iTopSpin
Current Posts => Latest Spin => Topic started by: silvertop on March 16, 2014, 09:56:57 PM
-
The annual Rochester Institute of Technology Juggling Festival is coming up in about a month. Mark Hayward will be performing, and I will again arrange a time for a tour of my top collection. Not sure who else will be coming, but last year we had Dick Stohr, Mark Hayward, Mike Hout, etc. Hoping for more spinning good times! http://www.rit.edu/sg/jugglingclub/jugglein
-
Also on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/events/213258635485021/
-
It was a really good event, even though I participated sleep deprived part of the time (whew, was I out of it). Lots of good juggling and lots of good people. I cannot imagine doing this again this year with a new grandson in the family.
-
I’ll be there Don. :)
I should arrive Thursday night, leaving Monday.
I’m looking forward to meeting you, your Dad, your grandchildren, Mark Hayward and anyone else showing up at the event.
I’m really psyched! I’ll also have a Spin Top traveling companion with me. (Now who might that be?) :)
Any other members going?
-
That spintop companion Larry mention is . . . ME! ;D ;D ;D
I was very bummed last year when I had to cancel the trip at the last minute. I really look forward to finally meeting you in person! And I am very excited to see your collection and listen to your stories from The Toycrafter days!
I also look forward to meeting for the first time Larry and likely the "other Neff" (new Figaro inductees!! ;D )
With also Mark there this will be a great spintop meet.
PS: With Larry we are driving in Thursday night. The Festival starts Friday at 6PM so we have most of Friday free.
-
I'll be there!
I looked at the schedule and didn't see any particular time slots when folks would be spinning. Will you guys be hanging out and spinning for most of the festival?
Looking forward to it!
-
I'll be there!
I looked at the schedule and didn't see any particular time slots when folks would be spinning. Will you guys be hanging out and spinning for most of the festival?
Looking forward to it!
Wonderful! It will be great meeting you again (and retaking the Figaro inductee photo that was lost with my camera).
Yes, I guess we will be pretty much spinning around the clock in the main area.
Are you driving from NYC?
-
Sounds awesome! Can't wait. You guys can help me with some tricks I've not been able to figure out from videos. :)
I'm actually in Geneva, just an hour drive from Rochester.
-
Glad to hear about all the top spinners going to RIT. I can't say enough good things about the festival. Great people. Great organization. Great history. Great fun. Great space. I picked up a couple of "old" t-shirts from past festivals for $5 each. I wear them remembering the great times. I also picked up some clubs made out of coke bottles. The kids love to see them and contemplate how well they do they job despite the fact that everything is recycled.
I can't wait to hear some of the stories of the event.
-
Top spinning isn't really a scheduled event thing, but there is lots of time for just hanging out in a corner and attracting attention. Maybe we can get an actual workshop or something set up for next year? Plus of course the Olney top collection tour scheduled at some point when we are not busy with other spinning!
-
Larry and I are already here.
I cannot believe the colection of John Markus tops Larry brought! 8) From mini aluminum/plastcc tops, to a 7-8 inch gorgeus swirly top called Fiery. I also got acquianted with Alan's msaterpiece Sancho from the last raffle.
-
Welcome Top folks!
-
This evening while driving home from our big track meet in Cincinnati I began thinking back one year ago. After an hour of driving, I did not stop at my home in Miamisburg but kept on driving until I got to the edge of Ohio and Pennsylvania. It was there that I slept for a few hours at the SPIRE Olympic training site. When I got up, I rode my unicycle around the track and then headed on to Rochester to arrive blurry eyed and woozy. Yet, it was worth the trip to see everyone and hear the stories. Wish I was with you all up there at the R.I.T.
Hope it all goes well. I can't wait to read how it all is going.
Say hello to my good spinning friend Jim Neff!
-
Wow! Larry and I we were 6 hours at Don's shop looking at his collection and the old Toycrafter manufacturing facilities. AMAZING! He even made us two custom tops with his laser cutting machine! And I am going back Sunday!
Afterwards we went to the fest where we threw tops with Jason. Mark arrives tomorrow.
Great fun!
-
10:45 Saturday
Ta0 on the live feed now now now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmnFHn-dLfk
or follow the link on this page Watch live
http://www.rit.edu/sg/jugglingclub/jugglein/watch (http://www.rit.edu/sg/jugglingclub/jugglein/watch)
EDIT:
I am currently able to rewind the live feed on youtube so if you missed ta0's fine performance, move the slider to 17:00 and enjoy.
