The Eagle Rock Yacht Club is an non-profit adult dodgeball league that believes everyone has a responsiblity to get invovled in their community. Dodgeball, Drinking and the Common Good!
8-year-old Amelia Meyer could have wished for anything, all she had to do was ask.
Most kids picked by the Make-A-Wish Foundation - who are in the business of making dreams come true for children with life-threatening illnesses- choose to meet celebrities or to go Disney World. But Amelia, who is fighting brain cancer, told the foundation that her wish was to “take care of the world” for a day, so they helped her do just that.
This past Saturday, Amelia, her family and friends were joined by hundreds of others as they cleaned up their neighborhood park. The movement spread to other neighborhoods in Kansas City and other towns in the state. Kansas City Mayor Sly James was even there to proclaim it “Take Care of the World Day” in Amelia’s honor.
For her part, Amelia was too busy collecting rubbish to take in all the good her simple wish had inspired, she was just excited to “get to pick up trash”. Sounds like just our kind of #ERYCDiva.
Claudette Colvin was 15 years old when she refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. It was 1955 and a good nine months before Rosa Parks' historic act of defiance.
Colvin was riding home from school on a city bus when the driver told her to give up her seat. She refused, saying, "It's my constitutional right to sit here as much as that lady. I paid my fare, it's my constitutional right."
Negro history month, as it was then known, had just ended and at her segregated school Colvin and her classmates had been learning about black leaders. Colvin, emboldened by this, felt compelled to stand her ground. "I felt like Sojourner Truth was pushing down on one shoulder and Harriet Tubman was pushing down on the other—saying, 'Sit down girl!' I was glued to my seat," she would later say.
Colvin was arrested and spent several tearful hours in jail before her mother and her minister could bail her out. The NAACP was on the lookout for a case to challenge Montgomery's segregation laws and Colvin’s case was briefly considered. They worried about her age and maturity but when she became pregnant around the time of her arrest, the decision was made for them. They feared that an unwed mother would attract too much negative attention in a public legal battle. Ultimately Rosa Parks, a 42 year-old seamstress with a spotless reputation was chosen to be the face of the boycott and the rest as they say is history.
Who can say whether, Colvin would have held up to the scrutiny Rosa Parks would go on to endure as the public face of the boycotts. But there can be no doubt that Colvin’s act of defiance was just as brave and just as bold.
To call Marley Dias an up-and-comer would be a disservice to everything she has already accomplished... at the age of 11.
Frustrated with her assigned reading at school, Marley complained to her mom that she was “sick of reading about white boys and dogs”. Challenged by her mom to do something about it, Marley began her #1000BlackGirlBooks drive.
The goal was to collect 1000 books where a black girl was more than just a background character but the actual protagonist of the story. Marley hit her mark and has already begun sharing her books and list with low-resource schools so that other black girls might be able to read a book and see a bit of themselves in it.
Watch Marley interviewed on TV - so composed, so bright and so confident- and you know that this is only the beginning for one very special #ERYCDiva.
Often times being an #ERYCDiva can be about being a pioneer: ahead of the curve and ahead of the times. Here’s Shirley Chisolm, who never met a trail that didn’t need a little blazing.
In 1968, Shirley Chisholm left her career in education to become the first African-American woman elected to Congress. A year later, she was one of the founding members of the Congressional Black Caucus. By 1972, she was making history again by becoming the first African-American woman of a major party to run for a presidential nomination.
She would come up short in her presidential bid, but she would go on to serve seven terms in the House of Representatives, during which she was a constant champion of minority education and employment opportunities. Cheers to “Ms. Chis”, a trailblazer and a legit #ERYCDiva.
There were at least two things that made Lilly Ledbetter different from the other Area Managers working for Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. in her day. The first was that she was a woman, the second was that she was paid significantly less than her male counterparts.
The road from Goodyear to ERYCDivadom is not one well traveled. But when you spend your retirement as a tireless advocate for the elimination of the gender pay gap, have your case argued before the Supreme Court, and have a Fair Pay federal statute named after you, well then there’s no denying, you are a true #ERYCDiva in our book. Last week marked the 7 year anniversary of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, the very first legislation President Obama signed into law.
A new season of Yacht Club dodgeball is here and with it comes a new season's theme.
ERYC: Divas is a celebration of all the fabulous ladies at the tops of their games, no matter what those games might be. Musical divas? You bet. Science divas?! Heck yes! Historical? Of course! And you know that inevitable black-robed Ruth Bader Catchburg team is sure to be a winner.
This #ERYCDivas Season we will be honoring some of the many wonderful women who have made a difference. Who are your faves?
The Eagle Rock Yacht Club boldly challenged the boundaries of good taste this season...
