#bruce lee
Reconstructed pagoda sequence in Game of Death from Bruce Lee: A Warrior’s Journey (2000)
dir. Bruce Lee / dop. Tadashi Nishimoto
Post link
This time we’re bringing the mixture of topics from different genres. A bit of political analysis, some historical fiction with plenty of interesting historical facts, a psychological thriller, a brilliant biography of the 20th century martial arts and film icon, and a memoir of the mother of black Hollywood. Here are this week’s picks—we hope you find them as enjoyable as we did.
The Death of Truth-Michiko Kakutani
“Trump is as much a symptom of the times as he is a dangerous catalyst,” Kakutani says in his new book The Death of Truth, and demonstrates how his disdain for facts and civility grew from fascism and postmodernism. She cites chilling parallels between Trump’s use of language and Hitler’s, and shows how ideas such as cultural relativity and deconstruction softened the lines between objective and subjective. This dangerous tendency to give equal weight to substance and nonsense has been abetted by technology, with social media ensuring the most inflammatory stories get the widest circulation. Where the founders emphasized “the common good,” the very idea of consensus is now in tatters. What can save us? Institutions such as the three branches of government, the press, and education; the courage to insist on the truth, as the Parkland students have; and books like this one. Laurie G.
Varina-Charles Frazier
Varina is a haunting and beautifully written historical novel about Varina Davis, the wife of Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy. It traces her escape from Richmond with her children, her life before meeting her much older and already widowed husband, and her turbulent years after the war including her many losses and struggles. She was truly a fascinating woman who lived during a time of great tragedy, change and upheaval. Frazier includes so many interesting historical tidbits throughout the novel and reading Varina is a pure delight. Nancy R.
The Shades-Evgenia Citkowitz
The Shades is a great little pressure cooker of a novel—an ideal literary thriller. It springs a mysterious death-by-falling on you in the first pages and slowly, calculatedly brings back to the root of the event until everything becomes clear. Well, not everything. The best thing about this book is its daring lack of resolution, as powerful an evocation of dispersed familial grief as they come. Fans of Ali Smith’s The Accidental will find this a powerful warp on its portrait of a family ravaged, and hopefully built back up, from within and without. Jonathan W.
Bruce Lee: A Life - Matthew Polly
By the time of his death at the age of thirty-two, Bruce Lee had achieved unparalleled success in martial arts and film. With the posthumous release of his movie Enter the Dragon, he became one of the icons of the 20th century. Although much has been published about him, Matthew Polly has written the definitive biography - Bruce Lee: A Life. By the end of this excellent book, readers will feel like they’ve come to know the man behind those fists of fury. Michael T.
The Mother of Black Hollywood-Jenifer Lewis
Many people know Ms. Lewis from the hit TV show Blackish, but she has contributed much more to TV and film than meets the eye. In her memoirThe Mother of Black Hollywood she discusses her struggle with mental illness, sex addiction, and her road to stardom. Fans of Jenifer Lewis will adore this book. Morgan H.
The Bride’s yellow outfit was inspired by the outfit worn by Bruce Lee in his final film, ‘Game of Death’, 1978.
(..) Robert Clouse, the director of Enter the Dragon, together with Golden Harvest, revived Lee’s unfinished film Game of Death. Lee had shot over 100 minutes of footage, including out-takes, for Game of Death before shooting was stopped to allow him to work on Enter the Dragon. In addition to Abdul-Jabbar, George Lazenby, Hapkido master Ji Han-Jae, and another of Lee’s students, Dan Inosanto, were also to appear in the film, which was to culminate in Lee’s character, Hai Tien (clad in the now-famous yellow track suit) taking on a series of different challengers on each floor as they make their way through a five-level pagoda. In a controversial move, Robert Clouse finished the film using a look-alike and archive footage of Lee from his other films with a new storyline and cast, which was released in 1978. However, the cobbled-together film contained only fifteen minutes of actual footage of Lee (he had printed many unsuccessful takes) while the rest had a Lee look-alike, Kim Tai Chung, and Yuen Biao as stunt double. The unused footage Lee had filmed was recovered 22 years later and included in the documentary Bruce Lee: A Warrior’s Journey.
HAD to do a Shang-Chi retro poster as a complementary piece to the Warrior poster I created last year!
Posters and other stuff here
I’m not sure if this is an actual Bruce Lee quote, but it sounds like one. This world would be a different place if he was still around, sharing things like this with the people as he grew older. Regardless of who said it, that is still a kickass quote that is spot on. Nothing lasts forever, so enjoy the good and endure the bad because it always changes like the weather.
PJ
Post link
Dan Inosanto has seen it all…
As martial artists, especially instructors or competitors, you’re always subject to a fair amount of pressure testing. When Bruce Lee introduced JKD to the world in the 1960′s it went through various stages of ridicule until it became accepted. As evolution has shown Sigung (founder) Bruce Lee was on to something, the fingerless gloves, the blending of the styles, it all paved the way for modern MMA.
Guro (teacher) Inosanto has traveled his own path in tandem with Jeet Kune Do with the methods of his cultural background Kali and Silat. Kali is the warrior art of the Philippines, which lends itself very well to modern society. That’s because Kali starts with tools and weaponry that can be invaluable in self defense. Guro Inosanto has been teaching and sharing these methods literally all over the globe since the 70′s.
