Fanzine

[C-Fan]

Thanks for the nice words guys. That routine was one of the best moments of my footbag career, so I'm glad I got it on tape to share with everybody.

Thursday: Day 3 of Worlds

Jet lag continued to give me problems. I woke up super early, around 7:30, and decided to walk around listening to Ratatat and take photos of graffiti in the neighborhood. I was amazed by how much good street art there was in Berlin. You'd see it in the typical spots (underpasses, etc), but also inside of shops, or plastered across entire faces of buildings. It made for a very vibrant, beautiful backdrop for the week. I went to eat breakfast, and arrived there before the caterers. Eventually they arrived, and I had a nice conversation with Tony, a local net player. I watched almost equal parts net and freestyle at this Worlds. I can almost hear Darth Sidious calling my name...

Eventually the site opened up, and I was able to borrow a basketball. Dan Smiley, a friend of Danny Boyle's, joined me and we shot around for a while. One of my favorite jokes from the week came when I was talking to Danny Boyle.

Me: What's your friend's name?
Danny: He's also named Dan. It's real easy this year, since all the Aussies are named Dan (Boyle, Smiley, Ednie).
Me: Well, except for Caroline.
Danny: No, her name's also Dan.
Me:

Players eventually started trickling in. Landes sees me and Dan on the court, and yells out: "Ken! Stop pretending you're good at basketball!" Without missing a beat, I throw up a halfcourt prayer, and nail it. I coolly look at Nick, who just turns around and walks away.

I'm antsy to head out and start sightseeing, but Kenzo is doing Sick3, so I wait til he finishes. I enjoy watching Anz and Jay warm up, and then I also film some of the qualifiers too.

Finally we hit the road. We being TJ, Kenzo, Matt Bailey and myself. On the metro I get super duper excited when I see this:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkzAiet9IJk[/youtube]

How f*cking cool is that! Good work Berlin crew!

We get to the Transit and Technology Museum without any problems, and proceed to spend the next 4+ hours there. The place was huuuuge. There was so much cool stuff there. I saw a U-Boat, a penny farthing, a nazi warplane, a simple machine that demonstrated chaotic motion, and a book with all the digits of Pi. It turns out the final digit of Pi is five. I can sleep a lot better now knowing that.
All the walking around exhausts us, and with competition the next day, we decide to head back to the site. We pick up some delicious pizza on the way, and get back in time to watch a round of circle.

I watch some Net semis matches, then head over to the glashaus to judge intermediate finals. The highlight by far is Ted Fritsch's routine. Did anybody film it? As an East coast footbagger, I've probably seen Ted's Rush routine upwards of twenty times. But I've never seen him hit it this well. The first 40 seconds or so are dropless and on the beat, and he finishes with something like 4 drops total. The crowd went ballistic, and so did I. As a judge you want to remain impartial, but we just saw something historic. On my judging sheet, I had him in second place up until the final competitor came up. The final competitor was a young Czech kid who had only been playing 8 months, and he totally deserved the win. Ted ended up finishing in 5th place, which really baffled me. I thought he deserved silver...bronze at worst. Anyway, I'm just happy he performed so well, and that I had a front row seat.

I watch some doubles, but then my stomach starts flipping out on me. I call it an early night, and head home. While I've accomplished my goal of going dropless at Worlds, I still want to put on a good show in semis, so going to bed early feels like a good decision for me.

[sergio]

If I remember correctly, Pi is an irrational number and thus has an infinite number of decimals; So there is no final digit of Pi. Sorry for your sleep Ken
Nice write up

[the_8_bit_kid]

Props on the dropless qualifier ken,it was an awesome routine!ive been waiting for you to post it ever since matt bailey text me to tell you went dropless. He said it was the highlight of the day! ive never felt so excited for someone ive never met!

[C-Fan]

Pi is an irrational number and thus has an infinite number of decimals; So there is no final digit of Pi.

But...but the book... the big book in the museum ... the book said...

