New Knitting Group

Knitting has returned to the Clown Brigade and I could not be happier. I have always loved the knitting groups that clowns have. There is no one slamming Red Heart you do not have to explain why your scarf is thirty feet long. Everything is cool just as it is.

By the way there are a couple of the projects that we were working on pictures to the right. The two top projects are long scarves that have just been started. The purple thing bellow is a baby blanket that is half way done.

These pictures were taken from our second meeting. Thus far we have Sergeants Kisielnicki, Thurman and Wilson Attending. there is myself and our newest member Mr. Jefferson {currently Junior Clown}.

We are meeting at the Chic Fil A in the Waterfront. Our group appear to need to have food at our meeting or shortly there after. This group was meeting at a book store. The food in the cafe was over priced and the staff that was once welcoming is not so much anymore.

The Chic Fil A appears to be one of the Favorite Restaurants of the Brigade. Of course they are the top of my list for fast food. So it all works out nicely. Frankly I was surprised that they are letting us meet there. When Kisielnicki suggested meeting there I thought there was no way. As it turned out it has been the friendliest place that we have had Clown knitting at since we started having a group.

Well just checking. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Purple Baby Blanket

I am working on a Purple baby blanket. It is one of those situation where i do not know if it is boy or girl. So purple is the color for such times. I feels like i have made a bunch of baby blankets recently. They are alright not much a challenge though. I would make sweater but they do not last very long. If you make a blanket big enough you can use it much longer with a baby.

Since we are going to have a knitting group this week I will take some pictures. For some reason I rarely take pictures of my knitting unless i am at a knitting group. I am not sure why that is. i am sure it has something to do with being social.

It has been months since I have gone to a knitting group. There was one point in time when i would got to three or four a week. I suppose I have been busy with the Brigade. Well it will be nice to do some knitting in a group. Walkt has gotten rather good over the last year. he has made a sweater and if currently working on a stocking cap.

On the up side it is going to be a good week for knitting.

Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Kilt Stuff

For those that have been keeping track. We are still looking at some of the tradition of the Clown Brigade. There is always some kind of uniformity amoung a clown troop. Some just have patches others like us have some kind of uniform.

This is Sergeant Kisielnicki stabbing Sergeant Arasin with a sword. there is a story that goes with it but it is silly. Anyway both are wearing some version of our uniform and Kisielnicki is in a kilt which is something thtta we have been doing for more formal occassions.

They are also sitting on the front Stair well at Second Baptist Church where we have been meeting for church over the last year. By the way the folk there have been incredibly tolerant of us considering stuff like this happens on a regular basis.

Well be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

There are Days

I sepnt a couple hour working on section 1 of the clown handbook. being that it is the basic clowning section i think i am obsessing over it. it is also the material we will be teaching in the march training session. So I would really like to have it perfect. In going through it today i found a couple picture in the balloon portion of the text that i do not like. I mean for crimeny sake I thought I was done with them. You just want to cry sometimes.

Anyway I hope that Walt and I will have some time to take some pictures on tuesday. It would really be nice to make some progress on this bad boy at some point.

that leads us to some confusion on the juggling section tough. We are debating to some extent what should be the first thing that is juggled. My opinion is that it should always be balls. Sadly I think this opinion may be overshadowing what other people's ideas might be. a couple of the young sergeant have made a case for scarves. When they first suggested it I thought they were wrong. Still the more that i talk to other people there are many out there that like scarves. And to make it even more confusing there are those that say it should be rings.

To experiment with the ring thing I have tried team juggling rings with Sergeant Thurman. even though she had never team juggled before she almost has ring. Number one this completely shakes my faith in starting team juggling with clubs. It also give a strong argument for learning on rings. Yep I suppose this will have to seriously examined.

Well If anyone jugglers out there want to weigh in I am listening.

Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Something fun I Found

This is an episode of the show Highway Patrol. It is one of those great old shows from the fifties. It is about a couple of motorcycle rider than ran afoul of the law. Well at least that is what the towns people are claiming. I was think of Walt when I saw this and just had to post it.

New Devil Sticks

I know it has been a while. Still I have been working on the book and there has been little room for anything else.

