I completed a fairly intense workout to start the year off. I did 7.5 miles on the elliptical and followed it up with 30 minutes of bag work, rope jumping, and stretching/yoga. My only resolutions for the New Year are to just keep moving and to remove as much negativity from my life as possible.
New York Cine Radio: East Bound and Down and UFC talk
I was fortunate enough to start the year off right with the team over at New York Cine Radio. The gang and I sat down and talked about Danny McBride’s East Bound and Down which Tom binged watched over the weekend. Ken and I sparred a bit over our impressions of James Franco’s and Seth Rogen’s controversial movie, “The Interview”. And finally our conversation took a weird turn as we veered into talking about Joe Rogan and Continue reading “New York Cine Radio: East Bound and Down and UFC talk”
Happy Birthday Sensei!
No more excuses
The other day I was talking to my old martial arts instructor, Kyoshi Giles, and musing over the fact that only fellow martial artists seem to understand how getting together with close friends to punch, kick, and stab one another over and over can be a beautiful thing. The camaraderie that can be developed by working out with other like minded individuals is not only fun, but also uplifting. I bring all this up because I had just returned from an early morning knife fighting class at the Krav Maga Federation and was feeling pretty good about getting back into the swing of training on a regular basis.
Over the past year or so I had made a number Continue reading “No more excuses”
RIP Aaron Banks
This is sad news for the martial arts community. Master Banks was a very popular figure in the NYC martial arts scene during the seventies. He helped to pioneer the dissemination of the martial arts by helping to promote the “Oriental World of Self-defense” shows that packed Madison Square Garden during that time. I remember meeting Aaron Banks back in 1973 as my father was signing me up for my first martial arts class. This must have been only a few weeks after Bruce Lee’s “Enter the Dragon” premiered in the US. I don’t know about the rest of the country, but in NYC, that movie had kids dragging their fathers to any establishment that offered instruction in the martial arts. Unfortunately for my father, he was no different.
Aaron Banks was sitting at the front desk as my father and I walked in to Continue reading “RIP Aaron Banks”
Here we go again
It is a damn shame that we are having this discussion yet again today. The murder of 27 people in Connecticut, 20 of them small children between the ages of 5 and 10, once again highlights a unique problem with American society. I have been watching the television coverage for most of the day with a mixture of sadness and calm acceptance of the reality of the world we live in today. I wasn’t sure of whether or not to add my two cents since I have recently become NRA certified with a pistol and have taken up range shooting as a hobby. As a child of the 70’s and a a resident of NYC, where we have some of the most strict gun laws in the country, I would be a Continue reading “Here we go again”
Throw ‘ya guns in ‘da air!
It appears that my Groupon and Livingsocial addiction continues onward. My wife and I spent the day at the New Jersey Firearms Academy taking the NRA sponsored Basic Pistol certification course. We had the opportunity to work with some great instructors. I hadn’t been to a gun range in nearly 20 years but the instructors at NJ Firearms made me feel very safe and comfortable. They introduced us to 9mms, 357s, 45s, 40 Calibires, 38s, and 22s (revolvers and semi automatics).
So overall it was a good day and I confirmed a couple of things that I always suspected. One, Chow Yun Fat and John Woo are absolutely full of crap. Two, shooting ranges are radically different than the paintball competitions that the family and I use from time to time. And three, my wife is a much better shot than me and definitely not the person I want to piss off. However, while my wife once again showed me up, I did much better at the range than I did on the motorcycle training course from a few weeks back. Plus I had a really great time and met a bunch of really cool people.
Midlife crisis – 1, James – 1.
Early Morning Krav Maga Workout
This is a brief video taken by my kids as they watched their father sweat through an early Saturday morning workout. I really plan to get in better shape for the New Year. Luckily I have the next couple of month off to workout both physically, mentally and professionally. I aim to make the best of this time.
What doesn’t kill me…….
…will only make me stronger. Well, at least that is what I have been telling myself as I nursed the sore ligaments in my foot. The injury was a result of my decision to try my hand at Krav Maga again. I signed up for classes at the New York City Krav Maga Federation training center located in John Jay College about a month ago. I needed to switch up my exercise program before the winter arrived since, as many would suspect, bike riding in the NYC cold can be a bit harsh. Continue reading “What doesn’t kill me…….”