While Mr Macdonald makes some pretty interesting points, he completely misses the boat with respect to the debates: they don’t matter in terms of swaying people’s vote.  All through the debates, it has been pointed out repeatedly by many people that, at the late stage of this campaign, the proportion of the ‘undecided’ in this election is extremely small.  People already have decided who they’re going to vote for.  The task for the last  weeks up to election day will be getting out the vote.

I contend that Obama could have wiped the floor with Romney: everything from the 47% comment (a hari kari comment if I’ve ever heard one), his position on Iraq and his exceptionally wooden performance in debate #2. Further, I suspect that Obama held back on the debates, especially the first one.  The fact that Obama never used Romney’s ’47% comment’ in the first debate is proof enough.  Any first year university debater would have been able to expand upon that one quote to destroy Romney.  They would have had to sweep up his ashes after that debate, the burn would have been that big.

The reason I believe that Obama held back was to energize his organization.  If he had won and the polls showed him with a strong lead, his supporters may decide to stay home content with the notion that Obama was a shoe-in.  Now that it’s a horse race, everybody believes that the vote they cast will be a make-or-break for Obama’s re-election.  People are scared and fear is a tremendous motivator.

And to get all ancient on you, Sun Tzu would also agree that to motivate your troops, you need to ‘burn the boats’ after you make your landing invasion and create a ‘killing ground’. On  Killing Ground, your army has nothing left to lose.  With his life on the line, a soldier will fight his hardest, take the most risks, and be at his most dangerous.  Sun Tsu counsels that you should intentionallly place your troops on killing ground.  The only way home is through victory.

Like Sun Tzu, the Obama campaign realizes that it is not the leadership that gets presidents elected, it is the soldier/campaigner in the trenches.

I remember the Green Party Campaign of 2004 where we needed to garner 2% of the vote to be eligible for public funding.  Had our supporters thought that this would be easy or a sure thing, we probably wouldn’t have gotten the vote out that we did.  Because we had an uncertain yet specific goal, we were energized to go to extraordinary lengths to win, from the grassroots to the leadership at the top.

And when I was the Alberta Organizer, I was also asked to be the candidate for Calgary Center North despite the fact that when the election was called, I would be forced to support the 27 other Alberta campaigns to the detriment of my own.  However, my campaign team told me, on writ drop, that it was no longer my job to get elected, it was theirs.
To sum up, by Obama’s intentional lacklustre performance in the debates, he has created a situation where his victory is no longer assured.  This will motivate his campaign organization to extra effort, instead of taking his win as foregone conclusion.  This is especially necessary in the final weeks of the campaign in an election where the majority of people have already decided who they’re going to vote for.

On April 21, 2012, the first playtest of Apocalypse Wars occured at Nose Hill Park.  The Apocalypse Wars Group is attempting to run a charity event based upon the struggles of an intrepid group of humans entering a zombie-infested area where an airplane crashed containing the last known antidote to the zombie infection.  They need to retrieve it or die trying.

Members of the Calgary Outdoor Club and members of the Apocalypse Wars executive ran three scenarios that tested out timings, equipment and props used.   We received extremely favorable feedback from participants who who throughly enjoyed the experience and expressed a strong interest in being involved in the first public Apocalypse Wars in August 2012.

Outside of this event, I’ve always been a proponent of combining exercise in the form of a structured contest or game.  When you’re busy thinking about your next move, or your very survival, you’re thinking less about how tired you are or how sore your muscles are.  You dig deeper.  You work harder.

Also, the stories that arise from this game are quite funny as well.  For example, we experimented with having an open container of water to be the antidote which needed to be located and brought back to the human base. 

Without being spilt.

While being chased by zombies over broken ground.

Let’s just say that a misstep happened and most of the antidote flew everywhere.  And after an erudite string of profanities, the human player saw that a zombie player was laughing at her.

Hell hath no fury like an antidote-dropper scorned.  She flung the remainder of the antidote at him, catching him full across the chest.  Grabbing his chest in a dramatic fashion, he asked,  ”Does this mean I’m cured?” 

 “No, it just means you’re an a**hole.”  she replied tartly.

Currently, I’m working on the rules for a more generic game that includes 6-10 different scenarios and set ups with extra rules to make each game variable and unique.   Basic guidelines are also being developed to try to ensure the safety of participants.

