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.

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!

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!

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!

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!

An Untitled Blog In March

Well, derby last night was awesome. We played several *almost* full on jams. There were a couple of people we were playing with who we weren't allowed to hit, but I laid into a couple people pretty good. It was a blast! My piece for circus is about ⅔ of the way choreographed, and I hope to finish it before the week is over, and that gives me two weeks to perfect (ish) it.

OH! And at my coffee joint, Perugino, where I go every Tuesday and Thursday before work, I am officially a regular! I walked in today and got “alright, soooo. Baklava and a 12 oz. Latte?” Which is correct, because it is what I get every time I come in here. It feels good to be a regular somewhere again (I miss Franks…. I’m actually wearing my Franks shirt right now, as chance would have it) like I’m finally starting to live here. I’ve been struggling a lot lately with the feeling of impermanence.

The last 6 months in Tucson were really terrible because I felt like there was a ticking clock on my existence, and the last couple weeks were almost surreal, knowing that once I packed up my stuff, there was a very good chance I would never actually live there again. This place where I grew up, and this city which taught me so much about who I am, and I would be leaving it behind. Now I am here in Eugene, and I love it. This is an amazing town for me, the people are great, the weather is fantastic, and it is exactly what I need. But I registered for classes a week ago, and realized that this is my life. I register for the classes I need for the next term, with the goal of graduating in 3 years. And what happens when I graduate? I leave. I go to Montreal for cirque, or wherever they send me (assuming I get in) or I go to San Francisco or LA and work there, or go wherever. The point is, is that there is no life for me in terms of circus here in Eugene. Now, 3 years is a long time, I understand, not nearly as close as 6 months, but it is still a clock. There isn’t that element of mystery of time that I was used to in Tucson. I didn’t want to go to the U of A, but I didn’t know if I would end up there, I really didn’t. But I have regular friends, and I have a job doing what I love most in this world, I have a regular schedule where I get done what I need to get done. I go shopping for food and supplies, I watch movies, I do things that Police would disapprove of, which I will never elaborate in a blog about, and I met a girl who I liked, and so I asked her out, and we are getting coffee this weekend. Which, for the record, I have never done in my life.

I realized about an hour or two ago (thank you mid-afternoon nap dreaming) that, as simple as it may seem, that is what “living” is. So what if there is a clock on my existence in a place? Life is learning all you can and doing the most with the time you are given, whether you know how much time that is or not. I am loved by people, and I love people. I am surrounded by good people and good energy and every once in a while I need to re-remember: that’s all you need (yeah, all you need is love – who knew…). If I wanted permanence in my life, I should have chosen to be a scientist or a professor. I should have been a working cog in the wheel. But that is boring, and doesn’t bring me joy. Sure, there are many noble jobs that keep the world turning and moving forwards and many I would be honored to have. But every day I would wake up and know what I was going to do. I could never wake up, go to a chem lab, and say to myself, today, I shall invent a new reaction. But I can go to the studio and say to myself that I am going to invent a new silks wrap, or a new trapeze hold. I could go into a chem lab and see the same people every day and work towards the same goal, and that would be great. But I would much rather do shows and get to see new people every day out there in the audience, and watch their faces as I show them something they have never seen in their lives before. I have seen that face before, and I dawn it myself quite often, and that is the face and the feeling that everyone needs to have more often.

Oh, and going backwards a little bit, the girl I asked out deserves a bigger part in this blog. She was painted as a footnote when I mentioned her, and I try to make this blog represent my life accurately, and I spend more time on things that matter more. So thats-a-what-imma-do.

She is an actress in CATS, and I saw her when I saw it the first time. It was amazing, She was incredible. So I talked to her a little bit after, got a picture, flirted a little bit (like ya do) and went about my night. Two days later, decided that wasn’t good enough, bought a ticket for 2 weeks later, and went back. But this time, I had a determination. I was going to ask out a complete stranger, whom I knew nothing about, except her name and that she was an amazing dancer. So I did. When I asked her out, and I was going to get my jacket and wait for her to get changed back into street clothes, one of the other actresses from the show calls me over and basically interrogates me. No joke.

“Were you here three weeks ago?”

*nods*

“And you like Chelsea?”

*nods*

“How old are you?”

“19”

*whew*

Apparently I had been the talk of the cast since my last appearance, and there was a debate afoot.

“Chelsea! Why didn’t you flirt with hot eyeliner guy more?”

“Chelsea, there is no way, he is way too old for you! He is like 23!”

“C’mon guys, give him a chance, besides, he is 20 years old, tops.

Chelsea: “…”

So, now that that’s settled, I have no idea what to do. How do you do a date when you know nothing about a girl (I know that sounds dumb, because I know, you ask her stuff about her and you take the time to learn. But remember, every relationship I have ever been in has been with someone I was friends with for a considerable amount of time first) but I shall do my best.

That seems like an appropriate amount of time to spend on Ms. Chelsea in a blog. Moving on… tooooooo… erm… OH!

So when I was hanging out at the Actor’s Cabaret during intermission, the owner guy comes up to me and asks if I am in musical theatre of just acting (apparently I look like a theatre kind of guy – and yes, I know I am spelling “theatre” that way) and I told him I had not done much of musical theatre or acting, but I am a dancer. And you should have seen his face, he got so excited (apparently, they have no shortage of singers and actors in Eugene, but people dancers who can perform are hard to come by) and I told him that I am out of town over the summer, but he told me to get on the mailing list and that he expects to see me in auditions next year. I asked my girl Evylyn (my interrogator) if I look that much like a dancer that people can tell just by looking at me, and she replies, no joking here, with “oh yeah, its your ass, you’ve got a dancer’s ass.” This goes on both lists of “ridiculous things that have been said to me” and “best compliments given to me,” which is quite an accomplishment, really. Once again, for the record, I was wearing semi-loose black jeans, so that someone could see my ass enough to tell that it is a dancers ass is both impressive and disconcerting at the same time, and I’m not sure what to make of it.

