Sept/Oct 2009 Issue

[taai gihk yahn]

cheez...peanut butter...I'm sensing a food-themed issue in the works?

[Skip J.]

I'm not a redhead nor do I work for the postal service. And I'm not into baseball, much less the Cubs.

I'm ok with peanut butter, but that's another matter entirely.

Mercy.... I just drop out to do a bit of for-real paid for work and you guys take a thread and run with it..... and I was gonna post about another this issue article too.....

I read your post about article submissions Gene.... are you sure you'll consider an article about beginners??? I have a somewhat contrarian viewpoint about how soon the better beginners can incorporate wuji into the start of every movement. All these pros are gonna take care of the advanced articles for ya anyway........

Now that part about the 8 photos mite be a deal killer tho... I can shoot the SLR outside, but I never learned to use the flash.... my point'n shoot is just almost worthless for people shots....

[GeneChing]

Save us from this horrid OT threadjack.

I'll consider an article on just about anything, as long as there's a decent tie to Chinese martial arts (and as we know by my last ezine submission, a dubious tie is made better by a sexy topic.) My only stipulation is that if it's too rudimentary, we won't run it. I always say, you have to write an article that has something for the grandmaster and something for Bubba, the noob who just started martial arts. That's the challenge of it.

As for photos, if you have an SLR, it shouldn't be a problem. You can certainly shoot outside, just avoid noisy, distracting backgrounds. Also, if you can't use a flash, it's best to shoot on overcast days. That will give you the most even lighting. Back when I was freelance, I shot plenty of articles in the alley behind our Kung Fu School. There was a plain cement wall that worked as a perfect neutral backdrop.

[Scott R. Brown]

well, I don't know if anything can top the incident at the Hague w/the albatross and the can of Cheez Whiz...

Well...I prefer the updated version of "Good-bye Norma Jean" you sang at Princess Diana's funeral.....THAT was very moving....sniff...sniff...

it is an annoying by-product of being Lord of the Living Undead...

If you could only keep your hands off your scepter when sitting on the throne the dead wouldn't keep rising!

zzzzzzzz....WHA?!? WHERE?!? WHO?!? oh, sorry, dozed off - you were saying?

What? I wasn't saying anything!

taking a page from "Scot_'s Book" (you know, the one that Joyce gave up reading because it was "just too damned long and convoluted!"), even having no fixed perspective is, in and of itself a fixed perspective if one is attached to the concept of not having a fixed perspective as opposed to simply having a fixed perspective or not having a fixed depending on what one perceives in the moment as long as one is not attached to one's perspective of perceiving the moment but rather just allowing the moment to occur as one perceives it unless one is attached to the concept of just allowing the moment to occur while it is being perceived as long as...[rinse, repeat]

Hey...you took a page from the toilet paper there friend....not MY book......you're still sitting on your throne! Slap Slap Wake Up...you fell asleep again!!

And Joyce was a piker!!!

Here's the insouciant verbiage...(Are those really words? Or did I just imagine them?)

The "perspective of no fixed perspective" belongs ONLY to the one who is bound by perspective!

One is only able to perceive perspective when one is bound by perspective. If one has no fixed perspective there is no perspective to perceive and no perspective exists.

Therefore....the "one without a fixed perspective" only has a perspective from the perspective of the "one who has a perspective", to the "one without a fixed perspective" no perspective exists....and THAT"S the pickled pepper Peter Piper picked!

you, know everything I do is because I want you to be happy, snooky...

And I do appreciate it...however.....If you get to be The Lord of the Living Undead in this incarnation, then you must refer to me as The King of Jesters and Jester of Kings!

"snooky" was our last incarnation.....geez still stuck in THAT fixed perspective are you? You don't see me going around referring to you as "pooky" anymore do you?

well, if we accept a priori that all conversations past, present and future are de facto about you, then can it truly ever be said that we could have one without you being notified? stick that in the box w/your cat, Schrödinger...

I have noticed that everywhere I go, the world revolves around me, Me, ME!!!

As well it should!! So clearly I understand that EVERYONE is talking about ME at all times...but what I mean specifically is, "Please tell me where you are hiding the box so I can find it!"

And if you tell me the whole world is the box and I'm the cat...I'll make you clean my litter box!

[Skip J.]

Save us from this horrid OT threadjack.

I'll consider an article on just about anything, as long as there's a decent tie to Chinese martial arts (and as we know by my last ezine submission, a dubious tie is made better by a sexy topic.) My only stipulation is that if it's too rudimentary, we won't run it. I always say, you have to write an article that has something for the grandmaster and something for Bubba, the noob who just started martial arts. That's the challenge of it.

As for photos, if you have an SLR, it shouldn't be a problem. You can certainly shoot outside, just avoid noisy, distracting backgrounds. Also, if you can't use a flash, it's best to shoot on overcast days. That will give you the most even lighting. Back when I was freelance, I shot plenty of articles in the alley behind our Kung Fu School. There was a plain cement wall that worked as a perfect neutral backdrop.

Regarding threadjacks and this issue:

With other partners in crime, I have been involved in a few thread hijacks before on other forums, but not CMA forums. So you still may have to call me down from time to time anyway....