Playtesting begins in Calgary on May 27th and people interested in participating can register to play through the Calgary Outdoor Club (free to join!) or by contacting me through this website.

Speaking at the Endeavor Art Gallery, Tebbutt spoke on the subject of the homicidal artist archetype, a person who kills, not for money or love, but for Art.  It was a presentation in keeping with the Halloween season and very entertaining to boot.

At first, I thought that the ‘artist killer’ archetype would not be very common.  But when Tebbutt starting to list and describe the movies in which this archetype appears, I was impressed.  You can read his article in ffwd here.

It is rare that we ever talk about movies in broad terms like genre, archetype, theme or thesis.  The ideas covered in the articles by Tebbutt transcend any one movie and begin to touch on deeper topics like culture, perception and prejudice.

For example, in his article, Tebbutt observes, “Artists are supposed to be eccentric anyways.”  My question would be: how do we know that?  Given that many of us might not have had a personal connection to an artist, how did we come to think that artists, as a group, are eccentric?

Right.  Media, mostly in the form of movies and television inform our perception of what the world is like.  Further, we probably also take cues from these media to model our own behavior in selected roles.

It is for this reason that groups such as women, ethnic and religious minorities are well justified in their concern for how they are portrayed in the media and, more specifically, in movies and television shows.  It is far too common to see, for example, Muslims commonly portrayed as terrorists in movie and TV shows, and then see people generalize that all Muslims are terrorists.

When I meet people who hold this particularly erroneous conviction (reinforced by confirmation bias), I ask them if they know who perpetrated the deadliest attack on U.S. soil prior to 9/11.  If they don’t, I tell them.  Timothy McVeigh, an ex US soldier from New York  — as white and as American as they come.

All in all, I think there is something valuable in what John Tebbutt writes every week and has has written every week for over 10 years.  Perhaps in the not-to-distant future, we may see a book from his writings.

As last year, there will be both All Levels and Advanced games played at 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm every Monday and Thursday at Trail Courts in Calgary.

In addition, there will be a wallyball league playing every Friday night from 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm.  These games will be competitive with scoring and team standings  recorded over the 2011 September – December season.

Please follow the link below to read the basic rules for wallyball.  They have been condensed from the Official Wallyball Rules from the American Wallyball Association.

One Page Wallyball Rules

I was approached by Lonnie Taylor, Assistant Manager of the Atmosphere Store in Calgary to partner in an event where Calgary Outdoor Club members would be invited to a special evening where they would be entitled to 25% off of all regularly priced items and 10% off of all sale priced items in the store.  Similar offers to other sports groups in Calgary had met with disappointing results.

In a second meeting with Lonnie and Jeff Scherer, the Store Manager, we determined that if 100 or more Calgary Outdoor Club members attended, then the event would be considered to be very successful.  As the representative for the Calgary Outdoor Club, it was important that the Atmosphere Store have the aedequate staff to effectively serve the people who arrived.

The event was posted on April 25 and the response from the Calgary Outdoor Club was strong with over 30 people registering in the first 48 hours.  I kept the Atmosphere management team apprised of not only the number of registrants, but also their demographics (gender, age range).   In addition, I communicated regularly with COC attendees, encouraging them to ‘pre-shop’  and/or get pre-fitted for the items they planned to buy on the day of. 

The event was hugely succcessful, with 168 COC members attending and purchasing close to $20,000 worth of merchandise in 2 hours.

There is a tasty bit of rumor going around concerning the unrest in the Middle East.

According to the Febraury 23 broadcast of the CBC radio program   ’As It Happens’, online copies of Gene Sharp’s online book, From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation ( in Arabic translation ), has been floating around the Middle East for the past few years.

Some people would say that the tactics used by demonstrators across the region bear similar resemblances to similar uprisings in Eastern Europe: they occupy symbolic locations of their respective cities; they establish tent villages; and they refuse to leave until they achieved their principal goal — toppling the dictator. And, perhaps most importantly, they avoid violence, even when provoked.

This idea  that these demonstrations are, in fact, the result of an organized plan following a concrete and proven strategy is a perspective that has not been front and center in the news media.  Perhaps this is a case of the image being taken as truth.  Chaos is taken to be spontaneous disorganization when what we are seeing is, in fact, it is the intentioned result of a specific strategy planned over the space of years.

