State of the 4 Square Union

My fellow players, our modern world faces many challenges, but 4SEB stands here today to promise you a brighter future, full of games, laughter and joy. While the past year has not been kind to us economically we take solace in the fact we can gather  together underneath the freeway in the Rockridge BART parking lot for no charge other than a smile and friendly conversation. As we work together to draw more squares than in our past, to recruit more players than the week before, to stay in the game longer than our last round, we must remember that this community revolves around the people. While 4SEB seems like a Thursday night staple, it is only this way because of your vigorous participation. From our humble beginnings on myspace, to our now well known presence on facebook 4 Square of the East Bay has cemented itself in the consciousness of the East Bay Area. As we look towards the future, our hopes are to expand the good feelings that we share on a weekly basis to those that need it most. The losers, those at the back of the line, the people who are too scared to play, the people trying to get to their cars. 4SEB opens its arms and say “Welcome, you are part of our 4 Square family!” Thank you, thank you! God bless you, and God bless 4 Square of the East Bay!

Thanks to all the players who showed up: Leah, Lee, Uriah, Rachel, Robert, Mike, Meira, Eric, Gabby, Kendall, Laura, Mike, Paul, Cassandra, Lisa, Mike, Steve, Mika, Anne Marie, Greg, Justin, Judi, Kyle, Adam, Vi, Casey, Jordan, Sam and Rasha! Much thanks to ROBERT for bringing the stereo, setting up the square and taking these new fancy pictures! Big ups to ROBERT and MEIRA for providing yummy snacks for the eating! Shout out to LEE for bringing the ball because no one else had balls (sorry folks for starting so late). And a huge hug goes to JORDAN because it was her BIRTHDAY and she let everyone know!

In other news, Lee won a 4 Square Challenge. Someone should stop him, he’s got too many pictures on this blog. But I guess when you look this good, you deserve to win?

The elimination rounds were super confusing last night. In an unprecedented move, both Square 1 & Square 2 called elimination simultaneously. This was chaos because as soon as someone was eliminated they would walk to the other square where they would be yelled at because the line had been closed. This led to the weird idea that a player could be eliminated in each square once and that the winner of each elimination square would duel each other. This might have worked, but it totally didn’t. There was confusion, yelling, cheating and being cheated. Whatever, it’s just a game. In the end Vi and Mike faced off and Mike won, but due to utter confusion they both get their picture on the blog. It’s just that Mike gets to hold the ball. Yay!

That’s all for today! Enjoy your weekend it’s gonna be a good one. Be back next week for your chance to be awesome!

Flex Those Muscle Cars…

VROOOOOM! 4 Square East Bay has a CORVETTE! Does your 4 Square game have a muscle car? I don’t think so! That’s right! We are B-A-D, not bad meaning bad, but bad meaning good! Okay, so maybe 4SEB is fronting a little bit but just because we push Hondas, Toyotas and bicycles doesn’t mean that we can’t pose in front of the real nice car that was parked dangerously close to our square. To all the owners of nice cars in the East Bay, we play 4 Square in the Rockridge BART parking lot on Thursday nights so if you park there, balls will be bouncing all around your shit. If you’re okay with that, then we’re okay taking pictures by your money … I mean vehicle.

Thursday was a divided night. The base of 4SEB is a lot of cool people who are big geeks on the inside (sometimes on the outside too). What drew many players away from last night’s game was the release of the new Harry Potter movie. They were all standing in line for the first midnight screening and to make JK Rowlings more richerer. When this was realized the conversations of the remaining players quickly turned to HP bashing. While a magical wizard boy is interesting and whatnot, 4 Square East Bay appreciates all those that suppressed the urge to hang out with nerdy ass teenagers and nerd out in a theater to nerd out with us in a parking lot.

