Midway Cafe

"The Midway Cafe is...legendary and it's full of old ghosts and great artists like Joe Coughlin." screamed John Powhida when he finished his performance last night with his band John Powhida International Airport. A lot of the songs he sang are on his album Airport Life (which you can buy or listen to if you click on the link above.)

They are about his life and growing up and one of the songs (which will be on his next album) was a blues song called "Recycling day at Arlington Heights."

The whole thing was amazing and I've never heard songs about being a stay at home dad before. John may be 50 but THIS is the voice of our times and our American life.

After the Paris Attacks it kind of felt good to go out and do what the terrorist don't want you to do apparently. Go and see an American Rock Band, and everything about the band is about Real Americana through John's perspective.

As American as it was, and as American as I am, I felt like a traveler too. Why? Well let's be honest, I don't usually go to see bands. So signs like this one, below

crack me up and are somewhat foreign to me. 

Here is John signing and playing guitar. The guys in his band are great. In fact they are so great, that as John said, "We don't practice." They are an older band, and I think that experience is what makes them able to perform so well without rehearsing. That resonates with what I've experienced with our Lion Dance group.

The thing about the Midway Cafe is that it is legendary and a lot of people who are familiar with this scene can speak more to that. But me? I just found out about this place. And it's right down the street from my house, across from English High! There's a lot of parallels with that sentiment and what's happening in Chinatown. How many cool places have been around for so long, and are legendary in their own right, in their own scene... but will soon disappear?

My only advice is don't wait to go hang out there later. Go now, it soon may be gone.

My thoughts on the Paris Attacks

These Paris attacks are horrible. I'm still sort of avoiding really looking at what happened. But mostly I feel like "What is the point?" People will just say "terrorism" but what is the goal? How is ISIS stronger from this attack? I get it, their radical their crazy. Whatever reasons for what they did, I feel like it's a little lame.
I'm not usually the one to stand up on a table and defend the West or the United States or France or whatever.
But look, I assume that whatever air strikes we do that kill innocent people, I assume that it is by accident or at least a sort of collateral damage type of thing. I'm not saying that those airstrikes are right or justified. I'm just saying there is a difference between that and purposefully killing innocent people. Why not bomb a government building or something? Or attack soldiers. Like that guy in England that chopped up a British solider. Now that was wrong. But at least it is sort of more war like than this.

Why not deface a statue. Blow up structures. Take stuff, not life.

This feels like gang warfare on a global scale where everyone is involved. Like they can't hit the U.S. like this so they hut our friends in Paris because it's close and the city is big. He hit them they hit our friends and maybe sometimes us. But there is no planning for the future in it. It's planned out attacks but other than that what? It's like drive bys for the sake of drive bys. Killing for the sake of killing, and then dying in the process.

I mean what is the goal here? ISIS is the Islamic state. So they, in theory want to create a radically Islamic Country. We don't really know what's going on in their heads, but let's look at past radical States because hind sight is 20/20 right?

Let's talk about the Taiping. The Tai Ping wanted to create a heavenly kingdom based on radical Christian ideals. They pretty much took over all of Southern China and set up such a kingdom. They were probably even more radical than ISIS and even though they were Christian, Britain sided with the Qing Government because at least they could do business with them. ISIS, Taiping Heaven;y Kingdom... kind of the same thing.

So the first thing, one would think, is for ISIS to try and set up a country. They have a territory, sort of, but they don't have a country. Not really. They take down a Russian plane, of citizens, tourists. And then they kill a bunch of people in Paris. Again citizens. And this is supposed to help form their country or strengthen their country how?

This attack just tells everyone, Iran, Russia, America, France.... fuck these guys. The only security council member that might not want to get involved directly is China. But they want to build a train through this region. So stability is in their interest too, and these guys are not stable. They make no sense. It's like their not adults.

The closest thing to adults in the region seems to be Iran, and of course, Russian backed Syria.

