28 Apr 2007
Ber-limey!
I’ve seen some acrobalance in my time but I’ve never seen ‘owt like this.
Someone needs to get in touch with some of these guys. Get them to a convention now!
Have fun.
27 Apr 2007
Half empty
2 examples of stupidity from 2 opposing viewpoints today. And I’m not talking about Luke and Jason.
Alcohol Concern are a charity based around highlighting the dangers of alcohol abuse. Today they’ve announced their sterling idea that parents should be banned from giving children younger than 15 any alcohol at all. Bad idea. Whatever happened to responsible parenting?
Anyway you can imagine that the “debate” has polarised quite nicely. The majority feel it’s a bad idea. But some are going mental!
Here’s a letter from the beeb’s site
Try and stop them!!! Should parents smack their kids at home!!! Is this another P.C. interferance from those in government who would shakle everyone and take us even further back in time to the days of The Barons and Serfs.This country has gone mad, too many do gooders, send them to Darfur, and sort the families there,
Do you feel that this guy thinks this a government body coming up with a policy announcement? Talk about over-reaction too.
I think we need to run this past Clurb’s “ignorant tw*t” detector.
Shocking.
Have fun
26 Apr 2007
Fight fight!
I refer you to my post earlier re Luke’s podcast and his comments re the Wudyafuk.
Well someone’s commented and posted on the WJF forum re this podcast earning some words from Mr Garfield.
it sounds like you’re taking luke’s lies as facts
Ooh. I spy a bitch slapping war of words coming. Seconds away!
Have fun.
[edit: breaking news.] JG’s new response includes these lines
Luke is a liar, instigator, and a perpetual complainer.
Oooh.
24 Apr 2007
Photo insanity
Just noticed that after 1 week-ish of my photos of BJC07 being up I’ve had more than 3500 views of the pics. Considering my previous “most viewed” gallery only has 500 views after nearly 2 years I have to say that rec.juggling posts really do bring in the traffic.
Coo.
Cast offs
I’ve just been listening to young Mr Burrage’s latest juggling podcast (Podcast 18) and besides being the only one I’ve listened to more than once (well bits of it) it’s also made me feel sorry for Luke. How’s it possible?
There are 3 bits:
1: his experiences at Wudyafuk.
b: interview with Louis Theroux re a new competition format.
and
iii: Interview with poi master Dietz.
I haven’t listened to part b as I’m really not at all fussed by competions in any formal way. I like the BYJOTY format precisely because people will vote for what they want rather than any formalised nonsense about form or difficulty. But enough of this.
Part 1:
The WJF:UK
You can of a read have my earlier comments re the 2 bits of this I saw. It seems that the turgid nature of most of the event wasn’t just experienced by me. But Luke’s review starts very positively and fairly enough. He likes sports juggling, he likes the idea of a competition. Surely he’s the ideal sort of person to impress with the event.
Probably but they’ve really blown it for more than just us 2 gobby types. I’ve heard very few positive comments from people who were at the BJC about WJF’s participation. Actually they didn’t so much participate as sit in another building sulking that people aren’t as interested in pure juggling skill without presentation as they are. Hard luck. No interest equals no event as far as I’m concerned. They had their opportunity and blew it big time.
Some of Luke’s anecdotes make them out to be at best unprofessional and at worst bitchy and cliquey to the nth degree (with at least 1 notable and well-done-for-mentioning-it exception). Some of them sound like they need occasional reminders that they’re not god’s gift.
Then just to blow my sympathy a bit Luke went and got bitchy back at them at the end of the podcast. “Sorry for the downer” he says and then slags them off again with a cry of “My competition’s better than yours!” He’s right of course but it sounds more like “ner” and didn’t need to be said. Likewise the comment right at the end that he hopes the WJF just sort of dies away.
Dietz
This was going to be an interesting interview (potentially). It turned out to be so. Rather annoyingly Herr Dietz sounds terribly reasonable and pleasant. How am I supposed to maintain my dislike of him after the BJC show debacle? I wonder whether he’s just a nice guy but was tainted by the WJF bitchy gene at the time?
My mind’s left open on this question. [edit: oh and Luke doesn't pronounce Dietz's name well at all. I'm sure it's one syllable and not 2 ish] [edit again, sorry but you'll like this one: All I'll say is that I'm not sure Luke and Pola think people listen all the way through the end music. I just had it on whilst typing some stuff and heard the after credits comments. Excellent!]
JoJ
Now there’s been another juggling podcast released. “Jugglers on Juggling”. This time by a couple of American guys.
Number 1 was pretty much unlistenable and apparently had some duff content. I didn’t hear much content before I gave up listening.
Number 2 piqued my interest because they were going to cover the “Healthy Juggler” thread from rec.juggling. I contributed to this and wondered what they might have to say about the topic. Turns out they pretty much ignored most of the thread choosing to focus only on the 1st post and then a comment about swimming. They then went on about how damn important it was to do warm-ups and lots of stretches; conveniently ignoring my rather well written and patient post about how this is rubbish.
Yes I’m self-absorbed - tell me about it! At length preferably.
But no, my point is not that my bit got ignored but that they just really didn’t look at anything in any depth and this was my example. I’m not interested in listening to superficial twaddle and hearsay; particularly not in such appalling sound quality. Luke’s podcast at least has some depth to it.
