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21 Apr 15 - 11:31 PM (#3703473) Subject: A banjo throwing contest From: Wesley S Wish I'd been there: Full story here Monday, April 20, 2015 N.Y. is home to banjo-throwing competition By KATHY WILLENS the Associated Press THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Geoff Wiley, right, holds a rope as Tyler Frank winds up with a baseball-like stance before tossing a made-for-destruction banjo into a polluted New York waterway during the fifth annual Brooklyn Folk Festival's Gowanus Banjo Toss, Sunday, April 19, 2015, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Winner of the men's division with a record-setting 85-foot toss, Frank will take home a new banjo as a result of his skills. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens) NEW YORK — Several dozen competitors from around the world took turns Sunday hurling a sacrificial banjo into a polluted urban canal to see who could throw it the farthest. Tyler Frank of St. Louis bested all other male competitors with an 85-foot throw. On the women's side, Nada Zimmerman of Innsbruck, Austria, tossed the banjo 67 feet into Brooklyn's Gowanus Canal. The winners received a new banjo from the event's sponsor, the Brooklyn Folk Festival. "This is the only existing throwing banjo on the planet," said judge Geoff Wiley, holding a well-worn banjo left behind in a folk music venue. A long rope with pre-measured segments is tied around the banjo's neck so Wiley can retrieve it from the canal. He then measures the distance of each competitor's toss to determine the winners. Wiley repairs and fortifies the instrument after each year's competition. Event founder, banjo player and radio host Eli Smith, who tossed the banjo a personal best 52 feet on Sunday, conceived the event in 2010, although the first competition wasn't held until the next year. "The whole concept is absurd, but people have become enthusiastic about it," Smith said. "I love the banjo, and yet I have a perverse desire to see it thrown into a body of water." Once a major transportation route for the then-separate cities of Brooklyn and New York, the Gowanus Canal was home to coal yards, chemical factories and fuel refineries that left behind severely contaminated water. Years of storm runoff discharges, sewer outflows and industrial pollutants turned the Gowanus into one of the nation's most contaminated waterways. It was named a Superfund site in 2010, meaning the government can force polluters to pay for its restoration. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, contaminants include PCBs, coal tar wastes, heavy metals and volatile organics. Sunday's competition gave new meaning to the term heavy metal. |
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22 Apr 15 - 04:58 AM (#3703477) Subject: RE: A banjo throwing contest From: Les in Chorlton Reminds me of the Blue Peter inspired campaign to warp perfectly good 78 records into plant pot stands. The Banjafia are not amused - you have been warned |
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22 Apr 15 - 06:00 AM (#3703479) Subject: RE: A banjo throwing contest From: Jim Carroll Wonderful idea - perhaps it can be extended into a triathlon to include bodhrans and synthasizers! Hope it catches on Just joking, of course (sort of!) Jim Carroll |
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22 Apr 15 - 06:13 AM (#3703481) Subject: RE: A banjo throwing contest From: gnu You Tube... "banjo toss" |
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22 Apr 15 - 06:19 AM (#3703482) Subject: RE: A banjo throwing contest From: GUEST,# The coming thing is a flying upright piano competition. Just a heads up for y'all who attend such events. |
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22 Apr 15 - 07:00 AM (#3703487) Subject: RE: A banjo throwing contest From: Les in Chorlton Their are a number of 'singers' who might be picked up by the ears and thrown as far as possible? |
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22 Apr 15 - 01:32 PM (#3703518) Subject: RE: A banjo throwing contest From: Ernest Les: not "by the ears" - you`ll have to put the fingers IN their ears and throw them. Back to original topic: what about a new discipline - throwing the banjos with the players attached? |
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23 Apr 15 - 02:22 AM (#3703596) Subject: RE: A banjo throwing contest From: Musket If you google "tossing your banjo" you get the hits you deserve. Q. What is a ukulele? A. Kindling for a banjo fire. |
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23 Apr 15 - 04:09 AM (#3703604) Subject: RE: A banjo throwing contest From: GUEST Great to hear about this event. I was getting bored with dwarf throwing.... |
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23 Apr 15 - 04:27 AM (#3703608) Subject: RE: A banjo throwing contest From: goatfell Best. Thing only kidding |
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23 Apr 15 - 04:28 AM (#3703609) Subject: RE: A banjo throwing contest From: goatfell I like banjos but they should be treated better |
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23 Apr 15 - 06:15 AM (#3703614) Subject: RE: A banjo throwing contest From: banjoman What a waste of replacement tent poles and door stops. I convert some of my worn out banjos into great looking wall clocks. Would prefer to see a melodeon throwing event as that instrument is too often the hiding place for the musically inept. Or those who play it so badly could be thrown instead |
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23 Apr 15 - 06:39 AM (#3703616) Subject: RE: A banjo throwing contest From: Les in Chorlton What exactly are you doing to wear out Banjos banjoman? It does sound good. Have you considered counseling? |
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23 Apr 15 - 07:20 AM (#3703617) Subject: RE: A banjo throwing contest From: GUEST,M For Guest, # ... Flying flaming upright piano |
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23 Apr 15 - 09:16 PM (#3703724) Subject: RE: A banjo throwing contest From: olddude What no accordians or bagpipes |
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24 Apr 15 - 04:08 AM (#3703745) Subject: RE: A banjo throwing contest From: Jim Carroll "bagpipes" Go wash your mouth out - wicked man!!! Jim Carroll |
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24 Apr 15 - 11:42 AM (#3703841) Subject: RE: A banjo throwing contest From: olddude Lol |
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24 Apr 15 - 02:01 PM (#3703865) Subject: RE: A banjo throwing contest From: Les in Chorlton First they came for the bohdran players, I said nothing for I was not a bohdran player. Then they came for the accordian players. I said nothing for I was not an accordian player. Then they came for the banjo players. I said nothing for I was not a banjo player. You know the rest ............... none of us stands alone! |
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25 Apr 15 - 02:59 AM (#3703970) Subject: RE: A banjo throwing contest From: Mr Red At last, after all those session when the banjo was throwing the tune........................ and spoiling my bodhran playing! |
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25 Apr 15 - 01:37 PM (#3704123) Subject: RE: A banjo throwing contest From: BanjoRay When I was in University many years ago we had a competition to see which was the fastest team to pass a piano through a 6 inch hoop. A piano playing friend got very annoyed because his flatmate contributed the flat piano to the event..... |
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25 Apr 15 - 02:25 PM (#3704134) Subject: RE: A banjo throwing contest From: olddude How about a tuba |
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30 Apr 15 - 06:08 AM (#3705413) Subject: RE: A banjo throwing contest From: banjoman Les - so far its only one wall clock made from a 1923 instrument that was so warped it looked more like a bow. I have 25 other banjos so some time in the future I will be holding a clock sale. Watch this space. Have you heard the one about the banjo player who threw himself off a roof because he had cheese sandwiches for lunch for three consecutive days. At his funeral his wife revealed that he always made his own lunch. Now that's a throwing contest. |
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30 Apr 15 - 11:46 AM (#3705489) Subject: RE: A banjo throwing contest From: CupOfTea Every year, at the Mountain Laurel Autoharp Gathering in Pennsylvania, there is a Autoharp Throwing Contest, complete with a magnificently garbed master of ceremonies. Joanne in Cleveland, who hangs on to all her autoharps |