Thursday, September 29, 2011
Entry #40: Happy Anniversary to Us! Perfectly Celebrated at The Hot Sex Fire Show!...9.01.11
 |
| Photo Credit: Memory Eleana |
Entry #31: Random Burning Man Memory #2: 2008, First Burn, First Time I Learned to Fire Breathe
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Entry #22: Everyone Needs a Bible, Right?...8.14.11
Next time we hit upon this subject...electromagnetism and harmonographs...om nom nom.
Entry #21: Jex=levelUp [3->4] Juggling 4 Rings FTW...8.13.11
Thanks to this personal fact...EPIC WIN! Without thinking much about it, I was able to level up from 3 to 4 rings. I had never considered the fact that my meditative practice would drastically improve my skill. Yes, it is obvious to most this would be the case, but most of my time and efforts have been going into poi, clubs, and fans. My rings, well, I just never consciously thought about it. Whenever I wanted to learn a new trick, I just did it. It just made sense, no need to dissect it, or obsess over it, it just happened. Whenever I was frustrated with other props, I would pick up my rings and just play. Tonight, 4 rings just happen to bounce from my hands to the air in a most fluid of motions. Satisfaction at it's finest. Perhaps also with this, a deeper lesson in how practice should always be perceived...as a meditative flow, not as a burden as it can sometimes be. These moments get me into trains of thought as to our motivation for taking up such arts...I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am for my partner poi practice with Mikie on Monday night. Gotta love random inspiration.
Entry #20: Carnivalution...8.12.11
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Entry #17: But We Were Getting Along So Well...
The bottom line is, practice is just that--practice. We talk about achieving a state of flow, and how for most of us, it is the driving force, the adrenaline rush, the fulfillment that keeps us practicing. But no matter how in tuned we are with the universe or how spiritual our lifestyles may be, there are always going to bad fucking days. Days where you can't even execute the most basic of moves. Days where those who started 3 years after you are nailing moves that you still find difficult. Days where you say fuck it, I don't want to do this anymore. But these are just moments. Moments that come and go like a flash of light. And one bad day is not the be all and end all of your connection to your general practice. I cannot express enough how true this is and how much myself and everyone around you has to remind themselves of this. It is so easy to get discouraged, to get thrown off of your track, and most times, it's even harder to get back on. And yet, you do. This is the difference between loving something and loving the idea of something. It is through the intense moments where you learn the most about yourself and how strong your connection is to your art. Falling in love is never easy. But true love lasts a lifetime. (Thank you, Mikie & Drex, for always making me feel all of my frustrations are normal. That everyone goes through this, and that no, just because you had a bad day, you don't suck. ^_^)
**Disclaimer/Note by the author: The past few days had been particularly rough in general and therefore I believe had an adverse effect on my practice. However, hurting poi in any way is never an answer, as I am not advocating violence on said poi. No poi were [seriously or permanently] hurt during this photo session. That being said, the occasional semi-beat down is always good therapy and should be executed as often as one sees fit. Remember, you do it because you care...
Monday, August 8, 2011
Entry #16: Lux Arati: Desert Secrets
Entry #15: Mad Decent Object Manipulators...8.07.11
Entry #14: Head Balancing In A Most Unexpected Place...8.06.11
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Entry #13: Midnight Snacks for Your Brain...8.05.11
Entry#12: A Bit About Keeping Your Balance...8.04.12
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Entry #11: You've Been Antispun
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Entry #10: Back to Basics--Original Inspiration
 | |||||||||||
| In the midst of the roller coaster that is life, we sometimes forget the origins of who we are today. Throughout my life, I have tried to keep a positive outlook despite the state I was in. Sometimes I was successful, most times I wasn't. Most people would never have guessed, most people still won't. The bottom line is, no matter who you are, where you are, what you have or haven't accomplished, you still possess a condition called "human". And with this condition comes a plethora of emotions; a good portion of which we could momentarily live without. During these darker times, I have taught myself to revert "back to basics". To pay homage to those who have inspired me to take certain leaps and challenges; who were my first window to the object manipulation world. To give credit to those who have pulled me into other worlds of emotion, whether they know it or not. It is through this acknowledgment I feel a shift and with time, am lifted back to a better state. Tonight, I want to give my love to a few within the object manipulation community, whom through their talent and spirit, and with that turned friendship, have helped me see better days. Grimm Zimmer, Aileen Lawlor, Noel Yee, Greg Maldonado, Rovo, Thom Thumb, Memory, Mikie, & Alien John: Thank you for being some of the most beautifully inspirational performers I have ever known. |
Monday, August 1, 2011
Entry #9: 30 Day Poi Challenge
Entry #8: 2nd Street Festival, Meet Ploome 7.31.2011
From start to finish, yesterday involved anything and everything to do with creativity on 2nd street in Philadelphia's Northern Liberties. The 2nd Street Music Festival brought artists of all varieties; musical, craft, fine art, and performance art. All boutiques, studios, bars, restaurants and even our bowling alley, celebrated the occasion with live art, food, and drinks. At Ploome Studio, we showcased a little bit of what we have to offer. Hoop, poi, fan, & juggling demonstrations were presented by myself, Mayra, Mike Icon, & Lauren Shaw throughout the day and a special fire performance by Mayra that evening. Mike Icon, Laura Schetzsle, and myself performed at North Bowl during delicious music sets by Philadelphia's Rob Paine and our friends Terry "Helios" Fields, Liana Cameris, and Lauren Raske performed at the lovely Colors by Padmini boutique. The day into night as a whole proved to be successful not only for us and the studio, but for our Philadelphia art and music communities as well. I feel so grateful to have been a part of it.
