The best spinner in the world... and the state of spinning today

...You are rigth!!!
And I thank to Rev for his post!!!

We must grow up!!!
I'm sorry but reading some posts I became sad...and I vent my sadness here :P

Let'go spinning!!!

Acciaio

"I don't want to grow up.
I'm a Toys'R'Us kid.
There's so many toys at toys'r'us that i can play with..."

why limit ourselves to non-competiton poiing only if we don't care what other people think of us and want to stretch our limits? seems like a bunch of dogma with no reasoning other than fear.

humm, actually i disagree with you there dut, sure fear can be a motivating factor when it comes to weather you compete or not, but i dont think is pivoltal, or even a major reason.

I say the main reason would come under the vauge heading of 'being a hippy'

I.E. not being of the nature that you have to prove yourself better than someone else in order to feel worth in what you do.

insulting? to say that peaple dont compete out of fear is as damaging a generalisation as saying that peaple only compete because they need to put others down to feel better about themselves.

Both are aspects of competeing, both are driving underlying needs, but as with all things human, its o-so-much more complicated than that.

I recon most peaple compete because its fun to do so, because they wish to test themselves, as a good excuse to keep in shape and be sociable, because they grew up with siblings.

but what of the single child, do artists do what they do for the same reasons or in that same spirit as the athlete?

we are in a dicipline caught between the athlete and the asthete, like many others. and as i said before, of course you can compete and be a winner with poi, but that dosnt nesecarly mean you want to, or that you believe point of practiceing poi is to compete.

Sure, why limit yourself. but we are just making a choice, we are not limiting YOU! (tho me might flame you for it later! )

what you REALLY have to look out for are performers, freaks.

T

and as you can see, i never come-peted in any spelling b's



T

as someone who has been there from early on in a scene (the Rave scene for eg) and seen it deteriorate to a useless state over time due directly to popularisation and dilution of philosophy I simply cant agree with Duts sentiment that the only reason people want to keep the fire scene in the background is cuz they are afraid someone better will show them up. Everytime a scene gets well known it gets crap. Ok the tricks might get more complex but the heart goes out of it. Ego gets involved and well basically you get more d*ckheads involved.

I think my coments about where individuals want to compete aply just as well to why individuals dont wish to see thier chosen diciplin become competative.

or comercialised for that matter, see joshes post above the the 'bit of a hippy' attitude.

T

Just passin through...

The best spinner is the person having the most fun

I like spining; i like the feeling it gives me; i love my friends and spining with them is even better I'll find my own path; I cut all the moves out that i dont like and keep growing and add new cool moves or fix sum till they feel gooood. The feeling is what its about for me

bye... have fun!

I dunno. The part scene keeps getting hijacked by money agendas and all that, but there is always the new underground where the really good parties are. Same with something like yoga. Yoga hasn't been ruined by it's popularity at all. You just have to ignore the mainstream, commercialized, celebrity yoga (if that's what you don't like), and find a good yoga class. There are lots of really good yoga classes. In fact, there are more now then there were before yoga became super popular.

The same will happen with poi if it becomes mainstream. There will be Britney Spears poi workout DVDs. Who cares? There will still be lots of great people doing good poi. If you have to give poi up because Britney Spears is doing poi... well, ...?

who cares what other people think?
whats the point in that?
whether you care or not, they are still going to think the same of you. so why be bothered? do what you want to do. let others do what they want to do.

a case to illustrate my point:

while having a lovely non-fire spin at a recent festival completely not performing tucked away at the side of a pumping dancefloor some dude I have never met decided to throw 1/2 an esky of cold smelly water over me. It wasnt pleasant - not the feeling of the water nor the way it happened. nor could it have been a mistake (although he jokingly made it out to be with a "sorry bro, didnt see you there" quip). As I didnt know this guy nor any of the people he seemed to be hanging out with (I watched him for a while to see if anyone I know put him up to it) I can only think he had some kind of problem with the way I was twirling - cuz he picked me out of a group of twirlers / jugglers, and other innocent bystanders.

