Chicago Gung-Fu: More Info from Yet Another Green Dragon

I heard from yet another Green Dragon member. This member filled in a few blanks about the school itself. Martial arts at this level are akin to a fraternity or secret society, a place of secrets and initiations. He hinted at some of the elaborate ritual that was present in joining and gaining promotions in the dragon systems. He experienced this as a 14-year-old boy. My old sensei Jaco, told me of his attempt to join the Black Dragons and the ritual even Dante employed.

Transformation and empowerment is definitely the central theme of my documentary.

I am not mentioning his name at this point as he asked me for an informal chat. He was anxious that the real history of the Green Dragons and other Chinese Instructors in Chicago not be lost. While my doc centers on Keehan/Dante, I remain committed to developing as full a history as I can within the documentary itself and in extras on the DVD and in my enhanced website.

This Green Dragon member may come on Camera to give me some basic information as to what it was like to enter the martial arts at 14 and experience entry into the Green Dragons Society. I hope so.

This was a very easy meeting for me. This subject was very relaxed, but passionate about the martial arts. The power of the transformative experience is still alive within him. He was careful as to what he told me, but he felt it was important to talk to make a few things clear as a member who was a post-1970 member. The informants keep coming. It is important to me to have a good picture of the Green Dragon Society in relation to the “Dojo” or “Dragon” Wars.

I am planning a fundraiser for the film in September. September to December is the big push to finish shooting. Have to break away and organize this after my trip to “technoSpheres: FutureS of Thinking” at the University of California Humanities Research Institute in Irvine, CA. I got lots to do for my talk and presentation next week. I am in conversation with Lisa Cartwright, a Harvard PhD who has a very impressive background. I expect I will at least learn a lot from her. She is a practitioner also. The subject is The Cultural Work of Technological Representation.

I am still deciphering this topic. I am asking myself how the Count Dante project might fit into this. Technology has empowered me to do things with this project with a minimum of resources I could never have done 15 or 20 years ago. There is a level of self reliance that I have managed to achieve by learning and understanding the potential of the technology for publishing and distribution of information, image processing and basic communication softwares (email).

Well, back to editing podcasts….