Musashi Fly swatting

Grace was freaking out about a fly in the house and then armed me with two fly swatters which she tossed at me yelling, "Hai!" I snatched them out of the air and assumed a Kung Fu stance. Rather, it would have been cool if I caught them both like that. Instead I dropped one of them. Then I assumed a Kung Fu stance, and let my swatters dance like drum sticks in the air as I awaited my prey. The interesting thing is, before I started training Kung Fu seriously, I could catch a fly with my hands with little difficulty. But I am no longer able to do this. At least not in the house, when Grace is freaking out about it. I decided instead of waiting for it to land, I would take it out mid air and then finish it off with a control hit once it fell to the ground stunned. Only I saw my opportunity with a jump and hit towards the kitchen windows in an unorthodox strike. I felt my swatter connect. They were brand new and really good, but I could not find the fly. 

"You better find it or it will revive itself" she freaked out. I think the reason I could catch the fly before with my hands was because I was not hunting the fly. The fact that the fly existed did not actually bother me. It was just cool to see if I could do it. However, Grace can not abide a fly at all.

In any case after searching for a while for the stunned fly to no avail, I found the fly was actually still stuck in the swatter, some white guts splashed through but the body for the most part still in tact. 

"Look!" I said showing Grace. 

"Wow I've never seen that before." 

I decided to take it outside to dump the body, where it would either revive itself (unlikely) or become compost or whatever. 

As I used one swatter to take the fly out of the other, scraping them together, I realized with disappointment in my lack of foresight that a picture would have been nice, as this would make a good blog post. I mentioned this to Grace and she said that she thought that's what I had gone to do, take a picture, not dump the fly outside. 

Oh well.

Snake and Crane

I have had some time to run through my forms and study them on occasion. Instead of doing them over and over in repetition, I tend to do them once, and then take out the techniques and use them as one might in actual combat. Playing with snake techniques I realize how useful they in push hands and grappling, sticking to the persons hands, and then striking out often and savagely while continuing to stick with them. Because you are going by sense of touch, and sight is not completely necessary you can avert your eyes so that you will be less likely to get struck in the eyes. Also a simple kick to the groin or inside of the shins can do damage to the lower half of the body while you continue to strike at the eyes with your fingers or cut and chop and the head and neck or even the ribs, areas of your internal organs etc.
Basically your hands to in snake and crane position depending what is more convenient to strike with. You can use your shaking Chi to make the head of the snake move constantly and indeed virtually unpredictably even to your self since the shaking is doing the movement. So the movements are partially subconscious. But they are not wild either as you have to keep the movements within the zone of protecting yourself, and where the strikes will be useful when striking.

If you circulate this shaking power to your feet and your foot work as well, you can push your opponent with your stance while the hands pushing them curl and slither like a snake. So you don't extend your arms to push, but push close to you body, using your weight and shoulders and the ground, the hands only extending for strikes.

Also, all of this is internal and pretty easy to do, as in there isn't anything athletic about it. But moving about like this could give you a cardio workout the same way a brisk walk might. Plus it's fun and entertains the mind.

Happy Humiliation (A Lesson)

Flushing (Background)

Gong Gong, Amah, Grace, Jonah, Noah and I took a trip to flushing. After much frustrating traffic, dizzying carsickness, adn other stress filled environment in Taiwanese we arrived at our destination. Gong inquired in a New Jersey in your face way about an elevator to New York Chinatown man who had been asked about the broken elevator and escalator millions of times that day who responded in a placating, attempt at calm which was tense from being asked all day.

We entered Amah's shopping heaven. A supermarket  that Grace and I had been to before. I saw her face brightened and her eyes twitch as they had at Kam Man in Quincy when she suddenly rushed off  in the glories of purchasing produce.

Being the main child caretaker, I have the children's normal schedule ingrained and attuned to my own. Wake Up, breakfast, play for a certain period of time, get fed or freak out and melt down in a terrible tantrum. We were approaching meal time as we had come to Flushing with the goal of eating lunch.
I mentioned as much to the leaders in law.

Amah went off. saying she couldn't take it anymore and that I was dis-invited from New Jersey. That I had to "calm down" and that this was a special supermarket. Besides she saw me as an irrelevance. I wasn't needed. Next time they could just hire a nanny or something.

I explained that I was calm and that we could do as much shopping as she liked but that the small children needed to eat, and I was also starting to get hungry.

"You go then yourself!"

"Okay, just give me my son back." I said and then explained, "If you guys want to shop first that's fine but but the children need to eat first."

I don not like Amah going of on me. But her going off is so continuous that it had become background noise to me. Although I will admit, because of my nausea, despite my level tone, I was indeed inwardly angry.

What happened next though enraged me, though I couldn't show it.

Gong Gong now went off on me and told. And when I explained that I was not starting a fight here and to please not make a scapegoat of me, "Shut Up!" was the last screaming sentence of the Patriarch.

When things become stressful it is sometimes just easier to find someone to blame. A scapegoat.

The easiest scapegoat is the weakest and preferably an outsider.

Physically I am not weak. However, having no job, no money, no keys, no car, no ride, and my progeny with me I was no position as a rational human being to fight back physically or verbally at this very street type encounter. I was an outsider and yet a dependent. So no matter who was right or wrong it was just more convenient to turn on me, so as to bring the rest of the family together. It was so convenient that I had to swallow it and go along with it like a dog or a small child.


I went into polite block out mode. Where I was polite and simply tried to ignore the evil. So when Amah vindictively pushed Jonah as a means of getting at me I simply took him into my arms and said, "I know dai dai, just accept it for now it will be easier for you."


We returned home pretending like nothing happened and I placed my rage in the upper right corner of my brain where it burned a blue flame and emitted cold slow burning rage through my body that will last a decade, while making connections with memories of all past slights growing into a nice little monster in my subconscious.

I continued to talk to and give attention to my children. If I were not needed to do this, indeed I would not feel the necessity to come, even of I got along perfectly fine with Grace's parents.


Upon arriving to the house I went out for a run. Where I have come to tolerate women going of on me, older men going of on me, while touching the nerve of my manhood, employment, and general success is enraging to the point of savagery.


However, after the run I managed to find a way to put my anger into a short story I was planning instead.


I arrived to hear that Grace had actually decided and told her parents that they would leave the next day. It eventually came out in yelling and crying and had to do with Amah's evil push of Jonah.

"That child is as much part of me as he is you." Grace said to me. She was deeply hurt and emotional fragile. I explained that I was actually angry for another reason and it was taking all self control to not fight physically let alone verbally.

I was petty and been slighted, but there it was. Where as before I needed a ride. Now it was law and perhaps Gong Gong's age that was keeping me  from bringing about a confrontation physically. Well in any case this was not the time and place for this. As I slept I realized I simply needed to say my piece. Not yell it or punch it out. But Grace was feeling so bad that she asked that I not do it. I planned a letter, an e-mail, or a You tube video.

We left the next morning and on the ride away I went between forgiveness and revenge. I had tried to bring the subject up, but Gong Gong would not raise his eyes to me mine but kept them on the floor until at the last moment when we drove away. I cannot read minds, but if he dared to twist the whole thing against me, I could not abide that. And then, passing a poster about Jesus I realized that I should and could.

But then much later, I was back at revenge.

Mastering one's mind is not easy.


Happy Humiliation.

Back in Boston, I unloaded the car and Grace asked me to go to Chinatown to pcik up some dishes. I said I would be glad to go and walk. In fact, I would job there. I brought my straw hat.

I passed bu children selling lemonade and a giant party trolley full of drunk revelers passed by. I thought that I was more or less happy.

But as the revel bus passed by my hat flew off and a giant  roar and cheer rose up from drunk men partying. I looked back and thought I heard jeers. I sprinted towards the bus and actually chased it down  coming close to it and screaming, "You got a fucking problem?" I was smiling because I had a problem and was looking for a fight, for someone to exchange blows with, not because of anything they said, but because I thought that there was someone on that trolley that was drunk and belligerent and would exchange blows with me, and every strike to that person would be in my mind a strike  at Gong Gong and Amah who I am forbideen by law and societal norms to strike.

But as I approached the van there were no men waving at me to come fight. They were cheering me. The only beckoning hands were from dancing women coaxing me to join their fun. But I didn't understand and continued yelling. "Wait is he mad?" I heard. "Why are you mad?" some men yelled. "I am so confused right now!" Yelled another.