Rules were in full effect last night, favorite being the Commie Rule, Precision Square, Countries of the World, Things That Live Under Water, Get To Know You Square, the Pirate Rule, On-Deck Rule and Hipity-Hop Square. Fun times. Players were: Katherine, Sam, Robert, Lee, Lali, Caroline, Emily, Jody, Mary, Adam, Mike, Will, Uriah, Mike, Stephanie, Logan, Laura, Judi, Rachel, Anne Marie, Phil, Jordan, Ben, Byron, Bill, Sarah, Nick, Amy, Gabe and Kurt. Most 4 Square Challengers were knocked away, but one muscled his way to the top. Flex em Mike!

Both Squares were jumping for most of the night and the games were excellent. There were lots of laughs, some disputes and some great play! The rallies seemed to go on and on and most people were able to win at least once. But at the end of the night, there can only be one winner. Paul and Laura stared each other down across the square and hit balls at each other, but Laura was not able to overcome the sheer muscly might of Paul. Congrats Paul, it’s your time to shine!

VROOM! That’s the end of the recap! Really though, you should stop reading these and just come out and play. Most people are friendly… 4 Square of the East Bay has an event that it’s playing at on Saturday, November 20th! It’s the Eat, Play, Bark Festival in Jefferson Square Park in Old Oakland from 11am to 2pm! Hotness, bring your dog and your A game cuz we will be throwing down! Also, next Thursday is Thanksgiving in the United States of America. 4SEB is actually gonna be having a game going on then! What? As with most holiday squares, this game will start at 1opm NOT 9pm so if you feel so inclined as to work off that huge meal, come and join us! Bring left overs! Thanks for reading, see you in the square!

Costume Square 2010: Photographic evidence!

Thanks to Paul the Pirate for bringing an actual camera so that we could distract players with flashes! Don’t they look great? Way to celebrate, 4SEB, you are sooo creative …

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Sloshtober

Is that a chill in the air? No, it’s just all those grown-up kids from 4 Square East Bay being cool. We don’t get bad weather in the Bay, we just dress in layers. It’s October already (already?) and while the rest of the country runs in doors and grabs sweaters, 4SEB sips on spiced ales and does what it does best … beats you at 4 Square. Autumn and winter have proven hard times for outdoor urban games but with a strong following and serious players, the crew from the parking lot will skip hibernation and play year round. We’ve braved the rain and the wind before, it’s just this time, we’ve got a blog to document it. Don’t be left out in the cold, warm up with a friendly game! 4SEB is here for you. Always.

The ballers got their hustle on all night. There was discussion of the World Championships of 4 Square but financial concerns brought up the possibility of having our own tournament on the West Coast (possibly the 4 Square International Championship?). Either way, 4SEB will be in the mix, one way or another. Players mixed it up with a variety of rules with the favorites being: the Commie Rule, Cities of the World, play with one hand, Spin Rounds, On Deck Square, Jump out of your square, touch the ground after you hit and things that live under water. This ain’t yo daddy’s 4 Square, this is Parking Lot Square!

Shout out to the long list of players who showed up! They were: Sanjay, Sam, Daniel, Caroline, Linnaea, Katy, Lee, Jordan, Anne Marie, Liz, Lali, Julian, Rachel, Mike, Caroline, Phil, Nam, Stephen, Robert, Julian, Justin, Laila, Rasha, Angie, George, Paul, Adam, Kendall, Celia, JP, Julie, Mike, Vi, Juan, Hugo, Casey and Jerome. There were also spectators but you don’t get your name in the blog if you don’t play. Sorry (not really). Also thanks to Robert for cinnamon bunning the whole crowd. Yum!

4 Square Challenge winners were numerous and most were well deserving of their victory. The rest of 4SEB, you gotta stop these people! Congrats to Sam, Phil, Lee, Daniel, Justin and Lali!

Squares 1 & 2 raged for quite a while as people took forever to work themselves up to elimination. Eventually, it did happen. Square 2 closed out first followed by the bellowing call to end the night. Everyone lined up and talked smack but, in the end, it didn’t matter. Vi and Adam squared off and, once again, Vi stands for Victory. Wayta win it all!

