Pocket holes

My keys tore a hole in my pocket and fell through somewhere on the street. Luckily Grace had taken a half day today, and we were only locked out of the house for two hours at the most. It would have been real bad otherwise since today is Halloween. But how do I keep my keys which I need to carry in my pocket from ripping a hole in my pocket? I'm considering a man purse of some sort. Something to carry my keys wallet and phone and which will fit into my pocket but the padding will keep the key from cutting said pocket and the bulkiness will keep the man purse from falling out on the off chance that I forget there is a hole in that particular pocket. I'm all geared up for anyone talking ish about my man purse and how I will have to punch them in the face.
Then I looked around the house and settled on a business cards holder I had which is smaller and more reasonable.
Well, with all the kids trick or treating tonight and the leaves all over the ground I guess there is very little chance of me seeing my keys again.
This was the one day when I walked in several places rather than my usual route too. I helped some old lady find a restaurant (maybe she was a witch) and I picked up Grace's dry cleaning, and then had to push the stroller back with one hand which was difficult to steer. So my keys could be almost anywhere.
Oh well that's life. I guess I should be grateful I have shelter. Just not being able to return home for such a short period of time with a small child makes me wonder how the hell homeless children cope. I mean I technically didn't have to really go home. I just wanted to, especially since Jonah had fallen asleep and I wanted to make lunch for him. I guess in hindsight there wasn't much to be stressed about but I was sweating and irritated and angry. In any case it's nice to be home, indoors, watching sesame street.

Luk Bik

On Monday Grace took off work and we were able to go to dim sum with Jonah. Just to make it easier, I had to bring Noah into school first by myself. I then had to wait for Grace to find a parking spot. We went to Hei La Moon which is right near the Chinatown gate where there is a park, and where I kept bumping into people. Since I was childless for a moment I started practicing Kung Fu. And since I didn't want to sit in my own sweat at Dim Sum, I started  taking off my layers until I was down to just my shorts. Were people staring? Yeah but it's a park and it's Chinatown and I'm doing Kung Fu. It would have been a great Photo op for a tourist because I was doing bak gwas around a manhole that was releasing steam. At some Point Hong Bak (Sifu's friend whom I am teaching Tiger Crane Song Ying Kuen too) saw me and I started teaching him right there. Now people were really watching. It was a fun Chinatown moment. Grace came over with Jonah thinking who knows what, and then we all went to Dim Sum together. I had earlier bumped into Zhou Suk and invited him too but he had earlier decided not to come.
At dim Sum we had Kung Fu conversation and the conversation turned to Luk Bik or Six urgencies. It is a combination of techniques that Hong Bak learned from Sifu. A few of Sifu's students taught there whole villages and this combination of movements was used by those villages specifically for fighting. I had heard conversation around this combination before but Sifu had never said, "This is Luk Bik" and showed it to me. From what I saw from those various conversational demos I learned a few things. Martial arts wise, those combinations are in our forms so maybe that's why Sifu never bothered to show me. In fact without being shown, I automatically had used that style of fighting during sparring. So in a way, I already knew it. In fact I had inadvertently taught a simplified version of this to my classes at Kwong Kow. I guess you could call it two urgencies. The comments from the kids were, "You have to have a sword to do this!" Kids like to tell you how it's supposed to be done sometimes, even when they don't know. But that comment basically tells what two urgencies looks like. You hack with your fist instead of with a sword. I saw it as something easy they could just do. I also realized from all the past conversations that these are the few techniques that Sifu had taught to his wife, his daughters (who might not remember them) and my Si Hings who had to take care of the Challengers who came into the school. I had used these techniques on a challenger once so again, maybe Sifu didn't feel the need to talk about these moves again. But one time he did show me a three combination which I think was a more advanced version of six urgencies right in between washing vegetables and cooking them like, "You know chuen pow cup now I'll show you (xyz)... awesome huh! I'll show you more later." But then he forgot about it.
Hong Bak fought me so hard over paying the dim sum bill that he fu jowed my wrist. (We invited him and I always feel bad when he pays. I thought that the rules of Chinese etiquette would mean he would allow us to pay this time. But he was so serious about paying even though he didn't eat anything and basically the main thing is his money is extremely hard earned through Chinese Restaurant work.)

Anyway on the way out on the side of the street he did Six Urgencies real quick so I could see what he was talking about. 1,2,3,4,5,6.

After that conversation I keep thinking about those techniques. More on that later.

A dream of Asian Women, Chocolates, and Politics

This morning I was practicing Kung Fu in the bathroom. At some point Grace woke up.
"I just had a dream and you were in it," she said.

"We all had to go to this women's only dinner. Well not women's only but it was you know an Asian Women's support type of thing. C.C. and S.D. were running it and for some reason it was in Chicago. We all had to sit in a circle on the floor and we each got these little box dinners and they looked like bento boxes."

I hadn't eaten breakfast yet so I was kind of hungry and this dream of bento boxes was sounding pretty good.

"But then," Grace continue, "we opened them and surprise! since it was a woman's dream dinner the whole dinner was chocolate."

"What?" I said starting to get pissed at Grace's dream.


"Yeah! and that's just how you were. Everyone was like 'yeaaaa! Chocolate!' and they had chocolate cake and all these other types of fancy chocolate and I think we all had to pay $35 or something like that and you were like, 'That's it? This is dinner?' and then while all these women were eating their chocolate and talking about politics and supporting each other you were like, 'uh I have to go to the bathroom.' And then for some reason I had X-ray vision or something like that so I could see your whole bathroom routine. You were, you know finishing up when you saw something on the floor. And I could see it was something like a turkey sandwich or a ring ding," Grace continued making the gestures to help tell the story, "so you bent over and picked it up and then you took a bite. And then I could see that immediately after you did this you realized that this was probably not a good idea. So you threw the rest off the sandwich in the trash. But you kept eating the part you had bitten off even though you got it from the bathroom floor.
Then you came back and sat next to me and you were still chewing and you had to listen to C.C. and S.D. and all these women cheering and giving each other political advise on how to support what candidate and how to organize and all there was to eat was CHOCOLATE!" Grace finished with emphasis.

I started laughing. "Okay I'm totally blogging about this."

Snake style and trick or treating

Yesterday we went trick or treating at the Franklin Park Zoo. It was great. They had all these start up companies giving away free samples of this healthy-ish granola bar or these new type of peanut butter cup. Actually I don't think the kids need more candy than that, but I like the way Halloween has become a several week type of Holiday for them. I mean if you have to buy a costume, you might as well have more fun wearing it multiple times. Plus the little tables of trick or treating was good practice for Thursday.
I explained to Noah that it was similar to lion dance. And then it occurred to me that most kids, would have to have lion dance explained to them, and that it could be called similar to Trick or Treating. Not the other way around. And I have to say I ma proud that we are different in that respect.

One of the many animals we got to look at was a rhinoceros horned snake. It's not the first time we've seen it. But looking at it this time I got to notice it's head movement a little more. It was looking at us and the head was making small movements this way and that. I'm not sure how this particular snake fights or the real reason for it's head movement. But of course, being the Kung Fu Dad, I started thinking about snake movements in Kung Fu. The movement can be taken or learned from an animal without serving the same exact purpose for the human. After all, the snakes "head" in a Kung fu move, is a human hand. The snake hand can strike, block, and also wrap round in some grappling moves. The main thing I saw from the head movement was blocking or passing, or absorbing strikes. Such small little movements would be enough to counter a flurry of fists, and could sneak by and strike at the eyes as well. While I was doing this as part of my practice today, I thought about how little energy was being used, and yet how much was being achieved. In terms of look, these movements look like a crazy or perhaps high person pretending to do Kung Fu. And if the small movements are not done with the power of the whole body behind it, or without knowledge of what one is doing, then the movement are useless and your opponent can just ignore your silly snake and punch you in the face. That's not to say that if you are a master you will never get hit. But if done right with some power, you can block a storm of hits and throw strikes doing a very simple looking move, and it comes from that little head movement of the snake that I saw the Rhino horned snake doing at the Zoo.

