Following up on a great suggestion from TZ Rogers, Charlie Cushing and I spent the last couple fire festivals working on coming up with a way to use Lanternsmith's handles for fire poi. The benefits are that the silicone handles feel great in the hand and because they glow in the dark they're difficult if not impossible to lose. To achieve the weight I prefer for my handles, we wound up cutting a handle in half but it's worked out well enough Charlie is going to start molding handles to that form factor.

techblog260.mp4

Charlie, Asaf Poiboi Thursday Kinetic Fire 2011

charlieasafkinetic2011.mp4

Charlie, Marvin Ong Friday Kinetic fire 2011

charliemarvinkinetic2011.mp4

This past weekend I got to host Alien Jon and Charlie here in DC as we geeked out for several days. We thought it would be an excellent opportunity to record a teacher information video for the upcoming Kinetic Fire Festival and here are the results. My apologies for the audio--I desperately need a better mic.

Kinetic will be May 12-15 in Earlville, IL. For tickets and more information, visit http://www.kineticfire.org

kineticajcharliedrex.mp4

For a while now I've been wanting to use my video blog to document elements of fire culture as I travel and meet people. This is my first attempt to do so: last weekend I went up to Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT for their Prometheus Club's Winter Fire Arts Festival for some epic geekage and workshops. Here are some of the highlights of the weekend as well as a brief interview with the two ladies who made me coming there possible.

wesleyan2011.mp4

Spent the weekend hanging out with some of my favorite poi peoples in the New York City area and on Saturday we hung out in Brooklyn right off Myrtle Ave in a small dance space. At one point we took turns grooving to a mix my friend DJ Sequoia put together months ago and Charlie threw out this session. I've known Charlie for a couple years now and without a doubt, this is the most kick-ass flow I've ever seen the kid do.

charlieflow.mp4

Charlie, Ted, Erik, and I took to the practice field Saturday night to break out a few 4 person patterns. It was a bear and a half to get them synchronized, but when we got them they looked positively amazing.

4compositefallwf2010.mp4

Ted and Charlie play off some awesome tunneling/composite moves at Fall Wildfire 2010.

tedcharliecompositefallwf2010.mp4

This is Charlie busting it out on Saturday night at Fall Wildfire. There's totally some tech here I barely understand (despite his best efforts to teach me ;). Overall a really kickass exploration of poi.

charliefallwf2010.mp4

Charlie and I took a chance to play with some composite patterns on Saturday night and really dug the results. We hope you guys do, too.

drexcharliespringwf2010.mp4