... with its latest theme: "Too Soon" -- open to interpretation, but primarily defined as too soon to joke about something tragic. Much like a good game of Cards Against Humanity, it was like a litmus test poised to reveal exactly how terrible of people your fellow dodgeballers are.
MOST POPULAR. "Crimea River," Venice and Glassell.
Two teams opted for the pun-powered name that combined everyone's two favorite things: "Justified" era Justin Timberlake and the current fragile geopolitical situation in Eastern Europe.
PROBABLY LONG ENOUGH. "Cuban Dodgeball Crisis," Venice.
Fifty-two years is probably past the statute of limitations for "too soon."
DEAD CELEBRITY SHOUTOUTS. "Philip Seymour Dodgeman," NoHo; "Here Today, Egon Tomorrow," Highland Park.
No better way to work out the five stages of grief than with some dodgeball.
"HEY, WE PAY ATTENTION TO THE NEWS!" "Donald Sterling's Colored Friends," Highland Park; "Dude, Where's My Plane?" NoHo
Following CNN on Twitter finally paid off!
SPOILER ALERT. "Red Wedding Caterers," NoHo
Hey, we’re only on season two! (Just figured out our parents' HBO Go password.)
CUTEST. "Merry Christmas," Glassell.
While other teams raced to outdo each other with dark humor, this brave team wore Santa hats and gave each other gifts after each game, because it's too soon to celebrate Christmas. Adorable! (Full disclosure: The writer of this sentence you're reading right now was on that team.)
BEST DRESS-UP OPPORTUNITIES. "Dead Wrestlers' Society," Glassell.
The esteemed Willy Roberts wholeheartedly embraced this theme by paying tribute to fallen WWE Superstars with Ultimate Warrior, Macho Man Randy Savage and Paul Bearer costumes.
NO. JUST NO. "Batkid Death Watch," NoHo.
No. Just no.
Over the weekend, we were invited by our friends at Converse to check out their new, community-focused initiative targeted towards creative youth-- CONS Project: LA. Workshops were set up offering hands-on lessons in DIY culture, zine production, and filmmaking through music and skate. All were facilitated by ambassadors in their respective industries, including Secret Walls, HIT + RUN, Burger Records, and Sixstair, to name a few. On March 1st, a wrap event will be held, showcasing all the work and projects completed by participants in the workshops. If we're feeling brave (or tipsy), we may try to sneak in some of our own Yacht Pix photos and hang them on the wall for display. Kidding (not kidding)!
Haven’t signed up for the ERYC Valentine's Day Tournament?
Read the story below. Then decide whether to spend your Sunday:
A) playing dodgeball, meeting new people, and raising money for city parks.
or:
B) watching Netflix, wearing sweatpants, and waiting for that Special Someone to just show up on your doorstep
More than a year later, Craig hosted a birthday event at The Surly Goat, and it was there that he convinced Zoki to play on his team for the upcoming Valentine's dodgeball tournament. Zoki had been resistant to playing in the tourney because she didn't want to captain another team that would get obliterated by a WDS team. Kedor, unable to resist an opportunity to chuck dodgeballs, joined the tournament as a free agent.
The day of the tournament, Zoki was so focused that she never even gave Kedor a second thought. Kedor was engaged with his team and their reverie, barely aware that Zoki was in attendance.
However, after the tourney, Zoki decided to join her friends at Brennan's Pub, and sat talking with them over a huge plate of nachos. Kedor, with one eye on the nachos, sat down to join the exchange and sometime during the conversation mentioned he was from Milwaukee. Curiously, Zoki turned and asked, "where in Milwaukee?", and Kedor replied, "West Allis." She proclaimed, "I was born at West Allis Memorial Hospital!" They continued to chat, but went their separate ways at the end of the night.
Convinced they shared a common connection, Zoki friended Kedor on facebook the following day. Three weeks later, they went on their official first date, and through their ERYC connection they found true love.
____
In conclusion: play dodgeball, find love. (Unless you have a thing for your pizza delivery person. In that case, totally stay home and order a pizza and make it happen-- maybe change out of your sweatpants first though.)
See you in Venice next Sunday morning.
-Erin Gorman (AKA Single McSingleson AKA Totally-Not-Bitter McGee) and Zoki + Kedor (AKA Zokidor AKA ERYC Success Story)
Dodgeball can be intimidating for newbies, even the most athletically-inclined. Case in point: Ahlam Abdallah. Ahlam's first intro to ERYC was a fluke—her older brother had gone to elementary school with dodgeball veteran Tracy Barbosa, who ran into (and somehow recognized) Ahlam at a soccer game they were both playing in. After witnessing some amazing goalie skills on the soccer field, Tracy asked Ahlam to join her team for an upcoming East vs. West ERYC tournament.
