Areal progress

Thursdays are areal days. This was the 4th areal class and today it felt like I actually have made some progress.

We started the morning with trapeze class, and we worked on the moves we learned. To pass our assessment we need to make a routine with at least seven moves, and now it feels realistic and not overwhelming as it did the first class.



Here are my friends on the static trapezes practicing. I took this picture because it looked nice when they where all standing in the same position. I actually use my cell phone camera quite much during areal class to take videos and pictures of different positions. Writing them down can help a little but most of the time the notes themselves without pictures don't make any sense at all.

Here I am practicing the "gazelle" move on static trapeze.

In areal class, you need tight fitting clothes. I use socks when I am on the trapeze, because otherwise me feet hurt too much from the friction from the ropes and the bar. When climbing the rope it is possible to wear socks, but it makes it harder. The rope is quite stiff and I am trying to get used to it for my hands and feet. When climbing the silks it is impossible to wear socks because they will makes you slide down. The reason I have long sleeves and legs covered is to protect my body from burns if I would slide down a rope, trapeze or silks.

In the afternoon we could choose what to do between rope, silks and more trapeze. I have always been fascinated by the silks so I went for that. I felt like I did considerably better than the last time, which was actually my first time. I learned how to go into hip lock from Russian climb, and then I worked with a series that my friend though me. This is another proof that the other students at this course are the best!

It doesn't look as elegant as I am feeling when climbing the silks but I really enjoy climbing them. You really need arm strength to climb the silks and rope, but professional arealists make it look so easy. I look forward to do the next areal class, and to master my new (and only) silk move.

My beginner top tips for silks for today:

• Before you start to climb, pull down the silks a little because the fabric is a little bit elastic.
• Try to not look at you feet when climbing, to learn to "feel" where the fabric is.
• In hip lock, keep you legs straight and even if you have to push our hips forward you should at the same time feel like you are in a pike position.

Juggling practice tips

Juggling was the first "circus skill" that I learned. I think I was maybe 12 years old, and I was with my grandmother during the summer when my parents worked. I had seen the Swedish magician Carl Einar Häckner's show on the amusement park Liseberg and decided that I would also learn how to do something circusy, and it just happened to be juggling.

I don't know how I could persist to actually learn how to juggle, because it is quite a steep learning curve and I didn't have any special method or technique except throwing all the balls around me and hoping to catch at least one of them. This was not very efficient and made me very frustrated - but also more eager to learn.

After learning three balls I later on learned four balls and some easy tricks but since then I haven't really improved my juggling until now. It has been very nice to have a teacher so I for the first time actually could get some feedback on my technique and progress.

What I will remember most from the juggling classes is to be persistent, have a plan and not move on to the next step too quickly.

I still think juggling can be very frustrating to practice since a throw is either a drop or a catch and nothing in between, but now I have some ideas how to make a practice session more efficient and less frustrating.

Juggling practice strategies top list:

Make a list at in advance what you want to practice, for example 100 normal cascade, 50 two ball in one hand and so on. Then you strictly follows this list, ignoring how many times you drop, until you complete eack task on the list. It is so satisfying to make a cross after each completed exercise.

Make a music play list that is as long as you want to practice. When the music stops, you know you are finished for today, and its very nice listening to music while juggling. When you are listening, you will forget how the time pass by. It doesn't work as well with radio programs since they might require too much brain power from juggling.

The classical tip of all times to save your back from pain: Practice juggling over a bed or sofa so you don't need to bend over to pick up your dropped balls.

Be patient and feel the success from what you can do at the moment.. I am anxious to move on to 5 balls but our teacher insists that there are many good five ball practices I have to do before actually moving on to practice five balls. It also means less dropping which also is good.

Count how many times you can throw a pattern and keep track of your record. Then you can beat your records.

Although don't do the previous exercise too much, because you don't want to practice to do a patterns until you fail and drop alls your balls, because that will make your muscles and body remember the movements of failure. Actually the ideal is to never make any wrong movements. To prevent this, set a number of catches that you know you can catch, and then olny do those catches and then stop. Do no more or less catches. . This way you practices to make it controlled and to practice to catch and finish. 

