Election Day

About to go to wait in line and vote
For those who will control this so small town
Even though the issues are not remote
I really have no clue quite who to vote for now.

The parties seem criss crossed and miss the point
because problems on roads are those more felt
when it comes time a leader to annoint
who cuts the trees and who scatters the snow melt

Does that have to do with any ideals?
Who would say they don't know how to rule
A simple town or that they have no feel
for local people, taxes and the schools

Now we push our levers hear's the test
Of how full the chosen one is of bs.

Fall Back

Setting back the clocks, the kids awoke,
later than they normally would have still
my mind is still a fog and if I spoke
I don't doubt that my words would slur and spill

The brisk fall air is something that I love
and I think more and more of my childhood
I have been watching more pbs shows above
the Netflix shows that I normally would.

The old Shows that I had watched in my youth
Its strange that suddenly I long
for those old past times that I would
Look for as a child with dreaming strong.

I long to paint and draw and run like Dai
Sillily without purpose or true meaning
Without a game of rules or goal to hide
the joy of random exertion and day dreaming.

And Suddenly I feel as if I know
That Something comes and something else must go.

Halloween Fuss

6 in the morning and the oldest son is up. Sneak eating all the candy and other stuff, Turned out that Dai Dai the little one, can't find his mask for his Halloween run, It had been in the bucket that Shao is eating from, now we have to search frantically before the bus comes, Turns out we won't be trick or treating, Shao didn't hand in home work, too much candy eating. The weather will be terrible anyway, and the kids did get their time to play. Trunk or Treat and Halloween parties, It's a whole Halloween season not just one day. I can't believe we can't find this Njnjago/mask, after all we went through, Noah Says he didn't touch it, maybe it was me, I really don't want to do this see. The bus is coming, but I go running, Dai Dai forgot his party bag, this is such a dumb thing. I throw my umbrella down in the rain, sprint up the hill and get the bag just the same. Coming back down, the umbrella on the ground, the kids are looking at it not making a sound. Why would you stand there getting wet, when the answer to your problems is right there all set, to pick up and hold over you, what is going on? What planet are these kids coming from? I pick up the umbrella and we wait for the bus. Can't believe Halloween is such a fuss.

Chapter 2 Fau Yuk

Dolly awoke to see that the whole place had been cleaned up quite nicely. She had slept on the floor and there was a mat under neath her and a blanket on top which her guests must have found. 

She looked to her right and noticed that Fung was sitting there in meditation position. She had never seen him actually come in. 

"Where is everyone else?" Asked Dolly. 

"They went on ahead to South Station to get tickets and save you a seat. We will be riding the Fung Wah down to NY Chinatown." Fung Said

"We Will?" Dolly looked outside noticing that it was not yet dawn. She did awake this early at times.... but it didn't mean she would then go out into the street anymore. She often went to the Garden. But in any case, she was up now and within a few moments walking down the street with Fung here towards South Station.

"Should I have brought my cane?" She asked. 

"Nah just borrow mine." Fung said "Not that you need it."

"Nor you.... and if we are going to be walking around alot, I do need it sometimes. I have weak ankles." 

As they started up the escalator in South Station K Lun saw them as hewas coming down the other way and started yelling into his phone. 

"Doh La Doh La... there here. ok.. Yeah just keep going up, I'll come back around." Which K Lun did. 

They gathered around and everyone was quiet because everyone in the group was tired. But soon came other old ladies who were not quiet and seemed quite used to being up this early, fussing over this and that and getting ready to go shopping in NY Chinatown and then come back to Boston within the same day. 

The team was glad to see that Dolly was annoyed.. as they were and had no problem not asking questions and just waiting for the answers to come eventually. 

They all filed into the bus. Sing had purchased everyone a ticket including Fung's They did take up most of the bus. One old lady complained that Dolly was getting on before her and that she would have to wait for the next bus. Lac made as if to back fist her and told her to go die somewhere else so as not to be a nuisance, which was not as shocking a thing to say to the crowd standing there as one would imagine. 

Dolly suddenly realized that she hadn't brought any cash and she actually no longer had a credit card or anything of that sort. 

Fung passed her a Smartphone which looked different than any of the models out and about $2000.00 in cash while they were seated there. Dolly didn't really like that, as she knew it would make her a target. Luckily she had sewn extra pockets into her jacket just to remind her of her youth when she had traveled the world. She would reenact some of the things she had remembered doing while on her young adventures, without leaving her home or block. She knew it was kind of sad... but she really didn't have much to do. 

Pretty soon after, The Bus pulled over

Stopping pretty randomly, people questioning the driver.

Fung Got out, nodding to the driver,

Over to a white motorcycle with no rider. 

Boom on the white motorbike Fung took off, 

He rode fast but smooth not like a young rough tough, 

Dolly was excited as the bus pulled out, 

she drifted off to sleep dreaming about

all the times in life that she regretted

Coming up against friends that were vetted

into enemies, that gunk that lingers

in your soul clogging up spiritual arteries

She drifted off leaving all of it behind. 

Off into the sunset with this new crew in mind.

The trip was going pretty normal

Dolly just dozing

When suddenly there was freak storm and the roads were all frozen. 

This wasn't even winter, when they left it wasn't cold. 

Something crazy was happening

 An alien invasion began to enfold

It wasn't really clear what was real and what was not. 

All that Dolly knew was that the bus pulled over and stopped. 

They had to walk pretty far 

Through unkempt woods on the roadside

Everyone was going through and some said they should hide. 

The Crew that Dolly rolled with didn't seem surprised.

Not even just not scared, 

They didn't bat an eye. 

It was as if they had known

Expecting all along

That this could and even would happen.

As if nothing at all was wrong. 

Chaos ruled the world it seemed as things fell from the sky. 

Could it be the world was ending?

Was the government a lie?

"It's not so much all that" K Lun expressed.

People will act as normal, when they realized this guys are guests. 

In other words there WAS an alien invasion of sorts. 

But not the world ending or world changing kind

The one that was real short. 

As the crew talked amongst themselves Dolly realized

That they knew some of these aliens dropping from the skies. 

They were coming to get something back then

And unlike in the movies

They could give a crap about regular people seeing them. 

There had been some others of their kind

And other kinds as well

That lived on earth for centuries

And millenia to tell. 

