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Following Jim's request, here is the picture of Pulp and an octopus puppet we borrowed from one of the performers:

Also following Jim's advice I took down from a wall a poster of the event (II Certámen de Jóvenes Artistas De Calle) as a souvenir. It does announce the top exhibit by Ta0    You can see it here: www.mollina.org/anuncio/AXtR5udd.pdf

There were many people taking pictures and filming our performance, so I didn't, but here is a picture of the stage in the main plaza:

Just a few minutes after arriving to Mollina, I am posing with Javier by the famous doors of his videos:

Sunday we visited Antequera. The name means ancient and was given by the Romans, so it predates them.

There we visited Sebastian del Pino, known as the top guy. He has given spintop talks using his collection at schools for at least a decade (I guess similar to Don's talks) and is a big reason why every boy in that town has a top (according to him). He brought a contingent of kids to Mollina, part of the 300 member spintop club he presides (I am now an official member).

This is the room where he exhibits parts of his collection, together with an impressive collection of architectural paper cuts (he is an architect). Another very special spintop room I got to visit in a short time, together with Mike's Hall of Fame and John's office in Cincy. Lucky me!

Talking about special places, Monday I visited Granada and the wondrous Alhambra. I had a topdog with me that I spun it in the gardens and on the fortifications but now I somewhat regret not spinning inside the palace.

Go Rick, Go 

Huh?  What???  I'm up and actually at work *sssshhhh*

Very cool idea about the reinforcing bolt Chris well done!  And this one is a beaut!  With used plastic from a nuclear plant, well what could possible go wrong?

If you promise to put the sale price towards a four jaw chuck, I think we may have a deal.

(I have a 4" plywood from Alan that I play a lot with, I'll have to see what it weights)

Sorry for the late reply.  I have been using the "lefty" red and black string you made at Miamisburg.  It is a bit thinner than other strings I play.  However, it works nicely.  I see no difference in my performance. 

RunBMC:

The whip catches are fun, aren't they?  (Not to mention more impressive to bypassers than they should be!)

If you have ever been hassled for street performing here is some good news.
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/343467,hong-kong-street-entertainers.html
I have always thought that having good street performers is an asset to a community instead of a crime.

Another beauty Chris!

lincolnrick....rick....RICK... R  I  C  K !
Have you gotten up yet???

Somebody, let him know about this post.

I am getting quite good at the boomerang now and working on some easy tricks. I have been looking at a lot of videos on tops and have some questions.

I know there are fixed tip and bearing tip tops and I have heard that the fixed tip top is better to begin with, but can you do almost all tricks with a fixed tip top? I do quite a bit of diabolo and have a few monobolos so I guess the gyroflop or something only works with a bearing tip and the wire walker variations only works with a fixed tip.

In these contests, like how many corkscrew "twists" you can do, can you choose if you use a fixed tip or a bearing tip? in that case what is normal to use?

Then there are these regenrations, I see they are quite similar to diabolo and monobolo, but do you get a lot of speed from them? Can you start from a cold start, give it a lot of spin with regenerations and then do a wire walker or will you only get it up to a certain max speed?

The bearing tops, is it normal to clean the bearings of these? I guess the bearings do not come pre-cleaned from the larger manufacturers.

The string length seems to be important to make the top tip all they way round in the boomerang. Is the string length very subjective? Or do almost everybody prefer a certain string length for the Duncan Ripcord? (I understood that the stock string was a bit too short for this one, do you have a good length to use for it and the bearing king?)

Is there some kind of blog about spin tops in english on the internet? With updates about new videos and new tops collected from other sites? I have found a few in spanish or something, but that does not help me very much.

Are there any kind of modifications that all more experienced spin top players do to their ripcords, bearing kings, sidewinders, blizzards, ...?

The Strummol8 top (I am not sure this is the name), is it normal for tops to have a sharp tip? Is it different for when you are doing bearing tip and fixed tip?

The tops used by some colombian top spinners on youtube with a large tip at the top of the spinning top, are these only normal in colombia?

Yes, I bet your cat is going crazy over all this string making!

Very Nice!

The bolt through the tip makes it very durable.
Love that Bondo for a finish. A final cut with a very sharp skew will give you a very smooth surface.
I like to use it on the inside too. The top needs to be turned in two halves to use it on the inside.

Did you use wood dye for the red color?

Really nice.
So when you make these tops you make lots of circles of different sizes and glue them together before working on the lathe? Do you not do anything with the inside on the lathe so the circles have to be perfectly aligned on the inside?