Hi everyone

 

I sent this as usual last Thursday.  It got to Yahoogroups which is where it’s meant to go.  Yahoogroups is then meant to distribute it as an email to everyone subscribed to our particular group.  I have been advised that hasn’t happened for some reason, so I’m resending today.  Enjoy.

 

Steve Mitchell

 

 

Griffith Shukan News

March 1^st 2007

 

 

Contents:

              

1. Friendship Seminar with David Dangerfield Sensei
2. Grading
3. ‘Interview with Seiseki Abe by Stanley Pranin’
4. Gabby Writes From Brazil
5. Upcoming Systema Seminar
6. Mat Fees
7. Previous news (but good news) – worth another read!:

 

 

  

 

1.         Friendship Seminar with David Dangerfield Sensei

 

I am pleased to announce a FREE friendship seminar with David Dangerfield Sensei is on at Palmwoods (Sunshine Coast – 6 minutes off the highway) on Saturday & Sunday the 17^th and 18^th of March.  Schedule is as follows:

 

Saturday          4-6pm              Introduction to Shinto Muso Ryu Jojutsu (with David Dangerfield Sensei)

                        7pm                 Dinner at a local Thai restaurant (booking essential)

 

Sunday            10am               SMR Jojutsu (continued)

12noon            lunch

1pm                 Ki development/coordination/aikido (Steve Dows Sensei)

3pm                 Questions/Discussions/Technique Workshop

                        3.30pm            Afternoon Tea and Drinks

 

Cost:                                        Free

 

Accommodation:                    Free (aikidoka may sleep at the dojo overnight)

 

Transport:                                Approach your instructors or senior students or raise it at the end of class if you’re interested but don’t have transport.  Someone will be going that you can catch a lift with.

 

This friendship seminar is an event which I have arranged with David Dangerfield Sensei to allow our respective club members to share and experience each other’s aikido.  It allows us to improve our aikido by looking at it through the eyes of others who also choose to do aikido, but are approaching it and experiencing it through a different style.  It is an opportunity to develop and explore your own aikido which I thoroughly recommend to you.

 

Flyers are available at each dojo.  For more information about the Palmwoods dojo, please visit: www.aikidoinstitute.com.au/tai.htm

 

Steve Dows

 

 

 

2.         Grading

 

The club will have its next grading on Tuesday night, 20^th March. 

 

Beginners should be aware that the process consists of Jutta drafting a list of possible candidates for grading pretty much based on the number of classes they are likely to complete by the time of the grading.  This will then be considered by Danny Sensei as the Head Dojo Instructor.  While classes completed is an important consideration, it is not the only one.  A list of those being invited to grade will then be announced in class.

 

It is not good etiquette to ask to be graded.  It is OK, however, to ask Jutta how many classes you’ve completed (and it’s OK to quietly ask if she thinks you might be invited to grade).  It is good etiquette to accept an invitation to grade when it is made as the Head Dojo Instructor has made a determination that you have the proficiency required to grade to the next level and you are therefore ready to grade.  This decision is not made lightly and grading is a privilege.  In the meantime, if you think it is likely that you will be asked to grade, it is a very good idea to know the techniques required for your next grading and start to practice them.  Ask a senior to help you out.  They appreciate the chance to be more useful!  You will get time to practice in class before your grading, but it’s always good form to practice.

 

 

 

3.         Interview with Seiseki Abe by Stanley Pranin, Aikido Journal #114 (1998)

 

It seems true that all real great art is in not what you can see, but what is felt and what is conveyed through one's intent.

High art is invisible. The following is an exert from an interview with Seiseki Abe by Stanley Pranin, Aikido Journal #114 (1998)

 

"One's growth as a calligrapher comes in a number of stages. To begin with, you learn how to work with the "form" or "shape" of the characters.

Fortunately, there are so many examples of beautiful form --going all the way back to the Han Dynasty in China even-- that there's not much chance of stagnation when it comes to exploring form.

 

Where I started to run into trouble was in my exploration of "line" (although "line" may be too simplistic a term),which is what you work on after you've mastered form to a certain degree. When it comes to line, concepts like "thickness" and "thinness" are easy enough to understand, but in addition to these you also have to work with "depth" and "shallowness." Shallowness is easy enough to understand as well, so what I was having trouble with had to do with adding depth to my brushstrokes. Such depth is more or less invisible to the eye, yet it is still one of the qualities that gives life to a calligraphic work. So much so, in fact, that it may be considered the very heart and soul of Japanese calligraphy.

