Hi everyone,

I just wanted to throw this out there for anyone that may be interested. On Saturday June 7 and Sunday June 8, MOCCA (the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art) will have an annual fund-raising (for the museum) festival. There will be a ton of really cool independent art, comics, music, etc. It is always a pretty big event and is a lot of fun. My friends and I have a table there and we will be selling our own art and band cds from our Art label. (www.ourfriendtheatomrecordings.com). For those of you who enjoy art, I highly recommend this event as there is a lot of great artists that show up every year. I will also add that, since this is a fundraiser, there is an entrance fee. I believe it is $8 at the door (I wish I could offer a free way in, I can’t though)

Normally, I am not the type for shameless promotion of my art, but this year is extra important for our table because any money we will make will be donated to my friend’s family. My friend, Mark Griffin, has cancer and is in really bad shape. We are not sure if he is going to pull through. Over the past few months, he has undergone a bone marrow transplant and the old immune system is not accepting the new immune system. In the last couple days he has developed an infection and he has no working immune system to fight it. Because he is a freelance artist and his wife is only working part time now to spend time with him, they are now struggling to pay their bills. So, we are hoping to generate a good amount of sales at our table (which will include his works as well) so that we can raise a bit of money for assistance.

I thank you all immensely for spending the time to read this and if you do decide to come, I am sure it will be a great time.

The Mocca festival is located on the corner of E. Houston and Lafayette (On the Southside of Houston across from a gas station). The address is Puck Building on 295 Lafayette St.

And this is the link to the festival:

http://www.moccany.org/artfest-main.html

MoCCA08

Thanks again,

Phil “RAMMAN”

Wow, what a weekend! NYC hosted 17 teams with players from Richmond, DC, Boston, Chicago, Baltimore, and Ottawa. We played 136 tournament games, and a couple pickup games before and after. The sun was bright and the competition was hot! We had to have broken some kind of record for bike polo games played in a certain amount of time, but that record will no doubt be broken in Toronto in less than three weeks. And Toronto is why this whole weekend happened. It’s going to be an enormous competition up there, and the US East Coast needs to be at the top of their game. And who do we expect to be at the top of the top of the games? NYC of course. For something like the 4th time in a row, our top dogs won the top honors. This time, the unbeaten trio of Doug, Zach and Brendan was called “Brendan’s Team”, in honor of their MVP and last-minute replacement. They all won a brand new set of Steel Wool hubs laced to Velocity rims (built by Trackstar). Second place was the Rival Gangs from Ottawa. They got some huge Crumpler backpacks. In a very close third place was NYC’s Psycho 78 (a heartbreaking 1 point behind Rival Gangs!), who won long sleeve, wool NYC Polo jerseys from Earth Wind & Rider. Up to 10th place won prizes from Vaya Bags, Coalition BMX/Hell on Earth, and Mishka. Detailed, full results are below… See the next post for links to some photos from the weekend.

This is just a list of links to photos.

Doug D

Ryan D

Alexis

Tory Williams

Alexis part 2

Dumptruck

Brandon C

Score Board

I have been in contact with Tom Wolfe, who runs the gardens adjacent to the Pit, since the last SDR Park Coalition meeting. The two of us have been trying to coordinate a date when some of us could help him and Mike McClane get a new fence put up around the gardens. Mike volunteers almost every Saturday already so they haven’t been too keen on my suggestion of doing it on a Sunday, when we are all already at the Pit. After a few weeks of going back on forth, Mike and Tom have made Sunday, June 1st work for both of them (Mike is even bringing his family out to help). So, on Sunday, June 1st we need some volunteers to step away from polo for a short time (we can alternate) and help these guys get their fence up. According to Mike and Tom, if we have about ten people this will only take a couple of hours. They will have all the materials we need, all we need to do is make ourselves available. I hope that everyone sees this for what it is, a great opportunity to be great neighbor. Please show up un Sunday, play polo, and volunteer a little time. Its things like this that help us give to the groups that we may lean on in the future.