An exercise to train the ability to orientate in a new space and be able to juggle there, is to start a juggling pattern in one spot. Do a specific number of catches (as in the exercise above), and then as soon as you stopped juggling, start to run to a new spot. As soon as you stop running, immediately start juggling the specific number of catches again.  This does not only practice you condition, bit also to instantly start juggling and find new focus points.

When doing four (or six or eight...) balls, it will be convenient to just count the catches on one hand and then just double it up. But if you try this, make sure you alter the hands, because otherwise you will start do focus all the brain power to just the counting side. If counting a cascade pattern with three (or five or seven...) balls, count only the catches of one ball and multiply with the number of balls.

Westminister archituctural adventures!

Hereby I present the most characteristic view from London: House of Parliament and Big Ben!

These pictures are the last ones from the London weekend one week ago.

House of Parliament is built in Neo-Gothic style by Augustus Pugin and Charles Barry. Pugin was one of the most famous neo-gothic architects and is famous for his believe that all ornament should have a purpose to highlight the construction of a building. Neo-Gotic architecture is often quite tall and narrow building with inspiration from the medival, and started about 1750 in England, and was during the 19th century a popular architectural style in Europe even though it was expressed in a little different way in different countries.

Typical for Neo-Gothic architecture is the narrow, high windows, all the spires, and exposed structural beams that can all be seen in this closer picture of House of Parliament.

Tower Bridge in daylight and HMS Belfast to the right.

Parkwood springs view and diabolo practice

This weekend I have been very lazy and mostly staying at home. I needed to rest after two weeks of circus course with the London trip between them, and it has been very nice just to relax for a while.

In the afternoon I decided to take a long walk around Burngreave. I managed to find a post office quite near my house, but since it was Sunday it was not open. I tried to ask in a convenience store if it was possible to buy stamps there but he seemed very unsure about international post and told me that I had to visit the post office.

Then I just walked around, and passed Abbyfield park which was full of kids playing football. I wondered why there was quite a big brick wall around the park so It was impossible to look in or out from the park.

I saw on the map that I was quite close to an area that was called Palmwood Springs so I walked in that direction to see what it was like. It turned out to be some kind of big nature park open for everyone. The entrance was very empty and was just a sign saying “public footpath” with a small map. But when I had walked a little bit in this area I realized how high up above Sheffield I was, and it was a nice view over the city. I really recommend to climb up in the Palmwood Springs area for a free nice viewpoint.

I was almost alone, except for one running woman and some downhill mountain bike guys. There was a prepared track for the bikes that was surprisingly long; it covered almost the whole area from top to bottom.

There were also two football fields and some forest where a dog and the owner played around. I decided to practice some two diabolo, but it was super windy so it was even more difficult to keep two going at the same time. I tried to spin one diabolo and then take my cell phone to take a picture when I spun, but it was impossible since the wind would make it change angle and direction and I cannot do the diabolo with one had yet, and especially not the left one.

Downhill mountain bike track

Then I decided to try to throw the diabolo as high as I could, an then I had to run around since it would be totally unpredictable in which direction the wind would push the diabolo in the air. It was dangerous once when i catches it the diabolo hit my hand. Either it spun very fast or had such a high speed, because my hand started to bleed when it got hit. Well, I continued anyway until it started to get dark, and then I walked back home to make chicken stew for dinner.

Edit: 

I wanted to add some top diabolo tips for windy days

• Don't do diabolo when it is too windy
• Try to drive the two diabolos with your right hand rather than the left. If you like me, drove with your left at first, the it will feel like you are doing it twice as fast when you are doing it with you right hand.
• Let diabolo land on the string and not other body parts, because it will hurt

Diabolo talk in Oddballs juggling store in a crowded Camden

Of course I had to visit the juggling store Oddballs in Camden in London. Even though juggling and circus can be a pretty narrow interest, there was a lot of people in the store.

