june 20, 2008
finally!
i've finally finished it - the video edit of my rochester trip back in may. just for your information, this is not a demo or show reel of my (limited) skills, but it's more of a tribute video to my first years of learning parkour at the u of r. still, i hope you enjoy watching it.
all of the filming was done on may 14, 2008 with my trusty minolta g400. editing was done in quicktime pro 7.5, imovie hd 6.0.3, and adobe premiere pro cs3. it's a bit of a chop job since my editing skills are weak, but hey, it's done.
click the picture above or use the following link to download/view the movie: rockpkf2.mov (31.1 MB)
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may 31, 2008
still hooked
i made rings this week and i've been practicing on them every day. well, they're not exactly rings, but they work like them. i've been working the front lever pretty hard and i feel my ring training has improved my one-arm chin-up progress a ton.
oh yes, and i can't hold an iron cross as i previously thought. once my arms get further than 45 degrees from my body, the skill becomes exponentially tougher.
also, i'm nearly done putting together the parkour video from my trip to rochester. i just want to put some video clips in the credits, but my current softwtare doesn't allow me to do this..
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may 10, 2008
addicted to rings
i've been at it for about a week and i'm hopelessly hooked. if the frame were wider, i'm pretty sure i could hold an iron cross. i recommend trying out some ring exercises if you can find some near you - it's a really fun challenge.
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april 24, 2008
an exciting weekend
even with a couple final projects breathing down my neck, i feel obliged to make this post before it recedes too far into the past.
last saturday i got a chance to see benny golson (tnr) and mulgrew miller (pno) perform with the harvard jazz band(s). benny golson is one of my favorite jazz composers and mulgrew miller is a beast of a piano player, so the concert was certainly a treat for me. however, i thought the funniest part of the concert was that harvard had to borrow a lead trumpet player from berklee - and one of the best too. i saw that kid play last year in a faculty concert.
on monday i had no school due to patriot's day (yay). i took the opportunity to head over to the city to catch the boston marathon live for the first time ever. i also spent the morning practicing parkour, met up with people at bu in the afternoon, and caught tyreek jackson's fusion group later that nite. video recap below (12.9 MB).
included in this video are:
1. benny golson and mulgrew miller at sanders theater (0:00)
2. tibet protest in harvard square (0:03)
3. parkour clips at mit (0:07)
4. my first view of the marathon (0:21)
5. marathon clips on hereford street (0:25)
6. cheering on chris, a friend of a friend running in the marathon (0:58)
7. feet together flag. not a first - it comes and goes, but i finally got around to putting it on film (1:06)
as a small note to self on that last one, my hips look kind of low/out of alignment with my spine. but, i think i know the remedy for that.. if you want to see some good human flag form, check out dominic lacasse on youtube.
finally, i will leave you with an interesting insight i had into eating and exercise. many people exercise after eating in an effort to "lose" or avoid the supposedly harmful effects of what they ate. however, this really puts eating into a negative light. it portrays food and the pleasure of eating as something that needs to be atoned for. this should not be the case at all. food is here for your survival and enjoyment, so make it work for you in that capacity.
instead of eating and then exercising, exercise in order to eat. exercise and expend energy so that you can feel good about recompensing your lost fuel with food. in this way, food works for you instead of being a supposed destructive force to your health.
so what does this look like in real life? basically, this requires you to live active (if you want to enjoy eating). it goes back to the ancient hunter/warrior lifestyle from "the warrior diet" book i read (and followed) awhile back: hunt and fight all day to enjoy the spoils at nite. in modern day terms, or at least in my life, i replicate this by interspersing strength practice throughout the day, just throwing in a couple of pull-ups or flags in addition to all the walking i do. however, anything that gets your heart rate up and gets your muscles tired should probably do the trick. it'll put your appetite on hold and expend enough energy to make your eating beneficial to your body.
if you want to eat even more, you're welcome to join me for a butt-kicking metcon (metabolic conditioning) session in which you'll tax all your energy systems, kicking your metabolism into high gear and allowing you to eat tons of food which will go to good use.
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march 17, 2008
back again
the weather is finally clearing up which means the parkour season is back again. last thursday (3/13) i finally got a chance to scout out the bentley campus for training spots with evan. since i hadn't had a serious outdoor session since last fall/summer, i stuck to the basics with a focus on balance and precisions. next week (3/22-30) is spring break for MIT and wellesley, and i'll definitely be taking advantage of the empty campuses for training. hit me up if you're interested.
here's a short compilation of last thursday's training (1.6 MB).
and quick fun fact: i started learning parkour two years ago from yesterday.
