creative thing for the day -- juggler's challenge

2038-01-19T03:14:07Z

When I was in college I became a fan. A huge FAN. A scary, stalkery, hanging-out-at-the-band's house stoned kind of fan of a band called Heend. Fortunately, the band was this group of three guys who were all a little, I don't know, better than other people. The kind of people I hang with regularly now, for example. These guys, particularly Adrian and Andrew, were maybe the first people I'd met who were actually more creative than I was...more off-the-wall in their thinking, for sure, and putting the work out there in a risky way. Heend would do these shows called "Juggler's Challenge" shows, when they would play any instrument in any key or time or riff on anything that the audience could suggest. One night, for example, someone challenged them to jam in 13/7 time. And they pulled it off. I don't remember them pulling it off particularly well that night, but that challenge became a song they called "Prime". People would shout out key changes, themes, ask for specific kinds of songs, and the band was so tight they could do it. Mostly pretty damn well.

One of the guys in the band--Andrew--still plays in various musical ensembles, and from time to time they do Juggler's Challenge revival shows at Mr. Spot's chai house in Ballard. More about those here. So: time went on. We left college. Terry left the band to do his own thing up in northland; Adrian moved to Portland, and Andrew and Tina became a couple of my closest post-college friends for that first decade out of school. They now live in West Seattle about a mile from me, and once in awhile if I see Andrew downtown at a bus stop, I can get on his bus and ride out to his house and visit their wonderful tiny baby daughter and eat sandwiches with them at the Husky deli and then they'll drive me home. Well, ok, I did that once this year. The point being that I'm not a huge scary stalkery hanging-out-at-the-band's house stoned kind of fan anymore. But I still love the idea of juggler's challenge shows, which is why I'm issuing a similar challenge here:

throw me some balls to juggle in my writing. or drawing. (one caveat: that it be something I can do in 20-30 minutes).

give me a theme. or three words or phrases that you think will trip me up. tell me you want me to write a haiku about your special fandom, or a country song in which Spike proclaims his love to Harry Potter. Ask me for a paragraph about a 65 year old diabetic cop in Phoenix or a pencil drawing of my childhood home, or a story about one of my latest sexcapades done in 1950's bodice ripping romance writer language. I'm curious and eager to meet these challenges....so bring it on, babies. Let's go!

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creative thing for the day -- juggler's challenge