Date: Thu, 18 Aug 1994 08:52:35 -1000 From: Frank Kenisky Message-Id: Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) Subject: Kite Events Overseas Isn't that special? This past Monday night, I sat and watched part of "Americas Team" and the Houston Oilers play football in Mexico City, Mexico. It was muddy, reminded me of an AKA Convention I went to a few years ago. Why do I bring this up in the news group rec.kites? Have I just lost it completely, you ask? Have I finally reached the point where I fall off the edge? You ask yourself, 'is he really insane'? Well, actually there is a point, one which, I'm sure, most of you will miss. Only because you are as aware of what is going on around you as, say Joanne. (Look Mark, over there it's Joann, she puts her head in the sand like that because she does't want to be seen.) For well over the past five years I have heard many kiters, who have had the opportunity to attend kite events overseas, rave about how kite events in those countries attract so many spectators. They have, without trying to be too boastful and arragont, told of the great many spectators and the way they were treated as guests of the event. I have heard (and read, in the pages of Kiting) many of them say how well the event is attended by the locals. They have told stories of how the events attract major sponsorship. They have told how it is the best event they have ever attended and what event organizers in the US could learn from them. Well, here is some interesting news for all you world travelers out there who live in your own kite realm. The United States, (the place where the AKA started) is full of diversity. Take for instance rec.kites, although it is world wide, there is a great diversity, (a good analogy of diversity). We have our geeks like Mark, our snoots like Joann and the rest of us idiots. In the US this diversity also extends to our behavior. Who would think that Professional Football would critize its spectators. (Hey stupid, why don't you consider the entire spectrum and not your own little world.) What am I talking about? During the Monday Night Game (Dallas Cowboys vs Houston Oilers in Mexico City, Mexico), the announcers, because of a boring muddy game were astounded by the number of spectators in attendance. (120,000) One player, who will remain nameless, bacause I can't remember anyway, said something to the effect, 'if we could get this kind of attendence from the fans in the United States..." Then what? More money? Right!!! How about that. The NFL critizing how the fans don't attend as much as they do in Mexico City, Mexico. A city where their exposuer to football is what they can get from a satalite dish, (probably bought with the new income from the new US factory which just opened up, and put several hundred people in the US out of a job, thanks to NAFTA.) Oh yea, let's be competitive. Sorry, went off a bit there. But what about that? This big old football player, who probably makes more in one year than many of us little people on the net, critizing fans in the US. A bit selfish, I think. But there's the point. Here's a country (Mexico) which has one event as large as anything as the NFL, with all it's "STARS", players, and spectatular lime light only once a year, plus with a whole lot of government intervention. Hey, this was a sales pitch. Just in case you were not aware of it. They were selling you on Mexico. There is nothing wrong with that. People in the United States are from diverse cultures and backgrounds. I for one am smart, intelligent, witty, funny and very good looking, thank you. And just down the road we have Joann, who is middle aged with wrinkles and is a pariond moralist who hates people like me but buys front row seats to watch Andrew Dice Clay, just so she can catch his spit. Hey, we're different. With some 20 or 30 odd football franchises, the same number of basketball, hockey, and of course baseball teams (now on strike,... 'baseball been berry berry good to me') how can you expect to get 120,000 people to watch every game or "kite festival" throughout the country? If you already have an answer I'm afraid to hear it. (Did I interrupt you while you were cleaning out your navel?) And what about other interests like the weekend crafts, or hiking, or bar hopping (oh yea, I forgot most of you are already involved in that past time.) or GUN SHOWS. With that type of diversity in the US, how the hell do you expect to get 120,000+ spectators at every kite event in the US. Your not just dreaming, your stuipid!!! Hey, there are televised sports on the tube that have sponsorship from some major companies. (Log splitting, snow surfing, and beach vollyball.) I saw a beach vollyball tournment, (just long enough to watch the bikini bottoms streach into the...oh wow, I started day dreaming again) and there weren't but a hand full of spectators in the stands. But it was televised and they had sponsors. Who were the sponsors you ask? BEER!!! sponsors dumb shit. Oh!!! excuse the hell out of me. Did I cross over a boundry, is that too much of a contradiction. It's okey to get sloshed, (like so many of you do, or like to watch as other do) but never to sponsor a kite event. I hate paronid moralists!!! They're the vegetarians who drink beer for the yeast. If a kite event in the US attracts 5,000 (real) spectators, (not topless sun bathers who are insenced because there is a kite thing taking place on their beach, or on the coast during spring break or the start of summer break, [gimme a break], these aren't spectators, they are convient) then that kite event is doing great! If that kite event gets those spectators involved with the event and kiting then that event is promoting kiting. But, if that event caters to the contestant, and goes out of it's way to bring in "special kite guests", then that person has more money than they know what do to with. I think the kite event organizers in this country have their hands full. (And there are a bunch of kiters out there who are full or something else.) They are doing as good a job as they can, especially considering that most events are the organization of a hand full of decitated individuals. I salute the organizers who attract thousands of spectators and do it without financing from the kite industry. Tell the critics to go to hell! Tell the premodanas to shove it up their rectums. And keep on keepin on. As for you world travelers who just can't seem to see the forest for the trees. We appreciate your stories but only the way George Peters can tell them. If your going to boast about it. Do ME a favor, keep it too yourself. And one last point to the world travlers, you voted to hold the AKA Convention in Wildwood, NJ. If I recall, which I am better at than most of you 60's children who lost your brains to drug experimentation, a Cory Jensen wrote 'here we go again hosting our convention where there isn't going to be any spectators. Oh well I guess we do it for us.' Well, people, you're the ones who voted for these buttholes, I guess that's why you defend them. It's a direct reflection on you. = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =