Im so ready for this. vacation combined with turning 40(holy c r a p!!!!) as well as the post festival workshop with my students and fellow fu brothers and sisters....
Bring it on!
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Im so ready for this. vacation combined with turning 40(holy c r a p!!!!) as well as the post festival workshop with my students and fellow fu brothers and sisters....
Bring it on!
I've been thinking about visiting some friends up in Kutztown. Might have to hit two birds with one stone. What'd be the "best" day to stop by the festival?
Friday and Saturday are the two best days.
Gene, It is a shame that you have forgotten your Sun Style forms. Having a teacher of the magnitude of Sun Jianyun, even for only a short while is a great honor and you should reconsider renewing your original interest in Sun Style Tai Chi.
Gene and Erasmus, Jan Miller's Tai Chi Instructor was not Sun Lu Tang, but a classmate and close friend of mine. We both studied with Sun ShuRong the 2nd daughter of Sun Cun Zhou the 2nd son of Sun Lu Tang back in the late 70's in the capital city of Kaifeng in Henan Province. Sun Style was almost unheard of in Henan Province as Shaolin Kung Fu and Chen Family Style Tai Chi was most popular. When Shifu Chang went to live in America he spoke very highly of his private student Jan Miller whom he taught Sun Style. It is my understanding that his Tai Chi skills are quite good and is more than qualified to teach Sun Family Style Tai Chi Chuan. I also viewed his website link posted in this posting and it is very obvious to me that he is paying respect and homage to his lineage in Sun Style and not making any claims to have studied with Sun Lu Tang.
To be honest, I never got that much out of Sun style personally. I first studied it under Paul Tam, and then Wing Lam, and then with Sun Jianyun in Beijing. When WLE was just started, the whole company (all four of us) used to do the traditional Sun form as a work break every day. That was great. I was active in the Sun Style Research Institute when Tam and Lam founded it over a decade ago. Back then, I did a lot of work to promote Sun style here. At that time, no one was really coming out with Sun style in America.
Tam, Lam and Sun are all great teachers. Sun has passed away now of course, but she was phenomenally inspiring to me. However, like with so many practices, I moved on. I revisited it a few times after I started studying xingyi, and it made a lot more sense than before. But for me personally, if I'm going to do some taiji, I'll probably recite Yang before Sun now. That's just my personal preference, and it may change in years to come.
I've had many great teachers, san tong bei. How else would I get to where I am now? I hope to have many more. Perhaps you might see my abandoning of Sun style as shameful, but that's because you are entrenching within the Sun family. Given my position, I cannot be so attached. I'm on a mission to promote CMA - all CMA. Sun is only one facet of it. Sun stylists might view my leaving the system as disrespectful - I'm certainly not proud of that - but to me, it's even more disrespectful if I'm not open to the wealth of other great masters there are in the world.
OK, enough of that. See some of you tomorrow at ZSF!
Gene, In no way did I mean to imply that you should be shameful for leaving the Sun Style, and in no way did I mean that by doing so you were disrespectful in any matter, must be my english, I meant no offense and hope you can believe that. I do understand why people can learn something and move on, when I learned Yang Style it just did not fit me well and when I learned Chen Style, it felt more right, when I studied Sun Style I knew I had found something worth my time and energy. I thnk you have to search till you find what fits and then give it the attention it deserves. I'm am so sorry if I did not explain myself well and you had bad feelings, it was not my intention and I salute your efforts to promote the Sun Style Tai Chi Chuan and all of the CMA.
Whatever was/is the point of the Sun Taiji Research Group?? All I have ever heard is that it exists, nothing more. Is it still around? Webiste? What are their goals? Etc. Etc.
Thanks
Jake :)
The Sun Taiji Research Institute was founded under the auspices of Sun Jianyun. I think her original intention was to promote Sun style in America. She set up similar institutes in Japan, Hong Kong and in the PRC. She gave her blessing to Paul Tam and Wing Lam to start the institute, sending along a very unusual taiji banner as a blessing. It was this folk craft banner which looked like a macramé rug. We hung it up at Lam Kwoon. The main people involved beyond the Tam and Lam were Lam's top taiji students. The group was announced in Wing Lam's catalog newsletter and in some martial arts mags (in fact, if I bother to dig for it, I think it was announced in Kung Fu Tai Chi).
