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Kimura Shoji Room Divider in Rosewood Number of Panels: 4

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Recently, while I was running my BJJ class, a group of young guys came into our school. Now, I never judge a book by its cover, but let’s just say that these guys were trying a little too hard. (Sorry, I cannot take anyone seriously if they try ON PURPOSE to look like an MTV reject.) While the guys were Rolling, I approached them and asked if they needed any help. (I assume that the one guy who did all the talking was the leader of this group. I’ll refer to him as “Poser”.) Poser said they were interested in checking out the school. So, I gave them my little welcome speech and kind of gave them the rundown of what we do at the school. Ok, here’s where it got interesting. Poser said that he was familiar with BJJ and that he had actually trained a little before. I said “Cool,” and asked him, “Where did you train at before?”

(Before I go any further, let me explain to those of you who have just started training in BJJ or just happened to stumble upon this blog and are not exactly familiar with the Grappling world. Even though our world is increasing in numbers, it is still a close-knit enough world where almost everyone knows or has heard of someone. Whether it is the name of a school or an actual person, someone will know who they are. Especially, if they are within the same state, let alone within driving distance. This makes name dropping a dangerous game because we will call out the bullshit. You either live or die by your reputation in our world. We don’t like people dishonoring our name. We don’t like people dishonoring the names of people we know. We definitely don’t like people trying to hype themselves up with the names that we and the people we know have worked so hard to build up. Tread lightly, Posers. There are some of us who are not as nice as I am when it comes to handling this type of situation.)

Now, back to the story. Here’s how this part of the conversation went:

Poser: “I trained at ********* BJJ, up in ***.”
Me: “Really? So, you know *** *****?”
Poser: “Who? Sorry, it was a while ago and I wasn’t there that long.”
Me: “Ok. That’s cool.”

I gave Poser and his lackeys a business card and sent them on their way. I turned around and faced the guys. By this point, they had just finished their round of Rolling and were taking a little break. During this break, we all started talking about what that mess was that I had just taken care of. I told the guys about the name dropping and we all agreed to call bullshit. See, here’s the problem with Poser’s little story. The school that he mentioned: we know that school. We have friends at that school. One of the guys who was training that day in our school has actually trained up there a bunch of times and has NEVER seen Poser. The big red flag for me was the name I dropped. You see, the guy whose name I dropped is someone I know. How well do I know the guy? He was the one man I trusted to make me the engagement ring I gave to my fiancée. So yeah, I think I know the guy well. I also know that he is always training. If you can’t find him training, then he’s working. At that school, if you don’t know this man, then you’ve never trained there.

Now, I wonder what will happen next. Will Poser and his lackeys come back? If they do, will they legitimately train? Can they hang or will they washout like every other fake wannabe? Will they never come back and try their bullshit at another school? Who knows? Regardless of what happens, I like to think that the Mat Gods will take care of it.

The lesson of the day:

There is nothing to prove before you step onto the mats. There is no need to hype yourself up. It WILL blow up in your face if you do NOT have the skills to back it up. Keep it real. Don’t drop names if you have no legitimate connection. You will be called out on it.

Happy Training~!!!

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Nova Lighting 10706 Kimura Accent Floor Lamp, Dark Brown & Brushed Nickel with Tan Linen Shade

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This guy is all judo, and although I watched more fights of him losing than winning, it is just so awesome to watch that I don’t care. hahaha.

In the fight below against Ryan Ford he does some cool throws – looks like a tai otoshi kind of thing in the first round.

Second round starts of with a bunch of throws and a few knees by Ford, then Karo throws him on his back, looking for a submission on the ground. In the end Ford kneed him in the face and he bled everywhere then lost.

Here

is a UFC fight he was in. Not as many throws but a lot of submission (seems mainly like armlocks but I could be wrong) attempts. Comes close many times.

In this next fight he goes for an uchi mata early, then its mainly punches until IPPON seionage to the ground! Then some ground work, Karo looks for a leg lock and the video stops.

He also has a heap of Judo for MMA videos where he breaks down how to do a bunch of judo throws and submissions in MMA wichout yo gi!

I look forward to seeing more fights from him. I watched a bunch of interviews as well, but they are sortof all about him having a rough patch and allegatiosn of drug use etc. but wevs, haterz gonna hate but this dude, win, lose or draw I love to watch fight!!