Yeah this was actually no big deal, 
Except that for a few months
Stuff had hit the fan 
And transportation was all done. 


It was the end of days and the world was ending
Dolly didn't much care cause this had been life extending
Anything she had done she'd Risen amounted to a bonus 
is how she considered it. 

Hong Mao and Wu Nga started to fight
And they were walking through the dark in the woods toward a light. They weren't along rather it was a crowd of all kinds walking there. 

The young ones wasn't worried about themselves but thought for some reason that if Dolly Fell they would be all screwed and what would tey do. Little did they know this was what Dolly was used to. She had travelled the world and hitch hiked the 3rd. Dove off a cliff in Iraq head first. This was nothing except for when she might twist her ankle but again since she had risen she had gotten stronger, practicing the Hakka knives longer than any young man would expect to train, So in the dark she was more dangerous than any of these other young bucks and gals who were heavier of foot than she, trust me. 

Soon they came upon a group near a fire that was roasting human flesh
I'm not a liar. It's not that it was necessary for food more that these were the types that now could do this here in the woods. Or truly it was most likely not the first time. It's just that now in chaos it wasn't a crime. Like the whole country and the whole world had lost the mirage of the civilized. 

These dudes were big, they were not playin, 
Like they were made of stone
Just saying that the world had only been attacked from space for a few hours and suddenly crazy stuff was all over the place. 

It would amaze you but, people weren't surprised
Just scared
Realizing that they had to hide to survive
And that this would be the first of many trials that they would see. 

Rock man A said to Rock B, "We keep eating these people even though were not hungry. Better pace ourselves and round a few up for later if you know what I mean."

Rockman C said to Rockman A, "You think this attack will last a few more days? How do you know things won't go back on track, all civilized and whack. Then we'll have to hide under ground again and just pick people off now and again. It's a free for all and maybe its time to rise up and take over."

Dolly thought savagely there and then, thinking if she could slit their throats and take all the things that they seemed to have amassed in just a short time, now sitting to rest and talk of future crimes. But again it was true they looked like stone, not humans made of flesh and bone, would a knife work? What would she do? She didn't think twice just started to move. 

She ran over trying to cut all their throats. KLun and crew saw Dolly was no Joke. 
But maybe a little bit crazy since, the knife cuts were making no difference.
Also its not like they knew who was roasted, on sticks to be eaten, the Stone men had boasted that they used to eat humans all the time, now they were eating more, sure its a crime, but this was not the place to start and play hero, there was too much they still had to go through.

In any case a stone man picker her up, and said, "What's this old lady trying to cut us up?"

They looked at each other and Dolly noticed, their eyes weren't stone, tim eto throw this knife, which she did, yelling out, "Get their eyes" Hong Mao and them swarmed all over the stone guys, soon the stone men were blinded on the ground, as the day dawned they stopped making sounds. It was clear that these were strange creatures of lore, that seemed to not be alive any motre. Was what Dolly did right? Or was it wrong? For now the crew took every thing they could carry along. 

In the end, Dolly was praised, right or wrong, it might have been what saved them, cause what they took were many treasures, 

Fung stepped out of the woods just then. and Dolly screamed "Where the hell have you been?

"No time to get mad, it's time to get going." said Fung

"Pack up the guns, pack up the knives, the food and the phones its time to hide." Just then there was a strange sound like bees, millions and billions, coming through the trees. People started screaming from further up. Looks like the stone people wasn't enough. Suddenly the whole world was full of the monsters from myths... but maybe this was a gift. Fung opened up a path in the ground. Had it already been there? or was it some kind of magic, that he cast just now. No time to argue, they all went down. Suddenly they were walking through a subway, and there was nothing really to say, they walked and walked, for quite some time. Knowing that they had escaped with their lives. 

Wake up the Nian

Gu doi ye cheen
Back Long Ago
back in herng ha
Back before flow


There slept a great monster
A hungry demon
He awoke to destroy
When he woke all was eaten

Wake up the Nian!
Qi lai Qilai
Wake up the Nian! Qi Lai Gi Lai Gi Lai

It was every year
That this monster called Nian
Came to the village
He was hungry and mean

But in reality he kept
Humanity in check
Every time we got too big
Nian made sure we were wrecked.

(Chorus)

Dolly: Chapter 1 When you see the Buddha

In the middle of Chinatown 

On a back alley street

Where once the buildings were condemned.

A gentrified hipster's paradise

Some historic buildings still stood

Small Structures way back when.  

The sign said Sisters

of the Mary Knoll

These cubbies belonged to the Diocese.

Outreach outposts to 
Chinatown's youth

Next to brick and cobblestone streets. 


One of these holes
 belonged to Dolly
A 5'6'' old white lady.

She spoke a lot of Canto
Though most not understood
Cause she focused on it sounding nicely.

Her Common law man

by the name of Cheung Po
had died quite some time ago. 

He had had a gambling house
Where he would take his young son
To show him the money luck flow. 

Her son grew up 
and moved on and out
And even Dolly died

But somehow resurrected
A Saint to be protected
The church gave her the house with pride.  


Now her family had gone on to other things 
and Dolly lived at home on Tyler, 

Near the statue of Confucius. 
To her son she tried to prove this
But he chose to respectfully deny. 


She had managed to acquire
 the little house for a dollar 
through some strange slight of hand.

 She knew nothing about it.
Just saw how her son pouted
But continued on nonetheless. 

 It had all been done quite behind her back and for the face of her husband and all that as well as for the years of service to the Community and various organizations in Chinatown both legal and otherwise. The condition was that she could never sell the house (which couldn't be sold on its own but would definitely go for over a million, and although many a Church had been converted into condos, these particular holes in the walls had been declared historical sites, and so the Godzilla of development wasn't going to smash these particular holes in the alley. Though the surrounding apartments were all rented out to students, young professionals, and hipsters, very few of whom were Chinese. 

And outsider might assume Veronica was one of these very gentrifiers. But then she was just a little old lady. 

Veronica, though living in Chinatown, had spent a few years in Japan. And although a lot of older mainlanders disliked Japanese culture, Veronica enjoyed its simplicity. When she had first met her late husband (again whom she had not actually married and whom we will refer to as Bo Jai from now on) they had conversed in Japanese. Bo Jai had also been a world traveler and had also spent some time in Japan. Somehow by the time Veronica had returned to the United States, Cape Cod Massachusetts to be exact, and was working as a hostess/receptionist at the Dragon Inn Chinese restaurant, Bo Jai's Japanese, was still better than his English. It may have been because he had learned Japanese when he was young, whereas he had tried to learn English at an older age and it was more difficult to stick. Well that's what someone would guess anyway. The truth was another matter. 

