Total shift

So I finally received info on the manuals I am supposed to write for Torr, Inc. About three weeks late which means the work they want done is also three weeks more pressing. That + APCA Conference prep means I'm gonna be a busy mofo. We got our bio, showcase intro and headshot into the APCA and Ricky is almost done with our full-page ad for their website which leaves us mainly with the tall task of getting 15 minutes of pure awesome choreographed and pretty much 'perfect' for performance. Oh, right, I also am trying to find the cheapest way to make A Different Spin an LLC (a way that does NOT involve $280/hr legal fees and a $2,000 retainer). I'll be sure to update as progress is made...

Things!

So we are taking the plunge and heading to the National APCA convention in Atlanta. Big financial investment and a huge 'ratcheting up' for what we need to have ready. We are going to not only be promoting ourselves to over 120 colleges across the country but we will also be one of only 10 event performers to schmooze with 100 military sponsors. These sponsors book performers for bases and stations all over the world, creating events to take troops minds off of the stress of everyday service and other family-and-friends events to have a good time during visitation weekends. Pretty great potential for gigs all over the place.

Sounds awesome, yes? Well it also means we need a damn polished 15 minute show for the showcase and some great promo material to hand out and have on display at our booth. Plus we need to deal with paying way too much money to stay at the hotel and figure out the cheapest way to travel---airfare for four may end up cheaper than driving all the way down and back as well as being quicker. I also need to get on top of figuring out this 'small business' thing as we would look more professional as one and it would help eliminate the potential tax headaches we may encounter. More to come, I'll be sure to post our full-page ad that will grace the APCA website when it's done by the end of next week :D

Circus Extravaganza!

We had a fantastic time overall at the Arisia Sci-Fi and Fantasy Convention last night. Though our big juggling act was cut basically in half mid-performance due to time constraints, each of our acts were well-received and fun. Ricky did an amazing solo juggling routine that was created moments before he went on stage and had a great build and caused a fantastic fan-reaction. We dropped a few too many times during the first half of our four-person juggling routine but still completed some great tricks and had a good overall reaction from the crowd. Jeremy and Tim had a grand old time messing around with some audience volunteers, Jeremy and I did a successful improv glass walking routine and the second half of our four-person juggling act went almost flawlessly and earned the solid applause.

In my mind, the effectiveness of the night on our networking was astounding---muscians and performers and audience gave us rave reviews and we are sure to be working with Chuck and the talented Emperor Norton's Stationary Marching Band again in the future and will eve get paid for it ;) I am going to try and push for an outdoor event with them in the spring where we can do some fire too!

Group update: website is now really complete and even has a video that Jeremy did a bang-up job editing (the footage was not very helpful in giving him anything astounding to work with). Check it out below, visit our website at www.adifferentspin.net and feel free to give us feedback!



Visitors: Man we have a lot of great friends. Lily is visiting us this weekend along with Mike and next weekned we get Craig, Surei, Aaron and Elias. Overwhelming amount of visitors continue...

More visitors, more progress

Well, we definitely have had more visitors---Katia, Karen, Mike, Claire, and Sasha have all joined the list of folk braving our lovely little apartment here in Brighton. I feel like I got burnt out on our first round of visitors so I haven't had the energy to bounce around with them.

To be fair, I'm also getting anxious trying to get A Different Spin moving more which doesn't leave me too fresh to socialize. We've done a good job of stopping by Boston University's Center for Fine Arts and practicing more...well, practicing at ALL is better than before so I won't whine about 'how much' time we've spent practicing. At the least we've come up with a neat variation on the juggling pattern 'Shooting Star' that involves 11 clubs and 4 jugglers with lots of movement. It's pretty much ready to throw into a show and this Friday should see it's debut for the unsuspecting public. Ah yes, Friday. Friday is going to be a dorktastic evening as we are performing with a bunch of other local circus performers as well as the fantastic Emperor Norton's Stationary Marching Band at the Arisia Science Fiction Convention. Should be a story at the least :)

The circus promo video hit a snag when Jeremy realized he lacked his firewire. Bah. That will hopefully arrive Monday and (if we are extremely lucky and don't need anymore footage) the video should be done by the end of next week. A week late but done is done as they say. The website overall looks pretty darn good. You can check it out at www.adifferentspin.net to see what all the fuss has been about. A few photos are missing but it is definitely a solid representation of what we want to use to 'sell ourselves'. And no, not in that way, you dirty-minded reader. Jeeze, kids today...

Progress

A Different Spin is making slow-but-steady progress on the website redesign (should be up and rockin by Wednesday night) and took a little video at the BU Spin Jam to start the long promo video process.

We've been hosting visitors galore over the past week or so---Susanah, Matt, Peter, Katie, Felix, Ashlyn and my brother have all spent at least a night with us and several have overlapped. Glad people tolerate our new home enough to visit :) Lookin forward to gettin a couple more friends out here and finally getting my room in decorated-order.

On the juggle-front, I am making minimal progress on my new 'juggle 4 balls' goal but progress is progress. Oh, and Ricky and I can rock 7-club passing like nobody's business at any time, any place. And Tim, Ricky and myself are close to being consistent on 10-club. Awesome stuff. Can't wait to find a way to get 7-club into our revamped daytime show (more info on that later in the month).

Must sleep, fighting the sickness thing. Though I am not a fan of birthdays, it seems odd to be sick on that day of all days. Oh, it is that day. I am now one year older based on our calendar. I can...rent a car? Um, meh....

New Year

So I have this feeling that if there were some 'blog counter' out there it would show unequivocally that January 1st and 2nd is the two-day most blogged-on period in the year. All that resolution and reflection stuff, ya know? And you throw in the 2nd to account for those who party too hard on the 31st and then don't remember those resolutions until the 2nd :)

Well this is my home-stretch of sorts this year. A Different Spin gets one last solid hurrah before I decide to put this passion and goal on the back-burner while pursuing some other career. We had an overly-long meeting yesterday which kinda set the 'wake-up and do it, punk' tone for us (it was overly-long due to my misinterpretations and self-defensive nature to not enter into a venture that could let me down out of nowhere) and laid out a few deadlines to get stuff done so we will see what happens by the end of the month. We've cleared out some of living room to make it juggle-able and a couple of us are heading to the nearby YMCA shortly to see if we have a nice large neighborless practice space to really kick it into hardcore practice mode. A circus arts video and a *complete* website overhaul are to be done by the 11th of January so that is check-in #1.

I'm anxious and need to do some personal reflection to make sure I am in the right mindframe to let this be my 'last shot' at a circus and fire arts career so I should be blogging quite a bit in this regard :) I plan on taking time to reflect substantially every day on how am I personally doing (physical and mental health, reflect on ADS progress, etc) and will post at least once a week as to how life is going. Who knows, maybe I'll become all 'into' the sharing thing and post more often than that about how pissy/excited/scared I am.

Here's to a new year and I hope much success. At the least I am determined to learn.