Chocfest review/HLCGBS
^Tom_
and I'd rather leave it until mornin', I'll be writing a full post in due
course.... But here's an abstract to the experience:
Chocfest 09 -
Great convention in a wonderful building, and I thought the show was
exceptional, and cycling much much further than I've done in any one
journey before... twice in a day made it feel a bit special (well,
painful, but special will do for now). The only problem was my bike: a)
the state & set-up of it going into the "to" leg, b) the saddle completely
failing, falling off completely near the end, and c) the rather weird
noise it makes now, it's probably had it, but never mind - I need a new
one anyway.
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----== posted via www.jugglingdb.com ==----
brynbobaggins
>
> Well, given that it's late, I'm exhausted (cycled to and from Chocfest),
> and I'd rather leave it until mornin', I'll be writing a full post in due
> course.... But here's an abstract to the experience:
Yep, too late for analysis but just wanted to say big thanks to
organisers- chocfest rocked my world!
Matthew Tiffany
more conventions in religious monuments, thats what i say. my juggling
improved yesterday much more than normal, wonderful people, good show,
conventions always afirm my social morals, you know... how i act towards
other people. i always remember that they are genuinly nice people out
there and carry on my crusade to make the world a more friendly place.
tiff
xx
MonkeyJuggler
http://www.monkeyjuggler.net/Pics/main.php?g2_itemId=3964&g2_page=1
Review to come later (probly)
charliejuggler
Donald's workshop, Alex's cake jointly winning a category of the cake
compo (the other winners were sat next to us!), enjoying the beautiful Abbey
Lows: having to walk round most of Selby to get the baby to sleep,
rather cold in the Abbey, not being able to see most of the show
Goal: to get there in the first place and to fit having fun around
childcare requirements - check; to see friends and encourage broodiness
amongst some - check;
Crushes: The Talls for gifts; Sarah Biskup for her act, so much more
polished, Cirque Normandie are getting a great performer
Bane: Having to drive back on Saturday night and hitting a part of
traffic cone at 60mph which caused scary noises under the car, getting
the AA out to find it was only a dragging, broken foglight casing, but
generally adding an hour to our journey just when we didn't need it...
Thanks to the organisers; it was a fantastic and unusual venue, I'm sure
we were breaking some Commandment or other by being there at all. Not
sure it would work as a permanent venue as there's not much workshop
space and it did get a little crowded, but it was a good choice in lieu
of the school.
See you all at BJC!
Charlie
mini mansell
The building. awe inspiring.
playing sympathy for the devil, in an abbey,
Low
finding we had no real working lights for the show.
Goal
to juggle.
Crush
Emily. as always.
Bane
the lights for the show.
other Helen S
H- seeing everyone, seeing a town i know in a whole new context.
L- not seeing anything in the show below chest level of standing up
performers, never mind what i saw was great
C- new shiny cheap thuds.
G- attend. check
juggle a bit. check
chat to people i havent chatted to before. check
eat cake. check
B- nil
H
Mats1
teaching me some stuff.
Low - Doing a terrible routine
Goal - Do a good routine (fail)
Crush - High ceiling!
Bane - None.
A Jones
> Low - Doing a terrible routine
>
> Goal - Do a good routine (fail)
What are you saying!? It rocked and everyone knows it! A great show, not a
single weak act!
Alex
A Jones
>
> High - Tiff, Dan, Dave and Calum for making me want to improve and
> teaching me some stuff.
>
> Low - Doing a terrible routine
>
> Goal - Do a good routine (fail)
>
> Crush - High ceiling!
>
> Bane - None.
>
Also I must learn that boston mess above the head, it may have been rather
short in the show but when you ran it earlier in the hall it was sweet!!
Alex
Duncan Hoyle
High: The venue, obviously
Low: Not having a great view of the stage during the show
Goal: Get there and juggle somewhere that I'd probably never get the
chance to again - check
Crush: The vicar - a very friendly chap who seemed to love the event and
was even selling drinks during the interval
Bane: People with big hair sitting in front of me during the show. Maybe
I'm just jealous!
Overall a great convention (as always) in a fantastic location. I'd
quite happily go back there next year.
My photos are at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/duncanh/sets/72157613884130007/
(Most taken by me but some by Dr Helen playing with the camera)
Duncan
--
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www.duncanhoyle.com
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Plumsie
Donald Grant's Hemline
Low: The stage, I only saw the top half of the show.
