Documentaries on Television

Repost from 2016:

This past week I was resting and trying to recover from symptoms of a cold.  I watched television, read, and played with CorelDRAW.  I enjoyed watching documentaries.

The "Magical Andes" was a spectacular tour of the Andes Mountains and the people who live there in South America.  This massive mountain range from Argentina to Columbia is 8,000 KM or 4,970 miles.  I have lived my whole life close to mountains.  I have toured, hiked, and camped in the San Gabriel mountains and San Bernardino mountains near Los Angeles, the Sierra and Cascade mountains in Northern California, and the Cascades in Washington and Oregon.  Views of mountains, up close and from afar, have been a dramatic experience in my life.  I don't think I will ever visit the Andes, but the Cascades (Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Rainer) will provide my fair share of mountain living.  This fine documentary film will take you directly into the Andes.

The business side of professional soccer and its impact on a working class community is shown in the documentary "Sunderland."  This team was loosing in 2017-2018, and dealing with failure is the challenging topic.

I enjoyed the doucmentary on "Design" featuring top design artists from around the world.

All of these fine documentaries are on Netflix, and probably on other television streaming applications a well.

Andes Mountains

The photograph above is of Mount Shasta, California. It was taken by Evi Shoemaker of Rancho Tehama, California. Mount Shasta is a 14,179 foot (4,322 m) stratovolcano. It is the second highest peak in the Casade Range, and the fifth highest peak in California. It is a member of the Cascade Volcanic Arc. It is located in Siskiyou County, California, in the United States of America. It is considered to be one of the Sacred Mountains on Mother Earth. 

When I was 65 years of age I once climbed to about 10,000 feet on this volcano.  Most of the time we visited the sourrounding forests below 8,000 feet.

Student Athlete Mental Health Resources

 Hi Michael,

I found your Tai Chi Chuan resource page and it's truly informative, especially the bibliography and links section. Great work!

Unfortunately, one of the links on your page is no longer working. It is linking here https://aymta.org/index.htm

If you are still accepting content for this page, I’d love it if you’d consider adding our resource as well. I think it would make a nice addition.

Student Athlete Mental Health Resources
https://www.sportspsychology.org/articles/student-athlete-mental-health-resources/

Whatever you decide, let me know – I’d love to hear back from you.

Emma Young
Community Outreach

333 W San Carlos St
San Jose, CA 95110

Memories of Fist Fights

 

The Brawl at Montreal 1980
Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran

Roberto Duran was hospitalized two weeks suffering from the COVID-19 Flu.

Taijiquan 42 Movement Competition Form

Here is a link to an excellent article by Dr. Paul Lam about the 42 Taijiquan Competition Form.

Dr. Paul Lam has also produced a high quality instructional DVD on the Combined 42 Forms.
I have used his instructional DVDs many times.

Here is information currently in the Wikipedia article on 42 Form Tai Chi Chuan:

"The 42 Form (Competition Form, Mixed Form^[1]) t'ai chi ch'uan is the standard Wushu competition form which combines movements drawn from the Chen, Yang, Wu, and Sun styles of traditional T'ai chi ch'uan (Taijiquan). It was created in 1989 by Professors Men Hui Feng from The Beijing Sport Institute and Li De Yin from the People's University for the Chinese Sports Committee. The 42-form has been subjected to criticism for being a hybrid form, but in actual practice it has received a lot of positive attention as well, for being a challenging, fluid form which loads the body with energy (qi). Today it is a popular form for competition as well as for personal health benefits.

At the 11th Asian Games of 1990, Wushu was included as an item for competition for the first time with the 42 Form being chosen to represent T'ai chi. The forms are:^[2][3][4]

1. Commencing form (起势)
2. Grasp the peacock's tail (right) (右揽雀尾)
3. Single whip (left) (左单鞭)
4. Raise hands (提手)
5. White crane spreads its wings (白鹤亮翅)
6. Brush knee and twist step on both sides (搂膝拗步)
7. Parry and punch (撇身捶)
8. Deflect and press on both sides (捋挤势)
9. Parry and push (进步搬拦捶)
10. Apparent close (如封似闭)
11. Open and close hands (开合手)
12. Single whip (right) (右单鞭)
13. Punch under elbow (肘底捶)
14. Turn body and push palm on both sides (转身推掌)
15. Fair lady works the shuttles on both sides (玉女穿梭)
16. Kick with heel on both sides (右左蹬脚)
17. Cover hands and punch (掩手肱捶)
18. Part the wild horse's mane on both sides (野马分鬃)
19. Wave hands like clouds (云手)
20. Step back and beat the tiger (獨立打虎)
21. Separate legs (right) (右分脚)
22. Strike opponent's ears with both fists (雙峰贯耳)
23. Separate legs (left) (左分脚)
24. Turn body and slap foot (转身拍脚)
25. Step forward and punch downward (进步栽捶)
26. Oblique flying (斜飛势)
27. Snake creeps to the right (单鞭下势)
28. Golden rooster stands on one leg (right and left) (金鸡獨立)
29. Step back and thrust palm (退步穿掌)
30. Press palm in empty stance (退步压掌)
31. Hold palm up and stand on one leg (獨立托掌)
32. Lean with body in horse stance (马步靠)
33. Turn body for large roll back (转身大捋)
34. Grab and punch in resting step (歇步擒打)
35. Thread palm and push down (穿掌下势)
36. Step forward to seven-star posture (上步七星)
37. Mount the tiger and stand on one leg (腿步跨虎)
38. Turn body with lotus kick (转身摆莲)
39. Bend the bow to shoot the tiger (彎弓射弧)
40. Grasp the peacock's tail (left) (左揽雀尾)
41. Cross hands (十字手)
42. Closing form (收势)"   

-  Wikipedia Article

Moda Center

My daughter, Alicia, and I went to the Moda Center in downtown Portland, Oregon.  We attended an NBA basketball game between the Portland Trailblazers and the San Franciso Bay Warriors.  The game was interesting, well attended, and enjoyable.  The interior of the stadium is quite dramatic in size.  Alicia did a great job driving in Portland traffic, and was good company in the hurly burly of a big sports stadium. 