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THE TUNES THIS WEEK and ALL THE RECORD COVERS

Glen Campbell – Rhinestone Cowboy

Rhinestone Cowboy Wiki Link

Grateful Dead – Big River

Steal Your Face Wiki Link

The Beatles – I’m Looking Through You

Rubber Soul Wiki Link

David Bowie – The Jean Genie

Aladdin Sane Wiki Link

Harry Nilsson -The Moonbeam Song

Nilsson Schmilsson Wiki Link

Elvis Presley – Slicin’ Sand

Blue Hawaii Wiki Link

Bruce Springsteen – Dancing In The Dark

Born In The USA Wiki Link

Sawtooth Mountain Boys – You’re Not Easy To Forget (Featured PDX musician of the week)

THE TASTY BITS THIS WEEK

Special Feature Story of the Week

TIMBERS TIME

-After the defeat in Colorado, the owner Merrit Paulson announced last Monday morning that Head Coach John Spencer was fired.   It is not a surprise to me, but it certainly made people feel bad. BUT because of that, Gavin Wilkinson is the new head coach for now and a few changed were already made. Bright Dike came back into town from being on loan to a PDL team and we send Jean-Baptist away to get more experience…

-However, the turmoil and change did not result in a positive turn around, and last night in front of a sold out crowd, the Timbers fell 5-3 to the LA Galaxy. Two goals by Boyd and one from Kimura were a great start, but a flood of goals by LA in the first half including a PK given for a ‘dive in the box’  were too high of a mountain to climb.  4 goals in 10 minutes is hard for any club to deal with emotionally…So now we are in last place and have no time to lick our wounds as we have a game this Wednesday away at Chivas in California…This could be a rough few weeks as we find a new identity.

www.portlandtimbers.com

http://twitter.com/timbersfc

TECH TIME WITH MARSHALL

Each week I check in with Marshall Kirkpatrick for the latest in Tech news and tweets. Whether he is tirelessly building his new project Plexus Engine or continuing his work with Read Write Web, Marshall always has his finger on the crystal ball of whats new in the world of technology. This week I will show you a few things that are inspiring us and we think are totally awesome.

-This week Marshall made an unusual social comment retweeting a link from Marketplace.  It read “Wow: Army NatGuard spent $20m+ in ads at NASCAR, got 25K responses *only 20 were qualified* & none joined”  The US Army is pulling all it advertising with Nascar now…On a lighter note, Marshall tweets “You can’t write a note on the inside cover of a gift ebook”..AND on a more fearful note, He lets us know about an article in the Washington Post about the GOP..He tweets “Awesome: GOP in Texas, where US school textbook agenda is set, says teaching “critical thinking” is subversive & bad”

-I was pointed out this great website call The Wirecutter. It is a great resource for finding reviews on gadgets and things. The articles are down to earth and written for people who want information from an unbiased point of view. Go to their website and put in a search word like Printer, or BBQ, or even Headphones…You will be impressed with what you find and will probably go back!!!

SPECIAL SUPPORTLAND TIDBIT

-I have talked about food carts around Portland before, but keep being more and more impressed with them, so I wanted to tell you all some more cool stuff this week in hopes that more people go out and support these awesome alternatives to restaurants. While standing in line at the carts on 9th and Alder before the Timbers game yesterday, I heard a family of 5 talking about how they go to the Cart Block before each game and the kids get to wander around and pick out their individual dinners. SO I thought to myself “the timbers should join forces with the carts somehow” then I pulled up the Timbers Website for information about the Galaxy game and saw this article about how THEY HAVE joined! Each home game will have fan voted food carts from around town serving their food INSIDE THE PARK!!!! You only have to turn on the TV to see the success of the carts and their popularity!  Just last Wednesday on the Travel Channel, Adam Richmans show Best Sandwich in America, The Portland Food Cart Big Ass Sandwich won the  NW region beating out traditional restaurants! My Wife Amy who works downtown and is a vegetarian loves Savor Soup House and The Bombay Chaat House. While I Like Thai Food is one of my favorites! The way these carts can come and go, finding one that has been around for a while is a great way of knowing your are going to get some awesome food. Reputation and word of mouth really sell some cart food. AND I would bet that the line outside of Big Ass Sandwich was rivaling Voodoo Donuts the day after they won on Adams show.  Summer Time, Timbers Games, Downtown Portland and tasty tasty food cart treats make for awesome Portland Scrambles…Just belly up to any cart counter window, order up some amazing grub and don’t forget cash!

All is good. Hot water and two fresh rolls of TP have arrived, so we’re washed and fresh and ready to TP the dean’s house. Which reminds me, many here have told us how lucky we are to have an administrator along. Groups without one are forced to plan without having essential input from the admin side. Dean Guy Kimura has quickly earned a reputation for being willing to listen, inform, and encourage innovation. Our new bumper sticker reads: “Guy says yes.”

Kamaka continues to be our super socialite and a hit with all, making connections and offering hugs, as our list of contacts and resources grows. Melanie, Sam, and Monica are bringing back good information from all the seminars, and we’re working on a two-year plan to keep us aligned and productive when we return.

Me, I found the swimming pool and managed to squeeze in a couple of laps before a dinner of prime rib, chicken, mashed potatoes, salad, saute vegetables, and apple cobbler with vanilla ice cream.

Now, that’s what I’m talking about. lz

Bizen vases filled with water to test for leakage
Ichiyo Gama Bizen

You can get to Bizen from Okayama station by taking the Japan Rail (JR) Ako line and getting off at the sleepy station of Imbe, about 40 minutes east of Okayama. We were excited to visit this famous pottery town with more than 1000 years of history because we have great respect for what Bizen stands for: crafts that are close to the earth. We also love the natural and modest beauty of these unglazed and unadorned pots.

