Bermuda Juggling festival - my diary (a tad on the long side)
Jani Kyllönen
OK - my jet lag has been cured and I have sorted out my notebook. Please
excuse me for any inaccuracies and misspellings. For some reason (I
blame mr. Yohannes) some parts of the party seem hazy.
Friday
I tried not to sleep the night before, which wasn't really a problem I
had only been to one juggling festival ever before this and this was on
the other side of the planet, so I was really excited.
Flying westwards is really weird as you can gain hours or at land at the
exact time you started.
When I finally arrived in Bermuda (you have to remember that I flew in
from Finland, which has a quite dramatically different climate) I was
totally flabbergasted. Those shipwrecked englishmen couldn't possibly
have found a nicer place to settle down. The tour guide said that they
were heading for Virginia, but while I have never been to Virginia, I
can't really imagine it being nicer than the islands of Bermuda.
Upon arrival I found out that the person who organised the whole party
was lounging about in some airport in idontknowwhereville, usa. This was
a real pity as I have looked forward to meeting andrew since we worked
toghether on making Juggler's Bulletin available on the web.
http://www.juggling.org/jb/ -put that in your juggling history knowledge
blender and make it into a piña colada.
Anywho, I arrived on Friday and met up with Scott, Paul and other long
travelled visitors. I knew that this wouldn't be a festival as such,
more like a relaxed neverthriving of jugglers. We hung out on the pink
beach and enjoyed the hospitality of Yohannes, da bar man. A bit of
passing was done, but not too much.
Saturday
I woke up in my bungalow without the slightest hint of a hangover. My
theory is that if you can hear the ocean waves all through the night,
it's impossible to catch a hangover (I was later proven horribly wrong).
After having a late breakfast, I headed for the juggling hall. Martin et
al. had some really confusing four person pattern going and tried to
invite me in as "this is really easy to expand to five people". I
thought that my passing skills were really not up to par so I politely
declined and did some solo clubs instead (Lena, thanks for lending me
your dubés). My basic siteswaps with four (managed a half round of 534,
yay!) didn't get too much attention as Anthony was running his practice
routine in the other end of the gym. Cheeses Krist, that man is a machine.
After juggling a lot some of us went to the beach. I think Paul took a
hat and other people brought other non-common props. The idea was that
we could have some very informal workshops on the basics of different
things, but I think no one learnt anything new.
Evening show - that really rocked! I am normally not a big fan of
technical juggling (and I hate pirouettes), but how can you dislike
Anthony Gatto and Vladimir Galchenko doing tricks _first time_, _on
stage_ that no one else on this planet have ever gotten on video, even
once! Also Martin's and whatshisface's (sorry) passing routine was
incredible - I didn't understand half of it, but it was beautiful.
After the show there was some more beach. I thought that I might learn
by watching and asked Vladimir (feels weird to use his real name) to do
five clubs. His response: "6x4x, 744, b97531 or what?". Ha, bloody ha.
Eentually he ran five as "5". That is one gorgeous pattern, I have to
learn that. Then loads of fruity drinks and starry skies - fantastik!
On sunday I had a horrible bloody hangover for some reason. Maybe I
drunk a couple more than I intended to during the night. The nicest
thing was that the mythical Andrew-figure turned up. I was planning on
learning tha basics of whip cracking, but didn't have the time.
Unfortunately I had to leave for home quite early on Sunday so whatever
happened after that, I missed completely.
Thanks: Andrew, Paul, Scott, Arthur (juggling legend par excellence),
Anthony, Vladimir, Yohannes and Viveca [wink].
jani
Thanks all: Andrew
Lur_Kerr
like a private party not a festival. who sponored it or made the money?
----== posted via www.jugglingdb.com ==----
Little Paul
> so what was this, a secret meeting of a secret group of jugglers?
It was an invite only party for a group of jugglers that have known each
other for a while... But possibly not IRL
Why? are you feeling inadequate? ;-)
> sounds like a private party not a festival.
You're getting the right idea now. However, most of the people that
were invited were r.j inhabitants, so i guess it's still relevant.
It was certainly a lot of fun :-)
> who sponored it or made the money?
Andrew Conway organised it, (lovely chap that he is - thanks Andrew! :-)
but as far as I know it was run at a loss, no one made any profit from it
(unless you count meeting loads of really nice people[1] as proffit :-)
-Paul
[1] Obviously, you'd have to include Benji as "nice people" for that
definition to hold - but well, I couldn't *possibly* comment about that
dubious las vegas clone act
conway
> Andrew Conway organised it,
"Organised" is too strong a word. I came up with the idea in a drunken IM
conversation with Steve Mills. I was sick of the fact that people stopped
the Bahamas (where I am going to live) confused with Bermuda, which is
nowhere near. So, I thought that if a bunch of people I know went to
Bermuda, they might have soem idea where it is. I was against the whole
"Invitation Only" crap, though, but when you delegate to control freaks
you have to put up with what they do.
