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12/01/02 Sunday: Got up this morning around 5:30, and got all caught up on my diary entry. Kay, who was asleep on my floor (on some nice comffortable cushions,) had asked to be woken at 8:00. After I was done with my diary, I went and took a quick shower. After my shower, I woke Kay up, and we sat in my room and chatted for a bit. I then went downstairs and prepared some tea and cinnamon toast for the two of us, and took it upstairs so we could eat breakfast in my room. Kay left around 9:45am, heading up the hill on her bike. There was no rain, but it was a bit windy. After Kay left, I called Brita, to see how she was doing. She wasn't home. So I set out to do some glass. Brita called me back shortly after, and we spoke. She told me she was going to the gym today, and might stop by afterwards. So I went back to doing my glass. I ended up doing around another 150 pieces of glass today. Shortly before I was done with that lot of glass, and half-way through a Voyager show, Brita showed up. I invited her in, and she and I sat in the living room chatting while I finished up the glass, and she played with the musical instruments Mandy keeps in a basket in the living room. After I was done with my glass, I took Brita up to my room and gave her a nice massage. She is a bit stressed out because of personal problems, so she was very tense. After the massage, she hung out for a while then went home.
After Brita left I called Phil and we made plans for him to come pick me up for rehearsal tonight. Around 5:45pm, Phil showed up, and he and I headed up the hill in his car in the heavy rain to rehearse with Yam in the student house (since we can't use the gym or studio 2 yet.) Rehearsal went well, though I was tired, and didn't have much energy to put into it. We are doing a dentists office scene. Laughing gas, and pulling teeth usually offers instant comedy. We shall see how it goes. We perform it on Wednesday I believe.
After rehearsal, Phil dropped me off at my house, and I immediately went to bed around 8:30.
12/02/02 Day Forty-Four: For some reason I was being a lazy bum
this morning, and didn't actually leave my house until 8:55am.
There was no rain, but a heavy wind. I arrived around 9:20, and
Kay was finishing up the group warm-up. I just went off in a
corner and did my own stretching. This is the first warm-up I
have missed without a good excuse (like what happened with my
face.) I have yet to miss a class, or be more than 2 minutes late
for a class, except for the face allergy incident.
At 9:30 I headed over to Studio 2 for my E&M class. The first
thing we did, as a class, was explain to Rod that because we have
had our key privileges taken from us, that we were unable to
practice over the weekend or any evenings since Wednesday night.
Rod apparently had not been informed of this, and was concerned.
We suggested that he possibly bump the show up a few days so we
would have more time to practice for our performance. Rod then
left for a few minutes to go to talk to Helen. While he was gone,
Natalie and I started to work on our cigar box routine. A few
minutes later, Rod returned from the office, to tell us that he
had made arrangements with Helen so that our performance would be
next Thursday at 1:00pm. This gives us 6 more days (6 very badly
needed days,) to put together our routine. I spent the majority
of the class time with Natalie going over our little two person 3
to 5 cigar box routine. She is getting better, and so am I, so it
is getting smoother. We showed what we have to Rod, and he seemed
pleased. He said we were creating new stuff with cigar boxes that
he has never seen. This made me feel good. He mentioned that once
we get the skills down, we need to start thinking about how we
look. More specifically where we look (e.g. making eye contact
with the audience, finding moments to pause and look at each
other, etc.) After he watched our routine, he sat down and
watched Jeremiah and Merlin do their diabolo routine. Then after
he watched their routine, he suggested that if we wanted to we
had the option to split in two groups so that we could spend the
time we would have spent figuring out how to put the two routines
together in a comprehensive manner on more time on learning our
skills. This made a lot of sense to me and seemed like a good
option. I called everyone over to one of the crash mats to have a
brief meeting. I listed the pros and cons of each side (staying
together and splitting up,) and others put their input in as
well. Put to a vote, it was decided we would stick together.
After that little meeting, Natalie was complaining that her back
hurt, so I suggested that she take a break from cigar boxes and
help me put together my solo cigar box. I started by showing her
all the tricks I know how to do, and then she helped by making
suggestions as to what tricks to include and in what order. Plus,
she wrote down the sequence in my notebook. We got several moves
into it, but it still needs a lot of work.
After E&M, at 11:00, I headed over to the student room and
ate half of my lunch. I ran into Ashling and asked her if she had
my £35 from doing glass work, but she had forgotten to bring it.
I then had to turn around and tell Kay I would have to pay her
the $4.50 I owed her tomorrow. She didn't seem too concerned.
At 11:30 it was time for Physical Theatre. Bim had us start off
the class by picking out a character mask, different from the one
we were using in our presentation. Next he had us split into two
separate groups. Then he had one group go through the following
exercise as the other group sat and watched. I was in the first
group. The exercise involved going to the cinema. Bim set a row
of chairs and a bench in front of those chairs and a couple of
screens towards the back on either side of the two rows. We
entered one at a time, finding a spot to sit. As we all filed
out, one at a time, sitting down, Bim would describe to us in
detail what we were seeing on the screen. First he started off
with movie previews, and then eventually the movie started. He
described scenes in the movie that evoked a wide range of
emotional responses. While he did this, he guided us a little,
trying to make or responses clearer. Judging from the laughter in
the audience, I would say we created some amusing moments. As the
second group went up, we sat down and watched them go through a
similar exercise. It was funny to watch. Charlotte did an
especially good job. For the next exercise, Bim cleared away the
set and he instructed us to walk around in the
"neutral" that our character would walk around. Then he
asked us to start to include sounds and gestures into our
walking. Then he asked us to turn the sounds into words. Then he
asked us to find our name-all while still walking around. Next he
asked us to talk out-loud about things we liked and disliked.
Then Bim had us move around the room and go up and introduce
ourselves to each other. Next Bim had us gather in a semi-circle
around him, in character, and he explained that we were at some
kind of meeting. He was pretty vague. He told us that to start
out with, we needed to do some warm-up exercises and stretches.
We did this, staying in character. My character's name is
Patrick, and he is 50 something man, never married, a little
posh, who likes to work in the garden, and has no social life.
But he likes to talk a lot. I attempted to do him with an proper
English accent, but I'm sure it was a little muddled. Anyhow,
Patrick did the best he could, as far as warming up. He waved his
arms around in circles, and tried to do a few stretches. Next Bim
instructed the group of characters that they needed to do 10
push-ups. My character was very hesitant, and just stood around
watching the few who actually did try a push-up or two. Next Bim
asked us to sing a song together. Patrick didn't know the words
to the song they were singing, but tried to hum along, and fit in
a predictable word now and then. After the singing was over,
Patrick raised his hand and mentioned to Bim that singing was not
in the brochure. Bim explained that the brochure did mention
miscellaneous activities, and singing fell under that category.
Next Bim had us each, one at a time, go around behind the
screens, then come out, and stand on the bench and introduce
ourselves to the group, and talk briefly about what we liked, or
disliked. After everyone had gone through that, Bim broke off the
exercise, and told us to pair up with someone. He told us that we
were to take turns. One person would wear the mask, and be in
character, and the other person would guide the actor, letting
them know what actions or sounds they were doing that
strengthened the character. I worked with Phil, and he helped me
with several sounds, and gestures, making my character even more
posh than he was to begin with. His character was very arrogant,
and hateful. He hated poor people. I helped him make his
character even more abrasive, by making his character get angry
at me. It was kind of creepy, but a successful exercise. Phil
told me he doesn't like playing mean characters. He prefers
playing dopey slow characters. For the final part of the class,
Bim had half the class go up to the front while the other half
sat and watched. I was in the second half. The exercise involved
standing opposite your partner against one wall (while they stood
against the other wall.) Then each pair would take a turn. The
exercise involved one person without a mask walking towards the
masked character, who is walking towards them as well. When they
meet in the centre, the unmasked character is to confront the
masked character and get them to engage in conversation. The
conversations were to be normal conversations you might have with
a random person on the street (e.g. getting directions, asking
the time, petting their dog, etc.) When it came time for Phil and
I to go, he went first-wearing the mask. When I approached him, I
pretended to be a beggar, and asked him for 20p. He did a fine
job of making me feel useless, and unwanted. When we encountered
each other, with me wearing the mask, Phil was someone doing a
survey. My character responded eagerly, finding it exciting that
someone wants to ask him questions. I had fun over answering the
simple questions he asked. Then when he tried to break off the
survey and get away from me, I insisted that he continue,
indicating that I could see that he still had some questions to
ask. It created a nice moment of tension comedy. Bim mentioned
after the exercise was over that most people doing the exercise
were not sharing the mask with the audience enough (in other
words, not looking towards the audience.) Then he told me that I
was looking towards the audience too much. I guess I need to find
the happy medium.
After PT, I headed back up to the lunch room and finished my
lunch. They were watching the video of last year's class' final
show, "The Body." I noticed that the video quality,
though not bad, could have been a lot better. So I suggested to
some people that we look into what it would cost to have a
professional videographer come in and tape our final show at the
end of the year. Surely it could end up costing us a reasonable
amount (once it is split between 25 people) to do this, and
he/she might be able to put it on DVD instead of video. After I
ate my lunch, I headed back to Studio 2 to continue working on
cigar boxes until 2:30.
At 2:30 it was time for Dip Notes. Today Rod came in and had us
answer another Knowledge Questionnaire. Today's was titled
"Creating, Rehearsing, & Preparing." It included
the following questions: 1. How do you analyse a circus piece? 2.
Why I sit important to the artist to progress in his/her
artistry? 3. How do you record circus work? Why? 4. How & why
do you plan solo and group practice and rehearsal time? 5. How do
you decide if you have mastered a skill successfully enough to
perform it? 6. How do you ensure you remember the original idea
when working? 7. How do you warm up? (include time-group and
solo.) 8. Why is it important to agree and honour contributions
arranged with others? And 9. How do you liase with others? Today
Rod was being observed by some man who is responsible for making
sure that Circomedia is fulfilling the requirements needed for us
to receive a diploma.
After Dip Notes, I spent about an hour working on my cigar boxes.
I came up with some very nice moves I plan to include in my solo
act.
At 5:00 it was time for Yam and Phil and I to meet and rehearse
our PT piece that is due on Wednesday. It was around 5:15 when
Phil finally showed up, and Yam still had not come. I was getting
annoyed and frustrated. As it was, this only left us with 40
minutes to rehearse. Apparently the acrobatics class Phil is in
runs until 5:00pm, so it takes them 15 minutes to put the mats
away and put their shoes back on, etc. When I walked over to the
gym at 5:20 to find out where Yam was, and to grab my jacket (so
it wouldn't get locked in the gym,) I had a discussion with Dave
about this. He told me that people who have to leave right at
five don't have to put the mats away. Nevertheless, the system is
not working well when one class ends at the same time another
starts. They need to adjust the schedule so that there is at
least a 5 minute break between classes. Yam was there in the gym,
and apparently had decided to do some conditioning (since she saw
that Phil had not left to go to Studio 2 yet.) Needless to say I
was frustrated with Yam because of this. But I did my best to put
it aside, and continue with the rehearsal. We made good progress
in the 35 minutes we had left, and we managed to video tape it
twice.
After our rehearsal was over, I just hopped on my bike and headed
home. I was in my bed, reading by 7:30. I fell asleep shortly
after that. I seem to be getting a lot more sleep lately than I
have in the past. I'm not sure why that is.
12/03/02 Day Forty-Five: Woke up, did my diary entry, did my
usual getting ready for school, and then rode my bike up the hill
in no rain. I keep thinking to myself that I should put together
another web-page on my site called "Useless Statistics"
and the first thing I would put on there was how many times it
has rained on me. I believe I have been pretty good at keeping a
written record in my diary of the daily weather. I arrived at
school just before 9:00am. Kay was leading the warm-up. She
started with a game. The game we played was similar to a game I
have played in my Theatre of the Oppressed game, but it was a
little faster paced. In this game everyone secretly chooses a
person in the room. Then moving as fast as they can, they try to
get as far from that person as possible. What makes this game
clever is that the person you are trying to stay away from may be
trying to stay away from a person who is trying to stay as far
away from you as possible, so you eventually start running around
in circles. The first person I chose was Avital. I could tell
that within moments of the game she had figured out that I was
trying to stay away from her. For the next round of the game, we
did the same, but all movements we made had to be made going
backwards. It didn't take Michel and I long to figure out that we
had both chosen each other. We were acting like mirror images. It
was funny. Then for the final part of the warm-up game, we were
to pick two people. One person was to be the monster, and the
other person your protector. The idea is that you get as close to
your protector as possible, and place yourself so that your
protector is between you and your monster. Annette and I
instantly ran up to either sides of Pascal, and it was instantly
obvious that we had each chosen each other as our monster and
Pascal as our protector. However, Pascal had chosen someone else
as their protector, and kept running away from us. It was all
quite silly. After that game, Kay led us through a basic warm-up.
At 9:30 it was time for my Conditioning class. Normally
Conditioning is held in Studio 2, but this week they are holding
special first aid classes for the staff and TTs in Studio 2, so
we did not have access to that room. So today Conditioning was
held in the gym. Liz was 5 minutes late, which I found slightly
annoying, especially with all the pressure the instructors have
been putting on us lately to be on time. I believe the
instructors are responsible for setting a good example. On top of
that, nobody had informed Liz about the paving that they were
doing in the parking lot, so she had to leave the class with Kay
(who began the class with the first few exercises,) while Liz
parked her car out on the street. The class was pretty basic,
though it was less intensive this time, because Liz had us
working half the time with partners, taking turns to verify that
your partner was doing the technique correctly. Because Studio 2
was being used, Pascal was at one end of the gym working on some
5 ball juggling, and hat juggling. It was almost a tease. I would
have much rather been juggling that be in my conditioning class.
But it also made me realize that after this class was over, I
wouldn't have anywhere to juggle. I could do what Pascal was
doing, but I doubt Cigar Boxes would be very popular while Liz is
leading a class.
