BABY BONO

It wasn't very long until the BYJOTY(Britishs Young Juggler Of The Year) competition took place. I had everything I needed-the music, the juggling, and my energy. I was however, lacking in one thing, and that was costume. I decided to make a pos ton the Gatto Forums for help on creating a costume when the user MarkyMark, or Mark Kolbusz, contributed his idea. 'I think you should dress up as Bono'. I thought he was joking but I thought it was a great idea anyway and so privately e-mailed him to discover he was being serious. We came to the conclusion that there was more to bono than the shades and hat. Bono had a particular personality. Not many people will know exactly how he acts, but I thought this aspect of 'baby bono' should not be neglected. I literally sat and studied videos of Bono to find out what sort of a person he was like on stage. I then chose to e-mail a Bono look alike who kindly shared his knoledge and was happy to help, and his help certainly was handy. I told a few more people so that they could help ou, and to see what they think. Casey and Norbi both knew because I knew they would be honest with their opinions and they where both willing to help out with costume.

I then came up with the name Baby Bono and designed a shirt with the name on the back. I got some shades, some bono-esque trousers, and some gel and hair spray, and a cowboy hat that me and my mum found in Camden during a trip to Oddballs. the transformation before the show was quite suprising. I really did look like a baby bono, especially with the hair and yes, believe it or not, black eyelashes. Every little detail counts! I even had a mini edge...thanks Luke for helping out.

Then I had my doubts. Would it be funny? Would I pull it off? But I did. And I came to the conclusion that it was the best performance I had ever done.

It was really cool doing certain things on stage that I wouldn't usually get away with, like reaching out to a camera in the front row. That was a great moment. I felt like a totally diffrent person, certainly not Ady.

I was kind of dissapointed with what I won in the competition. I really wanted the judges choice and gold award, but I only got a silver. Better luck next time!

Here is the performance, caught on camera:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=2i3nTh3jiJc

Long time, no post!

I've been preparing and getting all hyped for the BJC which was at the end of March, finishing yesterday. I arrived on Thursday, the second day, and here is my post from rec, a high low goals crush bane.

HIGH:

Meeting Erik. He was my second ever inspiration and still is a huge one.Meeting new people: Tone, David too name but a few, seeing how much Maxhas improved (the contortionist) and seeing him succeed greatly! SeeingCasey again, Freddy, dave, Luke, the other Luke, and the other one,getting one of them to be my mini edge...oh, that reminds me, I had agreat, great success in BYJOTY and I feel that I put on my greatestperformance ever. I was gutted I didn't get the awards I strived forthough, gold and judges choice, but never mind. ADY CAM! Thank you verymuch Mark Kolbusz, for bringing up the Bono idea. Thanks Luke Hallgarten,your even better than the real thing.

LOW:

The weather on Saturday, an energy lacking and dull parade, more like atrek through horrible weather leading to an imaginary destination. Notachieving Gold or JC in BYJOTY. I thought I had them both. Losing 'thegame'!

GOAL:

Do well in BYJOTY. totall check. I couldn't have done better and I'm sochuffed with myself!

CRUSH:

The penis song!

BANE:

First attempt at games.

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I'm gonna be making a Baby Bono video, if anyone filmed my act could youplease send! I noticed and posed in front of a camera at the front. Idon't know who's it was but I'd appreciate the footage, unless of courseit was of course for the DVD.

comments

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one post after the tenth, it's about time to change the norm of the blog by trying something new. Hre is a book review I wrote:

Book Review:

Virtuosos of juggling,

Karl-Heinz Zeithan. Published by Renegade juggling 2003

Virtuosos of juggling hasn’t made itself as comfortable as some of the other books on my shelf have for it is constantly being moved and read by me. I use the word read although you could spend ages flicking through the pages and witnessing the world’s greatest jugglers in the form of photography and illustrations. Some of the most talented jugglers are described in text and shown in picture who have raised juggling to new heights, sometimes quite literally, or introduced there own unique style to the world of toss and throw. From the ancient Egypt tombs to the exciting, atmospheric vaudeville theatre this book will take you on a journey through time and the juggling virtuosos it has seen.

