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Harper Reed's Blog

IJA - i.e. i like to juggle lots.

· 889 words · 5 minutes

Please note: This post was written some time ago (20 years ago). My perspectives, knowledge, and opinions may have evolved significantly since then. While the content might still offer valuable insights, I encourage readers to consider it in the context of its publication date.

i have been away. oh yes. I have been away.

i got to buffalo on wednesday night. dylan arrived shortly after I did and we went to the renegade show at this really awesome space called sphere. The renegade show was pretty awesome - mark faje was really funny as the MC and really made the renegade show what it is “supposed to be.” so then we went to our hotel - where we expected to be greated by a multiple room suite - only to find a one room one bed space for 6 men. haha. as you can imagine it ruled.

so we woke up and went to the festival. we established our space - check ed in and juggled a bit. met some cool people and waited for the seniors championship show which mark was mcing. it was pretty amazing. a lot of really great jugglers. Ryo Yabe RULED the diablo. I have never seen such an act. he did three diablos better than I have ever seen. flawless. I was rather disappointed that he didn’t place. one of the annoying things for me about these performers was the lack of forethought that was put into the performance aspect of their shows. they almost all had good technique and a unique style - but very few of them really had a show that was entertaining. I was very very disapointed in the tape player style of music that most o f the performers had - and I was annoyed by the “gym” atire that some of the people wore. I mean - I don’t want to see sequined vests or spandex vegas suits - but I would love to imagine that the people who are competing didn’t just come from the gym. but whatever. we ended up hanging out for a long time - going to another renegade and staying up really late (which was a theme).

we got up for friday and arrived at the gym around 2. hung out. got food. juggled a bunch. then we went and watched the Flying Karamazov Brothers. they were very very funny. I love good drop lines and they had some of the best. so funny. afterwards a bunch of people played combat. it was hilarious. I got some good pictures of jay beating up little kids and emil ruling. it was so funny to watch people of all ages beat the hell out of each other for nothing. hahah. well for glory. heh. dylan and matiss watched the whole time. I did yoyo tricks with this CRAZY yoyo guy. he ruled. so good. a break dancer too. I often find it humorous how related hiphop culture and yoyoing is. I mean - it isn’t related. but a lot of the yoyoers are interested in making it related. it cracks me up. and loving both of the cultures - I often want them to be one. heh. so nice work. ;) so we left and went to bed.

on saturday a lot of meeting cool people occured. I met and hung out a bit with this cool juggler called dorothy. I had heard about her from mark before ija and he said she was cool. and she was. I also hung out with keith nelson of the bindlestiff family cirkus. some others who were pretty cool were cynthia, terry, vivica, dusty and rod. I am almost positive that I am leaving a bunch of other cats out. but I met so many cool people. and I am entertaining a mild form of sleep dep. so.. I will represent later. or not. it was a lot of fun. late on saturday we had a peeing contest. it was based on distance. it was hilarious. dylan won. it was videoed and photographed. we will make a website soon. it will rule.
then sunday came. we were all broken. we hung out and went home. sleep came and went. and now it is today.

here are the pictures I took this weekend. here is a panorama of the festival on saturday night. rule. I wish I got more pictures. but I was tired of carrying my camera around all the time. I wish I had gotten pictures of my friends. that is the best. heh.

speaking of juggling… I think this is rediculous - but ithink it will change the face of juggling - and may remove the IJA from the dominant force of north american juggling. and I LOVE the idea of a federation of anything.



work is fun right now. a lot going on - so I am not bored.

i want to finish my itunes project. andy is working on it now. I really enjoy working with him on these small projects. it is fun to see how different people solve different problems. and how we both edge toward similar solutions - but possinbly different implementations of the same solution. quite interesting. I am setting up ituneshacking to host our projects. heh. quite fun. I love being invovled in shit like this.
check this out. it is pretty cool. I have been importing my album art. heh. <3 itunes. <3 amazon. <3 / want the new ipod. hmm. BUT ME AN IPOD and a 12 inch powerbook please. thanks.
oh.. and I want one of these.

i am back.

#juggling #festivals #humor #music #family