Rochester, New York Footblog

[Jdigges]

Thats funny that you were working on your rake's. i was working on mine the same day they are pretty fun. i hit pdw whirl> clip set rake>butterfly rpt first try. i was pretty stoked. your rake stuff is more impressive though



W00t new page! the rochester blog is catching up with mosher's

[mc]

it will never catch up if I leave it alone for 5 days at a time

We had a fun session with Mike, Chris, Aric, Paul, and myself at the RIT gymnasium a few days ago. We filmed. Aric and Chris ripped it up hardcore. I forget how Mike and Paul were playing because I was too busy being really really pissed at myself for not being able to hit anything. I was so frustrated that I punched myself hard in the head, and it hurt for the rest of the session, but it wasn't so bad. I'll probably make an appearance on the resulting video. Expect to be blown away by Aric and Chris. This video will contain what I think is Aric's second session ever in Climacools... just keep that in mind as you observe the awesomeness... when it comes out, that is

I haven't played since that session, but I had an awesome free breakfast today here at work, and I might grab a snack after work, and my legs feel good, so I think I'm up to shred today. My ear is congested, but I have high hopes that today is the day that I'm going to experience that glorious moment where my inner ear makes that wonderful hissing sound and return itself to normal pressure. I've been taking my antibiotics like a good boy and everything. The damn things cost me $20 bucks, they better work! at least the medical treatment was free... that's a good hookup from living in the poor part of town, where they expect us low lifes to not be able to pay for things.

I'm going to see some amazing singer-songwriters that call themselves collectively the Tin Pan Caravan in Ithaca on Thursday. I'm so excited for this, I've played gigs with 2 of the 4, and I'm almost certain they'll ask me up to play a song or two, so maybe I can even score a gig at the venue out of it, and start moving my rock music down to the southern NY state area...

My arm is feeling a lot better, the specialist I saw (who also hooked me up with free medical care; I've been a lucky boy lately) taught me some stretches and corrected my posture. Turns out my tendency to hunch while playing the guitar had been causing my clavicle to pinch all the nerves going into my arm while I played, causing a lot of unneccessary strain. The problem is almost gone now, and feels a lot better, especially when I observe good posture and form, and play for shorter periods with a few breaks here and there.

Now, if only I was writing some music.

Wish me luck at my gigs this weekend...

[Pascal]

Dude! That's cool that you are coming down to Ithaca. I'll probably check out the show, especially since I really like the venue. Hopefully I get to see you play too. Let me know if you're interested in playing some footbag while you are down here. Right now I'm a little sick, but trying to get better.

[mc]

PASCAL! I'm definitely down to show up in Ithaca a few hours early for some shred, as long as I've got a place where I can clean up before the show, and that's awesome that you're going as well, it's going to be a phenomenal performance.

Hmmm.... the only thing that might deter me is if I can get this really cute singer/songwriter/pianist girl to come with me. If she comes, frankly, I wouldn't want to ask her to sit around for 2 hours while I play kicky sack, but I'd still like to link up for the show. I'll PM you later...

[FootbagGuru]

matt should come play in saratoga and shred with the EFC!

[KronoKicker]

Thanks Matt for the enthusiam... but you weren't the only one who had a bad day Sunday. It was also my 4th time using climas. We all took a long time to get warmed up, you did have some a couple really nice long strings though, so don't beat yourself up (literally ). But yah Chris and me eventually started playing better during the end.

Session tonight

flip eggbeater (took a lot of tries, but looked really good)
flip blurry reverse whirl (2nd try), followed by same move b2b

ripwalk > osis > osis (rpt)
tapping legover bs
tapdown > blur (rpt)
legbeater > stepping ss mirage (rpt)
dimwalk > stepping far (no plant) osis > blur (rpt)
barfly rake ... not sure about the cleanliness 2nd dex probably didnt quite finish but i hit it about 5 or 6 times.. hopefully 1 was good.. find out later

Approx. hour long session... couldn't play long... lots of work to do, the quarter is almost over. One class tomorrow 2 finals monday, one final tuesday and I'm done.

[cd]

You're making nice progress with atomics Aric. Props!

I have felt GREAT all week long. I think it's because of my diet--I have become very good eating healthy for low costs. A bag of apples and a bunch of bananas every week, canned veggies like spinach and green beans, eggs, bread, bread, bread, potato bread, PBJ, and maximum OJ to fight off colds. Been avoiding meat like the plague; it's expensive and not very helpful. And baking MUFFINS is the best. mmmm....

