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| Path: Welcome way ( home) >On The Road Corner > Newsletter on the Road |
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NEWSLETTER ON THE ROAD
The Hidden America Newsletter of OTR Travel Information Services AUGUST, 2010
Dear Friends: Even though it's clearly summer around here along the banks of the Hackensack River, we managed to get through July without too much oppressivley hot and muggy stuff. The lawn and flowers are looking just fine, and unlike last year tomato olants are still seductvley teasing with the hope of a bountiful yield. Stay tuned. This month we look at some unique ways that folks endure and enjoy the dog days of August. Believe it or not it is more than 3 decades since the passing of Elvis Presley. We note how Graceland and Memphis mark this yearly occasion. Elsewhere, some folks are playing games seriously. We look at championships scheduled this month in Hack-Sack (Footbag). There's also some American Words, a recipe and a look at American Places. We wish you well. Eric PLEASE NOTE The information contained herein was correct to the best knowledge of the publisher and author at its publication time. However, such information is to subject to change without notice. Accordingly, the listings which follow are provided for informational purposes only. The publisher and authors assume no legal responsibility for the completeness or accuracy of the contents. POSTCARDS FROM THE ROAD LONG LIVE THE KING: 30YEARS LATER AFTER ELVIS HAS LEFT THE BUILDING Hard to believe that it is already more than 3 decades since the death of "The King", Elvis Presley. As amazing Elvis' posthumous career that remains strong has spanned longer than his 23 years in show business during his life that ended at age 42. His recordings, movies and concert films, his influence and his mystique continue to reach new audiences and inspire new generations of performers, while the fans he had in life remain steadfast. His tremendous presence in the collective consciousness of the world is immeasurable. In essence Elvis has become bigger than life. His impact on American culture has been examined in the U.S. and abroad by academia and obervers of American life. Even when he sang clearly Elvis was about more than the music (See Highlighted Links for more). This year folks, as usual, especially at Elvis headquarters in Memphis, are paying special tribute to the music, the magic and the memory of one of popular culture’s true greats. This August, as has been the case every year folks are converging on Memphis and Graceland for Elvis Week - a commemoration of the music, magic and memories associated with the legacy of Elvis Presley. Long-time fans and those who are new to it enjoy a full week of music, dance, sports, social and charitable events. To many it has become a rite of pilgrimage. Some of the highlights of the week include: An Elvis Happening on Beale Street – Memphis;Gospel Brunch; Elvis Fan Forum; The Anniversary Concert Elvis Gospel Fan Club International Meeting; Elvis Fest; Graceland Tours; Happy Hour at Heartbreak Hotel; Elvis Presley Fan Club Presents Heart of the King; Memphis City Tours; Elvis Videos on the Big Screen in Graceland Plaza; Elvis Presley Tupelo Tours; Elvis Trivia Contest, and more. Otherwise for more information about Elvis Week 2002, contact:ELVIS PRESLEY ENTERPRISES, INC. P.O. Box 16508 3734 Elvis Presley Boulevard Memphis, Tennessee 38186-0508 (901) 332-3322
HACKY-SACK CHAMPIONSHIPS It's considered the Super Bowl of the world of Hacky-Sack. The World Footbag Championships are being staged this August in San Francisco. But just what is footbag any way (let alone Hacky-Sack which soundsan awful like nearby beautiful downtown Hackensack, New Jersey) ? Footbag is a modern American sport. It was invented in 1972 in Oregon City, Oregon, when John Stalberger met Mike Marshall, who had been kicking around a hand-made bean bag. John had recently had knee surgery and was looking for a way to work on his flexibility, and he instantly took to the game and become good friends with Marshall. They called the game, "Hack the Sack." Stalberger and Marshall soon became enthralled with the game, which Marshall had been hoping to promote with the general public. The two designed a product, which they trademarked the "Hacky Sack", and began putting together a plan to market the product and the sport. Tragically, Mike Marshall died of a heart attack in 1975, at only 28 years of age. Stalberger, determined to realize their vision of footbag as a sport, continued to promote the product and the game. He formed the National Hacky Sack