Remember the last Presidential Election when Romney was like, "Let's find the rebels that most fit with our ideals and support them." Remember that? I mean if these guys wanted to set up a country they should be trying to play Russia and the West against each other. Ultimately it's like they are actually going to bring the rest of the world closer together because nobody can possibly say "Oh yeah ISIS isn't that bad." after this shit.

If you are a 20 something and you want to join a movement or do something for Allah and you have the energy and planning to do something on this scale and are even willing to die, why not try something like starting a business or invent something. I mean why not create a GOOGLE for Allah, or a Facebook for Allah? Maybe they have something similar in terms of networking, but why not just steal western ideas and recreate them for yourself the way China does with Baidu or Wechat? Why not make a drink like 5 hour energy, for Allah and do stuff the way Manoj Bhargava does. He's probably Hindu or maybe atheist, but I'm pretty sure that is what Allah's work looks like.

I mean if you are willing to die, then you can work really hard for a company that makes billions and with those billions you can have your Islamic empire and it can be really nice.

I feel like Radical Islam needs a history lesson in why the Islamic world was so powerful back in the day. It was technology and scientific innovation that made them a world power... and trade. Yeah there were wars with France and Spain. (in fact that's supposed to be how we got croissants right?) But the Islamic Empires of the past were religiously tolerant for their time. Trade was important to them. They made treaties with Western Powers. They attacked, but what they did made sense. And then if they conquered a place like Spain, they set up great institutions and built cool stuff.

What the hell does killing one hundred something (I see different numbers from different newspapers) innocent people have anything to do with setting up an Islamic State? All the Muslim professors that go over to join ISIS leave and talk about how whacked they are.

This kind of thing makes me lose my faith in humanity. I mean wars are stupid, greed is stupid.

But this type of killing tops it all.

McDojo

Recently I have been watching more videos on You tube that are titled McDojo. Some of theme are funny skits, others are videos of schools etc. The first time I heard the term McDojo, I was already a Sifu teaching classes. The person using the term was a prospective student and was talking about a school they had gone to and was saying how what they learned was fake.

My response was that if you take that term, which is referencing McDonald's it sort of doesn't work. I mean there is almost no such thing. McDonalds serves food. That food is bad for you. But it isn't fake. I mean you can talk about genetically modified foods. But if someone had created genetically modified martial arts techniques..... that actually sounds pretty bad ass. And the only real world analogy to that would be steroid use. Again, bad for you, but does that mean your punch is fake? No.

You can say someone throws a bad punch or has bad form. But I was watching another video of a Shaolin monk. While throwing his punch his tsance wasn't really connected with the ground. His head went back sticking his throat out. Immediately as a martial artist you would recognize that doing a punch like that doesn't help the power of the punch. It also leaves you open. It isn't just "his system" because that is just a classic punch in northern and southern Shaolin, the type where you don't really turn the waist an the body is somewhat rigid. That punch is about power and structure. So if you don't have good structure, you could say that it is poor form.

But this wasn't a student. He was the master and a champion in Wushu competitions. He's famous. And he can do other amazing kicks, flips, feats of strength and Mai Moh type of stuff I cannot do and have never even practiced. In  a street fight, just like any trained martial artist, he would have an extreme advantage, because even his punch with "bad form" would still knock somewhat out if placed right. The only thing is that his throat is open and he is not as connected with the ground so the punch isn't as powerful as it could be.

But everyone is always open. If you throw a professional boxing punch, your legs and groin are open. If you throw a traditional Kung Fu punch from the South, chances are your legs are in a good structure and you can take punishment, but it's still open. And everyone is open to guns and arrows.

"What if you have a shield?" is a question my son might ask. Well Bombs of som sort or another have been around for a long time. And boulders have been around before humans. The point is there are many factors to winning a battle, and winning at life.

When I was a teenager I probably wouldn't want to study with some of these Champions with imperfect forms, because I was looking for someone who could without a doubt, kick my ass.

