Fanzine

[Muffinman]

Good to read an update. Scary about the shootings! Also awesome that work takes you to footbag cities — very convenient!

I heard that Vasek may be going to USO??

[C-Fan]

I never read Kabuki. The art seems cool, but I also got vibes of cultural misappropriation from it. Like, is this just another white artist fetishizing asian culture without understanding it? Hard to say without reading it but that's why I avoided it. I haven't been reading too many comics or graphic novels lately. The last one I checked out was "Marbles" by Ellen Forney, which was a really interesting deep dive into bipolar disorder. Definitely would recommend.

https://images.penguinrandomhouse.com/c ... 1592407323

How close to you were those lockdowns?

The first lockdown affected the entire Denver area, so basically every school was closed. That's like half a million kids. The lady was obsessed with Columbine and had bought a shotgun but nobody could be sure what school she'd target. Thankfully she killed herself so the lockdown only lasted a day. And yes, I live a 7 minute drive from Columbine. The second lockdown was much more limited in scope, but unfortunately resulted in a student death. That one happened at a school across the street from where my wife works which is why they locked her building down too. It's sobering and depressing to think that I'm raising my child in a country where he might die to guns just because we lack the political will to pass sensible laws.

How old is Lon now? He must be over 40, but he seems to be playing really well

I believe Lon is 40. Hopefully I'll see him in a month and can confirm then. He has to be the best oldest player out there right now. Bevier is about our age and the last time I saw him he was still ripping it up too despite dividing his time between soccer and footbag now. Lon is definitely the most active/serious about playing out of the 3 of us. I've often wondered if I would have been a better footbagger had I not prioritized school and career. In the past I assumed the answer would be "yes," since I would have been able to dedicate more time to playing and practicing. Now though I question that assumption. Who is to say that playing more might not have led to injury or burnout? Or maybe I always had a set ceiling as a player, due to things beyond my control like fast twitch muscles in each of my legs, and playing 30% more wouldn't have changed things too much? There's really no way of knowing. In the end though I can't complain too much about my footbag career, and I do think prioritizing school and career have paid off.

Here is a video from a session I squeezed out during a lunch break. I was hoping to make this into a semi-regular habit, but then work got super crazy. Maybe when things settle down again I can try again, since it'd be good for me physically and mentally.



In other video news, I have 2 videos on my phone that are already clipped and edited and just need music added. I'm having trouble figuring out how to do that on the video editing app on my phone, but I think its worth spending the time to get it right since it would pay off for all future videos. I definitely want to have it figured out before my Boise trip, so I can turn around that footage fast and not have to outsource it to other editors.

[Sporatical_Distractions]

Killin it

[boyle]

Scary stuff on those shootings. Are there a lot of people who are obsessed with things like Columbine or Sandy Hook or these different high profile shootings?

I've only been to the US the once, for Worlds in Oakland, and maybe that's not the best place to consider as it has a high crime rate etc, but before leaving I was wondering, what if I get shot by a stray bullet or something like that.

I would like to say things like that never happen in Australia, but a guy just killed four people up in Darwin in a gun attack a couple of days ago, and it was an Australian guy doing the shooting in the Christchurch mosque shootings.

However, after the large incident in the 90s, there was a big change in gun laws. The problem though is that now people are trying to get them relaxed.

Look forward to see some footage of you and Lon. That sounds like a fun session.

Would you be better if you were just focused on footbag? That depends on the hypotheticals. Would you be better because footbag was a professional sport, and you were able to spend your time training in high quality (or even low quality facilities) and just focus on competing, with your sponsors sending you here and there for tournaments? Then yes, you would get better.

Or, would you work menial jobs in order to get your to your next plane ticket, making sure to attend as many footbag competitions as possible. Then maybe yes, probably no. You would probably have a good time, maybe hit a high peak but then get sick of it, go and get a "real job", something like this.

It seems there's a lot more of this - come up to a high high and then almost disappear. The biggest thing that seems to see people fall off that peak is winning Worlds. Which is a weird thing, but it seems they get to that point, say that's what I've wanted to achieve, I'm done, see you later. I'm off to get a real job.

Interesting concept really. I say it's better to have the overall balance on life, but I do wish I could spend a bit more time on footbag.