The point of it all is that Veronica's little apartment had little to no furniture and was covered in tatami mats. In other words it looked like a Japanese tea house in terms of the floor. It had various Chinese brush paintings hanging on the wall, many of which had been painted by Veronica herself, but some were from friends, from her grandchildren, and other neighborhood kids. 

In this way the ambiance was a little more chaotic than a Japanese tea house and in fact there was even some paintings by children (and adults, who would write poems that Veronica couldn't read directly on the wall when drunk) than a Japanese tea house. 

In the back, Dolly had a little Japanese Rock garden where she also grew mint and other herbs. She took care of a neighborhood cat that also frequented and was fed by other households. And she often hosted people in her little home. Although she had tried many arts and religions in her youth, in her old age, especially after a bout with Cancer, she developed a simplified version of various things that she could practice in her little hole in the alley as well as with friends at parks etc.

She trained regularly with a Tibetan Gurka and sometimes with her Chinese Style butcher knife, quite close to the body, so as to avoid marking up the walls. A neighborhood child had taught her some of the sword, which was apparently designed for light stepping small children in the dark... but that is another story which we may come into later on. 

Watching her diet, and exercising often, Veronica had become a very fit if stockyish woman, where she had been rather heavy set or at least struggled with her weight for most of her life. She lost so much weight that her son had not even recognized her and to some degree did not fully believe she was his mother as he had seen her die of cancer with his own eyes and could not understand how it came to be that she had seemingly risen from the dead... though legally that was recognized to be the case.

--

Veronica liked to sit outside of her Mary Knoll house door some time and smoke her medical marijuana. She had smoked often in her travels but said that mostly it made her feel tired. When she had had cancer, and yes when she had died of Cancer she had taken up the herb again and recently it was legal and having DIED she actually was qualified for free medical Marijuana until..... well until she died again. 

But still she enjoyed growing her own and mixing in sage and lemon balm and other herbs. She borrowed books from the library and went to various meetings and really she had quite a few young friends who thought she was quite cool because of this. They enjoyed her company much more than her son's in any case. 

She even had begun to grow a bit of opium (which yes she had also tried in her travels and found it to be not such a big deal as it was made out to be when not processed to just a refined degree) and had begun to mix that in as well. 

She had learned from some of the old Chinese Chess players how to fashion a tobacco bong out of bamboo and an old can. But she had worked at making something more aesthetically pleasing. 

She was blowing smoke, sitting halfway onto her doorstep and the other half still within her threshold, which she was told was Feng Shui, but from which place she could sit and chat with people, but where she could also easily step fully inside and shut the door, perhaps bringing in any neighborhood boy or girl in need of fleeing an overzealous policeman or gang of thugs if necessary, when walking quite deliberately and intently with a strange sort of walking stick was Cheung Sam Fung. Yes... the one and only, said to have created Tai Chi and lived to 300 and all that. As it turns out, he seems to have never died at all, and would pop up here and there all of the world. 

He wasn't dressed in robes and didn't stick out as much as you might think, walking down the streets of Chinatown. He just looked like a healthy old man that probably did Tai Chi or something to stay fit... and that is actually exactly what he was. 

Veronica was sitting there, smoking here mixture of herbs, which could very well be psychoactive. In fact she was in the process of blowing smoke and watching the whisps curl around int to dragons floating about the cosmos in front of her face, when she saw Sam Fung. 

All she saw of course was an older man with a peacoat and a walking stick. It wasn't a normal cane. The height of it was a little lower than shoulder height for teh man, who was tall, especially for Cantonese, at least Veronica's time. Now the people coming over from China all seemed to be over 6 feet for some reason. 

The old man's tall cane had some sort of decoration at the top. Stone. It could very well have been jade, and the stick looked of a solid and expensive dark wood. 

"Jo Sun and Good Morning!" Veronica called to the old man... who she suspected was even older than her though he looked spry. 

"Wah! Jo Sun AND Good Morning, not just Jo Sun, not just Good morning but both," replied Fung.

"Why not?" said Veronica. She hadn't been sure whether he would be more comfortable with English or Chinese.. and wasn't even quite sure why she cared. 

"Let me ask you something Dolly," Said Fung...and his use of Veronica's nickname shocked her until she slowly seemed to recognize, if not the face, at least the presence of the man that stood before her, "Does Joh Sun mean good morning? Actually it just means you got up early. In my experience, just because you get up early, doesn't mean its a good morning... and vice versa."

More and more Dolly, as we will now refer to Veronica, thought that she recognized this man from her travels. In fact it seemed strange but she swore she had seen him in different countries, with different faces and clothing. Whether it was the Sahara, or Khtamandu, or Laos.... She swore she ahd seen him many many times... but had forgotten all about him until just now. 

'Well I suppose I do mean both Jo Sun AND Good Morning then, specifically because the one does not necessarily mean the other, And if you would like to squat here or even come inside, or around back where I have a Zen rock Garden of sorts, we can share in this collection of herbs I am smoking. I will trade you smoke for your story, for I am not mistaken we have crossed paths before. 

With that Dolly blew a particularly lively smoke dragon, or at least she thought so, which seemed to fly all the way down to the corner and circle the Bak Gwa hanging on the Nai Lun Association door and then flying directly to the corner of the skyscraper opposite which the Bak Gwa was protecting the block from... you see in Fung Sui, corners are like soldiers attacking and need to be warded off and all that. Dolly didn't really care muich for Fung Sui, not in the acdemic sense, but she could see it instinctively with her smoke Dragons as she did just now. 

"Wah! Ho Liang Ah!" exclaimed Fung clapping half mockingly, but actually half impressed. " But right now I don't have time to chase the dragon either through artful smoke, or the chemical way. I'm putting together a crew, or rather, there is already a crew and we are missing one person, and I am looking for this person to join now. I'm having a hard time finding the right person though."

