Yesterday I went to Morioka (pop: 260,000) to play with the footbag crew there. They`re mostly Civil Engineering Grad students, so most are my age. Before worlds I didn`t play with them much, since I wanted to practice for worlds and not risk injury. But now that worlds is over, I want to try and teach them as much as possible before winter sets in, and I take a sabbatical from footbag.
So I get in to Mo yesterday and Gochin gives me a ride to the University. I hadn`t seen or played with Gochin since sometime in March, when I realized there was something wrong with my ligament. We catch up some in the car, and then at the site I meet a couple new members of the Morioka crew, and introduce myself. Its pleasantly cool out, and we listen to a `best of Chemical Bros. singles` CD which brings me back to high school. One song, `not another drugstore, not another town` reminds me of my second time in Montreal, when yacine and Sebastien and I went to some community center to play. Footage of that session appear on `the California Connection.` It`s fun playing to the same song I played to 4 years ago.
All session long I do a lot of teaching. I do all my teaching in Japanese though, which can sometimes be frustrating. If I give somebody tips to hit a mirage, and they don`t seem to integrate my advice, I`m not sure if its because they can`t physically do it, or if they didn`t understand my Japanese. Another problem stems from vocabulary: the word `hayaii` can either mean `early` or `fast.` So when I tell somebody to do a dex more `hayaku,` its not always clear if I mean for them to start their dex earlier (time wise) or to execute the dexterity more quickly (leg speed).
Still, everybody hits a bunch of new stuff, except for me. Shin-chan has a good session, hitting his first legbeater, his first gyro mirage, and his first blizzard. Upon my suggestion, Gochin hits his first schmoe, but its funny because he thinks I said `sumo.` I explain to him that `sumo` IS a trick name, but a different trick (schmoe and sumo sound similar in Japanese). A beginner named Yagi was there too, but he doesn`t have lavers yet. Still, I gave him some tips on mirage, and it got pretty consistent pretty quickly.
2 shreditas are at this session, which I think is real cool. Yukari hit her first clipper ever, which was real cool, and hit a bunch of mirages and legovers. Ayako has a lot of potential too. She has a good rhythmic bounce to her toe stalls, which I think will help her a lot when she starts linking tricks. She hit a few clippers and mirages too.
I`m happy to teach a lot of tricks and give a lot of pointers to speed peoples progress, but there`s still lots of basic footbag circle etiquette that I have to teach over again. Its a flashback to last year`s Morioka crew, which itself was a flashback to the first circles I was in Japan. The basic concept of givebacks, and of not self-serving (as much) need to be ingrained. I also need to stress flipsidedness more. I did a good job of that with last years Morioka crew, but Ive been kinda lax with this posse so far.
As for myself, I had a fun session. I didn`t really go for anything new, or big tricks, but I went for a bunch of long combos, which was really fun. I also hit sonic clipper and vertigo, both which I had hit before, but in both cases it had been a long time since I had gotten them. I also hit reverse swirling pick up again, and was happy to get it on my first try and to find it real easy.
After the session we went to get Korean BBQ. The place we went to had a long wait, so we hackey slacked outside, which was fun. Reminded me of my high school days. Once inside, I was real happy to learn there was some sort of special on my favorite korean food: reimen. Its cold, spicy noodles with kim chee in there and watermelon. We all stuffed ourselves and I drank a lot, then we went to go play videogames together. I really think its important to bond with footbaggers. You just care more about peoples progress, and feel less bad about calling people on `the` if you always go out drinking and eating and gaming together later. We hit an arcade and play some Time Crisis 3, a driving game (2nd place again!), and a traditional Japanese drumming game.
Then we move onto the fighting game arcade to brawl. In Japanese footbag Street Fighter competition, I`ve only lost once, and that was when I was using a character I don`t normally use for the challenge. So when I hear that Gochin is good, I`m stoked. We play Street Fighter Alpha 3 first, and my Z-Charlie beats Gochin`s Gief. Then we move onto CvS2, where my R2 Cammy-Hibiki-Honda in K groove loses to Gochin, who uses some Gief team. Granted, I asked for it, since I taunted 4-5 times per round. I died when he Final Atomic Busters my taunting Cammy. D`oh! We play a few more fights afterwards, and I win them all, usually without getting to my third character.
At the end of the night we all bow goodnight to each other, and say `good job today,` then promise to shred and hang out again soon. Overall, real fun footbag day.
Fanzine
-
mosher
- brutal footbag cronie
- Posts: 6177
- Joined: 22 Jan 2004 23:30
- Location: Toronto, Ontario
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Re: More Worlds 2004
Man! I didn't know until reading this why you gave me such a crap look when I said that! What a funny set of mixed first impressions, you thought I was some loudmouth jerkass and I thought you were some superstar that didn't give a crap that some newbie was blown away by your presence.C-Fan wrote: I met a buttload of people off the forums, which was a funny experience, since a lot of them knew me before I even met them. I remember walking out of an elevator and having Tom Mosher yell at me: `dude! You`re Ken Somolinos!` in such an excited manner, that I initially thought he was being sarcastic, which I thought was kinda shitty. As I got to know him more through the week, I realized that he`s just a really enthusiastic guy, and that he was just excited to recognize me.
I really was just genuinely excited that right then was my chance to meet THE Ken Somolinos!
Thanks for clearing that up.
Oh also, I was walking past when you said "I'm not a big sealing fan." and it gave me chills. I'm such a dweeb.
Great blog, I am an avid reader.
Tom Mosher
hate is a waste of passion!
hate is a waste of passion!
Thursday night
Big thanks to everybody for their compliments on my blog, it makes me happy to hear people are enjoying reading it as much as I am writing it.
Onto Thursday night:
I found add-counting and judging, combined with the emotional letdown of my competition experience to be really draining. Some people still have the energy to shred after Thursday`s comp, but its so dark in there and I`m so tired, that I decide I`d much rather go out and get a real meal. Stan, Brian McK and Laura all agree with me.
The Rialto is located in a Greek and Orthodox Jewish neighborhood, so we didn`t have to walk long to find an awesome Greek place. Brian and I talk about Scrabble a lot, and we all enjoy taking a break from the constant footbag conversation that characterized most of the week. We aren`t perfect though, so at one point I ask Brian if he hit spinning ducking pdx blender back when he lived in Colorado for the summer of 98. Just as I thought (or as my sources in Colorado thought), he indeed had. This fact is interesting for a couple reasons. The most obvious is that he hit it before Chad, and didn`t name it. But what`s much MORE interesting, is that Gangsta Party is today considered a 7 add move. The thing is though, back in 98, it was considered a 6, since spinning pdx wasn`t an accepted concept yet.
So according to the current add system, Brian MacKenzie may have been the first person to hit a 7 add trick, if he hit it earlier in the summer than Dave Holton hit Gauntlet. Unfortunately, I didn`t think about this at worlds, so I didn`t have a chance to ask. But it`s something worth looking into, to see if anybody from that Denver summer can remember.
After stuffing myself with delicious Greek food (my first Greek food in over 3 years), we made our way back to the hostel. I showered, then went to Ahren/Tu/Red`s room to see what people were up to for the night. To my pleasant surprise, Sunil just got in. I say hey and catch up a bit, then watch him, Chad, and I think Red get a game of Texas Hold Em. I don`t understand the rules, but its fun to watch, cause Sunil is constantly making jokes which kill me. I`ve got a 2 liter bottle of Mug Root Beer (you cant get it in Japan, so I drank this whenever Orange Julius wasnt readily available), which is called `racinette` in French. Sunil keeps asking me if he can have some of my `raisinets` and from that point onward I laugh whenever I buy root beer in Montreal.
At some point I go to Les Foufounes Electriques, and get my dance on. For some reason (I may be getting confused about what night this happened), I have my lavers with me in a bag, and I don`t want to lug them around with me while I`m on the dance floor, nor do I want to lose them twice at one tourney. I spot Bob Glasser macking on a cute girl near the balcony, so I decide to go deposit my lavers with him. As I`m explaining to him why I want to leave the lavers in his care, the attention-demanding POP POP POP of firecrackers right outside the window makes us all whip our surprised heads around to look out the window. I see two guys in the parking lot running away from two other guys who are retreating in the opposite direction. The first two guys have their hands raised, and licks of flame are shooting out of their hands, lighting up the parking lot. It takes me a second to mentally connect the fire with the popping noises, and realize that I just saw a gunfight. At no time did it occur to me to duck down or anything (granted, I was on the 2nd floor looking down), it was all just so surreal. Bob and I look at each other with a: `did you just see what I saw?` look, and we exchange a couple of profound `holy shit!`s. After the police arrive, it becomes clear that nobody got hurt, so I pull a fast one and dump my lavers on the still shocked Bob and dash out to the dance floor. Its so strange how you can mentally readjust/disconnect so quickly after such a reality-warping experience.
More tomorrow, hopefully.
Onto Thursday night:
I found add-counting and judging, combined with the emotional letdown of my competition experience to be really draining. Some people still have the energy to shred after Thursday`s comp, but its so dark in there and I`m so tired, that I decide I`d much rather go out and get a real meal. Stan, Brian McK and Laura all agree with me.
The Rialto is located in a Greek and Orthodox Jewish neighborhood, so we didn`t have to walk long to find an awesome Greek place. Brian and I talk about Scrabble a lot, and we all enjoy taking a break from the constant footbag conversation that characterized most of the week. We aren`t perfect though, so at one point I ask Brian if he hit spinning ducking pdx blender back when he lived in Colorado for the summer of 98. Just as I thought (or as my sources in Colorado thought), he indeed had. This fact is interesting for a couple reasons. The most obvious is that he hit it before Chad, and didn`t name it. But what`s much MORE interesting, is that Gangsta Party is today considered a 7 add move. The thing is though, back in 98, it was considered a 6, since spinning pdx wasn`t an accepted concept yet.
So according to the current add system, Brian MacKenzie may have been the first person to hit a 7 add trick, if he hit it earlier in the summer than Dave Holton hit Gauntlet. Unfortunately, I didn`t think about this at worlds, so I didn`t have a chance to ask. But it`s something worth looking into, to see if anybody from that Denver summer can remember. After stuffing myself with delicious Greek food (my first Greek food in over 3 years), we made our way back to the hostel. I showered, then went to Ahren/Tu/Red`s room to see what people were up to for the night. To my pleasant surprise, Sunil just got in. I say hey and catch up a bit, then watch him, Chad, and I think Red get a game of Texas Hold Em. I don`t understand the rules, but its fun to watch, cause Sunil is constantly making jokes which kill me. I`ve got a 2 liter bottle of Mug Root Beer (you cant get it in Japan, so I drank this whenever Orange Julius wasnt readily available), which is called `racinette` in French. Sunil keeps asking me if he can have some of my `raisinets` and from that point onward I laugh whenever I buy root beer in Montreal.
