Martial Arts and Cartoons
Sep. 4th, 2004 09:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
soc_puppetOkay, it's late and I'm tired but I'm going to write anyway.
I had a good night's sleep last night, which, between insomnia and medication that _doesn't_ _help_ the insomnia, hasn't happened the past few weeks (I blame stress), so I woke up in a good mood and with a delightful attitude towards life. I didn't know I'd need it.
Sensei Dan is out of town on Saturday for pretty much the whole month so his wife, Sensei Jill (or Jillian, whichever) lead classes today. Sensei Dan has frequently assured his students that Sensei Jill is more dangerous than he is, and that people should be more frightened of her than they are of him. (Sensei Dan is roughly six-foot-something tall with a scarily intense look on his face; Sensei Jill is roughly five-foot-six with a cheerful look on her face and proportions roughly similar to that of the Pillsbury Doughboy (were he a she). Thus, it can be understood why people are more intimidated by him than by her, especially in early meetings.) Okay, I can easily believe that. I have no problem with it. A few of my friends are still terrified of him, despite the fact that I've assured them he is nothing but a really tall, really skinny teddy-bear who knows martial arts, but I can believe that his wife should scare me more. What he failed to warn me, however, is that Sensei Jill isn't just deadly; she's evil.
So after we'd warmed up a bit, Sensei Jill split the class into two groups: a senior student/almost instructor and a newbie on one side so the newbie could learn the basics, and the other eight of us plus her on the other. What she had in mind for us was this:
Sensei Jill: Okay, here's what I want you to do. I want you to pair up and plan a five minute demonstration with a sample from each of the five aspects of Shinkendo: Cutting, Movement, Sparring, Forms and Drawing [as in, the sword from the sheath, not pencils and paper]. You have ten minutes in which to do so, and then you get to present it. Hop to it.
Me: O_o Demonstration planning?!?!?! *brain melts*
(Ten minutes later)
Sensei Jill: I'm going to think of a number between one and ten. One person from each group is going to _guess_ a number from between one and ten. The group that gets the closest to the number gets to go first.
Me: *thinking* Seven. Everyone picks seven. No, wait, that's too obvious! And I don't want to be right T-T!! Eight. It's gotta be eight.*
Sensei Jill: *pointed look in our direction*
Ray (senpai, partner for 'exersize'): *gives me the go-ahead signal*
Me: Uh, eight.
(other groups guess. Everyone finishes.)
Sensei Jill: It was seven. You're first.
Me: >_<...!!!
The torture passed with relative speed. I kinda zoned out as the other groups 'performed'. Afterwords, we sit in a Pow-Wow circle (direct quote from Jillian) and discuss pros and cons of varied demos.
Sensei Jill: Okay, we're done; you're free for two minutes to get a drink of water. When you get back, find a new partner; we're going to do the same thing over again, only this time, you get six minutes to plan a three minute demo! Doesn't that sound like fun?
....Yeah. That was roughly Shinkendo class today. Oh, but there was one more thing.
(number guessing moment)
Sensei Jill: Okay, this time you pick a number between eleven and twenty.
Me: Uh, fourteen?
(after all groups have guessed)
Sensei Jill: Okay, you go first.
Me: o_O Okay, looks like I can cross 'Get Psychic Powers' off my list of Ten Things I Really Want To Do Before I Die [may go over others later].
(while doing the demo, my partner and I make the same exact mistake in a form at the same time, so it's as if we hadn't made a mistake at all and the 'audience was all: O_o Okay, that _looked_ sorta wrong, but I couldn't tell how... ^^;... We ended up confessing it in the discussion circle afterwards, anyway. But I got props for the bit of choreography I did ^_^.)
So I got home, and ate dinner. Then it was time to go visit a family friend and watch old cartoons via projector system at his house.
We saw a few classics, including 'Rabbit of Seville' ^_^ <3 (not as good as 'What's Opera Doc', but entertaining none the less) and a few 'new to us' ones. The best, I think, was this really old Mighty Mouse cartoon.
