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?

Wretching and removed, and yet a perfect paradise.

I have been walking more or less every morning. This morning I was wretching like an old man because I am allergic to the pollen. It would probably have been worse if i was running. Maybe its the tea I drank too. But when I don't drink tea, I am in a haze of sorts...
I power walk like I see the old people do around here, because if I was running every morning, it hurts my joints and I am more likely to just not do it and I am all out of whack for the rest of the day.
I noticed that walking while you are half asleep, or not fully awake, is awesome. It's like a meditation but its not as involved almost. Why is that? I allowed memories of Tony to come flowing back and I realized that I am going to miss his essence. His childishness and craziness. Even my kids are not like that. It could sometimes be too much but to know that that spirit of chaotic playfulness was always there somewhere.

When you get hurt physically, a coach will tell you to walk it off. Maybe the same is true with emotional pain. Nobody says to run it off.... although this can probably help too.

I do this thing where if I have the time, after the walk, I take a cold shower and then do basics to dry off. I didn't have time to do that today. Instead I chose meditation.

 Sitting meditation.

I remember at the old Kung Fu school, the one in Tai Tung Village (for those who don't know, Tai Tung Village is actually a housing project in Chinatown owned by the CCBA. Not a magical Village in China...though maybe I should tell stories of it and make it out to be so) people, old students would stop in and chat... but I remember some of the Si Hing's would even sit down and meditate for a while. For those who know this crew they would laugh and think i was talking about a completely different group of people or perhaps making it up. I mean someone like Tony, yes he would sit and meditate and sometimes I noticed he was too chaotic to meditate and say maybe he shouldn't at that moment right there, and that that was ok. You didn't have to force it. and after trying... he would then realize this was true and do some other meditative activity that wasn't sitting meditation.

No the image in my mind was of a Si Hing who you would be surprise meditated. He drove a nice car, had business, and was always busy. But he stopped by, in work clothes and just sat down and meditated withe everyone. It just so happened that we were in the part of class where people were meditating. After we moved on to stretching he got up said by to Sifu and left. Sifu acknowledged him and the meditation, something like ,"yes meditating it clears you out good."

Now as I write this it sounds like some orientalist mystical thing with Karate Kid music playing in the back and real dramatic. But i don't know how to convey it other than to say this was really normal. The acknowledgment of Sifu wasn't deep bowing like they would do in a contrived movie scene. It was much more down to earth, a nod to an Uncle while throwing your car keys up and catching them and then saying, "Jow le Sifu!."

Part of the school being a space in the middle of the city like that was its location. Even the newer location was not the same. And my home, where I sat and meditated before work in work clothes, is not the same. I am literally on a mountain, so in some ways it is perfect. It is a retreat. But in terms of providing a space for others.... it is too removed. 


Yes I could make videos and people could watch at home....Or people could simply practice at home on their own. But there was something about that school in the midst of everything. It was so difficult to maintain. You had to defend it with money and with physical force sometimes. But maybe there was something about that that is worth it about it. It appears to not be providing a service to many.. .and yet thinking back, it was providing a service to the whole community, more than just the students. 

Spirits

When my mother passed I remember sitting in the apartment in a hard wooden chair facing my Uncle drinking wine just talking. Talking about everything and nothing, like it was the best party ever. At one point I remember him saying, "Wow you are young and your whole life is ahead of you, look at me, I'm getting old, my sister just died..."
I think I didn't really get what he was talking about but the words come to mind as more and more of the people who were from certain times and eras in my life, and of course the life of a City or a generation die, whether it is relatives or friends. Even though they are still older and from a broader perspective or a scientific perspective it was time...  my views on death seem to change. I used to be real practical.  But now...it's weird, my most recent friend who was much older than me and had been dealing with health problems for a long time.... I debate whether I wish I had heard of his passing at all. Granted I would have still been sending texts to his phone... but so what? The last text i sent was the picture of a Rainbow, and I could only think the picture really did look like the Bifrost. Since we had talked of magic and Odin and Merlin and Arthur and all sorts of things like that often. I thought he would have liked it. I sent a picture of my children in front of the flowers at our house as well. They stopped fighting briefly to smile.

