RETROSPECTIVE: Spring, wherefore thou sour'st?

As the temperature dips, here's a doleful reminder of warmer, happier times...


From Duff, spring league 2009 hat tourney

RETROSPECTIVE: Spring league 2009!

From two days ago:

Jim with the Evil trophy after his team's epic win.

POSTSCRIPT: After this picture was taken at the hat tourney, we went to King's Bar and drank, among other beverages, this. Mouth-watering, no?

WEEKEND ROUNDUP: Spring league hat tourney

From Duff's spring league hat tourney album

Team 2, consisting of Tao, Kevin, Aaron, Andy, Charlotte, Char, Therese, Gavin three other middle schoolers, et al., won 8-7 and 8-4.

Thanks to Duff for holding spring league this year. Afterwards we went to King's Bar and watched rugby and drank Hoegaarden and Bodington's.

WEEKEND ROUNDUP: Spring league finals, Pt. 1

"One more point."

If you didn't know this was the championship of Duff's spring league, that it was being played by the league's premiere -- only -- contenders, that the hype machine had been running for a week, replete with obligatory chaff and bunkum, that the opposing forces were named, believe it or not, Team Evil and Team All That is Good in the World, well -- you could've been forgiven to think Evil, which had overrun all its prior opponents, was competing against just another overmatched squad of high schoolers from the International School of Beijing.

As Evil's Alicia floated towards the corner to reel in yet another perfectly placed forehand, Good was caught doing what it had done all day: watching. Another point, another step closer to mercy. Evil led 12-5 in a game to 13, which meant one more point and everyone could line up, slap hands, say their Good games and prepare for an hour and a half of Big Brother practice. Spring league, we hardly knew ye, gone without a bang -- unless you meant Beijing Bang, a team that just an hour prior, on this very field, lost to High School Red 10-3.

This, though -- this was a bona fide trouncing. At least Bang could say they were missing their captain, Ken Su, along with Yin, Guy and Helen. What was Team Good's excuse? For 17 points, they decided catching and defending were optional, that Frisbee was a recreation to be enjoyed, like jogging. Or maybe Joe's groin was the culprit: that which was sacrificed in the first half -- Joe laying out in an (failed) attempt to point-block Jim's whip of a backhand; Jim's fist punching Joe's gonads in just the place to cause him to groan in the least manly way possible -- and all for what? Just another point lost...

On catching, all of Good was infested with the curious case of the dropsies, a deadly virus-like contagion that's stripped more than one Ultimate team of its poise, resolve and general sense of dignity. The illustrative case: on the line with the score 11-5, Tao made a point about drops being the primary reason this team loses, in response to something about drops being "okay" because we were "just practicing."

That very point, Good dropped a would-be easy score in the end zone.

As for Good's defense, the blame -- or credit -- goes to one Andrew Shen, who Evil relied upon more than usual. His vertical cuts had been shredding Good's defense all day, and until Good's defenders -- specifically Tao, who was on the wrong end of several of Shen's mad dashes to the end zone -- adjusted their downfield positioning, Shen had his way like a player possessed.

But then, be it Evil fatigue or complacency, Good scored. (This may have been the infamous "Fudgesicles" play, in which Kevin screamed "Fudgesicles" on a dead disc and waited as Tao, anticipating a cut anyway, sprinted from the force side handler position straight towards the end zone. Kevin threw a screwdriver of a hammer that S-curved over Jim's head and into the hands of... Lauren.) Then, with co-captains Joe and Tao barking at each other on defense, Good scored again -- an up-line cut from the home side of the field like a ray of light finally illuminating what was dark.

12-7.

Fired up, Perkin backhand hucked to Justin for another upwinder -- 12-8.

And because it beat the heck out of losing, Good locked down on D, forced a turn and almost scored again three seconds later. Alas, Tao's long backhand to Justin was caught out-of-bounds... barely. Evil could not capitalize though, and back came Good, Joe racing down the sideline with Jim at his heels, snatching the disc in the end zone and flipping it into the back of his defender's head. Balls? Who needs painless balls?

Now it was a game. Not that Evil was ready to acknowledge it. "We just kept saying, 'One more point,'" Brian Marterer said aftewards. "Just one more point."

But how would they get it?

12-9. Pull corralled by Jim, followed by a throw to Doc across the field that is... dropped. Slipped through his hand like a floundering fish. Good seized upon it, playing patient end zone O until Pnut found Missy making a two-step move from the force-side line towards the middle of the field. Forehand toss for the score.

12-10. Good going downwind after a turn in Evil's end zone... a hammer that landed a foot short of Alicia. Tao hucked to Kevin but the disc was brought back on a (correct) traveling call. A few throws later, Tao made sure he wouldn't make the same mistake, as he pumped once, twice, before uncorking a laser of a forehand to Perkin, who leapt across the goal line.