Clearly I was angry, stupid and crazy. I was being taught a lesson. and indeed the proverbial beating of someone to teach them a lesson is nonsense. The best way to teach someone a lesson is by partying, being happy, and friendly.

I walked back to my original mission, getting food, late and foolish in a happy humiliation. Humiliated because of my stupidity, happy because I had finally seen the foolishness of my petty anger.

I owed an apology to that entire bus, and to the children selling lemonade. I was an embarrassment to mankind. But luckily, they were able to show that to me with kindness.

Compared to those revelers I am probably weaker in physical strength. And in terms of mental "enlightenment" or perhaps sanity, I am clearly much farther behind than them. I have tried to calm my nerves through meditation and martial arts, but perhaps wine women and song is the true path to nirvana. In any case I had arrived jogging through a party, with drink and music and beautiful young people passing by a lemonade stand run by little cherubs frolicking. I had jogged through a paradise, heaven on earth, and the anger which I thought I had put aside rushed up and took control of my sanity and though everyone around me was in heaven, I was in hell.


I laughed all the way to Chinatown at my foolishness and upon my return I gave two dollars at the lemonade stand. More embarrassingly I knew the adults supervising the children and I apologized for my behavior. Though again, I owe an apology most to the group of revelers who did nothing but spread good cheer to me in return for my violent outburst of summer scrooginess.

Instead of being chastized by the woman at the lemonade stand I received an understanding smile and a rice crispy treat for my money.


Keeping composure is only a temporary fix and is not the same thing as mastering your emotions. What I swallowed in New York, came out irrationally, uncontrollably, and angrily with interest in Jamaica Plain, at the wrong people, who thankfully, taught me a lesson in human social norms and recognizing joy and paradise when it is there.

Allsted farms

Yesterday we went apple picking. And Corn picking, peach, rasberry and whatever else they had picking, Since it was mid week the entrance fee was waved and the box to fill only cost one dollar. The fruits were much larger and juicier than the places we go to in New England. I suppose this is why New Jersey is called the garden state.

We rode along on the hay ride and since the children were tired we picked the first peaches were small. A Fujianese family sitting across from us asked if those were a different type of peaches. "No we were just lazy." Again the matriarch of that clan looked at our peaches and said something in Fujianese while pciking up the peach and looking at it. The father explained again that they were just smaller versions of what they had. Noah, comically became protective of the peaches and we all laughed. All the families, black, white, asian, had large suculent looking peaches, except us. Of course we were the only ones with small children beating each other and squirming around saying they were tired also.

"We have brought shame to our clan." said Grace. And then, "I just picked the peaches that looked ripe for what you would get in New England."

We headed back and Grace bought some corn in addition to the not ready corn that we had picked anyway. I suppose we went about this all wrong We should have picked for kicks (which we basically did.) and then bought the produce that has picked proper at the farm stand.

The activities were extra but we snuck into Corn Kingdom, a sandbox full of corn, and the hay pyramid anyway because the kids couldn't resist, and then while Noah went to the car with Grace, Jonah broke off and ran up to the hay pyramid. The path of least resistance was just to do the thing and get out of there. I jumped from higher than I probably should have with my flip flops and misjudged my landing. But other than that, it was fun.

A trip to Asbury park

Yesterday we took a trip to Asbury park to walk along the boardwalk and perhaps go to the beach. The entrance fee for the beach was 5 dollars per person. We did not go in. Dai Dai wanted to go play in the sand so badly, but all we did was walk along a more or less deserted boardwalk and go on a couple rides for 50 cents. We also had ice cream.

This really made me appreciate how great JP is. There are at least nine playgrounds I can walk to and many of them have sprinklers.

I noticed while doing a Kung Fu walk with Gong Gong (he just walked briskly while I Kung Fued) that many of the houses in the area have personal playgrounds. I guess that's what you do in New Jersey. You pay for your own playground, and you pay to go to the beach, like some sort of Ayn Rand version of America.

I suppose if you are rich the paying to go to the beach could be a plus since it keeps out needles or "riff raff" but I have never seen a problem with that on a free beach. Everyone was telling about how bad Atlantic City is now. But I actually have fond memories of the beaches there. We used to take the bus from Philly (Aunt Dotsy and my Mom and I) just for the beach. There is also Stone Harbor. These places were magical to me as a child. Now supposedly Atlantic City has a lot of needles under the boardwalk. Is it really that bad?

Asbury park had some nice ruins of a building. It looked like a Casino from the 1920's and there seemed to be a lot of Condos and Mansion like houses But that's not fun for kids.

The things is, even if you are rich and you buy your own playground, that doesn't guarantee playmates. Whereas, living near a playground does. The fact that it is public is a bonus because there will be people there. Children to play with and befriend. If you want the place to yourself for some reason (like Kung Fu), go early. Community is something that money can't really by. I remember seeing this piece on Sunday Morning about one of the Rockefeller girls and ho miserable her childhood was. The neighbors around here also seem to keep to themselves. In fact, even in Boston, we keep to ourselves. But a playground or park is a place where people, who want to meet other people can go and play in the sandbox, and share toys, and kick a ball around, without a cover charge. Well, except for Asbury park.

Vacation Food

The Garden

When visiting Grace's Cousin they had a beautiful garden. Not just tomatoes, but cucumbers, strawberries, corn, peppers and even limes. I was surprised of the variety. I suppose there is a difference between the weather in Connecticut and Boston, but I never thought it was that much. I suppose if we had a yard we could grow more too and the limes were brought in during the winter obviously. There was also an apple tree because the area used to be  an apple orchard. It was a very mysterious looking tree. They don't eat the apples though because the deer always get them first. Noah was very impressed by the garden and I hope to one day provide more than just tomatoes for him.


Jolliebee

We went to this Filipino fast food place that is pretty popular on the West Coast and Singapore and obviously the Philippines. Well New Jersey has one and we knew about it because of Anthony Bourdain. Grace ordered the Spaghetti ( I wasn't impressed) and for me she got burger and fries except instead of a bun it came on rice. I have eaten this sort of food on rice before in my own house, but it was nice for someone, a food chain, to affirm that this combination does work and that I am not the only one. In fact while I was eating this I never realized how much I missed rice while eating at a burger joint. So you get the idea, the food is like how American food would be in the Philippines and the concept went international. It's a Fillipino McDonald's. The service is like the McDonald's in Hong Kong, in that they get your trays for you. Everyone was Fillipino except us and this one white guy who I'm pretty sure was married to a Fillipino woman, and Grace said she saw one black guy. The whole idea should work for mainstream America I think. I tried to get into the atmosphere by reading a Filipino newspaper. But I found that even though it was in English and even though I recognized Marcos and some othr names, I sadly could not bring myself to care. It was more World Journal and less Sampan, (for Boston Chinatown residents) I.e. I thought it was going to have local Filipino community news too, but it was mostly international stuff.

We had a spam burger, which was awesome and only 99 cents. I asked Grace to buy another one of those. We got a pearl taro drink which was sweet but not overly killing you sweet the way lollicup and those other places can be, and it tasted pretty well made. I'm not sure if they used taro or powder, but my point is, for a food chain, it was a good shake. We also had a Hallohallo, I can't find how to spell it, but Bourdain got a second one of these himself after the show. It has ice cream, flan, and mung bean etc. Again, it wasn't overly sweet the way the bean portion of some Vietnamese shakes can be. But honestly I only really liked the bean part. But it was cool that the food chain exists. I might have to go back to try the Aloha burger.


Shiao Long Bao

Monday we went to look for these soup dumplings, but the first place (a Taiwanese Place) was closed. Because it is Monday and a lot of Chinese restaurants close on Monday. We then went to a Shanghai place which was also closed, and luckily we walked down to another place which was open. "Let's go home and eat instead" Amah said.

"No we are eating without getting in the car," I said, "If this place isn't open we are eating at Subway." And then as an aside to Grace, "I'm getting hungry for real and in 10 minutes I might not be beyond biting someone's jugular and gulping down blood." I suppose this shows that I have a unhealthy relationship with food. I mean technically three days without food should be no big deal. Plus my doctor says I'm 15 pounds overweight, so I have some extra buffer there. But yeah, I need to eat. Or maybe I was just annoyed that we were driving here and there ins search of food when we had small children.

Anyway, the food was good. That is okay. I could definitely tell that the food part was better, as in on a higher level than the noodles. Because although they make the noodles themselves, they do not make the noodles right there right in front of you. So I would like to try the first place we were going to go to, which does that. Their Shiao Long Bao was the best out of the food we ordered, though Gong Gong thought their La mein was better. Eerily, Amah and I agreed on the Shiao Long Bao. It is strange but me and Amah actually think very much alike and have similar hoarding tendencies.