But as an adult I am more impressed by determination to continue practicing, business sense and just whether I get a long with a person. I am learning Kung Fu everyday from people that don't even know Kung Fu. Because everything I see is through that Kung Fu lens.

And in terms of business and a lot of just common sense stuff, I am so beginner it's not even funny.

So who am I to "expose" someone that is successful. What exactly am I exposing? The fact that even with less Kung Fu they can achieve more?

Now there are people who are unethical etc. But you can have real Kung Fu and be unethical. You can practice and teach real Kung Fu and make most of your money selling Heroin. In fact many Kung Fu groups have history in gangs and terrorism. You just have to go back a few decades or centuries. Arguably the Southern Shaolin temple (if you believe the stories) had great Kung Fu, morality, ethics... but from a modern perspective was kind of a terrorist training camp.

If you look at other groups, say the Catholic Church, their scandal wasn't that they were offering instant enlightenment from a cookie and grape juice (which they do, because you attain that enlightenment through Christ's enlightenment, if you believe that.) Their scandal was priests raping children.

So.... McDojo.

Who cares?


Anyway. maybe why I care is because my goal is to have a three month basic course for adults that makes you good, fast. Good enough to practice on your own and be a master of a sort. The idea came from training Noah. Because I was able to get him to make his own form up, with some guidance it still looked like a traditional village kung fu form, and he could do stick and sword and lion dance. My goal is just to get adults to be able to do the hands in three months. But I think Noah did it all in three months. Did he reach his peak? of course not. Soon after that I started teaching him traditional forms. But there was some pretty cool stuff about his training back then. It was like the Picasso of Kung Fu. You just did what you feel like and it came out looking like a masterpiece as long as you got down and put power.

I wouldn't consider my dream to be a McDojo or watered down Kung Fu. It would be simpler. It wouldn't be bad for you. It would be more like picking wild fruit and nuts or foraging as opposed to going to a restaurant. You need some guidance so you don't eat something poisonous (or try to do a technique in a way that you hurt yourself.) But it isn't fake. It isn't watered down.

But it will be commercial, because I plan to make a small amount of money.

It would be what McDonald's could be if it focused on making their food healthy.

So I wonder. Will people call my class some sort of McDojo?

Freedom and fun

It's fun riding around at night on your bike and going to "meetings." Shao asked me "Why do you have to go to this meeting in Chinatown?" I answered him, "I don't." And once I got there, there wasn't much point in coming back because everyone's already asleep right? I mean back when I lived down the street from all this stuff in Chinatown, I could stand even being at something like this for 10 minutes, even though I slept just 5-10 minutes away. Even when I got back to Moh Goon I probably wouldn't be sleeping because the lights would be on, the cigarette smoke would be all around and the door would be open. So why couldn't I wait to get back to Moh Goon? Because I would start training. Why can't I just train at home?
Well, because I will wake everyone up. And as much as I like practicing at home, there is a difference when you are able to swing weapons around and not worry about noise. Shoot if I had a Hall to train in I would probably be training all day and all night.... just like I used to. Except even the old Moh Goon wasn't perfect. You could say why don't I just train outside. But there is that feeling of being able to swing bladed polearms around, then just lean them up some where, hget some hot water, meditate in the dark and maybe drop off for a few minutes or hours and then get up and do it again like some sort of insane person.

But I can't do that anymore, so I might as well just hang around with people in Chinatown and then Bike home, which is kind of like training. You move pretty fast and there is that adrenaline rush of the cars. In fact, often I would feel I had to escape the confines of Moh Goon by jogging and doing punches in the night air down by the Charles. With Biking, at least I am going somewhere. It's not like I was hanging out with irresponsible people to, They were all Grace's friends, or friends of friends. And I was sort of getting information and contacts for the Blog.

And now I'm back home, but I don't want to wake the kids up by barging in or rummaging around up there.


I love my life.

Someone Important going through Roxbury.

