weekend update

Friday: went to the Redtail loft to install rigging and a silk, for a possible performance the next night during a combined burningman decompression/halloween party there. Then off to moominmolly, ceelove, and starphire's abode for a bit. i didn't get there until late, but there were still plenty of folk there.

Saturday was n0ires' gathering, rather crowded during the band performance but (thankfully) much less crowded a couple of hours later. I believe that was the first time i have seen a star of david, sideburns, a tallis, and a strap-on with a large purple dildo within the same cubic meter of space.

Late saturday was the boston burningman decom party, which this year, due to timing, had a halloween theme. It was *very* crowded for most of the time i was there, the dance floor was mostly too crowded to actually dance except for a few instances. pheromone was there in her "naughty cop" outfit writing people up for anything she could get them for. Heard Incus and some other bands, left at about 4:30am to go home. Crashed at sensesurfer and doze_e_fishs' place.

It was good that we didn't stay up all night; Sunday was absolutely gorgeous and FINALLY i was able to get some more time in on the silk rig outside. I think this may have been the first time in close to a month that my free time and the condition "NOT TORRENTIALLY RAINING" occurred simultaneously. Tried the 2.5 drop from "buttfloss" for the first time; sensesurfer worked on the Anton drop from Varekai. I also worked on the half-barrel roll and drop from that, and did some barrel-roll/hip-key drills.

Then it got too dark/cold to keep practicing. Took the dome down from the backyard, sat in the hot tub and had some scotch. I'm hoping for a couple more weekends with weather like we've been having. Keep fingers crossed.

monday silks, and dessert party

dilletante was off doing anniversary stuff with moominmolly, so i'll take over his traditional reporting.

Low key night, with just me, sensesurfer, doze_e_fish, Sean (no lj) and Kathy from fireflydance. klingonlandlady stayed home to fight off the community Ick.

I mostly worked on the half barrel roll sequence, and a sequence ganked from benn mendoza: climb, straddle, knee hook to candlestick, adjust grip hand, cross fabrics behind back, pike, flip to upright cross, symmetric single en dedens foot wraps, flip back over to buttterfly. This works with a single en dedens wrap because the fip back adds another wrap as you go over. from here, grab tails, apply tension, flip forward to back balance, then all the way over into a standing back arch with hands behind, keeping fabric under tension but unfurled.

Sean was just getting back into things, having been away for a while, and was working on getting strength back. Mostly i saw him working on the 3/4 drop. Kathy got some tips from me on the knee drop sequence, and started to learn the half barrel roll. doze_e_fish played with a few sequences. sensesurfer was either working on the anton drop, or BJ rollups whenever i looked.

There were also occasional trick-or-treaters ringing the doorbell. So it goes.

After silks, i headed over to Corwin & Ctans house to join a dinner party, which by now was on dessert. I had a wonderful white chocolate soup, some good tea, and other things. n0ire, claudia_, rmd, scliff were also there. Also there was this person, Etienne, who Ctan met because he had been working King Richards Faire. I found out who he was/what he did after he heard that i did aerial silk; much circus instruction talk ensued. It turns out that he is working with a group of folk called the "Boston Arts Consortium", who are trying to form a circus arts school in the Boston area. He seemed to be interested in the fact that i built my own rig and gear, they'll be wanting folk who can do metalwork, etc. We swapped contact info. I'd really like to see a real circus school in this area...

aerial silk epiphany

Last night i was playing with the wooden artist posing doll, and some thin climbing rope (yeah. go ahead. put your mind in gutter mode...) trying to reverse engineer the wrap that sets up the triple-rotation series of drops, how it differs from the wrap that sets up the double rotation series, and what the actual setup sequence would be. It took a while, but suddenly the *aha* moment came, and i now really *understand* the topology behind all of the multiple rotation drops.

I now know *why* the double does what it does, how to set up the triple, what will go wrong if you forget certain wraps/add extra wraps, and what the general principle behind setting up an N-rotation drop is. And how the ramone/windmill wrap setup we were taught is completely isomorphic to this general N-rotation setup formula, if you set N to zero.

Pock! While it's unlikely that i'll ever get to play on a silk rig that is 40' high, i know that if i ever do, i'll be able to set up a 6 or 7 rotation drop on it, without anyone showing me how, and i know it will work correctly. This is neat!