Streetplay: The Blog

Dennis Hopper, RIP

Hugh McNally — Sat, 29 May 2010 22:53:08 +0000

We were sad to hear of today’s passing of Dennis Hopper. Dennis and Streetplay crossed paths in 1999 during the filming of Knockaround Guys, which featured a scene where he and John Malkovich played handball (see our coverage of behind-the-scenes action). Here’s the film trailer:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEpUGUgeAEw

This wasn’t Hopper’s crowning cinematic achievement (they waited until 2002 to even release the picture), but we still have fond memories of seeing him chasing a little blue ball around the court.

Perhaps more memorable in Hopper’s connection to sport was his popular series of Nike advertisements playing the paranoid, unhinged character Stanley. Here’s a memorable ad, a 1995 Super Bowl commercial:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dB4rsn8rJYM

Also not to be forgotten is Hopper’s portrayal of the down-and-out “Shooter” in the film Hoosiers. Here’s a scene featuring a temporarily rehabilitated Shooter:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wP0W3bRLQ8A

Rest in peace.

New York Street Games: Movie and feature in USA Weekend

Mick Greene — Sat, 15 May 2010 16:20:33 +0000

Really looking forward to the premiere of the documentary “New York Street Games” on Thursday, May 20. The clip is a straight run of great interviews and fantastic archival footage.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC3M2WNu23U

Check it out

Homepage -- www.newyorkstreetgames.com/home.html

Trailer -- www.newyorkstreetgames.com/trailer.html

Also, don’t miss this feature in this weekend’s USA Weekend highlighting the film, describing rules for the essential games, and citing Streetplay.com “more more information.”

Adults playing with kids

Hugh McNally — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 12:41:03 +0000

We’ve mentioned Lenore Skenazy more than once here on our blog; here’s a video of her positing the idea that parents don’t necessarily need to get involved and drive their kids’ play, suggesting that it may actually be detrimental. After Lenore, a bunch of mothers you’ve never heard of chime in, agreeing or disagreeing based on their own experiences.

It would have been preposterous, at least for me or anyone I ever knew as a child, for parents to hunker down with us as we played stickball, skully, or anything else outside. That time was referred to as “going out to play” by parents and kids alike. We figured things out on our own, learned basics of fair play, wrote our own script for the day. And had fun.

I did play board games like Scrabble enough with my parents, but that’s not what I remember as “play.” What do you all think?

Ambrosia Beats Q of W: Bronx Retains City Island

Hugh McNally — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 22:44:08 +0000

Careful readers of this blog may remember our last post about Baron Ambrosia, the host of Bronxnet’s show Bronx Flavor, and a YouTube clip showing him playing handball against someone dressed like Divine’s character in Pink Flamingos. The Baron has explained it all in his recently released episode: he’s playing for the Bronx against the evil “Queen of Westchester” to determine the ownership of City Island:

Baron Ambrosia plays handball-click to watch the episode on BronxFlavor.com

The Baron doesn’t provide an embed code for us to plant the show in our blog–and it’s not on YouTube–so click through Web 1.0 style and enjoy the contest! By the way: I’ve seen The Queen of Westchester many a time lurking through the Galleria in White Plains.

Double Dutch Divas: Remastered

Hugh McNally — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 16:24:10 +0000

Way back in August 2000, we put 4 short videos of the Double Dutch Divas on Streetplay, part of our jump rope coverage. Well, some 10 years later, we fixed them up a little (putting them all together, for one thing) and posted them on our new YouTube channel.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSP4nbO2ck0

The video quality may not be great like Hulu, but the message of fun still shines through after a decade has passed.

Double Dutch Divas: Remastered from the Streetplay Legacy Files

admin — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 16:02:40 +0000

	Double Dutch Divas: Remastered from the Streetplay Legacy Files You know those four short videos we had of the Double Dutch Divas, with the bad aspect ratios and the Batman angles? We tried to fix them up a bit. Enjoy!	From: streetplaycom Views: 51 0 ratings
	Time: 00:53	More in People & Blogs

Malaysian Skully?

Hugh McNally — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 14:25:27 +0000

So as we’re putting together our Streetplay YouTube channel, we stumbled across this video of people playing a “Traditional Malaysian game” with bottlecaps on a round tabletop. Looks like fun!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=43jLBRMHqz4

If anyone has more information on what the heck this game is called or how it’s played, let us know in the comments section of this post! Until we find out, we’re going to call it “Malaysian skully“--kind of like “Chinese handball” but hopefully without the racist overtones.

Streetplay on YouTube

Hugh McNally — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 14:00:40 +0000

We had videos on Streetplay way before there was a YouTube, but we have to admit, those guys have done it a little better than us. So, in the “if you can’t beat ‘em, use ‘em” kind of way, we’ve added our own channel on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/streetplaycom

If you know of a great YouTube video that depicts what we’re about, drop us a note in the comments.

Wendy and the Hula Hoop: Streetplay.com Legacy Video

admin — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 21:17:25 +0000

	Wendy and the Hula Hoop: Streetplay.com Legacy Video We can't find anything other than the animated GIF on our site of this, but luckily we could still upload it here!	From: streetplaycom Views: 7 0 ratings
	Time: 00:05	More in People & Blogs

Malcolm McLaren, RIP (“Double Dutch”)

Hugh McNally — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 19:27:22 +0000

Perhaps better known as the impresario of the Sex Pistols, Malcolm McLaren had a hit with “Double Dutch” in 1983 (a follow-up on “Buffalo Gals,” his take on what we called rap back then).

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt6Co7EMNCU

He definitely helped shape a lot of the music scene back then, mixing and matching genres. Sadly, he died today at the age of 64.