Saw the Ron Mueck exhibit at the Warhol.
Kicked with Matt in the cold:
Matt is awesome. His fears and alpine smear are cool and almost both-sided.
I hit:
Several diving reverse whirls on both sides
Bunch of twirls, twice in my last string, The big key was contorting my dexing-leg deeper until after I twisted directions with the hips.
Reverse whirling cross-body rake. Several times. Once out of paradon. Bsos once. Probably the easiest 4 add move ever, if it is one. DC had a string in Maryland with a bunch of them. They seem like a good method for bringing variety to my game. Never tried them before today.
DOD-Dyno.
A lot of new, guiltless combos and long strings.
A nice 50 contact bop string despite feeling sick. A counted down out loud. It was fun.
After "retiring" the leggy atomics it was nice to bust out atom-smasher-infinity-ducking paradox mirage bsos. Maybe I spoke to soon.
Hit some good stepping set tricks today too. I felt I was allowed because I started playing in Lavers today for half an hour and my form was feeling tight.
My weak side whirls like it when I set from farther out. Hope I can get past this move. It's holding me back. I pretended that whirls and reverse whilrs were interchangeable so that I could get passed my OCD and I hit one particularly long, varied guiltless run today. This flip-sided businesses is a grand ideal but being stuck with this gimp whirl is pissing me off.
I feel sick. Hope I can kick tomorrow too.
Steel City Freestyle
Great session. Matt and Jake showed up. Saw an ex-girlfriend and her three-year-old. Kicked in my favorite area of Pittsburgh (Regence Square.)
Told some parents about my upcoming performance at the local children's museum. Shopped at the Co-op for some great organic ingredients. Mmm. Swiss chard, Beets with tops, Annie's "Goddess" Dressing, Acai juice... Mmm.
Matt hit long guiltless strings of total savagery.
Jake intermittently busted out suave, long strings in between rounds of attending his laundry. Jake does laundry.
I liked my game today. I don't remember any of it. Besides:
Twirls
Reverse swirls both sides
lots of paradon-dyno, really good dynos too
lots of ducking/diving
diving-clipper-ducking clipper repeat. First was either the or thin but I am still really happy about this.
Still more fun with the reverse-whirling rake.
Eclipse on my off-side. About four of them. So hard to think about, but I know what I need to do school them.
It is also good to be in a situation where I am comfortable taking on such a foreign challenge again. It will help me progress more. Reverse-whirling rake helps too. It shows me that some things come way easier to me than others and reminds me that I have my own natural strengths. It was also funny when a joiner asked if we could sole-stall and I nobody knew that I could. It was even nicer to be able to hop back and forth, Josh P. style. Mostly it made all of these years of practicing seem more worthwhile.
Bye.
Told some parents about my upcoming performance at the local children's museum. Shopped at the Co-op for some great organic ingredients. Mmm. Swiss chard, Beets with tops, Annie's "Goddess" Dressing, Acai juice... Mmm.
Matt hit long guiltless strings of total savagery.
Jake intermittently busted out suave, long strings in between rounds of attending his laundry. Jake does laundry.
I liked my game today. I don't remember any of it. Besides:
Twirls
Reverse swirls both sides
lots of paradon-dyno, really good dynos too
lots of ducking/diving
diving-clipper-ducking clipper repeat. First was either the or thin but I am still really happy about this.
Still more fun with the reverse-whirling rake.
Eclipse on my off-side. About four of them. So hard to think about, but I know what I need to do school them.
It is also good to be in a situation where I am comfortable taking on such a foreign challenge again. It will help me progress more. Reverse-whirling rake helps too. It shows me that some things come way easier to me than others and reminds me that I have my own natural strengths. It was also funny when a joiner asked if we could sole-stall and I nobody knew that I could. It was even nicer to be able to hop back and forth, Josh P. style. Mostly it made all of these years of practicing seem more worthwhile.
Bye.
I knew you could sole stall, just not back and forth like that. That shit was crazy! Everybody bug Ian to skool his sole game, cause it's the hotness.
I've been meaning to jot down some shred for savvy notes, and I've been procrastinating, so I feel like all my thoughts are a bit stale, but before it completely fades from my memory I'll mention a few items.
