June: Cute Hippie Chick Of The Month - Double Feature

Example One

The Queen Of The Hippie Chicks

Example Two

You younger Rats out there will have to humor an old Dojo Rat on the month of his birthday. As it is, I'm a Gemini, and I'm up for multi-tasking.
So, this month our celebration of Hippies in/and the martial arts is a double feature of "Cute Hippie Chick of The Month".
Example One is none other than Grace Slick of "The Jefferson Airplane", the reigning Queen of the Hippie Chicks. I wouldn't necessarily call Gracie "cute", but "hot" in the "she'll smack-you-down-and-tell-you-what-she-wants-you-to-do" sort of hot. Of course, 1969 was an eternity ago, and the young Dojo Rat would be listening to Grace and The Airplane belt out "White Rabbit" on what we used to call a "transistor radio". Grace had incredible presense, you should see her handle the Hells Angels at the fateful Altamont concert. She undoubtadly led the way for the next generation of bad-girl rockers like Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders, Joan Jett and others. Grace Slick is the absolute Queen of the Hippie Chicks.
Example two is one of an aspiring Hippie Princess. This young girl has obviously been listening to "White Rabbit" and, is doing a little LSD in this interview. Her shear beauty and innocence is juxtaposed with the distant parallel world of mind-altering drugs. Anyone who has done this knows you can go from a moment of near terror to pure enlightenment and bliss in a heartbeat. You can see it in her eyes, as she opens her hands around the orange, and is struck by her own creative wonder: "I can do everything"...
Indeed, we can.

We All Get Cut...

Comedy Central on The Dojo Rat Channel

Well, we decided to watch this video of two doormen at a German bar getting stabbed.
In order to replicate the conditions of a late-night German disco, the Dojo Rats slammed four beers each and tried a replay of that attack. There is no, and I mean NO way to avoid getting cut somehow.
Dave from Formosa Niejia wrote back that the guys in the video were acting like they were on their smoke break instead of monitoring drunks, and he suggested they take a side stance to limit exposure to the blade.
My buddy Brian back at my old Taekwon Do school was an Army Ranger, and was always going away to try to sneak into North Korea and other places. One time on a flight back from overthrowing some hapless third world country, his team was discussing knife attacks. Things got heated, and one guy challenged another, saying that his wife (with no martial training) could cut any one of them to ribbons. When they landed, he gave his wife a big black felt marker pen and she approached the Ranger that was confident he could disarm her. The wife went nuts, slashing and stabbing at the Ranger until he got his arms around her to finally control her. All the guys looked at the Ranger, who had black pen marks over his arms neck and chest. Even though he contained her, he probably would have bled out.
Aside from not being aware of the pending attack, the German guys in the video may have done the right thing by retreating into the building. At least they avoided further injury.
I don't know if our replay of the situation in the video looks more like the Keystone Cops or a scene from Gilligan's Island, but it's a reminder of how dangerous knives are.

They Never Saw The Blade

Check this one out: I think this is probably representitive of many street knife attacks, perhaps you fellow Dojo Rats out there will want to provide your own analysis.
The doormen seem too casual about these guys. Granted, I'm sure they have to deal with a lot of this, but in my opinion, their mistake was in not extending a bridge position to keep the guy away from their core area and vital organs. There was no attempt to jam the attack in hopes of containing the attackers arm, and they fled instead of restraining him. Now I know that sounds hard to do, but realize, these guys made virtually no attempt to protect themselves at all.
I knew a guy that worked in a nude dance bar in a rough area of Portland. After an altercation in the bar he and the owner removed two young guys that were gang-bangers. While outside, one of the guys pulled a .32 pistol out and shot my friend. He was able to hang on to the guy and handcuff him to a street sign post while the cops came.
These guys at this club (a) let the guy too close, (b) made no defensive effort, (c) probably could have restrained him two-on-one and got the bastard. At least he is on video, and I'm sure he can be found.

