24.04.07

Cast offs

Posted in Juggling, People at 12:08 pm by alby

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.]

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