At some point I go to Les Foufounes Electriques, and get my dance on. For some reason (I may be getting confused about what night this happened), I have my lavers with me in a bag, and I don`t want to lug them around with me while I`m on the dance floor, nor do I want to lose them twice at one tourney. I spot Bob Glasser macking on a cute girl near the balcony, so I decide to go deposit my lavers with him. As I`m explaining to him why I want to leave the lavers in his care, the attention-demanding POP POP POP of firecrackers right outside the window makes us all whip our surprised heads around to look out the window. I see two guys in the parking lot running away from two other guys who are retreating in the opposite direction. The first two guys have their hands raised, and licks of flame are shooting out of their hands, lighting up the parking lot. It takes me a second to mentally connect the fire with the popping noises, and realize that I just saw a gunfight. At no time did it occur to me to duck down or anything (granted, I was on the 2nd floor looking down), it was all just so surreal. Bob and I look at each other with a: `did you just see what I saw?` look, and we exchange a couple of profound `holy shit!`s. After the police arrive, it becomes clear that nobody got hurt, so I pull a fast one and dump my lavers on the still shocked Bob and dash out to the dance floor. Its so strange how you can mentally readjust/disconnect so quickly after such a reality-warping experience.
More tomorrow, hopefully.
Random Worlds Nights
Thursday night actually went on quite a long while more. But I don`t think I should go into much more detail, because I dont want to embarass or incriminate too many other footbaggers. You never know who will want to run for President in the future anyway.
One highlight from Thursday night (or one of the other nights where everybody went out to party) was going to 99cent pizza with a bunch of freestylers. It was around 2 am, and Jon Schneider and I were on line waiting to order. Montreal has a liquor law that says that restaurants and convenience stores cant sell liquor past midnight. Jon places his order, then the middle-eastern pizza guy turns to me.
Me:`Yeah, I`ll have a slice of the vegetarian, and a piece of baklava, please.`
Pizza-dude: `Sorry, no beer after midnight.`
Me, giving incredulous stare: `baklava, please.`
PD: `No. No beer. Only non alcoholics.`
Staring at him, I take my time communicating my next sentence emphasizing each syllable individually, and leaving a pause after each one so they have time to sink in: `Bah. Klah. Vah.` Pointing to the Baklava as I do it.
Pizza dude, face melting into friendliness: `Ohhhhhhh! Baklava!`
He serves my amazed ass my food, and I turn to Jon, who was similarly astounded.
Jon: `You know for a second there I was really shocked at how strict they are with their Baklava`
Too good.
On some other random night, I`m in the lobby of the UQAM when I see Evan Lovely hooking up his computer to the TV. I go stretch nearby, and am pleasantly surprised to see he is able to successfully set it up. He pops in his copy of Sick 03, and shortly a rather large crowd gathers around to watch. Within the first 2 minutes of the movie, there is a clip of Vasek trying for a jackpot combo: montage-ducking superduper-gangsta. When the duck in the super duper happens, I hear a real loud, obnoxious `THE!` yelled from behind me. I turn around and see Vasek grinning sheepishly in his chair.
When my section comes on, everybody laughs at the face I make, and then at my use of profanity. Its a bit embarassing, but I`m happy everybody dug it, and I do think it reflects my personality.
Shortly thereafter, somebody asks when Vasek`s section will come on. Somebody else explains: `the shred gets harder as the video progresses, so Vasek doesn`t come on until the end.`
Me: `Ohhhhh. So THAT`s why my section is so early.`
Maybe you had to be there, but it was a funny, if uncomfortable moment.
I ended up leaving before the movie finished, cause I was completely exhausted, but as I left I paused a moment to take in the sight of the roomful of shredders. There was easily 30 or 40 people, running the gamut from tilting newbies to the best player in the world, all sitting around basking in the glow of the TV, their gasps of amazement and laughs all roughly synced up. I was struck by how much this random slice of the footbag scene resembled a family bonding together in their living room. I smiled, then went to bed.
One highlight from Thursday night (or one of the other nights where everybody went out to party) was going to 99cent pizza with a bunch of freestylers. It was around 2 am, and Jon Schneider and I were on line waiting to order. Montreal has a liquor law that says that restaurants and convenience stores cant sell liquor past midnight. Jon places his order, then the middle-eastern pizza guy turns to me.
Me:`Yeah, I`ll have a slice of the vegetarian, and a piece of baklava, please.`
Pizza-dude: `Sorry, no beer after midnight.`
Me, giving incredulous stare: `baklava, please.`
PD: `No. No beer. Only non alcoholics.`
Staring at him, I take my time communicating my next sentence emphasizing each syllable individually, and leaving a pause after each one so they have time to sink in: `Bah. Klah. Vah.` Pointing to the Baklava as I do it.
Pizza dude, face melting into friendliness: `Ohhhhhhh! Baklava!`
He serves my amazed ass my food, and I turn to Jon, who was similarly astounded.
Jon: `You know for a second there I was really shocked at how strict they are with their Baklava`
Too good.
On some other random night, I`m in the lobby of the UQAM when I see Evan Lovely hooking up his computer to the TV. I go stretch nearby, and am pleasantly surprised to see he is able to successfully set it up. He pops in his copy of Sick 03, and shortly a rather large crowd gathers around to watch. Within the first 2 minutes of the movie, there is a clip of Vasek trying for a jackpot combo: montage-ducking superduper-gangsta. When the duck in the super duper happens, I hear a real loud, obnoxious `THE!` yelled from behind me. I turn around and see Vasek grinning sheepishly in his chair.
When my section comes on, everybody laughs at the face I make, and then at my use of profanity. Its a bit embarassing, but I`m happy everybody dug it, and I do think it reflects my personality.
Shortly thereafter, somebody asks when Vasek`s section will come on. Somebody else explains: `the shred gets harder as the video progresses, so Vasek doesn`t come on until the end.`
Me: `Ohhhhh. So THAT`s why my section is so early.`
Maybe you had to be there, but it was a funny, if uncomfortable moment.
I ended up leaving before the movie finished, cause I was completely exhausted, but as I left I paused a moment to take in the sight of the roomful of shredders. There was easily 30 or 40 people, running the gamut from tilting newbies to the best player in the world, all sitting around basking in the glow of the TV, their gasps of amazement and laughs all roughly synced up. I was struck by how much this random slice of the footbag scene resembled a family bonding together in their living room. I smiled, then went to bed.
Last edited by C-Fan on 15 Sep 2004 00:15, edited 5 times in total.
Re: Friday morning
C-Fan wrote:On some other random night, I`m in the lobby of the UQAM when I see Evan Lovely hooking up his computer to the TV. I go stretch nearby, and am pleasantly surprised to see he is able to successfully set it up. He pops in his copy of Sick 03, and shortly a rather large crowd gathers around to watch. Within the first 2 minutes of the movie, there is a clip of Vasek trying for a jackpot combo: montage-ducking superduper-gangsta. When the duck in the super duper happens, I hear a real loud, obnoxious `THE!` yelled from behind me. I turn around and see Vasek grinning sheepishly in his chair.
hahahah thats great ...
ur blog is awesome ken ... i love it ... it gives me a reason to read
man im soo bummed i couldnt go to worlds ... but i might be at euros and worlds next year, so i got that to look forward to.
thanks again for the great writing!
Friday/Finals Night
Friday gets off to a slow start. I`m definitely not the only one who slept in because of the previous nights partying. I track down Tu, and we decide to go down to the net site despite the rain. I gotta say, the weather all week was super-cooperative. Sunday-Tuesday it didn`t rain, and those were the days when we had outdoor shreds. On Wednesday and Thursday it may have rained a bit, but most people were indoors because of competition. On Friday it rained, but I think lots of shredders were glad for the break.
On our way to the netsite, we run into the Mikes: Hansen and Strumpf. They inform us that there is NOBODY at the net site, which I find hard to believe at first. Net players are famous for being able to play through a bit of rain, so I would be surprised if they cancelled net matches at WORLDS on account of rain. Part of me wonders if the Mikes maybe got confused and didn`t check the right site. If it were any other 2 young footbaggers, I would have probably double checked on my own, but both Mikes are really level-headed, intelligent guys, so I resignedly accept that there is no net that day.
We all head back to the UQAM and find a posse of people to go to the arcade with us. Eventually a small posse of us head out, including Hood, Brad Nelson, Tu, Mike Stokely, and a couple other guys. Everybody follows me to the arcade, but I get lost, which means we run in the rain for a good long time for no reason. This sort of thing happened 3 or 4 times at worlds, where big groups of people would follow me somewhere, and I`d take us all on the wrong train, or head in the wrong direction. Sorry guys.
We eventually make it to the arcade, and it really turns out to be a good way to spend a rainy day. I played Mike Stokely a bit in CvS2 (where I resorted to cheesy K-Cammy throw/poke games to compensate for shitt-I mean American, sticks), but the most fun games for me were Time Crisis III and Guitar Freaks 9th Mix. I played both games twice, once with Hood and once with Brad each time. Guitarfreaks is one of my favorite games in Japan, so I really rocked out and had fun. I even got a full combo on Andrew WKs classic `Party Hard`! Woot! I really like playing cooperative games with friends, and this turned out to be a highlight of worlds for me.
That night I go out partying, because I`m not competing (
) or judging ( 
) the next day. I think I described Friday night`s partying somewhere else in the thread, but under the wrong day. Whatever.
Saturday night is finals, and I`m excited to see it. I`m definitely rooting for Yacine to take the podium again, because his dropless routine in the semis was the best routine I had seen in a looooong time. I feel like if a choreographed routine places well, then maybe that would discourage the trend of Shred 2:00.
When I get to the Rialto, there is a huge line of people outside, but mostly just footbaggers. I figure the line is there because the doors haven`t opened yet, but I soon learn that the line is there because the bouncers are checking everybody`s bags to make sure they don`t bring in any outside food or drink. What surprises me, is that this apparently applies to the players as well, and that water isn`t allowed. Come on! If the traditional Saturday night shred is supposed to happen, people need water! I`m actually not that fussed by the ban on water, until later on when I learn how much they are selling water for inside the Rialto.