After Conditioning I went up to the student room and ate half my
lunch. Then I went and got the keys to the E&M store from
Judith in the office and went over to get some cigar boxes. I
then returned to the student room, with the intention of doing
cigar boxes in the quiet room (since there was nobody in there.)
Ashling showed up, and had checked out a video from the office.
She popped in a biography on Harry Houdini. I started watching
for a moment, and before I knew it, I had put my cigar boxes down
and watched the entire show. It was very well done, and quite
fascinating. There were several clips of an interview with James
Randi, who is one of my heroes (I just want to point out, that
one may notice that I am beginning to write with British versions
of words, e.g. heroes instead of heros. The reason for this is
because I am using a word processor, and I hate those little
squiggly red lines under the words, so I am going with what the
word processor wants.) While watching the video, I ate the rest
of my lunch. After it was over, I headed back into the quiet
room, and worked on my cigar boxes some more. Shortly after,
Rachel, one of the TTs came into the room, and sat down, and then
asked me to leave, because the sound of the boxes was bothering
her, and this was the "quiet room" after all. She was
correct, but I felt annoyed, being asked to leave. After all,
their first aid class was keeping me out of Studio 2, and we are
currently not allowed to train in the evenings after school, so
my training time and space is very limited right now and I have
this cigar box presentation coming up soon. So with my irritation
level beginning to rise, I sat down and asked Kay about this
coming Saturday. My intention was to ask her if she wanted to
stop at the old train cemetery on the way to Bath and take
pictures, but before I could get the question out, she quickly
responded with, "I think I would be able to make more money
in Bath if I just played my violin. I think you should do
something with Javier." I'm sure she meant well by this, but
in my current state of irritation, I didn't take it well, so that
just raised my level of frustration and irritation. Phil must
have sensed my irritation, because he told me I needed to come
with him to go juggle in the gym. So I went with him. We had to
wait outside the gym for a while until the Conditioning class
finished up. Then we went inside, and I was able to work on my
cigar boxes for about 20 minutes. At 1:30 Eley and Deniz showed
up and wanted to work on the spaghetti western movement piece we
would be presenting today. So I spent the next 20 minutes before
the Choreography class, working with them on it.
At 2:00pm our Choreography class started. Liz started us off with
the basic dance warm-up that she has been teaching us. After
that, we reviewed the jumping in the air move, and then she
taught us a crazy series of steps that end with sliding on the
floor in some weird pattern that I never got. Once we had
"learned" how to do this new step, she had us do it
across the floor, repeating it until we made it across the gym
floor. We did it in groups of five. Needless to say, I didn't
figure it out. But I am quite comfortable with looking clumsy. I
wasn't the only one. After the warm-up Liz explained to us that
we had 15 minutes to finish up our movement piece. I raised my
hand and pointed out that she had told us we would have 30
minutes last week. She apologized and corrected herself and told
us we had 30 minutes. This received an applause from several in
the class. So for the next 30 minutes or so, Deniz, Eley, Polly
and myself worked on our movement piece. We mostly kept it the
way we had it, but added a comical ending to it. Liz came by and
watched our piece and gave us some suggestions about building a
climax somewhere in it. So we sped up the middle part. Next we
took turns performing for the class. I was impressed with all of
the pieces. One of the pieces, the James Bond one, was performed
with music. Apparently Liz had some music with her. She mentioned
to us that she had some music that would have worked well with
our piece. So throwing caution at the wind, having never tried it
with music, we performed the piece with the music Liz provided.
Everyone really seemed to enjoy our piece. After the performances
were over we discussed what we liked about each one. I thought
they were all very well done. Then as the class was ending, Liz
explained what our next assignment would be. She pulled out a
stack of 8x11.5 cards with pictures on them and started laying
them out on the floor. She explained that we would be doing a
solo movement piece based on one of the photographs. We were
instructed to go up in groups (the same groups we just performed
in,) and pick out a card. Our group was the fourth to go up.
Everyone was very excited about it, and was trying to sneak peeks
at the cards before it was their turn to pick one out. I
personally would have preferred if the cards had been up side
down, and we would have picked one up randomly. I just waited my
turn. I eventually went up and picked up this card. I am going to do a cigar box routine
for this movement piece, using that image. I'm not sure how this
will work out yet.
After Choreography we had a short break before the next class.
Usually on Tuesdays from 4:30 until 6:00pm we have E&M
practice. But because of Helen being sick a few weeks back, they
rescheduled one of her Movement classes in place of E&M
practice. We received a notice that an extra E&M practice
session has been scheduled for Friday morning.
At 4:30 the Movement class started. Right before the class
started, Catalina was making some funny sounds, and talking in a
funny voice, and had a chorus of about 5-6 people mimicking her,
and making other strange sounds. Helen, noticing that a good
portion of the class seemed to be in a very playful mood, decided
to play a game for the warm-up. She had us play Giants, Wizards,
and Elves. She basically played it a similar way that Alex tried
to play it. But in her version Giants could capture Wizards,
Wizards could capture Elves, and Elves could capture Giants. And
each team had 5 seconds to decide what they were, and once they
decided, Helen would count off while each team made seven large
steps towards each other in the centre of the room. Once they
arrived at the centre of the room after their seven steps, they
assume the figure of their chosen character. Then of course, if
you loose, you run like hell to the other side of the room. It
was a fun game. The first exercise of the class Helen had us do
was one we have done in the past. She had us wander around the
room and have conversations with people using our different body
parts (e.g. eyes, chin, right shoulder, left shoulder blade,
chest, knee, right ankle, etc.) Next we did an exercise that I
found incredibly difficult. We went through a series of
combinations of movement with our different body parts. First we
had to move around so that our lower half was moving fast, while
our upper half was moving slow. Then we did the reverse of that.
Next we had to move so that the right side of our body was moving
fast while the left side of our body was moving slow. Then we did
the reverse of that as well. Then we had to move the top half of
our body using sustained movement, while the upper part was in
sudden movements. Then we did the reverse of that too. Then we
did the sustained/sudden movements on the left right, then right
left. This exercise was ripping my brain apart. Try it sometime.
It's very hard. After that exercise, we got into a circle, and we
repeated the clapping exercise we did in the previous Movement
class, where we go around in a circle, clapping in cannon, slowly
increasing the tempo, and then slowly decreasing it again. It
amazed me how some people have no clue as to what tempo is. They
do, however, realize when they have made a mistake. After that
exercise, we did the 2,3,5 "Oy!" exercise again that we
did in the previous class. The next exercise was a new one. Helen
started by stepping into the middle of the circle, and creating a
phrase of movement that had a rhythm. Then she told us to mimic
her. She repeated this phrase over and over, and we mimicked her.
Then she pulled someone out of the circle into the circle with
her, and she had that person join her, in what seemed like a sort
of dance, using the phrase of movement she had created, letting
it shift now and then, morphing it a bit. Next Helen moved out of
the circle, leaving the new person in the circle. The new person
in the middle then was instructed to come up with a new phrase of
movement, and we would imitate them. Then eventually that person
would pull in a new person, and a cycle began. For each new
phrase of movement that was created Helen instructed us in a
different way of mimicking the movement. More specifically we
were not really mimicking their movement, but were creating a
whole new series of moves based on their rhythm. It was very
interesting. Eventually Helen changed the rules so that the
person in the middle stayed in the middle, but brought in two
people at a time. Then as a group they had to maintain the phrase
going, and eventually pick out two more people. Eventually most
of the class was in the middle, all repeating this phrase of
movement that was continuously changing. It seemed like a
flocking, or chorus exercise we have done in the past. I was
among the last to get pulled in, but eventually Helen gave
instructions for the remaining of us to go into the group. We
then spent the next 5 minutes (maybe less,) improvising sounds,
rhythm, and movement as a large group. I always enjoy exercises
like that. After that exercise, we all sat down, because we were
going to do the exercise we had started in the previous Movement
class. The one where you come on stage and try to spend as much
time on stage, maintaining the interest of the audience through
changes in rhythm, and your only dialogue is "Thank you and
goodnight." Pascal went first. While I watched him, I
planned a scheme that involved my being someone trying to say the
phrase "Thank you and goodnight," but being interrupted
by a fly, and then using changes in rhythm, I would try to catch
the fly. So I went up, and made my entrance. As soon as I started
my fly bit, Helen stopped me and said, "Walter, I am
stopping you, and I am going to ask you to start over, but you
can't use your fly." Darn!! Foiled again! So I did it again,
but had to leave the fly part out. This made it more difficult.
Next she had two people go up and do it at the same time. The
challenge in this part was that the two people on stage had to
say the phrase at the same time. It proved quite funny. After we
were done with that exercise, there were only a few minutes left
in the class, and Helen explained to us that we were to get into
groups of 4 and sit down in our groups. Then she instructed us to
discuss, among our group, how timing is applicable to the various
skills we learn, and we were to come up with two different
exercises (not actually doing them-just discussing them,) that
involved using our skills, with the information about timing we
had learned so far. After that short exercise, we all gathered in
a big circle, and Helen did her usual summing up what we covered
in the class.
(Side note: Its 7:45am, Dec 4th, as I am writing this, and the
mailman just delivered a package. It was from my parents. They
sent me a pair of gloves. Thanks Mom & Dad!! No more cold
fingers on my way to school in the mornings!!)
Movement ended around 6:05, and I packed up, and headed home. I
arrived home, and checked my email, and did a couple of odd
things. I called Brita's house, to see how she was doing, but
there was no answer. Then I crawled into my bed around 7:20pm, to
do a little reading. I fell asleep pretty quickly, only to be
woken up around 10:00pm by Mandy telling me that I had a phone
call. It was Brita. She was wondering if she could get a massage.
I was about to tell her no, but she has been going through some
rough times in her personal life, and I am trying to give her as
much support as I can. She told me to tell her no, if I wanted
to, but she also mentioned that she was feeling really bad. The
stress in her personal life is getting to her, and making her
tight. I couldn't say no to her, so I invited her over. It was
past midnight when I had finished with her, and she left to go
home. I crawled into bed, did a little more reading, and promptly
fell back to sleep.
12/04/02 Day Forty-Six: Its no surprise that I slept in an hour
later than I usually do, but I still managed to make enough time
to get all my things together, my diary entry done, and get
myself out the door, and up the hill to the school on my bike. It
was sprinkling. My bike is getting worse every day. I arrived at
school around 8:45am. The door to the gym was open, and Jeremiah
was in there, crashed out on one of the mats. I'm not sure how
the door got opened, since we still don't have our keys back yet.
As people started to pile in, I noticed that Avital and Tina both
had big garbage bags filled with inflated party balloons of
different shapes. Once warm-up got started, I discovered what the
balloons were about. Apparently the girls had a bunch of balloons
they wanted to get rid of, so they offered to create a warm-up
game for Kay. So for our warm-up game this morning we tied
balloons to our ankles and tried to pop each other's balloons by
stepping on them. Silly, but fun.
At 9:30 I headed over to Studio 2 for my performance class. Bim
started the class off as he has done in the past few classes, by
having us play the "corners" games. First we played the
standard way. Then we played it the way we did in the past where
the person in the middle gets to make the other persons play a
game of some kind in order to trick them so that he/she can get
back to one of the shoes. One game that was particularly
successful, which I did, was I had people go over to one wall,
and place their heads against the wall, with their hands cupping
the sides of their heads next to their eyes (like you would when
counting during hide and seek.) I then had them count with me to
10, speeding up as I got closer to 1. Then at 1, they did what I
thought they might, they pulled away from the wall, expecting me
to have made a dash for the shoes, but instead I just stayed
there in the same position. So assuming I wasn't done with the
game, they went back into the position I was in. The moment they
started to go into that position, I ran back to the shoes. After
the warm-up game, we all sat down for another session of story
telling. Today it was Ashling, Jeremiah, and Shani who told
stories about a place that had an impact on them. Ashling started
out a little stiff, but once she got into her story, she did a
very good job. She told about her adventures with her younger
brothers on a windy day at a rocky coast in Wales. She was very
animated, and acted out several parts, which was very effective.
Jeremiah was next. He struggled a lot with his story, because he
was feeling shy. His story was about going to a barn dance when
he was a young child. Several times during the story he stopped
and said, "I can't do this!" But Bim insisted that he
continue. Jeremiah is a really nice guy, and he has a lot of
potential. He just seems very nervous about being put on the
spot. I believe he will learn a lot during this year. Next was
Shani. Shani is from Israel, and her vocabulary in the English
language is somewhat limited. She, however, did a very good job
describing her adventures in her first scuba diving experience.
She used very few descriptive words, but gave us a lot of
emotional responses to what she was seeing. It worked quite well.
After Shani's story, everyone in our group had told their story.
There was only about 20 minutes left in the class, so Bim said he
wanted to try something different. So he asked that the people
who told their stories first (3 weeks ago,) to participate in the
next exercise. For the next exercise, he wanted us to get up and
describe a favourite painting. Annette went first, and spent
about 10 minutes describing a painting she had painted of one of
her friends juggling 3 balls. I had seen the painting when she
showed me her audition videotape. She did a good job of
describing it. After she was done, Bim asked for another
volunteer. I wasn't that excited about getting up there, so I
waited first, to see if anyone else was itching to go. But no one
offered. So I stood up, and volunteered. I described, without
naming it, my favourite painting, "Starry Night." Bim's
comments to me when I was done, was that I should not be afraid
to take up space. He said that tall people usually pull in,
because they internally feel like they use up too much space, but
that it can be very powerful for them to stretch out. He used
tall people doing cartwheels as an example. Maybe when I learn a
cartwheel I can give it a try and see. The last person to get up
there and describe a painting was Merlin. He described a painting
that had the image of a man who had a butcher's cleaver half way
through his head, and the man, who is presumably frozen in the
painting in his last moment among the living, is staring at you.
Sounded very creepy.
