Rory's Journey

[Sporatical_Distractions]

I have like 8 copies of WA or something like that. Just set a time and we can bust out a game on wormnet. Mathieu, I added you to msn. Jay do you have msn?

Worms Armageddon? Can i join your glorious battles? great songs!

[SlashC]

So... I finally finished my first mashup! I started it like two years ago and finished it today (coincidentally).

Michael Jackson vs Daft Punk

I put the track together in adobe premiere pro 1.5. Everything was sampled from these songs:
Billie Jean
Da Funk
Around the World

Enjoy?

[SlashC]

Today I invented swedish nachos (nachos with swedish meatballs).

[SlashC]

dunna dduunna dunna nah man bat!



Would you dance with man bat at the club?
All tight fitting jeans and ripped abs,
smile to make your heart a flutter.

[colefieldhouse22]

man bat... *swoon*

[Asmus]

He looks like me when I am really drunk.
(tight jeans and no shirt is normal aswell)

We should chat soon.

[SlashC]

03:54am... the sweet taste of shoe and air

stretches
abdominal
ankles

beverage
ginger juice

boom chhh!
- 500 inside kicks
- 100 left ss toe (no plant)
- 100 right ss toe (no plant)
- 100 op toe (plant hop)
- 100 left ss inside (no plant)
- 100 right ss inside (no plant)
- 100 op inside (plant)
- 100 left ss clip (no plant)
- 100 right ss clip (no plant)
- 50 op clippers (plant hop)
- 500 inside kicks
- 50 left ss toe (plant hop)
- 50 right ss toe (plant hop)
- 25 left ss inside (plant hop)
- 25 right ss inside (plant hop)

Total Contacts: 2000
Session Time: ~ 45 minutes
All drills finished with a hand catch
(Dropless session)

[Sporatical_Distractions]

Total Contacts: 2000
Session Time: ~ 45 minutes
All drills finished with a hand catch
(Dropless session)

Is this your 2nd dropless session?

[SlashC]

Is this your 2nd dropless session?

Yup. 1st dropless session was a couple months ago, but I only went up to about 1700 contacts. The variations of the drills I'm doing now are also slightly more difficult.

[acxel22]

anananamazing!

[SlashC]

Clannad Ep 6 ~ 13:20


Makes sense to me.

[habitat]

Can I borrow like ... $12 for the bus on tuesday?

[Asmus]

Siiiiiiiiiiiiick find Rory!

[SlashC]

I will miss you friends.

[MathieuGM]

LOL!

Nice one rory. It make my night haha!

I'll miss you too buddy!

[Asmus]

Hahahahaah nice one!

[SlashC]

Today I hit sixty-eight alternating outside kicks by the pool.

68!

I would have hit 69, but I wanted to keep it classy.

[Muffinman]

You're a classy feller.

[SlashC]

I recently had the opportunity to try busking at the 2012 Edmonton International Fringe Festival. The festival ran from August 16th - 26th and included a variety of buskers, vendors, and theater performances. It is often quoted as being the second largest fringe festival in the world besides the one in Edinburgh, Scotland. I have wanted to try busking at the Fringe for a several years now, but have always somehow managed to miss the auditions/application period or be unavailable during the actual Fringe itself. Finally with this year I was available during the application period and actual Fringe itself and was able to secure a small pitch busking license for a small fee of $105. According to the agreement I would be required to perform 18 shows in 9 days. However, we only ended up doing 13 shows due to weather and dayjob conflicts. Our shows would be scheduled ahead of time over 5 small pitch busking locations approximately 2 meters in diameter. Each show would last for 45 minutes with 7.5 minutes for setup and 7.5 minutes for take down. Typically performers that use the small pitches include musicians, golden/silver statues, ect and mainly catch passerbyer traffic for small donations. Crowd gathering in these small pitches is often difficult as they are in locations where there is not much room for potential audience members to stop and watch. I decided to apply for the small pitch over the large pitch/stage performances since this was my first time busking and thought that the small pitch might be a good place to start.

My main objectives in performing at the Fringe this year were to provide myself motivation for training, improve my performance skills, and increase awareness of the sport.

I decided to go with the following show format:

• ■ 7.5 min setup
  ■ 5-10 minutes of warmup (off to the side before the show started)
  ■ 1-2 minute footbag routine
  ■ 1 minute break between routines in order to catch my breath (sometimes I would juggle, elbow bag, or diabolo during this time when I wasn't gulping water, or panting like a dog)
  ■ repeat (typically averaged around 14 routines per 45 minute show)
  ■ 7.5 min tear down

I used the following equipment in the shows:

• ■ semi-repaired black quantum 3's
  ■ large bright red performance bag stitched by David Clavens (for improved visibility)
  ■ roland mobile cube battery powered amp (significantly louder than regular mp3 speakers)
  ■ 1.5x1.5m shred carpet (to reduce wear and tear on my joints and shoes)
  ■ neon orange pylons (to help keep people from walking into my performing space)
  ■ green spray painted money pail (for collecting $$$)
  ■ Poster that said "Help send me to the 2013 Footbag World Championships!"