Since then, Paul Tam disappeared from the group. All of Lam's students that were involved have moved on. He has closed his school doors to the public, but still leads Sun style workout sessions with a private group. To the best of my knowledge, no one is doing anything with it anymore.
The institute were among the first to promote Sun style in America. Wing Lam offered GM Sun's book and official pin, proceeds going directly to her, of course. He also produced his own videos on the topic and cooperated with GM Sun to make a diagram poster, which was a very popular item. Additionally, there was a project to raise funds towards Sun Lutang's memorial grave site. I wrote a few articles on Sun style. In fact, my very first article for Kung Fu Tai Chi was Radical Taiji: The Rising Sun of Taiji in our Dec/Jan '97 issue. Beyond Dan Miller's and Tim Cartmell's work with Pa Kua Chang Journal, et. al, not many others were discussing Sun at the time. Now that the genie is out of the bottle, so to speak, it's fairly accessible, far more than before, and I like to think the Institute had a significant hand in that.
Gene
I have no clue why Sun taiji and Bagua are not more popular here in the west!!?!??! Great styles!
Yeah Wing Lam has done some things to help spread the art, but in all honesty the poster and vid's are embarrasingly bad! :( The apps DVD was one of the worst things I have ever seen. I have heard he is much better in person, put things wrong on DVD on purpose etc. not sure what the truth is, but I sincerely hope his understanding of apps is better than the DVD!
Nice article. Thanks for sharing.
Jake :cool:
It was great seeing Dale and Joshua again. Dale said he'd post some pics. I'm hoping for the one of him in the skirt. :eek: Anyway, more to come on that...
As for embarrassment, if there's anyone to blame for Wing Lam's poor Sun applications, it's probably me. I pushed him to show applications just like I push everyone to show applications. Personally, I think his production of the videos was premature. There was a lot of pressure on him to produce the Sun videos. At that time, nobody had them (this predates VCDs). The only one that was available was Aiping Cheng's Sun compulsory. Whether the pressure came from Sun Jianyun, Wing Lam's ex-wife, his students, the demands of the market or his own need to challenge himself, well, I can't really say. I personally don't think Wing Lam ever intentionally committed wrong things on video purposely. That's way too premeditated (although I will grant that he had a surprising sense of humor about such things). The WLE video production company was a grindhouse - we cranked out so many videos so quickly. Some are definitely flawed. But taken as a whole, it's still a hell of a lot better than the bulk of what's out on the market, especially over a decade ago.
One reason Sun taiji and Bagua are not more popular in America is the traditional students themselves. We don't allow for mediocrity. Either you're a master or you're not. Compare to golf, arguably one of the biggest money sports in the U.S. There's plenty of pros. There's a pro at every course. These guys aren't playing at the Masters. They aren't even close. But they are competent and they make their living teaching. There's no question of their skills and no baggage of being a 'master'.
In CMA, if you put yourself out there and haven't mastered it (or are just from a different school of thought), the traditionalists won't give you much slack. It's a personality quirk of TCMA. We're always looking for flaws. It's a natural characteristic of a strategist. But what exacerbates this is that so many people attack those flaws egotistically, as in 'that sucks'. The message the newbie gets is that everything sucks. Just look at this forum. The message we should be sending is that it's ok to suck. We all suck at the beginning, and most of us suck through to the end.
Which brings us back to the Zhang San Feng Festival. One of the unique things about this event is that it is very supportive of beginners and intermediates, no matter how much they suck. Ok, over to Dale and his pics in a skirt...
Sorry that it took me so long to reply but I was attending my Shifu's annual Gathering of the Circle for the week following the Zhang Sang Feng Festival. I just walked in the door...
