Red Nose

Congress Is In Session

  Welcome! 
  Originally uploaded by Bozoette

It's that time of year again! Time for a whole bunch of men, women, and children to get together in a gym and throw a lot of stuff around. Yep! It's the annual Congress of Jugglers, sponsored by the University of Maryland juggling club and attended by jugglers from all over the place. The Baltimore Jugglers were well represented, as was the U.S. Department of Juggling, the Fairfax Jugglers, the Columbia Juggling Club, and many others.

This year there were lots of unicyclists. There were regular unicycles, tiny unicycles, tall unicycles, and unicycles without seats.

This is not your usual bike.

There were also juggling whiz kids in great abundance -- 14-year olds juggling seven balls, 7-year olds juggling five balls, brother and sister teams passing, tiny little girls riding unicycles, tweens spinning diablos like they'd been doing it forever -- all of them making us old farts feel just the tiniest bit inadequate.

You know, it's really not very nice to hate a child, but...

Never mind. There are more pictures of the fun here.

The show was lots of fun. I must admit that the members of the Maryland Gymkana troupe certainly know how to wear tank tops, never mind their incredible acrobatic skill.

The juggling was excellent; it included everything from cigar box juggling to knife juggling to diabolo spinning to contortion to jousting on unicycles.

And I actually juggled!

Quit Throwing Stuff Arou -- No, Don't!

It's that time of year again, so welcome to the Congress of Jugglers!

(Updated to correct the name. Oops.)

There was poi swinging, contact juggling, ball juggling, club juggling, unicycling, balloon twisting, odd bicycle riding, flaming torch juggling, flaming poi swinging, and lots and lots of passing.

Contact juggling with a beautiful iridescent globe

Three clubs? Try six!

He's 12, dammit. He juggles 7 balls. I hate him.

Three guys. You can't see all the clubs, but there are 13 of 'em.

Yeah, make the passing just a little tougher.

How about a little fire?

And just a little more?

Lots more photos here.

Hey Hey! USDJ!

 

Some folks play bridge.

Some folks do yoga.

Some folks read and discuss books.

I juggle.

I belong to the US Department of Juggling, my local juggling club. It's really loose -- no dues, no organizational structure, no bylaws or any of that nonsense. Just a place to juggle and a bunch of people who like to do it.

Here's a little movie I compiled from a bunch of separate clips. The second clip -- the one with me on the left -- was taken by the lovely and talented Bev. I took the rest, because all the jugglers in this are far better than I.

(Oh -- and that great music? Choo Choo Ch-Boogie, by Louis Jordan.)

Renaissance Fair? Actually, Renaissance Good!

Joe and I went to the Maryland Renaissance Fair with some good friends last weekend, and a goodly tyme was had by all. I ate a Renaissance Turkey Leg, a Renaissance dish of ice cream, and had a Renaissance Pepsi. The weather was good -- not too hot, although way too hot to sit in the blazing sun to watch Ye Olde Joust.

No matter -- there were plenty of great shows in the shady venues, from excellent celtic music by DC-area legend Maggie Sansone of Maggie's Music to good acting to great satire and circus skills.

I particularly enjoyed these lovely stiltwalking mimes, who were very tall (heh). I was quite impressed at their ability to negotiate the wooded paths on their high stilts. I never did get the hang of stilts, short or tall.

Hack and Slash were hysterical -- comedy swordfighting and other fun stuff, including this trick where poor Slash got to lie of the bed of 1,000 spikes while Hack laid a cinder block on him and cracked it apart with a sledgehammer. Yikes! The jokes were as broad as Hack's behind and every bit as bawdy, and the skills  were topnotch. Love the Hack and Slash!

Next up -- after perusing the overpriced crafts and other pseudo-Renaissancian merchandise, we enjoyed the fabulous circus arts and comedy performer -- and fellow Clown College graduate -- Michael Rosman, known as the Squire of the Wire.

Yes, he walked the wire in a kilt! Over the audience! Unfortunately, I wasn't seated directly underneath, so I can't attest to the presence or absence of underwear. For his final trick, Michael balanced a mug of beer on his head, walked out onto the wire, and juggled three razor-sharp knives while balancing on one foot. I wish I had gotten a decent shot of that one, but you'll have to be content with this, I'm afraid.

