Jorden's Journal

B_Man · Post by **B_Man** » 26 Feb 2008 10:38

Those look so good Jorden. Way to show off footbag, with style

.

EDIT

Jorden wrote:Nah, nothing yet. There is footage around though.

Promo Pics 2008:

BenRea · Post by **BenRea** » 26 Feb 2008 10:55

WOw those are great Jorden, i assume you got them done professionally?

I can't wait to see some videos

Rieferman · Post by **Rieferman** » 26 Feb 2008 11:43

I think I like the first one the best. The facial expression is great, and there's no blur in this one. On the other hand, if blur was going to be cleaned up digitally (assuming you don't want blur.. which would be my opinion), I think I'd like the 2nd to last one best.

Kljopa · Post by **Kljopa** » 26 Feb 2008 11:51

I love those, the first one rules.

I want to do something like that now too.

Post by **Zac Miley** » 26 Feb 2008 14:20

Cool pictures, but I think you could use a better camera. They're blurry and some of the colors are a bit iffy.

Way cool poses and such though. Very classy.

Zeb Jackson · Post by **Zeb Jackson** » 26 Feb 2008 16:02

I like the first one the most well done Jorden

Jorden · Post by **Jorden** » 12 Mar 2008 22:17

-=Thursday, March 12th, 2008=-

Hey blog.

I've been reflecting a lot lately. The more I do the more thankful I am for where I'm at in my life.
Health is good, my parents love me, the pets are great, future outlook is positive and I'm admired by people I'll probably never meet.

Last year was a whole other story. College really does change you. It was like everyone was trying to invent a perfect personality that everyone else liked. A place where people strove to be ultimately generic. That drove me crazy. I felt so uncool caring about things deeply. I wasn't happy.

I feel bad for Dave. He's such a good kid and doesn't deserve all the bad luck he's been getting. I know he'll be fine because he has a great work ethic in many areas of life, but damn. Hang in there bud.

It's times like those I simply do what I do best -- turn my mp3 player up, put my head down, toss in a bag and forget it all. This is what true passion is. I think that's what a lot of players lack these days. Schooling drills and mechanically achieving goals are one thing, but feeling shred is another thing. To me that's the highest form of footbag. When you can capture your thoughts and instantaneously transform them into a statement with a footbag, that's true freestyle.

Changing subject...

Acrobatics is going well. Front handsprings are getting consistent and less sloppy. I hit my first ever good acro combo! It was front handspring > front roll.

Upper body getting stronger...

Made juggling vid a couple days ago. Not sure how much peeps are down with watching juggling...whatever. I think it shows good progress though.

http://www.footbag.org/gallery/show/13906

Performing is weird. You have like, dry periods of a couple months and then when it rains it pours. I had practically no gigs this year until this week where I have 3. Can't wait till the summer!

This has been the most volume of snow we've ever had in this area. Like, absurd. Global warming at full force, folks. Insane amount of shoveling this winter.

My shred game is different now. I don't really school hard tricks anymore. The hardest being maybe like mobius. The more I research performing and watch circus footage the more I reaffirm that the audience knows absolutely nothing. The haven't the slightest clue what is hard. You could even think of them as infants I guess. Stuff that isn't receptive to babies probably won't register well with the audience either.

This is pretty much all the audience comes brings with them before you perform:

- objects high in the air are impressive. if you can catch it when it falls that's even more impressive
- dancing. something about graceful smooth body movement creates positive chemicals in the brain
- doing a pattern of movement, and then changing that movement slightly to something more confusing (ex. far clippers into ducking clippers) is very noticeable change and quite stunning
- miming. miming is a very powerful tool on stage. using the body to manipulate imaginary objects can make seemingly impossible things happen. it registers really deeply with the audience. combining this with footbag looks insane and holds a lot of potential. I've experimented with this a little bit.

If you're not going to GRASS, you need to be. I'll be in the Saturday's show with an unveiling of sorts. Basically the show I'm working on makes every routine I've ever done look like garbage. There are a solid number of tricks that out sport has never seen before.

It's my sister's 23rd birthday tomorrow. I should give her a call in the morning. She lives in Whistler, BC with her boyfriend. We have completely opposite personalites but we get along really well. How bout that.

So yeah, that's basically it about me. To sum up my shred game: training lots of hours to make the easy and distinctive tricks artistically perfect so I can have a job someday.

Expect a short video soon. More of a statement than entertainment. I also intend to make that 2-bag tricks video I mentioned a while ago. Maybe tomorrow.

