UPSB v3

General Discussion / Pen-spinning Article

Swiss newspaper.

1. Icepray

   Date: Mon, Apr 28 2008 19:40:22

   So, I was given the opportunity to be in a penspinning article, thanks to Steen-j. As it was 10minutes from my house and not 1h+ from Steen-j's I took him up on the offer.
   
   All in all, I hope I didn't say something bad in the article. Sorry for the sloppy translation, I got a bit fed up near the end But it should be
   understandable.
   Original: Scan of the newspaper (Good quality)
   
   
   
   
   Translation: Spinning with a pen, an art that is imported from Japan is present in classes.
   
   Entertainment:
   Pen-spinning consists of doing tricks with ones pen. If this doesn’t sound new, competitions are starting to develop. This is the case this week-end at Beaulieu in Lausanne, at the Polymanga Festival.
   
   Thomas Von Allmen
   
   Students of all ages always played with their pens. But today, this childish practice has now become a codified discipline, known under the name of pen-spinning or pen juggling. The objective is to spin a pen in between your fingers as fast as possible and as fluid as possible, going from a technical aspect and esthetes. The adepts of this art face each other in jousts. This will be the case this weekend at the Polymanga – festival dedicated to Japanese culture – in Lausanne, where the winner will be proclaimed the best spinner in Switzerland (bic tournament, he didn’t know it’s videos then Paris finals.). The exact origins of pen-spinning are uncertain, but it seems that the first acrobatic tricks come from Japan.
   “I discovered pen-spinning thanks to a substitute teacher”, says Marc Chevalley (19 years old), high-schooler in Yverdon. “He would spin the pen around his thumb. And we asked him how he did it and he explained it to us.” And the young man trained. “We were three or four who tried it in the following courses. The Professor, by the sound of the pen falling, threatened us to throw us out of class if he we didn’t stop immediately.” Conscious of the problem this could cause to his training, Nidhim Kochhar (me), high-schooler at Lausanne, said: “When I train, it’s possible that the pen falls. So I avoid doing it too often in class so I don’t disturb other students.” A one year adept, this 17 year old is planning on participating in this week-ends tournament. He practices everyday this discipline. “I would do it in class when I would start to “zap out” (stop following, you know what I mean ) Or in courses I’m good in. But we can do it everywhere. That’s one aspect I like about pen-spinning.”
   To be a good spinner, you have to be a bit crafty. “A good pen is a modded pen” says Nidhim Kochhar. You have to make it a bit heavier on the extremities or have it a bit more weighted on one side. I can be a bit of a paradox because in some cases the pen will lose its capacity to write.
   
   A Tutorial on the web:
   Actif on the web under the pseudonym of “Icepray”, the high-schooler develops a tutorial – a support to teach the art by audiovisual means. (I told him Eso’s name but he seems to have put me instead >.<). “As I’m not very good, he adds humbly (no, I’m not very good, he mustn’t have seen better spinners), I try to add a bit of humor in my videos.” Born about 30 years ago, this phenomenon has found a new youth thanks to the web.
   “On the internet there is a big community. With other spinners we want to start a Swiss pen-spinning page but we aren’t enough for the time being.”
   Pen-spinning awards, Polymanga today and tomorrow at Beaulieu, exhibition today at 1 o clock, video demonstration on youtube (Search Swiss collab). (He only wanted Swiss, I proposed some JEB and UPSB but he declined.)
   
   “Expression can be helped by pen-spinning”
   Students are susceptible to pen-spinning. The numerous hours spent in class with a pen in their hands favors this type of activity. But is the apprenticeship threatened by this leisure?
   “Pen-spinning shouldn’t be associated with boredom, explains Fred Mast, a university cognitive psychologist teacher in Lausanne. The vision we have from an outside view might resemble that of boredom but, there might be something else. Pen-spinning is a motor task that demands practice. This aptitude that, when mastered demands little resource. At first, all senses are mobilized, and with experience, it’s possible to do more than one thing at a time. I don’t think that the apprenticeship is threatened but I even see something beneficiary. The motor plays a role in communication (I had trouble translating, sorry). In the same vein of thoughts, to have movements with the hands make it easier to express ones ideas. I think that pen-spinning can have a similar effect but we would need a study to prove it.”
   

2. Eso

   Date: Mon, Apr 28 2008 19:47:40

   Thanks for translating it! Good stuff. lol, also a big thanks for mentioning me even if it didn't make to print.

3. someone

   Date: Mon, Apr 28 2008 20:02:07

   nice article - a lot better than that other one in March when it talked about Eso in Asia.

4. Tialys

   Date: Mon, Apr 28 2008 20:46:16

   Neat article. Thanks for posting this. Is Marc active at UPSB?
   
   P.S. Zbo ou un autre spinneur peut amender le traduction si necessaire.

5. Icepray

   Date: Tue, Apr 29 2008 04:55:29

   I don't know who Marc is acutally, and sadly English is my first language and I'm fluent in french (been in switzerland for a long longtime), I got a bit fed up of translating thats all :$