Orangeville = Rocked

Yeah, we did it again, we showed them Canadians how badass we are. I personally sucked during an act or two and the ever-tough torch passing acts weren't *perfect* but the show overall on Saturday night was fan-freakin-tastic. The crowd of 250+ (I am awful at estimates, maybe it was more) had an absolute blast and the four of us had a ton of fun.

Then again, who couldn't have fun when one of your acts contains the dance moves from http://youtube.com/watch?v=BWiqnPIxIdM ?



I'm so bittersweet at the moment. Yes, we rocked hardcore. And no, the bitter part isn't from spending over 14 hours in the Buffalo airport overnight. It's from the fact that the Orangeville Founder's Fair showed AGAIN that the group created when we graduated was all set to go. I am really excited to start the similar endeavor with Ricky, Tim and Jeremy but part of me is dreading having to be the only one who has experienced the wonderful feeling of knowing you WILL go out there and kick some major ass and excite every last person lucky enough to see you. Blah, I'm gonna try to not be negative anymore as this was an overall great weekend. I'm sure I'll use this blog to vent my frustrations at starting a troupe all over again but look forward to that being therapeutic as well as getting to share in our successes :)

Back to the fire show at Orangeville and the scope of peoples' enjoyment:
-Middle-school aged girls asked us to sign their feet. Yes, their feet. Sharpie scribble-signature and a bold MOOCH! having been applied to two different girls' feet, I moved on...
-high-school alternative girl wanting her converse sneakers signed
-grandmother telling me how much she was impressed and how much fun she had
-young boy of maybe 5 years of age saying "those flames were scary" but when asked if he had fun he eagerly said he did!
-college-age guys who saw us last year being blown away by how they didn't think we could get BETTER than what they saw last year
-Jeff, one of the sound guys probably in his early 30s, being super-pumped that he got to actually watch us this year after having been busy doing setup and maintenance last year
-a little girl, maybe 6 years old, being coaxed by her mom to not be shy and share her personal comment spoken after the show "I really liked your dancing". Thank you, Will Smith.
-and last, but not least, a mother in her mid/late 20s asked to take a picture of me with her baby. Ok, this was the first time ever that I held a baby and it was for a photo by the baby's mother after a fire performance! How freakin weird is that!!!

IT HAS BEGUN

Yesssss! A Ricky and a Tim have been absconded from the real world by Jeremy and me to create an east coast offshoot of A Different Spin! Victory! New England colleges and festivals won't know what hit them...

here we go!

So Jeremy and I are gonna buckle-down hardcore and see what we can do to make a performance troupe a reality. The plans are being formulated, foundations laid and soon we will attempt to snare a few talented individuals into our masterpiece of madness. More to come, I swear!

yowzah

Over a month since I last posted. Wish I could say that last post was a portent of what has happened between now and then. Not so much.

I am still jobless while I muse what the next year will bring. A lack of ink for my printer stalled my putting bartending resumes out and once I got off my ass to get the ink I realized I couldn't use that printer with my laptop. The definition of fail, no? Well in any case, I can buy a lovely USB-to-olde-skool-printer-cable if I really want to do that. Who knows, maybe I will. On the plus side, I made some more delicious banana bread. Mmmm, banana bread...

Oh wow, just noticed I didn't post about the non-fire Barefoot Monkey show I spent time doing. Wow it's been a long time. That show was another good experience for me even if it didn't reach all of my hopes for a show. There was some very effective work that showed up during performances and I'm extremely happy for the BFM for branching out and pushing their circus boundaries :) Sad part would be I got to perform with people who either wouldn't want to or would be unable to perform with any endeavor I push for in the near future.

On the performance-troupe-front, I have some very solid finacial backing at my disposal if I can get a solid enough 'business plan'. And I've settled on doing the college circuit at least for a spell to gain some more experience and resume-fluffing. There are a TON of colleges out there that would be great places to put on a fire show and do some workshopping. Even if it isn't my 'ideal' performance situation I believe I could be happy and very successful doing it. So more to come in that regard I hope.

It has to start somewhere, it has to start sometime.
What better place than here, what better time than now?

yay, doing stuff!