Association along with the help of many others. He ultimately sold the rights for the Hacky Sack footbag to Kransco (operating under the Wham-O label), which also manufactered the Frisbee flying disc . In the years following the creation of the Hacky Sack product, many footbag enthusiasts began sprouting up around the world, and a sport was born. Following the model of volleyball and tennis, players began volleying a footbag over a 5-foot-high net (on a Badminton court) and "footbag net" became an attractive alternative sport. Freestyle footbag (where players stand in a circle, do tricks with the footbag, and pass it around the circle) has become the most popular form of the game, because of its cooperative nature. Advanced freestylers choreograph routines to music, much like rhythmic gymnastics or figure skating. Footbag sports now have a rules body that governs the various aspects of competitive footbag play: the International Footbag Committee (IFC). The most popular competitive footbag sports are Footbag Net and Freestyle. Footbag comprises two primary disciplines: Net and Freestyle. "Net Footbag?" Think volleyball. With your feet. "Martial Arts over a five-foot high net." Athletes dig, set and hammer the footbag across the net, often hurtling their bodies through the air, head over heels, legs flying. Yet the footbag, a ball measuring just two inches in diameter, is successfully knocked from one side to the other until the hard- fought point is snatched and the battle begins again. Freestyle Footbag, on the other hand, is a raw and powerful mix of dance, juggling and balance as competitors work the footbag, sometimes in carefully choreographed routines, sometimes with jazz-like improvisational authority, set to music ranging from rap to rock. The competition can be compared to figure skating or gymnastics, yet it's more unpredictable and edgy, with a vast array of personal styles and interpretations revealed. Hundreds were turned away from last year's sold-out World Freestyle Championships--and one exposure tells why. There's simply no other athletic discipline on earth requiring so many disparate skills. Over the head, behind the back, bouncing on one foot while juggling the footbag with the other. At this level, one sees a rare mixture or art, grace, and technique. From Finland, Korea, Venezuela, France, Australia, Slovenia, New Zealand, Czech Republic and Canada -- to name just a few of the lands where footbag is a well-organized and keenly- appreciated sport. Athletes from all these countries will be at the Championships. EVENT INFO: FREESTYLE FOOTBAG CHAMPIONSHIPS: 866-468-3399. Tickets may also be purchased securely on-line, at www.ticketweb.com
MORE ON FOOTBAG RULES: Footbag Net: Footbag Net is a singles or doubles court game, like tennis or volleyball, where players use only their feet to kick the footbag over a five-foot-high net. The rules for doubles net are a lot like volleyball: players are allowed three kicks per side, and must alternate kicks. In singles, however, players are only allowed two kicks per side. The footbag (which is usually a 32-panel vinyl and/or leather ball) may not contact a player's body except below the knee. Footbag Net combines the court strategy of tennis with the set-and-spike strategy of volleyball. Players frequently spike the footbag over the net, using either the sole of the foot, a sweeping inside kick, or an outside push. Even more remarkable than the spikes are the "digs" players use to defend against the spikes. Players also block spikes in the air with amazing foot-to-foot battles over the net. The playing court is 20' x 44', divided into 4 equal serving quadrants, similar to a badminton court. Serves are cross-court, similar to tennis. Scoring is similar to volleyball; you must be serving to score. Some competitions use a pool format, where the competitors are divided into pools of four or five teams. Each pool plays "round-robin", with the top two teams from each pool advancing to a single-elimination play-off. Games can be played to 11 or 15 points, where players must win by 2 points. Matches are usually best 2 out of 3. Most competitions use a double-elimination format, where players advance through the winner's or loser's bracket to quarter- and semi-finals before the final match. Kenny Shults (left) goes up against Chris (Crass) Eddicott at the '96 U.S. Open Championships. Photo by Mike Grueter. Ken Shults (left) prepares his famous reverse-sole against a waiting Alf Marcussen. Photo by John Caveney. Footbag Freestyle :Footbag Freestyle is the artistic form of the sport. It can be a flurry of difficult moves the eye can hardly