Zeke Bitches About Net, Spring 09

Ok, so technically it's still winter. Sure as shit feels like winter around here. Those long weeks of near or below zero temps makes the 34f feel like 60f! I took advantage of the last 3 days by biking to Welles Park to do some solo wall ball to help scrape off some of that winter rust. I'm so fucking outta shape. Wall ball is better than nothing but wall ball with no focus is not nearly as effective as it could be. Some short term goals for the season; keep working my left side and get my basic kicks solid and consistent, buy more net bags before summer, try as hard as possible to go to next Memphicago and The Mud Island Belt events.

Vince gave back that loaner court before he moved out west and I live closer to 2 parks now. Here's an overview of how I would like to see things work out for the next year. Weekdays will be left fairly open. I'll try and see if Tommy or Carrie would want to kick at Welles after work. If neither are available I could also try the twins and see if they want to play at River or Peterson park. If all else fails I'll just hacksturbate against the wall. Saturdays I would like mixed sessions at Welles with any available net players and the dying (seriously) shred & squares scene. Sundays are strictly reserved for full net sessions with CLCK. I know I need to play as much as possible but it's also hard to stay motivated throughout the year.

There are still a couple of possible new players I keep in contact with that I think would like net after trying it. I've tried on multiple occasions to bring them out with no success...yet. I'll keep trying. We met another new guy at the past New Years Jam who said he would be interested in at least trying net. Seems pretty cool. Been hacking for a long time and is fairly athletic from what I've seen. He took gymnastics as a kid. The freestylers haven't quite sunk their girl nails into him. I think they underestimate my limitless charisma and my uncanny jungle good looks!

LOL.

So, I'll be posting practice sessions as I have them and maybe the occasional video. Feel free to offer any tips, advice and be brutally honest about my technique (as you see them in vids, rare spring sessions or even what you may have witnessed the past season) as I can't always spot what I'm doing wrong. Laterz.

Siebert Sweeps!!!

That's right folks. Chris Siebert came away from the Phoenix Open with both the Singles and Doubles Title. Congratulations Chris! Tuan Vu came through as his doubles partner for his first ever open net title. Nice work!





It has been about ten years since I have played net in a tournament outside of Chicago. In fact, I believe my last tournament was the Texas State Footbag Championships in 1998. I picked the bag up again in the late summer of last year and couldn't be happier with that decision. Since that time I have reconnected with people I haven't seen in years, met new friends and increased my overall physical well being. If it hasn't been said before, I'll say it now: footbag (net) players are the salt of the earth. I want to thank Amy Westberg and Rob Adams for all their hard work and hospitality. I also want to thank everyone that participated for not only welcoming me on the court but for welcoming the newcomers as well. Where else can you step in to the game after only a few months of playing and receive advice from some of the best in the world? They are giving the advice because they truly want you to become a better player to help push this sport to the next level. Thank you!

Our week started a little early as Cory Current, Scot Hansen and I arrived in Phoenix Thursday night. The temperature in Chicago was a balmy 15 below zero and within a few hours we were in sunny Arizona where the temps would tickle the eighties. What a welcome change of environment. We decided that Friday would be a non-net day and tried our hand at golfing. I really don't think anyone of us can call ourselves a "golfer", but nonetheless, being outside chasing a ball around seemed appropriate considering we were staying in Sun City. I mean for God's sake how hard can it be... the ball isn't even moving!

Scot's Perfect Golf Swing

Now it was time to get down to business as Saturday was singles day. Let me tell you that after almost ten years without playing a game of singles, I have new-found respect for the game. That court is too effing big for one person to cover. Especially a fat-ass like myself. Kudos to all that performed well. I believe that in the end Rob and Jack Harris played for third and Jeremy Mirken and Chris dueled it out for first. In the end first went to Chris, second to Jeremy and third to Jack. The Chicago crew did not fair as well as any of us would have liked (only Cory made it out of his pool) but we WILL represent in Memphis.