Great to see Gene again and Joshua as well as show them my very cute legs in my Utilikilt :eek:(http://www.utilikilts.com)
The first photo is of me in my kilt at my vending booth in the corner. I sold a lot of injury medicine to people who had never even tried dit da jow before. Must have been the big bald head and the Kilt!!
The second photo is Gene and my fu brothers Yancy Orchard(on Gene's right) and Bob Maio who is on my left.
Had a great time teaching Iron Palm and Iron Vest to over 75 people that weekend!!
Enjoy!!
Sounds like you all had a blast! Perhaps I will make future events.
Cheers
Jake :)
Jake,
The festival itself was great!! Lots of networking with other teachers and practitioners as well as getting the snot beat out of me by my fu brothers for an iron vest demo, Yancy had combat boots on as well....
You should have seen the looks on the older ladies as my fu brothers kicked and punched me as hard as they could.....:eek: Fun to show em what internal can do for em:D
It was also a big event for me personally.
I turned 40 with all my fu brothers in attendance at the post festival.
Of course I bought myself some combat swords for that occasion. I picked up a very nice double handed combat steel(very sharp!) bagua jian and a very nice miao dao.:D:D:D:D
Firstly HAPPY BIRTHDAY you old man;):D! According to rumor, you should be in your prime!
May I ask whom the Miao Dao is from?? Any pics? Do you do a Miao Dao set? One of my favorite weapons!
Cheers
Jake :D
I should comment that Dale's classes looked pretty good, especially in the nice sports facility. My 5 Elements Xingyi Staff & Spear was in the old gym which had this whiny air conditioner simulator that only made the room stuffier. We moved outside where it was much cooler, especially when it started to rain. I told the whole class that when they should point their spears towards heaven when the lightning started.
I must refute Dale's 'cute legs' comment. Next year, Dale, you must join us for night training....
My wife calls them cute when in actuality I have really large/hairy scary fishwhite legs as I do not go out in the sun much....
I look forward to night training next year, brother.
Should be a blast. At least I would get some sleep on those nasty plastic coated mattresses that are as wide as I am...Uggh.
Sorry to hear about the whiny AC. I totally lucked out in the gym, though I had to yell as my voice disappeared into the rafters. It was good. Lots of people are buying my medicines onine and I have a bunch of people waiting eagerly for my Iron Palm DVD. Anyone interested can visit my website for more information.
Sharp! No pun......................well, I cannot lie, it was intended:o!!
Where did you get the Miao? Did you learn some from Mr. Painter? Tell me more, tell me more!
I hope to make the fest someday. Between you and Gene, you guys have nothing but good things to say about it! Sounds like fun.
Cheers
Jake :cool:
Jake,
I bought the Miao Dao from Shifu John Lee who owns and operates International Traders Group.
His website is: http://www.itg8.com/
All teak handles and the thing is well balanced.
Dr. Painter has shown me some weapons concepts but not for the Miao Dao, for me its a lighter weapon then my HUGE bagua dao to work with in speed as well as holding it out and walking the circle to get my qi to the end of it.
Glad you liked it!
The festival is a nice little affair. I was amazed at how many people came up to me at my booth. But then again I was wearing a kilt and hitting a steel shot iron palm bag....:D:D:D:D:D:D
So how was the turnout? I have heard bad things the last few years in regards to attendance and what not with tournaments, gatherings, seminars etc.
Cheers
Jake :cool:
There were over 400 people signed up for the festival. Not bad when the year before there were not that many.
Our own Jiulong Gathering of the Circle was up 20 people from last year, we had over 50 people training with us for a week. That is not bad at all. This year seemed to be good to get people to come out and train!!
Ill be teaching a dit da for martial artists next year as well as tapping for health.
Be well,
Dale
Just because other people aren't going is no reason to stop you from going. What if everyone took that attitude? No one would ever get to see Dale in his skirt....err..kilt. Wait, that's not enticing. Not at all. Never mind that. Moving on...
The Zhang San Feng Festival is very unique because it's just internal arts and there's no tournament. Seminar gatherings exist in the open martial arts world, but not so much in the CMA world, and even less so in the Internal Arts. This is one reason why we've supported the ZSF so much. At 400 people, it's still fairly intimate and that's nice.