As I`m standing outside, I see Rippin`, and go say hey. Loren Baum has a six pack of beer for some reason, and I don`t think he even likes beer. He`s muttering about how he can`t bring it in, and doesn`t know what to do about it. Rippin` and I, being the gentleman that we are, help him out by taking two bottle off his hands. I lean against a wall sipping my warm beer, and watch a 3 man circle play for a bit. It`s Kushy, Big Add Chad, and some guy with glasses whose barflies look annoyingly familiar, but who I can`t place... eventually that guy comes up and introduces himself to me. Holy shit, you`re Paul Munger! He says I should jump in the circle, but I`m wearing my civilian clothes and am already getting buzzed off my beer, so I decline. Chad is wearing baggy shorts and black nikes which look awful for freestyle. He still manages to do decent length runs with shit like spinning whirls, blurry whirls, and pdx whirls. Awesome. Kushy looks like she`s having a lot of fun, and I feel real happy that Team Japan came over.
Once inside I find a barstool to sit on (the venue really was like a nightclub/bar), and play musical chairs with Brian McK, his girlfriend, and Stan all night. A big chunk of the crowd is forced to sit on the floor, and in the balconies only the front row have seats. It`s not the most comfortable set up for spectators.
The show itself goes well I thought. I found Yacine`s French easy to understand, and I admired that he was able to be the MC, and compete in the same show. That`s a lot of pressure to deal with. Sebastien also did double duty, by doubling as both a judge, and as a demonstrator between rounds. He did demos of the add system (like Ahren did at 2002) without warming up, and Yax used a bright ball on a stick so they could simulate moves in slow-motion for non-footbaggers to understand. They end the demonstration by Seb performing a massacre, and during the slow-mo explanation, Sebastien executes a flail over the ball on the stick. I think it`s pretty impressive and yell out a `whoo!` real loud, and it really seems like I`m the only person who yelled at that moment.
Eli shows a promo video with the Kill Bill music, which is funny and puts me in a good mood to watch the show. The night starts with Shred 30 finals. Overall, its pretty good. The visibility on stage is much better than what people had to deal with during the first round of Shred 30, so everybody hits better. Honza hits his (planned) Shred 30, which is filled with Uniques. This actually creates some pressure on Vasek, who drops a couple times. There`s some uncertainty in the audience about who won, which creates a nice atmosphere of tension. Unfortunately, the tension is broken in an unfortunate way, when the results of Shred 30 are flashed on the big screen in the middle of routine finals.
Before routine finals start, I wish good luck to my friends in finals, and place hexes on my enemies. No, of course I didn`t do that. I did wish good luck to a few people though, and had a funny exchange with Scott Bevier, who had the 9th seed.
CF: Good luck man
Scott: I kinda feel like the guy who snuck into finals.
CF: whatever man, you made the big show. Worst case scenario, you are top ten in the world.
Scott: Yeah, I`m not worried.
CF: Let me tell you an inspirational story. Back at 99 worlds, Sunil made finals with the 8th seed (finals that year were just top 8 ). Before finals, me, Wicked, and Sunil were talking, and Sunil said he was happy to be in the finals, but knew that he would end up taking 7th or 8th at the tourney, `because judges forget the early competitors, and if you enter with a low seed, you`ll probably have a low finish.` Wicked disagreed, and predicted that if Rippin (7th seed) went dropless, he could do top 3.
Sure enough, Rippin went dropless, and finished his routine with a Scorpion`s tail. He took 3rd, right after Ryan and Scott. Right after Rippin`s routine finished, Wicked rushed up to me and was like: `see! I told you! I called that! You were there when I called it!`
So I left Scott with those words of wisdom.
More later.
On our way to the netsite, we run into the Mikes: Hansen and Strumpf. They inform us that there is NOBODY at the net site, which I find hard to believe at first. Net players are famous for being able to play through a bit of rain, so I would be surprised if they cancelled net matches at WORLDS on account of rain. Part of me wonders if the Mikes maybe got confused and didn`t check the right site. If it were any other 2 young footbaggers, I would have probably double checked on my own, but both Mikes are really level-headed, intelligent guys, so I resignedly accept that there is no net that day.
We all head back to the UQAM and find a posse of people to go to the arcade with us. Eventually a small posse of us head out, including Hood, Brad Nelson, Tu, Mike Stokely, and a couple other guys. Everybody follows me to the arcade, but I get lost, which means we run in the rain for a good long time for no reason. This sort of thing happened 3 or 4 times at worlds, where big groups of people would follow me somewhere, and I`d take us all on the wrong train, or head in the wrong direction.
Sorry guys.We eventually make it to the arcade, and it really turns out to be a good way to spend a rainy day. I played Mike Stokely a bit in CvS2 (where I resorted to cheesy K-Cammy throw/poke games to compensate for shitt-I mean American, sticks), but the most fun games for me were Time Crisis III and Guitar Freaks 9th Mix. I played both games twice, once with Hood and once with Brad each time. Guitarfreaks is one of my favorite games in Japan, so I really rocked out and had fun. I even got a full combo on Andrew WKs classic `Party Hard`! Woot! I really like playing cooperative games with friends, and this turned out to be a highlight of worlds for me.
That night I go out partying, because I`m not competing (
) or judging ( ) the next day. I think I described Friday night`s partying somewhere else in the thread, but under the wrong day. Whatever.Saturday night is finals, and I`m excited to see it. I`m definitely rooting for Yacine to take the podium again, because his dropless routine in the semis was the best routine I had seen in a looooong time. I feel like if a choreographed routine places well, then maybe that would discourage the trend of Shred 2:00.
When I get to the Rialto, there is a huge line of people outside, but mostly just footbaggers. I figure the line is there because the doors haven`t opened yet, but I soon learn that the line is there because the bouncers are checking everybody`s bags to make sure they don`t bring in any outside food or drink.
What surprises me, is that this apparently applies to the players as well, and that water isn`t allowed. Come on! If the traditional Saturday night shred is supposed to happen, people need water! I`m actually not that fussed by the ban on water, until later on when I learn how much they are selling water for inside the Rialto.As I`m standing outside, I see Rippin`, and go say hey. Loren Baum has a six pack of beer for some reason, and I don`t think he even likes beer. He`s muttering about how he can`t bring it in, and doesn`t know what to do about it. Rippin` and I, being the gentleman that we are, help him out by taking two bottle off his hands. I lean against a wall sipping my warm beer, and watch a 3 man circle play for a bit. It`s Kushy, Big Add Chad, and some guy with glasses whose barflies look annoyingly familiar, but who I can`t place... eventually that guy comes up and introduces himself to me. Holy shit, you`re Paul Munger! He says I should jump in the circle, but I`m wearing my civilian clothes and am already getting buzzed off my beer, so I decline. Chad is wearing baggy shorts and black nikes which look awful for freestyle. He still manages to do decent length runs with shit like spinning whirls, blurry whirls, and pdx whirls. Awesome. Kushy looks like she`s having a lot of fun, and I feel real happy that Team Japan came over.
Once inside I find a barstool to sit on (the venue really was like a nightclub/bar), and play musical chairs with Brian McK, his girlfriend, and Stan all night. A big chunk of the crowd is forced to sit on the floor, and in the balconies only the front row have seats. It`s not the most comfortable set up for spectators.
The show itself goes well I thought. I found Yacine`s French easy to understand, and I admired that he was able to be the MC, and compete in the same show. That`s a lot of pressure to deal with. Sebastien also did double duty, by doubling as both a judge, and as a demonstrator between rounds. He did demos of the add system (like Ahren did at 2002) without warming up, and Yax used a bright ball on a stick so they could simulate moves in slow-motion for non-footbaggers to understand. They end the demonstration by Seb performing a massacre, and during the slow-mo explanation, Sebastien executes a flail over the ball on the stick. I think it`s pretty impressive and yell out a `whoo!` real loud, and it really seems like I`m the only person who yelled at that moment.
Eli shows a promo video with the Kill Bill music, which is funny and puts me in a good mood to watch the show. The night starts with Shred 30 finals. Overall, its pretty good. The visibility on stage is much better than what people had to deal with during the first round of Shred 30, so everybody hits better. Honza hits his (planned) Shred 30, which is filled with Uniques. This actually creates some pressure on Vasek, who drops a couple times. There`s some uncertainty in the audience about who won, which creates a nice atmosphere of tension. Unfortunately, the tension is broken in an unfortunate way, when the results of Shred 30 are flashed on the big screen in the middle of routine finals.
Before routine finals start, I wish good luck to my friends in finals, and place hexes on my enemies. No, of course I didn`t do that. I did wish good luck to a few people though, and had a funny exchange with Scott Bevier, who had the 9th seed.
CF: Good luck man
Scott: I kinda feel like the guy who snuck into finals.
CF: whatever man, you made the big show. Worst case scenario, you are top ten in the world.
Scott: Yeah, I`m not worried.
CF: Let me tell you an inspirational story. Back at 99 worlds, Sunil made finals with the 8th seed (finals that year were just top 8 ). Before finals, me, Wicked, and Sunil were talking, and Sunil said he was happy to be in the finals, but knew that he would end up taking 7th or 8th at the tourney, `because judges forget the early competitors, and if you enter with a low seed, you`ll probably have a low finish.` Wicked disagreed, and predicted that if Rippin (7th seed) went dropless, he could do top 3.
Sure enough, Rippin went dropless, and finished his routine with a Scorpion`s tail. He took 3rd, right after Ryan and Scott. Right after Rippin`s routine finished, Wicked rushed up to me and was like: `see! I told you! I called that! You were there when I called it!`
So I left Scott with those words of wisdom.
More later.
Tokyo trippin`
(tok) yo!
So I`m in Tokyo now, first time down here since Worlds ended. Its a 3 day weekend, so I got one more day to play tomorrow, we`ll see how the legs hold up.
I was real stoked to find that its still definitely summer here in Tokyo. Up in the part of Japan where I live, its already pretty fall weather, so it felt nice to play in the sun today and really break a sweat.
Not a lot of people showed up to todays session, but it turned out to be a lot of fun. I really love playing in Yoyogi park. Its always full of young people doing fun things, like posses of ukelele players, real skilled double dutch players, jugglers, frisbee people, tap dancers, hip hop dancers, djembe drum groups: you name it. Its cool cause footbag fits right in with all the craziness, and whenever you take a break from shredding, theres always something interesting to look at. During my breaks today I tossed frisbee and did juggling, real awesome.