While Fung was talking one of Dolly's other friends came ambling along. Julio was his name. He had taught Dolly the Hakka knife fighting techniques. Julio was a chef specializing in Dominican Chinese food and had taught the techniques with the standard Chinese Butcher Knife. Here he came now dressed in all black, as waiters and chefs often did in this age of Fusian Asian food. He looked quite slick, young, and into the night life. 

"When you're in luck.. err..." I don't think I caught your name..I am not sure if I am older or you are Brother... or is it Uncle, or Grandfather, as I do suspect I have seen you before when I was quite young....But in any case, here comes Julio and he may be just the strapping young man for your crew... but he is one of my favorites and a son to me so we will have none of it if you are planning anything illegal."

Julio perked up as he waved hello, "What's this? Auntie are you getting me into trouble with strangers? Who are you and why are you bothering our Auntie. Everyone on this street knows her you know." 

"I'm recruiting someone for a journey and an adventure." Fung repeated. 

"Haha... don't look at me. I want to stay home and eat! or watch Netflix and chill, whether its by myself or with a liang loi form around here, easy to find now in Chinatown. Those white girls come in looking for handsome chefs like me, believe it or not. I have all the adventures I could want right down the block on Kneeland, and even that is too much for me sometimes, but at least afterward I can walk home or bring it home with me."

"Well, As it so happens," Continued Fung, "I WASN'T actually looking at you, but at Veronica here, or Dolly, as she was called as a young girl."

Julio raised and eyebrow and gave Dolly a look to see if everything was ok. Dolly nodded and waved him on, letting him off the hook from possibly needing to intervene on her behalf, physically or otherwise. Julio looked a Fung up and down, saw that perhaps there was more to him than met the eye but decided he was probably ok. He waved a nonchalant salute as he stepped off down toward Chinatown proper calling, "Jao le!"

Dolly started to smile and nod smile and nod, which universally among women can mean that the conversation is totally over. 

"It's funny what a smile and a nod can mean isn't it?" Started Fung again, after some time of just standing there in silence which almost startled Dolly as she had almost forgotten he was there, not feeling particularly threatened by him. "I mean, smiling and nodding and then calling Jo Sun, that could be a greeting. But Smiling and nodding and calling Jo Sun, can me..."

"Jo Sun!" Smiled Dolly

"Which means..." Fung said

"....off!" Dolly said quietly with a smile that was all feeling. Which means Fung laughed. This of course broke the ice again a little. 

"What did you say your name was again?" Dolly asked. 

"Jerng Sam Fung."

"That's spelled C H E U N G isn't it?"

"Or Z H A N G nowadays in China, " Fung continued. 

"Hmmmm..... I'm going to smile and nod to that one." Dolly said... smiling and nodding, "But where have we met before, and do you always use the same name? Or more to the point.... is it time?

"Time for what?" Fung asked, "Time for your journey."

"Into the next world." Dolly said calmly as she was feeling quite high.

"Well first of all, I believe you have taken that journey and come back again once, which is why you seem to recognize me. Otherwise I would be able to make your memory of me completely fade. Instead you have a shadow of lost recognition."

"So...."

"A different journey. One in this world." Fung said. 

-

-Dolly was getting tired and bored at this point and started to pack away her things. 
"Well, I went on many an adventure on my youth, and it is true that I seem to know you, but honestly I'm tired now and I'm going to go lie down. I'm old. I'm so old that as you have said I died and came back, and even if you have done that, as I remember you being old when i was young, well... good for you. But I'm tried now... and I'm lying down."

Dolly went to do just that staring up at the ceiling. The moment she lay down, she wasn't tired. It was often like that. And now she was annoyed that she couldn't just pass out and push the memory of Ah Fung out of her head. Not that he was particularly unpleasant. But its just that she kept thinking of the other times she had seen him....or thought she saw him. She was bothered by it. She could call her son and talk about it, but the truth was, maybe her son felt the same way about her as she felt about this Ah Fung. You see her son had watched her die, and he did not fully accept that she was his mother, nor did he fully deny it.  

Dolly wondered if she had been rude. Maybe she should have asked him to go to dim sum tomorrow. But to ask a thing like that in Chinese culture meant that she would have to pay, and why the hell should she do that? It seemed to be more that this guy wanted something from her than the other way around. But maybe his sudden presence meant something. It was this destiny and fate idea that bothered her and made her want to lie down and figure it all out later.

Fung, standing outside, with basically the door slammed (albeit gently) in his face did two strange things. First he took a small water brush from his pocket. It was the Japanese plastic type that artists would fill with water and then dip into ink. But Fung had his brush filled directly with ink. The ink was not black either but red... and it wasn't normal ink. It was a mixture of Cinnabar, which is actually solidified Mercury. He painted a hardly recognizable symbol of a crane on the top right corner of Dolly's front door. Not the Chinese word for crane, a squiggle with wings that could have been a child's drawing. He also pulled out his phone entered the location on his Fung Sui Monsters app as a place where you could pick up a monkey thief. FSM was like Pokemon Go. Less popular... but only because it was an underground app of sorts, in that it wasn't common knowledge. But enough people played it that it was not an exclusive app per se. 

Dolly fell into a deep sleep. It had been the middle of the afternoon , you could say if it were a nap, that she over slept and had forgotten to eat dinner. She woke up at 2 am, her stomach empty which bothered her enough that she couldn't really go back to sleep. But she was still tired and in a haze that she really couldn't get up. There weren't that many places in Chinatown that were still open at 2 am...Chau Chau City had closed its doors long ago, and that was a little rough for an old lady even when it was open. Of course she had food in the fridge or she could make something... but at 2 am? Maybe she should just try and fall back to sleep. 


But then there was knocking at the door. Her door! and whispered shouting in Chinese. The tapping and knocking was not random, but to the beat of the lion dance drumming that you often heard on Chinese New Year and at wedding parties.. as if it be some sort of code meaning.  

She looked through the peep hole and saw the sketchiest group of short Asian males that you could possibly see in Chinatown. They had Tattoos, and unlike say a group of young hoods with tattooed that looked like they were playing dress up, they looked somewhat more aged, jaded, and reserved, like for them banging on an old ladies door at night really wasn't something fun to do at all and they couldn't believe this was what they were doing. 

Dolly opened the door. One or two of the younger one's look shocked. 

