Celebrities studying martial arts?

[GeneChing]

... I was going to post this on my thong fu thread, but it got eaten by the forum move. Maybe I'll have to repost that.

Lady Jane Percy tells of martial arts passion
Mar 29 2009 Sunday Sun

“I’D really love to swing a punch and knock someone clean out.”

They are words you probably never thought The Duchess of Northumberland would utter.

But just like her high-class, high-kicking computer games counterpart Lady Lara Croft, the North’s own Lady Jane Percy has revealed her love of the martial arts.

The duchess, whose family has a £300m fortune, is not only a kickboxer, but is also learning the Filipino double- stick art of Kali, which uses two rattan canes to subdue an aggressor.

And, not only might Lady Percy attain a coveted black belt herself, she is urging school pupils across the North to do likewise.

She said: “I really enjoy kickboxing because it’s a great way to relieve stress and keep fit.

“What I hate about ordinary exercise is that I’m always watching the clock. But if I’m doing kickboxing or using the sticks you have to really concentrate or you get hit.

“But I also just enjoy it for its own sake. I’d really love to swing a punch and knock someone clean out!”

The duchess, 50, said that kickboxing helps her switch off from the pressure of running The Alnwick Garden, her family estates and her own family as well.

As a martial artist, the duchess believes, like in Japan, more schools should take it up because it teaches positive life lessons, promotes fitness and teaches discipline.

She added: “If I say I’m going to do something then I’ll try my hardest to succeed because I’m quite a determined person.

“When I was younger — aged between eight and 13-years — I was an ice-skater. I trained every day I could for up to five hours.

“We now have a whole generation of youngsters that need to exercise more and martial arts not only provides exercise, it also gives youngsters discipline and is really good fun.

“Although there will be some who disagree, I think children need to understand that they can win, but won’t always win.

“Martial arts are a good way to teach this lesson.”

She is so keen on promoting martial arts in the region, the duchess is holding a cage- fighting contest at Alnwick Gardens.

She said: “I want the garden to be used by the unusual as well as the expected and when the fight night came up in conversation during training I suggested it as a venue to my instructor Darren Currah.

“We have a new oriental garden opening soon that is full of Japanese Great White Cherry Trees.

“Cherry blossom is a revered martial arts symbol so it all fitted together.

“We were looking for things to do with the Orient and the martial arts theme was just perfect for the orchard’s opening.”

The Martial News- sponsored cage fight, called Battle amongst the Blossom, is being held at The Alnwick Gardens on April 24 and features shoot grappling, kickboxing and mixed martial arts, otherwise known as MMA.

It is being organised by Alnwick-based DFM Martial Arts, the duchess’s martial arts club. The club’s team are known on the circuit as the DFM Reivers.

MMA contests pit martial artists from many different systems against each other.

Along with her martial arts classes, the duchess also finds time to write eight pages every six weeks for the glossy Japanese lifestyle magazine Bises.

She said: “I write about my life as the duchess in a real castle and, of course, my garden as well as selling the North as being a great place to visit.

“We get lots of bus loads of Japanese coming to Alnwick now so what I write in English must translate OK into Japanese.

“The magazine loves the idea of the castle and they have just invited me to go out to Tokyo and Kyoto to talk about our region.

“It has been 30 years since I last went to Japan so I am really looking forward to going.”

Tickets for the Battle amongst the Blossom MMA and Kickboxing Fight Night are available from 07967- 724064, or from Sports World and Atmosphere shops in Alnwick.

The Duchess is a member of the DFM Martial Arts schools.

To find out more about DFM classes go to www.dfmmartialarts.co.uk or www.geocities.com/directional fighting

[SimonM]

Vladimir Putin - Judo BB.

[sanjuro_ronin]

Robert Downey Jr - Wing Chun.

[doug maverick]

Vladimir Putin - Judo BB.

putin is a former head of state dont think he counts as a celeb.

[andyhaas]

... I was going to post this on my thong fu thread, but it got eaten by the forum move. Maybe I'll have to repost that.