And that was a quick recap of everything that happened! Well maybe not everything, but if you missed it, you missed another great night with 4SEB. Speaking of great nights, what are you doing tonight? You should be joining the East Bay Bike Party for Zombie Ride! It’s starting tonight at 7:30pm departing from Frank Ogawa Plaza/Oakland City Hall (hey, isn’t that the place they play capture the flag on the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays?) and riding all around Oakland and Alameda. Or if you are afraid of Zombies, hit up the Oaktoberfest in the Diamond District on Saturday. This is an all day, beer enjoying affair with live music and great dancing by our friends Mix’d Ingrdnts and BODIROCK! If that wasn’t enough food, why don’t you register right quick for the ForageSF Underground Market happening in Oakland Saturday night! Yeah baby, eat up! Lastly, Sunday is 10/10/10 and the East Side Arts Alliance is holding a conference on Cell Phone Justice. If you were wondering how to help improve your community by using your communicator, this event is gonna be very insightful.

That about wraps it up! 4SEB has a couple of events we’re gonna be at including next weekend at the Old Oakland Beer Festival! Check us out! Also, folks are gearing up for Costume Square 2010 so shouldn’t you be doing the same? See you next week!

Onomonopia

Pow! ZAP! Baaam! 4 Square East Bay! Yeeee! Thursday night! Bang! Got game? Pffffffft! Facebook eeeirrr kssssh!

Roar! Drip drop! Whoosh… slam! Whizz! Sizzle. Rules? Slurp, munch, slap, bonk!

Players! Mandel, Rachel, Robert, Liz, Will, Caroline, Gabby, Uriah, Carl, Kendall, Theo, Paul, Lali, Ryan, Andrea, Vi, Steph, Logan, Sara, Rasha, Travis, Anne Marie, Justin, Sanjay, Lee, Jerome, Phil, Jordan, Adam, Julian, Mike, Paul, Mike, Anjali, Sam, Matt, Mike, Ali, Matt, Dorian and more! Wow!

4 Square Challenge? Lee & Justin! Clap clap clap!

Square 1? Splat! Square 2? Kaboom! Elimination … Caroline!!! ROWL!

SMASH! This weekend … Rockridge Out & About on Sunday! 4SEB will be playing at Harwood & College from noon ish till we’re done! Join! Oakland Undergound Film Festival … toot! Hear you all next week!

Season Opener: Big Games!

This past Thursday night was the night of big games! While the East Bay has love for the Big Easy, we had to represent in our own fashion … with another huge turn out at 4 Square! Seriously, it felt a little like Bourbon St in the parking lot, but with more chalk art and less flashing. Music bumped, people danced, some watched, most participated and the community came together to have fun and get to know each other. This is the second week in a row that 4SEB has had no trouble maintaining and running 3 full squares for 3 full hours. That sounds like some big games! So if you are new to this blog or to our family of ballers, please invite your friends to come and join us! But only if they are really gonna step up and have fun … No side-line commentators please. And you know what they say … once you play, you’ll never go away.

The big games brought out some big names all trying to go for the big fame… the players were: Mike, Travis, Jordan, Lee, Julian, Daniel, Rita, Liz, Angie, Mike, Robert, Caroline, Lali, Will, Ben, Sam, Justin, Anne Marie, Eric, Sanjay, Steph, Max, Eric, Gene, John, Carlos, Anjali, Laila, Paul, Mitchel, Laura, Sara, Casey, Jerome, Serena, Daniel, Mike, Xochitl, Liza, Ian, Xochitl, Stephanie, Cordelia, Logan, Ben, Adam, George, Julian, Micky, Gabby and Mike! Dunno if you’re counting, but that’s a lot of people! Plus more who watched by the cupcakes! Speaking of cupcakes, 4SEB celebrated the birthdays of Ben, Mike and Robert by singing to the lucky virgo trio and eating sweet things… Thanks for being born guys!

