Phil and Red's Excellent Adventure

Much to my surprise and slight irritation, when I arrived at Lion/Dragon dancing practice, there was a TV News crew. Apparently they didn't know if I was gonna show up tonite, but when I did they hurried their patoots to try and come up with a flash of the minute expose on a gweilo learning gung fu in China. Ugh. Don't isolate me from my fellow practitioners more than I am now. Damnit. The head coach was enthusiastic about doing this and so was his wife. I am thinking that they orchestrated this in some way to get them good publicity and when the TV people saw me they jumped all over me asking me to do this and that and answer questions. I was aware that this would help the school however I wasn't too happy that I just found out about it and was expected to do it. They do stupid shit like that over hear in China because they don't seem to care about others' feelings and they have no common courtesy or sense.
Since I knew that refusing to do any of this would make the headcoach lose face in front of the camera/news people and that I didnt want to incur any of his wrath over it later. I had to be a monkey for the nite and play by chinese rules since I want to learn alot of stuff from the coach and the coach's teacher. Inconsiderate jerks.
I am not trying to say I was upset about doing this, in fact I enjoyed it. It was just frustrating and embarrassing for it to be sprung on me with everyone just staring. Plus, I didn't feel prepared...I was worried I may pull another muscle and do more damage. It turned out though that by the time I got to practice, all I had to do was stretch out and most of the pain was gone. I think I just overexerted them. They were working fine tonite. I wasn't in the frame of mind either, so I had to get into that. When it was all over and done with I required that they send me a copy.
What they videotaped...
Me riding the bike into the warehouse and parking it and locking it up...(the locking part confused me...why do you need that?) Then they had the head coach pretend he was teaching someone something and they had me walk up to him...interupting him and saying hello. (great, they have video of the white american man being arrogant and interupting the teacher - thanks) From there i went and changed my clothes. Then I went to stretch out and they videotaped me doing various stretches. (I wanted to be like Jay and say, "....talking about the laziest men on Mars. GET THAT CAMERA OUT OF MY FACE! I'M GONNA BE DROWNIN' THAT THING IN BEER IF YOU DON'T STOP IT!") The headcoach came over to practice Hong Quan with me and the little kicking exercise that he showed me. He made me do stuff like going from Horse stance into front stance and shifting the power. Then he had me go to a wider area and we both did Hong Quan at the same time. After this they allowed me to get some water and then come back. This is where they interveiwed me. They asked me a bunch of questions (not in the order they asked them, i just remember these. Oh, and I answered them truthfully)
1. When/How did you learn chinese gung fu?
2. What do you find difficult about chinese gung fu?
3. What do you think of the Head Coach? - He's a retard. (just kidding..I didnt say that)
4. What do you think of Xiaolan? - I hated it until I found this group practicing. I mean, I come to China and there is no gung fu. Whats wrong with that picture? Now that I found this group, I like Xiaolan.
5. What do you think of the Xiaolan People? - Most of the Xiaolanese are ok. I have had some trouble with a few. I got yelled at a couple times, "Gweilo!" and people just stare constantly. Its very frustrating.
6. Do you want to teach when you go home? - Eventually. I don't want America being the fattest country in the world anymore.
7. Were you surprised to see these people lion dancing on these tall posts? -No. (this made them gasp) Lady, I have seen humans accomplish feats of greater difficulty...this is no surprise. Its awesome and amazing. But not surprising. I want to do it.
8. How do you communicate with the head coach? -Lots of body language and watching.
Those were pretty much the questions. I wonder how they will edit it together. They will prolly make it look like I am knocking America and calling China amazing.
From there, the head coach had me practice with the Dragon Head. He taught me something completely new while I was watching him and then doing it. It was all caught on tape. I wonder how much of a fool i looked like.
Well, that pretty much ended what I was doing on video. I gave my email addy to the people and I got their email addy and fone# so I can pester them for a tape. I then proceeded to practice on my own for the rest of the nite. The headcoach went off to do something with the camera people.
I went into the office to grab my stuff to leave and the old guy was sittin there with two of the co-coaches chatting. They had me sit down and rest. They tried a bit to chat with me about differnt styles I have looked at. From what I understood, I think the old guy wants to teach me some things. I am up for it. :D
They started talking about the staff and I tried to tell them that it was my favourite weapon to work with. So, from there, they ran and grabbed the special staff. This thing was 10 feet long. The old guy was teaching me the intro to a form that he knows. Very cool.
After we put the staff away the old guy left. I was about to leave when one of the younger students stopped me and basically made me wait. He was trying to say that the Head Coach would be back. he wanted me to wait. Thats what I got out of it.
While waiting, I was practicing some Shorinji Kempo joint locks on this kid and the other students were laffing cause I was throwin him around like a sack of potatoes. He would then try to throw me and then he would lose his balance and fall over because he was doing his San Da/Chin-ah techniques wrong. He then grabbed some practice lion heads and gave me one. So I got to play around with the lion heads. It was kool. I was trying to imitate what I had been seeing and then I added my own Phil-style of dance to it which made the other students laff. It was a good nite.
Finally, the head coach showed up with the camera crew again. They were gonna video tape some of the San Da troop that was there tonite breaking some boards and bricks. I think they were expecting me to act surprised by seeing this people break cheap pine boards. Nope. I aint impressed with stupid tricks anymore.
Finally, about 1130 we all left. Then the head coach told me to follow a couple people to that place we went to dinner last week. There was about 8 of us. We just had some drinks and some good food. But then the Head coach started yelling at the scrawny little kid, Fei Lo. I dunno what about, but i think it was his son. The kid started crying. You don't make him cry in front of a group, you're gonna give him a complex. After that killing of a great mood I headed home about 1230am.
I expect to hear from Donnie Yen in about 2-3 weeks. I will get the phone call and he will want me to be in his next movie. I have a friend in Hong Kong who knows his sister. Sweet.

The rest of the day. Eh, it was ok. I got up later because I didnt have to teach until 10am. Skipped the gym cause I didnt want to push to hard. My 3rd graders today were bad because Lucy was in Shenzhen today. 5th grade went well. I did some more work on the DVD i am working on. Kindergarten went well. I tried to get the bike brake fixed but the guy was out to dinner. That's pretty much it.