9 October 2008

Parkour in Canberra

| johnboy
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Now here’s a cool bit of YouTube video.

    “Footage of Australia’s Natsoc Parkour Gathering in Canberra 2008”

Nice to see the old Boulevard courtyard (where Toast used to be) being put to its proper purpose. Che and I were sprinting over it after a night on the turps years before anyone heard of Parkour (and amazingly still have all our teeth).

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Well, The Front is nice and close for me traveling wise! Will have to check my diary, as I no longer have a memory ….

; )

I did miss Alice Cottee at Filthy’s but very much enjoyed her performance at the CMC launch.

Is that right? Am I thinking of the right person? All will be revealed ….

It would also depend what time you get there, as it’s kind of embarrassing turning up places and hanging out by myself, unless anyone else is going.

Although I guess I could be really brave and *gasp* talk to some people, but that is awfully scary!

*chuckle*

Nah, I draw attention to myself if it serves a purpose (publicity, challenging views, getting business) but a hair colour change would be what my favourite sister-in-law and I call ASB: Attention-Seeking Behaviour.

I’ll leave the hair colour changes to those what do it well and look good with it. Come along to The Front on Tuesday night and check out Alison from The Cashews’s new colour. It’s absolutely superb. My favourite colour (not that I think ever seen the shade she’s gone with). http://the-riotact.com/?p=9220

And blood_nut always does something very impressive with his hair, though last time I saw him I seem to remember it was pretty long and shaggy.

Oh, and Granny, does my memory serve correctly? Did you miss Alice Cottee when we were at Filthy’s?

She is superb. So young, such a superb voice, such great original material.

Will be there late-ish or early-ish (and slight chance of sadly not at all, depending on how affairs of state go in Sydney during the day).

Overheard said :

Granny said :

You are a very well-groomed individual.

And much better now, thanks to my new mate Len of Len’s Hairdressers in Moonee Ponds.

But is it purple?

*hehe*

starry said :

I miss see-saw’s; now most parks have that fancy equipment with poles that you’re supposed to spin around on. Sigh

It’s amazing how high one of these modern neutered versions can go with a former circus performer leaping up and down on the other end!

Also amazing how many times said, very naughty, twenty-something year old former circus performer actually managed to jump in the air and land safely on said see-saw without giving me complete and utter heart failure.

She did give me a very bad case of the giggles, however!!

There were a few times when I was momentarily concerned about launching into orbit, especially as my hands were otherwise occupied and I couldn’t actually hold on.

The slightly bewildered Asian gentleman patronising said playground with young daughter did seem to get over the initial shock of it all eventually, and gave us a nice smile when we finally mosied off to grab a bite of lunch.

Actually, before the latop incident, I was doing some free-form leaping between fixed objects in the main square — not Federation Square, but further up Swanston St towards the mall — while I was checking out some big McGuigan’s Wines display thing with entertainment. I’ve slowly (glacially, in fact) grown to like Melbourne, but I detest it at Spring Carnival time. Everything about Spring Carnival — apart from the fact that masses of people are very happy and getting together to do stuff, which is good — but every other facet of it makes my flesh crawl. Couldn’t get out of the city quick enough.

Anyhoo, my fat man’s standing parkour startled the guys in the flouro tops who were setting up. But not for long; I think in big cities you have to become immune to weird behaviour.

Granny said :

Overheard said :

Agh! Have you ever been in close proximity to me, Granny, and wanted to say that?!

No, I most certainly have not!

*chuckle*

You are a very well-groomed individual.

And much better now, thanks to my new mate Len of Len’s Hairdressers in Moonee Ponds.

Freudian slip: I nearly wrote ‘Moonee Pongs’.

I miss see-saw’s; now most parks have that fancy equipment with poles that you’re supposed to spin around on. Sigh

tylersmayhem said :

@Granny: yeah man, see-saw’s rock!

They’re pretty, like, cosmic ‘n’ all. I was, like, pretty freaked out at first, but then I thought, hey, peace little dude, you’re bigger than this see-saw. And it was, like, totally metaphorical. It was like, woah! Alright! It was like, sometimes, I was just floating six inches off the seat, man. Sometimes I, like, didn’t know if I was high or low, man. It was pretty freaky. Don’t try this at home, kiddies, yeah ….*chuckle*

Bloody fairy sound track ruined the clip.

tylersmayhem10:06 am 10 Oct 08

@Overheard: haha, classic. I visualised that perfectly with your description and soundtrack selection ;P

@Granny: yeah man, see-saw’s rock!

Overheard said :

Agh! Have you ever been in close proximity to me, Granny, and wanted to say that?!

No, I most certainly have not!

*chuckle*

You are a very well-groomed individual.