I visited Oddballs last time when I was with my family in London, and I was about 14 or 15 years old i think. I bought my second pair of poi here and then I used that pair of poi for 5 years to learn almost every pattern I know. Last year i brought Podpoi from Flowtoys, and it took some time to get adjusted to Podpoi but now they are my favorite poi.

My memories from Oddballs was that there was not so many people there and that the staff was extremely helpful and seemed really excited about juggling. This time was no exception, and even though there were many people in the shop the staff took their time to help everyone that had questions of simply just wanted to look or try things out. 

I looked mostly at diabolos and juggling balls. The staff showed me different kinds of diabolos since I don't know very much about diabolos even though I enjoy spinning them. I am sure I had my diabolos when I was 14 so they are at least 6 years old. There was a new type of diabolo with a loose "center part" that would only spin in one direction (only for right handed people), which would make it possible to spin much faster, but also made it harder to do some tricks like the classic "elevator" trick. 

We talked about what diabolos that were the best in general and for two diabolos, since I am currently learning two diabolos. Our manipulation teacher at the course recommended Sundia, which was also recommended by the Oddballs guy, but he said his favourite was Typhoon from juggledream. I don't need to buy diabolos at the moment since I can borrow from Greentop, but it is still interesting to hear others opinions about different props. Juggling is sometimes "prop depending" so in order to do some tricks it is a lot better if you have appropriate props. Visiting Oddballs felt like being a child in a toy store.

Bonus reading for Swedish readers about the meaning of the word oddball:

Oddball betyder enligt min googlade översättning kuf eller orginal, vilket gör det till ett fyndigt namn för en jongleringsbutik, eftersom odd ball särskrivet skulle betyda udda boll.

I spent the rest of the Sunday afternoon walking around in Camden, and it was sunny and nice weather with a lot of people everywhere. When I went to the underground station to go back, it was closed due to prevent overcrowding.

The Devil Wears Prada and eats rice cakes

Tonight I watched the movie The Devil Wears Prada, that I borrowed from Im. It was a feel good movie, even though I just felt bad for the main character Andrea played by Anne Hathaway as she struggles to do any impossible task that her boss Miranda at the fashion magazine Runway asks her to do. The movie is about how evil Miranda is, and how Andrea has to give up more and more of her life to work.

Since we worked with status between different characters during the last performance class at the course I thought a lot about what gestures, movement, voice and other things that made Miranda to the boss and Andrea to her slave. I guess the message is that you shouldn't crawl around for someone who is just evil to you and don't even say thank you, and that your personal life is always the most important.

Before I went to England I was told that there was not flavored rice cakes in England, but is was wrong! Today i was resting from the course week and the London weekend before that but I went grocery shopping and then I found the rice cakes! I like rice cakes and these chili ones was very good while watching the movie.

More architecture adventures in London

I started my last Saturday morning with walking around in the Notting Hill area, with large white Victorian townhouses. This is an expensive area I think, but yet I read in the newspaper at the hotel that there as well are many empty houses in the Notting Hill area compared to other parts of London since they often have foreign owners that may not use their house at all.






Later that day I was looking for the NLA - London's center for built environment., but I stumbled upon the Architectural Association. I was walking around taking pictures on the outside when a teacher (?) who was leaving tolg me that it was open to the public to walk around the school inside and look at some exhibitions. He also told me that the Bedford Square where AA is located is London's best preserved Georgian building area. The Georgian style was about between 1700 and 1800 and is characterized by strict symmetry, for example the door is almost always is the middle and the windows are always symmetrically arranged.



As you can see the first floor was the best and most important one and therefor most decorated. The windows and door often had cornice decorations.

Typical for Georgian are decorated plaster ceilings the teacher on the outside had told me, so inside the building I was looking at this. He also said that this photo exhibition room felt bigger when the walls was not painted black.



Inside AA I also looked at the post graduates small exhibition and an other exhibition called Third Natures with work from the architects Christina Diaz Moreno and Elfrén Garcia Grinda. I liked the different models the best because they inspired me to use different kind of materials and colors when building models.