I recognize your Style

The other day I was working out near Green Street playground. First just taking it easy inside the playground, then shirtless in the cold and quick moving overlooking the tracks while Jonah was to play with leaves. He ended up opting to just run up and down the small hill with me and do his Kung Fu as well. But eventually he wanted to go back into the playground. I felt like it would be inappropriate for me to be shirtless and inside the playground, even though being outside the playground was mere feet away. And I didn't want my shirt to become soaked with sweat because I didn't have another one, so re-entering the playground area signaled an end to my work out. As we walked back over I noticed another guy doing Kung Fu too. It looked like a Southern System similar to Hung Gar. I figured me and Jonah would go over and say hi even though he was a stranger. But as I got closer he seemed to look at me as if he knew me and signaled for a pen. And then I realized I did know him. Not well. He had studied at Woo Ching White Crane before my time there. He had done stuff before and done stuff afterward and now I guess he was meeting up with a student to teach him in the park. He hadn't recognized my face from that distance but some of the techniques that I was doing in free form were actually from a form he had learned and performed whiel at Woo Ching White Crane. So he recognized me more from the moves I was doing then my facial features, which from that distance you can not necessarily make out. I thought this was funny because it's just like those old Kung Fu movies where one character recognizes another's form and then knows they are related through schools somehow even though they have never seen each other before. Of course if your style of Kung Fu becomes so wide spread that 90% of the population does the same forms, then this is somewhat meaningless. This is why I think forms can serve a purpose other than just fighting moves, preparation, performance and art. They can also act as a type of secret handshake... unless everyone knows it of course.
But then even if you put a form up on youtube and somebody "steals it" there will be the way in which they do the form. You would still be able to tell if they really learned from a real instructor or not. But there are so many instructional videos of forms out there for free that it is unlikely that someone would bother trying to learn one of our forms unless they already did our system and were specifically interested in our forms already.

Dragon, the Bruce Lee story

This movie was on last night, based on Linda Lee's book.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon:_The_Bruce_Lee_Story#Production

I've now seen this movie at 3 different stages of my life and it meant something different each time.

When I watched this movie as a child with my mother, it was sort of an introduction to Bruce Lee. Of course I had heard about him but I didn't watch his movies (except Enter the Dragon on tv as it seemed to always be on)  really until High school and College. And of course he was constantly a subject of conversation for both the inner city non-Chinese and the Chinese. And the conversations, rumors, stories were different depending on which race was telling them and the legends were pretty much right up there with the conversations about Freddy Krueger and Bloody Mary. (Maybe that's why their playing this movie near Halloween.) They were about how he died, who was better than who (in terms of Chuck Norris and Bruce) and whose fault it was that he died. Actually these conversations were a lot like the very politically incorrect conversations on the same themes about Jesus.

But the movie meant something different in our family. Mainly my mother kept making comments like, "That's exactly what your dad would say!" or during the kitchen fighting scene, "I remember when they used to fight in the Kitchen all the time and Po would stop them." Anyway My mother was white and was with my dad who was Chinese during a time when this wasn't accepted by everyone. And she recalled walking hand in hand with my father in a supermarket and a black woman exclaiming, "That's disgusting!" Anyway, my mother loved the movie of course. The dramatized demon was scary to me and my mom thought it was weird and maybe inappropriate since we watched the movie on video and by that time Brandon Lee had died on the set of the Crow, making the dramatized scenes that would have seemed over the top and silly, eerily prophetic. The Demon seemed to have gotten the son after all.


Later, as an adolescent, when I started watching Bruce Lee's movies in Chinese and talking to Kung Fu brothers as well as just having other Kung Fu conversations, in Chinese, that movie meant something different again. As a child, it seemed that to everyone Bruce Lee was the perfect role model. Like Martin Luther King. In fact my Black Female second grade teacher actually used a Bruce Lee reference from Enter the Dragon, to explain Martin Luther King's ideas of non-violence. How people who fight didn't fight if they didn't need to.
But as an adolescent I learned more about some character flaws with Bruce in terms of women. (MLK actually had the same flaws) But he also seemed to have been starting fights and trouble all the time according to some people. There some stories in Tibetan White Crane about Bruce having studied the system briefly in Singapore, but to do so having to renounce a Sifu disciple relationship with Ip man. None of this has ever been backed up by any biography I have seen. Except that the Jeet in Jeet Kune Do is one  of the Tibetan white crane's four pillars of martial arts philosophy. And a lot of his classic moves have the look of a crane's wing and his over all strategy at fighting seems to be a lot like Chan Hak Fu's in the fight between him and NG gong Yi. The video of that is all over You Tube as WHite Crane vs. Tai Chi. The fight happened in the 50's and some say sparked the interest in Kung fu and Wuxia that created the later Wuxia craze. (It's just as possible that Bruce just watched a video of that fight over and over rather than receive formal training but in any case that little story has been passed down) So Bruce became less of a role model during this time. But still a point of reference that everyone knew about in Martial Arts. And also still a major figure among other (less famous figures but more important to me) in my pantheon of Kung Fu guys living and deceased who were regularly discussed emulated and in a way, channeled through training.



Last night when I watched the movie, as a stay at home father of two children, a Sifu in my own right, and a guy who has created his own system of teaching, if not training, (I don't have my own school but I have my own shirts and a blog that counts right?) I was back at the beginning with Bruce being the magical hero and I was with Linda Lee all the way. Bruce Lee is now more than the man that he was. he is a symbol internationally. But I'm getting off track.
Linda's version of him is a different focus. It focuses on his family life, and the screen representation of that is going to be very Hollywood, but there are some very important things about these cheesy representations of reality. The first thing is Sex. There are a ton of love scenes between Bruce and Linda. And I remember watching this movie casually on tv with some classmates and a teacher in middle school. The teacher commented that this was pornographic and shouldn't be on tv. The students had no problem with it. At the time I sort of respected where the teacher was coming from. But now I think it is essential that those love scenes are pushed in your face. First of all, there love scenes that you would see in a Woman's movie on Lifetime. There is no pornography, they don't show anything, I watched this movie with my mom as a child. They don't objectify Linda or Bruce the way countless commercials and posters do.
What is uncomfortable to some people about them is the male is Asian and the Female is white. Deny all you want, that's really what it's about and that's why it's so prevalent in the movie, because of that. Watching this movie now you will notice that love scenes between Asian Males and white women's or even kissing scenes, are still very rare in American Films and tv shows. In some of Jet Li's American movies there are women who are interested in him or married to him but is there a lovemaking scene? In Kiss of the Dragon or Danny the Dog (which is a foreign made film made in the UK I think) there is a sort of kissing scene, but it's not the same as a straight on make out session between two love interests that you would normally see in a movie.

Which brings me to Race. Dragon focuses a lot on race in a way that the countless Bruce Lee movies (moves about Bruce) made in Hong Kong don't. In fact most of the story is sex and race, and then there's his  Kung Fu/teaching/culture that is the way he bridges the gap between east and west.  So let's look at a contemporary Asian male star. John Cho.
I saw an article putting the question forth of why John Cho doesn't have his own show yet. He's been in a ton of movies and shows. Everyone knows him pretty much. Why doesn't he have his own show. Dragon talks about Bruce Lee's creating of the Kung Fu series and then his ideas being stolen from him and David Carridine being cast instead. Whatever the true story is, the point is Bruce was definitely a natural choice for that role and he didn't get it and race was probably a factor. But what about now?

Now we have John Cho. Why can't John Cho have his own show? Aziz Ansari can. Maybe you have to be funny. After all , John Cho became known through Harold and Kumar. Maybe comedy is more powerful than Kung Fu.

It is also interesting that in Flash Forward John Cho's love interest was black. I saw this as a step forward. But Grace mentioned that of course they would put him with someone white. But now Asians males are allowed to bed other non-whites. Just saying that the movie based on Linda Lee's book, is still very relevant today.

Emotionally, it was a nice little story too. I cried at the end. And again Bruce Lee is now more influential than he was when he was alive, and his influence is likely to grow when more movies are made. But more on that next time.

An Orchestral Dream

For some reason last night I dreamed I was back in my high school orchestra... only everyone in the entire school was part of the orchestra and our project was that each group had to choose songs to work on in a given amount of time to practice and perform in front of each other. (I guess it was kind of like Glee) A large number of people in my group were from the South, but for some reason I was the one pushing to work on this sort of Western (like Cowboy) themed songs while other groups were going for Holst's the planets etc. Mr. Borg, our teacher, was excitedly explaining the joys and meaning of this song or another.

Anyway I decided when I woke up that I would start playing violin again everyday, just like I put aside time for Kung Fu, and for writing this blog. Much like Kung Fu and writing I decided I would focus on just doing it as an exercise. No particular song. I warmed up with a scale and then bascally, like my Kung Fu, played sequences of notes strung together in free form. Some of them were from this song or that song. Some were of this style (classical) or that style (folk, Chinese, American, or some sort of Russian sound.) But I didn't reach for a song until the end and then only simple Irish folk songs and then even then if I made a "mistake" instead of trying to find the right note to the song I simply changed the song to fit where my fingers were.
I tried doing shifting and chords and various types of bowing to switch it up... but of course I stay within rudimentary skills because that is simply what my level is as well as what I am used to doing. In other words, my free form was very predictable and not as intense as say, sight reading a difficult piece.

