An 8.5x11 piece of white paper and 2/3 of a page of typing. Nothing more that that. It exists, and I have a need for it to not. The obvious choice is to make it disappear. I have a device comprised of a cartridge and a head. On the head, there is a lever that is the first step of operating the mechanism. I press the lever, and a mechanism opens a valve and lets the butane out. At the end of the lever press, a rotating cylinder of striker material lights a spark, and the butane is ignited. The butane burns in combination with oxygen to create light and heat, and leaves behind carbon dioxide. Eventually, the combustion of the material is at equilibrium with the amount of butane flowing from the valve and so maintains a constant flame approximately .75 of an inch long.
This constant flame is placed in proximity to the 8.5x11 piece of white paper, and the combustion of the butane causes the paper to ignite as well, but because there is more fuel, the flames grow bigger and consume increasing amount of the 8.5x11 piece of white paper. At some point, all 8.5 inches across by 11 inches tall of that paper are in flames, and I can no longer hold on to it, at which point I let it fall to the ground. However, it does not fall as a normal object would, because it is on fire, and this combustion produces a cushion of hot air under the page, which rises and slows the page down.
As the page hits the ground, the flames are beginning to run out of fuel to combust with, and begin to decrease in size. As the 8.5x11 piece of white paper is combusted entirely, the flames are gone and replaced instead by embers of the piece of white paper. These embers burn the remainder of the paper that the fire didn't consume, and then begin to die out just as the fire had. Eventually, the embers have gone out so completely, that there are hundreds of tiny dots of embers still burning on the 8.5x11 piece of white paper. One by one, these tiny dots go out, and somewhere around the time when there were less than 10 dots, I began to count them out. Ten left. Nine left. EigSeven left. Six left. FiFour left. Three left. Two left. and then one of the two shrunk from the middle of the ember, and became two. Three left. Two left. And then there was one. This one, tiny little speck of ember burned for nearly 20 seconds all by itself, surrounded by cold air, wind, and no more fuel to burn. Then it went out, and the 8.5x11 piece of white paper was gone, turned into ash, and it had disappeared.
At 10:54 on December the 15th, 2010, I burned a piece of paper with my account number on it. It caught fire, it burned, and then it went out.
It was also one of the most beautiful and entrancing things I have ever seen in my life.
There is an art form that this is known as, the reducing things to their finite mechanisms and describing them in incredible detail. I learned that in art school, and we studied Georgie O'Keefe and a man who did nothing but draw the insides of machines (his favorites were watches) and we would look at these and appreciate the complexity with which these artists saw the world, and I never understood how you could be fascinated by something so mundane. I burned a piece of paper today and acknowledged every process contributing to the burning of that page, and how simple they all were, but the process as a whole was incredibly complex, and I didn't even think about half the things I could have. When I looked that closely at something so small and found something so big, it just made it more important. What if we treated everything that importantly. If we paid a little more attention to what we are really doing in any of our daily actions - do you think they would become more important? Do you think they would become more meaningful? Do you think that we would be more respectful to wildlife if we considered the processes we were messing with? These are incredibly complex pieces of biological beauty, and we are so quick to destroy them.
Well, Ms. O'Keefe and Mr. Watch-Guy, I think I understand where you are coming from on this one.
Think about it.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Vlog3 and other stuff
Yeah, there is not a lot of other stuff. This vacation is awesome, and I can't wait to go home and see everyone.
That's about it...
Here's the vlog link
Vlog3: FINALLY!
That's about it...
Here's the vlog link
Vlog3: FINALLY!
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Ranting
I do a lot of ranting on this blog. I know it is true, I like to rant. I believe very strongly the things that I hold dear. These things are not of God, of spirituality, of morality, or even of ethics. Though I do have opinions on all of those things, and ideas that guide me through life, the things that I hold most dear, the things that really inform my decisions when I wake to when I sleep are the things I rant about. The Tao of Nike, and the now named Tao of Skill (which will be renamed when I can take the time to think of a new one) and many others. These belief sets govern my thinking on inspiration, creation, and the spreading of ideas, which is what I believe will in the end save this human race. It will not be belief in God, or in forced beyond our control, or even our treatment of each other. It will be our ability to create original ideas, spread them effectively, and to not merely slide by, but to strive to use what you have learned to create something new.
I have ranted so much about this, I could most likely fill a book...
I had this thought last week when I was yelling like crazy with Kyle about Ignition and how much of what they do is the essence of everything I am on a crusade against.
So, you all know the plan when I get out of college
a) join cirque
b) continue Κirkos
those are mutually exclusive, I want to add a third option that is not, and might happen simultaneously (especially if I am still doing Kirkos, this is likely to happen). I am going to write that book. I have been trying to spread my ideas about circus and performance purism for years, and I have touched many minds. But I am going to write a piece. It will be extended, it will have chapters, it will have internal flow. It will not be published (if it was, that would be cool). It will be free, and it will be online (unless by some miracle someone publishes it) and I want every performer who is up and coming and trying to figure out his or her personal style to read it. I am tired of people thinking that performance is just about doing what others do but better, and just about showing the crowd something they cant or wont do. It is about so much more than that, it is about the sharing of ideas, and the ability to show something new. This is where my bias against repeating things comes from. I never want to show an audience something they have seen unless there is a very good reason for it (restate a certain point in a plotline to remind them of it, for example).
This is a big project, and I am not even considering undertaking it until I am out of school, don't worry.
The way I see it, I have always done well with writing, have always gotten decent marks on my history papers, but very good marks on my argumentative and creative works. This seems right up that alley. I have explored visual art in my many years at TMA and through the art I make with my computer to this day. I have explored audio art through the violin and drums and the music I make with my computer to this day. I have explored the physical arts through circus and dance that I continue to explore up to now. I have always ignored the textual arts, because I have always had a teacher giving me an assignment. I write because I want to write, and that is why I write this blog. I have never had a place to channel it into as I have with the visual, audio, and performance/physical arts. Well folks, I have found the place to channel it into. Meet Connor Fenix Cobbledick, the guy who is going to write a book about the principles of artistic purism, based on the ideals that a career in the arts has taught him.
Yeah, mom - you thought you were raising a little math matician or chemist or marine biologist with arts hobbies- but look where I turned out: the arts kid who does math and science as a hobby. Just goes to show ya, you can lead a horse to water...
Peace out folks, this is the biggest goal I have ever set for myself (most recent: learn the Thriller dance, and then learn how to do it on roller skates - I still plan on doing that one) and it will take years to complete. But hey, what's life without a never-ending challenge to do something new for yourself and for the world (yeah, that's one of the principles of artistic purism).
BEDTIME! After I finish typing up this linguistics homework on Kiksht, the most insane language every (each letter in the word gives you a part of the meaning... and some mean different things depending on where they are... and sometimes, the part that means something is two letters - you never know!)
Blurp, schleeboop, and kerplunk
Grr, ARRGGHH
DESTROY MATH 315! Oh yeah, and for those of you who missed it, I got a D on my midterm - this would be the time to officially panic... and become single, and injure your shoulder... What a great week this has been.
Ooh, and keep posted for pictured from strowler nights (others that didn't appear in the Vlog). There were at least three photographers there who said that they would have the pics uploaded within two weeks
I have ranted so much about this, I could most likely fill a book...
I had this thought last week when I was yelling like crazy with Kyle about Ignition and how much of what they do is the essence of everything I am on a crusade against.
So, you all know the plan when I get out of college
a) join cirque
b) continue Κirkos
those are mutually exclusive, I want to add a third option that is not, and might happen simultaneously (especially if I am still doing Kirkos, this is likely to happen). I am going to write that book. I have been trying to spread my ideas about circus and performance purism for years, and I have touched many minds. But I am going to write a piece. It will be extended, it will have chapters, it will have internal flow. It will not be published (if it was, that would be cool). It will be free, and it will be online (unless by some miracle someone publishes it) and I want every performer who is up and coming and trying to figure out his or her personal style to read it. I am tired of people thinking that performance is just about doing what others do but better, and just about showing the crowd something they cant or wont do. It is about so much more than that, it is about the sharing of ideas, and the ability to show something new. This is where my bias against repeating things comes from. I never want to show an audience something they have seen unless there is a very good reason for it (restate a certain point in a plotline to remind them of it, for example).
This is a big project, and I am not even considering undertaking it until I am out of school, don't worry.
The way I see it, I have always done well with writing, have always gotten decent marks on my history papers, but very good marks on my argumentative and creative works. This seems right up that alley. I have explored visual art in my many years at TMA and through the art I make with my computer to this day. I have explored audio art through the violin and drums and the music I make with my computer to this day. I have explored the physical arts through circus and dance that I continue to explore up to now. I have always ignored the textual arts, because I have always had a teacher giving me an assignment. I write because I want to write, and that is why I write this blog. I have never had a place to channel it into as I have with the visual, audio, and performance/physical arts. Well folks, I have found the place to channel it into. Meet Connor Fenix Cobbledick, the guy who is going to write a book about the principles of artistic purism, based on the ideals that a career in the arts has taught him.
Yeah, mom - you thought you were raising a little math matician or chemist or marine biologist with arts hobbies- but look where I turned out: the arts kid who does math and science as a hobby. Just goes to show ya, you can lead a horse to water...
Peace out folks, this is the biggest goal I have ever set for myself (most recent: learn the Thriller dance, and then learn how to do it on roller skates - I still plan on doing that one) and it will take years to complete. But hey, what's life without a never-ending challenge to do something new for yourself and for the world (yeah, that's one of the principles of artistic purism).
BEDTIME! After I finish typing up this linguistics homework on Kiksht, the most insane language every (each letter in the word gives you a part of the meaning... and some mean different things depending on where they are... and sometimes, the part that means something is two letters - you never know!)
Blurp, schleeboop, and kerplunk
Grr, ARRGGHH
DESTROY MATH 315! Oh yeah, and for those of you who missed it, I got a D on my midterm - this would be the time to officially panic... and become single, and injure your shoulder... What a great week this has been.
Ooh, and keep posted for pictured from strowler nights (others that didn't appear in the Vlog). There were at least three photographers there who said that they would have the pics uploaded within two weeks
Monday, November 1, 2010
Vlog 2: Verybusy
Part 1
Part 2
It's pretty self explanatory, and it even gives a preview of what is yet to come!
Edit: Part 1 seems to work fine, but youtube seems to think it knows soundsync better than I do, but since it does not, I have been forced to upload the part 2 elsewhere! BUT WAIT! As it turns out, vimeo is superior to youtube, because the videos are restricted by size, not by length, so I don't have to split it up!
And I will post an edit #2 when that video goes live
Edit #2:
Verybusy
TADA!
Vimeo is where I will be posting from now on, so that I do not have to split them up!
Part 2
It's pretty self explanatory, and it even gives a preview of what is yet to come!
Edit: Part 1 seems to work fine, but youtube seems to think it knows soundsync better than I do, but since it does not, I have been forced to upload the part 2 elsewhere! BUT WAIT! As it turns out, vimeo is superior to youtube, because the videos are restricted by size, not by length, so I don't have to split it up!
And I will post an edit #2 when that video goes live
Edit #2:
Verybusy
TADA!
Vimeo is where I will be posting from now on, so that I do not have to split them up!
Thursday, October 21, 2010
An aimless entry
I have decided to write an entry in this blog. However, I have no idea what I am going to write - there is no purpose. I am going to start talking, and I am not going to stop. I will not edit (so beware of spelling errors, if I miss 'em the first time round, they are not going anywhere).
Some good news for my life: things are starting to calm down with my schedule a bit, and Evan and I are finding time for "us" time. I know, it sounds like a couple, but we used to hang out all the time in the dorms last year and just relax together. We didn't really have the time to do that this year. But with the addition of the nameless (although we decided it is a girl) hookah to our house, we are making time to smoke it together and just talk and have a good time. It really is making a difference - I feel a little bit less alone.
I'm afraid that some times you'll play lonely games too. Games you can't win 'cause you'll play against you.
All Alone! Whether you like it or not, alone will be something you'll be quite a lot. And when you're alone, there's a very good chance you'll meet things that scare you right out of your pants. There are some, down the road between hither and yon, that can scare you so much you won't want to go on.
But on you will go though the weather be foul. On you will go though your enemies prowl. One you will go though the Hakken-Kraks howl. Onward up many a frightening creek though your arms may get sore and your sneakers may leak.
On and on you will hike. And I know you'll hike far and face up to your problems whatever they are.
If you don't know what that is from, you need to educate yourself.
I have been feeling really alone recently. Most of my friends live on the other side of town, and I don't have a car, and biking around Eugene at night, while fun, is very tiring. It means that once I leave school, I'm pretty much only with the people at my house, meaning Evan. So it's good that we are hanging out again. To add to the feeling alone, I am sustaining a long distance relationship with a girl who lives 20 minutes by car from me. And a girl who goes to school not half a mile from me... Evan sees his girlfriend more than I see Chelsea, and his girlfriend lives in Corvallis... This is more than a little bit depressing. But to all the naysayers who scoffed or got uppity about this thing with Chelsea and I, you all can suck it. She is an incredible human being, and I have made up my mind that I am going to do whatever it takes to have her in my life. We will make this happen, if we have to wait we will do it. If we have to fight, we will fight.