-
I had an absolute blast spending part of my birthday yesterday with Larry, Jorge, and Don. What a great group of incredibly nice and generous guys! And today was fantastic as well with Mark joining the crowd. I'll be really bummed not to be there tomorrow, but thanks to you all for making this birthday a memorable one, and for all the help figuring out some tricks. I'll look forward to the chance to hang out with you all again!
-
Another fantastic spintop day!
I finally met Jim Neff. It is incredible the amount of props he carries, including lots of tops and kongzhus. For the "best trick contest" he did a very long wire walker over several people. He taught me some kongzhu and beigoma.
Jason was great fun to have around and has mproved a lot since worlds.
Mark was the mc at the public show, so there were tops on stage!
Tomorrow a little more fest and a second visit to Don's shop.
Lots of video and photos when I get back home.
-
Absolutely wonderful weekend with big and little tops spinning everywhere! At one point I counted 14 top spinners! Will post a link to a video of Jim Neff's wire walker trick over three volunteers and into the receiving tray with perfection! I've uploaded the video to Vimeo, but need to wait for it to be "converted" because I have the cheap account!
Thanks to Ta0, Larry, Jason, Mark, Jim, Jeff, etc. Seeing tops on stage for the big public show, including one of mine, was a perfect thing!
Video link coming soon. Still 15 minutes to wait, and I'm tired!
-
The Jim Neff top trick video locked up and had to be re-done, but here it is.
Turns out my video setting was not on "top" quality, so you need to squint a bit, but the trick is way cool!
https://vimeo.com/91995684 (https://vimeo.com/91995684)
-
What a FANTASTIC event!
A dream come true for me, so many special moments!
It was such a joy to meet fellow top spinners in person and share our love of the sport in such a perfect venue.
Here are a few photos and a couple of video highlights….more to follow….
Don created this very precious “limited edition” top at our first visit to his expansive Treasure House :
-
Outside Don’s Facility :
-
The AMAZING arsenal of tops I carried to the Festival, made by JohnM !
Left to right:
“Fiery” - 7” HDPE,
3” HDPE,
Hybrid
Small Hybrid,
Mini Hybrid
HDPE Gasing
-
Mark Hayward’s “Decapitop” alongside “Fiery” :
-
ta0 tames Fiery OR, Fiery tames ta0? :
http://youtu.be/rUn3a_NQUx4
HDPE Gasing in action:
http://youtu.be/_UsklVsLO1Q
-
Beautiful run with Fiery Jorge!
Here's another video from the festival:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1ndoxoC6cQ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1ndoxoC6cQ)
-
Thanks guys for sharing a bit of the fun with us by posting all the great photos and video.
They have posted six plus hours of corrupted :'( video with OK sound from Saturday. If it gets fixed, ta0's 'morning show' performance is there (you can hear him talking), Jim Neff's wire walker is there, some glimpses of the top gang hanging out by the bleachers appears, ta0 chases a koma all the way across the gym, and some of ta0's run with Fiery is at the end just before the gym closes at 5:00pm. I saw these things as I scrolled through while the feed was still live. The video is the one posted earlier.
Almost 5 hours of Sunday fun is posted. The gasing play is right at the begining but the guys were a little shy and just to the left off camera mostly. You can hear the gasing hit the gound with authority and Larry D. and ta0 do make brief appearances.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBOxtAq6cBo
I didn't look carefully for incidences of collissions but with all those jugglers packed pretty close together and many of them learning new tricks or objects and not really watching what else is going on, it seems someone could get injured pretty easily.
-
ta0's 'morning show' performance is there
ta0’s morning show performance was totally impromptu.
Just after we arrived at the gym that morning Jeff came over to chat with us. Jeff asked ta0 if he would possibly do a couple of minutes of top spinning in the morning show. ta0 took center stage without the benefit of warm-up or preparation and did a bang-up job! It was wonderful of ta0 to agree to do it, and a real treat for me to be there and see him captivate the audience in person. :)
I didn't look carefully for incidences of collisions
Everyone entering the Juggle-In had to sign a release form. Jeff Peden announced that somewhere in the neighborhood of 750+ people attended this year’s Juggle-In. (I can’t remember the exact number.)
Miraculously during those 3 days we did not see any incident of collision. Although, on occasion, various body parts on some of us Spinners did suffer short-lived minor trauma. (Thank you Figaro! :-*).
the guys were a little shy and just to the left off camera mostly
It’s not that anyone was shy, we just took possession of a low-traffic corner away from the gym entrance so that traffic would be at a minimum.
Actually none of us were aware of the location of the live video camera.