The starting point for any visit is the Bizen Pottery Art Museum where many Bizen masterpieces and works of art from Japanese artists deemed to be living national treasures are on display. After feasting your soul on this splendid artistry, walk around the streets to see how pottery is at the core of this town’s life and identity.

We strolled along the main street and noticed that many pottery shops are right in front of the kilns that produce their wares. While visiting one of the most established kilns in Bizen called Kimura Ichiyo-gama, we had the fortune to meet its owner, Mrs. Kimura, who gave us a thorough tour of her studio and noborigama kiln (“climbing” kiln.)

Photos: Woodstack for firing the noborigama; Bizen greenware

Photos: Ichiyo Gama’s noborigama; Green tea served in a Bizen bowl

Kurashiki is another delightful town in Okayama that we were able to spend time to uncover its charms. The town is dominated by stunning old wooden storehouses (or Kura) built in the 17^th century with white plastered walls and black tiles. The storehouses are built along a beautiful canal where you can watch colorful Koi fish swimming gracefully.

Kurashiki Bikan Chiku and canal by night

Kurashiki Bikan chiku and canal by day

Some of these storehouses have been converted into museums. The most famous is the Ohara Museum of Art, the first-ever Western art museum in Japan. But our favorite was the Japan Folk Toy Museum where hundreds of handmade and antique toys from different parts of Japan are displayed in a converted rice storehouse. The museum’s owner Ohga Hiroyuki is listed in the 1983 Guinness Book of World Records for spinning a large handmade top for an hour and 8 minutes!

Japan Folk Toy Museum
Kurashiki, Okayama

Photos: Ohga Hiroyuki spinning a top; A top on a tightrope, Folk Toy Museum, Kurashiki, Okayama

We enjoyed wandering around the back alleys of Kurashiki, especially in the Honmachi and Higashimachi districts that are full of old houses, cute shops, and wonderful sake shops.

Back alley
Kurashiki, Okayama

A sake shop
Honmachi Kurashiki, Okayama

Chugoku Bank
Honmachi Kurashiki, Okayama

A hat shop
Honmachi Kurashiki, Okayama

If you are going to Kurashiki, we highly recommend going in May when the town hosts one of Japan’s best annual craft shows called “the Field of Craft Kurashiki”.  This high-quality show is hosted by the town and features more than 70 artists. This year’s event took place on 12-13 May and we had a fascinating time enjoying and being impressed by the rich offerings on display!

Our Itinerary

• Day 1 Tokyo-(3hrs 30mins)-Okayama-(40 mins)-Imbe-(1 hr)-Kurashiki
• Day 2 Kurashiki craft show
• Day 3 Kurashiki museums and sights-(20 mins)-Okayama-(3hrs 30mins)-Tokyo

A Potter’s stall at the Field of Craft Kurashiki

I’ve seen matches where a competitor’s team was telling them to hold their opponent down until the time ran out because they were winning on points. Now, I can understand if the match is close and you’re up by 2 Points or 1 Advantage and there is 20 seconds left on the clock, but if you’re up by 6 points and there is over 3 minutes left, is it right to just lay on top of your opponent DOING NOTHING until the clock runs out? Look, I’m not talking about the guys who are staying active the whole time in their Superior Position by trying to win by a larger margin or by Submission. (You can admire them for continuing to work hard.) I’m talking about those guys who are so afraid to lose that they just sit there like a rock until time runs out and they walk off the mat holding their arms overhead thinking they’re king of the world. (Good for you. You won your match, but you did NOT beat your opponent.) Do you see anybody at the Worlds just sitting there until time runs out? No. They fight until the very end. They are the ones who, win or lose, can walk off the mats with their heads held up high knowing that they left everything out there on the mats.

I don’t know about you, but one of my favorite things about BJJ/Sambo/CACC (in general, Grappling) are the Submissions. I learn Submissions in order to SUBMIT my opponents. That’s the whole point of them. Nothing beats the satisfaction of making your opponent TAPOUT. It’s our equivalent to the KO Punch, the HOMERUN, the TOUCHDOWN, the GOAL, or whatever other sports analogy you want to use here. (For those of you who are not into sports, it’s our “Big O”. ^_~) I have NEVER once learned to STALL until I “win”. If I can maintain a Dominant Position against my opponent, then that just means I have that much more time to work on my Submissions in order to BEAT my opponent instead of just sitting there and trying to “win”. If your opponent can hold you down or maintain their Superior Position for that long a period of time, then you better work on your (goddamn) Defense and Escapes. (You don’t want to be known as the guy who lost their match because they could NOT get out from under a Knee-On-Belly, do you? I hope not.) Unfortunately, most competitions keep score, so this stalling behavior is always going to exist.