 

The degree of thickness or thinness is a relatively visible quality that determines whether a line conveys the intended degree of energy or vigor, but qualities like depth (and also "height") are invisible to the eye and therefore much more elusive."

 

Simon Russell

 

 

 

4.         Gabby Writes From Brazil

 

Ola,

I´ve set up a blog to journal my experiences working on the Acão Harmonia project. The address is http://gpbrazil.vox.com. 

 

I’ve also set up a photo site at http://s157.photobucket.com/albums/t77/trumproy/  Please have a look.  Also, I have two phone numbers. You can contact us on +55 (11) 3814 7855. My mobile is errr...I presume it starts the same +55 (11) 9146 2253.

 

First Impressions

 

20mins before boarding at Brisbane airport we realised we hadn’t bought any gifts for Bueno Sensei and Mark (who have been helping us get over her via email). No more Danny Sensei to remind me of these kind of things!! We picked up a bottle of very expensive Australian wine and an Aussie-slang stubbie holder and we were off. 32hrs later (we got delayed in Santiago) we got off the plane, wondering if anyone would be waiting for us - it was 1am and we were 5hrs late. Fortunately they were - they recognised us from the photos I’d emailed, we recognised them from the fact that they had a guy with a camera on his shoulder pointed at us.

 

After a warm welcome we got taken to Bueno’s ex-wife’s (Miriam) apartment. Miriam’s a really cool, semi-hippy, 60yr old Brazilian woman (timeless) with a nice apartment in Vila Madalena. Villa Madelina is the West End of São Paulo. She only speaks a little English, but we’ve worked it out and talk about anything and everything. She’s of Italian decent and it shows in her expressiveness and tone. She smokes a lot of cigarettes (in the apartment), loves art and coffee - my kind of woman! The apartment is on the 11th floor, and on a hill and the living room has a massive window which looks out over the Paulista (the financial centre). Just massive. Then she showed us on a map of São Paulo how small that area is and it just blew my mind - I can’t actually comprehend how big the place is.

 

First day was crazy. We had 4 hours sleep and went all day. The whole day was spent at the dojo which is in the district of Pinheiros, not far from Vila Madalena. Time was centered around the documentary making and a party for the favela kids. I had a ”moment” of burn out but kept going till about midnight. Paul charged through but then crashed about 10:30pm. The mysteries of metabolism. I´m going to outline this day in detail in the blog, because it was really aikido/project focussed.

 

But the highlights:

Saw some IMPRESSIVE ukemi (soft breakfalls particularly) from a student here, Guido, who, Paul also agrees, is the Graham Olive of Acão Harmonia dojo. Also, we apparently look like brother and sister.

 

Oh!  I had been told by a few people that Pinheiros was not so dangerous but quite strange. I soon discovered first hand. I met this really cool Brazilian girl who is the producer of the documentary - Nanda (short for Fernanda). Nanda and I went downstairs to have a cigarette and a really scruffy looking man with a bag of cans came up the street and started talking to me. So I pulled up my most practised sentence ”eu falo um pouco de portugese, falo inglese” (I speak a little Portugese, I speak English) but it didn’t deter him, so I´m looking over at Nanda for help and she´s saying ”I don´t know what he is saying - he is not talking in Portugese”. He starts gesturing her to get away, still talking to me with this hypnotic stare. After 10mins of this Nanda finally gets through to him and understands what is going on. He thinks I am Jewish and was talking to me in Hebrew!

 

The next day we discovered the odd contrasts in Pinheiros. Around the dojo is quite poor, graffiti everywhere, homeless people, etc. Walk 5 mins down the road and you are in an Americanised, spacious, clean mall. 5 mins in another direction the houses get a whole lot nicer. Next door to that is the British Embassy with a Japanese garden and $4.50 coffees.

 

We’ve been taken out every night we’ve been here and I’m seriously in need of a rest. Last night we went to a crazy cool bar in Vila Madalena called O Do Borogodo (try saying that even once! Mmmm...actually it would be quite different and easier without a Brazilian accent). It was a tiny little alternative bar, packed with beautiful Brazilleiros and on this particular night there was a band playing Chorinho Samba - AMAZING musicians. I think even if you didn’t like samba you could appreciate the musicianship.

