Sixth Generation Greed Cloud Bai Si

Our Bai Si tea ceremony took place on 9/11. Originally, it was supposed to be 8/28, but then of course a hurricane came and blew us away.

My Mom came with me, and she brought Dad's wallet and shield, which I thought was really awesome. She took all the pics, too.

I was ridiculously nervous before the ceremony, wondering if we were all going to have to demo something, say a speech, or anything like that. But really it was quite simple. We did the tea ceremony just as I remembered it from last time, when I saw it a few years ago (when Gold Dragon, Empress, Quick-Wit Boy and a few others got inducted into Sixth Generation.) We all sit in front of Sifu, hear a few speeches from him and from other Sifus on the meaning of Kung Fu, the lineage, where our style comes from, what it means to be inducted, etc. This way the people in the audience get a good idea of what's going on, too.

And then we bring incense to the ancestral wall, which had pictures / paintings of Si-Gung and Jo-Si (meaning, your Sifu's Sifu and his Sifu before him, etc.) Everyone takes a turn bowing three times to the altar and then putting incense in front of it.

Then, we all line up and offer tea to Sifu. He accepts the tea, and off we go, again to the altar to say thanks. That's it! The whole thing took a few hours.

Sifu also explained to everyone why he chose the people he did. This part is nice, because you get to hear excellent things about your friends, and of course, also about yourself. It's hard not to blush when it's your turn. When Sifu was talking about, say, Snarklit being "a good man in every sense of the word," and Chrysanthemum being "a pioneer in martial arts" and the Empress being "the rock that Green Cloud is built on," all I could do was sit there and nod in fervent agreement.

When it came to be my turn, I knew it was going to get emotional, and of course, it was. Sifu spoke about how I had lost my Dad, and everything looked really bleak. He said that he watched as I picked myself up, finished school, got my degree, got a job, etc. In the middle of all of this, he burst into tears, and then so did Empress, and of course I'm standing up there trying my best not to do the same. (This is why I should never wear makeup, haha.) He said he was honored to take the role of "father" whenever he could.

He said that, like Chrysanthemum, I was a pioneer in martial arts, because it is still such a male dominated sport. And that I was never afraid to show up for sparring and get knocked around with the best of them.

I never really thought of it before, aside from once in a while noticing that Chrysanthemum, Empress and I are often the only women in this huge class, surrounded by big, muscle-y, sweaty boys and men. Yet there's not a single guy in the school who could take Empress in a fight. ^_^ Except Sifu, that is.

Sixteen people were inducted in this ceremony. That makes Twenty-two in all. Out of twenty-two, four of us are women. (One of them was inducted a long time ago and no longer teaches.) This isn't because Green Cloud doesn’t tend to induct women (two of GC’s most famous, decorated practitioners are women,) but because not a lot of women join. As Sifu pointed out, statistically, women tend to join the kickboxing class rather than Kung Fu.

Kung Fu isn’t for every woman, just like marriage, kids, cycling, boxing, fishing, writing, cooking, dating, celibacy, fashion, ANYTHING isn't for every woman. But it is for me, and I’m very honored to be a part of this group.


( And of course, tons of pics! )

For anyone wondering what the certificate does say, this is it:

Now for updates, and my WARRIOR review

Now to catch up on everything else.

I never caught the stupid cat that killed my birds. It stayed trapped in the aviary, with a trap set for it with some food as bait. For three days, it didn't take the bait. The day of Bai Si, it somehow pushed the aviary door outwards and escaped. I still want to catch it because I still have birds in the yard. So I still have the trap, and I'm gonna set it somewhere under the bushes.

The day that it happened, I went into the aviary to take the birds' bodies out and bury them. The entire time, the cat was hissing and growling at me. I couldn't leave them in there. I buried them just outside of the aviary and put up a bird feeder at the site. That day, all three of the released birds came back to the aviary and just stood there, looking at the cat. Birds are amazing, aren't they?

Also, I got a goldfish. I was never going to get one, because they can grow to 8 inches and you can't put any other fish in the tank (goldfishes make a lot of waste,) but then I thought, you know, I see all these people keeping these really hardy goldfish, and they're so pretty and cute and they live forever. So I got a tiny little calico one and I named him The Doctor. Now, by my Mom's suggestion, the tank is called The TARDIS. Which is so hilarious.

Speaking of Dr. Who, last night I watched the tenth episode of the third season, Blink. This is, I guess, the most famous Dr. Who episode, and with good reason. It's terrifying. I legitimately had nightmares all night, about the Weeping Angels. Seriously, the entire night. Which is awesome; it's been so long since I've seen something fantastic enough to give my nightmares. This inspired me to try to do a Weeping Angel costume for Halloween. Don't know if that's going to work out or not, but I'm going to try.

Speaking of watching awesome things, I saw Warrior the other night. It was only playing in Southampton, and only for a week, so I had to run out and grab it.

Now first, the things I didn't like. Let me just get this out of the way. I hate the role of women in most American martial arts movies. All they do (in most of them) is first: try to hold the man back. "I don't want you to fight! Wah!" And then they relent, and alternately hide their eyes and cheer. That honestly sums up the characterization of all women in most American martial arts films, and this one was no exception. That really, really irks me. I'd rather, in that case, if they left women out entirely, if they're just going to delegate us to the sidelines like that.

Secondly, the ending left me unsatisfied. ( SPOILERS )

So, aside from those things, it was a really intense ride. I really liked the grappling too, because a lot of that is stuff we do in class as well. Grappling and anti-grappling, actually. They did a lot of the same exact take-downs and joint-locking that we learn. In fact, the one major arm lock that Brendan keeps doing is the one we always review in class.

Do I need to say how awesome Tom Hardy is? He's terrifying. He's actually got very few lines in this film, but he doesn't need a lot. He's just one of those actors that you can't stop watching because he's so unafraid. He doesn't care what he looks like, what you think of his character, if he's being judged. That's the best kind of acting. He just goes in and does his job, and it's 100% convincing. You forget you're watching Tom Hardy. He really is a forger.

His eyes are amazing. I'm not talking about "Oh he's so hot, he's got these big grey eyes" or anything like that. I'm talking about that thing that he does in every single movie when he's playing a scene that's any kind of cold, or distant, or angry. He's so menacing and predatory when he does that, and it gives me a shiver. I'd hate to be looked at in such a way.

Anyway, I realize its theater run is probably already over, but if you missed it, do catch it on DVD when it comes out. The performances were awesome.

All right, now I guess it's time to straighten the house a bit, clean the fish tanks (the TARDIS, I mean,) and dick around on the internet for the rest of the day.