Perhaps I am so passionate about this book because I am a performer myself, however I am convinced a non-juggler would thoroughly enjoy indulging into the information ‘virtuosos of juggling’ overflows with. One may assume that juggling is merely a circus act consisting of a performer throwing 5,6,7 and so on objects into the air however this book proves otherwise, and all you have to do is merely see the front cover and want to find out more about juggling. I found myself almost unable to take my eyes of the pages when I first read it.

Karl Heinz Zeithan is a passionate author and that is somewhat obvious for the amount of research and time he has sacrificed is overwhelming and obvious in the book, which takes you right from one end of a timeline to another with many, many names occurring through out. Sergei Ignatov, Francis Brunn, Kris Kremo, or Enrico Rastelli: They are all inspirations to me and I treasure virtuosos of juggling for telling me so much about them.
I would recommend this book not only too fellow jugglers but to absolutely anyone. They may not seem keen on the idea of reading a book on such an unusual thing as juggling but if they where to read it they would be taught so much more than they could ever have expected. It makes for an interesting read and us my favourite book.

____part 2________

Check out this blog I discovered, it's quite new and will be interesting to follow. Written by a juggler, Luk (Or Luke) Galloway. http://luksweeklink.blogspot.com

___part 3_________

inspired by Luks Week link, heres a really cool link:

http://www.bonolookalike.org

What? I meen, thats just freaky.

Ady

Drawings

Hello Blog Readers!

Yesterday I finished off a drawing. I'm too much of a perfectionist, you know! I spent ages and ages trying to draw just the hand alone on this picture, but hopefully the effort was worth the accomplishments:

I do enjoy drawing, I think I have a natural talent and with practice I could acquire the necessary techniques to be quite good!

Here is a fist that I drew a while back, and after I scanned it onto the computer I added a chain with a heart into the picture so it looked like a hand 'holding on to love'. Pretty artistic, eh?

Unlike the Bono drawing, which I drew from referring to a photo, the hand above was drawn from real life-it's my own.

The weekend has been a fairly good one-but they're always over so quickly, and before you know it, you're at school.

I really don't have much more to talk about. I've been working on my club kick ups and ball spinning and that is pretty much it. I'm counting down 'till the BJC now. 17 days I think. Myself and most other jugglers are very excited-last year was brilliant, and there's only one path it can take: up.

Ady

Nottingham Juggling Convention

Before I begin talking about my NAJC experiance I'll let you know that yes, I have changed the layout and no, you're not seeing things. I'm keeping the layout like this for now, I like it a lot.

NAJC

Oh No, nott another juggling convention! Oh YES, Another convention, and the nottingham juggling community are organising it (obviously) so it's bound to be fantatic-and it was.


yet again, I enjoyed meeting new people, and juggling with the great ring juggler and meeting him- Norbi - properly, and breaking my 5 club/6 ring/7 ring records! Wes and Peter in the show. They presented a fusion of music, manipulation and juggling and did so very well. However, Not doing as well as I would have hoped in the show wasn't the greatest part of the convention, and far from it. It was one of the only not so good sides to the NAJC. I wasn't so energergetic for some reason and felt like I was putting it all on. It just didn't work-but everyone seemed to like it.My goal was to Practice eight rings: check...one attempt and gave up though after realising that my wrists are just to weak. I'm defianatelly going to use holsters untill my wrists develop and begin to gain strength. Norbi getting an 8 ring pulldown variation really early into practicing it , maybe even first try, left me in awe: inspirational! I've never seen anyone do it in person so that was a first.



