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December 20th, 2006
02:29 pm - Where I've been...
OK, I guess that question bears asking and answering, so ...
- I'm working on three feature-length films. One of them is out-of-state. One is a script, written by my own hand. The other is, thankfully for variety's sake, neither.
- I have a kung fu workout group (not a school) and fight team, Rising Dragon. Soon, very soon, I need to make time to earn my wings as a senior instructor. This will require more time away, to familiarize myself with certain higher-ups and traditions in the kung fu family. I'm sure many hours of "flying horses" are in my future, too. WHEEEE!!!
- My fellow instructors in Rising Dragon and I have been honing our skills and training the other team members. (I'll get my 180-degree splits back yet!)
- I still have a full-time job.
- My social life is, well ... Who needs to be social, anyway?
- There are a few more people on my "To be Force lightninged" list.
- To quote Ford Prefect, from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, "Time is an illusion. Lunchtime, doubly so."
- I miss you all ... and will likely do so for quite some time, if you aren't someone I regularly see on my daily adventures.
Current Location: The waterfall at Mt. Lushan
Current Mood:  indescribable
Current Music: "Ceremony" Joy Division
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December 19th, 2006
03:16 pm - Revisiting ...
Funny how reading the things you wrote months ago can show you why you're the way you are ... and how much you still have to learn. Intriguing ...
Current Mood:  mellow
Current Music: "ELM" from "Cowboy Bebop" OST 1
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July 12th, 2006
05:17 pm - Grand opening party in the works...
As some of you are aware, I'm going to be opening a Kung Fu training center soon. To celebrate, I'll be hosting a grand opening party on the evening of Friday August 11th, in Detroit. There will will be video screenings, live demos, weapons demos and other martial merriment yet in the planning stages. Please contact me at fightguycal@yahoo.com for more info and developments. You can also check out my MySpace page at www.myspace.com/umbrioch for updated info, as it becomes available.
May the Fu be with you.
Current Location: The Waterfall at Mt. Lushan
Current Mood:  accomplished
Current Music: "Love Like Blood" Killing Joke
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June 12th, 2006
11:53 pm - The Chi Sao of life
Chi Sao is a Wing Chun sensitivity exercise, wherein two people "roll their arms together" (for lack of a better description) and use their Kung Fu to feel out weaknesses in one another's structure (horse stance, wrist and elbow placement, relaxation ... overall Kung Fu). Once someone feels the opening to strike, one participant attacks, the other defends. Not all attacks are successful, not all defenses are successful. However, if an attack or defense is successful, it tends to be overwhelmingly, unquestionably so. The attack will be such that it moves the defender's horse stance (even to the point of launching them across the room) or the defense will be such that no ground can be taken from the defender and now it will be his turn to be the aggressor. It's all about having the sensitivity of knowing how to "feel the right time and place to strike".
Events have fallen into place now where it's come time for me to play Chi Sao with my life and affairs. I didn't expect it to happen ... now. But then again, I'm not surprised by the sudden opportunities which have presented themselves, either. My Kung Fu pulled them into me. Now, to make sure that I know my Fu well enough to know what it can and can't handle, for the here and now.
And as I hit the waterfall today, it didn't reverse its course, but I swear, for just a second, it stopped ...
The adventure continues...
Current Location: The Waterfall, Mt. Lushan
Current Mood:  contemplative
Current Music: "So Faraway" Do As Infinity, from Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust
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09:13 am - The week in review...
"Closing my eyes, recalling quite clearly,
Has this been a dream?
Calling out to the driving breeze,
Kissing empty air...
Statements today, statements tomorrow,
messages made and sent.
Statements today, statements tomorrow,
Gestures made and meant."
---Eden
What a week! I’ve been really busy. Projects at work are picking up (looks like I’ll be there quite a while, contrary to initial projections), rehearsals for SLRF are in full swing, the premiere of episode two of InZer0 and High Tech Soul, an indie film about the birth of techno music in Detroit, rocked. In addition, my Sigung breezed into town with good news about EZM Productions, my Kung Fu grew (I actually have decent Chi Sao now) and my two rookie fighters filmed their fight … AND F’N ROCKED! (Nothing like a “hot chick Kung Fu fight” to get the blood pumpin’!)
My plans are in motion. All I need do now is stay on top of things and keep my momentum going. Part of that includes making it to the ICC Kung Fu workout in August. I plan to spend a week or two, in the company of Sifus and senior students, who can clean my clock without trying. By the end of that, my Fu will have transformed yet again. So, it’s gonna be a slammed summer. Stay outta my way, or I’ll call my girls and have them rough ya up!
Current Location: The Waterfall, Mt. Lushan
Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: "Fallen Flowers" Eden
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May 24th, 2006
10:50 am - Snoozin' at the waterfall ...
