Blast from the Past

Mark dropped in on Calwushu on friday......it was Make Your Own Combo Practice......where each student makes up a combination for the rest of the class to do.....it helps to train the mind to not preconsieve and to go with the flow so to speak.  Mark led the class thru some Nanquan Combos.......his specialty...everyone had fun and were introduced to lots of different forms......Ben did some Mantis, Darren some Fanzi Quan......and I gave them a Bagua Chang Quan combo....haha........which was a hah what was that?!  As we were sitting around who should show up but Kai............it just so happens Mark and I had been talking about him earlier....as I've been trying to track down my missing wushu videos..........some quite hard to find as they are from the early days of Wushu (1980's)...............it was great seeing Kai.  He had been working on Iron Man, and just finished up The Hulk.........he said don't miss it!  Kai works for Lucas and Dreamworks....and does CGI for these films.  Kai couldn't reveal any secrets but he is working on the new Star Trek Movie, and he says it looks really good....it has a good cast and the CGI work looks fanastic.........look for that tho in 2009.  And turns out he doesn't know where those videos of mine went.....we only remember someone was suppose to transfer them for me to dvd.  Afterwards we hung out at Berkeley's Asian Ghetto.......so called because it's has lots of Asian Resturants there and the majority of people hanging out there are Asian Students from Cal..........then it was time to go............Mark is off to visit his family and will be back in a week or so.  Kai, I told him to drop in more often.  It's always good to see old students and find out what's going on in their lives  Sunday was work out time..........as usual..........very kool to see Kevan and Ryan taking leadership in class and starting the beginners practice.......old style kung-fu schools have always been that way, where the older students help teach the younger students...........this is a way of giving back to your school and your teacher, and making the school a family not just a commercial venture........while a great business model, it lacks the family feeling. This week also another student from the past returned, Cathy and her room mate are starting to learn Bagua Basics.........lots of posture practice, applications,and qigong.  Cathy we haven't seen for quite awhile, as she moved to Texas to open an Optometry business, but she wanted to be closer to her mom so she's moved back to the Bay Area.......she did not want to do anymore Chang Quan but still wanted to study wushu, so Bagua was her next choice.  Yep, a good choice, it's not slow like Taiji, and lots of time is spent on application rather than just forms.  So this week was just a week of lots of wushuers from the past.....very neat,,,,but this wasn't the only thing  set in my past.  At the end of class some of the Taiji Students and Kevan and Ryan decided that they would accompany Glenn and I to perform for Dr. Alex Feng's, Wu Tao Kuan Martial Arts 35th Anniversary Celebration.  It should be quite an event as they have invited many notable Martial Artist from the Bay Area from different styles( many of whom I haven't seen in a long time):  Wally Jay from Jiu Jitsu, Anthony Daniels from Taekwando, Clarence Lee-Northern Shaolin and Okinowaiian Karate, Li Xu Dong-Chen Taiji and Wushu, Eric Lee-Shaolin and Wan Hop Kuendo, Professor Wang Pei Kun from the Shanghai wushu Association, and many others.  Show and dinner will be at Samuel Merritt College in Oakland at the Health Education Building (building #3) from3-9pm on Sunday June 22. All our practices this week will be to get ready for this next event......if you are around drop by!  Cya!