EJC 2008 Karlsruhe thread
jugglingeek
don't even know where to start. I had such a great time and met so many
cool new people, the convention was fantastic and I can't help feel that I
missed out on some stuff.
Highs:
After a day of traveling (thanks to Eve for the lift to the airport and
Emily for helping me find the convention when in Germany) I wandered
around to try to find Tiff, gave up and pitched my tent. Only to find that
I'd pitched it about 10 yards from his anyway.
Some of the ACTS in the show - more about the show later
Midnight drunken swimming with Kaisa, Tiff, Sam, Duncan and the rest of
the Nottingham people.
A drunken night on the Mega-Blaster with Joost and all.
Watching the sunrise and talking bollocks with Sam and Duncan on Wednesday
night (Thursday morning I suppose)
Thomas Dietz getting db97531 on stage. Takes some guts to try such a
difficult trick on stage.
The best thing about this convention for me was the shows that took place
on the hillside in the early evening. Especially the two hilarious people
with the car. Could perhaps be some of the best improvised silent comedy
I've ever seen. A true example of the audience been the guys that made the
show what it was.
The proper renegades that were "organised" by the Irish crew on the last
few nights. Loads of people doing short, silly or interesting acts; drink
vast quantities of alcohol, getting naked a lot and setting up a secret
bar that never had much of a cue because only those at the renegade knew
about it and you had to stand in the stage area to order your beers. Well
done lads, you did good. Note to other conventions, that is how a renegade
should be.
Lows:
The most dissapointingly bad show I've seen. Apparently I saw the best
show of the three - Tiff walked out of the Thursday show. The compare was
excruciatingly bad. For those who wern't there, he did the ENTIRE show
using his hands as characters; sometimes in silhouette, sometimes from a
Punch and Judy style box on stage, but always without being either funny
or brief. In between the compare's hilarious handpuppet improvisations
were some very good acts (most of whom I've seen at British juggling
conventions) and some rather dubiously average acts. I think the show
would have been better if Tres Pass had left their out of tune piano in
whichever junkshop they bought it from and just did the one act. I can't
have been the only person wondering why and act that involved four people
carrying a very large piano on and off the stage performed twice with a
mere two acts between them. Most of the acts were too long, especially the
Belgian trampoline act whose act in the field earlier in the week wasn't
really that great; and I think the less said about the gay dancers the
better. Bafflingly one third of the juggling audience gave this act a
standing ovation despite it being largely unfunny and didn't contain any
juggling. I did enjoy the Russian ball juggler although he needs to get
some better music, MIDI strings are so late 80s. The only truly good act
of the first half was Wes, whose act was the only one where I wished he'd
been on stage longer.
The show did improve slightly after the interval. Thomas Dietz was
excellent though droppy and Get The Shoe was predictably show-stopping.
William was great but following Get The Shoe is always going to be a tall
order, especially at a juggling convention. The Russian ring juggler did
some spectacularly difficult tricks (including several that I still think
might actually be impossible) but padded his act out with peculiar
dancing. By far the best act of the night was the beautiful Russian lady
who could do things with her feet that I'm pretty sure I couldn't do with
my hands.
Having been to the last five BJCs where the shows have been amazing and
have been a real talking point at the end of the week. I find that EJC
shows often leave me feeling a little cold. Future EJCs need to take a
lesson from British show organisers and step it up a bit I think.
Others lows were generally my own doing. I fell off the Mega-Blaster and
seriously grazed my left shin; I didn't take any shorts or light trousers
so all I did was sweat when the sun was out during the day; I didn't take
a waterproof so when it rained, I got wet; getting too drunk and staying
up late meant that every morning I woke up very early because of the hot
sun, with a terrible hangover; and my Grandad died of a heart attack while
I was away. Actually that wasn't of my own doing but it was still
upsetting to hear.
Crushes:
As always Joost was great company and I particularly enjoyed discussing
faith, science and organised religion with him and Ben. The Russian lady
in the show, mainly because I liked her act so much but also because she
was very pretty. Aaron, Sam, Steph and all the rest of the people from
Nottingham that I met for been such nice people and helping me out (they
know what I mean). But first prize goes to Kaisa for being the coolest
person from Finland I've ever met and for cheering me up on Friday night
after getting bad news from home. Honorable mention goes to Crepé Man for
being the most entertaining fast food chef I've ever met "Now, we wait for
cheese to melt: And I smoke!"
Banes:
Not being able to juggle anywhere without sweating most of my body weight
in only a few minutes. The gym was far too full off jugglers and the
aircon didn't seem to be working. This meant that while it was very hot
outside in the sun it was even hotter in the hall. Not getting enough
stuff to get high all week. A complicated deposit policy on glasses and
bottles that I never quite got my head round (probably because I was too
drunk on strong lager to think about things like that). People trying to
save seats for all their friends during the show. Why do people want to
sit with specific people during the show? Do they intend talking to each
other during the acts?
So many people standing still in doorways or on the walkways in the stands
in the hall. German woman with a microphone organising the huge (yet
mercifully short) fire routine, couldn't the PA speakers at least be
positioned to be pointing at the performers on stage during this bit
rather than at me trying to enjoy a beer on the hillside. Every act in the
show getting a standing ovation. I think that standing ovations are
something that should be saved for really good acts. I stood up for
Morgan's routine at Millstreet, and Kris Kremo; and I stood up for Get The
Shoe this week and at Nottingham BJC. That is because these acts are among
the greatest acts I've ever seen. If you give every act that you enjoyed a
little bit a standing ovation then surly all this does is devalue the
concept of standing ovations at juggling conventions and also makes the
shows last longer.
Goals:
Get better at speedcubing and show off my V-cube 7. I learned about a
dozen new algorithms and got my 7x7x7 time below 15 mins. Juggling wise I
had planned to get five reverse back-crosses with five balls but it was
just too hot to juggle and I suck. Not get sunburn which I managed to do
by covering my body with factor 50 suncream every day. Eat a little more
healthily than I have done at previous conventions. This one wasn't too
difficult since at Ptuj I lived almost entirely on jam and bread and at
Millstreet I ate so little that I lost almost a stone in weight.
Overall I had a great week and met more new people than I've ever met at a
convention. Sorry if my review of the show seems negative but I really
thought it was very poor indeed. I admire Tiff for voting with his feet
and leaving during the second act.
Thanks to everyone who made the convention so great for me personally.
--
----== posted via www.jugglingdb.com ==----
Jack Denger
> Thomas Dietz getting db97531 on stage. Takes some guts to try such a
> difficult trick on stage.
>
Whoa, he's got balls.
What show was it, Open Stage? That's seriously amazing.
Plumsie
>
>
> > Thomas Dietz getting db97531 on stage. Takes some guts to try such a
> > difficult trick on stage.
> >
>
>
> Whoa, he's got balls.
>
> What show was it, Open Stage? That's seriously amazing.
>
Nope, that was in the Gala show.
Plumsie
Adrian Pole
woken up: 1PM. that just proves how tired I am. If I'm tired, that just
goes to show I had the best time ever.
The convention rocked so hard that it has to be the best I've ever been
to, so here is my HLGBC:
_____
HIGHS
_____
LATE NIGHTS!
another first: I have never stayed up, under my mums will, until the late
(early) hours of 3AM! So much more happens past midnight that I never knew
of...and the whole site comes to life in the dark.
didgereedo workshop poster: requirments: 1 didgeridoo.
Watching Kulakov practice-crazy stuff.
Expertvillage juggler on youtube: oh my...she had me in floods of tears.
people on the other side of the gym heard us laughing!
Pavel and GTS in the gala show: unbelievable.
juggling with Fred in the water feature: coming up with cool new water
tricks, and having to retrieve them again: fortunatelly the kids swimming
in there gave them to us back. But then they went. so Fred held me over
the edge of the wall, allowing me to pick them up with my feet. But when
that failed...I had to go into the water and get them back!
____
LOWS
____
Over-juggling and being over excited for the first few days meening I
would only wake up (as in stop being tired) at 8PM in the evening other
days.
_____
GOALS
_____
Work on high numbers stuff, that I cant do here at home because I have
nowhere to practice. check.
6 ring 4 ups, two connected, back into pattern and clean collect. 7 rings
22 catches to collect and about 27 but with no collect. 4 rings in one
hand, 12 catches.
____
BANE
____
going to circus roncalli only for alan not to perform that night.
_____
CRUSH
_____
My new friends:
Lauge,Nicklas and Fred!
Adrian Pole
>
> about the show compere.
he was the best compare EVER! seriously, he was original, unique, funny,
and didn't even get slightly boring.the only truely good act of the first
half was Wes? He was great, but Pavel was unbelievable, too, let's not
forget that. Him and Get the show raised the roof, and I thoroughly
enjoyed there numbers.
popstar_dave
> The convention rocked so hard that it has to be the best I've ever been
> to, so here is my HLGBC:
>
> _____
> HIGHS
> _____
>
> LATE NIGHTS!
> another first: I have never stayed up, under my mums will, until the late
> (early) hours of 3AM! So much more happens past midnight that I never knew
> of...and the whole site comes to life in the dark.
hehehe... I remember the first time I stayed up to midnight on NYE. I
hadn't realised that there was a party. I thought you just woke up and it
was the next year.
>
> didgereedo workshop poster: requirments: 1 didgeridoo.
Oh, had you packed your alto didgeridoo as well as your standard one?
>
> ____
> LOWS
> ____
>
> Over-juggling and being over excited for the first few days meening I
> would only wake up (as in stop being tired) at 8PM in the evening other
> days.
Sounds like a standard day for me at work.
> ____
> BANE
> ____
>
> going to circus roncalli only for alan not to perform that night.
>
Oh, that sucks. But did you enjoy it nonetheless?
Well, it sounds like you had a good time. Wish I'd been there.
Cheers,
Dave
...really only posted to do the didgeridoo joke, but then felt the need
to add more as not to appear rude.
Joost Dessing
> A drunken night on the Mega-Blaster with Joost and all.
in my recollection that was the day after...when Peter broke your wolrd
record;)
> The best thing about this convention for me was the shows that took place
> on the hillside in the early evening. Especially the two hilarious people
> with the car. Could perhaps be some of the best improvised silent comedy
> I've ever seen. A true example of the audience been the guys that made the
> show what it was.
yes, Pol and Freddy from Belgium are great! They managed to win a comedy
prize with their silent juggling act, beating lots of stand-up comedians!
>and my Grandad died of a heart attack while
That totally sucks! I was not aware of this at all during the convention!
My condolances to you and all the best of course!
> Crushes:
> As always Joost was great company and I particularly enjoyed discussing
> faith, science and organised religion with him and Ben.
Yes, that afternoon on 'our' bench was great! I enjoyed it as well! Wasn't
that the day Peter broke your mega-blaster record?
no time to give my own HLGCBS etc...
cheers,
joost
Sirius
Tom Derrick
HIGH
The weather! Whilst it was a little hot, it was nice to see some sunshine
for once.
A nice big space in the gym. It got surprisingly crowded when it rained,
but it tended to be easy to find space. The seating was a bonus, too.
Highlights from the stages: The French ball passing act on the Tuesday
open stage was marvellous, and my favourite act from the convention; YMCA
cigar boxes; Belgian Martin having a flawless performance; In the Gala
Show (Friday night), Wes Peden had a fantastic run, Get the Shoe were as
good as ever, and I was impressed by the Russians, particularly the
antiposist act. The trampoline act was rather fun, too.
The Set Championship was good fun, as was late night Ricochet Robot.
Longer conversations with people that I'd not spent a huge amount of time
talking to before.
Getting to play with Eek's 7x7x7 cube, and solving it without any major
stumbling blocks.
Good (and hot) showers on the campsite.
LOW
Morning heat in the tent, although it did mean that I didn't waste time
attempting to get up in the morning.
I have to say that I was disappointed with the Gala Show. There were a
fair few acts that I really enjoyed, but it seemed to drag on. I enjoyed
some of the acts in the first half, but there was only one with upbeat
music, but that was neither juggling, nor entertaining. The second half
was better in that respect, but didn't flow, thanks to the compere.
The last open stage, just as the last act came on, the fire show set off a
load of fireworks. The tent practically emptied, which not only extended a
fairly long show, but was incredibly disrespectful to the performers. I
was angry about that.