As for the shred; everybody seems to have gotten way better. This is excellent, I see my dreams for Japan freestyle being realized while Im still here. Yama (winner of sick combo at TSG1) was playing real well, he`s doing guiltless more often than not. He hit the best combo of the day, with smog-phoenix. Booyah! Keita Oishii (team Japan, hes the dude who hits witchdoctor on the Monsterhack sorcery video) has worked on his clippers, which helps his game. He was getting both toe drifters pretty easily. Still, his best stuff was on his toes: predator (on tape!), scrambled egg-toe blur, and atom smasher-fairy gyro mirage. Hideki XTC Yamamoto (X+Y on these forums) was hitting lots of cool tricks ending and starting on inside delays. I was most impressed by atom smasher beginning and ending on inside Morii also showed, which was cool. Best shuffler in Japan probably, real cool style. I also just love playing with him, just a real good vibe.
As for myself, I had a lot of fun. I pretty much only used an abshire mini all day, which I found great for multidex moves, but not so good for flyers and spins. So in other words, it fit my style real well. I played well for the most part, I was probably most happy about sealing rubber man (starting on blur) for the first time using only hippy atomics. I had hit rubberman a bunch in the past, but using leggy atomics first, and then hippy atomics. Doing it all hippy is more fun, and it lets me make sure my first blur is clean, which was sometimes a problem for me playing out of leggy legbeater. I didn`t hit any new moves, but I hit a few really big combos for the first time, so that was cool.
My feet are pretty exhausted now, we`ll see how I feel in the morning. Tomorrow I am making a surprise visit to see Kim (team Japan, he was at worlds) who is in the hospital. When we got back from Japan, Kim found out he has tuberculosis Thankfully, this fatal disease is now treatable, which is good. Unfortunately, it means he`s been in the hospital for almost 2 months now, which is bad. He should get out in about a week, but still I think he`ll appreciate a visitor. I just hope I can convince the hospital staff that I am a distant cousin from America, or else they might not let me see him. This may be one situation where the crappiness of my Japanese helps me.
Everytime I come to Tokyo though I am reminded how cool it is that footbag is the thing that helped me make so many good friends in Japan. Kim is my best friend in Japan, even if we didnt have footbag in common, but I would have never met him had it not been for footbag.
So I`m in Tokyo now, first time down here since Worlds ended. Its a 3 day weekend, so I got one more day to play tomorrow, we`ll see how the legs hold up.
I was real stoked to find that its still definitely summer here in Tokyo. Up in the part of Japan where I live, its already pretty fall weather, so it felt nice to play in the sun today and really break a sweat.
Not a lot of people showed up to todays session, but it turned out to be a lot of fun. I really love playing in Yoyogi park. Its always full of young people doing fun things, like posses of ukelele players, real skilled double dutch players, jugglers, frisbee people, tap dancers, hip hop dancers, djembe drum groups: you name it. Its cool cause footbag fits right in with all the craziness, and whenever you take a break from shredding, theres always something interesting to look at. During my breaks today I tossed frisbee and did juggling, real awesome.
As for the shred; everybody seems to have gotten way better. This is excellent, I see my dreams for Japan freestyle being realized while Im still here. Yama (winner of sick combo at TSG1) was playing real well, he`s doing guiltless more often than not. He hit the best combo of the day, with smog-phoenix. Booyah! Keita Oishii (team Japan, hes the dude who hits witchdoctor on the Monsterhack sorcery video) has worked on his clippers, which helps his game. He was getting both toe drifters pretty easily. Still, his best stuff was on his toes: predator (on tape!), scrambled egg-toe blur, and atom smasher-fairy gyro mirage. Hideki XTC Yamamoto (X+Y on these forums) was hitting lots of cool tricks ending and starting on inside delays. I was most impressed by atom smasher beginning and ending on inside
Morii also showed, which was cool. Best shuffler in Japan probably, real cool style. I also just love playing with him, just a real good vibe. As for myself, I had a lot of fun. I pretty much only used an abshire mini all day, which I found great for multidex moves, but not so good for flyers and spins. So in other words, it fit my style real well.
I played well for the most part, I was probably most happy about sealing rubber man (starting on blur) for the first time using only hippy atomics. I had hit rubberman a bunch in the past, but using leggy atomics first, and then hippy atomics. Doing it all hippy is more fun, and it lets me make sure my first blur is clean, which was sometimes a problem for me playing out of leggy legbeater. I didn`t hit any new moves, but I hit a few really big combos for the first time, so that was cool.My feet are pretty exhausted now, we`ll see how I feel in the morning. Tomorrow I am making a surprise visit to see Kim (team Japan, he was at worlds) who is in the hospital. When we got back from Japan, Kim found out he has tuberculosis
Thankfully, this fatal disease is now treatable, which is good. Unfortunately, it means he`s been in the hospital for almost 2 months now, which is bad. He should get out in about a week, but still I think he`ll appreciate a visitor. I just hope I can convince the hospital staff that I am a distant cousin from America, or else they might not let me see him. This may be one situation where the crappiness of my Japanese helps me. Everytime I come to Tokyo though I am reminded how cool it is that footbag is the thing that helped me make so many good friends in Japan. Kim is my best friend in Japan, even if we didnt have footbag in common, but I would have never met him had it not been for footbag.
Quickie update on Tokyo part 2
Forgot to mention that Morii sealed a pdx legbeater, and was doing both blurry whirls real easy. Think he hit a fog or smog as well, not too sure.
Anyway, Monday morning I did a surprise visit to Kim in the hospital. I prepared an elaborate story (aka: lie) to get into the hospital, claiming I was his distant cousin from America. It turned out to be a lot easier than that to get into the TB ward. Kim looked in good spirits, but was definitely restless to get out. We talked footbag, and I was real happy to hear he hit smoke while in the hospital. Kinda ironic, hitting smoke in the TB ward. But yeah, footbaggers are irrepressible like that.
After my hospital visit, I went to Yoyogi park to play more footbag. My legs were hella stiff from the day before, so I didn`t do much, but had fun playing. I hit spinning osis back to back for the first time, which was really fun. I also hit torque-drifter-torque midstring, which just felt real good. I think I have my most fun when I am not busting hein, but just going long and original. In a pleasant surprise, Takumi (14 yr old Japanese Vasek) showed up. I love playing with Takumi, he`s just awesome. He`s pretty much guiltless now, with the occasional legover or clipper thrown in. Saw him hit a bunch of fives, including; paradox torque, phoenix, blurry whirl, matador. He also touched swifter. He can zoom set on both sides too, and both his legbeaters looked good. Definitely a comer, reminds me of Juho Marjo and old Vasek.
Masa also came to the session, and brought his baby Kenta with him. I really like Masa`s style. It`s just plain humongous, the way Red`s game is humongous, though they play real differently. Masa is all about making every trick huge, even pdx mirage and butterfly. Lots of ducks and lately a lot of swirls. Some really cool playing styles in Japan.
After shred a bunch of us went to Nathan`s for chili dogs. I don`t know if there is Nathans any place outside of Tokyo in Japan. I love going there, cause it tastes just like back home. It`s kinda nasty, but I have such good memories of playing videos games in high school and then eating that shit, that I really dig it.
My legs still feel awful today, hope I can heal in time for `teacher sports day` tomorrow. It`s cool, instead of teaching classes, all the high school teachers in my city will get together and face off in various sports. I signed up for Ping Pong and I`m looking to represent. Hopefully my sore legs wont slow me down.
Edit: Takumi also hit fairy muted same dyno, kinda like motion from toe. Kid`s a natural.
Anyway, Monday morning I did a surprise visit to Kim in the hospital. I prepared an elaborate story (aka: lie) to get into the hospital, claiming I was his distant cousin from America. It turned out to be a lot easier than that to get into the TB ward. Kim looked in good spirits, but was definitely restless to get out. We talked footbag, and I was real happy to hear he hit smoke while in the hospital. Kinda ironic, hitting smoke in the TB ward. But yeah, footbaggers are irrepressible like that.
After my hospital visit, I went to Yoyogi park to play more footbag. My legs were hella stiff from the day before, so I didn`t do much, but had fun playing. I hit spinning osis back to back for the first time, which was really fun. I also hit torque-drifter-torque midstring, which just felt real good. I think I have my most fun when I am not busting hein, but just going long and original. In a pleasant surprise, Takumi (14 yr old Japanese Vasek) showed up. I love playing with Takumi, he`s just awesome. He`s pretty much guiltless now, with the occasional legover or clipper thrown in. Saw him hit a bunch of fives, including; paradox torque, phoenix, blurry whirl, matador. He also touched swifter.
He can zoom set on both sides too, and both his legbeaters looked good. Definitely a comer, reminds me of Juho Marjo and old Vasek. Masa also came to the session, and brought his baby Kenta with him. I really like Masa`s style. It`s just plain humongous, the way Red`s game is humongous, though they play real differently. Masa is all about making every trick huge, even pdx mirage and butterfly. Lots of ducks and lately a lot of swirls. Some really cool playing styles in Japan.
After shred a bunch of us went to Nathan`s for chili dogs. I don`t know if there is Nathans any place outside of Tokyo in Japan. I love going there, cause it tastes just like back home. It`s kinda nasty, but I have such good memories of playing videos games in high school and then eating that shit, that I really dig it.
My legs still feel awful today, hope I can heal in time for `teacher sports day` tomorrow. It`s cool, instead of teaching classes, all the high school teachers in my city will get together and face off in various sports. I signed up for Ping Pong and I`m looking to represent. Hopefully my sore legs wont slow me down.
Edit: Takumi also hit fairy muted same dyno, kinda like motion from toe. Kid`s a natural.
Finals and Saturday night
Routine finals finally are set to begin. I`m impressed that Yax is still MCing for the first half of finals, considering he is also competing in them. Before finals starts, he asks me to keep an eye on volume levels, light levels, etc. from the crowd, and let him know if anything needs tweaking. On one of my visits to the stage to tell him something, he asks me to go get him a glass of water, and he hands me a two-ney, which I assume is for the tip for the bartender. I go up to the bartender and ask him for a glass of water. The bartended says he can`t do that. Fine, I say, do you have a bottle of water? He tells me that they do sell bottles of water, but they`re like 1 liter. Perfect, I think, so I ask him how much. Nine dollars. Nine fucking dollars. I look at him in disbelief, then explain to him that I`m getting the water for the MC/tournament director, and so could I get it free/non-highway robbery price? No. I go back up to the stage and explain the situation to Yax, and ask him what I should do. He looks pensive for a second, then calmly tells me to go back to the bartender and tell him `go fuck yourself.` I ask him very seriously if I should do that. He says its OK. I go back to my barstool, incredulous that the MC/tournament director/finalist of the tournament can`t get a drink of water in the finals venue. That`s straight up fucked up.
