On Thursday, July 26, 2012 8:38:06 AM UTC-7, Little Paul wrote:
> On 2012-07-26, I wrote:
> > I had posted mine on Facebook. Since people here were looking for these,
> > I believe mine should be publicly viewable here:
>
> "You must log in to see this page."
>
> so erm, no it's not publicly viewable
>
> -Paul
> --
>
http://paulseward.com
I was fooled by Facebook telling me it would be publicly viewable heh... Cut and paste it is, then.
Heads up. Those of you that know me know that I type a lot. This is no exception. Even with the length, I'm sure I forgot some of the people and things that made the week so incredible. So don't take it personally; blame the sleep deprivation and exhausion.
Highs
Being granted the honor of serving as Chairman of the Board. Great group of people on the board these days, and I'm excited to welcome our new members. Lots of work to do, but give me another day or two to recover from the fest and I'm ready to roll.
Jack Denger's People's Choice Award. The Juniors competition was a roller coaster ride to watch. Kellin Quinn did a beautiful act; he should be proud of his work, and it is a drag that all the drama may have taken some of that away from him. But Jack's act was insane. When he didn't win, he handled it with admirable dignity and composure beyond his years. I was ecstatic to see him win the People's Choice Award, and was touched by his words. I was proud of him, and proud to be a part of it all.
Workshops. By the time the dust cleared, my job as workshop coordinator had expanded to include 107 workshops. Almost without fail when I peeked in to make sure they were going okay I was seeing packed rooms and lots of smiles. Bravo to all the workshop leader volunteers. You guys kicked large amounts of ass.
Teaching Winston-Salem native Ashlea to juggle. We crossed paths in Starbucks, and she wandered over to the convention center to see what all the hubbub was about. I'm not sure she was quite prepared for what she saw, and a few days later she came back for a lesson. As I was preparing to head out for championships, I gave her a quick lesson, and when she managed to get a cascade going a few minutes later, the squeal was a great reminder why I love teaching juggling.
The reactions of the winning competitors. Because I was helping backstage with the championships, I was watching the awards from the wings of the stage, and some of the reactions were priceless. The stunned relief of my good friend Thom Wall when he placed second after having his routine badly compromised by a faulty sound cue. The complete jubilation of Dominik and Daniel when they won the teams after the heartbreaking scoring snafu last year (and well earned; what a routine!) These sorts of human moments are the things that stick with you for a long time.
Lows
Playing "Jugglers to Jugglers" and not winning the round where the adjective was "European" and my noun was "EJC". WHAT???!?!? COME ON!!
Not being able to see the championships very well. I was helping in the green room each night, where "helping" meant "eating candy and telling dumb jokes to try to keep the mood light." And I'm glad I did; it was great to be involved and so close to so many wonderful people. But I had to watch the competitions on a 13" TV with a signal that looked like it was being beamed from the moon. I'll be waiting anxiously for the DVD.
Sleeping too much to take in all the fun, but not enough to actually feel rested and well.
Goals
Pull off a successful workshop program. Yup. I'll give myself that one, with lots of help!
Pass clubs with Warren Hammond. Nope. Each festival I'm at with Warren, I figure it would be fun to dust off my club passing and let him field my dubious passes. Nope. We've only managed to actually pass once. Briefly at 2011 IJA.
Learn at least one new trick. Nope. Not only didn't I actually learn any new tricks, I didn't even spend enough time in workshops to find a new trick that I could fail to learn.
Attend Pavel's open workshop. Check! I had decided beforehand that no matter how busy I was with workshops I'd carve out time to do this. Glad I did; he was patient, gracious, and helpful at the end of a long day.
Attend Dave Finnigan's workshop on his educational programs. Check! He probably knows more about teaching juggling in schools than just about anybody; I didn't want to miss that.
Teach a successful workshop on Teaching Juggling to Kids. Check, I think :-) You'd have to ask the attendees, but I think it panned out well, particularly given it was the first workshop I have ever taught.
Moderate a successful discussion panel on Turning your Passion Into a Profession. Check! I was bummed that Freddy Kenton had left by the time the panel started, but Jack Kalvan, Warren Hammond, and Dave Finnigan filled the hour easily with good tips, interesting insights, and amusing stories.
Talk shop with Noel Yee. Check! Noel is doing really awesome work in the flow/spinning/fire communities, and I wanted to compare notes to figure out how to make our festivals even better going forward. I figured it would be an enlightening talk, but he had some theories and ideas that caught me off guard. Very good stuff.