I haven’t yet bothered with JoJ number 3. Wonder how many other people will. [edit: just had a go at it but sound quality still puts me off really badly. They talked a bit about the Visionbotch "The Room" wotsit. Still raving about it with nary a contrary word. Sigh. Still not convinced by this podcast and never finished a full one.]
Have fun.
[edit: this reads like I don't like Luke's podcast. Actually I've listened to them all since about number 6 and quite enjoy them. Particularly the weird insights into Luke and Pola's world.]
23 Apr 2007
St George
Happy St George’s day to you all, all you rampid little Englanders anyway.
Yes it’s good to know that English people wish to celebrate their nationalism by reference to a roman soldier who never so much had a single thing to do with the nation of Britannia. But that’s an old argument now. But I’ve noticed that he’s hardly a “one-country” sort of saint.
When I was in Serbia a few years ago I found out that he was also their patron saint. How dare they? We had him first!
Well turns out he’s a bit of a slut. He also seems to be patron saint of Canada, Catalonia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Greece, Montenegro and Portugal and the cities of Istanbul, Ljubljana (ooh and Ptuj), Beirut and Moscow. So what sort of man is so venerated?
One who is also the patron saint of syphilis and herpes sufferers apparently. Well we do have the highest rate of STDs in Europe (number 1 woot!).
And it also turns out that he’s the patron saint of sheep. Perhaps that’s why the welsh are so keen on (well you can fill your own joke in here).
[edit] Oh this will entertain and uplift the fat, lairy and drunken lads who follow the Eng-er-land footy team and show us in our best light by boozing, fighting and generally behaving like dicks. George is also the saint of same sex marriages. I’m sure the fans will like that one. Tee hee.
Have fun.
19 Apr 2007
Coventry and chav scum - AGAIN!
Went to Coventry today instead of doing proper work. I had to attend a day seminar re taking student physios.
My word Coventry is a bitch to get to. After finally getting through the hell of junction 21 the M69 is easy enough but then …. oh then.
Here’s a road with 2 lanes. One has a sign stating “Coventry North”. The other has a sign stating “Coventry South and West”. Neither has a sign stating “Coventry Central”. Which to plump for? I went for South and West. It took me back onto the M69 after I’d queued for 10 minutes to get off it. Next junction again no sign to Coventry Central. So turned left (Coventry South) and hoped. Next junction was a sign one way for “Rugby” and the other for “Birmingham” but no sign at all for Coventry. Arrrggghhhh!
Eventually got to Coventry centre more by luck than judgement. Struggled to get anywhere near where I needed to be because again the signage was appalling. Arrived at the place after over 90 minutes travel - it should have taken about half that at rush hour. I hate Coventry now and it’s all down to appalling signary.
K phoned up in the afternoon telling me she’d just had to see off our friendly neighbourhood chavs who had been round again this time asking if “Matt” was in. When being told there was no “Matt” replied “When will he be back?”
K basically told them to piss off. I arrived home at about 4.30 just as 2 Community Support Officers and a Police Officer were strolling along past my house so I had another natter with them about it. Apparently there are more plain clothes officers as well as more uniformed patrols doing rounds now after a spate of burglaries and odd people knocking on doors asking for spurious people. I said I’d try and get their photo next time and they agreed it was worth a shot (as long as I feel comfortable with doing it).
Hell yes - hang the chavvy drug ridden bastards I say. Call me Nick Griffin today!
Have fun.
18 Apr 2007
Perspective
Well it seems that my travails over Friday and Saturday were small beer compared to some.
A colleague went away this weekend for a long weekend by the sea. Came back to find that her grandson was in hospital after sticking his hand in a blender and pressing the button with his knee. Ooh bugger.
Suddenly a leaky shower and an ant infestation don’t seem so bad.
Have fun.
16 Apr 2007
Photies
Guess who can’t sleep at 1.30am? Well I’ve used my insomnia to do something useful. Photos of BJC 2007 are here.
Have fun.
[edit: wow my "gallery views" went up by more than 50 within 5 mins of mentioning it on rec.juggling. I'm impressed]
15 Apr 2007
Lazy Sunday
Well it’s only 1pm and I’m back at home after my final day at the best convention I’ve been at for a long while.
Last day at the BJC seems to be very much a wind-down affair and not much was ongoing. I didn’t do any juggling but did do some more chatting about stuff. In discussions re last night people were split between agreeing with me and not. Hey ho that’s the way things seem to be.
We saw a bit of the kids’ renegade show hosted by “It’s him”. An odd sight of very small children trying to do poi or hula. Bizarre.
I was due a workshop again but to be honest my voice had pretty much died this week and I was feeling awful so cancelled it. Not a great thing to do but I really wasn’t up for much.
And to home again.
What a week. Some lows but mainly some very good highs and as I said the best damn convention I’ve been to for a while despite the flies in the ointment. A shame I couldn’t get more regular clinic sessions though; it would have been nice to do a little more. Me and Clurb managed to improve our passing somewhat more than we expected and we found a way to stop her hand getting such a battering when practising. Lots to work on in the next few months.
Major props to Peachi and the other members of the organising team for this. I didn’t find out where it is next year but I hope to see everyone there too.
Have fun.