Bruce Lee Memorials

[Jimbo]

BL was certainly instrumental in a lot of things. I would NOT say that he is the "creator of mixed martial arts." That's been going on throughout MA history. If you want to pick who began mixed martial arts in the modern era as we now know it in the West, I would probably choose Mitsuyo (Mitsuo?) Maeda.

[SPJ]

for me

looking at his child films is priceless already.

or

a picture taken with his statue near harbor

--

[GeneChing]

I'm totally behind this stamp. How couldn't you be?

Bruce Lee's family wages battle to get king of kung fu on US postage stamp
By: Andrea Koskey | Examiner Staff Writer | 08/06/11 4:00 AM

Bruce Lee has one more fight to win.

The kung fu king from the mid-20th century died nearly 40 years ago, but now his daughter is trying to have the San Francisco native commemorated on a U.S. postage stamp.

In a YouTube video posted on the official website dedicated to Bruce Lee and his life, Shannon Lee says his determination and innovation and the contributions he made as a prominent Chinese-American are some of the many reasons he deserves to grace a stamp.

“I’m trying to keep his legacy going, philosophy alive and message going,” she said.

Shannon Lee is hoping her father’s stamp can come to fruition in 2012, the year of the dragon on the lunar calendar. Lee’s Chinese screen name was Li Xiaolong, and the latter word means “little dragon.”

But Lee faces some steep competition in the Citizen’s Stamp Advisory Committee for the U.S. Postal Service.

More than 50,000 applicants try to get historic figures and favorite American subjects on a stamp each year, according to Postal Service spokesman Mark Saunders. Lee’s application will be placed on the committee’s agenda to be considered, but no decision has been made.

The job of the 10-member committee is to look at these applicants to find possible stamps of broad national significance that are both educational and interesting. The committee includes a former postmaster, a graphic designer, an author and even an Olympic gold medalist.

Stamp ideas must meet 14 criteria. The person being commemorated must have overcome adversity, have widespread national appeal, and been dead for at least five years, among other things. The top 25 names suggested each year are recommended to the postmaster general for final approval.

If approved, commemorative stamps are issued as first-class stamps and printed once for consumer purchase. They are not be reprinted.

As many as 200 million stamps are printed per topic. Elvis Presley’s stamp, first issued in the 1990s, is still the best-selling stamp of all time, according to Saunders.

Lee, born Nov. 27, 1940 in San Francisco, began studying Kung Fu at the age of 13 while living in Hong Kong. He starred in a number of famous action films including “Fists of Fury,” “The Chinese Connection” and the “Return of the Dragon.”

Lee also opened martial arts schools in Oakland in the 1960s. He died in July 1973, months after the completion of “Enter the Dragon,” his final film.

For kung fu master Michael Lau, commemorating Lee on a national stamp is a noteworthy cause because Lee never gave up, he said.

“He’s a hero,” Lau said. “He’s a great influence for a lot of people.”

[GeneChing]

When I was traveling in Mexico in '82, everyone kept saying 'Brosa Lee' at me. Sort of reminds me of this blog.

August Issue: Randall Park Chases The Dragon
Author: Randall Park
Posted: August 9th, 2011
They Call Me Bruce
by Randall Park

EVERY NOW AND THEN, I get recognized on the street.

Here’s an example of a recent encounter:

Stranger: Excuse me, but are you on Hawaii Five-O?
Me: No, I’m not Daniel Dae Kim.
Stranger: No, the other one.
Me: No, ma’am, I am not Grace Park.

As Asian Americans, many of us can identify with being mistaken for other Asians. The whole “all Asians look alike” stereotype is one I believe many Americans secretly hold on to. Does it bother me? Not really. Let me tell you why …

Many years ago, a tattered, dreadlocked man approached me as I was walking out of a Hollywood bar with friends late one night.

Stranger: Man, I just had to tell you. You look like Bruce Lee!

While it’s true that I exude a certain charm and charisma and can kill a man with my bare hands, I don’t claim to look anything like Bruce Lee. I took offense. How unoriginal can you get? Bruce Lee? I grew up with that taunt. Update your racism, vagrant! Tipsy from a night of drinking, I decided to mess with the guy.

Me: Yeah, I look like him because I’m related to him. In fact, I’m Bruce Lee’s son. And he taught me everything he knows.

As I improvised some karate moves, my friends struggled to suppress their laughter. But the man stood there. Frozen. Eyes glazed over. He could barely speak.