Now, before the haters start lighting their torches, hear me out. I’m not knocking the current tournament formats. I just think that too many Grapplers are losing sight of one of the FOUNDATIONS of our chosen art: SUBMISSIONS. In order to bring back focus, I would like to see more Submission-Only tournaments, but not the ones that have no-time limits. Those tend to wear down the competitors, which can lead to Grappling that’s just too ugly to look at and potential injuries because they don’t have the energy to perform perfect techniques. You want to see some serious Grappling, then I suggest Submission-Only tournaments WITH a time limit. I’m sure you’re thinking: What if there is no Submission when time runs out? Simple. Winner is determined by who had the most Submission Attempts. Of course, some of you are thinking: Well, isn’t that the same as Points? No. I’m not talking about half-assed attempts just for the sake of earning them to win. I’m talking about those Submission Attempts that are sunk in so deep that it’s almost a miracle that someone got out of them. That I would love to see. (If anyone sees/creates a tournament like this, make sure I get credit, ok? Thanks.)

So, in conclusion: STALLING SUCKS and SUBMISSIONS ARE AWESOME.

I leave you with my thought on Submissions. (Well… More like borrowing the words of a wise man.)

“If done right, no can defend.”

You were ahead of your time and wiser than your years, Miyagi-san.

We’ll always miss you.

Happy Training~!!!

The new location is having a lot of delays. The building wasn’t up to the current code (and possibly the previous tenant left things and/or did things that were not allowed, but which we now have to fix), and it seems as if there’s always something new that pops up. So as of right now, we don’t know when we’ll be in the new place; classes are still at the current location and on the same schedule.

Women’s Self Defense Seminar

On Wednesday night, Tim again helped out a women’s self-defense seminar. He also brought several of us in to help. The same lady from last time spoke about her sister’s domestic violence murder. (The story can be seen in the Dateline “Beauty and the Beast” episode.)

Justin showed two techniques, both against wrist-grabbing scenarios. He asked after the first one if anyone had any questions. A lady asked if it would work with a large height difference (since Justin was demonstrating on Tim, and they’re about the same height). So he had Andrew stand up — Andrew is quite a bit taller — and then, to really make the point, Justin knelt down. And still did it, lol.

Most of the women did not seem terribly interested in practicing the techniques many times. Two, three, four times — yeah, we got it. But they were very curious about jiu-jitsu and “what do you do if–?”

Vitamin D

There was an article on Mark’s Daily Apple last week about the benefits of working outside. Then this week’s post was “How to Work Outside Even if You’re a Desk Jockey”, and I was so tired of looking at beautiful summer days through the plate glass that I packed up my laptop and went to sit outside on the grass yesterday. When I came back in (because my battery was dying), my manager asked if I’d done that because of Mark’s post; when I said yes, he said he may start trying it, too. Heh.

Nogi

Went in tonight. Short warmup. Still no side-to-sides for me while pushing off that leg, but I did do a trip on the alligators (just very slowly and carefully, just in case).

Drilling was a reverse kimura off Shawn Williams’ guard, or, as Justin introduced it, “All of the advantages, none of the crap” of rubber guard. (And the reason for SW over RG is that in RG, yeah, sure, they can’t move… but neither can you; you lock your hips in place in order to lock them down. But in SW guard, because your hips have moved out first, you get the same control and yet keep your mobility. Also, no twisting of the knees. Huzzah!)

Then the class moved on to rolling. I was prepared to sit out, but Justin decided to sit out and keep time, so then there was an odd number, so I jumped in. Yeah, booooy! Got a couple of good rolls. (Also, Holy Cats! I don’t have any cardio, lol!) Still no bridging. Having people on my back sucks because I can’t really use my legs to get out. No butterfly guard, either. But, hey, it’s rolling. It’s moving. It’s almost jiu-jitsu. I’ll take it.

Moving Day

I don’t think I’ve mentioned it yet, but Aubrey will be moving in to my spare bedroom tomorrow.

It’s here!!!

It Starts With Food.

My weekend is spoken for.

Kimura-san (Mr. Kimura) has polarized many people in Japan, especially museum curators who have tried to present it. In the first of its two New York performances as part of the Queer New York International Arts Festival, I saw two people leave the theater in the middle of the film’s showing. The next and last performance of this 45-minute installation piece is Sunday June 10 at 9:30 pm.

Kimura in “Kimura-san” by Tadasu Takamine | Courtesy of Queer New York International Arts Festival

Dumb Type’s reputation precedes itself. This Japanese performance group has assaulted the eyes, minds and eardrums of many audiences across the U.S. (in such cities as Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Seattle and Minneapolis), but its major works, such as Pleasure Life and S/N and OR and memorandum, are largely unknown even to Manhattan’s most intrepid Japanophiles. Its aggressive performances rarely come to New York. Takamine worked on S/N in the 1990s, so it is a key Dumb Type work that is related to Kimura-san, a connection I will try to explain later.

I remember when copy editors used to get ticked off because they had to spell Dumb Type using all lowercase letters.  The group, world famous for interweaving many artistic practices into one global aesthetic, brought a silky dance/technology hybrid work, True, to the Japan Society in New York in November 2008. Earlier in that same year, Voyage opened the 2008-2009 theater season of Peak Performances at Montclair State University, which heralded a number of category-defying productions. (Jan Fabre‘s The Orgy of Tolerance, for example.) Through amped-up sound and striking visual tableaux, Voyage‘s abstractions kicked up feelings of anxiety and dislocation and bewilderment. The only other New York outing went as far back as 1994 when the installation S/N #1 (an offshoot of the production) took part in a Guggenheim SoHo exhibition “Japanese Art After 1945: Scream Against the Sky.” The subtitle is borrowed from a vocal piece by Yoko Ono. I guess you could say that Kimura-san might be re-titled “Moan Against the Sky.”