First of all, Ian and I's stop at the smoothie shop was a good kickoff to the weekend, cause the best thing to welcome us from Pittsburgh was of course a stop in Fittsburg
Even though we drove to College Park on Friday for no real reason since no one was there yet, it was certainly welcoming to drive past this sign
I remember thinking "who would've thought a sorority would ever sponsor a footbag event". I found out later that it's actually a service fraternity, but hey, that's still freakin' sweet.
Dave wound up with some bling ass shoes
And Drew, Dan, and I had some fun comparing our beards
I vote for Dan's beard, and his t-shirt
Other random thoughts are as follows.
-I should stop trying to breakdance, cause even on nice floors like the one in the gym I'll probably just hurt myself before I ever learn to do windmills.
-Basketball was fun, but it still scares me. I don't understand it at all, so it just seems like a bunch of people running around aimlessly with a good potential to run into eachother. Barret calling me 'Jacque' the whole time did ease my anxiety though with some good comic relief.
-I played really well (for me) in circle with Scott and Ken, cause those guys created an awesome and super fun vibe. It would be cool to see video from that round if it exists.
-Practicing two bag tricks with Scott for a little while was awesome, I want to skool my left side and dial that stuff.
-Adrienne's awesome. I really admire her for using footbag as a means to help further a charitable cause. I hope when Savvy gets better she grows up to be a footbag player.
-Funny story: So I decided to do routines like 1 minute before open routines were starting. I had hardly even finished talking to the MC about it when they announced my name. I didn't have any music picked out, but there was something pretty fresh playing on the system already, so I was just like "Play that!" and ran out onto the floor. I was standing there getting ready to start when I realized something was wrong. I didn't have a footbag! Who does that?
Fortunately Aiden saved the day by giving me hers real quick. Thanks Aiden!
My routine was a'ight. I dropped alot, but I got some good strings in, and I think I managed to stay on beat for parts of it.
-It was good to see Ken, as I don't even know how long it had been since we'd seen eachother in person. He played a great host, and though I admired him already for what he's been able to do in the sport, I admire him even more now for the way he handled things over the weekend. Yeah, Ken's the man.
And finally, DC's a great town. It was really nice to wander around and enjoy the architecture in Dupont Circle, travel by metro with all kinds of interesting diverse people, and geek out over how well cared for the street trees are and how their flowers are already in bloom.
word up
I've been meaning to jot down some shred for savvy notes, and I've been procrastinating, so I feel like all my thoughts are a bit stale, but before it completely fades from my memory I'll mention a few items.
First of all, Ian and I's stop at the smoothie shop was a good kickoff to the weekend, cause the best thing to welcome us from Pittsburgh was of course a stop in Fittsburg
Even though we drove to College Park on Friday for no real reason since no one was there yet, it was certainly welcoming to drive past this sign
I remember thinking "who would've thought a sorority would ever sponsor a footbag event". I found out later that it's actually a service fraternity, but hey, that's still freakin' sweet.
Dave wound up with some bling ass shoes
And Drew, Dan, and I had some fun comparing our beards
I vote for Dan's beard, and his t-shirt
Other random thoughts are as follows.
-I should stop trying to breakdance, cause even on nice floors like the one in the gym I'll probably just hurt myself before I ever learn to do windmills.
-Basketball was fun, but it still scares me. I don't understand it at all, so it just seems like a bunch of people running around aimlessly with a good potential to run into eachother. Barret calling me 'Jacque' the whole time did ease my anxiety though with some good comic relief.
-I played really well (for me) in circle with Scott and Ken, cause those guys created an awesome and super fun vibe. It would be cool to see video from that round if it exists.
-Practicing two bag tricks with Scott for a little while was awesome, I want to skool my left side and dial that stuff.
-Adrienne's awesome. I really admire her for using footbag as a means to help further a charitable cause. I hope when Savvy gets better she grows up to be a footbag player.
-Funny story: So I decided to do routines like 1 minute before open routines were starting. I had hardly even finished talking to the MC about it when they announced my name. I didn't have any music picked out, but there was something pretty fresh playing on the system already, so I was just like "Play that!" and ran out onto the floor. I was standing there getting ready to start when I realized something was wrong. I didn't have a footbag! Who does that?
Fortunately Aiden saved the day by giving me hers real quick. Thanks Aiden!