"I thought you were dead... hmm...." then turning to the others, "Hurry up and bow you idiots." and then Walking in and offering his hand, "Sing. I know your son...I don't know why he doesn't believe its you, it's obvious who else could it be. We brought some take out. Not the crappy kind, the good stuff.." then again to the others in whispered anger, "Hurry up and take off your shoes, set up the dinner and get things ready for uhhh... How should we call you? See Tai? How about that! Haha."

Sing laughed to himself and organised what appeared to be a banquet. The lights were turned on and despite efforts to keep quiet, the men... and actually Dolly noticed a couple of women, were really quite loud.  

Dolly suddenly felt young again. "Should I put on tea?" She asked these virtual strangers, "What is the correct thing to do? That food smells really good!, is there rice?"

Sing walked in as if he owned the place saying, "Don't worry about it Grandma, we'll take care of everything you just sit down and relax. Hey! set up a seat at the head of the table for our leader here!" 

The take out containers were arranged and opened on the table. Fau Yuk, Salted fish rice, Bean curd fu yu string beans and beef, Curry chicken...these dishes were not all from the same restaurant but from several, and the containers, Dolly noticed, were not made of styrofoam, but of Bamboo. There were dim sum containers too which was strange because it was the middle of the night. There was bowls of wonton noodles, Roast duck, Char siu, Baos... how could they have gotten all of this at 2 am? 

Dolly saw Scallops and oysters and.... "What are these?" she asked, 

"Bao Yu. Try it!" Sing said. 

Dolly dug in but soon found she was full. 

There were soups that weren't just the cheap kind but the medicinal herbal kind. 

Cell phone texts kept alerting Sing and various other members of the group of new people at the door, whom they let in as if it were their own house. But given the quality of the food brought, Dolly didn't complain. 

Why were they eating like this? Was it a holiday?

Dolly looked at Sing who gave here a knowing nod. "Eat up" he called, "Might be the last time we eat like this. 

After the food was finished stacks of boxes decorated with beautiful women, either the four ancient beauties or sillohettes of Chang' E against the moon suddenly appeared, 

"Oh I love Moon cakes!" Dolly cried. 

One of the crew, who was one of the few women in the group called out, "Don't eat the packaged ones. We can save those for later," And Pearl, that was her name handed a fresh mooncake with lotus seed paste to Dolly. Dolly had always been partial to Moon Cakes but usually they only sold the red and black bean paste Mooncakes in Boston's Chinatown.  

After the meeting sort of started spontaneously, people went around and introduced themselves

Sing of course
K lun, Hong Mao, Lac, Wu Ah, Tiger, Ping, Macao Ming, not to be confused with Tall legs Ming, Sake Su, and Ghost Eye Lucy. Sake Su and Ghost Eye Lucy were women. They looked like the type of women, in body and form and hairstyle that Dolly had always aspired to look like. And then finally, Fung arrived. 

At some point they started playing music from the phone.

Ghost Eye Lucy said, "I created this new beat you wanna hear it?"

She played it and it sounded like a sample of Fui Sik Dik Gwai Ji with a stronger beat which she rapped over. When the melody kicked in everyone started screaming

Dap jik Fui sik dik gwai ji!
Juen si sum yeen dik Sui Ying!

Ngau yi bui serng  yat sang fu gwun
How fu yi hei hui...
nei ngan lui gerk ji jap juen lui...


Je go sai gai yi but ji but gwok 
Dik Hung Hui....
But serng nei meen hui...


Dolly passed out at some point. It was the most comfortable sleep she had slept in a long time. 

Jonah's story

Once upon a time there was a bunny. The bunny lived in the woods. One day, he saw an alien ship. Carroto (the bunnies name) raced up a tree and saw something terrible. It was coming STRAIGHT
at him! He raced to the edge of the woods. But the alien ship was somehow following Carroto, even though it had engla (aka engine). This happened for... I could say... 45 minutes? Finally (but unfortunately), the ship crashed. The aliens hopped out of the UFO. ''Put your paws up you earthing!''

BJJ week two

I have started doing BJJ and it has really reinvigorated my Kung Fu training believe it or not. At the same time, I kind hurt my neck. The teacher said that in order to remember things that you should be a total nerd and write stuff down. I know I completely sound like a Cobra Kai character right now but whatever.

The first drill we did, the first class was finishing from behind and spinning out and going into guard.

Then that same day we did a bunch of GI chokes.

I could totally see doing those first two drills for months, heck even the gi chokes.

The second day was no Gi and we worked on

North South

Side control

Bread slicer (a windpipe choke, which kind of grossed me out)

and then some sort of half guillotine braced against the ground which ends up having a lo hon kuen variation that I managed to tap someone with during week two. Not sure the terminology of the choke, but the one wasn't working so I slid into the other.

Day three was half guard drills which was really confusing to me.

I guess the point was to understand balance and also to get into mount, which I actually ended up doing while live, but then what to do from mount?
I tried a gi choke but was knocked off balance.

You may wonder why I am being so timid and why I don't  just "fight" or grapple or whatever, but the truth is, I feel that rolling is actually only safe when both people are working on the technical aspects of Jiu jitsu. In fact kinda hurt my neck because both of us were beginners and I got super tired and therefore started just using brute force to get out of something.

When I did boxing and when I am now doing Jiu Jitsu it helps me to understand more about how the Traditional village style Kung Fu way of doing things developed, because of who was being taught, where and why.

My kids are doing Wushu too and I can see how that developed too. Although since I had done Wushu myself I am more familiar with that.

Traditional Village Kung Fu is legit. The training method is legit. There is a reason why it is the way it is.

That being said, I feel like doing the other combat arts and sports can help your understanding, just like doing another sport like Basketball or soccer or gold can also help your understanding as well.

But of course a combat oriented sport is even more relatable.

Learning Kung Fu vs, Teaching Kung Fu

It's nice to be a student. recently I started doing a cardio kickboxing class. Like I am the weird dude in socks next to old ladies type of kick boxing class. Okay its not all old ladies. there are some young people in it too. And I actually still have to pace myself and not through the kicks as fast as the instructor is. believe it or not, I never worked on the Bruce Lee side kicks as much after I started formally training in Kung Fu. Even now, I am really only doing it because of the class. It is fun and i am pouring sweat. Its fun to just listen to the music, follow instructions, not think and try to survive.