 The first one was called "The cherry blossom palace", and when I took closer look the pieces had some small marks so I think it has been cut out by a machine which could arrange them this way. The second one is interesting because it uses medical pills, and I like the feathery feeling of the fabric mounted by the needles in the last one.

NLA - Londons center for built environment had quite small exhibitions and it seemed like they were renovating everything inside.

They had a gigantic model over London, and plates that explained different goals for each part of the city.

On the way home I saw the BT Tower.

Architecture adventures in St Pauls

To get a little feel of architectural history I visited St Pauls during my weekend in London. I got in quite late and there were not so many visitors now when it is "winter".

St Pauls was made by Christopher Wren in kind of a classical style. It replaced the old St Pauls of which there were some visible remainings outside the church. The interior was fantastic but it was prohibited to take photos. The floor plan was planned to be a Greek cross, but modifications in the plans during the construction made it end up in something else.

It was possible to climb up the cathedral to three stages. The first one was the whispering gallery, which was halfway up the inner dome inside the church. From there, the view of the interior were stunning. 

From The Whispering Gallery, you could climb a narrow stair up to The Stone gallery with a nice 360 degree if you walked around, view over London. I met an American couple who helped me take a picture of me, and as you can see it was quite windy.

I saw "The Shad" which is the tallest building in both the UK and the European Union with 306 meters. I the other direction I saw the Thames and London Eye.

The Shad from St Pauls.

London Eye from St Pauls.

The Stone gallery was at the bottom of both the domes that make the actual dome. The construction of the dome consists of the outer and inner dome, and then almost a triangular shape between them. The original stairs up the the Golden gallery on top of the outer dome had been replaced with moderns stairs, but I think the original one that you can see underneath was very interesting and not so random as it look at first sight, if you start walking with your left foot.

From the Golden gallery there where even better views of London. Here are some of the quite few really high skyscrapers in London. . I don't know about the wide one to the right, and I couldn't really find any information when I googled about it. It is not completed yet though so it will be interesting to know more about it, beacuse to me the shape reminds me of an example from school with a "cartoon" style of perspective with a skyscraper.

From left to right: Heron Tower, Tower 42 (brown one) , 30 St mary Axe "The Gerkhin" (black one), The Leadenhall building (the kind of tilted one)

Here is a view over Tate Modern and Millenium bridge.

Outside St Paul was this modern café that contrasted to St Pauls.

A last view of the Millenium Bridge and St Pauls.

Feeling like a local

The day before yesterday was a fantastic day, because I watched instinctively to the right when I was about to cross the road. Today, I was able to give directions to a man who asked me how to get to a street near my house. I am not so awkward when I use the self check outs at the grocery stores and I now understand that "tea" can be both the drink and dinner.

Todays dance class was fun. We did everything we did the last times and also worked a little bit on our phrase. We also had a discussion about what we wanted to do at the final show. It was the first time we actually started to sit down and think about it. Everyone got so excited and had so many good ideas that we will explore the next dance class.

Yesterday was a super dramatic day in the afternoon. While we did standing on shoulder exercises, some young boys came to use the bathroom. We just assumed they were early for the youth acrobatics, but on the way out they pickpocketed two phones. But since one of them was an iPhone with a tracker, we called the police and tracked them. In the end they couldn't catch the thieves, but they found the phone in the forest with help of the tracker. It was like a television drama.

As usual I cannot take picures during class but here is another pyramid from last weeks acrobatics class. It is called a Spanish pyramid where the different levels go into each other.

Arty adventures in London

Art adventure times in London! During my weekend in London I saw many different kinds of art, from serious Tate Moderns paintings to street art, and random telephone booths.

Kulturgumman nr 2 slår till igen!