After Performance I had a ½ hour break before my next class. I
spent a few minutes changing into the clothes I would be wearing
for the PT performance. I wore my green shirt and a pair of
jeans. My jeans are starting to get too loose on me, I can shove
two fists into my waistband. After changing my clothes, I found
Phil, and he and I went into the costume storage of Circomedia
and found a white lab coat for my character. Around 11:20 we
started a quick run-through of our piece. It took us a while to
get started, and we were not quite finished with the run through
by 11:30, and we had to stop because class was about to start.
Physical Theatre started at 11:30. Bim showed up, and he asked us
if we were ready to go. Everyone seemed ready, so we didn't even
have any kind of warm-up, we just set up for our performances.
All the performances seemed to go well. Pascal videotaped them,
so I will be able to get a copy from him later. I wasn't terribly
excited about this performance. I never felt really passionate
about my character, or the scene itself. But judging the response
we got, we did fairly well. I won't go into any detail about each
piece. Perhaps when I get my act together, I will finish setting
up my "Shows" page on this website, and put the
descriptions there. After all of our performances were done, we
had about 25 minutes of class left. Bim told us that we would be
doing a short section on Commedia Del Arte. He started the class
off by discussing Commedia. He and I disagreed on a couple of
things. He didn't agree with me that Commedia had political
messages in it. There was also some confusion about the
characters and their intentions. He had never heard of Soubrette,
and he had another name for the Pedrolino character. It was
interesting to see the variations. It confirms for me even more
that Commedia is vast, and has many interpretations. The exercise
we did in class to finish off the 25 minutes left was about
hunger. He explained to us that the main focus of Commedia was
hunger, sex, and money. On this I agreed with him. Bim divided
the class in half. One half of the class wore masks and went up
to the front to perform while the other half sat and watched. Of
the six on stage, one would sit with his/her back to the other 5
and describe in detail a feast he had just come from. The other 5
characters have not eaten in 3 days and are listening to the
juicy details being told, responding to it. Eley was the first
person to describe a feast. He actually did a very good job of
it. I was in the second group to go. After the exercise was over,
Bim gave feedback to everyone except me. A little frustrated by
not getting any feedback, I walked up to him and asked for some
feedback, and he said, "Oh, you did fine. You were the best
one up there." So I guess it comes down to the old saying
"No news is good news." However, I wish Bim would tell
us what works just as often as he tells us what doesn't work. I
feel that if I am told what is working I will be encouraged to do
it more.
After that class, I headed up to the student room to eat my
lunch. I went and checked out a video. It was supposed to be some
kind of instructional video for circus skills. It was produced
back in 1988, and it was really bad. Everyone had a good laugh at
it, but we did more fast-forwarding through it than actually
watching it. Around 2:10 I headed over to Studio 2 to practice
cigar boxes until 2:30 when my next class was to begin.
At 2:30, everyone that was supposed to be in the Movement class
with Helen was standing around waiting for Helen. We all joked
that if she didn't get there in 5 minutes that we wouldn't allow
her in the class. Then Avital insisted that the class would
actually have to be active for us to deny her entrance to the
class, so she managed to convince us all to stand around in a
circle and play a warm-up game of Zip Zap Kaboom. By time this
game was over, it was past 2:35, and we were wondering where
Helen was. But keeping things going, we continued the class
activities by going on to one of Helen's clapping exercises. We
did the exercise that involves clapping in cannon, speeding up.
Then we tried the "person in the middle, rhythm movement
phrase" thing we did the other day. Then after that, we
decided that we would go on to the "Thank You and
Goodnight" exercise, this time trying it with 2 and 3
people. We were all having fun. Being half serious about it, and
half just being silly. I would say, however, we were getting
something out of it. By around 3:00 or so it became obvious that
Helen was not going to show up. Things started to fall apart, and
people started leaving. I ended up staying in the room and
working on my cigar boxes some more.
Just before 4:00pm Helen showed up, looking like she was ready to
teach a class that was scheduled to start at 4:00pm. Pascal and I
asked her what happened at 2:30, and why she didn't show up. She
looked confused, and told us that she made a horrible mistake,
thinking that the class started at 4:00. We told her that we ran
through some of her exercises. She seemed pleased that we did
this. As she was about to leave and head back to the office, she
asked if she could have a word with me. I said yes, and followed
her in the direction of the office. As we were walking towards
the office, I asked her what she needed to talk to me about. She
mentioned that Judith had been checking out my website, and they
decided that they want me to remove any of the scanned documents
on my website that are property of Circomedia. I'm surprised,
actually, that it took them this long to notice it. I suspected
that they might have a problem with it. I guess I should have
asked them in advance. I have since, removed access to those
documents.
After my discussion with Helen, I headed back to Studio 2. My
next scheduled event was to be E&M Practice from 4:30 to
6:00. I spent the majority of that time working on my cigar
boxes, and doing a little club passing with Javier. I was really
feeling depressed and annoyed during this session. I was alone.
My performance group was nowhere to be seen. Actually, Jeremiah
and Merlin were in Acrobatics class, and Natalie was just not in
today. The other group, however, was making good progress on
their piece. I can tell that they are going to have a nice piece.
I wish I was working with them. I gave myself a challenge, and
now I am feeling frustrated with it. Arrhhg!
Shortly before 6:00pm I packed up my stuff and headed home on my
bike. About ¾ of the way home, I noticed my bike was acting
worse and worse. The back tire is rubbing against the frame
because the axel in the back wheel is loose, or something, and it
is causing the back wheel to go crooked. I barely made it home. I
basically can't ride it again until it is fixed. I should be able
to take it to the shop, and have it fixed for free. It's still a
new bike.
Before I went to bed, I gave Phil a call to ask him if he could
give me a lift tomorrow. We made plans to meet at Ldl's grocery
store parking lot at 8:45am. We spoke on the phone for about 20
minutes or so. It was nice chatting with Phil. He is by far one
of my favourite people at Circomedia.
12/05/02 Day Forty-Seven: I woke up this morning, did my usual
to-dos and got ready for school. I spent part of my morning
working on a script that Phil and I are thinking about producing.
The idea was originally mine, and I had been thinking about it
for a while, but with Phil's love for this style of humour, I
knew I would benefit having him with me. It is a solo piece, and
we want Charlotte to play it, using her professor character. She
has already agreed to do it. We just have to finish writing the
script, and then set aside time for her to rehearse. I won't post
any details of it on here yet, because I want to keep it a secret
from the other Circomedia students. The routine will be basically
only performable for Circomedia students. It should be fun. After
getting ready for school, I walked over to the LIDL parking lot
to meet Phil. He was a few minutes later than what we planned,
but it was because the traffic was horrible. I arrived at school
at 9:05. Because of school's policy not allowing people into
class who are more than 5 minutes late (though in the rules book
it is 3 minutes,) I just sat in the gym and watched everyone warm
up. Kay asked me after why I didn't join. I told her it was
because I was late. She then explained to me that the policy only
holds for regular classes, and not the warm-ups, and I should
have just joined in. Oh well. I wasn't too concerned. Nothing I
was doing today was all that physical.
At 9:30 Haggis showed up. He was scheduled to teach the two
E&M sessions (9:30-11:00 & 11:30-1:00.) He came in
telling us that he would teach a ½ hour hat manipulation
workshop in each section, and spend the other hour of each
section watching our pieces and giving us notes. Since I am not
focusing on hats right now, but want to work with them later, I
asked Haggis if I could video one of the sessions (I assumed both
sessions would be identical,) so that I could have it as
reference for later. He said sure, as long as the others didn't
mind. I knew they wouldn't. As it turns out, Haggis ran the first
hat workshop for the entire hour and a half session. I videotaped
the whole thing. Nothing harder on a person's back, shoulders and
arms, than being a human tri-pod for an hour and a half. But I'm
glad I did it. Everyone in the class was excited that I
videotaped it, and wanted to make sure they could get copies.
After that first session we took a half hour break. Then at 11:30
the next session Haggis spent a little over an hour with the
other group while we just continued working on our skills.
Jeremiah and Merlin both worked on their stuff, and Natalie and I
worked on our cigar box routine. Natalie and I made a significant
amount of progress. When Haggis finally got around to watching
us, he gave us some good notes. I think he was impressed with
Natalie and me. He basically confirmed what Rod had said- - that
he had never seen anyone do two person cigar boxes like this
before. I'm glad I am coming up with original material. He
watched Jeremiah and Merlin, and told them that they had a unique
combination, because oddly enough, Jeremiah, who is right handed,
learned to do diabolo left handed, and Merlin, who is left
handed, learned it right handed. He said this gives them a unique
opportunity to do passing tricks in positions usually not
available to them. Haggis also said that Natalie and I have a
unique combination because of our size. It is rare when someone
can reach over a person from behind and do cigar boxes like that.
It was nice to see Haggis again, and get such valuable
information from him. I look forward to the time when I can watch
the video I taped of him, and start learning some of those hat
tricks. Haggis ended the class by having everyone stand in a
tight circle and placing their extended left hand into the
circle. He then told us to imagine everything we had learned
today was sitting in the palm of our left hand. Then he told us
to join him in the following word and action. He then did a
circle with his right arm, starting at his waist, then going out
behind him, and coming back in and landing his right hand on top
of his left hand in a loud clap. All while doing this, we
mimicked his actions and the word that he spoke,
"Coooooooommmmppllete!!"
At 1:00 I headed up to the student room to eat my lunch. I ran
into Charlotte there and let her read the first draft of the
script we are working on. She got a good laugh out of it. As we
ate, we were watching a video that Jeremiah had brought in. It
was mostly an acrobatics video. I think it was some kind of
competition, like the Olympics or something. But there was this
one section that was showing these people doing this bizarre new
sport. I can't remember the name of it, but these guys were doing
crazy moves, jumping, running up walls, climbing up trees, etc.
It was very bizarre stuff, and very neat too.
From 2:00 until 4:00 I had free time to work on whatever I
wanted. I spent about an hour in the South Wing juggling. Then I
spent about 20 minutes or so riding a unicycle in the parking
lot. The newly paved parking lot is very nice! I look forward to
getting my unicycle. Will is bringing it out when he visits.
Thank you Will and Jeff!
At 4:00pm it was time for our Performance class. Again, today the
Performance class was being held with everyone in the gym because
of the first aide classes going on in Studio 2. For some reason
Tily was about 10-15 minutes late. She really had a hard time
getting people to focus at the beginning. Most had assumed she
wasn't coming, and had started to work on other projects. I know
that there is some confusion going on because of the first aid
class, but I am a little annoyed with the staff right now. They
need to do a better job of keeping up with their own schedules!
Once Tily got everyone semi-focused on the idea of starting the
class, she started us off with a game of "grandmother,"
or as I have known the game, "red light, green light."
First she started it off normally. Then for the second round, the
people sneaking up on grandmother had to be in pairs. Then for
the next round, we had to be in groups of four. In groups of four
we were not allowed to hold hands, but had to "flock"
in the game. This made it hard. It was especially hard in this
round because Catalina was playing grandmother and she hardly
spent any time with her back to us. For the final round of the
game, Tily wanted us in flocks of four again, but this time we
couldn't approach using traditional methods of walking/running.
The leader would make up some kind of weird walk, and the others
would follow. It ended up being that most of the groups were on
their hands and knees, crawling. After that warm-up game, Tily
had us do some basic flocking exercises in groups of 4. The
people in my group, especially Oskar, were not in the mood to do
these exercises, so there wasn't much energy going into it. After
the basic flocking exercise, Tilly extended the exercise and
started giving us themes to our flocking such as burglars, lost
and confused, excited teenagers, protestors, and carollers. After
that, she explained to us that we would be doing flocking, but
using skills included into it. I of course, got into the group of
jugglers. I was surprised the number of people who are not
specializing in E&M who chose to participate with juggling as
their skill. First Tily had us flock, just normally using our
skills. Some of the groups of 4 jugglers were using hats. The
group I was in was using balls. It was difficult to do because
everyone has varying skills. The easiest flocking was done when
no juggling was actually going on (e.g. walking around with a
ball balanced on your head.) After that exercise, Tily had us
flocking again, but this time she gave us the themes again,
burglar, teenager, etc. This made it even more difficult, but
also more interesting. After that exercise was over, we all sat
down and volunteers went up to demonstrate what we had just
covered. I wasn't in the mood to be up there, so I just sat and
watched.
After that class was over, Phil gave me a ride home. We went into
the kitchen at my house for a while, and sat down and discussed
our script we are working on. We came up with some new ideas.
Phil only stayed about 10 minutes because he had to meet someone
later. I was tired, and after checking my email, I went up to my
room to read a little. I fell asleep around 8:00pm.
12/06/02 Day Forty-Eight: Anyone following my diary closely will
notice that I have gotten a few days behind in my entries. I am
getting caught up today (Dec. 9th.) The reasons for my being late
will become apparent in the next 3 entries. I started this day,
as most days, getting up very early, working on my diary entry,
checking my email, getting ready for school, etc. With my bike
still out of commission, I would be catching a ride from Phil
again. I met Phil at the LIDL parking lot again. It was not
raining, but it was cold outside. We arrived at school around
9:05am. This time I joined in the warm-up despite being late. Kay
started with a tag like game. It was similar to stick in the mud,
but instead of going through someone's legs to rescue him or her,
you had to leap frog over them. After that warm-up game, Kay ran
us through her usual routine of stretches.
At 9:30 it was time for my extra scheduled E&M circuit.
Because of scheduling problems, Annette, Pascal and I were each
informed that we needed to show up for an extra E&M circuit
from 9:30 until 11:00 in Studio 2. The notice for this session we
were supposed to attend was posted on the board. The three of us
are the only people who are taking both E&M and Physical
Theatre as our specializations. On Fridays the three of us
usually don't have anything scheduled until 1:45pm, so we are not
usually required to be at school until then. So it didn't
surprise me much when Pascal didn't show up. Annette was there,
for warm-up, but told me she wouldn't be attending the E&M
circuits because she had skipped the extra movement class that we
were scheduled to attend earlier in the week and had gone to the
regular scheduled E&M circuit. In other words, it was just me
who would be attending the E&M circuit. Now the amusing part
is that Charlie shows up at 9:30 in the gym to announce that
because the heater is not working in the South Wing, that the
Aerial class was being moved to Studio 2. This of course meant
that I was only left with the South Wing for my E&M circuit.
