BLF 35th Anniversary Event Review
07-22-2008 JULY 18, 2008 Friday:
Arrived at The Seattle Art Museum (SAM) and there were a sea of people waiting on line to get registered in the lobby. I could not believe how much people were here to be at this event. The first OBLS I saw when I walked through the door was Jesse Glover. I went over to ask him for an autograph. REALLY nice person. I was in awe when I shook his hand. Then I saw Tim Tackett walking right by me. I walked right after him and introduced myself. We shook hands as if we knew each other for a while. A great person that Mr. Tackett. I saw Ted Wong in the distance and went over to introduce myself as well. Very humble. We shook hands, he signed my shirt, and took pictures. Cool guy. We waited on line for at least a good thirty minutes but soaking up the atmosphere. I observed the Oakland group talking with the Seattle group, Tommy Carruthers signing autographs, Octavio Quintero talking with people who wanted his signature...it was so much and seriously I wanted to scream out like Eddie Murphy in "Coming To America": I AM VERY HAPPY TO BE HERE.
Welcome Introductions by Shannon Lee Keasler were in the Arnold Board Room of the museum. It was little tight, the room wasn't really ventilated and it was packed. Shannon talked about what was going to happen for the next three days and thanked everyone for coming. She mentioned that the camera crew that were all over the place would be filming a documentary that will be featured in the HISTORY CHANNEL. Hopefully I'll see my face.
Jesse Glover's demo crew were up to bat and his students performed well. Very hard hitting. Our very own JKD Brotherhood member, Tom Defelice were among the demo crew. Very quick and all of them had great straight blasting. It was great to meet you as well, sir. Jesse performed as well. It's always great to see Jesse in action with my own two eyes.
The Sit-Down session with Linda Lee Cadwell, Taky Kimura, Jesse Glover, and Doug Palmer was interesting. However, there were people who really didn't have a lot of questions for them because either they were afraid or they didn't want to ask a stupid question. I raised my hand and ask all four of them "What is the best advice that Bruce gave you". All of them gave me great answers (my memory is fuzzy at the moment, probably because of jet lag but will re-edit this when I remember...sorry. ANYONE that was there remember, email me and I will re-edit this area). Doug Palmer talked about this mini vacation with Bruce in Hong Kong. Linda talked about what actually caused Bruce's death in 1973. Jesse talked about how he met Bruce and Taky reminisced of how Bruce helped him during the times when he needed help the most.
Break time was upon us and we all went out to get something to eat.
Tommy Carruther's demo was next. Tommy is fast. I mean really fast. All that youtube clips could not capture how fast his gentleman was going. He did hit hard and it echoed through the room. He talked about simplicity and directness. He also talked about on-guard stance vs. natural stance. Anyone that was there agreed that he truly knows what he is doing.
The Sit-Down session with Allen Joe, George Lee, Ted Wong, and Tommy Carruthers were not as many questions as the first sit-down session. All, except Tommy, talked about their experience with Bruce. I raised my hand and asked Ted Wong "What was the best advice that Bruce gave you?" Ted Wong: Adaptibility.
Dinner break time came and we all broke out for two hours.
We all came back for The Exclusive Preview Night was only limited to 100 guests in the Simons Board Room of the museum. There, they unveiled the plans for the Bruce Lee Museum. The architect, Tom Carson, gave us what he envisioned the BL museum would be and how it would benefit those who are not aware of him. Shannon looked great (just wanted to add that in) as well as Linda Lee Cadwell. The Foundation gave us mini gift bags for those who registered for the three day event. It was strange to see the gift bag with the UFC logo side by side with the BLF logo. Moving on. I didnt' realize after a few seconds that I was standing
next to the man himself, Paul Heller, producer of ENTER THE DRAGON. A few seconds later, a crowd formed around this individual with a camera crew in this individuals face. I went over to see who it was and it was Bob Wall. Many wanted to take a picture with him and I was fortunate enough to get one. Great guy.
The private screening of ENTER THE DRAGON was great as well however, sorry to say, it was just the movie they showed. NO extra footage or behind the scene clips. Sorry, guys. A Q&A before the move started with Paul Heller, Bob Wall, and Linda Lee Cadwell was interesting. Bob Wall thanked Bruce and loved him for what he did for him and his career.
After that, we watched ENTER THE DRAGON and went back to the hotel. We had to prepare for training day...
July 19, 2008 Saturday:
Training Day
Taky and Andy Kimura Class
We arrived a little late but came in ready to go to receive instructions with Taky and Andy Kimura. Andy Kimura had all of us do straight blasting up and down the room that was pretty intense because I love workouts like that. One of my friends, George had great advice from Taky Kimura and told me that he really thanked him for that since he was a beginner. That was great to hear considering that I too was a beginner and we all enjoyed every minute of it.
Gary Cagaanan, Greglon Lee, Mario Magdangal Class.
the Oakland Group continued off where Taky and Andy left off. We also dealt with sensitivity as well. These three gentlemen loved the art. You can tell that by the sound of their voices and they paid respects to Bruce AND to James Yimm Lee (let's not forget him too, my friends). It was always great to see my friend, Greglon Lee. A little reunion if you will.
Octavio Quintero Class.
This gentleman was quick as well. He taught us the principles of trapping and how it can be applied to fighting situations. I talked to Mr. Quintero previously on Friday. Great guy and definitely was great to see this man in action. His explosiveness is up to par. It was too bad that his time was limited. Really wish we got into more to what he was teaching.