I think that is it for Updates From The Front, vol. ??, so I’ll leave you with the crazy ramblings of my friends.

Colin Oliveira: No thank you, I like my stomach in my chest!

Kat: Shh! Stick your face in the bush!

Me: Don’t use a red light, then people will certainly get that you are a prostitute.

Chahailey: I grabbed Chelsea’s boob. And Adie’s.

Jessica: Me too!

Rose: Not only did your food grow legs, it also gained sentience. Sorry.

Me: A ferret? Certainly not on my head, no.

Isha: The music was an electric lawn mower

There is a backstory for every single one of these weird quotes, and they *almost* make the quotes normal, but the sheer ridiculousness of them sans backstory is worth it to give them to you as they are.

Progress

The in-between week is over, and things are happening once more! Some good, some bad, but at least things are moving forward. The bad things are pretty simple, little bit of injury, some person life pitfalls which are making the rest of my life a little more interesting than I usually prefer, but it’ll be alright. As for the good, there is some serious good.

I am playing Roller Derby again with the Men’s team up here, skating with them once a week and god it feels good to be on skates again. They are still forming their team and getting it together, so there is not a lot of hitting or really agressive skating yet, but we are getting there. We are trying to come up with a derby name, and it might just be “Pink” because that is what everyone up here calls me (I have pink tape all over my equipment). I really do love this game.

Circus update: I have a show! My work (Bounce Gymnastics) is organizing a show for March 20. Nothing big or fancy, but it’s still a show, and that is fantastic. I am going to have a 6 minute dance/trapeze solo, and I finally settled on an idea for the story of the piece and I finalized the music this afternoon. The music is “No Signs Of Pain” by Azure Ray with a little bit of extra stuff added from the movie I found it in (Mouth to Mouth). The piece is going to be incredibly depressing, and part of the sound that I took from the movie was crying. The theme is Kali, and our relationship. For those of you who do not know our history, I will give you the nutshell version.

We met the summer of 2008 doing a piece for Beth Braun (one of the leaders of Zuzi) for the children’s museum, and we had an instant connection. Then when I joined the youth company that fall, and she was there too, it felt like we had been best friends for years. We worked on the winter solstice show very hard, and had lots of pieces where we worked together, the foremost being Nightflight, which was a piece with two duets in it, me and Kali, and Scott and Audrey. The piece opening night was a disaster, and the trapeze swung out from under Kali before the lights even went up, and she broke her left wrist and right foot (or maybe it was the other way ‘round) and I had to improvise almost the entire piece without her. That night had a very large effect on me and still does to this day. So this is what I am writing the piece about. Our friendship and how it grew and then the night where she fell. My title for the music and for the piece is Nightfall (my clever joke, the piece she was injured in was nightflight, but she fell, so it became nightfall). I have rehearsal several times a week (only one of them is official, the others are me coming in to choreograph, because I am used to dozens of rehearsals for a show, not 4). Should be a very exciting time. Some of the girls in my class are also doing a piece, and other people who work/take classes at Bounce are doing pieces.

I am going to try to get a video of the show for my own records, but also so I can show people back home!

I went to see Avenue Q the other day, and it ranks pretty high up there of interesting things that I have seen, to be sure.

Due to the crunchedness of my schedule on Tuesday, I was unable to publish this blog on time, but now I can add Wednesday updates as well (it is Thursday at 1PM).

We had our first rehearsal for the show last night, and I can tell you right now, it is going to be an interesting time. I am used to Zuzi, where the people in charge know what they want before they come in to rehearsal, and they tell us what to do and we occasionally put our ideas in. This is not what it is like. Nobody had any idea what we wanted (I would have brainstormed before, but I was under the assumption that Francia had it figured out) and it was a cluster… you know what. Too many ideas flying every which way, and a lot of completely amazing ideas that were also completely unexecutable. So, as it stands, my piece is getting choreographed at an amazingly high rate, which I am very happy with, and I have no idea how the show as a whole is going to work out. Performances do have a way of coming together very very well at the last minute though, and I am counting on that.

I was Mr. Spontaneous last night though, quite uncharacteristic of me… I was coming home from work, and I got to Eugene Station to take the EmX back to campus, and I see Ken and Colton! I met Ken and Colton at the rave this weekend. Now, I don’t usually go to raves, but I was “hired” to perform there and do some fire stuff, so I did, and I met these two. So, complete coincidence that I would see them less than a week later. Well, they invited me to chill with them, so I went to their friend’s house with them and stayed till 1:00 in the morning. I took my bike on the bus, without knowing where the hell I was going, and the bus almost left without my bike – I chased it a quarter of a mile and actually caught up to it. I don’t think I have ever run so fast in my life. Well, 1:00 in the morning, I found out where I was, and rode about 3 miles back to campus. Did I mention that it was 1:00 in the morning and it was about 35 degrees outside? I was quite proud of myself.

Well, I got home, and promptly crashed… Woke up at noon for registration, only to find out that I am not registering until 5:30. So, wish me luck at 5:30!