Stranger: Are you serious? You’re his son? Oh, my God. You gotta come with me. Please.

The stranger ushered me down the block. Though weirded out, I felt compelled to follow him. My antics had somehow touched a nerve. I told my friends to wait for me and followed the man into an alley. There, under a dim lamp, was a run-down station wagon. I started to second-guess my decision to follow him.

Me: You know what, I should really get back to my friends—

The man started yelling.

Stranger: Hey! It’s Bruce Lee’s son! Bruce Lee’s son!

Suddenly, three tiny sleepy-eyed faces popped up from the backseat. They looked just like him. They were his children. And they all lived in this car.

Stranger: My kids are the biggest Bruce Lee fans in the world! It means so much to me for them to meet you.

The kids were beaming. Like their dad, they were star-struck. They started asking me questions about my “father” and his movies. One even asked about my “brother” Brandon. They were clearly fans. I felt like an *******.

But I couldn’t turn back. I told them what little I actually knew of the man. I started to backtrack, explaining that I wasn’t really that close to him because he was always “so busy.” I didn’t even go to his funeral. Brandon was only a half-brother. I was an illegitimate child from another relationship. Lies, lies, lies …

The whole time I was thinking that if anybody had a great father, it was these kids. He probably knew I was a phony but didn’t care. He just wanted to make his kids happy. He wanted to inspire them, if only for a moment.

There was a time when being mistaken for another Asian person might have offended me. But the intentions are not always rooted in racism. Sometimes, people just want to make a connection. And come to think of it, being mistaken for Bruce Lee, Daniel Dae Kim or Grace Park isn’t so bad. They’re all extremely talented and super good-looking.

On the other hand, if you mistake me for, say, William Hung, then you’re a racist. And I may have to kill you with my bare hands.

[GeneChing]

This is now a Tiger Claw Foundation project.

You can help by filling out the online support form at http://www.brucelee.com/site/stamp or downloading a letter there and mailing it. Do it now. In order for Bruce Lee to become a postage stamp candidate for 2012, support must be garnered as soon as possible.

In cooperation with BruceLee.com, KungFuMagazine.com and TigerClaw.com.

[enoajnin]

I saw an ad for this and thought it was the premiere. I read through this thread and found, as usual, I am way behind. But I'm the first to post a review.

This episode was about his affect on movies and entertainment. They talked a little bit about his background as a child actor in HK. It was funny because they showed the dubbed versions of those shows. This was probably the most interesting thing in the whole show. It lasted maybe forty seconds.

They briefly mentioned 'The Green Hornet' series and the cameo he did on 'Batman' They didn't mention his plans for 'Kung Fu' the series.

They cut the clips of all his movies together at a furious pace and intercut it with interviews of Action Sports stars and Hollywood stars. I couldn't catch all the Action stars names but they did have Ryan Phillipe, Michael Strathern (Giants Football), Matt Damon. They also had some of Bruce Lee's friends speak on camera.

They also had the action sport stars show clips of them doing their sports and then had them talk about how they emulate Bruce Lee in their respective sports.

I guess they want to get the kids involved by showing guys on motorcycles and skateboards and BMX bikes. It seems to me that if you want to get people interested in Bruce Lee you could just show them Bruce Lee.

There was too much information to be shared in a half hour. They spent about thirty seconds on Bruce Lee's one-inch punch with somebody else doing the punch. The clips from his films all went by way too fast. There was too much talking heads and not enough Bruce Lee. With all that said, they showed some of the same Bruce clips two times.

I don't know what the other episodes show, but all this did was make me want to go re-watch all of Bruce Lee's films. I might catch other episodes of the show just to see if it's more of the same or they actually have something to say.

[GeneChing]

I really wish I could see what this is all about. Sounds fun.

Bruce-O-Rama | Claire Hodge | 1 September – 1 October 2011
Launch: 1st September 7pm | artist talk: 7.30 pm

Bruce-O-Rama is an audiovisual interactive installation that invites the participant to engage with appropriated Bruce Lee fight footage. When you walk in the gallery space, you will initially be confronted with a darkened room, much like that of the cinema before the film begins. As you move in the gallery space, you will trigger floor pressure sensors
that will reveal looped sections of Bruce Lee films. The projection is divided in six equal parts, each assigned a spatially corresponding floor sensor. Triggering the various floor sensors will provide a rhythmic composition of sorts. When more than one person interacts with the installation, the musical and visual composition becomes more layered and complex.