Several diabolists didn't have any concept of how disruptive they were in
the gym. I saw several 3 high patterns drift across the gym, and people
practicing vertax when the gym was at its busiest. Having people actually
walk into me when I'm juggling and stationary, multiple times, didn't
impress me.
Delays on the ferry on the drive home.
GOAL
To learn the box with a lid, plus some variations. I got a few rounds, so
that can be a check.
CRUSH
Probably the French passing act, from the second open stage. I really wish
that I caught the name, but they were wonderful.
BANE
People standing in the entrances to the main gym. It was difficult getting
past carrying a bagful of props. The lack of queueing caused some
frustration, too.
Overall, a very enjoyable convention, although some rudeness and the show
compere tainted it slightly. Well worth the cost and journey time.
Luke Wilson
> CRUSH
> Probably the French passing act, from the second open stage. I really wish
> that I caught the name, but they were wonderful.
I think you mean Cie de Defracto: Minh-Tam Kaplan and Guillaume Martinet.
Best regards,
(The Old Real) Luke
Adrian Pole
> frustration, too.
tell me about it! Here, we form an orderly line and at a reasonable pace
walk into the theatre/tent. In Germany, there seems to be a mad rush to
get inside, which some people find funny: but I just find it dangerous and
annoying. If that kicked off in England (Not that it would), it would be
stopped immediately by the ticket checking people or whoever...man, if you
want good seats, get there early!
jugglingeek
I'm not sure I agree with this British sentiment. The "queue" for the show
was very efficient at getting people into the show and didn't take up as
much room in the city square as a British queue would have. However,
people attempting to save entire rows of seats should be shot!
marcobonisimo
I had a huge high a the stage in front of the castle. That really felt
like being a rockstar. If anyone took pictures, please send them to me!
Another high was the weather. This week really felt like being on a
holiday. I also had very good trainingssessions with Jeroen exchanging 5
clubs! And one training session with 5 footballs, trying many tricks,
managing 3up 180, 744, (6x4)... Next year a 360, 97531 at least
Low
My clubs got really sticky because of the heat in the gym. The result, a
very droppy performance with Jeroen in the open stage definately was a
low. After that, I hardly juggled any clubs anymore.
Another low was the flat tire I had to fix during the week, although I was
very happy I did. Great having a bike.
Crush
Many! But I would like to mention Matt Hall, because he is trying to teach
the whole world. And Wes Peden for inspiration.
Goal
Having fun, learning some tricks with two diaboloos, which I finally did
on my last night. I also bought a whip. That was a goal since the Scottish
juggling convention, after the workshop Graham gave.
Bane
Toi Toi... I don't think I need to say more. Alhough it was funny to see
them being emptied and cleaned (from a big distance).
Surprise
The restaurant in the back of the Europa Halle.
_HanS
my first HLGCB
HIGHS
Finally seeing some other people juggle, ever spending four years juggling
in my back yard or behind my laptop :-) Especially the fact that some
rec.juggling names now actually have faces :-)
Seeing some great and truly original performances. I thought the Gala Show
was pretty awesome, but ok, I have nothing to compare it too. Also the
Open Stage on Wednesday was amazing, especially the way the tent exploded
when Matt Hall landed his trick. A lot of great Belgian shows (Chapter
2/Pol & Freddy ...)
Workshops by Luke Wilson & Marco Paoletti, that made me look at juggling
in a totally different way. A way that I like much more than struggling
for the 1000th time with my 97531 ;-)
Other workshops, which gave me a lot of new stuff to work on (squeezes,
multiplex, bouncing,...)
Witnessing the 18 ball world record.
Seeing some great jugglers I only had seen on video. Also discovering new
great jugglers I had never seen before.
The great sight of around 300 balls (probably more) in the air at the
start of the 5 ball endurance.
Thomas Dietz shouting "oh my god" in disbelief when Kulakov did something
like a "5 ring sideways pancake cascade".
Learning how to pass clubs
A lot of other things, but my mind is blur right now...
LOWS
Being very shy in a new environment, I didn't meet as many people as I
wanted to and probably didn't get the "full" EJC experience.
The storm on thursday night, keeping me out of my sleep. Own fault,
shouldn't have gone to bed so early...
A lot of the food in my tent melting or boiling due to the great weather.
Apparently lemonade doesn't taste as good once it's been heated and cooled
again :-)
Always leaving my clubs in my tent when I went to the shows, so being
incapable of participating in combat afterwards.
Being over excited to juggling the first days, I strained my wrist and
shoulders, so I had two days of almost no juggling at all.
Not knowing that Zempf in German was mustard, I had the most disgusting
sandwich ever on the way home..
GOALS
Learn new tricks - check
Buy 9-1 nordic objects - check
See great performances - check
Meet a lot of new people - sadly enough, not a really big check here
Juggle - check
CRUSH
After being a bit doubtful about what Kendama really was, I bought one and
haven't been able to put it down since (maybe to write this HLGCB)
And I also admired Kulakov's perfect style, I could watch that guy for
hours...
BANES
Children playing games at the internet café when people really need those
thing to e-mail.
The way the price of the drinks was constantly changing. I paid, at the
pizza place, 1€, 1,50€ and 2€ for a Coke. What the hell?
People cutting in line at the eating stand at the campsite.
So that's it, I had, in my own way, a great week. And I've juggling better
and with more fun than ever before. Just ask my mom (who is very happy
that I'm home again ;-))
See you at chapter2 (hopefully)
_HanS
_HanS
>
> Crush
> Many! But I would like to mention Matt Hall, because he is trying to teach
> the whole world. And Wes Peden for inspiration.
I really enjoyed meeting Matt Hall, and I think that's a great way of
describing him.
Also, really enjoyed your performance (had to manoevre through a lot of
Germans to be able to see it)
_HanS
PinkAlice
wine...)
High:
The Great Duck Race (go Sir Duck the III) in the Europabad.
The Sun (although was hot!)
The Gala Show - I disagree with the negativity. For me it was one of the
best I've ever seen! I thoroughly enjoyed the compare.
Meeting old friends and new ones.
ZKM - so many fun interactive things! (Lots of buttons to push and
interactive projected bubbles!!)
The "notes for your journey home" page in the guide book... well used. We
counted the dutch between Germany & switzerland (45) on our way home... in
our direction (strangely no dutch in Switzerland?). Also counted the
tunnels in Switzerland on the home (21). Good notes.
Low:
The Tuesday (Was it Tues?) rain.
Some rude locals when I was on badge control on the Open Stage
Crush:
Get the Shoe (as always).
Matthias Romir
My fella.
Bane:
Wasps
The 9 days lasting about 2 days? I reckon it was some sort of odd
time/space disruption.
I think that about sums it up. Maybe when I sober up tomorrow I will think
of more... For now i'm back on the pink champagne, and pink wine...!!
PinkAlice
PinkAlice
>
> marcobonisimo wrote:
> >
>
> > Crush
> > Many! But I would like to mention Matt Hall, because he is trying to teach
> > the whole world.
>
> describing him.
>
Me too... i forgot to mention that in my HLCGB...!!
RobinDuyck
>
> Please, please say that someone taped Chapter 2.
>
RobinDuyck
>
> Seeing some great and truly original performances. I thought the Gala Show
> was pretty awesome, but ok, I have nothing to compare it too. Also the
> Open Stage on Wednesday was amazing, especially the way the tent exploded
> when Matt Hall landed his trick. A lot of great Belgian shows (Chapter
> 2/Pol & Freddy ...)
>
>
> Thomas Dietz shouting "oh my god" in disbelief when Kulakov did something
> like a "5 ring sideways pancake cascade".
>
Oeh, that was nice!
RobinDuyck
Drew_Ministry
> and my favourite act from the convention; YMCA cigar boxes;
Tao Wei... (I think)
I was impressed by the Russians, particularly the
> antiposist act.
Nata - Yes
> LOW
> The last open stage, just as the last act came on, the fire show set off a
> load of fireworks. The tent practically emptied, which not only extended a
> fairly long show, but was incredibly disrespectful to the performers. I
> was angry about that.
Agreed. If you think you were angry, you should have listened to Johanne
(the Open Stage manager) screaming. "&*?!*&%ers, They could have waited 10
&*%$ing minutes."
But audience all came back in 5 minutes later, and 100% respect to MC Matt
Hall for pulling show back together, So show ended on a high :)
Drew/Minion.
jamesfrancis
First thanks off to all organisers volunteers and cool people who made my
4th EJC by far my most enjoyable.
Now a small review type thing:
Good stuff:
The site (massive, full of places to relax, places to eat (with non veggie
stuff), clean showers (warm too) and decent show venues)
Currywurst and crepes (not together)
Beer gardens and cheap beer
Pizza and the green drink (mango and kiwi I think)
Set, ricochet robots, chess, atomic chess, scotch chess, suicide chess,
double boarded chess
Passing lots: (8c PPS with Caspar and German Kris, syncopation and offbeat
stuff, 12c dropbacks & gorilla passing with nick and Luis, the rotating
confusion Jeff, Caspar and I co-created(possibly the most confusing
pattern i have ever juggled that may get its own thread at some point,
when one of us writes it down (probably Jeff)) finally teaching Dan from
York passing patterns)
Night swimming with over a thousand partially, or in some cases fully
drunken jugglers. Must have broken ever health and safety rule known to
man, but was soooo much fun
Helping run two passing workshops
Chapter 2 (so much talent)
Brooke’s face when he saw the guy put an extra arm cross in ‘eric’s
extension’
Sander & Poll (a lesson to all on how to deal with annoying fat little
children)
The Gala show (I enjoyed it thoroughly despite what others say. It was
packed full of great acts even though some were a bit long and the second
Trespass act was unnecessary)
The petite hula girl (from Canada I think). I don’t care what Aaron says
she was very hot!
Getting to know people I have only spoken to briefly at other conventions
a lot better and meeting plenty of new folk too.
Winning airport poker
Not getting a phone call from work asking me how to use the ‘Asbestos
model’
Adam C enjoying himself lots despite no longer being able to juggle.
AbbI & Graham and inappropriate questions
The bad stuff: (mostly petty things here)
Heat in the morning and getting soaked on the day it rained (not even the
Germans can organised the weather)
The speed the parade moved (I find it difficult to walk that slowly). Was
more fun than anticipated though.
The people in the tents around me who thought 9 AM was an appropriate time
to get up and have a conversation outside my tent (inconsiderate early
risers)
Deposits on beer bottles and no express way to gain deposits back without
queuing (an express deposit line would have been nice)
Having to sit on the stairs in the gala show as I was one of the last in
and couldn’t find a seat before the show started
Not going to the KGM...heard it was great too late for a visit.
Kids half my age who are already better jugglers than me
Not finding time to work on a performance routine as planned.....was
having too much fun!
My 7 hour economics tutorial today (soo boring and sooo tired)
Not passing with Pieter or Wand (not sure either of those names spelt
correctly) and not doing scrambled V.
My overuse of parenthesis in this post
See all next year (if not before)
James
luke h
peforming and everyones nice comments about it :)
meeting some really cool people.
not juggling.
juggling
the show (even if it was a bit long)
Low.
the second day when it rained and all my stuff got wet :( dried out fast
though :)
goal.
meet some cool new people
juggle and not do any work on 7 balls, i did about an hours practice to
half check :P
crush.
peta, elof and ellis. sorry if i spelt your names wrong! really cool
people with really nice juggling.
and my granma for taking me and then doing nothing other than giving me
chocolate and money:)
bain.
my delphins being really wierd. i bought them the week before the ejc and
they felt wierd then as well but i thought they just needed waring in
unfortunatly not :(
(the unreal) luke
Daan Yperman
- Chapter 2 Stage (ok, I'm not independant, I know)
- Gala show (wow!)
- Some nice parties (with some other music than 'only reggae')
- Seeing thousands of people at the hill during the fire show the last
night: impressive!
- Things starting at the announced time (instead of "Jugglers' Time", let
alone "Greek Time")
- Good and enough toilets and showers
- Belgium-Karlsruhe-Belgium for only 20 euro
- Great site and well decorated
- Nice people at the info-point!
- While organising the Chapter 2 Stage: fantastic catering backstage and
some good technical equipment.
- A lot of nice Belgian performances on site (Pol & Freddy, CAM, Happy 4
Nothing, Trampoline Mission III), at the Chapter 2 Stage (Florian
Vandemeulebroucke, Bram Dobbelaere, Jordaan De Cuyper), at the Latino
Night (Hans Vanwynsberghe) and in the Gala (Le Bo Trio).