This practice reminded me of the last time I read music. (I actually learned to read music "incorrectly" in that when I see the written note my mind does not think "A" or " B" but thinks of the finger to the string or an open string. I cheated and it was difficult to unlearn my cheating way which made it difficult for me to sight read complicated pieces involving shifting later on. Part of this was due to the fact that I mostly played by ear.)

The last time I sight read was one spring while I was living at a Kung Fu school and going for a run on Boston Common. Just for context, I was sweaty, dirty, and probably scary looking. I came across a group of college students who were from the conservatory picnicking and playing their music together. I stopped and watched them. I probably stared very hard at them too. Anyway I attracted one of the girls attention who said hi from a difference.
"Do you play?" she called out from a difference.
"Only a little bit. Not like you guys."
"Do you want to play?"
And she let me play her violin! By the first drag of the bow across the string the sound that came out was so unfamiliarly rich that I knew the instrument must be worth a great deal of money to say the least.
"Oh" one of the other students said suddenly having looked up and surprised to see I had joined there group.
"Do You read music?" said a male guitarist.
"Yes but not well."
"That's okay."
And music was brought out. A simple piece. I don't remember it.
"Real slow guys okay." said the guitarist to the rest of the group. I thanked him inwardly as I stumbled through. But I did it. A goodbye and smiles and I ran off back to Chinatown, giddy with excitement.
That must have been more than ten years ago.

A cold workout and two sales pitches

While Jonah was at group I decided to go and practice. My goal was 45 minutes of movement. I started with slow mein lei jum/tai chi like moves. Not too slow, as it was cold out. Actually first I stripped down to my T-shirt and shorts. (I have taken to wearing cargo shorts underneath whatever long loose pants I choose to wear. It just makes more sense the way the weather has been changing. Plus I get to wear jogging pants, but still have the durable pockets of the cargo shorts.) As I began to move more I ended up taking off my shirt too even though it is cold. I've seen people (mostly white people) do this and always thought they were crazy. But it actually makes sense. You are trying to keep your body from sweating. It's the sweat being all over you and then the wind hitting you that really makes you cold. I didn't do 45 minutes. Grace called me at some point. I think I managed around 30 minutes of punching kicking and other Kung Fu moves mixed in there at a pretty strong pace most of the time. O did get that coughing feeling I usually get when the cold wind dehudrates you, but luckily I had two bottles of water with me so that problem was solved.
After I put some clothes on and walked back toward Jonah's group a mother with her child at a nearby playground commented, "You should have seen him imitating you. He was quite good." I laughed and walked on and then stopped.
"You know I have a class for children and parents on Saturdays 10 am at Pinebank Jamaica Pond."
"Where in Jamaica Pond?"
"You know where JP soccer is?"
"Oh yeah."
"Behind that."
My first pitch to a total stranger. I'm just not a salesman by nature so I'm proud of myself when I actually do this.
I later met a mother at another playground after Jonah's group who I sort of know from various Playground conversations. And I mentioned my class to her too. This may sound so miniscule and sad compared to Girl Scouts who proactively go door to door. But I could never do that sort of thing as a child. And I even find difficulty selling this class, which is free, because I just don't like doing it. So I'm proud of myself when i manage to do it.

The Fighting arts/ Are martial artists crazy?

Grace bought me a Martial Arts book (the Fighting Arts) while on a business trip. When I was learning Kung Fu as a student I wasn't interested in really reading books like that, though I might page through one out of boredom. But this one seemed pretty cool because it had a wide range of Eastern Martial Arts. From India, China, Japan, Philippines... you get the idea. It's also kind of old so while I was paging through I noticed some predictions about Chinese Kung Fu and how that and the Lion Dance would go downhill over time and even if the interest in the arts went up and enrollments at schools in the mainland went up because.. well whatever. It's just interesting because you can see where the author was right or wrong. Certain traditions have changed, with some things being cast aside. But a new form of Lion Dance and Martial Arts as a sport is certainly popular now... and the mass interest in those sports are making more people start to look at the traditional arts that those sports came from. Is it too late to rebuild? Who knows... who cares really?

I was paging through this book this morning, reading something about Marman, and Indian martial art, and then glancing ahead at Kung Fu when I said, "People who do Martial Arts are crazy."
"That's you." said Grace.
"Not like this."
"Yes. Sometimes you writ eon your blog all these crazy things like, 'I discovered the DRAGON,'" she said while getting into a stance with both fists up, "or 'I had a dream about the... DRAGON!!!' Do you want me to point out a few places (in your blog) to you?"

Anyway, what I had been reading was this Indian Master who said you should never tell anyone that you practice Marman. I said this out loud to Grace as an exanple and she said. "I do Marman. There I said it. What are you going to do about it."
"The reason they give is that if someone knows you do Marman, they will attack you from behind, but if they don't know that they are more likely to attack you from the front and you are more likely to be able to escape." The Master also gave all these examples of how you should only use half hand strikes instead of full hand (i.e. short instead of long... like White Crane) because full hand strikes can kill them easily and you only want to hit enough to escape. But to look around for other people because even your half hand strikes might kill and you don't want witnesses."

I've heard stuff like this in Kung Fu movies and from other martial artists I know.

I thought about these statements. Some thoughts I had were, "I guess if he lives in the hood in India he might have to think like that but this type of thinking doesn't really apply to me where I live right now. Plus I already announced I do Kung Fu on the internet so it's too late anyway."

Then I thought, while looking at a picture which might have been of him, "Nobody's attacking that guy from the front anyway just based on his size. Heck, I am of average to below average height and that and also my face means that I doubt many people will attack me from the front even if they have no idea I do Kung Fu. In fact, once a guy at a train station sort of thought about mugging me I think. I had trained until I was really tired (don't do that) and anyway, he circled me I circled him, we chatted about the weather but both of us I think were thinking about a right hook. And then he said, "Wow you're really bad ass." and some other stuff and then walked away. Sounds like a joke but it happened. That guy was much bigger than me and didn't know I do Kung Fu.

Then I thought about all the real fighters, the famous fighters that can think of. And the greatest Fighters really are people like Ghandi, Martin Luther King and that girl who the Taliban shot, Malala. Let's talk about her.
I'm pretty sure she doesn't do any martial arts. But that doesn't matter. She is one young and probably short, girl. The Taliban did not attack her "from the front" they shot her right? You can't get any more forceful than that. Then she survived. What made her a fighter is that first of all, she dared to go to school, and then now, she is going to go back and continue the fight for the right for young women to be educated. That's fighting. And it wouldn't really matter in her fight, whether or not she did moves in the air or on a bag or not. Well it might help thereaputically or with the healing process but you get my point.

Reading ahead to the Chinese Masters complaining about Lion Dance and Kung Fu and all this.... I mean I know what they are saying, I can see a difference between what my Sifu taught me and what I see on youtube of people doing, even in China, and I wish that there were more people that did what my Sifu taught me and did so seriously, just for the sake his traditions being carried on. But to think about loss of secret knowledge all the time, or plan for whether people are going to attack you all the time... or to not tell anyone you do Kung Fu and then be sad that not as many people do Traditional Kung Fu anymore (okay so I'm mixing statements from the book but I have seen a general trend of these two ideas being put together in my life) seems crazy. Especially when the most famous fighters, the ones that have international recognition, the people that fight a system, a government, or oppression, often do so without necessarily throwing a punch or even practicing punch throwing. I think Kung Fu and martial art are important. I practice everyday. But I wonder if practicing by yourself too much, or only being around people who are practicing like you, only being around other grown men day in and day out talking for hours about this technique or that stance (okay I've done that) is crazy.

On that note, this blog post has taken up too much of my time already. Time to play with Jonah.

Does what you read affect your life?

I've been reading "A Casual Vacancy" by J.K. Rowling. It's a lot more adult than I thought it was going to be and has a lot about dysfunctional family life in the projects, or as the Brits call it, "estates." It's a pretty good book so I'm all caught up in it. But I noticed that as I'm reading it my life is becoming more dysfunctional. I had more arguments with Grace, and my kids took a big spill right in the middle of the street out of the stroller yesterday. The sign said walk and everyone ran over to help me. My kids were fine and mostly I was just embarassed that such a thing happened while I was watching the kids. I had the stroller where, if I strap in Jonah he is strapped to the back of the seat, leaving no room to put Noah in. So when I have this particular stroller I usually put Noah in front, depending on him to stay seated (mistake) and put Jonah in back. Needless to say I got my usual stroller from the car and switched today. After the spill we went to the playground and the ride back consisted of Noah standing (he managed to kick me in the balls on the struggle into that position) and then Noah running (but he got tired) and Finally Noah on my shoulders while I pushed the stroller (he managed to kick me in the face on that one.) You may ask why I don't use a two person stroller. Don't I have one? Yes I do. But a wheel fell off. Yes I reattached it but ironically I thought it would be dangerous if say it fell off while crossing the street. But even when it was not broken, there was the inconvenient design that enabled Noah to hit the breaks from his seat, whenever he decided to switch things up on me. Plus the single stroller is much better for riding the T.
Today we had a little accident to with Jonah. Not in the stroller but still. To finish our morning we flew a kite and played in the playground and that was good. Though Jonah didn't seem to care for my lunch much. Well, now I'm watching Thomas and that's happy and cheerful, more or less.