Bruce-O-Rama
Get interactive with Bruce Lee in this aceartinc. exhibit
Ryan Harby
7:31 pm

You’ve seen the iconic yellow jumpsuit that Bruce Lee made famous in the ’70s, you’ve heard the familiar scream Bruce Lee unleashes just before dispatching a foe. But have you ever felt what it was like to conduct a Bruce Lee fight as if you were some sort of dance pad combat maestro?

Bruce-O-Rama, as the aceartinc. gallery describes it, is an audiovisual interactive installation that invites the participant to engage with appropriated Bruce Lee fight footage.

Imagine, then, entering a dark hall at the end of which you see a series of sensored pads on the floor. The pads are only slightly elevated above the floor; when you step on them each one individually triggers a different clip from one common Bruce Lee fight sequence. The clips are all projected on a giant screen in front of you, as if you’re playing a giant video game that allows you to remix fights from kung fu films. Myself, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the scene from the movie Big with the giant floor piano.

The more you play around with your own sequence of footsteps on the pads the more varied both the projections and their corresponding sound clips become. And as engaging as the experience as a whole can be, it is the sound of it all in particular that Bruce-O-Rama artist Claire Hodge is most interested in.

A flamenco musician herself, Hodge finds there is a certain musical quality to the fluidity and the kinetic dance of the kung fu genre of film.

“The sound score of fight scenes tend to reflect the frenetic visuals — rapid movement of the actors, quick cuts, changing angles — and become quite percussive as a result,” says Hodge. “The sounds are typically loud and short lasting — short attack, short release — akin to the sounds of a percussion instrument. As a result, they lend themselves well to reinterpretations that use alternative rhythmic structures such as flamenco music.”

For a slightly more streamlined, less interactive experience, the Bruce-O-Rama installation also offers Flamenco Bruce, a sharp re-cutting of several Bruce Lee fight clips edited in such a way that the sound effects of the combat, in quick succession, mimic the sounds of a flamenco dance.

When it came down to actually pulling from her resources, Hodge says she took in any and all Bruce Lee films she could get her hands on.

“If you look closely at Flamenco Bruce, you should see at least five different sources. As for the interactive piece, my choices were mostly limited in that I had to find Bruce Lee films that had fight scenes that could be re-spatialized to create a wider cinematic space. Trust me, no easy task. So I was initially looking more at the visual aspect.”

And although the odd comparison will be made here and there, Hodge laughs at the notion that her foot sensor design was at all inspired by the popular Dance Dance Revolution video game series.

“Funny enough, I did not know about [that game] when I first came up with the idea of the floor sensors,” says Hodge.

“I initially had thought of using a punching bag as an interactive structure, where people would hit the bag and trigger video events. I was clear from the start that I wanted the interactive framework to promote physical engagement. However, I later also became interested in the idea of filmic and spectatorial/mental space and wanted to create an interactive system that made people aware of the space, the positioning of their bodies in the space, etc.. I think that's where the floor sensors basically came in.”

The Bruce-O-Rama exhibit launched Sept. 1 and will run until Oct. 1 at the aceartinc. gallery, second floor, 290 McDermot Avenue.

[GeneChing]

Bruce Lee gallery to be set up in Hong Kong
Posted: 12 October 2011 1559 hrs


File photo shows a man viewing an exhibition of the late kung fu legend and film star Bruce Lee. (AFP photo/file/Mike Clarke)

HONG KONG: A gallery in honour of Bruce Lee, who helped make martial arts mainstream with kung fu classics like "Fists of Fury" will be built in Hong Kong.

Chief Executive Donald Tsang announced in his annual policy address Wednesday that the government would set up a gallery in honour of the artist at the government-run Hong Kong Heritage Museum.

The legendary martial arts exponent and actor died in 1973 at the height of his career and his many fans have long demanded a tribute to the star.

The only memorial to the actor is in the town he was born in -- San Francisco -- and not Hong Kong where he grew up and brought martial arts film into the mainstream with his innovative martial arts choreography.

The actor who played Kato in the original Green Hornet TV series, fueled the Hong Kong film industry with his movies and is credited as an influence other actors such as Jacky Chan.

Fans were disappointed in June when the government said a plan to build a Bruce Lee museum in his old house was cancelled after negotiations with the property's current owner broke down.

No details were given by the Hong Kong government on the museum plans, which fans welcomed as better than nothing.

"Of course we're still hoping the government could find ways to turn his old home into a museum," Wong Yiu-keung, chairman of the Bruce Lee Fan Club in Hong Kong, told AFP.