Friday: Day 4 of Worlds

The first three days I was at Worlds, there were occasional showers, but nothing that lasted too long. Friday was a different story. I get breakfast at the cantina, then decide to go on a guided walking tour of Kreuzberg (the part of Berlin where the tourney was happening). I get to see a watchtower that was used to guard the border, and I also learn a bit about the structure of the Berlin wall and how it was patrolled. About 20 minutes into the tour, the sky opens up. We try and wait it out, but it doesn't look like it will subside. Given that I'm scheduled to compete that afternoon, I decide it's not a good idea to go on a long walking tour in the rain, and head back to the site. I get drenched on the way over, but thankfully I'm able to get a dry shirt, since I didn't pick up my tourney shirt when I registered. That was lucky. I eat some free fruit, and as I head into the gym to check out Dan Ednie's "teaching footbag" workshop, I hear a cacophonous BOOM! A little later I see the other people who went on the tour, who told me they called it off shortly after I left.

I go back to the hostel and nap for a bit, then grab lunch with everybody. Due to the rain, all events take place indoors. I time my warmup very well, and by the time my pool starts I feel warm and confident. Jay Boychuk warned me that parts of the stage were slippery, so when my name is called I go up and feel it out. Not great, but not that bad either. I point to the DJ, my music kicks in... and then I proceed to screw up my choreo for the first 20 seconds of my routine! I recover pretty well, and at least I didn't drop, but it still shakes my confidence. About a minute in, I have my first drop. It's right at the chorus too, which is the part that's supposed to get the crowd into it, so that hurts the routine pretty badly. I pick up another drop around 1:30, but I close things out well.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z33nqEjP0fc[/youtube]

I bow to the crowd and judges, and exit the stage. I already know at that point that I won't make finals, but I feel pretty good about doing a two drop routine in semis. Part of me can't help but wonder though, would I have made finals had I gone dropless? Maybe that would be a good goal for next year. Anyway, as I stretch down and eat my protein bar, I feel a sense of relief. I got my dropless routine at Worlds, which was my main goal, and my semis routine wasn't bad. I was especially happy about my two Worlds routines, since just three weeks earlier I had five drops when I did the same routine at the NYFA tourney.

I stick around and watch the rest of the comps. During breaks between the action, Matt Cross works the audience by asking: "What is footbag?" I'm sitting next to Alex Dworetzky from Stanford, who giggles and says to me "footbag is gay." We have a good laugh over this, and then I tell him I'd buy him a beer if Matt asks him and he says that on the mic. Not two minutes later I see Alex make eye-contact with Matt, who asks "what is footbag?" Sure enough, Alex says it on the mic, and I double over with laughter. I try to make amends later when Matt asks me the same question. I respond with "footbag ist unglaublich" (footbag is unbelievable). My response is met with a library-esque silence. I just really wanted to say "unglaublich," since Nightcrawler always said it in the old X-Men comic books. On a similar note, I was also excited to say "gesundheit" to strangers who sneezed in the streets.

Circle finals were fun to watch. Vasek's epic run was one of the most memorable things I've seen in footbag competition. People have disected it on the internet, but this was one of those moments that you really had to be there for. Feeling the crowd's anticipation build through the run, and then the reaction after he passed (he didn't even drop!) was just something you had to experience.

After comp wraps up, I shot a bunch of one shots and random runs, then went out in search of food and parties. Here's Landes hitting paradox sidewalk:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHWJmphNHEI[/youtube]

I start the night by going to Team Spain's room at the East Side Hotel. It's early, and they're already half-drunk and getting drunker. Nobody's interested in eating, so I head out and find a Chinese/Thai place. I bump into Oxana and Julia T eating there, so I sit with them for a bit, then take my food back to the hotel. I eat in the lobby while talking to Jay Boychuk. After eating, I borrow Matt's computer and get on the internet for the first time since I left DC. I write my family to let them know I made it alive, and I update my facebook status to brag about going dropless, and then I'm off. In some ways, spending a week without a cellphone or the internet was as good a vacation as anything else I did in Berlin.

Around 11 a bunch of us roll out to the area where all the recommended clubs are. I get a nice dark beer from a convenience store, and talk with Macro Hartig before we check out the clubs. The place we planned on going to is having a heavy metal night, so we check out the DNB place next door. We pay 3 Euros, go in, and find it's empty. We go to the small hip hop bar next door to that (which doesn't have a cover), and find it's bumping. It's a really small space, but the music is good and people are dancing. I end up spending most of the night there. I take several "cooling off" breaks during the course of the night, and each time I'm accosted by drunken Finns trying to convince me to try "Margerita Partyyy." At least, that's what it said on the label...which was handwritten...and on a piece of looseleaf paper...taped to the bottle with scotch tape... Anyway, it turns out that they got some hot chilis or chili oil or something and put it in a tequila bottle, and were making the rounds getting people to try it. After a while I realized the stuff was becoming as legendary as the bad LSD at Woodstock, so I decided to take a taste to complete my Worlds 2K9 experience. It was about as disgusting as you'd think.

