traceur profile in Chicago Reader

[Seng]

For y'all's procrastinating pleasure, because we are so starved for coverage in mainstream publications:

http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/parkour/

Seems to get some of the basic historical points right but obviously seems a bit one-sided in the perspective it gives voice to. Given that the article is primarily a profile of a local (to Chicago) traceur, that's probably not surprising.

[SafeNSure]

Media, media... they never get the title right:
If (if?) the sport (the sport?) of parkour ever (ever?) takes off, Chicago’s Michael “Frosti” Zernow could be one of its first superstars (superstars?).

Anyway, aside for the "Frosti promo" part, a decent article...

I was particularly engaged by:
"Toorock, though a great force in the field through his marketing of parkour, is in the middle of a debate about the direction it’s headed. He’s among those who want to turn parkour into a competitive sport, with tournaments and prize money, in the way that some of the martial arts have been. Already competitions are sprouting up around the world in which contestants win points for the stylistic tumbling of freerunning—Frosti’s speciality. But other traceurs worry that competition will corrupt what they see as the “old-school” essence of parkour—self-discipline, self-discovery, mastery from within.

Toorock believes in all of those things too, but he doesn’t see any reason they can’t be accompanied by competition and money. [HE doesn't...]

“Keeping it old-school is kind of OK,” Toorock says, “but I don’t completely agree with that.”

Frosti doesn’t either. Instead of fighting the move toward more competition, he says, “I’d rather make sure that it happens right.”

..."right"?
Yeah, right...
;)

[Kirill]

:Kirill starts ripping his hair off: