Boston for Christmas

Well it's snowing in San Francisco (and by that I mean its 70 and sunny) and the holidays are almost upon us. I am just finishing my last two days at work and my first semester at Circus Center. Soon I'll be winging my way back to Boston to spend a few days with family and friends over Christmas. Then I'll be back in SF to welcome the new year and my new life.

This weekend was Pratfalls and Rising Stars, Circus Center's winter show. It's sort of the culmination of a semester of training for me. I did my new unicycle act in the show. It went over pretty well. The crowd was very receptive, but then again they were just an amazing crowd. I'm looking forward to seeing the DVD. Hopefully I can post some photos or a video here soon.

Just auditioned for a show in January. I'm supposed to hear back in the next few days. Hoping that it works out. I'm taking a little break from training over the holidays, but I'm excited to start working on new tricks when I get back. I've been dreaming about expanding my unicycle act.

Happy holidays to everyone. Hope you all had a great decade.

-m

Long Time No Post

It's been a long time since I posted to this blog. I haven't given up on it though. I'm planning to begin posting again in the next few weeks. I've been a little short on time since starting the Clown Conservatory. Between training and work I haven't had much time to do things like post blog entries. This will all change in January, when I join the ranks of the (voluntarily) unemployed to pursue circus and art. I'm hoping that I will have more time to devote to the various projects I've been working on and to chronicle my adventures.

I'll try to upload some pictures and videos in the next few weeks of my unicycle and juggling acts. Also some ideas about my street show. I have a lot to talk about. Anyway, keep your eyes peeled. I'll be getting into stuff in no time.

: Horse Building

So I've started building my horse. Marya helped me to measure and cut a bunch of PVC. I bought a miter saw from my neighbor, which I'm really excited about. I've also devised a way to use the saw and my power drill as a sort of drill press to drill parallel holes through PVC. Now there is just a lot of hole drilling, assembly and probably trouble shooting to be done!

Me with my horse bones. This is about half of the horse,
but gives a good idea of scale and how long the legs are, etc.

Our down stairs neighbor is telling everyone that I am making a horse for him. I'm a little nervous about this because he's really cute and I can't see myself saying no! If this works out, I might try to make a smaller model that he can ride. Could be a huge commercial success, and I'll never have to work again.

Also, setting up some meetings to talk about "The Game" with our new friend Yutai. Really excited. And my first rehearsal for Journey to the West is on Wednesday!

I'll try to update a bit more regularly. Thanks for reading,

-m

: Circus School

I'm really excited to be starting classes at the Circus Center this week. It marks the beginning of my professional circus training. I'm starting the Advanced Program of the Clown Conservatory at Circus Center in San Francisco. Later this month I'll start rehearsing for our show, Journey to the West. It's based on a Chinese folktale. We'll perform it around Northern California next spring.

For now, I'm just taking a few classes and working on my own acts. I'm starting out in style by showing up at Teeterboard tomorrow evening. Seems like the right way to launch into my new career...

In other news, I bought the materials to biuld a life-size horse! Update on that project to follow shortly.

Sorry it's been a little while between posts. I'll have more time when I start working part-time in October.

-m

: Wings for People!

Several factors have contributed to my desire to build a set of wings. Working with my mechanical birds, thinking about what can be done with PVC piping, and looking at Leonardo daVinci's drawings of flying machines all have contributed. The idea is to creat a set of wings that can be hidden behind your torso but can deploy easily and are as large as possible. Here's a video of my latest prototype, on a little doll made from some advertisement.





The part you see in the video will be made of PVC. Not sure what material the webbing will be. I'm thinking of using some type of fabric, but I'm not sure what kind would be best. Any suggestions?

: Chinese Acrobatics

For the past year and a bit I've been training in Chinese acrobatics at the Circus Center. I'll start much more intensive training there in a month. My goal for the next year is to have three tumbling tricks that are performance quality. Here are three videos I made before my acrobatics class of where the tricks are now. Hopefully I can update periodically as they improve.

Any advice?

Standing Back Handspring


Back Tuck


Front Handspring

: Polar Bear

I built this polar bear as a model of my horse's legs. His extra girth makes him look like a robot polar bear to me. He's pretty fun to play with. He's made of straws, pins, a bit of coat hanger and a discarded metal canister. The straws and pins I got about 1000 of each from the dollar store.

: Hermitage

The other day I was walking by the highway and found a pink lipstick case. I picked it up (of course) thinking I could make something out of it. Then I had the idea of making a little hermit crab to live in my pocket. Now he keeps me company at work.



I like how he looks shy when he retracts..

-m

: Wire Wings

Here’s a slightly more beautiful version of the trigger controlled wing. This one is nice because it can fold up flat against the body. I made this wing extra tiny to fit inside of a bird body made out of a bent spoon. Marya thought the resulting bird was “Quite zaftig.” The naked mechanism is beautiful enough though, so here it is.





Soon I’ll finish a project, instead of constantly bouncing from one to another. Honest.

-m

Horse Head Nebula

Here's the horse head video. I made this head from some scraps of PVC but it gives an idea of the scale of the whole horse. Excuse me for being a big dork.




-m

: Horsies

The picture below is a scale drawing of the life-size mechanical horse that I will soon build. It will stand just over six feet tall at the shoulder. It can be controlled by one operator standing within the frame. The horse will be able to walk and gallop and switch smoothly between the two. I think he should also be able to rear up onto his back legs, but we'll see how heavy he is. The operator can also manipulate the head and neck to make the horse look around.



The whole beast will be made of 3/4" pvc pipe. Most of his joints are just nut and bolt assemblies, but some critical parts will pivot on a smaller diameter wooden dowel. I can post more details of the design if I'm asked about them. Otherwise I'll just do a big ol' post when I build him.

The horse design is largely inspired by Theo Jansen, who makes huge wind-powered kinetic sculptures. You MUST check him out on YouTube. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcR7U2tuNoY) And watch some of his amazing creatures. He also inspired me in that he's totally out of his mind. He gives a TED talk in which he talks about his machines as if they have evolved as a species and will soon be set free in herds on the beach. I'm trying to cultivate this kind of madness in myself in hopes that brilliant ideas will follow. No dice so far.

I also borrowed heavily from the design of a kinetic horse sculpture on clockworkrobot.com. The guy who runs that website sells a kit to build a paper horse that will walk around and pull a little chariot on battery or solar power. Pretty rad.

Later today I will post a little video of me playing with the head prototype I cooked up so you can get a little idea of the scale of the thing.

-m

Bedroom Floor Tour

You can learn a lot about a man from what's on his bedroom floor. This is an introduction to three of my most current projects in the form of a tour of the bedroom floor. Thanks to Marya for filming (and sharing her bedroom with my creatures and me.)




A little more detail on each of these:

Horse:

The life-size mechanical horse is ready to be birthed. I've been planning it for weeks and think I have a workable design. I've even made a list of the parts I need, scale drawings, a couple of prototypes of different pieces and this model. All I need now is a couple of power tools, about 120' of PVC piping and a weekend. Anyone know someone with a mitre saw and drill press?

More horse info to follow.

Clockwork:

I saw some watches and things at the Flea Market last weekend (shopping for mechanical animal parts) and bought a couple. Once I disassembled them I realized how beautiful the components were. These are the product of one afternoons tinkerings. I'm going to try and move towards designs that incorporate movement of the pieces, rather than just looking pretty.

Birds:

I'm still designing birds and experimenting with materials. I really like using clothes pins because they have a natural shape that I like. Nothing is easier to work with and experiment with than plastic straws and push pins, but I don't like how the final product looks. I've also been using coat hanger wire, which has a beautiful brassy look, but is tough to work with. Hopefully I'll soon find a happy "medium." Any one know where I can get tiny almost pinhole sized rivets?

More bird posts to follow.

-m

: Listing Stuff

These are some things I am "into."

Hopefully, I'll find time to write full posts about each of them and many more things that catch my interest.

Mark gets into:

Circus School-
I did in fact "get into" the Clown Conservatory (www.clownconservatory.org/) at SF Circus Center (www.circuscenter.org/). I'll be attending the second year advanced program there starting in September as part of the Ensemble Performance track.

Mechanical Birds-
I'm currently designing and building prototypes of some small mechanical sparrows. Teaching them to spread their wings and other tricks.

Horses
I'm done with planning and ready to build a full-size mechanical horse.

ObieGame style SF Adventure
If you don't know what ObieGame is, I can't describe it in a blurb. If you do know, Marya and I are planning one for the Bay Area.

Watches and clocks
Mostly taking them apart for now. Hopefully using the mechanisms in the future to create new things.

Science
I could theoretically get into this some day...

inflatables
Made of painters tarp and tape and ranging up to several stories tall. Also, inflatable scenery?

-m

Mark Gets Into: Blogging

Hi friends,

I started this blog to post details of my various projects and endeavors. The title is based on the theoretical sitcom "Josh Gets Into" which we talked about in our Oberlin days. On the sitcom Josh gets into a new thing each week. e.g. Josh gets into Organic Gardening, Liquid Cooled Computers, A Spandex Dinosaur Suit, etc. "Josh Gets Into" was never to become a reality, so I figured I could borrow the name. Later today I'll post a list of some of my projects and their states of completeness.

Regrettably I'm late for work, so I have to run. Thanks for reading my blog. Please leave me a comment and let me know you're out there.

-m