My Blog

FOUR

mcp — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:04:31 GMT

1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3x_uHANy-A 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8HsivhIEvA 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2lQvakVFX0 4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GmtxdIOEzE

EPIC Global XMAS Video Thread

mcp — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 10:38:34 GMT

Woooooooooooo! It's the end of October, it's getting bloody cold up here in Scotland and it seems like it's time again to give the gift of spinny awesome in video form! Yes, you too can make someone else happy with the gift of DATA! Data in video form, containing, really whatever. Maybe make it to do with spinning... I don't mind. And yes, this year, POI is allowed also! ;) No really it is, as is, CJ, Clubs and cubble-ling, juggling, staffing, doing the other things with fire, everything that goes in a circle or is a circle in profile is all good this year. Obviously some of you tried it last year, but this year acceptable. So what are the RULES? Well make a video, post it on XMAS eve at midnight ish. Simple. For all you druids, xmas is the 25th of december. For everyone not in my timezone, post it at local XMAS time. That way some of us get our presents early! While others bemoan the lack of anyone making videos on time... yay! So one more time: 1) Make a video. 2) Post it on XMAS like a present. 3) Make other spinners happy. You've got two months, so you could make a backup (durbs) if you really want. But for me, this is one of the only two times a year i really put any effort into makeing a video... so I quite enjoy it. Your videos can be as Christmas themed as you like... or chrimborg themed if you like, with you in a box wars outfit as a chrimborg spinning warrior... er yeah. Actually I think this years theme should be Comedy. So if it's funny, you're funny, or you're having fun making it... that's all good. Theme = Comedy. Yay. [Anybody with difficulty can message me with questions like: Can I send you footage and you edit it? Answer: Yes. Can I visit you and get you to make a video of me? Answer: Yes. Can I Marry you? Answer: Nope.] I may even make a symbolic christmas tree this year... maybe next year I'll try for an advent calendar of object manipulation awesomeness... Meg

Wildfire 09

mcp — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:30:43 GMT

ZOMG! Wildfire was a bit good wasn't it? I really enjoyed spinning fire lots, either running around (and sometimes doing situps) with contact staff like a loon, pretending to do french poi, or just doing whatever with double staffs. I had great chats with Aileen and Chris and Baz and Myron and Ewok and Charlie and Sticky and Dale and Tory and Steven and many other people, including some parents. It was so nice that everyone was friendly and welcoming. It's not often you go somewhere where almost everyone is happy to see you. The workshops were a lot of fun, Chad and Baz taking the brunt of the comedy in two of them. The other three being more mellow and focused. I particularly enjoyed what everyone came up with in the Partner Doubles class. That was a pretty amazing class for creativity. If anyone has any feedback on any of the wrokshops, let me know or message me or something. It can be anything, seeing how it is from a students perspective is very useful, even if negative postive or neutral. And I'll hopefully get the notes for the monday missed class up on the web so at least I don't feel so bad about it. The meals! They were amazing, breakfast lunch and dinner, equally mindblowing. Cooking for 300 people can't be easy, and certainly can't be easy to make them that good. On one day, I only ate breakfast and didn't feel hungry for the rest of the day. Some might say that's because I ate too much, but I like to think it was because breakfast was so good. (Not that lunch and dinner didn't look amazing, but damn that's a LOT of food for a wee scottish lass) Thanks to everyone who organised and cleared up. I enjoyed hammering nails and destroying racks but I know there was a ton more that went on in prep and clean up and that's a grinding tiring job at the end there. But the pizza after wildfire was a great dinner and conversational experience. I'm glad I got to be part of it, I guess if you have to slog thru clean up, that's the best reward for it. Thanks to Steven for driving me there. I should have given you some money towards gas and tolls but I forgot due to jetlag on that day, and whenever I subsequently remembered, I didn't see you. It was nice to meet a good few wildfire first timers. Made me feel a bit less of a noob. And damn are those dog tags AWESOME. That idea is the best idea ever!. GOTTA COLLECT THEM ALL! Yeah! Hopefully we'll get the Meg and Chad show goin' on next year. I really enjoyed the performances, even with all the drops, restarts and going excessively over time in my club act. Oh well. Brad and his lights! Jesus christ! I also loved hideki's taking requests and then trying to figure out which spinner on the field had requested the song... And some of Baz's mash up's made me wish I had permanently pre dipped toys... The cabin was good times, even if very hot, I didn't complain too much about that thou. And the surrounding enviroment of wildfire was worth the ticket price alone! Next time I'm bringing an oar so I can get in those sea kayaks (I don't know why they need them but they have sea kayaks) and paddle about like a frantic chipmunk. Good times. See y'all again I hope! meg

continuing to do the pois. Oh what have I become?

mcp — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 20:09:16 GMT

-------------------------------------------------------------------- 2! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-hIO_WBmrg -------------------------------------------------------------------- 3... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-mQCfYok54 -------------------------------------------------------------------- 4? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKXcxQByMKY more clubbles for josh at the end there.

i can do the pois and the wee hoops

mcp — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 10:48:27 GMT

Videos from practise. I should make a youtube account seperately for these, but I haven't yet. hoops http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXU5-QVfX2c poi http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOORdkZ-I6U hoops 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpgcFc7WbKc poi http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2eLgNBGVDo in the future times: more poi, clubs and orbitals. Hmmmmmm orbitals. I've got the clap. I do. I really like saying that.

