A good friend of the Ministry, Alex from the brilliant Ockham’s Razor Aerial Theater wrote to us linking to these glossy yellow vinyl electrical stickers warning against the dangers of isolation.

£4.50 for a pack of 100 via The Label People. I think I need a couple hundred, myself

There are some sales going on in America at the moment where you could scoop some real bargains on acrylic balls.
And with the dollar being so devalued at the moment (lowest price for 26 years!), you might want to consider it for purchases shipped to other countries too.

So here we line up the bargains of the week:
Neon husky have a pre-burning man sale, 10% off everything!
Neon husky are now giving grades to all the acrylics that they sell, scoring them for colour and clarity. A very good thing, we wish more suppliers would do this.

For $75 they’ll do you, 1 copy of Multiball Contact book and 4 2.75″ acrylic balls and with the 10% off sale at the moment, so actually $68.50 plus shipping. for another $14 those balls go up to 3″. That’s a bargain. In the uk, the price for those 4 balls and 1 book is over £95 that’s $190USD.

Neon Husky have got some second quality acrylics, either 70 mm or 2.75″ at $12 per ball that’s only $48 dollars for a set of 4 acrylics!. OMG thats cheap. Wooden balls are good for learning, but acrylics are better, and at this cheap price…

Dr Bob’s magic shop is having an acrylic ball and “acrylic resin blend” ball sale. I don’t know the quality, as I’ve never seen them, but there are some real bargain to be grabbed here. $8 for a 3 1/4″ acrylic resin ball, so what if it’s cloudy, its a great practice ball. thanks to Shane on CJ.org for the link.

One more Bargain- After a quick shopping expedition, MoM can report that Ikea supply a range of amazing ball bags, boxes and ball stands - for the CJer who needs to accessories with style.

Now, has anyone got any other special offers for CJ? please add them below.

Youtube - Blink of an I Quicktime link
Here’s Drew with some Multiball Contact. From the Spherculism DVD project 2005.
Filmed in only 20 minutes at the Bristol Juggling convention 2005, then edited by Matt Terry. We dig the way that Matt has captured the chilled out and playful side of Multiball that’s usually so difficult to get down on film.
First Ryan, now Drew, it’s a busy week for videos at the Ministry.
Smiles

In depth review of Rhythmic Gymnastics balls for bodyrolling posted over in the Articles Section.
Summary: We love RG balls.

Just a quick note, I’ve added some new clips to the Detours DVD section on
video.ministryofmanipulation.com

Midus (full section)
Squid and Skywalker (short clips from the DVD)

The Parallel scene

I’m really happy to have the Parallel scene finally online. This montage of old and new styles is the final segment of the Detours DVD, and makes a clear statement about invention, innovation and the notion of ”creation” in contemporary performance.

check it out!

Learn Freestyle Football - Google Video
Promo for Instructional DVD.
Yea yea yea, I know we haven’t had enough Juggling on here recently. We’ll get some more in soon. Meantime - “if you wanna be a great artist, don’t look at great art for your inspiration”.

Thanks to an unrelated user on youtube, you can now find most of the PBS special “In Motion with Michael Moschen” on Youtube

It turns out that Contact Juggling by James Ernest is still in print in the UK. So I have a correction and an apology to make.
Oops. Drew

dzi3lak Kamil Dzilinski from Poland, who has featured in some of the best contact web videos in the last few years (see skills here) has reviewed Multiball Contact. Original Review:

“First thing - very good job I think this publication is something, that our community has waited for very looong time. The book is writed in considered way, touches an area of CJ that i’s not good known to everyone and because that, it is very inspiring^^

The Lessons section has good composition and organisation, it welcomes you to the world of Multiball Contact (that I really love ). The lessons and hints about every figure are very useful in progressing our skills. For me the lessons were very clearly explained, but I have been knowing most of the figures and transfers, so I know what’s happening with the balls, how the hand’s are rotating and so on. I’m wondering how it is for person that never held a balls in his hand’s, i think some moves ( like “roll down on page 39) may been difficult to understand from photos, but it’s my feeling, i think the best option is show some no-CJ’er this book, and see what his thinking about it

The Inspiration Section - yes yes yes ^^ the masterwork with so many figures and ideas. Great job. The morphing notations was like opening a big door for me … The double scoop is wonder for me…. you don’t want to know how i was picking 10 or 11 ball the small balls section was very mind refreshing, but I don’t think I’ll be doing anything with it

“The appendices are very useful, especially the 4 image quality diagram and morphing notations….”
_____________________________
Minor edits made to the spelling and grammar and for brevity. Hey Thanks dzi3lak (How do you pronounce that name?? Dizzy-three-lack???)

Moon has given Multiball Contact a thorough review over on the Italian Forum Giocoleria.
I love his closing line about Multiball Contact: “….in any case, a MUST HAVE for all the contactari (and in particular manipulators)”
Review Translated by google into English
Original review in Italian

Now that’s a REVIEW!
Congratulations to Moon and the Imperfect Cirque crew for winning the World juggling VIDEO federation competition over on juggling DB.
Smiles Drew
(pictured left: Colemans Cat testing Multiball Contact out for comfort as a cushion.)

Khan on HOP and .org Writes about Multiball Contact:

“My copy arrived today. I had it delivered to work as no one would’ve been home to receive it. I couldn’t really get into it properly at work, but upon first glance was really impressed with the layout and graphics, as well as the wealth of information. I went through the first 3 lessons tonight — since I’ve been playing with balls for 16 months now (still a noob, i know) the material in the beginning wasn’t new to me, and I was already doing a lot of it, but since I’ve focused more on body rolling all this time, I wanted to start at the very beginning and review the basics. I really focused on palm rolls and moving the ball around me in a different way, and 2 handed rolling is just not something I ever think to do, though I can. I guess I had the knowledge before but not the full understanding of those very basic concepts. The way the material is presented is very clear, and the way the techniques are sequenced make a lot of sense (I did flip ahead a bit, how could you not?). I’m so impressed with how much love & careful thought went into this book — Drew! you should be so proud. Hats off to you.”

Cool, Thanks Khan, glad you like it. and I can’t believe that it Got from London to San Fran in just 3 days.
That Review on CJ.org
The Review On HOP

For more info on Multiball Contact, click here

Suicas from www.contactjuggling.org writes:

Well.. my copy of Multiball Contact arrived today!

And…wow! I was really looking forward to this, and it’s every bit as good as I’d hoped, and a lot more.

The book is beautifully laid out, full of clear text, explanations and tips for a really wide range of multiball goodness. It’s a great visual guide to learning, there are tons of photos and diagrams to go with each lesson to get the point across. The visual presentation of it makes it something I’d happily leave out on my coffee table for non-CJers to flick through too.

For those of us who don’t any teachers nearby (or many contact practioners for that matter), having a resource like this which breaks things down into small steps, difficulty and practice times will be invaluable.

I’d seriously recommend that anyone who has the slightest interest in multiball goes out and orders a copy of this book now, preferably 2 copies to encourage Drew to write a followup (for 10 years down the line when you’re done with this one of course ).

I’ve only had time to go through the first few lessons, but had a good flick and read through later parts of the book. It’s good. Really good. Really really good. Also, it’s extremely good in case I forgot to mention it.

Thanks a lot for taking the time to make this happen Drew

For more info on Multiball Contact, click here