For those of you who did not get to go the Bahamas are 800 islands 200
miles South East of Conway, Florida, and Bermuda is two islands, 900 miles
East of Conway, South Carolina.
Andrew
PS. What's this I heard about the orgy in Katje and Bill's room? I can
understand the Hershey syrup, but peanut butter does not make good lube.
Viveca
> I was sick of the fact that people stopped
> the Bahamas (where I am going to live) confused with Bermuda, which is
> nowhere near.
It didn't help. I now picture the Bahamas as exactly like Bermuda only
with Andrew there. Well, technically I suppose he did make it to Bermuda,
but hardly. There were many toasts drunk to him and many drunks toasting
him though.
> PS. What's this I heard about the orgy in Katje and Bill's room? I can
> understand the Hershey syrup, but peanut butter does not make good lube.
>
Some of us prefer nuts to sweets. Hey, we don't complain about your sheep
spanking escapades.
And as to Paul's point about nice people, well, nice isn't exactly one of
my main goals in a friend, but this fest sure had a higher-than-usual
proportion of people I was happy to meet. And the clone act certainly paid
for itself in amusement value!
Viveca
PS, Halloo Jani.
Rob Stone
con...@juggling.org.nospam (conway) wrote:
> > Andrew Conway organised it,
>
> "Organised" is too strong a word. I came up with the idea in a drunken IM
> conversation with Steve Mills. I was sick of the fact that people stopped
> the Bahamas (where I am going to live) confused with Bermuda, which is
> nowhere near. So, I thought that if a bunch of people I know went to
> Bermuda, they might have soem idea where it is. I was against the whole
> "Invitation Only" crap, though, but when you delegate to control freaks
> you have to put up with what they do.
>
> For those of you who did not get to go the Bahamas are 800 islands 200
> miles South East of Conway, Florida, and Bermuda is two islands, 900 miles
> East of Conway, South Carolina.
so who won the Magnus Nicholls' most miles travelled award ? Sounds like you
(AC) cheated by taking a circuitous route ?
conway
>
> so who won the Magnus Nicholls' most miles travelled award ? Sounds like
you
> (AC) cheated by taking a circuitous route ?
That would be Magnus himself. His grandson mailed his ashes from
Australia. It would have been his 110th birthday on the opening day of the
festival. A pinch of the ashes were sprinkled on the beach that evening,
and then everyone juggled fire around him. I'm told it was a very moving
ritual and a great way to celebrate his anniversary and I'm bummed that I
missed it.
Andrew
Lewbel
Otto Han Tyang, for possible submission to the number's
committee?
Jani Kyllönen
> Anyone have video of the Bermuda juggling prodigy,
> Otto Han Tyang, for possible submission to the number's
> committee?
I didn't think he managed to break the record. He said that he has it on
tape somewhere, but I don't think he got it again. Can anyone verify
either way?
jani
Itsik Orr
> Lewbel wrote:
> > Anyone have video of the Bermuda juggling prodigy,
> > Otto Han Tyang, for possible submission to the number's
> > committee?
>
> I didn't think he managed to break the record.
Was that the record previously set by Nigel J. Green?
Little Paul
Obviously I can only coment on what I saw (which is probably much the
same as you) but from memory I think people were saying that he was about
3 catches short on the day - it was nice to see him beat Gatto though,
old Tony is showing his age a bit I think, or at least has some catching
up to do :-)
-Paul
Viveca
> >> Anyone have video of the Bermuda juggling prodigy,
> >> Otto Han Tyang, for possible submission to the number's
> >> committee?
> >
D'oh! Didn't think of that. The stuff that most blew me away though wasn't
endurance, it was all that weird seven-ball siteswap stuff. I'd love to
see him in the WJF's 7-ball competition next year. It would also lend a
sort of Jamaican-bobsled team factor to the nations represented. (And
don't get techical on me anyone. I may be an American, but I do know
Bermuda's not a nation, and if I hadn't, I sure would after getting all
Andrew's pre-fest materials. Enough already!)
I find it funny to watch people who naturally tend to reverse cascade.
Always makes me think of Peter Kaseman. In general though, unless someone
talks him into competing or performing, he reminds me more of Slammin'
Andy or Chris Lareau or someone like that--the best jugglers you'll never
see.
Sorry, Arthur, if this doesn't help on the numbers committee search. Maybe
he got some qualifying records and I just didn't notice-- I blame Jani
though. Those Finns can be very distracting.
Viveca