kstruct

I had been thinking about going to this (I’m usually up for any sort of world record attempt which isn’t life threatening), but it looks like I’m not going to make it. I’ll be pretty surprised if they actually manage to make it (Canberra doesn’t seem the hop-hop-est town), but it will probably be fun anyway.

RAPID MOVES PRESENTS

GUINNESS BOOK OF WORLD RECORD ATTEMPT

THE BIGGEST HIP-HOP DANCE CLASS

 A FUNDRAISER FOR THE RED CROSS

Hosted by Nige from 104.7

DATE: SATURDAY 29 APRIL 2006

VENUE: AIS ARENA
TIME: 10:30 - 12:00
COST: BY NOTE DONATION
TICKETS: FROM RAPID MOVES OFFICE
ALL PROCEEDS TO THE RED CROSS
TASK: a 10 minute choreographed routine with everyone participating fully!
INSTRUCTOR: Fiona Freeman from Rapid Moves with the Rapid Moves Dance Crew
LEVEL: suitable for beginners and up. All ages!
WHAT TO WEAR: Sneakers and clothes you are comfortable moving in. e.g. tracksuit pants and top
FORMAT:
1. Warm up
2. Learn all the sections of the routine
3. Attempt the record with a 10 minute routine
4. Reattempt (if necessary)
WHY NOT JOIN US FOR A CLASS BEFORE THE EVENT TO BRUSH UP YOUR SKILLS?
BEGINNER CLASSES 14 yrs+: Thursday 7:00 - 8:00 or Friday 5:00 - 6:00
CHECK OUT OUR WEBSITE: www.rapidmoves.com.au   for more class times and costs.
Thank you for enquiring with Rapid Moves about our Guinness book of world record attempt!

I look forward to seeing you grooving away & putting Canberra on the map

Technorati Tags: world record, canberra, hip-hop

While I didn’t take a camera with me, a few photos of the balloon I was in (on the day I was in it) have been posted on flickr by Ben Harris-Roxas.

It’s the orange one with green, yellow, red, blue stripes then orange again at the top. Click through for bigger versions (though you won’t get anywhere close to actually seeing me in there).

It’s a pity there’s no dominant tag for the balloon fiesta, because judging by what’s been put in the Canberra tag lately, there are a lot more than have made it into the Canberra Balloon Fiesta pool.

Technorati Tags: canberra, balloon, fiesta

I have to say, I was pretty happy with the last impro show - more so than I have been for the last few at least. The audience was small-ish, certainly down from last time, but seemed to have a lot more energy.

Chris did a great job as MC, and kept everything moving along quickly, which meant we got through a lot of games (always good). Unfortunately Dave and I were knocked out prior to the final round (we though we were making a good comeback after intermission but as it turned out, I don’t think anyone scored less than a four (out of five) in the entire second half.

Overall though, the highlight for me was being part of an alphabet scene which, while less than perfect, didn’t fall flat on it’s face.

Technorati Tags: canberra, theatre, impro

I was up in Sydney today, and spent a bit of time wandering around the Museum of Contemporary Art in the Rocks up there. To be honest, I didn’t even know it was there until I was idly wandering past.

Sam Taylor-Wood’s exhibition was interesting, but didn’t entirely grab me. I guess there’s something about taking emotional portraits of a bunch of big name actors which seems a little more like name dropping than art.

What I did really like was the Tim Noble and Sue Webster installation (I don’t think that particular piece was there, but several in a similar vain). Basically, it’s a bunch of welded metal which just looks like a clump, but displays a silhouette (or several) when a light projector is placed very precisely. The pieces which were actually on display seemed to play a little more with negative space than the one linked above, but in truth I liked it more for the novelty than any real artistic value.

Anyway, all in all, definitely worth a visit, though I do wish I’d organised things and been there for the guided tour.

Technorati Tags: sydeny, mca, art

We got to launch again in very light wind this morning, and since we had no other passengers, I got to go up with the balloon. Canberra really is gorgeous from above, especially in Autumn. Though I’m not normally, I imagine it would be rather difficult to be afraid of heights in a balloon. The basket seems very stable indeed, and for the most part you can’t even tell that you’re moving as you drifting right with the wind (though that changes if you’re descending rapidly.

We didn’t travel too far, going up from the launch site, east over to the Hyatt hotel, then back to the high court and around a couple of times before landing neatly between the high court and Questacon. That said, the view from just that little patch of airspace was stunning. Of particular note were the patterns the fog made over the lake just as we got up - Just a light spider-web of mist flowing over the lake. It’s hard to imagine that the whole lake was once just a river flowing through a valley.

Anyway, enough rambling on about balloons - at least until next year.

Technorati Tags: canberra, balloon, fiesta, view, autumn

We got to launch balloons for the first time since I’ve been crewing today, which was quite exciting. The morning was particularly cold, more so than even the experienced crew were accustomed to, and the wind was finally moving away from the airport, both of which made for good conditions.

Once we got the balloon (which goes by the name Flying Fox) into the air, we followed on the ground for about an hour, meeting them as they landed on the edge of the lake in Yarralumla. The first question everyone always asks me is whether I have ever been up in a balloon myself, and though I haven’t and can’t really compare, chasing from the ground seems like fun. Today the wind was pretty light, so we weren’t in much of a hurry, but I can imagine in stronger wind it would end up a bit like the tornado chase scenes in the movie Twister.

The conditions for tomorrow (Sunday) are also looking promising, so hopefully we will get up in the air again for the final day of the festival. Though I haven’t really had a chance to take a camera, there are quite a few photos of the balloons on flickr.

…and finally, the balloonist prayer, because I thought it was cute when I first heard it today.

May the winds welcome you with softness.

May the sun bless you with hi warm hands.

May you fly so high and so well that God joins you in laughter and sets you back into the loving arms of Mother Earth.

Technorati Tags: canberra, balloon, fiesta, hot, cold

5am starts all this week so far, and not a single launch. It’s apparently rather unseasonable, but every day we’ve had strong window going straight towards the airport, which has meant we’ve ended up with no choice but to sit around, chat, and eat breakfast instead.

Tomorrow morning is also looking iffy, but Saturday and Sunday are apparently promising. Here’s hoping we get off the ground at least once in the time I’m there.

Technorati Tags: canberra, hot air balloon

So, I’m back from the aforementioned camping trip, which was, as jynx put it, fun even when it wasn’t. Our sleeping beds proved not quite up to the conditions, which made for a pretty hopeless nights sleep, but seemed amusing in retrospect as I was curled up in bed this afternoon (see Greg’s account). Unfortunately I now feel something rather akin to jet-lag having woken up again after dark.

Other than that it was a lot of fun in the traditional sense. Hiked up to a mysteriously bricked up observatory. Personified, invented a back story for, and then battled against the rock formations. Sat around the fire and generally enjoyed everything but the planes flying overhead.

Greg cooked some rather nice TVP bolognese (which I’m currently upstaging by cooking this real bolognese for dinner), and once Kristin and I got the fire going and properly arranged the next morning, we managed some very good bacon and toast for breakfast.

Anyway, that’s about all the news. I did find a better Namadgi website for anyone planning a trip up there, and it looks like we’ve been well and truly upstaged in the camping stakes by Victor.

Technorati Tags: camping, canberra, namadgi, tvp, cold

If my first attempt at pre-scheduling a post in WordPress has worked, this will get posted while I’m off camping in Namadgi National Park.

It’s not exactly obvious that setting a post time-stamp in the future is going to stop it from showing up on the site until then, but that’s what the documentation seems to say, so I guess I’ll trust it. I’m not sure how I’d like to see the interface, but the ‘Publish’ button is clearly confusing in this case.

The content management system I used to work on had the concept of an approved item, which was one that had been approved to be published, but the actual action of displaying it on the site was determined by a number of other factors (such as the publication date). Of course, that was generally too complex a concept for anyone other than we developers to bother grasping, so the users were generally insulated from it one way or another.

…but I digress. Camping should be a nice change of scenery.

Technorati Tags: camping, canberra, namadgi

No flyer this time, but we’ve got another impro show on Sunday the 23rd of April - 7:30 pm at the Street Theatre. Note that we’re back to 7:30 (the last show was 8:30) and that this is the second last Sunday of the month rather than the last. $15 or $12 concession.

The show itself has a playing card theme (hence the title full house), with the players in pairs being randomly shuffled into teams of four for each round. We’ll also have a bunch of great new players debuting from the latest stage one class, so it should be a fun show.

Technorati Tags: canberra, theatre, entertainment, impro