So as I sit with my feet up, recovering from my worst ankle sprain ever, I figured I'd do some writing. I'm talking trip to the hospital, tennis ball sized swelling and one of the worst nagging pains I've had. I've sprained both anlkes at least 50 times. Thats not hyperbole, thats 20 years of basketball.
Yo-yoing. Doesn't require feet. Except if you throw 4a, then you kinda need to move around a bit. It means that the performance I was hired for this Friday needs to be retooled a bit. I was planning on including a bit of 2a, but I'm going to be adding more to that and trying to fill in with 1a. This was a rare issue, but jammed fingers, thats a regular one. Its hard to yoyo when your index figure is swollen to twice its size. I had a similar issue when playing guitar. I find myself wondering, what other conflicting hobbies people have. Not just ones with injuries, but ones where you have to choose one or the other for whatever reason. Thoughts?
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I'm not talking about the Will Smith sci-fi, I'm talking about the phrase "mint-in-box". To some degree, I get it. If you are dealing with a collectible that will increase its value, by all means, buy it, leave it on the shelf and never touch it. You have made an investment. I get baffled by this with yoyos. If you are a collector and are collecting a set of a particular yoyo you think is pretty, it makes some sense to never touch it. There is the occasional yoyo that you know will be a rare piece worth keeping on the shelf. Where I get confused is when I see people posting 'MIB' on something that is mass produced. They aren't going to retain value unless they are very, very rare, so why not play with them? Perhaps you won it. Perhaps you threw it once and didn't like it. That too I understand. It's the people that buy them, keep them in the box for a year or two, then sell them later. It seems silly to me to have had it and not used it. It's a toy. Play with it. I personally very rarely buy new yoyos. I'll get them used, or contact the manufacturer and try to get a b-grade. It's not about cost, it's that if its pretty and shiny and new, I don't want to damage it. I won't play with it, and in my mind that makes it a waste to have it. I do like to support companies and buy their products, but that first scratch or ding is brutal. Once it's there though, it goes on my belt, gets played, beat on banged into doorways, and put away well loved. I have probably over 100 yoyos in my collection and I use them all, right down to the Formerly 'MIB' Silver Bullet 2 my fiancée got me for my last birthday. It's a toy. Play with it. At the end of the day its like the guys driving the massive pickup trucks that have all wheel drive and an engine that could tow a semi-trailer. They then drive them to and from work and park them in front of the house looking all shiny. Never leaving the road. And goodness, no, of course you can't use it for moving, you might scratch the paint! Rant endeth. The majority of my tricks end up starting with wrist mount. I've noticed a yoyoers style tends to evolve around a favoured starting point. Have you had the same experience?
So Hip Hop. Rap, everything that falls under the umbrella of 'talking to music'. I never used to get it. I've been a musician all of my adult life. I was raised on the piano, moved to Tenor Sax, then found my passion with the guitar. When my hands failed, I learned to sing. I've listened to and studied most styles of music. I've always been left with rap, I don't get it. It always seemed to me to be a bad beer commercial put to a drum machine. I could tolerate Eminem, like everyone else on the planet, but even he got pretty repetitive and simple themed. (I fully acknowledge that every style of music has its repetitive boring music *clears throat nickleback*) This changed when I got into yoyo. So many yoyoers use hip hop/rap to yoyo to. This started with a Jensen Kimmett video set to the song "Promised Land" by Edan. I thought, this is a clever song, so I checked out the album. The rest of it didn't really speak to me, but that was a foot in the door, rap can be something other than noise, rappers have brains. I can't remember what video lead me to the Cunninlinguists, but that was the slippery slope into having to admit that I like Rap. I was hooked on these guys that rapped, but were clever and articulate and mixed really cool music to do thier thing to. Followed through this group to Tonedeff, and almost cried when I listened to Porcelain. I don't know if there are many men out there who made it through High School without falling madly in love with a girl who was unattainable, carrying that torch, but I was not one of them. The mix combined with the sould wrenching poetry left me in pieces. I selected this song for one of my first 4a competitions, becuase I couldn't help but move to it. So now we have Maclemore and Ryan. "Taking the world by storm" is a good term. These guys have broken records, topped the charts and are just getting started. Once again, I can't stop listening, becuase they have something to say. Thier first hit "Thrift Shop" was brilliant. A theme I'm pretty sure no one has rapped effectively to before. This song deserves all of the acclaim it gets. I was hooked with "Same Love", to the point where I changed my song for competition 1 week before the contest just so I could use it. Politics aside, this song was masterfully crafted. Just a masterful work of art. I think for Canadian Nationals this year I'm going to have to use one that hasn't hit the radio yet, 10000 hours. I had a conversation with my old guitar teacher the other day about practice. The fact that it takes ten thousand hours of practice to master something. Not just doing whatever it is, but doing it intentfully. Its probably why I took 7 years to get to the point where I"m starting to feel like I'm an adequate school teacher. I'm going to wrap this with a few lines from that song that summed up why I teach, and what I keep in mind every day. Now I'm going to go throw my yoyo some more, and try to get an hour closer to the goal. And doggonit, I"m going to have fun while I'm doing it! "See, I observed Escher I love Basquiat I watched Keith Haring You see I studied art The greats weren't great because at birth they could paint The greats were great cause they paint a lot" (10000 hours by Macklemore and Ryan) So I decide to start writing. About all of the strange and unusual things that cross my mind, as well as those that are yo-yo related.
So this one is non-yo-yo related. I had an interesting sociological experience last night around tribalism. I read once that the human brain can't actually comprehend numbers of people beyond the 'tribe' level. We know they exists, but they aren't meaningful. So we tend to group together, against the 'other'. I went and saw the Tea Party last night. Not the political group, the awesometastic Canadian rock band that recently got back together. It was wonderfully full of their 'classic' songs (I felt old, lol, I've been a fan since the beginning). The usual comments from the singer such as "how many times have we played the Commodore Ballroom? Good you know, because I have no idea" were delivered to screams. The comments that bands use to connect with the audience and say, "we are one of you, love us!" Then he started talking about how this will be the last time they play a show of the said 'classics'. The audience of course knew right away that this meant a new album. He continued "So we were in Toronto last week..." The audience replied with at least a minute of "boooooooooo" at the word Toronto. As it died down the singer said..."are you finished" and proceeded to talk about the new album. This is where I became amused. I'm Canadian. I love being Canadian. Sometimes Albertan politics scare me (lets give all our homeless a 1-way buss pass to Vancouver), and having studied Canadian history I have a less than charitable view of the politics of the various Quebec leadership, but who doesn't hate their politicians? The fact that you get a boooo when mentioning one of our biggest cities is an interesting fact. I'm sure its part Hockey related, and part politics. But it really boils down to tribalism. Us and them. We have to be better, becuase hey, its us! I don't think this is a bad thing. We are a species that needs competition to thrive and grow. If the 'other' we strive against isn't trying to kill and eat us, all the better. Everyone grows that way. As long as we remember, we're Canadians, one big family with all its differences. I think thats why I love Vancouver, its very full of good hearted people. We tend towards shy, and withdrawn in public, but we do know how to enjoy a good time. So.. the point of this? Go see a concert. Musicans don't make any money off recordings any more. Go see a band, you favourite, or anyone who is playing. Go hang out with your tribe, soak in the feeling of togetherness, sing along |
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