An unassuming, soft-spoken artist, Tadasu Takamine wore a grey shirt and black pants at Abron Arts Center. He sat on a chair and briefly outlined how the evening will unfold. He will show a video of his friend, Kimura. He noted that Kimura “has a strong handicap.” The video is controversial and is therefore rarely seen, he said. A performance action will accompany the video. After Takamine is done, he will leave the stage and let the video run by itself. When he returns, he will answer the audience’s questions. Then he said something curious: He said he realizes that the way he has introduced Kimura-san might seem too plain, but that’s just how it goes. This remark stuck with me. I wondered if the simplicity was studied.

Kimura in “Kimura-san” by Tadasu Takamine | Photo by Marino Čajdo

Two identical images of Kimura’s face are projected on two screens. Huge. Up-close. Intimate. His tongue sticking out. His head lying back. Probably in bed, we assume (wrongly). Extreme close-up on Kimura’s eyes. Extreme close-up on his nose. Quick flashes on Kimura’s twisted hand. We hear loud groans and heavy breathing. When the camera pulls back, we see that Kimura’s shirt has been unbuttoned. That a hand is playing with Kimura’s nipples. Everything about Kimura-san is extremely subjective. The hand turns out to be Takamine’s hand, but at first I wondered if Kimura was being sexually molested. I set aside that negative thought and told myself to try to delay my moral judgement until I understood the whole context.

After a while, the hand moves down. It grips Kimura’s engorged penis. Takamine masturbates Kimura, whose mood lightens. The ejaculation is not shown. We only see Kimura’s smile, presumably after cumming. For the first time in the whole evening, we hear him laugh the laugh of satisfaction. (In a report about a different showing of the video, someone else had apparently seen Kimura ejaculate; that the ejaculation was filmed in detail and shown in slow-motion.)

As the film was projected, Takamine performs a brutal performance action on himself. After taping a microphone on the table, he holds up a number of glass panes and toys with them. He runs the glass edges on his face. He straps his head into an ergonomic metal cage. He smashes the panes of glass with his head and grinds the shards with his forehead. Every time he slams his head, the overhead diptych film of Kimura suddenly interrupts to show a film of two monumental eyes. Their placement on screen is askew. These are the eyes of Takamine, shot during another performance. The glass smashed into bits, the video installation pulls back to show two more identical large-screen videos of Kimura-sanplaying in front on a table. We find ourselves watching a video inside a performance inside a video inside an installation/performance.

Remoteness is a key aspect of Takamine’s presentation. We hear Takamine’s English narration: “I just don’t feel comfortable with the English term ‘disabled.’ For me ‘handicap in the Japanese sense is better.” “Neither Kimura-san nor myself are gay.” “Kimura has depended on others recklessly.” “When I asked him whether I can show my work in public, he answered, ‘Yes, go ahead.’” “Acceptance is his personal condition.” “Nothing is private. Neither his body nor this video.” Then I heard Takamine say something odd, perhaps the strangest of all. I did not scribble it down. I was too taken back. Takamine said that he hoped the video would spread Kimura’s fame around the world. That he would become a superstar.

Takakine fondles Kimura in “Kimura-san” | Photo by Marino Čajdo

In the q&a discussion that followed, Takamine says that Dumb Type’s S/N production of 1992 had a profound impact on his work as a visual artist. S/N (1992-96) was largely unknown to most people in the audience. A few people thought Takamina was talking about S&M. He was not. S is for signal, N is noise. In audio terminology, the relative amount of effective versus extraneous information contained in a coded message is called the “S/N ratio.”

Dumb Type’s high-tech performances are not always easy to digest, because they always play on the surface appearances of people and objects. The name “dumb type” alludes to the problems of society “overstuffed with information but cognizant of nothing.” Often Dumb Type’s work range across such diverse media; its performances are against hierarchy. S/N was unusual because it was a deeply personal work. It was trigged by co-founder Teiji Furuhashi’s open admission that he was infected by the HIV virus that causes AIDS. Furuhashi, identifying himself as “male, Japanese, HIV positive, homosexual,” played himself. The performance broke down the boundaries between the fiction of theater and reality. Body and identity had lost all validity when Furuhashi proclaimed: “I dreamed of losing my nationality / I dreamed of losing my gender / I dreamed of losing my passport.”

Unlike S/N, Takamine’s Kimura-san is not slick or sophisticated or too conceptually abstract. The quality of the video itself is poor. Simplicity, bluntness, arte povera – all of it pervade the piece from the moment Takamine utters his first word all the way to the q&a discussion, which I would argue is not a separate thing from the performance itself. All of it rhymes with Takamine’s self-presentation as a mild-mannered nice Japanese guy who speaks poor English. Anything more exaggerated or less matter-of-course would have tipped the work into an exploitation. He knows that Kimura-san has the ability to shock the public. He needs to convey the work’s sympathetic and unpatronizing nature. It represents the sexual desires of the disabled. Kimura-san asserts the value of free will — Kimura’s free will, despite his disability.