[C-Fan]

Ach, haven't footbagged in the past 25 days. Not proud of that, since I'm headed to Boise in less than a week and was hoping to shred there. It'll be embarrassing to show up and be one month out of practice. Also not proud of the lack of exercising, since that was one of my resolutions for 2019:

One date night a month using a babysitter
Have friends over one night a month
Eat better/healthier
Shred at least twice a month
Continue booze-free streak

Had a good start on most of those but definitely backslid a bit on almost all of them. The booze free streak is now at 459 days and that should continue. The others though gradually slipped, as is common with new year's resolutions. Haley's Mom is coming to visit for a week, so hopefully that get us back on track with the healthy eats and date nights. And the Boise trip I alluded to may be a good way to get back in the swing of playing. I'm hoping to get in 2-3 sessions if my body and work schedule allow for it. Really though, I'm mostly just looking forward to seeing friends and catching up some.

In other video news, I have 2 videos on my phone that are already clipped and edited and just need music added. I'm having trouble figuring out how to do that on the video editing app on my phone, but I think its worth spending the time to get it right since it would pay off for all future videos.

I put a few hours work into this, and unfortunately it did not pay off. My dream was to be able to film and fully edit videos all on my phone, including adding music. The editing app I got for my phone is actually really good, but where I got tripped up is how my phone deals with music. Since it's a government iphone, I can only put music on it through iTunes, and even that is very limited. The workaround then is for me to edit the video on my phone without music, then export it to my laptop and add music there on a different editing program. But if that's the case, I'm basically back to square one anyway. To say nothing of the fact that my editing program on my laptop is very clunky. Even basic stuff like adding a title card or credits is stupidly awkward (add a second video track and have a filter over it for just the credits? Seriously?!). At this stage of my footbag career I just don't think its worth stressing over. I'll either make videos on my phone with no songs on them, or at most I'll port them to my laptop to slap a song over them but nothing beyond that. My days of syncing each clip with each beat of the music are behind me.

I just checked my YT account and see I have posted 2,522 videos. While a lot of those are probably short clips of individual runs, that's still an F-Ton of content. I also find it hilarious that my most viewed video has 152K views, and my second most is at 14K. Between my YT channel, my blog, and my podcasts (I should revive that project) I wonder how many hours of footbag content I've generated? It's gotta be pretty up there.

Here's a video I edited on my phone, but then transferred to my laptop to add the song:


I think I only played twice in May, and this was it. The nemesis wasn't my best but I liked the run that followed it so I kept it. Mostly was happy with the blenders, especially on flip. Definitely one of my weakest flipside components. I also liked the song I used for the video. I feel like 90% of shred videos use rap or electronic, so it felt refreshing to use something different.

[boyle]

Yes, you certainly have made a lot of content around footbag. If only there were more doing the same, people wouldn't be saying oh me oh my footbag is dying blah blah blah.

Still some pretty good tricks in that video, considering that you haven't been playing that much. Some long runs there too.

I know you have sometimes got a song from the Youtube music in the past - is it worth just making the video, then letting Youtube decide on what to lay over the top. Could be dangerous I guess.

It's good if you can use family or friends rather than a babysitter. Not sure how much they cost over there, but you could make good money being a babysitter here. Once you've had a meal or gone to the movies, then it all adds up and you still have to pay for a babysitter!

We've got my auntie looking after the kids in Sydney this weekend, so will be good to have a night off. Although that's also part of the problem - you don't have the whole night off - once you are back, there's still crying babies etc.

152K is a lot of view. What was that one for? I've looked before and I think there is only one footbag video with 1 million + views, and it's one of Felix. His beatboxing name level would have brought most of the views for that one, but of course he is a really good player too.

I agree on the no need to sync exactly to the music etc. People just want to see some cool tricks - and if can get a backlog down, go for it.

I wonder how you could measure some of the people who have made the biggest contributions in term of content over time. It's certainly a lot easier to get content out than in the VHS days, but I think there is still a lot of stuff that gets recorded and never sees the light of day.

[C-Fan]

In Boise this week for work. My kid had to go to urgent care over the weekend due to a 24 hour virus, so I wasn't able to practice footbag before the trip. A bit embarrassed to come out here being over a month out of practice. At least my kid's doing OK now...I'd feel so bad if he were sick while I was out of town. His grandmother is in Denver to help ease the burden on Haley while I'm here, so that also makes me feel better.

152K is a lot of view. What was that one for?

I wonder how you could measure some of the people who have made the biggest contributions in term of content over time. It's certainly a lot easier to get content out than in the VHS days

Agreed. I've often thought about the importance of quantity vs quality as it relates to content influence and media reach. I watch a lot of gaming YouTube videos, especially for my favorite videogame Team Fortress 2. The content creators I follow span the gamut from people who make super high quality videos (often with original animations and songs) very infrequently, to people who post very unrefined content (raw gameplay footage) multiple times a week. I enjoy both types of video, and recognize that both content models have their pros and cons.