During the last five years I followed the Oakland Warriors closely on their rise to five straight NBA championship games, winning 3 NBA Titles.  I subscribe to NBA League Pass each year ($299) and get every NBA game.  This year, the Warriors are a new team due to injuries to Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, and the loss of Kevin Durant, Andre Iguadola, David West, JaVale McGee, and DeMarcus Cousins, etc.  They are a weaker team and probably will not be in the playoffs in the 2019-2020 season.  Easy come, hard to let go.

I follow and support sports teams from the West Coast of the USA.  I lived in California for 70 years, and now live in Washington.  I root for teams from California, Oregon, and Washington. 

I actually like the live action of a lower level basketball game.  As, for example, between college, high school, and middle school teams.  Usually, you can sit quite close to the court.  As for the NBA games - give me television coverage on NBA League Pass, NBA TV, ESPN, CBS. 

I will be watching a 6-7th grade girls basketball team recreational league game this coming Friday night.  My granddaughter, Makenna (Mak), is a feisty defense minded guard and gets to play a lot.

Obviously, I enjoy watching the game of basketball. 

Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee

I don't think Muhammad Ali was "the greatest" boxer ever, but certainly one of the best for a heavyweight.  I'm seldom impressed by a converted believer to some organized religion who now claims to "know the truth."  I'm also not impressed by people, like Thomas Merton and Muhammad Ali, who claim to adhere to a pacifist religion when their military draft notice comes.  All that aside, Muhammad Ali was, like millions of Americans and people all around the world, against the war in Vietnam; and, I admired him for speaking out for that position.  I am a ambivalent about the Nation of Islam, but compared to the violent racism of WASPs in America, they seem quite tame and mostly community improvement orientated.  Muhammad Ali's voice rebuking segregation in the Southern U.S., racism everywhere, and the need for better understanding and peace among people around the world were very influential and widely respected.  

Unfortunately, his ability to continue to positively influence and change the world was greatly hampered by his Parkinson's disease.  Fame and athleticism and fortune mean nothing to diseases.  We all felt sorry for the man in that respect, as we do for all people subjected to chronic suffering and disability.  

His smart-ass fighter's bravado was at times humorous, but mostly annoying to me; and, taunting is not now favored by many elite athletes.  

A few statements attributed to the late Muhammad Ali (1940-2016):

"The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life."

"Don't count the days. Make the day's count."

"No Viet Cong ever called me 'nigger.' "

"When I feel pain, that's when I start counting, because that's when it really counts."

"I know where I'm going and I know the truth, and I don't have to be what you want me to be. I'm free to be what I want."

It's Over When It Ends

Yogi Berra, baseball hall of fame player, coach and manager died Tuesday at the age of 90.  He won 10 World Series championships with the New York Yankees, an 18 time All Star player, and was a three time American League Player of the Year.  He took 21 teams to the World Series as a player, manager, or coach.  He also served in the Navy during World War II.  He was a decent and humorous fellow, and many Americans, especially Italian-Americans and New Yorkers, held him in very high regard.  

Yogi was also known for his humorous stories, jokes, quotes, misquotes, and malapropisms, to wit:

"You can observe a lot by just watching.
It ain't over 'til it's over.
I’ts like déjà vu all over again.
The future ain’t what it used to be.
We made too many wrong mistakes.
When you come to a fork in the road, take it.
You should always go to other people’s funerals; otherwise, they won’t come to yours.
A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore. 
Nobody goes there anymore.  It’s too crowded.
You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I’m not hungry enough to eat six.
You wouldn’t have won if we’d beaten you.
It gets late early out here.
Baseball is 90 percent mental.  The other half is physical.
I can’t think and hit at the same time.
I knew the record would stand until it was broken. 
We have deep depth.
If you can’t imitate him, don’t copy him.
I usually take a two hour nap from one to four.
I want to thank everyone for making this day necessary.
Never answer an anonymous letter. 
Pair up in threes. 
If people don’t want to come out to the ballpark, nobody’s going to stop them.
You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you are going, because you might not get there. 

His wife of 65 years, Carmen, once asked Yogi where he wanted to be buried, in St. Louis, New York or Montclair.  "I don't know," he said. "Why don't you surprise me?"

Champions Again!!

The Los Angeles Lakers basketball team are now the NBA Champions for 2009. They defeated the Orlando Magic in a convincing manner last night in Florida.

I purchased NBA League Pass and watched many Laker games on DISH Network TV this basketball season. I watched each of the Laker games in the playoffs. I read the Laker's Blog every day.

I've been a fan of the Lakers since the 1970's. Following the most successful team in the NBA, with 30 trips to the NBA Finals, has been a great experience.

The Lakers have millions and millions of fans all around the world. We are all feeling GOOD today.

YES! YES! YES!

My own atheletic endeavors are now in non-competitive exercises: yoga, taijiquan, qigong, walking, gardening. I stopped playing competitive basketball games 23 years ago. However, I still enjoy watching this very demanding sport, and I'm a serious Los Angeles Lakers fan.