Yet still to this day there’s a struggle to demonstrate the efficacy of Kali to the masses. At RCW in Tigard we believe that’s because Guro Dan has been so giving and generous to put this information in the hands of the people that he cares little for the credit given to him. One look at the quote above and you can see a glimpse of his philosophy. We’d like to parallel that stellar example at our school, which is why you will always find a friendly and welcoming environment at River City Warrior.
As a result of this laid back attitude and constant sharing, sometimes other disreputable people try to lay claim to the legacy. This is in all martial arts and on this blog we’ve been all over the topic several times. Take Gracie Jiu Jitsu schools for example, a program we also offer, they’re all over! 10 years ago you couldn’t find one in the phone book unless you were extremely lucky. So where do all these qualified instructors come from? The tragic answer is there’s a lot of fakers out there trying to make a living, take credit for something they haven’t earned or simply boost their fragile ego. Martial arts has never been about that, and we caution everyone out there to do their homework and determine a school’s credibility before joining any program. Many of the instructors at RCW went through this process for you. We wasted countless hours of time, hard earned money and suffered injuries starting out with the wrong people.
If it says Inosanto Kali and JKD on the sign outside, make sure they have it on the inside. Any solid instructor would be happy to provide credentials, and emphatically show curriculum and what you’ll be learning at the drop of a hat. That’s because inside we’re all big fans of Guro Dan, he sets an incredible example of that pursuit of self growth and perfection. It’s infectious and highly motivational, and we believe once you have a taste of real authenticity you won’t want to train in any other fashion.
If you’re interested in JKD, Kali, or any of our other programs you’ll find free trials in the side bar or by simply using the contact us link and sending us a message. We’d love to hear from you and help you begin or continue the incredible journey of life through the lens of martial arts.
- Guro Joe
Post link
TheKali program at RCW is a complete system. Mainly because we subscribe to Guro (teacher) Dan Inosanto’s method of Kali, weaponry and tools, and Jeet Kune Do. Guro Inosanto was at one time Bruce Lee’s protege. However he’s gone on to dedicate himself every day of his life to the pursuit of greatness in the field of martial arts. At 81 years young, almost every major martial art has felt his influence from Boxing and Muay Thai to Gracie Jiu Jitsu and Shooto.
Most close quarter self defense drills you’ll find with a weapon might illustrate one component of that range. For instance they might emphasize disarming the weapon, punching or grappling. Others may prefer to hit with the handle or butt of the weapon, while others still use the end of the implement.
When I first saw this drill from Guro Inosanto it blew me away. Here’s a fundamental that quickly has you doing all the above. It’s very reality based and rapidly becomes a great sparring component. Whether you’re new to this type of training or a seasoned pro, these fundamentals are always a solid base to turn to.
Hope you enjoy and if if you’re interested in any of our classes we encourage you to explore River City Warriors with a free trial. We are right nearby, less than 5 minutes from Lake Oswego, Tualitin, and Tigard.
All the best on your Journey…
(viahttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1GVCNlhZao)
From our Jeet Kune Do (JKD) class earlier this week. If you enjoyed the Paul Vunak video we posted earlier, you should see a continuity here. That’s because we follow the official Inosanto curriculum.
Like many martial arts, you have to be careful where you train JKD. There’s many pretenders and frauds out there. Sometimes it’s just a matter that instructors reach a certain level of qualification and lose the aspiration to keep developing. Regardless of circumstances you want to get spoiled by great information and not waste money, time, or health training at the wrong place.
For RCW the path is pretty simple: learn and train from the best instructors on the planet. In terms of JKD there’s no better source than Dan Inosanto, who was not only Bruce Lee’s top student and heir to the system, but he’s gone on to train and grow for his entire career. At 80 years old his time in the training hall is about 60 years. That’s 60 years of continued refinement, private lessons with other high level mentors, pioneering material and endless growth.
Under the Inosanto curriculum, like our BJJ and Muay Thai, there’s a progression. A step by step approach to learn the material and get it in your muscle memory. If you look across other instructors in our association like Paul Vunak, Rick Young, Chris Kent, Erik Paulson, Francis Fong, or Chris Clarke you’ll find the same exact progression. This might seem like something simple, but this continuity is actually rare.
It’s a key indicator someone is a pretender to JKD if they don’t follow this format. They don’t have the same clear concept of range and tool set. Worse yet, some even tell you there’s no curriculum under Dan Inosanto and you just do whatever you want. Part of that stems from the fact not all black belts are created equally. Some people get certified and then DONT follow the curriculum. I’ve seen this in BJJ all the time, as Pedro Sauer has a very detailed progression to follow for the first six years of training. I’ve been to numerous Pedro Sauer schools though, where the black belt in charge relies more on wrestling, sport Jiu Jitsu, or what they think is more important than decades of curriculum refinement and implementation.
JKD the martial art does have a system to follow, and you’ll find it at RCW. We will lay out the foundation and method for you so you can see yourself improving in the first 90 days.
Knowledge will give you power, but character respect. - Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee on the cover of the Polish film magazine Film #19, 1982