With footbag content and its reach/influence I see similar dynamics. Back in the day, technological limitations restricted how often videos could be made and distributed. In some ways that was good as it encouraged people to really curate and make higher quality content. Eli Piltz would put out only 1-2 videos a year, but they were very well edited. Now with platforms like YouTube and Instagram, we can make and distribute content so easily and quickly it dis-incentivizes people from putting in extra time to make higher quality content. That said, I wouldn't mind lower quality videos if the community were generating a ton of content. The problem I see with footbag now is that we are not generating enough of either kind of content.

Back to Boise. I've been here 2 days now, and have already hung out with Bob Green, Lon, Penske, Daryl, and Landes. My first day I played footbag for about 10 minutes with Lon and Bob before switching to basketball. I played two games of 2 vs 2 and had a blast. I was on Jim's team both times, beating his roommates in the first game and then beating Lon and Daryl in the second. It was really fun playing a non-footbag game with footbag friends. I even hit the game winning 3 in the game against Lon/Daryl. The only blemish was that I rolled my right ankle on some gravel, but I think I mostly dodged the bullet on a bad injury.

My second day here I had a shred in the morning with Landes. We only got to play for 45 minutes, but the weather was ideal and we had a lot of fun. I struck a good balance between testing my ankle's limits and listening to my body. I'm not always great at doing that, so that was a nice surprise. Landes has such a fun game with his huge windows and flexibility. He tried a few tricks that literally made me laugh out loud with how crazy they were. I was happy to capture him hitting a crazy flyer at the end:



Going back to the content discussion, it's pretty cool that I was able to release that video the same day that we had that session.

Boise has a weekly outdoor concert event throughout the summer and the local shred crew plays there. That's happening tonight, so I'm excited to play with everybody there. I'll try and film a bit and see if I can't make another video from this trip.

[boyle]

Liked the run with all the fogs. Nick is looking smooth, as always. Sounds like a really fun trip. Would love to visit the scene there sometime.

I had to cut short a trip last year while I was away, Jasmine ended up having to go the hospital.

On the content thing, one thing I really don't get is particularly from something like Worlds, there are always lots of cameras there, but you generally don't see anything until quite a while after, aside from just raw comp footage. With Instagram etc, there's a chance to put things up very quickly, and people have these amazing clips with them but just seem to keep them to themselves.

What I have really enjoyed in the recent year or so are those clips of Jim and Lon. Not much editing, but just huge tricks and for a while they were really pumping them out regularly. Kicking at the concert sounds like a good time too.

[C-Fan]

Happy 15th birthday, Fanzine!



Crazy that today marks the 15th anniversary of me starting this blog. That's so weird, since back in 2004 I already thought of myself as a grizzled vet and probably would have bet against myself playing for another 10 years, much less blogging in here for 15. I probably would have also bet against Modified existing 15 more years too. Even if Modified does go away, I'm really glad I blogged here so consistently and for so long. Just the process of writing has been cathartic. It's also nice to have this record to read through years later, to see some of the ups and downs of my playing career. Also neat to see how my game and goals have changed over 15 years.

Kicking at the concert sounds like a good time too.

I got back from Boise a week and a half ago, but it already feels like a hazy memory. Overall it was a great trip. I got more exercise in that one week than I probably did the rest of 2019 combined. It was also really nice to catch up with old friends and be social. I'm glad I edited that short video of Landes at the library when I did, since I haven't had any time since returning to edit my remaining footage. I've chopped it all up into clips, but it's like two super long (7-8 minutes) ones all from static camera angles. Nobody's gonna watch that, so I need to find time to cut them into smaller projects.

No footbag for me since I've got back, but I also don't feel much sense of urgency to play since I'm not going to any tournaments or anything.

[boyle]

15 years is a good run. You've been a great contributor to these forums over the years. Always loved those detailed Worlds writeups.

[Tjuggles]

I agree; your contribution to Modified has been so strong over the years.

[C-Fan]

One thing that I found surprising about my involvement with Modified, is that I somehow ended up with the most posts of anybody on the site: memberlist.php?mode=&sk=d&sd=d#memberlist

I was a relatively late joiner and never felt like I was spamming the forums, but just by being on here so consistently for so long I eventually crept up in posts. I wonder what percent of my posts are in this blog...I'm guessing probably over half.

