#lunarnewyear

The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #339: The 5 Elements, The Water Tiger, and a Reading from Empty Hands

The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #339: The 5 Elements, The Water Tiger, and a Reading from Empty Hands

https://archive.org/download/podcast-339/Podcast%20339.mp3

Since it recently became the year of the water tiger (per the Chinese version of the lunar calendar), I thought for this week’s show, it might be interesting to look at some of the philosophical underpinnings behind the elemental alignments the characters in The Thirteenth Hour martial arts novella, Empty Hands, have (Earth, Wind, Water, Fire, Void).

The original inspiration was Japanese esoteric Buddhism and the martial arts that use that system as a way of figuratively describing different kinds energy.   You’ll find more about this in epsiode 151 on the godai and in texts like The Book of Five Rings.

There is also a separate, very similar system tracing back to ancient Chinese astronomy using slightly different elements (Earth 🌎 土, wood 🪵 木, fire 🔥 火, metal ⚔️ 金, and water 💦 水), widely used in things like traditional Chinese medicine and martial arts.  Those five elements are paired with the twelve zodiac signs to make 60 different signs, this year’s water tiger sign being one.  Since these ideas spread through a lot of Asia, you see them in cultures beyond China.  In that way, they looped back to Japan.

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There, these ideas became the gogyo (五行 – “five phases”).  In the episode, I read a section on this topic from Stephen K Hayes’ Mystic Arts of the Ninja (the two graphics above are from that book) as well as a section from Empty Hands, which was inspired by both this and the godai system in creating elemental alignments for the characters as a way of encapsulating their personalities (and in a way, making their easier to write!)

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The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #234: Collaboration with Jeremy Lesniak from Whistlekick – Benny the Jet vs. Jackie Chan from “Wheels on Meals” (1984)

Episode #234: Collaboration with Jeremy Lesniak from Whistlekick – Benny the Jet vs. Jackie Chan from Wheels on Meals (1984)

https://archive.org/download/podcast234_202002/Podcast%20234.mp3

This week, we have a special episode!  Jeremy from the martial arts site and biweekly podcast, Whistlekick, and I are watching a fight scene from the movie Wheels on Meals and commenting on it.  (You can listen to the same episode with a slightly different intro and outro on Whistlekick as well; it’s episode 471 on his show.)  We are watching it half speed, which you can do on Youtube along with us by picking the playback speed (click on the gear in the lower right hand corner of the Youtube video window).  Here’s the clip:

And here are the notes I made highlighting some of our coments:

0:11 ground striking sequence with great choreography.  Nice neckspring by Jackie Chan (JC).

0:20 note the eye contact – this is clearly a contest

0:23 Benny the Jet (BJ) takes off his jacket while doing a spin back kick

0:33 if you look closely you can see this spin hook kick is blocked – but not by much.  Suspect the actors made a fair amount of contact while filming.

0:40 JC takes off his shirt to be manly.  JC does stomp/push kick, ends up on his back as does BJ

0:57 Note the slight head nod … as if to say – good shot

1:12 BJ has JC “on the ropes” (“on the table”)

1:18 BJ does a nice spin crescent that snuffs out the candles – wonder how many takes it took for them all to go out?

1:30 JC gets nailed in the nose (happens several times during this fight)

1:54 nice sweep by BJ

2:00 unintentionally funny dubbing followed by JC using a chair as cover and for rest – start of round 2!

2:24 JC is loosening up, BJ seems much more static in contrast – much more than he does in his usual fights.  Perhaps done intentionally?

2:42 vaguely Drunken Master style evasion by JC

2:56 BJ does a R leg mid round kick, JC avoids by dipping his upper body low and doing almost a meia lua de compasso with R hand on floor (capoeria style spin hook kick)

3:29 tickle escape

4:07 Manson Gibson / Kathy Long style spinning backfist by JC

4:12 lead leg R kick by JC setting up hands

4:46 close ups of JC pummeling BJ – though you can see most shots are blocked by BJ.  Probably happening fast enough a lay audience may not pick it up?

5:16 flying knee from across the room, kind of like what we saw in Ong Bak years later

Do you have any suggestions about other martial arts movie fight scenes that would be good to delve into like this one?  Leave a comment below or email me or Jeremy.

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There are now Thirteenth Hour toys!  If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.

If you haven’t checked out “Arcade Days,” the song and video Jeff Finley, Brent Simon, and I finished one year ago, click on the link below to do so!

You can find more pictures and preview clips of “Arcade Days” on IG as well as this podcast’s FB page.

Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.  

empty hands ep cover_edited-2.jpg

Stay tuned.  Follow along on Spotify!  There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.

Check it out!

As always, thanks for listening!

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The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #233: Lunar New Year 2020 Celebration with “Beautiful Warrior” – a Kung Fu Story Reading

Episode #233: Lunar New Year 2020 Celebration with “Beautiful Warrior” – a Kung Fu Story Reading

https://archive.org/download/podcast233_202001/Podcast%20233.mp3

This week, to celebrate Chinese New Year 2020, we’re reading a Chinese fairy tale, Beautiful Warrior: The Legend of the Nun’s Kung Fu.  (Click on the cover below to find your own copy.)

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Chinese culture doesn’t really have fairy tales like they do in Europe, but the idea is the same – unlikely protagonist confronted with an insurmountable barrier finds mentorship and uses his or her inner strength to triumph in the end.  Like the heroes of those stories, the two women in this story embody those ideals.  It also has the great line, “No problem can be solved by a drunken monkey.”

Check out some of the beautiful paintings done by the author, Emily Arnold McCully.

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And, before we finish, here are a few pictures of the glow in the dark Rocketeer figure I’ve been working on for the past few weeks.   It’s done!  Now I’m just making copies.

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If you haven’t checked out the episode on the CGG podcast on the Rocketeer (including some on the comics and the games), you can check it out here.

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9c855cfe-2bcf-4f9b-9681-898d80b49e9a

There are now Thirteenth Hour toys!  If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.

If you haven’t checked out “Arcade Days,” the song and video Jeff Finley, Brent Simon, and I finished one year ago, click on the link below to do so!

You can find more pictures and preview clips of “Arcade Days” on IG as well as this podcast’s FB page.

Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.  

empty hands ep cover_edited-2.jpg

Stay tuned.  Follow along on Spotify!  There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.

Check it out!

As always, thanks for listening!

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