New Tutorials for 2009

mcp — Wed, 20 May 2009 17:26:30 GMT

New Tutorials for 2009 The last time I made new tutorials must have been 2 years ago... so sorry you had to wait so long... some DVD's got in the way... This time, I thought I would take a leaf out of Nick Woolsey's book and do Voice Overs on the tutorials. They're kinda scrappy VO's, cos I don't have a radio mic and someone to do all the editing for me. Lucky Nick. And some of them don't have VO's because i was super hurried and learning how to use Cubase in about five minutes and didn't unmute the tracks before saving them. So there was that, and I have no microphone here to redo them... so I might put some titles on them at some point... So I guess I should release these one a day, do that you guys keep coming back to my website and I can clock up hits and adwords clicks, oh wait, I don't have any adwords... But I haven't cos that seems like pretty bullshit way to live. So here they all are, at once... har! I probably got a good bit of RSI doing all these 77! tutorials, but well, I know you guys love me, (even the ones that don't speak english) so it's all worth it. Email me if you find a mistake, you don't get through 77 tutorials without making a mistake or two somewhere... The ones with Voice overs can be found in FLV and WMV9 here: http://videos.tepookatoys.com/rendered/ or at this article / video resource page: http://mcp.tepookatoys.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=268&Itemid=11 The ones without voice overs and no music: http://videos.tepookatoys.com/flv/ or at this article / video resource page: http://mcp.tepookatoys.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=269&Itemid=11 Stuff I forgot to say: Yeah the tutorials are not as detailed as the 'proper' tutorials I made last, they're mostly new moves and concepts so naturally they won't be as polished but also harder to teach. If you want polished tutorials of the basics... oh what's this? My DVD is availible from Trick Concepts or Flowtoys or direct from my website if you want the PAL version... http://manipulation.firestaff.net Yeah so they're new tutorials of new things. Some of the new things can be seen in this video that I'm about to upload to youtube. Why didn't I upload all these tutorials to youtube I hear you mutter? Well I couldn't be bothered... Mostly. 77 is a lot of waiting around for uploading. It was a lot of work to film, render, voice over, rerender with voiceover and compress, convert to FLV, create links and text and then make pages for 77 videos. So uploading them one at a time to youtube isn't on my agenda. Rant over. Sorry. DL: http://videos.tepookatoys.com/media/tutorial-coolbits-alt.wmv Shows some of the new stuff in the tutorials. Without names. Sorry. I fail. Epic.

Double Staff Simulator

mcp — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 23:13:17 GMT

It's just like buses, you wait forever for one, and then two come along at once... The russians: http://fireforum.com.ua/viewtopic.php?t=4250 Which is flash based and very good. Not actually in russian either, just that forum page is. and mine which is a program: http://firestaff-tutorials.co.uk <- has pictures of it. which I will repost here for your viewing pleasure: LAB INFINITE I made a double staff simulator. Like those juggling simulators, but for staff. Like that poi-bot, but for staff. Like that... yeah, but for staff. You'll need Java 4/5/6 installed to run it. And I'm pretty sure it's maybe only going to work on windows right now, even thou it's java. Cos of loading the images. Which sucks. I might get around to changing that when I get home, back to my linux machine. So you need java, and you need to unzip the directory and then double click on the LABinfinite.jar file. Then it should work, hopefully. Some stuff might make things go weird and then you can't fix them. Try reset and sync. Or just restart the program. It's not super optimised but hopefully it'll run at a reasonable rate. http://lab.firestaff.net/LABINFINITE/LABinfinite.zip

Guerrilla Glow Team

mcp — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 07:27:38 GMT

Meg + Hamish aka the "Guerrilla Glow Team" http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8965262083386767457&hl=en er, woo yay! grin Download at: http://videos.tepookatoys.com/media/glowteam-large.wmv cos then you can see the waterfall.

DOUBLESTAFF DVD

mcp — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 02:28:55 GMT

It looks so sexy, but it isn't finished yet... http://doublestaff.firestaff.net/

IRN-BRU ALL STARS

mcp — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 13:07:48 GMT

Coming to a festival very very far away from you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UNSPSk_WpE

Staff Manipulation DVD - OUT NOW!

