The OTB Open happened this past weekend in Stockton, California. I watch a lot of disc golf, and this was a particularly enjoyable tournament, so I thought I'd give an overview of the (free) footage available. MPO is the Men's and FPO is the women's.

DGN Final Day Coverage

Disc Golf Network streamed OTB Open Presented by Innova | Final Round which is about 6.5 hours of footage. I haven't watched it, but I know it was commentated by Ian Anderson who runs Central Coast Disc Golf (who is a great commentator) and Nate Doss, who is a great player, but I've never heard commentate. I don't have a particular recommendation on whether this is watchable or not - I haven't watched it, and don't really intend to, but included it for interest. It includes both MPO and FPO coverage.

MPO

Mic'd up Practice Round on JomezPro

JomezPro runs a practice round with 3 pro disc golfers - Jeremy "Big Jerm" Koling, Paul Ulibarri, and Nate Sexton. These three are the "main" commentators for JomezPro; they tend to be a bit goofy and are very endearing. They do a lot of good natured smack talk, and they try to break down the holes so you'll understand what you'll see professionals doing. Sometimes in commentary during the tournament, they'll also make some joking references to things that happened in the practice round, like a Fox peeing on one of Sexton's discs.

Front 9 | Back 9

Feature / Lead on JomezPro

Commentators: Jeremy Koling, Nate Sexton, Paul Ulibarri: "Big Sexy Barri Commentary"

Round 1 Feature Card: Front 9 | Back 9 - Paul McBeth, Calvin Heimburg, Ezra Aderhold, James Proctor. McBeth and Heimburg are both in the "1050 club" which is their player rating - they are 2 of only 4 players rated this high.

Round 2 Lead Card: Front 9 | Back 9 - Paul McBeth, Eagle McMahon, Ricky Wysocki, Nate Sexton. The other two players in the "1050 club" are McMahon and Wysocki; you will frequently see these 4 names on the lead card coverage.

Round 3 Lead Card: Front 9 | Back 9 - McMahon, Ricky Wysocki, Anthony Barela, Aaron Gossage. The final round features someone relatively unknown - Gossage - who has never been on a lead card at a high level event. Each of these guys are "bombers", ie. they can throw insanely far. There are a few times when the commentators are speechless, or just laugh at the insane throws. If you only watch one MPO round, watch this one.

Feature / Chase on Gatekeeper Media

Commentators: Brian Earhart, Nate Perkins

Round 1 Feature Card: Front 9 | Back 9 - Gregg Barsby, Eagle McMahon, Alex Russell, Austin Hoop. If you want to watch McMahon through the whole tournament you can start here.

Round 2 Chase Card: Front 9 | Back 9 - James Conrad, Aaron Gossage, Anthony Barela, Adam Hammes. I haven't watched this, but I'm going to guess that at some point Hammes makes a jump putt and his hat comes off. This has happened at least once every time I've ever watched him play.

FPO

Feature / Lead card on GK Pro

Commentators: Madison Walker & Erika Stinchcomb - "Two hot geese"

Round 1 Feature Card: Front 9 | Back 9 - Paige Pierce, Lisa Fajkus, Madison Walker, Ella Hansen. Paige Pierce is one of the best disc golfers of all time, and there's also Walker commentating her own round, which I always find interesting. Hansen is new to disc golf, being a former Ultimate superstar, and Fajkus has had a bunch of wins this season; this is a great card to watch.

Round 2 Lead Card: Front 9 | Back 9 - Jessica Weese, Paige Pierce, Lisa Fajkus, Catrina Allen. Allen and Weese are two names you'll also see a lot if you watch FPO coverage - they are frequently on the lead or chase cards. If you only watch one FPO round, watch this one. Eagles are rare in disc golf, and there is more than one in this round.

Round 3 Lead Card: Front 9 | Back 9 - Jessica Weese, Paige Pierce, Lisa Fajkus, Catrina Allen. There are lots of great women in this field, but it's a bit of a testament to how great this card did in Round 2 that each of these four remained in the lead.

Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/wrong-generation/1535816008
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/0ENzm2HTf7mfFjWZ7CaB5u
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8Nm3JIPr3w&list=OLAK5uy_knEEYCSEk8ai9vRtXwRnbrJ_bSVR_5JA8

The hardcore meets hip-hop trio FEVER 333 are back to their roots with a new EP called WRONG GENERATION. While their last release, STRENGTH IN NUMB333RS, tended to lose their punk influence in exchange for more nu-metal influences, WRONG GENERATION ditches that side-step and continues from where they first started when the broke on to the scene in 2018 with Made an America. In my opinion, this is a welcome return to form. These guys seem most comfortable when they are making rebellious music that may not appeal to everyone, rather than their attempt at mainstream acceptance by employing more accessible song structure and instruments.

Drummer Aric Improta has never sounded better so far. While he's always been able to dial into a groove a bit, he feels more like the mover you'd like the drummer to be in a hip-hop band, rather than just playing keep up with the melody section. This does mean guitarist Stephen Harrison isn't quite as prominent in the tracks, but that doesn't mean he's not doing great work. Harrison takes more of a cue from Tom Morello in this album, following the rhythm section and getting in the groove. Vocalist Jason Aalon Butler sounds best when he's doing his high pitched screams and spoken word-type rap rather than his cleans (which sound a bit too much like a bad Chester Bennington impression), and he mostly stays away from cleans on this album.

Butler's lyrics still feel a lot more than STRENGTH IN NUMB333RS and are probably the one thing where you can see a through line from the beginning of FEVER 333 to now. His focus on LA culture, black liberation, police violence and more gets shaper with every release.

For fans of Rage Against the Machine, Public Enemy and Stray From the Path.

Most California voters received their ballots this week, and as usual there are a bunch of propositions to vote on that we’ve barely heard of because nearly all election discussion is about national issues. So, what are you using to study up?