I asked Charlie about it, and he had completely forgotten that he
had posted the scheduled extra E&M circuit. On top of all of
that, Javier, the TT, shows up, ready to teach a E&M circuits
class of just one student. Needless to say he wasn't that excited
about it. But, to make a long story short, he and I made the best
of the situation, and went over to the South Wing, which was
freezing, and juggled for an hour and a half. I did a lot of
passing with him.
Around 11:00am, it was time for the Acrobatics presentations, so
I headed over to the warmth of the gym and found myself a spot to
sit and watch them. I was really impressed by them. The first
one, in particular, was very nice. I won't go into any detail
trying to describe it, because I doubt I could do them any
justice, but I will be getting a copy of the video for future
reference.
After the Acrobatics presentation, I headed up to the student
room and ate my lunch. I checked out a video to watch while I
ate. The video was titled 50 greatest magic tricks. It was fun to
watch. The video, and my lunch session lasted until about 1:00pm.
After that I just hung out, chatting with people. At 1:30 we were
scheduled to all meet in the gym for end of the week notes with
Helen. After Helen met with us, it was time for my Acro For
Idiots class. Today Dave Tabb was teaching the class. He is one
of the TTs and each of them is taking a turn at teaching a class.
Today Dave taught us three different acrobalances, and how to
move from one to another. I worked with Charlotte through the
entire class. It was fun working with her. We managed to learn
all the moves fairly well, with me acting as the base. She tried
to get me to fly on her for the first move, reminding me that I
flew on her successfully in the first Acro class we ever had. I
wasn't able to do it, however. I claim it was because she had
slippery tights on, and she said it was because I was being a
chicken. Heh! Oh well. I had fun.
After Acro class it was time for E&M Circuits. I told my
group that we would be working on our piece. I was getting a
little frustrated with my group, so I decided to light a fire
under them. First, I told everyone not in our group that they had
to practice on the far end of the gym, because we were claiming
the main area (next to the stereo.) Then I sat down my group, and
got talked to them about what we needed to do, and some ideas I
had for the opening, etc. We actually did well, and managed to
piece together about ½ of the sequence so far. It still needs a
lot of fine-tuning. After our practice session was over, I tried
to schedule something for this weekend, but no one was available.
As it looks, we will only have our scheduled class times to work
on this, which in my opinion is not enough time. The others in
the group don't seem as concerned about doing well in this piece
as I am. I have tried to motivate them. It is frustrating to say
the least. The only chance of my performing in the 3 month show
coming up a week from today (Dec. 13th) is by wowing Bim and
Helen with this performance piece. However, we have the other
E&M piece to compete with, and their piece is much more
organized, and it has a theatrical side to it. I'm not feeling
very optimistic about having a chance to perform in the 3 month
show.
After E&M Circuits, I headed over to Studio 2 and met up with
some people there. I ended up doing a lot of working on my cigar
boxes. I came up with a new move that I have never seen anyone do
before. Then I figured out a way to work it into a transition. It
came out very nicely. I also spent a lot of time chatting with
the others in the space there. It was nice to socialize there.
Phil and I were trying to make plans to watch some videos later,
but things didn't work out. I eventually caught a ride with
Deniz. She wasn't going all the way to my house, but she could
get me near. She dropped me off at Tesco. I was feeling a bit
hungry, and since I had a couple of pounds in my pocket, I
stopped into a take-out place, and bought some chips and a coke.
I ate them there in the take-out place, and then headed home.
When I arrived home, Mandy was cleaning like a madwoman. I
checked my email. Mandy asked if I would vacuum for her, because
her back was starting to hurt somewhat. She was getting ready for
a houseful of guests, people staying a couple of nights for the
BOB juggling convention. So after checking my email, I vacuumed
the carpets. Feeling rather tired, I crawled into my bed, and
fell asleep. I woke up later in the evening (not sure what time,)
to the sounds of a lot of people. I could tell that there were
lots of people in the house. I wouldn't find out, until the next
morning, how many people.
12/07/02 Saturday: I woke up, around 5:30am, and wandered
downstairs. As I suspected, there were bodies everywhere. There
were at least two people in the computer room (which meant I
wouldn't be able to do my diary entry for Friday.) The living
room had bodies scattered all over the place (at least 5 people.)
So I headed downstairs to the kitchen to make myself a cup of
tea. When I went into the kitchen, I noticed at least one body
sleeping on the floor. Realizing that I wasn't going to be able
to go forward with my usual routine, I headed back to my room,
and lay down to do a little reading. After doing some reading, I
did a little cigar box work over my bed (so as not to drop too
much.) Feeling rather hungry, I slipped out of the house, and
down to the nearest convenient store to get myself a little
something for breakfast. Returning to my room, I ate, and did a
little more reading. After a while, I started to hear voices of
people getting up downstairs. I just stayed in my room, reading.
Around 8:30, noticing that everyone was up, I headed downstairs
to take care of my bicycle. I grabbed a tub of hot soapy water
and a rag, and got to cleaning it. It was covered in mud, and I
didn't want to take it to the shop looking like that. Before I
was finished cleaning my bike, everyone in the house, including
Mandy, headed out the door, I presume to go straight to the
convention. After cleaning up my bike, I called Phil, and left a
message on his machine, letting him know that I was walking over
to the bike shop, and that I would be joining him at the
convention, and that I would call him back when I got home from
the bike shop. I then walked my bike (because it was not ride
able) all the way into town to the bike shop (about 2 miles
away,) and left it with them to fix. The good news is that they
will be fixing the back wheel for free, and giving me my free
first tune-up as well. Unfortunately it will not be ready until
Tuesday afternoon. When I got home, I called Phil back, and we
made plans for him to pick me up. I had a little time before he
was scheduled to pick me up, so I took a cat-nap on the couch.
When Phil arrived, I hopped into his car, and we headed to the
convention. Upon arriving there, we paid our £5 and headed into
the space. The space itself was small. Half of the space was
being used for games and such, and the other half was free
juggling space. There were other rooms being used for workshops,
but I did not make it into any of them. I rarely attend workshops
at juggling conventions. I prefer just hanging out and juggling.
Throughout the afternoon, I did a little club passing with
various people. I mostly, however, was interested in finding
someone who could show me some new cigar box tricks that I might
be able to incorporate in my routine. I eventually asked Tarim if
he knew anyone, and Tarim suggested I ask Paul. When I asked
Paul, who was sitting down in the lobby, someone next to him said
that he knew a few tricks, and could show me. So he followed me
to go get the cigar boxes. I handed him the cigar boxes as we
headed back to the lobby. He noticed that the cigar boxes had the
name Circomedia written on them, and asked me if I was a student
there. I told him I was, and he asked me what my name was. I told
him my name is Walter. He then told me that he has been reading
my online diary, and he didn't imagine me as such a large person.
I found that amusing. His name was Jay. Jay showed me several
tricks, but most were ones I was already doing. He did show me
one trick that I had not seen yet. He stacked all the boxes end
on end, vertically, then balanced them on the tip of his index
fingernail, and gave them a spin. They spun like a spinning ball.
I gave it a try, and had some success with it. I believe that I
can use that trick somewhere in my routine. Thanks again, Jay!
After that session, I hung out a while, and did a bit more
juggling. I was starting to get hungry. I eventually joined
Michel and Rachel and the kid she was taking care of, Erin, on a
venture out into the cold to find a take-out place. When we
returned we sat in the downstairs lobby and chatted, and ate. By
time I headed back to the juggling area, it was about 7:30. The
show was scheduled to start at 8:00. I ran into Mark, my stand-up
comedian friend, earlier that day, and found out that he was
going to compere the show. I was excited about that. I really
enjoy his humour. For the last few minutes, before the show
started, I hung out with Charlotte and Polly. Charlotte was
trying to teach Polly the walk-around 3-ball pattern I had taught
her on Friday. So I spent a little time, showing Polly, and
refreshing Charlotte's memory.
The show started right at 8:00pm. It was a very fun show. Mark
decided that he should direct a lot of attention at Circomedia
students and myself in general during his comedy compering. The
first act involved Luke Burrage. He jumped up on stage,
announcing that he would be doing a strong man act. He then
announced that he needed a strong person to join him on stage.
Next thing I know, I am up on stage standing next to Luke. He
then challenged me to two separate "strong man"
competitions. The first one was blowing up one of those skinny
balloons. I have never been able to blow one of those things up,
but I gave it an honest try. It almost made my head explode. The
second competition was ripping a phone book in half. I didn't
even come close to ripping my phone book in half, but Luke
managed to rip his in half. I asked him about it later, and he
said he had just developed a technique for doing it, and had
practiced a lot. Very strange boy, this Luke! Check out his website!
The rest of the show was a lot of fun. I won't go into too much
detail about it. I did end up on stage again, later in the show.
It was quite silly.
After the show, Phil gave me a ride home. As soon as I got home,
I went to bed. I fell asleep for about ½ an hour or so, only to
wake up to the sounds of a party starting downstairs. I sat and
listened to the noises. Next thing I know, I hear Annette's
voice, and she is knocking at my door. I invited her into my dark
room, and she sat on my bed and chatted with me for a moment. I
congratulated her for her successful 3 ball routine that night in
the show. Eventually she left, and I put on some clothes, and
headed downstairs to join the party. The first thing that
happened at this party was that Mandy popped in a video. It was a
German film, a parody instructional video about Klaus the
forklift driver. Absolutely hilarious! After the film, I sat
around and chatted, watching a couple of people doing magic
tricks. Eventually, I got tired and went back to my bed, and fell
asleep to the sounds of people partying.
12/08/02 Sunday: I
woke up around 7:30am. I was surprised to have slept in so late!
I put on some clothes, and opened my door. There was a body
asleep right in front of my door. I soon realized as I explored
the house, that there were several more people spending the night
than had spent the previous night. There were bodies in the
hallway, and even one out on the back covered porch area (where
the clothes dryer is.) I left the house and walked to the store
again to get some breakfast, since it was obvious that I wouldn't
be able to get into the kitchen. After returning from the store,
I hung out in my room, eating my food, and reading a book. I
finished my book, and then decided, since there was little I
could do downstairs (like type in my diary,) I would just crawl
back into bed. And I did. And I slept for at least 2 more hours.
It was nice. I woke up around 11:30am, and heard people getting
ready to leave. Mandy came to my door, and asked if I wanted to
join them in their venture out to a pub for lunch. I declined.
After everyone left, I settled myself into the living room, and
got comfortable. I had planned on spending the entire afternoon
doing glass. And that is what I did. I watched 3 Voyager
episodes, and a couple of Malcome in the Middle shows, and
something else (I can't remember.) It was a boring, lazy
afternoon, of making glass pieces, but it was nice, because I
finished up another batch. This batch should get me another £21.
This should be enough groceries for two weeks!
12/09/02 Day
Forty-Nine: Woke up this morning, and spent a good chunk of my
early morning getting caught up in my diary entries. After
getting ready for school, I walked over to LIDL to catch a ride
from Phil. We arrived at school right at 9:00am. Javier is
leading warm-ups again this week. He has lead more warm-ups than
any of the TTs so far. Javier started the warm-up with a relay
race type game. Everyone got into pairs, and the first person had
to run the length of the gym with a ball balanced on their head,
drop off the ball, and return crawling on their hands and feet.
Upon returning, the second person had to run as fast as possible
to the other end of the gym, grab 3 juggling balls (from a box of
balls) and joggle back. It was silly, but fun. Phil was my
partner. We had the race twice. Phil and I didn't win either of
them.
At 9:30 it was time for E&M. We headed over to Studio 2. My
group got started right away on our presentation. First, Natalie
and I warmed up by running our routine a few times. Then we spent
all but the last 20 minutes of class, trying to put all of our
routines together into a complete piece with the music we have
selected. Rod explained to us that at 10:40, we would present
what we had to the class. The other group went first. Their
piece, though it still has a lot of holes in it, and several
drops, looks like it has potential, and will look nice with a few
more days of dedicated practice. When my group went up to present
our piece, we ended up just making fools of ourselves. It is
obvious that we have not put much time in to it. I am very
frustrated about this. I can't get my group to practice outside
of class time. I have done everything I can. The piece, if it
keeps going at this rate will be a complete failure. The only
thing I have left to do, is make sure that all of my movements
are precise, and that I do as good a job as I can. I'm just
bummed, because there seems to be no chance at all for our piece
to make it into the 3 month show this Friday. Helen indicated
that she would be picking one of the E&M pieces, and it is
pretty clear that ours will not be chosen. I'm frustrated, and
sad about this, because I really wanted to be in the 3-month
show. After E&M, I had a half hour break before my next
class.
At 11:30 it was time for Physical Theatre. I was expecting us to
continue with Commedia del Arte, but Bim explained that we would
be moving on to using mime to tell stories. Before we got
started, however, Bim explained to us what the word
"Pantomime" means in England. Apparently they have
these big, cheesy theatre shows during Christmas time and those
are called "Pantomime." He wanted to make it clear,
that what we would be doing was not, by English definition,
Pantomime. We briefly discussed the different styles of mime,
mentioning Marcel Marceau, Pedrolino, etc. There was some
discussion as to if Marceau is still alive. The answer is here. Next Bim
talked about the use of "Mini Mime" for telling a
story. As an example, he used his index and middle finger as
legs, and created a little man walking up his arm. He explained
that when telling a story like this, one could cut back and forth
from regular mime to mini mime (like cutting from close up to far
away scenes in a movie.) As an example of this, he created a
monster approaching by using his fingers and hand moving along
his arm, looking like a monster, and then he cut away to himself,
looking up at the monster, responding in fear. For our first
exercise, Bim asked us to do a mini mime representation of the
sun rising. For mine, I created the horizon with my left arm,
then created a sun by making an "O" shape with my hand.
