VERY Special Seminar - Sunday, October 5th

For 4 wicked hours, we are going to rock you, sock you, sweep you off your feet, and then de-sissify you 'til you scream "More!!! Gimme MORE!!!"

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 5th, 2008 from 10am - 2pm
At the world famous Inosanto Academy of Martial Arts

Yup, 4 of the Inosanto Academy's finest are sharing their A-games with you to help raise some funds for a colleague of ours who is in need due to failing health. This colleague of ours is beloved for many reasons. He's an armed services vet, a law enforcement officer, a senior martial arts instructor, a father, a husband, a counselor, and someone who will give to others until it hurts, and then give more. He has served our country in ways that even the most hardened wouldn't even want to fathom. So when we tell you it's for a good cause, rest assured that we mean it with all our hearts.

Who's coming to teach?

We're starting the lineup with Damon Caro. A little background on Damon... When I first got to LA back in 1990, I barely knew a thing about martial arts outside of the Shaolin fundamentals & Tai-Chi that my father taught me. I met Damon after he'd done a Chinese New Year demo, representing the Inosanto Academy. Watching that demo was an eye opener, and I got to see sticks, blades, and limbs move in ways that I hadn't even seen in the movies. At that time, Damon was already one of the instructors at the Inosanto Academy, and he gave me one of my first glimpses into Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do and southeast Asian martial arts.

Since then, he's gone on to achieve things in martial arts that most of us will never even dream of. He choreographed the battle sequences and fight scenes for the blockbuster movie "300"... YES, THIS 300!!!



The man's so busy these days, you're lucky just to meet him, nevermind learn from him. So if you want to have a chance to work with one of the elite among the elite, he's teaching Panantukan - the Filipino forefather to Western boxing. This rare art ties in perfectly with the Filipino weapons arts as well, so if you want to learn a multipurpose movement science, here it is!

After Damon, Suzanne Spezzano will be teaching Indonesian Silat. I could say a bunch of things about Suzanne and the highly effective real-world fighting art of Silat, but I'll let her video speak for me. She's hot, she's articulate, and she'll kick your a$$.

And yes, she's married... to John Spezzano, RKC, who'll be teaching Muay Thai boxing's inside game. If you've seen people fight, you know that a clinch is almost inevitable. John will show you how to make the inside game a House of Pain for anyone who dares to enter in on you.

Me? They saved the Chinaman for last since he's got the wicked iron for you! We'll be covering two of Pavel Tsatsouline's most useful all-purpose kettlebell exercises in high definition - The Swing and the Turkish Get-Up progression. For a grappler, a striker, a stickfighter, a soccer player, a pitcher, or a total nerd, these two exercises will fast-forward you to the next level in strength, endurance, and injury prevention. If you wanted to know what the hype is about with kettlebell training, here's your quick & serious intro. If you already think you know what's up with kettlebells, come and get a real education!

You'll get to learn from and work with all four of us for only a $75 donation. And if you've got a bit more to donate, we'll gratefully accept it. If you don't have time, but you'd like to make a donation, contact John through his website: www.hollywoodkettlebells.com.

Now with the exception of yours truly, the three other instructors are instructors certified under martial arts legend, Dan Inosanto - the man who single-handedly carried on Bruce Lee's legacy after The Little Dragon's passing. For those of you who missed the 300, have no clue about Kali, and only remember Bruce Lee from Enter the Dragon, here's a little flashback clip for you from the backyard days.

We're looking forward to seeing you at the Academy on Sunday, October 5th at 10am sharp! The directions & Mapquest link are available right here. If you're part of the KBLA family or just a fan of anyone or anything we've mentioned above, come on out & show the love. And if you live outside of So Cal, but have friends who might be interested, please forward this info on to them. Thank you!

Letting go of preconceived notions - Part 2

Through most of my life, I've hated politics with a passion. And nothing reminds me more of why I normally hate discussing this sort of stuff more than what I've been seeing on the news lately. And the issue that caused me to sound off about this is how some people are amazingly good at making a scandal out of nothing but their own prejudice.

Getting straight to the point, I'm very disappointed in the kind of small-mindedness that seems to be popping up on the web when it comes to the picture of Sen. Barack Obama in the traditional African garb of his father's people. I'm amazed at how many idiots are using that as a rallying cry to take offense and call him a Muslim secret agent and things like that. I'm amazed at how many times the picture of him was circulated with his hand by his side when the other candidates were supposedly pledging allegiance to the flag. I'm amazed at the kind of closedminded presumptuousness that a supposedly openminded and free country like the USA is showing in many of its people during times like this.

Let's face facts...

As a US senator, Barack Obama has to pledge allegiance to our flag, and I'm sure there are no shortage of people (including his peers in the Congress) who have seen him put his hand over his heart to say the pledge, as was written in a recent news article. Whether it was an issue of simply the timing, or a photoshopped alteration, let's not twist things out of context just to make a point.

As an African-American whose father was an African-born immigrant, what shame is there in Sen. Obama visiting his father's people and showing respect for them by donning their traditional garb? People accuse him of selling out on America by doing that, so let me turn the issue around and ask them if they've ever donned a karate uniform gi, a chef's hat, dressed up as a pilgrim, or worn a piece of clothing with non-English script on it.

Again, people are being a little too good at letting their prejudices rule their behaviors......

- The last two Popes have prayed in mosques, and plenty of martial arts instructors wear Indonesian pentjak silat uniforms. Does that make them Muslim?
- Plenty of steak-and-potatoes-eating Americans have dressed in kung-fu uniforms while studying Wing Chun gung-fu or wear shorts that have Thai script or blessings embroidered on them while training in Thai boxing. Does that make them Buddhists?
- So many Americans (from the average Joe to the US Secret Service Agents) are using Russian kettlebell training methods. Are they Communists?

See, once that sort of thought process is turned around on you, it's easy to say, "Oh, but that's different!" No, it isn't.

Whether it's directed towards you or towards someone you don't particularly like, it's still stupidity, still smallmindedness, still prejudicial, still a breeding ground for distrust and fear, still potentially grounds for violence.

In my old Yahoo blog, I wrote a post about the responsibility of being Asian American, or in my case, Chinese-American. Regardless of our ethnic origin, as Americans in the modern era, we have a unique responsibility to take whatever has been handed down to us as a cultural heritage and look at it with a discerning eye.

We live in the information age - cable TV, the internet, Youtube, whatever. There's no shortage of knowledge around us. And access to knowledge means that we have a responsibility to research the truth of a matter before spouting off condemnations about people or issues. We also have the unique responsibility as modern Americans to use our discerning eyes and intelligent minds to see where our weaknesses and prejudices hinder our growth, and then shore up those weak and ugly parts of ourselves with the best information that we have available to us.

And for those of you who are reading this blog from overseas, what I've written here can apply to you too. There is no monopoly on either ignorance or common sense.