This picture was taken the day of the tournament—hard to believe it was Ahlam’s first time playing, right? Well, yes… as long as you don’t see any video footage. As Ahlam puts it, she had “all the intensity, and none of the accuracy” of a skilled dodgeball player. She jokes that she’d whip a ball across the court, then immediately have to apologize. Not for hitting an opposing player super hard, but for missing the players altogether and hitting the scoreboard super hard.
Tracy taught Ahlam to focus on hitting people who had just thrown, which helped Ahlam begin to reign in her throws a bit. From there, Ahlam just worked on identifying which athletic skills to hone and which to abandon (like the soccer goalie tendency to reach out and block the ball. “Because oh yeah, in dodgeball, if you’re not catching it, you’re out.”) Since then, she has successfully transformed herself from an inexperienced newcomer to a seriously unrivaled boss ass player and valued teammate.
Ahlam, Tracy and the other ladies hosting this Sunday’s Girls Dodgeball Clinic all know what it’s like to join dodgeball, jumping right into the trenches without a ton of previous experience or coaching. They also happen to agree that dodgeball is way more fun when you know what you’re doing, so they’re letting us in on the little tricks they’ve picked up over the years.
There are still a few spots left in the clinic, so seriously ladies, if you haven’t signed up yet you are seriously missing out on:
Girl bonding time
A Sunday Funday activity you can actually tell your mom about
Seeing these throwing skills in action:
(can’t wait to learn how to make the most of my super-athletic-and-not-at-all-flailing limbs this weekend… Ahlam, you’ve been warned.)
As some of you may have heard, we were only able to secure enough gym-time to host 4 teams at Glassell Rec this season so we opted to grab that additional hour over at Highland Park rec.
Adding a 4th League:
Rather than hop between two rec centers as we've done in the past, we opted to create a 2nd Eastside league in Highland Park, which is only 3.5 miles away from Glassell Rec.
As a result, the team captains will be split between the two rec centers with Rob, Michelle, Miguel, and Rene stepping up in Highland Park while Bonk, Tracy, Max and Ahlam hold it down at Glassell.
Currently the idea is that HP will be heading to the Little Cave for libations after each game. Like Glassell to Verdugo Bar, it is also a short walk from the rec.
If you're interested in playing dodgeball at highland park, register here.
Fun Fact:
Highland Park is actually where the Eagle Rock Yacht Club was born.
There’s something inherently romantic about railway stations. It’s not necessarily the rose petals and champagne sort of romance but more of an old timey, nostalgic feeling. Back in the black-and-white days when everyone wore hats, ubiquitous train stations served as the embarkation points where travelers set off on daring adventures. While many were replaced by modern, functional buildings, the surviving relics of transportation’s past still house that built-in sense of elegant grandeur and innate drama.
That’s exactly why we’re hosting this year’s annual Sadie Hawkins Dance Party of Awesome inside Downtown LA’s Union Station. Located at this historic landmark, the Harvey House was one of the first chain restaurants in the country. While the words “chain restaurant” conjure images of today’s greasy deep fryers and stale beef, it was a classy locale. Think of it as the “Olive Garden” of its day, only the unlimited salad and breadsticks were replaced by fancy furnishings and exquisite fixtures.
Art deco meets Native American decor in the Harvey Room’s halls. Imagine the pad of Boardwalk Empire’s Nucky Thompson as if it were decorated by some hipster girl’s Pinterest board. The tile floor was modeled after an authentic navajo rug, the grand staircase continues to be truly grand, and the giant horseshoe-shaped bar is prime real estate for a spontaneous tabletop dance number or two.
And if the majestic setting isn’t convincing enough, when the hell are you ever going to get the chance to twerk in a train station?
Join us on October 5th at Union Station
Let's Keep Sadie Hawkins Twerk-Free: A Plea to Twerkers
The following views expressed by Chris Bonk do not necessarily reflect those of the Eagle Rock Yacht Club and, like many of his other weird views, make us question whether or not to seek professional help on his behalf.
Twerking is an insufferable fad, and it has no place at this year’s Sadie Hawkins Dance Party.
For those who have yet to experience this rhythmic abomination either from a shared online video or (gasp) firsthand (thanks for the visuals, Miguel Cervantes), the solo gyration involves one’s hips moving up and down, subsequently causing the posterior keister region to shake in a similar direction. While the act has been practiced for decades, only recently has twerking taken the mainstream spotlight, jiggling its way like a disease throughout the internet, television, and our social consciousness.