My routine was a'ight. I dropped alot, but I got some good strings in, and I think I managed to stay on beat for parts of it.
-It was good to see Ken, as I don't even know how long it had been since we'd seen eachother in person. He played a great host, and though I admired him already for what he's been able to do in the sport, I admire him even more now for the way he handled things over the weekend. Yeah, Ken's the man.
And finally, DC's a great town. It was really nice to wander around and enjoy the architecture in Dupont Circle, travel by metro with all kinds of interesting diverse people, and geek out over how well cared for the street trees are and how their flowers are already in bloom.
word up
Jake Milofsky
Steel City Freestyle [ex officio]
Steel City Freestyle [ex officio]
Matt sent us this email tonight
"fear both sides
fudge both sides
fairy set pickup both sides
reverse magellan? (fairy set ss pickup) both sides
butterfly<muted stepping ss mirage<muted pixie ss mirage<DATW (both sides, been trying to hit that string for a while now)
dive<duck<dive<duck
diving ss butterfly (both sides, but super flaily [like cat fell in the bathtub flaily])
toe set ducking legover<butterfly<(clipper set) ducking pickup (bsos)
atom smasher<butterfly<drifter<pdx mirage<reverse magellan (both sides)
butterfly<ripwalk<blur<pixie legover<fear (both sides)"
Matt is the man
"fear both sides
fudge both sides
fairy set pickup both sides
reverse magellan? (fairy set ss pickup) both sides
butterfly<muted stepping ss mirage<muted pixie ss mirage<DATW (both sides, been trying to hit that string for a while now)
dive<duck<dive<duck
diving ss butterfly (both sides, but super flaily [like cat fell in the bathtub flaily])
toe set ducking legover<butterfly<(clipper set) ducking pickup (bsos)
atom smasher<butterfly<drifter<pdx mirage<reverse magellan (both sides)
butterfly<ripwalk<blur<pixie legover<fear (both sides)"
Matt is the man
I'm in love with this video:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=2-jK75iGeQI&feature=related
So much cool content, so many cool shots, so many cool locations, so much cool shred, so much cool Vasek
Yo Pips, you should lobby Ian and Matt cause I work for an environmental organization and that's Earth Day weekend so I sure as hell ain't goin nowhere. Bummer, Grass sounds awesome! Plus, I've got some pittsburgh peeps in the RIT juggling crew, ah well maybe next earth day
word up
http://youtube.com/watch?v=2-jK75iGeQI&feature=related
So much cool content, so many cool shots, so many cool locations, so much cool shred, so much cool Vasek
Yo Pips, you should lobby Ian and Matt cause I work for an environmental organization and that's Earth Day weekend so I sure as hell ain't goin nowhere. Bummer, Grass sounds awesome! Plus, I've got some pittsburgh peeps in the RIT juggling crew, ah well maybe next earth day
word up
Jake Milofsky
Steel City Freestyle [ex officio]
Steel City Freestyle [ex officio]
Hi,
Midnight session with Matt in the cold. Matt kicked with Jake earlier too. Apparently Jake hit one three trick combo that really impressed Matt. Perhaps Jake remembers what it was. Matt doesn't
Well, it Matt emailed me that he had hit a "nuclear" mirage while I was at work and it really made want to try it so badly. But I will get to that later.
Matt hit:
Fear bsos
stepping ducking clipper
came really close several times to stepping, paradox miraging illusion. I have no idea what this is. I even tried to find it in the name list, but no cigar. Anyway, he kicked a times if I remember correctly.
I interrupt this post to quote his email. Hot off the press:
"One string in which I called out a fear mid-string was satisfying. Alpine smear mid-string in a lengthy string felt great.
Stepping symp. illusion (whatever that is) mid-string was nice.
stepping, ducking, most retarded clipper felt good.
"Super weak and lame nuclear set mirage felt hilarious" from Matt.
Matt is good at footbag.
Alright. Tonight was an epic session. I did not do a single whirl or reverse whirl trick. I want to lay off them for a bit. On the other hand, I hit some cool new stuff:
Dyno- reverse whirling cross body rake (first try, and on my healthy knee side)
Twirl- torque-string
Ripwalk-diving clipper bsos
A string with reverse swirl and twirl in it- into more stuff
Double switch-over is looking hot on one side and close on the other
Symposium mirage bsos, at least twice. This trick is brand new on one side.
Paradon twirl (again, but always nice)
Two more twirls on my weak side. It will come with a little time.
So many blurs! It made sense today! I hit a whole bunch in a row one side and showing better success that usual on the other side as well.
Alright, here is the sweet stuff. I learned four new moves tonight.
Paradox legbeater: many times on my one side and off of my foot several times on the other. (counts as two moves for me).
Paradox atomsmasher: one side
Nuclear Eclipse. Tomorrow I am going to have a brisk iced-tea, to honor the completion of one of my most memorable footbag challenges.
Alright. I'm spent. Jessica is in SF for the weekend. I miss her terribly. Time to let this endorphin-high subside and do some work.
Midnight session with Matt in the cold. Matt kicked with Jake earlier too. Apparently Jake hit one three trick combo that really impressed Matt. Perhaps Jake remembers what it was. Matt doesn't
Well, it Matt emailed me that he had hit a "nuclear" mirage while I was at work and it really made want to try it so badly. But I will get to that later.
Matt hit:
Fear bsos
stepping ducking clipper
came really close several times to stepping, paradox miraging illusion. I have no idea what this is. I even tried to find it in the name list, but no cigar. Anyway, he kicked a times if I remember correctly.
I interrupt this post to quote his email. Hot off the press:
"One string in which I called out a fear mid-string was satisfying. Alpine smear mid-string in a lengthy string felt great.
Stepping symp. illusion (whatever that is) mid-string was nice.
stepping, ducking, most retarded clipper felt good.
"Super weak and lame nuclear set mirage felt hilarious" from Matt.
Matt is good at footbag.
Alright. Tonight was an epic session. I did not do a single whirl or reverse whirl trick. I want to lay off them for a bit. On the other hand, I hit some cool new stuff:
Dyno- reverse whirling cross body rake (first try, and on my healthy knee side)
Twirl- torque-string
Ripwalk-diving clipper bsos
A string with reverse swirl and twirl in it- into more stuff
Double switch-over is looking hot on one side and close on the other
Symposium mirage bsos, at least twice. This trick is brand new on one side.
Paradon twirl (again, but always nice)
Two more twirls on my weak side. It will come with a little time.
So many blurs! It made sense today! I hit a whole bunch in a row one side and showing better success that usual on the other side as well.
Alright, here is the sweet stuff. I learned four new moves tonight.
Paradox legbeater: many times on my one side and off of my foot several times on the other. (counts as two moves for me).
Paradox atomsmasher: one side
Nuclear Eclipse. Tomorrow I am going to have a brisk iced-tea, to honor the completion of one of my most memorable footbag challenges.
Alright. I'm spent. Jessica is in SF for the weekend. I miss her terribly. Time to let this endorphin-high subside and do some work.
Both of my computers died this week. Everything off of my laptop is toast. My G5 is still being serviced. Let this be the time capsule.
At least my laptop seems to be installing now.
Also, my knee is all banged up still from nuclear sets. They seem so fun and easy, but doing them in bad form comes with a cost.
On the bright side, my guitar abilities are progressing rapidly, as aris my grasp on theory.
Whoo-hoo! Apple demo... Back in action.
At least my laptop seems to be installing now.
Also, my knee is all banged up still from nuclear sets. They seem so fun and easy, but doing them in bad form comes with a cost.
On the bright side, my guitar abilities are progressing rapidly, as aris my grasp on theory.
Whoo-hoo! Apple demo... Back in action.
Matt is good at footbag:
long, crazy combo- alpine smear both sides.
alpine smudge both sides. Second try on one side.
All kinds of other stuff.
me: gyro mirage- inf- gyro butterfly
gyro butterfly-dyno
lots of ducks and dives. Well, especially ducks.
paradon-dyno-pm repeat
many swirls and reverse swirls (not simple style)
paradox whirl twice on bad side
bunch of twirls and only dropped one. All were mid-string. Just sort of felt it today. Dufflebag's bag is really unusual but extemely playable. We kicked with it all day.
I had the longest, most original strings I've ever had today.
long, crazy combo- alpine smear both sides.
alpine smudge both sides. Second try on one side.