Yori Nakamura Class.
For some reason Octavio and Yori had limited time to teach class because even Yori couldn't teach everything he wanted. He first began the class with a demo warm up with his students. Then we all joined in for instructions. Yori got into PIA, ABC...five ways of attack. It was really short, we actually had thirty seconds to train whatever he was teaching. Again, wish we had more time. We all took a group picture, you'll see me on the corner if it's up on the internet.
picture sourced from Yori Nakamura's website: http://www.bruceleejkd.com
Tommy Carruthers Class.
Tommy first got into what simplity and directness was in JKD. How it should work in the streets for self-defense only. We all paired up and worked on what Tommy was talking about. He also talked about too much motion wasted in fights. "Keep it simple and clean" words that Tommy spoke of. We all went back and forth trying to keep it simple and clean, cutting out the wasted motion. Wish we had more time to work on that though.
Richard Bustillo Class.
the OBLS himself taught us the finer points of blocking and combinations. You can hear the leadership in his voice and if someone messes up during the class, they would owe him a beer...LOL. just kidding, everyone. He emphasized on what Bruce taught him and talked about fighting situations of what if this happens or that happens. Truly great martial artist in his own rite and I can see why he loves to teach.
Tim Tackett Class.
INTERCEPTION was the name of the game. Mr. Tackett gaves us insights of the straight lead. He came up to me and helped me up with mine. Thank you, sir. It was an honor being helped by you!! Tim's WNG instructed us as well. They definitely know what they were doing. They hit hard. It echoed through the room. We worked on our palm strikes, kicks, and some grapping. WNG were in full effect and I would like to thank them for putting up with us tired people at the end.
July 20, 2008 Sunday:
The Instructor's Summit was real interesting and informative. Shannon Lee Keasler welcomed us all to the Plestcheeff Auditorium of the museum. We were anticipating of what the Instructor Summit was going to be about and as we started, Shannon wanted to know what was on our minds in the state of where JKD was in. Tommy Carruthers was the first one to raise his hand and he talked about how disgraceful of those who do not study JKD, film themselves and misrepresent Bruce Lee's art on youtube. He admitted that watching these individuals on youtube almost brought him to tears. Then the opposing question was..."What is Real JKD?". Shannon announced that she gets thousands of emails a day about this 1st generation OBLS student doing this and 2nd generation instructors doing that and this person said this and this person said that...it was a big weight on her shoulders as Shannon described. She wanted some ideas of what can we all do to resolve the confliction within the JKD community.
Then the questions bounced around from why is the UFC sponsoring the BLF Event to an OFFICIAL MANUAL being drawn up to finally explain the root or footwork if you will, on what Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do really is. Discussions always came back to arguments among JKD practitioners and instructors. "Co-exist" was the word that uttered from Shannon's mouth. Co-existance needs to be in order. Let's face it, there is conflictions within the JKD community. The suggestions were that the "elders", one called it, must get together and talk it amongst themselves. No more finger pointing. Shannon also stated that IT will be a long process and will take a lot of time. JKD is now become a business, as one member of the audience stated, which lies the problem. The art has become a business, misrepresenting JKD in a bad way. If we all stopped bickering at each other and "understand" why this person is doing this and that as Oakland Era OBLS, Mario Magdangal, stated, then we will get to the root of what is going on. It will be a long process, hopefully it won't be too late. Plans for a YEARLY INSTRUCTORS Seminar was also included into the discussion. The MANUAL to be drawn up for the footwork of Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do was also agreed by the audience. ...yea...a long process.
The Instructor Summit was done and we all headed out to the buses. Took a while to get to LAKE VIEW CEMETARY but once we got there, I knew that I would remember this moment forever. As we walked up the hill towards the gravesite, I saw a SEA of people. I was wondering if we were all going to get in a line and take pictures of the gravesite because it looked like we were going to be there for a long time. Linda Lee Cadwell and Shannon Lee Keasler did a traditional Chinese bow holding incense in their hands. They bowed three times and allowed EVERYONE to do the same. As i waited in line to pay my respects to Bruce, I saw Bruce's sister, Phoebe, standing in front of the gravesite. She bowed three times and started to cry. As soon as she cried, my eyes started to water and I started to cry myself. Sifu Richard Torres was there to help Phoebe keep her steady just in case she collapsed onto the floor. I don't care what anyone says, I cried because we lost a great human being 35 years ago who made a mark in this world and it's sad to see his students, instructors, OJKD AND JKDC, fight like little kids. Shannon was right, it's going to be a LONG process. We should all be a shame of ourselves. That's all I have to say about that.
I couldn't stop crying. It was my turn to pay respects to Lee Jun Fan. I was nervous but calm. I held the incense in my hand and bowed three times. I can't explain of how I felt. That is something that I will keep to myself. However, his philosophy helped me out through bad times and I truly thank him for that. "To change with change, is a changeless state". Not only did I pay my respects to Bruce, I paid my respect to Brandon Lee as well. He died so young like his father and he would have been one great actor in his own rite.
Brandon Lee's inscripiton on grave:
"Because we don't know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that's so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more. Perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless."
I will remember this for the rest of my life and I am for CERTAIN
this will not be the LAST time I will ever visit the gravesite.
Rest in Peace Bruce Lee and Brandon Lee.
