Entries tagged with “Indianapolis”.


That’s right!  Not only is my new trading card out, but it has a SUPER-AWESOME photo on the front taken by the world famous yo-yo master Raphael Matsunaga, aka: Red.  This photo was taken in Takeshi’s living room while Duncan was shooting some new instructional video with Raphael and Takeshi as well as Jack Ringca, Brandon Jackson, Drew Tetz, and Hank Freeman.  It was fun.  I love pictures of me.

This year Takeshi scored an amazing hook-up for the Indy State contest: it will be held at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art.  Sept 22nd, 10-5pm.  More info here.

Also, with a little luck, we will have a trial run for the set-up and scoring of the Ultimate Battle Top Championships of the Universe too.  The actual contest will be at the National Yo-yo Contest in Chico CA in October, but we have to make sure that it’s going to be a good event first.

On Friday Vader and I went to the IMA future sculpture garden for a nice little walk, and there were birds everywhere! The wildlife at the IMA is always pretty good, but there were just SO many birds this time. I am guessing that they must be migrating. I saw the usual Canada Geese, grackels, robins, and ducks, but then there were Coots, Cowbirds, Woodpeckers, and I even saw a Turkey Vulture eating what I think was a snake. That took me off guard. I already knew that they were carrion feeders, so maybe the snake was killed by the mower or something.

I’ve been slowly getting going on working on the Model A Ford again this season. I had big plans to put in a plastic liner and heat the garage this last winter so I could work out there despite the temperature, but the prospect of putting that much work into a garage that we will leave in a few months to a year was too much for me. I’ve only had a couple of 2-3 hours stints so far, but I’ve gotten a little bit done this week.

Last fall one of the guys at the neighborhood auto-mechanic shop told me about a salvage yard just out of town that has Model A Ford parts, so tomorrow my buddy Devin and I are going to go out there and see what they have. For all you Indianans who are in need of Model A Ford parts (I know there are a lot of you out there, and that you spend a lot of time online) here’s the info: Carter’s Salvage, 700 E Jackson St, Veedersburg IN 47987

Woke up late today at around 10:00.  Listened to a little Within Temptation (metal band with a female lead singer) on YouTube.  Took Lenore to work.  Walked the dog.  Had a light lunch consisting of a yogurt and some Ass-Kickin’ Snack Mix which says right on it that it is “Kick Yo Ass Hot!”  And, as it turns out, it is.  Went out to the garage and got my tools organized to put the radiator back on my family’s 1930 Model A Ford.  Had to cut short workin’ on the car to go to a event for the artistic community that is trying to get established in Indianapolis called “Culturati”.  Came home, walked the dog, ate dinner, made juggilng balls out of old tennis balls to use tomorrow at a gig where I will be teaching race-car drivers how to juggle in order to improve their hand-eye coordination and reaction time.  Got a call from a buddy telling me that his dogs might have given my dog Whip Worms.  Ick.  Ate Brittish candy bar that I bought in San Francisco called “Toffee Crisp”.  It was yummy.

One morning a few months ago, when I let my dog out, there was a hawk in my backyard eating a freshly killed pigeon. It was awesome. There was a big circle of feathers, and bright red blood in the snow. As Vader ran out to see what was going on the hawk tried to fly off with its prey, but couldn’t manage it, so it had to drop the pigeon in the yard. Although it came back later, it couldn’t find the carcass in the snow. I felt bad for it. I am VERY much in favor of anything that will kill and eat pigeons… especially if it’ll do it with such style. After a misidentification by me in the bird book, my wife Lenore looked it up, and we both agree that it must’ve been a juvenile Northern Goshawk.


thanks to www.birdchick.com for the image

Today, I think I spotted its nest in a tree a few houses down the street from ours. I love raptors, so I’m excited about having the chance to watch this one more often. The leaves are just starting to come out, so in another week or so I won’t be able to see its nest, but at least I know where it is now so I can watch for it better.

