Jugglisk XXII and Jet Li's Beating Stars
Today was the perfect juggling weather day. I am the broken record without breaking a record. In other words, I'm repeating myself every blog entry because I don't know what else to say other than I juggled. I felt pretty balanced, coordinated and in control today. While I attained no exemplary number of hits, I felt somehow energized to perform with a bit more style. When I'm in that rare form, bits and pieces of my martial arts appreciation tend to surface, with kicks and stances reminiscent of my favorite Hong Kong heroes... well I don't look that cool, but the influence is obvious! When I'm exercising I often remember Jet Li's exercise invention called "Beating Stars". It involves hitting a bunch of balls suspended by cords and poles.
| Jugglisk XXII Chalcord | |||||||||||||
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| Total Recorded Hits: 2025 | Average Hits Per Volley: 184.1 | ||||||||||||
[ pause ]... Okay, so during that massively lengthy pause in writing (feel free to sit there and do zip for 2 hours to get the full effect), I made this pointless graphic. I think it is the official Beating Stars Graphic because I couldn't find one anywhere else. Certainly no one before me put all the effort into the logo and everything :) I couldn't find a single picture of Jet Li's exercise on the web, and it took me a long time looking through my movies to remember which one has the footage in it (Dragons of the Orient and The Master). Originally I intended to pull a frame just so I could illustrate the exercise I'm talking about... but then I went overboard, as you can see. But now the internet has a feature that was missing before. Yippee! Almost as cool as DaColas: T'ai Chi and Wu Shu Fruit of the Day.
The Semi-Official (One and Only?) Jet Li's Beating Star Graphic
I have to admit that Jet Li looks kinda like a goofy young punk in this footage of him hammering on the poor [volley?]balls affixed to his hand-made apparatus. I think it is a pretty cool device though. I wonder if he can still be found doing this exercise, now that he's super famous and quite a bit older. I'm guessing not, but you never know. It'd be fun to juggle with Jet. I bet, even though it's not one of his many physical disciplines, he could pick it up fairly well. I have always attributed my heightened awareness, focus, discipline, balance and speed to my [long] past martial arts experience. I suppose anyone with significant training in such things would be a decent juggler.
If I could see a diagram of the shape and configuration of Jet Li's apparatus I could make a better, more suited logo. I'm not really sure how "stars" fits in. I wonder if he sets it up the same way each time.
Closeup of the Logo Portion
And just when you thought that was the end, THERE'S MORE!!! Since I like monkeys in general, and we need something to balance/complement all this overuse of blue, here's an orange image for your enjoyment (or bewilderment). Ironically, this is indeed an image of Jet Li - though I think it's a photo-editing job, not a photograph of him in costume (but why spoil the fun?!). Even more, he will be playing a mythical Chinese character called the Monkey King in the upcoming (awesome) movie where he teams up with Jackie Chan - The Forbidden Kingdom. By the way, didn't Jet Li already make his last martial arts epic film? Just wondering... I guess this one doesn't qualify to be placed in that very narrow and specific genre (nor Warlords - while epic and a period piece with fighting, it seems to read more like a more generic action/drama - haven't seen it yet). Sorry Jet, I didn't mean to make fun... in fact, keep making them, PLEASE! PLEASE!! PLEASE!!!