As the sun started to come up I found myself walking home with a bunch of francophones, and I was buzzed and tired enough to speak my crappy French with them til I got home. I crashed on my bed with a smile on my face, savoring how good this Worlds was. Competition was over for me (and it went well), I had fun partying, and there was still a day left.

Next: Saturday, Final Day of Worlds.

[C-Fan]

Today my blog hit 96896 views, which made me happy because that's the same number upside down as right side up.

Saturday: Final Day of Worlds

Woke up still feeling a little drunk. Hadn't had that happen to me in a long time. I force myself to go to brunch, cause it's the last communal meal of Worlds, and I know I'll need the energy for the day. During brunch, a German footbagger named Tim hands out surveys about footbag. One of the questions is: "what do you like least about footbag?", and I answer that I wish the community were more diversity, both racially and in terms of gender. Footbag is such a great passtime, I think it's really weird that it's 98% composed of white guys between the ages of 16-25.

After eating a group of us meet up at the X-berger hostel, so we can go sightseeing. I fall asleep on the couch while we wait. Finally, we get our group together (Matt Bailey, Simon Kittlaus, Bjoern, Roy, Danny B, and Danny S) and head out to go sightseeing. At the metro station we spend a good 10 minutes figuring out where we're going, and what's the best type of ticket to buy. The decision-making (in)ability of a group of hungover footbaggers in a foreign country is truly something to behold.

We finally figure things out and head to city center. We see a bunch of cool things, like the parliament building, a statue of Marx and Engels, the Brandenburg Gate, and a bunch of different protests. One of the protests was handing out red balloons, so I took a photo of their booth, cause I couldn't resist getting a photo of 99 red balloons in Berlin. Beyond all the tourist stuffI enjoy the most though is just all the street art we pass. Towards the end of sightseeing, my stomach completely revolts. I stop at a pay toilet and take so long, the others joke that I got my money's worth. I think the combination of jet lag, walking all day, eating different food, being hungover, and the relief of competition being over all took a heavy combined toll on my stomach.

We get back to the hostel and split a pizza, then I head over to the Finals site. I want to see the open doubles net final, but figure that I'm running late enough that the best I can hope for is to catch the end of the third game, assuming it's lasted that long. To my pleasant surprise, I find that they are running a bit behind schedule, and I arrive just in time to catch the start of the game. I even find courtside seats! Here's the view I had of the game:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Dg3bTUWop8[/youtube]
The game is close and entertaining, and actually kinda stresses me out a bit. After it's over, they announce a concert is going to take place, and then freestyle. I decide it's a good opportunity for me to get some air/food, and to get my other camera battery from the hostel room.

I head back to the hostel, and eat a slice of pizza on the way. I figure I have a solid hour at least until freestyle starts, so I decide to lie down and just rest for 10 minutes. For some reason, I thought I'd be able to close my eyes and "rest" without falling asleep. Next thing I know, I'm waking up, and I can tell that a lot of time has passed. Fuck. Since I don't have a watch or cellphone, I have no idea how much time has passed, but I know that no matter what I'll be going to the finals site. I head out, and when I arrive at the site, everybody is streaming out. I ask a few people if it's over, and everybody says yes. For the rest of the night people ask me what I thought of finals, and all I can do is shake my head. I find it amazing that I came all the way to Worlds and didn't see the finals, while footbaggers around the rest of the world did (thanks to ustream). Two thoughts console me:

1. At least I wasn't IN finals. If I had made it to finals as a competitor, and then somehow slept through them, I think I'd have to kill myself.
2. At least I didn't miss a historic upset. Vasek was the favorite, and he won. It's not like I missed the 02 or 08 finals.

One good thing that came from my unplanned nap, was that I was fresh for the finals night shred. Due to my late arrival, coupled with how seriously I took competition this year, I didn't get in a single casual shred the entire week. There was no way I was going to leave Worlds without getting in some actual shredding. The finals night shred was in the front room of a bar...it's kinda hard to describe. Two factors ended up limiting the number of people who played that night: there were only two shred mats (and the floor was slippery if you weren't on them) and there was lots of sand that was tracked in from the artificial beach just outside. This meant that for most of the night there were only two or three circles happening. Given that this was my only session of Worlds, I made a point to play as long as possible. Mathieu and I were the two players who were there from start to finish.