Because of that, my shred has been awesome this week. Greg and I have had a couple intense sessions since monday. The best part is that I have been able to push really hard and not get sore at all. I must have gained a couple levels in the last few days. Greg is getting really good too. Strings of toe tiltless sprinkled with butterflies and pdx mirages are common for him. Pixies are getting better, and he has been doing lots of mirages from clipper so we may even see some stepping sets soon.

He has been wearing my old lavers, but they are just about dead. I am going to give him my old pair of units after that, and he's been learning fairy sets too. muahahahaha


Today I had a decent solo session. Kind of short, but productive. Worked mostly on smoothing out my spinning and gyro stuff midstring. I hit a lot of drifter move>gyro move combos, which feel excellent. Also matador>matador>matador>ripwalk>matador>matador>drop and phoenix>blur>phoenix>blur>fd butter>blur>fd butter. That was all the drilling I really did. It was mostly strings today.

that is all

[mc]

I played in Ithaca last night with Pascal. We busted out in the gym for about an hour before going into town to have a beer (well, pascal had a beer. I had 3). I hit flip matador first try, I'm not sure if I've hit that before. I just tried to do some shred, but I can hardly get going in an hour. Pascal ended the session with his first ever butterfly swirl! it took him a good 15 - 20 minutes of trying, but he finally got it! I demoed it a few times for him near the end, and he said that really helped, which made me happy, because he was super psyched to hit the trick. Fun little session.

The concert we went to afterwards was amazing, 4 singer songwriters in a line taking turns doing their thing. It was great to see them again.

Wish me luck at my gig tonight...

[Pascal]

I wanted to write this post earlier, but I was busy this weekend with the Cornell Jugglefest and being sick. Matt's visit to Ithaca really made my weekend. It was really good to be able to shred with someone again. I feel that my game only progresses when I play with others.

I spent Friday and Saturday at the jugglefest and it was pretty cool, though severely lacking in footbag. I hope there will be footbag at the RIT jugglefest next year. I did pick up some juggling tricks though, which is cool, but I realized that I still find footbag much more rewarding. I think it has to do with the fact that footbag is more of a full body workout.

I also bought a copy of Matt's cd and I've listened to it a bunch of times...it's awsome. The whole disc is super solid; no weak songs here. I'm not really good at in-depth, sophisticated reviews, so I'll leave it at this: if you haven't checked out Matt's music yet, do so, its definitely worth it. Hopefully he gets some gigs in Ithaca so I can hear him play live (and so we can shred again).

One last thing... funny/weird story... when Matt and I were playing in the gym, there was track and field practice going on and after we had been playing for about 40 minutes, one of the high-jump guys comes up to us and asks if we can move because they're trying to do "very technical stuff" and we are distracting them. Matt told him that their crazy high jump was distracting to us, but we obliged and moved to the far corner of the gym. So anyways, 15 minutes later the gym is deserted and their practice is over. We thought wtf, why did they even bother making us move?

[mc]

hahaha, yeah, that guy was lame. We were definitely right.

The session yesterday was fun. I don't recall hitting any amazing new moves, but I had a few good strings. I only played for 90 minutes or so, and warmed up with a nice jog and some stretching, and surprisingly, I played relatively pain free for the first time in a long while. I'm liking this jog warmup.

Yesterday, chris hit smoke > accidental rooted gyro mirage, SO clean, and absolutely perfect. I don't know what he was going for, but his balance was dead on perfect when the bag landed. That was the most intense combo I've seen in a long time from anyone. Hardly gets more unexpected than that.

apparently, aric hit phoenix > ducking pdx mirage rpt... but I was looking at my shoes.

And what else... had 3 gigs this weekend, the first two went well, but not many people came to the third, unfortunately. That one was last night. It's too bad, last night had the most potential to be the best. But I had fun hanging out with my friends afterwards. We watched Where the Ripwalk Ends, and the shred blew their minds. it was pretty cool.

Everyone needs to see the new Lise Thygesen video. It's the best.

Oh, and I got a new footbag yesterday and I'm probably getting my Peng bag today or tomorrow. When I've got them both, I'll post a picture.

[Jdigges]

when you said Gigs, i thought you meant you hit 3 whirlygigs in a row hahaha.

I can't wait till next time i can go to one of your shows man.

[KronoKicker]

Last 2 sessions.

