Sunday, November 12, 2006

walked around

and did a bunch of stuff today, none of which i can remember. The interzone was still there. Title of my new poem: "it's raining in my espreso".

One of Hades' gardeners, calles Ascalaphus, began to hoot with laughter. 'Taken no nourishment at all, you say? This very morning I saw her pick a pomegranate froom your underground orchard.'
-Greek Gods and Heroes, by Robert Graves, published 1960.

Saturday, November 04, 2006

rita from china delight


This is a sketch I did yesterday of Rita from China Delight, who works Wed-Fri shift, and tends to wear orange. If I profit off this sketch I guess I should pay her some money...

on the invitation to the united states

My ardours for emprize nigh lost
Since Life has bared its bones to me,
I shrink to seek a modern coast
Whose riper times have yet to be;
Where the new regions claim them free
For that long drip of humna tears
-hardy



This is a video of Shotokan kata (form) being done by Kanazawa, one of the great instructors, who is still alive and teaching. I do this form of karate, under Reed Wilson, 3rd degree black belt, at his school. He currently teaches class 7-9pm at the Fingerboard Extension on 2nd street, across from Peak Sports, and there is an open training Saturday mornings, 8-10am, where we usually just work on kata, but there are no requirements and each person is free to work on what they want to work on, so if Jen or Corvallist wants to show up and check it out, Reed could use more students, and Keta would go ahead and show you the basic stuff. She's a shodan (1st degree black belt). I've been doing this for 23 years, and it means a lot to me, even though I can't seem to pass 2nd degree (but it's not about rank), at least that's what the regional instructor said to me. Of course that's easy to say when your 8th degree, which he is now.


Here's some pictures of karate in my style from the seventies and eighties.
http://shotokanpicturesblog.blogspot.com/index.html


In fact, I'm going to do some kata right now, because I can't relax and need to calm down a bit. Luckily I have a house and my own karate room, basically just an empty room with a floor. (most rooms have floors).

Thursday, November 02, 2006

rain


This rain is great. I'm really liking it. Who else likes rain? Oregonians are known for their love of rain. Otherwise they'd move somewhere else.