adult hooping

My brother visited from up North with his children the other day.

As with most kid visits, the hoops soon found their way into the playspace, and my brother decided it was time to give it a shot.
K is a very accomplished athlete, a triathlete, golfer and competitive basketball player. So he was adequately frustrated when he couldn't keep even my adult-sized hoop up for more than a few revolutions. He asked me what the motion was and I made several attempts at explaining both a side/forward rocking and a basic front/back... he still couldn't get it.

Finally, I said "Karl, just pretend you're fucking. Pump, back, pump, back, always pushing against the hoop." The next time he picked up the hoop, he went for over a minute, with a look of pure glee on his face.

So now, grown-ups, you know the secret of good hooping. :)

chance and symbolism

Everything for a reason, everything with a purpose.

The other night I had a particularly depressing time on the town. The beginning of the 4th of July, around 1am. I got so flustered that I changed my dinner order to take-out, and sat there debating whether to pay cash or credit. I counted my cash and put my card on the table. Finally went with cash. And I was so done, that I just left the cash on the table (in Mew York City!), walked to the front desk, and told the waitress "I left it on the table" as I fled the scene of the crime.

he next morning I counted my cash. Something like $75 total, about $20 of that in 1s. I couldn't find my ATM card but didn't think much of it... until I had spent almost all my cash on a new pair of shoes, a new shirt, 2 slices of pizza and a drink. I had $8 left. And spent 30 minutes searching for my ATM card in vain.

I made it through the night through the kindness of strangers. The club gate girl who slipped me in, the girl who bought me bottled water.

Come the next morning, I had a single $2 bill and began to strategize how I might transform that and a metro card into a passage to the airport the next morning. It felt like Burning Man all over again, in a way.

Anyways, waltzed over to the restaurant, and asked the maitre de about a lost card. She was super sweet, checked the office, asked the bartender, even called the manager. No luck. I told the bartender "I lost my green card." He said "That sucks." And I replied, "Good News, Bad News... Who knows?"

Back to the homestead all 35 feet south, a renewed effort to find my card. It *will be* here. I *will* find it. A mere five minutes later:

bending three magazines (with a sneaking suspiscion), I sense something rigid inside one of them. Hmmmm... I grab them by their spines and shake. Low and behold, what falls out of, but my little green ATM card. Right behind the flap of "quiet your mind... 5 poses for inner calm," followed closely by "Transform your life with yoga of the heart"

This was a powerful message atop the Ram Dass Be Here Now, and Bhaghavan Dass' It's Here Now (Are You?) reading of the night prior. Slowly, but surely, a picture is forming...

Steve Harvey's Big Time Challenge

Prolly not a Burner, but a Hooper true to heart:

In the Flow

Some say "dance like no ones watching"... I say, "Hoop in your underwear!" Greetings, Earthlings! I come from the Planet Hooplaughteron!



PS - beats by Bassnectar. Unless you are allergic to ass-shaking, BUY THIS ALBUM NOW!

PPS - black socks R kewl

6 year old alyson is a master

and i, the apprentice. witness the wisdom:

"let me show you my hoop tricks...
and you can also use poi in this context, oK daddy?"

she's already related the two, with no prompting other than practice. yay, ally!

oh, neighbors!

one of the more amusing side effects of being both a poi apprentice and a nocturnal human is when my poi or hoop collide violently with the cieling.

I had always considered being on the ground floor of an apartment to be a lower status arrangement... the view is street level, and when the upstairs neighbors dance or jump (or whatever they do) you can hear the thump thump thump. (of course, its easier to get groceries in the house on ground level, hah!)

How unusual it must be to hear the thump thump thump coming from your *floor*! I grimace and laugh lightly when I bop their floor at 4 in the morning... of course they might not be able to hear it with the bass from my house music goin on too! :)