Yeah, well, if you took into consideration how horrible the actual interview went then you'd probably be pleasantly surprised at how positive the article seemed. After being interrogated by the reporter I thought he was going to REALLY slam us, as in, like, Stuff Magazine's infamous "Wide World of Wuss" article, circa 2001.C-Fan wrote:I thought that article was horrible. It made footbag seem pointless
This guy, while being somewhat antagonistic in the interview process, was obviously not out to totally slander us. He was just looking for something that we couldn't provide. Consider some of that article:
"why do such patently pointless pursuits make us happy? That's what I'd like to find out."
Well, we tried to come up with an answer for him, but nothing seemed to satisfy the guy. It was me who recommended (somewhat sardonically) that he proceed to the nearby University of Texas campus and talk to a philosophy professor to find out why people play games or dance or anything of that sort...
Imagine my surprise when he wrote:
"The fun of playing resists all analysis, all logical interpretation," writes Johan Huizinga, the great theorist on the subject (of play, not footbag per se), so I guess we can't fault Benulis and Squires Thomas for coming up short of a philosophically satisfying answer. For Huizinga, the pleasures of play are of a piece with the pleasures of art. "It is invested with the noblest qualities we are capable of perceiving in things: rhythm and harmony."
I wasn't really serious when I told him to talk to a philosopher, I was just getting frustrated with him. I must give him some props for actually following through... And as for him quoting me, I said something a little bit like that, but I think he basically just invented that statement. I don't know, I thought it sounded okay. I wouldn't go so far as to say "I wish I had said it that way..." but, it'll do.
In the end, it doesn't really matter that much. Surely you know what I mean, Ken. I mean, its nice to get in the media, but it hardly matter what they say about us or even if we're in the media at all. You yourself had a great appearance on "Good Morning America" or something like that, with that other Ken, and, what did it really lead to? You can add up all our positive media coverage and measure it and find that it has resulted in... what? I don't know. Not so much. Whatever. And the bad stuff they've said about us? Has it really hurt us? How about the media opportunities that we've missed? Was there any one time that we could have gotten good media exposure that would have really changed footbag? Maybe, but, probably not. I mean, what if George Lopez and Jimmy Kimmel had offered effusive praise for Vasek on that show last year? And what if Vasek had not sprained his ankle a few days prior? What then? Would it have gone much different? Would footbag be any different for it? Doubtful.
In the end, we don't really have any control what-so-ever on what articles go into the Austin Chronicle (or any other paper), or what goes into those articles. Over-all, I thought it was positive, I'm glad that any reporter came out at all, and I think its pretty funny that I had previously been unaware of that reporter's name -- Thomas HACKETT.
Anyway, I wanted to give a big thanks to Ben Benulis for hosting the event and me, for helping me to navigating Austin, Texas. Also, it was a great time, and I was stoked to get to play with all the awesome Texas shredders like Mike Stokely, Curtis Taylor, and that barefoot master, Cody Rushing. We all owe especially big thanks to Greg Solis for letting us all use and abuse his dank footbag all weekend. Greg, you might just have the best little footbag in Texas. There were many other as well, can't really remember all the names, but, it was really cool to get back in touch with my old buddy James Geraci. Over-all, I wish that we had had more time, to shred and just to chill, I wish the whole thing had been longer. And I can never get too much of JR's freestyle. If only he didn't spend most of his time playing net and golf... I guess I'll just have to head back to Texas for more as soon as I can.