All kinds of other stuff.
me: gyro mirage- inf- gyro butterfly
gyro butterfly-dyno
lots of ducks and dives. Well, especially ducks.
paradon-dyno-pm repeat
many swirls and reverse swirls (not simple style)
paradox whirl twice on bad side
bunch of twirls and only dropped one. All were mid-string. Just sort of felt it today. Dufflebag's bag is really unusual but extemely playable. We kicked with it all day.
I had the longest, most original strings I've ever had today.
Nice sess with Ian today. Despite the fact that I haven't had a square meal all weekend and I was hung over today, I hit a few whirling swirls and some other stuff.
I've been having fun with the "dexless" concept that C-fan posted a video about. I get into just long runs of mixing up different types of spinning with diving and ducking. Ian said I looked like I was ice skating after one run. I took that as a nice compliment.
word up
I've been having fun with the "dexless" concept that C-fan posted a video about. I get into just long runs of mixing up different types of spinning with diving and ducking. Ian said I looked like I was ice skating after one run. I took that as a nice compliment.
word up
Jake Milofsky
Steel City Freestyle [ex officio]
Steel City Freestyle [ex officio]
Kicked with Jake.
Jake is consistently getting smoother. I think I saw a noticeable difference since the last time we kicked, two weeks ago, and he has barely kicked since then. I'll let him talk about it if he feels like it. between bigger moves, bigger combos, and lots of gyros or spins (see this is why I'm not allowed to talk about him- I don't get is tricks completely right) his game looks smoother than before, even though it's obviously harder and more varied.
I hit twirl every time I tried on my strong side today. 5 times, mid-string. Three times on my weak side out of about 10-15 tries.
Some very good strings.
Much less bop.
Swirl and reverse swirl are much better.
Spins were kind of there on my weak side.
Back to work.
EDIT:LOL- Jake beat me by 3 min.
EDIT 2: The ice skating statement broken down:
A) Spinning/axle-relationship
B) Natural flow/grace
C) motion seemed similar to skating backwards. I think it was because of ducking, diving and osis'-which led to looking backwards a lot and looking at your feet.
Jake is consistently getting smoother. I think I saw a noticeable difference since the last time we kicked, two weeks ago, and he has barely kicked since then. I'll let him talk about it if he feels like it. between bigger moves, bigger combos, and lots of gyros or spins (see this is why I'm not allowed to talk about him- I don't get is tricks completely right) his game looks smoother than before, even though it's obviously harder and more varied.
I hit twirl every time I tried on my strong side today. 5 times, mid-string. Three times on my weak side out of about 10-15 tries.
Some very good strings.
Much less bop.
Swirl and reverse swirl are much better.
Spins were kind of there on my weak side.
Back to work.
EDIT:LOL- Jake beat me by 3 min.
EDIT 2: The ice skating statement broken down:
A) Spinning/axle-relationship
B) Natural flow/grace
C) motion seemed similar to skating backwards. I think it was because of ducking, diving and osis'-which led to looking backwards a lot and looking at your feet.
Kicked with Caleb yesterday for the first time in forever. My big toe was bugging me, and Caleb's dog wouldn't stop barking at us, so the session wasn't all that crazy, but it was cool seeing Caleb and kicking with him again. Hopefully we keep it up.
Also, the Roots played a show in Pgh last night. Before the show I was hacking with this kid who was doing toe and clipper stalls and making some attempts at around the world and mirage. I still had my lavers on me so I threw them on and showed him some stuff. He got super excited and when I told him we had a club in Pgh, he was like "I'm so in!". So I gave him my info to get in touch. In retrospect, I should have gotten his to let him know when we'd be playing, but he lives out of town and I figured he can just give us a ring when he makes it into the city. His name's Ben, hopefully he'll show up sometime.
Also, the Roots played a show in Pgh last night. Before the show I was hacking with this kid who was doing toe and clipper stalls and making some attempts at around the world and mirage. I still had my lavers on me so I threw them on and showed him some stuff. He got super excited and when I told him we had a club in Pgh, he was like "I'm so in!". So I gave him my info to get in touch. In retrospect, I should have gotten his to let him know when we'd be playing, but he lives out of town and I figured he can just give us a ring when he makes it into the city. His name's Ben, hopefully he'll show up sometime.