 

Since we’ve been here I’ve seen only 2 other gringos. I can understand why people wouldn’t want to come here on holiday - it would be intimidating. São Paulo is massive, dirty and dodgy. People rarely return a smile on the street - you are lucky if you get a nod. But, as Mark said, it’s who you know. When you are introduced to someone they are the most warm, hospitable, receiving, obliging people you will meet. So open-hearted. Mark says that we will be safe here because we have met the people in the restaurant underneath the dojo and the guy next door who cuts keys, etc, and so on. They know we are part of the dojo. People look out for each other.

 

We’ve met some really great people - especially at the dojo. One of the most senior students, Marcus, is a young surfer/motorbike rider who looks like a cross between Keanu Reeves and Ali G. He’s got a really sweet girlfriend, Anata, who also trains, who lives just down the street from us. I think we will spend a lot of time with them. Anata, and Guido have both given us their numbers, to be used at any time, any place, if we ever need.

 

I have to get off because Paul wants to check his mail and I have (obviously) been hogging the computer. One last thing though - we are going to the beach for Carnival!!!

 

Hope you are having a great time. Please write to me!!!

 

Love Gabby

p.s. I caved and bought a hair dryer.

 

 

 

5.         Upcoming Systema Seminar

 

Andrew Seyderhelm, Systema (a Russian martial art) instructor and occasional aikido student has maintained a strong relationship with our club over the past couple of years.  Many consider aikido and systema as sister arts which approach the same goal from different perspectives.  Andrew has let us know about the following upcoming systema seminar:

 

 

Kevin Secours is booked and coming the last weekend of April -  Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th of April.  10am to 5pm both days.

He will be focussing on grappling and ground engagement type work - clear topics/details will be coming soon.  As per the Dave Merrell seminar this will be 4 x 3 hour sessions, 2 each day for a total of 12 hours training!

 

Cost:

·                     $250/person if paid by end of Feb (earlybird).

·                     $275/person if paid before 20th April or if $100+ non-refundable  deposit paid with balance due on the day.

·                     $295/person if paid on the day.

Paypal payment system is set up or follow email links for other payment details/options at: http://www.systemaaustralia.com/KevinSecoursSeminar.html

 

Venue

Hills District PCYC only 20mins easy train trip North of the City to Grovely. We will have a whole basketball court with matts, there are

showers, change rooms and plenty of shops nearby for lunch and the PCYC sells drinks etc.  Address of the PCYC is:

 

Hills District PCYC at

135a Olearia St West

Everton Hills QLD 4053

 

STRICTLY LIMITED NUMBERS: only 40 people will be allowed.  Preference will be given to people attending the whole weekend.

people will be able to attend individual sessions ONLY if there are available spaces. We won't have more than 40 participants on the mat at any time.

 

Merchandise:

Systema Australia t-shirts will be available for purchase (see web site for examples).  If you want one I will ask you to pre-order your shirt including colour and size. They cost $25 each.  Other DVD's etc may be available and lunch + drinks will be for sale, but these details will follow soon.  All final details will be posted soon  so stay tuned!

 

More info at:  http://systemaaustralia.com/KevinSecoursSeminar.html

 

Andrew Seyderhelm

 

 

 

6.         Mat Fees

 

Fees are due at the beginning of each month.  Without them, the club simply can’t operate.  Thank you to those club members who make an effort to pay their mat fees on time or very soon thereafter (first week of the month).

 

We study a martial art, and it is disrespectful and very poor etiquette to allow your fees to become overdue.  Chasing fees usually falls to Jutta, who doesn’t actually like chasing fees, especially as they should simply be paid (or arrangements made to pay them at a later date) in the first week of the month.  Please pay your March mat fees sooner rather than later.

 

 

 

7.         Previous news (but good news) – worth another read!:

  

Club Sponsorship

 

We have a sponsorship arrangement with Brisbane based residential home loan manager, Direct Credit Home Loans Australia.   As part of an ongoing relationship, Direct Credit Home loans has made an attractive home loan offer to our club members, their family & friends.   In addition, they have offered to pay us a spotter’s fee on each home loan referred through the club.    Just let one of the Executive know if you think you know someone who may be interested.

 

Danny James

 

 

 

Steve Mitchell

GUAC Secretary

Mob.  0432 269 534

Email:  stevemitchell@ecn.net.au