Mark Hayward Is My Hero

I Just Got My 2010 Trading Cards

mark — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 18:37:43 +0000

That’s right! Not only is my new trading card out, but it has a SUPER-AWESOME photo on the front taken by the world famous yo-yo master Raphael Matsunaga, aka: Red. This photo was taken in Takeshi’s living room while Duncan was shooting some new instructional video with Raphael and Takeshi as well as Jack Ringca, Brandon Jackson, Drew Tetz, and Hank Freeman. It was fun. I love pictures of me.

I Saw The Secret of Kells Last Night

mark — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 15:13:40 +0000

It may be the most beautiful animation I have ever seen. If you are a visual person, make sure you see this film. There were many times when the imagery alone made me smile or laugh. It’s really just stunning.

http://www.thesecretofkells.com/

I missed it when it was showing in Pittsburgh, but it is still playing in Milwaukee, so there’s a chance it may still be coming to your town too. I wouldn’t say that you absolutely have to see this film on the big screen, you should see it on a giant tv (or at least a non-small one).

I May Be on America’s Got Talent Next Week

mark — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 04:54:00 +0000

The only thing I’m legally allowed to say is:

Tried to Capitalize on Kenny Strasser

mark — Thu, 27 May 2010 14:54:49 +0000

I was hoping that all of the recent hubbub with Kenny Strasser might work out well for me by letting me get on TV in my hometown of Madison WI, so I wrote to my favorite local TV station to see if they would be interested in an interview.

Hello,
With all the attention that Kenny Strasser has been getting lately I thought you folks might like to have a real yo-yo man on your show sometime. My name is Mark Hayward, I grew up in Madison, and I am a full-time professional juggler and yo-yo man.

I’m sure you will want to do some checking into whether I am the real thing, so I’ve got some easy credentials for you:

- I used to work with Carleen Wild’s [one of the evening newscasters] husband at REI just behind West Towne Mall
- I have been on your show before. I was the guy doing the talking in the July/August 1999 interview with the MadFive juggling team with Mike McKinney (my hair was long then)
- I have performed in the Kids in the Rotunda/Crossroads show every year for many years.

I grew up in Madison, but live in Pittsburgh now. I am contacting you now, of course, because of Kenny Strasser. I don’t know anything about who he is, and I am not part of whatever he is up to, but since he is basically making a big joke out of what I do for a living, I thought you might like to get another side of the story.

I will be travelling near Madison around May 30/31 on my way to an internship with a master spin-top maker in Omaha Nebraska, so I would be glad to come by for an interview if you are interested.

Here’s what they wrote back:

Mark,
Thanks for the offer. However our producers have decided to pass on
Yo-Yo related live guests.
Best of luck.

Oh well. It was worth a try. Apparently the News Director is sick of the whole yo-yo ordeal. I asked them to let me know if they ever change their minds.

Nice Model A Ford Starter Troubleshooting Tip

mark — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 15:31:54 +0000

Recently I was trying to find a problem on my 1930 Model A Ford, and before I could completely figure out why my car wasn’t running well, the starter seemed to go out. I couldn’t believe that my starter could fail at just the exact moment that I thought I had fixed my other problem! I was incredibly frustrated, so I called my buddy Devin to commiserate.

What had happened was that when I pushed the starter button, nothing at all happened. Just a very soft click. It was as if the starter wasn’t even attached to the car. As soon as I said that, Devin knew what the problem was. Sometimes the starter can get stuck. The gear that it uses to turn over the engine doesn’t retract the way it is supposed to, so when you try to start the engine it can’t do a thing. The solution is to put the car in second gear, make sure the emergency brake is off, and then start rocking the car back and forth. When the bendix in the starter disengages, you will hear it. I had to rock my car with a pretty good amount of force, but it worked!

By the way, my mystery, intermittent problem was that I had two loose wires in my dash. If you are having an intermittent problem with starting or smooth running of your Model A, be sure to check all the connections under the dash panel.

HowToYoYo.com Reaunched With Beginner Yo-yo Store

mark — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 06:26:22 +0000

Yes, it’s true. Harper and I have finally done it. You can now buy yo-yos directly on HowToYoYo.com. It has been the most requested feature for a while now, and since we didn’t want to get into sales on a massive scale, we decided to be a one-stop shop for the beginner/intermediate yo-yo player. It can be hard to know what to buy when you are just starting out, and since there are so many choices now, we decided to make it easy. We only carry 5 yo-yos. It’s a carefully chosen group that we think is the best if you are just getting into yo-yos.

The Kids These Days With Their Yo-yo Mods….

mark — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 22:34:55 +0000

I was doing my new Build-A-Battletop Workshop at the Green Tree PA Library and a kid showed up with a whole case of yo-yos. It was awesome. That hasn’t happened in a long time. I think these rumors of a returning yo-yo craze might just be true.

So this kid (Ricky I think) had a FAST 201 that he had modded, but what I really liked about it was that it was a style mod and not a playability mod. Although I don’t know how it played since he had lost his bearing and spacers. Oh well. Anyway, his mod was to put soft-drink tabs under the plastic sidecap. I thought it looked really cool, so I took a picture for the good folks over at Yo-yo Factory.

Finally Got A Spoiler and Pimped Out My Toyota

mark — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 13:33:30 +0000

After years of envy I finally got a spoiler on my 1995 Toyota Corolla! Of course I didn’t exactly install it myself, it was installed by nature, one drip at a time.

The only thing I did to get these photos was remove snow. The ice is completely unmodified. The car was parked with the trunk just under the edge of our roof, and when we got that 20 inch snowfall a few weeks back it started to melt and drip off the roof. The air temperature was just right so that when the drips hit the thick layer of snow that was still on the car, they froze into this all-natural super-pimp ice-spoiler. I wanted to drive around with it, but of course it didn’t make it more than about a foot and a half before breaking apart.

Dogs Love Snow

mark — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 13:19:31 +0000

This is a photo from Frick Park in Pittsburgh a few weeks ago when we got more than 20 inches of snow. Check out the bent and broken trees in the background.

Lola, Onyx, and Vader

Down In Miamisburg Ohio for a Yo-yo Contest

mark — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 00:32:31 +0000

Miamisburg was fun! There’s nothing like getting free drinks at the local bar because you’re hanging out with the Pastor. It was really fun to see Mike Hout in his official capacity, which was surprisingly the same as how he is when we hang out at juggling and yo-yo conventions, only he had on nicer clothes.

Here are some photos of our raucous time:

It’s the TOP hat bistro… get it?

That’s right… I may not be the first visitor to the Top Spinning Hall of Fame, but I’m the first one to get my photo taken in front of the sign!
(You’d be bleary-eyed too if you’d been up all night carousing with Pastor Mike.)

I couldn’t resist stopping for a waffle snack on the way home. It was delicious.