COVID

Here it is, July. Covid has hit us hard. We lost one of our best friends, my sweetie's "Gay Best Friend" / Other (Gay) Husband in the first few weeks. Olan Montgomery, one of the most talented artists/photographers/stylists/actors/directors I'e ever worked with. He was also a drag queen and an 80s club kid, and he had great stories about Andy Warhol (and one biting story about Donald Trump). It was a devastating loss for us both personally and professionally. In addition to being our closest friend and one of our chosen family, he was also our wig maker, photographer, acting partner, and sometime director. As an actor he was just becoming successful, with a recurring roll on last season's Stranger Things, and a couple of big film rolls in the past year. He had just booked his first official guest star spot, on the Righteous Gem Stones. And he was attached to *every* film project I was working on. His loss makes it that much harder to get any of them financed. But we also lose the kindest soul I think I've ever met, someone who loved us dearly and whom we loved as well, someone who was so nice that nobody he met didn't love him (well, that probably doesn't include Donald Trump). He can't be replaced professionally, let alone the gaping hole his passing left in our hearts. We did inherit his marvelous old cat.  He was one of the first New Yorker's to get the disease, and he died in April, unfortunately after being taken off the vent and moved out of the ICU. Two days before he died, Jimmy Lee, a local SCA person I'd known for all of the 20 years I've been in Ostgardr, passed away. He was somebody I always liked and enjoyed talking to, an archer in a Mongolian household, and a very talented stained glass artist. That hit the local SCA hard. Then, about a month later, we lost Liam St. Liam, a Tyger of the East and probably the most popular and well liked person in the whole SCA. Liam and I were great friends. We shared a lot. Like Olan, he was more like family than a friend. He was a great sports writer, a great philosopher, a quintessential Southie (though he was actually from Rhode Island). He supplied more than half the photographs in my book. I can't describe how important Liam was in my life. He'd been in a nursing home after having suffered a stroke a few years before, and when he caught the bug he went fairly quickly (at least much quicker than Olan had). I was heartbroken once again. In addition to that, the virus took two of my school colleagues, and Terrance McNally, whom I can't say I knew well, but at least I'd gotten to meet years ago. And, of course, while I didn't know Nick Cordero, I know two people who were close to him. I think I'd met Mark Blum once, and certainly we had a lot of folks in common, both via theatre and via CUNY. Somehow, I missed his passing, and just found out about it only day before yesterday.

And then there is the social distancing, the monotony, being unable to do ANY of the things I loved doing -- not just SCA, but theatre, movies, dining out, shopping in Manhattan, sporting events, all of it. And teaching, the thing that keeps the lights on and me sane. So it's been rough.

What is the point of mentioning that in this blog? Well, here's what it has to do with fighting. Never give up. Never stop training. Never.

I live to fight in Crown Tourney. I've never made any attempt to hide that fact. I fight in every crown I can, and I've fought in 100 of them so far. One year -- the year I was researching my dissertation, and was traveling back and forth between New York and California regularly -- I fought in five of them -- both of them in the East, all three in the West, and two of them (the fall crowns) I fought with a broken leg -- the leg I'd broken in the Belted Champions battle at Pennsic (I killed the guy who helped me break it and then walked off the field. Still my proudest "fight club" moment). But now, for the first time since I started fighting in crown almost 40 years ago, I have gone more than a year without fighting in one -- since May 2019, due first to the blood pressure spike I had last spring, and now to the fact that the actual SCA (because to me, E-SCA is not the real SCA) is shut down. But I'm still training. Every day.

I haven't fought since AEdult Swim V on February 15.  That is also the last post in this blog. I haven't even had my armor since then.  I left it with William McCrimmon after our ride home, and then we went into lock down, and then he caught the disease (he's recovered now).

There's no fighting right now in the East Kingdom. Some places have been allowed to hold non-contact socially distanced practices. I'm sure some people are getting together and fighting in their back yards. Not me. Right now there is a very good chance we won't hold a crown tournament this year, since Tindal has said that there will be no Royal events until the border with Canada is opened, and I don't see that happening any time soon. I suspect by the time we have a Crown again, I will be 57, and will have not fought in a Crown in two years.

And that's why I train every single day.

My daily training is what I've written about before. I hit the pell at least 100 times, do 50 push ups and 50 squats every day. I also do footwork drills a couple times a week, and mix in two handed drills and two stick drills. I work in my Indian Clubs sometimes, mostly to keep my shoulders loose.  When it' rains outside, I do my pell work indoors. Currently, I run three days a week, at least a mile, sometimes more, with a mask or gaiter around my neck, that I can pull up when anybody approaches. A couple weeks ago, I ran a little over two miles with a surgical mask on pretty much the whole time. That was hard, but I look at it kind of like running at altitude. Most other days I get a walk in, about 10,000 steps. My next task is to get a mail shirt, I haven't owned one since the 80s, to train in a few times a week.

Because you should never stop training.

Someday we will get back into armor. Some day we will hold tournaments again. Some day we will hold crown again. I intend to be ready. And so should you. Train every single day.

For fun, here's a good picture of me from Aedult Swim. It's by Ursus. Go here and check his photos out.

Photo by Tim Tyson

#traineveryday

Mudthaw is coming up

 Sometimes you need to train, and sometimes you just need to fight. 

 I have been training, but not truly fighting. I’ve been doing my daily pell work, Push-ups, squats, lots of walking, occasional running, and tackling that hill, though nowhere near as much as I need to or would like.  I have not been in armor very much at all. In large part, this has to do with logistics that I need to overcome. Translation,  it is no longer as feasible as it once was, or frankly as simple, for me to haul my armor to work with me and then go to practice in New Jersey, and quite frankly, after 25 years, I’m just tired of hauling my arm on the subway. So I’m taking cabs or Zipcars,  and due to the expense I don’t do that very often. 

 I have made it to Nutley, and the Hawthorne, and to the local Brooklyn practice.  Today was the first day at Brooklyn there was someone besides me in armor. But spring has sprung it, and practice is picking up. 

 At Nutley, and Hawthorne, all I want to do is fight. Last time I was at Nutley it was a fairly late night, but I got to fight four knights and an otc,  and it was a great workout. 

 Tonight, was in someway is much better. There was only me and Travis in armor.  He had already been doing some work by the time I got there an armored up, so he was not interested in slow work or warm-up drills.  We did some free sparring for a while. Then we did situational drills. We did duke Paul’s offense/defense drill.   Then we both did some work fighting from our knees. Then more free sparring.  He is super fast and has a pretty tight defense, and he nailed me with an excellent body shot in our first fight, in which we double killed.  In our last sparring session, I did a couple of things that I really enjoyed. And one of our fights, are used to technique that I’m playing with but had not done a lot of recently, essentially Duke Lucan’s  footwork, but with the heater shield. The way I use it I fight in an A-frame and clock my shield over to guard my leading, stored side, foot. It worked perfectly as I passed to my left and hit him in his offside body. 

This is the kind of work that everybody should do more often. You can improve your fighting more efficiently by drilling with one good fighter on a regular basis, then you can just by doing a bashing practice with five good fighters.  This is the kind of work that everybody should do more often. You can improve your fighting more efficiently by drilling with one good fighter on a regular basis, then you can just by doing a bashing practice with five good fighters.  But you definitely need both, and the bashing practice is a lot more fun! 

 My next time in armor will be Saturday at Mudthaw