My kids are doing Wushu and sort of not enjoying it... but hey its not like we have to do this forever. I mean... I know Kung Fu... they can learn from me to.. if they chose to. In fact, they have learned a lot. They have forgotten a lot... but even what they have retained is ok.


We might check out an MMA place and I will probably be starting to learn some BJJ and Muay Thai with the kids this summer too. I am actually excited about this.

Does this mean I will stop doing Kung Fu? No. Kung Fu is part of my life.. in fact it is part of my home life. Learning something new doesn't mean you are throwing away something old.

Does it mean I will stop teaching Kung Fu? Of course not. Will I change the way I teach? Actually I have been changing the way i teach all along and have been thinking more about a way to simplify what I do and also having visited other schools and gyms, how I would want to approach everything if i were to open my own school.


The truth is, I am actually going back more and more to village way of teaching. Because if I were going to teach I would want my classes to be cheap, maybe even on a red envelope honor system type method. I know this is crazy.... but I think that's what I would want if I were in charge. Like you would pass by a lion head and feed that lion head your tuition or donation.

I also want eight stations, like the eight fold path.

Writing them out, I realized I sort of just created a repackaging of what I already do and that it really wasn't simple enough. Instead of the eight fold path being a linear progression, it is circular and each spoke of the wheel relies on the other. One could say there are levels to the path itself. Or maybe they could be like stations.

Chuen pow cup vs. Woo Ching's White Crane basics.

Side note: the deer from the last post lived!

Most people actually don't know much or even care much about martial arts, let alone Kung Fu or pre wushu kung fu.

But for a time in southern China it was all anyone cared about. Kung Fu was Goksuton, the country's art and 90% of the people in the South did Hung Gar or something like it.

In Taishan Stereotype for White Crane (although called other names and people like yo say Tibetan white crane to distinguish from Fujianese white crane, the truth is, everyone in the the area where my Sifu was from, where Chan Hak Fu was from. Knew bak hok was THAT white crane and everyone sort of knew white crane too. Or the basic, or sometimes the "secret" if white crane. The people calling it a secret are non white crane kung Fu practitioners.  And the basics or secret that was common knowledge was Chuen, pow, cup.

Basically a straight punch, a long range uppercut which can also be used as a block and a downward hammer fist. And an over the head haymaker that can be continuous and double sided.

I have battled. With how to teach the basics but Chuen pow cup has such a ring to it and is so simple that I feel like it holds a real essence there. Like it can be it's own stand alone system if fighting and it is also something so simple that you can put it on top of any Kung Fu or martial arts system. Ie BJJ with Chuen pow cup for striking. The movements also used to be very natural for kids. I feel that the smart phone has changed that. But conversely, these movements can also provide a yogic alignment type benefit.


I feel like three moves us easier yo use as your base than say 11 which is the number of basics my Sifu arranged as a way to convert Hung Gar practitioners to white crane. Those 11 moves are my household "basics"

And while like I said, 3 is a better number than 11, there are aspects important to development that kind of require the 11, even though every dude in Doushan worth his salt in a fight probably got by just fine with Chuen pow cup alone.

1: twisting waist turning body.


What happens if you start with a punch and tell people to turn? They end up not turning. Unless you break it down and hammer it in to people that they have to turn, like all the way, the will lean forward hunch in smart phone frog position and not turn. People hate this basic. But its necessary
2: spearing hand


Dude when would you really hurt with you fingers? Unless you have super hard fingers? Why not start with a punch?

Interestingly, boxers will practice "punching" with a loose or open hand. Also chap sauce helps to strengthen your fingers. Basically this one and the

3: Push hand tui jerng, stiff arm

Work to develop the muscle that help you to have a strong

4: Cheun kuen. Straight punch

The Chuen in Chuen pow cup.

All of the previous moves have their own legit combat applications. Elbowing. Eye poking, nose breaking, and those are used and taught in self defense classes and martial arts studios across systems.


But I am saying that the are also necessary in terms of development of the body. Almost like a physical therapy. In fact, these moves ARE used as physical therapy when treating patients.


The next two moves are hard to learn how to practice, which is why I often take them out of kids classes. I hate watching people practice the moves wrong and I cant get them to do the right move easily. For class I only need them because they feature both in the first form, Sup Ji, and on the fancier lion dance opening. And if done wrong, they don't look good. Done right they look real tough. But for whatever reason even kids practicing for many years will do it wrong.


Interestingly, I have talked to many non martial artists who just happened to use aspects of

5: chuen kuen hew siew hought kiew.

In a real self defense situation with no training. It's just a natural move. The follow up on the move has to be trained though.

6: Chuen kuen chang jerng hought kiew
Is used in many self defense police courses.

So they are useful.

I still hate them as a teacher.

7: ha wu Juen sun
Is probably the easiest basic and is just swinging your arms low. Would you believe  I accidentally used this move as a strike (illegally) in a boxing sparring match?

I never thought much of this move until then. But it came out because it was already in my body.
8 us pow kuen. The pow in chuen pow cup.

9 is cup.

10 is been ngau a back fist and hook which is similar to the drum move in Karate Kid 2.
But we actually turn our waist more that Daniel was turning. And we use it with a more boxing strategy. (Btw Tibetan white crane was mixed with western boxing
Like wayyyyy back. After all the Brits had a presence in Southern China for a long time and there was more exchange than you would think, especially among people trying to make money anyway possible, which included a lot of Westerners. When you think about it, it makes sense.


11 is Cheun kuen jaubyau hei bo. It introduces slipping and lifting the knee in preparation for kicking. It's also great cardio, develop a the look of the leg used in lion dance, and just has that classical Chinese Kung Fu look.

Then of course you do the first ten moves again walking....aiyaH too much to remember if you only do a class once a week....so should I go back to just doing Cheun pow cup?

My thing is. If you really want to practice, you wont care that you can't remember all the moves.....
Then again, maybe people would practice more if I started with just the churn pow cup and then added in the rest as a secret training method....food for thought.

Baby Deer

I little baby deer
a little body resting in the grass
injured and tired
blinking at me as I walk by.
My heart is not big enough to pick you up in my arms.
Instead I know I will leave you for the vultures
Because I have to go to work?
Because I have to get my kids to school?
These are things humans made up.
But life is sacred.
And yet I run away from real life toward the routine of the daily grind.
To do things that I hate to do.
Yell at my kids to brush there teeth.