But I'll get a comment going on this issue shortly...

Regarding articles:

I've got a little over 4 years as a student and 2 years as a beginner instructor of the 24 form; so there is very little I could say of the advanced levels myself.

What I was thinking to solve both this and the photo issues - was to take my little e-camera next time I went to out state park walking with my wife and shoot it on hi-res mode. The SLR is just too big to move as fast as we do up'n down the trail.

Then write an article for us old taiji folks about training walking in state parks to dovetail with your mountain running article for kung fu training. Us old folks aren't gonna be running on flat ground, much less up'n down mountains. I loved reading uki's post on running thru boulders with swords; but my younger days are not coming back...

Now finding a background that is not distracting in the woods is gonna be a problem...

[uki]

I loved reading uki's post on running thru boulders with swords; but my younger days are not coming back.

you can always walk across the boulders with a sword... they say the best way to practice is to train what you will still be able to train when you reach an advanced number of years - in this manner you will have wasted no years training something while you are young that you won't be able to do when you are old.

[GeneChing]

...this puts us back OT how exactly?

This issue is still on the newsstands for another month. Pick it up and let us know what you think here!

[Skip J.]

...this puts us back OT how exactly?

This issue is still on the newsstands for another month. Pick it up and let us know what you think here!

My favorite article is Brian Kennedy's Bagua Wrestling. Nothing is left to the imagination in his description of the martial apps of Cheng Tinghua Bagua. I have no problem in understanding the differences between taiji internal art, and the internal art of bagua. I also loved Brian Kennedy's book on CMA Training Manuals. I can recommend it to anyone interested in the history of CMA.

Speaking of which, there is an inset in this issue's article that gives a historical view of Wang Shujin's Bagua; very cool!!!!

[Lucas]

Just got my Sept./Oct. and July/Aug. bonus issue along with a Iron Skills Demo DVD last night. Customer service above and beyond.

I didnt have a free moment yet to really read the articles, but I just wanted to say thanks a bunch to Chris and Gene for getting me straightened out.

I'll return with some thoughts a bit later.

THANKS AGAIN!

[Skip J.]

you can always walk across the boulders with a sword... they say the best way to practice is to train what you will still be able to train when you reach an advanced number of years - in this manner you will have wasted no years training something while you are young that you won't be able to do when you are old.

Ummm, well, lots of swords around here... but no boulders...

The ice age never came to Texas... no glaciers, no boulders..

Lots of very sharp rocks up in the hill country tho.... and rattlesnakes...

On the other hand, starting training young of what you intend to train when older is an excellent idea! Wish I had thought of it when I was younger... The ironic part is, at 56 I started at a much younger age than 80% of the taiji beginners here in town. Most are in their '60's or '70's before they ever start.

[Lucas]

Great issue.

I really enjoyed the article on explosive taiji. Its a good reminder that in any martial art, one of the goals is to be able to use the full potential of the human body to achieve success.

The shuai jiao kwan dao is pretty darn impressive. I remember reading one time, some place, that General Kwan's sword was rumored to weigh 100 pounds or so. I wonder what the standard weight of a battle kwan dao was, and what the connection is to being cross trained as a throwing tool. Either way its an interesting connection between a battle field weapon and wrestling.

Reading Dr. Craig Reid's article entitled Death By Yin-Yang gave me a huge laugh when I read 'judgement failure'. RIP

Good opening commentary there Gene.

[GeneChing]

I'm glad your subscription got sorted.

I love those heavy Kwan Daos too. The heaviest Kwan Dao MartialArtsMart.com carries is 13 lbs and it's an anchor to wield. I've dabbled with the super heavy weight ones - the used to have them in Shaolin village before it was relocated - only the really traditional forms will support those kinds of weapons. In our 2001 March/April issue, I wrote The General's Blade: Kungfu's Mightiest Weapon, The Kwan Dao. Here's an excerpt: "The original Kwan Dao was called Frozen Glory, a Green Dragon Crescent-Moon Dao, weighing in at 82 jin (a little over a hundred pounds)." Of course, keep in mind that the source was Romance of the Three Kingdoms , which is historical fiction (emphasis on the fiction) and in that General Kwan stood about seven and a half feet tall.

[Lucas]

during that time period werent the measurements different? Im not an expert, nor even close, i do remember from reading confucius that the hight measurements of people, at least during that time period, were quite different.

i remember my sifu once saying that one of the reasons behind the red face thing was taht his kwan dao weighed so much, that after weilding it for any amount of time, his face would be red from the exertion. that one makes a lot of sense to me.

[GeneChing]

General Kwan was also supposed to have silkworms for eyebrows. Explain that.

It's always prudent not to take legend to literally. Listen to the tale, extract the metaphoric implication, and don't fixate on the incredible.

[Lucas]

hey thats an easy one. the reason he had silkworms for eyebrows was because he needed an easy way to redress himself after thrashing wildly in combat slaying hundreds of soldiers by himself, so skilled was he that the closest anyones blade or arrow ever got to him was simply superficial and would only make it so far as to cut his clothing. the silkworms would allow him to quickly re produce his own clothing before he left the battlefield. because they were magical silkworms, they spun already woven silk.

duh gene.