Now if I were in a deep enough trance I might not have noticed the water - but are you really suggesting I shouldnt care about that kind of behaviour?

how did you arrive at the assumption that that situation was caused by the fact he didn't like your style of twirling josh?

that idiot could have had a million 'reasons' for doing something so rude, but i doubt it was because he didn't particularly enjoy your style or move selection.

i don't see how that (rather unpleasent) occurrance is connected to poi becoming mainstream

i get your point about some people's views on poi being pushed more than others.

case in point: sport juggling.
lots of people are now of the opinion that this is 'real' juggling - that any juggling apart from the type where you stand on the spot and throw lots of objects up (and occasionally throw them all high and spin round), is not proper juggling and is somehow below sport juggling.
if you want to see it happening, read some of pre's opinions on the matter.

like nick said though, its simple to deal with - you just ignore it and continue doing the activity the way you want to and being happy with what means to you.


cole. x

I am discovering now that poi is more than I ever thought it could be.

I had lost interest relative to earlier inspiration but have come back to it BIG time now.

This is all inspired by other spinners that I have met who have blown my preconvieved ideas about them and poi away.

I actually believe (whereas I didn't before) that I am really only at the beginning of a long learning process.

I am also glimpsing what Meenik was decoding in that interview.

Everything's connected....think real atoms, think rhythm. If music if proof of god, then what is dance?

Nix I really enjoyed your second to last post! I also love the person's style you mention.

Sport poi. YUCK!

Josh - esky's a silly word

josh-

On the one hand.. I have no clue what you are talking about... Since I'm am one of but a few stringers around here, and one of the only two that can do more than a really big (48"string) weave really fast.. most people around here at parties are rude like you say.. they come and wallk right through the middle of where we spin, simply because they don't see poi as something worth doing... the evil side of me loves those people since my strings are short enough to dodge them on the way through yet long enough to hit them in the ear..

On the other hand.. I completely feel you.. the advent of certain philosophies of poi, and the exposure of poi to the rave scene have subsequently brought with it all the horrible popularization that goes with it.. So now there are lots of people that string, but have been warped by simpleton ideologies... my friend was spinning at the last party (and considering he's my closest poi friend, he understands what glowstringing is) and while he was spinning his poi they kept ganging up on him.. doing their silly little wrap combos and what they apprently thought were just the most mind blowing grab your seat unfathomable patterns (for you non-glowstringers, these are string manipulations and fall into te same category as simple little wrap combos).. they got in his face and kept saying 'You can't deny we exist.. you can't deny this exists..'

now.. I don't care about peoples choice of style.. your style is your own, and you ahve plenty to build from.. Those who opt to only use two moves (the wrap, and the string manipulation), while they have their own style, also share a strikingly similar style to everyone else who does only those two moves.. (or by analogy anyone that does two moves in general: the weave and the butterfly) What throughly pisses me off to no end, is the fact that these people are getting inundated with such a naive philosophy as to think that if you don't do these two moves only then you are doing hippie poi.. if you want to 'rave' poi.. you only use these moves.. (granted this is of course my wording.. they will want to dispute this, but the dispute realy hinges on the fact that they are exclusively 'rave' style, and we are exclusively 'old' style.. in their eyes.. the fact that I use poi to talk about them probaby pisses them off more. )

anyway.. this shallow view of what it is that they are doing brews hostility between style choices where there is none.. and since, my compadre was the only spinning 'hippie' poi.. they ganged up on him.. All of this is purely a part of the growth of the popularity of poi as tied to the growth of the popualrity of a scene..

F@#$ MTV!

sorry.. I had to throw that in there..

now while I agree with nick that there will alway be the underground scene, and yes, there will always be us 'real' glowstingers (cleric, and sometimes kael ) and yes, we get more converts to the ture side everyday (idealogically speaking), I think the bastardization of its popularity has significant drawbacks..

I mean sure.. let the leeches have their own community, and let the keep to their own, and the can rape and pillage the art to their hearts content.. but the fact that I can't go anywhere without running into 5+ of these pricks pisses me off more than the occasional twit from the first category..

Now I'm sorry for this really long off topic rant.. I horrible about moving discussions in other directions, but... I think this was already being discussed quite a bit before I got here.. so maybe I'm not 'as' bad..

I only really practice with firechains so if people start getting a bit close (if they're doing it to annoy) I speed up to 'injury' level

Cease, then, nor Order imperfection name;
Our proper bliss depends on what we blame.
Know thy own point: this kind, this due degree
Of blindness, weakness, Heav'n bestows on thee.
Submit: in this or any other sphere,
Secure to be as bless'd as thou canst bear;
Safe in the hand of one disposing Power,
Or in the natal or the mortal hour.
All Nature is but Art unknown to thee;
All chance direction, which thou canst not see;
All discord, harmony not understood;
All partial evil, universal good:
And spite of Pride, in erring Reason's spite,
One truth is clear, Whatever is, is right.

Alexander Pope