Kimura was in his forties when the video was shot in 1995. He died three months ago, Takamine informs us during the q&a. Kimura was 55 years old. As a baby, he had suffered poisoning through contaminated infant milk formula. (The Morinaga arsenic milk poisoning incident: In 1955, baby formula fabricated by Morinaga Milk Industry was poisoned with arsenic, which resulted in the deaths of 138 nurslings. More than 10,000 children are said to have walked away with physical handicaps). By the time Kimura was two years old, he had lost complete use of his arms, legs, and mouth. He was unable to talk, feed himself or go to the toilet without any help. He can think clearly and is able to make noises with his mouth.

Takamine was Kimura’s caretaker for five years during the 1990s. Takamine says that he had learned to communicate with Kimura through gestures. If Kimura wanted something that Takamine did not know, he asked Kimura a series of yes/no questions until they could both reach an understanding. He realized that Kimura’s sexual desires could not be met without the help of other people. Masturbating Kimura was a gesture of friendship and affection of Takamine’s part. Public showings of the film also met Kimura’s desire to display himself in public settings. His urge to express himself is higher than average, which explains his memberships in a rock band and in the performance troupe Taihen.

“I like the video a lot,” Takamine says. “I wanted to show the video in public so I constructed this show [to contain it].” First shown in a Kyoto exhibition in 1998, the film remains contentious. In 2004, it was preemptively removed from the exhibition “Non-Sect Radical: Contemporary Photography” at the Yokohama Museum of Art, presumably in compliance with Japanese laws censoring the depiction of genitalia. Commenting on the censorship at Yokohoma Museum in a RealTokyo op-ed article, Takamine said:

If the ejaculation scene was the problem, I thought it would be no problem to cut that sequence. But obviously the troublemaker was somewhere else. They talk about ‘legal conflicts,’ but the law doesn’t say anything about genitals. In the end, the decision was left to individual judgement, and although there was a good chance to get the piece shown, the museum pinched that off. People who only know my work by hearsay inevitably misunderstand it. Whether it is indecent or not is a decision the museum’s director has to make after seeing it, and then convince others of his opinion. Isn’t that how a museum usually works? I’ve never heard anything more stupid than a museum consulting the police.

Shown at IKON Gallery in England as a part of Birmingham Festival, the video drew negative reactions. Some viewers accused it of being a freak show.

God Bless America (2002), video, 8 min 18 sec. | Installation by Tadasu Takamine

After his foray with Dumb Type, Tadasu Takamine went solo (just as Teiji Furuhashi briefly did) and emerged as an allusive, thought-provoking installation/performance artist, whose body of work touches on art, sexuality, politics, identity and sexual politics. In his piece Inertia (1998), a woman inside a bullet train keeps failing to push her dress down over her legs against the force of the wind. In his God Bless America (2002), a highlight at the 2003 Venice Biennial, Takamine and his female partner filmed themselves as they lived, worked, ate, slept and had sex in an entirely large room while they were using their feet and hands to create a giant head of George W. Bush. Here is an overview of Takamine’s visual-art/performance practices.

For the sake of context, it would have been better if Queer New York International Arts Festival had shown a selection of Takamine’s art projects, even though these others might be less “queer.” At least they might have shed further light. How does the distance, the dreamy sense of objectivity, which seems to be a key element in Kimura-san, serve his other installations when they tackle less personal subjects or issues dealing with the outside world? Why does Takamine’s ethical discussion of the sexual rights of the disabled in Kimura-san seem somehow too offhand and too cannily naive? It is obvious enough that the piece is at once politically charged and full of gentle affection. It wants us to see Kimura in a way that is unburdened by conventional notions of morality and hetero-normative assumptions.

At the same time, Kimura-san stops short of achieving a different kind of neutrality toward its disabled subject. Why? Because it cannot completely extricate itself from the confines of the very real and messy concerns of power, control, intimacy and sexual ethics. And because Kimura-san can never truly go deep inside Kimura’s mind. Despite the calmness that Takamine affects in explaining the film’s context, we can’t help but see that Kimura was trapped in a figurative metal cage since he was an infant. No matter how hard he tried to smash the glass that separated him from the real world, he could never transcend his physical limitations without the agency of other people.

We can’t help but feel trapped in our own metal cages either. Kimura was an intelligent person with a healthy sexual appetite, but to make him happy, other people had to hit their heads against our society’s prejudices: against the glass boundaries that separate right and wrong when it comes to caring for the disabled. Takamine bares himself in Kimura-san; he wants to put us in a head space that encourages a re-assessment. He wants us to feel uncomfortable.

