OMG, have you lovely lurkers seen the new Nerf N-Force swords??? I want a set of these, really! And they’re Nerf, so you know they’re made for some serious safe play. Okay, my birthday’s in ten days… ~Jenn
Look at Gizmodo’s bit on these blades of soft-yet-sturdy fury: N-Force Awesomeness
A classic in the realms of staff fighting. Another fight that needs no introduction, except maybe this: “A toll is a toll, and a roll is a roll. If we don’t take no tolls, then we don’t eat no rolls. …I made that up.”
We had elections yesterday for the MSCD Stage Combat club. Remember, you don’t have to be a Metro student, you can be a UCD or CCD student to play with us. The new officers in charge of our staged mayhem this year are:
President: Nick B.
Vice-President: Scott M.
Treasurer: Nate T.
Secretary: Geri C.
Congrats, officers! Go get your paperwork done! And blog lurkers, keep your eyes open for our presence online even more! We heard whispers of podcasts, demo events, and the Spring Fling to name a few. And I forgot to ask you guys about T-shirts. We should totally get some made, wouldn’t you agree? ~Jenn
Folks who met to pretend to beat each other up on Valentine’s Day: Nick B., Nate T., Geri C., Aaron R., Roberto M., Tom G., Paul S., Scott M., Chris D., and of course Jenn was in charge.
Since it’s Darwin’s birthday today, of course we have to post an “I’ve Got a Great Idea” award nomination. Today, it’s:
Another stabbing. The infamous Dracula Stabbing in Texas, which opens Chapter One of my book. Anyone have any better ideas? post here or to any earlier nomination entries.
More excellent fight scenes from professionals, local and otherwise. This clip needs no introduction. Jenn always shows this one the first day of Stage Combat class at MSCD, and nearly all the students know it. Part of its appeal is its simplicity–after having learned basic unarmed techniques, students see this scene again and are able to see what’s going on. No wires, a minimum of edits, none of them rapid, and of course the fight stars Bob Barker. You can’t go wrong.
I’m watching the Discovery Channel show called Time Warp today, and they showed some behind-the-scenes of a couple different stunts. The premise of the show is to take high-speed cameras and film cool stuff way slowed down. I have enjoyed this show very much in the past, so to tempt you into catching it yourselves, I have posted three links to clips that have something to do with stage combat and/or the martial arts. ~Jenn
The first is a real slap to the face. Those of you who have read my book will remember the “Unlucky Thirteen” things that can happen to you if you allow your precious face to be slapped onstage. You can see even more clearly in this slow-mo slap clip (hey that’s a VoWod!): Time Warp Slap
If you think the slap is bad, check out a punch: Time Warp Punch
And finally, a super-cool katana slice through rolled-up tatami. I believe this is the sword guy from Bugei: Time Warp Samurai
I can’t decide which of these knife debacles to nominate for the “I’ve Got a Great Idea” awards. Comment here and tell me which one of these two should be in the running:
I was thinking about doing a version of the Fight Clip Club assignment from the MSCD Stage Combat class–the students are assigned to bring in what they see as the best film fight scene, tell the class why it’s a good example of what we do, and show it. Parodies are also welcome. Here is my first Fight Clip Club entry: it’s from Napoleon Dynamite, and I call it “Bow to Your Sensei.” Enjoy, and let me know if yo’d like to contribute clip ideas to continue! ~Jenn
Is there a good reason why a thief would choose a fantasy replica sword to hold up a convenience store? Beyond that, this thief actually got money from not one, but two stores and is still at large. We were just writing earlier that cheap, brittle museum replica swords aren’t useful for anything. Well, maybe we were wrong. No, this is wrong. Terribly, terribly wrong.
~Jenn
One of the Super Bowl commercials celebrates Pepsi by showing various men getting thwacked, smacked, electrocuted, and otherwise hurt, then declaring, “I’m good!” The best clip in this commerical IMO is the golf scene: look at the lovely swordplay as the guy on the left takes a shot to the back of the head and then the face with a golf club. He also does a killer back break fall. Good stuff.