Now for the real action to begin.... DOUBLES. Our boys from Chicago represented, making it out of their pool by defeating Rob & Amy. Unfortunately they would have to settle for fourth as they lost a well played semifinal to Jack & Jer.

Chris & Tuan defeated PT Lovern & Walt Houston in one of the best matches I have ever witnessed to move on to the final where they defeated Jack and Jer for the Phoenix Open Title.

All the official games were through and the pick up games begun. Once again I want to thank Amy for the hospitality and for hosting the tournament.

See you in Memphis!!

He's Gone! (But Not Forgotten)

Three-hundred and eighty seven days ago, I tore the first page of my George W. Bush countdown calendar off of the stack. I got the calendar as a gag gift from my brother-in-law for Christmas 2007. Every morning since then, I’ve gone through the ritual of reminding myself of just one more reason that I couldn’t wait for this guy to get the hell out of the White House. Quotes, statistics, and little-known fun facts filled each day of the calendar; each and every one a stark reminder of what happens when power goes unchecked for too long, when lies and propaganda are allowed to pass as the truth. I saved some of the more notorious of them throughout the last year. Here’s some examples…

“I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees,” said President Bush on September 1, 2005, during a live interview with Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America. His assertion was widely ridiculed even at the time, but on March 2, 2006, the Washington Post reported on a “smoking gun”: newly released video of a briefing attended by Bush the day before Hurricane Katrina made landfall, during which there were grave warnings about the levees.

Quote from Vice-President Dick Cheney, given during an August 2002 speech: “Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass
destruction. There is no doubt that he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, against us.”

Executive Orders, known as EOs, are legally binding directives issued by a president to federal agencies guiding implementation and execution of laws and policies. Much like his use of signing statements, Bush has used more EOs far more, and far more ideologically, than his predecessors. Previous presidents averaged about five EOs annually, but by 2005 Bush had issued four hundred. In Bush’s EOs, the term “unitary executive”; the radical doctrine that the president is legally superior to the legislative and judicial branches of government; was cited ninety-five times.

Quote from Porter Goss, Bush’s CIA director from 2004 – 2006, given to Congress in 2005: “At this time, there are no ‘techniques’, if I could say, that are being employed that are in any way against the law or would meet, would be considered torture or anything like that.”

There were two that stuck out from the rest, though. One of them showed a side of Bush that I never expected to see: I actually admired him for a half-second after reading it.

During his senior year at Andover, an elite New England prep school, George W. Bush formed a stickball league as a way of thumbing his nose at the athletic tradition of the school. He named his team the Nads.

The other one that stuck out, though, highlights the darkest side of the Bush Administration. It captures almost everything that was evil and wrong with the last eight years of our collective lives. It’s a quote from Kevin Tillman, whose brother Pat gave up a professional football career when the brothers joined the Army after 9/11. Pat was killed in 2004 in Afghanistan by “friendly fire”, in an incident that has been covered up by the Army and whose details seem to point to a possibility that his new-found dissent towards the War on Terror led someone from the inside to “silence” him.

“Somehow American leadership, whose only credit is lying to its people and illegally invading a nation, has been allowed to steal the courage, virture, and honor of its soldiers on the ground. Somehow those afraid to fight an illegal invasion decades ago are allowed to send soldiers to die for an illegal invasion they started. Somehow torture is tolerated. Somehow lying is tolerated. Somehow reason is being discarded for faith, dogma, and nonsense. Somehow nobody is accountable for this.”

This past Tuesday, I tore off the last of day of my countdown calendar. I looked up at the bulletin board behind my desk and stared at the eloquent words of Kevin Tillman. I watched the swearing in of President Obama, and I saw Bush board a plane and take off back to Texas.

I sincerely hope that we will have the “nads” to hold our former president and his ilk accountable for the hell that they have put the Tillmans and thousands of other American families through. Not only the Americans that sacrificed their lives, but also the Iraqis and Afghanis that died as a result of Bush’s misguided foreign policies. Obama has given all of us a hope for the future, but it’s a future that must begin with an acknowledgement and a satisfactory response to the problems of the past.