Long after Lee's death, his old home was turned into a hotel with rooms rented by the hour at very cheap rates.

A Hong Kong auction in August sold 13 Lee items for a total US$227,000 smashing pre-sale estimates.

Wait, S.F. has the only memorial? Which memorial is that exactly?

[GeneChing]

I was also contacted about a meeting in Oakland about setting a plaque at the site of Bruce's first school. I think that meeting was last Monday, but unfortunately I was already booked.

Bruce Lee Action Museum gets a 'kick' start
Lee considered Seattle is hometown
Web Reporter Q13 FOX News Online
10:38 a.m. PDT, October 20, 2011
SEATTLE—

Martial arts legend Bruce Lee and his son Brandon are both buried in Seattle. Now a new push to honor their memories with a museum is gaining steam.

Bruce Lee went to school in Seattle, opened a martial arts school in Seattle, and considered Seattle to be his hometown. City councilman Bruce Harrell is holding a fundraiser with Bruce Lee's daughter Shannon this Friday as part of a capital campaign to raise $10 million dollars.

Harrell is also working with the city`s Office of Economic Development and its office of Arts & Cultural Affairs to try and make the project a reality.

The Bruce Lee Action Museum would include a place where people could do martial arts, as well as a theater, gift store and research library.

Bruce Lee moved to Seattle in the early 1960s where a family friend, Ruby Chow, had a restaurant and had promised Bruce a job and living quarters above the restaurant. He enrolled at Edison Technical School and later the University of Washington where he majored in philosophy and met his future wife.

The fundraiser is this Friday at the Imperial Garden restaurant.

[GeneChing]

Orange Caramel Comeback as Cute Bruce Lee
by: sOo JjI on Oct 16, 2011



Group Orange Caramel made their comeback performance October 16 on SBS "Inkigayo" with their new song "Shanghai Romance."

In the past, through songs such as "Magic Girl" and "A-ing," Orange Caramel has gained popularity through their unique concepts. After their most recent release "Bangkok City," they have changed their geographic location to Shanghai. This song has gained attention before its release due to the fact that Super Junior's Kim Hee Chul, who has recently started his military service, wrote this song.

All three members now sport brown hair styled and styled as bobs to fit the concept. With Chinese martial arts style "kung fu dance" and modernized versions of the Chinese traditional qi pao, Orange Caramel has already begun to make waves in gaining popularity and attention with their international feel.

On the day of their comeback Orange Caramel wore Bruce Lee imitation bright yellow training suits transformed into mini dresses, exuding their nonstop cuteness.

On this episode of "Inkigayo" Wheesung, FT Island and Orange Caramel all made comebacks while Super Junior held their goodbye stage. Groups such as Brown Eyed Girls, Infinite and Davichi were also present.

Orange Caramel - Shanghai Romance (Oct 16, 2011) watch at your own risk.

[Ray Pina]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SncapPrTusA

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[sanjuro_ronin]

Bah, that's nothing, you should see what I can do with a tube of toothpaste, stick of butter and 3 toothpicks.

[AJM]

That was fun. Who was that?

[GeneChing]

Bruce Lee museum in Seattle gets consideration

Amid the wonky hashing of budgetary items in the Seattle City Council this week was a little glimmer of fun: a proposal to consider a Bruce Lee museum in Seattle.

Actually, it was a proposal (pdf) for a study on the feasibility of such a museum using city resources. But for martial arts fans, that’s progress, considering the idea has been in the works for years.

A 1970s icon, Lee lived in Seattle from 1959 to 1964, and is buried in Lake View Cemetery in Capitol Hill. He died in his prime in 1973, days after his movie “Enter the Dragon” was released.

His surviving family members have been developing a museum in his name through the California-based Bruce Lee Foundation. In June, the family ditched the idea of locating the museum in Hong Kong, where Lee had lived, and expressed interest in opening it in Seattle – preferably in Chinatown or the International District, the city said.

“It’s amazing how popular Bruce Lee is when you go to other countries,” Council president Richard Conlin said in a budget discussion Tuesday. “This is an astonishing opportunity for a great tourist attraction.”

The proposed study would be due next year. It would look at site availability and funding strategies. Says the proposal:

Council sees this as a unique opportunity for the City, one that could provide both a new cultural facility showcasing a figure in Seattle’s recent history, as well as a means for providing economic development opportunities for the Chinatown-International District.

If it happens, can they get Orange Caramel to play for the opening?

[banditshaw]

Great gift for the Holidays!!