For 10 of the 13 shows my awesomely talented mom performed 6-7 different pieces on her electric violin and looper. We would typically loop through each song in her repertoire twice during a single 45 minute show. For the remaining shows I played to some new and old routines via my mp3 player. Katryna (Chelsea Dagger on modified), my super supportive girlfriend, helped a ton by aiding with setup, teardown, as well as with the filming of some of the routines (for historical purposes). The total time for getting to the show parking, doing the show, tearing down, and going home was about 2 hours. Over the 9 days I performed approximately 180 routines of which about 30 were filmed. On average I had about 1.4 drops per routine. Over the 9 days of the Fringe we were able to easily cover our costs for the busking license, rechargeable batteries/charger, and parking and still manage to make a little bit extra to go towards my attendance of jams or tournaments in the future (PM if you are interested in more details about the financials).

From my experience busking I learned the following things:

• ■ It is exhausting to play footbag 1-2 times a day for 45 minutes straight in 30deg+ weather for nine days in a row. I was so drained after the first two shows I actually almost got sick. However, after those first two shows my body seemed to adjust and I was able to do the 45 minute shows without feeling sick.
  ■ I think the poster helped motivate some people to donate and increase the potential for interaction. I had a lot of people come ask me after a routine where the championships would be next year and what kind of competitions there were and then wishing me good luck.
  ■ Using the large performance bag was a tradeoff between visibility and the types of tricks I was able to perform reliably. I think having the large bright red bag helped catch people's eye as they were walking by and increased the chance of them stopping. On the downside the larger bag was heavier, more difficult to do high-dex tricks with, and caused my legs to fatigue more quickly.
  ■ I had to limit the difficulty and variety of tricks in order to be able close to a dropless level over the whole 45 minute show. This means the routines may start to become kind of boring for a footbag player audience and that some of the choreography is repetitive. On the plus side I think going with easier tricks actually improved the show by avoiding saturating the intended audience's attention. I think after a while for a first time footbag viewer all the tricks start to look the same. I think the time until this saturation occurs decreases as the difficulty of tricks increases. Consequently, for my routines I tried to start with easy to understand/relatable kicks/stalls and then work myself up to more difficult components such as dexes, spins, ducks, ect. Basically, what I am trying to do here is to teach the audience how to see the footbag. Optimally, I attempted to have the saturation of their attention occur at the end of the routine. My intention was for the audience to donate (if they wish) at the end of 1-3 routines and then move on.
  ■ 1-2 minute routines worked the best for my endurance level. Anything longer and I was dropping like flies in raid. Anything shorter and its not long enough to draw a bit of a crowd. Ending with an impressive looking trick at a climax in the song followed by a bow also helped cue the audience that if they want to donate some $$$ now might be the time.
  ■ I need to improve the crowd interaction during the show. Sometimes while playing I would look up and make eye contact with people walking by, but this was difficult to do and sometimes caused me to drop. Some suggestions that I've had from other experienced buskers to improve on the interaction front is to work in a crowd acknowledgement sometime during the routine, which cues them to clap (i.e. hat stall or elbow bag stall)
  ■ Crowd gathering can dramatically increase the amount of payoff from a show. Unfortunately, due to my being completely out of breath after each performance I was unable to gather crowds for the next routine. On the few shows where many friends and family came to watch and stayed for extended periods we actually ended up making more $$$ because having a few people standing their watching caused other people to stop and the whole effect just kind of snowballs until suddenly you have a large crowd around you. Ideally, I think a show with these kinds of footbag or juggling performances should have 1-3 performers with a structure of gathering crowds for 2-3 minutes and then doing a performance, repeat. The 3 performers can cycle between crowd gathering and performing in order to give each other breaks.

Overall, I think I had an overwhelmingly positive experience busking at the Edmonton Fringe Festival this year. Would I do it again? You bet. Would I do it in the same way? Not a chance (see things I learned above). Have any other questions about my experience? Feel free to post them. I am thinking for next year if the stars align and I am able to perform again I will try to create an LED night show with LED footbag, shoes as well as other LED or glow objects such as juggling balls, diabolos, and hulu hoops. I am really excited about exploring the way footbag, light, and music can interact to create a a stellar street show.

Oh! I almost forgot. Here is a link to one of my favorite routines:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLIboi0JTfc[/youtube]

and also a link to the entire playlist of the top 11 routines that were recorded:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WHVqSWQ ... p_play_all

[rjadamson]

Awesome. Definitely keep us up to speed on your progress creating LED equipment.