"The duchess, whose family has a £300m fortune, is not only a kickboxer, but is also learning the Filipino double- stick art of Kali, which uses two rattan canes to subdue an aggressor."

Hey -- I'm bored and moved out of Seattle because of the rain.

I have 5+ years of baguazhang that's impossible to find outside China except from my teacher Zhang Jie. He said I could teach a few people if I wanted to.

Any rich duchesses want to part with some of their millions of pounds for personal training? I'm looking for something to do during the recession besides posting on KF forums.

[GeneChing]

Does Gilles Marini count? Probably not.

'Dancing With the Stars': Waltz on
06:34 AM PT, Apr 7 2009
Gilles Marini and Cheryl Burke. And rightfully so. Their perfect-30 tango from the week before set the bar exceedingly high, but they surpassed it with their caliente pasodoble. Honestly, I thought this dance, set to Bizet’s “Carmen,” had more emotion and was better paced than last week’s. Gilles’ martial arts background helped him attack the routine. And he got extra cute points for bringing his son to the Wushu martial-arts center during rehearsal (“You’re going down, papa!”). I loved Gilles' scruff and eyeliner. And his long body suited the leaned-back bullfighter stance perfectly. His shirtless stint at the beginning of the routine didn’t hurt, either. Carrie Ann called the dance “breathtakingly … passionate,” and a decidedly less-spray-tanned Bruno declared it “more than a dance — it was a battle for supremacy!” Len, however, stricken with what Tom called “pec envy,” peckishly thought it was a little too hectic and docked them a point for a total of 29.

BTW, y'all caught my last RZA interview, right?

[GeneChing]

...only if we're trying to get into his bar...

The Gig is Up! Rose Bar's Kung Fu Master Nur Khan Whips Out His Rock Star Rolodex
By Chris Shott and Max Abelson
April 7, 2009 | 5:31 p.m

Nightlife impresario Nur Khan was bummed that rock singer Chris Cornell had pulled the plug on him.

“Am I upset that we’re not doing the gig tonight? Yeah, it would’ve been really cool,” Mr. Khan told the Daily Transom. “But we’re going to shoot for something in May.”

The charismatic 42-year-old operator of the artsy Rose Bar at Ian Schrager’s posh Gramercy Park Hotel had been planning one of his “stealth gigs” on Monday, April 6, an impromptu concert featuring the former Soundgarden frontman Mr. Cornell and the British musician–turned–Calvin Klein model Jamie Burke.

But Mr. Cornell was already booked for back-to-back nights at Webster Hall and his handlers were worried about further straining his voice.

Plan B? “The Dandy Warhols are coming in tonight,” said Mr. Khan, “so maybe we’ll do a spontaneous gig with them.”

Since opening his seminal Soho bar Wax in 1995, Mr. Khan has long catered to the city’s “musically literate crowd” and has the rolodex to prove it.

“The type of music that I’ve played in my bars has attracted a lot of musicians,” said Mr. Khan, who described himself as a rock ’n’ roll fanatic.

He dresses like a rock star, sporting multiple shiny rings, a Lazaro Diaz–designed bracelet encrusted with black diamonds and his trademark black snakeskin jacket, which he proudly created himself in collaboration with the designer Michael H. (“It’s nine pythons,” he noted.)

And he rolls like one, too. Former Wax partner John Jacobson once described the guy as “an imposing figure with a reputation for getting into fights.”

“I’ve calmed down in my old days,” said Mr. Khan, also a noted martial arts enthusiast who once took kung fu lessons from Shaolin monks in China. He chalked up his past dust-ups to an overall grittier downtown vibe in the mid-to-late 1990s.

From time to time, he likes to call on his rocker buddies for favors. “I’ve developed a lot of relationships where I can make a call and have someone come in here and do a special gig without having to have a big corporate name behind me,” Mr. Khan explained. “They can come jam and then sit around the table for the rest of the night and have a good time. They know I’m going to put a good crowd around them. If someone’s got a record coming out, I can create a little buzz. The record industry’s in shambles right now. Anything we can do to help the artists and keep this place poppin’—all parties benefit.”