All told, I only got to play with 13 players on finals night, but I enjoyed playing with all of them. I probably played the most with Phil Morrison, Toni Paakkonen, and Matt Bailey. I also got to play with TJ, Viktor, Cod, Mathieu, Jay Boychuk, Anz, Dan Ednie, and Andrew McCargar. I also hopped in a circle with Marcin Bujko and Serge for two turns, just so I could say I played with them.

Here's my one-shot, to give you a sense of what the location was like:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-eoIDVV1G8[/youtube]

Phil hit a bunch of crazy stuff (blurriest swirl, flailing diving ss symp whirling xbody rake), but beyond that I was just impressed with his consistency and form. I also had a blast playing with T-Pak, since he has one of my all-time favorite styles. He hit a textbook genesis, and at one point he also hit the cleanest blurry ripwalk I'd ever seen. Like, the last dex was pretty legit, as opposed to a lot of last-second downtime butterflies.

Personally, I was pretty happy with how I played. Due to the sandy floor and the bright floodlights, I soon gave up even trying to spin. I felt bad doing that since I've spent so much time working on my spinning game, but given the conditions it just wasn't worth it. I had fun doing a bunch of tricks that I was avoiding doing before worlds, because of the risk of injury. Stuff like mullets, HPD, WHAT!?! and anything involving whirling set. The only standout combo I remember hitting was ewalk-ducking pdx torque, and the only trick was sonic eclipse. More than anything though, it just felt so good to play for fun again. While I'm happy I spent so much time training for routines, and I feel it paid off, I missed the fun and freedom of just playing and doing whatever I want.

Eventually the circles die down and awards ceremony starts. I need to be at the airport in something like 4 hours, so I do a few rounds of conversation, then start my farewells. One conversation that stuck in my mind was this one:

Viktor: Hey Ken, did you know that we were the two oldest players to make it to semi-finals?
Ken: Uh, how old are you?
Viktor: 25
Me:

I say a few more goodbyes, then head back to the hostel to pack my bags and steal an hour of sleep before going to the airport. In the communal bathroom in the hostel I bump into Toni, which is weird because I was already mentally done with Worlds. I have a similar experience when I walk to the metro the next morning.

The trip back to DC kinda sucks, but it's not Worlds, so I'll end my write-up here.

Big big biiiig danke schon to the Berlin crew for running the best tourney I've been to. I was impressed and had a fabulous time. Can't wait til next time.

[HG]

really enjoying the writeup ken, you always do the most entertaining ones

[matt_bailey]

its tragic how the thumbnail for your semi finals video is the moment of your first drop! you set the bar so high with your qualifier it would have been near impossible to beat!

thanks for the write up, i enjoyed reading it

[Rieferman]

btw, we need a bunch of posts in a hurry to make sure we get to page 101 before the views on this blog hit 100,000. Otherwise we'll have to hear Ken talk about 100,000 views on 100 pages, and what that averages per page etc.

or not



kidding aside:
once again, congrats on the dropless Ken. Really a great accomplishment!

[C-Fan]

Oh man, I laughed so hard when I saw Bob's post... you know how I think. For the record though, my post/view ratio pales in comparison to any of the newer blogs, so there's not much glory to be had for me there. I think now the biggest pride I can take in my blog is that it's one of the oldest active blogs on the site, and that I've been very consistent about updating it since I started it over five years ago. I think it's pretty cool that over 40% of my footbag career has been documented in here, and that the last year and a half I've crammed in so much video.

A couple random Worlds 09 stories before I completely move on in my blog:

* During Women's qualification routines, I walked in on the last 30 seconds of Karolina Modrzejewska's dropless routine. When I later went up to congratulate her, I was thrown off-guard when she asked me: "did you use a blue and yellow footfighter during your routine?"
I responded that I did indeed, to which she said: "yeah, I stitched that bag." I didn't even know that footbaggers stitched Footfighters, so the fact that one of the best female players in the World made my bag, that came as a big surprise. I thanked her for making a bag I liked enough to compete with.

* The German word for "exit" is "ausgang." All week I was hoping to get all the Australian players together so I could take a picture of them under one of these signs, but I never got them all in one place. The plan was to get a photo of the Aus gang under Ausgang, and then to take another picture with Phil Morrison under a sign that said "notausgang," which is the German word for "emergency exit." Oh well.