follow, or it can be smooth and flowing, as if in slow motion. This variety makes freestyle competitions very difficult to judge. To simplify the task, competitors are judged along four dimensions: choreography, difficulty, variety, and execution. Players choreograph routines to music, and are judged on how well their style of play matches their choice of music. They are also judged on their originality and creativity. Each move or trick has a determinable difficulty rating. The average difficulty of each move and the total difficulty of all the moves in the routine are added to determine a player's difficulty rating. Difficulty is measured in "adds", which represent additional levels of difficulty beyond the basic moves. (A toe delay is one "add.") For variety, players must perform moves that contain elements from five general categories: (1) leg dexterity (circling the bag with the foot), (2) delays (catching the footbag), (3) spins, fliers, and blind moves, (4) unusual surfaces (i.e., sole, shin, or head), and (5) cross-body moves (made by crossing the foot to the other side of the body). Execution is judged by smoothness, confidence, and, most of all, the ability of the player to keep the footbag off the ground. FREESTYLE: Open Singles, Open Doubles, Open Shred, Women's Singles, Women's Doubles, Women's Shred, Open Mixed Doubles, Intermediate Singles. NET: Open Singles and Doubles, Open Mixed Doubles, Women's Singles and Doubles, Advanced Singles and Doubles, Intermediate Singles and Doubles, and Intermediate Women's Singles
Introductory Note: Of the foods of America, Charles Kuralt once wrote: "No we're not all fast food from coast to coast. We're not the same. Go right into the kitchen, lift the lid of a pot, and you can still tell about where you are in this country. If you're looking for the spirit of a place, head for the stove". (Charles Kuralt's American Moments; 1998; Simon & Schuster, New York; ISBN 0-684-85903-3) THIS MONTH - WATERMELON GAZPACHO Once upon a time Hope, Arkansas was best known as the "Watermelon Capital" (other communities disputed that designation). Then came Bill Clinton, who was born in Hope. Now that some time has intervened since the end of the Clinton Presidency, slowly Hope is again becoming most famous for its melons. Each August the community celebrates its Watermelon Festival (this year August 8-10). Watermelon came be found in many culinary versions, including soup. Here is a cold sup recipe, courtesy of www.kocoaskitchen.com: INGREDIENTS 6 cups watermelon, seeded and cubed 1 1/2 golden delicious apples, small chop (brunoise) 1/2 cup sweet white onion, fine chop 1/2 cup yellow bell pepper, small chop 1 teaspoon dried basil 1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar DIRECTIONS In blender, puree watermelon and pour into large bowl. Stir in remaining ingredients and refrigerate covered for at least one hour to "cold stew" flavors. Serves 5-6 In the depression era classic The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck once remarked," Ever' body says words different. Arkansas folks says 'em different, and Oklahomy folks says 'em different. An we seen a lady from Massachusetts an' she said 'em differentest of all. Could hardly make out what she was sayin'". Almost three decades later in Travels with Charley (1962), Steinbeck was concerned that American dialects were disappearing, victims of the homogenization resulting from network radio and television."One of my purposes was to listen", he wrote," to hear speech, accent, speech rhythms, overtones and emphasis. For speech is so much more than words and sentences. I did listen everywhere. It seemed to me that regional speech is in the process of disappearing, not gone but going. Forty years of radio and twenty years of television must have this impact. Communications must destroy localness by a slow, inevitable process. I can remember a time when I could almost pinpoint a man's palace of origin by his speech. That is growing more difficult now and will in some foreseeable future become impossible....No region can hold out for long against the highway, high-tension line, and the national television". This column is our attempt to journey into the nooks and crannies of America and unveil those gems of regional speak where it still exists. We may be becoming more alike - but there are still numerous regional differences to celebrate. We do so here. MANNERABLE Good mannered, polite, a gentleman. "Even a mannerable man has his bad moments". Courtesy of Mountain Range, A Dictionary of Expressions from Appalachia to the Oazrks, by Robert Henrickson; Facts on File, 1997, Permission Granted.