In other news, I have a new friend! Her name is Sara, and we met under very interesting circumstances. We met about four times. The first time outside of my tap class, and she told me she was the roomie of a friend(ish) of mine. I saw her again three weeks later getting breakfast, and didn't remember her, and she introduced herself a second time. Then we ended up in class this term, and I went up to her and said "I feel like we've met before. Who are you?" and she patiently explained who she was, and that this was the third time we had met. I decided it was time to remember this girl, so I found her on facebook, and took time to remember her. Now we sit together in class, dance together in lab, and we've started talking outside of class. She is going to come over next week and we are going to watch Memento (with neither of us have seen). She will be the first person to watch something on my projector with me, so that'll be fun! I have a hypothesis why I could not remeber her. It was not yet time for us to be friends. In HIMYM philosophy, before I could meet Sara, I had to become the person I am today. I truly believe that I have changed in significant ways in the last year to the point that if we had taken the time to get to know each other when we first met, we would not have gotten along, and it would have ruined the chance at friendship now. So yeah, now I am me, and I am glad of that.
Classes: philosophy is my favorite academic class... how wrong is that? I like discussing philosophy at a time other than 7:30 in the morning (senior year, that's what I did) and I really like some of the kids in my section. The subject matter is all about identity in society (which was the source of my crisis of "self" about a month ago) and I really enjoy talking about it and learning the history of how people thought about the self. And in unit two, we are considering identitys outside of race, specifically, gender and sexuality, which is a hot topic for me! Oh, and the fact that I have a crush on my GTF helps too... Braedon has decided he is going to hum "hot for teacher" whenever I walk by...
MATH SUCKS! Correction: proofs suck. Nobody in this class is enjoying themselves, and we are all just scraping by. I will be happy with a C+ in this class, and overjoyed if I can get a B+. Yeah, it is that hard...
Tap is still fantastic, and I tap dance all the time now in my tennis shoes. Dance improv is boring, but it inspires me in other aspects of my life. I have taken some of the lessons we have learned in improv and applied them to teaching creativity in my circus life.
Looking at dance is boring, mostly because I don't care about dance history that much, but it is an easy class, and the Labs are fun because we get to dance.
Linguistics is interesting, and challenging, just the way I like it. Not much more to say, other than I will have more crazy linguistics stuff to present to my grammarian grandmother when I get back home for christmas. Yeah, that's right g'ma, I'm talkin' to you! We are gonna have more fun with morphemes than you ever thought possible!
I am going to say a quick thing about the Strowler show in seattle. This sucks, and I am struggling with how to pull this thing off. But as Koe said, I have a talent for pulling things out of my ass when I need to, so I hope it goes well... I am not going to complain about my troubles with it, nor rant about the insensitivity of inconsistency and apathy.
Official statement: I have a huge show in 10 days. I do not know how to fill 1/3 of it up, and that is ok. I will figure something out, and I will blow that audience away. You'll see - when I post the blog about my first out of state show and what an amazing experience it was, there will be no doubt in anybody's mind that I can do anything I set my mind to. Because I am Fenix. I am strong, and I know who I am. I am a creative person, capable of embodying the images I placed upon my body. I am flexible and capable of adapting to any space I am placed in, and I am the most powerful force in the universe. When one of my ideas is shown to fail for one reason or another, it is not the death of the idea, it is the birth of another. When one part of my dies, another is born. I am constantly in flux, constantly learning, and not a one person in the whole of the world can stop me.
I am born on September 19th, 1990 to two married parents. Those parents were divorced twice before I realized by own duality. I am attracted to men and women alike, and I think that if everyone would realize the beauty and love that both sexes and all genders are capable of expressing, the world world would be a better place. I am biologically male, but many days I wake up and feel female, whether I express it or not. I cannot see a time in the future where I would impose this on my life, but when someone calls me Fenix in everyday life or uses female pronouns when I am wearing a skirt it makes me happier than I can express. It makes me even happier when someone uses feminine pronouns when I am wearing regular guy clothes, but that person knows me well enough to know when I am a girl, and when I am a boy.
I like circus and dance, and I believe that I will be involved in those things for the rest of my life. History has proven that art is constantly evolving, and whenever someone thinks that we can do all that is possible, someone invents a new art form.
I have been involved in several relationships, some with men, some with women, some with both at the same time. I have been with people younger than me, some with people older. I have been with straight people, bi people, and gay people. I have been with cisgendered people, and queer people like myself.
There are many facets to me, as there are to every person. These are some of them. There are some that are so basic that they are not worth stating in a blog, because they would bore you, and some so extreme I would not put them in a blog, because they are private things that I only share with select people.
This week past was spirit week. We had coming out day on monday, and I told my coming out story. It was very powerful to say it out loud, into a microphone, to quite a few dozen people, with all the others passing by (we were in the middle of campus). The idea was to come out, to be proud of who you are, and to share your story with others. Then we had Queer Skate that afternoon. I like skating, and I like queer people, but this was something else entirely. It was a very unique experience to be in that room. I could know, beyond all shadow of a doubt, that ever single person in the room accepted me for who I was. I have never understood the need for gay pride events. Now I do. To be able to say what you want and do what you want and not worry about getting called faggot or looked at funny for how you dress (because we were all dressed pretty silly) is an amazing experience. Then there was the queer dance friday, and that was a blast. I danced with a bunch of people as a girl. People treated me like a girl. When we were getting our grind on, I was in front, even with people who were actually girls. They understood the need to be accepted, and they used the right pronouns and everything.
That's all I got for now...
Some good news for my life: things are starting to calm down with my schedule a bit, and Evan and I are finding time for "us" time. I know, it sounds like a couple, but we used to hang out all the time in the dorms last year and just relax together. We didn't really have the time to do that this year. But with the addition of the nameless (although we decided it is a girl) hookah to our house, we are making time to smoke it together and just talk and have a good time. It really is making a difference - I feel a little bit less alone.
I'm afraid that some times you'll play lonely games too. Games you can't win 'cause you'll play against you.
All Alone! Whether you like it or not, alone will be something you'll be quite a lot. And when you're alone, there's a very good chance you'll meet things that scare you right out of your pants. There are some, down the road between hither and yon, that can scare you so much you won't want to go on.
But on you will go though the weather be foul. On you will go though your enemies prowl. One you will go though the Hakken-Kraks howl. Onward up many a frightening creek though your arms may get sore and your sneakers may leak.
On and on you will hike. And I know you'll hike far and face up to your problems whatever they are.
If you don't know what that is from, you need to educate yourself.
I have been feeling really alone recently. Most of my friends live on the other side of town, and I don't have a car, and biking around Eugene at night, while fun, is very tiring. It means that once I leave school, I'm pretty much only with the people at my house, meaning Evan. So it's good that we are hanging out again. To add to the feeling alone, I am sustaining a long distance relationship with a girl who lives 20 minutes by car from me. And a girl who goes to school not half a mile from me... Evan sees his girlfriend more than I see Chelsea, and his girlfriend lives in Corvallis... This is more than a little bit depressing. But to all the naysayers who scoffed or got uppity about this thing with Chelsea and I, you all can suck it. She is an incredible human being, and I have made up my mind that I am going to do whatever it takes to have her in my life. We will make this happen, if we have to wait we will do it. If we have to fight, we will fight.
In other news, I have a new friend! Her name is Sara, and we met under very interesting circumstances. We met about four times. The first time outside of my tap class, and she told me she was the roomie of a friend(ish) of mine. I saw her again three weeks later getting breakfast, and didn't remember her, and she introduced herself a second time. Then we ended up in class this term, and I went up to her and said "I feel like we've met before. Who are you?" and she patiently explained who she was, and that this was the third time we had met. I decided it was time to remember this girl, so I found her on facebook, and took time to remember her. Now we sit together in class, dance together in lab, and we've started talking outside of class. She is going to come over next week and we are going to watch Memento (with neither of us have seen). She will be the first person to watch something on my projector with me, so that'll be fun! I have a hypothesis why I could not remeber her. It was not yet time for us to be friends. In HIMYM philosophy, before I could meet Sara, I had to become the person I am today. I truly believe that I have changed in significant ways in the last year to the point that if we had taken the time to get to know each other when we first met, we would not have gotten along, and it would have ruined the chance at friendship now. So yeah, now I am me, and I am glad of that.
Classes: philosophy is my favorite academic class... how wrong is that? I like discussing philosophy at a time other than 7:30 in the morning (senior year, that's what I did) and I really like some of the kids in my section. The subject matter is all about identity in society (which was the source of my crisis of "self" about a month ago) and I really enjoy talking about it and learning the history of how people thought about the self. And in unit two, we are considering identitys outside of race, specifically, gender and sexuality, which is a hot topic for me! Oh, and the fact that I have a crush on my GTF helps too... Braedon has decided he is going to hum "hot for teacher" whenever I walk by...
MATH SUCKS! Correction: proofs suck. Nobody in this class is enjoying themselves, and we are all just scraping by. I will be happy with a C+ in this class, and overjoyed if I can get a B+. Yeah, it is that hard...
Tap is still fantastic, and I tap dance all the time now in my tennis shoes. Dance improv is boring, but it inspires me in other aspects of my life. I have taken some of the lessons we have learned in improv and applied them to teaching creativity in my circus life.
Looking at dance is boring, mostly because I don't care about dance history that much, but it is an easy class, and the Labs are fun because we get to dance.
Linguistics is interesting, and challenging, just the way I like it. Not much more to say, other than I will have more crazy linguistics stuff to present to my grammarian grandmother when I get back home for christmas. Yeah, that's right g'ma, I'm talkin' to you! We are gonna have more fun with morphemes than you ever thought possible!
I am going to say a quick thing about the Strowler show in seattle. This sucks, and I am struggling with how to pull this thing off. But as Koe said, I have a talent for pulling things out of my ass when I need to, so I hope it goes well... I am not going to complain about my troubles with it, nor rant about the insensitivity of inconsistency and apathy.
Official statement: I have a huge show in 10 days. I do not know how to fill 1/3 of it up, and that is ok. I will figure something out, and I will blow that audience away. You'll see - when I post the blog about my first out of state show and what an amazing experience it was, there will be no doubt in anybody's mind that I can do anything I set my mind to. Because I am Fenix. I am strong, and I know who I am. I am a creative person, capable of embodying the images I placed upon my body. I am flexible and capable of adapting to any space I am placed in, and I am the most powerful force in the universe. When one of my ideas is shown to fail for one reason or another, it is not the death of the idea, it is the birth of another. When one part of my dies, another is born. I am constantly in flux, constantly learning, and not a one person in the whole of the world can stop me.
I am born on September 19th, 1990 to two married parents. Those parents were divorced twice before I realized by own duality. I am attracted to men and women alike, and I think that if everyone would realize the beauty and love that both sexes and all genders are capable of expressing, the world world would be a better place. I am biologically male, but many days I wake up and feel female, whether I express it or not. I cannot see a time in the future where I would impose this on my life, but when someone calls me Fenix in everyday life or uses female pronouns when I am wearing a skirt it makes me happier than I can express. It makes me even happier when someone uses feminine pronouns when I am wearing regular guy clothes, but that person knows me well enough to know when I am a girl, and when I am a boy.
I like circus and dance, and I believe that I will be involved in those things for the rest of my life. History has proven that art is constantly evolving, and whenever someone thinks that we can do all that is possible, someone invents a new art form.
I have been involved in several relationships, some with men, some with women, some with both at the same time. I have been with people younger than me, some with people older. I have been with straight people, bi people, and gay people. I have been with cisgendered people, and queer people like myself.
There are many facets to me, as there are to every person. These are some of them. There are some that are so basic that they are not worth stating in a blog, because they would bore you, and some so extreme I would not put them in a blog, because they are private things that I only share with select people.
This week past was spirit week. We had coming out day on monday, and I told my coming out story. It was very powerful to say it out loud, into a microphone, to quite a few dozen people, with all the others passing by (we were in the middle of campus). The idea was to come out, to be proud of who you are, and to share your story with others. Then we had Queer Skate that afternoon. I like skating, and I like queer people, but this was something else entirely. It was a very unique experience to be in that room. I could know, beyond all shadow of a doubt, that ever single person in the room accepted me for who I was. I have never understood the need for gay pride events. Now I do. To be able to say what you want and do what you want and not worry about getting called faggot or looked at funny for how you dress (because we were all dressed pretty silly) is an amazing experience. Then there was the queer dance friday, and that was a blast. I danced with a bunch of people as a girl. People treated me like a girl. When we were getting our grind on, I was in front, even with people who were actually girls. They understood the need to be accepted, and they used the right pronouns and everything.
That's all I got for now...
Monday, October 11, 2010
Musical Choices
The musical choices of my first vlog were no accident. They were all selections from artists either based in/around Eugene, or artists I heard in an event unique to Eugene. All of these artists inspire me in some way, whether artistically, philosophically, energetically, or just sillily*. So, I hope you can take some time to check these guys out, they are all worth a look.
*So I used that word as a joke, because I was being silly in it's use, and blogger didn't give me the red underline... turns out that is actually a word!