P.S. I was in a burning rush when I zipped in to the 7-11 to get my little spray can and just grabbed the first one I saw. It’s called ‘Dark Temptation — as irresistible as chocolate’.

So I plan to pick up in Melbourne this morning, maybe at the airport.

Funny, I can’t stand chocolate. I find it extremely resistible.

Now if it was ‘Eau de Liffy — as irresistible as Guinness’ THEN we’re talking.

Granny said :

Oh, Overheard! You’re so funny!

*LOL*

And seriously, yes, men … wear deodorant! Yes, this does mean you. No woman will ever tell you this to your face, so I am now doing you an extreme favour.

Agh! Have you ever been in close proximity to me, Granny, and wanted to say that?! I hate the over-powering stench of BO and hope I’m self-aware enough to know when I’m in need of “extra-strength protection”.

My comment about not being proud about it is that when I’m under stress and duress, I realise that the spray type is the only one that’s going to cut it so I get a little hydro-carbon spray. My regular is a roll-on, but I’m going to start looking around for something a little more ethical than the three dollar junk.

My green choir (as opposed to the red one) sings a great Paul Spencer song (‘Green Like Me’) that kicks off with an observation on hydro-carbon vs CFCs. Come along to the Merry Muse on Friday 17 October and hear all about it. Come along tonight and I’ll tell you all about it!!

No such duress this morning — it’s a picture-perfect day in Essendon. I love Fridays: it’s a work day, but it’s MY work day (not the company’s!). No workout needed on the deodorant… oops, which I forgot to put on.

BOT: try the fat man’s parkour — you’ll like it. Works out better when I’ve been working out or running.

Oh, Overheard! You’re so funny!

*LOL*

And seriously, yes, men … wear deodorant! Yes, this does mean you. No woman will ever tell you this to your face, so I am now doing you an extreme favour.

It was you, me and Kramer, and maybe Jazz or Macca?
It was the inaugrual (and only) Toast Classic, where we raced from one side of the courtyard to the other, with me leaping over Kramers head at the finish, from one garden bed to another. And yes, looking back on it, I’m very surprised none of us (especially me) lost our teeth.

Yeah, the Casino Royale opener is pretty cool, and the explanatory section of the bonus features on the DVD gives more detail into what it’s all about.

I do the slightly more rotund man’s version of parkour, which is possible to do, say, on the inner city streets of Melbourne when you realise at 9.05am when you’re about to step into the lift to the 35th floor at #2 ~ Street, with buckets of time to start the presentation, that your laptop bag is a tad light on, meaning that the actual laptop itself is still in the bedroom of the hotel at #139 ~ Street.

And you’re supposed to meet the consultants at 9.45am.

So there’s no alternative but to high-tail it back a couple of city blocks through heavy traffic (pedestrian and vehicular).

Solution: put the main theme to ‘Midnight Express’ manually onto the cerebral MP3 player and start running, dodging and weaving, leaping over benches, median strips and the occasional prone body.

Big fun.

An industrial strength deodorant (not proud of that one) and a gallon of coffee and water helps restore the balance. ‘Good morning, ladies and (puff) gentlemen, and thank you for…’

It is possible that I may have missed Casino Royale, Tylers ….

*chuckle*

However, I find many things spiritual. I had the best time on the see-saw today in Glebe Park!

Or if you want 92 minutes of it, go seek out a Luc Besson (director of The Fifth Element, The Professional, and a few other notable films) movie by the name of “Yamakasi”.

tylersmayhem4:34 pm 09 Oct 08

I actually found it kind of beautiful.

In that case Granny, you must have found the opening sequence in Casino Royale quite spiritual ;P

I actually found it kind of beautiful.

Gungahlin Al3:26 pm 09 Oct 08

Street gymnastics. Kids keeping fit. Not hurting anyone else (maybe themselves though). Lot of skill and a bit of art too. What’s not to love about that?

Beats sprawling all over the steel pillow all day swearing at people.

I like the bruises at the end.

I’m sure there were plenty of stacks that they edited out – it would be good to see the gnarlier ones.

Seeing parcourists early in their training is really interesting, thanks – it shows how incredibly balletic and athletic the old Nantes and Marseilles parcour hands that i’ve seen in documentaries are …

Kramer said :

Parkour – meh! I’ve seen the local bike trials guys riding and jumping all over this place on their bikes.

Well send in the video then!

Always nice to see local places in videos like this, give you a much better feeling for how far/high they are going when you know the place.

wow, great video though. very well composed & at least for me showed a little bit of what parkour is about, some of the training that goes into it, and nicely finishes on the risks

tylersmayhem1:07 pm 09 Oct 08

Definitely the “poor cousins” of Parkour!

Parkour – meh! I’ve seen the local bike trials guys riding and jumping all over this place on their bikes.

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