Blake Evitt: Travel, community and personal growth →

Published March 30, 2019  ·  All posts on Mar 30  ·  

Blake Evitt: Travel, community and personal growth

What role does community involvement and accessibility play in shaping inclusive, multigenerational spaces for Parkour and movement practice?

Blake Evitt discusses the importance of partnering with your community, creating multigenerational spaces for training, as well as how he does that in his hometown of Boston. He unpacks the influence that traveling had on his training, coaching, and business, as well as his own personal growth. Blake shares his thoughts on a number of subjects, including becoming vegetarian, the ADAPT coaching qualifications, and the United States Parkour Association.

Our goal with the park was to make a multigenerational movement space, not just a place where Parkour can happen but also a place where people can explore and be comfortable.

~ Blake Evitt (3:37)

The conversation explores how Parkour can serve as a tool for creating inclusive, multigenerational community spaces. A key focus is the development of public Parkour spaces, particularly in Somerville, Boston, where Parkour generations have helped design and steward municipally funded parks. The dialogue highlights the integration of Parkour for all ages, with specific classes for children, adults, and older practitioners, ensuring accessibility and fostering a communal experience. The discussion underscores the importance of designing spaces that allow for interaction across generations and between different activities, such as skateboarding and basketball.

Blake Evitt’s personal journey through international travel and cultural exchange plays a significant role in shaping his approach to Parkour and community building. His experiences training with Parkour groups worldwide inform his leadership in Parkour Generations Americas and the growth of Parkour Generations Boston. The interview touches on Evitt’s coaching philosophy, the significance of adapting Parkour for older adults, and the broader value of Parkour as a means of personal development, community engagement, and positive social change.

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Don’t believe the hype →

Published March 29, 2019  ·  All posts on Mar 29

I’ve read far too many stories put out by “prestige” news organizations that merely amount to: “This prominent person tweeted this. These random people responded with these tweets. This person made a meme out of it.” This is literally the entire content of the article. It is paragraphs of text devoid of meaning and significance. Just hype masquerading as journalism. But consume enough of it and it can shape your world view, where you feel like something is happening, but nothing actually is.

~ Brett McKay from, D.B.T.H. (Don’t Believe the Hype)

Elsewhere, this is 4uaoai8. — slipbox

A large part of my personal change has been driven by my changing what information I consume. There are very few things, people, or places which are able to “insert” information in front of me. The vast majority of information sources—and I’m using information here in the broadest sense—are all set up so that I access them. I access them the way I get water from the sink tap. I go to it. I act to begin the flow. I choose how much and at what rate it flows.

There’s no longer any hype coming out of my sink taps.

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Happiness first →

Published March 28, 2019  ·  All posts on Mar 28  ·  

Social conditioning may have convinced you that sacrificing your happiness to maintain a certain bank balance, to send timely payments to corporations to which you’re indebted, or to pay for someone else’s needs and expenses is the proper way to live. Perhaps your parents played a role in this conditioning as well, teaching you the importance of being responsible and holding down stable employment.

~ Steve Pavlina from, Happiness First, Then Everything Else

Elsewhere, this is 4usebo15. — slipbox

There’s a lot of value to the idea of, “and now that you are moving, you can steer.” Lots of metaphors here: A ship’s rudder doesn’t work unless the ship is moving; A car cannot turn around unless it is moving; etc. But there’s a vastly bigger picture that, “you can steer,” will never reveal.

It doesn’t matter how fast I’m “moving” or how well I “steer” if I’m on the wrong eff’in continent.

Steve often writes phoofy new-age mumbo jumbo stuff that I can’t even read. Why do I keep reading [you might ask]? Filter bubble. Perspective. Articles like this one which challenge the reader to wipe off the entire board and consider redrawing the plate tectonics.

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Cordelia Storm: Flips, competition, and representation →

Published March 27, 2019  ·  All posts on Mar 27  ·  

Cordelia Storm: Flips, competition, and representation

What does it mean to make movement more accessible and inclusive for everyone, regardless of background or athletic ability?

In this episode Cordelia Storm unpacks her thoughts about accessibility, the effects of a gym on a community, and her motivation for learning flips. She delves into her personal journey, as well as her relationship with competition. Cordelia mentions her documentary project, and finishes by tackling the concepts of gender, age, and representation in the parkour space.

In that moment I realized that my voice did matter. Now what? From then on, that just became a big passion— to have people love movement, love feeling their bodies, and like playing.

~ Cordelia Storm (30:55)

The conversation centers on the transformative power of parkour, not just as a physical discipline but as a tool for personal growth, inclusivity, and empowerment. Cordelia Storm shares her journey into parkour, starting from a background in theater and video games, and how the practice helped her overcome personal struggles, including bulimia. A large part of the discussion revolves around how parkour promotes accessibility and how Cordelia works to make movement available to a wider audience. She highlights how parkour shifted her relationship with her body, turning exercise from a punitive activity into a joyful and empowering experience.

Another key topic explored is the emotional impact of losing a community gym and how it challenged the parkour community to adapt and rebuild. Cordelia discusses the importance of outdoor classes and fostering micro-communities within them to maintain connection and continuity. The conversation also touches on gender representation in parkour, the evolving nature of competition, and the broader social and cultural implications of making movement inclusive. Cordelia’s passion for flips and overcoming fear is used as a metaphor for confronting personal barriers, showing how physical challenges in parkour mirror deeper internal struggles and victories.

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The muse →

Published March 26, 2019  ·  All posts on Mar 26  ·  

Show up, show up, show up, and after a while the muse shows up, too.