An American couple came in after us and ordered Shiao Long Bao. Right as the waiter told them they were sold out this I popped the last soup dumpling of the two orders we had gotten into my mouth. The man complained, "This is the third place I have been to today looking for those." They had probably gone to the same two places we had, but had been a few steps behind us. And we ordered to orders. U recounted this to our table because I hear better than the elders.

"I should open a Shiao Long Bao place that only opens on Mondays." Laughed Gong Gong.

Visiting relatives.

We are on a little adventure visiting Grace's parents and some cousins along the way. So my boys got to see some aunts and distant cousins. But here are some funny conversations we had among ourselves of note.

The first night sleeping in a different place was difficult and so I got up in the night to do some meditation. I thought t was just early morning, but as I waited and waited I realized it was probably more like the middle of the night. In any case, I scooched quietly along the floor to do  little meditation and stretching session, and as I got into position Grace called out in a harsh whisper.

"Shao!"

Grace was probably not fully awake. And I guess I was not fully awake either, in that I was in a very quiet restful mode that I was going to mentally continue while sitting up, through mediation. Plus I didn't want to wake the children.

So my reply was a whispered, "No."


There was a pause.


"Who are you?" Grace whispered back.

"Who do you think? Baba."
There was some more of this and I asked to be left alone. In any case, this is a bit of an inside joke now.


Another thing that was funny was Jonah was in the car next to Grace and the parents were driving.

"Mommy I lllllove you." Jonah said as Grace snuggled next to him in his car seat.

"Yeah yeah yeah, We heard already okay." was Amah's interesting reply. I suppose she is a bit jealous of Jonah's love for his mommy. Or maybe boys shouldn't love, She mentioned he would turn out to be "too feminine."

Well eating out is going to be a big part of our little trip so next post I'll probably talk about Jollie Bee and the restaurant where we just ate Shiao Long Baos

Magic and Cultural Clashes

Yesterday we were watching this David Blaine Show, and the two most striking segments were one where he went to Haiti and another where he visited the Yanomami tribe in the jungle. The Yanonami seemed to find his tricks cute enough. Surprisingly their facial expressions seemed to be like those that scientists or atheists might make. As in, "That's cute." They were not amazed the way people in the U.S. were. Plus when he pulled out playing cards they had never seen playing cards, so the whole concept of what he was doing was strange.

Haiti was really funny because they were mostly not impressed, and some people got angry. They would say they had seen something way better than that like, "people flying." So Blaine went to visit a place where they wer practicing Voodooo, I guess to become more culturally aware. His expression were way more toned down. And he chased down this group who simply said they did not want his black magic. "It's not black magic I entertain. I'm an entertainer! It's fun!"

Finally he convinced them to see his card trick. He wrote down the number the guy who picked it was guessing. They were mildly amused. Except the guy who had picked the card. "You can see into my mind!?" He said angrily pointing at his head like, "How dare you!"


"It's not what you think." David Blaine had to admit. It's just funny because in the states he can be all mysterious and what not. But here in Haiti it almost seemed like he was almost going to have to admit it was fake because they just took it literally.


I have actually met plenty of people in the states of various cultures who take Magic like this literally. Of course, most of them of from and were raised in other countries. But having been in the states, they know the difference between a magic show and thatother sort of magic and can separate the two as different entities.


It reminds me of one time when South End baseball asked us to perform lion dance, but also an exorcism.
We did it. Because culturally any normal Chinese person can use his mind and perform an exorcism of a sort, and with the Lion Head and drums its even better.


For Catholics you need a priest to defeat or kill the demons or evil spirits.

I assume Santaria or other forms of things that are called witchcraft have a similar nethod, but I am talking in ignorance here.


Our method was much more simple.


So the superstition, which we may or may not believe ourselves, but we certainly don't go preaching it as too assume that ghosts even exist is a big assumption. But for the Atheist reading this let's just say ghosts exist in your mind, so anything comforting to the mind and able to calm the mind down will defeat the ghost, that again is only in your mind. Just thinking it is not always good enough. You need some extra tools or crutches. A stuffed animal, a friend, loud music to give you courage.. got it?

Now for the superstitious reader.

Lots of people will scare away ghosts anyway. Then so do loud noises and bright colors, like drums and lion heads. And then if that's not good enough, we set up an altar and burnt money for them. I.e. we bribed them to leave.

For people not familiar with what we were doing, I supposed it looked like witchcraft, as some curious hispanic kids went to look closer and their mothers shooed them away and told them not to go near there. I.e. in their culture, that sort of thing is to be feared as well as sought out. Bit for Chinese, this was just a ritual, not magic, and it could also be performed for one's ancestors while drinking and gambling and chatting with friends.

But in any case, watching it, was sort of eerie even for our own team. The wind stopped when the incense was lit, and then after the money had burned up and the incense gone, one wind sort of took it all away in one sweep. Could be all coincidence as this does not always happen, but it definitely looked cool and had a bit of an effect on the people watching it, including those performing it.


That being said even though part of us might believe in it to a degree, it is not as literal or something to be feared necessarily, or we always try to find some sort of explanation. Then when one isn't found, it's like "okay that was cool." Or some people get freaked out because they cannot hold these two perspectives, the scientific and the supernatural together at once.

And it is interesting too that those that really believe in magic, would simply not be impressed by David Blaine, or only find it mildly amusing. Their reactions are much more rational. Whereas the people who live in America who may or may not believe in real magic, but are in any case raised to not completely believe in it, start running down the street afraid of what they have just seen or are sometimes reduced to tears.

What would Communist China do in Ferguson?

I don't watch the news that often. I seem to get a lot of news from Facebook, Grace, and then snippets from TV and NPR. I'm not really getting conflicting news about Ferguson and it's police department. It just seems the message being sent is conflicting. The killing of an unarmed teen is as harsh as you can get. It is unlawful as well. Rounding up reporters and arresting them unlawfully without procedure is also unlawful and a corrupt nasty way of doing things. But at the same time the police are trying to restrain themselves in the protests. They are being shot at but aren't shooting back. (At least that's what the news said.) And they are trying to take a more conciliatory tone with the protesters, asking them to come out in the day instead so that "criminals hiding in the crowd" will be less likely to cause the deaths or injuries of innocent law abiding protesters.

Apparently there are "agitators" coming from as far away as California and New York. This language sounds so familiar. But I'd rather not compare this situation to something like the Civil Rights movement. It sounds more like the attempt at a peaceful Civil Rights movement in Derry,Northern Ireland. But the police there went nuts cracking down and the result was not good. So the Police in Ferguson don't want that. So now they are being more measured in their language and approach, having a black guy be in charge. It just looks better that way.

The situation had me thinking of protests in Xinjiang and Tibet that got out of hand too. How in Tibet, the Chinese government tried to crack down on journalists, and that backfired. So they learned from that and worked with journalists during the Xinjiang riots. Would the Communists handle Ferguson differently than we are now? Better or worse?

I think people coming into the protests from California and New York may have a bigger picture type of movement in mind. But the family of Michael Brown has said that all they want is Justice and that is the way to end the violence. And really this is true.

The problem is not that the Ferguson police are too harsh, when it comes to the law or what have you. They are inconsistent and hypocritical and that's why people are so pissed off. I'm sure the Communists would take one look at the situation and would have had the police officer arrested and, it's been ten days so in for more days he would have been shot, probably publicly in a stadium, otherwise there could be claims that his execution was faked. There is something to be said for public executions. Even though I am against the death penalty, in a situation like this, wouldn't everything be quiet by now? Wouldn't the family simply be grieving over the loss of their son and not over injustice. Even if somehow, the officer were not guilty of murder, a Communist government would have him publicly executed anyway, if the outcry of the people was so great over just one person, one incident. Whatever the rights of the officer are, ultimately unarmed teen is dead. The evidence coming out points to murder. But even if somehow it was accidental, a public execution would quell the anger of the masses with a snap of the fingers.

But now, when the Police are dealing with their own, suddenly we care about law and due process. And not only that, there is at the same time special treatment given. Even if we don't do things the way China does, throwing the guy in a cell immediately might have done something to put these protests down. Initially people were just looking at this as the problem of an incident. But now people are starting to question the system.