- Seeing some great funky jugglers I didn't know yet (Juan Gomez or Goma,
Sam and some others I still don't know their names)
- Even I knew their work well, I was still amazed by Wes Peden and Carlos
Muñoz!
Lows:
- Security guys (I know, they did their job very well and it can be useful
with over 5.000 people, probably it's even obligated by government,
location or police, but it feels strange at a juggling festival, they
don't smile much, some of them had an agressive look and they woke me up
twice while I slept in the gym (heh, that's one of the only ways to get me
angry!:-)
- Tents (the 2 stages and bar tent) might have been a little bit bigger
- Maybe worse stages than usual. (but note that there were twice as much,
so maybe the 'talent' was a bit more spread)
Overall:
Great convention! Very well organized! Nice to hang out with friends and
see so many jugglers at one place! Thanks to Tassilo, Tobias, Philip and
their team!
See you soon in Belgium, at Chapter 2!
Daan
www.chapter2.be
MonkeyJuggler
but overall fantastic job by the orgs.
Highs
Jugglers Brew - a local beer specially rebranded for the EJC.
The site - huge, good seats for just watching, food and drink next to the
main hall, clean(ish) showers, 2 large big tops for shows and more and
more...
Met one old friend after not seeing her for 8 years or more. Managed to
contact another in Heidelberg too after about 5 years loss of contact - am
going back in October to spend more time with both utterly lovely people.
Some of the shows - Chapter 2 was excellent (stars for me were Wes P and
Carlos Munaz) as was the show showcasing German talent (partic tops were
?Duet Complet? with their Flamenco acro and juggling act - seriously good
entertainment - finished with passing 6 ukeleles whilst playing a tune on
them.
Trip to Heidelberg - my fave place in Germany.
Algorithm marching out of the site on Saturday night - thanks Tom.
Lows
Too hot for me to do much and the hall was hotter than anywhere else. I
could manage about 10 mins of juggling before dissolving into a sweaty
mess. Can someone please organise an EJC in Reykjavik?
People playing flash games on the very limited no of PCs that were there
for us (thanks orgs for the thought - and for the attention to detail -
there were PCs with German keyboards mainly but one with a french one, one
with a UK one and another with American too - talk about thought through).
I like my sleep so the noisy French bastards near our tent seriously
pissed me off. We were camped in the furthest field from the site -
picked to avoid too much noise from the site to allow some sleep. So
having these tossers chatting and singing at all hours didn't cheer me up.
I know people want a holiday and to let their hair down but the site was
huge and can't you have fun AND let others be? I heard worse about them
the night after but I'd given up by that point and paid for a hotel room
on the last night just to be sure I could get a decent nights sleep before
the very long drive home. If any French juggler who feels bad about this
wants to pay me the E52 it cost for the hotel room then feel free to
forward the cash whenever. It'll certainly help me feel more well
disposed to the french. Honestly I could have happily pissed in their
porch. Was so angry.
Crush
Frankly pretty much all the ladies there. Sorry to be sexist but you gals
were gorgeous. Big time. And in case you are slightly annoyed by this
blatant sexism, I was also assured that there was plenty of male eye-candy
there too - not my thing but I like to be balanced. And may I also
apologise for lowering the average attractiveness of the participants
simply by my being there?
Bane
Yet more illness. I'm getting seriously bored with tonsilitis when I go
to events. I now also have a cold and a couple of blisters on my feet.
Combined with the heat this was probably the most uncomfortable convention
I've ever been to (and it's not the convention's fault - just my bad luck).
My internet at home being down still so I can't upload pics yet. Grr.
This has been quite long and I've not even mentioned the gala show yet.
It seems to have been a tad negatively received.
Again this might depend on which show you saw. Apparently the first was
the worst in terms of tech hassles and the compere doing his schtick in
German and for much longer - thus alienating the non-German speaking
audience.
I saw the last show. And I rather liked what I saw.
I'd agree that the compere wasn't the best but he did have some moments
and there were some good responses for some of the shadow stuff he did
(notably the dog montage).
Nata the antipodist was excellent - completely different act.
The Cavemen I thought were utterly superb - best act in the show for me. 3
person club passing on a trampoline - think stealing clubs from a passing
pattern whilst upside down in a somersault and more. Completely wonderful
stuff.
Seemed a bit odd to have so much Euro talent and then finish the show with
a guy from Taiwan. Mind you William's a star so it's just a minor issue.
Dietz I thought wasn't worth the money (again) but Wes shone (even though
his bit was a little short).
And the dancing clowns bit. Massive response, standing ovation etc but
everyone I spoke to hated them. "Biggest waste of 7 minutes of my life"
was a typical quote.
I have to whisper now...I quite liked them. It wasn't juggling, it wasn't
the best done. But it was funny, it had invention, it entertained me. I
liked it ok? Wasn't worth a standing ovation but it made me grin.
Get the Show were their usual wonderful selves.
And the Russian acts were excellent.
Tres Pass should have had 1 not 2 acts but I liked the piano playing, and
I loved the ending of the second piece just quietly watching a diabolo die
- lovely.
I came out of the show thinking "I liked that". There were things that
could have been better, more zippy, funnier, whatever. But there's rarely
a show when that doesn't happen.
I'm sure I've missed a whole wodge of stuff out but it's late and I need
to sleep.
Many thanks to the orgs and to the people I spent my week with. You all
(and there are loads of you) are wonderful - I'll not put names as I'll
surely forget someone and I don't want to do that.
See you in Spain (where the hotel near the site will definitely be getting
my custom).
Have fun.
Alan
PinkNigel
> LOW
>[...]
> Several diabolists didn't have any concept of how disruptive they were in
> the gym. I saw several 3 high patterns drift across the gym, and people
> practicing vertax when the gym was at its busiest. Having people actually
> walk into me when I'm juggling and stationary, multiple times, didn't
> impress me.
Diabolo is the new poi.
Emily Winch
Highs:
The trampolinists.
The beer.
The weather, lovely and sunny with rain when necessary to cool things
down.
The lights on the hill and the bicycle parts in the tree.
Staying in a city where you can sit outside on the street in a Saturday
evening with a beer and not encounter any obnoxious drunken louts.
The German show.
The crazy ring juggler in the gala show.
Having a hotel room and being able to sleep in.
Dried fish.
The pool party. I can't see how it would be possible to have more fun (or
break more rules) in a pool. Best use of €800 ever.
Lows:
Today after coming home, I have a post holiday downer.
Sitting on the floor for three hours in a hot and jam packed big top with
some loud gossiping girls behind me who WOULD NOT SHUT UP even when asked.
Goal:
To improve my four clubs. Didn't feel like it at the time but tonight at
teapots it was much more solid and I ran it for long enough to lose count.
To laze about for a whole week doing nothing much. Check.
Crush:
Some bloke I met in the registration queue with a loud mouth and a dodgy
dye job.
Bane:
The hands.
Emily.
Juggle12
Getting into Circus Roncalli even when it was sold out, thanks Paul!
Watching Alexander Kulakov practice. Definitely my new hero.
Greetings and hugs from jugglers I know when I first walked in the gym,
you all made me feel very welcome "across the pond".
The gala show. I don't know which one most of you saw, but I loved the
third show. Perhaps I'm tolerant, but there wasn't an act I didn't enjoy.
5300+ crazy jugglers
Wes' perfect gala performance
Low:
Home-made stuffed pork which I promptly vomited outside Roncalli.
Goal:
a better 9 and 10 rings, smooth like butter.
Crush:
Kulakov's gala act. Bravo!
Bane:
Not being able to breathe inside hot open show tents.
Surprise:
Figuring out the local rail system so we could cruise all around town for
ice cream. The little decoration touches the Germans placed all over the
grounds like luminaries.
^Tom_
- "The Spaniards" guitar/ukelele act in the German show.
- Most acts at Chapter2 show, Wes and Carlos especially.
- Going to pretty much a show per day (3 in one day) and enjoying them.
- Freddy and Pol's show
- Parts of the gala show, more of which later
- Swimming pool Wednesday night, crazy fun and worth all the bruises I got
on the slide.
- Hanging out with new people - inc. sitting around watching Tiff and
Peter Bone just playing around with db97531 with some beers & meeting lots
of new people.
- Ricochet Robot - That game is awesome+10.
Low
- Parts of the gala show (see below).
- The workshop board, sacrificing functionality for prettiness in anything
is something that normally annoys me, but in the case of the board, it
became rather stupid.
(Slight annoyance)
- Being woken up today - after deciding that waking up after sleeping on
the last night of the convention would be worse than being exceptionally
tired after I returned to England and hence staying up all night, I was
hoping for a very long sleep, but didn't get too long today.
Goal
[X] - Having only recently started with 5 balls, I was planning on
improving that - massive check, almost all the juggling I did.
[ ] - Buy clubs. Club prices were higher than expected, money was less
than expected, ended up being that it wouldn't have been cheaper than
getting them in the UK. So decided not to, rather than fail
[x] - Improve 4 clubs. Small check. Got bored of juggling balls for a bit,
so borrowed 4 clubs for a few hours. Managed to qualify it for the first
time in the first few attempts, and new record stands at 16.
Crush
- Mum, for taking me to the airport at stupid o'clock, and then being
there when my plane landed rather than a 5+ hour train journey home.
- Mamphy, various reasons.
Bane
- People using the very in demand computers for things like flash games,
or, in one case, watching a video of a walkthrough for a computer game --
that really took the biscuit.
- Going to a convention in Germany, and for ease/most accessibility,
everything was in German. I know it's the only realistic option pretty
much, and maybe I say this only as a non-terrible linguist -- but... I
find it almost disrespectful that the expectation is that people will
speak English - also, the level of English spoken by so many is impressive
- but if I were a German who didn't speak any English, I doubt I'd have
enjoyed the convention much.
Surprise
- Trip on floor game commentating with Clurb+co.
- Void's introduction.
- Cheap drinks.
Gala Show:
Believe it or not, I enjoyed the show overall, but I thought I'd give it a
critical review below.
Ranked from most enjoyed to least enjoyed:
- Get The Shoe - WOW oh WOW oh wow.
- Trampoline Act - saw the show in the evening earlier in the week, and
largely reused stuff, but wow all the same.
- Thomas Dietz - ok, so maybe some say his act didn't make a huge amount
of sense, but I still found it impressive juggling.
- Wes Peden - Some say a short act, I would say only relative compared to
too many far too long acts.
- Carlos and Toto? (I heard this described as "Carlos and Carlos's mate")
- some really nice passing to open the show. Not particularly upbeat, and
no "plot" for an act, but still good.
- Rings
- Balls
- Feet
3 Russian acts which were really good.
- William - Some would say that a Taiwanese act headlining a European gala
show is strange, but I can't fault him for that. Some good stuff, but
maybe the 3rd show in 2 days took it's toll, as he lacked a bit of energy
that I sense maybe should have been there in a fresh performance.
- Acro - quite nice act, couple of impressive one-handed stuff like a
pirouette, but otherwise I'd say they were ok, no worse than indifference.
- Tr'espace - after their first act I was thinking some of it was nice,
but it was far far too long, when they brought the same act on later,
including building the piano again on stage, but just with diabolos
spinning rotated pi/2 all act, and with things so it could spin like a
spinning top on the top of the piano... nice prop, but it put me off
entirely.
- Compere - made a long show longer, and most of the content wasn't great
- including some entirely unknown animals. The dogs were mostly very good,
but the really important stuff, like introducing acts, tended not to be
very clear ... as in for all I know Starbucks ended the first half, and
many of the acts I only found out who they were after the show.
(Incidentally (because it doesn't really fit anywhere else in this post),
the comperes at the opening show did a phenominally good job of hosting a
show in an amusing, easy, way - whilst doing a stunning example of how to
host in multiple languages without repeating everything.
- Starbug - last act before the interval. The best thing I could say about
this would be that it was most certainly European humour. In my opinion,
and most that I spoke to, it was not very funny, very politically
incorrect (and I would say much too far for a gala show), yet received by
the majority of the people in the theatre as up there with GTS... funny
people some of those Europeans.
- Hats - not a great act, awful hiphop music
- Queue outside - We arrived on an early bus over an hour before the show.