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march 3, 2008
mr. chin
up until today, i have never formally been called "mr. chin" in my life. people have said it jokingly in the past, but the teacher i observed at an arlington elementary school today insisted that i be introduced as mr. chin. it's definitely something that will take time getting used to.
anyways, with only 6 hours of observation under my belt, i have to say that i've been bitten by the pedagogy bug. i've come away from my observations with more questions about what is or isn't valuable in music education, how to keep kids (and older people) interested in music for life, and most importantly, what kind of role i want to play in the world of music education.
when i decided on majoring in music education i told myself that once i got the degree, i would be done with school forever. but now, i can see myself pursuing (and even enjoying the pursuit of) a masters or *gasp* ph.d.? in music education sometime down the road.
last nite i went to a concert featuring the "ambassadors" of the monterey jazz festival. if you know me, my preferred taste in jazz is 40s and 50s bebop, and i normally go to jazz shows only for good solos and to see some amazing virtuosity. however, this concert really opened me up to the more contemporary styles and less tonal methods of soloing. i was blown away by the musicality and creativity of the featured musicians, and the fact that i got to experience it live helped me appreciate it all the more.
james moody (sax), terence blanchard (trumpet), kendrick scott (drums)
anyways, i am definitely going to try to catch more shows of big name artists that may not be my favorite soloists, and definitely more shows with big name drummers because kendrick scott is an absolute beast. not only do i wish i had taken videos of him, but his playing made me even more anxious to take drum kit lab at berklee. also, kendrick scott graduated from berklee with a degree in music ed.
l to r: benny green (pno), nnenna freelon (voc), james moody (sax/flt), terence blanchard (tpt), kendrick scott (dr), derrick hodge (bs)
moving onto completely different things, i am still trying to figure out the best way to present my eating article, and i'm trying to put together an article on how to solve rubik's cube. also, i know a lot of people ask me what a planche is whenever i tell them i'm trying to achieve one. it's actually very difficult to find a picture of one online, but i have finally found one!
also, check out this ridiculous pathway. i thought things like that only existed in movies. who knew people actually travel on that for recreation. also check out the ridiculous handstand act below.
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february 27, 2008
alive and well
fred wesley, former trombonist with james brown, led a trombone master class at berklee today. it was quite a fun experience - i saw just about the entire berklee brass faculty in the recital room, so they must've known it was going to be something worth watching. the catchphrase of the day seemed to be, "trombone is alive and well at berklee!", and not only is it alive and well, it is quite happenin' too.
four student trombonists played some (amazing) selections to be critiqued by mr. wesley, and then a bunch of trombonists (7-9) joined mr. wesley on stage to jam on billie's bounce. below is a video of the end where they're trading off (24.2 MB).
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february 7, 2008
cubing!
last week i attended MIT's 6.270 robot competition to check out the work of my friends who had been slaving away for an entire month. it was a pretty fun event; we cheered on autonomous robots and watched them hug walls, or spin around in circles or mess up somehow. of course there were a few deadly efficient robots but those were boring to watch after seeing them do the same thing more than once.
one of the perks of attending were the free rubik's cubes. i've never really had the chance to play around with one of these before, but there was enough downtime in between matches that i figured out the basics of the cube. with a bit of website help, i can now consistently get a cube into this state:
i hope to learn how to solve the cube within.. 2 months maybe? the website i referenced was probably not written by a native english speaker, so a lot of my effort went into deciphering the text. i only stuck with that website because the diagrams were good.
and if you're wondering, the big ampersand is really helpful because orientation does matter when solving the top face. to be honest, i have been solving for the ampersand side every time which is probably a crutch to developing my cubing skills. i'll get over it eventually. below you can find a video i took after the competition (4.7 MB)
happy chinese new year!
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january 3, 2008
laughing at myself
i'd like to begin with a couple of corrections to my previous post. first, i forgot to mention that you shouldn't eat food for an hour after doing metcon (but do drink all the water you need). it disrupts the metabolic condition you just created and hampers the fat loss effects. my second correction concerns the five ten "daesect" - it's actually the daescent. rumored arrival of spring 2008.
my new year celebrations are usually not very new year-oriented, but i think they have followed a certain trend. most years i remember watching the new york city ball drop on tv. usually i'm just hanging out with friends and someone says, "hey it's 11:45, turn on the tv". once it passes midnite however, no one pays much attention to the tv anymore, we go back to whatever we were doing beforehand and the activities tend to cease just before 3 AM. why do i remember this specific detail? well every time i drive back home, i turn on the radio for some jazz on 89.7 and i get to listen in on the new year's celebration and countdown at yoshis jazz club in san francisco. every year they have the most killin' big band performance and every year i wish i could be there. maybe someday.. when i've got a job to justify the $100 ticket cost.
i've added another resolution to my eating one: work on side splits everyday, at least once a day. so far, i'm 3 for 3 on the first 3 days of the year, but i know this resolution is going to be hard for me to keep. this post (specifically reply #7) on the apk forums has really opened my eyes up to the advantages that ballet offers when it comes to developing splits and i just might have to try out some of the exercises (in the privacy of my home of course).
also related to exercise, i've resumed iron cross training. i measured my wingspan to be about 5 feet, and i've accordingly placed my paralettes half that distance (2.5') apart. when i can hold L-sits for one set of 60 seconds in that position i'll increase the width. my best has been 17s, 20s, 23s in one day.
and now i'll leave you with a couple videos of myself bailing on handstands (276k and 3.3 MB). sometimes i wish i had more space down here. oh yes, feel free to laugh all you want, i get a kick out of watching myself fall down too.
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