-
What an fantastic spintop trip! It surpassed my expectations!
With Larry we were 6 hours at Don's place (the ex-The-Toycrafter works) on Friday and 4 more hours on Sunday rummaging through his huge collection of tops and talking about top history. The number of prop's Jim Neff carries around is incredible! We had a great group of spinners that also included Mark H., Jason (jrodriguez) and Brad Wyman.
I arrived to SA past midnight (there was a radar problem that delayed all flights out of Dallas) and today I am swamped with work. So I will probably not be able to post much until tomorrow.
Thanks Larry for being such a great travel companion and thanks Don for being such a great host.
-
A special thanks to John M for all those wonderful tops you created. 8) 8) 8) Every one of them - high performers and beautiful.
If you were taking orders I could have sold 100 of each on the 1st day alone, more on the 2nd!
Thanks Jason for sharing your infectious enthusiasm and energy. It was truly a pleasure being there with you at the event!
Thanks Jim Neff for bringing us your unique imaginative approaches in skill toy play. It was absolutely inspirational!
Thanks Mark for letting me give “Chubby” a go! ;D
I have to remember NOT to confuse Chubby with a basketball! (But Chubby does bounce well. )
I wish I had set my camera in the correct mode so that I could have caught your action with Fiery and the mini-Hybrid. :-[
Thanks ta0 for bringing the great weather here with you for the weekend in Rochester! It was so wonderful traveling, rooming and spinning with you.
I am so very grateful to you for being there for me in the “test run”. ;)
Don, what can I say?
You are exceptional in so many ways! 8) 8) 8)
Thanks for your hospitality, your wit, the history, the stories, the laughs. What a delight for me, sharing the time we had together.
Next visit we have to take your dad to a Belly Dancing Club! :-X
Now that I’m home for a bit it already feels like a dream, a dream I hope we can all repeat many times over in the coming months and years.
I feel privileged to have been with you all and to be part of our community of wonderful top spinning folks!
-
The main spintop players at RIT:
(http://ta0.com/photos/images/contests/RIT2014/RIT-players.jpg)
From left to right: Jason, Jim, ta0, Don, Mark, Larry. Brad (who is a member of this forum) was too shy to be in the photo.
Mark and Don with Don's father looking:
(http://ta0.com/photos/images/contests/RIT2014/Mark-Don.jpg)
Jim and Don:
(http://ta0.com/photos/images/contests/RIT2014/Jim-Don.jpg)
-
Here’s a photo of Mark in action with Fiery:
-
Fantastic photos guys! Super group of spinners!
OK I'll bite, what is Jim Neff carrying? ???
-
Thanks for all the great pictures and reports from RIT. Wish I could have been there. Maybe another year?
The connection piece that Jim is carrying looks something like what is on one of those kite tails that attach to diabolos. But I am confused about the rectangular item?!?
-
OK I'll bite, what is Jim Neff carrying? ???
Here goes....
Rolling pin, grater suspended below, spoons suspended from the grater, land a boomerang of a sizeable top, place the spinning top on the upper handle of the rolling pin and everything begins to rotate and clang. It was so cool! :) :D ;D 8) 8) 8)
-
One of the most involved spin top props I've ever seen. It was hilariously stupid. I love it.
-
Jeff Peden presented Jim as the only juggler he knew who carried more props than he did. Here are some:
(http://www.ta0.com/photos/images/contests/RIT2014/Jim-s-props.jpg)
He left in his car Cyclone (apparently repaired) and one of those contraptions to spin 8 kongzhus simultaneously.
He taught me the correct wrap for the kongzhu and how he wraps beigomas with the square wrap instead of the more common 2-knot wrap.
Here is a video of him playing with his toys:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If3MBMLA0Ak
Meeting him was one of the highlights of this trip.
PS: Jim is not a member but reads this board ;)
-
Wow! Jim is wildly clever and super talented. That bag of toys is awesome and makes me wonder what else he decided not to bring. :o
-
He left in his car Cyclone (apparently repaired) and one of those contraptions to spin 8 konghzus simultaneously.
That news about the Cyclone was the best news I've read in a long time!!!! I hope it spins as well as it used to.
Jim is indeed an inspired and talented top spinnin' man.
-
That news about the Cyclone was the best news I've read in a long time!!!! I hope it spins as well as it used to.
The bad news is that Decapitop got a hairline crack and very likely it was my fault! :-[ The prototype Decapitop is made of a plaster/epoxy composite (using a 3D printing process) and I believe Mark will now retire it while it is in one piece :'( Here is a photo of the inside. It did require some balancing putty. The screws are there because the rubber band was not strong enough to hold it together.