A new Dragon Dance and Art disease

I created a new sort of dragon dance. I'm sure someone in all of China and it's long history did this before but I'm just saying I made this up on my own I didn't inherit the art from anyone. It was born out of Mr. K in stars classroom not wanting me to have the kids do "Kung Fu" or to even call it "Kung Fu" but I needed something to finish up the class that worked on individual expression and taking turns. They were making up their own forms. I spent a feverish day making cardboard dragons, and came to the conclusion that instead of a dragon and a tail, that a kid could do his or her own sort of individual dragon dance with just the head. This lead to a a lot of work in my head while it looked like I was watching my kid or staring of into space in terms of developing this idea. Maybe a ton of people could make their own heads and they could connect to make one big dragon or all heads. Wait if they all moved like one animal anyway, maybe there was no need to connect them. And then finally, screw it just have them dance whatever they want to dance with that one head. Hey maybe I could mass produce them and sell them!
Then the idea was put on the back burner, especially as my little cardboard heads became more and more damaged and I eventually considered throwing them away. Especially as I didn't see how I could make money from the idea. But the dragons still pulled attention whenever Noah and I brought them out. Yes these taped up crude things were the envy of every passing JP child who wanted to throw down whatever expensive toy they were playing with to hold the dragon that I shaped from garbage, feverishly, as if in a trance. It came to the point where every piece of cardboard or stick or recycling item looked like a potential dragon. It is a sickness that I need to keep in check. Imagine what my living space would look like if I were allowed to go completely off the deep end with my ideas? I often forget to eat and become physically week when doing this stuff. It reminded me a little of art classes in highschool.

Anyway, This past Saturday I fixed two old heads together on a wooden stick. At one point in the class I had the kids playing with a different (child safe) weapon each week. But as the class grew I became afraid of allowing them to do this because maybe one child would not listen and run into the child swinging the weapon. You really had to make a distinct sideline where come children waited, and a stage or area where others performed. Aha! An individual Dragon dance would still need this, and some of the moves could be "martial" but they didn't have to be! In other words, since this would be a new thing I wouldn't really have to "teach" the kids the "proper" way to do it. It would be more like the painting classes I did in college where the teacher makes suggestions, shows you other artists works and guided you as you found your own path. There wasn't right and wrong. There was good and bad (but really all children's stuff is pretty good as long as they are laughing and really expressing themselves with the Dragon and working their muscles. They aren't afraid, the way adults might be, of making a fool of themselves, and so everything they do, is in a way, perfect. Mainly my instruction would be about safe and unsafe ways to do the Dragon Dance... for now anyway. It was great. It made me go into another fever where I wanted to make another adult sized Dragon head of this style for myself, wasting energy time, and  some duct tape.... because in the end I decided to scrap what I had put together. Something to work on in my brain I guess until the kids get outgrow the cruder dragon head I have already made.

JP Lantern Festival

Yesterday e got to dress up in our Hallloween costumes and parade around Jamaica Pond with homemade lanterns. Luckily Grace had the sense to put fake candles in our lanterns that were actually little electric lights. Noah dropped his lantern like five times. Part of that was that I didn't fix the wire to his stick properly though. Noah was Super WHY (But people kept thinking he was a ninja or a ninja turle, or anything else. I guess not that many people watch Super Why as adults. I happen to think Super Why is the awesomest show there is. I didn't learn to read until first Grade. This generation is going to have a ton of early readers just because of that show. Watch.)
Jonah was Thomas the tank engine. And Grace and I were Thing 1 and Thing 2. It was a fun costume and everyone seemed to like that we were dressed up. Oddly not as many adults were in full costume this year. Usually there are tons of them. One year we brought the lion head. I considered doing that this year, or bringing that huge mess of a lion head I was going to throw away. Instead I let the kids at my 10 am Pinebank Jamaica pond class play with it. It was pretty fun to play with, so I might keep it. But it got torn up a little bit as the sprinted with it on and then rolled forward with it. I just think I should focus on making my small head, and mydragon stick.. and... yes I have a problem. It is called Art disease. More on that later.

Anyway, they are doing the lantern parade again today. Grace said we can go if I make the scooter and bicycle for Noah and Jonah that she ordered. Off to do that then.

It was an accident!

Recently Noah has learned the word "accident." I taught it to him when after having slightly wet his underwear, he was afraid to let me know about it... or something like that. I let him know that I didn't get upset about accidents, because that was not intentional. However, when he deliberately peed his pants while running away from me while I was trying to get him to pee in the potty.. that annoys me. I guess all he really heard was that "accident" means immunity.
Noah and Jonah were playing with sticks. Jonah had a longer stick and hit Noah with it. I suppose it was on purpose. In the past they had managed not to hurt each other because they moved slowly. But because Jonah was unwieldy with his longer stick, the stick picked up speed and struck a blow to Noah's body that was harder than Noah liked. He immediately demanded of me in a voice of someone that had indeed been hit harder than expected, that Jonah switch to a smaller stick. Later while Jonah was playing with the weights, rolling them around like wheels, looking down. Noah struck Jonah on the head. It wasn't hard enough to make Jonah cry, just enough to make him sad that he had been hit. I explained to Noah that he had hurt Jonah and that the corner of that stick hurts a lot, even if stuck lightly. Noah burst out into tears.. "It was an accident!"
Then I tried to explain to Noah that if you do something deliberately.. on purpose... that you could not call it an accident. He screamed and tantrumed that he meant it to be an accident. It was an accident It was an ACCIDENT!!!
Yesterday he came and told me that he had made a mess with the milk in the Kitchen. I got there and I guess I didn't want to ruin the fact that at least he told me about it. But I asked why he did that. The Milk was supposed to be on the table, in his eating area, after all. How the hell did it even get to the Kitchen.
"It was an accident.. ahhhahahahhahehehheheeee" was the reply.
I again explained what an accident was.
"No I was trying to make sounds with the water. and then it was an accident."
So I guess this is sort of true. He had been trying to gargle it with no intention of accidentally choking or laughing while doing this, causing him to spew it out all over the kitchen. But the initial act of gargling milk was not an accident at all. Whatever, we're getting closer.

Making Your own lion heads and drums

I have tried to make a lion head before, and even though it kind of looks like a lion head, I consider that one a failure that I will eventually have to trash. I tried to get Jonah to paint it. He did. But even for this use it is useless. It's not just ugly, it's just too big and unwieldy. Later I tried to make a model, but in ended up being the size of a child's lion head, and it just sat up in the attic, half finished, with some paper mache on the eye. Today I took it down. It had not been read to really paper mache in the first place. But the dry paper mache was hard. Really hard. This was encouraging. Before, I was just messing around playing. But recently I decided I was going to get some heads and drums. Even if I had to front the money. But then I thought more about it. A lion dance team in JP where everything is about locally made, hippie get in touch with your creative side type of  thinking, that's just not the way to go about it. I have to decided I am going to make this child's lion head for real. I have no illusions that it will look pretty at they end. But I want it to look like something, be colorful, and be strong. Kids like to punch the lion heads? I will build it with that in mind. Before I only wanted to use trash to build the thing, as a sort of exercise. But since I became willing to drop some cash to buy a head.... dropping cash to buy a bunch of duct tape no longer seems like a silly investment. I'm doing this for real now. Also I have a bucket and that's going to be my drum, and I'll make drum sticks that won't destroy the bucket. (That's what happen to my bucket drums that I had left unattended at KKCS. One of the TA's had the kids play these plastic buckets hard with wooden sticks not rounded at the ends) But no matter. Moving Forward! I saw how at various JP events there are tons of home made percussion instruments. I'm making those. And I'm decorate them more. Make them more artistic looking. That won't increase the volume but it will increase the presentation. And if I make these things really pretty like, then other people can too. That's what my class and my system of "Kung Fu Playgroup" is going to be about. Self Expression. And so making your heads and drums will be a fundamental part of my School.. a School that meets in the park. Well let me make this equipment first but planning ahead? I plan to work with at risk youth as well as children and parents... and mentors. I guess all that put together includes all age groups, but the focus is on creativity, play, expression. Maybe when I get these thoughts into reality, then I will call Hyde Square Task force and see if I can work with them. For now though it's just going to be the little group at Pinebank.