~ Isabel Allende

Elsewhere, this is 4a42. — slipbox

Burnout →

Published March 24, 2019  ·  All posts on Mar 24  ·  

The problem with holistic, all-consuming burnout is that there’s no solution to it. You can’t optimize it to make it end faster. You can’t see it coming like a cold and start taking the burnout-prevention version of Airborne. The best way to treat it is to first acknowledge it for what it is — not a passing ailment, but a chronic disease — and to understand its roots and its parameters. That’s why people I talked to felt such relief reading the “mental load” cartoon, and why reading Harris’s book felt so cathartic for me: They don’t excuse why we behave and feel the way we do. They just describe those feelings and behaviors — and the larger systems of capitalism and patriarchy that contribute to them — accurately.

~ Anne Helen Petersen from, How Millennials Became The Burnout Generation

Elsewhere, this is 4ubuai1. — slipbox

I was startled (or perhaps proud?) to notice this seems to be the first thing I’ve ever linked to on Buzzfeed. I was also startled to realize this article makes a lot of great points about burnout.

It doesn’t have any suggestions about how to recover. But it does point out the key observation that you cannot optimize your way out of burnout. Been there. Done that. Am there. Doing that.

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Intelligence →

Published March 23, 2019  ·  All posts on Mar 23

At worst, we apply a supernatural explanation to the whole show, because otherwise we’d have to recognize intelligence as a natural extension of the things that happen on a barren, unattended planet. For some reason we often insist nature couldn’t be that interesting or potent on its own. There has to be a super nature, to keep nature in its rightful, humble place. It makes us feel special I guess, maybe that’s why we don’t give nature the credit. We’re special either way, but we don’t need special rules to explain how we’re here. For that matter, we don’t necessarily need to explain ourselves to ourselves at all. Whatever happened, we got intelligent at some point, and that’s great. It’s okay to wonder aloud exactly how it happened, but clearly it did.

~ David Cain from, Nature’s finest gift to you

Elsewhere, this is 4urana2. — slipbox

Monism has never made sense to me. It’s interesting and I’ve spent a significant amount of time turning over its various flavors trying to understand others’ points of view. But, “that’s interesting,” is as far as I get.

When I face reality—thinking through mental models, comparing them to my personal experiences, talking to other people and listening to their experiences—I simply don’t see any deep mystery in life. Certainly, I see mind-bogglingly-huge expanses of things which are unknown (by me or anyone,) but that simply makes me more excited and more curious!

What confuses me is that the majority of people think differently, and I spend a lot of time talking to people as I try to understand how they think. I have only one point of view. I’m deeply fascinated by the universe around me and, in particular, by the conversations that come from me saying, “What does that bit of reality over there look like from your point of view?”

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Mark Toorock: Commercialization, representation, and play →

Published March 21, 2019  ·  All posts on Mar 21  ·  

Mark Toorock: Commercialization, representation, and play

What role should competition and commercialization play in shaping the future of Parkour?

Mark Toorock shares his thoughts on the commercialization of parkour, FIG and competitions, as well as the direction parkour is headed. He also opens up about his personal goals for parkour, raising the socially acceptable age of play, and how he sees himself within the community. Mark wraps up by discussing the power of parkour to benefit all people.

The thing for me about Parkour is, if I can make one person that used to walk with their head down, walk with their head up, that’s the change in the world. We don’t change the world, we change a person.

~ Mark Toorock (32:32)

The conversation explores the evolving landscape of Parkour, focusing on commercialization, competition, and the community’s shifting mindset. Mark Toorock reflects on the initial resistance within the Parkour community to monetization and contrasts it with the growing acceptance as practitioners age and recognize the need to sustain their passion financially. The discussion highlights the complexity of maintaining Parkour’s spirit while enabling financial opportunities, drawing parallels to artists who monetize their craft without compromising authenticity.

Competition is another critical focus, with Mark advocating for a non-competitive foundation in Parkour while embracing competitions based on Parkour movements. He stresses that competition need not undermine the spirit of Parkour and can coexist with a community-driven, collaborative ethos. The conversation touches on the potential risks of external organizations, like the International Gymnastics Federation, attempting to control Parkour competitions and the broader implications for public perception. Additionally, Mark emphasizes the importance of maintaining play as a socially acceptable activity for adults, advocating for a culture that values lifelong movement and exploration.

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True and steadfast judgment →

Published March 21, 2019  ·  All posts on Mar 21  ·  ,

This can be swiftly taught in very few words: Virtue is the only good; There is no certain good without virtue; And virtue resides in our nobler part, which is the rational one. And what can this virtue be? True and steadfast judgment.

~ Seneca

Elsewhere, this is 4a199. — slipbox

The Roller-Coaster →

Published March 20, 2019  ·  All posts on Mar 20

I think working with anyone who’s a brilliant creative can at times be a rollercoaster. Working with any other human other than yourself can be a rollercoaster, because they’re not you, so, you know… their reactions to things are going to be different than yours. But I think that’s part of the adventure. You talked to me about One Love, you talked to me about the telethon, and now you’re talking to me about clients. My response is the same: Life is not ever going to be content. Life is never going to be normal. For the rest of your life you’re on a journey that has ups and downs and ups and downs, it is a roller coaster that never ends. Until one day you close your eyes and you’re off the roller coaster. And I think for me, I just want to be on as many different journey’s as possible, so at least if I’m on a roller coaster, there’s a new zigzag and a turn that I didn’t know about before.

~ Scooter Braun from, Scooter Braun

Elsewhere, this is 4ucapo1. — slipbox

In this interview titled, Bringing Light to Darkness, Cal and Scooter have a wide ranging discussion of the challenges Scooter faced in 2017 and the lessons he learned. I’m a big fan of Cal’s work generally. Although this is one of his earlier podcasts, it’s a gold mine.

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Elsewhere, this is 4a595. — slipbox