Sunday.. don't remember too much, some good strings lots of shuffle. Shuffle has been working really well lately. I did hit phoenix > ducking pdx mirage (rpt) that was pretty cool. Just a lot of basic stuff on sunday didn't accomplish anything new other than that combo.

Tonight.

First session with Mike, with just the 2 of us. A sweet lil 1.5-2 hour session, nothing really amazing hit, but I really enjoy shredding with Mike and hanging out with him. Did manage some decent strings several with 30+ contacts. I was in pain most of the session though (mostly shins), which sucks. My knee started to hurt near the end (did lots of double downs and barrages), and now it hurts quite a bit to walk around, taking it easy for the next couple days.

memorable stuff:
barfly > barrage > paradon
dimwalk > torque > pdx mirage - bs (first time hitting something out of flip torque)
14x zulu clipper - not sure what my record is but this is close (the record will mine soon )
parkwalk > sidewalk > ripwalk > blur (rpt) - finished this b4.. but I did it 4 out of 5 tries tonight... which is cool

a personal record breaking string
sidewalk > ripwalk (rpt) > blur > dimwalk (rpt) > stepping ss mirage > parkwalk (rpt) > ripwalk > ripwalk > blur > smear > pixie ss mirage (rpt)> to about 5 more shuffle contacts
longest genuine string, longest shuffle string with with about 75% of it unique contacts

Headed home tomorrow until sunday after TG.. hopefully will have sometime to play. Hopefully a session with Paul W. will happen.. but doubtful.

[mc]

Paul W plays still?!

that dude was cool... I remember a memorable occasion where someone at a small session asked me to hit ps whirl b2b, and I couldn't after 5 tries or so, and I passed it to paul and said, You hit it. and he did it, first try. It was AWESOME. let me know if he plays...

m

[mc]

i just tried to do swirling tootsie roll in the office where I'm working today, and I flailed my arm a little with the set and knocked over a big heavy paper cutter and some folders and it made a whole bunch of noise! Luckily, the administrator didn't think much of it, I just told her I accidentally knocked something over...

Big things are on the VERY near horizon... I've got something huge to announce, hopefully by later today... with a little luck, some day there's going to be a footbag fairy tale called "How Matt saved the East Coast New Year's Jam"... but that's all I'm going to say for now...

I've only been playing one or two days a week the past few months. I play a lot this summer. I think my diet is really holding me back, looks like I need to adopt the Chris Dean shred diet. Then maybe I can do some Chris Dean level shred... that's where he keeps those nuclear sets... they're in the apples...

anyway, no one make plans for New Years' Eve...

[mc]

Yesterday was an awesome day for me for footbag. Aside from getting to announce my New Year's Jam, I had a fun 2 hour session at Mike's house. My game wasn't top notch, but we both played pretty well. Mike gave me a lot of help with my upper body form on spins, which had some immediate positive results. Gyro will be mine... I also hit a new move, atomic zulu mirage. It only took 2 tries, that was awesome. Mike and I did some shred with my new Marco Hartig footbag, and it's pretty sweet. It's really small, kinda empty, but heavy and round. We were able to play with it un-broken-in. I think it's going to be a good bag. I've got my new PengPeng bag in my pocket (now in my hand). It's so beautiful, the pattern and colors make it look amazing as I kick it around. It's not broken in and stally yet, but i think it will be, and I like her new filler concept.

Hope to see you all at the New Year's Jam!!!!! Can't wait...

[mc]

Another good session today... but this one had a downer for an ender... Chris, Paul, Mike, and I hacked at RIT, starting outside by this massive sculpture. I went for my jog as Chris and Paul warmed up, and when I got back, Mike was there, so the shred got started. I had a slow start, and although the weather felt perfect to me, I guess it was a little cold for our legs to warm up. I started out with some drifters and ducks and dives and a little shuffle. Chris just jumped right into full out shuffle. Mike threw down some toe> toe double dexes, some good shuffle, and lots of ducking mirages. Paul worked on shuffle and neo sets.

After a bit, we moved inside the gym and played in the lobby. I think that was good for everyone's game, not only because our legs had a chance to warm up, but also because there was a basketball game going on (this was at the gym where GRASS was held, for those of you that were there) which gave us an immediate crowd of pre-teens and some of their parents. Most of them were blown away, and stayed for a long time. I only had to tell one of them to quiet down, because he was razzing us when we dropped, talking really loud during strings, etc. But even he stayed for a long time and watched, he was cool after I told him to chill.

