the_gneech | Space You, Sea Cowboy...

I ended up not going to Kung Fu last night, so I went today instead. Going to the Saturday class is always an interesting experience, because it's a much tougher regimen (it's an "Advanced" class, intended for color-belt students), but it also starts at 11:30 in the morning, rather than after a long day at work, which means I generally have more energy and perform better -- until I'm worn out, anyway. ;)

On the whole, I was pleased with how class went ... only two major bow-outs, and I went through the entire Shaolin Chuan form from start to finish, first time ever. :) It's going to take me a few more passes to have it memorized, but it's a major step towards my first belt. :)

I look just like this. Really. Except for the parts that don't.

I look just like this. Really. Except for the parts that don't.

Then we went off to run errands; most of them were rather uninteresting, but I did get that haircut I was talking about. Here's a pic Laurie took of me after we got home.

We bought a 4-CD set of music from Cowboy Bebop, which arrived last night, and we've been listening to it all day as we drove around. Some of it's very cool, some of it is rather dull, and some of it's just out there. But some of the pieces ("Tank!" obviously, "Piano Black," and a few others) are really, really good. There's lots and lots of twangy blues in there, harmonicas and loose-stringed guitars plinking out the cowboy blues; if I was more into blues, I'm sure I'd be lapping it up like a kitten. But what I'm here for is the upbeat jazz!

The 4th CD seems to be mostly a live concert, which is rounded out by alternate takes of some of the major songs. There is a weird electronic version of "Tank!" with lyrics sung in Japanese by a teenybopper-sounding girl. That made me blink a few times and say, "'Tank!' has lyrics?" Now I'm curious as to what they say!

Ah well, it's off to Photoshop for me now. I was seized earlier this evening by an uncontrollable urge to color an image that I did a while back in b/w. If nothing else, that'll make good Grab Bag material.

Catcha later!

-The Gneech

PS: Snagged from