Juggling Wisdom

When I was in line waiting for the Harry Potter book to come out, I met some jugglers in line and I really wanted to juggle with them. So I ran inside Barnes and Noble and bought yet another set of cube bean bags made by Klutz.

Then yesterday I was sitting in a park, and decided to use my Sharpie marker to write on the blank sides of the juggling cubes. For one thing, now they won't get mixed up with anyone elses. But I also chose inspirational words that are qualities that will make a better juggler. I'll see if I can remember all 9.
1. Joy
2. Confidence
3. Devotion
4. Humility
5. Determination
6. Imagination
7. Inspiration
8. Peace
9. Originality

These qualities also apply to dance and other performing arts.

Orange Jugglers

For a few months the Orange Jugglers were meeting at the Buena Park mall but last time I dropped in they weren't there. Turns out they lost a spot again as the Mall is building a new Chucky Cheese in the spot where the jugglers met. So now they are once again looking for a new free or very cheap spot to juggle in.

I just joined world of blogs.

I just joined Globe of Blogs to see if I could meet more people interested in juggling.

Juggling Meetings

The Orange Jugglers are now meeting in Fullerton on Sundays. For specifics go here: http://www.orangejugglers.com/#meetings

I'm trying to arrange a meeting in Anaheim for the Nova Jugglers. If you live in Anaheim please contact me.

Juggling clubs.

Here's my friend Tom juggling my clubs at the archery workshop.
I was working on my club juggling when suddenly I remembered a bit of my old routine. So I worked on expanding it a little, in the hopes of developing a nice juggling routine.
I was thinking about what Dr. Oz said about the ideal workout being 30 minutes of walking a day, plus yoga and weight lifting. I really think juggling counts as weight lifting. He would too after doing 100 tosses with juggling clubs. It doesn't seem like much of a work-out until you stop doing it and get back into it again. And of course, heavier props are even more of a work-out. (Bowling balls come to mind).

Internation Jugglers Assoc. Convention.

For those who didn't know, every year the IJA puts on a wonderful and huge juggling convention in a different city of the U.S. This year's festival just ended. http://www.juggle.org/festival/
I have a juggling tribe on www.tribe.net called World Juggling. I only have about 17 members, and I could never figure out why there wasn't a greater interest. Then I see recently the same person open two tribes...one called Juggling and one called Contact Juggling and they already have about 150 members. I just don't get it? Why don't people support existing tribes instead of undercutting those already around. If those 170 people had joined mine, I'd have almost 200 people now. It's one of those little things in life that will just annoy me right now. I wouldn't mind at all if some of you joined my world juggling tribe. http://jugglers.tribe.net/ It might even cheer me up a bit.

juggling store

http://www.jugglingstore.com
There you go. He'll be vending at the Isla Vista Juggling Festival this weekend as well.

Isla Vista Juggling Festival

I was driving up the coast when I pulled off in Santa Barbara to look for a pretty spot to eat lunch. As I was looking for a parking spot, I happened upon a juggling store. (For those of you that juggle, you know how rare that is).
He asked if I knew that on March 26, 27 was a juggling festival at UCSB so I said 'You mean the Isla Vista Juggling Festival?' I had forgotten all about it. I'm working at an Easter event on Sat. and I'm debating if I want to drive 2 hours back to SB to go to the festival. I may or may not, gas is so high right now. I've already spent $60 on gas this trip, and I still have to drive from Atascadero to Anaheim to go home plus a week of driving in between. OY!
At any rate, I had a good time at the Juggling Store and I bought a blue faux acrylic ball for contact juggling. He said the Sphereplay contact juggling balls are being discontinued, so I'm glad I bought one now. I'll see if I can find his website for everyone.

W.C. Fields invented this form of juggling. 

Faster than the speed of the camera flash. 

I dusted off my cigar boxes and started working with them again for the first time in years. Never say never. 

Passing patterns for juggling.

http://www.passingdb.com/download.php?section=patterns

My favorite eye candy.

As you can see, I got my two new contact juggling balls today. I know that if you are not into it, you probably don't appreciate it, but I've waited five years to get these. I just couldn't rationalize spending that kind of money. I like the way someone described contact juggling as 'creating random acts of beauty'.

Solid ball. Yes, it's heavy. 

Oooooh purdy. 

Hand-painted wooden balls. 

Contact Juggling Revisited

After trying to teach myself contact juggling for years (literally) I finally broke down and bought a book. It's called Contact Juggling by James Ernest. It's spiral bound so it lays flat for practicing. I've reverted back to my old method of standing in front of my bed, so the mattress cushions the wooden ball when I drop it. I'm already making some progress thanks to the book. And now I'm learning the names of some of the patterns so I can better communicate with other jugglers.

Those Juggling Flamingos

http://alhoward.home.mindspring.com/flamingo/

Women in the juggling arts.

Google and Juggling

The problem with trying to find juggling info on google is that the word 'juggle' is almost never used for literal juggling. So you get tons of sites like "Lady juggles 2 children" or "Surgeon juggles hospital staff and medical school problems". And a plethora of sites about juggling taxes or juggling the books or juggling schedules. Ho hum...takes the word juggle back so jugglers can have it.

Juggling till I die.

I have been juggling since 1977. It was the perfect college activity to do between classes. I kept juggling year after year, only to find that I was getting older and older and the average age of jugglers was still 22-25. So here I am, still juggling at 46, still loving it, but not feeling a lot of other people my age to bond with. I meet a few jugglers my age (and older) at juggling festivals but still we are maybe in the 5 percentile. Why do people stop juggling? Do we get of an age where it just makes us feel too silly? Is it just not socially acceptable to be throwing your lunch around? Hmmm.