Something interesting did happen on the clowning front today. Sergeant Wilson and Thurman have been playing around with the devil sticks. The problem is that they like everything else. So Walt and I decided to take a crack at making some.

I figured that it would take us many tries to get anything that is close to usable. So we gave it a shot.

Sergeant Wildon stopped by to help us work on the Devil stick. And they she is sanding the dowels that we made the sticks out of.

Our goal in life was to make some sloth stick, or slow spinning Devil Sticks. When we finished the first set and tried them out they spun like speed sticks. They we incredible fast and very maneuverable. The sloth sticks we were trying to make are usually very light. The sticks I prefer are the the s type the Dube company makes. They are quick but are harder to do some tricks with.

It would appear that over building them to make them tough for young people had created a fast tuning stick that has the easy trick attributed of the devil sticks that have the big end. So we appear to have created a new type of Devil stick. We decided to call them chopper sticks.

Well be safe out there and keep yousr stick on the ice. Thank you Sergeant Wilson and Walt

Fund in the Clown Cave

Monday Night Knitting was all about making our room pretty. Here I am on stilts working on the banner with out name painted on the wall.

We have the white background painted on the wall for the White Shield Logo for the Brigade. Walt and I were talking about what to do with it.

His suggestion is to cut the main peices of the logo out of plywood to give it depth. It is a really good idea and we are going to do it.

The technical bit of this I sill leave up to him because he is better at all of this than I am .

The next thing that we have to look into is getting our stuff organized. Our equipment is in fairly good shape. Out office area it a bit messy. We currently do not have the furniture to get this dealt with at the moment.

Well we will see how all of this going. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Random Music Stuff - Well sort of

For those in the Army they know of the great musical tradition that we have. Well that music tradition is alive and not so well at the Steel Valley Corps. One of the thing sthat we have been working on is some kind of band for the Clown Brigade. What we have come up with is accordions. This is an old video clip that we have have not used. So here it is.

Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Leatherman

Last Monday at our knitting group we were looking at some material other than yarn. Walt picked up a peice of leather to make seat for his motocycle. It is red and pretty.

On the leather front this is known as a full hide. That means that it is the better part of a cow hide. picture to the left is Walt with his new acquisition.

Currently his bike has pleather seats that have seen better days.

He just had the bike painted and this leather is a nice match for it.

It had bee a long time since I actually appolstered something. The neat this about this project is that it is a collection of relatively small pillows. So it is a great deal easier than doing a couch.

This is the piece of leather stretched out on a table. I will keep you posted. Be safe out there.

Personal Clown Scarf &Kittens

Sergeant Kisielnicki is adding some trim to his triple clown scarf. I should probably tell him he needs to come up with a name for his pattern. He made up the design for the scarf himself. So he gets to name it. This is exciting stuff if you are a clown that knits

This is two of the kittens. A couple of the folks from the Corps wanted to see pictures of the kittens. Here are a couple pictures.

This one is mostly black and I think the cutest of the kitties

These are a couple of the kitties hiding behind their mother.

Here they are with their mom.

Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Hmmmmmmm.....

As mentioned before I receive a bunch of these things. Walt sent me this one and it was the first time I saw it. So here it is. Just an expert note, clown usually use a car that is slightly bigger than the clown.

Murdering Fake People & New Soldiers

I have never really wanted to do away with someone. Ever since I have been writing these books I have had the urge to wipe out entire civilizations. There is nothing more annoying that trying to get people that you created to try and something. It is like herding kittens.

The book is over three hundred pages and continues to grow. This craziness will have to stop at some point or I will have a one thousand page book. Well I figure I am going to keep writing and pick a place to end it.

On other fronts there are a couple pictures that I have not posted through sheer forgetfulness.

This is Walt and a couple other folks that have been enrolled as soldiers at our Corps. This is our divisional commander and officers. Yes we all dress alike. This is the fun part of being in an army.

This is a picture of the Children that were enrolled as Jr. Soldiers at the corps. This class of Soldier and Jr. Soldier is twice the size of the congregation when Carol and I first joined the Church. So this is very encouraging.

Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Kettles Again

 

We were out on the Kettle again this week end. One again back to the Century III Mall. Here I am juggling on the kettle. One of the kids figured out how to get the samera to take action pictures. You will note that the picture is clear and crisp. That mean that someone who knows how to take pictures was using the Camera. It was Apprentice Brimage. She is Seven. 

  

Here is Walt. He was making inflatible wildlife. At least that is the politically correct way to refer to balloon animals these day. They got a lawyer and you know the rest of the story. 

Here was the rest of our crew thsi week end. Sergesnt Thurman is in the back. She is doing wicked stuff with scarves these days. She has only been at them a couple weeks and her routines are pretty impressive. In fron are Apprentice Brimage and Apprentice Brimage. They are sisters hence the same last name. Being that I don't like using you people first names on the old blog the five Aprentice Brimigaes that are in the Brigade is going to be confussing as time goes on. Actually now that I think of it one of them is still a Cadet.

This is Apprentice Brigade trying on a coat. We are starting to think about getting a real uniform for the Brigade. So we will need a coat. Being that we are supposed to be on a boat during out shows this may be the way that we go. By the way this is the Apprentice Brimage that knows how to use my camera better than I do.

And the cyber kettle is up to fourty bucks. That is fourty bucks more than I thought i was going to make the Corps on the Cyber Kettle. Cool Beans.

We will be out there this weekend if you still want to catch the dog and pony show. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Walt is no Lady

At practice today we were tumbling. this is when we throw ourselves on the ground. Since it is not funny for an adult to punch a kid we do it the other way around. So the kids were pushing me over for a good por5tion of the evening. The young folks find this to a very cathartic time.

Anyway during this time one of the young Apprentices said this sentance. "Walt is not a Lady." It was entirely out of left field and I had to menion it here.

But the way I am sorry to suggest that Walt is unlady like. Still, this was the funniest thing I have heard all month. And when I asked the kid why she said this she simply shrugged as if it was obvious. Well I had to bring this to you for no good reason.

Oh an my Kettle is still empty, please fill. My Captain hits me with a switch every time I walk past him because my kettle is empty. I am getting chaffed.

Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Fun with a Tank

Here we see a picture of a knitted clown hat in action. This is kiddo after a show we had in Tarentum a month or so ago. I was busy with the book so I did not post it.

Also it is not a hat a made. Walt made this one as part of his work on the knitting Proficiency. I do believe that this hat is made out of Comfort yarn. If it is not Walt will correct me in the comments.

He made the pom pom on the clover pom pom makers. They are a great little gizmo.

This hat is also an example of how artificial yarn is superior to natural yarns. You folks may have though I had forgotten about the war against natural fibers. No not me I still have the fight for a acrylic in my heart.

Also on the clowning from from that day is us visiting a part in Tarentum. It had this nice tank. So we thought we should climb on it and take a picture. Well that is what we think you should do when there is a tank sitting in your park.

They even had ropes set up around the tank. They kept everyone else off the tank so that it would be empty when we arrived. That was very considerate of them.

I have also noted that my on line kettle is not full. When I am standing kettle I usually juggle, do balloon animals or sing. This is hard to on the blog. I will take some vids of us standing kettle so you get the same experience. Normally my kettle is full in six or eight hours. It has been a day and there is nothing in my kettle. This makes me sad.

I have also noted that if I sing enough people fill my kettle faster. Well we will see. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Train Wreck Edition - Clowns and Jpop

Great fun has been had this week at the Vacation Bible School. Of course teaching all of the Children about Jesus was the main event this week. Still, on a personal level there is what some might think a smaller story. Never the less it is a terribly important day for two of the Apprentice Clowns of the brigade. Apprentice Kisielnicki and Prioleau had their first shows in make up today.

Here they are on a balloon detail in out parking lot. In the Brigade Kisielnicki is ranked third in ballon and Prioleau is ranked 4th. That is fairly impressive considering they have not even been in the Brigade a year yet.



Here is Apprentice Prioleau just after getting her makeup on. She still needs a nose but she is well on her way to having her face.

We are working on the second edition of Army Clowns. We have a lot more stuff this time around. It should be a better episode all around. The last of the stuff that is going to be filmed or taped or what every you do with a digital camera will be done this sunday.