Okay these are horrible pictures. But this is some sort of Police Motorcade I ran into coming back from Chinatown

It seemed like a pretty big deal and the escorts seem to want to move the person along quickly. Not exactly as impressive as what you see regularly in D.C. maybe. But my guess is someone kind of important just passed by. That's not how the Mayor or Governor travels right? So I wonder who it was? Seems to small to have been Obama. But Maybe Warren? I wonder.

Friends

Shao was telling me that he really wanted me to write down the trips we have been going on with his schoolmate and her family, so he doesn't forget. So I'm going to do that now and then we can come back later and at stuff.

The first trip was to the Topsfield fair.

We petted bunnies and saw gardening displays that were part of a competition. (Kind of like Charlotte's web type stuff.) We got to pet animals and go on rides too. Shao went on this roller coaster ride with his friend Lily. and that was fun. He also did this giant slide. I'll have to ask him how he felt doing that.
Dai Dai sat next to me and Shao sat next to Lily. It was kind of cute, like those carnivals you see on TV but which I never really went to. I went to one as a kid, but since then.. I guess this was my first time. It's sort of only fun if you go in a group.

They all went in this maze together and Dai Dai actually had a lot of problems getting out. He started banging into the glass walls. It was kind of funny even though it was also probably really scary for him. I eventually had to go in and rescue him.

There were motorcycle stunt men and racing pigs that ran jumped and swam. Hilarious!

What was the next trip? All these were with Lily and her Dad.

Yesterday we went to the Museum of Science. The kids built baskets and I learned that if you think about it, basket weaving is a type of technology. I mean it's been around for a long time, but it's not intuitive. None of the kids wove stuff, even the older kids, unless their parents showed them too. That means a lot of the stuff we take for granted as obvious solutions are really things that are learned. Isn't that interesting?

Then we had a Kung Fu class at the House (this was Veteran's day.) That went well until the end. My student is a little shy about forms. He reminds me of one of my Si Hing's. It's almost like Karma that this Si Hing taught me a lot of stuff and we crashed, and now my student has a similar personality. It is like it is helping  me to understand that side of Kung Fu. In any case I am growing as a Sifu, because I thought I had the new answer after teaching Shao fist stick sword. But having a different personality that isn't interested in that system I created, forces me to grow and think and change my teaching style.  He loved the basics and the running around the house with physical exercises like lunges, bear walks, and then Boston Crab. Maybe I'll just focus on that side of things and have Noah perform the forms just so he sees them.

After all this other guy who was at the school for a while, picked up a lot of techniques just watching us and then tested them against Real martial artists and really made an impression on those guys. He was able to pick stuff up here and there and practice on his own. So the forms are important... but it isn't important that everyone memorizes and performs them.
They are more like a reference.

Well we ended the day with snacks and board games and that sort of thing. I have to pick him up soon and we are going to an event today too. It's fun to have friends to hang out with.

Birthday Party

On the Chinatown Blog I mentioned my outing to great taste. So we took our little cake home and had a ceremony.

For me, my birthday is like an extra birthday party for both of my sons. So they blew out the candles.

If you think about it, that small iece of cake is still way more than enough for all of us. 

My gifts were this onesie jump suit from Grace, I don't dare wear it outside. Not because it doesn't look good. But I think I ill be targeted by police frankly.  But it is comfortable to sleep in. Shao got me this drum shaker invention that he made. That was pretty cool, even though he made it for himself. I don't actually care. I didn't get anything from Dai Dai. But maybe next year. I told them I would accept rocks, or even other stuff. It's just a ritual really. 

I guess this is the next morning. Dai Dai is enjoying his walnut cookie.

Yum. We went to a friend's part and near their house.....

Was an Asian Pear tree. We took some with us. 

I wanted this picture to be done with Dai Dai and Shao, and I would use it to start painting a picture. I thought I would take up my ink painting again. I think I have to make them pose, If Only I can get Dai Dai to do it. Well Off to the Chinatown Clean up committee.