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.

The Silence and Sabrina the Teenage Witch

I’ve been watching this mostly because there are at least two members of the cast that were in Sabrina the Teenage Witch… which for some reason is a very comforting show for me to watch. It’s probably because when I was younger I watched the ABC version, which was a sitcom and of course very different. But somehow the faces in these horror films have become comforting. What’s cool about movies that are apocalyptic are that they take your life… and make you realize that the stuff your worrying about could very quickly become something you really don’t need to worry about at all, but in a way that is more far fetched then say watching the news about a stable country, that suddenly has become a war zone. It’s also cool to think about how a behavior that is considered by some to be something you can be bullied or teased about, to be the thing that keeps you and your family alive… an asset perhaps to the whole world.

I have been watching a lot of shows recently and maybe its time I started reading again. I have been reading Musashi to Noah right before I do a Netflix binge or something… but perhaps I need to get a separate book to read for myself. Or I can start doing more Kung Fu again…or writing.

A hidden move by Donnie Yen in Chasing the Dragon

If you haven't seen this movie, it's streaming on Netflix.

A lot of people are huge fans of Donnie Yen. This movie basically reminded me that Donnie Yen really is a great actor. I say this because most of his roles are flat, or even if he did a great job as Ip Man... well repetitive. Where as this character, based on a real person, is a whole new thing. i never saw Donnie Yen like this, doing a Chiu Jao accent. (Chao Chao? Actually if you have ever been to the old Chau Chau City in Boston's Chinatown I think it is referencing the same city/hometown) I don't speak that language but at least to me it sounded good.


The most famous phrase in Hong Kong  gangster movies from this language is "Gka Gkee nahng!" or in Canto, 'Jee gay yun!" meaning (we are) same people. ie, don't kill me we're on the same side. I think it was on purpose that Wong Jing, the director did not have that phrase in this movie.

Andy Lau plays Rock Lee/Lee Rock/ Loi lock

and some may remember he played this same person in an older movie entitled "Rock Lee" that was like 4 hours long and yet still fascinating. Also a real person who moved to Vancouver to retire/flee.


I feel like the references in this movie assume you must have watched that previous movie and know the history I love that kind of stuff.

The fighting in this is not Kung Fu style but you get a glimpse a Donnie Yen practicing a few moves in his jail cell that is reminiscent of moves I have seen my Si Suk practice. A loose, I want to say White Crane or White Crane Hung Gar hybrid. Not something for show really, but not the sort of thing that you see in a Hung Gar form... but also a move boxers and such often discredit for use in the ring, but something very useful for a street fight with defense and offense and which translates well using it in a butcher knife fight. It wasn't in the fight sequence and choreography at all, just when the protagonist is in the cell. In fact he is talking while he does it and Donnie Yen does the move quite well. In other words, he put some real research into the role and actually practiced that move to have done it so well for such a short part of the movie. And those types of moves were actually sport of called useless by the Ip Man movies. ie, Ip Man totally beats anyone who does moves like this or characters that reference this style of fighting.


Anyway, mad respect to Donnie Yen for putting in that extra effort that probably only a few people who practice that type of move would notice, and for really getting that old school look when executing the move Old school not as in Old school movies either. I wonder who he interviewed or did he just pick up that move from someone he knew and added it to the character. Could have been someone he knew in Hong Kong, but also could have been someone he knew in Boston too who passed through Hong Kong during this time, knew these type of characters portrayed in the movie and told stories of the old days...  and maybe that made an impression on Donnie Yen.

Anyway, the movie is good besides that too. But if you are into hidden Kung Fu moves, look out for it.

Warrior

Warrior

I have already watched the first two episodes twice. Here is some advice though. You should watch all of Bruce Lee's Movies first (there are only 4.5 of them) and get into who Bruce Lee was, because I feel like there are so many references both in terms of fight scenes and plot to his life as well as his movies.

Warrior is awesome... no doubt. But remember that it is an American show, so don't get all Hong Kong or Canto purist about the fact that some of the actors aren't pronouncing the words with the right tone. Those actors aren't necessarily Chinese so they are doing their best, and Shannon Lee was involved with the casting and wanted to make sure that other non Chinese Asians were not discriminated against.