I settle down on my barstool, and watch the show begin. Scott goes early since he has the 9th seed, and when he goes dropless, the crowd goes nuts. I think to myself that I should give myself pep talks before competing. Stan and I exchange looks which say `podium.` After each successive routine, Stan and I discuss where we think Scotts routine will end up. My prediction, right after Scotts routine ends, is that he will take 3rd or 4th. As the routines go by, Scott remains 3rd in our predictions.
Quite honestly, I don`t find too many of the finals routines very memorable. Only a couple had anything resembling choreography. Unfortunately, Yacine doesn`t hit as well as he did in semis. The most exciting moment of finals is Honza`s routine. The crowd is with him from the start because of his music (spiderman), and when he nearly drops after a food processor, you really feel the theater hold its breath, really rooting for him. When he finishes, dropless, he gets a standing ovation. I feel like going up to him and personally thanking him for injecting some suspense into the night; preventing it from just becoming another coronation for Vasek.
Vasek steps up next and does a good routine with lots of crazy tricks, but most importantly, no drops. When he finishes, there`s another standing ovation. 3 dropless routines in finals is something the sport should rightfully be proud of. I personally hope that droplessness becomes a standard for the podium from now on. When people sit down again, you see everybody start talking to the players next to them, discussing who they thought won. For me its a real tough call, since I liked Honzas choreography. But then Stan points out that Vasek didn`t just hit harder tricks, but that he exhibited near-total control throughout. Honza had a couple near-drops, but Vasek was solid throughout, with the exception of a symp whirl out of blurry whirl, which was shaky enough for him to `bail` to a same side butterfly. With anybody else, it would be hard to notice it not being a bail. After talking with Stan, it becomes clear to me that Vasek should take 1st, Honza 2nd, and Bevier 3rd. We also agree on Pete in 4th, but cant recall the rest well enough to judge.
I find Scott in the crowd and congratulate him on stepping up so big. I tell him I think he`ll take 3rd, and he agrees in a real non-chalant, typical Bevier way. I jokingly take credit for his performance because of my inspirational speech I gave him before comp.
Eventually the results are flashed on the screen, with Vasek in 1st, Honza in 2nd, Scott in 3rd, and Pete in 4th. I let out a sigh of relief, because at least the top 4 results were `correct.` The reason I am so relieved, is because upon seeing the results posted, its quite clear that 3 of the judges are completely unqualified.
Considering that there were 3 dropless, excellent routines, 2 of which were rather close, the judging table should have looked like this:
..................Technical ....................Artistic
Vasek 1 1 2 1 2 2 ................... 1 2 2 1 2 1
Honza 2 3 1 2 1 1 .................. 2 1 1 3 1 2
Bevier 4 2 3 3 3 4 .................. 4 3 3 2 3 4
Pete 3 4 4 4 4 4 .................. 3 4 4 4 5 3
Or something like that. Essentially, all the judges should have placed Vasek or Honza in 1st place for technical, as well as for artistic. At most one judge could have put Bevier in 2nd for artistic or something, but for the most part, Vasek and Honza should have almost entirely 1s and 2s in their column. Scott should have received between 2-4 across the board, with MAYBE a single 5 in there. At worst. But he should have gotten pretty much 3s and 4s across the board.
Three judges pretty much reflected this, but three of them didn`t. I remember seeing some judges gave Scott scores as bad as 7 in either category, which is just plain not justifiable in any way.
I`m thankful that 3 judges were good, and the 3 unqualified judges results werent skewed enough to mess up the top 3 ranks, but still, it clearly illustrated to me how flawed the judging was at this worlds. I was explaining this to a few shredders when I got a tap on the back, and turned around to see.... my parents? Aren`t you guys supposed to be in Spain!??
More later.
I ask him very seriously if I should do that. He says its OK. I go back to my barstool, incredulous that the MC/tournament director/finalist of the tournament can`t get a drink of water in the finals venue. That`s straight up fucked up.I settle down on my barstool, and watch the show begin. Scott goes early since he has the 9th seed, and when he goes dropless, the crowd goes nuts. I think to myself that I should give myself pep talks before competing. Stan and I exchange looks which say `podium.` After each successive routine, Stan and I discuss where we think Scotts routine will end up. My prediction, right after Scotts routine ends, is that he will take 3rd or 4th. As the routines go by, Scott remains 3rd in our predictions.
Quite honestly, I don`t find too many of the finals routines very memorable. Only a couple had anything resembling choreography. Unfortunately, Yacine doesn`t hit as well as he did in semis. The most exciting moment of finals is Honza`s routine. The crowd is with him from the start because of his music (spiderman), and when he nearly drops after a food processor, you really feel the theater hold its breath, really rooting for him. When he finishes, dropless, he gets a standing ovation. I feel like going up to him and personally thanking him for injecting some suspense into the night; preventing it from just becoming another coronation for Vasek.
Vasek steps up next and does a good routine with lots of crazy tricks, but most importantly, no drops. When he finishes, there`s another standing ovation. 3 dropless routines in finals is something the sport should rightfully be proud of. I personally hope that droplessness becomes a standard for the podium from now on. When people sit down again, you see everybody start talking to the players next to them, discussing who they thought won. For me its a real tough call, since I liked Honzas choreography. But then Stan points out that Vasek didn`t just hit harder tricks, but that he exhibited near-total control throughout. Honza had a couple near-drops, but Vasek was solid throughout, with the exception of a symp whirl out of blurry whirl, which was shaky enough for him to `bail` to a same side butterfly. With anybody else, it would be hard to notice it not being a bail. After talking with Stan, it becomes clear to me that Vasek should take 1st, Honza 2nd, and Bevier 3rd. We also agree on Pete in 4th, but cant recall the rest well enough to judge.
I find Scott in the crowd and congratulate him on stepping up so big. I tell him I think he`ll take 3rd, and he agrees in a real non-chalant, typical Bevier way. I jokingly take credit for his performance because of my inspirational speech I gave him before comp.
Eventually the results are flashed on the screen, with Vasek in 1st, Honza in 2nd, Scott in 3rd, and Pete in 4th. I let out a sigh of relief, because at least the top 4 results were `correct.` The reason I am so relieved, is because upon seeing the results posted, its quite clear that 3 of the judges are completely unqualified.
Considering that there were 3 dropless, excellent routines, 2 of which were rather close, the judging table should have looked like this:
..................Technical ....................Artistic
Vasek 1 1 2 1 2 2 ................... 1 2 2 1 2 1
Honza 2 3 1 2 1 1 .................. 2 1 1 3 1 2
Bevier 4 2 3 3 3 4 .................. 4 3 3 2 3 4
Pete 3 4 4 4 4 4 .................. 3 4 4 4 5 3
Or something like that. Essentially, all the judges should have placed Vasek or Honza in 1st place for technical, as well as for artistic. At most one judge could have put Bevier in 2nd for artistic or something, but for the most part, Vasek and Honza should have almost entirely 1s and 2s in their column. Scott should have received between 2-4 across the board, with MAYBE a single 5 in there. At worst. But he should have gotten pretty much 3s and 4s across the board.
Three judges pretty much reflected this, but three of them didn`t. I remember seeing some judges gave Scott scores as bad as 7 in either category, which is just plain not justifiable in any way.
I`m thankful that 3 judges were good, and the 3 unqualified judges results werent skewed enough to mess up the top 3 ranks, but still, it clearly illustrated to me how flawed the judging was at this worlds. I was explaining this to a few shredders when I got a tap on the back, and turned around to see.... my parents?
Aren`t you guys supposed to be in Spain!?? More later.
Sat night shred
After recovering from the shock of my parents surprise arrival (which is also the first time in my 7 years playing they have come to a footbag tournament), I go out to dinner with them, and bring along Floyd Morgan. We catch up over Greek Food, and my parents untrained eyes confirm my suspicion that Shred 2:00 isn`t the best way to showcase the sport. They thought there was no artistic merit to most of the finals routines.
After dinner Floyd and I return to the Rialto. The footbag tradition is for there to be a long Saturday night shred after finals, but the conditions at the Rialto aren`t so good. Inside, only the stage is lighted, and only 2 circles can fit on it. People play in front of the stage, but its really dark and crowded. Outside, some people play by the lights of the entrance, out on the sidewalk.
Personally I`m torn between whether to play or to go dancing downtown. I`m feeling pretty tired and I`m not excited about playing in the dark, but I also worry that if it rains the next day (no tam tam), I will have missed my last chance to play at worlds. I`m also quite aware that its Saturday night in Montreal clubs, which is also really tempting. I sit and watch a circle with Vasek, Toni P, Mikko, Jere L, and Jere V while I weigh my options. Vasek starts a 40+ string with double blender to food, then a few contact later hits the other food processor back to back. Then later in the same string, he hits spinning pdx blender to food. This may also have been the circle where I saw him try to hit high stepping double over swirl (arch nemesis swirl: 5 dexes).
I finally find it too hard to make a decision on my own, so instead I flip a looney (I flipped the bird!) and the coin tells me to stay and shred. Then Andrew Weglarz comes up to me and says they are organizing an informal sick 3 competition, and it starts in 20 minutes. I roll my eyes at the prospect of Sick 3 being run after midnight for the second year in a row. I tell him I will enter if I can warm up in time.
I look around and see that Sunil is in a small circle, and I realize it may be my only shot to play with Sunil all tournament. The circle is in front of the stage, so its dark, but we get some residual light. If somebody`s shadow crosses your line of sight though, the bag becomes invisible. All I remember in this circle is Sunil trying diving pdx egg, which would inspire me to hit diving pdlo and diving pdx drifter once I get back to Japan. I try to warm up really fast, and hit the components of the Sick 3 I want to try. I could always hit my sick 3 within 7 tries back in Japan when I practiced, but I was always warmed up, and playing in sunlight. When its my turn to go up, I give it a good shot, and I don`t choke, but I can`t hit my sick 3. I wanted to hit diving parkwalk-fog-paradon swirl, and I came real close once but no dice. The only 3 trick combo I hit ends up being diving parkwalk-blur (bail instead of fog)-paradon swirl. Could have been worse. Toni P hits a beast, which is cool, but most people can`t hit their combos. Honza hits a couple styly ones, and when they announce the results, I again feel like the judges went exclusively on adds, and not on `sickness.` Vasek didn`t enter.
After Sick 3, I hopped into a circle in front of the stage. At some point, Vasek goes back onto the main stage, and there`s a miniature stampede as people rush to the stage to see him play and to film him. I`m annoyed as people run through the circle, and cast big shadows into our playing area. I know Vasek is the best player out there, and lots of fun to watch, but Worlds isn`t just Vasek, and I`m surprised by how little respect is shown to other circles.
Vasek isn`t God. He just does a good impression.