Fake Christmas Morning

The kids and I went to a photo shoot today related to Grace's job. It's complicated how so I won't explain. The theme was Christmas morning. The place was actually a woman's house who happens to live on campus at Middlesex boarding school. It was a lot like Groton. In fact I heard that is on purpose because the founder of the school was a Groton Alumn or some such thing. I only mildly care. Anyway, they have a circle, and at one point me and Jonah ran around it. Unlike Groton there is the option of crossing through the center of it because they actually paved a path there. I was surprised that I care about something like this.... but I like Groton's layout better. In fact I suddenly realized that one of the reasons why I chose to go to Groton even though they didn't offer Mandarin (now they do), or have a strong music program (now they do), or various other things that I should have cared about....the reason why I chose Groton because of the layout of the campus. And Ironically, it was probably my Chinese Feng Shui thinking part of me that would choose a school for that reason.
Jonah and I went into the Chapel because I realized that Jonah has never been in a chapel before. It would be fun to go in as a sort of exotic entrance into somebody else's religion, instead of something that is more or less thrust upon you. Someone was practicing the piano in there. We sat and listened for a while. Jonah had had enough. Jonah will not be going to any religious/boarding schools I can tell you that right now. Noah might be able to just block out or ignore or utterly fail to notice any feelings of discomfort or not belonging... so he might still go... not sure yet.
The kids did pretty well on their fake Christmas morning. It also turned out that the Head of school at Middlesex worked at Groton when I went there. I actually did remember her and remembered that she was really nice to me. It was weird to go into a sort of alternate universe, where I was in a school like my highschool, only different, with my kids. It's like a couple of weird dreams I've had, only it was reality. The fact that so early in the morning there is a mist hanging over the river and the surrounding area made the environment poetic. What I mean is, if I chose to write about this in a waspy prose form I could imagine a class around a Harkness table talking about how the mist signified stream of consciousness and the poetic staring into the shimmering water and leaves shifting over them with my child in my arms and someone else's child next to me asking questions represented... well stuff that it didn't necessarily represent.... and that perhaps the entire morning had taken place in my mind, and not reality. In fact on the way there Grace and I had been talking about religious beliefs and thought and souls.
In any event, that conversation happened while the kids were screaming and the radio was blasting, there was a bunch of fog during rush hour, and I got a weird deja vu being on a boarding school campus with my kids when I didn't know I was going to be.

Lion Dance at the Convention Center

So we did a two hour gig at the convention center. Some drumming, some lion, some stilts... and I'm pretty tired. I don't know how I used to strap myself to wooden stilts before. All I know is that now it hurts when I do it. Is is that I'm getting old? Is it that I used to be used to this? I mean probably if I put high heels on my feet would be killing me, but old ladies seem to manage it somehow.
It was a lot of fun and the event was pretty festive. There were representations of the North End, Fenway, and I forget what other neighborhoods. The event was for medical equipment. Like laser surgery, fertility, pharmaceutical products. All sorts of stuff like that. I guess doctors go there and go from booth to booth to see what they might be interested in buying. The exhibition goes from city to city. This year was Boston. Next year will be Hawaii. I'm not going to pretend I really understand the whole thing. I just knew that we went around doing lion dance, and it was pretty fun. There was a band at the end that played Aerosmith cover songs. All in all a pretty good night. I haven't worked out like that in a while. It was nice because we got to take breaks but kept doing a dance here and there throughout the two hours. I'm not as sore as I would have been if it was a hard Kung Fu form that I did full force, screaming like a mad man. But it's more than what I usually do. So maybe I'll sleep well tonight.

Stand Up Comedy

I've really been thinking about doing stand up Comedy. Grace thinks it's a terrible idea, which is actually making me think about doing it even more. You can tell how much I'm thinking about it by the fact that I'm writing this at 6:30 am on a Sunday. Basically, I've always wanted to be on stage. In high school I was in a couple of musicals, and that was pretty much the only successful thing in high school I did. Well there was also Orchestra, where I was third violin, not exactly a soloist, but that was also an aspect of life I loved. There was performing music, and the only thing I kind of have left is performing Kung Fu, and teaching Kung Fu. Teaching in and of itself is a performance as well. I've been missing that rush of nervousness you get. Well no, recently I got that rush of nervousness, but there a lot of negative aspects to performing in the group. You depend on the entire group and even if you do a good performance, there is politics. Every cast, band, choir, etc has these issues. Not only that, but most groups have to rehearse, and I guess I just don't have time for that. So basically logistically I could definitely do stand up. Think about it, if I just performed on the weekend, for free (I have no illusions here) how long would that take? I could do that. Even if I eventually get a 9-5 job I could do that. Then the other work is just finding material and practicing in my head. I can do that too. I think I would enjoy, and get a sense of accomplishment out of doing stand up, even if I don't do that well with the audience, every week. Of course I want to be a success at this, but my point is, even "failing" would be fun. I mean it would be a night out. And honestly, having taught children Kung Fu, and math, and English, at a summer camp, I've already dealt with hecklers and having people be bored while I was talking. If anything, Stand Up would give me the tools and experience I need to become a better teacher. And teaching is what everyone is always telling me I should get into. And in a few years, I can see that I might start down that path.. might. But I wouldn't want to teach 9-5 in school for free. Because I am teaching right now, it's just that it's Kung Fu.. a total of about 45 minutes a week. And I'm almost doing that for free and I don't mind that because it's convenient. Not only would doing stand up improve my teaching but I have it worked out where it could help market my kung fu teaching. Alright, time to write out some material.

Which Lion Head

I'm thinking about which lion head I should bring to the Kung Fu playgroup tomorrow... there is one from China, and a really ugly looking one I made. On the one hand, the real Faht sahn one looks much cooler and attracts a lot of attention and is a lot of fun for the kids to play with. But one of the kids started punching it last time.. and the other kids followed, including my own son. I'm thinking I should give a little lecture..."When you are responsible enough to play with the real lion head, I will bring the real lion head." The lion head wasn't that damaged, I mean it was an old one to begin with.... but still, it's not a punching bag. If you play with it as a lion head, it's pretty difficult to break it as a child. The worst you can do is pull the beard off by stepping on it, or if you roll incorrectly (which they are not even big enough to attempt) you can break the ears on the ground. The way most adults or teenagers break it is by shaking it so hard that the frame collapses. That won't happen if a child is in the head though, or if an adult that thinks about the fact that it is paper mache either. It's mostly teenagers who do that because they need to exert full force on a technique because basically, in their minds, they are still weak and in order to show a strong lion head they give it everything they got. Of course most of the teenagers at Woo Ching White Crane have actually been doing lion dance so long, that in a way, they are actually experienced practitioners if not masters in their own right, and so they won't break the head that way either.
But if you're going to ride a bike into the head or kick it, then yeah, it will break. So that's why I think I'm going to bring the ugly head tomorrow. PLus maybe I can bring some sidewalk chalk and we can all color it in or something. Eventually I'm going to have to throw my head out because it's too ugly to keep. It's more of a prototype really. I have another smaller, also ugly unfinished head that I can put a layer of paper mache on. Maybe I can get the kids to do that too, and if they make their own head, they will probably be less likely to want to punch it. Plus it is smaller and more manageable. I made both of these things in some sort of mad frenzy, and now their like gollums living in our attic. To ugly to put on display. Eventually it would be nice to have a bunch of homemade heads. Obviously not just made by me, but made by the kids themselves..... more on that to come.

Stereotypes of Education

I was speaking with a mother whose child just got enrolled in Josiah Quincy School for K-2. The parent is herself an educator, and is Chinese (a mandarin speaker who is fluent in English). Anyway, I valued her opinion because her child is basically only a year or two ahead of mine. Looking at JQS in terms of parents ratings, they are among the highest in the city. I also went there as a child, but started in the 1st grade. The only started Kindergarten, the year I started first grade in fact. A lot of Chinese when I was growing up, wanted to get into this school because it was 70% Chinese. It was not just that it offered bi lingual classes, a lot was the fear of sending there kids to a place where Chinese would be a minority. They felt their children would be safer in a school with more Chinese kids. My mother wanted me to go to JQS because it was right down the street. I probably want my kids to go to the Curley, for the same reason, but if not the Curley, JQS might be nice.
But surprisingly this parent hated JQS. She said that her child is getting five worksheets of homework a day and he is in K-2 and that is in addition to class work. All the worksheet are the same crappy circle this match this kind of crap that doesn't really teach you anything except socialize you to fill out forms and paper work. She said that in addition to that, if your child can't finish his worksheets in class, that he won't be able to go outside and play, so basically her kid didn't play outside for 2 weeks. She herself being an educator said, there are other ways to work on fine motor skills. Cutting, coloring, a lot of different stuff. And why just do it all the same way? And that playing outside is very important for learning social skills and gross motor skills especially for someone so young. I was shocked to heard this and I mentioned the higher rating of JQS and she said that this must have something to do with the difference between Chinese and American culture.

