Bonzuko

Congrats to the Boulder Quest Center for winning Best Martial Arts Studio in the annual Best of Boulder poll by the Colorado Daily! ~Jenn

“Monaco macked a macaroni snack before hitting the sack at Mackinaw.”

~Jason

Thanks to fellow stage combat blog Them’s Fightin Words for this clip of rehearsal for the armored bear fight in the staged version of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials. Whew! Very neato–I have acted with a giant puppet head before too so I know how tough that is (see picture for proof).

Bear Fight. Not to be confused with this bear fight. I mean, this bear fight. Um…wow, can it be that I can’t find the bear fight from Anchorman to link on the Internets? Huh. ~Jenn

Inspired by my search for clips of ’80s show The Master, I hereby present to you the last part of the first episode of same. Enjoy the wonderful cheesy ninja action. And tell me that chain mail ninja hood doesn’t rock. Kudos to Sho Kosugi for this. ~Jenn

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

Pic

Thanks to stellar blog mental_floss for posting this hilarious series of three of the stupidest action sequences in 1980s film. I’m especially loving the selection from Deadly Prey. Badly done backhands, flexing-and-screaming, squibs with no isolation, ridiculous strings of hook punches. Let the mullets fly!

Speaking of cheesy ’80s action, here’s the intro to a Bonzuko “favorite.” Enjoy! ~Jenn

Mental Floss’ Collection: http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/51330

So, club folks–what are your beer-fight choreography ideas? Classic kung-fu? ’80s ninja?

homebrew in a Fat Tire glass

Steampunk or Avengers-style spy chase? An evil overlord and captive hero? Pirates? Think about it for our Saturday meeting. ~Jenn

http://www.clipsoffaith.com/rules.html

There have been periods–up to eight months–when we have done no exercises at all. We found that we were doing the exercises for their own sake and we gave them up. The actors began to approach perfection, they did impossible things. It was like the tiger who ate ate his own tail. At that point we stopped the exercises for eight months. When we resumed them they were completely different. the body developed new resistances, the people were the same but they had changed. And we resumed with a great deal more personalization.

~Jerzy Grotowski, Towards a Poor Theatre

Mental_floss put up a series of movie versions of Alice in Wonderland the other day. I found it

Carroll's original illustrations

fascinating that the first film version was made so soon after the book was published. Next week in Children’s Lit at Metro it’s Alice in Wonderland week. What is it about this book that has lasted so long, in so many versions? ~Jenn

Alice on Film by mental_floss

Picture credit and Cool Alice Site

The Second Annual IGAGI Awards are on! Everyone vote here on this post for their favorite so-bad-it’s-good-schadenfreude Stage Combat or stunt moment from our new choices of 2009! If you’ve forgotten what the choices are, here’s the link that lays it out for you. Make your vote count!

Zen is totally Japanese. Except when it is Chan – then it is Chinese. Unless it’s motorcycle maintenance, then it’s American. Point is, Zen has come to embody more than Zen actually is, sometimes describing something that isn’t Zen at all, which is in itself sort of Zen.

Zen qualities are found in cultures spanning the globe; its wisdom may be carried through sages, beggars, artists and fools in the street. Kicking off the WoWiZen (World Wide Zen) is this gem from the fictional Greek warrior/philosopher Kojak:

“You want a sure thing? You become an accountant. You want a guarantee? You buy yourself a washing machine.”

~Jason