Introductory Note: I'm now some forty years removed from the most impressionable travel period of my life - the late 1950's and early 1960's. It was then as part of family trips that I started to discover the exciting world of road signs and road maps - of exotic sounding places that frequently were much less exciting than the name. With this early experience still fresh in mind, we introduce this "American Place". This occasional feature will profile the name of a place - some insight on how and why it is so named. Sources for this section are many, including state tourist boards and you. We note, for the record, the inspiration of the late Charles Kuralt's background during the mailbox segment on Sunday Morning. Wrote Kuralt, "'I have fallen in love with American names', wrote the poet Stephen Vincent Benet....Well, really - how could yo not? If you've been to Lick Skillet, Texas and Bug Tussle, and Nip and Tuck, and Cut and Shoot. In California you can travel from Humbug Flat to Lousy Level, with a detour to Gouge Eye...Robert Louis Stevenson was also struck by the wealth upon our maps. He wrote 'There is no part of the world where nomenclature is so rich, poetical, humorous, and picturesque, as the United States of America.' He called our country a 'songful, tuneful land' (Charles Kuralt's American Moments; 1998; Simon & Schuster, New York; ISBN 0-684-85903-3) We also note, refer you to and endorse a reference book, "A Place Called Peculiar" by Frank K. Gallant; Merriam-Webster, 1998. We hope you will provide continuing source material for this section. Let us know what you think. THIS MONTH'S AMERICAN PLACE:SUMMER PLACES We at Hidden America are collectors of sorts. One of our collections consists of place names - places categorized by various criteria. For example, for the summer months we want to track down and chronicle uniquely seasonal locations - in this case hot and warm places -in name, if not physically or in spirit. Here's a starter list. we hope you will add your entry - and that you'll come back each year to see how our online community list is growing: HOT: Hot Lake, Or; Hot Sping, AR; Hot Spings, MT; NC; NM; SD; TX; VA; Hot Sulphur Springs, CO; Hot Wells, TX. WARM: Warm River, ID; Warm Springs, AR; GA; NV; OR; VA; Warmsprings, MT SUMMER: Summer Island,MI; Summerdale, AL; PA; Summerfield, FL; KS; LA; MO; NC; OH; TX; Summer Hill, IL; Summer Lake, OR; Summerland, FL; Summer Shade,KY; Summersville, KY; MO; WV; Summerton, SC; Summertown, GA; TN; Summerville, GA; OR; PA; SC NOTE: Do you have a story to tell about an American Place? If so, send it along and we will share it.
From the 11,000 year-old artifacts found at Blackwater Draw in New Mexico to the remnants of the battle at Little Bighorn Battlefield in Montana, the archeoligical evidence left by Native Americans forms a mostly unnoticed legacy. In the third volume of Oxford University Press' acclaimed Places in Time series, David Hurst Thomas guides readers through eighteen sites in the United States and Canada. A narrative, accompanied by photographs, maps, reconstructions, and site planss help tell the story of each site and illuminate the early history of the continent. Thomas' introduction provides a brief history of the archeoligical research in the region, along with a discusion of its demographic trade and economy, science, techonogy, and art and religion. Each chapter is devoted to a single site and features a map showing its location, a site plan or reconstruction, a history of the site's excavation, a discussion of the principal finds and description of the specialized method used by archeologists. Sites covered include Cape Krusenstern in Alaska, home to the ancestors of the Inpupiat Eskimos; Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo Jump in Alberta, where crafty hunters trapped bison for thousands of years; and Mesa Verde in Colorado, described by Willa Cather as "a city of some extinct civilization...preserved in the dry air and almost perpetual sunlight like a fly in amber, guarded by the cliff and the river and the desert". Thomas also addresses the culture and way off life of the people who lived at each site, their technological achievements, their relationship with the environment, and the spiritual beliefs that motivated them. Exploring North America can serve as a unique travel guide offering a differnet perspective on the continent to those on the road, or just simply interesting reading to armchaor tarvelers, history buffs or just the curious..
PLACES IN TIME: EXPLORING NATIVE NORTH AMERICA, by David Hurst Thomas, Oxford Univeristy Press, 2000; $39.95; ISBN 01-19-511857. |
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