Seeing that the queue was purely to get in the building, we decided not to
bother queuing, as it was already packed, so found a windowsill away from
the queue to sit on and juggle. Not long later, there were so many people
around us that juggling was impossible with people pushing your elbows
(bear in mind we weren't even on the entrance side, or in the queue) and
moved away from the queue to get into the queue. Then, as the previous
show finished, the people who were rushing that area entirely stopped the
people from getting out the building at more than 1 person per second for
quite a while - as they'd seen an open door, and put more pressure into
getting towards that door (even if it was the exit). Anyway, after getting
inside finally, getting to the main door was Packed, and yet there was a
door around the back with noone trying to use, as noone fancied pointing
it out to the people close enough to the front to be able to move at all.
I am willing to bet I missed at least 1 act out, having nearly forgotten 3
already....
Also, as a general rule with one or 2 exceptions: the first half, of a
long show, was slow paced, which really was a bit of a drag.
Plumsie
Highs,
The temperature, I'm a northerner, it was far too hot for me most of the
time but I still enjoyed it.
Seeing the level of talent and getting loads of inspiration for new things
to try, I didn't juggle much whilst I was at the convention but I came
away with a renewed love of juggling.
German Show, Fantastic line up with only a couple of exceptions. My
favourite show all week.
Martin Heasman on the Open Stage. My wife nicknamed him Belgian Martin and
it seems to have stuck (Sorry Martin) but his routine rocked and
dedicating it to his fiancee who is also a good friend was really sweet.
Midweek pool party, dangerous, stupid and so much fun.
Meal in a German restaurant, 3 euros for a main course was fantastic.
Lows,
People being inconsiderate in the campsite, shouting and singing until 4
am when the sun wakes you up at 8 am is not good.
Realising that I should have done more juggling.
Getting sore feet doing so much walking.
Goal,
I didn't have a goal other than to get some new clubs, Sort of check (they
didn't have enough of the colour I wanted so they are on order).
Crush,
All the nice people I met, Jules, Helena, Michela, Lisa and more plus all
the people I already knew that I spent time with.
Sam, Duncan, Mini, Eek and all the others that were attempting to gather
all the inflatables in the pool.
All the fantastically beautiful women that were wandering around the site,
sexist I know but I like good looking women.
Clurb, My ever supportive and gorgeous wife, My eternal crush. Mein Süßer.
Bane,
Lack of a site manager, The fire lanes in the campsites were very quickly
filled with tents making it hard to get around (especially when carrying
large bags of juggling equipment). The security was a joke, the front of
the campsites werefenced off but the back of the campsite opened out on to
the canal footpath and I saw loads of people wandering in and out that
way. Badge control was a waste of time as lots of people had passes inside
out that could easily have been from a previous year or just a piece of
elastic.
Gala Show.
I'm giving this its own section, I saw the first show and I understand
that things changed for other shows but this is based on what I saw.
It was appalingly bad. So bad that people walked out.
The Compere in the first show gave us an extra half hour of his flappy
hands including giving lots of stage direction as there was no stage
management, A live hand sex show and some general waffle in German when
stage setting took longer than the English text he had to read. Announcing
that the show was a rehearsal was also probably a bad idea although it
would explain a lot of the problems with stage management and lack thereof.
The number of people I heard shouting for respect and for the compere to
speak english was fantastic.
I was annoyed that people seemed to give almost every act a standing
ovation. Some deseerved it some didn't. The standing ovation seems to just
be getting a lower value.
Tre'espace, The first act was nice if a little long, to then have them
back on minutes later to do more overly long arty diabolo of which half
consisted of watching a spinning top on a piano was very tedious.
William Wei Ling, His act is great but I don't think it is a headline act
for a juggling convention of this size.
Stand out acts for me were Kulakov, Thomas Dietz, Nata and her astonishing
antipodal act and Get the Shoe.
The Cavemen were ok but a bit to stoppy starty for me taking far to long
to get started( put your costumes on before you go on stage) and the
comedy/physical theatre act was ok but a bit long winded with bits that a
few people thought were inappropriate for an EJC gala show.
The russian ball juggler was good but again was trying to be too arty for
my tastes.
Other Issue.
Time for a rant, during the day on friday some inconsiderate toerag stole
8 of my tent pegs that were doing a great job of keeping my tent standing.
This let half of my tent down before some of the heaviest rain all week
and consequently flooded the sleeping area in the tent ruining clothes,
pillows, sleeping bags and various other bits and bobs, the tent inner is
possibly ruined and may have to be replaced. The only saving grace is that
it was on the last night that we were staying and we had a big enough tent
to be able to work around it because the annoyingly loud people had driven
Monkeyjuggler who was sharing the tent into a hotel for the night.
If whoever did it had asked I had spare pegs sat in the tent, I would have
happily loaned you some, as it is I just wanted to Kill someone on
Saturday. It was thoughtless and inconsiderate. I like the fact that most
jugglers are honest, I am generally happy to leave most of my stuff in the
gym from the first day until the last day but why are there always a few
pieces of thieving scum ruining a good week. The whole issue left a sour
taste in my mouth and left me feeling let down with the whole convention.
Why should one person ruin something that so many people worked so hard to
organise?
Overall,
I thought the convention was good but the show was a let down for me and
having my tent flooded left me very angry with the whole event. Maybe
because the British is such a good covention with such a good show we are
a bit spoiled in the UK but the venue was fantastic and there were some
lovely people let down by one or two bits of scum. Lets see what Spain
manage to do next year.
Drew_Ministry
> Bane
> Yet more illness. I'm getting seriously bored with tonsilitis when I go
> to events. I now also have a cold and a couple of blisters on my feet.
> Combined with the heat this was probably the most uncomfortable convention
> I've ever been to (and it's not the convention's fault - just my bad luck).
>
I don't think it's luck, Do you share drinks/smokes?
or are you getting a lot of kissing action!?
I used to get a lot of tonsillitis and sore throats at juggling
conventions until I stopped sharing drinks.
I find it's quite difficult to do, but I recommend it.
Smiles
Drew
MonkeyJuggler
>
> MonkeyJuggler wrote:
> > Bane
> > Yet more illness. I'm getting seriously bored with tonsilitis when I go
> > to events. I now also have a cold and a couple of blisters on my feet.
> > Combined with the heat this was probably the most uncomfortable convention
> > I've ever been to (and it's not the convention's fault - just my bad luck).
> >
> Alan,
> I don't think it's luck, Do you share drinks/smokes?
than 2 or more people drinking large amounts from the same bottle.
> or are you getting a lot of kissing action!?
I wish.
lynne
Just a selection of personal impressions from the many.
H:
Going on the parade with the main objective being a decent Eiscafé and
discovering the joy of 'ice cream lasagne'.
The Swedish comedy (non)barbecue farce - several hours and several beers
later they finally relented and finished the job on the gas cooker.
Pol and Freddy show complete with anti-ant blanket and glass of wine
(cheers Sam).
Wandering into the UV tent on the last night and remembering how much I
like to jam to music with a couple of clubs (thanks Karl).
ZKM having changed loads of the pieces but still being as good as the last
time I went. Visible screeching with Kate and the line from one of the
staff "it is so intuitive" as I was trying to catch and throw bubble
projections particularly come to mind.
" ...and now ... a rabbit" - I must remember to practice the internal poo
sculpture in time for next year.
Coming unexpectedly upon the hundreds of small lanterns on the hillside.
Finding that the tap dancing workshop provided shoes for us all.
Some new passing patterns to play with.
More table juggling.
So many images of people finding other like minded people to play with
among the hoards.
L:
Not enough people believing my earlier recommendations for ZKM and
therefore missing out on the fun.
The volleyclub tournament dragging on too long in the baking sun - my
factor wasn't high enough for that.
Seating confusion at the show meaning that I had to sit on the stairs for
the whole thing - good view though and a good show too IMO.
G:
To have a holiday and juggle as little or as much as my body felt like -
check.
To work more moves out with Sam - only partial check.
Quality ice cream experiences - check
Few games of Kubb - nope.
C:
Marco Bonisimo - such a lovely energy and a delight to watch practicing -
sad that the open stage experience stopped the club version because that's
my favourite.
Caspar - I loved the enthusiasm for passing with people, both more and
less skilled than himself.
Andy and Sandra - always a pleasure to hang out with.
Everyone who made the event happen and helped it run in any way.
B:
Nope.
Lynne
_mcp_
insulting. Apart from where they are obviously. Also it's kinda long
winded and probably quite topical. Sorry.
EJC
The gala show. I had to drag myself to it, due to my friends performing in
the open stage the same night. The queuing was stupid. Why let people in
and then make them wait again, just so they can get literally crushed when
entering the hall, letting them in one by one when the theartres internal
doors were open would have made more sense.
The compere, I really didn't mind him. It wasn't great, his english was
fairly repeitious and his jokes not so great. He was occassionally overly
long on introducing the next act, but it was not so bad. The use of stage
scenery was interesting and pretty well done. Thou most of the acts were a
dissappointment. Tres'space and the acrobalance act were the only ones to
tell a story, and even then the theme was similar. The acrobalance act was
extremely well done thou, story and all, as well as breathtaking skills.
There was no reason to break up tres-spaces two acts in my mind. If they
had done them back to back I'd imagine they would have gotten a full
standing ovation.
The anti-podist was allright. But a fairly weak, short act. Surely there
are harder things to do with your feet than turning a large foam cylinder
over? That wasn't really an ending. And the start was interesting. Walking
on slowly to emphasize the feet is alright, but chalking them up at the
same time? What does it really mean? Making the machanics of the act
graceful is one thing but the act didn't really say much.
The belgian hip hop hat juggler shouldn't have been on that stage. His act
is poorly made, non-technical and kinda sour. He's not 'hip hop' he can't
'breakdance' and his use of two different types of hat makes his act look
stupid and a cop out.
And the physical comedy dancer trio were better dancers, but similarly,
their dance hadn't moved on from the 90's. Plus I thought they were going
to kill one of their members when they did the back somersault. I probably
would have enjoyed the act in another setting, if I knew all the song
references, but it was a low skill act for a juggling convention stage. I
was quite convinced that it was going to turn to acrobatics but when it
didn't, it was dissapointing.
Carlos Muniz and friend, wes peden, and the belgian trampolinists, I was
just getting into their acts when they stopped. Far to short for all of
them i felt, they had more to give / do on stage before it was really an
act. But otherwise they were good.
The Russian ball juggler at the start was good, excellent presentation.
The one at the end, technically good, but with a lot of faffing around
with grinds and dance such like that we can see that french ring guy doing
much much much better. he should stick to the flats and pancakes I think.
William Weii ling was a bit of a downer at the end. He didn't really make
his big tricks and having seen his act before, I was kinda bored to watch
it again. There was no character or story or any reason to watch it again,
since I don't do diabolo. He didn't even do four on stage which I thought
quite unusual.
Oh yeah and obviously get the shoe were amazing and probably should have
closed the show. Considering that jochen was walking around in a neck
brace the day before, even more amazing.
Oh and thomas dietz. I quite enjoyed the conceit of the juggling computer
game. The routine needs work and after you pull off your clothes to reveal
a superman outfit, you definately shouldn't drop afterwards. But it was
enjoyable to see hard new school tricks on stage.
As for the rest of the stages, mostly beset by incredibly bad comperes and
acts. The only two reasonable ones were luke burrage and luke wilson and
luke burrage sometimes went on a little. Otherwise thou, the good acts
were spread very thin, sometimes there was only one good act in a show and
two alright ones, usually made worse by extreme tent heat, and wondering
if the other show was better.
The chapter two stage at the start was pretty dull. The first three who
had been working on routines were the only interesting ones. Otherwise it
just seemed like jugglers porn. Thou marco paoletti and stefan sing had
some incredibly moments it just went on for far to long. And couldn't
really overcome the soreness of my butt on the ground and how
uncomfortably hot it was. After marco paoletti's sailor bounce juggling
act, I couldn't really be bothered to watch more of his stuff. It might be
that I just didn't get it, but the presentation really made it very
boring. Considering I really liked his act at 531, I was dissappointed.
I think I could compile an accurate and complete list of what not to do in
act if i had watched all the stages.
