History of Stunts

As I Googled until my brains melted out of my ears trying to get a picture of David Holmes the stuntman, I came across the website for the Taurus World Stunt Awards. It's on fire, natch.

On said site, they have a "History of Stunts" article that I appreciated, so I herewith post it for you, lovely lurkers. ~Jenn

http://www.taurusworldstuntawards.com/index.php?cmd=cmdInsiderHistory

Injured Stuntman

It looks like Daniel Radcliffe's stuntman was seriously injured doing a harness-flying stunt. We actor-combatants and aerial dancers here at Bonzuko send good thoughts and best wishes for a full recovery.

Check out this article about the incident; it sounds pretty bad. Apparently he's worried his career as a stuntperson may be over. The article reiterates what we've been writing here about the dangerous art of falling: "...no matter what precautions are taken, performing stunts always carries a risk."

Here's to you, David Holmes. Hope everything gets mended and you'll be up and at em again soon. Jenn can't find a photo of you right now, but here's your impressive imdb filmography: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1088505/

Random Pic

I can't believe I missed blogging on Lewis Carroll's birthday. Shucks. Here's another randomly chosen movement picture to assuage my blogger-guilt:

I think my random clicking-hand was drawn to this one because I was talking about this at the BQC the other day. This picture is from the year 2003, and my brother Jesse has just landed a couple boshi ken on the "cannot stand up for seven days" spots on my lower back. Action shot from erstwhile Bonzuko martial arts club, the Genki Kai. Good times.

~Jenn

It's decided!

Our new awards are called the "I've Got a Great Idea!" Awards. To nominate, post to this blog. Nominations will be collected over Spring Break and put up for voting shortly thereafter. Thanks to those who actually voted! As for the rest of you lurkers, now's your chance to add pearls of foolishness to the awards process.

Any silly injury or (God forbid) death from shoddy or nonexistent Stage Combat is nomination-worthy. If a previous story from this blog needs nominating in your opinion, again post to this blog and tell us which.

Jenn's First Nomination: The Idiot From Home Shopping. This is why you need to NOT buy swords like this for any reason other than wall decoration, if that. Call Denny Graves instead.

Friday's Awesome Event

It's the end of the month again, and that means it's time for Testing Night at the Boulder Quest Center. Come on January 30th at 5pm to watch cute little kids test for their next belts, and at 6pm to watch Black Belt Demos, Demo Team Demos, and youth and adult students test for their next belts. Bonzuko friends, Jenn will be performing in the Demo Team and uke-ing.

BQC Testing Night: Friday, January 30th

5pm: Mighty Dragons testing

6pm: Demos, Youth and adult testing

Food afterwards!

Also, thanks to Mary for mentioning this blog in her list of favorites! Yay networking!

Image is of Jenn throwing Keegan across the room back in December's test.

MSCD Stage Combat Club

Our first interest meeting is set for Saturday, January 31st at 1pm in the King Center Dance Studio on the Auraria campus. Any Auraria campus student is welcome to come. We'll talk regular meeting schedule and event planning then. Be there or be sad you weren't! ~Jenn












Image is of Jason Braddock and Nate in their Stage Combat final exam, 2008.

Three Days, Three Choices

Vote in the poll in the left margin of this blog, lovely lurkers, and we'll begin nominations for our unique awards soon thereafter. You have three days left to make your vote count!

What Dregs You find on Sci Fi Channel

Adrian Paul is known for gorgeous man-hair and playing immortals, not the least of which is cousin of Connor, Duncan MacLeod of Highlander fame. Now he's in a pirates-meets-D&D-fantasy on the Sci fi channel called The Immortal Voyage of Captain Drake. I have caught an episode, and am disappointed, to say the least. First of all, there is much mediocre swordfighting in the show. Second, the acting is sub-par at best, Third, well, of course the script is awful. For a show that depends so much on stage combat, you'd think the many fights would look better. They look terrible. So it's a pirate series starring a Highlander and Jango Fett. It should be great. It's not so good. Okay, it's awful. There are giant photoshopped crabs, for goodness' sake. And here am I, a good stuntwoman and writer, and have researched pirates in detail. :sigh: What do you do? Anyone famous reading this, give me a hint as to what a girl's to do; do I really have to move to LA? say it ain't so. The geek in me has died a little. ~Jenn

Bottom Line: * out of *****

Speaking of Demo Team...