Rules made their way through the melee that was the night only to show up and stay up in all three squares. Favorites were the Commie Rule, Countries of the World, Soccer Style, Precision Square, Get To Know You Square and a couple of rounds of Tag-Team doubles. It was hot. 4SEB encourages the people who get to ‘A’ Square to be creative and get funky with their rule making. Even if people don’t like it, they’ve gotta do what you say cuz you are at the top! Really, what we gotta do is bring back a couple of rounds of Kung-Fu Animal Square… The 4 Square Challenge seeped its way into the night, but challengers were smacked around and then down to the ground. Four people managed to fight their way through and get their pictures taken in a crappy fashion. Whoot whoot for Ben, Sam, Ben and Justin! Also big BIG shoutout goes to Ben (the second one, not the birthday one) for showing up to our Square because not only did he win the 4 Square Challenge, he introduced it to 4 Square of the East Bay. If that wasn’t enough, he is also one of the originators of our style of square which comes all the way from the East Coast via Olde English Comedy. Check em out!

With so many people having fun it’s hard to call elimination. Everyone feeds off of each other and wants to compete and be the best. It sucks when the line is long and players have to wait so the big games went well beyond midnight. But eventually, Square 1 and Square 2 shut down leaving the losers (and the winners) to line up in Square 3. Battles were hard fought, hands were clapped for players and at the end of the final elimination Lali and Stephanie had just one person to beat to be called 4 Square Champ for the week. Sorry Lali, but this week it goes to Stephanie who’s enthusiasm and strategic position at the end of the line clinched her the win. Who dat say they gon beat Stephanie?

Thanks to everyone who has been showing up these past few weeks! Without you, 4SEB would never have lines and all of the conversations would be boring. Big game thanks go to all the people who brought food for the birthday boys and for the people who helped clean up the trash and other stuff. You make it happen, the community is you. Awesome. On the list of things to do this weekend is the East Bay Bike Party starting on Friday, September 10th at 7:30pm at Downtown Berkeley BART. The theme is Wild West so show up with your bike dressed as a horse. Also all weekend is the Power To The Peaceful Festival happening in Golden Gate Park on the other side of the Bay. Go enjoy some music and some peace. Lastly, our thoughts go out to San Bruno who’s community was shocked last night by an exploding gas line and subsequent fires. Nothing is ever certain so let’s treat each other with respect and love when we see each other. Have a positive weekend Bay Area, see you next week!

Triple Play!

Schools back on … so what? People who played 4 Square on Thursday night were all about recess. There were so many players that a mythical Square 3 was constructed to accommodate all the ballers who wanted to ball out. While 4SEB loves the number 4, we also realize that 3 is a lucky number, that the triangle is one of the strongest structures, that all great epics are made in trilogies, that the Triceratops was the mightiest of dinosaurs … wait a minute, WHAT?! …  This type of stuff is just killing the ‘Land Before Time’ legacy. Looks like the kids are gonna learn something different this year.

In spite of the news that dino-lovers everywhere have been lied to for years, folks managed to pull themselves together enough to have a kick-ass time playing games. There were many new introductions to 4SEB’s style of play but people seemed to integrate themselves fine. It’s always nice to see when people start off a little wary, semi-self-conscious, possibly afraid and end up ripping through opponents, garnering the scorn of the line and basically singing ‘F**K YOU’ with a smile on their face and ball in their hand. Ahh, games … if you don’t make us happy while competing, what’s the point?

Because of the spread nature of having all 3 Squares going at once, it was hard to catch all of the good rules that went down, but 4SEB can assume that they were mostly awesome. The new players were introduced to the Commie Rule, the Pirate Rule, the Bird Rule, Countries of the World, Spin Rounds, Precision Square, the On-Deck Rule and the Touch-the-Ground Rule. As always, new folks new to ‘A’ Square made multiple hands-free rules just to try it out. This became known as Soccer Square and actually produced some good rounds where no one was bored, annoyed by Vuvuzelas or headed in the chest.

Players were many (so if you were there and aren’t on the list … just come back next week): Daniel, Julian, Ally, Adam, Claire, Nam, Rasha, Robert, Poh, Daniel, Eric, Laura, Anne Marie, Caroline, Lali, Mike, Uriah, Rebecca, Paul, Will, Paul, Gabby, Lee, Ian, Nick, Vi, Alex, Laila, Phil, Anjali, Amy, Mike, Sam, Stephanie, Daniel, Rachel, Rita, Jordan, Casey, Jerome, Mike, Thomas, Mark, Kendall, Dorian and Zoe. 4 Square Challenges winners (like all good things) come in 3. They were Paul, Lee and Mike. Three cheers for them!