China has no problem sacrificing one of their own, even a party member, if it will make it look good for the public. The protests in China rarely have to do with one incident like this. It is usually really about a whole system. Now China has a ton of problems and can learn a lot about governing from the U.S. But in cases like this, It is clear that what the family and so many people are pissed off about is a sense of consistency, a sense of fairness and a sense of Justice. They would willingly go back to the way things are, the police being harsh and racist and all that, if they were willing to punish this one guy publicly and severely for crossing the line.

I.e. Beat black men up. Okay I can do that.
Racial profiling. Okay you have your reasons.
Kill an unarmed black teen.


A public execution or at least a life sentence, carried out swiftly would really send a helpful message of, "look we really do care about you and all of these little injustices we do, really are for the benefit of society and general and we are trying to not be racist and change slowly. And look, when one of ours crosses the line, we will not allow it."

You don't even have to mean it. You just need to kill someone from your own side as a sacrifice. After all, a young teen is dead.

Or again, at least put him in jail, no messing around. You don't actually have to be fair and just. All you have to do is sometimes make an effort to show that you are trying.

If a soldier kills an unarmed citizen while on duty, isn't he more accountable because he goes through a military court?


So what about a police officer? Shouldn't they be held to a higher standard than a normal citizen? Or at least shouldn't we put forth an effort to make it appear that way?

Then, when you do that and people still protest, you could actually disperse the crowd with real bullets (if you announce it first) and probably people will still respect you. After all. You put the bullet on your own when Justice called for it.

People can forgive and even love tyrants. But not hypocrites.

Tai Chi insights of a Southern Belle.

Most mornings in the playground I try to do my little workout at the playground, and there are often regulars there doing their little workout. One regular is an elderly white woman who walks around the track and then does Tai Chi. Today I stopped her on her way out to talk, and I am so glad I did. She had so much to say about her art that she practices. She has been doing Tai Chi for a while but I could tell she didn;t learn it as a girl or anything. But she drew from other experiences, Tennis, Sumi-e, Aikido in Japan, but what was most amazing about her to me was when she talked about watching a hummingbird in her garden sink and flow before it entered the flower with it's tongue, and the trees deflecting the wind with it's own sort of techniques of it's branches.

"You really put a lot of thought into this. And you really put a lot of intent into your Tai Chi. More than a lot of people I see who have done Tai Chi for a long time."

She was happy about my comment. But the more I talked to her, the more I realized that I was talking to an extraordinary person. At one point she was talking about taking a seminar at YMAA where she takes classes, and how the teacher said that the sword form is not for old people. She mentioned how she actually conflicted with the teacher verbally about this.

"I was southern raised so I'm usually not one to conflict with" and I thought she was going to say teacher but she said, "a man about something. But I raised my hands and said, 'Hello (such and such) is teachimg ME the sword form" and she went on to describe how she talked about various energy to that teacher and how he mentioned that was a higher level.

This statement really shocked my world view. First of all, I am so used to dealing with the stereotype of strong minded western American and subservient Asian  women that her statement about conflicting with a man woke me up to something. Although I have known a few Southern women, young and old, I guess I never had an opportunity to talk about this dynamic. Whereas, I see this dynamic between man and woman everyday in both where it is true and where it really really isn't true, in Chinese women. But I could write a whole other blog post about that.

The other part of the statement led to more conversation about energy, and I had to comment that usually I had to explain these type of things to Americans in a Scientific fashion, and I suppose I got good at these explanations because I also needed this reconciliation. And it sort of amazed me that she just went with it and was actually using Mandarin terminology and not really asking for an explanation, but instead relying on her own insight into nature, connecting directly with the meaning behind her movements with things she herself observed, instead of say, depending solely on stories of others who observed nature.

She mentioned her time brush painting and living in Japan. And also how in tennis you sink and hit and such things.

I was going to just ask her if she wanted to do light push hands or something like that, and then maybe have show do it with her. My idea behind this was that, Noah should not only learn from me. So he could do a little push hands with her and maybe he would not feel as pressured by me etc.

But I ended up learning more from her than I have talking to a lot of martial artists who might be better fighters or more athletic or whatever. In fact, I suppose I had prejudged her as a certain type of person, and found her to be completely different than that prejudgment.


Anyway, I was glad I talked to her and hopefully  we can learn from each other.

Dominican Day Parade

Usually the Dominican Day parade is the same Sunday as August Moon. This year however they were on different days so we could go. Me, Noah and Jonah headed down on our tricycle and founf a shaded spot right at Hyde Square with a bench. My favorite part was these devils with whips. I had heard of them in college from a friend. He told me if you turned your back that they were allowed to whip you in D.R. 

But seeing them, the only reason why I knew they were "devils" was because of the whips and the story. They basically looked like One person lion heads. They were very colorful I kind of wanted to find out who did them and see if they might want to come along on my Chinese New Year Parade idea. Were they really supposed to be evil?

I bumped into a friend who does Kung Fu in Chinatown and also lives in JP. "Just checking it out" meaning the parade. I asked him about the colorful creatures.

He shrugged, "Just evil spirits."

I wonder if they are evil or more mischievous. And Nians can be evil as well as good. The idea is that the one's you parade with and bless stores with are mostly good. And they call then lions. 

Anyway, Chinese would never consider creatures so bright and colorful as evil. If they wanted to make them evil they would chose purple, indigo, and more traditional funeral type colors. I wonder if the devils were evil pre-European colonization. But anyway, I don't know anything about them and I have to find out more.

Much of the parade was as my friends said, "Mostly music." As in mostly tricked out cars blasting music out of giant speakers. Which was cool. But my left ear is also still hurting. It was so loud that I am actually not sure if Chinese New Year is louder or that parade. The other thing is once you see a car with about 60 giant speakers attached to it quiet impressively, a car with like two speakers is no longer something to look at. I guess that's the point though.

There was also a tricked out kids car which Noah really liked. It was a baby car with rims and speakers.

I didn't see the beginning of the parade, and I was expecting more activities down by the playground so I went down there with the kids and we played for a while. But the festival is actually at Franklin Park. But now it's Jonah's nap time and Noah is doing his worksheets.

Legends with Sean Bean

I saw an ad for this show on Youtube. Holy Crap Sean Bean is in his own show! But I can't watch this with the kids. I better just leave it to the side. But then last night Grace said, "I bought this show for you. It has that guy you like." What! So we watched it, putting the kids in the other room with PBS kids and then with the computer because they came in and couldn't stop talking. Sean Bean looks slower in hus fight scenes, and older when flirting, "Aiya Too Old!" when he says to his female boss , "Is that the only reason you're mad at me?"
So what it's Sean Bean.

The show is stupid really. At one point, this female boss, to save Sean Bean, or let him know that the bad guys know he is a spy for the FBI she goes in as a stripper. I knew this was coming because the same thing happened in X-men, the one set in the 60's. Only such a thing would happen in a guys tv show, where the woman is pretending to be a stripper and at the same time whispering spy stuff in Sean Bean's ear.

"This is so stupid." Grace laughed.

"Cause it's a show for guys."

"I don't even understand what's going on right now."

"It doesn't matter." and just then Sean Bean started fucking shit up and shooting people. And I started singing the theme to Sharpe's Rifles over their stupid other music and Grace joined me.

"I can't take it." Grace says, "Why is it he is acting so well and everyone else is sooo bad. It's uneven."

"That's the only work he can get." I was thinking that a movie with another really good actor who doesn't seem to be getting consistent good work would be good. Like Sean Bean and Samuel L. Jackson. It seems like Al Pacino hasn't been in anything recently either.

Thing is, Sean Bean spent his youth doing the BBC movies. Then when he came obver hear he was a little old. But it isn't just that. His face looks a little too harsh for American Movie stars. But that's what's so bad ass. But they end up killing him off or the show is cancelled like that show that was on ABC, where he actually started off as dead and then came back.

That show had the other unfortunate thing of making him speak in only an American accent.

In Legends they cleared that up right away. He's got an American Accent character with a stutter, to show off his acting skills. And then he's got his other character who is still American but has parents that were stationed overseas so he ended up with "a cool accent."

"That explains that." laughed Grace.

But it enables him to have his scenes where he can be all bad ass and whisper to the bad guy with his hand on the detonator, "Go ahead, do it." all quiet Yorkshire and fucked up like, "Oh no... you wanted me to do it and you just watch eh?"


BAD ASSS!!!!


Today we were talking about the same thing and I mentioned that Criminal Minds, her favorite show, is just all bad actors.
"Yeah cause it's on the same level." Grace said, "You can't have just him be the whole show."



But in fact that's what the show is.

Grace did some research and apparently there is a campaign #don'tkillseanbean.

I think these were the clips she showed me. Or close enough.

Of course I had wanted a campaign to bring Sean Bean to Downton Abbey and switch things up a little. But whatever. I guess this is better.

Chinese Chess games

Today at the playground this old couple busted out with a game that I thought was chinese chess, as I could see a river in the middle of the board. One of the other mother's asked me if I knew the game they were playing. I was about to say it was chess, but I noticed that the tiles were square, and flipped over. When they did flip them over, they did appear to be able to move the pieces. And there were military words like the one used for pawn but most of the tiles had two characters. There was the character for long. There was on that said "grounf thunder." But when I looked at it I thought it said ground lightning because my chinese is horrible.
Luckily there was another dad at the park who is actually a Mandarin speaker. I mean I have never seen this game. And the old couple playing are Mandarin speakers. So I was guessing that the fact I had never seen it, ever, means it must be more popular in other parts of China.

I explained to him what I had just seen, and what games I knew it wasn't.

"Oh that's dark chess. It's like  chess but it's by luck. You don't know if you're general is next to you or not."

That sounds pretty cool. And in retrospect, and from a search on Wikipedia, I have seen kids play that game at Kwong Kow. But it turns out that was not the game.

I descrived some other stuff and the dad said, "Oh that's another game." And he described something with land mines and that sort of thing. Land mines! In Chess! That is freaking cool. Now I know there are all sorts of modern warfare strategy games and all that. But are they as simple as a board and little square tiles. Later, when his kids were occupied, this younger dad you speaks mandarin was able to walk over and glance at what the old couple was playing.

"Oh that's another game."

What! How many games are there? Why have I never seen this freaking cool versions of Chinese Chess with modern weaponry. And I tried to find what the hell this game is so I could post this article with a picture or video but it doesn't come up. I really want to learn this game now, and maybe play this old people. I don't really care about losing. I just can't believe I have lived for 30 years around Chinese people and don't know the existence of this game. I never had much of an interest in learning Mah Jong. Maybe because of how people play in halls for money etc. But learning it as a fun little game might be okay. But then it takes so long. No never mind. But these Chess games. Like the five chess games that this other father mentioned which I did not even know existed. I have to learn those now.

Maybe I should get a Chinese chess set. I mean that's one way to teach characters to Noah right?

Okay never mind I figured out it is called Luzhangqi
Time to study this. Youtubing showed know results.
But wikipedia does.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luzhanqi

Kung Fu Fire Dance

On August Moon I performed my wheels on the bus Kung Fu as a real form, because I hope to start teaching older kids how to do this in the fall. And I cannot teach something if I haven't done it myself. What I realized however is that to get up there in front of all those people and free style a form like that, well, you either have to have the natural ability to do this, or you have to be a master already. Which defeats the purpose of what I am trying to do. The goal of my wheels on the bus idea is that you see it, and automatically you can do it. I have taught at many schools where most of the audience does not Kung Fu and young children and teenagers can actually do the simplest version of the moves, as a group, seeing me do it just once. However, that doesn't mean they would want to do it themselves. And the whole, "follow me" format, where a group is just doing exactly what I am doing, with or thought foot work, is not my goal. In any case it's been done.

Watch 1:10 of this trailer from The Hidden Fortress.

I tried to find the full fire festival scene. But it isn't up there yet. If you have it, please upload it! Anyway, I thought also that if I did have a large group of students, that it would also be a waste of time to have us Kung Fu on a stage one at a time. What would my ideal Kung Fu Festival look like? I guess it would look like that Fure festival at 1:10 or actually maybe it starts at 1:08, in the clip. Except instead of the dance moves they are doing, they would be doing wheels on the bus. Into the fire for four beats Out for four beats, at the same time slowly circling. Maybe every time you change direction you change animals. That would be the short version. The long version would you don't switch animals until you go all the way around the fire.

Imagine that! Then "Practice" would be more like clubbing, in that you work out in a group in a fun dance. And that could take about a couple hours. And you could pick it up simply by doing it. Yes you could take classes, but you could just show up to the fire dance. Of course for us in the city perhaps a fire is not such a good idea. Maybe a May Pole or  some other thing could be in the middle. Perhaps the drums.

What do the dance moves look like? Probably the large motion kicks I did at August moon would not be a good idea. (I have shared that clip on my other blog Cheung Family Kung Fu) But the simpler motions that can be more easily controlled. Actually you could do the spin kick too if you just use your knee and everyone does it at the same time. Maybe that could be every time you jump away from the fire.

Sounds like quite a work out! But I'm sure people would be more able and willing to do it like that, in a group, than as an individual. And of course after doing that for a while, some individuals will do something themselves, perhaps in the middle where the fire would not be, again because we are in a city.

What is the purpose of Police

When you watch Westerns, which are basically the American Mythology of the formation of our country, the American version of King Arthur, you will always have some Sheriff or other talking about the importance of the Law. That the Law isn't perfect, or fair, but these sort of Knights in Shining armor fantasy are a representation of Justice.

Even the family of Michael Brown are saying they don't want violence just Justice. This means that even though there son was shot to death, unarmed by a police officer, that they still believe in Justice. 

What most people find wrong or horrible about this shooting is that from these Westerns we grew up on, and other shows, we believe that Justice (and imperfect Justice) comes to us through the law (an imperfect law) and that the people who serve and protect that law are the police (who are human and also imperfect). But that in general, this is the goal or the ideal that society is striving toward.

I'm sure most police believe in this. That is why they became police. Elected legislators believe in the importance of the law probably. Otherwise they would have to believe that their official elected position, is a falsehood.

By why are their police? You know back with the Articles of Confederation we didn't even have an army, we had a volunteer militia. We also had voluntary taxes. That didn't work out.

So later we have an army. And we had neighborhood watch for domestic stuff. And I think at least in Boston we decided on a standing army to "keep the peace" which would wear blue and wouldn't look like our other army (because that would scare "citizens") but basically we (or they) needed a standing army to keep the growing Irish Immigrant population in check. To keep their drunken behavior from moving to the wealthier property and "disturbing the  peace" or destroying the property, of the rich non-Irish population.

So basically, the police are really here to protect the property and other interests of the rich. To protect business, (big business) to protect business owned goods, that sort of thing. To prevent drunken behavior like what the Sons of Liberty took part in at the founding of the country. To prevent some other people from doing that again. We already did that. You're not allowed to do it twice.

Let's peek into the mind or at least the logic of why someone would approach Michael Brown. Look there is a kid near some destroyed property. A burnt down gas station. Maybe he had something to do with it. Whoever owns this property was pressuring police because they (the police) are supposed to be doing their job protecting said property of a business. 

 

So approach Michael Brown in a threatening way. Like a Sheep dog keeping wolves away. Or a scarecrow keeping crows away. 

Except Michael Brown is human, and is young. He is about to start college. This type of person believes in Justice and ideals and that sort of thing. He believes in rights. Especially as an American, he believes in Liberty. Maybe he says this in hot words taking some steps toward the officer.

The officer shoots him dead because he is threatened, because despite what he tells himself in the morning about serving and protecting the law, somewhere in at least his subconscious, he is a scarecrow with a gun and people are crows and Law is the myth that helps him go to work every morning.

An old man told me the other day,

"You can not make someone understand, if to not understand is the only way they can exist."

That's why when we killed and displaced the people that were living here before we colonized there was  talking of saving souls and civilizing. That's why slave owners had to make up some bs about how they were somehow helping blacks. That's why Nazis concentration camp guards had to somehow rationalize in their mind that though what was happening was horrible, in the end it was for the benefit of Germany and it was just something unfortunate that had to be done.

Let's go back to those people who populated America before colonization. Well some of them. Anyway I studied on class in college about Native American Law. And believe it or not, just because the current American way with Police seems to be the same as almost every other country with the difference being that perhaps Justice is more real in this country than in others, it's not the only way.

There is Community Justice. Not lynch law. But for instance what if the police officer was more like a parent  or a teacher or other caregiver, and citizens were more like children. And property was like property in the kindergarten classroom. So a burnt down gas station would be like someone's blocks that were destroyed, or even worse, the teachers computer. So how would the police officer approach Michael Brown now? Wouldn't he first ask him some questions? He wouldn't necessarily assume right off the bat he was guilty. Maybe he would just strike up a conversation about sports or something. Because in this scenario, the gas station is important, but not as important as the life and indeed success of Michael Brown. In this scenario, in this pretend society, the police would still have power, perhaps more than they do now. But their training and focus and ideals would be completely different. And most likely Michael Brown would not only still be alive. But him and many others would be thriving.

