may/june 05

[YuanZhideDiZhen]

You know, I just got the first complaint about the **** shirt just this week. He said we were promoting the rape of asian women with that ad....

Hum Sop Lao say, "just ripe for harvest". Ban lo sik l'ban li hai da.

so, um, where's the snake shirt?

[GeneChing]

KungFuMagazine.com has been doing a special annual zodiac shirt every year since 2001 - the year of the snake. We only do the shirt for that year. The **** shirt is this year. We did snake, horse, and monkey. We skipped ram for some reason - that was 2003 - we just couldn't think of a good concept. They've all been my conception, more or less. Snake was the weakest of the line. I'm not sure what I was thinking - green lantern or something. Oh well, I can't hit all of the time. The horse was fairly sucessful since we did a play on Fubu with Mabu (horse stance). Monkey didn't actualize well since we were experimenting with a silver metallic ink. Unfortunately a lot of the detail of the monkey's face makeup (based on the monkey king opera figure) was lost and the color didn't hold well. It's still available since we have some leftovers.

We carry a full line of traditional zodiac shirts and our TN office graphic designer usually does something that's more generic for Tiger Claw, our parent company, which wholesales to all styles of martial arts. We do a special line that has the KungFuMagazine.com logo on it, which is the green lantern snake, mabu, and monkey king versions that I mention above. The KFM **** has been the most successful of all our zodiac shirts so far.

I already have an idea for next year, year of the Dog...

[ewallace]

A play on words usually makes for good shirts. For instance, a buddy of mine has a shirt that says "Green Piece", which has a picture of a green .45 on it. I've tried to steal it on a couple of occasions but he also has a steel piece that he shows me when I am about to get away with it.

[PangQuan]

Oh of course you have to skip the ram. Well maybe I can get one next time 'round....in 2015!!

I did enjoy the article on Monk Shi Sugang, very intersting read.

[GeneChing]

...I was beginning to give up hope. I mean when we go from Shaolin to ****s...

I'm very fond of Shi Sugang. He's always been very generous with his knowledge with me. I remember one year, some one had given him this Metallica shirt, and for some unknown reason, he loved the design, even though he had no idea what it was. He wore it all the time. I have a pic of him somewhere, wearing it right in front of the temple. I'm sure slamming your head through a block of granite sounds just like a whole Metallica concert compressed into a single moment of impact.

[PangQuan]

I bet Metallica would love to see him in a picture smashing granite blocks with his head while wearing one of their shirts. I bet they would want it on an album cover.

BTW: nice belt buckle you have there in the shot of you and Gigi Oh with Shi Yanfeng. Dont take that the wrong way, im not checkin' you out, I just notice details.

[GeneChing]

You know, I've always thought that exact same thing about Sugang and Metallica. Unfortunately he only wore the shirt casually. If he was goind to demo - and he didn't always demo - Sugang's iron head was only trucked out for the big demos because granite slabs are expensive - he wore his formal monk robes.

It's an odd thing to notice, but I've had that belt buckle for years - I think I got it at the flea market. I thought it matched Yanfeng's jacket nicely - a pleasant coincidence. The embroidery on his jacket was really fine - that photo doesn't do it justice.

[PangQuan]

Looking at that picture again I can see some of the detail on that emboidery, it has the air of a nice suit anyhow. I think the main reason I noticed your buckle was because you had your hands behind your back in that picture.

Is there any online documentation you know of about that Puyang archeological dig? It is just a very interesting topic I would enjoy reading about.

Gotta give you props on the Shaolin Trilogy cover Gene. And Thanks. You know with your position you have there you did alot for the promotion of Shaolin Kung Fu. I may not study at Shaolin but I do study a system Shaolin kung fu and if it were not for people like you, (and my Sifu of course), I would not have had the opportunity to enter into the world of Shaolin Kung Fu. So again Thanks for all the hard work and dedication you have put into delivering correct information on Shaolin to the world!

[oasis]

i mentioned this before, but i just hate the fact that i ALWAYS end up looking at the new issue in store before it comes to my apt 2 days later

anyway, is july/august the first 'summer' issue?

i also mentioned this before gene, but again, when i got my magazine yesterday, one side was opened, as if with a letter opener. my brother asked me if i was being watched for terrorist activity i know things get damaged in the mail, but for the magazine wrapping to always be opened on the side...

[Shaolinlueb]

oasis,

its funny you mention that. this issue was the first one i had come in the mail that wasnt opened. all the other envelopes are opened like someone went through it and read it. but the magazine wasnt opened. the thing was jsut torn open./ idk. its probably some ****ed off postal worker who does karate.

[Vash]

its probably some ****ed off postal worker who does karate.

No, if he did karate, then the envelope would have been fukcing wrecked.

So far, this has to be my second or third favorite issue since I started reading.

Excellent work!

[doug maverick]

how come you guys are always doing shaolin issue's, and never wu dong issues, i mean much can you say about shaolin, i know there's alot going on but **** let's get some variety.

[GeneChing]

The opened envelopes are really weird. I have no idea why that's happening. Bush did name China as one of the nations that might require nukular attention, but that was way back in 2002 and I really doubt that would have an effect on our little mag.

As for Puyang - dang! - you know I have this mental picture of the cowrie-shell dragon and tiger and I don't think it's from a book - I think it's off the web. I just googled it for a while but couldn't turn up the pic. I'm sure it's out there. If anyone finds it, do post it here. You know, I got to thinking about Sugang some more after PangQuan's post - those people who always decry Shaolin as being just wushu should spend some time with Sugang. He's strictly traditional. I've never ever seen him do any wushu, ever. The only thing he demonstrates is hard qigong, usually his iron head, but he also walks on swords and such. But his real treasures are his traditional Shaolin forms and his qinna. I've been wanted to cover him for years for this reason.

And as for Wudang issues, we've done two. Our 'official' Wudang Special was our Sep Oct 2003. Our earlier unoffical special was Sep Oct 2002 - hmm, that's funny, I never noticed that both were Sep Oct issues. They were both well received and we are certainly open to doing another. The downside is that no good researchers have stepped forward yet. I do have several that have made me promises, but promises and a dollar might buy you a cup of coffee. I was in Wudang in '99. That was my only trip and I've pretty much published all the research I got out of that. Maybe it's a tai chi thing - comes from moving so slowly all the time...

[oasis]

gene,

interesting that in your interview yong xin mentioned China's application for unesco recognition of ughur maqam . the music style of maqam is popular in most arabic and islamic countries, but it sounds like china wants special recognition for the style in xinjiang province. you would think if that were the case it wouldnt be making such efforts to change the status quo by sending han to 'dilute' the uighur population there

[oasis]

okay, a little off/on topic (given my previous post ) but i just posted about the article i read in kfm, and then ironically two minutes later i go to bbc and read this

what a coincidence...
back on topic, i like the 2 year special renewal rate gene. this is my last issue, so i will be taking care of that tomorrow!