From Dictatorship to Democracy: a Conceptual Framework for Liberation was initally published  in 1993 in the Khit Pyaning (The New Age Journal) the request of exiled Burmese dissient U Ting Maung Win, but because Sharp didn’t have a background on the political situaton in Burma, he wrote a general prescription that identified weaknesses of dictatorships in general.  Since that time, that essay has been revised and simplified into a  final work that is less than 100 pages.  It condenses the collective experiences of 40 years of struggle against dictatorship into a practical manual of action.  The brevity and simplicity of this book has enabled it to be translated into over 25 languages and distributed widely via the Internet.

The thesis of this book itself is quite simple: how does one overthrow a dictatorship?

After exploring and rejecting the options of armed opposition, guerilla warfare and intervention by foreign powers, Sharp goes on to explain a dictatorship in terms of the Chinese parable of the Monkey Master:

In the feudal state of Chu an old man survived by keeping monkeys in his service. The people of Chu called him “ju gong” (monkey master).  Each morning, the old man would assemble the monkeys in his courtyard, and order the eldest one to lead the others to the mountains to gather fruits from bushes and trees.  It was the rule that each monkey had to give one-tenth of his collection to the old man. Those who failed to do so would be ruthlessly flogged. All the monkeys suffered bitterly, but dared not complain.

One day, a small monkey asked the other monkeys: “Did the old man plant all the fruit trees and bushes?” The others said: “No, they grew naturally.” The small monkey further asked: “Can’t we take the fruits without the old man’s permission?” The others replied: “Yes, we all can.” The small monkey continued: “Then, why should we depend on the old man; why must we all serve him?”

Before the small monkey was able to finish his statement, all the monkeys suddenly became enlightened and awakened.

On the same night, watching that the old man had fallen asleep, the monkeys tore down all the barricades of the stockade in which they were confined, and destroyed the stockade entirely. They also took the fruits the old man had in storage, brought all with them to the woods, and never returned.

The old man finally died of starvation.

This story contains within the essential truth about dictatorship: it can only exist with the acceptance and compliance of the majority of its citizens. If one can destroy the legitimacy of a regime and convince a majority of its citizens to not comply with its dictates, that regime will fall.  It will not fall willingly nor without cost in terms of human life and property, but its fall will be inevitable nonetheless.

Building on this very simple idea, Sharp argues that the sucessful defeat of dictatorships relies upon the creation and execution of a grand strategy, the knowledge of and application of non-violent tactics and methods aimed at the economic, military and political structures within the dictatorship.  He details 198 methods of non-violent action, broken down into subsections of Protest and Persuasion, Social Non-Cooperation, Economic Non-Cooperation, Political Non-Cooperation and Non-Violent Intervention.    Many of these ideas are repetitive (i.e. there is very little real difference between a stand-in and a sit-in, for example) but serve to hammer home the very simple point that attacking the source of legitimacy of a dictatorship is eminently preferable to attacking its military forces: you’re attacking where it is weak, instead of where it is strong.

There is very little direct evidence for whether or not this book has influenced the ideas of the protest movement.  However, there have been a few connections made between what has happened and the advice in the book:

1. Beware of negotiating with ‘agreeable dictators’ (p. 13) parallels the protestors refusal to accept Hosni Mubarak’s offer of resigning at the end of the year. 
2. ‘Mass noncooperation’  (p. 36) … [can lead to ] opponents’ military forces may become so unreliable that they no longer simply obey orders to repress resisters.  The refusal of large segments of the military to attack its own population in Egypt and Tunisia illustrate this point admirably. 
3. Contrary to Sharp’s advice, however, democracy forces in Libya have taken up arms against Colonel Gaddafi.  Sharp argues that when you use military force against a dictatorship, you are attacking him where he is strong and is likely to have the advantage in men, material and training.
   1. Pro-Gadhafi forces launch fierce counterattacks

Making Predictions about the Middle East

The interesting thing about prediction is that it is sometimes difficult to separate what one thinks will happen from what one wants to happen.  And given that we are predicting the actions of individuals, it’s a challenge to do it right.

Some people I’ve talked with have been pretty safe with their predictions, saying things like, “there will be a lot of chaos and social dislocation in some of these Arab countries. Egypt, Tunisia, probably Yemen as well.”  Wow, it’s kind of like predicting sand in the desert.

Others venture further, stating that there will be instability, followed by iron-fisted rule by a somewhat military type government.   Since rule by a ‘strong man’ or by a charismatic leader has been endemic to the area, it may be argued that this is the only pattern these societies know, so that we can be reasonably guaranteed that we will just see ‘more of the same.’

However, if the possibility exists that the protests are guided by a strategy based on this book, perhaps we are seeing what Sharp would call inevitable: the fall of dictatorships across the Middle East and the blossoming of democracy.

by Kent Krall

I don’t agree with your article that wallyball is  a better game than volleyball.  It’s like comparing Canadian and American football.  It is a different game that allows people of all ages and athleticism to get involved in sports and thoroughly enjoy being active.

The skill level it takes to play volleyball inhibits beginners from joining volleyball teams or drop-ins because they’re embarrassed by their lack of it, or feel they impinge on the enjoyment of the others by their inability to keep the ball in play.  Beginners in wallyball immediately have fun because it’s easier to keep the ball in play and their lack of skill isn’t as detrimental.  However, even as a skilled player, you can still reap the rewards of having those strengths.

They can both be played by all levels, but it is more conducive to bringing out beginners to play wallyball by pointing out that it doesn’t take as much skill to have fun.  Obviously the more people that play a sport the more popular and credible it becomes, so let’s get more beginners out.  I even think you should rent three courts and have a tournament.  There must be around 100 people who have played your drop-in games.  Eventually you could form a league that you won’t have to babysit every night, and just do the draws and coordinate the bookings and fees.

I’m back in Regina and playing in a league.  At one time, there were at least 400 teams in the city playing at two courtclubs.  Unfortunately a venue with 8 courts, with leagues 5 nights of the week, closed down, and not due to lack of interest.  The other had 6 and was bought out by Gold’s Gym and reluctantly allotted only 3 courts to the leagues. Anyway, I digress.

Another point is that in volleyball  beyond the recreation level, each player has a position and skill set- spikers, setters, passers.  Often the only players working up a sweat are the best spikers and setter.  Everyone else is waiting around to flail at a return to pass to the setter.  In wallyball,  everyone is much more involved due to the constrictions of the court, the speed of the game, and the fewer number of players.

Now you tried to compare the skills necessary and argue that it takes more skill to play wallyball.  I disagree, but I do believe it takes different skills that make it unique and exciting in comparison.  Of course one of the obvious skills that is the same, is the ability to spike the ball to the floor via the shortest distance to avoid any chance of a play on it.  The volleyball court offers a much larger area with a backline at 16′(?) from the net compared to 10′(?) for W.  The 6 players are also further apart than the 4 in wallyball.  The ability to angle a spike directly to the floor in wallyball must take greater skill.  Of course this varies with the net level and I believe the net height in wallyball is equivalent to intermediate play in a volleyball court.

As for the skill of setting a ball.  If a person has a hitting diameter of 4′ of net in front of them, setting to that area from across a full-sized volleyball court is much more difficult than in a wallyball court where you are generally within 8 feet of all team members at any moment.  The angles, distance and trajectory are all less.  Thus, pinpointing a set, even if the ball is spinning, isn’t as difficult to master.  However, don’t discount the separate ability wallyball takes to read and utilize the walls for angles, spin and transfer of acceleration.  That is what makes this game so exciting.

Simply put, the basics from volleyball that we have all learnt in school enable everyone to instantly enjoy playing a ‘new’ sport like walleyball without a steep learning curve.

As a player of both styles of the game, and I do think of them both as the same game (see my remark on Canadian and American football).   I believe the better your skills become, the more likely you’ll gravitate towards volleyball as your preferred game.  The skills required at a higher level provide a sense of satisfaction once you’ve excelled beyond the beginner level.  If you are a die-hard volleyball enthusiast, what a great way to get people interested in your sport.

There you go, some feedback.  I’ve been playing this game off and on for over a decade.  I still think it’s every bit as fun to play as the first time I played it.

They could not be more wrong.

After playing wallyball for the last 2 years, I can attest to the fact that the game is a great deal faster and more intense than volleyball.  The reason that the sport doesn’t receive the attention it deserves is because it is played inside of an enclosed area where there is no place for spectators to watch and witness the skill and intense play of wallyball.  However, because wallyball is the newcomer to the sports world, it’s up to wallyball to prove its superiority over volleyball.