“Don’t ask. Don’t expect. Don’t desire. Empty your cup. Wait”
--- sage advice for studying Kung Fu
The Fu is strong with me, but I need a short reprieve. Not a break --- that’s different --- just a reprieve. I need a few days or maybe a week of just playing forms, without “touching hands” to assimilate all the new knowledge I picked up from the seminar. Breaks are very important in a Kung Fu practitioner’s development. Sometimes one needs to handle life issues, other times one just needs to refresh and adjust to new knowledge. Development through Kung Fu is not without a bit of pain and confusion, in equal doses. A good break should be every bit as productive as a hardcore workout and when the practitioner returns from it, it’s not uncommon for their Kung Fu to be the better for it. Actually, it should be better, barring injury or an extended absence from training. A well-planned training regiment actually has breaks scheduled into it. But, even without a “plan” they tend to happen when they need to.
My Sifu and Sigung gave us all a lot to think about and work on this past weekend. I not only got new ideas about old knowledge this weekend, but I also picked up some new physicality and a new form. The form came at a time when I was capable of handling it, just not when I was “conveniently ready”. But, as the saying goes, “If you want to get something done, assign it to a busy person.” And I was quite busy, sifting through the wreckage of my old Kung Fu and picking out the few things that were worth holding onto, when my Sigung split up the class. The grandstudents were to work on Bil Gee (Wing Chun’s third form), whilst the great grandstudents worked on Chi Sao exercises. Newsflash: I’m a grandstudent, but I don’t know Bil Gee! There was talk of having me learn it last year. I so would not have been ready for it last year. This weekend wasn’t looking ideal either, but apparently my Kung Fu was telling a different story. Then, one of my Sihing, whom I shall not name (insert mock dirty look here) said, “You mean Cal doesn’t know Bil Gee?” thus sealing my fate. So, I’m learning Bil Gee (a.k.a.-“thrusting fingers”), which is not only stranger than the first two forms, but comes with new responsibilities. No complaints here. However, I do need to just sit for a moment and contemplate the waterfall. I’m convinced that it’s maintained by the constant “emptying of my cup”, but the view is pretty damn spectacular.
Current Location: The Waterfall, Mt. Lushan
Current Mood: satisfied
Current Music: "Silent Survivor" Fist of the Northstar 2 OST
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May 22nd, 2006
01:03 pm - A VERY grand opening ...
So, the grand opening seminar for the Detroit Moy Tung Wing Chun School has officially come and gone. Both my Sifu (teacher) and Sigung (grandmaster) were in attendance. Not a common occurrence. The school was packed with fellow students from all over the country working out together … clobbering each other, in celebration of the birth of yet another strong child in the Wing Chun family. The Detroit school is a fairly unique child too. In my limited experience (6 years), I’ve noticed that Wing Chun folk tend to look kind of unassuming … for the most part. You’d never think to view them as much more than average joes.
- They are not particularly large or impressively built, for the most part.
- They don’t have that “killer look” about them. Hell, they don’t even have “the walk”, in most cases! (Other martial artists will know what I mean by that.)
- They hide their Kung Fu very well. On this note, Detroit Wing Chun students DO hide their Kung Fu, rest assured, however …
- Many of us look and dress like assassins. There’s just no other way to put it.
- We seem to have an “intensity” about us (which probably has less to do with our Kung Fu and more to do with where we live).
OK, so I promised I’d explain the whole Rozan Waterfall thing last time: It’s a reference to an anime called Saint Seiya. One of its heroes, St. Dragon Shiryu (also one of my userpics), trains at Mount Lushan (phoneticized by the Japanese as “Rozan”, due to their alphabet) in China. To complete his training, Shiryu must master Lushan’s Rising Dragon Wave (Rozan Shou Ryuu Ha) and reverse the flow of a waterfall … by punching or kicking it! It’s a long and arduous undertaking, to say the least. After 7 years of ---literally--- superhuman martial arts training, it takes him a year of non-stop effort (we are given the impression that he doesn’t rest, once he confronts the task), before he kicks the cascade and causes it to rise … in the shape of a huge Chinese dragon. A chimaeric analogy, to be certain, but it IS symbolic of the hurdles one faces as a Kung Fu student. Sometimes, especially as a novice, one is told do something that seems every bit as implausible as striking a waterfall and reversing its flow. One may think, “That’s impossible!” until shown that it CAN be done, with lots of practice and hard work. So, it’s no coincidence that the term “Kung Fu” is perhaps best translated from Chinese to English as “hard work”. Hence, my opinion that most everything in life is Kung Fu.