For those unfamiliar, Mighty Mouse is about this mouse, see, who's sort of a superhero. He's super-strong and can fly, and that's about all he needs. (I'd seen Mighty Mouse cartoons before and wasn't too impressed) All the diologue is sung--pretty well, too. Anyway, apperantly the cartoons were really low budget, but they _still_ wrote all their own music. The real treat, though, was the obligatory 'damsel in distress' mouse.
The theme for this 'episode' was pirates. So there were these cat pirates who sailed the open seas, and looked pretty girly if you ask me. Anyway, they find this island, and the captian sees this really good-looking chick mouse on it (the island's princess or something) and is attracted (?!) to her. So, obviously, he has to send his loyal crew to drag her aboard the ship so he can, uh, 'get to know her better'. They do so, acting rather uncatlike in regards to the water (but they're sailors anyway, so I kind of overlook it) and the first thing she does when he starts advancing on her is PUNCH HIM ACROSS THE ROOM. Suddenly, I have so much more love for Mighty Mouse cartoons ^_^.
The story advances with the Jungle Mighty Mouse coming to save the Island Princess. There's this great visual gag where he ties the blur of color that follows him around the mast of the pirate ship and uses it to slingshot a bunch of cat-pirates. That's right, that color blur that follows him ^_^. Like a comet tail, you know? That's what he uses. There's this other great gag where the cat pirates that have peg legs shoot these little cannon balls out of them (OMG, ROTFL XD <3). And the chick _fights_ _back_. That totally made the whole cartoon for me. Dude, you NEVER see that in old cartoons! It's always the chick going all submissive and uke and 'waiting for her savior' and crap! (As a side note, I have to wonder _why_ that is, especially since this is an _older_ Mighty Mouse cartoon. I'd love to see a timeline for this sort of thing some time.)
The cartoon ends with Jungle Mighty Mouse flying the princess back to her island, and the cat pirates sailing away, swearing that they'll (almost) never trust another woman again. Part of me is still making amused coments about gay cat pirates in the background, but most of me is too enamored with the rest of the cartoon to care.
In short, the old pirate Mighty Mouse cartoon is a winner on my list.
I had a good night's sleep last night, which, between insomnia and medication that _doesn't_ _help_ the insomnia, hasn't happened the past few weeks (I blame stress), so I woke up in a good mood and with a delightful attitude towards life. I didn't know I'd need it.
Sensei Dan is out of town on Saturday for pretty much the whole month so his wife, Sensei Jill (or Jillian, whichever) lead classes today. Sensei Dan has frequently assured his students that Sensei Jill is more dangerous than he is, and that people should be more frightened of her than they are of him. (Sensei Dan is roughly six-foot-something tall with a scarily intense look on his face; Sensei Jill is roughly five-foot-six with a cheerful look on her face and proportions roughly similar to that of the Pillsbury Doughboy (were he a she). Thus, it can be understood why people are more intimidated by him than by her, especially in early meetings.) Okay, I can easily believe that. I have no problem with it. A few of my friends are still terrified of him, despite the fact that I've assured them he is nothing but a really tall, really skinny teddy-bear who knows martial arts, but I can believe that his wife should scare me more. What he failed to warn me, however, is that Sensei Jill isn't just deadly; she's evil.
So after we'd warmed up a bit, Sensei Jill split the class into two groups: a senior student/almost instructor and a newbie on one side so the newbie could learn the basics, and the other eight of us plus her on the other. What she had in mind for us was this:
Sensei Jill: Okay, here's what I want you to do. I want you to pair up and plan a five minute demonstration with a sample from each of the five aspects of Shinkendo: Cutting, Movement, Sparring, Forms and Drawing [as in, the sword from the sheath, not pencils and paper]. You have ten minutes in which to do so, and then you get to present it. Hop to it.
Me: O_o Demonstration planning?!?!?! *brain melts*
(Ten minutes later)
Sensei Jill: I'm going to think of a number between one and ten. One person from each group is going to _guess_ a number from between one and ten. The group that gets the closest to the number gets to go first.
