mantis seminars in new orleans!

[oasis]

i posted before about the upcoming new orleans tournament (one week) in which there is a mantis category, and i just found out there will be 2 mei hua seminars! while i haven't done any mantis (7 star bung bo) in years and now do songshan shaolin, i'm excited about the opportunity to learn some taiji mei hua mantis.

and it looks like the seminars are given by sun de yao

i think that's cool, but given that i'm having a busy schedule right now, and i dont do mantis, surely it will be difficult to grasp all the nuances of the form in a short seminar. so my questions are:
1. suggestions (or encouragement ) to take the seminars nonetheless-the jian form AND/ or just the lan jie

2. can anyone tell me more about sun de yao?

3. as a future reference, it looks like sun de yao at least supervises a vcd on what i'm guessing is the two handed jian form

any other references (or clips) on either mei hua lan jie or this sword form? i've seen the 7 star lan jie before.

finally, anyone coming down? thanks!

[Three Harmonies]

Sun De Yao is one of the finer Meihua players in the nation. I personally would do the empty hand semianr over the jian, but do both if you can!

Jake