Street art

My feelings towards street art are very torn, because I usually like it when it is something more than just a random tag. Street art seems to often have many more aspects than just the art itself, the location, material, style and so on often reflects the surroundings more than art in museums. The street art is very direct and has a different approach in every city and makes them alive. I think cities without any street art seems dead. On the other hand I respect other property, which makes street art to a difficult topic to discuss since I understands both sides of the discussion if it belongs in cities or not. But you cant suppress art so street art will always bee there.

Street art in Notting Hill.

Street Art in Oxford Circus.

Street art in Camden.

Street art near Tate Modern.

A bar (?) near Tate Modern.

Everyday life art
I also saw some typical London art that was made up in the situation. If London is a color it would doubtless be red. If the phone booth had been an old style one this picture would have been perfect with the bus, phone booth and post box. Bus as my architectural teacher in Luleå once said: Make it beautiful and then make something that disturbs it to make it interesting.

Another view with three (!) phone booths in a row. This was almost to much for my tourist heart. What about the gap between the first and the second booth? Is there one missing booth? The gap makes it even better since it makes in asymmetrical, but the view is held together by the identical phone booths.

A nice car. Art?

Creative window displays

Near Notting Hill I saw this window display for a café (?) selling sparkling tea drinks. I didn't try them out, but I really liked their creative and scientific inspired window and I thought of all my friends studying chemistry. This picture is for you.

Street performance

In Notting Hill I saw a man that had dressed up as Charlie Chaplin, with appropriate music from the Chaplin movies to his motions and acting. Now when I am doing the performance course I had changed my view on street artists from being sometimes quite annoying to thinkting that they are interesting, and liked to watch him interact with the tourists. My friend in Luleå once said that as soon as you stop to look at a street performer, you owe them money. Some years ago at the Gothenburg Cultural Festival, the street artists said that even though the audience really enjoyed their performances, they would run away as quickly as they could or sent their children with almost no money to put in the hat. I think street performers are worth to be paid for the show they set up in the streets (and then getting payed depending on how good they are).

Fun things
This picture is actually not on the shiny ball but a secret picture of the happy people slightly to the left. The girl is actually spinning on some round platform that would spin around. I like the idea of a more interactive and playful city, som I liked the "spinning platforms" more than these strange round shiny things.

Tried to take a picture of myself in this selfie world. You can see bothe the reflection of me and St Pauls!

Statues

Who said statues need to be don tin marble in the antique Greece? Freddy Mercury as a commercial sculpture in plastic gold was nice to see as well.

Wall decorations
At Camden Lock Market I saw a lot of street art, but also some very decorated shops. You can see the at the houses to the left in this picture. There were everything from guitars to shoes hanging from the walls.

Near Westminister I saw this fountain outside a hospital when I was supposed to watch the House of Parliament. I thought that "this looks really like something made by Naum Gabo with the water going in that typical pattern" but I couldn't find any signs to read some information since I was outside the hospital park. Back here in Sheffield, I googled it and it was Naum Gabo as I thought! I am childly proud of this since I don't now almost any other Russians sculptors at all.

Tate Modern

I visited Tate Modern because they had an exhibition on Paul Klee that I wanted to see. I don't like everything Paul Klee has done, but some parts I think is really good. I especially wanted to see some of his funny animal paintings but there weren't so many of them. I was a big exhibition with 17 room woch pictures from different times of Klee's career. It was not allowed to take any photos inside the exhibition.

After that I looked around in some of the free exhibitions and took this photo that looks like the neon signs of Pure Gym not so far away from my house. I am not sure I like this kind of art, and if I do I don't think that this should be displayed in a museum, but in the "real world". As well as art this could be some kind of house decor or signs or something else.

Fashion
There was London fashion week during my stay which could be seen at some places. All the big shops at Oxford Circus announced for different events, and when I was at Tate Modern I saw how they built up the runway for Topshop's collection. Because of fashion week (or the stylish Londonders or my imagination) I saw a lot of people dressed up in interesting way, walking around like living art.

Photo of the construction of Topshops Runway inside Tate Modern

I did some other things as well in London so there will be more posts!

Here you can read the post on the first night in London.