I find another circle deeper in the Rialto where cameramen aren`t competing with me for floor space, and find a real good vibe in a Toronto circle. Here I finally meet Jared Raab, and I compliment him on his videos. I play in a circle with Jared, Joyce, Camille, Lisa, and Chris Marlowe. I have a really fun time in this circle, and go for longish strings, just focussing on seeing the bag. At some point Jared makes some comment thanking me for playing with them, since they are `so beneath my skill level` or something like that. The comment really horrifies me, since I like to see footbag as an activity where pros DO play with intermediates and beginners, and there isnt that much elitism. For the most part I think this is true, and was something you could see firsthand throughout worlds. Playing footbag is fun, playing footbag with new people is fun. I don`t play with anybody to do them any favors, and as long as everybody is having fun, thats good enough for me. I think many BAP level players feel the same way too.
The night winds down and I start to pack up. Right before leaving though, I see Sebastien hit beta frenzy, with all 3 dexes undeniably clean. pixie wonton set! Holy crap! I head home and ... go out for pizza? Go to sleep? I can`t honestly remember. But I do remember Tam-tam the next day. Next entry... Tam tams
After dinner Floyd and I return to the Rialto. The footbag tradition is for there to be a long Saturday night shred after finals, but the conditions at the Rialto aren`t so good.
Inside, only the stage is lighted, and only 2 circles can fit on it. People play in front of the stage, but its really dark and crowded. Outside, some people play by the lights of the entrance, out on the sidewalk. Personally I`m torn between whether to play or to go dancing downtown. I`m feeling pretty tired and I`m not excited about playing in the dark, but I also worry that if it rains the next day (no tam tam), I will have missed my last chance to play at worlds. I`m also quite aware that its Saturday night in Montreal clubs, which is also really tempting. I sit and watch a circle with Vasek, Toni P, Mikko, Jere L, and Jere V while I weigh my options. Vasek starts a 40+ string with double blender to food, then a few contact later hits the other food processor back to back. Then later in the same string, he hits spinning pdx blender to food.
This may also have been the circle where I saw him try to hit high stepping double over swirl (arch nemesis swirl: 5 dexes). I finally find it too hard to make a decision on my own, so instead I flip a looney (I flipped the bird!) and the coin tells me to stay and shred. Then Andrew Weglarz comes up to me and says they are organizing an informal sick 3 competition, and it starts in 20 minutes. I roll my eyes at the prospect of Sick 3 being run after midnight for the second year in a row. I tell him I will enter if I can warm up in time.
I look around and see that Sunil is in a small circle, and I realize it may be my only shot to play with Sunil all tournament. The circle is in front of the stage, so its dark, but we get some residual light. If somebody`s shadow crosses your line of sight though, the bag becomes invisible. All I remember in this circle is Sunil trying diving pdx egg, which would inspire me to hit diving pdlo and diving pdx drifter once I get back to Japan. I try to warm up really fast, and hit the components of the Sick 3 I want to try. I could always hit my sick 3 within 7 tries back in Japan when I practiced, but I was always warmed up, and playing in sunlight. When its my turn to go up, I give it a good shot, and I don`t choke, but I can`t hit my sick 3. I wanted to hit diving parkwalk-fog-paradon swirl, and I came real close once but no dice. The only 3 trick combo I hit ends up being diving parkwalk-blur (bail instead of fog)-paradon swirl. Could have been worse. Toni P hits a beast, which is cool, but most people can`t hit their combos. Honza hits a couple styly ones, and when they announce the results, I again feel like the judges went exclusively on adds, and not on `sickness.` Vasek didn`t enter.
After Sick 3, I hopped into a circle in front of the stage. At some point, Vasek goes back onto the main stage, and there`s a miniature stampede as people rush to the stage to see him play and to film him. I`m annoyed as people run through the circle, and cast big shadows into our playing area. I know Vasek is the best player out there, and lots of fun to watch, but Worlds isn`t just Vasek, and I`m surprised by how little respect is shown to other circles.
Vasek isn`t God. He just does a good impression.
I find another circle deeper in the Rialto where cameramen aren`t competing with me for floor space, and find a real good vibe in a Toronto circle. Here I finally meet Jared Raab, and I compliment him on his videos. I play in a circle with Jared, Joyce, Camille, Lisa, and Chris Marlowe. I have a really fun time in this circle, and go for longish strings, just focussing on seeing the bag. At some point Jared makes some comment thanking me for playing with them, since they are `so beneath my skill level` or something like that. The comment really horrifies me, since I like to see footbag as an activity where pros DO play with intermediates and beginners, and there isnt that much elitism. For the most part I think this is true, and was something you could see firsthand throughout worlds. Playing footbag is fun, playing footbag with new people is fun. I don`t play with anybody to do them any favors, and as long as everybody is having fun, thats good enough for me. I think many BAP level players feel the same way too.
The night winds down and I start to pack up. Right before leaving though, I see Sebastien hit beta frenzy, with all 3 dexes undeniably clean.
pixie wonton set! Holy crap! I head home and ... go out for pizza? Go to sleep? I can`t honestly remember. But I do remember Tam-tam the next day. Next entry... Tam tams So I lied...
...OK, so the NEXT entry will be of the Tam Tams.
Yesterday I had to go to a teaching seminar in Morioka, so I took advantage of that fact and got in a freestyle session at the local University with Gochin and Shin-chan. This time I remembered to bring my shorts and my music, and we had a really fun session, despite it being rather chilly out.
We kicked to the `power in numbers` album by Jurassic 5, as well as `you`ve come a long way baby` by Fatboy Slim. Whenever I play to that FBS album, I always think about Wicked`s shred video, `Just Shred` where Ryan dominates in Steve`s shredhouse during that album. I also get flashbacks of playing Quake in college. 
It`s nice to get a 3 man session, cause the bag keeps moving, and its easier to stay warm. Definitely already fall in my part of Japan... need to sneak down to Tokyo and get an outdoor summer session while I still can.
So the first half of the session I mostly go for long runs, and give lots of tips to Gochin and Shinchan on tricks like legbeater, whirl, blur, etc. They remind me a lot of myself back in the day, in that they try lots of hard tricks before putting in the time and learning the requisite components of harder tricks. Like, shinchans blur isnt consistent, because he hasnt dialed his pdx mirages yet. Both Gochin and Shin-chan hit a ton of new tricks all session though. Usually I`d just suggest a set I knew they could do, then a second component which I knew they could do, but never thought to combine. So Shin chan hit stepping mirage, and both of them tried legeaters and I know gochin hit paste. That sort of thing.
After about an hour, Shin-chan has to go to his part time job, and its dark out, so Gochin and I relocate to a covered, lit outdoor space where test results and flyers are posted. It really reminds me of a spot I used to play at back in college. I can`t recall the last time I did a two man circle, but it was a ton of fun. We got to skool a lot, and I taught gochin fairy set and gave him some tips which improved his spins. I love how enthusiastic they are about footbag, I definitely feed off of that real well. Personally, I had a really fun session. I`m just amazed that after playing this sport for 7 years, I can still hit a bunch of new tricks/combos at each session. I hit clipper set symposium blur, entirely downtime, and sealed that a bunch of times. It has a real tight window, and feels real cool. The symp mirage looks like `bread,` like leggy style symp mirage. I also hit some other cool stuff with triple dexes, but I`m gonna try and get that on video in Tokyo in a couple weeks, so hopefully I can show you rather than just brag blah blah blah on the internet.
At the end of the session, Gochin returned to me a video I had lent him 7 months ago: Japanese Footbag Champs 2003. It`s a video of the first Asian footbag tourney, which was amazingly a year and a half ago. When I got home I watched it for the first time since I first got it, and it was a trip. I felt a real large mix of emotions. Part of me was just real happy to see how far people progressed since then. Almost everybody just plays way WAY better than back then, and I`m really happy about this. I think a lot of the players would be embarassed to see what they considered a `big trick` back then.
The other thing that struck me was seeing some faces of people who had so much potential, but fell out of the sport. I was definitely really sad to see Mayumi Maki. She doesn`t play anymore, and I was told its because she`s been real busy with work, and in her freetime just hangs out with her boyfriend. I remember being real stoked that she had a non-footbag boyfriend, becauase I always worry that if a shredita dates a footbag guy, when they break up, the shreditas usually quit playing, but not the guys. But maybe in this case she would have stuck around if she had a footbagging boyfriend. Who knows. But in any case, its sad that a shredita with so much talent just dropped out.
Watching the workshops on the video from JFC, I smiled a lot. We really did a good job setting up and running a good tournament for the public. Thank you Pepsi Japan. Seriously. The other thing I was real glad about, is that footbag wasn`t just a fad in Japan. We got monster exposure from Pepsi, but it was understood that it was just a temporary thing. Luckily, we were able to harness all that money, exposure, and energy, and get a critical mass of dedicated footbaggers who would stick with the sport. The scene in Japan is doing awesome now, and its a big relief to me that we made good use of our opportunity.
On a personal note, I also laughed a lot, seeing my presentation. My Japanese still isn`t very good, but I like to think its come a nice way in the year and a half since I gave my footbag workshop at JFC. Watching my workshop, I am amazed that ANYBODY understood what I was saying. My friend Kim helped translate my crapanese into Japanese at key parts, and as I watch it today, I am real impressed at Kim`s ability to understand what I was trying to say, and translate it perfectly every time.
Watching the vid was also a time-check for me. The Japanese scene has definitely developed nicely since I`ve been here, and I`ve done as much as I can to help it along. But on the other hand, I know I won`t be here forever, so I need to really focus and try to do all I can to make the Japanese scene even better before I leave. I really want Japan to become a force in the footbag world eventually, and I think I can definitely help out by getting sponsors for tournies, judging tournies, and teaching as much freestyle as I can. Just gotta do all I can in the next 10 or so months to help things on the right path.
Yesterday I had to go to a teaching seminar in Morioka, so I took advantage of that fact and got in a freestyle session at the local University with Gochin and Shin-chan. This time I remembered to bring my shorts and my music, and we had a really fun session, despite it being rather chilly out.
We kicked to the `power in numbers` album by Jurassic 5, as well as `you`ve come a long way baby` by Fatboy Slim. Whenever I play to that FBS album, I always think about Wicked`s shred video, `Just Shred` where Ryan dominates in Steve`s shredhouse during that album. I also get flashbacks of playing Quake in college.
It`s nice to get a 3 man session, cause the bag keeps moving, and its easier to stay warm. Definitely already fall in my part of Japan... need to sneak down to Tokyo and get an outdoor summer session while I still can.