The gigs can be tricky. Rose Bar lacks the proper sound system for a show, so he rents one, pushes a few tables aside and sticks a small stage in front of the fireplace. “We try not to burn the drummer,” he joked.

Since opening Rose Bar in 2006, Mr. Khan has hosted such illustrious acts as Velvet Revolver, the Kooks and Perry Farrell and Dave Navarro of Jane’s Addiction fame.

On March 15, former Lemonheads frontman Evan Dando joined Gibby Haynes of the ******** Surfers onstage for a brief but sweet four-song set.

“You ****y-ass mother****ers can suck my ****ing ****,” Mr. Haynes told the crowd of pretty men in velvet jackets and handsome ladies in slinky black dresses, who seemed largely disinterested in the music that night. “Pay attention to Evan Dando!”

The Daily Transom spotted the filmmaker Jim Jarmusch and actor Clive Owen in the audience. “Jim is actually friends with Evan and Gibby,” Mr. Khan later noted. “Clive just happened to come in—he’s a regular.”

Eventually, Mr. Khan would like to take his Rose Bar sessions on the road, possibly doing private shows at Coachella and other music festivals in the future.

For now, he’s got a list of local shows he’s dying to do. “Wait till you see what other ones I have up my sleeve,” he said.

[AdrianK]

Look at a list of instructors in Southern California.

Half of em have trained one celebrity or another, lol.

I met Robert Downey Jr. at one of William Cheung's Traditional Wing Chun Seminars back in 02 or 03. I believe he still practices with Sifu Eric Oram.

[Jimbo]

I heard that Catherine Zeta-Jones and Nicholas Cage had studied BJJ for a while.

I'm surprised the article didn't mention that the following celebs had trained for varying amounts of time under Bruce Lee:
Roman Polanski
James Garner
James Coburn
Steve McQueen
Joe Hyams
And on the set of The Wrecking Crew, Bruce had trained Sharon Tate for her fight scene with Nancy Kwan. I assume that BL also prepared Dean Martin for his fights against Ed Parker, Joe Lewis, and Chuck Norris (this was Chuck's first movie appearance). And I think Mike Stone was in it, too.

[GeneChing]

But a cuter one, at least in my opinion - True Blood's Evan Rachel Wood.

Evan Rachel Wood Finds "The Upside of Anger"
Interview with Evan Rachel Wood from "The Upside of Anger"
By Rebecca Murray, About.com

Not one to follow the normal path into the land of teen comedies, Evan Rachel Wood has instead been busy making a name for herself by taking on challenging roles in films such as “Thirteen” and “The Missing.” With “The Upside of Anger,” Wood continues to show why she’s considered one of Hollywood’s best young actresses.

INTERVIEW WITH EVAN RACHEL WOOD ('Popeye'):

Do you think there is an upside to anger?

Yeah. The biggest lessons I’ve learned in life have probably come from a bad situation, from an angry situation, even if I wasn’t the one who was angry. Just watching other people, I definitely learned from it and probably became a better person.

What was it like bonding with a bunch of women playing your sisters?

I guess it was a little weird for me at first. I’ve known Erika Christensen since I was like 9 years old so that made it a little better. We used to go to acting class together, so it was really cool that we got to work on something together. It really wasn’t that hard at all. They’re all really, really, cool down to earth people.

I guess I was a little awkward at first because I’m really shy. I’m definitely shy around girls. I was raised with a bunch of boys so I never know how it’s gonna be. But they were really great so it wasn’t hard at all.

What about romancing Erika Christensen’s brother (Dane) in the movie?

Yeah, it was a little weird. I think she was on set that day so it was a little strange. I think she was off behind the monitor or something. I’d come back there and say, “Hey, I just kissed your brother. He was nice.”

There’s so much tension in the film between the mother and all of the girls. What was Joan Allen like to work with?