I then slowly made the sun rise above the horizon. Once we had
figured out our sunrise mini mime, we took turns, going around
the circle, showing what we had come up with. It was interesting
to see the different variations. The use of mini mime made me
think of American Sign Language. The sign for "day" is
just the reverse of what several people, including myself were
doing for their sunrises. After we did mini mime sunrise, we went
on to do other objects. We did a tree, some rain, birds, and
vultures (again, all of these made me think of ASL.) Next we he
had us doing places. This was difficult, because it became a
little more interpretive. The first place we did was Paris.
Everyone pretty much tried to imitate the Eiffel Tower. Next Bim
chose New York. Of course, for New York, everyone started making
airplanes crashing into buildings. Someone else came up with an
easier solution, and mimicked the Statue of Liberty. The next
place was India. I was lost on this one, as for what to do. For
the next series of exercises, Bim had us get into groups of
either 3 or 4. Using some or all of our bodies, we were to create
methods of transportation. The first exercise we were given was a
bicycle. My group decided to make one of those old bicycles
(can't remember their name) where you have a huge wheel in the
front, and a tiny wheel in the back, and the passenger rides
almost on top of the larger wheel. Our solution to this was put
Deniz, the smallest on Eley's shoulders. Fay crouched down into a
small ball behind Eley, and I made the bigger wheel in front of
Eley. The next object we became was a hot air balloon. For this
we did it in two parts. The first part was the filling up the
balloon full of hot air. For this, Eley was the basket, and the
rest of us were the balloon, filling itself with hot air. Then
once it was full of air, Fay, and I dropped down to join Eley to
create a bigger basket that Deniz stood inside. The next object
we made was a submarine. For this one, Eley laid flat on his
back. I got on my hands and knees on top of him, creating the top
part of the body, and Deniz laid down on her back on top of my
back, using her arm as the scope. Fay acted as the water rising
as we submerged. For the next exercise, we all sat down, and Bim
had 4 people get up. One person was to tell a story while the
other three acted out, and did mini mime to accompany the story.
This was fun to watch. Bim interrupted a lot, and made
suggestions as to how to make it better. It got a little
confusing each time all three of the people doing the mini-mime
were doing the same thing. It became clearer when they worked
together to create one complete image or images. For the next
exercise, Bim asked for two volunteers. I stood up, and so did
Eley. Bim explained, that for this next exercise, we both were to
tell the story. As one person was telling the story, the other
person would aid in telling with expressions, and mini-mime, then
they would find a moment to energetically jump in and continue
telling the story, reversing the roles. The next part of the
exercise was fun, and funny. Bim gave us instructions to
intercept each other in the story, making corrections. An example
of this could be that Eley is saying, "And then we came
around the corner and encountered a giant dragon!" And I
would step in and say, "No, it wasn't a dragon, it was a
giant chicken, and there were feathers flying all over the
place!" This inconsistency in story telling, with a little
arguing makes for a funny scene. That was the last exercise of
that class. It felt like a very short 2 hour class.
At 1:30 I headed up to the student room and ate my lunch. At 2:00
I went looking for a place to work on my cigar boxes. My back was
starting to hurt a little, but I felt like I needed to get some
work done. I tried Studio 2, but there were students there,
trying to rehearse, so I tried the Gym instead. I managed to find
a spot in the gym, and did a little practicing before my next
class.
My next class at 2:30 was, I believe, our last session of
Anatomy. I must confess, I am glad this class has come to an end.
I am not big on memorizing Latin words. (I am running out of time
at the moment, and will add the notes I took later)
After Anatomy I had an hour off. I had planned to practice my
cigar boxes during that hour, but my back was hurting so much,
that I didn't. I instead got a couple of massages! J First, I had
Deniz walk on my back for me. She is the smallest person at
school, and the perfect weight for walking on my back. Then, I
gave Fay a 10 minute massage, in exchange for a massage from her.
It didn't help my back much, but it was nice to just lie there
and be massaged.
At 5:00 it was time for PT Practice. Bim had given us an
assignment to work in groups of three to create a 3-minute story
using all the techniques we learned in class today. I am working
with Phil and Pascal on this one. I think the three of us will
work together. We only worked on it for about 30 minutes. None of
us had much energy, and my back was hurting much more at this
point. So after making enough progress, we called it a night.
Phil gave me a ride home. With my back hurting, I was in bed
shortly after getting home.
12/10/02 Day Fifty: This should be a short entry. I woke up, did
my usual to-dos and got myself ready for school. I stepped
outside the door, ready to walk to LIDL parking lot, and I
discovered that there were tiny specs of snow floating around in
the air. Needless to say it was very cold. So off into the cold I
went. Phil and I arrived at school right at 9:00am. Javier
started off with another relay type race. Today's race, again in
pairs, involved the first person running from to the far end of
the gym with a ball balanced on their head, dropping off the ball
and returning walking on hands and feet. Upon arriving back, they
join their partner, who assumes the wheelbarrow position, the
both go back to the other side. Upon arriving at the other side,
they pick up three balls, and joggle three balls between them
back to the other side. Javier had half of the class go, then the
other half. Then he had the winners from each half compete
against each other. After the competition, we had a very basic
warm-up.
At 9:30 it was time for my conditioning class. I was hesitant
about going to this class, because my back was still hurting. But
I figured, as long as I take it easy, I should be all right. The
class was pretty basic, nothing unusual. I took it easy, and it
actually helped loosen up my back. Liz announced that next week
we would be having our fitness test to check and see how much we
have improved since the beginning of the term. I know I have not
reached all my fitness goals that I set for myself at the
beginning of the term, but I have made some vast improvements,
which is good.
After Conditioning, I went up to the student room and ate my
lunch. After eating my lunch, I spent the next couple of hours
practicing in the gym. I mostly did cigar boxes. I came up with a
new pattern with the cigar boxes that will look neat if I can do
it quickly. I'm wishing I could find a video of Charlie Brown
(the juggler, not the cartoon character.) Charlie Brown is
probably the best cigar box juggler in the world. I had a chance
to meet him in person back in Arcata, when he, and Rudi Galindo
(my friend,) Paul Hudert, and Andy Sapora, who are also known as
the "new" Flying Karamozov Brothers, were practicing
for their debut.
At 2:00pm, It was time for Choreography. By this time, after
having spent about 2 hours doing cigar boxes, my back was in pain
again. I tried to do the dance warm-up that Liz has us do at the
beginning of the class, but my back was bothering me too much. So
I sat off to the side with Phil and Pascal, who were both feeling
under the weather. I watched Liz teach the class several new
dance steps, that even if I was in peak form, I would have
struggled with, and made little progress. I am just not a dancer.
I'm interested in Choreography, but not interested in learning
dance. After the warm-up, we all sat down and watched Fay,
Katrina, and Lyndal make up their group project (a couple of them
were sick last week.) After that, we got started on our solo
project. Like an idiot, I forgot to bring my photograph with me.
I found out that Fabian had the other copy of the picture that I
am using for my solo piece, but unfortunately he was not in
class. Since he lives at the house on the premises, I wandered
over there to see if I could borrow his copy. Apparently he was
home sick, and was asleep in his bed when I rattled his cage. He
woke up and tried to tell me where his picture was, but I never
found it. So instead I headed back to the gym. By this time, it
was snowing a little heavier, and there was a very thin layer of
snow gathering on the ground. I got back to the gym and explained
to Liz that I couldn't find the picture. She told me to just do
what I could. So I spent the next hour working with my cigar
boxes (because I plan on using them for my solo piece.) However,
since I didn't want to damage my back any more than it was, I
focused on finding new forms of manipulations with the cigar
boxes that did not involve bending over. I came up with some
interesting moves. We spent the rest of the class time, working
on that project.
My next class was E&M Circuits. My group gathered, and we
attempted, for about 30 minutes to run the routine. We made very
little progress, before Natalie announced that she had to go to
another rehearsal. I am pretty much decided that there is nothing
more I can do about this lame project. People are just not
putting into it the time required for a successful routine.
After that mess, I just hung out and juggled my clubs, waiting
for Phil to be ready to go home. Around 6:15, Dave came into the
gym and asked me if I needed a ride home. He had ulterior
motives, I could tell from the look in his eyes. But it worked
out nicely. Mandy was apparently having a dinner at Dave's house,
and was already at Dave's house, and needed Dave to pick up some
stuff from our kitchen on his way home, and since I have the key
to the house, well, it all worked out. I got a ride home.
Upon arriving home, I found my bike in Mandy's car. I pulled it
out. It looks like it is in good shape. So I will be back to
riding my bike to school in the mornings. Which is good. I went
to bed around 8:00pm.
12/11/02 Day Fifty-One: As I got ready for school this morning, I
couldn't help but feel a little less than excited about riding my
bike in the cold. I am glad to have my bike fixed. They did a
good job. But the weather has changed drastically since my last
bike ride last week. But, putting aside all my desires to stay
home and not venture out into the cold, I got ready for school
and hopped on my bike, and headed up the hill. It was not raining
this morning, though had there been any moisture, it would have
produced snow. The ride was definitely very cold. I arrived at
school around 8:20 and went into the gym and did a little
stretching followed by some club juggling. Javier arrived around
8:35am, and he and I did some club passing. At 9:00am, Javier
started the warm-up. We played another variation of his
two-person relay race thing. The order today went as follows. The
first person runs to the far end with a ball balanced on their
forehead. Upon arriving, they do two push-ups. After the two
push-ups, they run back, keeping their body as low as possible as
they run. Then the second person assumes the cartwheel position,
and the two run to the other side (as cartwheel and driver.) Upon
arriving at the other side, they both grab three balls (between
them,) and joggle together back to the starting position. At this
point, the person who was the wheelbarrow hops all the way across
the gym, then closes their eyes, running back, listening to their
partner's voice guiding them back. Silly to say the least, but I
respect Javier's attempts to lighten people's mood, especially
now, as the end of the term draws near, and everyone is tired,
and ready for a break. After the game, Javier led his basic
warm-up.
At 9:30, I headed over to Studio 2 for my first class,
Performance. Bim started the class with a game I am calling
"Tails." He brought out a bag with several long strips
of cloth. He instructed us to tuck the piece of cloth into our
trousers so that it hung down by our bums like a tail. First he
had us get into pairs, and try to remove each other's tail (while
avoiding having your own tail removed.) Then he had us switch
partners a couple of times. Next he had us all mix together and
try to take anyone's tail while avoiding the removal of your own
tail. This of course becomes more challenging because you have
people approaching you from all different angles. After playing
the game in this style for a while, Bim switched the situation
around and told us that we were in an art gallery and the idea
was to meander around the gallery looking at artwork, trying to
remove other people's tails but without quick movements. For
example, you might move up next to someone and casually put your
arm around him or her and slowly pull their tail out, show it to
them and say, "Oh, is this your tail?" It was hard to
play this version, because everyone still feels competitive, and
tries their best to avoid having their tail pulled out, so fast
jerky motions, unnatural to the art gallery environment, come in
to play. It was an interesting game. After that game, we all sat
down, and Bim asked if anyone else wanted to get up and describe
a painting as a way to wrap up the story telling section of this
class. Eventually Ashling stood up and described a mural she had
seen. After that, Bim took us into the next section of the class.
He started to talk about imagery. I can see he is starting to
overlap a little bit between what is going on in PT and in
Performance. The first thing we did was separate the class into 2
groups; each group had about 4 people in it. In our groups, Bim
had us choose 3 of the 7 deadly sins. My group chose
"wrath," "pride," and "gluttony."
Then we were told to create 3 separate sculptures using our
bodies that represented each of the three sins we had chosen.
After we arranged out bodies in each of the three positions, we
shared the results with the other group, and they shared their
sculptures with us. Each sculpture was followed by discussion.
Next Bim gave us a selection of other themes to use to create
sculptures. He mentioned sculptures that are seen in town
squares. For each topic, we created a sculpture, then shared it
with the other group, and discussed what worked, and what didn't.
These were the topics: victory, freedom, oppression, and hope.
Bim mentioned that often, if you want to create a sculpture that
loudly illustrates one of these topics, it is useful to look at
the contrast of the word, and incorporate it into the sculpture
somehow. For example, the first topic, victory, he suggested that
we think about its opposite, defeat, and incorporate that into
the sculpture. This made sense, so we had a "defeated"
person lay down on the floor, with the "victor"
standing over him, with their foot on top of the person on the
ground. This made for a much stronger image of
"victory." After we created the various sculptures and
critiqued them, Bim had us all sit down and had us discuss
advertisements, how they work, what kind of imagery they use,
etc. We discussed the fact that elements like sex, comedy,
contrast, and others I can't recall at the moment, are used in
the creating of images in adverts. After discussing adverts for a
while, Bim had us, in our groups; create an advertisement for
something, by creating a number of static images that go in a
sequence. The first idea I had for an advertisement was a
deodorant advertisement. We created out sequence of images rather
quickly. Our first image was that of three young men standing on
a street corner, looking at a girl walking by with disgust and or
disinterest. The next image we created was of the girl, alone,
putting on the deodorant. The final image was of the girl walking
past the same group of guys and their attraction and interest
level has suddenly changed. When we told Bim we were done, he
seemed surprised that we finished so quickly. He asked if we had
created 5 separate images. I told him we only had 3. He told us
then to add a couple more. We started to think about two other
images we could add, but our piece seemed complete as it was. I
explained to Bim that I didn't think we needed any more images,
so Bim suggested that we go ahead and create a second
advertisement. So I had the idea to create a "Don't Drink
and Drive" message. Our first image was the four of us
sitting in four chairs, drinking and having fun. The second image
was us walking towards the car (the four chairs turned into a
car.) The third image was us driving in the car, obviously all
drunk, and having fun. The fourth image was us looking
shocked/scared. And the final image was of us dead inside the
car. Eventually we performed both of our adverts and watched the
other group perform theirs. Theirs was an advert for laundry
soap. That was the last exercise of the day in that class.
