Would you like to buy some Girl Scout cookies? (May/June 2004)
Alrighty, time for me to do my review of the newest issue of KF/TC magazine. Today was a great day, I got the magazine in the mail AND MY tax return. So I was happy.
SanShou Linking Combinations
Very nice article, albeit too short I thought. Lots of photos, but it seemed the text was too short. Perhaps he should have added another page or 2 to it. Something to remember to look back on if I ever do a SanShou match. I would like to see more by this guy though.
The Secret History of Wushu from Behind the Red Curtain, sorry, like the last issue, this article really couldn't keep me interested, though it was cool to see the photos of Jet Li as a little boy.
Wushu Cave Women...yeah, cool to see like uh Kung Fu on stage, but sorry there Gene. Next page.
Of Tai Chi and Tai Chi Chuan, nice looking article discussing Yin/Yang and philosophy, but it seemed like a PJ wearing Taiji hippy in the park. Would like to see perhaps a little application of what he is doing.
Chen Taijiquan The Ultimate Grappling Art?, nice to see some Chin Na from the art, though I think they could of done without the stage being set up with Lou Reed. I mean, seriously, I almost laughed. You got this guy with a guitar, a woman on the Chello, and an Asian dude doing some Taiji. I think the article should have been titled Chin Na though and not grappling (though that is an argument cause like, yeah, not gonna get into that).
Reclaiming Nunchaku, gotta give him credit for his interesting outfit. But why is it he has to "scream" when he does the stuff? Nice photos, minus the screaming, and nice to see some teaching on Nunchaku that isn't Karate.
Pak Mei Kung Fu, I enjoyed the application photos of the article, and reading the history behind it. Good to see some rare styles of Kung Fu being represented, with so little on the art, it is nice to see how they do there thing.
The Eight Characteristic Powers of Xingyi, pretty much the same on the Taiji article I gave above. Wish it showed some application, maybe he should have done a 2 part article, showing some of the form and application in the first issue, and the rest in the next issue. Not alot of talking, but loaded with photos and captions of it. Leaves the mind have to wonder how it is applied.
Taiji Quan as Self Defense, haven't had the chance to look over it yet.
Tai Chi Brings Peace, see above. Though it is nice to see more females writing into the magazine.
Taiji Push Hands and Combative Principles, no comment as of yet.
Is that Morihei Ueshiba's long lost brother on page 89 in the painting?
Meet Master Lau Ka Sun, looks like a nice interview, though he could of gone without the "yelling" since usually in Wing Tsun/Chun one does not KIAI when they attack. I enjoyed seeing how it describes the ranks in the WT organization and the levels and stuff.
And a hands out to the lovely ladies on page 113. If I weren't such a Pig, I might be interested in one of those shirts. Bad pun, I know, I know, I can be a real Boar sometimes.
What do you got against yelling?
After all, it's a magazine, maybe they're just opening their mouth. :eek: Expresssion is always a trade off. Sometimes it seems overdone - but you should see the archives of stuff with no expression. The masters look dead. OK, maybe you shouldn't see that stuff.
As for Lou Reed, did you see Ren on Letterman with Lou the other week? Our May June 2003 Lou Reed cover story was pretty controversial, but it got us into a lot of cool places and actually wound up to be a pretty good seller, not so much on the newsstands, but with back issues. It actually opened a lot of doors for us. We're always looking for the crossover, because frankly, if left to just the CMA community, we can't really survive. Thus the Cave Women piece - that's crossover too. Like it or not, that's one direction we can't afford to indulge. After all, it's the art of martial arts, so to speak.
This is sort of a Tai Chi special, specifically a Tai Chi push hands special. Unfortunately, push hands doesn't represent well in photos, since it's such a touchy feely thing. So most of the articles in our Tai Chi cluster are theoretical.
Thanks for your comments again! I look forward to hearing more once you've read some more. BTW, no comment on me getting kicked in the head by Van Do (p 81)?
How do you know it's not a distraction from a photo?
I understand your point about yelling, but if we take Bruce Lee's lead, that martial arts are the "art of expressing the human body" then yelling can't be disreagrded. And Bruce was the king of the yell.
I find the cross over stuff more interesting, in a way, just because it's more cutting edge. I would love to have done something with that Bak Mei show... in fact, Doug is talking about putting something together for us for the e-zine perhaps. Now we do limit that cross over stuff to small articles (Cave Women was just two pages). Keep in mind that the cross over works both ways - not just for martial artists to open their minds about possiblities, but also for fans of the show to open their minds about martial arts. The whole Lou Reed thing has been a bonanza for that. I mean, really, traditional Chen Taiji on Letterman? Thank you Ren and Lou!
I'm a bit dejected personally about your opinion on the Wushu article since that's a personal tour de force, research-wise (but of course, you have your opinion and I'm happy that you expressed it). So many people say that the commies killed traditional martial arts. So many people don't know what they are talking about. In a weird way, traditional martial arts killed themselves by aksing for recognition and adopting western tournament practices. Think about it - wushu was designed to adapt a Chinese art to the western concept of tournaments. That doesn't really exist in ancient China. In ancient western cities you find tournament arenas like the colesium. Not so in ancient China. This will come more to a head with Beijing 2008, so I just trying to get the story straight, for those who might want to know.