1. Song Away (Hockey): Hockey was a band that played at a concert in the EMU ballroom my first few weeks at school. Me and my friends danced like... well... dancing fools to these guys. So I got their CD, and we continue to dance like dancing fools when we listen to it. And the CD is called Mind Chaos, and if you ever crave "dancing 'round the room in your undies" music, then these guys are your winners.
2. Da Que Deus (Faun): I don't particularly like this song, but it fit with the scenery and the feeling of the piece it was put to. Faun as a whole, on the other hand, has been such an incredible inspiration to me, starting on the first night I heard them. So many great ideas for movement and art have come to me as a result of the music written by these German musicians.
3. All The Myths Are True (Abney Park): This is one of my favorite songs by these guys. These guys, actually, were the reason I went to faerieworlds in the first place. Colin found a flyer for the winterballs celebration, and I went to the website and heard "Airship Pirate" and I was hooked. This, of course, was the start of many amazing relationships, so much learning, so much inspiration, and a hellofalot of fun.
4. Forecast In Eugene (Christina Robert): I love this song. I love this song. This song is incredible. This song, about how amazing Eugene is, and describes it perfectly, is written by a friend of mine who brings light into my day every time I see her. This woman is so full of joy and goodness that it is infectious - you cannot be around this girl and be sad, it just is not possible (try listening to the song and pay attention to the lyrics, and just try to frown - it cannot be done). As example of her goodness, this song was recorded on an album called "Fill The Well" which was sold as a fundraiser for a project by the same name whose goal was to create fresh water drinking wells in Africa. This song, and Christina, make me look like a grumpus...
5. Taglio! (Tricky Pixie): Just a good band. They tend to write silly music, and I like it. This song is just a damned good song, and I advise everyone to go check these guys out. They have an incredible cult following, and there are callbacks in their songs (which I need to learn).
6. Mud (ÆON NOW): These guys are friends of mine as well. I met their lead singer, Olive, at saturday market one day, and we hit it off. So one day she did her thing (accordion and singing) and I did mine (juggling) and so now we do that all the time at saturday market. These guys write what can really only be classified as circus punk... with a washboard.
7. Reckless (Crystal Castles): A blog is supposed to represent your life, and so that means that so should my musical choices. I was going to use Mud for the whole juggling section at the end, and then realized that I had used no electronica. To be fair to the musical selections of my life, some electronic music needed to be in there, as I do spend a fair amount of time listening to it. Crystal Castles are just one of the bands I listen to, credit to Amanda for introducing them to me (after we listened to Untrust Us one day in Carson Hall eating dinner).
So that's the music of my blog! I'll talk to you guys soon! Maybe with another video!
*So I used that word as a joke, because I was being silly in it's use, and blogger didn't give me the red underline... turns out that is actually a word!
1. Song Away (Hockey): Hockey was a band that played at a concert in the EMU ballroom my first few weeks at school. Me and my friends danced like... well... dancing fools to these guys. So I got their CD, and we continue to dance like dancing fools when we listen to it. And the CD is called Mind Chaos, and if you ever crave "dancing 'round the room in your undies" music, then these guys are your winners.
2. Da Que Deus (Faun): I don't particularly like this song, but it fit with the scenery and the feeling of the piece it was put to. Faun as a whole, on the other hand, has been such an incredible inspiration to me, starting on the first night I heard them. So many great ideas for movement and art have come to me as a result of the music written by these German musicians.
3. All The Myths Are True (Abney Park): This is one of my favorite songs by these guys. These guys, actually, were the reason I went to faerieworlds in the first place. Colin found a flyer for the winterballs celebration, and I went to the website and heard "Airship Pirate" and I was hooked. This, of course, was the start of many amazing relationships, so much learning, so much inspiration, and a hellofalot of fun.
4. Forecast In Eugene (Christina Robert): I love this song. I love this song. This song is incredible. This song, about how amazing Eugene is, and describes it perfectly, is written by a friend of mine who brings light into my day every time I see her. This woman is so full of joy and goodness that it is infectious - you cannot be around this girl and be sad, it just is not possible (try listening to the song and pay attention to the lyrics, and just try to frown - it cannot be done). As example of her goodness, this song was recorded on an album called "Fill The Well" which was sold as a fundraiser for a project by the same name whose goal was to create fresh water drinking wells in Africa. This song, and Christina, make me look like a grumpus...
5. Taglio! (Tricky Pixie): Just a good band. They tend to write silly music, and I like it. This song is just a damned good song, and I advise everyone to go check these guys out. They have an incredible cult following, and there are callbacks in their songs (which I need to learn).
6. Mud (ÆON NOW): These guys are friends of mine as well. I met their lead singer, Olive, at saturday market one day, and we hit it off. So one day she did her thing (accordion and singing) and I did mine (juggling) and so now we do that all the time at saturday market. These guys write what can really only be classified as circus punk... with a washboard.
7. Reckless (Crystal Castles): A blog is supposed to represent your life, and so that means that so should my musical choices. I was going to use Mud for the whole juggling section at the end, and then realized that I had used no electronica. To be fair to the musical selections of my life, some electronic music needed to be in there, as I do spend a fair amount of time listening to it. Crystal Castles are just one of the bands I listen to, credit to Amanda for introducing them to me (after we listened to Untrust Us one day in Carson Hall eating dinner).
So that's the music of my blog! I'll talk to you guys soon! Maybe with another video!
One Day: A Thursday
SO! I finally finished the video editing of this stupid thing, and now I can post it online for all of you to see! I wrote this blog once already, and then my internet died, and I couldn't post it. So this version will be shorter, because I am frustrated with it...
Anyway, here is a brief story about how this came to be. Last thursday, I was riding my bike to school, and I thought to myself, "wow, this is shore is purdy!" and decided to record a part of my bike ride on the iPod nano that my mom found... and then I decided right there, as I was turned the bend in the bike path behind the fairgrounds (it shows up in the video as a huge wind sound) that I was going to record my day, set it to music, and show all of you guys. Because my mom has been bugging me about a house tour, and I know a lot of my friends at home want to see campus and want updates. So, here it is: a tour of my house, a day in Oregon (you will be surprised to find that it is not raining), and plenty of updates about my life (not really...)
So there they are, and in my next blog, which I will write this afternoon, when I get home from school, I will explain my music choices, because some of them actually are significant. My choices of music are directly related to my life experiences, so really, the updates I promised you that were not actually coming - they are, but only if you already know about my life. But since you don't, I shall explain it to you, and then you will understand why I have such strange music in my vlog!
Until this afternoon then!
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Preemptive Week #1 Post
Alright, so the week isn't over, but I am pretty sure I can give an accurate summary of my classes and what they are going to be like based on M-R.
LING 435: Morphology and Syntax (Prof. Scott DeLancey)
THE CRAZY OLD MAN IS BACK! Ok, not true, I took this class this term BECAUSE he is teaching it. He is a truly amazing teacher, and it is fantastic to learn from him. For those of you who remember when I took intro to linguistics, it included several pieces, including morphology, syntax, historical linguistics, phonetics, and phonology. Well, these subjects have been split up into separate classes, and this one is about morphology and syntax, which go hand in hand. Syntax is the construction of words and sentences, and morphology is one possible mechanism by which that is accomplished.
Conclusion: class will be interesting, both the teacher and TA like me, and it shouldn't be that hard (challenging, but not difficult)
MATH 315: Elementary Analysis (Prof. Weiyong He)
Well, after we figured out that "modify" meant "multiply", this guy's accent wasn't too bad. However, this class is widely regarded as "the worst math class on campus" because, not only is it "the proof class" with automatically means it sucks, but the format is apparently crap, and I am believing this to be true. However, it is a prerequisite for every single upper level class, and so it cannot be avoided.
Conclusion: class will be boring, difficult, and will be the most crap class this term
PHIL 216: Philosophy and Cultural Diversity (Prof. Scott Pratt)
I was told this guy was both interesting and inspiring, and from what I have seen, they were right. The first unit we are doing is all about identity as it applies to race and culture, how identities are formed, and how they affect people/how people relate to other identities and cultures. It is a large lecture class, and so it is pretty boring, but the discussion section we had today about the 'Ground Zero Mosque' was one of the most engaging conversations I have had in quite some time.
Conclusion: I don't really care that much about philosophy, but as it goes, this could look to be an interesting source of conversation for Evan and I (we had a talk about the GZM last night, and he brought up some things I hadn't thought of)
DAN 251: Looking at Dance (Shannon Mockli)
In this class, we will look at movement through a historical, academic, and hands on lens. We will do readings and research, write papers on dances we see, and workshop dance activities once a week. The class is actually part of FIG (Freshman Interest Group) about MTV, and their other class is music class of the same variety, so it is largely freshman, which is not great, but it is a 200 level class, so it is to be expected. It really is too early to tell how good this class will be.
Conclusion: Going to be pretty easy, and hopefully interesting, and will not require a whole lot of work.
DANC 276: Tap II (Jean Nelson)
Well, it is tap dance, but harder than tap I. We learn more things, and learn them faster.
Conclusion: it's gonna be awesome, I just wish it was more than a 50 minute class.
DANC 271: Dance Improvisation (Brad Garner)
This class focuses on solo work, although we will do some contact things. We will work on how to get those creative energies flowing so that it isn't a thinking process when we dance so much as a feeling exercise. For example, today, we walked 50 feet in 30 minutes across the lawn in front of the library, while stripping off layers of clothing (I ended up in just my dance shorts) just to see how people would react. Yeah, it was hard... and it was really interesting to see how people reacted to 30 kids moving so slowly you could barely see them moving, but if you left for 5 minutes and came back they were in different positions wearing less clothes...
Conclusion: see previous
In other news!
I begin my adult classes tomorrow with Acrobalance. I have no idea how many people are going to show up, so planning that class is going to be hard, but I will do my best. I am running 4 rehearsals per week now to accommodate work schedules of my performers. Needless to say, I am not going to have a whole lot of time to goof off between work and school.
My one hour per day of pure relaxation, however, that I have made the rule is to be used only for that unless there is an emergency and I forget to write something for DAN251, is my lunch hour, between noon and 1 (when I have dance or work). This hour is spent 15 feet above the ground, in a tree that we have named Orpheus, or Orphi for short (the species name of the tree, according to Laura, someone who joined us for lunch, involves a word that sounded like Orphi, and we extrapolated Orpheus from that). Orphi has a place for my bag to go, and comfortable branches for everyone to sit on while eating! There is a big hollow area inside of where the needles begin to grow, so nobody can see inside. It is a very peaceful feeling in there, and it is a big time for me to cool down and let things go from the stressful morning.
I have two new projects as well.
1) I am doing a vlog, and the first entry in this, to be posted sometime next week (when I get done editing the hours of footage) will cover today. Things I did today, sort of a "day in the life" video, including me riding my bike around Eugene, walking around campus, eating lunch with Orphi, going to Bounce, and the first part of project #2.
2) By the end of this year, I will have footage of me juggling either by myself or with a group of people passing inside of every single UO building (not including dorms) on campus + Autzen. That last one will be hard. I am going to try to get inside Autzen to film juggling... I'm not sure how I am going to do that one, but I have 9 months to figure it out... Tonight, I checked Lillis off the list - I juggled in the Lobby, which is HUGE! I always have juggling stuff on me, and I always have a camera, so when I have a couple minutes to kill, I will just go to a building, set up the camera, and juggle for 30 seconds and then be on my way. It isn't a terribly difficult goal, but it will be a cool one. And to finish it off, I will video myself juggling in strange places around campus (in trees, on top of things that should not be climbed on top of, stuff like that).
I think that is all I have for you as of yet, but keep your eyes peeled for the entry containing the vlog entry (I will post them on youtube as well at Cobbledick's Vlog), but they will show up here first, and they will be accompanied by annotations and fun stuff. I am also waiting on the correct program to edit them (iMovie HD cannot speed things up properly, and iMovie '08 can't do it at all, so I need iMovie '09) and I need speed up capabilities, because I know you don't want 12 minutes of real time footage of me riding my bike from campus to the south hills... I don't like riding it, I don't know why you would want to see it... Except maybe the cool 2 minute piece in the morning through the fairgrounds when it is really foggy... That's pretty cool.
LING 435: Morphology and Syntax (Prof. Scott DeLancey)
THE CRAZY OLD MAN IS BACK! Ok, not true, I took this class this term BECAUSE he is teaching it. He is a truly amazing teacher, and it is fantastic to learn from him. For those of you who remember when I took intro to linguistics, it included several pieces, including morphology, syntax, historical linguistics, phonetics, and phonology. Well, these subjects have been split up into separate classes, and this one is about morphology and syntax, which go hand in hand. Syntax is the construction of words and sentences, and morphology is one possible mechanism by which that is accomplished.
Conclusion: class will be interesting, both the teacher and TA like me, and it shouldn't be that hard (challenging, but not difficult)
MATH 315: Elementary Analysis (Prof. Weiyong He)
Well, after we figured out that "modify" meant "multiply", this guy's accent wasn't too bad. However, this class is widely regarded as "the worst math class on campus" because, not only is it "the proof class" with automatically means it sucks, but the format is apparently crap, and I am believing this to be true. However, it is a prerequisite for every single upper level class, and so it cannot be avoided.
