mc

[mc]

it's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life, and I'm feelin good...

monday morning.

I didn't play footbag yesterday, I was very sore in the shoulders and upper back from my gig and all the bag I played last week, so I hung back on it. I'm feeling very good today, still a bit sore in the shoulders, but not bad. All I can think about is freestyle. I'm feeling good about having hit blubberman (that's rubberman with quantums, right? someone post about that for me) at the last two sessions, so today I want to do blubberman > rubberman > string. I think I can do it. Today, I also want to hit flip mofly. maybe I'll put some time into atom smasher > DLO repeat, and definitely more time into gyro clip > spinning clip repeat. eggbeaters need work, too. I've got about 10 days to spruce up my game a little bit. I might feel like doing the circle in montreal. That would be a good time.

I can't believe how excited I am about footbag lately. It's such a huge change from the winter. I didn't feel like playing at all, then. Funny that I got such a huge gig in february when I hadn't been playing AT ALL. I was so relieved at the end of it to have survived it and did a good job playing with a grapefruit-sized footbag for 8 hours a day for 4 days straight. It was kind of a wake-up call, in the sense that I could be playing a lot more and training a lot harder. That was a good time.

The waylon bag I got on that weekend had been my primary bag for a while, but it needs a shower (which I hope it will get today after the session). The one I've used all last week and plan on using today is a Ben Rea 12 panel that he sent for grass. Unfortunately, it didn't make it in time, and I got his bags on the monday after the tournament (4 12 panels) so I awarded myself one of them for being best tournament prize gatherer I picked an all green one, the largest, and it's played awesome since I started using it.

I think 12 panels are going to be the next big thing in footbags. They play just as well as 32s, they don't take as long to make, and they have less stitches to blow out, and they're cheaper. Pretty soon, all those factors are going to start occurring to people, and 32s will phase out. I don't think they'll stop being made, I just think that the desire for less expensive, equally playable, more easily made footbags will naturally take over. 32s look so much cooler, I think they'll be more like the boutique footbags, but, having bags that are made more quickly, cheaply, and easily will be important for the coming explosion of the sport we shall see.

this is just a little morning post to get me started. I'll be back with more later after the session.

coming soon in the MC footblog: montreal, erie PA, toronto for a mountain of sushi and footbag with FAT + m/p, RFA, some new footbag t-shirt designs, and hopefully, new pics of new MC bags!

[Sporatical_Distractions]

I'm feeling good about having hit blubberman (that's rubberman with quantums, right? someone post about that for me) at the last two sessions, so today I want to do blubberman > rubberman > string. I think I can do it.

correctamundo sir. it's a pretty intense drill.

found it a little surprising that you sound little shakey w/ atom>dlo>rpt. get that on lock down. as well as the spin gyro drill, it's pretty vital

and mofly is one of the cooler tricks imo. super ultra mega congrats

[mc]

kevin,

yeah, don't be surprised. my game has never been strong, I've just been able to hit some weird tricks. I'm going to make that atom > dlo drill one of my goals for today.

Kick!

matt

[mc]

just finished my session, it went well. I got out of work at about 2:30, started playing at around 3, played until about 5:45 or 6. I worked on blubberman > rubberman with no success... got through the blubber a few times, but didn't have the energy to keep up the intensity. I feel that I will have it soon, though. I hit DLO > atom > rpt > string a few times, didn't really work on eggbeaters. I hit frontside legbeater > blurry whirl > flip PS whirl, phoenix > fog > string bs, fog > dimwalk > string BS... so, soon, hopefully, phoenix > fog rpt. hit a few more flip smogs today, those are starting to come. good pixie barrages BS. gyro clip > spinning clip rpt a lot easier than the other day. gyro diving osis BS. worked on a few of the links for rubberman with fogs instead of blurs. not a single torque today. flip ripstein once or twice, it came pretty easily.

my endurance is coming back a little bit after all this shred. lavers are going well. I have a good little play spot that is my porch. It has a covered spot with smooth concrete, and an uncovered spot with grippy concrete. I've been on the uncovered spot, but when it gets hotter, I'll probably move to the shade. cuz I'm a shaaady guy.

