1. Join a martial arts club
- I've attended a couple of Aikido lessons, so now I'll join for real
2. Join a band
- Even it's just attending a few jam nights at my local pub
3. Online one of my video projects
- As in go through the processes, like mixing, onlining...etc, to bring one of my projects up to a broadcast standard
4. Try out Linux and have ago at C+ programming
- Get an old PC, try out Linux and an old version of Windows to have a stab at C+
5. Buy a bicycle and take up cycling
- This one pretty self explanatory, those who know of Brighton will know it has a great long cycle lane along the coast
What do you bring most to a friendship?
Loyalty
Martial arts has been an interest of mine for years. Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Bruce Lee have all demonstrated some amazing feats of martial arts in thier films. Until now I've been just been watching, today I decided to take up martial arts for real. Aikido to be exact, Brighton Aikikai.
A couple of weeks ago I researched through the internet into martial arts in Brighton, and Aikido seemed like the most interesting. From watching countless you-tube videos I got the sense that it was about using the other person's force against them. Taking the force of their attack and having them on the floor in seconds. It also involved weapons and that's got to be fun!
When I arrived at Kicks Martial Arts Club in Brighton I was welcomed by instructor Mark Hale Tori. I learned that tomorrow they are having a seminar at The Brighton Judo Club with Pascal Durchon, 5th dan, a very important Aikido master. With most of the students preparing for tomorrow, there was only two students in tonight. So I watched.
For the first hour they practiced with weapons. They progressed through 5 different moves with a Staff or Jo. Allot of the techniques start with both fighter's Jo, held out and touching at the end. One person steps forward as the other steps back. The Jo is held out and the moves begin. It's all about your centre of balance and how the Jo is aligned with it, making all the movement become very fluid and graceful. One move involved waiting for the enemy to strike. As he begins to lift his weapon the opponent steps, lunges and strikes foward. Thus throwing off the enemy's centre of balance. And by this point the enemy is learning back and vulnerable, while the opponent is ready to attack again.
Physical fighting was next. The first move involved the enemy grabbing the opponent's Gi (martial art clothing) from behind. As he does so the opponent elbows the enemy, spins around, grabs the wrist, and twists the enemy to the floor. It very impressive. After they had practiced several different techniques they moved away from the "perfect world" situations. And onto more realistic fighting, still using a single technique at once, but against a more reactive opponent.
The stronger and taller fighter has your wrists tightly locked and immovable. In order to break the lock, you swing your arms 'up and down'. As 'up and down' is not where the strength in his arms lie. With the arms now more flexible, you twist out and back into an attacking stance.
You stop and you're in trouble. Constant movement was one of the most important points I took away from watching the Aikido lesson. All the while your steadily walking towards your opponent, with your hands in their face, lightly hitting them from side to side, you are in control. Then it's just a case of waiting for the opportunity to throw them to the floor.
A little wiser and a lot more curious, I think Aikido could suite me well. Everything I saw today was fascinating; the techniques, the theory behind it, and how different moves can fit into different situations.
Tomorrow I am going to check out the seminar at Brighton Judo Club with Pascal Durchon, 5th dan, as he'll be demonstrating some very high level Aikido. It should be fun.
Hello one and all,
Here is my first proper post and I thought I'd make it a review of a film I recently saw; Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!
From the makers of Ice Age it definitely has a stronger narrative than Ice Age 2, which was all over the place. Based on the rule that "if a film makes you laugh at least 5 times, then it was worth the price of admission" makes this film well worth it.
Jim Carrey is great as Horton the elephant who discovers a the whole city of Whoville in a tiny speck! In this speck Horton can hear the mayor of Whoville played by Steve Carrel. Being a Dr. Seuss' film there are some the rhymes, which are quite fun. Personally I would have liked a few more of the clever rhymes.
I felt the overall story was a little weak, and was compensated to some extent by some terrific sight gags, that you could easily miss. One that stood out for me was when the speck/Whoville gets shaken up and the mayor (Carrel) is trying to hang on to his goldfish bowel. After everything has settled down he's left holding just the goldfish. The mayor gives him CPR and throws the fish back in his bowel. The fish catches his breath, while standing and leaning on the side of the bowel (a bit of anthropomorphism is often funny when you don't expect it).
What I think let this film down was the antagonist. In this case a nosey, uptight kangaroo (Carol Burnett) who doesn't believe in the speck and thinks it should be destroyed. I feel if they had fleshed the story out a little more and made more out of the slap stick as some of it was hilarious, then it could have been a family classic.
Maybe next time.
I think I'll give a very respectable: 3.5 out of 5