She’s just the sweetest woman on the planet. And she is very shy and she honestly doesn’t have any idea how brilliant she is. I’m like, “You know you’re in the top three best actresses of all time.” And she’ll be like, “What? No...” She doesn’t get it. She doesn’t know how brilliant she is. She’s very sweet.

So she didn’t hold on to that tension between shots?

No, not at all. All the best actresses just snap in and out of it and she definitely did. She’d be really quiet and really sweet and she’d have to come out and be like [shouting], “No! No!” So it was fun to watch actually.

Did you learn anything about acting from working with her?

Yeah. Whenever I work with people like her I watch them like a hawk. All the amazing women that I work with can just turn it on and off like crazy, and I’m still trying to figure out how they do that. The scene where she comes in and tells me and Erika that she doesn’t know what’s wrong with our sister, my reaction to her in that scene is just, “How are you doing this?” She would just go off in the corner and listen to her iPod and meditate and just come in and open the flood gates. And it was really intense. Everybody on the set was crying. It’s intense on screen but you should have been there on the set.

How was working with Kevin Costner?

It was hysterical. We could never get through a scene whenever Kevin was in the room because Kevin could just give you a blank look and you’ll just fall on the floor laughing. He’s just got that way about him. He was totally cool. He wasn’t strutting around the set or anything. Just really laid-back and nice.

Did you get to dance with him?

I got to a little bit. I wasn’t holding his hand or anything, but we’re kind of dancing in the background at one point.

How good a dancer is he?

He was a good dancer. I was shocked. He didn’t care. He just went all out.

Why were you shocked?

I don’t know. I didn’t know if he’d be Mister Cool and just be bopping his head. But he was twisting.

Did your character in this film have a real name? They always refer to her as Popeye.

Yeah, her real name is Lavender.

Why do they call her Popeye?

To this day, I don’t think I know that. There was a reason in the first draft but I think it got cut out. I think she just wanted people to call her Popeye. She was like, “No, my name’s Popeye from now on.”

Would you consider this another one of your controversial movies?

No. No. See, this is good because this balances it all out. Everybody’s like, “You’re really attracted to the dark, extreme stuff, right?” I’m like, “No, I just like doing good movies.”

And nobody is being sexually harassed…

Nobody. I’m a completely normal girl. I don’t cry. I don’t scream. I’m not angsty. I’m really happy but I fall in love with a gay guy. But, you know, at least I’m sane. So there you go. I got the sweet movie for everybody.

You’ve been able to avoid all the so-called “teen-aimed” films. Is that by design?

It is. I do kind of avoid it. It’s just not my thing. They’re not the kind of movies that I want to watch. I usually just do movies that I would like going to see.

What kinds of scripts are you least interested in seeing?

If I picked up a script and it was all about car racing and there were absolutely no consequences and they were just kind of wrecking cars. I hate watching movies where there are giant car chases and they’re hitting cars and getting into accidents and they never [say], “Hey, what about the people you just killed?” I try to avoid that. If I’m going to do anything extreme, I want it to have consequences.

So if they offered you a million dollars to do “Fast and Furious 3” you’d turn it down?

I would! I’d be like, “Nah, I’m not gonna do that. I don’t want to put that out there.”

What’s the toughest role you’ve played?

Probably “Pretty Persuasion,” the newest one that was at Sundance. That was definitely the hardest role because I had most of the dialogue in the movie. I had to figure out a way to make this girl really evil, but still be charming. And make this girl really, really smart and have a lot of things going on in her head but have absolutely no heart and be completely dead inside. Finding that balance was really hard.

Will there be a “Thirteen” sequel?

No. I don’t think so. I don’t think people can take any more.

Have you started work on “Down in the Valley” yet?

It’s all done. I just saw it for the first time three weeks ago or something. I’m excited. I’m really interested to see how people are going to react because it’s really different. People are either gonna fall in love with it or not get it. But, I personally think that it’s the best work that Edward Norton has done. The acting in it is amazing. I’m interested to see. My career will be over or it’ll keep going on.

