A Day In The Life Of A Peanut Butter Cup

Listen Up!
Ok, so sorry about missing last weeks post to start things off. I'm not exactly why I missed it, just lazy I guess. Whatev, at least this post will make up for it. :: So, let's start off with an update about Jugglers On Juggling, which I haven't done in a while. The main podcast is a bit of an interesting story, especially because I'm having trouble figuring out what to do with it. The comics are doing well, even though they are a bit underwhelming in the response they are getting, but so far it's been all positive. :: College sucks, what else is new. :: Job hunting has begun again for me, and I've got a number of places to catch up on and check back with. ight now, what looks like it's going to be the absolute BEST right now, in terms of probability of success, usefulness, and just what will overall work the best, is working part time for the welding company doing general labor and CAD work. Oh, and this welding company, is right down the street, and I've performed for the owner's kid. So yeah, it looks best right now. :: Well, I figure it's time to start working on my next juggling video maybe? I've already gotten footage of tricks better than any of my other vids, and have enough footage to start maybe. 97531, a clean 7 ball qualify, 6 ball tricks, and whatever else I have so far. ::

-- Music Release --
This is definitely one of my better tracks, and I don't care what anyone thinks. A started realizing how my mash-ups have recently been slipping into mediocrity because I was trying to put a new one out every week instead of when I had a genuine inspiration for one. So I'm not going to FORCE myself to make a new one each week anymore. As for this one, I recently went looking through my video games and TV music folder, seeing as how I had the brain-wave to come up with a mashup of two or more video game themes or something, and in the Austin Powers: Goldmember soundtrack folder I found this little gem by Smash Mouth that I listened to and then couldn't stop listening to. I immediately thought "I have to do something to this." I then remembered my recent revelation that my best mashes so far have been one overpowering track and one underlaying track with maybe an overpowering beat and minimal lyrics. I then thought about how I wanted to do something with a Kraftwek track, and so I looked in that folder for something to do. Suddenly, I found myself saying "Trans, Europe, Express" in time with the Smash Mouth track, and immediately I put it together. This was the end result of about 6 re-recordings and a rare burst of inspiration. Smash Mouth vs Kraftwerk - International Express

Daily Life 1:
So I got my first gig as an extra for Universal Talent last weekend. A background person for a Capital One commercial shoot in NYC on the 30th. THAT was a fun day. So I start off, my first time ever being part of a shoot (sure I've witnessed them before and have a good idea of what happens come camera-rolling time), and proceed to ask random people where the extras should go. Oh, and i didn't mention yet that I stayed up All Night beforehand in order to catch a 5:30 AM train to NYC in order to be at the set by 7:00. So finally someone tells me to go talk to this person, and she tells me to go get checked in at the holding area. Yay! Instructions to follow! So I head down to the cafe which was being rented out as the holding area, and inside there's a crapload of extras sitting and waiting for the person in charge of the extras (the one I talked to) to come in and check everyone's wardrobe.

Now, the wardrobe is supposed to be dark clothing, summer attire, and that's it. SO I decided to wear my Diggnation shirt, figuring it'd be cool. Of course, noone ever told me rule 1 of being an extra, no logos. So when everyone else was getting checked for wardrobe, I had to go get a loaner shirt, which of course the largest size they have is a slim XXL. It's fine, but it's a cold day and the shirt was pressed flat across my back. (Ok, let me explain, I don't get cold, at ALL. There is only one place on my body that ever feels cold and if it feels cold, I'm cold. That space is my back.) So yeah, I get the new shirt, and run back to the line to get photo'd in and mu number assigned. Then we're finally brought out and told what to do before they start rolling. This entire process takes from 7:00 to somewhere around 9:00. I completed at least 3 Sudoku puzzles while waiting on line for things.

So we're outside, and there's complimentary donuts and other breakfast items, so I grab one and yeah. A little while later we start shooting, and this is where the REAL fun begins. I already said, the commercial is supposed to be set in the summer, and here we are on Wall St in 50 degree weather with a wind chill of somewhere around 20 degrees. So between takes everyone would have their jackets on, and the main actors would be bundled up to no end. Then they'd give us the sign to take off our jackets and they'd start rolling. The best part was that some of the times between takes would be somewhere in the range of 10-20 minutes, so everyone would jump into the Starbucks right behind the set, and either grab a coffee or just stand in the warm lobby. Of course there were some that also decided to hang in the subway entrance or near the steam-spewing manholes nearby (as I did), and it was good. So basically, this went on for HOURS, until around 3:00, when it came time to shoot the second scene of the three scene commercial.

Now, since they didn't make me sign an NDA, I can tell you the plot of the commercial. It's setup as a big race through NYC between a track runner, a speed skater (ice, which was one of the jokes of the commercial was that the ice skater trips 5 feet into the race and loses because he's on pavement), a motorcross bike, and a stock car. So there was the starting gate scene, the start of the race, and the later scene where the car (which was obviously in the lead) is stuck in NYC traffic while the runner ran straight past it. The best part was during the second scene, where all the extras were moved to the sides of the road, right at the curb, as the race was started. The car was on the outside, and I was on it's side, so on all 3 takes, I would literally be leaning over and the stock car would pass within less than a foot or two, at somewhere around 40 miles per hour, and accelerating hard. That was awesome to say the least.

So I caught a few Z's between the second and third scenes because they had to have everyone who brought cars setup the traffic jam, so they told everyone else to wait for an hour in the holding area. And then when that was over, we were brought back out to be pedestrians and they shot the last scene. Simple as that. So after everything was done, I handed back in my loaned shirt, signed out, and proceeded to find the subway, which is a nice story in itself. But first let me say that overall, it was a pretty good experience. It was a nice pace, I got paid $150 bucks basically to suck up the cold and stand around for a few hours cheering and being part of a crowd, and I'm now a little more familiar with the procedure for being an extra.