Further to that, the fire show organisation was very bad. I'm surprised
they managed to get a microphone for the 'gala' show. The use of the
firemen, cranes and the actually quite good choreography of the mass burn
were the only things that saved it. The compere was extremely bad, the
acts mostly improvised and uninteresting. Or without much energy and
lacking in skill. Of the one open stage I saw, it's presentation was beset
by childish sound problems and the worse putting your friends in prime
position stuff i have ever seen. That was enough to make me withdraw from
the final 'gala' fire show. Why call it a gala show then give the
performers no incentive to perform? The real gala performers would have
gotten at least free entry to the convention. It was really an insult to
call that a 'gala' fireshow. Yeah sure, fire performers will work for
free. And people wonder why all the best fire spinners were sitting on the
sidelines saying at the end of each new act: "And people wonder why fire
performers get no respect...." le sigh.
I was expecting people to come with the mindset that this is the EJC! The
biggest, best juggling convention in the world. Everybody was there,
except durbs, and it truly should be the place to only show the finest
acts. But instead anybody and their slightly mentally subpar cousin could
get on stage. The EJC is not the place for your third performance EVER.
So that was dissappointing.
Plus it was too hot everywhere and hard to practise. I get the feeling I
could have practised much better at the much hotter athens venue, due to
the AC. The gym was stifling almost all the time, I had to become like a
tennis player, wiping my face on my towel every few minutes. To be fair
that did make me feel slightly hardcore, but also really like a disgusting
overly sweaty person.
But otherwise, really good organisation, amazing place, space and people.
NIMI the TREE STATUE! ZOMG! but let down by poop shows. Next time, please,
less shows, better quality, less missing out for everyone.
Anyway.
Mosey
Highs:
A really well organised convention!!
Seeing amazing jugglers from around the world
The second half of the German night on the special stage (I missed the
first half which i heard was fupping fantastic!)
The Gala Show (Best show i've ever seen) - I loved the hand puppets!
The hill
The Fire area
The fire performances
The chill out zone
The medevil village
Getting new juggling balls at cheaper prices than i bought them at last
year
Playing and learning loads of new card games
TOWERING BLOCKS!!!!
Cheap food and beer (€1.69 for a sixer of beer!!)
Amazing weather for most of the convention - When it did rain, it didn't
become a problem
Irish renegade - nice jiib Oisin and Paul
Free beer party in the open stage tent on the last night
Parade and opening show in Karlshure castle
Free Internet access
Going down the slide with thousands of other jugglers in the Europabad
swimming pool whilst chanting and doing Mexican waves
The general positive buzz going around!!!
Lows:
People's stuff getting nicked (Richie's Ipod, Mark's Phone) - Seriously
bad buzz!
Porta johns - its never nice to see other peopls turds
The polls in the Big Top tents obstructing people's views
Not having enough stuff to complain about!
Goals
Qualify 7 balls
Get over my creative block and learn new stuff with 3 balls
--- Check on both counts
Crush
Ever crusty girl juggling five or more objects!
Some of the sexy 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and 9 ball juggling going on (did anyone
else see the Norwegan guy running 9 balls and doing the 8 ball shower -
not at the same time though!)
Banes
Seeing 6 year old kids juggling more balls than their age and im still
struggling with FIVE!
Sweating off half my body weight when juggling in the GYM and open stage
Getting eaten alive by the bloody midgets
Tosser
>
> Getting eaten alive by the bloody midgets
>
Them small folk must have big appetites.
Daan Yperman
>
> The belgian hip hop hat juggler shouldn't have been on that stage.
>
They weren't Belgian, but Swiss, if I understood well.
The only act in the gala that was Belgian was 'Le Bo Trio', with the maxi
trampoline.
> Otherwise it
> just seemed like jugglers porn.
Haha! Nice one! :-)
If jugglers like Chapter 2 as much as men like porn, than this should be
the way to go!
But yeah, I understand what you mean. Thanks for that insight.
Daan
Matthew Tiffany
> > faith, science and organised religion with him and Ben.
>
> Yes, that afternoon on 'our' bench was great! I enjoyed it as well! Wasn't
> that the day Peter broke your mega-blaster record?
no, that was my mega-blaster record.....
>
> no time to give my own HLGCBS etc...
>
> cheers,
> joost
ramenrobot
> a bunch of bullshit about stories and charachters
Do you ask the same questions when you go see music, comedy, skateboarding
or anything else where
for some reason people are happy to watch the actual thing without
theatrical framing?
"the guitar solo was kind of OK but what did he want to SAY with it?"
"nice treflips, but where´s this guys character?"
etc etc
Aren´t we jugglers? aren´t we supposed to be interested in the juggling?
Joost Dessing
you're absolutely right...it's because you all finished in the .61's :P
I still think sub 10 is possible...next time I'll join in, when I am
wearing shoes!
Joost
Guy G
So would you enjoy a juggling act where there was no movement around the
stage, no music, no costume, and just a string of tricks progressing in
difficulty?
Actually, don't answer that. I suspect the answer would only depress me.
Guy
Plumsie
Well some people enjoy WJF competitions, thats basically what you
described except I think they have background music.
Sounds very dull to me.
Plumsie.
........
Still ranting
Little Paul
> _mcp_ wrote:
>> a bunch of bullshit about stories and charachters
>
> Do you ask the same questions when you go see music, comedy, skateboarding
> or anything else where
> for some reason people are happy to watch the actual thing without
> theatrical framing?
>
> "the guitar solo was kind of OK but what did he want to SAY with it?"
"I really like that song, it always makes me cry" - I've heard that said
about more poorly crafted and inadequately performed songs than I've
heard your example.
Most(not all) music is still about conveying some kind of message, telling
some kind of story, evoking some kind of emotion. Sure you can come up
with examples of pure technique - but what would you rather watch? A
musician performing expressively with pasion and feeling, or some guy
mechanically playing all the notes in the right order with blistering
finger skills but no soul?
Simple music played with heart and soul will entertain me all night.
I can barely get through 15 seconds of youtube videos like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZpD0btOZx8
You mention comedy, but comedy is *all* about the theatrical framing.
Without the theatrical framing, the context, the build up, the punch
line is meaningless. Ever met people who just can't tell jokes?
The theatrical element is what they're missing.
> "nice treflips, but where´s this guys character?"
Since when has skateboarding been a performance art? A demonstration
sport yes, but would you book tickets to sit in a theater and watch
skateboarding on a stage? If I was watching skateboarding in a theatrical
setting, on a stage, I would expect as much framing as I would from
a momologue.
> Aren´t we jugglers? aren´t we supposed to be interested in the juggling?
You may be, but I've seen more than enough raw skill in my life, and
frankly it bores me. Well done, you can throw and catch things. What do
you want? A medal? Yes? Get off the stage, you're in the wrong place.
If I'm watching a *show* rather than a sporting demonstration, I want to
be told a story, I want to be drawn in to a *performance* I want the
performers to lead me on, build expectations, play with those expectations.
I want the performers to tease me, to make me suspend my disbelief. I
want a theatrical experience.
If I want raw skill with no performance context, that's available all
day in the gym. Don't make me watch it in the evenings as well.
I wasn't at EJC, but I feel the subject is wider than just EJC. Which
is why I've spent so long saying "you're wrong"
-Paul
--
paulseward.com - a photo a day for 2008
100jugglers.org - 100 pieces of signed juggling promotional material
Guy G
>
> Guy G wrote:
> >
> > ramenrobot wrote:
> > >
> > > _mcp_ wrote:
> > > > a bunch of bullshit about stories and charachters
> > >
> > >
> > > Do you ask the same questions when you go see music, comedy,
skateboarding
> > > or anything else where
> > > for some reason people are happy to watch the actual thing without
> > > theatrical framing?
> > >
> > > "the guitar solo was kind of OK but what did he want to SAY with it?"
> > >
> > > etc etc
> > >
> > > Aren愒 we jugglers? aren愒 we supposed to be interested in the juggling?
> >
> > So would you enjoy a juggling act where there was no movement around the
> > stage, no music, no costume, and just a string of tricks progressing in
> > difficulty?
> >
> > Actually, don't answer that. I suspect the answer would only depress me.
> >
> > Guy
> >
> >
>
> Well some people enjoy WJF competitions, thats basically what you
> described except I think they have background music.
>
> Sounds very dull to me.
>
> Plumsie.
> ........
> Still ranting
After writing that I realised how similar it was. Hence the "don't answer
that" bit.
Speaking of ranting, here's mine from the EJC. I absolutely loved it
overall and may get around to writing it up properly, including the many
good bits, but here's the rant:
The inconsiderate ****s at the fire show. We were sat on the hill looking
over the space - an ideal view for a massive fire show. Then people kept
standing right in front of us all. Fine. They may not have noticed that
they were in the way of about 200 people. Except that there were
continual trilingual requests for people to move. And a lot of them did.
Thanks for that, the gesture was appreciated. But a hell of a lot of
people were content to stand there, completely blocking off the view, even
with 100-odd people chanting "sit down please" in English, French and
German. When directly and politely asked, and told that they were
blocking the view, many actually said they didn't care. One man said "if
I move, I won't be able to see. I might as well bloody go home". That
would've been fine with us. Eventually it just wasn't worth it, so we
left. Walking past, we told everyone once more that they were blocking
the show for so many people, and the majority of them didn't even dignify
that with a reaction. If you're going to be a complete arse and ruin the
view for people, then at least have the balls to look them in the face and
admit it. It really didn't fit in with my view of what makes a juggling
convention a great place to be.
Guy
TheDee
>
> Plumsie wrote:
> >
> > Guy G wrote:
> > >
> > > ramenrobot wrote:
> > > >
> > > > _mcp_ wrote:
> > > > > a bunch of bullshit about stories and charachters
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > Do you ask the same questions when you go see music, comedy,
> skateboarding
> > > > or anything else where
> > > > for some reason people are happy to watch the actual thing without
> > > > theatrical framing?
> > > >
> > > > "the guitar solo was kind of OK but what did he want to SAY with it?"
> > > >
> > > > etc etc
> > > >
> > > > Aren´t we jugglers? aren´t we supposed to be interested in the
My little rant:
Problems associated with having a very open site.
Badge control at the campsite was a farce - so many other open gates and
so many exceptions on who was allowed into the site (those going to the
greek restaurant and playing tennis for example) that looking back on it,
I'm not sure why they bothered with those badge control points - they
served for optical purposes only.
Also, I ended up running badge control for 2 of the open stages, I
encountered lots of problems trying to explain to locals that they were
free to wander around the park, but that inside the big top for shows was
for those who had paid (or at least priority had to be given so that those
who had paid got the choice of seats). This wasn't just a language
problem - it happened just as much with native German speakers beside me
also explaining as it did without them.
Then the effort involved to try to get people to sit down at the shows so
that others behind them could see. I got so much abuse about this - really
disappointing. Not to mention the abuse I received when holding people at
the door (in this case mainly from fellow jugglers) until an act ended to
minimise disruption. Really they should know better.
Open sites are nice in theory, horrible for those who have to enforce the
limitations. Suggestion would be to limit the (partially) open site to a
single day, then have the open area completely without restrictions, have
a reduced price day for locals or to completely minimise the area of the
site accessible without a pass. None of these are ideal solutions, but
otherwise the organisers substantially reduce the incentive for people to
buy a week long pass.
I'll get around to my more complete thoughts when my brain returns to a
more fully functioning mode.
Dee
^Tom_
>
> _mcp_ wrote:
>
> >
> > The belgian hip hop hat juggler shouldn't have been on that stage.
> >
>
> They weren't Belgian, but Swiss, if I understood well.
> The only act in the gala that was Belgian was 'Le Bo Trio', with the maxi
> trampoline.
Yes, I heard Swiss too, but out of Le Bo Trio, one of them was French, as
formed most of the plot for their trampoline show earlier in the week.
Jay Linn
<ramen...@yahoo.com.nospam.com> wrote:
> _mcp_ wrote:
>> a bunch of bullshit about stories and charachters
Nice. Friendly.
> Do you ask the same questions when you go see music, comedy,
> skateboarding
> or anything else where
> for some reason people are happy to watch the actual thing without
> theatrical framing?
Of course I do. And if you seriously think that any of your examples lack
appropriate framing or context, then you are extravagagantly lacking in
imagination.
> "the guitar solo was kind of OK but what did he want to SAY with it?"
> "nice treflips, but where´s this guys character?"
>
> etc etc
>
> Aren´t we jugglers? aren´t we supposed to be interested in the juggling?