That for Chinese it's not just important for kids to do writing writing writing. The development of skills, social and physical, are extremely important to the Chinese.

Read that again.

I was amazed by this too because the stereotype is basically the opposite. That Chinese, and Asians in general are all about drills and memorization and that it is Americans who are about being social, having fun, and being creative. I would have to say that my experience at Kwong Kow Chinese school as a child supports this stereotype. But I have noticed that educated people coming over from China now have a much more modern and holistic outlook on education. I mentioned this stereotype and she said, "I know!"

But that basically the difference there might be that Chinese Culture gets all the drilling and obedience type of stuff done at home, where as in an American family the kid doesn't really listen to the parents and so the parents want the school to be the place where all the drilling and obedience is hammered in.

That is an interesting way to look out it but I think there are families that will both support and contradict this. My mother was pretty open, but that was in response to her father (my grandfather) who was very strict.

What I really come away with is that these notions of Cultural difference have some truth to them but are in themselves stereotypes that don't always hold up to scrutiny. For instance, let's look at the Beijing Olympics. The stereotype should be that, the super Chinese athletes are good, but they are robots and lack personality and that Americans win from self determination and something that comes from inside of them shown in many a Disney and Rocky movie, and they have great cheerful good sporting personalities. But the Chinese male gymnasts who won the gold, were very humorous in their exhibition pieces, one pretending that the pummel horse was an actual horse that threw him. He tried to find the head and was listening to it and whispering to it. Like a true American, I have now idea what the name of this gymnast was.

Michael Phelps won a ton of medals, but ended up having no personality when being interviewed and took off right after he won all his medals instead of cheering along his fellow Americans or heck, enjoying himself in Beijing and China for a while. Did he have somewhere more important to be? Please.

Btw that clip that went viral of the Chinese hurdler that tore is achilles again, and then went back to hop his race and kiss the last hurdle was epic... emotional...and so open. This are all things that Chinese are supposedly not and which Americans supposedly are. Famously are. Stereotypically are.


Okay let's talk Kung Fu.

The criticism of Kung Fu is often that Traditional Chinese Kung Fu is all about drills, forms, top down, listen to the master, hiding information and mystifying what can easily be explained.
(The mystifying stuff is Merlin, and he was a Westerner if he existed.)

Americans, whether it is American Yoga, or Americans version of Jeet Kune Do, or MMA.. is supposed to be about being more realistic, learning for yourself from first hand experience, and with adults it is kicking ass, and with kids it is having fun and good sportsmanship.

But I see a lot of not that good white guys that seem to be all about bowing, and following rules, and drills, and everything that they criticize Chinese Masters for. In fact an American will usually want to do a ton of conditioning, as a group. Doing tons of reps of physical exercises that everyone knows before they stepped into the school, and which make you stronger, but are not necessarily going to improve your fighting. The exception to this is real boxing gyms and coaches who have a traditional lineage of their own and this end up teaching and talking much the same way you would hear the traditional Chinese master talk, that is if you can understand Chinese.


As for traditional Chinese Kung Fu, of course there are drills. But drills and class is actually only a small part of how would learn Kung Fu in the traditional way. Just like in Karate Kid, you would learn a lot about Kung Fu through actual labor, and instead of sparring, the villages would be in fights all the time... which is why people had to learn Kung Fu. A lot of Kung Fu was finding you own way while the teacher's words would guide you through those personal experiences which you had to go through on your own. (because you didn't spend forever with the teacher, at some point you grew up and moved on with the rest of your life because you probably learned Kung Fu to teach your village or your family, which you now had to go start.)

Class was to teach you how to practice. Practice and experience is what  gave you questions that you would then have to answer. You may have to think of the answer yourself, or you could ask the teacher if he or she was available. It was these questions where the real learning started. It's just that most people, don't actually ever practice hard enough to get to these questions, because of a lack of interest in the first place, or laziness. A hardworking disinterested person, who had to fight, would still have those basic moves to fall back on and therefore, might fight well enough and not have any questions. In fact being able to survive might very well answer all of their questions.

Wind up Kung Fu

Last night I tried to get Noah to just run through the basic for. But he didn't want to. But then a second later he suddenly did the opening and started doing his own form. Then Jonah joined in. Then Noah started teaching Jonah the form he had just made up. There was good and bad about this, because on the one hand, it was helping Noah to teach someone else. Plus he was so proud of his form. However, I could see that Jonah was getting his feelings a little bit hurt because he had been doing his own thing and by Noah telling him no he had to do it another way, Jonah was getting a little bit sad about it. So I told Noah to do his form and Jonah would do Jonah's form. Grace told me to just let Noah show him. They ended up practicing for a pretty long time. I just lay on the floor watching them practice their Kung Fu, like for real practicing. Okay they're children and this and that could be improved, but why get in the way of them practicing when they are doing it by themselves. Heck that was easy. So all I have to do from now on is just suggest they do Kung Fu and I don't have to actually do it with them anymore? That's great. It's like winding something up and then just watching it go instead of having to pull teeth.

What happened to the leaves Baba?

"Baba, what happened to those leaves?"
I explained that they changed color. Why? Why? Why?
"Well to know the exact reason I think we have to look it up together."
Then suddenly as I continued to walk down the sidewalk to the T station that word popped into my head. "Chlorophyll. That's right." I explained to Noah. "Chlorophyll makes the leaves green....." anyway, so I decided we would look it up together. Maybe watch some PBS special about it.
I recall watching a nature special about how plants actually do respond to their environment much more than we used to think, but that they just take longer to respond. For instance they showed two flowers growing.. sped up, and it was clear when seen fast forwarded like that that the flowers were competing for sunlight, battling, moving back and forth as if they were doing some sort of push hands where you don't touch.
There was also the wild tobacco plant that produced something sweet for caterpillars to eat, but that made them release an odor that gave away their location to predators. A sort of trap. Anyway, I'll try and see if Noah will watch that episode with me. He may not like it all that much, and I guess it doesn't exactly have to do with the leaves changing color.

Gene's Chinese Flatbread Cafe

So I just saw that there is one of these in Boston on the internet. The one we went to the other day was in Chelmsford. The food is in the Xi'an style which is wester China. There are noodles, and then there are flatbread sandwiches, and then there are also the classic AMericna Chinese food ie eggrolls, wings, crab rangoon, and a fourth one that many Americans would know but I forget at the moment.
The main difference about this restaurant is that they make the noodles themselves, right there, right before they cook it. Just like that place in Flushing, NY except I think Flushing's style cooking is from a different Province in China. The Flat breads come in Pork and in Beef, and are a lot like Pulled Pork (I only just learned the distinction between pulled pork and a sloppy Joe. I think I might have inadvertently sinsulted one of my American friends when I referred to the one as the other at his house.)
My point is, the flat bread's are good, and those are something you can eat to go. The Noodles are so good that when I ate them, I made a very visceral and carnal MMMM... sound while the guy who made them happened to be wiping down the table next to ours. He looked over in surprise and I burst out laughing in embarssment. "I think he likes them." Grace said. But you have to eat them right there. I thought I was going to have to go back to this place, putting Jonah at risk for Car-sickness due to the distance. But I guess they opened a place on 86 Bedford Street. 02111  Well I guess We'll be checking that out soon.

Double Ten Parade in Boston

So the parade came out in full force today despite the rain. I didn't bring our little head, or our uniforms, or Jonah for that matter, because I wasn't sure what to expect. We got into to Chinatown right at the head of the Parade so we got to watch it pass, which is the best way to watch of course. There was a dragon and a children's lion dance group with five heads. Gung Ho was out there, the Kuomintang and Veteran Groups. (Indeed there are still Old Mainland Chinese American vets alive who fought in WWII for Kuomintang) There were the Taiwanese students that started screaming when they saw us because we had come with our Taiwanese flags already and were among the first spectators they saw. There was a marching band, and then we saw Woo Ching White Crane and slipped into the Parade. Behind Wo Ching WHite Crane was a Revotutionary war reenactment group that was firing off muskets. This was exteremely cool. But it was also loud enough for me to feel a little pressure on my eardrums. Which would be alright for me, but Noah was in the stroller with me so I moved up to the front. And watched the parade pass again. At the end there was Wah Lum and I think Chiu Moh Goon as well. At City Hall there was the flag ceremony the anthems and  brief speeches by politicians.. and Michelle Wu was there, speaking Mandarin fluently, because of course her parents are Taiwanese.
We watched the aboriginal and Chinese dances and drumming and basically stayed until the end. It was very crowded at first but the crowd thinned out. I wanted the memory to be etched into Noah's mind. I have Double Ten memories etched into mine and I'm not Taiwanese. I think my Grandfather might have been Governor of Canton under the ROC government and actually fled to Taiwan (leaving my his fourth wife/concubine and my grandmother and my dad behind.) They fled to Hong Kong at some point. There was no reunion that I know of but there were letters back and forth between relatives that I hope I still have somewhere. In other words Double Ten means something more to me than "Golden Week" which means nothing to me at all since my ancestors were out of there before China became Red. But my Chinese ancestors were more like stories told to me than actual flesh and blood relatives. Even my dad died when I was four. But my mother made sure I was as Chinese as she could make me.
And I'm not Taiwanese, and Noah and Jonah do have their Gong Gong, A Mah, and other Taiwanese relatives, as well as Taiwanese friends of the family. But there not living with us now, so I'm going to make my kids as Taiwanese as I can, which basically means Noah and I went to Double Ten.