Just a thought to ponder. They idea wouldn't be revolutionary. Okay maybe it would be. But would changing the way we police as a country be that hard? Now of course there are police that think this way, but are they trained as teachers? Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe this is just an isolated incident. An individual cop who did the wrong thing. But somehow I don't think so. 

Just saying waht if the focus wasn't on law, but on the community growing together and police were not just guardians of that community but teachers, guides and mentors in it. What if that was their role. How would they be trained differently? How would they be seen differently?

Robin Williams

When I was a kid Robin Williams was the epitome of what I wanted to grow up to be. A successful adult who hadn't grown up yet (or at least what I saw of him.) He was still a kid at heart, and so he was still cool. No, this was before I even used the word cool.
If he had just died, I guess that would be sad. But that it was a suicide is disturbing, and yet not surprising.
He wasn't young, I can't remember the last movie he did, and to hear that he was suffering with depression well a lot of people that are funny and successful have something going on under the surface.

But I guess since Robin Williams wasn't really a person to me, but more like a persona, a representation of childhood well at least my childhood, then it's as if under the surface of everything, every Peter Pan and Mrs. Doubtfire and every childhood memory and every success there is some sort of scary depression.

That movie he made where his wife had committed suicide and he travels through the afterlife to find her comes to mind, as does that depressing one where his son accidentally kills himself and he makes it look like a suicide too. I turned that movie off because I couldn't watch it. There was Bi Centenial Man. Actually even Jumanji, ALL of his movies were at the same time funny and disturbing. Of course he was just in those movies, it's not like he wrote them.

It's like if Winnie the Pooh killed himself. Or Thomas the Tank Engine. Is everyone struggling with such depression? It's the type of news that makes you want to immediately look away. Not just from something outside. But to look away from something inside. As if there might be something inside your self that is scary and depressing, but to go there would be falling into horrible suffering. So go outside and go to work and struggle against something external, have challenges and issues outside of yourself because there is something inside you that is dangerous even to look at and must be covered up. Well , that's the sort of feeling I got when Grace told me that little bit of news this morning.

Countdown to Kindergarten

Yesterday me and Noah went to his little Kindergarten party at the library. There were a bunch of arts and crafts and food and music and dancing. Basically it was a little party to get the kids excited about going to Kindergarten instead of you know, dreading it. It was great. The teachers, who were mostly playgroup leaders, were really good with kids. This is not the sort of school I remember. But then we'll see how real school is. I'm sure Noah will like it though.
Sonia Chang Diaz was there, and to illustrate a point I made in the last post, when they offered her time to speak, she waved her hand and shook her head to indicate that she was just there and she didn't need to sat anything.

Which was true. And why bore the kids with a speech. The parents have seen her presence. They'll vote for her. And if they want to come talk to her she's there, like a member of the community. That's the thing, if you show up all the time, it's almost like the people know you personally. So of course they'll vote for you.

Anyway, we made a few arts and crafts that I think I'm going to use at home. I mean, paper bag puppets is really easy. And I'm always throwing out Grace's paper bags from Duncan Donuts. Why not turn them into puppets first?

By the way if anyone else has cool arts and crafts they do at home at would like to share, I would appreciate the advice or ideas to steal.

Performance mishaps

Today was the August Moon Festival in Chinatown. Like many festivals I heard of some mishaps that happened today. First of all if something like that happened to you or your team, I'm sorry that it happened to you. It can be a terrible feeling. I encourage you to share your own story. But those are your stories to tell, so instead I'm going to talk about some past mishaps I experienced and witnessed.

And before I even begin, mishaps are inevitable when the people running an event are not professional event organizers. Professional event organizers get paid serious serious money to do what these community people basically do for free as a thing on the side i.e. not their real job.

That being said my second example involves real big time professionals. And sometimes you see stuff happen on the news and other shows like that. So even with professionals, it happens.

1) When I was a teenager during a stage performance for Chinese New Year some teams took longer than others. And so the organizers tried to speed us along, to the point where when we began our Choi chiang rather slow (we planned this whole thing out to show case kei lun bo etc. But the head was new to the whole thing and the show did start off in a slow manner. Anyway they organizer took it upon himself to try and announce us off the stage. Funny thing is, I knew the organizer and he was a close family friend of the person in the head, who was also my best friend. Despite this friendly relationship, or maybe even because of it, there was some exchange of Diu nay lo mo's and ew hais as well as "careless accidental" waving of edged three kingdoms era weaponry and actual slowing down of the performance and doing more forms than we even planned because... well you know... diu nay and nay ma ga hai. Of course the next day everyone was friends again. (sort of) When these thing happen it's usually not on purpose. Again, it's usually because this type of thing is not their day job.


But then sometimes it is.

2) A few years ago Neil Diamond came to sing for the Fourth of July. He also sanf for this rehearsal thing that would air on TV in the event of a storm or something. Anyway, the News station messed up with the filming so they wanted to stop Neil Diamond mid song... mid "We're coming to America."

This is something you don't do.

"Stop Stop we have to do it over." was announced. They cut the mics to the choir. They cut the mics to the instruments. They cut Neil  Diamonds mic and this lady came out on stage and started yelling... at Neil Diamond.

You know what Neil Diamond did?

When they announced it interupting him, he didn't miss a beat. When they cut the choir, he kept singing. When they cut the orchestra he kept singing. When they cut his mic he clapped to the beat stepping from side to side. When the lady was screaming at him, he continued to sing. Only we couldn't hear because his mic was cut.


The crowd went nuts to the point where they had to just turn everything back on and let Neil Diamond, who was still singing and smiling as if nothing had even happened, finish his song. He had the crowd on his side. Neil Diamond was before my time, but I became a serious fan of his in that moment. "Today......today..." yeah sing it Neil.


The point of that story is, if your going to diu someone. Diu them with a smile on your face and don't miss a beat. I'm sure Neil was pissed. But he didn't show it. He announced at the end of the song that because of an issue filming he would have to sing the song again and did the audience mind. The audience went nuts. The news film crew studio or whatever it is they are called was thinking about the viewer at home, but they forgot to respect the audience present, not to mention the performer.

For the first scenario, the organizers were only thinking about the time for the visiting politicians. But again, they forgot about the audience and the performers, and the fact that the only reason those politicians are there, is to get the support of said audience and performers. I.e. it may seem like those politicians are more important than the lion dance team. But in fact, the inverse is true during the performance. The festival can actually exist without the politicians even without a stage. It could be just some street performers and the audience and that's really where the party and the festivity is. The Politician is there because of the crowd
and to get votes. They are there because of the festival. The festival is not there because of them.

But the organizer, may very well be there because of the politician. And that's where there is a conflict. Maybe the organizers of these community events should be high school Asian clubs. Like BLS, BLA and O'Bryant. And Charlestown High too. I'm not talking about volunteers just helping to sweep the stage. I'm saying actually put those kids in charge. If there is chaos, just congratulate them at the end anyway. And if Politicians complain (which they won't if they are to be successful politicians as those high school students will soon be voters, you just shrug and say something like "Kids these days."

But actually the O'Bryant Asian night we performed at one year was one of the most tightly run shows I've ever seen. These high school kids may invest more energy and time to these sorts of things because they can and there is also something to gain from it. Plus it is their whole world for that year. Just like a sports season to a high school athlete can sometimes seem like a life and death contest.

One of the worst Asian Nights I went to, was Harvard's. Again, maybe there are other things that those particular students have to focus on other than that night's entertainment.

The last scenario will be one Asian Night at Stonehill.

One time on Asian night in college, this female student was going to do a dance and lip sync. But they couldn't get her cassette to play. I walked over and asked the then head of the Asian Club (which was called SASS) what was wrong. She turned round and in tense and scared words told me the situation and told me to "Do SOMETHING Please!"
"Yeah I'll just play dulcimer and you give me a signal when you're all set."

So I went up there and asked the audience if they wanted to hear me play another song, or if they wanted to hear me freestyle on my instrument. The audience was mostly friends of students, as opposed to students themselves and most were friends of one particular Hmong student actually. And they all enjoyed hip hop and free style so "Yo free style that!" was the answer.

So I did.

I snuck in some of my favorite Wuxia tunes in there too. It was easy and I could just keep going without even focusing and I think they liked it better than my actual song I had played earlier. The problem soon was fixed and I explained this and made my exit.