My inability to do any juggling.
Goal: Pre-reg for BJC - Cheque (I paid cash but cheque sounded better)
Crush: Clurb as ever
Bekka Rose
Bane: 4 club scissor catch tricks on stage.
Surprise: How confused I got within 10 minutes of starting Donald Grants
workshop.
All in a good day in a fantastic juggling venue but a poor show venue.
Plumsie.
........
Not too bothered about missing performers legs
mike
being so understanding (thanks)
Low: had a few complaints about the sound, they could here me
Goal: to take photos of the show (fail)
Crush: Sharon, the most understanding mrs in the world
Bane: forgetting the joke about the anti chamber
Suprise: The Venue, wow, thought it was going to be a sterile add on
to the abbey, not the abbey itself!
mini mansell
was worth it for the baby cheeses gag.
Mini
jugglingcircus@
Brilliant venue!
Good Diabolo in show but not sire about the kilt!?
Won on Raffle AGAIN- 2 years in a row- wooooooo!
Baby Chesses verry whitty!
Bad moment - the 3/4 of an hour we waited outside in the freesing clod to
get a good seat in the show!(got 2nd row!)
Good moment - not coming last in the cake compatition!
Spent loads in the shop.
Graet convention and venue to match! show faccilitys lacking slightly
though (compaired to previous years)
Jugglingcircus@
^Tom_
>
> Great convntion as allways!
> Brilliant venue!
> Good Diabolo in show but not sire about the kilt!?
I'm not so sure you'd want to see the routine sans kilt entirely.
Emily
High:
The venue. So much more height and more soul than a sports hall.
Getting a lovely long comfortable run of four clubs. Obviously due to
divine oversight since I haven't been able to reproduce it since.
The happy chatty (and slightly tipsy) vicar.
> Low:
I don't believe I had any of these. Best convention I've been to in a
long time, I had a cracking day!
> Goal:
Juggle (unlike at every other convention I have been to) - Check!
Pass with friends - Check Check Check!
Eat chocolate cake - Check * 26
Crush:
Donald Grant, who should wear that outfit more often.
Bane:
Finding out after the show that the church owns a whole shedload of
staging.
Emily
HelenS
>
> So pleased you where able to host the show.
Seconded
> was worth it for the baby cheeses gag.
>
A joke that just keeps getting better the more I think about it!
(Giggling for no apparent reason at work. Good way to make people think
I'm even weirder than I am)
High - What a venue! And seeing a play on fri night that I wouldn't have
come to york for unless I was coming to chocfest. I thought it was great,
and not pretentious w*nk hardly at all :)
Low - Not really noticed one apart from the unoriginal inability to have x
ray vision through an audience (stood up for 2nd half - perfect view)
Crush - Bekka Rose and the French folks in the show, assorted babies, the
organisers for wangling a convention in such a fantastic building. The
vicars and vergers(?) for being so nice and accomodating. They were amazed
how quickly we cleared the venue, leaving virtually no mess behind, and
made a point of thanking us on the way out.
Goal - passing - sort of, but didn't do all that much new stuff
3 club tricks - slowly slowly slowly getting there. Soooooo not
impressive, but taking me ages through lack of any inter-convention
practice
Bane - loos in a different building. Had to think quite hard to come up
with one.
Thanks to all the Yorkie folks for a great day/weekend, and specially to
Mamph for the hospitality.
And mini - I still want that phone no. for Ambleside!
HelenS
Ewano
Having a wood fire installed in my house.
Not having any accidents.
Low
Not going to Chocfest.
Not getting to catch up with Bekka and Donald.
Goal
Get a chimney pot on my chimney, sweep the stack, fit a stove in the
living room - check.
Go to Chocfest and see friends.
Crush
My finger under a large paving slab.
Bane
Having to not go to Chocfest because the weather was right for doing the
work, and all the people I live with were available to do the job.
Surprise
Deciding the day before that I was not coming.
Ewano - hoping that everyone had a good time.
mamph
Two major highs for me: people's reaction to the venue and my passing
session with Bekka.
*Low*
The annual Chocfest crisis. Every year there's something which goes wrong
on the day, thankfully it's never anything major and I'm always impressed
by how people pull together to resolve it in whatever way possible.