A twerking outbreak in such a space as Union Station could have disastrous consequences for Sadie Hawkins guests. Flung glassware from knocked-over furniture becomes the unintended weapons of a twerker. Just imagine the horror a stunned attendee might experience while being bounced around like a pinball by a bunch of twerking butt flippers. And I haven’t even begun to research the potential seismological effects mass twerking might have on the fault line below.
Plus, it’s tacky.
As October 5th quickly approaches, I’ve been working vigorously with local government, enlisting the aid of the county clerk and a couple of comptrollers, to establish a perimeter around Union Station for the night. This “no twerking” zone will protect partygoers from secondhand twerk through dutiful monitoring by a special deputized twerk task force.
So if you lead a twerking lifestyle, please twerk at home before you come. Pre-twerk.
Over the past five years, the Yacht Club has endured its share of frivolous pop culture vagaries (I’m looking at you, Harlem Shake). Can it survive another five as a victim of twerking?
Show your anti-twerking support by snagging a ticket to the Sadie Hawkins Dance.
Bestselling author, political adviser and social and ethical prophet Jeremy Rifkin investigates the evolution of empathy and the profound ways that it has shaped our development and our society. Taken from a lecture given by Jeremy Rifkin as part of the RSA's free public events programme.
Watch the full lecture here: http://www.thersa.org/events/video/archive/jeremy-rifkin-the-empathic-civilisation
Sadie Hawkins 2013: Chris Bonk's Guide To Not Being Creepy Around Women.
With Sadie Hawkins just around the corner, October 5th to be exact, we thought it would be a good idea to enlist the wisdom and life experiences of one of Los Angeles' sexiest and most sought after men... Chris Bonk. Our hope is that his helpful guide will assist you in snagging a date to Sadie Hawkin's– Our biggest, funnest, fundraiser of the year.
Typically, I spend my Friday and Saturday nights boppin’ around the hippest, trendiest clubs on Sunset Boulevard, with a lady on each arm and each leg. Women claw at each other just to get to me, and other guys gravitate around me like planets to the brightest sun, hoping to absorb some of my awesome radiation before returning to the black holes of their hopeless, lovelorn lives.
I didn’t always have it this easy. Despite my current charisma and massive...charming personality, I used to be creepy around women.
I’ll let that sink in for a moment.
Unless you’re George Clooney or me, women aren’t going to approach you. It’s an unfortunate rule set by the designers of the romance game, and like all pursuits with a prize at stake, early strategies matter most. If you intend on whipping out “what’s your sign?” or similar cheesy pick-up lines, pack your love bag and head home. Those old standards never work nowadays, and they only tip a gal off that you’re out-of-touch and irrelevant.
Instead, come up with something entirely unexpected. If she thinks you’re going to comment on how cooperative the weather has been lately, flirtatiously surprise her with a fact about cloud seeding and other weather manipulations. Just make it sound as sexy as possible.
Or buying her a drink usually works, too.
Don’t look up at her forehead, down at her...area below her neck, past her at all the other neat stuff behind, or straight through her like some crazy person. Stay focused solely on her eyes. Even if you’re only paying attention to half of what she says, it will seem as if you are hypnotized by every word, whether it’s a riveting political discussion or a rundown of the contents of her makeup bag.
While a colossal comic book collection might arouse some ladies, a majority won’t be as easily impressed. Consequently, guys often lie during a conversation, and that stack of Superman comics magically becomes a garage full of Lamborghinis. But girls can sense deception faster than The Flash in a LP 560-4 Spyder and move on.
I’m not advising you to lie or give up on your hobbies entirely; rather, make your interests as, well, interesting as possible. If you’re the young male equivalent of a senior shut-in cat lady with a pack of free-range felines roaming your apartment, portray yourself as an animal enthusiast devoted to rescuing kittens.
I think this one’s fairly self-explanatory.
If you’re the kind of guy that takes the traditional route of buying flowers and opening car doors, be aware that there’s a much higher chance for creepiness. Did you close the car door with too much heft or not enough? Is the bouquet too pungent? While you awkwardly ponder these trivial details over and over and over in your mind, she’s texting a more adventurous amour.
Courage is key. Ladies want risk-taking men they can count on to throw themselves at danger. A sunset stroll along the beach is too tame, so take her for a hasty jaunt through a live fire gun range. There’ll be plenty of opportunities for intimate hand-holding as you both duck and evade stray bullets. Archery ranges, police ride-alongs, waterfalls, and safaris also provide a similar experience.
You’re No Longer Creepy! Congrats!
Each of these tips have been exhaustively field-tested and are guaranteed to work without any flaws. In no time, you’ll be sloughing off your creepy cocoon and spreading your butterfly man-wings. When I see you at the Sadie Hawkins Dance doing the breaststroke through a sea of women, just give me a knowing wink and nod.
That's all the thanks I need.