Conclusion: class will be boring, difficult, and will be the most crap class this term
PHIL 216: Philosophy and Cultural Diversity (Prof. Scott Pratt)
I was told this guy was both interesting and inspiring, and from what I have seen, they were right. The first unit we are doing is all about identity as it applies to race and culture, how identities are formed, and how they affect people/how people relate to other identities and cultures. It is a large lecture class, and so it is pretty boring, but the discussion section we had today about the 'Ground Zero Mosque' was one of the most engaging conversations I have had in quite some time.
Conclusion: I don't really care that much about philosophy, but as it goes, this could look to be an interesting source of conversation for Evan and I (we had a talk about the GZM last night, and he brought up some things I hadn't thought of)
DAN 251: Looking at Dance (Shannon Mockli)
In this class, we will look at movement through a historical, academic, and hands on lens. We will do readings and research, write papers on dances we see, and workshop dance activities once a week. The class is actually part of FIG (Freshman Interest Group) about MTV, and their other class is music class of the same variety, so it is largely freshman, which is not great, but it is a 200 level class, so it is to be expected. It really is too early to tell how good this class will be.
Conclusion: Going to be pretty easy, and hopefully interesting, and will not require a whole lot of work.
DANC 276: Tap II (Jean Nelson)
Well, it is tap dance, but harder than tap I. We learn more things, and learn them faster.
Conclusion: it's gonna be awesome, I just wish it was more than a 50 minute class.
DANC 271: Dance Improvisation (Brad Garner)
This class focuses on solo work, although we will do some contact things. We will work on how to get those creative energies flowing so that it isn't a thinking process when we dance so much as a feeling exercise. For example, today, we walked 50 feet in 30 minutes across the lawn in front of the library, while stripping off layers of clothing (I ended up in just my dance shorts) just to see how people would react. Yeah, it was hard... and it was really interesting to see how people reacted to 30 kids moving so slowly you could barely see them moving, but if you left for 5 minutes and came back they were in different positions wearing less clothes...
Conclusion: see previous
In other news!
I begin my adult classes tomorrow with Acrobalance. I have no idea how many people are going to show up, so planning that class is going to be hard, but I will do my best. I am running 4 rehearsals per week now to accommodate work schedules of my performers. Needless to say, I am not going to have a whole lot of time to goof off between work and school.
My one hour per day of pure relaxation, however, that I have made the rule is to be used only for that unless there is an emergency and I forget to write something for DAN251, is my lunch hour, between noon and 1 (when I have dance or work). This hour is spent 15 feet above the ground, in a tree that we have named Orpheus, or Orphi for short (the species name of the tree, according to Laura, someone who joined us for lunch, involves a word that sounded like Orphi, and we extrapolated Orpheus from that). Orphi has a place for my bag to go, and comfortable branches for everyone to sit on while eating! There is a big hollow area inside of where the needles begin to grow, so nobody can see inside. It is a very peaceful feeling in there, and it is a big time for me to cool down and let things go from the stressful morning.
I have two new projects as well.
1) I am doing a vlog, and the first entry in this, to be posted sometime next week (when I get done editing the hours of footage) will cover today. Things I did today, sort of a "day in the life" video, including me riding my bike around Eugene, walking around campus, eating lunch with Orphi, going to Bounce, and the first part of project #2.
2) By the end of this year, I will have footage of me juggling either by myself or with a group of people passing inside of every single UO building (not including dorms) on campus + Autzen. That last one will be hard. I am going to try to get inside Autzen to film juggling... I'm not sure how I am going to do that one, but I have 9 months to figure it out... Tonight, I checked Lillis off the list - I juggled in the Lobby, which is HUGE! I always have juggling stuff on me, and I always have a camera, so when I have a couple minutes to kill, I will just go to a building, set up the camera, and juggle for 30 seconds and then be on my way. It isn't a terribly difficult goal, but it will be a cool one. And to finish it off, I will video myself juggling in strange places around campus (in trees, on top of things that should not be climbed on top of, stuff like that).
I think that is all I have for you as of yet, but keep your eyes peeled for the entry containing the vlog entry (I will post them on youtube as well at Cobbledick's Vlog), but they will show up here first, and they will be accompanied by annotations and fun stuff. I am also waiting on the correct program to edit them (iMovie HD cannot speed things up properly, and iMovie '08 can't do it at all, so I need iMovie '09) and I need speed up capabilities, because I know you don't want 12 minutes of real time footage of me riding my bike from campus to the south hills... I don't like riding it, I don't know why you would want to see it... Except maybe the cool 2 minute piece in the morning through the fairgrounds when it is really foggy... That's pretty cool.
Friday, September 17, 2010
New Word: Lazanthetic
To begin, some definitions in preface, according to my dictionary
Lazy: averse or disinclined to work, activity, or exertion; indolent.
Apathetic: having or showing little or no emotion
My new word, while it is not a perfect blend of the two in spelling or in definition, serves its purpose well enough.
Laz·an·thet·ic
[laz-n-thet-ik] /leiz
nˈθɛtɪk/
-adjective
1. having or showing interest or emotion, but averse or disinclined to work towards the object of that interest
There is a fairly complicated logic behind why the spelling is what it is, and unless you think linguistics jokes are funny, you will simply give me the internet version of a blank stare, which I generally try to avoid.
Now, why have I invented this word? Because in my search through the dictionary, I cannot seem to find a word that describes the phenomenon that I have observed, and so I decided in my somewhat sleep-deprived state to invent such a word.
The above mentioned word was given the necessity to exist this morning. I had decided to pick up a new juggling/spinning tool called a double-sided meteor hammer (or "meteor" for short, because nobody uses a single sided one, and if they use something similar, they call it a rope dart when it comes to circus equipment - if you want more information, I can guarantee you that wikipedia can tell you everything you want to know about it) due to my stupid need to learn new things constantly. Anyway, the basic "need to know" of a meteor is that it is a ~4.5' rope, with two weights on each end. In the chinese version, which was a weapon, they were two heavy metal balls, that when spun into an opponents head... well... hurt. In circus, they can be two rubber balls or something similar for practice, or they can be two wicks for purposes of BURN! I don't have one of these, so I improvised by tying two sock poi together. The rope is a bit short, and the weights aren't heavy enough, and the poi are uneven, so I had to adjust for that, but the idea is there.
I posted this such news on Facebook, greatly abbreviated of course, followed by conclusion that learning meteor hammer is similar to learning poi; very frustrating, and you get hit in places you least expect - in this case, the spot on my head behind my right ear (note: if someone asks you what area of your body you want to get hit gently but repeatedly should you be forced into it, there are two areas not to tell them: groin and the place behind an ear), and this second post was met with some interesting comments, which will be edited for names and shortened to give you the highlights.
Now, I have been preaching this philosophy for years, and it has reached many ears, but not enough obviously, so I shall write a blog about it, and I shall send a link to it to anyone who says such things as Ms. Normal does (there is a joke waiting to be made about her name that I set up completely accidentally, and I am a little bit pleased with myself for it - you'll see it soon enough).
Before you can understand this philosophy of mine, lets call it the "If I can do it, so can you" philosophy, or Tao of Nike (Just Do It! get it?), I will explain to you how I got into the ground based circus arts (i.e. non-aerial/acrobatic, which have stories all to themselves).
When I was around 16 I believe, someone showed me a video of a man named Chris Murdoch doing something awesome called contact juggling, and I decided I wanted to do it, so I went and found some tutorials on ContactJuggling.org, and started learning with a grapefruit. I ruined a lot of grapefruit, but this was a non-issue, considering the grapefruit tree in my yard that produced more fruit than we knew what to do with. If you choose to learn with fruit before you spend money on supplies, use something that is readily available and very round, reasonably large, and heavy (i.e. not a lime). Anyway, I spend approximately three weeks learning the butterfly before I was confident in showing to my parents and friends (with the grapefruit) and decided I wanted to buy some practice balls so that I could stop ruining potential fruit juice. I would not even like to estimate the number of grapefruits met their demise falling off of the back of my hand.
Anyway, I decided to learn traditional juggling as well - it made sense. Now, as many jugglers will tell you, every time you add another ball, the difficulty (and number of drops) increases 10 fold, so when you juggler three balls as supposed to one, you get 100 drops proportionate. As someone who has learned to juggle, I agree with this statement. So I kept going, and kept dropping what were not objects resembling fruit (thank goodness) and I kept working at it. I chased my balls all over the yard, and I picked them up (until the greatest day ever: the day I learned kick ups - my back was quite happy with me that day) until I finally got it.
Finally, now that I have gotten past my basic history, I will get to my very blunt point: YOU THINK I WAS BORN THIS COORDINATED? HELL TO THE NO! I worked my ass off to be able to keep track of three balls at the same time, and to be able to change throws and mix combinations together. How did I manage to do it? I juggled. A lot. I'm talking the kind of a lot where normal parents would say "get off the computer" my mom would yell into the back yard "Stop juggling you idiot, you have to eat sometime" and I would yell back "BUT I'VE ALMOST GOT MILLS MESS!" which I didn't actually get until 3 months later in my father's living room, but that is the story of insane determination and dedication, which is another lesson I learned for juggling, and belongs in a completely different blog entry.
Two nights ago, I spun this stupid thing around and hit myself and dropped it and knocked shit over (every time worrying if my dad and Sheila had woken up, which they didn't... or if they did, they just rolled over and whispered "I wonder what crazy thing Connor is trying to learn now") and kept going. I would take a break every 20 minutes or so to get some water, or eat something, or watch an episode of some TV show I had downloaded. That's what purpose TV serves to me these days - relaxation in between episodes of training. And most of the time, I stretch while watching TV.
Final words, I promise.
When someone comes up to me and remarks about how coordinated I am, or how talented I am, or how amazingly badass and sexy I am when I roll that ball on my arm (ok, maybe not that last one - but the other two I do get from strangers) I just want to tell them that they could do, if they would just obey the Tao of Nike. If they would take a half hour out of every day to learn a new skill, and then to practice it 30 minutes every day instead of watching TV or something else mundane and useless, they would be able to do all that I could do. Anyone who says that they wish they would love to do what I can do, but just aren't talented enough or coordinated enough, they are lazanthetic. They want to, but not bad enough to put their mind to it, and actually work for something you might not succeed at the first time.
So Abby, your reaction to what I do is understandable - we live in a fairly lazanthetic society - nobody wants to fail, so many don't try. And those are the people looking wide-eyed at me on Saturday mornings putting money in my hat for something that they could do. You really are completely Normal - are you bored of that yet?
Lazy: averse or disinclined to work, activity, or exertion; indolent.
Apathetic: having or showing little or no emotion
My new word, while it is not a perfect blend of the two in spelling or in definition, serves its purpose well enough.
Laz·an·thet·ic
[laz-n-thet-ik] /leiz
nˈθɛtɪk/-adjective
1. having or showing interest or emotion, but averse or disinclined to work towards the object of that interest
There is a fairly complicated logic behind why the spelling is what it is, and unless you think linguistics jokes are funny, you will simply give me the internet version of a blank stare, which I generally try to avoid.
Now, why have I invented this word? Because in my search through the dictionary, I cannot seem to find a word that describes the phenomenon that I have observed, and so I decided in my somewhat sleep-deprived state to invent such a word.
The above mentioned word was given the necessity to exist this morning. I had decided to pick up a new juggling/spinning tool called a double-sided meteor hammer (or "meteor" for short, because nobody uses a single sided one, and if they use something similar, they call it a rope dart when it comes to circus equipment - if you want more information, I can guarantee you that wikipedia can tell you everything you want to know about it) due to my stupid need to learn new things constantly. Anyway, the basic "need to know" of a meteor is that it is a ~4.5' rope, with two weights on each end. In the chinese version, which was a weapon, they were two heavy metal balls, that when spun into an opponents head... well... hurt. In circus, they can be two rubber balls or something similar for practice, or they can be two wicks for purposes of BURN! I don't have one of these, so I improvised by tying two sock poi together. The rope is a bit short, and the weights aren't heavy enough, and the poi are uneven, so I had to adjust for that, but the idea is there.
I posted this such news on Facebook, greatly abbreviated of course, followed by conclusion that learning meteor hammer is similar to learning poi; very frustrating, and you get hit in places you least expect - in this case, the spot on my head behind my right ear (note: if someone asks you what area of your body you want to get hit gently but repeatedly should you be forced into it, there are two areas not to tell them: groin and the place behind an ear), and this second post was met with some interesting comments, which will be edited for names and shortened to give you the highlights.
Abby Normal: good luck, I would have knocked myself unconscious with one... do NOT have that type of coordination.... ~hugs~
Me: nah, can't knock yourself out - my meteors are beanbags. Anything is possible with enough training, though. I worked hard on this for 5 hours straight to get the tricks I know. Practice Practice Practice.
Abby Normal: this is why you're awesome, and I'm a complete nooblet! I need to visit one day and be seriously humbled...