For those not familiar with the sport, wallyball is volleyball played on a racquetball court.  The word ‘wallyball’, in fact, is a contraction of its original name, ‘wall-volleyball’ or ‘rebound volleyball’.  About 80% of the rules and 100% of the skills of volleyball are immediately applicable to wallyball, with a small portion of new rules to take into account the smaller playing area and walls.

” … one could say that the ‘scoring area’ of wallyball is significantly smaller than volleyball, making it harder to score points.  As a result, rally times are extended, leading to a more challenging workout and greater speed of play.”

Let us assume that, when we compare the two sports, the competing teams are intermediate or better.  They are able to effectively bump, set and spike reasonably consistently.  While beginners do play volleyball and wallyball, sometimes their lack of skill decreases the level of play and intensity for both sports.  However, unlike wallyball, volleyball tends to eliminate evern fairly experienced players through the use of the ‘killer serve’  — a serve so fast that any return attempted by the beginner knocks the ball out of play.

However, in wallyball, the same ‘killer serve’ may be returned by an inexperienced player simply by getting a hand or arm in front of it.  Indeed, a non-standard return on a killer serve can lead to the ball careening unexpectedly back over the net, as challenging to play as the most skillful spike.  From an overall perspective, an inexperienced player’s unpredictable plays poses a challenge to all players, team mates and opponents both.  Inexperience in basic skills can be more than made up for by good conditioning, fast reflexes and good hand-eye coordination.

About 80% of the points scored in volleyball are side-outs, usually after the said killer-serve.   But in wallyball, there is no side-out.  Instead, the ball rebounds off the wall and back into play, either as a direct return or as a play to a team mate.  As a result, one could say that the ‘scoring area’ of wallyball is significantly smaller than volleyball, making it harder to score points.  As a result, rally times are extended, leading to a more challenging workout and greater speed of play.

And in wallyball and volleyball both I have heard appreciative voices on both sides of the net after a long, hard fought rally.  It is the heart and sould of every great game played.  Simply put, longer rallies are better than short rallies and thus wallyball, with its typically longer rallies is superior to volleyball.

In addition, while the size and weight of the ball being used in both sports is roughly the same, that is where the similarities end.  A wallyball is covered with a blue rubber exterior similar to a racquetball that, when proper spin is applied, causes it to ‘climb’ up and over the net or bounce off walls in an unpredictable fashion.  This adds a level of ‘finesse’ to wallyball that volleyball just doesn’t have.

<iframe title=”YouTube video player” width=”480″ height=”390″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/K0pYHW2CHxg” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>

Despite its unpredictability, wallyball, like volleyball, benefits greatly from coordinated team play.  Indeed, because the scoring area is greatly reduced by no side-outs, players need to develop and execute complex strategies to defeat the defensive play of the opposing team.  When one watches the odd match played in the transparent-walled courts, one can see this cooperation firsthand.

From an organizational and cost perspective, wallyball is superior to wallyball.  While volleyball requires the use of a fairly large gymnasium, wallyball only requires a racquetball or squash court — about 50% of the size.  One can rent a court for wallyball for about $15 – $20 ($2 -$3 per person)for 90 minutes and play a challenging game with as few as four people ( 2-on-2), while the rental of a gymnasium for volleyball can run as high has $100 ($10-$12 per person) for the same amount of time and can only be played with a minimum of eight people (4-on-4).

In summary, wallyball is a sport that is superior to volleyball in all respects.  While the skills may be transferrable and the rules are identical in most respects, the fact that the scoring area is smaller (leading to longer and more challenging rallies), that inexperienced players can still play a role on an experienced team, that the ball is designed to add finesse to the game, and that both games benefit from concerted team play, the game is faster and more intense than volleyball.  Combined with the fact that wallyball is cheaper, easier to organize and requires fewer people to play, wallyball should the game of choice when deciding which of the court sports to participate.

But you don’t need my word for it.  Come and try it yourself through the Calgary Outdoor Club.  We play every Monday and Friday evening.

See you on the courts!

Fret not, for the Art Walk in Calgary is for you!

