cool movies part deux

A continuation of my list of great movies that deserve a larger audience.


6) The Yakuza - maybe my favorite movie ever. It deals with honor, loyalty, courage, compassion, and has some kickass fight scenes to boot. Ken Takakura is the coolest actor ever.

7) The Wicked Priest series - a silly, fun, martial art oriented series from Japan that starred Tomisaburo Wakayama, the guy from the Lone Wolf and Cub movies. In this series, he plays a priest who likes worldly pleasures too much, but who has a good heart and will use his fighting skills to protect the innocent. The empty hand fight scenes have a different flavor than the normal kung fu movies, and are campy fun.

8) Brotherhood of the Wolf - A French martial art picture that blows away most fighting movies. Interesting characters, a unique story, terrific fight scenes, and some surprises during the movie. Don't miss this one.

9) The Wind and the Lion - The best Teddy Roosevelt movie. Brian Keith nails Roosevelt perfectly. And, surprisingly, Sean Connery is a great Bedouin chief (I know, it sounds like a joke, but trust me), and when he has his rifle and sword duel on horseback in the middle of the movie, you will thank me for recommending this flim. Also, there a lot of great lines that stick with you. "Mrs. Pedecaris, you are a lot of trouble!" - said in a weird mix of scottish brogue and arab accent!

10) Team America: World Police - an utterly brilliant satire of just about everything. I can never seriously watch a Matt Damon or Alec Baldwin film ever again. In 30 years, critics will be looking back at this movie as one of the greatest social/political comedies of all time, like Dr. Strangelove, I guarantee.

ovation for Megaton

This past weekend, my BJJ coach, Megaton Dias, was in Brazil competing in the International Masters tournament. On Saturday, he fought in the open division at 147lbs. He took silver! He beat 4 others, before losing in the finals. ALL of his opponents were around or above 200lbs. Then, on Sunday, in his own weight class, he took Gold. What he did has never been done i.e. taking 2nd in the open while also winning his own division at such a low weight. He is just an awesome competitor. I feel proud knowing he is my coach. Great job, Meg!

cool movies

Here is a list of some of my favorite movies that are not that well known. Are all great for different reasons and should be better recognized.

1) Hard Times - Probably my second favorite movie ever made. A terrific story about friendship, honor, and sacrifice. And it has the best non-asian fight scenes ever. Charles Bronson is a bad ass bare knuckle boxer.

2) Shogun's Shadow : IMHO, the greatest action movie ever. Pure adrenaline rush from start to finish. Sonny Chiba is a fantastic bad guy pursuing a magnificent seven type group across Japan. Truly mind blowing, over the top fight scenes. And main good guy Ken Ohta might have the coolest movie moves with a samurai sword ever!

3) Murder By Decree : A scary Sherlock Holmes versus Jack the Ripper film that probably has the best movie version of both Holmes and Watson. Watson especially is shown as a capable and brave companion, not a bumbling idiot. Very good fight scene between Holmes and the Ripper, and some really frightening moments. If a filmaker in the 70's had been smart, he would have done a Holmes series with Christopher Plummer as star.

4) Inframan : An early '70's Hong Kong kung fu rip off of Ultraman, that improves on the original. Really fun. Great to watch with your kids. If you can't enjoy this one, you have no heart.

5) The Odd, Angry Shot : A war movie from Australia that is really compelling. It is a "small" movie, not a big-budget Oliver Stone type movie, but it is a better Vietnam movie than anything the U.S. industry has produced. I saw it when I was in high school, and it has stuck with me.

closed guard triple attack

In my opinion, the most overlooked and under-utilized attack in gracie jiu-jitsu is the triple attack, that generally begins with the hip bump sweep, then follows up with a kimura and then a guillotine, all dependent on how your opponent reacts of course. This is, hands down, one of the best attacks you can possibly use, yet it is relatively uncommon. Here are the reasons I think this is so.

1) Not exploding into the move

2) hips not on opponent

3) not committing weight over opponent's shoulder

If all three of these principles are followed, you will see how your opponent can't help but be forced either into the sweep or have to really go hard to counter, making it easier to flow into either a kimura or the guillotine. But for some reason, most of the failures I see usually have one of these components. It must be that when people first learn it, they only see the parts they think are important, not neccasarily the parts that are important. And, later, when they fail to consistently succeed, they start looking for other attacks, rather than attempt to figure out where they are going wrong on the hip bump sweep. A great mistake. There is a reason this move is generally one of the first things taught.

I love this sequence. I use it all the time. Combined with a pressing overhook attack and constant attempts at armdrags makes your closed guard a really bad place for him to be.

I am also trying to play with the semi-rubber guard attack Dean Lister used against Sakara. I think this is a great tie into my other main closed guard attacks, but the triple attack is the backbone.

I really wished more people would try to work into their game. I think it provides a HUGE vital element.

self preservation/self defense

I sometimes wonder about the people out there that are so into "reality" self defense/combatives/survivalism. Not that I dispute there are valid reasons to want to train and prepare for certain things (Katrina showed everyone how valid some of their points are), but they seem to concentrate on a misguided hierarchy of importance. What I mean is, they seem to place a great deal of importance on firearms, knives, "tactical" gear (usually meaning cammies), having a store of military or camping food, etc....

Now, they MIGHT someday find themselves in a scenario requiring some or all of that. There is a slight statistical chance. So, being prepared is a good thing. BUT.....they are much more likely to be involved in one of the following scenarios: high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, heart attack, auto accident, cancer, etc.... I can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are much more likely to be a victim of one of these things than a mugger, or a home invasion, or gestapo arrests, or an urban riot. How many of these people prepare for them? From what I have seen, the answer is very little.