I haven't played footbag since getting back from Boise 2.5 weeks ago. That makes me glad I played as much as I did while I was out there. I edited and released the Landes video the same day we played, which is great since I've had trouble making the time to edit the remaining pile of footage. I did manage to edit a quick Genzu special last week, which got a nice reception on Facebook:


I still have a lot of footage from 2 more Boise sessions including a lot of good Penske material. In exciting editing news, I found a cool feature in my editing software that allows me to crop/zoom the footage. This helps a ton with framing shots. In Boise, there were a couple sessions where I basically used a tripod to film 5 man circles, which often meant that my footage was zoomed out enough to keep everybody in frame. That meant that the active shredder would be relatively small, and 80% of the screen would be the other 4 shredders just standing and watching. With the new feature, I can zoom into the active player and cut out the idle players from the frame. It makes for a lot more entertaining footage. Hopefully I can continue to hack away at the footage and put out a couple more videos.

[boyle]

In terms of those quality vs quantity arguments - your posts on here have been good quality, I'm sure there are plenty of high quantity posters who contributed very little

Just got the chance to watch the Genzu video, great watch. Relaxing music. I like it how everyone's just kicking along and then all of a sudden one of the best players in the world pops up, then you go to a new location and there's another one. That looked like a really fun trip.

I certainly can't say I'm surprised that you are the top poster though, it's that consistency that has taken you to the top of the forum posts game.

[Muffinman]

One thing that I found surprising about my involvement with Modified, is that I somehow ended up with the most posts of anybody on the site: memberlist.php?mode=&sk=d&sd=d#memberlist

Heeey, #2
Great videos recently, and congrats on 15 years footblogging! I think you probably have the title of most footbag videos online too. Nice! I hope you stick around for many more years!

RE: Modified's longevity, I would hope that if it's ever decided that it should be put to rest, someone would be able to host a read-only version at minimum.

Also, I never considered the potential cultural appropriation of Kabuki. I did a quick search to be safe, and this mini essay basically says there is some of that going on, but it's hard to tell to what degree, since it only makes a few references: https://whatismanga.wordpress.com/2013/ ... -of-blood/

[Tjuggles]

I like the idea of having Modified read-only if (IF) it ever dies off. I have the feeling it will be around for a while though...

15 years is great. What a great way to go back and see how far you have come. I bet nostalgia pours over you looking back through the years.

[boyle]

Mate, with two "experts" in charge, what could possibly go wrong! That is a good idea though, but I think the end days are some time into the future.

[C-Fan]

One thing that I found surprising about my involvement with Modified, is that I somehow ended up with the most posts of anybody on the site: memberlist.php?mode=&sk=d&sd=d#memberlist

Heeey, #2

Haha! Also, Matt Cross just started a comeback on this site, so the #4 poster is now active again. We need to watch our backs!

RE: Modified's longevity, I would hope that if it's ever decided that it should be put to rest, someone would be able to host a read-only version at minimum.

Totally agree. There was a sports website I used to read daily that eventually closed, but they kept a read only archive online at the same site: https://grantland.com/

I could see something like that working for Modified, since there is a lot of good historic info housed here.

That manga article was super duper interesting. I remember learning about the complicated portrayal of race in manga back when I lived in Japan (e.g. a lot of characters that look white to Western readers are understood to be Japanese to Japanese readers and vice versa), but I learned a lot from it.

I had a Worlds dream last night. I can't remember the details, but its notable to me that I still dream of competing in footbag, even though its been over 2 years since I last competed. It's almost like having a phantom limb.

I haven't played footbag since Boise, which was over a month ago. Its just so hard to make the time to play, since the baby and the house takes up so much time and energy. Before the baby, in 20 years of footbagging I probably only had one or two playing gaps last a full month, and those were likely due to injuries. Now, I barely blink when a month goes by without playing. I am getting to that weird phenomena where, when I don't play for a long stretch of time, I get these deluded thoughts wondering if I can hit super hard stuff I've never done. Like, I'll air shred flip whirring swirl and think "I probably could hit that" even though in reality I probably couldn't hit a whirling swirl on that side since I'm so out of practice. It's kind of funny, but also kind of sad.

In more positive streak news, today marks 500 days without booze. Crazy I've kept it up this long, especially since I basically started it on a whim.

Random video to closeout. I liked the reverse whirling rake bsos in the middle:

[Sporatical_Distractions]

I am getting to that weird phenomena where, when I don't play for a long stretch of time, I get these deluded thoughts wondering if I can hit super hard stuff I've never done. Like, I'll air shred flip whirring swirl and think "I probably could hit that" even though in reality I probably couldn't hit a whirling swirl on that side since I'm so out of practice. It's kind of funny, but also kind of sad.

I feel that.

Had no idea you could sort users by number of posts. Didn't realize I'd posted that much haha.

[C-Fan]

[C-Fan]