Yeah there was no good reason for this. On the Punk Rock Knit Girls group in The Ravelry I mentioned something about the Cotton Candy Helmet and how to make one. Anyway sitting around after the Vacation Bible School Party we were filming some stuff for the next episode of Clown Army. And well this is what we like to call D roll. In television the stuff that rarely makes it on the air is B Roll. Since no one watches this stuff we figure it is C Roll. And this thing because it is so out there it should probably be D Roll.

I have been thinking that I need to learn Japanese. Long time viewer will know my musical tastes are strange to say the least. To be fair they are all over the map.

Oh and before I go on about Japaneese music I found this in the You Tube.

Ah that was wonderful and it is proof there are geekyeer people out there than me. Ah back to the Jpop. Morning Musume has had out some new songs. Here are a few with some random comments from me.

They always have really spiffy unforms and costumes. These silver jobs should be the next Salvation Army Uniform. I have better write the General right away.

They look a bit angry in this one. Maybe they are unhappy about the silly yellow outfits. It I had a nickel every time I was convinced to dance around with yellow feathers in my hair. I suppose they weren’t always yellow.

This one is the newer generation of the Morning Mussume with their pets. I suppose it was bring you dog to work day or something. You see if I spoke Japanese I would understand the dog thing.

And here they are with castanets. I can’t play the castanets. I am not even sure I can spell it. I can spell cowbell and bag pipe. To bad there is not Chris Walken Joke to be make here.

I haven’t the slightest clue what is happening here. This is definitely one of the songs where I need to find the version with subtitles. It is a catchy tune. Still, they have a star ship and creepy microphones. And try and find the space borne Buddha. And they stole a Miranda Class star ship from Star Trek. Wow that makes me the biggest nerd ever.

If Marki Mark can act then Morning Musume can rap. It is a bit scarry. This fighting style is also being taught to all Japanese girls living near foreign military installations. Sorry too soon, it have been a few years.

How Not to Move a Mountain

A fun day was had wandering around the South Hills with Walt. We hit the Jo Ann looking for hats which we eventually found at Micheals. We will have pictures of the Hats latter one. I have work to do on them before they are finished.

The last major thing that had to be put together for the shows is a mountain. It is not going to be that large. And it is going to be made from blue foam insulations. So Walt and I stopped by the Lowes in Homestead to get a peice. We did not think it would survive the trip to the Sorps strapped to the roof of his car.

So we decided to walk it to the corps. It is not that far from the lowes.
It was windy. So moving the peice of foam did not go that well. It was slow going.
And then it broke. Fortunately it was going to be cut up into peices anyway.

We did eventually get the peices there. We did not get much work done on it. Well we had some funny pictures so I wanted to post them. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Random Army Stuff

Much was accomplished today. My wife organized stuff which made her very happy. Today we were building our information board for the Clown Brigade. I will get back to that in a bit. We took pictures for that.

I have been trying to find out what happened to the council of war site. It was a Salvation Army web site. I am not sure if it was official or not. Still, it was interesting and had link to lots of army stuff. For some reason there is not a lot of that in the Unites States.

There are some great Corps Web sites in the UK, Australia, NZ and Canada. I suppose that might have something to do with them staying in the Commonwealth longer than we did. Still, there are some really great Corps Blogs over there.

Our International Headquarters has a blog and vid cast listing that I was directed to by an officer who had been to the Brigade's blog. I sent them the information a week or two ago. It is still not up. Well we will see if it makes it.

Well onto the building stuff. This is Apprentice K and I throwing together an information board. We basically got a big old piece of plywood and glued some ceiling tile to it. We then covered it withe fabric to make it all nice and pretty. The center is a white board made from a discarded piece of glass.

These are the children the hindered our efforts at every turn. They are cute kids but not much help at building stuff.

This is Apprentice K with the finished product. We still have a fancy title thing that is going to go on top. I am going to be making up some picture things to print out and stick on it. That should be fun. I even bought some new white board Markers that I am going to use one Sunday.

Good Time Good Times. Be safe out there everyone and keep your stick on the ice.

Actual Progress is Being Made

The Majority of Today was involved in a production practice. Apprentice K has finished up his carpentry Proficiency with all of the things that he has built for our stage show.

