Damn, I have a cold. Double damn ‘cause I’d prefer to be painting or training, but instead I’ve had to settle for the unattractive option of shivering in the heat and drowning in my own snot in between having blood noses.

But I have been getting some work done on the painting front. I’ve put a new pic of the painting I am working on in my scrapbook – look under “Artwork/in progress” if you are interested. I suspect it’s closer to completion than I think, although I have major issues with the top third  and the bottom right areas. The light doesn’t mesh and I’m not sure which way to go with it. I really want to swap the top and bottom left sections, highlights wise, but maybe that cascading, diagonal effect would look too obvious? I kind of want to keep the broken, fractured flatness… I don’t want to invite people into any one area of the canvas too much.

Would love feedback on this, if anyone has any to give me. :-)

Anyway, just cause I can’t do any training today (and really want to), I decided to spend my afternoon checking out martial arts videos on YouTube. Man, there is some good stuff on there! And a lot of crap.

For yr entertainment and mine, here are a few of the more non-crap martial arts vids I’ve sussed out:

1) This is my teacher! Fanzi boxing is called “lightning fist”, the video shows why. No, that is not speeded up at all!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8x1-RelEgc

2) This is the first form I ever learnt (in Zi ran men). You can really see the hammer fist and mantis influences in the form. Made me feel quite nostalgic watching it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LI-bxDRTprE

3) This is my previous teacher, doing a longer form in the same style of the previous vid. I never finished learning this form as I switched schools. :-( I might try learning from this, although I’m not a big fan of getting yr instruction from video… too easy to develop bad habits.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkPpkALxOt8

4) This is a really cool applications video. Xing yi is a very practical system for self-defence, it is really direct and to the point, no frills. Rather similar to Wing Chun in a lot of ways. This video is great cause you get to see teaching in action… the master gives instruction on tape and you can see the students improve quickly. Unfortunately, as with all barehand apps videos, you have to put up with a lot of youtube yahoos making stupid comments about things they know jack about. *sigh*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHEbJxX_vV0

5) This is a fabulous clip of the big Ba gua broadsword… this woman is very, very skilled. I’ve watched it about 20 times now and I’m still not sick of it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDh-gvlkR6A

6) This is a lovely little clip of a Ba gua Deer hook knife form. The form I am learning looks rather different from this, but many of the individual movements within it are common or similar. We don’t attach silk scarves to our knives either.. hard enough to avoid clonking yrself in the head without the distraction of bits of fabric floating across yr vision! I love the way ppl are sitting around having a gawk at him as he practices. Old guys probably, going “I could have whipped his arse 20 years ago”!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goGiTdx2gB8

7) Ba gua Deer hook knife applications. There a few different variations on this weapon, this is one of the most extreme, with the big forward prongs and tiny backward ones. The ones we use are more even proportioned in size. The applications shown here, however, are useful for both types of knife. Wish I could understand the commentary tho.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUYydONwRAA&feature=related

Enough for now. Dinner, shower and bed beckons.