Now, as for the deal with the subway, I'd planned the night before EXACTLY what subway train I was taking (The 2) because it led from Penn Station, to literally the intersection where the shoot was taking place. Thing was, they closed that train down while the shoot was taking place, and I spent about 20 minutes walking around the Wall St area looking for the next subway train that would take me to Penn Station. Eventually, I figured it out, and my god, I am taking the subway from now on when I go to NYC. It is multitudes of times cheaper than cabbing everywhere. So yeah. I got back home sometime around 8 PM, so I was spent, to say the least, but it was worth it.

Daily Life 2:
So let's skip straight to All College Night now. I get up on the 11th, and head out to help set everything up and start getting footage for the video I said I'd produce. Now, I said I'd produce a video the night before during the Computer Enthusiasts Meeting because JT (Jersey Cowboy) said he wasn't going to get that much video footage this year, plus after doing last years ACN video, which was basically a 1 minute video of people waving at the camera, I figured I'm MUCH more experienced with music videos and could make a better one. I still can't direct or make anything else better than JT, but Music video's are what I've been making since High School.

So I start gathering footage and help set up. Things go slowly, then I realize how little lighting we have for the DJ table, and by little, I mean the one blacklight that I brought in, which was NOT going to cut it. So I drive over to Spencers at6 Menlo, because I know exactly what they have there (having worked there for 3 months). I piked up a 12' rope light and a rotating police light. Both of them worked very well throughout the night, and yeah. So I did that, during rush hour, and basically arrived only in time to help put the finishing touches on stuff before people started showing up, but hey, what can you do.

So everything got finished setting up, I finished getting my pre-party footage, and we turned off the lights and started pumping everything up. The thing we did and didn't realize, was that we had run 3 projectors, 3 game consoles, two PC's, two computer monitors, and an entire speaker system, through two outlets. Not surprisingly, about an hour into the party, we blew the fuse and tthe power to those outlets went. Yay. So we resolved the issue, I'm still not sure how exactly, but we got it fixed and back up and running. The rest of the party went without a lot of incident, I DJ'd (horribly), juggled, got footage of people raving (mostly Wang), and ate the free spaghetti from next door. There is nothing on earth better than a spaghetti bar, and I don't care what anyone says about that.

So yeah, the rest of the party went fine, and I got home around 2:00, only to realize that my feet were now the equivalent of Jello. I slept it off and the next day edited the video at the top of this section.

Juggle This:
97531 and 15$ in lost balls. All I have to say, well, except for thew entire story that follows.
So let's begin a couple months ago, when I was still gathering footage for Sunlight None. I decided that since I was now able to do 7531's as easily as I would do say, 633's, I figured it was time for me to try 97531. I started off just trying to get a flash to a collect, starting from the right hand. Not from a pattern or anything, just throw the 97531. For anyone who's actually done the trick, you'd know that starting 97531 with the RIGHT hand when you're used to doing 7531 staring with the right hand, it's going to be a hell of a hard trick. HOWEVER, thanks to my unrivaled determination, I somehow managed to do a 97531, only the 3 and the 1 were switched hands, so I actually did 97[53]1. I threw the 5 and the 3 as a same handed multiplex. I realized that when I went back home and reviewed the footage, and said to myself "I can't use this", and it's sat on my HD ever since.

Skip ahead to now. I decide that it's time for me to try 97531 again, seeing as how I'm starting to have trouble thinking of new ways to combine 5 ball half showers with random siteswaps, and connecting siteswaps hasn't worked to well for me either. I have the brain wave as I start trying it on the 2nd, to try throwing the 9 with the left hand to make it easier. I tried thinking about the trick in a number of different ways to make it easier for me to wrap my head around. I first thought of it as a 97522 with the 2's being switches, but that turned ugly real quick. I then thought about it as being a 97 (or more like 8x8x) with a 531 underneath. That almost worked, but it looked nothing like a 97531. Then I thought, hey, why don't I just consider it a high throw with a 7531 under it. I thought of that after realizing that my 9's and 7's were nowhere near separated enough. It made sense, and before I knew it, I was throwing it right almost every time. Soon afterwards, I got it to a collect, and I couldn't have been happier. Well, yes, I could have, but the point is, I fuckin' did it.

So I decided, hey, the night is young, why stop now? I kept going and eventually made at least 6 more 97531's to a collect cleanly, including one where I'd done a 7777700 earlier in the run. I'd also managed to come VERY close to qualifying afterwards, and was at this time singing Daft Punk's One More Time in my head to psyche myself up for it. Eventually, my persistence paid off and I'd counted 10 catches after catching the trick. It was nowhere near pretty, and could only be called a cascade if you looked at it strictly in terms of what balls landed in which hand, and when they landed. Regardless, I did it, after 4 years of wanting to do this trick, I'd finally done it, and unlike how I would normally slam the balls to the floor, I thought "Hey, that's getting old. Go back to launching them all upwards."

Now, for those who couldn't tell the layout of the foyer I practice in usually, it has a balcony that circles the entire foyer, and 2 doors that you can access the balcony from. Regardless of all circumstances, the two doors are locked at around 8:00 PM. As I threw the balls up after doing the trick, two of them landed right on the balcony. I figured that the janitors would see them and at least leave them in the offices upstairs so that I could run in and claim them the next day, but apparently not, and I've lost 15 bucks. Thank you Pedro and Bob. Still, I think it's a fair price, 15 dollars for getting a 97531 to a qualify on camera, I'll take it.

A Day In The Life Of A Peanut Butter Cup ~ Reeses2150