So as I posted last time, I was not 'sold' on the quality of the fire show I was in but was in a good mindset to do it. It was lots of fun, mostly because I decided to have fun with the show but a large part of that goes to people not stressing and (for the most part) just having a good time. Think the small-ish (for Barefoot Monkey fireshow) audience enjoyed it and the seniors felt good about their last fire show. I was glad to contribute to that experience for them and believe it was a fantastic way for me to work on personal standards in performances. Plus it got me all excited about having loud music blast while dancing around with fire. I really believe a kick-ass fire show can still succeed. But would it be easier to write than a 'narrative' piece? The variety needs to be there much more in a general kick-ass show than in a narrative piece which can always draw on the theme/dramatic action. Meh, still a debate I need to clear up.

This past weekend not only gave me the great experience of getting pumped and having a blast spinning fire but reminded me how much fun I'd have playing soccer. The common theme I found was that I want to push myself really hard to the point of injury/exhaustion. It is insanely satisfying to collapse after a show, rehearsal, practice or game and also amazing to go out there and sacrifice my body for the ball (and maybe a real good hit on the opposing team's striker). Motivation has seemingly always been an issue for myself but once I can get myself into a groove I can see myself training to throw myself heedlessly in front of bigger, stronger people than me in pursuit of a multi-panel ball or training circus skills or writing amazing performances. Just need to get myself in that groove...

way too long

since i last posted. Lots to write about but I've been under the weather for several days. Gonna hit the big stuff though...

Had a mostly awesome trip to the left coast. Saw almost everyone I had been missing but didn't get to see all of the Dreamtime Circus folk (to be fair, many were either still in India or recovering). Got to learn a thing or two about myself as well as got to learn some acro-balancing techniques courtesy of the very talented Mike Templeton, and several cool spinning concepts courtesy of the fine instructors (and their guests) of Spinagogue. Good stuff.

Pretty successful trip to Harvey Mudd College where A Different Spin had a reunion of sorts and kicked ass teaching for five sunny hours (oops, no sunblock = nasty sunburn on my forehead. Mmm, peeling skin...) and entertained a fair number of their campus with a fire show in the evening. That show consisted of acts we had practiced the day before for the first time in 6 months and three never-before performed acts we semi-wrote that day before (and on the ride down mwhahaha). Was the show up to my silly standards? Of course not, but it was an overall good time which was a very great experience for me at the least. I went in with a different perspective as I knew we hadn't practiced together in forever, Alex had just gotten back from India and I personally hadn't spun fire since I saw them those 6 months ago. Even with that adjusted perspective I could very well have been disappointed with the quality but I think I have made personal strides recently and was able to enjoy the show for the good parts and laugh at all that went wrong.

The Harvey Mudd fire show will serve me well as I help the Barefoot Monkeys out with a fire show that is also not up to my usual standards (which I have no intention of really changing, I am merely becoming more ok with not reaching those high standards in all that I do). There are still plenty of good pieces to the show and I'm sure I can help people keep things fun once I can get my sick-ass back to the cold fire practices...though there are like four days till the show and Jeff is wearing thin on sanity. Hope he can stick on through and stay as positive as possible. Helping him have fun on Saturday is priority numero uno in my book.

The OTHER Monkey show I am joining is interesting...I am both excited and frustrated by it. Just like the Parents Weekend Fire Show the time available to prepare may play way too large a part in the 'effectiveness' of the show. But I think it is a great attempt by the club to try something different even if it doesn't meet initial hopes and expectations. I have no real idea how the overall show will be but I can say there will be some damn fun juggling :) I'm really not sure why passing clubs and torches is so personally rewarding but there ya have it. Maybe the juggling act will also dramatically fulfill it's purpose but I know there will be cool passing patterns and at least I plan on having a good time. Once the fire show is done maybe things will come together much more easily for those involved in this long 'daytime' circus show and it will fly into creating a wonderous event. But it WILL be a great experience nonetheless and I look forward to it.

My head is all stuffy thought-wise so I think that'll about do it for now. Hopefully I will kick my own ass into gear and post more now that I am back and attempting to find what is oft called a 'groove'.