protectivearts

Gabriele D’Annunzio

Before he died, my uncle Tony gifted me his first Italian edition of Il Fuoco (The Flame, 1900), signed by Gabriele D’Annunzio himself. I regret that I didn’t record where or why he acquired the book. He did teach himself Italian, but I don’t know if he mastered it sufficiently to read the original. IContinue reading “Gabriele D’Annunzio”

REFERENCE DRILLS

Class outline Present from shomenuchi because it is more familiar to Aikidoists, but the class is just as easily presented from jodan tsuki (the line vs the point – all points are lines and lines are points). When uke strikes, nage has precisely four means to address it: Because I presented ude kimi nage asContinue reading “REFERENCE DRILLS”

DISPLAYS OF POWER

“Son, there are assholes everywhere” was my father‘s pithy rejoinder when I complained about some idiot or another – something I did frequently as a teenager. That reminder didn’t mean that assholes are the most common form of people, but that everyone had the capacity to be one. Hence my axiomatic approach – “trust butContinue reading “DISPLAYS OF POWER”