Pictured here is Apprentice Prealu who is learning how to use a palm sander on the puppet stage. She pent a lot of time today working behind the scenes on items for the stage shows and for our budding clown educational program.

While we were having sanding class Walt {Apprentice K} was assembling the columns. With the exception of some signage the perminate items for the stage have been built. When we have more money we might add some beading and glue on moulding. This will complete the image of a hundred year old River Boat. Until then, what we have will do the job.

Also on the up side we were able to prove the versatility of our puppet stage. We wanted to build something strong and light weight. Apprentice Prealu was able to move the larger section of the stage on her own with out much effort.

We are going to move stuff around with dollies for the most part. Still it is good to know that some of the younger members of the Brigade could assemble the thing if we are short handed.

Also on the docket today was taking pictures for the Basic Clowning Proficiency. This is a picture of her taking a picture of me. You can tell she is really excited by this. We had to take over three hundred pictures and that was only for seven balloon animals. So this going to be a long and super boring process.

We figure that we are going to do instructions for around one hundred balloon animals this year. This will give us all of the instruction that we need for sections three and four.

Apprentice Prealue also was the model for some of the balloons. This is one of the uncropped pictures that will end up in the clown manual.

All and all we accomplished a great deal today. Having the stage items nearing completion is a great thing.

Still, on a personal level moving so quickly on the educational program is a very satisfying thing. We have not been thinking about what is going to have a decade or two from now.

At this point I am still an outside in the great Salvation Army. The bottom line is that people who have different ideas have a hard time getting the people in charge to listen to them. That is the way that is goes in any organization.

Oddly though I have had some folks who are interested in what we are doing at other Corps. They wanted to know if they could so what we are doing in their towns. The major problem with this is that you should really have an experienced clown teaching folks. At this point I have not met another clown in The Salvation Army that is as experienced as myself.

The next best thing would be to hold seminary and develop an all encompassing study course. Until recently I figured that is would take years to make this thing up. In less than a month we have finished what we would need for this type of seminar. At this rate we should have what we need for the first year of training. I figure we should be able to train a core of clown from a corps in a weekend. This groups would work on their skill for a few months. Then myself and a couple of Sr. Clowns would go and train them in the next step.

If we did a yearly training weekend we could train hundred of clowns in this manor over a few years. And we could do it with limited resources.

It is odd how God works. I have been blocked from the ministry I am called to for no good reason, other than being different. Now a ministry that no one is paying attention to has fallen into my lap. There is interest just no way to cultivate it. Odd how the expert on this in the Army has nothing else to now.

Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Picking Walt's Nose & Building Stuff.

Today was a fun day. It was an important day for Walt. Today he went to the Magic Shop and picked his clown nose. He picked out a purple nose. Good times.

After the nose picking it was time for building clown stuff. Today we were working on several things a puppet stage ans scenery for the upcoming shows.

The most complicated thing we were working on is the puppet stage. It must be free standing and has to stand up to being moved around a great deal. We will be using it not only inside but outside at parks as well.

Being that we do not have much money we are going to have to get several years of use out of this thing as well.

Anyway Walt is working on some scenery on the scroll saw there. Part of the scenery is going to be a series of columns. These will give the illusion that one is on the main deck of a river boat. There are going to be back drops and other things.

The columns are going to be set up a quarter of the way from the back of the stage. That will make it look like the clowns are coming in and out of the deck on the ship.

In this picture I am assembling the Puppet stage. So that it is light enough to be moved around it is made from three sheets of thin ply wood. The from is reinforced with 2x2 and the side by 1x2s. The thing is then stuck together with four bolts and wing nuts.

I have built a couple of these in the past. They are very vestal and have served me well in the past.

Down bellow is a picture of the three sides assembled. As you will notice there is a big open space. And if you look at either side you can see into the stage easily. There is a half circle bar and a curtain the covers up the rest of the open space. After we get it put painted and install the curtain it will look more complete.

Not having all that wood is an advantage of this thing. And have the window up to high the puppeteer is able to sit down inside the stage.

Well be safe out there everyone and keep your stick on the ice.