Midnight managed to sneak up on everyone and, before players knew it, Square 1 and Square 2 were both eliminated leaving the wandering losers to gather around the brand spanking new Square 3. A couple of rounds went down before someone called the big E on the whole night. Still, new players began to show up and populate the line. Guys, next time get there when everyone playing isn’t trying desperately to survive! At the end of the night, everyone got smacked around a little and the balance of power in ‘A’ Square shifted multiple times. The final face-off pitted veteran Lee against new comer Poh. While Poh’s enthusiasm was awesome, his accuracy was off and he got himself out leaving Lee to another victory. Keeping with the theme, Lee’s name has 3 letters and rhymes with 3.

Wow, September has just started and already it’s crazy! What amazing game play from an amazing community and what a wonderful way to kick off Labor Day weekend! 4 Square of the East Bay is totally spoiled by being located in the best place in the country with the friendliest, most bestest players ever. If you don’t believe that the East Bay has it going on, you need to check out what is happening this weekend and choose what you are gonna get into … Starting on Friday night, there is always Art Murmur (followed by the Bike Murmur after-party at Paradiso), Saturday AND Sunday is Hoodstock at the Oakland Metro near Jack London and in West Oakland, Sunday is a celebration of Oakland Pride with a take-over of the Uptown district (with a Chaka Khan performance for only $5!) and also on Sunday is the I.S.I.S. Science & Culture Fair (for FREE) up at the Chabot Space & Science Center featuring a hologram of Mos Def. This weekend is packed and it’s on you to make the best of it! Also shout out to my momma cuz it’s her birthday on Sunday! Happy birthday Mom! To the whole Bay Area, be safe and have fun this Labor Day!

Hotter Than July

Sure, sure we all know that on the national scale, California is the last to wake and the last to sleep in the continental US (love to our brothers and sisters in Hawai’i and Alaska), but does that mean that we gotta do everything late? After what seems like months of straight up WINTER weather, the Bay Area has finally experienced summer. This sucks for the kids in Oakland who finally got to get out in the sun just to go back to school shopping. But this week the heat was not the pleasant, breezy Bay heat, but oppressive heat, face-melting heat, James/Wade/Bosh heat. To cool off, we totally needed Stevie to take us in his Rocket Love just to drop back into a cold, cold world. That would have been nice…

Luckily, Thursday night was cooler in the parking lot … maybe because of the high level of cool people who showed up to play 4 Square? Probably… They were: Rory, Nina, Rasha, Lee, Uriah, Sam, Robert, Jordan, Gabby, Will, Kendall, Lali, Caroline, Ally, Robin, Justin, Vi, Linnaea, Allison, Michael, Mike, Rachel, Angie, Gabby, Liz, Laila, Charlie, Ariel, Dan, Alana, Sophia, Paul, Adam, Ben and Dorian. While the square itself was hot with action, nobody sweated through their t-shirts and everyone was reminded that body odor is a natural occurrence. Hey, if you’re not stinky or sweaty, you’re not playing hard enough and you need to go somewhere else with yo’self.

As always, 4SEB featured a plethora of rules some of which were the Commie Rule, Countries of the World, States of the USA, Capital Cities, the On-Deck rule, Precision Square, Spin Rounds, Compliment Square, the Pirate Rule, Spin-after-you-hit, Touch-the-ground-after-you-hit and a couple of insightful and hilarious rounds of Get To Know You square. 4 Square Challenges were issued by many, but completed by only one. To remind folks, the 4 Square Challenge is where upon entering D Square a player yells loudly and audibly ‘4 SQUARE CHALLENGE!’ This means that they have intentions on being in A Square in 3 turns effectively blowing away all other players. If they succeed and win, they have their picture taken and posted on the blog. If they lose, they suffer the reticule of the parking lot for their failure. That being said, the only one who wasn’t laughed at was Uriah. Hand clap ya’ll.