The piece, raw and rough as it is, seeks to represent the layers of humanity that unfold beyond everyday social façades. Paradoxically, Takamine’s zeal to break down taboos leaves all of us exposed and vulnerable. Did I really need to see him masturbate Kimura to comprehend some larger point? By writing this essay, have I unknowingly conscripted myself into Takamine’s theatrical consecration of Kimura as America’s next top disabled star? Did we as spectators hurt ourselves by implication or ineluctably shatter something inside as a consequence of seeing Takamine slam his face onto glass shards while arguing that it was okay for him to have pleasured his disabled friend? Mr. Takamine does not worry about inflicting harm on himself.

Speaking for myself, Takamine-san, I do.

Tadasu Takamine’s eyes in “Kimura-san” | Courtesy of Queer New York International Arts Festival

Tadasu Takamine (Japan) – Kimura-san Installation / Performance at Queer New York International Arts Festival Thursday and Sunday, June 7 and 10, at 9:30pm Abrons Arts Center: Underground Theater $10 (suggested donation)

Venue Information The Abrons Arts Center 466 Grand Street (at Pitt Street), NYC 212-598-0400 http://www.abronsartscenter.org 

“God Bless America” (2002), video, 8 min 18 sec. | Installation by Tadasu Takamine

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• Queer New York International Arts Festival proposes “new concept of queer” (theaterofoneworld.org)
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• How Deep Is Your Love? (skribblejots.blogspot.com)
• Transvestite cabaret blossoms in “Gardenia,” a dance-theater work from Belgium (theaterofoneworld.org)
• S’pore Arts Fest 2012! Lear goes tech-Noh! (blogs.todayonline.com)
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Hunter Freeman jumps to block Myers’ cross.

The Colorado Rapids couldn’t have found a better time to play Sporting Kansas City. With a recent three match losing streak, Kansas City have been dethroned from their place at the top of the Eastern Conference and their tie tonight in Colorado did not do them any favors.

The Rapids were without Brian Mullan, who was sidelined with a knee injury, which seemed to cause some uncertainty in their midfield in the first half. Aside from missing Mullan’s excellent service, Colorado’s midfield seemed sluggish as they started the match. In fact, most of their players were slow to react early on.

SKC struck hard and fast in the first half. Barely a minute into the match, Teal Bunbury buried his header in the back of the Matt Pickens’s net. Bunbury was totally unmarked in the box, which was poor defensively from the Rapids. In the 14th minute, Matt Besler put a strong throw-in into Colorado’s box. Pickens failed to collect the ball, and Bunbury found the net yet again.

In the initial twenty minutes of the match, the Rapids’ biggest issue was not challenging for the first ball. They seemed content to let Kansas City get there first. In the midfield, particularly, Kei Kamara was his usually plucky self, sprinting to the ball and picking it up from the Rapids while Colorado held back, waiting (or more aptly, hoping) for the ball to get to them. Kamara’s drive seemed to galvanize Kansas City in the first half and gave them control over the midfield.

Colorado slowly started to find their feet toward the end of the first half. Jeff Larentowicz started to gain more control over the center of the pitch, and Drew Moor began to cause problems for Kansas City. Their positive finish to the first half helped inspire an early comeback after halftime.

The visitors’ intensity seemed to dip early on in the second half, so the Rapids took full advantage through Tyrone Marshall and Kosuke Kimura. On a free kick, Martin Rivero lofted the ball into Kansas City’s box, and Marshall rose to head it in. By the 60th minute, the teams were even as Conor Casey set up a beautiful goal for Kimura. Casey collected the ball at the end of the field and cut it back into Kimura’s path. He made no mistake as he crushed the ball into the back of the net.

The Rapids did well to fight back from a two goal deficit, but they were unable to break the deadlock. Both teams were aggressive in the last thirty minutes; however, neither found a way through. Colorado should be pleased with their ability to fight back from 2-0. It’s not something they’ve done since 2006, but it certainly seems that Sporting Kansas City is losing their mojo.

Kansas City’s early success this season has been a team effort. Rather than pointing to one or two key players, SKC has relied on several. Kamara has been a revelation, leading in goals, shots on target, and providing two assists thus far. C.J. Sapong has brought in three goals as has Aurelien Collin. Graham Zusi’s midfield play has provided six assists and given him a call up for the US Men’s National Team. Chance Myers and Seth Sinovic have also been key players with two assists each and by holding strong in defense, protecting an impressive goalie in Jimmy Nielsen.

Their players have worked together to make a huge impact on the league this year. They’ve in fact been so successful that a victory in their next match would tie them for first place despite their recent run of form. Kansas City is a determined team, but I do question if they have the depth to get them through the next few months. Injuries will happen, and their starters will need some breaks throughout the season. Even though they have been strong thus far, Kansas City do not have the depth of teams like the New York Red Bulls, who currently sit in first place.

The MLS season is a marathon. New York and DC currently outpace Kansas City although SKC has games in hand. I hope SKC can find the rhythm they so easily established the past few months, but they have a long way to go this season and their inability to hold onto their lead in a match like last night’s is worrisome for Kansas City fans.

