How 'bout that Banter???

Monday to Sunday, Music to Movies, Art and Analysis, Rhyming and Writing, All things tall and All things small, this blog simply does it all.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Fencing - The Most Legendary Sport to Take Place on Planet Earth







Many of you may know, or may not know that I participate in the ancient sport of fencing.  It is a glorious duel between two individuals incorporating fierce competition, honor, sportsmanship, strength, speed, and precision.  In my personal opinion it is one of the greatest sports to ever take place on the planet.  Let's learn a little about this physical activity that is very foreign to most of us here in the states...



Some facts...
(From http://usfencing.org/resources/fencing-facts)


-The tip of the fencing weapon is the second fastest moving object in sport; the first is the marksman's bullet.
-Fencing is conducted on a 14m x 2m "strip" or "piste" to replicate combat in confined quarters such as a castle hallway.
- Fencers wear white uniforms because before the advent of electronic scoring, touches were recorded on the usually white surface with a wad of ink-soaked cotton on the tips of the weapons.  
 -Fencing is the only combat sport with no weight classes.




Weapons 


Foil (The Best)




Sabre




Epee




Attire




The Best Club In Town


Arizona Fencing Center



Mi Maestro (Coach/Teacher)

Florin Paunescu


...yes, he is a European Cup gold medalist (1982)... Don't worry about it.


Th-th-that's all folks...


May Angels Lead You In...

Mykel and Carli Allan were known to be the biggest fans of the band Weezer ever to roam the earth and they even ran the band's fan club.  These two women would often times scout out the bands coming to town and give them a place to stay when there was "No one in town they knew."  They struck up friendships with many bands in the business and were soon more than just your average, everyday fans.  In mid-1997 these sisters were headed back from a Weezer show with their younger sister, Trysta, when tragedy struck.  They had gotten in a car wreck where all three of these sisters lost their lives to the icy roads of Colorado. The Allan sisters often used the saying "Hear you me" and it is how they will be remembered many, including my favorite band of all time, Jimmy Eat World.  Give it a listen if you already haven't.





Hear You Me

JIMMY EAT WORLD
"It is life near the bone where it is sweetest."
-Henry David Thoreau

An Old Sweetheart of Mine
by James Whitcomb Riley


As one who cons at evening o'er an album all alone,
And muses on the faces of the friends that he has known,So I turn the leaves of fancy till, in shadowy design,I find the smiling features of an old sweetheart of mine.


The lamplight seems to glimmer with a flicker of surprise,
As I turn it low to rest me of the dazzle in my eyes,And light my pipe in silence, save a sigh that seems to yokeIts fate with my tobacco and to vanish with the smoke.


'Tis a fragrant retrospection -- for the loving thoughts that start
Into being are like perfume from the blossom of the heart;And to dream the old dreams over is a luxury divine --When my truant fancy wanders with that old sweetheart of mine.


Though I hear, beneath my study, like a fluttering of wings,
The voices of my children, and the mother as she sings,I feel no twinge of conscience to deny me any themeWhen Care has cast her anchor in the harbor of a dream.


In fact, to speak in earnest, I believe it adds a charm
To spice the good a trifle with a little dust of harm --For I find an extra flavor in Memory's mellow wineThat makes me drink the deeper to that old sweetheart of mine.


A face of lily-beauty, with a form of airy grace,
Floats out of my tobacco as the genii from the vase;And I thrill beneath the glances of a pair of azure eyesAs glowing as the summer and as tender as the skies.


I can see the pink sunbonnet and the little checkered dress
She wore when first I kissed her and she answered the caressWith the written declaration that, as surely as the vineGrew round the stump, she loved me -- that old sweet heart of mine.


And again I feel the pressure of her slender little hand,
As we used to talk together of the future we had planned --When I should be a poet, and with nothing else to doBut write the tender verses that she set the music to:


When we should live together in a cozy little cot
Hid in a nest of roses, with a fairy garden-spot,Where the vines were ever fruited, and the weather ever fine,And the birds were ever singing for that old sweetheart of mine:


When I should be her lover forever and a day,
And she my faithful sweetheart till the golden hair was gray;And we should be so happy that when either's lips were dumbThey would not smile in Heaven till the other's kiss had come.


But, ah! my dream is broken by a step upon the stair,
And the door is softly opened, and -- my wife is standing there;Yet with eagerness and rapture all my visions I resignTo greet the living presence of that old sweetheart of mine.