OK, back to life in the US. It turns out that my agency is having a talent show, so I naturally decided to enter with a footbag routine. I decided to do my OK, GO! routine from last year, since the music is more accessible than my Christina Aguilera routine I used in Berlin. I went to try out for it on Tuesday, gave a one minute speech (yes there are tournaments, stalling is harder than kicking, etc), and then proceeded to do a dropless routine! I guess I really burned that routine into my brain/muscle memory. The panel seemed impressed, but they were also impressed by bad poetry. I made the cut though, so I'll perform in front of a bigger audience next Thursday. Maybe I'll try and film it.

In non-footbag news, I dusted off Wii bowling yesterday and played for the first time since before Worlds. My first few games I was horrible, but I eventually regained my touch. I started off my last game with a split, which seemed like a bad sign. I thought to myself: "that's cool, just get strikes on the next eleven frames." To my surprise...I did! So in that game I set personal bests for strikes in a row (11) and for my score (278).

To end on a footbag note, here's a run from my last serious session, which was on Monday:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYEEyLwgxAQ[/youtube]

[Asmus]

* The German word for "exit" is "ausgang." All week I was hoping to get all the Australian players together so I could take a picture of them under one of these signs, but I never got them all in one place. The plan was to get a photo of the Aus gang under Ausgang, and then to take another picture with Phil Morrison under a sign that said "notausgang," which is the German word for "emergency exit." Oh well.

That is really clever. Bummer you didn't get it.

Could try Gyro Mobius for me next session on vid?

[hacksterbator]

* The German word for "exit" is "ausgang." All week I was hoping to get all the Australian players together so I could take a picture of them under one of these signs, but I never got them all in one place. The plan was to get a photo of the Aus gang under Ausgang, and then to take another picture with Phil Morrison under a sign that said "notausgang," which is the German word for "emergency exit." Oh well.

BwaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

i'm so sad that you didn't do that. would have been legendary!

[boyle]

I wish I had've known about this devious plan, I would have done all I could to make it happen.

Next time!

[Rieferman]

hi ken, just eating up another post to thwart your 100 and 100,000 plan. mwuhaaaa haaa haaaaa

[MrMeebles]

Hi Ken,

I just wanted to say that I've enjoyed reading your world's write-up, although the part that I was most looking forward to, you slept through I hope to play with you again some day when I've actually slept in recent history and am far, far less drunk. Cheers,

-Andrew

[C-Fan]

Could try Gyro Mobius for me next session on vid?

I assume you mean like sonic ss torque, or like a peeking torque? I gave it a couple tries over the weekend (off video) and had some OK looks. I'll try and skool sonic over my next few sessions and see where that takes me.

hi ken, just eating up another post to thwart your 100 and 100,000 plan. mwuhaaaa haaa haaaaa

I hope to play with you again some day when I've actually slept in recent history and am far, far less drunk.

Fo sho; us old vets need to stick together. See you in routine finals at Worlds next year?

Ended up having a really good footbag weekend. On Friday I made a last minute decision to go to NYC for the weekend. My original plans (visiting my niece) fell through, and the weather looked good in the City, so I figured why not. The weather was ideal on Saturday, as temps were in the 70s, we had blue skies, and there was the occasional breeze. I hadn't played since Monday, but I felt very sharp with my game. We had good turnout too: Bruce, Stan, Waylon, Pascal, Dave Byers, and Jon Schneider. It's always such a treat to play with Jon. He does all these body rolls and flapper kicks which are incredibly hard, but makes them look easy.

I had a fantastic time playing. The months leading up to Worlds I spent so much time preparing routines, that footbag was starting to feel more like work than fun. This weekend though I got to play for the sake of playing, and we also had good crowds, which always helps me play better. I'm also getting closer and closer to playing in the style that I've been working towards, which is mostly spinning and ducking with some downtime tricks and flair (flappers, fliers, and whizzes).

One unexpected highlight was hitting blw -blw -blurriest-psw-psw- tomahawk-tomahawk-pdx torque-pdx blender. This was notable because I haven't been working on fearless links, and also because it was so bothsided (I only planned out the first 3 contacts). I think I'll try and get a new ten fearless combo on film in the next couple months.

