Wednesday, March 04, 2020

First of Its Kind

Here's the first local impact I have seen of the coronavirus on the arts, in the form of a press release from the Stanford Music Department:
Due to the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) and to help each other protect the health of our communities, all Department of Music concerts are canceledeffective immediately through at least 15 April 2020. Depending on the unfolding situation, this date may change. | Department of Music News | Visit Stanford Health Alerts for more information regarding COVID-19.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in my life, the American Judo & Jujitsu Federation decided to proceed with its annual convention. This is a style where, with a few exceptions, you must work in pairs and you touch other people more or less constantly. I am...a little surprised, and wondering what turnout will be like. I will be there, in part because I'm committed to calling a test for third-degree black belt on Friday morning. Not sure which classes I will be attending, though.

If you want to see what Danzan Ryu jujitsu looks like, you can't do better than the 1970s videos of the late Professor Pat Browne, who was then maybe a yodan, demonstrating many arts from the system:




4 comments:

Toldain said...

Wow, I've heard about Pat Brown forever, and from a very diverse group of people (within the AJJF) who loved him. This speaks very well of him.

But I've never seen him in action, as he died before I ever did any jujitsu. That's some interesting stuff. Watching this there's a bunch of "they did it that way?" moments, though it's hard to tell if that was the standard way, or just the Pat Brown Is Doing A Demo way.

But thanks for sharing, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for your (and everyone's continuing good health).

Jay

Lisa Hirsch said...

Pat was never my official sensei, but I took a rolling and falling class with him in 1984 at my first AJJF convention, and then took as many classes as I could from him until he died. I went to his camp three times, took classes at Camp Kodenkan North, at conventions, black belt weekend, etc. He was an amazing teacher and martial artist.

There are more videos of him on YouTube, including a talk about the history of DZR.

Lisa Hirsch said...

Oh, forgot to mention. I started making a list of the arts he does in the videos in this posting and never finished it. I should pick that up and finish it.

Lisa Hirsch said...

I should ask whether we have met. I'm an AJJF nidan and I will be at the convention this weekend.