Thanks in advance everyone,

Dave

There’s a week to go until the Round Robin Polo Classic, which is what I’ve decided to reduce “The New York Pre World’s Round Robin Polo Tournament & BBQ Classic Memorial Day Extravaganza” to. It was kinda a mouthful the other way. Plus, this way, we can do the RRPC2 next year any time, and tag some more arbitrary words in there, just to make it quirky again. So here’s the deal: Tournament play is going to begin at 10am PROMPTLY on Sunday the 25th. Why so damn early? Because there are going to be a LOT of games to play. Every team is going to get to play the same amount of games. A win is worth two point and a tie is worth one point. Games will be timed precisely, according a highly complex equation Adam will not share with any of us. The length of the games depends on the number of teams we’ve got. So remember to register with Quinn quinnsham@aol.com before Saturday. You can pay and pick up spokecards and all the rest of our goodie bag stuff on Sunday morning before you start to play. Registration is $30 per team / $10 per person. That includes all the polo, and an all-you can eat barbecue at the Bushwick Country Club Sunday night. There’s gonna be $1 PBR’s (while they last) and $3 Gaffel Kolsch all night long. We’re going to grill up your standard barbecue fare: hamburgers & hotdogs. There will be vegetarian options, too. Brad & Johnny are doing the shopping. If you want something fancier, like a delicious steak, we aren’t taking requests. But you can totally bring something to slap on the grill if you want. And if someone wants to volunteer to make a giant potato salad or something, that would be pretty rad. If you aren’t registered for the tournament and want some of the grub, it’s $5 for a wristband. And maybe we’ll give you a spokecard too, if there are any left. We’ve got some sweet prizes from our generous sponsors, too:

(reported by johnny midwest):

IMPORTANT POLO SURVIVAL TECHNIQUE: Be good to your neighbors and they will return the favor. AND: Keep your house looking good and you will look good, too.

We have an excellent opportunity to be good to our neighbors and to keep our house smelling pretty and looking tight on Saturday. It’s My Park Day ( http://www.partnershipforparks.org/impd/index.html ) is happening all over the city and that includes our polo home in SDR park. We’ve been asked to participate by helping neighborhood kids paint a mural @ the Hester St. Playground. All YOU need to do is show up for 4 measly hours on Saturday the 17th and that’s it!

Doing things like this will bring us allies next time Dog Walkers, Militant Tai-Chi-ers, The Coalition of Scarily Huge Dads Against Bihawks who Verbally Abuse Others’ Children, or any other group tries to take the Pit away…

Seriously though, participating in this event will really benefit all of us polo-ers in the long term.

Please email me ( johnnymidwest@gmail.com ) if you can help or if you have questions. Dave knows what’s up too, you can give him a holler if you like…

Soon, a NYC polo player will be in Zurich, Switzerland and wanting to play bike polo.
If anyone has info about bike polo, preferably hardcourt style, in the area or near by, please leave a comment or e-mail info@nycbikepolo.com
Also Milan or Florence, is any bike polo happening there?

Thank you in advance,
Doug D

”First you have to get over the fact that you could split your skull open at any second,“ Huffines tells me.

When play begins, I don’t worry about the skull. I’m moving slower than anything on the court, as stationary as a sandbag. Riding isn’t the problem. Braking to a halt without relying on your feet for balance is.

I ”dab out“ often, making repeated trips to mid-court. My rare contact with the ball is meek. The ball doesn’t zip from my mallet like it does from others’. It wanders away to a more capable handler. Even during the beginners’ game, when the elusive, red speedster is subbed out for a heftier soccer ball, I blindly swipe at the target.

http://www.kentucky.com/141/story/397377.html

Over on hardcourtbikepolo.com I have a question. It’s regarding rough play. All players in all cities are welcome to put their 2 cents in.
http://www.hardcourtbikepolo.com/?p=256


Photo © Doug D 2007

At team night at The Pit this Thursday, 8.May, we’re going to play the first all-in polo match. If you ever played ice hockey you’ll know exactly how this works, if not, don’t get all scared and itchy in the vagina, I’ll explain it briefly:

Each team has some number of players, likely between 6 and 10, depending on how many players show up in all. Each team has a bench, one on each ramp at the south side of the pit. Game play on the court is -identical- to the game we’ve been playing for years. 3-on-3, same rules. The difference is that each team has a larger number of players, and will be making player substitutions on the fly, as the game is being played. Put simply, three players from each team will start the game just like normal, and the remaining players will be ready on their ramp for their shift to begin. When a player’s shift ends, s/he goes to the bench and calls for a change. As that player is leaving the court, his/her replacement rolls onto the court and jumps into the play without interruption. Players can take shifts as long or short as they like, it’s completely up to the players and the team, but shifts should probably be kept to between 60 and 120 seconds. You should play hard your entire shift, and go to the bench for a change before you get tired (otherwise the opposition, which should have fresh players on, will roll over your tired ass and score goals against you). Teams can change one, two, or all three of their players out at once, just as long as there are only three players on the court at any given time.

This might sound a little complicated, but once we run through it a couple of times it will be simple. This is how it’s done in ice hockey games, and I know some real meathead hockey players, so if they can manage this I know we can too. If you have any questions about it just ask me.

The reason we’re trying this out, other than because it should be a lot of fun, is that we are hoping to arrange some matches of this type between different polo cities. For example, New York vs. Ottawa, nine players to a side, playing for your friends and for your city. I know everyone in New York wants to think we’re the best, so let’s see if we can prove it.