At some point the actors switch to English in what I think Justin Lin (director) himself referenced as the Red October sequence (Where suddenly you understand what Harrison Ford is saying... and I'm sure his Russian was horrible too) and then the dialogue is epic. Here is why I say that. No they are not translating slang directly from Taishanese or Sze Yup (this are the places Railway workers were from. The First Chinese American Railroad worker was from Taishan, last name Wong)

But the American slang is influenced by it. The shows creators admit that they are kind of making up the slang... but it sounds so cool that... I think people are gonna start talking like this. "Crossing the Salt" being too "Fresh" as opposed to FOB which does sound so 90's now. And calling an "onion" "itchy"

Now These terms I have actually heard but in a different context than used in the show. But it is amazing that the show is creating culture. And to be honest that is what Bruce Lee was doing. he had specific Fight choreography that influenced everyone else's fight choreography for decades to come. I also recently found out that HE is playing drums for the opening of Way of the Dragon Mang Long Gau Gong. And when you listen.... that is a very specific beat. It's not a lion dance beat. It's not a Dragon boat beat. It's on Western drums... but its not a western beat. That beat is sooooo Bruce Lee.


And again, while Warrior is so awesome... you suddenly realize how good Bruce Lee was. I would say his character is the combination of at least 4 of the characters in the show, including Ah Toy, who does the deeds that Chen Jen does in Jing Mo Moon (Fist of Fury-Chinese Connection)

The show is also sooooo LA which makes me crack up but in a good way. It's awesome that the Dialogue for Ah Sahm is this real cocky and crass stuff. I think, after watching the interview with Ah Sahm's actor, that he really can act. But the role of Ah Sahm is supposed to be this guy who can fight... but is awkward and breaks all the rules. Kinda like the main character in Way of the Dragon. A Herng Ha jai.

The actors and characters around the main character are actually more typical of the stereotypical cocky side to Bruce Lee's characters, and those characters really do an awesome job as well.

The Hairband Oath

The old crone lit the candle, burned the incense and set fire to the herbs and the paper money.

"Amah, if he shun the use of money in this life... why do we burn pretend paper money to our ancestors? What do they even need money for? Their dead-"

"Shh quite, you don't know. They need a lot of money and we give them this pretend money then they give us the good luck and we get real money. Then we don't have to think about money or worry about using money. Be quiet and do the ritual. You! you take off the hair band." She said pointing at me, "You take off the hairband," She said pointing at the other girl.

The other girl didn't say much, but I think she understood more of what was going on then I did. We were supposedly cousins. My parents just dropped me off to live with Amah for the summer. i vaguely remember her from when I was very little. Phone calls, things like that. She was my grandmother or something. But we never did anything like this before.


"You say,"I am sorry sister that I could not be born on the same year and same month and same day as you... so I only wish that I will die on the same year same month same day as y-"

"Wait I don't ant to die." I complained

"Not now, they are saying in the future." Said the crone. 

"But how old are you?" I asked the other girl who still didn't say anything. The thing is, she was taller than me and looked more grown than me in other ways too. I just felt like maybe I was getting gypped because if I was born after her and I died on the same day as her then my life would be shorter. She just looked around and sighed. I began to wonder if she spoke English. She looked more white than Asian, though I was mixed too... but really I hadn't heard her say anything in any language at all.

"You SAY IT!!!" Amah shouted looking like she might have a stroke or die in some other way. If she did... I had no idea where this house was really. I mean I guess I could look it up on the phone. But it seemed it would be a better situation overall if Amah lived so I said it.

The other girl then said something in Chinese... Cantonese... I think. And what she said kind of flowed better. And I realized she had said what I just said.


We exchanged hairbands and hand wraps, the kind people use for boxing.

Not that I had ever boxed. I had just put this hand wrap on.... and now I was taking it off again. It took a really long time and Amah kept saying how stupid I was.

In the end we went upstairs. Amah chopped up a chicken which this older boy, maybe even a young man had delivered. Amah was like super nice to him, along with some other food. He waved at us and the other girl actually smiled. We ate... and then me and my new "Sister" sat outside on te trampoline while Amah did something or other in the house.


"We'll start training tomorow." Said the other girl in English.

"Oh..." was all I said for a while, and then, "My name is-"


But she interrupted me and said, "You'll be called Yongfu"

She said it quietly and offhandedly but it seemed so final, mainly because she had hardly said anything before. I suddenly really wanted her to like me and be my friend. After all, there was nobody else here besides Amah and I got the feeling she was crazy. I had thought this girl was crazy too or that something was wrong with her... but maybe it was just because Amah was there.

As if sensing that I wanted to ask, she said, "You will call me Mangfu"