Crushes
Ea Eo. Going into the fest, Matt Hall and Erin Stephens kept telling us, "I know most of you haven't seen them. You are just going to have to trust us on this one. They're going to blow you away." They couldn't have been more right. Their act was a blast; my face hurt from smiling so much. I had the privilege to hang out with them afterwards and through workshops as well. Even off stage they are downright hilarious, down to earth, and way too much fun to be around. Come back to future festivals, guys, or you will PISS ME OFF! :-)
Albert Lucas. Where to begin? He's a legend, and when I was teaching myself to juggle in high school, he was pretty much THE guy. He came backstage during the Juniors competition, and when David Ferman and I realized who he was, we both sorta lost our dignity heh... I later got to spend a bunch of time talking with him; actually meeting my childhood idol, talking shop with him, and realizing he'll be an active participant in the IJA going forward pretty much made the festival for me. I'm also hoping to get him to tell me where the fountain of youth is, because there is no WAY that guy is 52 years old.
Pavel Evsukevich. Fast forward 25 years, and my adulthood juggling idol was Pavel. Not that long ago I was drooling over his act on YouTube, and next thing I know I'm helping him with his workshops, watching him perform on stage, and driving him to the airport. As I kept telling people, if I was his age and able to do what he does, I'd probably be a real jerk and very full of myself. He was gracious, humble, and friendly. I know he wasn't overly happy with his Cascade performance, but I could have watched another hour of that. Bravo.
Carolina barbecue and hush puppies. Almost reason enough to travel there. Thanks, Keith Nelson, Slammin Andy, and friends!
Banes
The Wifi and temperature in the building. I could have sworn they were building a lead dome over the convention center, because the longer the week went on, the worse the network connectivity became. The temperature was a wild seesaw. First it was freezing, then I was sweating, and back to freezing. Due to the Wifi issue I had to retreat to my hotel room to update workshops, so that helped me stabilize my temperature.
The jackwagons who thought it would be clever to shoot off a fire extinguisher in the Convention Center. Aside from the blow it struck to my faith in humanity, I really wasn't planning on spending my first day as chairman dealing with this foolishness. I can proudly say there was never a day in my life I would have thought that would be a funny idea. It cost the IJA money at a time when we were already struggling to break even on a wonderful festival. It caused them to shut down the convention center earlier than planned, taking away hours of festival time from lots of people who need less sleep than I do. It wasted the time of board members and security trying to get to the bottom of it, wasted the time of maintenance people who had to clean it up, and wasted the time of the fire department when the extinguisher set off the fire alarms. Thank goodness there wasn't a real fire elsewhere while the fire department was responding to this idiocy. It would take a special kind of stupid to do something so selfish and actually think it was cool or funny. And I'm still spending my limited time trying to get to the bottom of it. I'm optimistic.
Surprises
Freddy Kenton and Ryan Mellors. Both special guests were unfamiliar to me, and rocked my world with gorgeous acts full of tricks I'd never seen before. Variety is the spice of life, they say. And I sound like a broken record, but both were just fantastic people as well. If my life ends up like Freddy's when I'm his age, mission accomplished.
Did I mention Albert Lucas suddenly showed up backstage at juniors?
The mobile app. Late in the week before the festival, I quickly threw together the app after getting a tip from my older daughter. I guess it went over well, because by the time the dust cleared, about 1 in 3 festival participants was using it. I'd consider that a huge success given that it was a brand new idea, I didn't manage to publicize it very well, and not everyone would have a smartphone anyway.
Thanks
Yeah, I added a new section. It is good to be the chairman, and I'm drunk with power ;-) Thanks to all my workshop leaders. I didn't count in the end, but it had to be well over 40 people that contributed to make a spectacular lineup of workshops. You all made it very easy for me, and I got plenty of verbal feedback that you knocked it out of the park.
Thanks to my fellow board members, outgoing, incoming, and remaining. As I tell everyone who asks, the job isn't necessarily fun, but it is important and rewarding. I'm very optimistic about our direction in the coming year. Let's surprise some people!
Huge thanks to Matt Hall (and Lisa Hall for what must have been phenomenal patience as Matt gave his life to this festival). Matt is a perfectionist, which is what makes him so good at many of the things he does. Even while everyone around me was raving about what a great time they were having, I know Matt was worrying about how things were turning out. You killed it, Matt. Seriously. Sit back, breathe easy, and recover.