This man
I see
In all dreams
Who, is he?
The ego that commands me?
Mustached
From the pit snatched
To aid the devil's hand
In my end
He tells me
To only see
Endless fame
No one to blame
but me
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Well...they can't all be winners
This definitely takes the cake as the most absurd gladiatorial match I've ever borne witness too. It seems that people in Thailand are no longer satisfied with watching just humans fight and are now adding orangutans to the mix.
Apparently, this abusive and deplorable practice is totally illegal, but authorities have done nothing to put a stop to it.
Apparently, this abusive and deplorable practice is totally illegal, but authorities have done nothing to put a stop to it.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Jump Jump Clap!
Not all of the sports discussed on these pages are destined to languish forever in the underground. Some are bound to go mainstream sooner or later. Even baseball, our great American passtime, was once the province of delinquents smacking various objects around an alleyway. One urban sport that's seen such good fortune is the playground favorite double dutch, which gained varsity sport status in New York public schools two years ago.
You may not know double dutch by name, but you would most certainly recognize it if you saw it. Two girls stand opposite each other, spinning the ropes while a third player performs all manner of maneuvers inside the twirling maelstrom.
Even before the NYC school system added the sport to the curriculum, it had a long a storied history in the city. A written history compiled by David A. Walker credits the earliest recognizable form to a game played by early Dutch settlers. Walker, a former sergeant in the NYPD founded the American Double Dutch League, the sp in 1974 and held the first organized tournament that same year. Almost 600 school children participated. Walker also developed the official rules for Double Dutch so it could be played competitively. From then on players earned points for their speed, form and technique. There were also a number of routines and acrobatic feats that had to be performed such as back flips and cartwheels.
You may not know double dutch by name, but you would most certainly recognize it if you saw it. Two girls stand opposite each other, spinning the ropes while a third player performs all manner of maneuvers inside the twirling maelstrom.
Even before the NYC school system added the sport to the curriculum, it had a long a storied history in the city. A written history compiled by David A. Walker credits the earliest recognizable form to a game played by early Dutch settlers. Walker, a former sergeant in the NYPD founded the American Double Dutch League, the sp in 1974 and held the first organized tournament that same year. Almost 600 school children participated. Walker also developed the official rules for Double Dutch so it could be played competitively. From then on players earned points for their speed, form and technique. There were also a number of routines and acrobatic feats that had to be performed such as back flips and cartwheels.
CHAAAARGE!: The Warriors of Bicycle Polo
All this talk about bike polo, I thought you might like to see them in action:
Customization is key. Here you can see one of the many wicked wheel designs. These covers look cool and guard against a mallet in the gears.
Some players dress for speed (left) others for intense physical combat (right)!
Goals are scored between the cones. As you can see, things can get a little crowded.
Hunt him down!!
Collision is imminent.
Customization is key. Here you can see one of the many wicked wheel designs. These covers look cool and guard against a mallet in the gears.
Some players dress for speed (left) others for intense physical combat (right)!
Goals are scored between the cones. As you can see, things can get a little crowded.
Hunt him down!!
Collision is imminent.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Rising Moon
“Hell hath no fury like a women scorned.”
This oft-quoted piece of wisdom, usually reserved for romantic narratives, has a whole different meaning in the world or professional foosball. Discouraged at first by her male competitors, Ellen Moon, 26, has made an impressive showing in her first year on pro tour, taking first in amateur doubles at the Dallas World Championships and North Carolina Cup. “I just kept on winning, so I kept going,” she says in bewilderment.
The Queens native got hooked on the sport when she attended Baruch College and started hanging out in one of the school's game rooms. There, she was drawn to the energetic clatter emanating from the foosball table. “These guys were always on the table and they would never let me play because I was a girl,” she recalls. “girls tend to not do well in foosbal...or sports for that matter.” Moon steered clear for a year until she bit the bullet and decided to take her hits in the ring until she got good enough to, as she puts it, “whoop everyone's ass.” Eventually, one of her defeated opponents took her play at Fat Cats Billiards.