I got comments on the Subway going there by a Taiwanese woman (who spoke English like an American) and on the way back from a White Woman who had seen the parade and was shocked by how large it was. She didn't think Boston had so many Taiwanese. I explained to her that it wasn't just for Taiwan, but the 1911 overthrow of the Qing Dynasty.

Moon Festival at Little Panda

Where's the sun go?

This morning Noah woke up and asked me, like he often does, why it was dark out, where the sun went etc.
I responded that the earth was turning toward the sun. "When is it going to turn back?" was his question.
I answered that the earth was always turning the same direction and that sometime it was facing the sun and sometimes it wasn't.
"Okay ready?" I asked, "You be the sun and I'll be the earth." I said. We were lying next to each other in bed.
"Okay," he said.
Then I started turning in my spot saying. "Turn....turn... turn..." Actually I'm not sure if this is actually a work out, or if I was dizzy, or tired, but in any case, after three turns I didn't really feel like turning anymore. Noah was giggling the whole time. Then he said, "Okay Baba you be sun and I'll be the earth."
"Okay." I said.
Then he started turning around laughing really hard. "Turn... hahahaha.. turn.... hahaha... turn...okay now you be the earth and I'll be the sun."
So this went on for a while. Then we got up and did our various horse stances. Actually Noah was the one that called out the moves and led our little "class." For the "female word stance" (a cross over stance that  looks like the chinese character "loi") he would have to hold onto the bed that used to be a crib (a thing which is rarely used recently for sleeping, though occasionally Jonah tucks himself in their and hides.)
He doesn't quite have the balance yet to cross over and stand one his own.
Well then he got tired of that (or hungry) and we went down stairs. We had gone to bed fairly early yesterday after a day of apple picking and eating at an awesome noodle place in Chelmsford. (More on that noodle place later.) Well supposedly there is supposed to be a parade today. We'll see how that goes since it is raining. I have childhood memories of marching in the rain in those hard soled flat, no support Kung Fu shoes as a little Kwong Kow student, so they'll probably still have it..

Children's Museum 100th anniversary.

100 years ago the Boston Children's Museum opened at the Pinebank Mansion, Jamaica Pond. Last night they commemorated their 100th year anniversary. The hired Gund Kwok for Dragon dance and Gund Kwok brought us in to do lion due because they didn't have the people to do both that night. It was fun, exciting.. it was as the coordinator told me it would be... organized chaos. The plans kept changing as we went along. But the truth is lion dancers should thrive in situations like this. Nothing is more organized chaos than Chinese New Year. Added to the many teams going to different restaurants and businesses while customers are till going in and out, and while chiang's are set up and firecrackers set off, is much more chaotic than the controlled setting that e had last night. But still, it was out of our Chinatown element. I saw some younger members of the team grow a few years in experience and adapt to the surroundings. There was adrenaline, there was the unexpected, and they did it anyway.
A lot of the communication was done by last minute eye contact, the coordinator signaling me, a Gund Kwok member signaling me, and then me signaling the drum and talking to the head and the tail. It was great. It was a rush. It was true sport, true lion dance, true team work. The fact that your not sure what exactly is coming next, does not mean that you don't know what you're doing. I was signaled to end the dance early as the Boston Youth Choir was already set up, and then they started their performance.
It was one of the better dances I was part of. It reminded me of the when I organized the Mother's Day/Asian American Pacific Islander Event a couple years ago. When things happen differently (and not necessarily worse) than you expect, you can either adapt and enjoy it, or get stuck at that and replay your negative thoughts. Instead of throwing out gut reflexes to changing situations focus on the positive. Positive events, positive people, positive energy. Speaking of which off I go to teach my 10am Kung Fu and Lion Dance class for children and their parents at Pine Bank, Jamaica Pond, where the Children's museum started. And a class full of excited energized children.

Good Samritan

I just picked up a children's easel for free on the street. We have a smaller easel, but this one has a chalk board, and I had noticed how much Jonah liked those hand made Chalkboards at the JP music festival. The problem was carrying the easel while pushing the stroller. I was moving at a snails pace because the stroller is hard to steer with one hand carrying it the way I was, going up hill, on an uneven sidewalk. And guess what? This woman said she would help me push the stroller! She is working at CVS so we going the same direction. Nothing could have been more helpful! I've helped out a lot f people in a similar way, but still when you actually need help, it's just freaking awesome when someone offers it to you, even if it's something simple like that. As I approached our house, it started to rain, so basically had I not gotten that help I would have been soaked by now. Thanks again to the woman who was my Good Samaritan!

Kung Fu Zen

I couldn't help skimming through all of the "Kung Fu Quest" episodes last night. There are some good and bad effects from this. The bad effects are that watching people fight or even pretend to fight each other, has gotten me thinking about sparring again. To the point where when I saw an invitation to an "open fight night " a month ago, I ignored it. But now I can't stop thinking about it. Like it is some sort of drug or addiction. In my Mind it will be find if I show up and do my techniques as long as I wear big boxing gloves. Then it will be okay to do pows and cups right? Anyway so that's the bad.
The good comes mainly from watching the end f the Shaolin Epsiode. I liked how they addressed that SHaolin Temple's (the modern one) Kung fu is constantly being questioned due to commercialization etc. Like I said, I skimmed. The monk at the end, demonstrated some of his Kung Fu and it was different then what you normally see. You could vaguely see techniques, but he did it in a way that was like a highly trained person, doing moves as if they were somone who know longer knew Kung Fu. Liek they had "forgotten" technique. This idea is in various Kung Fu novels and also a part of our system and Bruce Lee talked about it as well. The technique of having no technique. But this monk really looked like he was doing what he was saying. In fact the only difference in the way I would do it, is that I would extend my arms longer. Then the real positive thing I got from him was his lecture on how to practice. And that is, the more you practice the happier you are (should be) That if you get sick or injured from practicing, then what is the point? It is supposed to improve your life, not make it worse. This is something I have struggled with for a long time and part of it can be summed up as "violence in the mind." In other words, he does his moves hard, but he is battling himself. Not battling himself but he is attempting to rid his mind of evil thought. I tried this today and found that I enjoyed my practice much more. It's not the first time I've done this, but I felt empowered by the monks words. (Btw he is practicing on a very nice mountain and I wouldn't mind practicing there all day at all.) Now I will admit too that violence still did creep into my practice at some points but I really focused on going away form that, while still putting power in my moves. It is difficult not to imagine an opponent. My goal, if I do spar with these ideas, would be to spar in a way that I was just doing my moves, but not sparring or fighting the other person. In other words, trying to maintain a meditative, even enlightened mindset, even in the middle of sparring or even fighting. So that sparring or even fighting is not sparring or fighting but a calm meditation. Much easier said than done.
I also really liked the Mongolian wrestling episode. A lot of the Mongolian wrestlers, like the monk, seemed to have this happy outlook on life in their martial art. It was a game they were playing. Never mind that there are know eye gouges and all that. Because when you think about the history of the Mongolian empire, real warriors, wrestled all the time, but real fighting took place on a horse with bows and arrows. So why Eye gouge or injure your fellow soldier when practicing?
Maybe it's because I was never really an athlete, and was never good at a sport and so never had that feeling of good clean competition. I always felt cheated and angry. The only physical activity I took to was Kung Fu and even then, when sparring I felt angered that others would either not let me do my technique, or would be doing dangerous things to me while complaining when I did the basic moves on them. In the beginning when I was learning and worse then everyone it was okay. But once I actually became good... that's when it became a problem. Maybe I need to pick up a new sport of some sort. But then I think about all my friends that have injured their knees and such from competing at things like basketball. Where as when I practice Kung Fu I am not competing. (though I used to compete against myself, and of course that does lead to injury.)