All quotes taken from “His Days Are Numbered: George W. Bush Countdown 2008 Calendar” by Alex Goulder. Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC, Kansas City, MO, 2007. Used without permission.

Memphicago 2.2 Rocks

Last Sunday, players from all over the Midwest came together for an epic day on the court. Ben Alston & Walt Houston travelled North from Memphis while Cory Current, Scot Hansen & Bryan Nelson came South from Chicago. The meeting place..... Salem, IL. We all welcomed former Chicagoan now turned Salem local Mike Bellman to round out the crew to an even six.

I find it amazing how much playing with people outside you local scene can improve your game. I would urge everyone to make this type of day happen. Just seeing different styles of play, defending against a lefty or returning a serve you haven't seen a thousand times over is like power kicking and drills on steroids.

We rotated players all day long. No two consecutive games consisted of the same players on a team or on the court. I'm not sure if anyone was counting but in my estimation there was no clear cut "King of the Court". Almost every game was competitive and for the most part well played.

DUCK!!!!!

We must have been the most exciting thing happening in town that day. A few hours in to playing a reporter from the local paper showed up (along with a stray dog) inquiring as to what we were doing. After a few questions and photos she moved on. The dog unfortunately would not, and had a habit of nipping at the ankles of whoever was preparing to serve. Word on the street is that Footbag Net made the front page of the local paper. No word on the dog.

NET FOUL

Our goal was to get some quality playing time in before the Phoenix Open. I look forward to more opportunities to do this and thank everyone for making it happen.

See you in Arizona!

Happy Holidays!

Happy Christmas to you all! PEACE TO EVERYONE!

May you all make many friends and no enemies in the new year. Best wishes and happy kicking!

Battle of Republic

I work in Chicago about a block away from the Republic Window and Door factory. In fact, the company I work for leases a corner of the Republic facility for some extra storage space. I have keys to the Republic building, and I’ve spent a lot of hours inside of it. I’ve met some of the workers, and I know the Chief Operating Officer.

If you’ve never heard of Republic Window and Door, pull your head out of the sand and pay attention to the world you live in. On December 2nd, they announced that they would shut their doors at the end of the week and that all of its employees were effectively out of a job. Not only that, but the company announced that there was no money in the pipeline to cover their employee’s last paychecks, their earned vacation time, their pension funds, and their health insurance. Bank of America, who was a major creditor for Republic, had decided to cut all lines of credit with the company, thereby killing any hopes of the employees to receive the monies owed to them by law. Oh, and then there’s the little thing about a law called the WARN Act that requires companies to either provide a 60-day notice of an impending shut-down or compensation for the differential period should a shut-down occur before the 60 days are up. At the time of the shut-down on Friday, December 5th, Republic Window and Door employed almost 250 people. They received a 3-day notice.

I know, I know: there have been hundreds of companies shutting their doors and hundreds of thousands of Americans have lost their jobs in the last few months. We’re at least a year into a recession that shows all signs of turning into a depression before it gets any better. The Republic story isn’t new and it really isn’t news. Except for one thing: the employees of Republic Window and Door are mad as hell, and they’re not going to take it anymore! They staged a sit-in at their shop and they will not leave until they get what they have earned and what the law entitles them to. They have made the statement that if Republic can’t give them what they are owed, then Bank of America, as recipients of the Troubled Asset Relief Program of 2008 (aka the $700 billion Bank Bailout), is obligated to use that money to grant Republic the credit it needs to comply with the laws surrounding their shut-down.