[mc]

tuesday morning... legs feel fine today. I'm a little extra exhausted from that 2.5 - 3 hour solo session yesterday, plus lots of drinking last night and not enough sleep. We'll see if the session happens today. didn't play guitar yesterday. still getting settled in the house. it's getting clean. The main stuff is done. Things are dusted and arranged, and the wood floors are swiffered. the living room needs a couch and curtains. my room needs a curtain too.

my body feels better today than it did yesterday, this is a bit strange to me. maybe that long session worked out some kinks here and there. I'm not sore at ALL. I should be able to bang something out later, 5 hours of sleep or not...

more toey drills today and flails and symp whirls sound appealing to me. but I've just woke up, so who knows?

[mc]

I am just downright exhausted today!!! I think I'm going to lay in the sun when I get back instead of bagging. I had a super long session yesterday, so I'll rest up today and attack it again tomorrow. and i'll try not to drink so much tonight.

[Jdigges]

good job on all the sessions man. Im in the same position as you. i haven't played in way too long and just had a session with willie yesterday. My endurance is shit, but my game doesn't seem all that bad. i just need to practice doing longer strings. i was actually able to atomics easier then before, and i hit atomic drifter for the first time. Hopefully i wont totally suck at montreal and we can have a session where we are both playing to our best ability. Looking forward to having some brews with you man

[mc]

thanks for posting, josiah. I always love it when you make a guest appearance in my blog.

even with my bad current endurance, there are lots of low impact, low energy combos that I need work on (like muted spinning clip > gyro clip), so I can still spend a lot of time working on my game, even though my energy is not so high. Some of the big moves are still there. Somehow I've retained whirlwind through my long break.

So, we should be good enough to have some fun and represent at montreal, and I can't wait for this beer tasting!!! this is going to be such a fun time. I'm so so so glad you're making it. Would you like to trade footbags? I would love to have a nice bag of yours. I have to make one for Pengpeng as well.

I didn't play yesterday, as predicted. I think it was the right choice. I had a wonderful afternoon once I got back, though. I went home and ate some sunflower seeds, and called up my friend doug. Doug is the door guy and bartender at the brewpub where I play the majority of my gigs. Something about that situation is funny to me; the guy taking money and checking IDs at the door is a better guitar player than all the players who play at the bar. He's very shy and very nice, and super talented. So, instead of footbag, I called up doug, and he brought over a jug of beer, and we sat at the picnic table behind my house in the sun and jammed over some jazz tunes and some MC originals. First, we played My Favorite Things, then, All of Me, then, Take 5, then some MC songs, then Moondance, then some Doug songs. It really was a great time.

We switched back and forth on lead and rhythm, and for one of the few times in my life (all of which have been occurring in the past few months), I was happy with my lead playing. I haven't been practicing much lately, but all the practice I had done before has stayed with me, and I was feeling pretty good about the sounds I was making. I hope we can jam out like that more and more.

so, we played for an hour or two, then he hit the road and I hung around the house with my friends, and then had another jam session with a local singer / songwriter / guitarist named Josh Dwyer. We play shows together sometimes. We did an improvisation, then a jazz standard called The Autumn Leaves, and who knows what else. All good fun, good fun.

Then I came in and watched south park until about 9:30 and went to bed. I felt so good this morning to wake up with plenty of rest.

I had a bizarre dream last night. I dreamt that I drove a long way by myself to eastern NY state to meet my parents at a big Bar Mitzvah party for a child and family that I didn't know. I recall wandering around this expansive mansion, not really having much to do with the party or knowing what was going on. I remember having a few drinks, and then I started to act a little out of hand. I think I smacked one of the other guests in the back of the head in a playful way, not sure what else, but I was misbehaving. Then, I asked the man of the house for another beer, and he denied me because he said he'd heard reports of what I'd been doing around the house, and I felt shameful and left. So I wandered away from the house and to a commercial area. There were all sorts of upscale stores, and upscale versions of normal stores all over the place, and I became lost from my car and my parents, and I couldn't find my cell phone, so I started to become worried, but then I reminded myself that I was surrounded by society and that I had my debit card with lots of money on it with me, so that made me feel better.

