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The Scottish Juggling Convention's been and gone for another year, and it rocked. Great people, both new and old, an amazing show, haggis juggling, and all the other things we've come to expect. It was the first convention for both of the organisers (in one case, the first convention she'd ever been to), and so it was a bit rough around the edges; but it was still huge fun, and we'll get the bugs ironed out next year.
And now for the rec.juggling HLCGB capsule review:
High: being complemented by Luke Burrage on my compèring. And everyone else, of course, but it meant even more coming from him. Also, the audience reaction to my nonstandard cigar box act at the Renegade*, and Bill Berry's inspiring-but-depressing-but-inspiring three ball workshop.
Low: being mucked about by the Science Centre, again. The amount of space we get from them seems to be entirely a function of the arsiness of the staff who happen to be there on the day, as we had quite a decent space on the Sunday and almost none on the Saturday. Time to look for a new venue, methinks...
Crush: it's a toss up between Bill Berry and Marco Bonisimo (watch their videos - amazing stuff). Both astounding jugglers, and really nice guys. Marco stayed with me for a day either side of the convention, and it was really cool to get to know him a bit. Watch out for the podcast interview of him on Luke Burrage's Thing On The Net.
Goal: Not screw up compèring the Public Show: check, I think (there were a few dozen minor disasters, but I think we got away with them). Get more than five catches with five balls: no check (not much time to juggle, what with everything else going on). Successfully perform the Wrong End Catch trick from my BJC renegade act: no check (though it was at least recognizable this time, and the rest of the act seemed to go down well). Not buy any more props: no check (I bought a rather lovely fan, six stage balls and some modelling balloons: in my defence, I spent less money this year than in any previous year I've been...)
Bane: The wee girl who showed up to my stage combat workshop and sneered throughout. To be fair, I'm badly out of practice and was tired and hungover, but it wasn't that bad...
Other things I'd like to mention: a shout-out to George the Juggler and Mad Cap'n Duncan for generally being great fun and really nice to me, and their many acts of chivalry towards the Lovely Young Ladies™; my sheer astonishment when Thomas bought two crates of Asda Value Pot Noodles, and my even greater astonishment the next morning on discovering that they'd all actually been eaten (in a 4am orgy of noodle-consumption, apparently); the great impromptu workshop we had on the Sunday morning on isolation and mime techniques; and, despite failing in Goal 2, above, I did (eventually) pull off a five-ball flash in front of an audience. And a big "Woo! Yay! You rock!" to the organisers Thomas and Ruth and all our performers: Luke and Pola, Team Rootberry, Firey Rob aka 007, Meghan, Graham, Sam (Wise?), Dave Barnes (who stepped in with literally an hour's notice), Sarah Biskup, George the Juggler and Joe the pirate, Bright Night International and Marco Bonisimo.
* In case you're wondering, a "nonstandard cigar box" is a big balloon. Replacing one or more cigar boxes with balloons makes some very hard moves trivial, and some easy moves very hard, and looks very funny. I think this idea has legs, and will continue to play with it :-)
And now for the rec.juggling HLCGB capsule review:
High: being complemented by Luke Burrage on my compèring. And everyone else, of course, but it meant even more coming from him. Also, the audience reaction to my nonstandard cigar box act at the Renegade*, and Bill Berry's inspiring-but-depressing-but-inspiring three ball workshop.
Low: being mucked about by the Science Centre, again. The amount of space we get from them seems to be entirely a function of the arsiness of the staff who happen to be there on the day, as we had quite a decent space on the Sunday and almost none on the Saturday. Time to look for a new venue, methinks...
Crush: it's a toss up between Bill Berry and Marco Bonisimo (watch their videos - amazing stuff). Both astounding jugglers, and really nice guys. Marco stayed with me for a day either side of the convention, and it was really cool to get to know him a bit. Watch out for the podcast interview of him on Luke Burrage's Thing On The Net.
Goal: Not screw up compèring the Public Show: check, I think (there were a few dozen minor disasters, but I think we got away with them). Get more than five catches with five balls: no check (not much time to juggle, what with everything else going on). Successfully perform the Wrong End Catch trick from my BJC renegade act: no check (though it was at least recognizable this time, and the rest of the act seemed to go down well). Not buy any more props: no check (I bought a rather lovely fan, six stage balls and some modelling balloons: in my defence, I spent less money this year than in any previous year I've been...)
Bane: The wee girl who showed up to my stage combat workshop and sneered throughout. To be fair, I'm badly out of practice and was tired and hungover, but it wasn't that bad...
Other things I'd like to mention: a shout-out to George the Juggler and Mad Cap'n Duncan for generally being great fun and really nice to me, and their many acts of chivalry towards the Lovely Young Ladies™; my sheer astonishment when Thomas bought two crates of Asda Value Pot Noodles, and my even greater astonishment the next morning on discovering that they'd all actually been eaten (in a 4am orgy of noodle-consumption, apparently); the great impromptu workshop we had on the Sunday morning on isolation and mime techniques; and, despite failing in Goal 2, above, I did (eventually) pull off a five-ball flash in front of an audience. And a big "Woo! Yay! You rock!" to the organisers Thomas and Ruth and all our performers: Luke and Pola, Team Rootberry, Firey Rob aka 007, Meghan, Graham, Sam (Wise?), Dave Barnes (who stepped in with literally an hour's notice), Sarah Biskup, George the Juggler and Joe the pirate, Bright Night International and Marco Bonisimo.
* In case you're wondering, a "nonstandard cigar box" is a big balloon. Replacing one or more cigar boxes with balloons makes some very hard moves trivial, and some easy moves very hard, and looks very funny. I think this idea has legs, and will continue to play with it :-)
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Btw, you need to check out the latest This week's find.
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This Week's Finds: yes, I saw :-) Fame at last! And the rest of it looked pretty interesting, though I haven't yet had time to read it in detail.
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So.... you up for organising next year? I think we gone and got ourselves volunteered by proxy yanno.
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Organising: I explained the whole "funding runs out in September, don't know where I'll be this time next year" thing, right? Plus the whole "about as useful and organised as a chocolate kettle" thing.
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Are you going to be done by then?
Are you going to be employed afterwards?
Why aren't you giving us sufficient angst!
You know, you do have a livejournal for a reason.
You never call nowadays anyway, and you probably eat candy on fridays tooo!
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2) At the current rate of progress, BWAHAHAHAHAhaha! *snort*. No.
3) I've been very vaguely looking, but applying for jobs is even less fun than writing up or doing research and thus even lower down my priority list. The big trouble is that
4) I've been expecting this for over two years now. I've got some savings (though a lot less than I'd like). Besides, I try not to do angst, especially not in public.
5) Yes, for sharing interesting thoughts and musings with my friends. And distracting me from work. Er, that wasn't planned...
6) International calls are expensive, and most of my candy-eating takes place on Saturdays (Swiss hillwalking partner == much chocolate bought).
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Top tip: set up a standing order for a significant fraction (say, 20%) of your income from your current account to your savings account, timed to leave as soon as your grant cheque (or whatever) clears (not when it's paid in - I got caught by this a few times). That way you can't spend it. The theory's explained here (http://paulm.com/inchoate/2004/07/savings_systems.html).