It’s pretty lame how excited I am for this documentary.
A few years ago Cynthia Liu and her crew showed up at Nationals and Worlds armed with cameras, tape and a good idea. No one really knew what they were doing, or who they were. I guess in the yo-yo community there are always people with cameras doing some sort of story about something, but it usually doesn’t pan out (TechTV, Jib Jab, etc). But Cynthia stuck with it, and now we get to look forward to this, World on a String: Two men, a simple toy, and a hundred years of ups and downs . I’m looking forward to seeing what is in store for this. Also check out there My Space.
Archive for April, 2007
Here’s a yoyoer that was cooler than Steve can ever hope to be. OK, so he wasn’t terribly well-known as a yo-yoer, but apparently he owned one. Frank Sinatra’s yo-yo is on ebay, along with a pipe of his. It’s a Gorham silver yo-yo, which aren’t terribly rare, but it’s Frank Sinatra’s yo-yo! It even has “Francis” engraved on it. Who’s got $500 handy? Bid on it here.
It was kind of hard getting the dialog started about the word to replace “Imperial”, but we agreed on “Classic” and we are making the change. Greg, over at Infinite Illusions, went the route of calling shapes Convex and Concave. I’m not really fond of those terms because I can’t keep the damn things straight… I mean really… which is which?
But really this was an easy decision to make; the hard one will be “Butterfly” which we are currently sitting on because our Constrain and Discontinue letter did not indicate any violations of the word “Butterfly” and I’m not too interested in making their bullshittery easy for them. What word do you think should replace “Butterfly”?
http://www.yoyowiki.org/index.php/Shapes
Kiya over at Anti-Yo, and one of the organized for Bay Area Classic, has just announced the The Pro Invitational Meltdown!
You might be asking, why? Here’s what Kiya had to say…
There are a few reasons why i wanted to do the PIM just in case anybody is wondering….
I feel like as though every little contest around the world, whether it be skateboarding, BMX riding, eating contests, text messaging championships, or video game contests have cash prizes for the pros that make it to the top. Why do we never offer our professionally sponsored players cash prizes? How is the yoyo world any less of a skill than professional video game players or pro skaters?
We’re not, which is where THE PRO INVITATIONAL MELTDOWN comes into play.
Another nugget of contest wisdom for Kiya regarding outdoor contests can be found in a post he made a month ago.
Some good things to think about. I’m glad to see different outlooks on what a yo-yo contest can be.
Over at Yo-Yo Guy.com They’ve just finished their 2nd all over print in the Art is Play series.
This time its a limited edition (38) Black Cross Bones. The Black anodizing is type 3, which is much more durable and slick then ‘Hard coat’, which is more commonly used.
This ink treatment is epoxy based, and has bonded into the type 3 anodizing. GReg has tested the ink’s durability a few ways. First he carried the protoype in his pocket, full of coins, for a week. No wear. Next he placed the Cross Bones on a lathe with a string rubbing against it for 1/2 an hour. No wear.
And while your over at Yo-Yo Guy.com check out the new brazilian string they just got in.
Pink, Orange, Green and Yellow.
This video of the 2006 World Yo-yo Champion Hiroyuki Suzuki has made it’s way around youtube so much that it’s starting to look a little haggard. It has been submitted to the social news bookmarking site Digg.com a couple of times, but it finally has hit the front page. One of my favorite things about Digg are the comments because some really cool things can happen, like this comment here
“You may not believe me, but I was actually the world champion in the yo-yoing advanced division back in 1999. Back then the yo-yo tricks involved weren’t nearly this complex (lucky for me). It wasn’t until the Japanese and Bandai started sponsoring whole teams of Japanese pro yo-yoers to come to the States for advertising that things got this intense with all the double and triple trapezes and string tricks. And if you think this looks cool in the video, see if you can go to a yo-yo competition (I know how dumb that sounds, but it’s cool actually) and see it firsthand.
@runforcover: Believe me, with the friction those strings put on your skin when they’re going around your finger, you’ll want something on. Those are probably the same thing I used, billiards gloves. -RyanZ”
I was talking to Unkle Steve about who this RyanZ might be and we decided that it was probably Joel Zink’s brother whose name happens to be Ryan. Fun stuff, I love this social internet.
-Josh
The 2nd installment of Anti-Yo Anti-Deck series.
Steve Brown x Anti-Yo. Exclusively available soon at Yo-Yo Nation
Bride is still working on the supporting all browsers, if you have problems viewing the count downs or the video, email his @ 2006@popartmogul.com