They will be without key midfielder Zusi for the next few weeks after his national team call-up, which will likely prove problematic for their attack. The team will be disappointed that they couldn’t hold onto their lead, but they will have to find a way to maintain their positive, first-to-the-ball attitude throughout the entirety of their match (not just the first half) if they want to get back to first place in the Eastern Conference.

Colorado should be proud of themselves for their play. They fought back, showed their spirit and proved that they will not go quietly even after falling two goals behind. Now, they just have to do this for the rest of their season. The fact that they fought back without Mullan is encouraging, so I look forward to seeing what they can do if they keep up this attacking spirit and get back their midfield orchestrator.

My legs and arms have mat- and velcro-burns all over them.

I’ve had “choke cough” for a few hours.

I’ve been grinning for hours: I could drill and even roll tonight!!

Part of it was the technique — it didn’t involve much in the way of knees themselves. Justin had us build a sequence of kimura from guard, to guillotine, to crucifix sweep. My knee only twinged a few times, and that’s because I’d plant the toe to pop my hips. Did not like.

Heh, being choked was… weird. As soon as there was any pressure, I was ready to tap, but I tried to tough it out until my partners could actually do it.

I watched everyone roll once while I kept the knee moving. It seemed to be feeling okay, so after the round I went over to Guillaume to see what I could do. We didn’t roll for long — maybe 5 minutes — and I did have to stop and shift a few times or rescue my leg from a position that was getting uncomfortable, but it was rolling!! I went for the sequence from class because it was there; he stuffed it and teased that he wouldn’t let me get what we just did. But then a minute or so later, from a slightly different setup, I hit that crucifix sweep anyway. (I admit, I did tease him back, lol.)

Also, I have no idea what my brain has been doing over the last 1.5 months, but it was pulling out crazy inverted stuff, passing & pressure, sweeps and transitions. I was kind of nice, almost like I remembered some jiu-jitsu!

We finally had to stop because I tweaked it a bit hard once when my foot forgot that we weren’t supposed to be doing annoying hooky thingies and tried to do something cute that wrenched the knee. And even though I wanted to keep going and ignore the pain, I figured it was probably smarter to have a little today and build on that rather than set myself all the way back to the beginning by being the tough chick. (Hey, I might be growing up. Maybe. Just a little.)

Home to some ice, just in case. I’ll still be out tomorrow — I have a HUGE list of chores that need to be done around the house — and I’ll be out Monday to pick my cousin up from the airport. But I’m thinking I could get back to full-time training pretty soon here…

If you’ve rolled long enough, either you or one of your training partners or students will have asked this question:

“What do I do next?” or “Where do I go from here?”

(They’re the same question.)

This question usually pertains to a Grappler ending up in a certain position and they either don’t know or are uncertain as to what they should do next. Sometimes it’s hard to visualize a gameplan with all those techniques floating around inside your brain. I’ve seen a lot of guys who learn techniques fairly well, but they just don’t know how to put them all together into a coherent gameplan that flows well. To help my guys understand how to put everything together, I decided to create a few “Flow Charts” for them using the various techniques & positions that we’ve gone over. I wanted to show the guys how everything can come together in a way that allows them to transition from one position into another with various options for Submissions along the way. Essentially, I wanted to help them develop their “Grappler’s Brain”.

NOTE: THE NAMES OF THE TECHNIQUES IN THE FOLLOWING FLOW CHARTS MAY NOT BE THE SAME NAMES YOU USE AT YOUR SCHOOL. SO, PLEASE… DON’T HATE ON ME FOR IT.

Here is the first “Flow Chart”:

Simple enough, right?

Now, here’s how I taught/drilled it with my guys:

Makes more sense now, huh?

I wanted to show my guys how you can go for something, and if it doesn’t work, then you can move right on to another technique/position. They seemed to really enjoy it. They’re starting to think about how the moves flow together. Their “Grappler’s Brain” is starting to wake up.

Here is the next “Flow Chart” I plan on showing them:

Just added a few more options. Not bad, right?

Now, here’s how I plan on teaching/drilling it with my guys:

I think they’ll get a kick out of it.

Of course, introducing this concept has led to another question:

“Can you come up with a gameplan for opponents?”

My answer: No.

Now, before I get some hate for that answer, let me explain. I told my guys that if you wanted to write out a “Flow Chart” for an opponent (offense, defense, counters, etc.), that they would need something at least the size of a large wall to write on. So, I asked them the following question:

“How do you know what your opponent is going to do to you?”

My answer: You don’t know.

No two Grapplers roll alike. They may know the same techniques, but they won’t use them in the same way. This led me to ask them another question:

“Why would you let your opponent impose their gameplan on you?”

My answer: You don’t.

I told them that one of the other reasons for these “Flow Charts” (other than the ones listed earlier) was to help them develop a gameplan that they can impose on their opponents. Hence, the ability to go back & forth between certain techniques in case the opponent defends/counters or the execution of a technique fails and a “reset” is necessary. This answer satisfied them and we continued training.

As a bonus for you (the readers), here are my next two “Flow Charts”:

Enjoy. (^_^)

Happy Training~!!!