Five and a half years after starting MoM, we have; 1 book, 2 weddings, several MoM workshops, and over 1 000 000 unique visitors (according to our stats counter).
And this is MoM’s 1000th blog post.
Phew.
Thanks for reading, and here’s to the next 5 years.
The above image is from theFlickr acrylic balls pool. by Maido of Japan.
Smiles
Drew
Nimi in the Park, Barcelona.
Nimi practicing in a park – Superb control and beautiful Contact Juggling.
And this is MoM’s 999th post…
YouTube – What happens if you drop a Fushigi Ball?.
As many of our readers are aware, the contact juggling community is currently under attack by a very agressive marketing company who is trying to rebrand contact juggling as “Fushigi.” The company has created a wave of confusion in the US surrounding contact techniques, implying the the ball will float by itself and that the activity is suitable for children.
The fantastic and lovely Dawn has made a series of info-videos aimed at explaining some of the ‘truths’ about contact juggling that Fushigi is neglecting to mention. Her videos are fun, friendly & non-agressive, but they still hit their mark when it comes to undoing some of the lies that Fushigi is telling. Plus, they reveal some serious defects in the design and manufacturing of the Fushigi Brand contact juggling balls.
Other videos in the series:
How is a Fushigi Ball like an Orange?
Dawn is working on a new one: What kind of ball is best for learning contact juggling? (with a special guest appearance from Drew!)
Contact juggling and popping from Komei.
A small extract from Miko no Inori
Ryan and I have been waiting for more than 5 years to post this, ever since we saw it as an installation at the Tate Modern. Unfortunately there is very little about it online:
This figure comes to life in the video Miko no Inori, carefully turning a crystal ball over in her hands while transfixing the viewer with her gleaming eyes. A recording of Mori singing a haunting song in Japanese plays in the background to enhance and intensify the unsettlingly beautiful performance. By assuming the role of shaman-a human being who acts as an intermediary between the earthly world and an unknown spiritual realm-Mori imbues her futuristic techno-spectacle with a sensibility derived from Far Eastern transcendental religious beliefs.
There is no contact in this video, just a big crystal ball, to quote Ryan: “Wouldn’t it be awesome if she did just the smallest contact isolation at the end of the video.”
Contact Juggling Kelvin Kalvus.
It is always a pleasure to watch Kelvin‘s awesome Contact Juggling, and it seems that he has got a new website for 2010, worth a look.
Thank you Sennyo for making this cute animation using xtra-normal. For the rest of the world – Fushigi brand contact juggling balls are being advertised on TV in North America.
While some elements within the contact juggling community are vitriolic in their attack of Zoom TV’s attempt to rebrand the art of Contact Juggling, far more numerous criticisms seem to come from users of Fushigi facebook group complaining that they have been overcharged, and that they are having to wait 4-8 weeks from ordering to receiving delivery of their ball, and that they cannot contact customer services. Further criticism comes from the video blogging kids on youtube who feel that the adverts are misleading, and are dissapointed that their ball doesn’t actually levitate, or even “gravitate”.
If you are looking to get into Contact juggling, we don’t recommend you buy a Fushigi ball. Save yourself time, money and hassle by getting an 85mm Acrylic ball from Home of Poi, you might also want to read MoM’s ball guide.
MoM is currently baking her response to Fushgi. It’s on the cooling rack and will be ready for consumption shortly. It will be quite tasty.
A nice mix of bodyrolling, multiball, hoop and baton isolations from Albert Tröbinger
Aragorn Boulanger aka Bishop and Ed Adams of the Ministry have decided to team up to bring you the most in-depth and high level Isolation and Illusions workshops ever given.
Aragorn will be responsible for making the impossible possible as he teaches Animation techniques with the body. He will mostly work on time perceptions and distortions. The stillness, or immobility, will be the first step. But it is to discover laws of the flow. Isolation will be a priory skill of course but we won’t spend much time on this. There will be more focus on global time and living movement awareness. That’s how Aragorn will introduce energy changes and bring pupils to popping, ticking, strobing, rewind, matrix effects, etc…
(more…)
Video made by Luminous Fractal (how cool is that. He should have been on stage!!)
Good stuff all around, some great manipulators on stage in this teaser clip from the 2010 Madskillz Gala show.
Ryan’s been making more Isolationist Contact Juggling videos. Yippee*.
He made this one for contactjuggling.org forum moderator IMark, to thank him for a present, a new ball of course.
*a positive focus for some of his frustration with Fushigi
