A Month in the Life... "April Showers"

In sales it is often difficult to discern where the lies stop and the truth begins.

 I have the unpleasant task of dealing with unscrupulous developers,

owners and marketing companies.

Fortunately along the way I had the pleasure of meeting great young salespeople,

 bright and infinite in their potential.

 Forging friendships is paramount to success whether its on the table or in training .

A moment with Linda Thorson  (The Avengers TV)

The will to win,

the desire to succeed,

the urge to reach for your full potential...

These are the keys that will unlock 

the door to personal excellence.

-Confucius-

Its too bad martial arts and the occasional movie, 

T.V. show or commercial doesn't pay the bills.

I'm relegated to continuing to deal with the umbrageous characters

that own and run these stores and 'road shows'.

 It leaves me with the feeling that I need a shower.

Thank goodness for 'April Showers'.

April was a great month for martial arts conferences and seminars.

Usually the beach brings to mind sun and sand.

Surf, bikinis and the occasional individual who should stay clothed year round.

This years Martial Arts Symposium weekend.....

 I had a sidekick,

 Bostons own Molly MacPhail tried to take on two days in the life of the 'Beast'.

It proved to be a busy weekend.

The Symposium is expertly engineered by Master Terry Dow

 and his lovely wife Christina.

 The annual 'Supercamp' is held here in the Northeast every Spring.

My Ninja ...Brent Crisci

The camp features such notable Grand Masters as

 Michael DePasquale Jr, Bill 'Superfoot' Wallace, Walt Lysak, Brent Crisci

and may more.....

Soke Michael DePasquale Jr "Jujitsu at it's best !!

As always the Symposium proved to be a great weekend of fellowship and fun !

Another of my Friends and Mentors Grand Master Buzz Durkin and his lovely wife Judy Durkin celebrated the 40th anniversary of there amazing martial arts journey.

Grand Masters George Mattson, James Thompson,

 and Canadian Uechi Ryu founder Jim Maloney and a host of others were honored

 at this Butokukai graduation ceremony. I am always humbled by the quality of great martial artists and the overwhelming sense of community displayed by this great family of practitioners.

GM George Mattson

                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

GM Buzz Durkin                                                                      Gm Jim Maloney

The next morning I emerged from my bedroom at the 'Bat Cave' 

to find 'the lovely and talented Molly MacPhail' in a 'pup pile' on my couch.

After much needed coffee we were off to shoot a scene for

 Terry Traynors' Narrow Street Films. 

https://www.facebook.com/NarrowStreetFilms?ref=br_tf

https://www.youtube.com/user/NarrowStreetFilms

You'll have to look for that one on Facebook or you tube in the near future.

 It's still in post production !!!!

The Recipe

There are three ingredients in the good life:
 learning, earning and yearning.
-Christopher Morley-

It doesn't matter whether your baking a cake, some gluten free brownies,
 (ha ha Susan)

or trying to develop a successful team with a sense of community.........

The blending of ingredients is the benchmark of success,
 not the ingredients themselves. 

 Grand Master George Mattson, Uechi ryu Pioneer

I've never known anyone to taste flour or baking powder

then smile and say "mmm boy is that gonna be a goood cake,,,,,,,!"

Often our vision turns out to be something  drastically different than we imagined.

Last night in Plaistow, NH...

 I watched 200 plus people celebrate their Black Belt Graduation.
The candidates were joined by an audience 1500 people from the community
These students had been mentored by Senseis' Buzz and Judy Durkin
 and the Butokukai  organization of outstanding teachers.
Associations and dojos have alot to learn from Senseis' Buzz and Judy.

Later during a brief conversation with martial arts legend, 

George Mattson I discovered an interesting lesson.

I said to George,
"It must be an amazing feeling to know your responsible for all this !"
He smiled and said he hadn't imagined this.

During a conversation about the release of my latest film project, 
'Anatomy of the Tide', originally due Sept 2012 now June 6, 2013.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1980038/

I told George I was a bad guy in the film and had used movements from the 
Uechi Ryu Kata Seisan in my fight scene then curb stomped my opponent.

He said sarcastically,
"That should be real good for Uechi Ryu..!

Each of us are merely ingredients in the recipe that is our art,
Our family, our style, our dojo .....our community.

Robb Buckland, Grand Masters George Mattson & Buzz Durkin, w/ Sensei Allan Azoff

 

Live life fully while you're here.

 Experience everything.
 Take care of yourself and your friends.

 Have fun, be crazy, be weird.
 Go out and screw up!

 You're going to anyway,
 so you might as well enjoy the process.

 Take the opportunity to learn from your mistakes:
 find the cause of your problem and eliminate it. 

Don't try to be perfect; 
just be an excellent example of being human