Mighty Morphin Power Rangers

The first episode I ever saw that aired in August of 1993 was Day of the Dumpster.  To an impressionable seven year-old, that world was everything.  While I could respect the other rangers, I was truly a fan of Billy, the Blue Ranger.  Maybe it was because he was the nerd/outcast who became stronger, but still stayed true to who he was as a person, or maybe it was the cool trident staff/lances he had for his special weapons.  Either way, it was a great motivator for a boy who, only the day before, had his father pass away from a heart attack in the night.

When looking at it retrospectively, Billy's transformation mirrors my development over the years in many aspects.  Learning to accept and love yourself in spite of external factors is a challenge for many people; some have chosen to ignore that difficult struggle and replace it with something else.  It may seem like I disapprove of it, but that's not true really.  We are all different and what works for some doesn't necessarily work for others.  For me, I have found the journey of self-exploration and development a far more fascinating subject than what others may have chosen.  My method of development has been through the practice of Capoeira, as I have written at length about in previous posts, videos, and my teaching blog.  Those are easy to find, so I would be repeating myself here.

It was ironic at the time that an academically-focused boy such as I was and am would be so into a martial arts television program.  Sure, there was a method of fitness in my life while I was at school (something for which I am thankful for) but when not on the field, I would be enveloped in studies or at home playing games with my two older brothers.    I catch some of the older episodes once in a while when online, and old feelings come flooding back into being.  Serious Alpha 5 was tolerable; over-excited Alpha 5 was punchable. When Tommy came along, I was mad at him, then cool with him, then a bit mad at him, then he became awesome.  I was surprised as I grew older how consistent each of the following series were with retaining consistency with the universe.  That got less and less so in later teams, but that's around the time when I stopped watching and played more games/studied/performed in theater.

In the back of my head, I've always dreamed of being on the team, as many kids my age have done.  Somehow, that dream never went away, even as I got older.  Maybe it's not so much the suit, the zords, the weapons (all of which are more than enough reason to be on the team!), but I see that dream continuing into my adult years as a way to explain both my easy communication with my young students and my ease of which I talk to children in general.  I've just wanted to be a good role model for them, and so I talk to them honestly, and I'm nice, without treating them with indifference and not backing down from rules I've given.  It's a good mentality for someone who is a teacher: take care of the kids when they are younger and they'll take care of you when you're older.  These are the people that will run things when I am long gone, so I hope to develop them into decent people at least a little bit.

With a wonderful muse in my life lately, I certainly hope to write more frequently.  After being gone from it for so long, writing again as if I had never stopped is refreshing and encouraging.

-David

Capoeira Teaching Blog

Most of my posts from now on will primarily be on my other blog, which relates to my experiences in teaching capoeira. If the RSS feed works, I'll do that. If not, I'll try and copy a link to any recent posts here.

Capoeira: An Assistant Instructor's Perspective


--D

A Little Story

This will be well-edited to protect people, of course.

A group of friends and I were working on a project outside at their house, and for some reason, a couple of people started talking about names that work for boys and girls.  Then one of the people, a mother of one of my friends, just chimes in with "I give all my miscarries unisex names because I never know if they are a boy or a girl."

...

"I always like to pretend what they'd be like as a boy or a girl."

Honest to god, my only reaction was to say out loud, "Yeah, that's...um...yeah."

I was waiting for a moment for that woman to say something completely off the wall and there you go.  That kind of killed the mood for me that afternoon.  I was fine with the rain, but jesus.

--D

Even more pictures from "Boxes"

I might have been lazy and double posted some.  Call me on it, please.

-D

Beard dream

It's not easy for some people to remember all of what they dream.  Usually it's easier to remember important snippets of information or just a general description of the events, glossing over the weird shit that makes the dream ever more charming.  

I thought I'd bullet the various dream situations I've had recently.  My dreams have become more vivid and easier to remember since graduation, so the lack of stuff on my mind must be the cause of these images.

• One dream involved the actors I was in company with freshman year of college meeting up at some sort of reunion/concert that happened to be a reality show.  I don't watch those shows, so this one was fucking weird.
• Last night, before I woke up, I dreamt I had a beard that was thick from sideburn to sideburn.  It was short, not all Alan Moore long, but it was quite thick.  
• Another involved some sort of cowboy-like riding of a whale.

That's about it really.  I hope to begin lucid dreaming someday, which should be fun.  I want to explore Arcadia!

--D

More Pictures from the set of "Boxes"

"Boxes"

So here I am, slightly sore and a little bit rested after a 7 hour night shoot for the short film "Boxes." All my stuff is done, so I don't have to come in for night two, but I thought I'd blog the experience for my particular section.


"Boxes" involved five shoppers fighting over the contents of a series of boxes in a small store. There's the cashier, played by my good friend, Robert Linden.

Here he is getting some food in the break room and being a badass behind the counter in between shots.  He had to be there most of the night, from 7pm to roughly 2-3am.  Lucky bastard, all he had to do was sit around and look cool.

Shopper 1 (Stan) and Shopper 2 (Simone) were finishing up their scene together, which is the first kill. It involved a pretty gunshot to the head of Stan, who is playing a blind man.  Here's video of the shot itself (keep track of a chunk of gore).

Next came my interaction with Simone's character, who I stab in the back with a nice little knife (it's in the first picture).

Here's the awesome effects guy attaching the blade to her back.

At midnight, both Stan and Simone had to take off, and it was good that they both finished their parts right at the stroke of.  Next came the fight between Shopper Four (Jamie/James) and myself. Here's before the carnage.

We shot a few wide-angle master shots of the fight, sans blood/injuries of course.  Those came with the sub-masters we shot once we ran through the fight for the camera a couple of times.  James was really wailing on my back during the tackle, which got some worried questions from the crew, combined with a bit of "that was cool" subtext.  Here's the fight rehearsal we had on Tuesday to give you an idea of what we were up to.

Slowly, but surely, we got through the fight one section at a time.  The make-up effects were brutal-looking and this fight was pretty damn fun to film.

We finished all of my stuff (and everything for the night) an hour early, so it was time for all of us to head home.  Frankly, this was both tiring as fuck and fun as hell.  I've uploaded some other photos of the shoot to my Tumblr account, so check those out.  

Once I get a copy of the short, I'll be sure to post it here.  Time for a late breakfast.

--D