As part of my psychotherapy, I am trying to limit my perfectionism. I have been juggling with torches a lot recently, and noticed that I become slightly obsessed with doing better and neater tricks.
This perfectionism leads me to learning a new trick quickly, and making it look really nice. The problem is that the good feeling lasts only a few minutes, and then I think of something new and improved. So when I see myself doing takeouts (first trick in the video, those nice long arcs) I think how it would look better if I mixed them with a few reverse takeouts. When I do chops, I notice that my left arm isn't as fast as my right arm. When I carry one torch up and across, I think how much more symmetric it would be if I could do it first with the left hand then with the right hand.
So I made an effort to load this video. It's not perfect (very little is); I drop the clubs a few times, not everything works, but there are some very nice bits which I am proud of. I try to ask myself how I would react if someone else had been juggling in the video, but that's difficult when I know it's me. I just watched it again with squinted eyes so that I could only see the torches and not myself. The torches make some really good patterns in the air, and that must be true no matter who is creating them.
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3 comments:
Very pretty, the good audible hissing of the flames adds to the effect. Reminds me about your juggling at Steffens' Party two years (?) ago!
Awesome. If you get fed up with computers, come over to Edinburgh for the festival next month and set yourself up in a park as a juggler.
As an aside, did you ever consider doing some martial arts? You've got the co-ordination and frame to be very good at Tae-Kwon Do, and I think you may get a kick (no pun intended) out of the complicated steps and movements involved...
Hi,
Chris, it was only last year at Steffens' Party, I am still waiting for my invitation this year...
I had only just started with torches then and could only do the basic "keep them in the air without burning myself" trick. As I was drunk, I had trouble even doing that.
I've never done any martial arts, and my preferred fighting technique is based on the standard English Pub Brawl.
Maybe I will try it at some time. I've always been a bit discouraged by the mental side of things. I don't have much patience, and prefer to hit things as soon as possible without paying respect to my surroundings and opponents. I think this is part of the "pub brawl" philosophy.
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