Is it true you really have a black belt in Tae Kwon Do?

Yeah, I do. Me and my mom. I’ve had it since I was 12.

Would you like to play an action heroine since you’re into martial arts?

Maybe, yeah. I’d be up for that. Why not? I got to do Tae Kwon Do on “Once and Again” once, but that was as far as it wen

[TaichiMantis]

Find the two rookies who practice/practiced a martial art! The first one to post the correct pics with bio quote is the winner!

Winners to be verified by Gene, prizes?

Ready? GO!

[GeneChing]

Weirdest SI cover ever. As a mag publisher, I can't even grok it.


Then again...

[TaichiMantis]

Found this pic on his Facebook page

[Jimbo]

Ricky Nelson learning karate on 'The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet' (1961)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiF7JH0Q6vs&sns=em

What really interests me about this clip is Ricky Nelson's onscreen 'sensei', Bruce Tegner. Old-time MAists will remember Tegner as a prolific author of books on various MA and self-defense during the 1960s and '70s. My own first MA books were little Bruce Tegner paperbacks that cost around a dollar brand new, back in the early '70s. Tegner was a very legitimate judo man, but although I was always aware that karate was not his specialty, until I saw this clip, I never realized how bad his karate really was. Of course, back in 1961, VERY few Americans knew anything about karate, so to many ordinary people, this segment was probably pretty impressive. It's actually not too bad for a TV karate/wrestling scene, considering the time period.

The late Ricky (later, just Rick) Nelson later went on to actually study karate, then switched to Jeet Kune Do under Dan Inosanto, who described Nelson as 'A good martial artist for the time'. Rick Nelson died in a plane crash in 1985.

[GeneChing]

No pic but there's a vid behind the link.

Watch Maynard James Keenan Spar, Talk Love of Martial Arts
Musician ties Brazilian jiu-jitsu training to artistic endeavors

Maynard James Keenan spars and discusses his love of Brazilian jiu-jitsu in "The Art of Work."
By Jon Blistein
6 days ago

Tool's Maynard James Keenan discusses the intricacies of Brazilian jiu-jitsu and his lifelong attachment to martial arts in the final installment of Revolver's four-part video series with the musician, "The Art of Work."

While Keenan spent previous episodes discussing his vineyard, "The Fight" offers a look at his martial arts training regimen. Keenan credits Primus drummer Tim Alexander with introducing him to Brazilian jiu-jitsu, though he also recalls the lessons he learned from his father, who doubled as his high school wrestling coach. "His take was always, 'You either win or you learn,'" Keenan said.

For Keenan, martial arts is as much about "personal growth and personal understanding and reflection" as it is about self-defense. "Maybe it'll never happen, but if you're in a situation where you have some drunken, blithering idiot, or somebody's crazy — I do it for that purpose," he said. Still, Keenan seemed most enamored with the mental and physical intricacies of top-level jiu-jitsu.

"The chess part of it, on the mat, in the gi, is very mentally stimulating," Keenan said. "If you watch some of the top-level black belt guys competing, it's half-inches. They're making adjustments that are half-inches and you're watching them try to out-chess each other, like six moves ahead to shut off where the guy's heading for the checkmate."

Towards the end of the clip, Keenan tied his jiu-jitsu training to the notion of becoming complacent and overly confident as an artist after reaching a certain level of success. He urged anyone pursuing a craft to do so with a combination of intuition, experience and constant hard work, but also cautioned: "Understand that you are on your ****ing own."

Keenan added, "Big fan of Chris Cornell – did you think about Chris Cornell this week? I didn't. I love the guy. Alan Rickman, David Bowie, there's a bunch of posts on Facebook and then you go about your way. That's what's gonna happen to you. People are gonna be upset that you're gone, and then they're gonna move the **** on with their lives. So be happy with what your decisions are. You are on your own, you don't owe anybody anything – but if you're doing your job and you're doing it accurately enough, and you're expressing from the heart, from the core, from your experiences and your intuition, other people are going to resonate with that."

Here's a celebrity from the music world.