(http://ta0.com/Button-n-String/decapitop_interior.jpg)
But Mark is a forgiving man and let me throw and spin the beer bottle. I had heard about the Jon Gate's beer-bottle spintop legend for ever, so it was great to try it.
Larry brought a real treasure trove of spinning bliss from Cincy. I cannot stress enough how good are the tops made by John M. The 7" Fiery is the perfect very large top. The normal size and smaller size hybrid tops (aluminum body and plastic cap) play as well as any fixed-tip top their size. The gasing requires some practice to throw, but I can visualize great battles using tops like that. The best part is that John has made molds for all of these :D (of course, they still require quite a bit of work finishing them).
For a while my camera mode selector was on manual mode (which I had used last at very high speed), so I lost a bunch of photos that are too dark. For example, I should have had good photos of Don's cart, who he brought to the gym. By the way, I got to try his homemade flat/thin-stem large koma and succeeded for the first time doing the finger-rolling start.
This time I have the Figaro induction photos:
Larry
(http://www.ta0.com/photos/images/figaro_gallery/Larry-n-Figaro.jpg)
Don
(http://www.ta0.com/photos/images/figaro_gallery/Don-n-Figaro.jpg)
Jason (redone the one lost from worlds)
(http://www.ta0.com/photos/images/figaro_gallery/Jason-n-Figaro.jpg)
Brad
(http://www.ta0.com/photos/images/figaro_gallery/Brad-n-Figaro.jpg)
Jim
(http://www.ta0.com/photos/images/figaro_gallery/JimN-n-Figaro.jpg)
I will later make a separate post about the visit to Don's lair (plenty of photos of that one ;D )
-
Happy to see all the new inductees to the Figaro Hall of Fame! Especially nice to see Brad doing so well. Pass the Props has been very good to the juggling community, traveling to all the festivals, big and small, in order to offer all jugglers access to quality props and tops.
-
I forgot Jeff Peden, who told us that if he was not running the event he would be throwing tops with us all the time:
(http://www.ta0.com/photos/images/figaro_gallery/JeffP-n-Figaro.jpg)
His son is a professional juggler living in Sweden and his performance with another juggler got a standing ovation at the public show. They do Scandinavian-style juggling and I guess they are disciples of Jay Gilligan who also performed and on Sunday gave his Evolution of Juggling TED talk (http://youtube.com/watch?v=YB_sfnwbgvk).
We had several beginner top throwers and Larry and Jason did a good job teaching them. In particular, a women from Toronto was there the 3 days and ended up buying several tops, including a Quicksilver Hybrid from the YoyoSam table.
-
I guess I do not totally understand about "leaving in his car Cyclone". Is Cyclone the name he gave his car or does he have a car that is a Cyclone? I see where Mercury made a Cyclone car from 1964-1971.
-
In case we haven't had enough of Jim Neff yet:
http://youtu.be/9SlUOBEpkzo (http://youtu.be/9SlUOBEpkzo)
-
I guess I do not totally understand about "leaving in his car Cyclone". Is Cyclone the name he gave his car or does he have a car that is a Cyclone? I see where Mercury made a Cyclone car from 1964-1971.
Cyclone was the name of Jim's big top (an Alan Gray top). I had met Jim in Rochester MN at the IJA fest. Here's a pic of the before and after I got a hold of it. It has since been repaired, thankfully.
-
ta0's 'morning show' performance is there
ta0’s morning show performance was totally impromptu.
Just after we arrived at the gym that morning Jeff came over to chat with us. Jeff asked ta0 if he would possibly do a couple of minutes of top spinning in the morning show. ta0 took center stage without the benefit of warm-up or preparation and did a bang-up job! It was wonderful of ta0 to agree to do it, and a real treat for me to be there and see him captivate the audience in person. :)
When I finished the demo for the kids I was not very happy with it, I thought I had missed a lot and not shown much. So I was kind of glad that the upload to youtube was corrupted. :P But they sent me a high-definition recording and after watching it I think I should share it in-house ;) Things I should remember not to do next time is throwing tops with iffy wraps, try to continue playing with a bearing top with little spin left, etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3EFs_3AhgI
-
Too bad I missed this!
-
I finally updated the Figaro Gallery (http://www.ta0.com/photos/figaro_gallery.html) with the players I got at RIT. If you want to change anything on your profile (e.g. remove last name, add favorite trick), just tell me.
We have broken the 100-players barrier!
-
good going in the vid : a few drops still :'( ////
the kids should have been closer
thanx
jim