It seems you don't have an avatar at present.

Perhaps one of these might do? I present an Iron Dwarf and a Bronze Dwarf:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/_boo_/2696016409/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/grumbler/2934107336/

>> ^SlipperyPete:

Omsk train station (Nov 21, 2004):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/48245914@N00/6637294193/
A couple of random locals we met in Omsk - their English was pretty good, and they showed us a fantastic time (I'm on the right):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/48245914@N00/6637293881


Very cool!

Omsk train station (Nov 21, 2004):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/48245914@N00/6637294193/

A couple of random locals we met in Omsk - their English was pretty good, and they showed us a fantastic time (I'm on the right):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/48245914@N00/6637293881

This is probly a private story, but wtf.

This track (REZ) defined my adolescence. My older sister was a party kid (read: raver) and I thought she and her boyfriend were just about the coolest people on the planet when I was about 14. She had crazy colored hair and hosted all her crew's house parties at our house. He was an "agro-skater" as we called them in the mid-90s, and he taught me how to grind rails and do stairs backward. I used to hang around them like the classic cloying little brother, just trying to absorb all their coolness by proxmosis (that's a term for proximity osmosis I just made up).

Late one night, my sister came in to my room when I was in bed and she popped a disc into my stereo and cued up track nine on some nameless trance compilation and pressed the repeat button. REZ. I listened to that track over and over as I fell asleep that night, and for many nights after. I don't mean to be saccharine, but I think all your inner fourteen-year-olds will understand when I say that it gave me a sense of the universe, of all the sensory wonders this life and body had to offer, and even some beyond what I thought possible at the time. I can recite every note of that melody and every drum line in the track as if I were breathing. I danced by myself in the reflection of my bedroom window, making sure I could hit every beat and even started making up some silly shit I thought I would never show anyone. I spent about two years soaking up all the trance I could get (and thankfully my tastes grew more mature and eclectic as a result) and before too long, it was my turn to step out into the night.

My first party was a small affair at a tiny little club on 28th street, where I danced for an hour before falling fast asleep. As I came out of it, I thought I was still dreaming. It was about 3:30, and every single person in that club was sweating like a demon in an incredible symphony of movement. The first notes of the REZ melody were just coming in. I stood up, still a little unsure, or perhaps so excited I couldn't really believe it, and began to move. Before I knew it, I was writhing with the abandon I'd taught myself in the bedroom window and I truly had never felt so alive. A friend of mine had taught me how to figure-eight with sticks earlier in the night (we didn't have LEDs quite yet), and within seconds I was off. And people noticed. A lot of people noticed. By the apex of the track, I was at the center of a circle of party veterans, who seemed to see straight into the center of my transcendent bliss. I laughed like a madman. I cried like a baby. I danced like an animal. By the time the next track began to wind it's way in, I had made friends who followed me and whom I followed for years to come. I never heard REZ out at a party again, but I knew I didn't have to. It had given me an incredible gift, and I am still inspired and filled up whenever I hear it.

My sister broke up with that dude, and it turned out she wasn't really a party kid after all. But I was. Through and through I was a party kid. My friends and I, some of us wear suits now (@handmethekeysyou), some are still dancing (@youmakekittymad), some, well who knows...but I really do believe that what cemented my bond to that scene, and to the people I came to love, had a lot to do with REZ.

Cool rings

There was a UK TV series called the secret life of machines, and the presenter Tim Hunkin makes the most excellent machines... like this "Digital Clock".

The juggling machines reminded me of the show but also like kinetic sculptures such as Strandbeest or Koenig's sphere (although it's no longer a kinetic sculpture, the mechanism was destroyed when buildings and aeroplanes fell on it), hence the question.In reply to this comment by Lann:
That was cool!

Sorry for the delay in responding but the only kinetic things I have made was a balancing piece (sort of like a weather vane) and magnetic jewelry. Actually my very first rings had magnets, foam and/or felt in them (each "bubble" had a magnet)

That was cool!

Sorry for the delay in responding but the only kinetic things I have made was a balancing piece (sort of like a weather vane) and magnetic jewelry. Actually my very first rings had magnets, foam and/or felt in them (each "bubble" had a magnet)

In reply to this comment by oritteropo:
See what you think of this one about juggling machines. One is an old fashioned automata (it really cheats using wires rather than juggling), and the other does bounce juggling.

http://videosift.com/video/Claude-Shannon-juggling-machines

Have you made, or considered making, kinetic sculpture?

I have visited Belgium and picnic'd near a wood fenced idyliic pasture, filled with the Belgian steroid cows. I was attacked but managed to capture a momentary photo http://www.flickr.com/photos/internationalmaskfestival/959897401/

thank you!

I agree, the pictures with boyfriends hiding behind their girlfriends are pretty awesome

In reply to this comment by firefly:
This is some *quality stuff, no doubt. :

My favorites are the guys hiding behind their gals such as this one:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nightmaresfearfactory/6083869736/
or this one:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nightmaresfearfactory/6140975841/
or this one:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nightmaresfearfactory/6141529254/

My heroes.

thanks @firefly! did you see the one with Keenan Thompson?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nightmaresfearfactory/6035304875/in/photostream

This is some *quality stuff, no doubt.

My favorites are the guys hiding behind their gals such as this one:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nightmaresfearfactory/6083869736/
or this one:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nightmaresfearfactory/6140975841/
or this one:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nightmaresfearfactory/6141529254/

My heroes.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nightmaresfearfactory/6231372318/in/photostream

Kid on the left...stone.cold.badass

>> ^bamdrew:

Is it me or do they have more 'joints' in their legs, too?
>> ^zombieater:
I study these. For reals. Neotropical Opiliones ftw.



More joints than what? Their legs start with a coxae jointed to a femur to a patella to a tibia to a metatarsus to a bunch of tarsi... so yeah, they have a lot of joints I guess.

A lot of them are really pretty though: http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=cosmetidae&m=text
http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=gonyleptidae&m=text

It's also interesting to note unrelated simultaneous protest of hundreds of airline pilots also marching on Wall Street. Pilots' March on Boing Boing, The Denver Post and on flickr.

Like the #occupywallstreet protest, I have as of yet heard no mention of the pilots' march in main stream channels.

Perhaps the stage is being set for 2012 to really be a world-changing year after all?

Only $1200...what a deal!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sa_steve/2586398114/

yah, the new co-host could be a bit of a party.