*Crush*
Everyone who helps make Chocfest what it is.+
*Goal*
To have another Chocfest. TICK. Having had most of the show line-up for
over 6 months, whether Chocfest would actually happen became in serious
doubt once we learnt JoRo's had been demolished. Despite being away for
prime organising time the Chocfest minions made it happen. :)
*Bane*
The unknowns of a new venue.
*Surprise*
Public speaking. I generally hate it but surprised myself by saying ok to
Mike to introduce him to the stage as Kneel. Whilst you may not have been
able to hear me (sorry!) I didn't turn into as much of a nervous wreck
about talking as I was expecting.
Mamph
+On the Yorkie side of things these people include: Donna, Andy, Anna,
Nick, ^Tom_, Tom, Chris (exToast), Sam, Patch, T'other Nick, Mike, Dan,
YoYoMonster, the people at the Welly, Lorri, Ed, George, Alex, Mike,
Ellie, Matt, Barbara, the people at the Abbey. On the non-Yorkie side of
things Greg, Mini, Emily, Mr. Jules, Dr Alice, Mike Bridge, Charlie, Matt,
Sarah, Catrobats, Bekka, Donald, Tanguy, Nat, Tom, and, of course,
everyone who came.
MonkeyJuggler
The Abbey.
Car surviving the trip.
It happening at all.
Hell:
Crappy dinner at the local hotel.
Not quite being in the mood.
Missing the cake tasting as our group had expected an interval feast as
per usual - we found out that the cakes had been eaten when we were in the
hotel having an inadequate meal.
Head dodging during the show.
Saints:
People who got it off the ground.
People who allowed the abbey to be used.
Bekka and the French bods in the show.
The people of Selby - I managed to leave my car stereo front on top of my
car all day and only discovered this when I got back to the car after the
show. Thanks to Selbyites for leaving it there.
Sinners:
Me for being so stupid as to leave my car stereo on top of my car.
The chef at the local hotel.
Many thanks to the orgs. I've no idea why I wasn't quite in the mood but
I'm pretty sure it was nowt to do with you lovely people.
Have fun.
Alan
MonkeyJuggler
Damn. Forgot something!
Cheers to Annabod for my extra special pass. Ta.
^Tom_
You're lucky. It nearly ended up going to Clurb!
^Tom_
after jotting a few things down with pencil:
H:
Venue, what a wonderful place, and it gives us awesome bragging rights.
Cycling past the planets, watching sunrise as we did so.
The Show!!!! I thought the show was sublime, some great acts nicely
blended together into a show. (and I did have a decent seat near the
front, so could see quite well).
A wee bit of passing with Martin, Lynne & Hairy
Making passes and all that stuff in t'pub (my main contribution to the
organisation was ripping bits of wool).
L:
My bike, for being a bit stinky.
G:
Qualify 7: nope, but today it clicked, and nearly qualified... maybe in a
week or two.
Cycle there: I MADE IT!!! check
Cycle back: I MADE IT!!! check, though I guess that means I'm a bit silly
for trying.
Cycle there AND back: yup, I may have inferred this above, but I made the
round trip on my rusty-thing.
C:
Lots & Lots of people; but I'll mention a few by name:
(Donna, for the venue stuff;
Mamphy for pulling a convention together;
Bekka Rose for some awesome awesome stuff;
Don Grant for a great routine, and some rather amusing antics;
Galex for cycling back, and helping me fix my bike;
CИPK for a good arty headline act.)
My dear old bike for making it there.
Mike's wonderful jokes, the cringe:laugh ratio was perfect again, as with
Durham.
B:
My saddle, for falling off on the way to Selby.
My bike for being useless (though half of it's problems were as it was
badly set up, which were fixed for the return journey).
Bike lights breaking off as we set off home, gaffa-tape to the rescue.
S:
Sunday's after-chocfest-chill-out
Ben's Chuck Norris complex plane joke in the queue to the show, and the
following discussion about the implication of a siteswap containing i (or
j) [see the appropriate thread].
Review maybe to come, maybe not as HLCGBS all ended up being a bit reviewy.
brynbobaggins
>
> High
> The building. awe inspiring.
> playing sympathy for the devil, in an abbey,
>
>
How often do you get to juggle to Ozric Tentacles in an abbey?!