Yes, we are. But I suspect few of us have such a narrow-minded view of
what constitutes juggling. There are of course outlets for juggling
stripped down to the bare manipulation skills, but I find them desperately
dull. To me juggling is entertainment, which is an intangible thing, and
not just throwing and catching, which at it's worst is a pissing contest.
--
Jay Linn
Has refluffed his .sig ... for now.
ramenrobot
>
> On 2008-08-12, ramenrobot <ramen...@yahoo.com.nospam.com> wrote:
> > _mcp_ wrote:
> >> a bunch of bullshit about stories and charachters
> >
> > Do you ask the same questions when you go see music, comedy, skateboarding
> > or anything else where
> > for some reason people are happy to watch the actual thing without
> > theatrical framing?
> >
> > "the guitar solo was kind of OK but what did he want to SAY with it?"
>
> "I really like that song, it always makes me cry" - I've heard that said
> about more poorly crafted and inadequately performed songs than I've
> heard your example.
>
> Most(not all) music is still about conveying some kind of message, telling
> some kind of story, evoking some kind of emotion.
Yes, and it is done using music as the medium, they´re not playing poker
at the same time and
expressing what they feel through poker.
Also, how many juggling acts have you seen that actually are trying to
express something genuinly, or
they just have that wrapping because you´re expected to?
Sure you can come up
> with examples of pure technique - but what would you rather watch? A
> musician performing expressively with pasion and feeling, or some guy
> mechanically playing all the notes in the right order with blistering
> finger skills but no soul?
>
> Simple music played with heart and soul will entertain me all night.
> I can barely get through 15 seconds of youtube videos like this:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZpD0btOZx8
>
> You mention comedy, but comedy is *all* about the theatrical framing.
> Without the theatrical framing, the context, the build up, the punch
> line is meaningless. Ever met people who just can't tell jokes?
> The theatrical element is what they're missing.
>
Any framing that is relevant to what you do is OK with me. Most of the
time the theatrical framing
jugglers seems to use is something like a Zorro outfit.
> > "nice treflips, but where´s this guys character?"
>
> Since when has skateboarding been a performance art?
Since the day someone considered it art, I don´t know? Why couldn´t it be
art? I could see it as art.
A demonstration
> sport yes, but would you book tickets to sit in a theater and watch
> skateboarding on a stage? If I was watching skateboarding in a theatrical
> setting, on a stage, I would expect as much framing as I would from
> a momologue.
More people pay to see skateboarding than juggling (i would guess). What
difference does it make if it
´s inside a theatre or not, if it doesn´t support what goes on, which in
the case of skateboarding I´d
guess it would be better on the street or in a ramp where it´s usually is,
but if someone wants to do
it in a theatre then go ahead. I don´t see what difference it would make
though.
And you would seriously rather have the skateboarders doing theatrical
stuff inbetween/mixed with
the tricks? I haven´t seen that done so I am not going to judge it, but
the for sure wouldn´t have to,
for me to be interested to see what they do.
>
> > Aren´t we jugglers? aren´t we supposed to be interested in the juggling?
>
> You may be, but I've seen more than enough raw skill in my life, and
> frankly it bores me. Well done, you can throw and catch things. What do
> you want? A medal? Yes? Get off the stage, you're in the wrong place.
>
> If I'm watching a *show* rather than a sporting demonstration, I want to
> be told a story, I want to be drawn in to a *performance* I want the
> performers to lead me on, build expectations, play with those expectations.
> I want the performers to tease me, to make me suspend my disbelief. I
> want a theatrical experience.
>
> If I want raw skill with no performance context, that's available all
> day in the gym. Don't make me watch it in the evenings as well.
Anything relevant, honest and genuine is ok with me. "hey, let´s both wear
red!"
>
> I wasn't at EJC, but I feel the subject is wider than just EJC. Which
> is why I've spent so long saying "you're wrong"
>
> -Paul
--
ramenrobot
>
> On Tue, 12 Aug 2008 15:41:37 +0100, ramenrobot
> <ramen...@yahoo.com.nospam.com> wrote:
>
> > _mcp_ wrote:
> >> a bunch of bullshit about stories and charachters
>
> Nice. Friendly.
Sorry about that. You know how these internet posts can make you all
worked up.
>
> > Do you ask the same questions when you go see music, comedy,
> > skateboarding
> > or anything else where
> > for some reason people are happy to watch the actual thing without
> > theatrical framing?
>
> Of course I do. And if you seriously think that any of your examples lack
> appropriate framing or context, then you are extravagagantly lacking in
> imagination.
>
> > "the guitar solo was kind of OK but what did he want to SAY with it?"
> > "nice treflips, but where´s this guys character?"
> >
> > etc etc
> >
> > Aren´t we jugglers? aren´t we supposed to be interested in the juggling?
>
> Yes, we are. But I suspect few of us have such a narrow-minded view of
> what constitutes juggling. There are of course outlets for juggling
> stripped down to the bare manipulation skills, but I find them desperately
> dull. To me juggling is entertainment, which is an intangible thing, and
> not just throwing and catching, which at it's worst is a pissing contest.
>
--
ramenrobot
>
> Guy G wrote:
> >
> > ramenrobot wrote:
> > >
> > > _mcp_ wrote:
> > > > a bunch of bullshit about stories and charachters
> > >
> > >
> > > Do you ask the same questions when you go see music, comedy,
skateboarding
> > > or anything else where
> > > for some reason people are happy to watch the actual thing without
> > > theatrical framing?
> > >
> > > "the guitar solo was kind of OK but what did he want to SAY with it?"
> > >
> > > etc etc
> > >
> > > Aren愒 we jugglers? aren愒 we supposed to be interested in the juggling?
> >
> > So would you enjoy a juggling act where there was no movement around the
> > stage, no music, no costume, and just a string of tricks progressing in
> > difficulty?
> >
> > Actually, don't answer that. I suspect the answer would only depress me.
> >
> > Guy
> >
> >
>
> Well some people enjoy WJF competitions, thats basically what you
> described except I think they have background music.
I don愒 think I described anything, anywhere.
It愀 fuckin funny though that you bring up the WJF!
ramenrobot
>
> ramenrobot wrote:
> >
> > _mcp_ wrote:
> > > a bunch of bullshit about stories and charachters
> >
> >
> > Do you ask the same questions when you go see music, comedy, skateboarding
> > or anything else where
> > for some reason people are happy to watch the actual thing without
> > theatrical framing?
> >
> > "the guitar solo was kind of OK but what did he want to SAY with it?"
> >
> > etc etc
> >
> > Aren愒 we jugglers? aren愒 we supposed to be interested in the juggling?
>
> So would you enjoy a juggling act where there was no movement around the
> stage, no music, no costume, and just a string of tricks progressing in
> difficulty?
>
> Actually, don't answer that. I suspect the answer would only depress me.
>
> Guy
>
>
you mean? no music? does
it include noise or talking?
elias
> crush.
> peta, elof and ellis. sorry if i spelt your names wrong! really cool
> people with really nice juggling.
That's "Petter" (with the big rings) and "Elias" (me). You got Elof's name
right though! :) But I'm just guessing here. You're probably not talking
about me since I was sort of wasted for most of the convention... Couldn't
have made such a good impression.
/ Elias Hedlund
Neocron3000
- The convention overall, but in short Detailes:
- meeting again, getting to know and hanging out with such many nice
People!
- the GalaShow (later more xD)
- the dimensions and freindlyness of an EJC e.x. seeing all the people at
the Opening Stage or at night on the hill, illuminated just by the
fire…wow
- getting some nice Tricks and Flashes e.x. 8 Ring Halfshower
Low
- Waking up 8 o´clock every morning, sweaty - with winzened hands- becouse
of he heat in the Tent
- Couldn´t been everywhere at the same time :D
- Compere of the GalaShow
- Chapter 2 (fantastic creative cool 3 club things BUT just too many one
after another.) I went out after seeing Paul Lind which seemed to be a
good finishing act. I don´t want to see people again and again…
Crush
- Kulakov - crazy, and i didn´t expect him to be this young
- Matt Hall – and seeing the People go crazy when he got „his
trick“
Bane
- Water in my tend at beginning of the week becouse some kids always
stumbled over the strings from my tent
Goal
- Having a nice and fun week with people i didn´t see in a long time.
- (was probably the best week i ever had or i can remember at the moment)
The Show
If you got to Varieté you pay much and get less…maby 4 Acts in 3
hours. And this one was cheap and 2,5 hours full of crazy Juggling! I
LOVED IT!
Starting with Carlos and toto (i hope i get that right) with the second
act from pavel ruzsilo i started to think about what else could come
– and it got better and better. There are just 4 things about the
show that were not That good, but they could´ve been worse.
1. Wes peden, nice routine, nice juggling, but thats it…just a (too
short) routine. I saw him in italy doing better, that is to say doing an
Act.
2. Thomas Dietz, it was surprisingly one oft he worst Shows i ever saw ( i
saw the first one on Friday), doing his show in german, dropping a lot in
the superman costume and not really a storyline…the older version of
his show was much more professional. It would´ve been cool and fun for an
open stage.
3. The antipodist…it was okay, and kinda refreshing, but not the
niveau i expected compared to the other Acts, since i already seen
antipodist acts which started where this one finished.
4. The Compere - It´s just completely inacceptable not to speak entierly
in english.
(5. and maby GTS should´ve changed with William)
(( 6. I forgot that – the second one of Tr'espace would´ve been
enough))
Starbugs – no Juggling but funny.
And Pavel, Kulakov, The Trampoline Act, GTS, William and the Acrobats were
all unbelievable!
Overall...it was Amazing
Neocron3000
–
i wrote it in word and copied it.
Matt Hall
today and resting, I’m finally ready to jump into the whole HLGCBS
thing. It's a long one--no surprise there! =)
High(s):
Walking around the site on Friday the day before the fest and seeing
the site and just knowing it was going to go off—seeing all the little
details the organizers added—wow.
Walking around Karlsruhe the first day before the fest began with Lisa
and Jerry, saying to myself, “Hey, I’m in Germany for the first time
in my life—cool!”
Walking the parade route with Lisa, who has never been to an EJC, much
less been a part of a parade.
Watching Ady Pole open the first night of Renegade with a kick-ass
ring routine. The crowd never knew what the fuck hit them.
Blasting crazy siteswaps with Ben Beever and Matthew Tiffany outside
the Open Stage tent with Sean’s crazy cool glow balls (9 balls,
db97531, d633633—almost all of them on strobe!)
Touring the Henry’s Factory with Tony Frebourg, Segev, Ofek, and Mr.
Shilton. I really enjoyed the opportunity, especially as it came on a
rainy day.
Dinners at dusk on the hill with Lisa, Jerry, Void, Alice, Adrian and
others
Watching Freddy and Pol’s show twice more with Lisa after enjoying it
so much at the Dutch Convention
Beating Tom Derrick in the semi-finals of the EKO—that was the real
final.
Watching the EKO turn out to be a fun little event
Performing on Open Stage Wednesday night and having the routine go
reasonably well.
Hitting the pirouette-cross arm foot catch and the one-arm freeze
right afterwards in celebration.
Late night walks back to the hotel with Lisa—just quiet and peaceful
as we debriefed the day
Running into Nella and Roman from Tr’espace in the gym late at night
and catching up with them and Priam at the Beer Tent.
The Japanese dinner with Blake, Void, Alice, Adrian, Jerry and Lisa.
The Workshops—in particular the multiplex workshops because Ben
Beever, Matthew Tiffany, and Peter Bone were right there learning
along with the rest of the folks. Also, the excalibur workshop
because I hit the duicide on the first try in front of everyone and
then afterward M4U (Marco) took me to school and showed me at least
six new tricks.
Breakfast every morning in the hotel with Lisa and Jerry—I ate the
same thing every day it was so delicious.
Finding someone at the Games who actually had a video of my Open Stage
box trick—SCORE!
MC’ing the last Open Stage on Saturday night—watching Tao Wei hit his
routine, the final ovation, and then Y-M-C-A!
The final dinner in Karlsruhe with Jerry and Lisa—just chillin’ with
some beer in the square, doing HLGCB..
Low(s):
Hurting my hip early on in the fest and dealing with it the whole time
thereafter.
Hurting my finger a day or two later, and dealing with that the rest
of the festival.
