The Last Masters

Sascha
Author archives

• Sinica Podcast: MMA and Kungfu in China

  I had the privilege of being on the Sinica Podcast recently, talking about my project and just the scene in general. I feel I could have done a much better job of it – a lot of inaccuracies, and I think my tone was very anti-China which is basically a fount for inaccuracies – but at the time I was just trying to not stutter and be as lucid as possible. Great experience, and gave me the bug to do more of this type of work. I also spend a lot of time talking about the documentary film, The New Masters, which I am helping produce. If you want to learn more about that, here is our website (under construction, but I am working on it RIGHT NOW) and here is our Facebook page. A Kickstarter is forthcoming, as soon as all ducks are in a row. Stay tuned!

  Here is the podcast link again:

  Chinese Martial Arts and MMA – Sinica Podcast

   

  October 6, 2014 • MMA, Modern Kung Fu • Views: 29064

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• Martial Artist and Prize Fighter

  

  Conor McGregor is the new hot thing in the MMA world, an incredibly confident Irishman who swallowed the Blarney Stone and has so far made all of his opponents in the ring look terribly over-matched. He’s so much fun to listen too, and fun to watch in the ring as well. There are a host of videos about him out there, and here are a few that will give you an idea of what he is like:

  The Notorious Documentary

  A Day in Dublin

  UFC on the Fly

  Portraits: Conor McGregor

  I wasn’t sure what to think of Conor, as he was talking his way into his most recent victory over #5 ranked Dustin Poirier, but in his post fight interview he said something that I found to be very insightful. It’s a comment that I think goes to the heart of what martial arts and fighting are all about, and also the core of who Conor is as a person:

  “Prize fighting is short. Get in, get rich, get out. But martial arts is a way of life.”

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  September 30, 2014 • MMA • Views: 18352

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• Martial Law

  

  I wrote a story a while back about pirates and militias, and the role of the martial artist, in certain time periods, as a guardian. This idea has been with me for a very long time, due perhaps to my love of fantasy novels. The story of the hero who protects the village, or slays the dragon, is an old one, and I also touched on that cycle in a post on this blog, “Mixed Martial Arts and the Hero’s Journey.”

  I wrote the former essay during the media frenzy following the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. After that shooting, it seemed as if every day another report about police shooting unarmed men – mostly black, a few white – came tumbling through my social media feeds. In each report, police aggression was clear and apparent. The police seemed eager to pull the trigger, eager to escalate the situation. As if they had been waiting for this opportunity for some time, and now finally had the chance to “fuck someone up” – I found myself more and more drawn to the fantasy of a militia with morals, with a code, with the discipline of a master, or an MMA fighter … a force made up of people who used force so often, in controlled settings, that the tendency to escalate a situation has been beaten out of them so to say.

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  September 3, 2014 • MMA, Modern Kung Fu • Views: 28839

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• New Masters Documentary

  This is a teaser for a documentary film I am involved with, featuring Ning Guangyou, a fighter in the UFC.

  September 1, 2014 • MMA, Video • Views: 5691

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• Chen Taiji Video

  Here is a video that Chen Jia posted on her Wechat feed. It features the four current masters of Chen Style Taiji, Chen Xiaowang, Chen Xiaoxing, Chen Ziqiang, and Su Jianping. It’s beautifully shot, but the music is horrible. The song, I believe, was written for this video. I will have a translation here in a bit of the song, just for kicks.

  For my take on Chenjiagou, the village where this style originates, check out “The Birthplace of Chen Style Taiji.”

  August 31, 2014 • Kung Fu People, Kung Fu Places, Video • Views: 6706

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