Instead of you, I pick up my son in my arms,
because he is tired, and cannot move.

Not because he was struck by a car as you must have been.
But because he has slept a warm and comfortable night in a warm and comfortable bed.



If you were dead already, I would not feel bad.

I wouldn't even feel bad if I ate you.
But I don't even know how to prepare you to eat
because I was never taught.

Instead I will eat some processed bread and jelly for breakfast because my kids couldn't finish it in time, brush my teeth, and go to work.

Possible Lion Dances in June

Okay so we have a few possible Lion dances coming up next week.

June 8

At 11:30am we have a lion dance at Mid Jesrsey Chinese school.

Mei San Graduation.I thi k we perform at 1:30 but we will be there anyway.

4:30pm Teacher's appreciation dinner.


6:30 NJ Shaolin anniversary party.

Then June 9 is the opening of little movers Kiddie Gym also at NJ Shaolin. Gotta confirm the time for that.



 Maybe I should be taking pictures and posting on my personal blog like I used to in Boston, and writing more about what happened. The reason why I haven't been is an incorrect mentality and perception. I was viewing the Boston. Chinatown community as somehow more real to me or more worth writing about...  or maybe more interesting. Whatever the excuse, it was a false perception. My reality us NJ now and I feel like I am trying to build up something here. And I should be better about documenting that.

Creative drumming

In my drumming group. We are coming along in our main song. We also have. Fun song.
But I don't want to become a one truck show.
We had had a longer song with several movements. But I have decided to cut the extra movements. One of them becausee the fun song.
Instead of making the other movements into group songs, it might be good to develop songs that have soloists.

For instance, two sisters doing a song together that is tailored to their strengths  and made to develop the aspects that are weak into strengths

For an individual that is technically skilled, maybe he should jump ahead to more difficult time signatures that are easy for him, but hard for the rest if the group.
The others can do something theatrical to match the beat.

Some drummers are developing their own beats. Let's work with that and create a new song just for that person.

Also, let's take some inspiration from thi nb vs that are trending now. Because of "Warrior" all things Bruce Lee and making a resurgence... not that he ever reKly went away. But nunchucks that are also drum sticks.... that deserves it's own song.


Here are some if the songs I have been inspired by when playing on my own.

It would be cool to have some nunchuck moves with something like this. Maybe it can transition into the hip hop style drum beats Anthony has been playing during class between practice. 

If you recognize this as the "opening to the fun song..  that's cause it is. simple...  but significantly different from our other beats.

Aidan can do this time signature and I think he would have fun with it. The rest if the group isn't ready.
These are just some ideas. I encourage the kids to come up with their own and bring these ideas to the individual lessons. During the group lesson there might not be enough time.

 It sure if people have been watching warrior, it's not really for kids... but some cool costume and beat ideas here. Notice there us a hip hop and a cowboy western influence, which brings me to this song.

Drum is simple... but some yelling with it...I did a crazy version of this with my kids.  Could be fun.simple beat.

Finally, warrior doesnt have much Irish music in it, which I happen to love, and would be cool to do a Nunchuck vs. Shilegh sequence. Have to find the riverdance song I am thinking of.

This is a lot for everyone to learn, so I am not suggesting that. I am suggesting instead that we divide it up among the kids. That way everyone has time to shine as the star for a song or two. I also want everyone to get the chance to create, instead of just copying. Tradition us important, but it's also important to innovate and develop things further while maintaining that strong traditional base.

Also something to draw from that is for kids is Naruto. Another movie that isn't for kids but is .ist representative culturally of our group is the Hong Kong/Taiwa ese movie..  the drummer. I'm not saying we copy them. My base environment actually has more Taishanese, Hong Kong and Vietnamese style influence along with my drumming dulcimer teacher from Beijing (our main song is that one) but I have been playing that same song since I was a little kid, almost 30 years. I want to do more than that. 

Tuesday Board of Education Meeting at 7pm

I love our bus driver. My kids love our bus driver. In a suburban town... the few moments that I talk to him while he picks up or drops off my sons are almost the extent of my social life.

I was so relieved when I heard that he had been driving kids to school on the same route as long as some of the parents on my street. A Bus driver's job is so important because he has to keep your kids safe and also make them feel comfortable while in a moving vehicle.

I saw on Facebook that the our town, Bridgewater, is considering outsourcing the jobs to another company. Actually I don't understand the nitty gritty of it but here is the Board of Education's side of the story.

"I am happy to address your concerns in this capacity, however I do refrain from representing the BR Board of Education on any social media platform. You are welcome to share the information as you wish. 

The District owns a small fleet of buses and employs drivers to drive them. These drivers handle approximately 20% of our regular daily school runs, and also provide flexibility to handle athletic and extracurricular events, field trips, etc. The remaining daytime runs – approximately 80% – are outsourced.  It has been this way for many years.

The Board highly values our in-house drivers, who provide exceptionally good service.  Unfortunately, in recent years, the cost of employing drivers has skyrocketed.  This is largely due to escalating health-insurance premiums, which will actually exceed the drivers’ salaries within the next few years.

To combat these escalating costs without impacting instructional services in the district, our preferred solution is reducing premium costs. But the only way to accomplish this is through a negotiated settlement with the bus drivers’ union (BRTA). We remain committed to negotiating a fair settlement with sustainable insurance premiums, and we remain confident that the process will lead us to that point.

That said, we have no choice but to investigate other options in case negotiations break down. Towards this end, the Board has solicited bids for additional outsourcing. We believe it's wise to know what our options are, but we hope there won't be a need to actually move forward with these back-up plans.

We understand and appreciate that some residents are concerned about the potential impact that additional outsourcing could have on their children.  Please rest assured that all our outsourcing partners also provide quality services under our staff’s close supervision.  Their drivers pass the same background checks and have the same driving credentials as our drivers do. 

Again, we look forward to continued conversations with the BRTA to settle a fair contract in the very near future."

Hopefully they will come to an agreement. I would like to support my bus driver... without at the same time getting in the way and making it worse for him though.  I definitely don't want him to lose his job. The Tuesday after Memorial day is the BOE (Board of Education) meeting. It would be good at the very least to go to that and find out what is going on. 