We haven't been a Ren Fair for a number of years, so I was intrigued by the costumery that folks sport. Kilts of all type seemed to be more popular among guys than in previous years. There were quite a few ersatz pirates as well, no doubt inspired by the recent movies. I'm always impressed by the folks who pay close attention to period authenticity, but more for their willingness to wear all that velvet and embellishment in the heat! And, of course, there were the more liberal interpretations of Renaissance dress, everything from corsets of all types to sweeping feathered hats to busty substances practically served up on platters. I did not, however, see any chain-mail brassieres this year. Joe was disappointed at that, but he saw enough cleavage to make up for it.

I had wonder if this merchant was making a comment on the participants or just advertising his wares. Could have been a little of both, I suppose!

And so, my Lords and Ladies, a good time was had by all -- and I was very glad to return to my modern world, take a nice warm shower, and retire to my nice modern bed. Huzzah!

Painting and Persistence Pays

Yay! I just won a Spider Solitaire Four Suits game, which is a pretty good way to wind down a busy weekend.

Why yes. It has been a busy, busy weekend here at chez Red Nose. Shall I, as the hipsters say, break it down for you?

On the home improvement front, we made significant progress in the Will We Ever Get This House Ready To Sell? project. On Wednesday, the latest in the our series of handymen came by. He installed a new powder room door, replaced a rotten plank on the front of the house, and caulked around the rest of the trim.

The door, while quite serviceable and installed beautifully, was unfinished; the plank was unpainted. Those services cost extra, you see. So Joe painted the plank -- and the rest of the trim besides -- and I stained the powder room door.

Of course, it might have been a good idea if I had read the directions more carefully. I'm so used to latex paint that I kind of didn't realize that the combination honey pine stain and polyurethane sealer might not exactly wash off with soap and water.

Then again, I knew that nail polish remover would come in handy someday.

Joe also took on the challenge of the basement stairway and got the coat of Kilz on it, while I braved Das Depot (on a Saturday!) and managed to pretty-much-match the kitchen paint. Then I painted the one kitchen wall that needed painting. It looks really good, if I do say so myself.

All that aside, though, I accomplished something I have never done before. Oh, I tried -- I actually bought the equipment in 1979. I practiced with it, but I could never actually do the deed as it was meant to be done.

But I had my opportunity this weekend, at a gathering with some juggling pals of mine. We did some club juggling; we did some club passing. I'm not that great at passing, but after a few fuck-ups, I actually did not too badly.

And then, despite the tricky wind and the deepening twilight, we did it. The other jugglers were good at it -- and I was determined to at least give it a really good try. So I dipped my 25-year old torches into the Coleman fuel, lit them, and ...

Dropped them.

Several times.

When I first tried this, 25 years ago, I stood in my yard and juggled my brand-new, unlit torches until I was really comfortable with them. Then I dipped them into the fuel, lit them up, assumed the position, and froze. I just couldn't do it, no matter how many times I tried. I'd juggle them unlit just fine; I'd light them up and freeze. So I put them away.

But this time, persistence was the key. Persistence, and the realization that I wasn't going to set myself (or anything else) on fire, and the encouragement of my pals to keep at it. So I kept at it.

And I did it. I juggled flaming torches.

Shiva Juggles

Shiva Juggles
Originally uploaded by Bozoette.

Thanks for all your nice comments about my journalistic debut -- my mom called me this morning in a true dither about it. I didn't tell her about it, so it came as a big surprise, just like I planned! Also, I must give credit to the lovely and talented Weetabix, who took my new blog photo. (I reddened up my nose, though.) Thanks, Weet!

Anyway, back to juggling! The annual Congress of Juggling was lots of fun! I got to see a whole host of wonderful jugglers, I got to juggle, and I actually learned a few new tricks!

Well, let me revise that slightly. I learned how to do a few new tricks. Now I have to practice them until I can actually do them! But that's the fun of juggling.

For example, this picture shows my young friends Tara and Amy doing a four-club walkaround. What this means is that Tara starts juggling three clubs, while Amy waits beside her with the fourth. Amy throws the fourth club into the mix, then moves around behind Tara to pick up a club from the other side. She then steps in front and take over the pattern. And so on.

Clear? I thought not. I guess you -- wait for it -- had to be there.

But even so, there were some fabulous things going on, including the national footbagging championships. This ain't your daddy's hacky-sack stuff; this is amazing manipulation of a tiny little footbag! Joe has always scoffed mildly at the footbaggers. But when he saw the demonstration at the show, he turned to me and said, "I take back everything I ever said about them. That's unbelievable!"