Slight of frame yet highly energetic, Moon still blends seamlessly into her forest of male competitors, trading jibes, shoving and laughing. She isn't above the occasional bout of profanity either. What Moon's competition thought was her disadvantage turned out to be her primary motivation, that and her preference for death metal as warm-up music. “I do find it challenging,” she says of her position in a male-dominated sport. “but find it motivational as well and I think that's actually what keeps me going.” Her friend Victor Lam describes her success as a combination of “accuracy, technique, speed and discipline.” Without this last quality, Moon moon would not have the focus to progress her skill while maintaining a professional life. “I still have to train,” she says. “But I have a job now and can't come play for hours any more.”
Along with her timetable, foosball has wormed its way into Moon's professional life as well. At the executive search firm where she works, her co-workers are well aware of her athletic alter ego. Recently her CEO advised her to put in on her resume and began mentioning her accomplishments to her clients.
In the long term, Moon wants to become one of the top female players in America, “at least.” The scoreboards show that she's well on her way to doing it. Though she's only currently ranked as 75th by the Valley International Football Association (VIFA), most of the of those ranked above her are older and have been playing much longer. Moon has played only one year on the professional circuit so far.
Yet even with a bright future in bar sports ahead of her, a life on the road hustling foosball tournaments isn't in the cards. “I've managed to break even,” she says. “which is more than most players can say in their lifetime. I'm definitely an office girl and I still want to be a professional person.”
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Ride for victory!
I may be wrong but I'm guessing that most of you reading this don't have $30,000 to spare. I'm also guessing that if for some reason you do, you're not going to spend it on a horse. Lastly I'm guessing that if you did spend it on a horse, you don't plan on using it to ride around like a Renaissance knight and whack a ball with a mallet.
Polo, in case you haven't caught on, is player-for-player, the most expensive major sport in the world and long regarded as the sole provenance of the wealthy. Logically, it should die out as the global economy withers. Yet there have long been men who infiltrated the sport and revived it among the common people, albeit in a slightly different format. Subtract the horse from the equation and suddenly polo looks a lot more feasible.
Bicycle polo, which was invented in Ireland and flourished in the U.K. until the middle of the century, has experienced a resurgence in the last decade with regular international tournaments and weekly meetings in both Manhattan and Brooklyn.
The game is essentially the same as polo, two teams ride around and try to score goals on each using the ball and mallet, only the horse is swapped out for specially fitted bicycles and instead of grass they play on any hard urban surface available. Parking lots, hockey rinks; anything will do. Teams of three players ride graceful loops around each other before clashing, mallets swinging wildly, in pursuit of the ball.
New players are encouraged, but the welcome includes a long list of disqualifying conditions. If you're afraid of intense physical contact, severe injury, speed or general embarrassment, then you are advised to stay at home. Otherwise, participation in everyday matches is free. Heck, you don't even need to show up with a team as they are created at random to put newbies at ease. There's also a pledge on the site for NYC Bike Polo, which organizes the matches, that promises the more experienced players won't knock you down until you've played at least a few matches.
Admittedly, bicycle polo is quite a step up from the high-octane but largely immobile action of foosball, but those looking for a little more danger in their lives would do well to check this one out.
Polo, in case you haven't caught on, is player-for-player, the most expensive major sport in the world and long regarded as the sole provenance of the wealthy. Logically, it should die out as the global economy withers. Yet there have long been men who infiltrated the sport and revived it among the common people, albeit in a slightly different format. Subtract the horse from the equation and suddenly polo looks a lot more feasible.
Bicycle polo, which was invented in Ireland and flourished in the U.K. until the middle of the century, has experienced a resurgence in the last decade with regular international tournaments and weekly meetings in both Manhattan and Brooklyn.
The game is essentially the same as polo, two teams ride around and try to score goals on each using the ball and mallet, only the horse is swapped out for specially fitted bicycles and instead of grass they play on any hard urban surface available. Parking lots, hockey rinks; anything will do. Teams of three players ride graceful loops around each other before clashing, mallets swinging wildly, in pursuit of the ball.