It was a slight shame that there was such a lack of space. As much as I like the atmosphere of a juggling convention with many attendants I am not a fan of over crowded ones. You have to be careful when your a ring juggler: Those things are deadly in compact spaces! haha, but seriously, what a popular convention! Luckily the next day was almost bare of jugglers but it gave me a chance to get down to some more juggling and I broke my 7 ring record again! The day before I got a qualfy(each object being thrown at least twice), the most catches I've achieved with absoloutte rings-not mini ones, making it a genuine and "absoloutte" flash-terrible pun, I apologise, but then the next day I beat the fifteen catch record! I don't know how many catches but it was between 15-22 because the first ring cycled around the pattern three times but not four. Yay! I also broke my 5 club record with something like 70 catches. I think I got close to that before and it was in a video I made called damp but I'm almost certain this was a new record. And my 6 rings-96 catches, as I remember! Crazy stuff that I didn't think I was capable of. Just proves what a huge diffrence having height can make. I need to find some local practice space for sure!

I can't really review the show, I hardly saw it-I was behind the wings, though I can say that Wes and Peter thouroughly deserved their standing ovation. I saw that act and I am glad of it.

U23D,earthquake

Right from the start of 'U23D', I had goosebumps.





Yesterday I went to see U2's latest video production-'U23D'-a blend of live musical action from my favourite musicians, a well filmed and well edited movie, and new 3D technology.


As a big fan of U2, I was extremely excited about seeing a new U2 concert on film-it would probly be the closest I would have got to seeing them live-especially because it was filmed in 3D using brand new technology. The first thing you notice is how immense the show is-the audience located in Buenos Aires is incredibly huge. The credits where actually interesting, too-which was a first. Because it was filmed using new '3ality' cameras it felt like you could just reach out and grab the letters. And then the band entered stage and singer/frontman Bono (Paul Hewson) sings the start of the song 'Vertigo', joining in with the already chanting audience-Unos, Dos, Tres, Catorce! And then the drums, Bass, and guitar kick in with an uplifting and highly energetic beat making me want to get up out of my seat and join in with the passionate crowd, jumping and singing. Hands and phones waving in front of me and the sparkling lights above, shining out from a huge backdrop with images flashing, I felt like a member of the audience.

The setlist U2 played made for a good combination of classics, new songs, and my favourites. Good performances included 'one'-a song from their 1991 album 'achtung baby' where U2 experimenting with new sounds and musical genres-It started with some very eerie and almost haunting singing which I was not familiar with for I had not heard it on the album version. I like how U2 alter and add bits to songs which gives a new texture and feel, plus something fresh and interesting. And there was the fly-a song which documents a conversation between a man on earth and a man in hell. Sumblimaball messages and phrases flashed on the screen along to the harsh sound of the guitar and piercing drumming. Bono sings this song dressed as a train conductor which realtes to a song called 'zoo station' which was often played as an encore during the tour but was not on U23D, which was a shame. I justs hope one day I see this for real at a U2 concert. That would be a whole new, and amazing I'm sure-experiance.

If your a fan of U2 or not, I would strongly reccomend going to see U23D. It is a magnificent blend of fantastic filming, music, action and editing not to mention the novelty of feeling so close to the band members. Technology just gets better and better.

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On Wednesday night there was an Earthquake, with a 5.2 marking on the rictar scale which is pretty big for England! I was dozing well untill I felt shaken and woke up at one o'clock in the morning thinking there was someone under my bed shaking it! Then my sister called my name and I went out into the hall and realised it was an Earthquake. Wow! Everyone was talking about it at School!

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New inspiration-Octavio Alegria from Cirque du soleils show Varekai. He's especially inspirational now that I am about to embark on a juggling adventure with larger juggling balls that I can spin and catch on my feet ETC. Also I have read about Nino Frediani. Sounds like a great juggler, to, though I have found so little info on him.

NAJC

A week until the Nottingham juggling convention! Ooooh how exciting, I best get practicing. Performing is the best part of being juggler but I really haven't practiced enough for this event, My BYJOTY routine has been taking over!