I'm not sure if the moral of that is "always have a back up plan" or "Don't freak out." or both. Regardless, when something does happen, (and it will) you will rely on your performers to "DO SOMETHING PLEASE!" So it's best if you are in a good relationship with them and ask them nicely. Then they will gladly help you. Or there could even be someone in the audience that can help too.

This was our apple picking adventure

African Mein Lei Jum

I just awoke from a dream. I was back at our old Kung Fu school in Tai Tung. I was visiting and had been away from some time. The I shook Vincent's hand and Sifu was working on patients. The playground outside was really active. And the school was crowded. I was talking with people during really Americanized Karate class. I guess we partnered with this White Karate guy. I just say Karate because he and all the kids were wearing Gi's. But they were just doing a simplified version of Kung Fu. They were doing forms to music. But the forms were good. They were hard like Karate, but they weren't Kata like I've seen. They looked more like Hung Gar than the Fujianese White Crane stuff. But everything was recognizably from Sup Ji. In fact, I have already done these sort of simplified forms for schools. I just don't wear a Gi. The songs played were all 1970's tunes. "Hey this one is from Musashi!" I declared. And nobody said anything. Now I remember the tune was actually from Lone Wolf and Cub.

The next class I actually hopped in with. It was a Mein lay jum class, but right after the first move the form had become different. There were a ton of repeating low kicks and the form was very much like an African Dance. I have never taken African dance, but that is undoubtedly what it was. I tried to follow along and quickly realized it would be impossible so I began dancing around and filling in moves with other Kung Fu and turning around so I was face to face with the instructors and the new students trying to follow along. Most of the students were new and so their technique was not clear which made it harder to pick up these newer kicks.

Nobody questioned what I was doing. They all knew who I was, I visiting senior student, but I recognized none of them. The woman leading the class was a light skinned African American woman who had a new born bijorned to her body while leading the class. I looked in and saw that the baby was sleeping. The mother had her eyes closed and was doing her form very intensely. But the focus was internal and yes, all the moves were FOR either pregnant mothers or mothers with newborns bjorned to them. But there were still planty of young women and really old women in the class and even some men. The whole crowd was very JP looking.

Sifu was still surveying the whole thing from his desk, cigarette in hand. Though I didn't smell smoke. And nobody mentioned or cared about smoke.

Back to the form.

There were sections where you sat down and in flowed in and out of Mein Lay jum moves very smoothly. I took this for granted because when I woke up and tries to do this form, it came out too African or Too Mein Lei jum. But in the dream is was so obviously and easily both. Being of a Chinese Tai Chi Rythm and an African dance rythym SIMULTANEOUSLY. We did not play any music to the form. It was done in silence. I completed one round and then hopped in and out and talked to people waiting on the side. Yes it was so crowded that there were always people chatting on the side and that didn't bother the people using the main floor. The kitchen was there and coming in there was actually wires and pipes hanging out of a section of the wall, which wasn't true in real life.

In other words, in my dream the school looked more dilapidated than I recall and there was still a crowd of American women there just for the class and maybe some treatment. In fact as I walked in, this woman in tight workout gear was sitting in a chair. not for Teet da treatment, but to do this physical therapy exercise for her arm after her workout. She chose to sit right in front of the exposed part of the wall. It didn't bother her.

We had always attributed our lack of female students to the environment. But thinking back, when women came to do treatments there were prep school mothers who came regularly and did not mind the appearance of the school. Just because certain women who spoke Chinese would comment on this as a deterrent doesn't mean that it was a big a deal I think. There are a lot of ECO women out there who enjoy travelling to countries with squat toilets and enjoy using them. My mother was one of those and I think JP is full of them.


Anyway, the main reason I am writing this is because of the form. I tried doing the form and of course when I did it, it was different than in the dream. I felt a lot of snake and crane coming through, which didn't strike me during the dream, but as I did the moves, shielding the womb that I don't have (though I had used bjoyns.... actually it wasn't bjorn in the dream is was a cloth that held the baby that ended up getting recalled.) I though about how snakes and cranes are in Africa. Maybe it's also because Sifu has a snake and crane fighting form but I never learned it, as well as a snake and crane double shape form that I never learned fully as well, just takled about some techniques. And way that's how the moves came out. Plus my foot work was different that regular Mein lay Jum. Because of the African Dance thing and because of the form is supposed to be for pregnant women or mom's with newborns.

Also this definitely was not Capoeira. Not to say that all the moves were easy to do. There was a focus on toe strength with some of the foot placement. You would put your weight onto the toe, so that move wasn't really so much of a kick but almost like a toe exercise. But I had thought it looked like a kick.

The moves were still difficult to do but possible for a pregnant woman to do, and seemed to have some how developed out of Mein Lay Jum. In fact in the dream, there were two Americanized sections of the school that had developed so fast that in my absence (at school presumably) they had developed to the point where Sifu's students students students were running the class and I didn't recognize any of them.

But it definitely was African, even though most of the students (except the instructor who looked like she was half black and was the most into it. As in she could do the form with were eyes closed and feel chi and was sweating. The other people were still watching her to see what move came next.) Well the rest were all white. And a very gentrified white.


Anyway, another thing that came to me while I was trying to do this form AWAKE, was that the stance was with out turned foot to open up the hips. In lion dance, the Dai Tau fut (big headed Buddha) walks like this, supposedly because he is so fat.

I thought about the way religion and stories develop, and how Guan Yin was traced back to a male deity that was skinny and therefore looked feminine. I know lion dance (the southern style) was first mentioned or recorded in the Han Dynasty. But a story and a dance where the monster is called a nian seems to me to reach back to a time before writing. I mean even if there isn't a continuous lineage, Lion Dance, especially the flat faced simplest lion dances, always seemed to be form the dancing around a fire sharpened stones as tools type of origin.

What's my point?

I wonder if you were able to go back far enough, if the fat male Buddha was not actually a big breasted 9 month pregnant woman type of deity. About to give birth. Maybe to time itself, or at least to the Year or something like that. Well wouldn't that actually make more sense too? And it would also make sense that a naked pregnant woman dancing in front of a nian became a clothed overweight monk.

But yeah I'm just making this stuff up. It's just something that popped into my head while trying to figure out the moves to a form I saw in a dream. But to me, all of this is significant.

I might have to ask Sifu about some of the weird moves.

All the sports

Noah had told me before that he wanted to learn all the sports. Today I tried with what we had. We did Baseball and he ran the bases of a real softball diamond. Pretty good. Then we did kickball. I guess we didn;t really do soccer. And then I tried to introduce volleyball because I think there is going to be tournaments in Chinatown this Sunday, and it will be cool to see those.
Basically I realized that hitting the ball like that is pretty hard, So we played catch over the fence. To throw the ball over was a lot like the basketball muscles. And then I realized (again) what I have said before. All the sports are actually just exercises. As in, if you look at it from a Kung Fu perspective, Baseball is working on a few aspects of a martial art, soccer others, football others, volleyball others, and if you put it all together it is one big Martial Art.

We started doing this catching game that we saw these Soccer girls doing the other day, which boxers also do with a medicine ball. And thinking back I remember doing a lot of these drills with another young student when it started only being him showing up to class and when I couldn't hold his attention for basics and other things.

Anyway, Noah was having a ball. I mar introduce these things in my Kung Fu class tomorrow.

I had been looking up "Kung Fu games" online and also just looking at literature on teaching kids Karate. (There is far more Karate stuff online in the U.S. than Kung Fu.) And basically I wasn't impressed because I couldn't see stuff that was better than the things I had invented. And now, I see that if I want to tap into other people's knowledge, I should probably look more at sports drills.

And doing all these sports drills in succession is a good way to build up the body in a fun way. And then do basics too.

I might try some of the stance drills while holding sticks or some other prop too. The lateral movement ball catching thing is sort of like horse stance, but I'm going to try the other stuff too.

Splinter

Dai Dai got a splinter today at the playground. I almost got it out but all of his squirming broke it in half, so half is still in there. My Uncle usually cuts his out with a razor. And while I might do that to myself, I don't want to do that with Jonah. Though that possibility was running through my mind, as I don't where a needle is. I started talking to another Dad at the playground about it, and looking it up, apparently they can work their way out. I guess I was freaking out because Grace is always reading me some news story about flesh eating bacteria and amputation.
Jonah also started falling asleep and on the way home, he did. I washed his foot in alcohol and applied this acid thing for warts on your foot. Because I figured that would dissolve the top part of the skin and the splinter would just fall out. But then looking at the bottle I saw that I shouldn't put that stuff on irritated skin. Oops.