12-11. Doc held the disc and held it, then held it some more. At about stall seven or eight, Tao, guarding the strong side handler, made a break, even before Doc peered over for a desperation dump. Tao intercepted the throw standing up and soaked in the crowd's gasps as he waited for the cavalry.

Eventually the disc ended up in Kevin's hands, who threw a backhand towards the front corner of the end zone on the away side of the field, where Tao was cutting. Shen, however, anticipated this maneuver, or reacted very fast to Tao's break. He squeezed himself between his defender and the disc and managed to disrupt things just enough for the plastic to fall harmlessly to the ground.

The momentum, however, was on the side of Good. And so it was that Good's Joel, playing aggressive dump D, turned his head to find Evil's Brian, trapped on the sideline, looking straight at him. Weird, Joel thought. My man is shut down. Brian threw it anyway, and Joel responded by slapping the thow 15 yards out of bounds.

The disc got swung to the force side, where Tao bent low and completed a forehand to Lauren, cutting in. (Shen got a piece for a near-hand-block.) Lauren, trapped on the side, dumped back to Tao, who squatted to the ground, rocked back and uncorked a forehand in Justin's general direction. It was a blind pass, a pass to a teammate who had barely begun to make his move against Patrick Li -- a pass he absolutely knew he'd complete.

In a game where Evil scored the first five, led 6-1 and took half at 7-2 -- was in fact one point away from winning on seven different occassions -- the score was now knotted up at 12. Finally, in the game's second hour, things were getting interesting.

To be continued...

UPDATE, 8/4: At 12-12, Joe had a throw point-blocked, allowing Evil to regain the advantage at 13-12. Next point, Jim called a foul on Tao in the end zone, but then turned it. Team All That Is Good In the World scored to tie it at 13. Something else happened, and something else. It got to 14-14.

Evil, driving, saw Jim put a perfect pass to Alicia that was dropped -- perfectly dropped -- in the end zone. Good, however, clamped down on defense, with Brian swatting away a pass before midfield. Evil threw a few swing passes before Jim attempted the exact same throw to Alicia, who, in almost the same fashion... caught it. Evil wins 15-14.

WEEK IN REVIEW: The Beijing Bang party preview

Beijing Ultimate had its Wednesday pickup at Guomao per usual and, of course, spring league on Sunday (which we've discussed and will not again). This has been a somewhat quiet week and may be a quieter weekend, with Alicia and Lauren in Xian, Doc in Japan, Sandy in Boracay and at least a couple of the guys tethered to girlfriends. Even still, the community's holding a party.

Booyah.

From Beijing Bang's message board:

Dear BJ Ultimate Community,
亲爱的北京飞盘队友们，

You are all cordially invited to an action packed Saturday (this coming weekend - March 21st) hosted by your friends from BJ Bang Ultimate Club.
北京帮即将组织三月份的活动。时间定在本周六晚上（3月21日）。我们现在诚恳的邀 请你（和你的朋友们 ）来参加我们的活动 。

It is a 3 part event with live action, theme dinner, and plenty of boozing to make for a great time.
整个活动由3个部分组成：下午的现场活动 ，主题晚餐，和酒吧之夜。保证大家玩儿的开心 。

We hope you can join all 3 parts, but we understand if you can only join certain parts - please see details below and RSVP for each part so we know which portions you can attend so that we can formalise arrangements with the venues.
我们希望大家3个部分都能参加，当然如果你们有其他事情，只能参加其中的一个或两个，我们也表示理解。所以现在希望大家积极回复这封邮件，告诉我们你能参加哪些部分？以便我们准备。

PART 1: Bang! Bang! Bang! 幇！ 幇！ 幇！

The day starts off with Paintball this Saturday: 真人 CS 彩弹这个周六

Meet at HuiLongGuan 回龙观 subway station A at 13:00 on Saturday! Line 13
下午13：00在地铁13号线 回龙观站 A 见面

Two Levels 两个消费等级

100Kuai for 50 paintballs 100块 50发子弹
180Kuai for 100 paintballs 180块 100发子弹

After that 1.60Kuai each one! 打完这些，每发1块6

Anyone who can make paintball please contact Helen 13911082545 or lshao...@gmail.com before Saturday. We will have two teams and there will be plenty of action!
如果有谁想参加，请于周六以前联系 HELEN 13911082545 或者 lshao...@gmail.com
我们将有两个队，玩对抗赛！

