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NYC acrofest 2013
Two things that are true about me: I never want to leave home. And I am always happy and buzzy when I'm in New York City. Also, a third thing: I like to blog, document, email and otherwise write from airplanes. So when I leave home on Friday night to attend the NYC acrofest and then hop a plane to Cali on Monday morning, you get this post.
First, my pod. I stayed at the Pod Hotel, which aims for a sweet spot between hostel and hotel. The room really is a pod, very tiny and nice, just a bit bigger than the bunk bed it contained. In a way it seems like what a New York room ought to be; I quickly became fond of it.
I drove down with the Ant, who it turns out does not like NYC, late on Friday night. He took a look at the bunk bed and asked "so do you want to be up or down?...do I even have to ask?" Hah. We maintained our usual geometric relationship. :-)
The fest started with some rampant silliness: a short ceremony that involved invoking the energy of all the directions around us. The leader of said ceremony would say something like "The south-southeast is the direction of cynicism and sardonic commentary, source of perspective and also the occasional soul-deadening irony. Its color is kind of teal, well maybe actually it's more blue than that. It brings the energy of post-modernism and reflectivity. We welcome the energy of the spirit of the south-southeast!" Then we'd all say together, "AHO!" We did that for the east, south, west, north, sky, earth, and finally "within". After which we all said, of course, "A ho!" and I finally completely cracked up laughing. Well, at least I made it to the end.
And there was also the moment in class where the teacher mentioned "moving organically, like the elements of the earth." At this point the Ant and I met each others' eyes and made little WTF gestures. Elements are not organic, sir, your argument is invalid.
The acro classes on Saturday morning were fun, and introduced two tricks I don't have yet (pop from bird on feet to bird on feet, with 360 degree twist; and an entrance to reverse h2h from f2f. I then blew off the afternoon therapeutic session in favor of hardcore acro in the park with a NYC base who, last fall, flew me in my first no-safety-lines standing hand-to-hand. It was great fun to show him how I've improved, and he gave both me and the Ant some great tips that resulted in us being able to LOCK our extended standing h2h. First time ever. We even got a picture, which you can view on FB or G+ if you are so inclined (my feet are slightly cut off, but who can blame the photographer? Those feet were about 14 feet in the fucking air. The Ant and I are both tall, and much taller together.) I then blew off the "bodywork and dessert" party that night in favor of perching in my pod.
Sunday's acro classes were hard (Dutch-style acro that could've been taught by Niko but wasn't, and then a very h2h intensive class by KK). I finally got the apex trick of the second one by essentially doing a hs pushup onto the base's hands, and it took my last drop of energy: I was very suddenly All Done. Class hit the point of "there are five minutes left, practice what you want" and I decided to practice my escaping and eating lunch skills. More than likely, I missed a closing ceremony of some kind. Too bad. I relaxed alone in Central Park for a long time, did the big after-fest jam for a while (but lazily for the most part), and went to the Museum of Sex (vaguely disappointing, but I did see the exhibits for free by accident). Then I re-podded myself in preparation for this morning's very early westward flight, and here we are: somewhere between the East and West coasts.
First, my pod. I stayed at the Pod Hotel, which aims for a sweet spot between hostel and hotel. The room really is a pod, very tiny and nice, just a bit bigger than the bunk bed it contained. In a way it seems like what a New York room ought to be; I quickly became fond of it.
I drove down with the Ant, who it turns out does not like NYC, late on Friday night. He took a look at the bunk bed and asked "so do you want to be up or down?...do I even have to ask?" Hah. We maintained our usual geometric relationship. :-)
The fest started with some rampant silliness: a short ceremony that involved invoking the energy of all the directions around us. The leader of said ceremony would say something like "The south-southeast is the direction of cynicism and sardonic commentary, source of perspective and also the occasional soul-deadening irony. Its color is kind of teal, well maybe actually it's more blue than that. It brings the energy of post-modernism and reflectivity. We welcome the energy of the spirit of the south-southeast!" Then we'd all say together, "AHO!" We did that for the east, south, west, north, sky, earth, and finally "within". After which we all said, of course, "A ho!" and I finally completely cracked up laughing. Well, at least I made it to the end.
And there was also the moment in class where the teacher mentioned "moving organically, like the elements of the earth." At this point the Ant and I met each others' eyes and made little WTF gestures. Elements are not organic, sir, your argument is invalid.
The acro classes on Saturday morning were fun, and introduced two tricks I don't have yet (pop from bird on feet to bird on feet, with 360 degree twist; and an entrance to reverse h2h from f2f. I then blew off the afternoon therapeutic session in favor of hardcore acro in the park with a NYC base who, last fall, flew me in my first no-safety-lines standing hand-to-hand. It was great fun to show him how I've improved, and he gave both me and the Ant some great tips that resulted in us being able to LOCK our extended standing h2h. First time ever. We even got a picture, which you can view on FB or G+ if you are so inclined (my feet are slightly cut off, but who can blame the photographer? Those feet were about 14 feet in the fucking air. The Ant and I are both tall, and much taller together.) I then blew off the "bodywork and dessert" party that night in favor of perching in my pod.
Sunday's acro classes were hard (Dutch-style acro that could've been taught by Niko but wasn't, and then a very h2h intensive class by KK). I finally got the apex trick of the second one by essentially doing a hs pushup onto the base's hands, and it took my last drop of energy: I was very suddenly All Done. Class hit the point of "there are five minutes left, practice what you want" and I decided to practice my escaping and eating lunch skills. More than likely, I missed a closing ceremony of some kind. Too bad. I relaxed alone in Central Park for a long time, did the big after-fest jam for a while (but lazily for the most part), and went to the Museum of Sex (vaguely disappointing, but I did see the exhibits for free by accident). Then I re-podded myself in preparation for this morning's very early westward flight, and here we are: somewhere between the East and West coasts.