 |
  |
|
|
| SATURDAY
October 24, 1998
I've been an admirer of Bruce Lee since my high school days. In college my friends and I would watch 'Enter The Dragon', probably Bruce Lee's best known film, and we would watch the video over and over again. We must have watched it a hundred times. We had all the lines memorized and we'd take turns playing Bruce Lee and the other characters in the film. Although I am not one to promote physical violence, I see the Martial Arts as an elegant and noble form of self-defense and discipline. I don't study any form of self-defense right now, but in junior high school I studied Chinese Kung Fu pretty much out of necessity. I would get beat up quite a bit. I was a pretty nerdy dweeb, and was a prime target for a lot of the bullies at my junior high school. After getting punched in the stomach and having the wind knocked out of me I felt it was time to do some studying. I studied for about a year before I felt I was ready. The neighborhoood I grew up in was a real ghetto and there were all sorts of hoodlums there, but I felt ready to fight in case anyone wanted to try anything. Anyway, one day during lunch I ran into another one of those 'bullies' that had been tormenting me to no end. Well, he just went up to me and tried to take a punch at me. I ended up pretty much blocking all of his attempts, then I let him have it... a right to the face, a left to the stomach, and then a flying kick to the groin. Needless to say, he never messed with me ever again, and he definitely had some a respect for me after that. And word got around in school that I was into the martial arts... nobody messed with me after that one incident! And being that I never took it beyond self-defense, all the other kids thought I was pretty cool and not another one of the punks. Triple-Header Today! I didn't want to bore everyone with an entry documenting three gigs in one day. Everyone can pretty much access that it was grueling!!! I was tired coming into this day from the Croce's gig last night, and pretty much was tired throughout the second and third gigs... it REALLY was a struggle for everyone in the band but hey... we're doing great, we're working so I shouldn't complain, right? Anyway, I truly found out that the ginseng extract that most of us in the band takes really, really works. I didn't take any for the first gig and I struggled big time. Then during the next two gigs I took some ginseng extract and felt much better, and although I was tired, I got through the gigs without totally collapsing from exhaustion. I took a body building enhancement called 'creatine', the same thing that baseball player 'MacGuire' takes, the guy who scored all of those homeruns in one season and broke the record. I've been told that creatine is the closest thing to taking steroids legally. I'm still leary about taking such a thing, so I only take it when I think I really, really need it. Ironically, after the third gig I was able to pack up all my drums very quickly and go home without falling asleep at the wheel. Thank God for all those stimulants plus the coffee I'd been drinking pretty much throughout the day. So, after all those gigs, I go home and get on the Internet, I check email and work on my websites for about an hour before feeling tired and finally getting the urge to go to bed. I've always thought that I should approach my drumming like Bruce Lee approached the martial arts... I have to be disciplined like Bruce Lee, especially when it comes to drumming... yes, discipline in drumming is definitely essential, just as discipline in life is essential in order to succeed. The death of Bruce Lee has always puzzled me, as disciplined as he was, he died mysteriously at an early age... Carlos Rull 
CDs Played Today:
Miles Davis - Live at Lincoln Center
The Spanish Prisoner (video)
Pacific Beach Block Party II Harmony On 5th |
|
next
previous archives home |