At 11:00, I had a half hour break. At 11:30 it was time for
Physical Theatre class. Bim started the class by having us do a
warm-up that involved transportation. Continuing with the
mime/mini mime theme, we were to create as many forms of
transportation as possible in a short period of time. The idea
was that we were re-creating the movie "Around the World in
80 Days." When I asked Bim if it was the movie that
Cantinflas was in, Bim didn't know who he was. During this
exercise, I was having trouble coming up with several methods of
transportation. I think that part of the problem was that I was
trying to come up with clever ones, so that I wouldn't be
mimicking everyone else's. As I recall, the ones I came up with
were the following: A banana peel stuck to the bottom of my shoe
followed by ice skating movements, a canoe, a beanie hat with
propeller, a horse, (and a few others, I can't remember.) After
everyone had a chance to come up with as many forms of
transportation, we all sat down and watched people go up in
groups of 3 and perform their scene from the movie "Around
the World in 80 Days." It was silly, and fun to watch. But I
found it difficult to watch 3 people at once. Several of the
modes of transportation were quite clever. My favourite had to be
Phil's slingshot. After that exercise was over, we spent the rest
of the class sitting down while people went up in pairs, doing
mini-mime story telling with a partner. First Phil and Pascal
went up. Their assignment was to do a mini-mime adventure
(Dec 29th: trying to get caught up on my behind entries... this
entry should have been done a while ago, but because I got sick
the evening of the 11th, my sleeping pattern was messed up, and
it sent me on a spiraling downward fall in writing my diary. To
get this out of the way, so I can start fresh at the begining of
the next term, I am just going to finish this entry with the
notes from my notebook. I should be able to decipher them at a
later date when working on this when I return to the USA. So here
are my notes:)
Movement Notes: Weight
Fighting Active resistance, pull across the room.
Passive weight: like pulling on a kid who doesn't want to go (goes limp.) Tired, ill, sensual, drunk
Cooperation: no resistance.
Lifting each other-- making heavy or light placement of weight.
Garment throw, pick up, and wear using passive, strong, and light --speak, greet.
Heavy legs
Passive weight, Roll with partner--where do we keep tension
Roll solo
Forward roll, hand balance, juggling
12/12/02 Day Fifty-Two: (This entry written on Dec 29th, so much of the detail is lost--oh well...) I rode my bike up to school. It was the second day of riding it since it was fixed. All seemed well, until just before I arrived at school (about 3 blocks away) when I started to hear a clicking sound, coming from my gears, and I lost a lot of power. I barely managed to get to the school. I locked up my bike, deciding that I would deal with it later. There were too many things that were troubling me aside from my bike--like the fact that we had to perform our E&M piece this day.
Javier led the warm-up. It was pretty basic. I don't remember if we played any games.
At 9:30, we headed over to Studio 2 for E&M. Each group had from 9:30 until 1:00 to continue practicing their piece before the presentation at 1:00pm. Natalie explained to me that she wouldn't be able to attend some of the practice time. I was feeling frustrated about that. I mentioned my frustration to Rod, and we agreed to discuss this later. Merlin and Jeremiah worked on their routine, and I just practiced my solo piece for cigar boxes. Eventually Natalie came around. I tihnk it was 10:30 when she showed up. We decided to go over to the gym to work on our piece. It was just over two hours before showtime, and we still had not had a full run-through of our piece--again, very frustrating. To make a long story short, we worked on it, finally got a finished rough piece, and ran it about 3-4 times. My hands started to ache from holding cigar boxes, so we took a break. Rod helped us out, giving us feedback. It was as good as it could be, considering how little time was put into it.
At 1:00 we performed our piece. Natalie was awesome, she and I didn't drop once in our duo cigar box routine. My solo routine was almost flawless. I hit my hardest trick, which made me feel good. All in all, our piece was well recieved by the audience (of circomedia students,) in fact, we recieved a louder response than the other group. This is something I found strange, especially considering how much better theirs was than ours. After the show, Rod let us know that he would discuss the results with Helen, and find out which piece would be performed in the 3 month show the next evening. I was not surprised at all when Rod let us know 20 minutes later, that they had chosen the other group. At this point, I didn't care.
After the performance I had a break until 4:00pm. I have no memory of what I did during that break. I'm sure I did little of anything productive. Actually, I remember attempting to take a look at my bike, but not finding any good tools to work with.
At 4:00pm I went to Studio 2 for my Performance class. It was with Tilly. I must confess at this point, that I have no notes in my notebook about this class. I remember it being about flocking again. If I recall, it didn't seem like we learned anything new in this class. Or it may just be my memory failing. Mental note: do a better job at keeping notes about each class--in the event I get several days behind in my diary again.
At 5:30, Pascal and Phil and I practiced our PT routine for a while, making some good progress. We got ourselves to a point where we felt that with a little practice before the class on Monday morning, we would be fine.
After that, I was ready to go home. I went to my bike, to take a look at it, and see if it was rideable at all. I took the back wheel off, and the entire gear box fell off. Luckily Phil was able to give me a ride home.
12/13/02 Day Fifty-three: (This entry written on Dec 29th, so much of the detail is lost--oh well...) I caught a ride with Phil to school. This day was an odd one. I didn't have any classes until 1:40pm when I was supposed to go to my Acro for Idiots (a pet name I have given to the Acro for non specialists class.)
I don't remember what I did until then. I believe that I spent some time juggling. When it was time to go to my Acro class, I didn't feel like going. So instead, Phil and I volunteered to move all the crash mats from Studio 2 to the gym. This occupied our time, plus it fulfilled the required aid towards the setting up of the evening show. I suggested to Phil that we leave school and go have a pint at a nearby pub before the show.
After getting back from the Pub, it was getting close to being time for the show. We had been scheduled to be the doormen for the show. Phil and I, trying to have a little fun, decided to be the singing doormen. But we soon discovered that we would be separated (one at one door, and one at the other door,) so that foiled our plans.
The show was good. I wanted to be in it, but it just didn't work out that way.
After the show, I caught a ride home from Phil. The students were planning a party at some pub after the show, but I was not in the mood.
12/14/02 Saturday: (This entry written on Dec 19th) I woke up in
the morning, and did my usual Saturday morning things. Mandy was
in London for the weekend, so I was thinking about having a
party. Mandy had told me that if I wanted to have a party that I
could use the stockpile of left over beer (left over from one of
her last parties.) First, though, I needed to get my bike fixed.
I called the bike shop, and explained to them the situation with
my wheel. I told them my bike wasn't even push able, and that I
had no car to bring it to them. They then told me, if I wanted
to, I could just bring the wheel. So that is what I did. I
grabbed the wheel, and headed out the door. When I got to the
bike shop, they were able to fix the wheel right there in the
store. Apparently it was a manufacturer defect in the gears that
caused it to fall apart like that. I was out the door in a matter
of minutes with my newly fixed wheel.
When I got home, I started making phone calls to summon people
for my party. After making several calls, I took a short nap.
Then after my nap, I spent an hour and a half cleaning the house,
getting it ready for my guests. Kay was the first to arrive, as I
had invited her to come as early as she wanted. She and I hung
out for a couple of hours before the party actually got started.
As the guests began to arrive the party environment really
started to pick up. It ended up being a fun night that lasted
until about 3:00am. Kay, Jeremiah, Pascal, Tina, Fabian, Annette
(and her friend who's name is escaping me at the moment,) Eley,
Yam, and Avital were there. It was a perfect number of guests, in
my opinion. There were others who were supposed to show up, but
never did. One of the things we did was play a drinking game that
I created. Well, I shouldn't say I created it; I took another
game, and modified it a little into a drinking game. The game
worked like this: Everyone sat in a circle in the living room,
each holding something to drink (though Pascal and Jeremiah were
just drinking water.) The game goes in a circle around the room,
each person taking a turn. It starts with one person naming a
famous person (e.g. Michael Jackson.) The next person in the
circle has to name another famous person, but their famous
person's first name has to start with the first letter of the
previous famous person's last name (e.g. first name called -
Michael Jackson, second name called - Jay Gilligan.) Now what
turns this simple game into a drinking game is that each person
only gets 10 seconds to come up with a name. If they don't come
up with a name in 10 seconds, they have to take a sip of their
drink, and the turn goes to the next person. If they say
"Uhhh," "Uuhmm," "Mmmm,"
"Ahhh," or any other "thinking" sound while
they are thinking of the name they want to use, they have to take
a sip from their drink, and the turn goes to the next person. If
the name they come up with has been used before in the game, then
they have to take a sip from their drink, and the turn goes to
the next person. Also, if the person comes up with a name, but
someone in the circle believes that it is a made up name, they
can "challenge" that person (e.g. "I challenge
you: Who is this Jay Gilligan?") If the person being
challenged can respond properly (e.g. "Jay Gilligan is a
well known juggler who used to perform with a group called
'Blink.'") then the challenger looses, and has to drink. If
the challenger discovers that the player has made a name up, then
the person who made up the name has to drink, the bogus name is
discarded, and the turn goes to the next person. It should be
noted, that the person who comes up with the famous name MAY make
up a name of a famous person, and if challenged, MAY be able to
lie good enough to make it sound legitimate. If someone comes up
with an obscure name (e.g. an actor from a long time ago, whose
name people recognize,) but you suspect that the person doesn't
really know anything about the famous person, you can challenge
them by asking them something about the person (e.g. "Name a
movie they were in.") If the person cannot give any detail
of the person, then they have to drink. Of course if they can,
then the challenger drinks. The game may seem complicated,
reading about it, but it is actually quite simple. Everyone
really enjoyed the game. It was interesting having people from
Israel, Germany, England, and the USA playing the game. There
were a lot of names I had never heard of.
Shortly after that game ended, Eley and Yam left. The party
shifted at this point, and we started playing around with magic
tricks. First we played with mentalist games. I taught Kay a
mentalist trick. She would leave the room and the people left in
the room would pick an object in the room. Then Kay would return
and "read my mind" and discover which object was
chosen. The fun, of course in this game, is doing it over and
over, as people try to figure out how it works. We also played
with a lot of other magic tricks. Fabian knew a few tricks that
he showed, and I showed the few that I know. Avital wanted to
learn some coin tricks, so I taught her the basic French drop.
Eventually people headed home. All but Kay that is. She had
planned on spending the night. I made a little bed for her on my
floor using some cushions. She spotted the copy of Harry Potter
in my room, and wanted to read it to me. That was nice. She read
an entire chapter for me, with a proper English accent - the way
Harry Potter SHOULD be read. I remember thinking, shortly before
I fell asleep, how strange it was, to be falling asleep at
4:00am, which is usually when I am waking up!
12/15/02 Sunday: (This entry written on Dec 19th) I woke up before Kay did, and went down to check my email, and do some other things. Eventually Kay woke up, and we had breakfast. Breakfast consisted of cinnamon toast and some pineapple left after the party. After hanging out for a while, Kay showed me her camera that she had brought with her. She has had the camera for a year now; it's a very nice, expensive camera. She hasn't really used it, however, because she doesn't understand how the manual side of it works. I told her I would figure out how it works for her. I played around with it, enough to get a very basic idea of how it works. We decided, then to head out to the old railroad graveyard to take pictures of old rusting trains. It is about a 45-minute bike ride out there. As soon as we got there, it started raining. So we headed back. At the point on the trail where we separate, I offered to borrow her camera for a couple of days so that I could thoroughly read the manual, and be able to teach her more thoroughly in a couple of days. She handed me the camera, and I headed home. Needless to say, the bottom half of me was quite soaked after 45 minutes of bike riding in the cold rain, but the top half of me, thanks to my parent's gift of a nice rain coat, was nice and dry. I got home, with the intention of cleaning up the mess left after the party. But instead, I just took a nice long nap. I spent the rest of the day just hanging out, and doing nothing productive.
12/16/02 Day Fifty-four: (This entry written on 22 Dec. Details of this day will be minimal, but not essential.) I arrived at school just before 9:00am. Very few people showed up for the warm-up. And for some reason none of the TTs showed up to do a warm-up. So everyone eventually did their own warm-up. I juggled for my warm-up.
At 9:30 Rod showed up, and invited us to go up to the quiet room with him. We held our E&M session in there. We spent about an hour in there, discussing the process, and the results of the performance we did on Thursday. It was nice to get feedback. I personally felt that this project was a complete failure. The only thing that I learned from this assignment in my opinion, is that I need to be cautious as to who I work with in the future. After our feedback session, we headed back to the gym and finished off our hour doing juggling circuits.
At 11:00, Pascal, and Phil joined me in the gym. We had planned to meet then to work on our PT mini mime project. We goofed off for about 10 minutes or so before we actually got to work on it. Eventually we started getting into it, and were enjoying working on it. Which is surprising, because non of us really like this part of our PT class. The mini-mime story telling seems silly and childish, and very limiting. After working on our piece for a while, suddenly Pascal panicked and said, "We are late!" Sure enough, we were. We ran to Studio 2. The clock on the wall in there read 11:40. According to it we were 10 minutes late (which I thought was strange, because the gym clock said it was about 11:32, and Pascal said we were 7 minutes late--so I'm not sure what the actual time was.) Bim could have easily kicked us out of the class for being late, but he said "in the spirit of Christmas" he would let it slide. I hate that he said that. One, because I am not a big fan of Christmas, and two, I wish he would have admitted what is the truth, which is, neither Phil, Pascal, or myself have ever been late to one of his classes, and we clearly made a mistake (and we were practicing something for his class while being late.) Anyhow, as we came into the room, the class wasn't really doing anything. They were just sitting on the floor, and looking over a form that Bim was handing out. It was a two page form he wanted us to fill out that is like a suggestion sheet. Next Bim asked if anyone had their PT piece ready to show. Annette, Yam, and Eley went first. Their piece was about 15 minutes long, and included music, and no dialogue at all. I looked over at Phil during the piece, and he gave me the same, confused look. We were under the impression that the piece was to be no more than 3 minutes long, and that we could use dialogue in it. Plus there was no mention of music. After they went, the next group went. It was Polly, Fay, and Deniz. They obviously had not rehearsed the piece much. Theirs as well was silent, and ran for around 10 minutes. They admitted, after the very hard to follow, and confusing performance, that they had only come up with the idea that morning, and had not even run it once. It was mostly improvised. When it was time for us to go, as the last group to go, I explained that we must have misunderstood the assignement. Even though I truely believe that we didn't. I am positive that Bim told us the piece was only to be 3 minutes long (which is what ours was--we had checked it with a stop-watch.) Anyhow, we performed our piece, and got the feedback from it. I was just glad to be done with that.
