Nature

I watched the movie “Hero” tonight. It’s one of my favorite kung fu films, a bit over stylized for my tastes, but the choreography is pretty good and I love the cinematography. I like the use of nature and landscape images to evoke emotions. There’s something enormously powerful in nature photographs. They seem to contain so much history, meaning, beauty and truth. Taking out the human element and presenting the world in its purest, oldest state; a snapshot of how the planet has and will continue to live thousands of years, with or without people, makes me feel very humble. I think there is a lot we can learn from just sitting and observing the landscape. Images of nature help me reflect on life and seem to have a strong nostalgic link to my past.

I’m lucky to have grown up in a family that was fairly involved with the outdoors. I used to be in Junior Forest Wardens, this and Kung Fu are the best things I’ve ever done. The Junior Forest Wardens group I was in is the best in the country. We were always going on trips and doing neat things instead of sitting in a room having meetings. We did tons of backpacking, cross-country skiing, canoeing and survival skills exercises. I’ve spent a great deal of time in the mountains and I think it’s had an extremely positive influence on my character. I think everyone should try to spend time out in the wilderness and try to become a little more in tune with nature. Things like climbing a mountain, cross-country skiing on untouched snow at the foot of a glacier or sleeping in your own shelter made of logs and pine boughs in the dead of winter are all great experiences for boosting confidence and seeing more perspective on life.

The simplicity of having nothing to worry about except getting to your next destination, having something to eat and somewhere to sleep can be very relaxing. Being out on the trail with all the time in the world to sit and look at the world around you, forgetting about all your worries, is the best vacation I can think of. The summer of 07’ was the first time I actually felt like I was leaving my modern worries behind when I was on vacation. I was on the West Coast Trail and after the third day of sitting on the beach reading “Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance” I felt weight coming off my shoulders and reached one of the most peaceful states I’ve ever achieved. I still manage to go out on adventures but I’m disappointed in myself for not going nearly as much as I used to. I’m going to make a conscious effort to go out more from now on.

Good films always seem to put me in a broody mood. So the movie is what inspired this latest journal entry and topic. Its times like these where I seriously consider dropping off the face of the earth and living on a mountain or in a valley in some foreign country, flee from all my commitments and live a simple life far from major civilization. I admire what a lot of people from the Kwoon are doing in China. There’s a bunch of people traveling and training there right now and I kind of wish I was there with them. I might be a bit or a romantic but I could see myself living happily in a cabin on the outskirts of some insignificant village in China, like something from a scene in Crouching Tiger.

I remember the last shot in “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon” is of a mountain standing above everything veiled in mist. That single image of a mountain ends the movie so perfectly that it will forever be burned in my mind. “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon” is one of my favorite movies and my all time favorite Kung Fu film. It’s my favorite Kung Fu film not just because of the action or choreography (which I still think is unrivaled and I haven’t seen a movie do better) but because of the quality of its story characters, writing, acting and cinematography. It’s a brilliant film, not just an assortment of actions scenes slapped together, and I think there is a severe lack of Kung fu films like this that encapsulate the essence of Kung Fu so well. I wish more film makers would take martial arts seriously and create higher quality films. I highly recommend “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon” to anyone who cares to listen or give me an excuse to talk about it.

Choreography

I've come to enjoy choreography more and more these days. I've been working on a knife duel with Sifu Edge lately and it’s been a lot of fun. After watching a video on the net I thought it would be cool to choreograph a knife fight based around one person starting with the knife and the knife changing hands throughout the fight. I figured it would be a good way to showcase some disarming techniques. We've been teaching it to the I Ho Chuan class and we will probably perform it for the black belt demo.

I really like coming up with my own forms and techniques. The pole form I came up with was the first real weapon form I came up with completely on my own. I'm proud of the way that form turned out and since then I've gotten a bit of a craving for being original. Having the building blocks to just pick something up, play around and learn feels fantastic. Trying to come up with your own techniques really puts your kung fu knowledge to the test. Coming up with an idea and then seeing how realistic it is and how it can be applied is the best way to learn what is truly effective.

I've always been enthusiastic about choreographing fight scenes. I've always wanted to create a team, 2v2, 3v3, brawl but the opportunity hasn't come up yet. It would be neat to have the extra team assistance aspect added to a brawl. Maybe that can be my own project sometime, it would be nice to run the show once and create my own choreographed fight scene with other people.

I'm working on a form with my Kwan Dao now and its going to be challenging. The weapon is unlike any other I've ever used and it requires a fair amount of strength to use effectively. Once I build up enough muscle, blisters and skill I'm confidant I'll pull off some cool stuff. It probably couldn't ever be used in choreography though because of the weight and the amount of damage it could do in an accident.

