I would probably keep up with it and read every article.
-Steve
In the case of an online magazine, I tend to feel the same way—I want to see what new content there is without an hassle, without having to go through several pages trying to search out something that looks unfamiliar.
mike.armstrong - - Parent #
http://ezine.juggle.org/feed/ could be just what you need
thegoheads - - Parent #
Thanks, that's a good start. Wish that would've been easy to find and showed more than 18 posts though.
Scott Seltzer - - Parent #
The footer of the site has a list of the 20 most recent posts. I also did a search for a space and it took me to this URL which I think might serve the purpose: http://ezine.juggle.org/?s=+&cat=all.
Describe more what kind of index you envision, and I'll see what I can do. Bonus points if you can link me to a wordpress plugin that does what you want...
-Scott
Personally, I would like a page or pages with a list of links in reverse chronological order grouped by month, either 6 or 12 months to a page, no blurb or images, just the post title eg:
Month+Year
post title
post title
post title
Month+Year
post title
post title
post title
etc.
I'm not familiar with Wordpress though, it's far more fun to write your own code!
...although a quick Google found Smart Archives Reloaded which looks promising.
Little Paul - - Parent #
You can do it a month at a time easily enough: http://ezine.juggle.org/2013/09/
Or a year at a time: http://ezine.juggle.org/2013/
Personally, I added the feed to my RSS reader, and as it keeps a history I can spool back as far a I like.
...but that is split over far too many pages, the titles are too big & has part of the post content & thumbnails & oh the huge manatee!
I'm also subscribed to the feed which does what I want perfectly, but I'm not always at my home computer.
Little Paul - - Parent #
I'm using theoldreader.com as my rss reader these days. I can keep up with them anywhere, and it works lovely on my phone.
Little Paul - - Parent #
I don't think I am!
In which case someone else must be the "1 subscribers" for that feed via oldreader.com.
Scott Seltzer - - Parent #
Good find! I've installed the plugin and it's great. There's now an Archive link in the header.
-Scott
http://ezine.juggle.org/archive/
Excellent! Well done Scott, I find that much easier to use. Thank you.
The cost of pre-registering for next years British Juggling Convention goes up at the end of this month (Thursday 31st October), so if you want to help the organisers by registering early and save yourself some money, go to:
www.bjc2014.co.uk/tickets/
and buy a ticket.
There are also more details about how fabulous BJC will be next April on the website.
#bjc2014
If by the time you have read this Oct 31st has been and gone but 9th November is still to come then you have two opportunities to make a saving on a BJC ticket at Milton Keynes Juggling Convention #MKJC4
Firstly, if you win one of the games and have not already had a games winning discount then you can save £5 on a ticket.
Secondly, you can win free entry to BJC2014 in the raffle. If you have already pre-regged you can sell this raffle prize to someone else but you can't claim your money back.
Nigel
This has nothing to do with juggling but came about because was watched because of something we are making for #MKJC4
https://youtu.be/zPUdk1Yt75Y about a minute in but almost worth watching the whole thing for sheer inanity!
Nigel
Might be worth not reading my comment beforehand
Little Paul - - Parent #
It's not often I shout at youtube videos
Richard Loxley - - Parent #
"Stop at one" ... er, fencepost error!
Danny Colyer - - Parent #
How old is your YouTube profile picture?
I am very impressed that I created an event on facebook for next year's Milton Keynes Convention and only invite the two other main committee members and already there is someone else who says they are going and it's a created event here on JugglingEdge! I created it less than two days ago. Mind you I already have most of the show put together barring life getting in the way.
Speaking of which, two of the acts for MKJC4 (i.e. next month) have changed since I spoke to people at Bristol. We know longer have Andy Wakeford (Flambe Circus), he's been replaced by Duelling Hats (Juggling Edge exclusive news), also Jay Rawlings found out he was working with his dad that day and has been replaced by Angie Mack.
Nigel
York Jugglers - - Parent #
I am impressed you are already organising next years convention before even finishing organising this years convention.