FedEx is faster (July/August 2004)

[PHILBERT]

Well, after a bit of a delay (I swear, I always get my KF/TC issues late), I finally got the newest issue, and it's another Shaolin issue. I always enjoy the Shaolin issues, not just because it's Shaolin, but because it's less likely to get poorly written articles about stuff that puts me to sleep.

Now, I just gotta say the facial expression for the cover is priceless. I can't tell if he is jumping off a wall, or lying on the floor with a camera over him, because you see his shadow behind him on a wall.

Shaolin Temple in San Francisco.
Excellent article, and interested in learning more about this Shaolin Temple branch that might be opened there. If it does open, another great reason I need to visit San Francisco. My mom already knows that if I went to San Francisco with her on vacation, to drop me off in China Town and pick me up a week later. I hope you keep more updates on this.

Meat, Wine & Fighting Monks
I really don't understand what this article is supposed to signify. It just seems to be a boring story about something that doesn't seem to be a big deal. So what if a few guy's got wasted and ate meat?

The Pagoda of the Great Master
Ok, my niece is taking over for a few pages.

She said this article is cool, despite not knowing what it is about. I had to explain to her what a pagoda is.

Shaolin Here and Now
My niece asked me to put it there. It serves no purpose to the article, other than she told me to put it here.

Alright, let me get back on this. She is talking and I can't read it clearly.

Real Versus Fake
Very nice article on the aspects of being a Shaolin Monk. Especially with people in America these days claiming to be Shaolin Monks/students and God she just spit on me. Evil niece.

Shaolin Lohan 18 Hand Movements
Excellent article, plain and simple. I love the stuff related to Lohan, the more martial side at least and less philosophical. Too bad it was a little on the shrot side, I was expecting a 2 part article for this one to show a little more detail. Nice clear photos as well.

BTW, my niece said hello. And I am gonna have to finish this review later cause she keeps distracting me and trying to fight, preventing me from thinking about what I wanna write. I also want to compare this to the other issue I have that was Shaolin.

[Vash]

STILL haven't gotten it. I swear, I'm gonna order me a subscription . . . if Gene'll tell me how to pay by check.

Otherwise, I'm going to have to keep promising to subscribe, and just keep buying from the mighty Wally World!

[PHILBERT]

I paid by check to. I made my check out to Kung Fu Magazine if I remember correctly. Just cut out the coupon from an issue and send it in.

[Banjos_dad]

Vash, how they hell did you think you would receive a Got Chi? shirt without a subscription...really...isn't it about time.

[GeneChing]

Well, I'm happy that this issue is getting such great feedback here, but could we keep it all to one thread? That would be more efficient...

[M_ArtsMargie]

hey philbert...we got your request for subscription. just wanted to say hi and thanks for saying hi...lol. its been a very, very long time since I have been on here. i need to start again. lemme think of a really great title.

[PHILBERT]

Originally posted by M_ArtsMargie
hey philbert...we got your request for subscription. just wanted to say hi and thanks for saying hi...lol. its been a very, very long time since I have been on here. i need to start again. lemme think of a really great title.

Actually, I subscribed about a year ago. I was telling Vash that I payed by check when I originally subscribed.

[norther practitioner]

I liked the shot of Decheng too.. pretty dope.

His article, on real vs. fake, I was looking forward to it, and it didn't disapoint, sort of what I expected from him from what Gene and Doc have written on him. I like the whole spirit thing, and how he put a lot of things in check, but still had that open endedness about it (geez, I don't think I've really ever read any non openended things from these monks, guess it's the whole zen thing).

[GeneChing]

No activity on this forum for like a month then Margie comes back and suddenly....

I think the open-endedness is partly a Zen thing since Zen is often thinking outside the box and that's percieved as open ended. Actually, there no end. Imagine a box. Imagine a box with an open end. Imagine being outside the box. Imagine no box. There's zen. But I also think that the open-endedness is a reflection of Shaolin today. Anyone who's spent anytime at all researching Shaolin seriously realizes how we're looking at something mid-stream if you will, and you can't step in the same stream twice. Many of Shaolin's critics have put it inside a box - it's fake, it's tourist, it's commercial, you know the drill - but in fact, there no box. And it's moving forward at an alarming rate. Often I find I have to be very cautious about what I write about Shaolin, because all things being impermanent, it could change before it actually reached publication. So as a journalist documenting Shaolin, I have to be open-ended, because all I can take is snapshots. Shaolin is a vital organism, constantly changing, ever outgrowing any box you might try to put it in.

[norther practitioner]

Very good analogy Gene....

Efficientcy and cma Gene, have you not read the main board the last few years?

[GeneChing]

...I wish...
Actually, the main forum is the funniest, so I read it a lot.

[PHILBERT]

Originally posted by GeneChing
No activity on this forum for like a month then Margie comes back and suddenly....

Duh, it's Margie.