Breonna Taylor Nouveau Tribute, Teddy Wright IV, Digital, 2020
I always loved Alphonse Mucha's art deco style, and it always struck me as weird that nobody really paints like that these days. I like this adaptation paying homage to his style, while also honoring the memory of Breonna Taylor, whose murderers are still free.
My last session where I filmed for Worlds was 2.5 weeks ago. I took a solid week off after that to physically recover. Since then, I've gotten in 3 sessions. Playing without any Worlds pressure has been such a joy. It's so liberating to just mess around with combos and tricks and not have to worry about cramming in the difficulty or meeting milestones. These past 3 sessions have been the most fun I've had with footbag since I started ramping up my playing at the start of spring. They've been like 95% downtime tricks, and lots of spins and swirls. So basically tricks that I'm bad at but that I enjoy doing when I can pull them off.
When I was training for Worlds I'd often feel cursed when I'd have bad luck with playing conditions. I'd think things like: "this heatwave is timed perfectly to prevent me from filming my routine!" Or: "only during Worlds would my normal playing spot get covered in blown up fireworks and goose poop!" The weeks after Worlds showed me that this was of course not true. The heat is still pervasive even after Worlds and I've had to cancel a few sessions due to bad luck with groundskeeping crews and other unforeseen problems. Whenever that happens I remind myself that I'm lucky it's not costing me a Worlds session and that it's low stakes to reschedule now. I also remind myself that it proves that bad conditions can happen whenever and that they are not specific to Worlds bad luck. It also makes me feel proud that I pushed through the bad conditions that happened during the Worlds period and that it produced good results for me.
The Taishi Worlds documentary on NHK was great. The production was excellent, Taishi was excellent at explaining things, and it was super accessible to a general audience and not just footbaggers. It got me thinking: what if every player who participated in Worlds did a similar segment for their local news? I know there are factors this year where players may not have wanted to risk potential covid exposure, and in many cases I'm sure competitors didn't have much time to prep their submissions as is. It still got me thinking though how much more news exposure we could be getting if we made just a bit more effort. I am also very aware I'm like the pot calling the kettle black, as I made zero efforts at promotion this year. Between family, work, and competing in every event though, I don't know that I could have done a very good job though.
The other thing that was interesting to me in the Taishi documentary, was when Taishi commented that this year's format put him at a disadvantage. He noted that he is a very consistent live performer who is not impacted by nerves, and that often gives him an advantage over more talented players who do not manage their performance anxiety as well. I thought that was a very astute observation, and I think I noted something similar in my blog. I think Mathieu did too in the Worlds thread, where he noted that Taishi and some others would be capped by their difficulty in this format. Two thoughts related to this. First, I believe the idea of basements and ceilings for players' performances is not static. I think that a player's basement for example can shift from year to year, based on how much they practice. For me personally, I think my basement was pretty high during my best years of competition (2010-2014) . My basement got notably lower in ensuing years, though I'd argue my ceiling probably stayed the same. Second, I think it would be pretty neat and interesting to look at all the competitors in a tournament and estimate their ceilings and basements. In practice though, we'd never do this for footbag since it's such a small and tight knit community. The potential for insulting people is just way too high. If we were watching something like the NBA though, where we're completely disconnected from the players and they don't even care, you could do some form of that and observers would find it interesting I'm sure.
Haley asked me if Worlds 2021 would be in Colombia. I responded that the IFPA is hoping to do that, but 11 months out who the heck knows? Even if we had a crystal ball and could see Colombia has covid under control by then, what if Europe and North America don't? Would they host Worlds in person if say half of all potential competitors are not allowed to travel to Colombia? I also wonder about the economics of it. Pre-covid, going to Colombia was going to be a logistical/economic challenge for a lot of players. Factor in 1.5 years of the global economy being in the gutter and how many players will be financially able to go? Going back to the health concerns, even if we have a vaccine by next summer, how likely is it that all footbaggers can get it? Even if they do, would Colombia still impose a quarantine on visitors? I really hope for the sake of the world and not just Worlds that covid and the economy miraculously recover in the next year. But if we don't see a radical turnaround in the next few months, what is the argument in favor of Worlds in Colombia over doing a second virtual Worlds?
Downtime
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Maybe I should binge more Terrace House so I can eke out a small message and not be completely embarrassed.