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Entry #7: Poi Soup
Entry #6: The Talented Mr. Sticky 7.29.11
**This entry is from 7.29.11; due to technical difficulties, I was not able to actively post last night. There will be another entry this evening for the 7.29.11 entry. This should be the last of phantom disappearing, or "dropping", of my terribly unreliable server.
Last year, I received an email from a dear friend of mine, Matthew Sticky, from Virginia. The email stated that he had been sending out a special gift to spinners who had inspired him, and it was now Mikie & I's turn. We were so incredibly touched! (The flower is now hung above my set of Japanese Fans). Shortly after, a package arrived. In it contained a beautiful, metal, anti-spin, hybrid, flower. Sticky, has been one of the most inspiring people to me since I had gotten involved in this community, so to receive a gift such as this completely floored me. His style of double staff spinning is completely refined. Edgy, innovative, and highly technical with a performance level of pure class, Sticky has never ceased to blow any audience of any calibers mind. To parallel these qualities, he is an absolutely wonderful soul. Incredibly approachable (and epic patience), he will never hesitate to share knowledge, and can speak technically with you for hours. I value his friendship immensely and cannot wait for a visit so I can film some of this bad assery for all of you to witness. Until then, please check out Sticky's facebook page:http://www.facebook.com/matthew.sosticky. Cheers!
Friday, July 29, 2011
Entry #5: Ploome: Flow Arts Shine in New Philadelphia Movement Studio 7.28.11
Welcome to Philadelphia's first movement studio with a dedication to Flow Arts. The lovely Christina Stoltz (pilates and fitness extraordinaire) fell in love with Burning Man and Flow Arts in 2006. After three travels to playa, she has decided to combine her love of this subculture with her passion for fitness and health. Reaching out to Lauren Shaw, who in turn passed the notion to Mayra de Souza, and myself, we put together a plethora of classes that will bring Flow Arts to a new and easy level of reach within Philadelphia. To start, amongst the pilates, barre, and mat classes, the studio will be offering different levels of poi, hoop, fan, and dance classes. Upon opening the studio, members or drop in students, will be able to get a taste of what we are so deeply in love with. As the studio progresses, there will be openings for guest teachers and a wider variety of flow arts classes. Words could not describe how blessed I feel to be a part of this new little gem of a studio. We will be performing this Sunday at the 2nd Street Festival all day to celebrate the start of a beautiful, new, level of Flow Arts shining in our hometown.
Ploome
On Liberties Walk in N. Liberties!
1040 N. American St., Suite 1001
Philadelphia, PA 19123
(p) 215.238.0200
www.ploomephilly.com
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Entry #4: Contact Juggling; Requirement: Unbridled Talent & Dedication, Master Date: Never
Contact Juggling. My first love in the world of juggling. In my eyes, the most graceful and most beautiful of all object manipulation. The time required to attain even a small fraction of synchronicity with this prop can be eons compared to others. The satisfaction when reaching the slightest bit of your goal is practically enlightening. To watch someone flow while contact juggling, is mesmerizing, hypnotizing. To find your flow with contact juggling, a state of pure zen has been attained. A genuine Thank You, to those of you who have taken my mind and my heart to unknown levels with this timeless and highly precious art form. *Merci*
Entry #3: Personal Evoltuion 7.26.11
Over 20 years ago now, as a young dancer/athlete, I was very much intrigued by martial arts. Although not a strong fighter, I fell very much in love with the aspect of dancing with props. So much more than just an accessory, these props conveyed a serious meaning and connection to the culture. At first, my love was in Korean fan dancing. The unity of the dancers, the formations, the bright, luminous colors of the fans were the ingredients to my version of performance art perfection. The stories of nature, fantastical creatures, battles, and love; a living fairy tale that a small ballerina found solstice in from every day life. Having since evolved to becoming a fire fan dancer, I have noticed elements of simplicity and fairy tales peak a boo into my art. And every so often, the little girl fluttering around with pink fans, comes out and dares to play with fire.
Monday, July 25, 2011
Entry #2: Mike Icon Cleaning Up His Act
Traveling around definitely takes its toll on our apartment. But being that we hate to clean and value our perpetual play time, we have figured out ways to be productive on both ends. Here is what we like to call..."multitasking". Welcome to Casa de Icon.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Entry #1: Pure Practice
Just returned from a little over a month of performance and festival touring. The temperature hasn't been below 98 degrees since we've set foot on Philadelphia soil. Piles of laundry and equipment carry with them debris of memories that desperately need cleaning. The cat, the lizard, and even the toad, crave our attention. Regardless, it is back to the floor. New ideas, new inspiration, new lessons, have been taken home with me and I am terribly anxious to work on new pieces as well as fine tune and amend older ones. The perfect start to a new project...raw pictures, nothing cleaned up in the background, sweaty and exhausted. True love at its finest.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
A 365 Day Object Manipulation/Flow Arts Visual Journal
So today marks the beginning of my 4th year spinning fire. Throughout my life, I’ve always swayed back and forth on the scale of metaphysical/spiritual and scientific/technical; my two major passions being dance and science. Nothing in life has encompassed both these passions like the performance art and science of object manipulation.
Ironically, in the years I have spent spinning, I have never once created my own video. If there were ever any videos of my spinning, whether performance, jamming, flowing, or tech, it was thanks to the beautiful members of this community. Photographs, as well, thanks to the eyes of others, but never through my own. I believe it is time to change this. But instead of focusing on just myself, I want to share with the world how much object manipulation and flow arts has changed and impacted my life by also focusing on the inspiration that has guided me to who I am today.
A dear friend of mine from elementary/high school started Project: 365. About 4-5 months ago, Lauren Calcagni decided to record a visual diary of her life as viewed by her. Some days exciting, some days average, some days sad, her project: completely inspiring. Lauren had mentioned once in a message that she hoped to inspire people with her project to do the same. I have decided to take on her project, but take it on a different plane. I am starting Project: O.365.M.
Over the next year, a lot of changes will be happening in my life and the lives around me in this community. There are a lot of amazing projects happening in Philadelphia and the mid-Atlantic region, which will show more potently as the year goes on. There will be European and other foreign travels, by Mikie & I, to other festivals as well as our home grown ones. There will be Burning Man, there will be spin jams, there will be______(insert here). Hell this may even end up part of a video project for school…
Thanks to this inspiration I will be posting a daily visual diary, complete with photographs, videos, & notes, of all things object manipulation/flow arts that come my way. Some days may just be photographs, some days video, some days both, regardless, each day will be captured. Many of you reading this will most likely be a part of this project one way or another. Simply put, this is a time capsule of beauty, transition, frustration, astonishment, accomplishment, and thanks to everyone who has made the past 3 years of my life as beautiful and as meaningful a life can be. The full journal will be kept on Tumblr: Jexime, and uploaded to my youTube account: fantripetalMotion. I love you all. Thank you. ^_^ To be continued in the most random and serendipitous of ways…and as always, your thoughts, comments, outlandish outbursts, and vulgar profanity are always appreciated greatly. ;)
Ironically, in the years I have spent spinning, I have never once created my own video. If there were ever any videos of my spinning, whether performance, jamming, flowing, or tech, it was thanks to the beautiful members of this community. Photographs, as well, thanks to the eyes of others, but never through my own. I believe it is time to change this. But instead of focusing on just myself, I want to share with the world how much object manipulation and flow arts has changed and impacted my life by also focusing on the inspiration that has guided me to who I am today.
A dear friend of mine from elementary/high school started Project: 365. About 4-5 months ago, Lauren Calcagni decided to record a visual diary of her life as viewed by her. Some days exciting, some days average, some days sad, her project: completely inspiring. Lauren had mentioned once in a message that she hoped to inspire people with her project to do the same. I have decided to take on her project, but take it on a different plane. I am starting Project: O.365.M.
Over the next year, a lot of changes will be happening in my life and the lives around me in this community. There are a lot of amazing projects happening in Philadelphia and the mid-Atlantic region, which will show more potently as the year goes on. There will be European and other foreign travels, by Mikie & I, to other festivals as well as our home grown ones. There will be Burning Man, there will be spin jams, there will be______(insert here). Hell this may even end up part of a video project for school…
Thanks to this inspiration I will be posting a daily visual diary, complete with photographs, videos, & notes, of all things object manipulation/flow arts that come my way. Some days may just be photographs, some days video, some days both, regardless, each day will be captured. Many of you reading this will most likely be a part of this project one way or another. Simply put, this is a time capsule of beauty, transition, frustration, astonishment, accomplishment, and thanks to everyone who has made the past 3 years of my life as beautiful and as meaningful a life can be. The full journal will be kept on Tumblr: Jexime, and uploaded to my youTube account: fantripetalMotion. I love you all. Thank you. ^_^ To be continued in the most random and serendipitous of ways…and as always, your thoughts, comments, outlandish outbursts, and vulgar profanity are always appreciated greatly. ;)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)