The Art Walk is a monthly event held in conjuction with First Thursdays, the Calgary art community open house.  It will help you see and digest bite-sized portions of various art forms without leaving you feeling full.  Participants walk from place to place sampling tasty morsels of what the city has to offer.   Dishes  can be as prosaic as a  quick art gallery tour or be as unusual as  backstage tours of Theatre Calgary’s set building and costume creation shops  or as eclectic as  a presentation on how Holt Renfrew envisions and makes manifest its Christmas window displays.

The Art Walk is a creation of Art Proctor who created it as a vehicle to expose people to the plethora or visual and performing arts installations in Calgary; a kind of a cultural smorgasbord.   Once a person has sampled from a wide variety of cultural offerings, they are encouraged to go back and experience more deeply those events and installations that have struck their fancy.

Art Walk: February 3, 2011

This Art Walk was the first on that was scheduled and executed by me.  While Art provided advice and encouragement, the February 3 Art Walk was very much my baby.  And it went splendidly!

“It was fascinating to learn how technology, instruments and music have interacted and influenced each other in the past.  Fascinating.”

All in all, it  was quite awesome with approximately 25 people showing up.  We started at the Municipal Building and did a tour of public art installations located throughout City Hall, the Municipal Building, the Calgary Center for the Performing Arts and Olympic Plaza.  We were guided about by Anna, who was quite knowledgeable about public municipal artists and their benefactors.  It is a policy in Calgary that any building project over $1 million must donate one percent of its building budget to the creation of public art.  Sadly, there was virtually no information about any other art that we encountered during the tour that was not publicly owned by either the city or the province.  Apparently, The Calgary Core Group is in the process of adding it into their tours and will be available soon.

It ended up that we picked up some other folks from this tour group who were pretty impressed about where we went from there!

From there, we had a tour of the Cantos Music Museum.  The one-hour tour ran a little   long, but participants were so taken by the deluge of interesting instruments and unusual tunes played upon them that we decided that we should stay until the very end.  It was fascinating to learn how technology, instruments and music have interacted and influenced each other in the past.  Fascinating.

The Cantos Music Museum, we found out, is in the process of morphing into the National Music Centre.  It will take up residence in the East Village, approximately around the same site as the old King Edward Hotel, known by locals as simply ‘The King Eddy.’  In addition to stewarding their collection of pianos and other musical instruments, they will also be managing performance space.   According to the mandate of the National Music Centre, it “will give Canada a place that amplifies the love, the sharing and the understanding of music through collections, programs, performance and collaboration.”

Amplify the Love, baby! YEAH!

We then crossed the street to Endeavor Art Gallery where a pair of musicians were performing music that was then translated digitally as visual art on the screen.  It was hypnotizing to watch the play of image and melody combine.  Thinking back to the dance of technology alluded to during the Cantos tour, I got a sense that our culture is blindly groping its way forward toward a great convergence of sensation — something that we of today will barely understand.

It was kind of like looking at those old black and white movies of the first airplane tests showing how the first models never got off the ground, but collapsed under their own weight, only we are attempting to invent the new music and these experiments are very much like those first airplanes.  Sooner or later, however, I believe we will be creating a musical equivelent of a Lear Jet that will make us look back to a music that only appealed to one of our senses as appalingly Stone Aged.

Their primary focus of Endeavor Art Gallery is digtal arts; mainly art that has a digital component to it.  It doesn’t necessarily mean art that appears on a video screen (although there usually are a couple of exhibits like that at any one time).  The art can be digitally created, or have an interactive component  incorporated into it. Their exhibits change monthly, so there’s always something new every month for Art Walkers.  The always-friendly owners are always on hand to help answer any questions regarding their exhibits.

After Endeavor, we went to Fashion Central’s 2nd birthday party to engage in the first-ever Art Walk Hat Hunt.  I distributed $40 gift cards to Artwalk participants and told them to go forth and secure the craziest looking hats they could find.  As we had arrived 10 minutes before close, we had to do a lot of running around to secure our booty (hattie?) before the 20 or so shops closed for the night.

Located along Stephen Avenue and 1st Street SW, Fashion Central is an alluring mix of historic architecture and sartorial flair.     The brain child of local entrepreneur and developer David Neill, Fashion Central  is a collection of mostly high-end, international-flavoured boutiques that attempts to bring Calgary out of it’s anti-fashion bluejean wearing funk and into the light of runway  fashion in the traditions of New York, Milan and Paris.