Training Feng SHui

While looking at youtube these Hong Kong show came up about the origins of Karate. Basically these two very jacked Hong Kong guys that practice Karate start looking into Wing Chun Bak Hok or forever spring white crane or Fukienese White Crane. Turns out there are a lot of similarities. I could have told you that at a glance of the forms and at the Geography of the two systems. The main thing that I took away is that I am really grateful that I am doing the system I am doing and that I practice where I practice, the way I practice.
Here's what I mean. The guys who are the hosts of the show practice 2-3 hours a day and are jacked as well as pretty bad ass. You look at their gym and it is small but I think that it is supposed to be nice for Hong Kong. It has tons of modern equipment, these guys dress in crisp white Karate Outfits, and then kick as at tournaments and training. But the lighting is terrible. I wouldn't want to spend 2-3 hours a day there at all. Even our old school which Americans would complain didn't look like a school had a homey feel to it. Yeah the tiles kept coming up and it was messy and falling apart and dirty, but you stepped out and there's Tai Tung Village, with trees covered in snow or flowers depending on the season and children playing in the playground. The new school had big windows and in the mornings is really incredible with the golden sunlight shining in. And where I usually practice now is at home or in the playground/park. which are both very nice.
When they start going around to other schools in Hong Kong, one of the schools is in a small room in the Sifu/owners warehouse. Now that is cool that the master happens to own a warehouse and a secret room to practice. But again it is dingy and like a prison. The guys all practice very hard and quickly you can see that though the hosts are jacked, it's like they have developed the wrong muscles because they don't do so hot against the less jacked guys in sparring. I also quickly see how Tibetan White Crane got a reputation in Taishan and Hong Kong for not only kicking ass, but sort for being jerks. The guys sparring are obviously holding back on each other, but in other ways they are going hard too. Luckily their systems are related, because if they weren't it wouldn't look like that. Even if it were my student or son who was holding his hands in the way they were holding them (and assuming my student or son was as jacked) I would be wailing away at their arms and bodies with pows and cups. And if I didn't really know them, and they were coming at me with fast movements, even if they were trying to hold back, I might accidentally hit them because that's how our techniques go. But it seems like they would not be okay with that or think that was going to far. But all of the sparring sessions I've ever heard of from my Sifu, or even about other Tibetan white crane people, or from the systems with longer swinging movements, usually go more like that. Wailing on the other guy or a knockout. I've written about my own experiences before and usually if there are arms to hit, and the guy looks fit I will hit that. Fukienese white crane happens to be really good about blocking hits as opposed to just putting their hand in a position where our blows will just rain on their head but they think they are defended like boxing and Muay Thai. But that has to do with rules. In fact the Karate guys do it more as a sport and mentioned that when sparring with the traditionally trained guys there was a bunch of moves to the eyes and groin which they weren't expecting. Again they were holding back on each other though.) I was amazed that they looked more like they were just slapping each other. When you see them hitting the pads and also just their faces, they look like no nonsense tough guys.... actually they look like assholes. So I was expecting their sparring to reflect that. Turns out they were really respectful about going into the other schools and had a lot of good things to say about the other masters. But still, usually with two different systems there will be a crash of ideology and the sparring will become a fight. It's like if a wrestler who just does wrestling traied to have a friendly match with a boxer who just does boxing. They will both break the others rules of the others sport. Tempers will flare, and a real fight will ensue.
The fact that this didn't happen when a Karate guy went to various Fukienese White Crane Kung Fu Schools has to do with the systems being related. Basically, they are the same system separated by time and culture.

 If two white crane (Tibetan or Long armed Shaolin) people that are from the same school have a friendly sparring match, it might look like the two guys are just circling each other not even touching. Almost like children play fighting. (not always though. Plenty of fights and arguments can break out even among the same school because not everyone is always on the same page with what they are comfortable with in Sparring.)

You will notice in some actual boxing fights there are moments when professional boxers may move around each other for some time without even touching as well. They are waiting for the open shot, and both guys know the other guy has a powerful punch and they don't just want to go in and risk being hit in the face, (and those guys are trying to win for money!)

In the animal Kingdom this is even more obvious. There is a lot of posturing and various ritual games that are played. Because going to a no holds bar fight usually means death. And groups of animals that fight to the death tend to compete badly against other groups of the same species that fight with posturing and rules. In the end, the group with rules has more numbers, which is what really counts.

The hosts go one to other schools in China and Japan which are all similarly related to the Karate (Fukienese White Crane) lineage. There are some incredibly bad ass guys practicing 8 hours a day and training traditionally using internal power etc etc. They were hitting rocks and each other... but I guess I wouldn't trade spots with them either. Because they were hitting a rock, that was on a bench, in a dimly lit school. I wouldn't want to stay inside all day for 8 hours training on various exercises. Why not go to the woods? Or a waterfall? or the mountains? I'm lucky enough to have a park near my house. But in the Mountains in New Hampshire the air and scenery was even better. Plenty of trees and rocks to hit climb and waterfalls to stand under and all that just like in Samurai movies. Just saying, why lock yourself in a room for that long when you can enjoy some scenery and witness some nature and interact with it? You might learn something from watching a bird or a cat or something even more wild. Plus your kids can play too and use their imaginations and you wouldn't be sacrificing for the sake of training, but just increasing the experience of family time.

Now some of the schools in China looked like they worked out in the park. Unless they actually owned that real estate they were on, which I doubt. And that master was pretty good too. The funny thing was he seemed to be out of shape. But I also know that having the skills, and the gung doesn't necessarily mean you aren't fat. Even some of the famous Masters from history notably had bellies. Now I don't look p90x perfect nor do I need too, but as I get older at least having good cardio is becoming increasingly important to me. So if I have to choose a reason to practice, the biggest reason is going to be health, followed by fun/happiness, followed by art/meditative mindfulness, and then a sprinkling of bad assery on all of the above.

A Compliment on the Tiger Fork

There is an old Chinese man who is the grandfather of one of Noah's old classmates. The sibling of that classmate still goes to BCNC though the old classmate does not. I see him quite often, almost everyday. He usually is doing Tai Chi in one of the playgrounds. Actually the first time I watched him I wanted to blog about the typical Chinese workout because after he was done he immediately pulled out his cigarettes and lit up. I started a conversation with him about Kung Fu, but instead we ended up talking about the fact that I could speak Chinese, how it is that I came to be watching the children, and how he never sees American grandparents picking up children from daycare, but almost always sees Chinese grandparents picking up children from daycare.
Since then we always say hi and on occasion he will ask me a question he will ask me a question about English, or why I am carrying a child's lion head.

Today though as soon as he saw me he immediately said, "So it was you who did the Tiger Fork!"
I just said yes.
Normally you would think I would have to ask a few questions like, "Where did you see me perform the Tiger Fork?" or maybe say, "I do ocassioanally perform the Tiger Fork."
These questions did pas through my mind but not out of my mouth. I knew he was talking about me.
First of all, he called the Tiger Fork, "Fei Pa" (flying paddle) which only old Chinese people who at least grew up watching Kung Fu in the village style (if not practicing it) will call it that. Even Chinese people that say, grew up in Tai Cheng, which is the main city in Taishan, will probably only know what a Fei Pa is because they heard a parent talk about it or happen to go back and visit their ancestral village.

Also, there are a lot of people who perform the Tiger Fork. There are probably a lot of white guys that perform the Tiger Fork. I've seen them. A lot of them might do a lot of cool tricks with it and cool looking moves. Moves that you can do with any pole arm. They practice a lot, and perhaps they have been doing Kung Fu for a while.

My form is more or less Free styled, just making sure certain key moves are in there. I tend not to do the fancy moves because I feel that I have to do them, at least as well if not better than my simpler moves in order for them to be worthy of the form. That means a lot of practicing something that doesn't necessarily give me a work out, and which is extremely dangerous to do around children. Although, like juggling, once you get the move, it's not all that hard to do, and doesn't take a whole lot of strength to do. Unlike say, pushups, which are pretty easy to do but are designed to be a workout.

He continued as he brought his grandkids into their classroom, "Jun hai sai lei, Jun hei number one. I thought and thought and I realized it had to be you."

Basically, the way I do Tiger Fork, will make an older Chinese man take note because it will be something familiar to his childhood, and something he may not have seen in a while. But the way I perform it will not make an impression on an adolescent or even a middle aged Chinese man other than, "Yo, you look like you're mad dangerous with that pokey thing. What do you call that?" or "Hmmm you're form looks kind of powerful." There are no tricks or other type things that they will want to mimic. The moves are simple because they are for fighting a tiger, an animal that will jump on you and impale itself on the fork, because it doesn't know better, and which weighs a lot.

The Fei Pa, also has ritual and spiritual significance when it is performed. It is a Spirit Weapon that can kill of chase away, evil (pic che) and is used for New Year, Housewarmings, and to end an event.

Still I'm curious as to how he sees me everyday, more or less, and how it was that he recognized that I must have done the Tiger Fork for.. August Moon?.... Spring Festival??.. because that's the last time I did it. IS there a Youtube video he just saw? Maybe I should take a look.