Science, Autographs, and numbers
Last night ruled. Right out of the gate I knew it was gonna be good, since I have today off of work. I was planning on going to a talk and book signing by Chris Mooney, part of his tour supporting his brand new book, The Republican War on Science. First I went to Wow Bao, this fantastic steamed bun place that my roommate Katy recommended.. It was in the Water Tower Place, directly across the street from the Barnes and Noble where Chris Mooney was going to talk. In line at Wow Bao, I noticed someone familiar behind me: Maribeth! She’s a juggler who has worked backstage at the Blue Man Group for several years, and now she’s also helping to run CircEsteem, a Chicago youth circus I taught at a couple of years ago. She also collects and preserves dead things. We ordered some bao stuff together and while we were eating Katy caught up to us.. Wow Bao has some fantastic bao..I’ve been looking for a place like that for years..
I could not convince Maribeth to come to the talk or to juggling afterwards, so after the meal it was just Katy and me heading into Barnes and Noble. I bought a copy of the book, snagged a very front-and-center seat, and enjoyed a nice event. Chris Mooney was a pretty good speaker, although, and this is the same impression I got when watching him on The Daily Show, he seems to be cautious about his points, when I think a little more emphasis would help. He speaks very precisely, but often qualifies what he’s saying, almost correcting his own words…and when he’s talking about a huge crisis in terms of political intrusion into, and even corruption of, science, I think he could do well to really punch home some of his ideas. After some slightly plain questions (there were no strong right winger or religious right folks in the crowd to really get something started) he started signing books. On mine, in spite of the little post-it note with my name on it, he misspelled my name, giving it two t’s. I thought it was pretty funny, but he was very apologetic. After a bit we agreed that he could just scratch out one t….
I went straight to juggling at our new location after that.. By the time I got there it was just beginning to rain. Worked on numbers club passing with Michael, and on numbers ball passing with Bruce. Bruce and I had a couple of good runs with eleven balls, and even gave thirteen a try. It will be a while before we get very far with thirteen, I think…but that’s still way up there. Never been excited about ball passing before….
We juggled until midnight, and Michael kindly gave me a ride home. Now I get to enjoy a three day weekend, with the added bonus that Erica is getting back into town on Sunday after a week away in the northeast seeing family and friends..
Practice and Progress
So I’m hoping that starting this fall I can get back to practicing some really intense juggling. I think I haven’t really been practicing the amount that I want to ini the last year or two.. Events like the WJF and attending the IJA have kind of pointed that out to me. I’ve learned some cool stuff, but I could be doing amazing stuff if I manage to practice every day… Perhaps this sounds odd since the vast majority of this blog’s content is juggling…but really, I haven’t been practicing like I used to..I swear..
I’ve almost learned the five ball siteswap, (6x,4)…really cool looking, I think. Yesterday I decided to learn full on behind the back juggling. A bit loftier goal, but I was pleasantly surprised with the progress I made on it.
The secret plan is to start using our new juggling practice space as soon as I’m fully approved for it. This fancy athletic club is almost definitely hiring a couple of us to teach juggling classes, aiming to start this month. Once I’m officially an employee, I get an automatic membership there. It’s directly on my way home from work, so I plan to stop there as many nights as I can manage. Well lit, air conditioned rooms with high ceilings….it’s gonna be great…
Luis, our contact there, has a neato digital camera. He took a couple of videos of Bruce and myself working on passing stuff. I think I’ll try to get some more videos up on here…