I honestly was getting very tired of school at this point. It seemed silly to have the three month projects on Friday, and then have two more days of school on Monday and Tuesday. They should have ended school on Friday. I was not the only one feeling this way.
After PT was done, I planned on going home. The only thing left for the day was the Dip Notes session from 2:30 until 4:00, and then a PT practice session from 5:00-6:00. It was obvious we didn't have anything to practice for PT, so I didn't have to go to that. And I discovered that we would be doing a final massage class during the Dip Notes session. I didn't want to go to that. Mostly because I don't like the guy that teaches it. I suggested to Phil that we skip the massage class and go to my house and hang out and watch a video. He seemed into the idea, so we planned on leaving shortly 1:30. Phil had to go to the office for something. When he returned he told me that we had to stick around until 2:20 for the annual group photo. I knew I couldn't miss this. This was my opportunity to have my picture on the wall. They have a photo hanging on the wall from all the previous classes. So at that point, my plans changed, and I decided I should stick around for the photo session. Unfortunately I didn't pack a lunch (mostly because I was planning on going home early.) Phil needed to get some food too. So he decided to drive down the hill to go to a store. I told him I forgot to pack a lunch, and he offered to drive me to my house to grab some money. So we left the school to get some money. Upon returning, it was just about time for the photo.
After getting our group, class photo taken, I headed home on my bike. Phil decided that he didn't have enough time to watch a video with me, because he had to be back at 4:00pm to meet Tam to rehearse their piece. It was nice to go home early. I didn't do anything productive for the rest of the day.
12/17/02 Day Fifty-five (and the last day of the first term): I
got ready for school, headed up the hill on my bike and arrived
around 8:50. We did not have a TT leading a warm-up yesterday so
I didn't expect one today. So at 9:00, I set out to do my own
warm-up. I knew it would be ideal for me to get warmed up
properly because at 9:30 we would be having our Fitness Test.
At 9:30 Liz, Kay, and Charlotte arrived at the gym and the
Fitness Test got underway. I improved in almost everything when
you compare the results of this fitness test to my first one.
Here are the results:
| Test | September 26th 2002 | December 17th 2002 |
| Weight in KGS | 135 | 124 |
| Flexibility (Sit & Reach) | +11 | +4 |
| Flexibility (Back Hypertension) | 84.5 | 87.5 |
| Flexibility (Arm & Shoulder) | 85 | 95 { L (R) D } |
| Abdominal Strength - Leg Lowering | 40 degrees above horizontal | 5 degrees above horizontal |
| Upper Body Strength - pull ups | 1/2 | 1/2 |
| Push Ups (reps per 1 min.) | 5 full | 17 full |
| Grip strength | 0 sec | 2 sec |
Not listed on there is the Curl
Ups and the Straddle results. On the first Fitness test I did 68
curl ups in 2 minutes, and I'm sure I could have done more than
that, but for some reason, I was getting a cramp in my leg, so I
was unable to finish it. The reason the straddle results are not
listed is because Liz couldn't find the measuring tape.
I didn't participate in the running part of the Fitness Test,
because I had told Liz previously that running was bad on my
knees.
After the Fitness Test, I headed up to the student room and met
with Rod for my tutorial. I'm not sure how often they will do
tutorials. I received my first one on the 18th of October. I am
guessing we get one at the end of every half-term. Anyhow, Rod
started my tutorial off by handing me a copy of the feedback from
Helen on the E&M presentation I was in. Here are the parts
that pertain to me:
E&M Presentation Dec12th 2002
Group 1 Walter, Natalie, Merlin, Jeremiah
- Good choice of music
- Good use of music
Two separate groups, no large group sense, and no shared sense of style or commitment to performance.
- Cigar box Duo.
- Cigar box duo well thought out and choreographed, performers made most use of prior learning and recently acquired skills and knowledge. Good use of personal space and shared personal space. Worked well together, shared responsibility. Pacing of piece relied too heavily on timing in music.
At this point she goes on to give individual notes to each performer. Here is what she had to say to me:
Walter: Spatial clarity, of arms in particular, much improved. Good to work in this abstract style as it has forced a discipline of movement. Shoulders are uneven, this becomes exaggerated in performance. Needs attention for health reasons in future. Beginnins and ends of movement need attention in time and space. Felt this piece did not reflect his abilities well, hampered by commitement of others in group.
That last comment was much appreciated. I walked away from this project feeling very frustrated. I want to succeed, but it becomes difficult when there is a lack of commitement from your group. I'm glad Helen was able to see this.
After looking over the feedback from Helen, Rod read the tutorial form to me and discussed it with me briefly. Here is what the form reads:
- Name: Walter
- Subject: E&M
- Tutor: Rod Laver
- Date: 14/12/02
- Continues to show commitement to improving skills and an organized attitude to learning. Some inovative work on cigar boxes with Natalie and some successful solo (some word I can't read) despite a disappointing project in terms of group dynamics. Also must pay attention to back problems and develop necessary stamina.
- Name: Walter
- Performance/Phys Theatre
- Tutor: Bim
- Date 14/12/02
- Very professional and intelligent attitude maintained. Using size and weight well. Mask impro has more true reality than prepared piece. Ideas are good and workable - need to work on fine tuning by rediscovering emotions each time rather than exterior focus. Similarly in story of Yosemite take time to savour and relish the qualities and then "sell" that. Stregthen material, communication is good.
After going over the feedback, Rod briefly
discussed what would be happening next term. He basically said
that within E&M I would be choosing my specializations.
Basically, he wants every person to pick 2-3 things to really
focus on. This first term was "general education," and
now it was time to focus on one area. I had discussed my goals
with Rod, and he already knows that I want to focus on clubs,
hats, and cigar boxes. But, he suggested I still take my time to
think it over-in case I want to change my mind.
After the tutorial was over, I sat down and ate my lunch in the
student room. There were some students watching a video I had
already seen before, so it was easy for me to walk away from the
TV after I was done with my lunch. I had made plans to meet Kay
at 1:00pm so that I could give her a lesson on how to use her
camera. I had kept her camera for a couple of days to read over
the manual. She wants to be able to shoot pictures, using the
manual features, but didn't understand how they worked.
I walked over to the South Wing, to do a little cigar box
juggling before 1:00pm. I came up with a couple of new moves that
I really like. I am mostly exploring tossing and catching the
cigar boxes on top of each other. This is difficult, but I think
that most of the other cigar box skills are very easy to learn,
and I want to get the balances, and catches down solid first. The
other stuff comes easy.
At 1:00pm (roughly) I met up with Kay, and gave her a quick
lesson on how photography works. I talked to her about fstop,
shutter speed, film, light, exposure, etc. I was surprised how
much I remember from my photography classes (now almost 10 years
ago!) Then after giving her a basic understanding of how
photography works, I showed her how her camera works. She has
owned the camera for about a year now, and has not really used
it. It is a nice camera. Then, once she understood how the camera
worked, I took her out, and we took some pictures. I had her
document in her notebook what the settings for each picture were,
that way she could see the results, and understand them better
when she gets her pictures back.
At 2:00pm it was time for the Choreography class. We warmed up,
first with Liz leading her dance warm-up routine, then Eley,
Avital, and Yam each performed their solo pieces. They did theirs
first, apparently because they had to leave early, or something.
Then after their performance, Liz gave us 20 minutes to finish up
our solo pieces. I confess, I have not been excited about this
project, and had done no work at all on it. I talked to Liz about
it, and she basically told me to do what I could. So I spent the
20 minutes trying some things out, but honestly, the when I
performed the piece later, it was completely improvised.
At the end of that class, Bim came by and gave us the "end
of the week notes." He discussed a few things related to the
end of the term, and suggested that we get a lot of rest because
of the cold miserable months ahead of us.
At 4:30 it was time for E&M. Rod, as he mentioned, set aside
this class period to play a game of volley-club. I love playing
volley club. To those who don't know what it is, it is like
volley ball, but instead of a volleyball, a juggling club is
used. Each player has a club in each hand, and then of course
there is the extra club going back and forth over the net. As it
comes towards you, you catch it, by juggling it into your
pattern, and then toss it back out over the net. We didn't have a
net, but we stood two of the crash mats on end. It was more like
a very high tennis net, than a volley net, but it was still a lot
of fun. We played one match. I was on the winning team of the
first match. Then Rod joined the team that had lost, and we
played another match. This time it was closer, but my team still
won. It was fun. I hope we do that again.
After E&M we were done. Everyone headed to a nearby Pub to
celebrate the end of the term. I didn't want to go, but got
talked into it. It was good that I went, because I wanted a
chance to say goodbye to Natalie and Fay, who were only here for
the 3 month program. After the pub, I headed home.
When I got home, there was a message from Brita. She wanted to
come over for a visit. I of course invited her over, and she was
at my house around 9:00pm. We sat and chatted a bit, and I
eventually gave her a nice long massage. While we were talking,
she told me that the last time she rode her bike home from my
house late at night, some drunk guys attacked her. She was able
to get away from them, but was very scared. After telling me
that, I assured her that I would escort her home from now on. She
started to say that she didn't want to bother me, but I insisted,
and she seemed relieved to have the offer. Around 11:30, we
headed out the door on our bikes. I haven't been to her house
yet, but I know she lives near the school. As we went, I showed
her the way I go to school, and she was grateful to discover my
route. Apparently my route is shorter, flatter, and doesn't go in
front of a bunch of various pubs (where all these drunks hang
out.) I got her to a certain corner, and she told me that she
could handle it the rest of the way, that her house was only a
few blocks further, and it was a safe neighbourhood. She was
grateful for the escort. I'm ashamed I didn't offer sooner. But
I'm glad she is okay.
<Back to the top>
12/18/02 Day One
(of my Winter Break) I woke up this morning, did my previous day
diary entry. I then cleaned the house a little, knowing that
Mandy would be returning in the evening. Then I headed up the
hill to Circomedia around 1:00pm. I arrived, and the first thing
I did was find Bim to discuss the issue of my friend Will's
visit. I had been told the previous day, during end of the week
notes that I couldn't have friends with me in the rehearsal space
over the break. Luckly, however, Bim gave me permission to allow
my friend Will to use the space with me. I just have to be with
him at all times, and he is not allowed to do any acrobatics or
Aerial. The next thing I did was go to the office and start
making copies of the performances I have been in so far onto the
end of my audition videotape. I will have all this great video
footage with me when I get back to the USA, but it will all be in
PAL format - which means I will have to convert it. I plan on
going back and recording all the other performances as well. It
will be a good source of material (tricks.) After finishing with
the video copying, I checked out 3 cigar boxes for the break, and
I got my clubs out of the E&M storeroom. I was under the
impression the storeroom would be available to us over the break,
but I was wrong.
I spent the next hour in the gym. I spent about 45 minutes of
that hour, juggling. Then I spent a much needed 15 minutes doing
some stretching. Eventually Annette came by, a little frustrated
because I had the key, and she had been wondering where it was
earlier in the day. Usually the key is stored in the student
house, and it can be found on a hook in the kitchen. But there is
not going to be anyone in the student house over the break, so I
thought we had decided I was going to keep the key. Anyhow,
Annette came up with a good idea. She managed to convince the
landlady of the Student House to let us each borrow a key to the
back door of the Student House, that way, we could leave the key
in the Student house. I am under the impression that there are
only a few people left in town for the break, they are: Annette,
Shani, Phil, Oskar, and myself. The nice thing about having
access to the student house, besides being able to leave the key
there, is that I can leave my props there as well, and not have
to cart them around all over the place.
Anyhow, after getting the situation sorted out, I headed home. I
didn't do much of anything productive for the rest of the
evening. I called it an early night, around 9:00pm.
<Back to the top>
12/19/02 Day Two (of my Winter Break) Woke up, caught up on a
couple of diary entries (still not completely caught up.) I
eventually called Phil. He let me know he was going to Circomedia
to practice around 3:00pm and wanted to know if I would join him.
I originally had not planned on going to school today. I asked
him if he would mind giving me a ride there-to which he agreed.
It was nice to go to school and not have to deal with riding my
bike.
Once at school I spent most of my time practicing either cigar
boxes or clubs. With clubs, I worked a fair amount on going from
4 club triples down to 4 club singles. This is a difficult
transition to make, but I am getting close to pulling it off. I
also put a fair amount of work into my 4 club splits. With 5
clubs I worked briefly on trying to do a 3 club triple spin flash
out of a 5 club double spin cascade. I have come close, but
haven't pulled that one off yet. I also worked with Annette a
little, practicing having her stand on my shoulders and juggling.
She is a little nervous about it, and she is a bit taller and
heavier than Jessi, so it is a little harder for me. But we
managed to both juggle at the same time (in other words, I was
able to let go of her legs while she juggled.)
Around 7:00pm, Phil and I decided to head back to my place to
watch a video. I gave Brita a call on Phil's mobile to ask her if
she wanted to join us. She did, and a few minutes later, after
walking to Circomedia from her house, she had joined us and we
headed down to my house. The film was good. I would like to watch
it again. Phil raves about it, so I feel like I need to watch it
a couple of more times to get a real feel for it.