Oh yeah, Sigung gave me more Kung Fu yesterday. It’s Fu that I’ve wanted since last year (when my Kung Fu wasn’t one-tenth what it is now), but when the time came to accept it, I was ... apprehensive. Ah well, time to go hit this damn waterfall again …
Current Location: That Waterfall at Mt. Lushan (Rozan)
Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: "There Is A Dream In My Heart" Michelle Yeoh
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May 19th, 2006
04:27 pm - Stupid waterfall
OK, so I mildly strained a glute muscle. Yes, “glute” as in gluteus maximus. If you've never experienced this particular brand of agony ... don't go looking for it. It is the suck. It happened on Wednesday … not quite sure how. More than likely, it was a combination of things (I gotta learn a better stretch for doing scorpion kicks!) So, I had all kinds of flashbacks to when a similar plight befell me years ago. To spare you the gory details, I was out of action for about 3 weeks. “Out of action” meaning “no kicking above the knee and anything requiring the hips was pretty much FUBAR’d”.
Well, this happened on Wednesday and didn’t really hit til sometime late Thursday morning. By “hit” I mean “felt like Godzilla was stomping on it”. (Talk about a pain in the ass!) And of course, the grand opening seminar for the Moy Tung Wing Chun school is this weekend. AAAAAIIIIIGGGHH!!!
Well, the Fu is strong with me. After 24 hours of resting, minor stretching, spinal adjustment, massage, ice, Motrin and some Siu Lim Tau, I can stand up straight and do forms again, as if nothing had happened. Mind you, these were all things I did last time and I was still out of the game for 3 weeks. But, my Kung Fu wasn’t nearly what it is now at that time. And while I’ve never led a sedentary life, this is definitely a good reason to never start.
Time to go play more (relaxed and really careful) Siu Lim Tau. That stupid waterfall is NOT going to win. I'll explain the waterfall reference next update...
Current Location: The Rozan Waterfall
Current Mood:  relieved
Current Music: "Once Upon A Time" Simple Minds
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May 9th, 2006
02:08 pm - Whoa, horsey!
This new horse stance is great! It actually MAKES me breathe the way I'm supposed to when doing my forms, it's more stable and it's easier on my joints.
Mind you, for right now, while I'm getting accustomed to it, it makes doing Siu Lim Tau REALLY F'N HARD!
I may have to cut my number of forms for a week or two, to acclimate.
Stupid bloody horse.
Oh well.
Strong shall my Kung Fu become.
Next time I strike this stupid waterfall, its flow will reverse and I'll earn my Saint's Cloth. ROZAN SHOU RYUU HA!!!
Til then, I have to play better, as opposed to more, Siu Lim Tau.
Current Location: The Rozan Waterfall
Current Mood:  enthralled
Current Music: "The Adventure" Angels and Airwaves
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May 8th, 2006
01:18 pm - Everything old is new again...
Argh.
Four years ago, I had my horse stance “broken”. (Translation: critiqued, taken apart and corrected to the point of being re-made) Saturday, it happened again. Now, more things make sense about the way my Kung Fu is SUPPOSED to work. And now, my legs hurt a little more than normal. The Horse is strong with me.
Speaking of my Kung Fu experiences, I’ve decided to write a book, based on them. But not just MY exploits: as many people as I can talk to in the Moy Yat/Moy Tung family. So, if you’re one of my Sihing, Sidai or whatever. Let me know about some of your Kung Fu tales or just things that you’ve noticed about you, since you started studying Wing Chun. Maybe this book will become a family heirloom in future days. If I can get it published, I’m going to use a percentage of the money to help support the Moy Tung Detroit school.
Included in the book will be a glossary of all the Wing Chun jargon and slang I’ve picked up over the years. Let’s add a couple definitions now …
“House” slang (verb)
Pronunciation– `haus (past tense: `haust)
1. The act of single-handedly and decisively kicking the crap out of EVERYONE in a particular building, establishment, territory, etc., particularly if you are an outsider. 2. A more generalized and euphemistic term for Dojo-busting. 3. Martial pwnzorage of an entire school and everyone in it by a single martial artist, a la Bruce Lee in “The Chinese Connection” and Jet Li in “Kiss of The Dragon.” See also: Dojo-busting and “Close the school”.
Example-
Me: “So what happened to that rival school down South?”
Sihing: “Some other school sent a representative over there and he housed ‘em.”
“Close the School” slang (verb)
1. The phenomenon of a single fighter or rival kwoon (Ch: martial arts school) walking into a school and clobbering everyone so badly that the school in question should consider closing/relocating, due to shame. 2. Also known as Dojo-busting.
Example-
Sifu: “That does it! I’m sending two of my senior students over to Joe’s Karate Academy to close the school!”
*************************************************************************************************
Playing more Siu Lim Tau is going to be interesting now...
Current Location: The Rozan Waterfall
Current Mood:  tired
Current Music: "Pulse" Yoko Kanno
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