After Fashion Central, we spent an hour tooling around Art Central, the beating heart of every First Thursday Art Walk.  Boasting 57 shops and galleries, we were  constantly amazed by the sheer volume and diversity of the art that is offered for sale.  We traipsed around wearing our unusual and somewhat ridiculous hats, but due to the eclectic nature of the people who go to Art Central, we did not receive slightest of strange looks.

Which leads me to ponder  — just how nutty do you have to be to get some attention at Art Central during First Thursdays?  I’m no expert, but I’m sure it would have to be illegal or immoral, or even both!

Art Central is located on the corner of First Street and Seventh Avenue SW. 

Finally, we landed at a virtually empty Beatniq and listened to a jazz jam.  It was a great way to unwind after an evening of frenetic running around.  We hung out there for about an hour listening to songs entitled ‘Colleen’ and ‘Wendy’ and debated whether or not the music gave an insight into who these women were and what was there relationship was to the composer.  One of the songs was definitely in the “she done me wrong” idiom.

Located downstairs from Piqnique on First Street and Ninth Avenue SW , the Beatnq is one cool, darkly lit Jazz club and one of the few downtown venues to offer access to live music.

Afterwards, a few of us went for Chinese food at Harbor City, toasted the evening with tea and fortune cookies and after hugs and hand shakings, we went our respective ways.

The Art Walk is fast becoming a great tradition for me.  The ability to ‘check-in’ and see the latest projects of Calgary’s artists and designers is absolutely fantastic.  It speaks to a Calgary of which many Calgarians are unaware; a virtual diamond in the rough.

“… the prospect of evading a firing squad of 7-10 death spheres is enough to give one pause.”

Now, when I think about dodgeball, my memories go back to elementary school where it was either ‘kill or be killed’ on the court.  We played with one or two balls and hit players would move themselves to the ‘prison’ behind their opponents.  With throwers behind you and in front of you, you could face a serious crossfire.  You had to be fast, agile and be willing to sacrifice the body to make the dodge.

While my memories of dodgeball games past are almost totally positive, not all are so lucky.  Stories of strong kids picking on weak kids are not uncommon and emotional scars are carried by some into adulthood.

With Duane’s Dodgeball, there were quite a few differences. 

First, instead of just one or two balls being used to knock you out, there are ten.  Yes, ten.  While one or two were relatively easy to dodge, the prospect of evading a firing squad of 7-10 death spheres is enough to give one pause.  Also, this meant a ball could be thrown at you from anywhere, forcing you to broaden your field of vision.  You have to look everywhere at once in order to survive.

The ball itself is light and spongy, with a thin rubber exterior.  It is difficult to throw accurately and, while some players could throw it with a great deal of velocity, it rarely hurt if you got hit. 

Second, instead of players going to the prison behind the opponents area, the prison is a bench to the side of the player’s area.  While you are ‘out’ there is a chance that you may get back in to continue playing (see below). 

Third, if you throw a ball and your target catches it, you are out and one of your opponents prisoners is freed.  As a result, it is possible for a team with one person left to come back by resurrecting their players through skillful catching.  As a result, a team wins the game if they eliminate the other team or if they have more players alive when time (usually 5 minute games) runs out.  If the number of players on each team is equal, the game is a tie.

 Players are encouraged to try to catch the ball since it counts double if you succeed (opponent thrower is out, one of your players is resurrected).

Fourth, if you get hit, you are expected to declare yourself out.  While there are judges that are watching, there is simply too much going on at one time for them to adjudicate all situations reliably.  This requires players to be honest and, let’s face it, non-competitive.

And while 95% of the people playing call themselves out when they are hit, there is that 5% that don’t.  Of that 5%, a large proportion are those who are hit but believe that the ball that hit them is dead.  A thrown ball is dead if it hits the floor, another player or the ceiling before it hits the target player.  Given that throwers, in general, aim for below the knees, this happens fairly regularly and in ambiguous situations most player call themselves out while the more competitive players will not. 

There is the odd player who gets hit squarely, but they don’t call themselves out, but the judges are usually there to make sure that they go out nonetheless.

All in all, Duane’s Dodgeball is an extremely fun activity.  Everyone particpates at their level and everyone has a great time.   It is good exercise and is accessible to a wide variety of fitness levels.  And it provides an opportunity to exorcise painful dodgeball memories from elementary gym classes past.