March April 2006

[GeneChing]

I hope by now that most have you have at least seen our Most recent issue on the newsstand or whatever. It's an experimental cover for us - the photo is by Lou Reed. Lou Reed just opened his photo exhibit in NY, so this is sort of the lost photo in that collection. Keep an eye out for Reed on at the closing cermonies of the Winter Olympics...

[zuiquan1]

I like it, Its different, modern, unique


A friend of mine saw me reading it and asked if that was akido on the front cover, he was awstruck when I told him it was taiji(he is one of those boxing,karate,bjj type martial artist who thinks down on CMA's )

interesting to see taiji mistaken as akido

[kwaichang]

Was looking for my letter to the Mag about training the wrong types, what happened Gene KC

[GeneChing]

You emailed me your letter on 1/10/6. The Mar/Apr issue went to press on 12/27/5 and went on the newsstands 2/2/6. We'll run your letter on Good Training for Evil Deeds as promised, but it will be appearing in our May/June issue, which will be on newsstands 4/6/6.

Publishing time is different then real time. Right now, it's already July August for me...

[Shaolinlueb]

something about the cover of this issue reminds me of inside kung fu. i dont know why. the picture was okay. maybe it was the whole incorporating aol like colors i didnt like. this issue soley because of the cover i was less likely to pick it up again. didnt do anyhting for me. but hey, cant win em all.

[GeneChing]

ooohh, i hate that comparison.

Speaking of the Olympics, I was watching the womens skaters last night and it hit me really hard who much we blew it with olympic wushu. Olympic wushu would have been awesome - beautiful, artsy, extreme, physical - just imagine. But I don't think wushu has anywhere near the drama of the figure skating - imagine a 4-minute form final. Plus it's still way too rigid - there's so little real self expression in it - so little ballet, so to speak. There's no way wushu was ready to stand next to the other sports, it's still way too secular of a sport, but it would have been glorious.

As for all those 'traditionalists' who said wushu was going to spell the end of traditional, I still think that's timid - it reveals a basic misunderstanding many traditionalists have of their power in the world. In a past article, my co-author Matt Polly compared wushu and sanda to figure skating and ice hockey. I really don't think hockey players feel threatened by figure skaters in any way, do you? So why should traditionalists feel threatened?

But I digress - thanks for the input, Shaolinlueb. I appreciate your honesty.

[Shaolinlueb]

ooohh, i hate that comparison.

As for all those 'traditionalists' who said wushu was going to spell the end of traditional, I still think that's timid - it reveals a basic misunderstanding many traditionalists have of their power in the world. In a past article, my co-author Matt Polly compared wushu and sanda to figure skating and ice hockey. I really don't think hockey players feel threatened by figure skaters in any way, do you? So why should traditionalists feel threatened?

But I digress - thanks for the input, Shaolinlueb. I appreciate your honesty.

you're welcome. if your fed **** all the time you wont know how to improve.

Yeah modern wushu wont be the death of traditional kung fu. its like karate and neo karate. didnt spell the death of karate at all. at least thats a way to compare it.

[Shaolindynasty]

There's no way wushu was ready to stand next to the other sports

Like the event where you ski then shoot a gun?

I think wushu itself would be fine. I think the problem is the lack of international unity.

BTW, I didn't like the new cover at first but it grew on me.

[@PLUGO]

Olympic Wushu should be set up as a series of two person sets. With each person being scored by how much better they execute their side of the set then their opponent. From there, the winners would move on to subsequent rounds until there was only ONE!!!

or three for the silver and bronze as well...

Then you could do all those "Pepsi moments" with each competitor...

tales of revenge, old vendettas carried over from the world games and all . . .

So... um back to the magazine...

should we have just run the title on a tilt? Oh about 20 degrees.

[GeneChing]

The Lou Reed thing, with happened in the Medal Plaza. It was not part of the closing ceremonies as we were led to beleive. There is a Reed/tai chi connection and we were hopeful that it would been shown, but instead we got 400 brides with flowers and someone snowboarding over a jet engine. That wasn't bad, though. In fact, I enjoyed the opening and closing ceremonies a lot. It was very Fellini-esque to me.

[@PLUGO]

Was the jet stationary? was the snowboarder more interesting than that guy with the Jet pack back in L.A.

[David Jamieson]

wu shu for teh olympics would probably do well to get setup in a similar way to figure skating with compulsory moves that are judged on their merits.

tornado kicks, reverse and for, broom sweeps, breakfalls, etc etc standardized and judged by people who are 100% familiar with the standards.

wushu is fast on it's way to being like this anyway, so why not go the extra step.

[GeneChing]

DS: The jet was stationary. And I thought it was equally cool as the jet pack because they choreographed this whole dance routine with streamers and flags and such.

DJ: You mean like difficulty factors?

[Banjos_dad]

It was okay but i liked the Charng Shuai Jiao issue a lot better. Not to be picky but if you want feedback, i would rather read about a martial artist who has a business than a businessman who does martial arts. Maybe that article would have gone better in a Business Week kind of format. But who am i to say it didn't go over well, whatever that means. I am just saying that if i had never read either of those issues and i walked up and saw them lying on a coffee table, i'd reach for the shuai jiao issue first.

[Banjos_dad]

and about the Olympic ceremonies, i liked the speed skaters with fire helmets the best. Maybe if the wushu players wore shiny bodysuits with fire hats, wushu would have made it onto the agenda at Beijing. Oh, well.