Hope see you there!
希望到时候在那边见！

PART 2: Gangster Theme Party/Dinner with party games - 黑市帮 - 帮帮忙

Saints in the Boondocks; Underground Hong Kong; Al Pacino, Marlon Brando, and HBO’s Sopranos. Mafia, deck of cards; Triads in the Mainland; Yakuza in Japan. Set trippin’ gangstas; caps in yo a**; Drinking booze; Battle caps; Dressed in black; Dinner with the Bangstas. Dress to kill, it’ll be a thrill; No excuse; It’s an offer you can’t refuse; or Six feet under, it’s up to you.
中国有黑龙会，斧头帮等一些有名的黑帮。大家可以穿上跟黑帮有关的服装，来组成一个飞盘帮。

Starts at 6pm and for the great price of Rmb40 you get all you can eat Taiwanese Hot Pot AND unlimited beer. Fire up your best gangster get-up and get ready to drink it up.
晚饭6点开始，没人40块，台湾火锅，自助（海鲜，蔬菜任你选），无限量啤酒。

Location is at Xizhimen Jiamao Plaza,the 6th floor. take subway to Xizhimen, and you'll see it right after you come out from Exit A.
地点在西直门嘉茂中心6层，阿里山火锅。

RSVP to Helen as well for dinner at 13911082545 or lshao...@gmail.com.
如有问题请联系Helen.

PART 3: Gang Pub Crawl - 黑市帮逛酒吧街

After cleaning out the beer supply of the restaurant the entire Gang can then proceed to dazzle and drink their way through Beijing's pubs, bars, and clubs. If you are lucky you may see Tina take Shen out again, Joe breaking some glass, or any number of things that we have come to expect from BJ Ultimate Community events.
喝完啤酒，我们一大帮人就要去逛北京的酒吧了。相信你一定会看到很多北京飞盘社区别具特点的搞笑场面。

We hope you can all come out and join the fun and look forward to hearing from you.
希望大家都能来玩儿。

See you Saturday.星期六见。

This part is worth highlighting and rereading:

Saints in the Boondocks; Underground Hong Kong; Al Pacino, Marlon Brando, and HBO’s Sopranos. Mafia, deck of cards; Triads in the Mainland; Yakuza in Japan. Set trippin’ gangstas; caps in yo a**; Drinking booze; Battle caps; Dressed in black; Dinner with the Bangstas. Dress to kill, it’ll be a thrill; No excuse; It’s an offer you can’t refuse; or Six feet under, it’s up to you.

Not the GOOGLE GROUPS POST OF THE WEEK though:

Tao, responding to a thread, on Evil:

"A man's at odds to know his mind cause his mind is aught he has to know it with. He can know his heart, but he dont want to. Rightly so. Best not to look in there. It aint the heart of a creature that is bound in the way that God has set for it. You can find meanness in the least of creatures, but when God made man the devil was at his elbow. A creature that can do anything. Make a machine. And a machine to make the machine. And evil that can run itself a thousand years, no need to tend it. You believe that?

"I dont know.

"Believe that."

--Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian

You look inside the depressed chest of Doc and Jim and Betsy and all those piteously deceived ensnared in Team Evil's web of Iniquity and see a blackened gourd amid a depraved hollow, Argus-eyed Sinister perched in its sulphurous Aerie, ready to molt char and ash to lay bare the face of Evil itself upon our unsuspecting world, stippling the sky with drops of antic blood and fire. The face that descends upon you, like the succubus, is symmetrical and seductive, and wholly evil. If you must look, do not be charmed. Tie yourself to the mast. This is your warning. Evil shall not and will not prevail. Believe that.

Love,

All That is Good in the World

WEEKEND ROUNDUP: Spring league beginnings...

He said that even the sepulturero would understand that every tale was a tale of dark and light and would perhaps not have it otherwise. Yet there was still a further order to the narrative and it was a thing of which men do not speak. He said the wicked know that if the ill they do be of sufficient horror men will not speak against it. That men have just enough stomach for small evils and only these will they oppose. He said that true evil has power to sober the smalldoer against his own deeds and in the contemplation of that evil he may even find the path of righteousness which has been foreign to his feet and may have no power but to go upon it. Even this man may be appalled at what is revealed to him and seek some order to stand against it. Yet in all of this there are two things which perhaps he will not know. He will not know that while the order which the righteous seek is never righteousness itself but is only order, the disorder of evil is in fact the thing itself. Nor will he know that while the rigtheous are hampered at every turn by their ignorance of evil to the evil all is plain, light and dark alike. This man of which we speak will seek to impose order and lineage upon things which rightly have none. He will call upon the world itself to testify as to the truth of what are in fact but his desires. In his final incarnation he may seek to indemnify his words with blood for by now he will have discovered that words pale and lose their savor while pain is always new.

--Cormac McCarthy, The Crossing

Game 1: Team Evil, 6; Team All That is Good in the World, 5.

But it is not over. We will indemnify our words with only the blood of the evildoers and we will continue speaking against it until proper restitution has been paid, the alkahest restored in the form of blood of our enemies if necessary.