So the first half of the session I mostly go for long runs, and give lots of tips to Gochin and Shinchan on tricks like legbeater, whirl, blur, etc. They remind me a lot of myself back in the day, in that they try lots of hard tricks before putting in the time and learning the requisite components of harder tricks. Like, shinchans blur isnt consistent, because he hasnt dialed his pdx mirages yet. Both Gochin and Shin-chan hit a ton of new tricks all session though. Usually I`d just suggest a set I knew they could do, then a second component which I knew they could do, but never thought to combine. So Shin chan hit stepping mirage, and both of them tried legeaters and I know gochin hit paste. That sort of thing.
After about an hour, Shin-chan has to go to his part time job, and its dark out, so Gochin and I relocate to a covered, lit outdoor space where test results and flyers are posted. It really reminds me of a spot I used to play at back in college. I can`t recall the last time I did a two man circle, but it was a ton of fun. We got to skool a lot, and I taught gochin fairy set and gave him some tips which improved his spins. I love how enthusiastic they are about footbag, I definitely feed off of that real well. Personally, I had a really fun session. I`m just amazed that after playing this sport for 7 years, I can still hit a bunch of new tricks/combos at each session. I hit clipper set symposium blur, entirely downtime, and sealed that a bunch of times. It has a real tight window, and feels real cool. The symp mirage looks like `bread,` like leggy style symp mirage. I also hit some other cool stuff with triple dexes, but I`m gonna try and get that on video in Tokyo in a couple weeks, so hopefully I can show you rather than just brag blah blah blah on the internet.
At the end of the session, Gochin returned to me a video I had lent him 7 months ago: Japanese Footbag Champs 2003. It`s a video of the first Asian footbag tourney, which was amazingly a year and a half ago. When I got home I watched it for the first time since I first got it, and it was a trip. I felt a real large mix of emotions. Part of me was just real happy to see how far people progressed since then. Almost everybody just plays way WAY better than back then, and I`m really happy about this. I think a lot of the players would be embarassed to see what they considered a `big trick` back then.
The other thing that struck me was seeing some faces of people who had so much potential, but fell out of the sport. I was definitely really sad to see Mayumi Maki. She doesn`t play anymore, and I was told its because she`s been real busy with work, and in her freetime just hangs out with her boyfriend. I remember being real stoked that she had a non-footbag boyfriend, becauase I always worry that if a shredita dates a footbag guy, when they break up, the shreditas usually quit playing, but not the guys. But maybe in this case she would have stuck around if she had a footbagging boyfriend. Who knows. But in any case, its sad that a shredita with so much talent just dropped out.
Watching the workshops on the video from JFC, I smiled a lot. We really did a good job setting up and running a good tournament for the public. Thank you Pepsi Japan. Seriously. The other thing I was real glad about, is that footbag wasn`t just a fad in Japan. We got monster exposure from Pepsi, but it was understood that it was just a temporary thing. Luckily, we were able to harness all that money, exposure, and energy, and get a critical mass of dedicated footbaggers who would stick with the sport. The scene in Japan is doing awesome now, and its a big relief to me that we made good use of our opportunity.
On a personal note, I also laughed a lot, seeing my presentation. My Japanese still isn`t very good, but I like to think its come a nice way in the year and a half since I gave my footbag workshop at JFC. Watching my workshop, I am amazed that ANYBODY understood what I was saying. My friend Kim helped translate my crapanese into Japanese at key parts, and as I watch it today, I am real impressed at Kim`s ability to understand what I was trying to say, and translate it perfectly every time.
Watching the vid was also a time-check for me. The Japanese scene has definitely developed nicely since I`ve been here, and I`ve done as much as I can to help it along. But on the other hand, I know I won`t be here forever, so I need to really focus and try to do all I can to make the Japanese scene even better before I leave. I really want Japan to become a force in the footbag world eventually, and I think I can definitely help out by getting sponsors for tournies, judging tournies, and teaching as much freestyle as I can. Just gotta do all I can in the next 10 or so months to help things on the right path.
Last edited by C-Fan on 27 Sep 2004 23:19, edited 1 time in total.
At the risk of embarassing Gochin...
... I completely forgot to mention the best part of the Shred on Monday evening in Morioka. So last time I was in Morioka, I got Gochin to hit `schmoe` for the first time, but he misheard me, and thought I said `sumo,` since both those words sound similar in the Japanese pronunciation. I explained to him the differences in spellings and tricks, and that was that.
But sometime during our last session, Gochin asked me (in Japanese of course) if I could hit `toh-wah-ru.` I picked up the bag and hit a toe whirl, ending in hand catch. Then I dropped it to my other foot, and hit the other toe whirl. Gochin just stares at me all confused, and then asks me about swirling tricks. Only then do I realize he was asking if I had hit `twirl`! In this case it was my fault for not listening carefully, but I thought it was funny. Then I hit a twirl for him. Maybe you had to be there...
But sometime during our last session, Gochin asked me (in Japanese of course) if I could hit `toh-wah-ru.` I picked up the bag and hit a toe whirl, ending in hand catch. Then I dropped it to my other foot, and hit the other toe whirl. Gochin just stares at me all confused, and then asks me about swirling tricks. Only then do I realize he was asking if I had hit `twirl`!
In this case it was my fault for not listening carefully, but I thought it was funny. Then I hit a twirl for him. Maybe you had to be there... The last Tam-Tam Jam of Worlds 2004
Sunday morning I wake up to drumming in my head... wait a second, I didnt`t drink that much last night.... no, there`s the sound of a crowd mixed in with it, and its... coming from outside. I roll out of bed, and the first thing that strikes me is that the weather is lovely out. This means one more Tam-tam jam on my trip, which I am super stoked about. The previous night, I wasn`t sure if it would rain or not, so the abundant sunshine is a nice surprise.
I go down to the lobby of the UQAM, and look out the door, learning the cause of the noise that woke me: gay pride parade, right outside the UQAM! Luckily, I can get baklava for breakfast right in the convini, so I don`t have to deal with the huge crowds on the street. I take my convini and walk to the patio on the other side of the UQAM and run into Felix.
`Hey Felix, I`ll trade you a piece of Baklava for one of your footbags.`
Felix just shakes his head at me. Earlier this week I had run into Felix in the lobby, and complimented him on his footbags. I told him that so far in the tournament, they were the best bags I had played with. He said thanks, and then explained to me how he had so little time to stitch these days, he had to raise his price to stave off demand and justify the time expenditure. I told him about Henmo, who has a cool solution to the same problem.
Aside: Henmo (who took 11th in Open at Worlds!) makes some of the best footbags in Japan. Because Henmo is a college student, he doesn`t have enough time to stitch enough bags to meet demand, so his solution is to stitch when he can, then auction his footbags on the internet. That way, whoever wants the bag the most will buy it.
Felix explained to me how earlier that week he had met XXXXX (a member of BAP, who shall go unnamed) for the first time, and got a bad impression from him. Apparently, XXXXX came up to Felix and after introducing himself, said he wanted to buy a bag. Felix named his price, which was like $40 CDN or something, and XXXXX said something like: `$40CDN!?! Man, fuck that. No way am I ever paying more than $25 US for a bag. Can I buy a bag off you for $25US ?` Felix was amazed by this response, since he had just met the guy, and on top of that Felix had a good reason for his higher price.
Anyway, after hearing this story, I made it a running joke all week that every time I ran into Felix, I would ask him: `Hey Felix, can I buy a bag off you for a two-ney?` `Hey Felix, I`ll trade you this Orange Julius for one of your bags.` I think the joke got old for him, but hey, it still cracks me up.
On the bus to the Tam-Tams I sit near the West Virginia crew, and I hear them talking about who they think will make BAP this year. I enter the conversation by mentioning that I had seen the list of who was getting in, and that this year there would be 12 new inductees. This shocking revelation is met by: `no way!`s and `youre kidding`, but there`s definitely a touch of doubt in their responses. I think its funny that BAP has gotten so big, that I can make a claim like `12 guys are getting BAPtized this year` and people aren`t sure if I`m joking.
Bob Glasser lists who he thinks will get in, and when he finishes, I ask:
`what about --------- (name of a promising shredder, who will make BAP next year for sure)?`
Bob: `Him? No way! Yadda yadda consistency, yadda yadda string length`
Me: `geez. What was your reaction when I was invited into BAP?`
Bob: silent grin.
There`s no feeling like the one you get when you step off the bus in front of the Tam Tam on a beautiful day. You can already hear the drums, and in your excitement your heartbeat adjusts to the rhythm accordingly. Usually you have to wait for the light to change, because you have to cross 4 lanes of traffic to get to the Tams. It`s almost as if they engineered the lights, timing them so they tease your anxious-to-shred ass. Then you go up the stairs, and you can see all these circles of incredible shredders, and your mind begins its subconscious calculus of figuring out which circle you want to jump in on.
The beauty of it is that you can`t make a mistake in picking a circle. And after 4 days of playing at the Rialto, it feels like a rebirth to be able to play in the sun and not worry about lighting. I play with Noah Jay-Bonn, and I can`t believe he`s the same kid I gave pointers to at Western Regionals 2001. He`s like 2 feet taller now and shreds better than me! I play in a circle with Red and Bob Riefer. Bob is playing well, and I`m almost more happy about that than he is. I play with Henmo, and I want to give him props just for being there, and give him more props for reppin` Japan so well. I do give him these props, but I cleverly disguise their timing by giving them to him after every good run he lays down.
One of the best circles I play in has Scott D, Tu Vu, and Kevin Ritchie. I think Dan Ednie joins this circle for a bit. Dan is almost as laid back as his shred, which means he`s really fun to play with. Kevin Ritchie surprises me with how good his game for 2 reasons: 1. I had never seen him shred on videos before, and 2. He had the crap beaten out of him by bouncers at the club the night before. Tu`s grifters and pigbeaters leave no doubt as to how he got his nickname. Scott D just gets me pumped up. I don`t understand why he gets so little respect, the man is badass.
I`m really enjoying the vibe and having a good time, but I have to leave prematurely, because a friend of mine from the States is coming up to visit me, and is meeting me at the UQAM. I bus back to the UQAM, and after waiting for 20 minutes, I call her cell. It turns out her train is delayed, so she won`t get in until 11. I suppress my `woo hoo!` and dash back to the UQAM. I hop off the bus, and am glad to see people are still shredding. I jump in circles, and feel the unfair advantage of having taken off an hour and a half to rest. One of my last circles is with Noah Jay Bonn and Sebastien, and Fred Touzelet films one good run of mine (at least, it seemed good at the time.)