I also saw a pretty big owl in the neighborhood last week, but it was far away and silouetted, so I really couldn’t see enough to try to identify it. I have seen very few owls in my life, so I hope I can get a better view of it.

This time my dog and I are Eastward bound. First a stop yesterday in Cleveland to hang out with the illustrious Steve Brown , and today we’re in Leonia NJ staying with Cousin Scott and family. The purpose of this trip is to go to the opening of Lenore’s first solo NY art show tomorrow night in Manhattan. It should be great. We both have a number of friends in the area, so I’m hoping that it will end up to be a little reunion of all our East Coast pals. We’ll see who can make it. Then after the show I get to go to the weekly post-juggling-practice meal with the NY juggling club. Good Chinese food, and always good times.

It’ll be a short visit here; on Friday we’ll take off again back to the good ol’ Midwest. After another stop at Steve Brown’s house, we’ll be home again for a couple of days before heading up to Milwaukee for a gig (in Chicago), and for me to fly out to California for my brother’s wedding. Vader will hang out in his “vacation home” with Lenore’s mother in Milwaukee. After that I’ll be home for a few days, then back up to Milwaukee for the Shorewood juggling festival where I will be MC for the big show.

March is a big month for traveling but April won’t be so bad.

This afternoon I had a really fun gig in downtown Indianapolis. It was for a party at RATIO Architects. Every month they have their 4th Friday at 4 Party, where at four o’clock snacks and drinks appear, and for the first time they decided to hire professional entertainment… that’d be me. Being at a place that has a party for their employees every single month almost made me want to get a job.

When I was hired they told me that the president had done a few yo-yo tricks at one of the parties in the past, and after my show today he came up to chat. His name is Bill Browne, and he told me that 30 years ago he and a friend set the world record for the longest session of continuous yo-yoing. They went to a radio station and yo-yoed for something like 30 hours straight! I didn’t get as much information about the event as I would have liked so I went home, got online, and checked out the Guinness Book of World Records site. I didn’t link to it because it is not worth your time. There are almost no records to be found on the site despite the fact that they have a search box, so don’t even bother. I can list more world records from memory than I was able to find in my searches of their site. I KNOW that there are more than 6 records in the category of “food” for example.

Anyway, the more I’ve thought about it the more I’m intrigued by this “longest continuous yo-yoing” record. I may just have to contact Bill again and see if I can get more information.

It’s gona snow tonight.  A lot.  People are FREAKING OUT.  The grocery store had every single lane open and there were at least 10 people in every line.  They were running out of milk.

Natives tell me that it regularly snows here in the winter, but you sure can’t tell that by the level of panic in the face of a snow storm.  We’re supposed to get 6-12 inches tonight, and the little “Snow Warning” tag in the corner of the TV screen has now been there for 18 hours.  The local news people are just SO excited about the big storm.  By the amount of coverage it has gotten so far you’d think that the Manson Family was moving to town.

Of course snow and slippery roads can be dangerous, and people need to be careful and properly prepared, but is it really necessary to make a national emergency out of everything? This is exactly what Michael Moore was talking about in Bowling for Columbine, we live in a culture of fear where the media just can’t wait to blow everything WAY out of proportion.

Yo-yo contests are awesome. First of all, I get to hang out with a bunch of yo-yo folks (mostly dudes, but hopefully that will change), and second I get to see TONS of awesome yo-yo tricks.

Indiana States was really fun this last Saturday. Much to my surprise a lot of the WAY out of town people came. We had people from Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, and even New York. I counted about 75 people before things really got rolling, so I think there were about 100 there at the peak of the action. That was twice as many as I expected.

For the most part the contest went smoothly. We got the freestlye routines (3 minutes of tricks set to music) going a little late and we had a LOT of them so of course things went long. 20 is a lot for one conetest, and we had 48 to get through. It was really too many, but it’s hard to cut people when the main goal is to encourage yo-yoing.

You can see the final contest results here, and you can learn yo-yo tricks here.

I’ve said it before, but it still amazes me how cool I continue to think yo-yos are. Seriously… yo-yos are awesome.