Comfortably Sore

November 9, 2008

We got our shipment of martial art equipment in from Taiwan a couple days ago and I bought a Kwan Dao. I had talked to Master Brinker about getting a Kwan Dao, he has a really nice (but expensive one), so he helped me order one in. I was concerned about the weight of the weapon. I did not want Wushu steel; a real Kwan Dao should be heavy and solid. I hate those flimsy, wobbly Wushu weapons. They look flashy but there’s no realism behind them. The catalogue we ordered from didn’t have the weight listed so I didn’t really know what I was going to get. I got lucky though because my Kwan Dao is awesome! Its heavy (12 pounds), solid, a good length and I like the butt end design.

Yesterday I played around with it for an hour trying to get a feel for the weapon and I can say I have never been so enthusiastic about a weapon before. It has so much potential! I already have a bunch of ideas and cannot wait to come up with a form for it. It’s a heck of a lot of fun swinging around the huge, heavy blade. Swinging it around is a major upper body workout; my arms, back and chest are really sore just from an hour of practice. I’m looking forward to the muscle I should build up from using it. I was interested in the weapon from the beginning because I wanted to see if I could come up with a cool form where I swing it quickly and smoothly. I want to see how close I can get, using my heavy weapon, to what the Wushu guys are doing with a fake light weapon. Obviously I will move slower but my goal is to make it look quick and uncumbersome. Personally I would be much more impressed with a medium speed realistic based form with a real Kwan Dao than a fast, unrealistic form with a light one.

One another note my reading is going well. I believe I am now on my 11^th book on the list. Since my last update I finished “To the light house”, “Lord Jim”, “As I Lay Dying” and catch-22. I absolutely loved Catch-22! It’s a fantastic satire of the U.S. army during the Second World War. I love the constant contradictions, paradoxes and absurdity that oppose the protagonist Yossarian at every turn. It’s fantastically dark humored, silly, absurd, terrifying, and at times frighteningly realistic. I laughed out loud and often reading this book, I can’t say the same for anything else I’ve ever read. The ending was great and lifted my spirits for the rest of my day, somehow giving me a little bit for faith in the common man. The preface inspired me to leave little, “Yossarian Lives” notes lying around like John Chancellor did. I Think I might write them on random P-Can walls present on some of the construction sites I work at.

Location, location

October 28, 2008

My roommate is moving out this weekend and I’m trying to find someone to replace him. I live in a basement suite on the west west/central end and my rent is really cheap. I can’t really afford to pay rent for the whole place by myself so I only have a couple options. I either have to find a roommate to move in; a place to move into or I am going to have to move back into my parents place. I’ve been asking friends if they know anyone who would be interested but so far it hasn’t been promising. I really don’t want to put an ad in the paper for a complete stranger, I’m nervous about living with someone I have no background info on. So if I can’t find someone with some sort of relationship to myself or a friend then I’m going to have to go to my parents. I’ve been trying to weigh the pros and cons so I figured I would make a list here.

I live my place now because the rent is cheap, everything I need is right across the street, and I’m close to my friends and work. Since I’ve been living here my social life has increased just because I can run over to visit friends or go out to events at a moment’s notice. My parents live west of Stony Plain so my social life will take a significant hit if I move back. It’s a huge hassle driving into Edmonton unless I have concrete plans because once I’m there I’m committed to staying for awhile to make it worth the drive. There isn’t a room left for me at my parents anymore either, I would have to stay in my dad’s office; the smallest room in the house. I wouldn’t be able to fit my double be in there or any of my stuff, which means I’d have to pay for storage. My parents have dial-up internet which pretty much means we no internet because it takes too long to do anything to make it worthwhile. I use the internet a lot so it would really suck to go back to dial-up. Of course my privacy goes out the window if I move home too. On the plus side of moving back to Stony is the money I can save. My parents would charge me minor rent so I would be saving money on food and rent and I could put it toward a trip or something. Being in Stony would also be good for my Kung Fu. The kwoon is much closer so I would go to more classes and having not much else to do while living at home I would probably practice more. It would be nice to have the Tri-leisure center at my disposal for the winter too; I would like to use their running track now and then. With the UBBT coming up fast I would like to be situated before I start going hard and being in Edmonton would make some of my UBBT requirements easier.

So basically I have to come to a decision on what I value more. My social life, or saving money and getting ahead. I think my kung Fu shouldn’t be affected too much either way; both locations have their pros and cons. I have until the end of November to find someone.