I was looking online and I saw something about a raisin (I guess that's from acidity) and then I saw something about baking soda (I guess that's a base.) I suppose you should not do both of these, it's either on or the other. Well I'm going to go take a look at Jonah's foot again while he's sleeping and see if I can't take the thing out. Noah is happily watching Fabric of the Cosmos, depsite protesting at first that he just wanted Angry birds right now. When Jonah wakes up, Hopefully in two hours, we will head out to the tot lot to make up for leaving the playground so early.

Paul Yee's "Dead Man's Gold."

Today it was Kung Fu Panda, followed by a visit to Moh Goon House, and then a visit to the Library. I found a children's book of short stories there that were scary Chinese stories. The Title is "Dead Man's Gold" and other stories. Most of the stories take place between Southern China (Canton) and the West Coast. So far a lot of them were Gold Rush era. I'm not sure if the author just made them up, or used actual stories.
I had written a few Chinese Ghost stories, modern ones, that I had heard on another blog. In fact I think I might start writing these little Chinese Short stories down again, and filling in the empty spaces with a little more embellishment. The stories tend to be to the point and short, and vague in terms of names, etc. Actually maybe that's a good thing. Actually I think the vagueness in my mind is actually do to a lack of familiarity with the locations mentioned by whoever was telling the story, and so I just forgot.

The point is that there is a ton of these stories floating around Chinatown. I'm sure there are a ton floating around any community, but I've heard a lot told around Chinatown. It's still the social thing to do when old men get together and drink tea (literally tea, I'm not even talking about Dim Sum) or just hot water or whatever. At first I only wanted to write the Kung Fu ones down, or maybe just ones that struck me. But now that I've seen a collection of them by Paul Yee, maybe I'll write all the ones I can remember down, and add a few of my own. I'll start with the ones I already wrote down and maybe even change the names. After all I'm sure that however I wrote them down before could be improved upon.

Godfather's Chinese Take out

Grace decided to submit a piece for a food blog about Chinese Take Out in the Godfather. But a lot of our discussing points were edited out. So I felt I should write them here in this blog.
Basically the question is, "Why did Michael and Sonny and Tom Hagen and Clemenza and other assassin plotters eat Chinese Take out right before the dinner that Michael was going to go to and shoot Sollozzo and the Police Chief in order to protect Vito Corleone (Michael's Father)."

He was what Grace thought were reasons not to order Chinese food during this very important point of the movie.

1) Michael has a broken jaw from the Police Captain McCkluckey's fist. Kung Pao Chicken and egg rolls would have been very difficult to chew. Why didn't they just make him Spaghetti?

2) Where are all the Italian women to cook for them? This is going to be his last meal before going into hiding. Perhaps even his last meal period. Shouldn't it be more important and symbolic?

3)Does he really want to go kill someone and be all stressed out while also feeling the effects of the grease and the MSG?


So we talked about this and I argued that Chinese food was actually the perfect choice.

1) It is convenient. Chinatown is right next to Little Italy. This is 1946. in the 1990's the Fujianese will actually battle the Italians for a couple of streets. But in 1946 there are quiet neighbors outside of the Italian Community. They will not ask any questions about why these Italian guys from the Corleone family are ordering Chinese Take Out when supposedly they are may be a meeting with these other gangster people for dinner. They are less likely to know about all that. Or at least can feign ignorance more convincingly. When asked who picked up food (if it would even matter) one Gwai lo is the same as another. But at the same time, they are right down the street. Convenient for everyone with a healthy jaw. As for Michael, maybe he just ahd lo mein and egg drop soup. Protein and watery for the latter. The former is pretty much the same consistency as Spaghetti. I doubt that Jook was on the menu back then.

2) The Italian women are not part of the business side of things in this Family. They don;t want them around. They don;t want them to know anything about it. All the men present do not have time to be cooking. (Though Clemenza can cook) They need to focus their energy on strategy and supporting Michael, who has combat experience. But has never assassinated someone sitting at the same dinner table before. Everyone who is outside the immediate circle for this business is not present. Even Fredo, the second son, who was useless when trying to defend his father both in his lack of thinking and his lack of action, is not there.

3) One would not tend to have an appetite in a situation like this. But fueling your body with something is important. The flavor and MSG in Chinese food will help you to just gulp some stuff down even though you don't feel like eating, and then head out to go blow your enemies heads off. The two men who were behind the gunning down of your Father.

Baseball male bonding

Grace bought this toy baseball and bat and tee yesterday. It uses batteries and will shoot the soft baseballs at your kid. But we don;t have those batteries yet. And frankly, Noah really wants me to throw the ball at him. It's a social thing.

We tried it in the house and realized our folly pretty quickly. So we headed over to the park. (This was after dinner.)

Baseball is great. I don't mean the real game. I could care less about that. Yeah I know I'm from Boston and I don't care about baseball. The truth is I don't care about sports.

But I do care about Kung Fu skills.

Basically I throw the ball at Noah, he hits it and runs imaginary bases. That means he is sprinting and I don't have to sprint with him. I don't have to race him and also at the last second lose to avoid melt downs. There were some issues when he couldn't hit the ball. But thanks to the softness of the ball I could stand really close to him and it wouldn't hurt if the ball hit me.

This is a really good after dinner activity. Maybe we will try to keep this up every day. Although I'm pretty sure we are going to go over to the playground right now and play baseball too.

On the way back home, Noah had a lot of questions, about what an apartment was are we in an apartment. all these sorts of things.

And then suddenly he says, "Baba, I can't wait to shoot sperms but I don't know HOW to shoot sperms."

"Uhhh. you'll know about that when you are an adult and when you shoot sperms that's for making children. So if you shoot sperms you have to be ready to take care of children."

Of course this is not all exactly true but I think it's true for what he is talking about. I guess this is called manly father son bonding. Sports and sex and maybe beers.  Walking back home like Leave it to Beaver or some other show where Father and son walk together doing some sort of Father son activity. A world that as a child I was not really privy too and which my mother sort of tried to fill in for me. Well I guess my dad took me gambling and practiced stacking dominoes. I wanted to get in on that activity but I was not to touch them, on orders from both my father and my mother.

 I guess Noah is a real mans man. Because I'm not sure I'm going to get talk like this from Jonah. But then he will probably just ask Noah.
Jonah's questions are different and less direct and more about spelling things. Actually I think because of Noah's questioning about testicles, Jonah had questions for me in the tub last night as well.

But he said, "Why do my balls make sounds?"
"You can hear your balls making sounds?" I asked. Because I have know idea what he was talking about.
"Yes."

So I think he was just asking something for the sake of asking it. Because Noah asked. So he should ask a question too. I have to say I had no answer for his question. So if his goal was to stump me, it worked.

Yummy Pie

Yesterday we went Apple picking.
We drove as a family to Natick.
To A farm that has been a farm since before this country has been a country.

We went by magical train ride to pick apples as a family.
We picked some, we ate some, we played in the playground.

After we got home the children ate some more apples.
Some apples Grace set aside to make a pie with.
She researched online how to do it.
She set aside time to do it while I bathed the children.

She added delicious ingredients like walnuts and goat cheese.

It baked in the toaster oven filling the house with it's wonderful smells.

Homemade, American Apple pie.

I didn't eat any fresh out of the oven because I had brushed my teeth.

But this morning we ate it for breakfast.

That pie is the best pie of it's type, that I have ever tasted.

Pie is about love and family and togetherness.

It is about something that tastes good and is sweet and fills you up not just with cheap imitations of ingredients, but with wholesome ingredients you picked as a family and with a filling feeling that sticks to your ribs.

It's good. It's yummy. It's American.

It's American as Apple Pie.

Noah's basics

I actually made Noah do all of his basics this morning. Only ten each. And we still took a a break in between every two types of basics. Instead of walking around with our hands behind us like I did as a student, we "ran" inside. The break was more mental than physical.

But it was still torturous at the end and it seemed like we barely made.

To warm up we did silly crane dancing and then did lion dancing moves. Then sit ups, tiger crawls (instead of pushups (and wheelbarrows)  Then a little bit of stretching, which was really hard for Noah. He is not very flexible and so, he doesn't really even want to try stretching.

Then before basics Noah said he wanted to do his own Kung Fu. So we did. All this for the promise of angry birds. But his technique is clearing up. I don't want to lose the creative aspect of the system we have been creating. But I also want to center his Kung Fu with the system I was trained in.