freakshow, or self-portrait.

Check it y'all: Ammie and I had our good friend Jon Stich paint us a portrait. And damn it looks fine. Check it out on his site:

http://www.jonstich.com/

Look under illustrations, the title for the piece is Freakshow.

It's hanging over our couch, right now.

Shinden Fudo Ryu - Gekkan

Just thought I'd add this. I saw the clip tonight, and thought it well-done. I like how Sean isn't blasting in with a kick to the uke; instead, he just places his leg there, almost like an obstacle, which folds the uke over. Very smooth.

Sean Askew performs Gekkan from the Bujinkan Dojo's Shinden Fudo Ryu Jutaijutsu.

The Philosophical Zombie

Dude! I am so excited to have ordered Th e Undead and Philosophy! (Which you can order from my bookstore, Diesel, A Bookstore).


Kasey Silem Mohammad is not only a great poet and thinker, but is one of the foremost zombieologists / necrophycists in the U.S.--perhaps the world. When the zombies invade from below (or perhaps from the deeps of space) I could do no better than to have Kasey by my side. Barring the actual person, The Undead and Philosophy might be next best for its assuredly insightful illumination of the undead existential-state.

East Bay Buyu has arrived

Well, I wanted to train more often, and so asked permission to start a Oakland study group for Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu--the art that I have been playing with, fighting with, conceptualizing, becoming frustrated with, and most of all, absolutely loving for the last five or so years. My teacher, Dale Seago, granted said permission and now, hurray, I can train more and do my best to bring this training to the Oakland area.

Check out the site at: www.eastbaybuyu.org.

Yeah!

my first time with CSS...

Wow! My first website using CSS! And it's all hand-coded! Yippee!

Just like a good relationship, you've got to put a lot of time in and not take any shortcuts. That menas no fancy-pants editing software. No Dr. Phil. Just me, my page, and a lot of work.

Check it out at:

http://senna.sjsu.edu/dfaires/trevor/week5/eastbaybudo.htm


Sweet!

An interview with Jet Li leads to Jungian self analysis

Recently, I read an excellent interview with Jet Li in Kung Fu Magazine. Jet Li mentions that "the most important enemy is yourself." Now, at first I scoffed at this as a trite aphorism; however, one word snagged me: "important"(not "worst," as is typically said). Now call me a Jungian-buddhist-hippy, but Li's choice of "important" strikes me as very insightful because any enemy/agressor/challenge needs to be understood in order to respond appropriately, but to value an enemy as important and vital as your self is to overcome your own ego-driven limitations and thus to achieve a sort of, not transcendence--too lofty--but accurate comprehension of yourself. And when these enemies are your own weaknesses, better to value them, engage with them and transform them rather then to constantly ignore them or feel guilty about them.


So I started thinking, "Trev, what are your weaknesses? Looking at girls in short skirts, smoking cigarettes, being generally lazy." And then, of course, I started feeling bad about this and thought, "No more. That's it. Eat right. Think right. Act right. No ciggies--EVER, no checkin' out the ladies, more exercise..." the list went on. Luckily, though, I suddenly remembered a little something about forging swords--you can over-work the metal so that it becomes brittle and will likely break under stress. A katana has a really sharp edge, but retains a lot of flexibility along the spine. So the challenge is recognizing flexibilty from complacency. So I won't have a smoke right now, or a beer, but I might later on.

Oh my heavens, just take a look...

Okay, I am stealing this under cover of night from the stealthy Shinobi at Book Ninja, but it is so rad--and thus must have greater saturation: Library Smut. Such things make me tremble and stand very still, breathing.