Jake, if I can do seminars there, you surely could. If you're interested, I'd be happy to put in a word for you with the promoters the Donnellys. They are always looking for new talent. I'm sure Dale would too. Dale was one of the belles of the ball this year, not just because of his dress...err..kilt, but because he was a new seminar presenter and had a lot to offer. The attendees love that. In retrospect, the xingyi spear I tried to teach was just a little too much for about half of my class. I'll have to scale it back even more next year, assuming I teach there again.
Whirling Quisinart of Death?
Yowsa!!
Can I both cook with it AND Vanquish my foe?
Is it like a "Flying Guillotine"?
Which I must have btw...
I will be the first kid on my block with a Flying Guillotine!! :D
The chicks will dig me..even MORE than they currently do...:cool:
Has anyone seen season 3 of KF w/ David Carradine where he plays a young Caine and he is walking with Master Po in the Shaolin Temple?
In front of them..maybe 50 feet is a Long Haired almost albino looking Tibetan Lama..
The Lama is chanting Amithabo..Amithabo(I think..or some other well known Chant)...from a lotus position..and then he lets out a shriek...
Upon letting out the shriek...the reflecting pool in front of him bursts into flames and then turns into a tree!
Then in the next part..the Llamas eyes roll back in his head (you just see the whites of his eyes) and you see the room begins to fade out as this white light begins to form in the Llamas 3rd eye chakra.
As the room fades to black and the circular light forms in the chakra..you then see the tree--AND the Llama disappear and all you see in their place is a circular ring of apples..which Master Po tells "grasshopper" to collect.
Who cares about learning traditional kung fu. I just want to be able to do some funky sh-t like that and turn my enemy into a tree or a row of apples...
Muahahahahahahahah!
For all of those who are thinking I am a 13 year old zit faced kid who still lives with his mom and has never seen a female breast..I'm not.
I'm 37..live on my own and have seen boobs..but I just want a flying guillotene..or even a cuisinart of death!!!:eek::D
Thanks Gene! I would welcome any opportunity to teach anywhere. I don't know though, they may have to pay me double if Dale is showing leg action ;):D
Trust me I would have loved to go, unfortunately money is an issue as of late (the last 30 years :().
Glad to hear this fest is hanging strong!
Cheers
Jake :)
Be nice Jake, or I will come show you the kilt and the real reason my wife married me :eek::eek:;):p:eek::D
Easy big fella! I have heard about you Iron palm cats! ;):D
Is there someplace to put a checkbook in a Kilt???
Jake :D
checkbook??
im a poor nursing student and bagua teacher.
ask Gene about my size 13 feet, and my big iron palms...;):D
This thread went spiraling down the gutter, didn't it? I blame the flying guillotine. ;)
Jake, the ZSF festival doesn't pay its presenters beyond room and board. Most presenters make money there via private lessons or by selling snake oil....errr...dit da jow. Bring your own kilt.
See Gene that is where you are wrong!
If I show up in a Kilt, they will CERTAINLY pay me (most likely to change into something less revealing;)).
If it did indeed spiral down, then we are still on target as Bagua was represented at the fest eh? :D
But Gene,
Isn't the flying guilotene an institution in the KF community?
There have been..I believe...3 movies relating to the weapon...
While I'm serious about the movies..I'm asking noone in particular..is it an actual weapon? Be it ancient times or other?
Thank you.
EM
I've always wanted a flying guillotine. I've also always wanted one of those flying claws that grab flesh. I've seen reference to these in books, but I've never been able to validate that said books were any more than modern fiction. I've seen a flying claw, but never one that closed. The claw I saw was just a piece of flat sheet metal, cut into the shape of a hand and bent appropriately. Almost bought it anyway, but didn't. I've never seen a flying guillotine outside of books and movies.
Hey Dale, why don't you start a kilt appreciation club here on the forum?
You just take the lead and see if anyone else follows.Quote:
How would I go about doing that?
I'm thinking the "Kilt wearers unite" thread should go in the Other Related Arts forum.