Screwing up my times for the workshops, so that right when I finished
the breakdancing workshop from 11-12, people walked up and said, “so,
the workshop starts at 12, right?” So, totally knackered, I did the
same workshop again. By 1pm I was toast.
Lisa getting bumped and cut in front of in several lines by the DDA’s
(Dreadlock Dumb Asses). Just because you’re a hippy doesn’t mean the
rules don’t apply to you too. Oh yeah, don’t roll a joint and try to
smoke it in the freakin’ Open Stage tent. If you’re that hooked,
you’ve got a problem my friend.
Goal(s):
Have another great adventure with Lisa (check)
Teach some solid workshops (7 total-check)
Perform on Open Stage (check)
Learn new tricks (check)
Catch up with friends and meet new ones (check)
Crush(es):
Lisa, of course.
Jerry Martin, for being an exemplary travel buddy and
conversationalist
The Void, for making the EKO happen
Matthew Tiffany, for always being down for a trick swap and for
schooling me
Jouany, a great stage manager
Daphne and Drew, my great minions
Tao Wei, for rocking the cigar boxes big time
The pizza in the sports hall
The soft cream at the artists’ playground
Bane(s):
The heat in the gym, but no big deal really.
Various DDA’s—enough said.
Lack of workshop space and workshop announcements
My injuries
Not being able to watch every Special Stage and Open Stage (if only it
were possible)
Surprise(s):
Getting called up by Luke Burrage to try my trick again.
Hitting the trick despite the pressure and the hip pain
Finding someone who actually taped it
The diabolo level of Dekel and Ofek
Final Comments: I saw the 8:30 show on Friday, and I dug it for the
most part. I did not like the host that much, but he was tolerable.
The acts were high quality, in my opinion. It was a bit long, but the
time went by quickly in the second half. Overall, I am really stoked
that this was my second EJC experience and Lisa’s first time. I was
worried that it wouldn’t compare to Svendborg, but it basically
exceeded it on almost all counts. We won’t be able to go to Spain
next year, but we are planning on Finland in 2010! My sincerest
thanks to the organizers and volunteers who made it happen. Truly an
unbelievable, epic gathering of jugglers.
Matt Hall
> TON of stuff<
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention Chapter 2 Special Stage. HOLY MOLY!!!
Guy G
> a rant with a promise of future happier thoughts.
So here's a more general review:
Highs: The weather. Hanging out watching Tiff, Ben Beever, Peter Bone and
Tom doing silly things with glowballs. Spending the day with the person
who taught me to pass about 4 years ago. Attending what was possibly the
smallest workshop at the EJC and thoroughly enjoying it. Matt Hall's
workshops (particularly the multiplex ones - bastardly hard with only 4
balls). Doing the takeouts meet siteswap series with Bri. The crazy
swimming session. 2d high sort of clicking and allowing me to make 34
catches. The small water thing outside the hall for cooling the feet.
Watching Tom doing DDR on the swaying ferry and still being ridiculous at
it.
Lows: The general rudeness of some people (I won't rant further). Hearing
about just how bad the swimming session became after we left. The
campsite toilet. Yep, just one. I'd never smelled a proper toilet that
smells worse than a portaloo until the EJC. Travelling for more than 15
hours to get home. Having to go home at all.
Goals: I kind of had a half-arsed aim to learn chin to nose to forehead
balance, and managed to land it a fair few times. Go to lots of shows -
fail. After ridiculously hot days, the cooler evenings were too good to
then go and sit in a hot, sweaty, smelly tent.
Crush: Susannah. The convention wouldn't have been outright bad without
her, but it was a hell of a lot better with her there.
Banes: Warring ant factions in our tent porch. We woke up to hundreds of
ants in the porch. Half an hour later there were hundreds of ant corpses
in the porch. Until we moved away from the family camping area on about
the 3rd day, the mornings involved clearing up their tiny bodies. If
there are any ants reading, it's your business if you want to fight, but
please don't do it in our tent.
Guy
--
Looking forward to Crawley for another fix
Will S
>
> OK My HLCGB (be warned it is my bday and I have had some champagne and
> wine...)
ooops I forgot to say Happy Birthday Alice. Nobby's Nuts tonight!
Highs
Being there.
Visiting a friend in Koln/Cologne on the first weekend, and seeing some of
Germany, instead of travelling to Germany and just seeing the convention.
Spending a day in Karlsruhe (see above).
Not going to the Gala show; see other people's comments...
Seating in the gym, genius.
Free computers, although I only managed to get to use one early Sunday
morning.
The 5 euro ammareto from Lidl, and 9 club passing with Christian after
drinking it.
The swimming and slide madness on Wednesday night.
Flame Oz.
The tree.
Free hugs.
Currywursts.
Bouncing on the half pipe.
Germany - the people, food, public transport, weather etc were all lovely,
and the architecture was a treat. Overall I was very impressed.
Lows
A lack of good bouncing spaces. There was the square outside the main
hall, but I didn't fancy seeing my silicones disappear in opposite
directions as so often happens. The small gym looked like a good place,
but I felt that became a workshop area and people wouldn't appreciate
balls running through their workshops. That said, the half pipe/skatepark
was great for bouncing, but only really usable during the hottest parts of
the day.
Getting lost in the Euopabad on Wednesday night, trying to find my
(shortsighted self without glasses) way back to the lockers, and finding
the steam room, showers, swimming pool and shallow warm waterey area
instead. (Someone thankfully led me back to my tent. Thanks Jeb).
My bank not allowing me to get money out abroad.
Crush - Christian Parr
Bane - None really, but some more ashtrays dotted about would have been
nice.
Other - has anyone watched the 2007 EJC dvd yet? I had a very quick skip
through it, and they seemed to have looped the music over the top of the
acts, so there are no audience cheers mid-act. Or is it just my dvd player?
All in a great convention, but now I'm back at work and have got serious
post EJC blues.
Will
fakoriginal
(some of the days might be wrong, everything kinda blurred after a while):
Thursday/Friday - left work early and got home (after a very expensive
journey) to news that the car taking me to Karlsruhe wasn't starting.
Happily it did eventually start and fitted all of my gear [1]. It was
driven through England, parked for a bit on a boat, then continued through
France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany throughout the night almost
non-stop [2]. A bit of touristing was done, along with bemoaning
continental European shop opening hours, and we crashed out in a campsite
on the France/Germany border [3]
Saturday - the car started after threats of tinkering and a good dose of
sunshine and we headed off towards Karlsruhe, arriving in the queue at
about half eleven. The first Brit to be seen [4] was mini, and managed to
get registered in double quick time. The rest of the day was spent putting
up tents, unpacking, and generally lazing about. I did managed a bit of
passing with Aidan and Nick, but had to give up as my bitten arm continued
to swell.
Sunday - right forearm now huge and am unable to juggle at all. Luckily I
bump into a Doctor [5] who gives me some anti-histamines. Day mostly spent
idling about and chatting. Skipped the parade but walked myself to the
Opening show at the Castle and enjoyed it immensely.
Monday - right forearm almost back to normal. Attended two workshops - one
on takeouts (which turned out to be the roundabout) and one on minis
(which I have missed twice in the last 8 months). I managed to do them.
Huzzah. Watched Chapter 2 on the special stage in the evening. It was good
[6].
Tuesday - European Kendama Open day. Lots of running around trying to find
people and make sure they were in the right place, even if that meant
tailing them. Ate late but caught second half of Open Stage. It was good
[6].
Wednesday - Juggled for about an hour. Qualified 4 clubs. Pottered about a
bit. Possibly watched volleyclub if that was on Wednesday [7]. Watched
Open Stage in two halves - first from the bleachers, second from the side
of the stage. It was good [6]. Was Celebrity Fight Night on Wednesday [9]?
I watched a bit of it whenever it was. Just enough to see JJ and Flo's
passing bit.
Thursday - I definitely juggled on Thursday. It was the day of the
thunderous weather. Lots of entertaining lightning. Played my first game
of the convention and was amused by the staff of the Europahalle not
closing the windows before the downpour leaving puddles on the floor [8].
Tried to convince people I could organise a convention.
Friday - Gala show in the evening, preceded by dinner in town [9] and
sliving a corner off my finger. Enjoyed the show immensely apart from the
host who killed the atmosphere every time they were "on stage". Highlights
for me were the slapstick comedy guys, the trampolinists, the acro act,
Tres'pace and Get the Shoe [10].
Saturday - No juggling due to taped up finger. Car fixed by kind friend.
Games held indoors - I stayed outside under the tree. A shame that the
rehearsal for the Fire Show took up half of the space between the big tops
for several hours in the afternoon. Watched the final Open Stage. It was
good [6] but almost runied by the fireworks display. YMCA was aces, though.
Sunday - Packing up and fixing the car some more. Wandering around not
finding people in the places they were supposed to by and not saying
goodbye to anyone [11]. Long drive back through Luxembourg, Belgium and
France. Made it to the ferry late, but it was later. Passport control
obviously having a dull day (which suddenly got better). More being driven
around until getting welcomed by my cat at long-awaited post.
Some other stuff:
Somehow ended up camped in the middle of some noisy French types [12] who
were split in to two groups - one noisy late and night, the other noisy
early in the morning. I was tired enough that I never had to resort to my
earplugs, though.
An eyemask is a wonderful thing for those mornings when the sun gets up
before you do, unfortunately it can't do anything about the heat.
Ice cream is good, especially when it comes in many flavours.
Ants and wasps are bad (at least they are when they are in your tent).
I've experienced better manners in queues amongst London commuters, and
that is saying something. It got to the point where I didn't want to see
any more shows as the people barging their way through to the front and
pushing in at angles was winding me up too much.
Badge control for the camping site, as noted, was a farce, but smile
control was a nice touch.
What was with all of the ball balancing?
Trams play havoc with LW signals.
Ade running my ipod battery down showing off pictures of his hot Boston
lawyer.
Nutty, seedy, biscuity things are addictive.
Rain can be very loud [13].
Twas a very nice holiday.
fak - thanking the organisers for organising but not
spellchecking/sanitychecking this lot.
[1] No juggling equipment as I figured there would be enough around
[2] Alas I cannot sleep in moving vehicles, otherwise I could have had a
nice nap whilst others were going all of this driving
[3] Somehow getting bitten my an evil bug in the process
[4] He was heard first
[5] With a great name
[6] But roasting
[7] I really can't remember what happend on which day, sorry
[8] Until I almost slipped over whilst scrambling a V
[9] Mmm, noodley goodness
[10] Host aside there wasn't really a bad act, those were just the first
that came to mind.
[11] Unintentionally
[12] Different ones to any of the others
[13] In a good way
Rhubarb
- The whole convention: Really. The size, diversity, skill level,
atomosphere, little surprises, etc all made it so much fun.
- Henrys plant tour: Seeing the care and quality they put into their
products made me feel even better about my new clubs! The assembly
machines they designed are amazing.
- Alexander Kulakov in the gym. Wow!
- Thomas Dietz nailing impossible tricks at 5am on the last night
- Gala show: My first time seeing any of those performers live (and it
sounds like the Friday late show may have been the best).
- Party at the Europabad: Black water slide, whirlpools, it was like a
rock concert in there.
- Discovering the hidden buffet in the gym on the second to last day
- The language barrier wasn’t as hard as I thought, and kind of fun
actually
Low
- The Wedding show: Fly all the way to Germany, my first EJC, first
show of the week, so much excitement and then…..no juggling. Any
other circumstances and I think it would have been fine.
- No convention T-shirt: Every time I walked by they were closed or
sold out. Lesson learned. Buy shirt, then juggle.
- I was hoping to see Joelle Huguenin juggle
Bane
- Never saw a list of performers for the weeknight stage shows (not
open stages). So many great acts but I missed many of their names.
- The US dollar to Euro conversion
Crush
- The guys doing the blind club balance on the top of their head
- Matt Hall rocking the festival as usual. That guy is everywhere!
- Shirtless jugglers, mmm (of course, with a few exceptions)
- The 18 month old toddler walking through the gym who got beaned in
the head by a club and didn’t even cry. Clearly the child of a
juggler.
Goal
- Stay ignorant to the actual Dollar/Euro conversion rate: Mostly
Check
- Learn lots about the European juggling scene: Check
- See a renegade show: Not really, can I substitute for naked jugglers
at the Eurovision show?
