Might as well.

I think this may be my last post.
Not seeing much point.
Chao!

Words floating across the sea

Wow.
It has been a week to remember. Doing two workshops mon-thurs (total hours equal more than 40) 9:30-1:30, 2:00- 6:30. Intense.

Though at the same time it has been Really good and i feel myself growing more and more, both techniquely and creatively, personally and as a member of the katakomben. Last night I went to an open stage of the Katakombs - I did not submit anything as I was quite overwhelmed by the whole thing. But now not so much. There is another one in just under a month and I will have to do that up for sure.

On the other side of today this week will include shows! One called '...not available' (http://www.not-available.org/), which Julie, myself and a couple of other jugglers are looking at attending, there is the show called 'My Life' at the Chameleon which I hope to see really soon, as well as this other one which Julie managed to get special tickets cause she is so amazingly befriendable (persoanlly I think its the gift of just being genuine) that has none other than Victor friggin Kee in the show. I know - SCHWEETNESS!!!

On the other hand I have come to another realization this past week - For the most part I am not here for culture etc. Most of the ime I am putting out near all of my energy and focus on the tasks at hand (Bahahaha - that was off the cuff... Wink) that when I get home I want to do next to nothing other than relax. This could be the beginning of becoming a monk. To be honest too I don't find that scary... I kinda like it. I feel like I am becoming more focused on what I want and how to get there.

So the Morgan workshop was all two parted: Technical and creative. It was really great to get a process in how you develop a creative juggling routine, in steps. As opposed to having somthing like that matieralize in one step, it was started as something fairly simple and was staged out till the end result was remarkable and unique to each participant.

I will see if I can get a taping of it perhaps.
More later!

One third of the trip...

Wow.
So I am a third of the way through the three month intensive. To be honest it feels as if time has flown by. This weekend I went to Leipzig to see my sister and her family before they take off for their return back to Canada - it was fun. Also, last thursday I went out with a bunch of my classmates to see Richard (Austrian classmate) perform in an openstage, then out with the class for a low-amount of juggling night out. It was really fun. We went to a pub with the idea of the room is upside down - very interesting.

Last week I almost went out for some work but it was not very nice weather so it fell through. Here in Berlin what some jugglers do is called 'working the lights'. It consists of a twenty second routine followed by 20 seconds of collection in a 40 second red light. I was pretty sad that it did not come through but I know I will be doing it soon with one of my classmates BUT it will not be this week. (well maybe friday)
'Why?' you ask? 'Do you have the ability of weather prediction?'

No you gooses! I have not one workshop this week but two!!monday through thursday I will have training in the morning with the mighty Sergey Ignatov (9:30-1:30) a half hour to chill then on to a three ball workshop with the very creative Morgan Cosquer (2:00- 6:30). So I am going to be one tired puppy by the evening of thursday.

BUT WAIT!
They is more news! There is a open stage at the Katakomben on the 18th and going to the Chameleon this week at some point too, I watched a bunch of new juggling videos - especially the Peapot DVD JuggleDoll, AND my costume is geting much much closer to being finished!!
So all in all it has been a quality week a potentially out of this world one coming up!

Also I promise that I will be posting more frequently from this point on and that at least one entry is going to focus on technique, ideas, and plans.

As always questions/ comments are welcome and appreciated.
James

mid 3 week

So it about time that I gave a bit ofan update.

my left hand is a bit banged up. Multiple cuts and a solid bruise in the ring finger. That being said I feel like significant progress is being made dispite mild frustration that periodically arrives from having lag time between the brain and the body.

Everything is Rhythem. We spend the first 20 minutes of class going over the rhythem in our bodies and how it flows in our movement.The past two weeks we would be spending about half our class working on body position and catch/ release technique then get to 5+ objects. This week though we have been getting to the bigger topics sooner.Half an our in we start working 5balls hard. We are talking specifically targetting our individual topics (for me its my right hand C/R level, going in counter clockwise movement and running with the pattern). It was a harder day. Sergey is a great teacher. He is a Russian teacher. He can be a little... harsher in his guidence. Again - it was a harder day.