After the film, Phil gave Brita a lift home. I settled in for the
night.
12/20/02 Day Three (of my Winter Break) Today I did very little. In the morning, I recieved a package in the post. It was from my parents. They sent me the second half of my gift. I wasn't expecting a second half, but it was a nice surprise. The sent me a very nice pair of rain pants to go along with my new rain coat. I am now ready to battle the heavy rains to come! Thanks Mom & Dad!
I decided to go on up to Circomedia. Annette had said that she would meet me there in the afternoon. Shortly after noon, I prepared to go. I poked my head out the door, to discover it was pouring rain. For half a moment, I thought of not going, but I remembered my rain gear. What better time would there be to try it out! So out the door I went. Upon arriving at Circomedia, I pulled off my rain gear, only to discover the only moisture on me was the usual sweat build up from biking uphill for 2 miles. Its nice to go through such a heavy rain, and arrive on the other side, dry! I spent about 3 hours at Circomedia. Annette never showed up. I worked on several things, but overall my juggling was not doign too well. Nikki, the acro instructor, and her acrobatics partner were there practicing. They had a gig in London the next day. So I got to see them do a run-through of their routine. It was a comedy act involving some pretty amazing acrobatics. It was fun watching them. I got to chat with them after it for a while. Around 4:00pm I headed home.
Once at home, I didn't do much of anything productive. Brita eventually came by, and we hung out for a while. I gave her a massage. She eventually headed home. I offered to escort her home again, but she assured me she would be okay. It was early (only around 9:30pm) and she felt safer going home using the new route I had shown her. After she left, I went to bed.
12/21/02 Saturday: Today I succeeded at doing absolutely nothing. I didn't even step a foot outside the door. Do I feel guilty?? Nah!! Brita was going to come over for a massage. She called me up around 7:30, telling me she felt silly asking for a massage, considering she just got one yesterday. I told her she shouldn't feel silly, but she should bring me some chocolate instead. She told me she would catch a bus, because her bike was not working well, plus it was raining. I waited about an hour and a half for her, and she eventually called back to say she had waited for a bus for about 1/2 an hour, but one never showed up. She said she couldn't understand the bus schedule. I told her not to worry about it. After getting off the phone with her, I went to bed.
12/22/02 Sunday: Nothing much worthy of mentioning happened this day. I mostly stayed home. In the evening, Brita payed a visit, bringing a pile of chocolate. I gave her a massage. She is heading out for Holland on the 24th to visit her boyfriend, and should return a couple of days later.
12/23/02 Day Four (of my Winter Break) Originally, on this day, I had planned to get together with Phil, Mandy, Dave, & Ella at Dave & Ella's house to watch the Princess Bride. When I called Phil, he mentioned that he was feeling sick, and would not be joining us. So plans were changed. Mandy, Tarim and I headed over to Dave and Ella's and hung out. It was cool to hang out with them at their place. Next, Mandy, Tarim and I went to Monday night Juggling Club. We got there a little late, so we were only there for about an hour. We had mince pies and tea, and juggled. I did some more passing with Tarim. After juggling, we headed over to the pub. Eventually we headed back home.
12/24/02 Day Five (of my Winter Break) This was the day I headed into Bath. I hopped on my bike at around 12:55am, and arrived at Ruth's house in Bath around 2:20pm. I met, and rode along side, a man who was also biking to Bath. He had all his camping gear strapped to his back. He mentioned that he had just gotten a job working for the UN, working in South Africa--something about creating a program to help them compete in the trade industry. Sounded very interesting. He was very friendly and was genuinely interested in what I was doing in England. After we separated, I found my way to Ruth's house. They had taken down a key landmarker that I was counting on to find Ruth's house. There used to be, in the middle of a round-a-bout, this huge metal crown that had vines and flowers growing all over it. When I arrived at the round-a-bout, it was nowhere to be seen. I was pretty sure that I was at the correct round-a-bout, but I had to stop and ask someone about the missing crown. I remember thinking, as I was riding up the hill to Ruth's house, (which is a rather steep hill,) that it didn't seem as intense as it did the last time. But then I had to remind myself, the last time, I had been pulling a heavy trailer behind me, I had been riding for several hours, and I was not in as good of shape as I am now. I arrived, quite muddy.
Ruth welcomed me in to her house, and made me a light lunch. We ended up just hanging out at her house all afternoon. She is a wonderful hostess, and a very good conversationalist. I always enjoy sitting and chatting with her at her. In the evening, we sat and watched the first half of a movie about Earnest Shackleton, the English explorer. It was very interesting, and we were both hooked, wanting to see the second half. We didn't know if we would be back the next day in time to see the film, so I suggested that she set the VCR to record it. She did.
12/25/02 Day Six (of my Winter Break) Woke up early, and Ruth and I headed out for London. The trip was uneventful. We arrived at the airport, and made out way to Terminal #3, in order to meet Will at the information desk. We were scheduled to meet him at 10:00am. When we arrived at the information desk at 10:00am, Will was not there. I needed to use the toilet, so I headed off looking for one. When I arrived in the bathroom, I found Will there. I helped him with his stuff, and we headed back to the information desk.
We left the airport and headed back west on the M4 heading for Swindon, where we spent the rest of the day with Ruth's daughter (Will's cousin,) Hellen, her husband Simon, and their two kids, Daniel and Alec. It was a nice day. We had a traditional English dinner, and did traditional English things like "Pull Crackers" and eating brandy covered, flaming Christmas Pudding. Will and I each recieved gifts we were not expecting. It was very kind of these people, not only to welcome me into their home, but to be thoughtful enough to get gifts for me. One of the joys of Christmas is the guilt that comes along when someone gives you a gift, and you were not expecting it.
In the evening, we headed back to Bath. When we arrived in Bath, we settled in, and watched the second half of the Shackleton movie.
12/26/02 Day Seven (of my Winter Break) On this day, Will and I headed down to Bath on foot and hung out and juggled for a while. We did some club passing. If we had a routine, we could have made some money. There were several tourists who stopped to watch us. After about an hour or so of hanging out in the center of Bath, we walked back to Ruth's house. Later that afternoon we headed out with Ruth to a local cinema, and watched the latest Lord of the Rings movie. I quite enjoyed it. That evening we just hung out at Ruth's. Will and I played "Shove It!"
12/27/02 Day Eight (of my Winter Break) Around 10:30 I hopped on my bike, and headed back to Bristol. It took me about 1 hour and 15 minutes to get from the front door of Ruth's house to my place. I was covered in mud when I got home. I quickly changed clothes, and Will and Ruth showed up at my house (driving over, bringing my stuff with them--which was nice--not having to carry all my stuff on the bike.) I gave them the nickle tour, and then we headed out. Ruth wanted to show us some places in Bristol where she used to hang out. She apparently got her doctor's degree in Bristol, and wanted to show us some spots at the University. Eventually we parked near the big suspension bridge (can't remember the name,) and we had a pic-nic lunch that Ruth had prepared. It was very nice. We were up on a cliff that overlooked the river, and the suspension bridge. It was a very nice view.
After lunch, we headed to the Hippodrome, a huge theatre in Bristol. Ruth had bought us tickets to see a traditional English Christmas Pantomime. The show itself was "Dick Whittington." It starred a collection of television stars. It was a very interesting cultural experience for me. I had been warned by people at Circomedia that Pantomimes are very bad, and cheesy. It was an interesting experience. The production level was impressive. I can only imagine the size of their budget. They had amazing costumes, lighting (lazers,) sound, projected computer animation, puppetry, choreography, singing, acrobats, you name it.
After the show, Ruth headed home, leaving Will at my place. The first thing Will and I did was go shopping for food. Then we settled in for the evening.
12/28/02 Saturday: I had made plans to go to Circomedia to practice at 1:00pm, but Will was not feeling well--flu. So instead, we invited Phil to come over. Phil came over and the three of us watched a video. It was one of Phil's movies, and it was called Twin Town. I thought it was a very good film. After the film, Phil left. Will decided to take a nap (this was around 3:30-4:00.) He didn't wake up from his nap until the next morning. After Phil left, and Will went to sleep, I headed out to the hardware store to get materials to redecorate my clubs. Upon returning from the hardware store, I decided to pop into the Pub, which is just a block from my house. It was like something from a movie. The best script writers could never come up with as interesting characters as the ones in this pub. There was John, the guy in all black with a huge mullet, who told me his dream was to ride his harley davidson across the USA and see the dolphins (not the team.) Then there was Marie, a 22 year old (with a face that looks like it has seen many more than 22 years,) who was dressed in very skimpy clothing, who was constantly hugging on John (who has to be at least 15-20 years older than her.) He seemed to be her "suggar daddy." Then there was little John, who was working behind the bar, a funny looking guy, quite short, with crooked, yellow teeth, and a pleasant demeanor. And the owner of the pub, Graham--a older gentleman, who looked like he had seen just about everything in his lifetime. They were all very excited about meeting me, and when I balanced a piece of paper on my nose, John bought me a drink. It was very amusing. John was on a mission, using me as an example, trying to get Marie to go to Circomedia to become an acrobat. She actually had the physique for it, but I question her dedication. But I encouraged her, none the less.
After the pub, I headed home, and redecorated the 3 clubs that Will brought with him (that were taken out of my few possesions left in Arcata.) I stayed up fairly late that night, but eventually crawled into bed.
12/29/02 Sunday: On this day I thought about going to Circomedia. Will was still not feeling 100 percent yet, so I considered going, and leaving him here at the house. But it rained all day, and I didn't feel like dealing with the rain. Mandy left for Cambridge. She will be there for a week. We will be meeting her on Tuesday night in Cambridge, as we are going there for a new year's party.
In the evening, Will and I sat down and started watching High Fidelity. Brita came by, halfway through the movie. I had seen it before, so I offered Brita a massage upstairs in my room while Will watched the rest of the film. After I gave Brita a short (1/2 hour) massage, we headed back down to join Will. The movie was just ending. After the film was over, we started watching the Simpsons. I was surprised to discover that Brita doesn't like the Simpsons (I thought most do.) I was even more surprised to discover that she didn't like any kind of animation. She only likes to watch stuff if it involves real actors. I had never heard anyone say that before. It left me rather curious about why she doesn't like animation. She said she didn't even like "Chicken Run." She said she liked the idea of the story, but hated that it didn't use real actors. Very strange.
At 8:30, Will and I walked into town to go to some stand up comedy at The Bunch of Grapes, a local comedy pub. My friend, Mark, was compering, and we had a good time, despite the fact that it was a weird night. All the energy in the room was weird, and the commedians didn't do well at all. They were very frustrated. But I had fun, none the less. Mark told me that anytime I want to try to do some stand up, I should give him a call, and I can come to The Bunch of Grapes, and give it a go. I am seriously thinking about it.
After the comedy, Will and I headed home. American Beauty was playing on BBC1, and we watched the last 1/2 of it. Then they started showing Spinal Tap. I watched some of that as well, but eventually went to bed, leaving Will up still watching it.
12/30/02 Day Nine (of my Winter Break) Phil came by around 8:30am and dropped off his bike for Will to borrow while he is visiting. Will and I waited for the rain to stop, but it never did. We headed up to Circomedia, arriving around 12:45pm, only slightly wet from the rain. We spent the next 4 hours juggling. Highlights: Will and I did a couple of nice runs of 9 club passing with triple spins and a nice run with double spins as well. I was trying to break my record of 9 club double spin passing with Will, which is 64 passes, but we didn't break 30 today. We also did some nice solid runs of 8 clubs, doubles, and threw a few tricks in with it as well. Will and I also spent a fair amount of time playing footbag. We headed home around 4:45pm, it was dark, and still raining. We will be heading to Cambridge for a new years party there, tommorow, around 1:00pm. We will be catching a ride with Richard.
12/31/02 Day Ten (of my Winter Break) Last day of 2002. Will and I headed up to Circomedia around 10:00am. We got in a good hour and a half of juggling. Will and I were managing to get some nice 2 club multi-plex throws within a 8 club double spin 2 count passint pattern. We also worked on 9 clubs and had some nice long runs of it as well. I came up with a bizzare pattern that is very weird to throw, and even weirder to catch. Will and I were passing 6 club 1 count synchronized throws, and I tried to throw a chop with my right hand and a regular throw with my left hand. It didn't work out right away, but once I got it smoothed out, Will was able to catch them. He tried it on me, and it is a bit of a mind twister, seeing two clubs come in, and having to catch one with your hand up, and the other with your hand down. I would like to get it down so that I each time, my hands would switch (e.g. first pass: right chop, left regular, second pass: right regular, first chop.) I also managed, with Will's patience at catching bad throws, to get a solid run of all chop throws in a a-sync 6 club 1 count pattern. When we got back to the house around 12:20, we each got ready to head out to Cambridge. At 1:00pm, Richard showed up, and we all piled into his car and headed for Cambridge. The drive was about 3.5 hours long, but it went by quickly because of good conversation in the car.
When we arrived at Cambridge we quickly found Andy's house (Andy is my landlady, Mandy's boyfriend.) There were a few people there allready. We got a quick tour of the house. In the garden, behind the house, there is another structure, and inside it is a tiny little swimming pool. I say tiny, it was about a meter deep, about 3 meters wide and probably about 10 meters long. The party itself was a lot of fun.There was a huge spread of food. I met tons of new people, and made a good effort at learning their names. Everyone in the house was a juggler, or at least somehow connected to a juggler, or some form of circus arts. This made for good conversation. Eventually most of the people ended up in the pool. It was quite a scene, having 20-25 people pile into that little pool, splashing about, and having fun. Around 2:00am, I managed to find a spot upstairs in the attic (that had been converted into a room,) where I could lay out my sleeping bag and go to sleep. Will joined me a few minutes later. I went to sleep, waking up now and then to the sounds of people playing and having fun downstairs. It was around 6:00am before everyone finally fell to sleep.
Happy New Year. Oh, and, you're welcome, Rhonda.
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