Subject: rec.juggling Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Supersedes: <rec.juggling_FAQ_825667204@hijinks.hal.COM>
Date: 1 Apr 1996 00:07:12 -0800
Summary: This posting contains a list of questions (and their answers)
.that are frequently asked on rec.juggling.  Those who intend
.to post to rec.juggling should read this FAQ prior to posting.

Posting-Frequency: monthly
Version: $Id: FAQ.txt,v 1.14 1995/12/16 19:31:10 barry Exp $

====================================================================
 1. What is the Juggling Information Service?
 2. Is there a news to mail gateway for rec.juggling?
 3. What is Mills Mess?  How can I do Mills Mess?
 4. What is contact juggling?
 5. What is the IJA?
 6. What do all those funny numbers mean?
 7. Are there any books that deal with juggling?
 8. How can I learn to juggle five balls?
 9. How can I find out if there is a juggling club that meets near me?
10. Where can I buy juggling props?
====================================================================

This is the file recjuggl.faq.  It is meant to answer those questions
that are frequently asked on rec.juggling.  These questions and
answers are not exhaustive, by any means.

Additions, deletions, corrections, praise, or flames regarding this
document may be directed to juggle@hal.com and naras-r@acsu.buffalo.edu.

====================================================================

1. What is the Juggling Information Service?

   The Juggling Information Service, or JIS, is a service available on
   the World Wide Web at http://www.hal.com/services/juggle/.

   The JIS has sections for the following:

        What's New
        Juggling Help
        Juggler's Home Pages
        News and Old News
        Picture Gallery
        Movie Theater
        Juggler's Mall
        Festivals
        Club Meetings
        Magazine Rack
        Juggler's World
        Juggling in the Media
        Juggling Software
        International Juggler's Association
        Search JIS
        About the Juggling Information Service

   Those with access to WWW can go right to the JIS and get started.

   If you need more information about the WWW to get started, you can
   refer to the file rtfm.mit.edu:/pub/usenet/news.answers/www/faq.
   This document explains WWW in some detail and provides information
   on how you might go about getting your hands on a WWW browser.

   If you do not have access to WWW, you can interact with the JIS via
   several e-mail gateway services.  The news service provides the
   ability to search and retrieve rec.juggling posts from the beginning
   of the newsgroup to the present.  For information on using this
   service, send e-mail to juggle@hal.com with NEWS-SERVICE in the
   Subject and HELP in the body of the message.

   In particular, the following informative posts may be retrieved
   by sending e-mail to juggle@hal.com with NEWS-SERVICE in the Subject
   and commands in the body of the form "SEND message-id", where
   message-id's are chosen from the following list:

   Message-ID                   Subject
   2pvd3t$3e9@hijinks.hal.COM   Juggling Information Service, intro
   2qj1ik$kfo@hijinks.hal.COM   Juggling Info Service, progress report
   2qmar5$1te@hijinks.hal.COM   JIS, rec.juggling archives progress
   2qp646$br5@hijinks.hal.COM   telnet access to WWW and the JIS
   2r53hm$kt1@hijinks.hal.COM   more progress at the JIS
   2sbi55$mcb@hijinks.hal.COM   some usage statistics for the JIS
   2sc42n$os2@hijinks.hal.COM   new JIS Home Page Service
   2sd4hd$rsm@hijinks.hal.COM   WWW access
   2tdem1$su9@hijinks.hal.COM   E-mail access to rec.juggling
   2uvkaq$r2j@hijinks.hal.COM   complete e-mail access to the JIS
   30uclf$f5n@hijinks.hal.COM   new videos at the JIS
   37smg1$mh3@hijinks.hal.COM   Archive site ??
   389ifq$ofc@hijinks.hal.COM   FTP access to the JIS
   3ks5s6$6nu@hijinks.hal.COM   new JIS search tool now available
   3mf4qh$l6l@hijinks.hal.COM   new juggling software available

   This last message describes the file service, which allows anyone to
   retrieve any file from the JIS via e-mail.  For full instructions on
   how to do this, send e-mail to juggle@hal.com with FILE-SERVICE in
   the Subject and HELP in the body of the message.

   You will notice "SEND file" commands scattered throughout this
   document.  These are all valid commands for retrieving information
   from the JIS via the e-mail file service.  Just include them in the
   body of a message sent to juggle@hal.com, and be sure to include
   FILE-SERVICE in the Subject.

2. Is there a news to mail gateway for rec.juggling?

   Not at the moment.  The former gateway at PNFI has been shut down.
   A replacement is being worked on, but will probably not be available
   until about June 1.

3. What is Mills Mess?  How can I do Mills Mess?

   Mills Mess is, as George Gillson puts it, a "mind boggling pattern
   of circling balls, crossing and uncrossing hands, and unexpected
   catches."  It is a very appealing pattern to learn and perform.
   You can perform it with three, four, and, for those who are not of
   this world, five balls.

   On the JIS, move to the 'Juggling Help' section, and you will find
   several pertinent titles.

        SEND help/tricks/mills-mess/

   There are also titles on two and three ball tricks, bounce
   juggling, showering, and tricks with showers, among others.  You
   will also find help for clubs, passing, rings, torches, numbers,
   siteswaps, essays, and other circus arts.

        SEND help/

4. What is contact juggling?

   "Contact" Juggling is the art manipulating balls so that they roll
   across, around, and over your body.  In other words, the balls
   always remain in contact with your body.  Although the term
   "contact juggling" is relatively new, rolling a ball across, around
   and over one's body is not.  Paul Cinquevalli, for instance, a
   juggler at the turn of the century, performed a routine where he
   wore a green felt jacket that had billiard "pockets" sewn onto it.
   He would manipulate billiard balls over his body and land them in
   the pockets.

   Today, Michael Moschen is the preeminent "contact" juggler.  He has
   a routine where he manipulates up to four crystal balls in each
   hand and gradually lets each ball go until he is manipulating only
   one ball.  Mr. Moschen is also known for his work in the movie
   Labyrinth where he acted as the hands of David Bowie doing his
   crystal ball routine (he did the routine blind and with the aid of
   a monitor.  Mr. Moschen was featured on the PBS Series "Great
   Performances" in the early 1990's.  This video is entitled "In
   Motion with Michael Moschen" and is available from Serious Juggling
   and Brian Dube (see below).  More recently, Mr. Moschen developed a
   piece for Cirque de Soleil that is being performed in Vegas.  Mr.
   Steve Ragatz, rec.juggler, performs in this piece.

   James Ernest wrote, and thereby coined the term, "Contact
   Juggling."  This book is quite controversial.  Some individuals
   claim that the book takes one of Moschen's routines and describes
   it movement for movement without giving proper credit.  The IJA
   created quite a stir in 1992 when it published a review of this
   book in Juggler's World after it had invited Moschen to be the
   honored guest at the '92 festival in Montreal.  Moschen felt that
   the book plagiarized his work and refused to attend the festival.
   After some reconsideration, he did attend and gave a workshop on
   creativity.

5. What is the IJA?

   The International Jugglers' Association.  It is an organization of
   about 3,000 jugglers spread over 31 countries. It publishes
   Juggler's World (an excellent publication), an IJA membership
   roster, has a group of affiliate clubs (juggling clubs with 10 or
   more IJA members), holds an annual convention and more.  For a
   listing of the current IJA Board of Directors, move to the
   'International Juggler's Association' section on JIS and
   select the item labeled 'Officers.'  To join, send $30 to Richard
   Dingman, IJA Secretary,  P.O. Box 218, Montague, MA 01351 USA.
   Call or FAX at (413) 367-2401.

        SEND ija/
        SEND ija/ija.info.html
        SEND ija/comp.html

6. What do all those funny numbers mean?

   They are site swaps.

   Site swaps are strings of numbers, each number refers to how high a
   throw is in relation to others in the pattern.  Even numbers are
   thrown to the same hand, odd numbers are thrown across to the other
   hand.  The numbers then, tell the right hand what to do, then the
   left, the the right, etc.  For example:

        3       The three object cascade

   The pattern repeats over and over again.  So rather than writing
   "...33333..." we just write "3."  Similarly:

        4       The 4 object fountain pattern (alternating)
        5       The 5 object cascade pattern
        5 1     The 3 object non-synchronous shower (1 is a quick
                pass from hand to hand)

    At the JIS, move to the 'Juggling Help' section and select the title
    Siteswap Notation for more information on site-swaps.

        SEND help/siteswap/
        SEND help/siteswap/faq.html

    In addition to the site swap notation, there are a number of
    programs that will display site swap patterns for the PC, X
    Workstations (Unix), Ascii Terminals (Unix), and the Mac.  Refer
    to the directory Software section at the JIS.

        SEND programs/
        SEND programs/amiga/
        SEND programs/ibm-pc/
        SEND programs/mac/
        SEND programs/src/

7. Are there any books that deal with juggling?

   Juggling For the Complete Klutz, By John Cassidy.

        The quintessential beginners guide.  This book comes with
        three bean bags to get you started.  It also covers basic
        tricks such as the half shower, behind the back,
        two-in-one-hand, four balls, and clubs.  This book comes with
        three bean bags and is very cleverly written.  The beef
        against this book, though, is that it addresses numbers
        juggling (juggling five balls or more) in a rather
        discouraging tone.  Beyond four lies madness, it claims

   The Complete Juggler, By Dave Finnegan.

        Where it lacks in detail, it makes up in volume. _The Complete
        Juggler_ is a veritable encyclopedia of tricks for balls,
        clubs, boxes, devil sticks, diabolos, and spinning balls.
        Beware of its lack of detail in explaining tricks, however.
        The text that describes how to juggle 5 clubs says 'bend your
        knees and go for it.'  Yeah, right.

   Beyond the Cascade, By George Gillson.

        The complete guide to three ball juggling patterns.  Even if
        you have trouble understanding instructions like 'toes go in
        first,' you can probably follow the instructions in this book
        and learn Mills Mess, 2-in-1-hand tennis, or Burke's Barrage
        (bend your knees and go for it).

   At the JIS, move to the 'Juggling and the Media' section and select
   the Books title for more information on juggling books.

        SEND media/
        SEND media/book.html

8. How can I learn to juggle five balls?

   Probably your best bet for learning five balls is to find a good 5
   ball juggler and have her or him teach you.  Also, study good five
   ball jugglers when they ply their craft, notice how effortlessly
   smooth the pattern is, how high the balls go, how the balls cross.

   If you can't find a five ball juggler, you can practice several
   tricks that will help you learn five balls.  The first is the three
   ball flash.  Out of a three ball cascade, throw all of the balls
   into the air, then catch them as them come down and resume your
   cascade.  It might be helpful to practice throwing one ball high,
   back and forth, so that you can get used to the higher throws that
   are necessary for juggling five balls. Another valuable trick is
   the three ball chase, or snake.  Start with three balls in either
   hand, then throw them to the other hand in a one, two, three
   pattern and then catch them in the opposite hand, one, two, three.
   Make sure that your throws are consistent and follow each other in
   nice high arcs (those of you who've been to St.  Louis can
   visualize the Gateway Arch).  Then repeat the pattern, throwing the
   balls one, two, three, back to your original hand.  Once your arcs
   are solid, you can keep the pattern going. Say you're starting with
   your right hand, throw the balls one, two, three, to your left
   hand.  Your left hand will catch the first ball, then cascade it
   back to your right hand, under ball two.  You will, similarly,
   cascade ball two under ball three, and then ball three will be
   cascaded back.

        SEND help/numbers/5-balls/
        SEND help/numbers/5-balls/learning.html

 9. How can I find out if there is a juggling club that meets near me?

   At the JIS, move to the Club Meetings section for lists of all known
   juggling meetings worldwide:

        SEND meetings/
        SEND meetings/no_amer.html
        SEND meetings/unit_ki.html
        SEND meetings/germany.html
        SEND meetings/europe.html
        SEND meetings/antipod.html

   Better yet, see the page designed to answer this very question:

        SEND meetings/close.html

10. Where can I buy juggling props?

   At the JIS, move to the 'Juggler's Mall' section for information on
   all juggling vendors worldwide:

        SEND mall/
        SEND mall/no_amer.html
        SEND mall/unit_ki.html
        SEND mall/germany.html
        SEND mall/europe.html
        SEND mall/antipod.html

   The following vendors all sell a wide variety of juggling props via
   mail order or e-mail:

        Infinite Illusions, P.O. Box 2584, Tallahassee, FL 32316
        (800) 54-TORCH, e-mail: infinite@io.com, http://pd.net/catalog/

        Brian Dube, Inc., 520 Broadway, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10012
        (212) 941-0060, e-mail: info@dube.com, http://www.dube.com/

        Beard Juggling Equipment, Old Town Mill, Old Town, Hebden
        Bridge, West Yorkshire, UK, HX7 8TE, 01422-843672, e-mail:
        101371.443@compuserve.com, http://www.eclipse.co.uk/pens/beard/

        Circustuff, 83 Uist Road, Glenrothes, Fife, UK, KY7 6RE
        Tel/Fax: 01592-620711, e-mail: circustuff@almac.co.uk
        http://www.demon.co.uk/circustuff/

        Todd Smith Products, 13401 Lake Shore Blvd, Cleveland, OH 44110
        (216) 761-6388, e-mail: 76450.245@compuserve.com
        http://www.iac.net/~mort/todd/

        Rob's Magic & Juggling Shop, 3023 Central NE, Albuquerque,
        NM 87106, (505) 266-9068, (800) 705-8425
        http://www.nmia.com/~magic/

        Renegade, P.O. Box 406, Santa Cruz CA 95061
        (408) 426-7343, e-mail: renegad@cats.ucsc.edu

        Juggling Capitol, 1100 Pennsylvania Ave, NW, Washington DC 20004
        (202) 789-1799, FAX: (202) 789-1799, e-mail: jugcap@aol.com

        Serious Juggling, P.O. Box 55276, Portland, OR 97238
        Tel/Fax: 800-JUGGLE-0, 503-771-0824, e-mail: ben@teleport.com