Now, I have been preaching this philosophy for years, and it has reached many ears, but not enough obviously, so I shall write a blog about it, and I shall send a link to it to anyone who says such things as Ms. Normal does (there is a joke waiting to be made about her name that I set up completely accidentally, and I am a little bit pleased with myself for it - you'll see it soon enough).
Before you can understand this philosophy of mine, lets call it the "If I can do it, so can you" philosophy, or Tao of Nike (Just Do It! get it?), I will explain to you how I got into the ground based circus arts (i.e. non-aerial/acrobatic, which have stories all to themselves).
When I was around 16 I believe, someone showed me a video of a man named Chris Murdoch doing something awesome called contact juggling, and I decided I wanted to do it, so I went and found some tutorials on ContactJuggling.org, and started learning with a grapefruit. I ruined a lot of grapefruit, but this was a non-issue, considering the grapefruit tree in my yard that produced more fruit than we knew what to do with. If you choose to learn with fruit before you spend money on supplies, use something that is readily available and very round, reasonably large, and heavy (i.e. not a lime). Anyway, I spend approximately three weeks learning the butterfly before I was confident in showing to my parents and friends (with the grapefruit) and decided I wanted to buy some practice balls so that I could stop ruining potential fruit juice. I would not even like to estimate the number of grapefruits met their demise falling off of the back of my hand.
Anyway, I decided to learn traditional juggling as well - it made sense. Now, as many jugglers will tell you, every time you add another ball, the difficulty (and number of drops) increases 10 fold, so when you juggler three balls as supposed to one, you get 100 drops proportionate. As someone who has learned to juggle, I agree with this statement. So I kept going, and kept dropping what were not objects resembling fruit (thank goodness) and I kept working at it. I chased my balls all over the yard, and I picked them up (until the greatest day ever: the day I learned kick ups - my back was quite happy with me that day) until I finally got it.
Finally, now that I have gotten past my basic history, I will get to my very blunt point: YOU THINK I WAS BORN THIS COORDINATED? HELL TO THE NO! I worked my ass off to be able to keep track of three balls at the same time, and to be able to change throws and mix combinations together. How did I manage to do it? I juggled. A lot. I'm talking the kind of a lot where normal parents would say "get off the computer" my mom would yell into the back yard "Stop juggling you idiot, you have to eat sometime" and I would yell back "BUT I'VE ALMOST GOT MILLS MESS!" which I didn't actually get until 3 months later in my father's living room, but that is the story of insane determination and dedication, which is another lesson I learned for juggling, and belongs in a completely different blog entry.
Two nights ago, I spun this stupid thing around and hit myself and dropped it and knocked shit over (every time worrying if my dad and Sheila had woken up, which they didn't... or if they did, they just rolled over and whispered "I wonder what crazy thing Connor is trying to learn now") and kept going. I would take a break every 20 minutes or so to get some water, or eat something, or watch an episode of some TV show I had downloaded. That's what purpose TV serves to me these days - relaxation in between episodes of training. And most of the time, I stretch while watching TV.
Final words, I promise.
When someone comes up to me and remarks about how coordinated I am, or how talented I am, or how amazingly badass and sexy I am when I roll that ball on my arm (ok, maybe not that last one - but the other two I do get from strangers) I just want to tell them that they could do, if they would just obey the Tao of Nike. If they would take a half hour out of every day to learn a new skill, and then to practice it 30 minutes every day instead of watching TV or something else mundane and useless, they would be able to do all that I could do. Anyone who says that they wish they would love to do what I can do, but just aren't talented enough or coordinated enough, they are lazanthetic. They want to, but not bad enough to put their mind to it, and actually work for something you might not succeed at the first time.
So Abby, your reaction to what I do is understandable - we live in a fairly lazanthetic society - nobody wants to fail, so many don't try. And those are the people looking wide-eyed at me on Saturday mornings putting money in my hat for something that they could do. You really are completely Normal - are you bored of that yet?
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Cracked Glass
I lie down in the grass, the cloud drifting through kisses my cheek. The lights flash across my face, illuminating the cracked glass shielding me from the rest of the world. Layers upon layers of glass, and then above them nothing. Nothing but sky. Countless stars painted across the sky, speaking to me, asking me to come join them. They close in, beckoning me. Twinkling with their own personalities, they are so intriguing, and I have no choice but to come with them. The music drowns the sound of my breathing, and I leave my body in the glass coffin. My hands sink into my chest, my feet into the ground, and I am lying above the glass, finally with nothing between me and the universe. After the universe has shown me all it wanted to, of its calm, of its beauty, of its oneness, I begin to come back to my body. My feet rise out of the dirt, my hands out of my chest. As a gift for my communion with the stars, I am in ecstasy. I feel bliss radiating from my stomach downwards through my body, and heat up into my arms and chest. My breathing quickens and picks up volume, and I am aware of it once more. I rise out of my glass encasing, and rejoin the rest of the world around me. Hookah anyone?
In the tent, I am resting (communing with the universe is fairly draining) and friends are doing some healing work, going on about chakras, and my eyes slowly shut and I fall asleep for just a few minutes. I wake up to the sound of Travis' voice, but I don't open my eyes. I don't need to: I can see him plain as day. I know where he is from the sound of his voice, and I can feel his energy pulsing around us. I can see his face, and his mouth when he talks. I can see his chest rising and falling with his breathing. I can see Shakti pushing healing energy into my body, see the energy flowing from the universe through her into me. I can't hear Kat though. I can see her, out of arms reach, and she is the brightest light in the room. I couldn't see her with my eyes, I couldn't hear her with my ears, and I couldn't feel her with my hands, but I knew she was there. I went to her, and just felt her face - I wanted to learn when it looked like without the distraction of sight. As I payed attention, I could feel everyone around me. But not the dead things - I have a bruise on my knee to prove that rocks don't have energy.
On August 8th, the universe taught me how to see without my eyes. Not a lesson I will soon forget.
In the tent, I am resting (communing with the universe is fairly draining) and friends are doing some healing work, going on about chakras, and my eyes slowly shut and I fall asleep for just a few minutes. I wake up to the sound of Travis' voice, but I don't open my eyes. I don't need to: I can see him plain as day. I know where he is from the sound of his voice, and I can feel his energy pulsing around us. I can see his face, and his mouth when he talks. I can see his chest rising and falling with his breathing. I can see Shakti pushing healing energy into my body, see the energy flowing from the universe through her into me. I can't hear Kat though. I can see her, out of arms reach, and she is the brightest light in the room. I couldn't see her with my eyes, I couldn't hear her with my ears, and I couldn't feel her with my hands, but I knew she was there. I went to her, and just felt her face - I wanted to learn when it looked like without the distraction of sight. As I payed attention, I could feel everyone around me. But not the dead things - I have a bruise on my knee to prove that rocks don't have energy.
On August 8th, the universe taught me how to see without my eyes. Not a lesson I will soon forget.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
What a week...
Since i last blogged, a lot of stuff has happened. I will spend a disproportionate time on different events, but this is to be expected, because I simply do not care about everything equally.
The last time we spoke, it was just after Faerieworlds (which shall be called FW from here on out, as faerieworlds is not fun to type), and we spent a few days recovering. Nothing terribly interesting happened that week until Friday. I took a wee bike ride downtown to the Eugene Weekly HQ, because a designer I am walking for in a fashion show next week had be be her model for a photoshoot! I am not a model, not is modeling something I want to do seriously, but Hera keeps giving me these jobs to do, and I figure getting my name and face in the paper cannot possibly be a bad thing. So I wore this really poofy vest, and pants that can only be described as MC Hammer parachute pants meets 1800's ladies long underwear. Needless to say, I didn't know what emotion to really go for, and when I asked for a suggestion from Hera, her response was both awesome and completely unhelpful and was to "think Tim Burton." So, if you see the article in the paper this week, that's what I was going for. That's what the kid who stumbled into modeling and has had no training and has never done a photoshoot before. Not gonna lie, wasn't my best work - the goth look is my safety box (see spring fashion show pictures) and stepping outside of it is something I am still getting used to.
The photoshoot was short, and Jeremy and Lyra got distracted on their way out of town by a garage sale, so they had to go home to drop their haul off, which allowed me to jump in the car with them and go on a road trip to ashland. We were going to ashland because the next morning, an event I shall call the shakesale was going on. The shakesale is where they sell off (for very cheap) all of the costumes that the shakespeare plays had been using for the past 5 years. For those of you who don't know, ashland is shakespeare central. I got a pair of white gloves that got used yesterday for the first time (I'll get to that), and J and Lyra got $150 of clothes which filled up 4 garbage bags of clothes. These bags will largely comprise our costume budget for Kirkos for quite some time I think. We also got to hang out with the Mythmaker crew (people who put on Epic shows with seriously cool costumes and stilts and fire - people I will get along with very well) and just have a jolly ol' time.
But now, for some serious news. We were walking around friday night during the first friday art walk, and we were told that there was a trapeze show. And when I hear about someone doing aerial work when I don't know them, I am so going. So we went, and saw some pretty excellent stuff. One thing I couldn't help noticing was how similar the style was to that of Zuzi (a company I worked for in Tucson). Perhaps this was unavoidable, considering they were the only other aerial dance/modern company I have ever seen since Zuzi, but nevertheless, the similarities were uncanny. As it turns out, the person who runs this company moved to Ashland from Tucson, and used to work with Zuzi, and is friends with the women who trained me! Small world when it comes to circus and dance I suppose. In addition to this, I had the privilege of watching a woman named Emily Abrahams. She performed a piece to "The Ghost of You Lingers" by Spoon, and this is when I perked up. Her movement style was so unique, and so incredibly beautiful, and the more I watched, she is the anti-connor. I tend to do very sweeping, curvy movement, because that is what I feel. She was very angular (note: angular≠sharp, it just means straight line movement) and I've never seen someone make angular movement look so beautiful. You will see her influence in my pieces in the future, to be sure.
Emily then followed that piece with one called "Can't Stand The Rain" set to a song by the same name by The Rescues. This piece was mind-blowing. The dance was mixed so seamlessly with the aerial, and it was so incredibly beautiful. She is such a small person. 110 lbs at absolute most. She is about 5'2" and is small is every way it is possible to be. When she did this piece, she commanded the entire room. She filled it up with her energy, and, as my old martial arts teacher used to say, she "took up space." I was inspired, to say the least, and I am working on a new trapeze piece by the same artist, except to the tune of "Before The Fall," a piece which is still developing it's plot. However, what I have so far, coming from the lyrics and my own life, is loving the past, so that you cannot move on. This past continually trips you up, and you keep falling. However, the piece will not conclude with learning how not to get tripped by your past, or even to accept it, but to learn how, when you are falling, to catch yourself. To learn to live with your past, rather than to move past it. And I know how I am going to portray most of that. So, now I need is a show to put this piece in. I'll find one.
So since then, we've been having Tricky Pixie over to dinner, having a lot of fun, dancing around and generally having a good time!
Yesterday I actually got something done. I decided to take my "rock standing" to the next level, and I went downtown to do it. I was wearing clothes such that not a single inch of my skin was showing (I was wearing a mesh hood to cover my face). As it turns out, there was a big eventy thingy going on downtown, and I did my thing there. I would stand perfectly still on a pole (or crouch) and if someone put money in my hat, I would do a balance trick on my hands on top of the pole. I then donated my earnings to the event (which was a fundraiser). So next week, when I have business cards, I will continue to do this downtown, and use it to publicize our company, Kirkos (see last post).
Yeah, then I went to Voodoo Donuts and got a huge donut, and then went home and listened to The Rescues and then went to sleep. It was a good night indeed.
Adios, bloggosphere, until next time!
The last time we spoke, it was just after Faerieworlds (which shall be called FW from here on out, as faerieworlds is not fun to type), and we spent a few days recovering. Nothing terribly interesting happened that week until Friday. I took a wee bike ride downtown to the Eugene Weekly HQ, because a designer I am walking for in a fashion show next week had be be her model for a photoshoot! I am not a model, not is modeling something I want to do seriously, but Hera keeps giving me these jobs to do, and I figure getting my name and face in the paper cannot possibly be a bad thing. So I wore this really poofy vest, and pants that can only be described as MC Hammer parachute pants meets 1800's ladies long underwear. Needless to say, I didn't know what emotion to really go for, and when I asked for a suggestion from Hera, her response was both awesome and completely unhelpful and was to "think Tim Burton." So, if you see the article in the paper this week, that's what I was going for. That's what the kid who stumbled into modeling and has had no training and has never done a photoshoot before. Not gonna lie, wasn't my best work - the goth look is my safety box (see spring fashion show pictures) and stepping outside of it is something I am still getting used to.
The photoshoot was short, and Jeremy and Lyra got distracted on their way out of town by a garage sale, so they had to go home to drop their haul off, which allowed me to jump in the car with them and go on a road trip to ashland. We were going to ashland because the next morning, an event I shall call the shakesale was going on. The shakesale is where they sell off (for very cheap) all of the costumes that the shakespeare plays had been using for the past 5 years. For those of you who don't know, ashland is shakespeare central. I got a pair of white gloves that got used yesterday for the first time (I'll get to that), and J and Lyra got $150 of clothes which filled up 4 garbage bags of clothes. These bags will largely comprise our costume budget for Kirkos for quite some time I think. We also got to hang out with the Mythmaker crew (people who put on Epic shows with seriously cool costumes and stilts and fire - people I will get along with very well) and just have a jolly ol' time.
But now, for some serious news. We were walking around friday night during the first friday art walk, and we were told that there was a trapeze show. And when I hear about someone doing aerial work when I don't know them, I am so going. So we went, and saw some pretty excellent stuff. One thing I couldn't help noticing was how similar the style was to that of Zuzi (a company I worked for in Tucson). Perhaps this was unavoidable, considering they were the only other aerial dance/modern company I have ever seen since Zuzi, but nevertheless, the similarities were uncanny. As it turns out, the person who runs this company moved to Ashland from Tucson, and used to work with Zuzi, and is friends with the women who trained me! Small world when it comes to circus and dance I suppose. In addition to this, I had the privilege of watching a woman named Emily Abrahams. She performed a piece to "The Ghost of You Lingers" by Spoon, and this is when I perked up. Her movement style was so unique, and so incredibly beautiful, and the more I watched, she is the anti-connor. I tend to do very sweeping, curvy movement, because that is what I feel. She was very angular (note: angular≠sharp, it just means straight line movement) and I've never seen someone make angular movement look so beautiful. You will see her influence in my pieces in the future, to be sure.
Emily then followed that piece with one called "Can't Stand The Rain" set to a song by the same name by The Rescues. This piece was mind-blowing. The dance was mixed so seamlessly with the aerial, and it was so incredibly beautiful. She is such a small person. 110 lbs at absolute most. She is about 5'2" and is small is every way it is possible to be. When she did this piece, she commanded the entire room. She filled it up with her energy, and, as my old martial arts teacher used to say, she "took up space." I was inspired, to say the least, and I am working on a new trapeze piece by the same artist, except to the tune of "Before The Fall," a piece which is still developing it's plot. However, what I have so far, coming from the lyrics and my own life, is loving the past, so that you cannot move on. This past continually trips you up, and you keep falling. However, the piece will not conclude with learning how not to get tripped by your past, or even to accept it, but to learn how, when you are falling, to catch yourself. To learn to live with your past, rather than to move past it. And I know how I am going to portray most of that. So, now I need is a show to put this piece in. I'll find one.
So since then, we've been having Tricky Pixie over to dinner, having a lot of fun, dancing around and generally having a good time!
Yesterday I actually got something done. I decided to take my "rock standing" to the next level, and I went downtown to do it. I was wearing clothes such that not a single inch of my skin was showing (I was wearing a mesh hood to cover my face). As it turns out, there was a big eventy thingy going on downtown, and I did my thing there. I would stand perfectly still on a pole (or crouch) and if someone put money in my hat, I would do a balance trick on my hands on top of the pole. I then donated my earnings to the event (which was a fundraiser). So next week, when I have business cards, I will continue to do this downtown, and use it to publicize our company, Kirkos (see last post).
Yeah, then I went to Voodoo Donuts and got a huge donut, and then went home and listened to The Rescues and then went to sleep. It was a good night indeed.
Adios, bloggosphere, until next time!
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Philadelphia, Faerieworlds, good times
Philadelphia came to a close. Finally. I cannot express how much I was looking forward to coming home, but when the day finally came, I did not want to go through with it. Let me explain why.
In order to get to the airport at 11:00AM, we (Emilie and I) had to lug out luggage a mile and a half to the train station, make a transfer to a bus in 2 minutes (which involved running with out luggage, her suitcase didn't have wheels) and then walk around the philly airport to find the right terminals on foot. Oh yeah, and did I mention the 3 hour layover for the 4.5 hour flight, and then two hour drive back to Eugene? If you do the math on that one and take time changes into consideration, it was roughly 15 hours of travel time. That. SUCKS.
Well, I got home, and now with the beautiful weather, I can appreciate the pages and pages of notes I have from philly. It was an experience that I am glad I had, not just for circus experience, but a cultural one as well. I have never been so scared as I was the first week there. I have never been so severe a minority as I was there. As a result of this, I can say with quite a fair amount of conviction that it was one of the most important experiences in my circus career and my cultural life, and I can also say with equal conviction that it is an experience I fully plan to never repeat as long as I live.
Oh, and just to smirk a bit - my weather widget claims that it is 96 in Tucson, and 63 in Eugene at noon. This makes me happy.
I got two packages this week: 2 new CD's from Carly, which I am listening to right now, and my new 4" contact ball, which is going to hide in the shade until the end of it's days.
Alright, I suppose I should write about Faerieworlds.
Faerieworlds, as Jacob says, is not nearly as gay as it sounds. It is a 3 day gathering to listen to amazing music, dance your legs off, hang out with amazing people, and dress up however you want. We had everything from your classic faeries with wings, so Avatar Chick, to your dark elves. We had lost boys and girls, stilters and demons, people who looked like they just came from ren faire, and many many others. I myself was a forrest nymph, and that was a good look, because it involved shredded shorts and shirts, and since we were in the sun all day at Mt. Pisgah, having ventilation was a good thing.
I was camping with Jeremy and Lyra... and Kat... and Gishe. And we were right next to Isha and Corey and Daniel and Yona and Moksha. It was a very beautiful camping circle.
We got to listen to Delhi 2 Dublin, Tricky Pixie, Brother, Faun, Stellamara, and many others (I chose to list these because these are the guys you should go check out) and dance for 3 days. We also got to do a wee little show. It was choreograhed and prepared in about 6 hours, and executed that night. It was a glow show, about the story (according to peter pan) of imagination and faeries. It came out not nearly as well as I had hoped, but it ended up much better than I could ever have expected. SO! I can now say I choreographed a piece for Faerieworlds. I can also say that I have taken part in the fire ceremony in front of about 5,000 people. This year, it was a duet, between myself and a belly dancer named LuLu. I did some torch spinning and a big fire blast. Oh, and this was after Faun. Yeah, I got to follow Faun and perform in front of about 5,000 people.
In the time when I was not dancing or performing, I was scurrying about the place having fun and talking to people and getting my picture taken for the register guard (newspaper). What was I doing to get myself in the newspaper you ask? Was I doing amazing acrobatics or juggling fire chainsaws? no. I was crouching. Not only that, I was not moving at all. I was crouched on one of the rocks in the stone circle in a somewhat gargoyle pose, and I was not moving. My guess is that over the weekend, about 50 or 60 people took pictures of/with me. And many more just stood there and watched me. I have never had such an easy time attracting people as when I did not move. How weird is that. So there is a picture of me in the sunday register guard of me on a rock. I am going to do this in downtown eugene to advertise our new exploits. Which I will now explain.
In other news, Lyra and I have decided to start a circus/performance arts troupe. It is named Kirkos Performance Arts. Technically it is Κιρκος, but I don't know many people who can read greek, so that looks like kipkoc, which is not right... Kirkos is greek for "ring" or "circle," and also where the word circus comes from, because the original circuses were horse tracks. The original circuses in greek and roman times were highly unique for their times as well. The circus was one of the only social events that both men and women could go to - and the only one where they could sit together. I liked that idea. So our goal is to bring circus and performance arts (including dance, theatre, and anything else we want) to the everyman.
So, using Jeremy's massive Faerieworlds contacts, we managed to get our first gig. We havn't started rehearsals yet, and we hve our first gig. We are starting at the top this time. We are performing on Halloween in Seattle, WA for Strowler Nights. Yeah. That's right. It's gonna be awesome.
I think that is all the updates from the front as of yet, but I will keep you guys posted as more interesting things develop.
In order to get to the airport at 11:00AM, we (Emilie and I) had to lug out luggage a mile and a half to the train station, make a transfer to a bus in 2 minutes (which involved running with out luggage, her suitcase didn't have wheels) and then walk around the philly airport to find the right terminals on foot. Oh yeah, and did I mention the 3 hour layover for the 4.5 hour flight, and then two hour drive back to Eugene? If you do the math on that one and take time changes into consideration, it was roughly 15 hours of travel time. That. SUCKS.
Well, I got home, and now with the beautiful weather, I can appreciate the pages and pages of notes I have from philly. It was an experience that I am glad I had, not just for circus experience, but a cultural one as well. I have never been so scared as I was the first week there. I have never been so severe a minority as I was there. As a result of this, I can say with quite a fair amount of conviction that it was one of the most important experiences in my circus career and my cultural life, and I can also say with equal conviction that it is an experience I fully plan to never repeat as long as I live.
Oh, and just to smirk a bit - my weather widget claims that it is 96 in Tucson, and 63 in Eugene at noon. This makes me happy.
I got two packages this week: 2 new CD's from Carly, which I am listening to right now, and my new 4" contact ball, which is going to hide in the shade until the end of it's days.
Alright, I suppose I should write about Faerieworlds.
Faerieworlds, as Jacob says, is not nearly as gay as it sounds. It is a 3 day gathering to listen to amazing music, dance your legs off, hang out with amazing people, and dress up however you want. We had everything from your classic faeries with wings, so Avatar Chick, to your dark elves. We had lost boys and girls, stilters and demons, people who looked like they just came from ren faire, and many many others. I myself was a forrest nymph, and that was a good look, because it involved shredded shorts and shirts, and since we were in the sun all day at Mt. Pisgah, having ventilation was a good thing.
I was camping with Jeremy and Lyra... and Kat... and Gishe. And we were right next to Isha and Corey and Daniel and Yona and Moksha. It was a very beautiful camping circle.
We got to listen to Delhi 2 Dublin, Tricky Pixie, Brother, Faun, Stellamara, and many others (I chose to list these because these are the guys you should go check out) and dance for 3 days. We also got to do a wee little show. It was choreograhed and prepared in about 6 hours, and executed that night. It was a glow show, about the story (according to peter pan) of imagination and faeries. It came out not nearly as well as I had hoped, but it ended up much better than I could ever have expected. SO! I can now say I choreographed a piece for Faerieworlds. I can also say that I have taken part in the fire ceremony in front of about 5,000 people. This year, it was a duet, between myself and a belly dancer named LuLu. I did some torch spinning and a big fire blast. Oh, and this was after Faun. Yeah, I got to follow Faun and perform in front of about 5,000 people.
In the time when I was not dancing or performing, I was scurrying about the place having fun and talking to people and getting my picture taken for the register guard (newspaper). What was I doing to get myself in the newspaper you ask? Was I doing amazing acrobatics or juggling fire chainsaws? no. I was crouching. Not only that, I was not moving at all. I was crouched on one of the rocks in the stone circle in a somewhat gargoyle pose, and I was not moving. My guess is that over the weekend, about 50 or 60 people took pictures of/with me. And many more just stood there and watched me. I have never had such an easy time attracting people as when I did not move. How weird is that. So there is a picture of me in the sunday register guard of me on a rock. I am going to do this in downtown eugene to advertise our new exploits. Which I will now explain.
In other news, Lyra and I have decided to start a circus/performance arts troupe. It is named Kirkos Performance Arts. Technically it is Κιρκος, but I don't know many people who can read greek, so that looks like kipkoc, which is not right... Kirkos is greek for "ring" or "circle," and also where the word circus comes from, because the original circuses were horse tracks. The original circuses in greek and roman times were highly unique for their times as well. The circus was one of the only social events that both men and women could go to - and the only one where they could sit together. I liked that idea. So our goal is to bring circus and performance arts (including dance, theatre, and anything else we want) to the everyman.
So, using Jeremy's massive Faerieworlds contacts, we managed to get our first gig. We havn't started rehearsals yet, and we hve our first gig. We are starting at the top this time. We are performing on Halloween in Seattle, WA for Strowler Nights. Yeah. That's right. It's gonna be awesome.
I think that is all the updates from the front as of yet, but I will keep you guys posted as more interesting things develop.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
A Rant About Fushigi
If you have not heard of the Fushigi Ball, go watch that video, and then come read the rest of this.
Now that you've seen the "brand new, dynamically designed ball," allow me to yell about it for a few minutes.
#1 Fushigi is a noun, I can deal with this. Fushigi= acrylic/steel hybrid ball. Turns out fushigi is also a verb. It is synonymous with "contact juggling." I am gonna say it right now - the first person that comes up to me at market and sees me doin my thing and says "ooh! FUSHIGI!" I am gonna kick their ass with my torrent of corrections to their clearly flawed knowledge of the art.
#2 Fushigi lies. "Using FUSHIGI is an incredible, therapeutic form of relaxation"
Anyone here contact juggle? For those of you who do not, you know I make it look pretty easy. For those of you who do, you understand the HOURS of frustration I spent trying to learn this art. The months I spent learning a simple trick like a chest roll, or a 3 ball palm spin. Or a decent isolation. The years I have been doing this for and still screw up a waterfall if I am not devoting my whole self to it. After several YEARS on training, yes - a simply palm isolation or butterfly can be relaxing. Let me restate that: years. how many average american teens (who are the demographic of this, given the commercial) do you know who are willing to stick with something as stupidly hard and frustrating as contact juggling to get something "therapeutic." I answer myself - none. Not even me. I do it as a performance art, always have. Never have I thought about devoting time to learn something like this to relax myself.
#3 The existence of Fushigi is a serious double edged sword.
Pro: people might start to know what contact juggling actually is, and so there might be more of us around to spread ideas. If fushigi becomes part of mainstream culture, I will have to explain to less people what I am doing with that crazy ball that looks like it floats.
Con: does anyone remember what happened to poi? It was an obscure art with a very purist following - then mainstream culture got ahold of it and bastardized it. I am not overstating that. You see poi at raves with girls wearing almost no clothes, and doing 3 beat weave and butterfly thinking they are hot shit. Now, if you say "yeah, I do poi" this is what comes to mind - it has become a normal thing to do as a workout (every time I say "poi," feel free to substitute "hoop" and it still holds true). Anyone seen the poi videos (or hoopgirl)? After poi became part of mainstream culture, it became less impressive. It became largely about sex (not everyone, mind you - I have many poi heros who are circus purists) and this is just not ok with me. Sensuality has its place, but not flat out sex. I have seen so many videos where a girl is doing poi or hoop and is just doing... well... pelvic thrusts. The crowd cheers. This SUCKS! I have a fear that this will happen to contact juggling if Fushigi succeeds. I am not saying it will become about sex, but mark my words, the American public will find some other way to dirty up a beautiful and elegant art.
I think the cons outweight the pros... FUSHIGI GO AWAY!
I think that is all I have to yell about for now.
Now that you've seen the "brand new, dynamically designed ball," allow me to yell about it for a few minutes.
#1 Fushigi is a noun, I can deal with this. Fushigi= acrylic/steel hybrid ball. Turns out fushigi is also a verb. It is synonymous with "contact juggling." I am gonna say it right now - the first person that comes up to me at market and sees me doin my thing and says "ooh! FUSHIGI!" I am gonna kick their ass with my torrent of corrections to their clearly flawed knowledge of the art.
#2 Fushigi lies. "Using FUSHIGI is an incredible, therapeutic form of relaxation"
Anyone here contact juggle? For those of you who do not, you know I make it look pretty easy. For those of you who do, you understand the HOURS of frustration I spent trying to learn this art. The months I spent learning a simple trick like a chest roll, or a 3 ball palm spin. Or a decent isolation. The years I have been doing this for and still screw up a waterfall if I am not devoting my whole self to it. After several YEARS on training, yes - a simply palm isolation or butterfly can be relaxing. Let me restate that: years. how many average american teens (who are the demographic of this, given the commercial) do you know who are willing to stick with something as stupidly hard and frustrating as contact juggling to get something "therapeutic." I answer myself - none. Not even me. I do it as a performance art, always have. Never have I thought about devoting time to learn something like this to relax myself.
#3 The existence of Fushigi is a serious double edged sword.
Pro: people might start to know what contact juggling actually is, and so there might be more of us around to spread ideas. If fushigi becomes part of mainstream culture, I will have to explain to less people what I am doing with that crazy ball that looks like it floats.
Con: does anyone remember what happened to poi? It was an obscure art with a very purist following - then mainstream culture got ahold of it and bastardized it. I am not overstating that. You see poi at raves with girls wearing almost no clothes, and doing 3 beat weave and butterfly thinking they are hot shit. Now, if you say "yeah, I do poi" this is what comes to mind - it has become a normal thing to do as a workout (every time I say "poi," feel free to substitute "hoop" and it still holds true). Anyone seen the poi videos (or hoopgirl)? After poi became part of mainstream culture, it became less impressive. It became largely about sex (not everyone, mind you - I have many poi heros who are circus purists) and this is just not ok with me. Sensuality has its place, but not flat out sex. I have seen so many videos where a girl is doing poi or hoop and is just doing... well... pelvic thrusts. The crowd cheers. This SUCKS! I have a fear that this will happen to contact juggling if Fushigi succeeds. I am not saying it will become about sex, but mark my words, the American public will find some other way to dirty up a beautiful and elegant art.
I think the cons outweight the pros... FUSHIGI GO AWAY!
I think that is all I have to yell about for now.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Quotes 1 (I expect there will be more)
I'll give you the link up front
http://www.askmen.com/top_10/entertainment/top-10-quotes-about-men-that-every-man-should-live-by.html
And then I shall list the quotes in reverse order, as they do, with my own annotations, and why I hate this website.
10. "A man does what he must - in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers, and pressures - and that is the basis of all human morality" ~JFK
outstanding quote, but I will say it now, and know that it is to apply to (almost) all of the quotes to follow: I think that this should apply to the old form of the word "men," meaning people (i.e. mankind) and if they didn't write it that way, then they are assholes.
9. "Men are like steel. When they lose their temper, they lose their worth" ~Chuck Norris
possibly the best thing Mr. Norris has ever said. I am a huge supporter of keeping your temper, and I believe that when you lose it, you start making stupid decisions that get you nowhere.
8. "After a certain age every man is responsible for his face" ~Albert Camus
This was explained to mean "we are all products of our past, and at a certain point, who you are is a reflection of what you have done, and when you reach that age, you'd better be proud of the choices you've made." I like that, physical decay as a metaphor for moral decay. If only having a good moral life would assure your health and attractiveness into your senior years.
7. "Big jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow small ones" ~Teddy Roosevelt
I really like this one, and the more general meaning, which is (to me) to work hard at everything you do, because only then can you get to the "doing" of better things.
6. "Few men have the virtue to withstand the highest bidder" ~ G. Washington
Whether you are talking monetary price or a less tangible price, I do think that every man (person) has his (or her) price and that you should be able to resist the opportunity to compromise your morals at all costs - ideally...
5. "Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship" ~Oscar Wilde
Before I comment on this one, I'm gonna give you the website's annotations:
"It’s an old quote that’s revisited by Billy Crystal in When Harry Met Sally -- there’s no such thing as a platonic relationship between a man and a woman. The man is usually consumed with the idea of sleeping with her. It’s a belief widely acknowledged by men, but rarely accepted by women. Remember that. Movie and dinner nights might mean one thing to you, but she certainly doesn’t view it as a precursor to intercourse."
To which a commenter on this page responded:
"Just to give you what you deserve...
Quotations are the tools of the witless - Oscar Wilde
And platonic relationships ARE possible, so don't blame the whole gender for your sexual desperation. "
I agree with the second thing this guy said. This quote is terrible, but worse than that is the comment that was said about it... "it is a belief widely acknowledged by men." I love generalizations, I do, but this one is terrible. I have nothing more to say.
4. "it is not titles that make men illustrious, but men who make titles illustrious" ~Machiavelli
I think this one goes along with the Roosevelt quote - if you work hard and take pride in what you do, things will be better than if you don't work hard and don't care.
3. "When men speak ill of thee, live so as nobody may believe them" ~Plato
I think this one goes on my favorite quotes of all time list. I do my best to live this way, not to say I do, but I try. I am not yet perfect, but that doesn't mean I cannot strive to be.
2. "There is one kind of robber whom the law does not strike at, and who steals what is more precious to men: time" ~Napoleon
Life is short, and if you want to get done what you need to, you had better use all the time you have - go Napoleon, you marauding dick-head!
1. "A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do" ~Bob Dylan
I think that you should do what you love and love what you do, and if you can pull that off, you are truly successful - but doing what you love and doing what you want are not the same thing i my book. I love circus and dance, but I don't want to do them all day every day - even though I hope that is what my job will be.
And now, miscellaneous quotes put in comments that people thought should have been in the list.
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power"
"The masculine imagination lives in a state of perpetual revolt against the limitations of human life" I would like it better if masculine was changed to human.
"Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind."
-Bruce Lee
Goodnight, until my next update - most likely on friday or saturday!
http://www.askmen.com/top_10/entertainment/top-10-quotes-about-men-that-every-man-should-live-by.html
And then I shall list the quotes in reverse order, as they do, with my own annotations, and why I hate this website.
10. "A man does what he must - in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers, and pressures - and that is the basis of all human morality" ~JFK
outstanding quote, but I will say it now, and know that it is to apply to (almost) all of the quotes to follow: I think that this should apply to the old form of the word "men," meaning people (i.e. mankind) and if they didn't write it that way, then they are assholes.
9. "Men are like steel. When they lose their temper, they lose their worth" ~Chuck Norris
possibly the best thing Mr. Norris has ever said. I am a huge supporter of keeping your temper, and I believe that when you lose it, you start making stupid decisions that get you nowhere.
8. "After a certain age every man is responsible for his face" ~Albert Camus
This was explained to mean "we are all products of our past, and at a certain point, who you are is a reflection of what you have done, and when you reach that age, you'd better be proud of the choices you've made." I like that, physical decay as a metaphor for moral decay. If only having a good moral life would assure your health and attractiveness into your senior years.
7. "Big jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow small ones" ~Teddy Roosevelt
I really like this one, and the more general meaning, which is (to me) to work hard at everything you do, because only then can you get to the "doing" of better things.
6. "Few men have the virtue to withstand the highest bidder" ~ G. Washington
Whether you are talking monetary price or a less tangible price, I do think that every man (person) has his (or her) price and that you should be able to resist the opportunity to compromise your morals at all costs - ideally...
5. "Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship" ~Oscar Wilde
Before I comment on this one, I'm gonna give you the website's annotations:
"It’s an old quote that’s revisited by Billy Crystal in When Harry Met Sally -- there’s no such thing as a platonic relationship between a man and a woman. The man is usually consumed with the idea of sleeping with her. It’s a belief widely acknowledged by men, but rarely accepted by women. Remember that. Movie and dinner nights might mean one thing to you, but she certainly doesn’t view it as a precursor to intercourse."
To which a commenter on this page responded:
"Just to give you what you deserve...
Quotations are the tools of the witless - Oscar Wilde
And platonic relationships ARE possible, so don't blame the whole gender for your sexual desperation. "
I agree with the second thing this guy said. This quote is terrible, but worse than that is the comment that was said about it... "it is a belief widely acknowledged by men." I love generalizations, I do, but this one is terrible. I have nothing more to say.
4. "it is not titles that make men illustrious, but men who make titles illustrious" ~Machiavelli
I think this one goes along with the Roosevelt quote - if you work hard and take pride in what you do, things will be better than if you don't work hard and don't care.
3. "When men speak ill of thee, live so as nobody may believe them" ~Plato
I think this one goes on my favorite quotes of all time list. I do my best to live this way, not to say I do, but I try. I am not yet perfect, but that doesn't mean I cannot strive to be.
2. "There is one kind of robber whom the law does not strike at, and who steals what is more precious to men: time" ~Napoleon
Life is short, and if you want to get done what you need to, you had better use all the time you have - go Napoleon, you marauding dick-head!
1. "A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do" ~Bob Dylan
I think that you should do what you love and love what you do, and if you can pull that off, you are truly successful - but doing what you love and doing what you want are not the same thing i my book. I love circus and dance, but I don't want to do them all day every day - even though I hope that is what my job will be.
And now, miscellaneous quotes put in comments that people thought should have been in the list.
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power"
"The masculine imagination lives in a state of perpetual revolt against the limitations of human life" I would like it better if masculine was changed to human.
"Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind."
-Bruce Lee
Goodnight, until my next update - most likely on friday or saturday!
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Philadelphia, half way done
So, the training continues. Yes indeed, I continue to learn. I currently have three pages in my notebook filled with tricks and sequences on rope (corde lisse, spanish web, free rope, whathaveyou) and a routine that got choreographed at six in the morning the other day, and I am proud to say, got rehearsed for the first time this morning! It is going to be a lot of work, but of the four anticipated hurdles, we have glided through one effortlessly, and found a work around to the other. We got halfway through it in one day, and plan to knock out the other half tomorrow. This will allow us to start doing run-throughs on Thursday at the latest!
In other news, Philly sucks. Oh wait, I think I said that already. However, Philly sucks less this week! Three reasons why:
1. I am projecting badass-ness, as per my father's and Jeremy's advice, and people leave me alone for the most part (except to ask for change).
2. I have a very good system for getting downtown, where I am not a minority to pick on, and where there are things to do besides sit at home - these things, I will go into later.
3. It is cooler this week! We had a high of 81 today (the coolest it's been since I arrived) and the cause of this, you ask? RAIN! It rained all day yesterday and most of today. Made me miss Eugene rain a little bit, but I appreciated it nonetheless. Additionally, I got to laugh at Emilie, as she brought no waterproof clothes and got soaked on our walk to the school this morning.
Alright, so - my downtown adventures. Emilie offered to take me out to dinner last night (I'm still not entirely clear on what I was being thanked for), so we went to this amazing sushi joint called Fuji Mountain. Apart from dropping $45 on five rolls of sushi, we got quite a treat. When we first sat down, the little cute Japanese waitress said to us (in a very thick accent, so it was honestly difficult to pick out what she was saying) "In honor of our restaurant's 15th (or 50th, we are not sure what she said) anniversary, we are offering free sake to our customers, would you like yours served hot or cold?"
I, being only 19, was quite confused that she didn't ask for either one of our IDs, and was stunned into silence. Emilie (who is 21, and used to ordering alcohol) did not drop the ball, and answered "hot, please." I am proud to say that I got to try sake, and it was delicious! And the ceramic bottle it came in was so cute too! And they didn't ask for IDs at any point (I assume they would have done it before, because asking for IDs after giving someone alcohol would be stupid) either because we looked over 21, or because they didn't care. I expect it was the second option.