- Meet cool new jugglers from all over the world: Super Check
- Take workshops from jugglers who we rarely/never see in the US:
Check
Thanks to the organizers and everyone who attended in making this such
an awesome festival!
Christine
Duncan Hoyle
Highs:
Taking time out from the parade for a delicious ice cream and then
catching up in time to see the opening show in front of the castle.
The acro act in the opening show - throwing up with a somersault into a
neck to neck balance and standing on shoulders , somersault back to
standing on shoulders.
The musician improvising the accompaniment to Stephan Sing and Marco
Paoletti using singing, guitar and a loop machine to harmonise with himself.
The guitar/ukulele pair from the German show - acro whilst both playing
guitar and finishing off with the 2 of them juggling 3 ukuleles each and
plucking the strings in a recognisable tune.
The pool party. You really had to be there to appreciate how fantastic
and utterly mad this was. Queuing up on the steps to go down the slide
was almost as much fun as the slide itself - singing, cheering, Mexican
waves. The bloke at the top wasn't imposing any rules on when you could
go down so it got a bit chaotic at times and eventually they did stop
it. The outside whirlpool was packed with people all jumping to various
tunes. We finished off the time in the pool with a game of dragging the
inflatables plus occupants from one area to another and this led to some
interesting bruises the next day. Particular thanks to Kaisa for
sneaking in a (plastic) bottle of mint vodka.
After the pool the rest of the evening was finished off nicely with
beers on the hill chatting with Sam, eek and Miles whilst vaguely
looking for shooting stars. Sun rise the next morning flooded the site
with a lovely light but I don't think I caught up on sleep during the
rest of the week.
The Pol and Freddy show in front of the hill was great. So good that I
watched it again 2 days later. Their interaction with the kids in the
audience the second time was hilarious
The first act in the gala show by Tr'espace. This was stunningly
beautiful and just blew me away. The skills were, of course, first class
including passing a vertax diabolo, exchanging 2 diabolos and 1 vertax
whilst stood on top of a (re-enforced) piano. The choreography was
mesmerising.
Alexander Kulakov's ring routine was another highlight of the gala show.
He had a load of unusual tricks that I'd not seen before including 5/6
flats and multiplexing throwdowns to a single foot and kickups to split
them.
The final open stage was the only one which I really saw and was started
well by Martin Heasman. I'd seen a video of this from the Scottish and
it was good to see it live - smooth, flowing, old school 3 ball juggling
is my king of thing and I really enjoyed this.
The final act of the final open stage, Tao Wei, did a brilliant 3 cigar
box routine to YMCA. He's a real show man and the crowd went wild.
Lows:
Getting stung on the finger by a wasp 20 minutes before the only
juggling workshop that I'd been interested in all week.
The fire show starting before the open stage finished. We left the tent
at half time but couldn't see anything so went back in. After hearing
about the fire show from friends it sounds like we did the right thing.
Spending too long getting ice cream before the show meaning we had to
hunt for seats just before the lights went out. Some of our group ended
up sitting on the stairs and some were so far to the edge of the stage
that they couldn't see most of the first half (they moved at the interval).
Goal:
To get there having missed it for the last 2 years - check
Have fun without overdoing it and wiping myself out for the week - kind of
Introduce Anne to Zombie Fluxx - fail
Crush:
Steph - always enjoyable to spend time with her and the 2 hour massage
workshop together was very relaxing.
Sam - we met at the airport and she was great fun to be with all week
Bane:
Ants in and around my tent crawling on me when I was trying to sleep
outside on the hot mornings.
Tiredness - unfortunately I had to overnight in the airport on the trip
down and only got around 30 minutes sleep. I'm not sure I really
recovered and felt a bit spaced out all week.
Best comedy moment:
Walking through security in Baden airport Tom behind me was stopped when
the metal detector went off. The guards checked him with the hand
scanner and noticed he'd been pegged on the back of his shirt. Both
guards saw it, pointed and laughed but didn't mention it, asking him to
remove his shoes and walk though again before letting him pass.
^Tom_
> Best comedy moment:
> Walking through security in Baden airport Tom behind me was stopped when
> the metal detector went off. The guards checked him with the hand
> scanner and noticed he'd been pegged on the back of his shirt. Both
> guards saw it, pointed and laughed but didn't mention it, asking him to
> remove his shoes and walk though again before letting him pass.
>
I spotted that a few minutes later - as we walked into the shop there I
think... garr, didn't think anyone there was being childish and pegging.
But it was amusing I guess if the guards saw it.
SuchaMuggle
>
>
>
> If I want raw skill with no performance context, that's available all
> day in the gym. Don't make me watch it in the evenings as well.
>
> I wasn't at EJC, but I feel the subject is wider than just EJC.
>
This is why I don't make it to many summer conventions: my type of act,
which is more focused on drawing the audience in and keeping them as part
of the show, seems to be less popular in the big Gala Shows of recent
megaconventions. I'm not saying I don't love the super technical
shows..it's just that my only way of getting to the convention would be if
I could be booked as part of the show too.
I love big juggling conventions, and have a lot of friends there that I
want to see, but I am busy performing. If I'm gonna take time off work to
be at a juggling event, I always hope that I can be invited, as a workshop
teacher and/or performer at the big Gala Shows and Public Shows, so that
traveling to the convention will be like a gig for me. I don't expect it
to make me a lot of money, but rather hope it will just cover lodging and
travel expenses.
By now, I have been a full time juggling entertainer for 14 years. My act
has been successful in the Public Show/Night Cabaret of many conventions,
and I even performed in the big show at the Gothenburg Sweden EJC 1995.
I admit my "raw skill" and highest pure technical stuff is not as high as
Peden, Dietz, Galchenko, etc.. These are the people who usually appear as
Special Guests and performers in the Public show.
But, to add variety to the entertainment, a speaking act could fit nicely
between some of these godlike technical stars performing to music. So I
always ask the convention organizers if they'll use me, a talking comedy
act that uses technical juggling, in between some of their hardcore acts,
but usually they don't respond.
So this year, as usual, I skipped the EJC, which takes place during prime
performing season. Instead, I performed at big street events in
Scandinavia during that week. I made new friends, got a free ride on a
sailboat, and earned great money, and there were no other jugglers around
for people to compare me to.
I wonder where they all were? hehe
John
Al Teal
I have enjoyed your juggling through the videos available online ever
since I became hooked on juggling a couple of years ago.
I haven't seen any part of your comedy act and I wouldn't expect you post
good stuff just to have it stolen, but do you have a relatively recent
promotional video of your stage performance? If you do, I would like to
see it. If you don't, I hope you will put one together.
I hope you great success in your juggling pursuits.
Al Teal
jugglingeek
>
> Highs:
>
> Breaking up the lengthy queues and managing to sneak in first during the
> ensuing commotion.
> Getting to sing in German and French at various hours of the night at
> the campsite.
> Pissing off the security guys enough that they'd prolly never smile in
> the vicinity of a juggler ever again.
> Getting a shitload of tent pegs. Man the scrap value on these alone
> payed for my ticket home.
> Winning that bet that I could get some guy pissed off enough to gather
> up his camping stuff and go find a hotel.
>
>
> Lows:
>
> People tapping me on the shoulder when trying to finish games on a pc
> with a stupid German keyboard.
> Had a terrible cold/flu thing going on, but managed to stay hydrated by
> sneaking a drink from any unguarded bottles I came across.
> The angry man who I told it was ok to start the fire show. It wasn't not
> one of those double-negative misunderstandings.
> Picking the EJC to have terrible smelly diarrhoea. I must have used
> every one of those toilets at least twice.
> Misadvising Wes Peden that everybody was "keeping it short". It wasn't
> not one of those double negative misunderstandings.
> Losing my ant collection at the campsite.
> Telling a bunch of midgets that jugglers liked to be eating. One of
> those language barrier things.
>
>
> Goal:
>
> Get the chicks to lose the tops. I thought turning up the heat in the
> gym as far as it would go and screwing with the air conditioning might
> do it, but, it just wasn't enough. Best I could get was a bunch of
> sweaty blokes with no chest hair.
>
Ah Ha! So it was your fault.
DSallee
passing, then it’s better never than late).
The EJC was my first juggling convention outside of Oregon. Plus this was
my first time in Europe, so my wife and I wanted to enjoy it to its
fullest (which means extending the trip some extra time to check out a few
other countries).
Since this is an EJC thread, I’ll try and limit my typing to that subject,
other than to relate the fact that it was an adventure just getting there.
Because we wanted a direct flight from Portland Oregon to Frankfurt, we
chose Lufthansa. Seemed like a good idea at the time . . . and if we had
our flight a day earlier, it would have been fine, however due to a strike
by the tech staff and catering, our flight was cancelled.
Oh the joy that the fine folks behind the counter had at rerouting 200+
people. Our particular replacement path was via US Air. We were to fly
from PDX to Las Vegas and Vegas to Frankfurt. Sounded reasonable enough
to us . . . until we visited the US Air counter (naturally at the opposite
end of the terminal). They were kind enough to inform us that they would
NOT check our baggage through to Frankfurt and that we’d have to visit
baggage claim and recheck our bags.
Oh, and we’d have an hour to do this, or we’d miss our flight. Hmmm . . .
an hour to get our bags and check back in . . . in Vegas??!?!? I know
there are a lot of sucker bets in Vegas, but really, that’s just not going
to happen.
So, we went back to Lufthansa and they had a new offer for us. PDX to
LAX, LAX to Paris, Paris to Frankfurt. Seeking something a bit more
direct, we had them try again.
This time. PDX to San Fran. San Fran to Frankfurt. Oh, and by the way,
they informed us, the San Fran to Frankfurt trip . . . First Class.
Wow oh wow. First Class international. It really IS every bit as good as
they say . . . heh heh.
A fantastic way to start the trip and a great way to be in the perfect
mood to do a lot of juggling.
EJC Highs –
Just being there!
Finally getting to see some jugglers that I’ve only seen online via posts
and videos.
Matt hitting his trick onstage after the show . . . glad I wasn’t in the
first row ;-)
The Gala Show. Enjoyed it all, especially Dietz as Superman having some
issues with his pants . . . heh heh.
Celebrating 8/8/08 with Antje by passing 8 clubs (Dubs and Trips) her
first time (you always remember your first time)
Catching up with Killian and meeting Martin and Celine.
The Void actually knowing who I was. Behold the power of cheese ;-)
Ordering some Programmable Globalls then later that same night seeing them
in action on the Open Stage . . . do I HAVE to wait? I want them NOW!!!
:-)
Hanging out with Sondre. Great juggler and really nice guy.
Matt’s Multiplex workshop(s) and those that were there participating.
Chatting with Michael Karas. He’s risen to the top of the “Juggler’s I’d
like to have dinner with” list. Seriously easy going guy with lots of
interesting things to say and a great passion for all aspects of juggling.
Michael - did you wind up getting the "scissor clubs" and more important
. . what shade of green are they? ;-)
Low:
I don’t think I know what that word means . . .
Crush:
Brenda, my wife for enduring the entire convention even though she’s not
into the entire juggling scene as much as me :-)
Antje, the best hostess anyone could ask for. Awesome juggler and lots of
fun to be around!
Banes:
Towards the end of the convention, both Brenda and I started to experience
show burnout. We attended half of the last open stage. By then we had
had our fill of the tent being too hot and some audience members smoking
in the stands.
The overall lack of beverages being cold. Was one of the things about
Europe that I just couldn’t ever fully embrace. I did find it quite
amusing to see some kids playing with the novelty of an ice dispenser in a
German McDonalds though :-)
Goals:
Arrive – Major Check
Juggle – You betcha Check
Chat with a few people in person rather than just read their posts on-line
– Check
Get the Anniversary Club signed by a few people – Partial Check. There
were some other people that I would have liked to gotten signatures from,
but since some of the signatures were already coming off (should have used
the wider tipped sharpie) I decided not to get as many. FAK is now “AK”
on the club, but at least it shouldn’t get any worse now that it’s home.
Overall:
An amazing experience and hopefully I’ll eventually be able to go to
another one! Thanks to the organizers and all the people that put in the
efforts to make it such a great festival!
Now I just have to wait until October when the new Globalls arrive. Well,
that and I have the Portland juggling convention to keep me happy. Will
be interesting to go to a “small” convention after attending one with over
5000 people :-)
David Sallee (still smiling over the fact that Luke Burrage signed the
club including “Luki” in quotes :-)