Getting ready to do some serious writing. Tying ideas together, bringing the theory and the practice into a cohesive whole. Just a start, mind you, but it feels good none-the-less. Still doing things for and with the APA. My health is FINALLY getting there and I'm back in training with more training and research ahead. No comics coins for a while, no illustration gig to get in the way (for a while) time to focus.
Been watching video after video lately. A bit worried about this whole big move on parkour by MTV. If anyone can sell it, it's MTV... they're experts. This is scary.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
Extracted from the APA forum. This was brought up by another member and it reminded me of something I experienced in Japan.
gyro16: Actually, I'm really intrigued by your post. I haven't had the time to follow up on this particular link, but I encountered a crossover between parkour and Buddhism while traveling through Hiroshima, Japan.
The city is surrounded by mountain ranges, and I spent a fair bit of time hiking and climbing around those ranges (mountains 15 min walk from my inner city apartment... I was in HEAVEN). There's one mountain on the north-west side of Hiroshima centre that was particularly interesting. On top it had a statue of 'mother Buddha', a female incarnation, erected to watch over the city. When I went off the hiking trail to find places to climb, I found intricate Buddhist reliefs, carved into the strangest places. Also, some of the steeper climbs had steel chains welded into the cliff-side. I had no idea what they were for, but they made some of the impossible walls climbable. Naturally, I loved this. It made the mountain both, a good challenge and an interesting mystery.
I visited the mountain often, and one day I met a monk on the peak. Monks in Japan are great. They love to chat and, unlike their Christian counterparts, they don't sling their faith onto anyone who listens. He spoke bad English and I spoke bad Japanese, so we were able to communicate. He had committed not to leave the mountain for a period of time as a part of his service, and had been living there for half a year. He wondered the range daily – it was a sacred site – slept on the mountain and lived on donations (he never asked for money and it took some time to get him to tell me how he got by, the Japanese give freely to monks as it brings good karma).
I asked him about the carvings and the chains and he told me that it was a part of the local Buddhist order. The monks would aim for physical purity by climbing up and down the mountain daily. The chains were installed to make it possible for them to scale the sheer walls. They would climb non-stop from top to bottom as quickly as possible to, over time, attain a state of meditative physical flow.
How parkour is that?
In your studies, under what circumstances did you see that overlap between Buddhism and parkour? This is something I'd LOVE to know more about.
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The convention circuit is in full blast. Just got back from Brisbane and Melbourne is next weekend. I had a blast but this all is disruptive to training and parkour comic work. There are some new strips and I'll be scanning them and posting them here soon. Though, I need to get some more strip ideas from the traceours I'm working with. Plus, still need to do some admin stuff for the Uni. Ugh, least fun thing for me - admin.
Going out to train tonight, hopefully get back out on track. Another post will be up soon.
gyro16: Actually, I'm really intrigued by your post. I haven't had the time to follow up on this particular link, but I encountered a crossover between parkour and Buddhism while traveling through Hiroshima, Japan.
The city is surrounded by mountain ranges, and I spent a fair bit of time hiking and climbing around those ranges (mountains 15 min walk from my inner city apartment... I was in HEAVEN). There's one mountain on the north-west side of Hiroshima centre that was particularly interesting. On top it had a statue of 'mother Buddha', a female incarnation, erected to watch over the city. When I went off the hiking trail to find places to climb, I found intricate Buddhist reliefs, carved into the strangest places. Also, some of the steeper climbs had steel chains welded into the cliff-side. I had no idea what they were for, but they made some of the impossible walls climbable. Naturally, I loved this. It made the mountain both, a good challenge and an interesting mystery.
I visited the mountain often, and one day I met a monk on the peak. Monks in Japan are great. They love to chat and, unlike their Christian counterparts, they don't sling their faith onto anyone who listens. He spoke bad English and I spoke bad Japanese, so we were able to communicate. He had committed not to leave the mountain for a period of time as a part of his service, and had been living there for half a year. He wondered the range daily – it was a sacred site – slept on the mountain and lived on donations (he never asked for money and it took some time to get him to tell me how he got by, the Japanese give freely to monks as it brings good karma).
I asked him about the carvings and the chains and he told me that it was a part of the local Buddhist order. The monks would aim for physical purity by climbing up and down the mountain daily. The chains were installed to make it possible for them to scale the sheer walls. They would climb non-stop from top to bottom as quickly as possible to, over time, attain a state of meditative physical flow.
How parkour is that?
In your studies, under what circumstances did you see that overlap between Buddhism and parkour? This is something I'd LOVE to know more about.
---
The convention circuit is in full blast. Just got back from Brisbane and Melbourne is next weekend. I had a blast but this all is disruptive to training and parkour comic work. There are some new strips and I'll be scanning them and posting them here soon. Though, I need to get some more strip ideas from the traceours I'm working with. Plus, still need to do some admin stuff for the Uni. Ugh, least fun thing for me - admin.
Going out to train tonight, hopefully get back out on track. Another post will be up soon.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Whew. Last couple of weeks have been quite frustrating. I got sick and couldn’t do any training just as I was making really positive progress. I’ve been working on my jumps, vaults and balance. Getting a general grip of the all-round movent and doing regular work with some of the folks in the parkour community. Then, I got sick. The frustration continues. I got better, and I’m back in training, but the comic convention season is taking off, so I’m running around doing printing and organising… Having to cancel on more meetings and training.
Shit. Going to Brisbane tomorrow, then to another con in Melbourne next week. I’ll train in the interum, but I’ll have to do it alone, so I’m not cancelling or messing people around. Back to Thursday night runs next week. Just sorry that I’m not a consistent as I’d like to be. But… that’s life.
Shit. Going to Brisbane tomorrow, then to another con in Melbourne next week. I’ll train in the interum, but I’ll have to do it alone, so I’m not cancelling or messing people around. Back to Thursday night runs next week. Just sorry that I’m not a consistent as I’d like to be. But… that’s life.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Writing in this blog less lately. I've taken to scribbling my notes down in notebooks instead... But I shouldn't neglect this blog. Still training. Got sick two weeks ago, was out for that time. Went camping and took a hike into the cathedral ranges. The natural environment was great training. I've got tonnes of energy, I attribute that to parkour.
Doing great deal of reading. Background research. Digging up key articles and ideas. Full steam ahead. Saw "Copout" today, had a parkour reference in it...
Doing great deal of reading. Background research. Digging up key articles and ideas. Full steam ahead. Saw "Copout" today, had a parkour reference in it...