Barbarian, Part Two: American Bad-Ass

On the heels of the last post on barbarians, perhaps we should bring it on home with an episode of "American Bad-Ass".
You can have your "Dirty Harry"; the absolute best Clint Eastwood movie is "The Outlaw Josey Wales". As far as attitude, grit and gunfights, this movie is one of the all-time best westerns ever. It was also the first one Eastwood directed himself.
In Richard Heckler's book "In Search of The Warrior Spirit", Heckler describes his experiance teaching Aikido to a group of Green Berets. In this fascinating book, Heckler considers the age-old question of what it is to become a true warrior. In a break between training sessions, he and another instructor watch "The Outlaw Josey Wales" and he finds the perfect warrior scene. It's when Josey Wales rides up to meet the feared Indian chief Ten Bears, I wish I could find the video. Wales comes bearing words of life, and words of death. The words of life are that the Commanche can harvest his beef cattle, and his ranch will have the sign of the Commanche for all to see. His words of death are there, in Ten Bears knives, and here, in Josey Wales' guns. It's up to Ten Bears to choose.
He chooses life.
The Outlaw Josey Wales; first installment of "American Bad-Ass"...

Barbarian And Proud Of It

OK, let me just say it; I'm Barbarian, and proud of it.

Chessman over at Formosa Neijia Has a post where he explains how some of the masters he trains with in Taiwan disregard foreigners that train with them, no matter what their skill level is. He kicks their ass and they say he still does not have true martial power. They say he has to be Chinese to understand.
I have had the same thing happen to me with a much-loved old Chinese Tai Chi master I know. While discussing Chi Kung techniques at a seminar, I asked him specific questions about direction of flow in various meridians, etc.
I kid you not; he told me "You have to be Chinese to understand". Well, three or so books on Chi Kung later and I found the answers I was looking for.
I may be a Dojo Rat, I know I'm a Barbarian, but I ain't no dummy.
So with that in mind, Dojo Rat will celebrate the Barbarian in us. Take the Vikings, for instance. They were undoubtadly some of the baddest dudes in history. It was the Vikings that made it to America way before Columbus. They were in Africa. There is evidence of Viking burials in China. Europe trembled in their presence.
They were craftsmen, warriors and traders. Their ships and weapons were works of art, and the ultimate honor was to die in battle.
Yet, despite their fierce reputation as warriors, they quickly assimilated into whatever culture they had just kicked the crap out of. The Vikings were very democratic (much like the pirates), and their women and Queens were very powerful.
I could have celebrated this with clips from "The 13th Warrior", except I just couldn't take putting Antonio Banderas on Dojo Rat. So we enter "The Wayback Machine" and travel to 1958 to visit the all-star cast of "The Vikings".
If you have never seen it, I have to include this spoiler: One of the best scenes is where Ernest Borgnine kills himself by jumping into a pit full of wolves to fight to the death.
So let's hear it for Barbarians-- AAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!

Scott Phillips on Single Whip

Yesterday we introduced you to a new blog, "Weakness With A Twist", and it's author Scott P. Phillips.
In this video, Phillips shares some of his ideas for the Tai Chi Chuan posture "single whip". In the Yang style I practice, single whip is related to "split", that is you take the opponents body in two directions at once. This is also seen in "parting wild horses mane" and other postures.
We use it in the two man San-Shou form as a pass of the opponent's right punch and stepping in with a right forearm haymaker for a takedown, almost exactly like an Irimi-Nage in Aikido.
What I like about what Scott shows is his use of the "Hook hand" or right hand in the posture. Here he uses it as a arm break and assisting in takedowns.
Very nice...
(Edit.)--One thing IMA guys need to remember is that if a good fighter throws his right punch, that left is coming right in next... Careful Scott!

New Blog: Weakness With A Twist

Check out this new Blog on Toplist; it's unusual name (Weakness With A Twist) is a subtle clue to the Dualistic nature of the Chinese Internal Martial Arts. The author is Scott P. Phillips, who since 1977 has trained with an impressive string of Masters, including George Xu and Bruce Kumar Frantzis. He has also been trained in Chinese Traditional Medicine and Daoist philosophy.
Stop by and welcome him to our blog community!