From mrstu@WELL.COM Wed May 27 11:53:58 1998
Date: Tue, 26 May 1998 23:18:55 -0700
From: Stuart Kremsky
Reply-To: Aikido List
To: AIKIDO-L@lists.psu.edu
Subject: seminar
Hi all. Well, Jun pretty much summed up the on the mat time and Wendy pretty
much summed up the off the mat time. (for the record, it wasn't "Janet's
room" the cops came to; it was the suite I shared with several other guilty
parties I will protect the reputations of; and the complaint was concerning
the amount of noise you'd expect when 25 beerdrinking aikidoka are talkin
and laughin in a 10 x 12 ft room....)
A few personal thoughts to share, sort of "what I brought away from it."
The teaching truly was awesome. "Good teaching" can stop at technique; great
teaching, to me, indicates transmission of the teacher's joy or passion, and
it was so evident in these guys.
I have heard about/read about various styles, have always been open
to/curious about them, and it was wonderful to have them so well presented.
The list always seemed to me a place to promote the things we have in
common, and the seminar really brought that to another level.
As a beginner, it was a totally humbling experience to see the potential
that exists .....found myself pondering that folks like Jun can "wander,"
but that at this point for me it would be a training disaster. What I mean
is that while I am philosophically open to training in different styles, I
still totally lack the internalized vocabulary to function that way. It just
causes internal--and external--confusion. While I'll gladly come to any
aikido-L event, my quotidian task for now needs to be to hunker down in
whatever my home dojo is in order to repeat, repeat, repeat stuff to get
those basics down. (meanwhile a big thank you to those of you who patiently
showed me the same shit ten times in three minutes....:-0)
I enjoyed finally matching names to people. Y'know, its a pretty nice bunch
of folks! Some things not yet mentioned: there was another culinary
contribution of note, Charlie Oaks long-promised Texas chili (y'all do it
wierd, all meat, no bean....but I did nibble and am pleased to announce that
it was truly flavorful--he didn't take the easy way out, just making it
hot.).....late night pillowfight randori among a group of hungover aikidoka
is, um, strange......Ross and his students (well, Emily and Lynn anyway) are
a way cool bunch and well worth a visit for those in the Austin
area.........Alan Drysdale wrote a book! I'll try to get a review written
sometime within the next week; its well written and fills a void is how I'll
"blurb" it here....Bartman may want to look into a new career photographing
weddings and bar mitzvahs; he did a great job and very unobtrusively--if we
can only get his wife to post (hi Susie!).....we have a lot more talent to
call on for teaching--Alan, Ross, Phil Akin, Wendy's Jim right off the top
of my head..even the people who are fairly quiet on the list can hold their
own very nicely in real time face-to-face socializing; we didn't have a
wallflower there...OBHeight: Polo, Dave Wilson and Phil Akin are also REAL
tall!!!
Finally a heartfelt thank you to the instructors who gave so generously and
set the tone for the event, and to Lee and Maria for their hard work: that
they made running it look easy is testament to their skill!
--janet
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