mcp — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 14:59:46 GMT

Yeah, so My dvd is finished, and avalible for yous to buy from : http://manipulation.firestaff.net/buyonline.html Or you can find out more about it at: http://manipulation.firestaff.net It is in PAL, so unless you check your DVD player (if you're american) it probably won't work on your NTSC equipment. It WILL work on ANY computer however. Buying it direct is best, but other real and online stores you might know and trust will be carrying it soon. It's got amazing inspiration sequences on it, that even I go back and watch again... they make me think i have to go out and practise more... It's got spinning tutorials, contact tutorials and doubles tutorials, all starting from absolute beginner. And they're the most well made tutorials I could make. I have explained it as well as I possibly can in this DVD, especially the contact moves cos I loves them. The tutorials are at least ten times better than anything on this site, even the really good ones I made. Featuring slow motion, freeze frame and multiple angles, not just for coolness value, but concocted to show you in the most obvious way how the moves work and YOU have to move to make them work. I didn't really like having a PayPal donate button on this site, cos it felt so cheesey, nor have I given in to Google AdWords, so if you maybe liked my free tutorials, learnt a lot and wanted to give something back, you could consider purchasing the DVD... And you get something for your money as well! Alternatively, you can wait for the Intermediate/Advanced DVD's that I'm in the process of making, about Doubles and Contact exclusively. They're going to be my masterpieces, at least, that's my dream. The final say on Contact... and as for Doubles, covering a huge previously uncovered area, but doubles moves so fast... it's not exactly going to be the final say... :D Can't wait for them to be finished... :D Meg also: Who knows what the deal is with blatent advertising of this DVD on tribe, like on forums?

Lab Reports - new website

mcp — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 16:11:19 GMT

Definitive List:::: http://lab.firestaff.net

I'm back

mcp — Tue, 29 May 2007 08:35:04 GMT

email reponses and housekeeping will start shortly...

heathrow

mcp — Sun, 06 May 2007 08:27:02 GMT

in heathrow, almost all the sticks I own are in a bag goin' through baggage handling, and I'm going to san fran mutherfucking cisco! YEAH! Hawaiiiiiii, and L.A.. :D Yeah: :D

British Juggling Convention

mcp — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 22:44:56 GMT

I am outta here for five days. First holiday of the year! YEAH!

Fire and MCP @ winter with mcp

mcp — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 09:02:01 GMT

right: me @ my event (mcp @ winter with mcp): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0ZapchDDH8 The full fire video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wEG6R5-USA

LAB 08.meg

mcp — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 13:15:45 GMT

a lab video not from New Year but from various bits of footage. All doubles - mostly all just showing weird patterns. Muchos boring. Sorry. http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=5061805837378230359&hl=en-GB if you want to download from google video, use keepvid.com

Will @ winter with mcp

mcp — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 12:03:03 GMT

:eek will @ winter with mcp... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6JMapcGXPU wait for it to process and wait for me to upload a downloadable version... will's spinning speaks for itself....

Winter with MCP - Fire Teaser

mcp — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 16:00:56 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNvVhdsBVZ8 fire teaser

Alex @ winter with mcp

mcp — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 16:00:16 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpkjGmpvLng :D

aidan / ado-p video

mcp — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 10:28:31 GMT

http://videos.tepookatoys.com/media/private/aidan-winter.wmv yup, a whole video dedicated to the irish iron fist! I thought afterwards that maybe the song is a little cheeky, but the boy is a good dancer, and I wouldn't make an entire video of him, if I didn't like his style. Well really I made it so strugz wouldn't keep complainin' at me. More new year videos to follow, in longish order. gootube: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Uwub_Mxzu7g

Beginners Double Staff Tutorial Article

mcp — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 13:53:23 GMT

http://mcp.tepookatoys.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=205&Itemid=11 or on HOP: http://www.homeofpoi.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/771587/page/0/view/collapsed/sb/5/o/all/fpart/1 Rockin'! That's the last of the articles. :D

Beginners Contact Staff Tutorial Article

mcp — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 12:03:35 GMT

http://www.homeofpoi.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/769495/Main/769452#Post769495 or on hop: http://www.homeofpoi.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/769452/page/0/view/collapsed/sb/5/o/all/fpart/1

Absolute Beginners Single Staff Spinning Learning Guide

mcp — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 15:04:29 GMT

http://mcp.tepookatoys.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=202&Itemid=31 or the same post but on hop: http://www.homeofpoi.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/767484/page/0/view/collapsed/sb/5/o/all/fpart/1

reply to silence that went astray

mcp — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 22:52:04 GMT

reply to silence that went astray. Fucking university, I wish I'd quit it and gone to circus school... But that's not a choice I can take back, and I get the impression my degree will be something to fall back on when I'm older and too arthritic to move much. Doing something for 5 years is a long time. Maybe in that time you'll get bored of it and have a change of heart... well good. You're allowed to do that. I didn't want to have to use my degree when i left uni, but now I find myself in a job of work and everyday says to me that I shouldn't be doing it. Everyday I have to remember where the money I'm earning is going to take me and that's it's all just a means to an end. I'm certainly intelligent enough to be anything I want to be, but university destroyed any interest I had in my favourate subject. but led me to other arts. Some of which I have absolutely no natural ability at, just overwhelming motivation. ideal job: Working at google and spending all my time writing staff animation applications. Then getting interested in AI, cool technology and making things again. But the adrenaline memory of my last performance hasn't worn off yet, so I'll be doing this for a wee while longer... :D