New players are encouraged, but the welcome includes a long list of disqualifying conditions. If you're afraid of intense physical contact, severe injury, speed or general embarrassment, then you are advised to stay at home. Otherwise, participation in everyday matches is free. Heck, you don't even need to show up with a team as they are created at random to put newbies at ease. There's also a pledge on the site for NYC Bike Polo, which organizes the matches, that promises the more experienced players won't knock you down until you've played at least a few matches.
Admittedly, bicycle polo is quite a step up from the high-octane but largely immobile action of foosball, but those looking for a little more danger in their lives would do well to check this one out.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Hails and Greetings!
Welcome to Gladiators of The Absurd, a guide to all the alternative sports leagues that the fair city of New York has to offer.
With the annual county-wide mega-event that is the Superbowl looming on the horizon, some of us may start to look around at the piles of pizza boxes and soda cans we've accumulated on the couch and wonder if we'll ever achieve the heights of athleticism that appear on screen every year. Has the chance to become a champion passed us by? If you're over the age of 20 and have still never thrown a perfect spiral pass, then yes, probably.
Fear not! Hope still remains for couch potatoes and the highly allergenic alike. They say you can find anything in New York and they weren't lying. This endless metropolis offers up a bevy of sports that don't necessarily require Popeye arms, the vertical jump of a kangaroo or the steady consumption of performance enhancers.
For the agoraphobics there is Foosball. Requiring only a dingy bar corner and sturdy wrists, this table-top variation of soccer is one of the more popular nerd sports world-wide. Not worth your time, you say? Perhaps the U.S. team's last two consecutive championship titles at the World Cup of Table Soccer in Nantes, France, might pique your interest.
Want something a little more active? Then maybe you should try Double Dutch, the classic schoolyard jump rope challenge. This oldie got a big boost in profile in 2008 thanks to it's wise inclusion on the list of New York City schools' 35 varsity sports.
Sticking with the (old)schoolyard vibe is Four Square or Box Ball. Since starting in playgrounds across America, the sport has become popular once more, only this time on city streets and fused with some of the more extreme body movements and intensity usually reserved for other urban pass times like hackey sack.
These are just a few of the many sports in the City's growing street sport community, each with their own unique culture and values. I hope you choose to stay with me and find the urban sport that's right for you.
Play Ball!!
With the annual county-wide mega-event that is the Superbowl looming on the horizon, some of us may start to look around at the piles of pizza boxes and soda cans we've accumulated on the couch and wonder if we'll ever achieve the heights of athleticism that appear on screen every year. Has the chance to become a champion passed us by? If you're over the age of 20 and have still never thrown a perfect spiral pass, then yes, probably.
Fear not! Hope still remains for couch potatoes and the highly allergenic alike. They say you can find anything in New York and they weren't lying. This endless metropolis offers up a bevy of sports that don't necessarily require Popeye arms, the vertical jump of a kangaroo or the steady consumption of performance enhancers.
For the agoraphobics there is Foosball. Requiring only a dingy bar corner and sturdy wrists, this table-top variation of soccer is one of the more popular nerd sports world-wide. Not worth your time, you say? Perhaps the U.S. team's last two consecutive championship titles at the World Cup of Table Soccer in Nantes, France, might pique your interest.
Want something a little more active? Then maybe you should try Double Dutch, the classic schoolyard jump rope challenge. This oldie got a big boost in profile in 2008 thanks to it's wise inclusion on the list of New York City schools' 35 varsity sports.
Sticking with the (old)schoolyard vibe is Four Square or Box Ball. Since starting in playgrounds across America, the sport has become popular once more, only this time on city streets and fused with some of the more extreme body movements and intensity usually reserved for other urban pass times like hackey sack.
These are just a few of the many sports in the City's growing street sport community, each with their own unique culture and values. I hope you choose to stay with me and find the urban sport that's right for you.
Play Ball!!
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