I wandered out of the commercial area, and through a more rural kind of field, and to a mountain with lots of trees, and up a paved road through the trees to a big building made of reddish orange brick, with white windows and trim, and I felt very frustrated because I still had no idea where I was or how I was going to get back. Then, I woke up at 7:29, 1 minute before my alarm was to go off, and I lay in bed thinking about my dream.

I'm glad I was able to allay my worrying in the dream for the most part, because worrying in dreams doesn't do anything for you. I should start recording my dreams more often, maybe get some good songwriting material out of them.

So now I'm up, at work, and have had part of my breakfast... time for some granola nad a slimfast shake. I'll post again after my session.

later, modifizzle. see you at worlds!

[mc]

decent session. I tried a couple times to get long tiltless strings, my best were 59 and 60, with bunches of 3s and 4s. Had DLO > atom rpt off the toe first try, and from then on, the best I could get was 3 moves starting from any contact :/ wasn't feeling too on today, unfortunately, but I started the session with flip swirling blender, 2nd try, so that was cool. my shuffle strings were a bit longer today than last week, so little progresses are happening.

I didn't really get to much today, I was really tired. hit a really good barefoot whirligig at the end, but couldn't get the flip :/ maelstrom came pretty easily both sides during the session. my spins are getting better, and I'm reducing the effort coming from my support leg in the set. also, flip inspinning clipper today, that was cool. fairy set is coming back as well. still pretty bad midstring on the right toe. worked a bunch of flip DLOs as well, but the fast toe set to same symple legover over and over started to hurt my hip. I think the weakness from that is really in the set. I don't do a lot of plain old flip toe sets. what a lame thing to have wrong

not sure what's up for the evening. just got some mcdonalds and cracked a beer. I'm looking forward to worlds so much. Also, I just realized caro is a yoga instructor, so we can have great stretching sessions at the house under her guidance, if she's down (which I hope she will be).

got a sweet PM from PI yesterday regarding a zinger I gave goldberg in the "The REAL World Champion" thread. I don't want to quote the whole thing, but it made me really smile when I read that it started with an "LOL OMFG" from the executioner.

I can't wait to room with that dude. he's been my hero for such a long time, and we're going to be chilling together for 7-9 days. we had some fun times in helsinki, can't wait to get that back.

I'm really liking the new job. It's very laid back, we often get out a little early, and sometimes a lot early, and I like my coworkers a lot. Couldn't ask for more.

now I've got my bird out of his cage and he's sitting on my shoulder. he's not quite comfortable with the new place, but I've got him sitting on my shoulder now. hopefully he'll relax.

bye modified. talk soon.

[BenRea]

dang 60 contacts i got some work to do. with 2/3/4's im still working towards 25. but you have also been playing for a TON longer than me.

sounds like a solid session Matt, beautiful.

[mc]

dang 60 contacts i got some work to do.

that's the spirit, buddy! you'll get it in no time. I want to get way past that. endurance needs work. I might have to make some lifestyle changes.

thanks for the support. hope we can play soon. check out the rochester blog and see if you can make it some time.

[mc]

me po' hip... it's not so bad, I iced it a bunch yesterday, but I'm definitely feeling it today. I'm going to stay away from that DLO today, I guess. or at least the toe set one. flip fog is more consistant for me than flip DLO :/ weeeeird.