When my Aunt died, she had had the chance to come up and visit us either a few months before. The thing is when Tony died, we had talked often about how he would like this house where I now live and he ahd wanted to visit the Pyramids, any Pyramids, either Egyptian of Central American, or Devil's Tower.. or another place of spiritual power before he died, and I think he had reconciled that he was not going to do this before he died after all, and that that was ok.

Still I wish he had the chance to come up and see the deer on our Mountain and do some Kung Fu or something. But of course he had lived an adventurous life and done many things that people do not have a chance or have the guts to do.

I had dreams, not about him, but of American Kung Fu people... who have a certain look, after I heard of his passing and I think it was my subconscious missing the era that Tony represented both of my life and also of Boston and Roxbury and Chinatown.


We went to Brooklyn to buy the paper money and I guess host a small little feast in his honor... which just means I ate Fau Yuk with my bare hands in the kitchen. I debated whether I should tell the children about his passing or whether I should simply move directly into the Santa Claus like interaction I planned to have with his spirit, where food would be left out for him every year. I guess we will do both. I told Noah Tony died right there in the Supermarket.

"The repair guy?" he said shocked.
"Yes."

"Ok." but it was a sad ok. Like... we kind of thought maybe Tony would live forever like Merlin or just fade away like a Jedi. Of course Merlin was killed by Nimue and Obi Wan by Darth Vader... But some how I almost wish I had less evidence and I planned on putting Tony over there with Elvis, Bruce Lee, and Tupac, our personal immortal who wanders the earth and may ring the doorbell every once in a while, maybe like the Time Traveller....

It is almost like I am now vowing to be impractical and bring a fantasy world to life where such things are possible but where the people, instead of being historical people I don't know... are real people that WE knew.

Potential Summer Schedule For Kung Fu/Lion Dance /LARP

Greetings,
I want to do classes for adults and kids together over the summer. Here are some ideas for a class.

Mondays through Fridays


6pm-7pm

6:00pm - 6:20pm
Everyone learns Drumming by hitting a chair with a home made drum stick which should be rolled up paper covered in tape. Make sure it is not too thick for a child but heavy enough so that you get used to the weight of a drum stick. These can also double as knives or something for LARP but they are harder than you would think so still use Caution. The beats we will learn will be basic Northern Chinese beats because I have found that for some reason these are easier to teach to a group than the Southern lion Dance beats, which are more spontaneous and have a greater emphasis on individualistic expression. After doing the Northern beats... one should be able to pick up Lion Dance beats and slowly work on them on their own.


6:20pm - 6:30pm
Children: go play
Pool noodle sword fight. Throw balls. Chase each other.
Adults: Learn the lion dance movements without the head


6:30pm - 6:50pm
Adults: try out the lion dance moves with the head.
Children: secondary roles such as tail and cymbals or the child head.


6:50pm - 7pm
Kung Fu forms. Either perform the forms that you already know, children can follow along on a form, or learn a form to perform.

Bonus!

7pm - 7:30

Children may either play or  leave (though some kids might actually want to join in) because next up is...

Standing Basics! 100 each  11 basic movements each done 100 times.

Mein Lay Jum Tai Chi

We will learn some Tai Chi like movements. We will eventually learn the whole form.


Pre game bonus!
5:30pm - 6pm

Meditation. This will be 20-30 minutes of sitting meditation. I will show the basic posture. There is plenty of literature about the benefits of meditation out there and I have my own stories and lineage and perspective. That being said 20-20 minutes can feel like a long time. In fact, it will feel like a long time even for me now that we are in the era of the Smartphone. I don't suggest that children do this... but they have to be quiet if they choose to be in the same room. I know this is something that one can do on their own (as are all the activities listed actually) but there is something special about meditating in a group and practicing in a group.