We all threw down for the crowd, demo style with our longest strings, and some cool crowd pleasers like flapper stalls, rev swirls, double around the worlds, and ducks and spins. Chris and I contended for crowd favorite. Chris was their choice from the start, but I think I won them over with some ripping long strings and lots of variety. I should have done an ass stall.

Speaking of which, I hit ripwalk> ass stall> ss pickup midstring, and I was so close to food processor > pswhirl> ass stall! I love that move. It's so funny, and NEVER expected.

After playing inside, our play space became a thoroughfare, so we had to move outside. Mike had left by then, so Chris, Paul, and I busted out a few more strings for a new crowd that had formed outside, and told kids to look up footbag on the internet. Some of them were REALLY into it, and stayed and watched for a LONG time. One kid was there for both crowds, and just sat and checked it out. He must have thought it was really cool, but he was super shy, and could hardly bring himself to nod when I asked if he liked hacky sack. But, I told him to Google footbag, and I think he might check it out. Then, Paul wrecked his ankle again trying atom smasher. I hope it's not serious, and that he gets better soon.

It's hard to "sell" footbag to young kids, because you can't really convince them to come out to sessions, even if they think footbag is cool. I look forward to playing a lot in Fredonia this spring when I'm going to school there, so I can represent footbag to some college students, and hopefully, I can get an extremely-western NY footbag scene going to compliment the one in Rochester.

Tomorrow is the day I meet with the coordinator at Bush Mango to firm up some things about our event. In a little while, I'm going to make some discussion notes that I want to bring along with me so I can make sure we cover everything, like what exactly we're going to name the event, if there will be alcohol, how we're going to coordinate the drumming, how we're going to set up a sound system if the drumming gets too low key, who's going to run the door, the hotel information, who is going to do what for promotion, what media we want to target, etc etc... that's about it, actually. I should just copy that list I just made and bring that to the coffee shop tomorrow.

I'm very optimistic about this event, it's going to be great. I just want to call it the Rochester Footbag and Drumming Jam for now, we'll see what he says tomorrow.

I can't wait to see you all there. PLEASE post in the event thread if you're coming, HYPE is so valuable with footbag events, and the more people that say they're coming, the more people that will read the post and get psyched and make it themselves. Can't wait to see you all in 1 month and 10 days to ring in the new year, footbag style...

This has been a year of footbag for me. I've been to EVERY tournament within a 7 hour drive of me, Euros, and Worlds, starting off with Chilly Philly on the last New Year. Now I'm ending the year with my own tournament in my own town that I'm getting to hold practically for free. I've been to Chilly Philly, GLASS, Kick 'Til You're Sick, a sponsored footbag gig at a Bat Mitzvah, GRASS, Spike 'n Shred, East Coast Footbag Championships, TOFU, Euros, Copenhagen, Worlds, Camp Irish, Funtastik, the Geneseo Jam, and KICKASS, as well as numerous visits to see my best buddy Tom in Kingston, just to kick, and many representations of footbag at every outdoor event I could get myself to, like the Syracuse Jazz Fest, and the Rochester Lilac Fest.

Footbag is Good.

[Jdigges]

Footbag rocks.


Im so stoked about the tournament matt, thanks alot for stepping up and doing this. I think alot of people are very greatful for what your doing.

[limester816]

Matt, I think that if any post here was the most motivational and speech-like, that'd be the one.

[HG]

Hey Matt, I'm happy for you and your event! And about the clima cool thread, i sounded like a dick, but i was just trying to say like... you shouldnt have to cut out a whole side of a shoe. only talking about chema though.




Sorry, no hard feelings?

[mc]

So let's see... Haven't played since sunday, and I played like crap then! Footbag is weird! A lot of my sessions are really bad lately, but at least I still get psyched to play and to watch new videos.

Anyone know where I can get $800 so I can sponsor Lise Thygesen to come to the New Year's Jam? That would be the coolest thing of all time. Even if she can't make it, though, I still think this tournament is going to be the coolest thing of all time... Cheapest entry fee EVER!!! I really hope everyone competes so we can represent all the different skill levels and have lots of fun! DaMn Skippy is working on our logo. We're coming up with some cool stuff, and with each revision, we're getting closer to what we're going to end up with. He just needs to add some detail and make the words bigger on what he's done so far, and we should be done!

I hope I can play today. I hope someone will play with me to give me some motivation. at least the weather is nice-ish out. I'm going to go to an open mic tonight that this girl I met is holding. She's a nasty guitar player and a great singer. I only met her for a moment, but I definitely want to find out more we'll see what happens...