I've been watching the DC pixie flurry thread, and Jim Pensky posted a video of him hitting it in the same thread, which I think is kind of funny. I hope dave posts some of jim's combos in jim's video blog. it's awesome to see those guy both pushing their games so hard. They're both awesome contenders for best in US... I know which one I think is better I just cannot WAIT for worlds.

hitting flip swirling blender was cool yesterday. Flip ripstein should get some time today. more drifters today, too. I drilled them a little yesterday. Today I'll do them paradox, gyro, with sets. Flip fume would be a cool thing to get. that, plus long tiltless and a few new moves should make for a fun session. I guess I've just got to eat more today than I did yesterday to keep the energy up.

Super psyched for montreal. it will be great to see EVERYONE (i just started listing people and realized that it would be a long list). I can't wait for nice weather and beer tasting and tamtam and night life and UQAM and travel with the RFA again.

There's this girl at school that I was doing a project with at the end of this past semester, and we got to talking about non-project stuff, and I'd thought she was intriguing all semester. We hung out a few times before she bounced back to rochester for the summer, and we got along really well. This weekend, I'm going over to rochester just to have some fun and see the RFA and play bag and eat nice food on park ave, and I'm going to get together with this girl (Carrie) at the public market on saturday. She's expressed some interest in footbag, and she's a big jock lacrosse girl who would show up to class every day in basketball shorts (which I thought was cool), and she's got the right build, so I think this could turn out well. I'm hoping we could get some play time in this weekend... just gotta get her some shoes... I think she said she wears 7s. I'd like to get her some lavers, let's see ebay...

no luck. no climacools either!! Maybe we can just work some kicks for now. On top of the footbagging, we're also going to have some sushi supper and play some guitar (she does that too! and writes songs).

so, as you can tell, I'm a bit excited about this girl. She seems a little bit crazy, but that's good, because I need someone I can relate to anyway, it's all just good fun right now. I'm not trying to rush things, but she's showing a lot of interest, and I'm interested too, so it's nice. I'll have to show her some lise thygesen and tina aeberli and caro videos. I think she'll dig it. wish me luck!

[Kljopa]

Good luck with girl Matt She sounds like a cool girl i think you'd make a great couple .

I've been reading your blog lately, props on getting back to regular sessions!


I hope we will shred one day ,somewhere in the future.

[mc]

just had my session. only did one try at long tiltless, got 50. hit some new stuff:

-symp whirling swirl bsos
-flip fume
-footed flip flog a couple times, I WILL get it soon
-flip blazing inf, easily... I guess cause it's easy if you can do symp whirl
-muted swirling gyro whirl
-smoke BSOS for the first time in a long while.
-barrage > paradon > barfly rpt first try.

not much else. some good strings, decent links are coming back. I think I will be able to hit a few okay strings in montreal.

nice to hear from you, aleksei. I hope we can shred as well. Thanks for the nice wishes about the girl. I'm looking forward to this weekend, it should be fun.

guitar lessons in a little while... that will be fun.

[mc]

guitar lessons went great last night. my first student of the night is a 23 year old male, we worked on All Along the Watchtower by Bob Dylan and Elderly Woman Behind the Counter by Pearl Jam, and some scales and stuff. He's making great progress.

Next was a student I'd been having a hard time with, because she's an 8 year old girl without any strong musical interests at this point, so we diddled around for a few months learning some chords and trying some melodies and a scale, and nothing seemed to be doing it for her. Then, last week, I decided to take things back a few steps, and just use two of the chords I had taught her so that she could play a song. I gave her "he's got the whole world in his hands", and then yesterday, we did "amazing grace", which has 3 chords. I'll keep up on these simple songs. I think this is what's going to work with her.

last for the night was a 14 year old boy, we're also working on all along the watchtower, and we're doing the blues as well. He's a very cool kid, and I can see that he's REALLY into the guitar. when I play a song for him to show what we'll be working on, he just starts bobbing his head and getting into it, really naturally. I can tell he likes it. he's making great progress with his scales and his chords.

Then, I came back and jammed on the back porch for my landlord, played an original song really well, did some jazz, drank a beer.

Then, I went downtown and had a $6 steak at the pub and joined a jam session outside the coffee shop down the street. Apparently, that goes on every thursday. I'm pretty excited about having that option for the rest of the summer.