Kevin put up the latest BQC Demo Team demo on YouTube. Watch and enjoy here. Audition to join in the awesomeness tomorrow, 1/17 at 3pm. Details in the post directly below.
~Jenn

Saturday's Exciting Events

The Boulder Quest Center is hosting two fun martial arts events this coming Saturday: one is for BQC members only, the other is open to all women.

Demo Team Auditions: 3pm. BQC Black Belt club members only, show us your finest demo and see if you make it in to this exciting new group!

Women's Self-Defense: 4-6pm. Free and open to all women, this seminar shows women how to empower themselves and provides a few martial arts tricks to keep up your sleeve.

Image of BQC Demo Team from the most recent test night, 2009. Jenn n Jeff.

Geared up For Spring

The holidays are over, and the new academic cycle is beginning at the Bonzuko home office. Jas is settling in to a new workout schedule, and looking forward to some Hospitality classes as well as getting some requirements out of the way. Jenn is already doing her DU online classes and is looking forward to another Metro spring! Here are some of the more interesting things coming up within the next few months:

• New and improved Villains, Monsters and Foes class Jenn's teaching at DU to their Liberal Studies grads
• Jas taking Wine Appreciation at MSCD
• New Stage Movement Class at MSCD, almost chock-full!
• RMTA 2009
• Stage Combat Club now a cross-school endeavor
• and who knows what homebrew and martial arts projects will be enjoyed

Image from the Clownlympics performance, Stage Movement Spring 2006. Kris and Chris.

It's Down to Three

So it's come down to three choices for what to call the Stage Combat Darwin Awards. Vote from the three finalists and we'll begin nominations in February!

Vote for the name!

Two days left to choose what the Stage Combat Darwin Awards should be called, O lovely lurkers. Right now we have a three-way tie, so get on here and rock your vote! Results and said contest nominations will ensue soon after Friday's deadline.

Movie Review

After much insistence by friends and students, we finally added Kung Fu Panda to our Netflix queue. Now we must own this flick.

Po is a big doofus with a big heart and a big love of kung fu. His father (a duck??) would rather he go into the family noodle business, but Po is destined for greatness, just like any good hero. However, he has to get past many obstacles first--from his own clumsiness to a terrifyingly powerful villain. The story is uplifting and exciting, and the message of the Dragon Scroll (or the secret soup ingredient) is powerfully moving without bogging us down in message.

This film has astonishing animation of not only stunning action sequences, but detailed character work as well. None of the characters look stiff or stereotypical, and they all have characteristics of their voice actors without the film degenerating into a celebrity-fest. Definitely the best animated fight scenes I've seen since Ray Harryhausen's skeletons fought off Sinbad's men, and the best comedic timing in fight scenes since Daffy Duck spun his staff and said "Ho-ho, ha-ha, spin, dodge, parry, thrust..." Highlights:

• David Cross as Crane.
• The fight on the suspension bridge.
• Po giggling as the villain tries to hit him--it tickles through the fat!
• "Ske-doosh."
• Training sequences with steamed buns as motivation. Works for me!

Bottom line: Kung Fu Panda: ***** out of *****

Thanks to http://images.allmoviephoto.com/2008_Kung_Fu_Panda/2008_kung_fu_panda_005.jpg for the image.

Testing Highlights

Hey all, I should get a video clip on here pretty soon as well, but until it arrives here's a pic from the most recent BQC test night. You really should go watch it on the last Friday of the month, it's a lot of fun. :) Here's me and Jeff looking awesome in our Demo Team demo. Auditions for said demo team are on the 17th of this month, by the way, BQC BBC members. Oh, and there's no charge for awesomeness. ~Jenn

RMTA

The Rocky Mountain Theatre Association's website is finally updated. On it you'll see a long list of the presenters for the festival--the list of experts and specialists who will be teaching the many workshops to the attendees. The only reason Jenn's is so short is that she actually adhered to the word count restriction given in the application! :) If she had known, she'd have put up more cool credentials, but hey, a book is a pretty cool credential, eh?

The Unbeatable Bonzuko Team will both be at the RMTA this year: Jas is partner to a MSCD student who is competing in the acting competition, and Jenn is one of the presenters. See this link for the RMTA newsletter with details of the workshops and bios of teachers. It should be pretty exciting, not the least of which finding how the Bonzuko green commuters will get the heck up there to Durango!

Happy New Year!

Here's to a happy and fruitful 2009!!!!

~The Unbeatable Bonzuko Team