Many of them are execessively overweight, do little or no physical activity, might not wear seat belts, probably eat the typical american diet (fast food, overly processed food, too much sugar, little fresh fruit and vegetable, soda), and most likely either don't regularly see a physician OR see one too much and take too many prescription drugs. So, if you truly are interested in self preservation, do the following:

1) Wear a seat belt everytime you get in a car - ask any firefighter/paramedic how many accidents they respond to where someone would have survived if they wore a seat belt. Tthe number is staggering.
2) If you are above 15% bodyfat, drop everything and lose weight. Diabetes is an epidemic that is somewhat ignored. People are paranoid about the vague possibility that the bird flu MIGHT mutate and jump spieces and MIGHT spread, but there is no might about diabetes. It is here and the fastest spreading type is largely preventable.
3)See your doctor and get the recommended tests when they are due...i.e. prostate check, colon cancer, breast cancer, blood pressure, cholestorol, heart stress test etc...
4) Replace as much processed food with fresh food as much as possible. Cut out sugar wherever you can. And learn where the sugar actually is (there are a ton of easily available books on this).
5) Have insurance - health, auto, homeowners or renters. AND make sure that it actually covers what is likely to happen. If you live in New Orleans, make sure it covers flood, if you live in Oklahoma, make sure it covers tornados (I am shocked at how many people try to cut corners here)

Do all these things first, and then, after they are settled, worry whether you have enough 5.56 ammo to repel rampaging gangs of post-apocalyptic zombies.

movies as a learning tool

I like movies. I always have. I like all kinds of movies. If they are good enough, I will probably have a couple of lines of dialogue that I can recite verbatim. Once, in a very great while, a movie can actually teach a life lesson.

One of those lessons I use regularly is a line from Batman Begins.

"we fall down so we can learn to get back up"

When I saw Batman with my 10 year old son, I thought it was a perfect way of trying to teach him something. So we talked about that line and what it means. Now, I was hoping for a quick attempt to impart some wisdom. Using superheroes works really well with my kid. To my surprise, the lesson in that form really took hold. Now, months and months later, if I ask my son why we fall down, he will almost immediately chime back with "so we can learn to get back up!". It's a cool thought that hopefully he will remember when he encounters a problem in his life, maybe even as an adult. I keep praying that is so.

See, it isn't a waste to watch comic book movies!

recommended reading 3

Here is the latest installment of my list of books I found entertaining, useful, or enlightening.

1) The Essential Guard - Kid Peligro & Rodrigo Medeiros : I think this is the best BJJ book yet written. Very clear, good detail, and the basics to formulate your own gameplan. The fact that it extensively covers replacing the guard is enough on its own to recommend it.

2) Jiu-jitsu Unleashed - Eddie Bravo : the second best BJJ book out. Has a unique feel to the book, yet is very easy to learn from and actually put into use.

3) The Relaxtion Response - Herbert Benson : Rodney King turned me onto this book. It is the first one I have ever seen that teaches "meditation" from a purely physical perspective that is easy to understand and implement. It has nothing to do with "enlightenment" or any meta-physical mumbo jumbo. It justs teaches you how to combat modern stress with a simple tool that might help ease problems such as high blood pressure. I don't know yet how well it works, as I have only been doing it for a couple of weeks. But it is easy to do. I figure it is worht a shot!

4) Freakonomics - Steven Levit : An interesting book that tries to explain many social issues through a different point of view. I don't agree with every conclusion (the author falls victim to something he critisizes others for; looking for a solution only from one area of expertise), but he still presents a lot of things that make you think. And that is a valuble thing.

5) Some Danger Involved - Will Thomas : a fiction thriller that is basically what if Sherlock Holmes knew martial arts. It is fun to kill a few hours with. The first book in an ongoing series.

Historical Parallels

I don't feel like turning my blog into a political rant. It's generally boring, and usually repetitous. However, I do want to point out something. Most people don't know much of history. Many commentators pontificate without any understanding of things that have happened in even the not too distant past. Take the current Iraq war for instance. Many things are said about it, both for it and against it, without any knowledge of similar situations that have happened. If you don't learn from history, you are doomed to repeat it.

Along that vein, I would like to suggest that anyone interested read the book "The Do-Or-Die Men". It is in paperback so it is cheap. Basically, it is the story of the WW2 battle of Guadalacanl from the perspective of the 1st Marine Raider Battalion. Throughout the book, as I was reading it, I kept being struck by so many similarities to the Iraq war. So much so, it is freaky. If you can, read it. I doubt very much if you will be disappointed. I think you will be just as shocked as I was.

staph infections

Part of the reason I have been occupied and not posting is I had a massive staph infection. It spread rapidly and knocked me on my a**. I had not ever encountered staph so I didn't realize what it was at first, which allowed it to fester and get really bad. I knew OF staph, but not ABOUT staph. Now I know and it is scary. First of all, it is potentially deadly, and it is more widespread that you realize. Check out the WebMD or the CDC for info. Here is a word of warning; if you have a pimple or red bump appear on your body, get to a doctor or urgent care. Trust me, you will be better off safe than sorry. Get informed ahead of time, and pay attention to your body. You will thank me later.

I'm back

Sorry for not posting for a while. Had a lot going on in my life. Way too much drama since March. But now it seems like everything is back on track (knock on wood). I intend to get back to regular posting.