So, what next? Rochester tonight or tomorrow. The immediate next is work. I'm having my breakfast right now, and, as you see, blogging. After that, we'll head over to the basement of one of the academic buildings, take stock of things, and then be done for the day. I'll have a bag session afterwards. maybe I'll get that flip flog. That would be sweet. I ended my session yesterday on a lot of strenuous attempts, but nothing more than two touches on it. I believe I'll also go for barrage > pixie paradon > barfly rpt, more symp whirling swirls, maybe some more flails. I had a great session with those early this week (or was it last week?).

can't wait for montreal. I hope paul drives, and I hope he remembers to bring the MC bag I gave him at an RFA session a little while back so I can try it.

[mc]

got out of work early at 12:15, came back and was kicking by 12:30. didn't hit too much, only played for 90 minutes. I got:

-flip haze
-flip muted pixie ss dlo
-barrage > pixie paradon > barfly BS

and not much else, a few decent strings here and there, those are feeling stronger every day.

I've also been working on rake / gyro toe drills. I did clipper > gyro toe > no plant same foot gyro toe BS. I want to get those really smooth so I can throw them in whenever I want for extra style. Ended the session with a strong blubberman > string. Gyro is coming along nicely.

anyway, I'm tired right now and I just want to relax and start my long weekend. hope everyone is well.

[mc]

i had a really nice weekend with some rochester people. I went over mid day saturday and saw my friend carrie who was feeling sick, but we went garage sale shopping and had a sandwich by the very smelly Lake Ontario (so we weren't THAT close to it) and she played the new Feist album for me, which I was loving. Then, Paul and I went for sushi, and my girl Maria made us HUGE sashimi bowls, and we had plum beers. Then, we went back to Paul's house and relaxed for a little while, and had a session. Paul twisted his poor ankle again, which makes me a little sick with pain to see him do again and again over the years. It makes me twitch just thinking about it. I didn't play very well, but I had a few decent strings, and I hit montage.

The next day, Paul and I went to RIT. I played with Chris Dean and Jeff Hastings, another SUNY Fredonia student who lives in Rochester. Jeff hit his first legovers and pickups BS, and chris footed a super deep zulu barfly with no plant first try as a joke! sick! I hit my second beastly link, whirligig> mullet. Also, swirling DLO, very easily. I should have done that a while back.

Looking forward to playing today. I took yesterday off, did some cleaning, had some beers, played guitar. It was a slow day here in town.

I'm super excited for montreal this weekend. We'll take Paul's car and drive in shifts, as usual. Hopefully I can do some tricks.

My goal for today is to hit a beast combo - food > whirligig > mullet (I say as I rub my sore knee :/ ). Also, spins and ducks and maybe some shuffle. I'd also like to hit blurry whirl > symp whirling swirl BS. We'll see what happens.

[mc]

hoooooly shit!!!!!!!

super amazing phone call!!

the people who flew me out to NY to play legball in February want to fly me to London for 4/5 days to shoot the commercial for their international product release of Funkix! The commercial will show in the US, Canada, and the UK (maybe he said Australia as well?). He said there will be one day of shooting for the commercial, and the rest of the time, I can hang out and have a vacation around London, with transportation, hotel, and food money included! no pay for this, just the trip, and the **international exposure** from the commercial!

Holy shit, again!!!!

He wants me to come out in just under a month. I am so psyched. SO psyched.

I've never been to the UK. this is sweet.

it's not locked in yet, but David hasn't dicked me around at all thus far, so hopefully, this current possibility will happen dick-free.

woo summer vaca!

ps: it is just after noon and I'm at work but there's been no working yet today. only modified, sokoban, text twist, coffee, and one amazing phone call. Lunch will arrive soon. I say it a lot lately, but it's good to say it often if it's true; Life is good.

[PegLegHolly]

thats awesome matt! youll have so much fun!

[cammel]

That is too awesome! Congratulations Matt, i cant wait to see that.