Again, 4SEB was able to maintain both Square 1 and Square 2 for an extended period of time. There were moments where the noobs found themselves bouncing balls blissfully in Square 2 without any vets to coming in to wreck them/make them feel welcome, but after a couple of well placed hits, everyone was laughing and playing with each other. Elimination came shortly after midnight even though everyone wanted be jammin’ until the break of dawn. At the end of a what seemed like forever, Sophia and Dan faced off to test their skills. Their skills resulted in two elimination faults, but the third time is a charm for Dan, because Sophia couldn’t contain her power and got herself out. Go Dan! Way to stand in the line and survive the square!

Whew! Wipe the sweat from your brow and drink some water! Thanks for reading! Don’t forget to love your community this weekend with the Eat Real Festival in Jack London Square, the Oakland Chinatown Streetfest in Chinatown, Sistah’s Steppin In Pride in Snow Park by Lake Merritt, the Annual Scraper Bike Ride & Festival in Downtown Oakland and the Summer B-Girl Jam over at the Eastside Cultural Center. Wow, you’ve got a busy schedule now, don’t you? See you next Thursday!

Queuing Up: No Visas Necessary

Is 4 Square of the East Bay blowing up? Why don’t you ask the millions of people who showed up this past Thursday to play games, make friends and be merry. They’ll tell you that they liked it back in the old days of 4SEB, before the long ass lines, when there were only 3 players. Seriously though, new faces are appearing every week and that couldn’t make us happier. They are even traveling from across the world to come and hang out in our little corner of the parking lot. It seems that the craze that has been sweeping England has turned out more than a couple of international travelers. Ah global community, 4SEB is happy to help foster relationships between all sorts of people… we’ll let you play even if the US government wants to kick you out. That’s right folks, NO VISAS NECESSARY to have a good time!

The play was phenomenal and everyone brought their best game. Gotta show love to all the folks who stood in the queue to represent where they’re from. The ballers were: Anne Marie, Will, Gabby, Allen, Lee, Justin, Allie, Rachel, Taryn, Nina, Shannon, Travis, Mike, Adam, Leila, Robert, Sam, Sanjay, Uriah, Jordan, Farrah, Jules, Angie, Liz, Mike, Caroline, Lali, Ben, Phil, Sarah, Gabe, Jerome, Dorian, Casey and Kendall. What good sports! First time players were confused at 4SEB’s wacky culture, but, like all good new arrivals, they adapted. Ruling the rule roost was the commie rule, precision square, jump as you hit it, the pirate rule, spin rounds, the on-deck rule and (obviously) countries of the world. 4 Square Challenges were called and some were won. Well done Justin, Sam, Uriah, Robert and Lee, well done chaps!

With all of the people yearning to play free the games went late into the night. Square 2 had been taped out around 9:45 and didn’t stop until around midnight. That left Square 1 with the longest elimination line in ages. While many tried to conquer the kingdom only one man managed to stay atop the masses and claim victory. Long live King Uriah! We will recognize you as a figurehead, but 4SEB will make it’s own policy…

And that’s another night of fun for the record books! It was great, thanks for the memories. 4SEB appreciates the warmth and spirit that comes with free activities and new friendships. As the summer draws to a close, the Bay Area is teeming with things to do. Check out 4 Square of the East Bay at Albany Streets on Sunday from 11am to 2pm! Also all weekend is the Art & Soul Festival in Downtown Oakland. Saturday is all about great events with the SF Street Food Fest in ‘the city’, a wiffleball game in Mosswood park and the Rock Paper Scissors Collective is having a Zine-A-Thon! Do yourself a favor, experience this great area while you can cuz you never know when you’ll have to catch a flight taking you away. Much love world, 4 Square will always be here for you…

4SEB: Episode II

Do we need to say more? It’s the next 4 Square East Bay video! This was shot during ‘Movie May’ and is awesome! Watch it, love it, repost it… holla! The music is by our good friends Elle Niño, an electro-funk band from the Bay Area. Support!

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4 Square of the East Bay: Episode II, posted with vodpod

If you’re having trouble viewing this version of the video, try the youtube version here…