Entry #7: Poi Soup

Mix 3 parts water, 1 part blue dye, 1 part color intensifier, and 5 sets of poi.  Set to medium heat and let simmer for about a half an hour to an hour.  Result?  Part of my very exciting Saturday night of prepping props for the new studio, studying, and practicing.  The 2nd Street Music Festival is tomorrow and I will be performing along side Mike Icon, Mayra de Souza, & Laura Schetzsle at North Bowl and Ploome Studio.  Tomorrow is going to be a full day of promo and being all sorts of showy, so cheers to a night in working on being of sound body and of sound mind. (...and of multiple glasses of sound wine.)

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!

Entry #5: Ploome: Flow Arts Shine in New Philadelphia Movement Studio 7.28.11

**This entry is from 7.28.11; due to technical difficulties, I was not able to actively post last night.  There will be another entry this evening for the 7.28.11 entry.

 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

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

**This entry is from 7.26.11; due to technical difficulties, I was not able to actively post last night.  There will be another entry this evening for the 7.27.11 entry.

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.

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.

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.

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. ;)