The employees of Republic belong to the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers union. They have become a heroic symbol for union employees and blue-collar workers fighting corporate greed all over America. Illinois state and local politicians called for a business freeze with Bank of America. Even President-elect Obama voiced support for the workers. Opponents of the sit-in, however, wonder why any bank should be obligated to grant credit to a company that has proven itself to be unstable and unable to operate in the current economic environment. And they have an incredibly valid point: you wouldn’t loan money to someone if you knew that they would never be able to pay it back. That’s just stupid. So why should Bank of America be forced to make a bad loan?

I don’t have a great answer to that question. Is it Bank of America’s fault that Republic is failing? On the surface, you’d have to say no. The failure of Republic is primarily tied into the fact that they make windows and doors for new homes, and there just aren’t any new homes being built right now. But other window companies are surviving, so there must be more to it than that. The fact of the matter is that Republic Window and Door received over $9 million in Tax-Incremental Funding (TIF) from the city to help build their facility and get their old shop moved into the new one just about 10 years ago. They blew through all of that money, and then they borrowed so much money from Bank of America that the bank has shut off their line of credit. They had to sell their building to just over a year ago and they now lease the space from the Wrigley company. They’ve been continually downsizing their space in order to reduce the amount of rent they’re paying. I have personally seen the reduction of machinery in the shop in the last couple of months. The short story is simple: Republic is not selling enough windows and doors. Whatever they’ve been doing, they’ve been doing it wrong. Not the union employees: the managers. The salespeople. The corporate stiffs. So why are the employees going after Bank of America?

I believe that the Republic employee’s anger is misguided, but I still applaud them and I fully support their sit-in. Why? One reason is because Bank of America can’t sit back and pretend like they didn’t know what was happening to Republic. They knew that Republic blew through their TIF money. They knew that Republic was swimming in debt: they were the creditors! They should have been able to see that Republic was about to default and that they didn’t have the funds to comply with the laws. Was it their responsibility to make sure that Republic saved enough to pay their employees severance packages? Maybe not legally; but morally, they could have and should have done something about it. But far more importantly than that, I support the Republic workers because I see their actions as the first real challenge to the Bailout Bill. Bank of America has already received $15 billion of that money, and they are expected to receive another $10 billion in the next week. Where is the money going to? What are they using the money for? Why is there no oversight on that spending? If our elected officials are going to throw around a huge pile of taxpayer money, shouldn’t someone pay some attention to it? I thought the purpose of the Bailout was to “free up” money for the purpose of granting credit. As their primary creditor, Bank of America essentially owned Republic. Therefore, they should have the power and the responsibility to make sure that the CEO and the upper managers aren’t walking away with money in their pockets while the employees are getting the shaft. The employees of Republic took a stand that was about more than just their personal situation. It’s about time that someone stood up to the recipients of billions of our tax dollars (remember: 25 billion is the same as 25,000 million) and called them out on how they are spending it.

On December 10th, Bank of America agreed to lend Republic $1.7 million. Along with an additional $400,000 loan from JP Morgan Chase, the employees of Republic Window and Door will receive their vacation and severance packages. Their sit-in was a success. I can only hope that employees of other companies that are experiencing a similar situation will have the courage to do what the Republic employees did: stand up for yourself and don’t stop until you’re heard. This is our country, and that $700 billion is our money. We have an obligation to make sure that it gets used properly, and if sit-ins are what it’s going to take, then all of us need to be ready to pull up a chair.

100 Kicks a Day

Winter is here and there is no better time to get serious about footbag. Working on fundamentals, mechanics, flexibility and stamina is the key to becoming a better player. When the weather is nice and the court is set up, we play game after game. Games are fun, but we all have bad habits that we continue to rely upon in playing these games. Let's take this opportunity to break the bad habits and focus on our weaknesses. The Phoenix open is right around the corner and I am personally using this as motivation to becoming a better player. There is a real possibility of having two teams representing Chicago this year. Over the course of the next six weeks we should seize every moment available to train. Whether it's kicking against a wall, working out or power kicking I am challenging everyone, including myself to break the bad habits with "100 Kicks a Day". Come spring time when the courts are up we will reap the benefits.