Jake Milofsky
Steel City Freestyle [ex officio]
Steel City Freestyle [ex officio]
Kicked with Matt really improv like. We kicked in the playground near my house. It was awesome because there is a very diverse community of children that play soccer over there and we got to teach them footbag and and learn some soccer tricks. Really cool kids. Matt is going to give them some old bags. One older guy who was doing all of these freestyle soccer tricks may even kick with us sometime. I gave him my email.
Matt is awesome. He is on a whole other level than since the last time I kicked with him. I'll leave it at that.
My game was on today. I hit one string with three different swirl variations.
Hit a swirling set that was pretty chest high.
Had longer strings with many variations of strong ducking moves. I felt very good today about these. One string: Ducking butterfly X3-string- DB X2-string- DB X2. This was nice.
Atom smasher B2B hippy style. Finally.
Twirl-dyno
Very close to Twirl-far symposium reverse whirl twice. I would have hit it but Matt wanted to bounce.
Ripwalks were looking better on both sides, especially out of ducking clippers.
Hit some DOD's.
Matt is awesome. He is on a whole other level than since the last time I kicked with him. I'll leave it at that.
My game was on today. I hit one string with three different swirl variations.
Hit a swirling set that was pretty chest high.
Had longer strings with many variations of strong ducking moves. I felt very good today about these. One string: Ducking butterfly X3-string- DB X2-string- DB X2. This was nice.
Atom smasher B2B hippy style. Finally.
Twirl-dyno
Very close to Twirl-far symposium reverse whirl twice. I would have hit it but Matt wanted to bounce.
Ripwalks were looking better on both sides, especially out of ducking clippers.
Hit some DOD's.
From Matt:
"I found five old, floppy beginner type bags that I got started on to give to those kids. Two dirtbags and three other sand-filled bags, all of which are easier to kick and keep in the air than 32 panels.
I kind of expected nobody to show up, but when I got there two of them were waiting...in shorts. Haha. One of them said something like "look he actually came" when I was still pretty far away. I dumped the bags out on the ground and they cheered, then started picking out which one they each wanted. I was like, "yo, you can have them all," and their heads nearly exploded.
I think they were disappointed that I couldn't hang around and kick with them, but I have too much studying to do. I told them to keep their eyes out for us because we'll try to make it back there to kick sometimes. They were stoked. It definitely made my day a little better too. Nothing like footbag to bring the community together. Haha."
Have I ever told anyone before that Matt is the man? Just checking.
"I found five old, floppy beginner type bags that I got started on to give to those kids. Two dirtbags and three other sand-filled bags, all of which are easier to kick and keep in the air than 32 panels.
I kind of expected nobody to show up, but when I got there two of them were waiting...in shorts. Haha. One of them said something like "look he actually came" when I was still pretty far away. I dumped the bags out on the ground and they cheered, then started picking out which one they each wanted. I was like, "yo, you can have them all," and their heads nearly exploded.
I think they were disappointed that I couldn't hang around and kick with them, but I have too much studying to do. I told them to keep their eyes out for us because we'll try to make it back there to kick sometimes. They were stoked. It definitely made my day a little better too. Nothing like footbag to bring the community together. Haha."
Have I ever told anyone before that Matt is the man? Just checking.
Bad day at work.
Kicked with Matt late-night.
Matt: Fudge and alpine smear on both sides. ETC.
Me:
new moves: Swirling osis, fairy- other side mirage. Looks like a tap, but set with the same foot as each dex.
new combo: swirl- reverse whirling crossbody rake
Almost ducked my first stepping set of the day. Caught on my neck. Stepping sets were on tonight. So were ducks, swirls and reverse whirls/swrils.
Weak side whirl, twice in a row.
Blender off foot a few times.
Kicked with Matt late-night.
Matt: Fudge and alpine smear on both sides. ETC.
Me:
new moves: Swirling osis, fairy- other side mirage. Looks like a tap, but set with the same foot as each dex.
new combo: swirl- reverse whirling crossbody rake
Almost ducked my first stepping set of the day. Caught on my neck. Stepping sets were on tonight. So were ducks, swirls and reverse whirls/swrils.
Weak side whirl, twice in a row.
Blender off foot a few times.