Me: *thinking* Seven. Everyone picks seven. No, wait, that's too obvious! And I don't want to be right T-T!! Eight. It's gotta be eight.*
Sensei Jill: *pointed look in our direction*
Ray (senpai, partner for 'exersize'): *gives me the go-ahead signal*
Me: Uh, eight.
(other groups guess. Everyone finishes.)
Sensei Jill: It was seven. You're first.
Me: >_<...!!!
The torture passed with relative speed. I kinda zoned out as the other groups 'performed'. Afterwords, we sit in a Pow-Wow circle (direct quote from Jillian) and discuss pros and cons of varied demos.
Sensei Jill: Okay, we're done; you're free for two minutes to get a drink of water. When you get back, find a new partner; we're going to do the same thing over again, only this time, you get six minutes to plan a three minute demo! Doesn't that sound like fun?
....Yeah. That was roughly Shinkendo class today. Oh, but there was one more thing.
(number guessing moment)
Sensei Jill: Okay, this time you pick a number between eleven and twenty.
Me: Uh, fourteen?
(after all groups have guessed)
Sensei Jill: Okay, you go first.
Me: o_O Okay, looks like I can cross 'Get Psychic Powers' off my list of Ten Things I Really Want To Do Before I Die [may go over others later].
(while doing the demo, my partner and I make the same exact mistake in a form at the same time, so it's as if we hadn't made a mistake at all and the 'audience was all: O_o Okay, that _looked_ sorta wrong, but I couldn't tell how... ^^;... We ended up confessing it in the discussion circle afterwards, anyway. But I got props for the bit of choreography I did ^_^.)
So I got home, and ate dinner. Then it was time to go visit a family friend and watch old cartoons via projector system at his house.
We saw a few classics, including 'Rabbit of Seville' ^_^ <3 (not as good as 'What's Opera Doc', but entertaining none the less) and a few 'new to us' ones. The best, I think, was this really old Mighty Mouse cartoon.
For those unfamiliar, Mighty Mouse is about this mouse, see, who's sort of a superhero. He's super-strong and can fly, and that's about all he needs. (I'd seen Mighty Mouse cartoons before and wasn't too impressed) All the diologue is sung--pretty well, too. Anyway, apperantly the cartoons were really low budget, but they _still_ wrote all their own music. The real treat, though, was the obligatory 'damsel in distress' mouse.
The theme for this 'episode' was pirates. So there were these cat pirates who sailed the open seas, and looked pretty girly if you ask me. Anyway, they find this island, and the captian sees this really good-looking chick mouse on it (the island's princess or something) and is attracted (?!) to her. So, obviously, he has to send his loyal crew to drag her aboard the ship so he can, uh, 'get to know her better'. They do so, acting rather uncatlike in regards to the water (but they're sailors anyway, so I kind of overlook it) and the first thing she does when he starts advancing on her is PUNCH HIM ACROSS THE ROOM. Suddenly, I have so much more love for Mighty Mouse cartoons ^_^.
The story advances with the Jungle Mighty Mouse coming to save the Island Princess. There's this great visual gag where he ties the blur of color that follows him around the mast of the pirate ship and uses it to slingshot a bunch of cat-pirates. That's right, that color blur that follows him ^_^. Like a comet tail, you know? That's what he uses. There's this other great gag where the cat pirates that have peg legs shoot these little cannon balls out of them (OMG, ROTFL XD <3). And the chick _fights_ _back_. That totally made the whole cartoon for me. Dude, you NEVER see that in old cartoons! It's always the chick going all submissive and uke and 'waiting for her savior' and crap! (As a side note, I have to wonder _why_ that is, especially since this is an _older_ Mighty Mouse cartoon. I'd love to see a timeline for this sort of thing some time.)
The cartoon ends with Jungle Mighty Mouse flying the princess back to her island, and the cat pirates sailing away, swearing that they'll (almost) never trust another woman again. Part of me is still making amused coments about gay cat pirates in the background, but most of me is too enamored with the rest of the cartoon to care.
In short, the old pirate Mighty Mouse cartoon is a winner on my list.