The rest of the show was just as good, especially the damn kids who can juggle far far better than most of the adults. I heard threats having to do with riding unicycles over their fingers. After the show, the juggling continued, only things got a lot hotter.

The only bummer was that I didn't win anything at the raffle. Wait, I take that back. I'm actually glad that I didn't win the "Juggling Goddess" thong.

Catching -- and Throwing

Time for another Congress of Juggling!

I got to Ritchie Coliseum yesterday evening and signed in, bought my tee-shirt and raffle tickets, and chatted with the kids at the sign-in desk. I stuck my iPod in my ears and juggled away for quite a while, getting warmed up and having fun -- try doing the Cha-Cha Slide while juggling for a roaring good time. (Heh.)

These guys -- even though they look it -- are not twins. They are juggling (for lack of a better word) flower sticks and were working on coordinating their moves so that they could toss the sticks to each other, catch them, and continue. Cool stuff!

I'll be heading back for today's open juggling momentarily to throw stuff around with this bunch of like-minded people of all stripes, from club passers to unicyclists to foot baggers, from the professional performers to the wannabe professional performers to the hobbyists.

Tonight is the big free show -- always an amazing display! And after that, the jugglers reconvene to play with fire.

And that is a sight to behold.

Four Person Pattern

 

                   Watch the video 

I took this at the US Department of Juggling, the Washington DC juggling club. These four guys are practicing a nice club passing pattern. Keep your eye on the guy in the baseball cap -- he keeps the pattern going after he drops a club, then picks it up and gets right back into it.

Tick Tock

I guess it's not strictly circus, but I thought I'd show you the sorts of things that can happen at the meetings of my juggling club. This particular pattern is called a "Tick Tock." The four jugglers form a square, and each juggler passes to the person opposite.

Why yes, now that you ask, there is timing involved.

It's timely because we're going to see The Flying Karamazov Brothers tonight! These guys are some of the best entertainers ever. I've seen them many times, but tonight's a new show. Yay!

(This is pretty big -- be patient. If you're on dial-up, well... maybe you should skip it. And hey! Let me know if  (1) you can see it and (2) you like it!)

Watch the Video

Not Watching The Speech

Tonight is the State of the Union address. I'm not watching it; I'll get too damn mad. Instead, we're watching Dirty Jobs, which so far has featured lots of poop in one way or another; coming up, owl vomit. And yes, it's better than the speech. I will, however, be sure to watch The Daily Show. I definitely will need to see my second husband's take on it. (What? It's not okay to plan ahead?)

Earlier tonight, MyJoe and I took in Mrs. Henderson Presents, starring Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins. It's a sweet movie -- but I think Dame Judy and Bob Hoskins could read the DC phone book and make it touching and funny. MyJoe got to see several sets of executive titties and I got to see Bob Hoskins' penis. (Luckily, it's not bifurcated, at least as near as I could tell.)

Now we're watching Miami Ink, a show about tattoo artists in (of all places) Miami. I really love tattoos -- on other people. I'm way too chicken to get one myself. My nephew has the biological taxonomy tattooed down his arm -- I think it was his way of memorizing it when he took Biology 101. He also has quite a few tribal symbols on his shoulders and chest, and a 40s-style pin-up girl on his forearm. He's the first person in our family to get tattoos.

During World War II, my Pop headed up the Navy contingent on an oil tanker. The sailors would get drunk when they went on shore leave and get bad tattoos that would always get infected. Pop would have to disinfect them and mop them up. When the mess healed, the result would sometimes be very odd -- naked girls with legs sticking out of their heads or arms in the middle of their stomachs. Needless to say, Pop wasn't too keen on ink.

On a completely different subject, I belong to a Yahoo group of Clown College graduates. One of the members sent this link. Do check it out, and when you get there, click The Big Finale. Be sure to watch it to the very end.

I had the wonderful good fortune to juggle with this guy for about 30 minutes, back in the late 70s. I was doing a minor clown gig at a restaurant and he was making a special appearance. I knew immediately that he was waaaaaay out of my league, so I stood in the background and juggled to the rhythm of the music, as he juggled to the melody. He's still unbelievably amazing.

Finally, for all of you suffering from coulrophobia, help is on the way.