I have been scoping out the workshops that will be offered because while I have been solidifing a technical base I am also hoping to get a taste of style to play with. While I have already picked up a few new... things, I am going to the big juggling club meet tonight! It should be fun.

I'll take some snaps!
Questions?
(PS: thanks Kate for the Q's)

Week One is done...

So week one is done. About 35 hours of juggling practice and training in 5 days.
First off I have to say that it is awesome - It feels so good there. An environment of people who feel as strongly about it as I do.

So where to begin...
My class consists of Alex and Omerho (i have no idea on spelling) from Mexico, Carlito from Berlin, Mayori from Israel, Richard from Austria, Carlos from Italy and myself. We all have different strengths... Oh yeah! Marco Paoletti joined the class for a couple of days.

We have reduced everything back down to the very beginning - no balls. Right to the drawing board of body position and ergonomics. It has been a real learning experience to have to go back to the beginning and change things which will make my abilities seem to diminish. But it is as he told us in that it is natural for this to happen and soon we will be flying higher than before.
To be honest I am kinda unsure what to write here - does anyone have any questions?
i could start going on about body position etc but that would not be the best without pics etc...

This week I plan to attend the local club. It should be good from what I hear.

Steadily approaching

Today is the 9th of september and everything is maintaining a steady pace of faster than expected. Everything starts in 6 days. Starts in 6 days...

Hmmm... I am not entirely sure what to be writing about right now as I am still in a bit of a between stage. Yesterday I spent the day in a zoo (literally) which was awesome. They had one of the best areas for their animals that I have ever seen. Julie (the lovely lady who is accompaning me on this adventure) and I spent over 6 hours combing the entire area - we have a handful of pictures to say the least that I will be posting up shortly.

In the last post I said that I would expound on my goals. Truthfully I have been thinking on this alot and they are beginning to fill out. I have a window of three months (for sure) to galvanize myself in the craft that I have chosen to focus on this fall. Now don't get me wrong, I am not limiting myself to juggling as my craft as I think that would be a true disservice to myself - there are other things which I am working on but they are not the focus of this next rather short period. So as said before my goal here is one thing: GROWTH. This is 100% for sure. The past couple of days have had me thinking on this: There seems to be two major aspects for me to achieve growth - technical and creative. Making a list of technical elements to develop is much easier than making a list of creative elements, let me tell you. To tell the truth I think everyone should make a hit-list of things they want to do or achive this fall. Its a good thing.

I am going to post more tonight but I wanted to say one thing - I am offically registered for the workshop with Victor Kee. BAM.
(if you would like to learn more about this man all you need do is youtube him. seriously)

Like a stone skipping

It was the best of times, it was truckin' times.

I thought it would be a good decision to start one of these during this time to try to crystalize my thoughts and experiences while on this adventure.

My name is James and as said above I am on an adventure. Next week I start a three month intensive course at 'the' juggling school JongliernenKatakomben in Berlin. I have been saving and building myself for this period now for about a year. A sad part of this meant that I had to spend much of my time working in order to be able to afford this but that is an entirely different kettle of fish. So in the coming time I will be updating this blog with how I am doing, my thoughts and my progress (though there will be no x catches i promise...). So where am I now you ask??

So far on this journey I have briefly poped by Berlin between my time in London and Leipzig (to see my sister and her family for a bit). It has been quite fun here in Leipzig though I must say that there is very little english here and when i start to get flustered i end up talking in either french or russian without thinking about it which always ends up with puzzled faces loking back at me. All in all though it has been a great transition between newfoundland and Berlin I think as I am beginning to get more accustomed to German culture.
(London was great thanks to a special person who was so kind)

So already I have started a new note-book (Those of you who know me will be familiar with the fact that I very much like note book - Moleskin in particular) and it is starting to fill page by page. I have already found a few costume ideas and made a couple of juggling purchases (with more to come though I have to watch myself...).

My sister put it to me that I should try to solidify my goals for this period for not only my clarity but also for my Teacher/ Coach/ Guide. On the topic of the T/C/G I am excited and nervous becasue this will be the first time that I will have someone who knows much much more than me than me on the topic of juggling spending significant time on getting me to improve.

But I am beginning to ramble and also need to get today going so I am going to sum up my goal for my time here with one word and will expand on that later:
Growth.