After that, we didn't want to go home, as it was only 9:30, so we wandered around, and ended up at this awesome little smoke shop (we were enticed by the owner who was smoking hookah on the stoop) so we chilled out there, and looked at his wares, which were very pretty, and THE COOLEST HOOKAH HOSE EVER! It was a dragon handle, with a 90 degree bend in it, and he had a hooked chin, such that you could hang the hose on the ash catch! Plus it was made of stone and it was just plain pretty. It was also $25, which is just a stupid amount to pay for one hose. SO! It goes on the already expansive list of "things I would buy if I had more money than I know what to do with." I really should start keeping a physical list, just to remind myself how much money I don't have - it would be depressingly wonderful!
Then we walked around a bit more, and listened to a guy play an amplified harmonica, and a couple singers (yeah, at 10:30 at night) and then promptly got lost finding the right entrance to the subway - which was too bad, because up till that point I had a 100% navigation efficiency for the day.
And today, when I got home (after my afternoon nap) I turned on my internet television and watched the Germany v Uruguay game, and what a game it was! For those of you who care, you should already know, and those of you who don't, do not want to know, and so naturally, I will tell you anyway. Germany won 3-2, which is good for several reasons.
I like Germany
I like Ghana
Uruguay kicked Ghana out of the tournament
I like it when Uruguay loses
Similarly, I am rooting for Netherlands tomorrow (for which I will be attending Fadó Irish Pub downtown) for these reasons
I like Germany
Spain beat Germany, putting them in the third place game, therefore I do not like Spain
I like Ghana, and Uruguay beat Ghana, putting them out
Netherlands beat Uruguay, sending them to the third place game, therefore I like Netherlands
This will be the biggest "who cares" final for me ever - the only way I can find to root for someone is by which team has done my teams more harm or good.
GO ORANGE!
Oh, and I had a brilliant idea about how to stay cool at night, and I implemented it last night. I moved my bed to the floor and into a little enclave in my room next to the window/fan. This is good for cool, but kinda fun - because the enclave is not wide enough for the bed, so it curls up on one side - it's like having a comfy wall to lean up against now!
I'm pretty sure that is all I've got for you guys this week, because I don't really want to go into the actual tricks I am learning, because it would make sense to exactly none of you.
So, goodbye everybody, until next time!
In other news, Philly sucks. Oh wait, I think I said that already. However, Philly sucks less this week! Three reasons why:
1. I am projecting badass-ness, as per my father's and Jeremy's advice, and people leave me alone for the most part (except to ask for change).
2. I have a very good system for getting downtown, where I am not a minority to pick on, and where there are things to do besides sit at home - these things, I will go into later.
3. It is cooler this week! We had a high of 81 today (the coolest it's been since I arrived) and the cause of this, you ask? RAIN! It rained all day yesterday and most of today. Made me miss Eugene rain a little bit, but I appreciated it nonetheless. Additionally, I got to laugh at Emilie, as she brought no waterproof clothes and got soaked on our walk to the school this morning.
Alright, so - my downtown adventures. Emilie offered to take me out to dinner last night (I'm still not entirely clear on what I was being thanked for), so we went to this amazing sushi joint called Fuji Mountain. Apart from dropping $45 on five rolls of sushi, we got quite a treat. When we first sat down, the little cute Japanese waitress said to us (in a very thick accent, so it was honestly difficult to pick out what she was saying) "In honor of our restaurant's 15th (or 50th, we are not sure what she said) anniversary, we are offering free sake to our customers, would you like yours served hot or cold?"
I, being only 19, was quite confused that she didn't ask for either one of our IDs, and was stunned into silence. Emilie (who is 21, and used to ordering alcohol) did not drop the ball, and answered "hot, please." I am proud to say that I got to try sake, and it was delicious! And the ceramic bottle it came in was so cute too! And they didn't ask for IDs at any point (I assume they would have done it before, because asking for IDs after giving someone alcohol would be stupid) either because we looked over 21, or because they didn't care. I expect it was the second option.
After that, we didn't want to go home, as it was only 9:30, so we wandered around, and ended up at this awesome little smoke shop (we were enticed by the owner who was smoking hookah on the stoop) so we chilled out there, and looked at his wares, which were very pretty, and THE COOLEST HOOKAH HOSE EVER! It was a dragon handle, with a 90 degree bend in it, and he had a hooked chin, such that you could hang the hose on the ash catch! Plus it was made of stone and it was just plain pretty. It was also $25, which is just a stupid amount to pay for one hose. SO! It goes on the already expansive list of "things I would buy if I had more money than I know what to do with." I really should start keeping a physical list, just to remind myself how much money I don't have - it would be depressingly wonderful!
Then we walked around a bit more, and listened to a guy play an amplified harmonica, and a couple singers (yeah, at 10:30 at night) and then promptly got lost finding the right entrance to the subway - which was too bad, because up till that point I had a 100% navigation efficiency for the day.
And today, when I got home (after my afternoon nap) I turned on my internet television and watched the Germany v Uruguay game, and what a game it was! For those of you who care, you should already know, and those of you who don't, do not want to know, and so naturally, I will tell you anyway. Germany won 3-2, which is good for several reasons.
I like Germany
I like Ghana
Uruguay kicked Ghana out of the tournament
I like it when Uruguay loses
Similarly, I am rooting for Netherlands tomorrow (for which I will be attending Fadó Irish Pub downtown) for these reasons
I like Germany
Spain beat Germany, putting them in the third place game, therefore I do not like Spain
I like Ghana, and Uruguay beat Ghana, putting them out
Netherlands beat Uruguay, sending them to the third place game, therefore I like Netherlands
This will be the biggest "who cares" final for me ever - the only way I can find to root for someone is by which team has done my teams more harm or good.
GO ORANGE!
Oh, and I had a brilliant idea about how to stay cool at night, and I implemented it last night. I moved my bed to the floor and into a little enclave in my room next to the window/fan. This is good for cool, but kinda fun - because the enclave is not wide enough for the bed, so it curls up on one side - it's like having a comfy wall to lean up against now!
I'm pretty sure that is all I've got for you guys this week, because I don't really want to go into the actual tricks I am learning, because it would make sense to exactly none of you.
So, goodbye everybody, until next time!
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Philadelphia: Training and Futbol
So it is saturday night (technically sunday morning) here. Happy 4th of July everybody! I wished my country happy birthday, and it felt kinda cool. I expect sleeping tomorrow will be stupidly impossible cuz of fireworks (which started on wednesday). I'll give you guys the lowdown on this week. Monday: got here, got lost on the bus system trying to get here. On the way I discovered 3 things: 1. I am a minority up here 2. Philadelphia is very large, and easy to get lost in 3. You know you are in a bad spot when you get helped out by a homeless dude trying to sell you a package of boxers Once I got myself to the house, I pretty much just slept all day, which is all I ever do up here - the heat just sucks the life out of you. Tuesday: emilie had her first lesson, but since this blog isn't about her, you will have to ask her yourself if you want to find out about her adventures. Only interesting thing: I vowed to not let her walk around Phily alone whenever possible, and we would NEVER walk around at night unless absolutely necessary. Reasoning: if you havn't been following my status updates, I live in the hood. Not like south Tucson hood, this is the east coast, gangs all around you, scary as FUCK hood. Wednesday: first of eleven rope lessons with one of my two teachers, Brenden (also the person we are staying with). We asked for hardcore training, to not ease up, and work us until we can't work anymore. Well, we got it. We stumbled home after the most intense hour of our lives. I learned, in that day alone, 4 new transitions, 3 new climbs, 2 new tricks, and a conditioning exercise (someone make a 12 days of rope training song about that, please). Thursday: More emilie training, I juggled in the corner, and decided that I wanted to learn walking globe, seeing as they have 5 of them. So while emilie is in her acrobatics and conditioning classes, I will do that. I like to watch her trapeze classes, because I am leaning just by watching. Friday: rope lesson 2/11. same as wednesday: really intense, lots of learning. Thank goodness I have a notebook to write all this stuff down in, otherwise I'd never be able to remember it. I am gonna have a lot of stuff to teach my kids when I get back home - not just tricks, but technique that needs sharpening. THEN LATER THAT DAY! Actually, imidiately, I kinda ran out of the studio to catch a bus. I took this bus to the subway station, and that to downtown phily. I have been to new york, when I was younger. I don't remember it very well. This blew me away. Everything was huge, and I couldn't tell which way was north, but the best thing was, IT WASN'T THE HOOD! Everyone had friendly eyes, there were street performers, and I wasn't a minority. There were people of every color running around these busy streets. I found myself in the Irish Pub I was looking for, and since it was game day, they wern't checking IDs. I stood in the back and watched the best futbol match of the tournament to date: ghana v uruguay. Alas, our team lost, but we had an amazing time. All of the Ghana fans bonded together, and whenever something went right we went crazy hugging and high fiving and yelling. I had a very sore voice. This yelling and screaming contributed to me getting sick the next morning, and not being able to go to the German Bar on south st. to watch the Germany v Argentina game. Which I now regret, because it was a killer game for Deutschland. Ah well, I am gonna get to watch them play spain on wednesday before my rope lesson (google maps, you are my best friend). Today: I slept all day, and then read some stuff, and slept some more. It's a recovery weekend. The heat is killer, and the training is exhausting, and I spend a lot of time doing nothing... More to come next week in Connor's Crazy Adventure!
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Belated Blog
Well, I took a blog hiatus due to the insanity on my life that was dead week and finals week, but they are over, and I’ll give you the quick run down.
Linear Algebra: got a 23/35 on my final (I know that sounds low, right?) but I have an A in the class
Linguistics: Got a 9/10 on my final paper on German, and combined with my 9 on my first paper and my 86 on my first midterm, grade is looking good (still waiting on the second midterm for the final grade)
Several Variable Calculus: I did really well in the class as a whole (95 and 87 on the midterms, and 97 average on the quizzes), and I think I got a mid B on the final, so I’m expecting an A– in the class.
Chemistry: This class to be perfectly honest, kicked my ass, but I am positive that it kicked everyone else’s ass more. In addition, I feel really good about the final (lots of questions taken from past quizzes which I studied all night the night before) so I am expecting a B in the class. Again, fortunately, the third term of O-Chem is supposed to be way easier than the second.
BUT! Enough of classes, I dealt with them for the last 2 weeks so much that textbooks were flying out of my ears, so I don’t want to talk about them anymore.
So spring break has begun, and what are my plans for this week? How am I going to let loose and relax after a really stressful two weeks? Anyone who knows me well will know the answer: I am going to take advantage of my free time by working more. I have about 5 hours of work every day at bounce (possibly more, I told Naja to give me as much as she can). This will help with my money situation, because I can’t work that much during the week (because there are only two circus classes per week, and I can’t teach gymnastics or trampoline). So that’s exciting.
Oh, and I am staying at Evan’s house over spring break, and so is Kat – I think this is the proof that we are not faking out friendship, we actually did have a clean break up – she is actually here with me now at my favorite coffee shop right across from me – she is gonna help us set up the gym tonight!
But what is more exciting is this: I CAN HAS PUR4MINCE 2NITE!
Yep, I have my first show in 6 months on circus (that new years thing doesn’t count, that was structured improv). We have lights, sound, choreography, a story and everything! OH! And costumes! We have the most amazing costumes courtesy of Mitra, who is amazing. She made tailored costumes, and they are SO FRENCH CIRCUS! I’ll have pictures on facebook very soon, so keep your eyes peeled. In addition, we are going to get a video recording courtesy of the Nolan family (parents of one of our little girls – for those of you who read the Register Guard, they printed an article on us, and Melody Nolan was the cover picture for us).
You can find it on the Register Guard website, but here is my favorite part:
The other adult performers are Adrienne Wise, Francine Porter and Connor Cobbledick.
Cobbledick is a 19-year-old who moved to Eugene from Tucson, Ariz., to attend the University of Oregon. He studied circus in Arizona.
Cobbledick designed a trapeze piece, performed to the song “No Signs of Pain” by Azure Ray.
For Cobbledick, the piece is personal and emotional. It’s about a specific event involving one of his friends.
“You don’t have to have words to tell a story,” he said.
I’ve never been mentioned like that in the newspaper! And they didn’t misquote me or anything! How cool is that? I am so glad that I get to tell the story that I mentioned in a previous blog (Progress), and according to my co-workers, it gets the emotion across (I even got a little teared up the last time I did the piece). So, that’s all very exciting for me.
Erm, thats about it for my life. Due to the craziness of my schedule:
Day in the life of Connor over the last two weeks
Get up at 9 for breakfast before classes/finals
Get done with classes/finals between noon and 1
Sleep till 4:30
Go to work/rehearsal till 9/9:30
Come home and get dinner
Study until 4 in the morning
That’s all I have been doing for the last two weeks. It is awesome. That’s all for me, I’ve got to get going in a bit to work, call is at 5, and I want to get there a little early to get the idea of what we are going. Wish me luck! I love you Kali!
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