Drumming in the Dark

I had never really practiced the drum.. the Kung Fu Drum, the Lion Dance drum. I played the drum. I played the drum while we practiced forms or lion dance. I played the drum while we performed... but I never practiced. Probably because often for Chinese New Year you will play on the drum for hours at a time.

So I never thought of the drums as a form of basics. I tried to develop basics that you did in the air, using the drum as a way to the martial arts.

And then I tried to hit something else, but not like a kid. I am a large adult. Large not as in height but in weight. Basically screws came loose, things started to break even though my sticks were made of rolled up newspaper.

I wanted to hit something above eye level, because it is more like striking an opponent.


But realistically we do not have that type of drum.


So I engaged the real drum, lights off, full force, still with paper sticks.


What would happen if I put aside an hour a day to play these beats, basic though they may be. Yes I experimented with other beats too.


But what would happen if I took the time to hone my spirit and my skill, to sharpen it like rolling an iron bar into a needle, with regards to the drum?

Everything from the Drum

When you are in your mother's womb, you here her heart beating. Before you have even fully formed you have this contact with a beat. A beating of the heart. A sound that the beating of the drum emulates and tries to express artistically. 

Even our modern music has a heavy beat. And our most ancient music has the drums. 

So more than Kung Fu or Lion Dance, I should begin here. With the drum, with an almost Shamanic meditation exercise which can strengthen the individual, but also be performed and relieve stress through beating out ones frustrations in rhythmic strikes that can express the soul. 

Wandering Earth Part 2

Okay its not part two. It's just that I was not able to watch the movie in more tan one sitting. I still have like 40 minutes left. This movie was like an EVENT, which is exactly what a movie needs to be nowadays. Because its mostly action.... I guess even though you have to pay attention if you really want to understand what's going on, in reality, you can enjoy the movie without understanding anything. In order to Justify paying the money to see it on a big screen, this is how movies like this, Jupiter Rising, Avengers Endgame,.. have to be.


There are a ton of plot twists, so much so that this is like 10 movies in one. One complaint my wife had was that it had the same excited Mandarin tone throughout the movie... like it's too much to take. I noticed that there are sections to the movie with different characters. In that sense I think it could be compared to an Epic movie like the American, "How the West was Won." Also... "Wandering Earth" is kind of a propaganda film (one could argue that most films have some level of propaganda)


I think that it got a ton of bad reviews because it is a non Hollywood film that is really able to compete with Hollywood internationally, especially with a platform like Netflix. Not only that but even though the aim of the movie is not to make Americans look bad, you can see that yes... this is from a different perspective, from the Mainland Chinese perspective, and this movie is not whack, it has the budget and the graphics to really compete if not out compete a James Cameron Film. And at the same time you can see references to all these American movies and novels. Its weird how HAL has an American voice in the beginning (or excuse me, the proper name in this movie is MOSS, but the robot is obviously HAL) but switches to Mandarin Chinese when explaining another plot twist.

I think even if you don't like this type of movie, you have to watch it. Just like for Chinese movies there was a pre Crouching Tiger era and a post Crouching Tiger Era, I think for Sci Fi movies there is going to be a Pre- Wandering earth era and a post.

I mean historians and current events people should study this movie because it is kind of showing what is already true that China and Russia are coming into their own and able to compete. We already knew this, but to see it in popular culture is another matter.

"Wandering Earth"

I like to sleep right next to a big window so that the sunlight wakes me up. I think its a better way to wake up than an alarm. In fact my second son will cover his ears and try to go back to sleep when the alarm goes off.
I woke up, feeling not so great. I had a weird dream about Jackie Chan using stunt double for all the dialogue in an old movie... this of course makes no sense, I think it had something to do with watching Wandering Earth on Netflix.

I watched half of it and had to stop because of time. The New York Times trashed it, everyone in China loved it, and Grace couldn't understand it.

Americans, even Chinese Americans, will find some of the concepts foreign, even for Sci Fi. But here's a little joke I have as a mixed guy whose dad is Chinese.


"So Americans don't really like Wandering Earth. The movie is about escaping the sun exploding my moving the earth to another Solar System 2,500 years away. I think the part they can't wrap their heads around is the mixed guy in it... has a Chinese Father and a white mom." a dudum cha!!

But other than that, the Chinese are taking the lead in this movie partnering with the Russians. ie... the US is not the most important country saving the world. They are involved though. In fact, (SPOILER ALERT!)


the HAL like robot lying to everyone has an American accent while speaking English.

Also there isn't a lot of Character development, or when there is, it is inserted after the fact. Like ths person is dying and you are wondering why this other character that seems to have just met them is so sad... so flash back,,, he raised her as his own daughter....

That's crazy in an American movie.

It's not that crazy in the many Hong Kong Movies I've seen. There are some digs at Cantonese and HK people too I think as one of the stars is a HK movie star. I think they dubbed his voice.

Also the concept of moving the earth instead of taking off in a ship to explore is kind of super mainland Chinese. Or super Beijing. Chinese Americans are the descendants or are actually people that left China to come to the states. But this movie wasn't made by Chinese Americans, it was made by people who stayed in China. I have only seen this type of concept once in a Stephen Chow film, where a scholar moves his house from Canton to Beijing or maybe the reverse of that, can;t remember. That Uncle Tat actor who is often in Stephen Chow and Andy Lau movies usually as a clown, but has sometimes played a scary Dai Lo here and there, is in Wandering Earth. You can tell he is a better actor then everyone else. The movie really isn't about acting, or words.

So I don't know why the New York Times and everyone else bashed it. Is it stupider than The concept of Thanos and the Infinity Rings or is it Stupider than Jupiter rising or really any other Sci Fi concept? no. Would it have been more developed as a series (that would have made less money)... well yes, but I answered why that didn't happen with the above sentence. I think it was a Chinese New year movie and it made a ton of money. Like everyone in China saw it.

It wasn't stupid at all... I think Americans just have a hard time watching a movie where China would take the lead on something like this. But it isn't like my favorite movie either.

I'll watch the rest of it. In fact I had wanted to see a real Chinese Sci Fi movie for a long time. I had seen a couple of HK ones. If this one is lacking in anything, it isn't budget and special effects. Its also not deep.... but it is thought provoking. The premise of the movie challenges you. It bothers you, more than other apocalyptic movies. That's another thing.. .so a zombie apocalypse is not difficult to understand but moving the earth with jets is?