WHO I'M VOTING FOR...

LAST WEEKEND WAS A GOOD OMEN!!!

Well, I think so. Why, you may ask? Because some times, you just feel it. And on the weekends of October 15th and 16th, I definetely felt it.

SATURDAY!!!


Last Saturday, I went to the CAPOEIRA ANGOLA JOGO DE CINTURA FUNDRAISER, hosted by Jelani Ticum Lateef and CAJDC.

Now before I tell you why Last Saturday was significant, we have to go back a couple of months. IT ALL STARTED WITH A ROADTRIP...

Around the last weekend of August, Jelani took a group of about 13 of us up to the city of Oakland to meet his old Mestre, Mestre Themba Mashama, and train with him in his class.

Here's Mestre Themba in action:



I'm not gonna go into details right now, but it was a wonderful trip, and I would LOVE to go up to Oakland to train with mestre Themba again.

And that's part of what this fundraiser was about. To promote, recruit, and raise some funding for uniforms, instruments, and to be able to host Mestre Themba when he comes down to this area in the spring.

Now it was a bit challenging getting to the fundraiser, because the area where Pitzer college is located had a bunch of other colleges around there, and me and another workshop participant named Virginia who I ran into while trying to find the place ended up driving around there for about 15 minutes, until finally a campus police officer directed us to the correct location.

And now, on to the workshops.

Workshop 1 focused on percussion and ways to find ways to improvise on the basic rhythm, and we worked on a couple of songs.

I'm showing this video to illustrate because well, I like the video, and this WAS one of the songs we were working on.

Although, the beat and the tempo wasn't nearly that fast.



Workshop 2 was with portuguese teacher and capoeirista, Rosalba Gama, who gave us a very good introduction to Portuguese (in relation to Capoeira).

And, as I breifly pointed out at the workshop, she also makes some beautiful waxprint Instrument bags. click HERE to checkout her store on ETSY.

Workshop 3 was with our brother from another mother, Cheyenne Dunbar, who gave an outstanding demonstration of his knowledge of weaponry in relation to Capoeira, as well as some aspects of grappling in relation to capoeira. He gave some real time examples how to utilize what he taught in real situations. The techniques he showed were simple yet effective, and you know what? he pulled all this off while he had a back injury!

Then, it was on to Workshop 4, when brother Jelani gave us some movement instruction.

Now to go slightly off-topic here, The form of capoeira that Jelani, as well as my own teacher Charles Wiliams, is teaching and trying to preserve is Capoeira Angola, OLD SCHOOL Capoeira Angola, as popularized and taught by Mestre Pastinha.



But why, you may ask, are they so dedicated to the old ways? Well, the reason is simple.

It's only by going back to the past can we improve what we're doing in the present.

Now that being said, Jelani took us through a long combination of around 8 different movements. We did them in a straight line, around a chair, solo and with a partner. We also did them in a way in which we were very compact, covering little ground.

You see, in Capoeira Angola, we have what is called "Jogo de Dentro", which means "inside game". In this game, the players are very compact, and they play very close to each other, in a small space, with the idea being to be able to do them in a phone booth, if need be.

To illustrate, I posted this video of Mestre Jogo de Dentro(he got this name because he's known for his mastery of this game, even though he's like 6 feet, 5 inches tall). Notice how the roda gets smaller and smaller as the video progresses...



That's Jogo de Dentro.

Jelani also had he insight to modify some of the movements so those of us who are not all that strong and flexible could get through the sequence. I know, you can't learn to fight or play Capoeira Angola through sequences, but a sequence does teach you how to chain your movements together, and to develop flow throughout your movement, so it looks like you're doing only one long movement, when in actuality, you're doing 3 or 4 different movements.

And after jelani showed us some berimbau toques, We ended with a small, yet grand Roda. Each student had a lot of time to play instruments and play in the Roda.

I want to Thank all of the members of Capoeira Angola Jogo De Cintura (Soon to be N'golo Preto Velho Los Angeles de Mestre Themba.) and to my brother and crazy uncle in capoeira, Jelani Ticum Lateef, for his perseverance to to teach, propagate, and preserve traditional Capoeira Angola. Ase.

Oh, and check this out! Jelani at Capoeira Batuque's Batizado I beleive, playing with the one and only, Mestre BOA GENTE. That's Wassup!!!



And one more thing.


Congratulations Jelani, for becoming Mestre Themba's L.A. representative!!!



SUNDAY!!!

ON SUNDAY, I WAS BACK IN THE PARK.

It started out like most other Sundays. We played music for an hour, during which a family of hikers came and listened to us halfway through, and after a little while, we talked to them about what we do there. This time however, was a very special Sunday. In the middle of the Sunday class, while I was rushing to the bathroom, a man with long dreadlocks showed up.

Now for the last 3 years, charles always talked about a man called "Kekeu", who he trained with, a man who was one of the main reasons Charles started teaching capoeira.

And here he was in the flesh!

We talked about a lot of things, and we trained together.

Here he is, playing with charles in what is now my favorite Capoeira video...



Thank You Charles, for bringing me into this game of life called Capoeira Angola, and continuing to be my guide on this journey.

Yes, with the fundraiser last Saturday, and Kekeu's arrival last Sunday(Not to mention the fact that I spent the weekend with 2 of the most important people in my capoeira journey), last weekend was a very good omen, as i'm about to start a big project.

Now, let's see how this weekend goes...

Stewie Griffin Where's My Money?!!!

For some insane reason, this makes me laguh everytime I see it...