I was practicing tuishou with Teacher X today, and, surprisingly, doing pretty well. I think he was just taking it easy on me, and he confirmed this by mentioning that my right hand is “stupid”. “You’re very good with your left hand,” he said. “But that’s not only due to the fact that you’re left-handed, but also, all of your partners are right-handed, so that side gets a lot of practice.” He made his point by showing me just how easy it was to push me over on that side. I spent the next half an hour concentrating on my right side. He’s got a point; I need to shore things up over there.

Yang Qing-feng showed up today; I haven’t seen him in years, I think. I always had the hardest time practicing with him, as he is lightning quick, nimble and flexible; it’s like pushing cotton. We began with fixed-feet tuishou, and though I’ve improved and am able to gain the advantage once in a while, he’s still nearly as difficult to deal with; he spends most of his time bent back, out of my reach.

That all changed when we switched to moving tuishou. When I was able to advance and retreat, I found him surprisingly easy prey, at least until he fixed on the technique of grabbing my left hand and just not letting GO. Things got fairly intense, and I have the bruises on my arm to prove it. Still, it was amicable, and he didn’t, as so many people do, resort to simple quick shoves.

So today was a good workout, and I learned a few things. I also got empty-handed and sword practice in, though thunder was threatening as the afternoon wore on.

I just listened, for the first time, to “The Grid”, an online show purportedly about photography with Scott Kelby. It was Episode 18, in which the hosts, Scott and RC, discuss the various social networking sites and display some surprising ignorance of certain areas of photography. “All cameras focus…even the disposable ones from Walgreens!” (Yes, it is a fixed hyperfocal lens, aka  a fixed small aperture and shutter speed where most everything is in focus). “Contrast detect AF works on a G12, it should be the same for the X100” (sensor size makes a huge difference). And of course that anyone who prefers the Fuji to take photos is stupid.

That’s their opinion, of course (the stupid part, that is), but overall it was the dismissive fratboy tone of the whole thing that made me think, well, at least they’re really kick-ass photographers, right? They’re not like Chase Jarvis, more about self promotion than actual photography, or Ken Rockwell, i.e. more about gear promotion, or “Thomas Hawk”, not just obnoxious and confrontational but mediocre photographers as well. I mean, they’re artists on the equivalent of AM talk radio, after all, and have their opinions.

This is where I should have stopped and gone on with my life, perhaps even whistling as I went. But no, I had to visit their photography sites.

Oy. As I have pretty much alienated the entire online photography expert world in a single post, I will refrain from commenting more specifically due to the fact that these guys have the power to squash their detractors like bugs, but…just oy. Ok, I’ll shut up now; No one’s forcing me to listen to the show or look at their stuff, after all, and it behooves me to be grateful for small favors.

Speaking of small favors, I recently read an interview with Joseph Koudelka by Frank Horvat in which Kouldelka gives some insight into his view of photography, how he lives his life, and how the two intertwine. Koudelka’s thought-provoking views aside, what particularly impressed me was how deftly he danced around the mundane nature of Horvat’s questions in order to strike at the heart of the issues at hand, what photography meant to him personally, how he expresses himself though the camera, what he sees, what he is saying.

To me, that is talking about photography, not lowest-common-denominator rants about how people who use a certain camera are idiots, or how to SEO-up your website for hits. The best communication possible with photography is through the photographs themselves. Barring that, any amount of geartalk or Internet popularity games is just a way of trying to fill the void left by lack of vision.

The other day after work, I followed the masses of workers fleeing their claustrophobic cubicles in the offices of the city, moving en mass across the Zhongxiao Bridge into the brilliant sunset. It felt wonderful to be all alone on the bridge over the water, watching the planes fly in past the mountains and nascent stars. This is the video I took of it all:

And of course, the Muddy Basin Ramblers had a great big bash, accompanied by the Taipei Swing Club, at the Taipei Artists Village last week. Sure, there’s some rough going, either in spite of or due to various alcoholic consumption, but it was a blast. This is the video that Chenbl took of parts of the show: