Update: I'm Not Dead

RECAP: So last Friday, while doing your everyday Atlas balance on Jeremy, I fell out of my standard upside-down orientation and rolled my neck pretty badly. Badly to the point of passing out and collapsing. Twice. After several hours in the ER strapped to an orange plastic backboard and getting stuck through a cat scan machine, it was decided that, while I hadn't broken or displaced any discs in my spine, I had most likely torn some muscles and/or ligaments in there someplace. Anyway, here's some drugs that will make you feel like a total zombie. Don't do anything for a few weeks. Crap. So A Different Spin placed a call to its West coast members and prepared to bite the monetary bullet to fly Alex out to Boston so he could go to Atlanta in my place for our first real gig of the season.

Update: Eff that. After two days of wearing my very stylish foam neck brace and being numb to the world, I decided to start rationing my drug use and testing range of motion again. I'd take the intense pain shooting between my shoulder blades over that crap any day. Turns out, my condition was improving. After another day, I had stopped taking my narcotics entirely; by Wednesday, I was out juggling with the boys again. God, it felt good to get out and do. Stuff. Anything, as long as it wasn't clouded by prescription drugs. By Thursday, we had an honest-to-God rehearsal again, and called Alex back to tell him we wouldn't need him after all. Friday we ran our fire show, built ourselves some new staves, and felt generally confident.

And now I sit in the internet cafe of the Sheraton hotel in downtown Atlanta at 2am, eating the sandwich I made myself at 5pm as we left our apartment in Boston. Our ski bag full of fire toys actually made it through airport security, and tomorrow should be an excellent day, provided we can track down a stupid Walmart that actually has some stupid fuel.

And I promised not to do anything upside-down until the machinery in my neck are back to one hundred percent, and I will keep my word; but at this rate, I think I'll be flipping over audience members in another week or two.

Photography At f/1.8, or "How To Distract Yourself From A Serious Neck Injury"

Still Life, with Percocet.

Today had a distinct high point and low point. The high point was the arrival of my new Nikkor AF F/1.8D portrait lens, which operates in an exceedingly friendly way with my new Nikon D80 D-SLR. After months of hemming and hawing, I finally sold my Olympus to a friend here in Boston and dove headfirst into the world of Ebay in all its glory. The camera arrived maybe two weeks ago, followed up by some filters and a memory card. So I cannot begin to describe how excited I am that, with the F/1.8's arrival, my new photography kit is now complete.

The low point of the day was the grievous neck injury I incurred while attempting the Atlas balance during rehearsal at the YMCA this morning. After some serious pain and two prolonged black-outs -- my thanks to Jeremy for catching me both times before I pitched into the bathroom wall -- I got strapped to an orange plastic backboard and loaded into an ambulance. The CT scan showed that I didn't do any serious damage to the vertebrae or spinal column; still, it's likely that I tore a few muscles and/or ligaments along the left side of my neck and that I won't be doing a great deal of flipping, spinning, or really much of anything in the near future. All things considered, it could have been a lot worse. So I'm thankful for that, I suppose.

But I don't understand how people can get addicted to drugs like Percocet; in my mind, it will forever be associated with the excruciating pain shooting up between my shoulder blades, and why would I want to remind myself of that?

More ADS Designs

Circus Arts Shows Poster (8 1/2 x 11):

Fire Shows Poster (8 1/2 x 11):

A Different Spin Got Talent

A Different Spin is for realz, y'all. For the last month or so, we have been doing our damndest to pull ADS together as a legitimate business. Which is hard when you're dealing with four people as ridiculous as ourselves, but still, we're doing it. This involves a lot more than I would have thought going into it. We are practicing upwards of six days a week, two hours a day. We are constantly writing and rewriting our routines to make them smoother and more entertaining. I have cut and recut the same three songs so many times that I'm not sure I remember what the original tracks actually sound like.

And that's just the performance aspect of it. On top of the 10-12 hours of rehearsal time each week, we're doing our best to be an active business practice. Ricky and I have been graphic designing our asses off to get ready for the APCA National Conference in Atlanta. Since the APCA conference is really focusing on the fall, Mooch and I have been submerged in more college calling, while Ricky and Jeremy are hunting down spring and summer festivals. We've also registered as an official partnership, gotten a tax ID number and opened a business bank account.

And to prove it, here are some of the finished products that Ricky and I have spent what must be hundreds of cumulative hours designing. Goooo team!

Business Card (front and back):	Full Page Ad:
Tri-Fold Brochure (outside, interior):
2' x 6' Vinyl Banner:

A Different Spin Photo Shoot

See the whole set.

Everyone should see this...

It's educational. It's entertaining. Mostly it's just pretty.

It's sort of long, but do watch it to the end. That's where it gets good.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/260.