Just as I think I`m done for the tourney, I spot Verena in a circle, and immediately strap the lavers back on. I squeeze into the circle, and shred with Schubi and Verena for the first time. Verena is crazy; reverse swirl this, pdx whirl that. Awesomeness. Since I have a second wind, I decide to play until dusk, in a circle with the Toronto crew. I give Joyce a bunch of tips on osis. I really hope she sticks with footbag, since there are so few minority Shreditas in North America.
Things wind down, and people start getting ready to go to the final party/awards ceremony/BAP inductions. I gather Team Japan and we have a real emotional goodbye, with speeches and lots of deep bowing. I pretty much just tell them how proud I am of them, and thank them for all the fun we had that week, and for representing. It`s a real emotional moment. We pose for 30 or 40 photos, then I go off to get dinner with Johnny Murphy and Floyd.
We walk around a lot, but the Mexican place Eli recommended to me is closed.
And I`d really been craving Mexican food too! So we continue walking, and are annoyed to find that Montreal restaurants have an annoying habit of closing reeeeaaally early (8,9,10). We find a place with sandwiches and cake and sit down....next to Team Japan?!? Definitely an anticlimax. But the cake is real good. After dinner, everybody heads to the party/ceremonies, and I take off to go meet my friend back at the UQAM.
At the UQAM I watch a bunch of old Thunderbirds programs on the TV while I wait. I talk to Connor Campbell and Jim.... whatshisface for a while, and when my friend finally shows, we go to the convenience store. At the convenience store, i run into Dave Clavens, Crisco, and Mike Hansen. They tell me that I got voted into BAP again and I laugh. Then, in a semi-expectant tone, Dave asks me if I will accept this time. I stare at them for a second, then blurt out a real obnoxious: `what do YOU think?! Of course not!` They tell me that the awards ceremony took place outdoors in a park, because some award recipients are minors, and werent let into the bar. This is lame enough that it shouldn`t merit any commentary, but I thought I`d point out that this mistake in the planning was by the Net committee, and not by the freestyle committee.
I say some goodbyes and, already feel really sad that `the best week of the year` (which is the subtitle of worlds) is already over. I comfort myself by telling myself I will be in town for another week, so I can space out some of my goodbyes.
Next entry: my last Tam-tams during vacation, my critique of Worlds organization, and my critique of most peoples criticisms of worlds.
I go down to the lobby of the UQAM, and look out the door, learning the cause of the noise that woke me: gay pride parade, right outside the UQAM! Luckily, I can get baklava for breakfast right in the convini, so I don`t have to deal with the huge crowds on the street. I take my convini and walk to the patio on the other side of the UQAM and run into Felix.
`Hey Felix, I`ll trade you a piece of Baklava for one of your footbags.`
Felix just shakes his head at me. Earlier this week I had run into Felix in the lobby, and complimented him on his footbags. I told him that so far in the tournament, they were the best bags I had played with. He said thanks, and then explained to me how he had so little time to stitch these days, he had to raise his price to stave off demand and justify the time expenditure. I told him about Henmo, who has a cool solution to the same problem.
Aside: Henmo (who took 11th in Open at Worlds!) makes some of the best footbags in Japan. Because Henmo is a college student, he doesn`t have enough time to stitch enough bags to meet demand, so his solution is to stitch when he can, then auction his footbags on the internet. That way, whoever wants the bag the most will buy it.
Felix explained to me how earlier that week he had met XXXXX (a member of BAP, who shall go unnamed) for the first time, and got a bad impression from him. Apparently, XXXXX came up to Felix and after introducing himself, said he wanted to buy a bag. Felix named his price, which was like $40 CDN or something, and XXXXX said something like: `$40CDN!?! Man, fuck that. No way am I ever paying more than $25 US for a bag. Can I buy a bag off you for $25US ?` Felix was amazed by this response, since he had just met the guy, and on top of that Felix had a good reason for his higher price.
Anyway, after hearing this story, I made it a running joke all week that every time I ran into Felix, I would ask him: `Hey Felix, can I buy a bag off you for a two-ney?` `Hey Felix, I`ll trade you this Orange Julius for one of your bags.` I think the joke got old for him, but hey, it still cracks me up.
On the bus to the Tam-Tams I sit near the West Virginia crew, and I hear them talking about who they think will make BAP this year. I enter the conversation by mentioning that I had seen the list of who was getting in, and that this year there would be 12 new inductees. This shocking revelation is met by: `no way!`s and `youre kidding`, but there`s definitely a touch of doubt in their responses. I think its funny that BAP has gotten so big, that I can make a claim like `12 guys are getting BAPtized this year` and people aren`t sure if I`m joking.
Bob Glasser lists who he thinks will get in, and when he finishes, I ask:
`what about --------- (name of a promising shredder, who will make BAP next year for sure)?`
Bob: `Him? No way! Yadda yadda consistency, yadda yadda string length`
Me: `geez. What was your reaction when I was invited into BAP?`
Bob: silent grin.
There`s no feeling like the one you get when you step off the bus in front of the Tam Tam on a beautiful day. You can already hear the drums, and in your excitement your heartbeat adjusts to the rhythm accordingly. Usually you have to wait for the light to change, because you have to cross 4 lanes of traffic to get to the Tams. It`s almost as if they engineered the lights, timing them so they tease your anxious-to-shred ass. Then you go up the stairs, and you can see all these circles of incredible shredders, and your mind begins its subconscious calculus of figuring out which circle you want to jump in on.
The beauty of it is that you can`t make a mistake in picking a circle. And after 4 days of playing at the Rialto, it feels like a rebirth to be able to play in the sun and not worry about lighting. I play with Noah Jay-Bonn, and I can`t believe he`s the same kid I gave pointers to at Western Regionals 2001. He`s like 2 feet taller now and shreds better than me! I play in a circle with Red and Bob Riefer. Bob is playing well, and I`m almost more happy about that than he is. I play with Henmo, and I want to give him props just for being there, and give him more props for reppin` Japan so well. I do give him these props, but I cleverly disguise their timing by giving them to him after every good run he lays down.
One of the best circles I play in has Scott D, Tu Vu, and Kevin Ritchie. I think Dan Ednie joins this circle for a bit. Dan is almost as laid back as his shred, which means he`s really fun to play with. Kevin Ritchie surprises me with how good his game for 2 reasons: 1. I had never seen him shred on videos before, and 2. He had the crap beaten out of him by bouncers at the club the night before. Tu`s grifters and pigbeaters leave no doubt as to how he got his nickname. Scott D just gets me pumped up. I don`t understand why he gets so little respect, the man is badass.
I`m really enjoying the vibe and having a good time, but I have to leave prematurely, because a friend of mine from the States is coming up to visit me, and is meeting me at the UQAM. I bus back to the UQAM, and after waiting for 20 minutes, I call her cell. It turns out her train is delayed, so she won`t get in until 11. I suppress my `woo hoo!` and dash back to the UQAM. I hop off the bus, and am glad to see people are still shredding. I jump in circles, and feel the unfair advantage of having taken off an hour and a half to rest. One of my last circles is with Noah Jay Bonn and Sebastien, and Fred Touzelet films one good run of mine (at least, it seemed good at the time.)
Just as I think I`m done for the tourney, I spot Verena in a circle, and immediately strap the lavers back on. I squeeze into the circle, and shred with Schubi and Verena for the first time. Verena is crazy; reverse swirl this, pdx whirl that. Awesomeness. Since I have a second wind, I decide to play until dusk, in a circle with the Toronto crew. I give Joyce a bunch of tips on osis. I really hope she sticks with footbag, since there are so few minority Shreditas in North America.
Things wind down, and people start getting ready to go to the final party/awards ceremony/BAP inductions. I gather Team Japan and we have a real emotional goodbye, with speeches and lots of deep bowing. I pretty much just tell them how proud I am of them, and thank them for all the fun we had that week, and for representing. It`s a real emotional moment. We pose for 30 or 40 photos, then I go off to get dinner with Johnny Murphy and Floyd.
We walk around a lot, but the Mexican place Eli recommended to me is closed.
And I`d really been craving Mexican food too! So we continue walking, and are annoyed to find that Montreal restaurants have an annoying habit of closing reeeeaaally early (8,9,10). We find a place with sandwiches and cake and sit down....next to Team Japan?!? Definitely an anticlimax. But the cake is real good. After dinner, everybody heads to the party/ceremonies, and I take off to go meet my friend back at the UQAM. At the UQAM I watch a bunch of old Thunderbirds programs on the TV while I wait. I talk to Connor Campbell and Jim.... whatshisface for a while, and when my friend finally shows, we go to the convenience store. At the convenience store, i run into Dave Clavens, Crisco, and Mike Hansen. They tell me that I got voted into BAP again and I laugh. Then, in a semi-expectant tone, Dave asks me if I will accept this time.
I stare at them for a second, then blurt out a real obnoxious: `what do YOU think?! Of course not!` They tell me that the awards ceremony took place outdoors in a park, because some award recipients are minors, and werent let into the bar. This is lame enough that it shouldn`t merit any commentary, but I thought I`d point out that this mistake in the planning was by the Net committee, and not by the freestyle committee. I say some goodbyes and, already feel really sad that `the best week of the year` (which is the subtitle of worlds) is already over. I comfort myself by telling myself I will be in town for another week, so I can space out some of my goodbyes.
Next entry: my last Tam-tams during vacation, my critique of Worlds organization, and my critique of most peoples criticisms of worlds.
the point of the story isn`t the Felix-XXXX interaction, the point of the story was my running joke with Felix. I only mentioned the Felix-XXX thing to give context to our running joke-without it, it wouldn`t be funny. And I only mentioned that the guy was BAP to show that it wasn`t a total newbie who Felix had talked to.
I try and use names wherever I can, but in the 2 or 3 places in my blog where I have omitted names, its because the name of the person isn`t the main point of my story, and I want to save people any sort of embarassment.
I try and use names wherever I can, but in the 2 or 3 places in my blog where I have omitted names, its because the name of the person isn`t the main point of my story, and I want to save people any sort of embarassment.
Last edited by C-Fan on 01 Oct 2004 15:18, edited 2 times in total.
It was Allan Haggett.FlexThis wrote:I gotta know who XXXXX is? If it isn't Bryan, who BTW is not an asshole at all, then I gotta know.
:
Seriously, you totally missed the point of the story. Read my last post (which I edited for clarity). I just wanted to mention my running joke with Felix, but it wouldn`t have made sense if I didn`t give the story context.
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brian relly
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Allan can be in two places at once? He's that good??
esteban barnez
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myspace.com/rawcakes
david wrote:I was just sitting here surfing and my mom looks over my shoulder. I had to jab down the down key real quick so she wouldn't see that topic title and question me about what kind of site I was going on.