In Nashville this past weekend...

I was in Nashville this weekend at the 2008 National Training Camp and United States Martial Arts Hall of Fame to interview Joe Dodaro, Woody Edgell and Tayari Casel. Family issues prevented Sam Lonewolf and Victor Moore from attending.

To talk to all three masters at once was really interting to me in that I saw before me a the net total effect of the teaching and influence of John Keehan. Greatness can be passed on without the baggage. Now don't get me wrong, I don't know enough about any of these guys to talk about baggage or their lack of it. What I do know is that they are all alive, have not robbed any vaults lately and remain atv the top of their game.
Like Dante, they are consumate individuals who march to the beat of their own drum. There is no greater legacy to have that that in my opinion.

This was a stellar event of which I missed too much of, having arrived on Saturday morning due to my work schedule. The IMAC training camp featured 8 hours of workshops a day for three days.

I hear that Prof. Marty Cale, organizer of the event, gave an excellent workshop on Jujitsu Ground fighting and I am sorry I missed that.

Son of the legendary Jame M. Mitose, Grand Master Thomas Mitose of the Kosho-Ryu was there along with Grandmasters Gary Jameson, Pat Hutton, Sifu Jerry Cook, Clarence Smith, Don Wilhelm, Sifu Oj Guerra, Dan Semeraro, Dr. Gary Jameson, Ron Pierce and Katherine Wieczerza.

The awards ceremony that Saturday Evening marked the end of the Training Camp. It was well attended and events like these are important to sustaining local and regional martial arts community. Here in Chicago know how fruitless it can be to wait for recognition from elsewhere based upon criterion that is sometimes, uninformed, fleeting, and vacuous. We need to support our communiites where we are and these events appalud the dedication, work and sweat that people put unto the martial arts.

So I am back. I have been quiet for awhile.The tit for tat reponses to my blog by others does not really bother me personally. But what does bother me is their petty attempts to slander and involve others in an issue that has nothing to do with the lawsuit. It is petty and immature to strike out as others, constanly question credibility just because you can hide behind an internet connection.

In the end it really does not matter what is said. Time has proven the mud-slinging to be ineffectual, it has proven the mud-slingers to be impotent. The attack on Marty Cale and others was unnecessary and all that was accomplished was showing how classless these guys from Fall River can continue to be.

Marty Cale gave a wonderful even this weekend. There are about 5oo people who will attest to that. What did you guys do?

Sorry y'all...I got carried away. I have been holding my tongue for awhile and I guess it just got the best of me. I hate to see good people who are really doing thing get more stress on top of thestress they already have because doing something positive with your life has it own set of obstacles already built in.

I will get back to talking about the interviews I did with Woody Edgell, Joe Dodaro and Tayari Casel later this evening.