A slightly better night at Tony D, at least in terms of attendance. I think that there were about 13 people all totaled by the end of the night. Now, that is actually fairly pathetic, but given the fact that people are traveling, the economy is preventing some people from joining the gym and other people have jobs on Thursday night at some people are lazy and people just don't really care about juggling, the turnout wasn't that bad. Let's see if I can name the 13: Me, Josh, Matt From Pratt, Robyn, Miriam (?), Paul, Viviana, Cindy Marvel, Anthony (?), Ross, Danny, Jack and bounce juggling guy (well, that's not too embarrassing that I don't know his name!). Jack had a good marathon, finishing 20 minutes faster than last year, but still failing to make the printed names in the NYT but only because the lowered the cut off time to have your name printed by 30 minutes. But seriously Jack, a very impressive feat! I would say that you are an inspiration, but I hate running so much that that would be a lie. (Jack tried Cindy's hula-hoop at one point in the night and not surprisingly tried running with it!). Cindy was in town (I think to see a show or to talk to some people associated with a show), and she was her usual vivacious self.
Seeing Cindy in the gym really makes me sad or nostalgic for the glory days of Carmine. It just pissed me off how bad our relationship with the gym is and how much grief they cause us. It's not even just over visitors anymore. This week, they were back on the lock kick. They made Jack go and hang up his jacket. WTF? It is just such an arbitrary display of the worst kind of mindless bureaucracy. However there was a new guy working the front desk who somehow had managed to make it by the mandatory "Are you a prick?" test to work the desk while being a nice guy. Apparently the test is something like this:
You are in a crowded subway and a frail old lady walks on. What do you do:
a) Get up and give her your seat
b) Spread your legs akimbo a bit wider
c) Stare blankly into space
d) Get up, knock her over and kick her while you shout "Yeah, that's what happens when you don't bring a lock"
See, usually the desk people answer "D". But somehow this guy made it by the test.
But hopefully, the new year will bring some progress on VAST, Viveca, Keith and my initiative to secure a variety arts space in Manhattan. But for now, Viveca is really driving it and she is in China and I'm snowed under with work. But really, there should be 30-40 people at juggling in Manhattan. And I think that that is a low estimate. It is totally possible. We just need a better space, better atmosphere and it would happen.
I worked on juggling with a volley ball for an hour and then with clubs for an hour. This was a particularly depressing week of practicing for me. Even though I managed to practice 9 hours this week, most of them were just depressing. The main soundtrack in my head during them was me alternating between saying to myself "How can your juggling have gotten so bad?" and "Christ Peterson, you SUCK". See, never mind that yoga "ahimsa" bull crap. Juggling is all about the self hate. But maybe that is just me. So how has my juggling gotten so bad lately? I think it is due to 4 factors:
1) I am getting older an my body is slowing down.
2) I practice much, much less than I used to because I work more
3) I am so tired from work that when I do juggle I feel like a zombie. Ever see a Zombie juggle? No, neither have I. That's because they don't have the energy after all the stiff leg walking and flesh eating.
4) I'm still not used to my new Henry's clubs. And while the clubs are fun to juggle, they are just not the best clubs in the world.
So, 2 & 3 I could do something about by getting a new job. 4 may pass in time and it is a conscious decision I made to switch away from the more performant PX3s. Number 1 however just breaks my heart. I know it is inevitable, but still, I hate it that I can't really make progress in juggling anymore due to my general decline. So for example, two or three years ago, I would be getting runs of 40-50 5 club back crosses. Last night I was struggling to get to 20. However, my 5 club 3 up pirouettes felt unusually good. And I did that cool trick where I balance a club on my foot and flip it around back to a foot balance.
Chinese afterwards was good. We went to new-new/close Chinese. In a shocking move, my food kind of sucked. Or it just wasn't what I hoped for. I ordered cumin beef and salt and pepper squid. I got cumin lamb which just seemed soggy. The cumin beef always seemed a bit crispy which I liked and the squid was too mushy. I like a bit more crunch in the outside.
I talked with Danny about the Mike Doughty concert he went to (good) and Matt from Pratt gave us a run down on how shady his neighborhood is (pretty damn shady) but how it came through for him on the weekend that his folks visited. Paris joined us and he had a good Halloween weekend work wise, so that was some good news.
OK.
I really need to work now.
-Slammin'