The only other really notable thing on Saturday was that Stan was hitting symp flurries. I've loved that trick since I first saw Vasek doing them at Worlds 04. I got some encouraging tips on the trick from Stan, so I'll try that out next session. The only new trick I hit all weekend was double whizz (whirring inside).

Here's a run from Saturday I got on film:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ACBpBXNp0s[/youtube]

After shred we went to an excellent ramen place, which was delicious and filling. That night we watched Tropic Thunder and played a bunch of Wii Sports and Sports Resort. The highlight for me was in the original Wii bowling, where I started a game with 7 strikes, got a spare, and then struck out to finish at 279, therby beating my old personal best by one.

I'll close out this post with one of the more surreal things I saw in the park on Saturday:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtQ3xVfSIHI[/youtube]

[C-Fan]

Falling behind a bit with the blogging.

Sunday in NYC turned out well. When we got to the park at 1:30, it looked like it would start raining at any moment. It continued looking like this for the next several hours, and it ended up never raining. So Sunday's shred felt like a free bonus round.

Here's one of the better runs I got on tape:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kryVxRGzvuk[/youtube]

After shred I went to Brooklyn to play trivia and drink with Stan. Next morning I said my goodbyes, and made it to DC without any problems. On my walk home, I call Brian MacKenzie, because I heard he was moving to DC. I'm a few blocks from my house when I ask him where he's staying. "13th and Girard" he says...just as I'm crossing 13th and Girard. Spooky. He pops out of a doorway, we say hey, then we get lunch. My original plan after Worlds was to branch out and do some non-footbag activities, but now that Brian is in town and keen to play, I'm thinking maybe I shouldn't waste this opportunity.

On that note, I went to an Ultimate Frisbee practice after work on Tuesday. It was with a co-ed team from GW, and they were super serious. On one hand it was fun to be a total newb and be getting lots of advice, as opposed to footbag where I'm used to being a good player, and giving advice. On the other hand, I didn't have cleats and was slow to pick up on the theory behind the drills, which was frustrating. Physically I didn't feel like I was out of shape, so much as in the wrong shape. My body felt good for footbag, but not for running and cutting. I also lacked confidence in throwing and catching in pressure situations. While I'm fine doing them normally, doing them in a game situation when everybody was watching me affected me. I remember feeling that way at my first couple footbag tournaments, but this was worse since my mistakes cost my team, and not just myself. I'm not sure yet if I'll continue with Ultimate. Both hamstrings have been sore for the last couple days, to the point where I'm walking funny. If I can't do both footbag and ultimate at the same time, I'm gonna drop ultimate. It'll also depend on how keen Brian is to play regularly.

The final bit of footbag news, is that I performed a footbag routine at work today. I'll post about that later though, once I've uploaded the video of it.

I'll leave you with a random combo from an earlier session:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcabj_qmPWk[/youtube]

[Rieferman]

OH MAN! Brian is one of my favorite footbag people ever. Scratch that, he's just good people no matter what, I just happened to meet him through footbag. Will you and Brian please visit? Or, drag him to Funtastik. I'll make a solo trip down your way this fall hopefully too

[hacksterbator]

...but this was worse since my mistakes cost my team, and not just myself.

this is why i can't play team sports, and haven't since i was 5 years old. I hate screwing it up for every one else, and hate having another person screw up all my hard work. Sick that you're living real close to brian mac! convince him to shred on the regular and get heaps of footage!

[CIC flurry]

when is Brian moving there?

[C-Fan]

Sick that you're living real close to brian mac! convince him to shred on the regular and get heaps of footage!

Actually, he's living close to me. In a strange twist of events, he's getting back into the game and sounds real keen to play a lot, while I was contemplating taking some time off before he showed up. So if anything it looks like he'll be the one who convinces me to shred regularly.

As for footage, I'm on it:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2yWkRRaU2g[/youtube]

It's a good bet we'll be playing a lot on weekends, and hopefully figure out a way to get in a session during the week too.

Barrett visited this weekend from NYC, which was a lot of fun. I had a lot on my mind, so having him visit and hanging out with Brian helped keep my spirits up. We got in a 3 man shred on Saturday, then hit some museums. It can be easy to forget all the cool stuff that is available in your own town, so having friends visit can be a good excuse to do the fun tourist things. It really is pretty excellent that all the museums and the zoo are free here.

Here's a run of mine from Saturday:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EineEUVY30[/youtube]