I leave you with one recent highlight I'm quite proud of:

"running man" toe kicks (looks really cool)

JM

acxel22 · Post by **acxel22** » 13 Mar 2008 08:18

I`ve always had a lot of success in public when I did ducking clippers (goes higher in the air) and spins (looks more like dancing)

I kind of have the same philosophy about showing the sport, whenever I show a video of Vasek to people that never seen footage I ask them: `Do you understand what you see?``

The answer is always No.

gMoney · Post by **gMoney** » 13 Mar 2008 12:23

It's times like those I simply do what I do best -- turn my mp3 player up, put my head down, toss in a bag and forget it all. This is what true passion is. I think that's what a lot of players lack these days. Schooling drills and mechanically achieving goals are one thing, but feeling shred is another thing. To me that's the highest form of footbag. When you can capture your thoughts and instantaneously transform them into a statement with a footbag, that's true freestyle.

that was beautiful

seriously.
I've never heard anyone say something like that when it's sooo obvious.
That paragraph just changed my perception of footbag.

dblthnk84 · Post by **dblthnk84** » 14 Mar 2008 08:59

It's great to hear that things are going really well for you, I (along with probably everyone else) can't wait to see what directions you are going to try and take footbag. The stuff where you (and Irish) mix footbag with juggling is really exciting and enjoyable.

Jorden wrote:http://www.footbag.org/gallery/show/13906

Any chance that you're going to load this to youtube? I'm having some trouble accessing footbag.org at the moment.

edit- it's working for me now. Amazing, did I miscount or was that a nine ball half shower in there? That's some really sick stuff!
________
GT4

sniikeri · Post by **sniikeri** » 25 Mar 2008 09:52

Jorden, watching your stuff makes me think you've got the worst BAP name ever: "The Destroyer".

It should obviously be "The Creator".

QuantumBalance · Post by **QuantumBalance** » 29 Mar 2008 04:44

Jorden check out my band, ure gonna like it.
www.myspace.com/robotfireisland

Jorden · Post by **Jorden** » 29 Mar 2008 07:34

Hell yeah Sam!!

I was rocking out. Left me wanting more.

Good contrast with the vocals too!

QuantumBalance · Post by **QuantumBalance** » 30 Mar 2008 06:20

Thanks

When we have more I'll let you know!! You helped get me into metal man. Take care.

Jazzkid · Post by **Jazzkid** » 31 Mar 2008 10:37

Jorden,

After reading your thoughts on performance, I thought WOW, you have figured out that there is a way to entertain, introduce, and perform our wonderful art of footbag to the untrained eye. Beautiful. Congradulations.

I have a masters degree in jazz performance and have played saxophone, piano, and sang since I was four. I understand that the language of jazz and footbag bless us the perfomer with waves of spontaneous creativity, inspired from the structures we shed and shred.
Those wave are not able to be seen or heard by the untrained eye and ear. "All the Tricks look the same , it all sounds the same," they say.

For you to keep your own honest voice and vision of this art is all that matters. The fact the you have appeared to have done that and went a step further in exploring ways of communicating your passion to an audience, is improvisation at its best. Your skills allow your grace with tricks.
I just want to be improvisation, free from all technicalities, riding waves of spontaneous structures.

Oh yeah, you inspred my two ball trick , Thanks!

Jorden · Post by **Jorden** » 08 Apr 2008 14:06

Amazing post Mark -- thanks so much! Very poetic.

Hmm...long time no blog.

-=Tues. April 8th, 2008=-

First outdoor shred/busking sesh today. Hooray!

I've improved sooo much over last year. Like, I know which tricks to do to get the best reactions/pay and am much more comfortable talking to strangers now. The better equipment helps a lot too. Oh, and my consistency is getting scary.

For a first outing I made a solid $30. That's a good sign of things to come.

Hit 10 whirrs first try, in preparation for Rochestah I guess. Not sure about routines, but I'll definitely hit up the juggling comps this time around.

The GRASS Saturday shoooow! I'm so stoked. Like, my hard tricks are getting smoother and less risky. There will be a lot of stuff you haven't seen.

Hoping to have a contract with a circus company come this September. I'm hoping outside of Canada. Canada's nice but it's too cold most of the time and a bit boring. I have nothing holding me back here and it's time to travel!

In the meantime, train train train...

I hit flip flying osis today. Not that impressive but cool.

Keep keeping it up,
Jorden

Kljopa · Post by **Kljopa** » 08 Apr 2008 14:12

Jorden wrote:Like, I know which tricks to do to get the best reactions/pay and am much more comfortable talking to strangers now. The better equipment helps a lot too.

Jorden

Share those

30$ is pretty good

janis · Post by **janis** » 08 Apr 2008 16:33

flying osis is way cool, props!

What is the busking culture like in Canada?

you would make a killing if you did busking in city with a busking culture (like Melbourne in summer)

acxel22 · Post by **acxel22** » 08 Apr 2008 16:40

how long did it take you to make that 30$
I started trying to get some money from play, and need a lot more experience to make more money. But it's fun and I also don't play as I would regularly play. More easy and simple tricks.

BenRea · Post by **BenRea** » 08 Apr 2008 17:27

Can't wait to see you at GRASS, Jorden

Did you know we're staying in the same house?