Since 1991 he has made 20 albums and toured the American continent, Europe and Asia with Hagfish and Only Crime. For the past 13 years he has been the bassist for Texas favorite the Toadies. He began writing his first book “Even If It Kills Me” (YMAA Publications) while on the road in 2015 about his black belt journey in Taekwondo. Upon release it was a Silver Winner for the Benjamin Franklin Award.
When he’s not writing he can be found drinking coffee, trying to learn Rush songs, training in martial arts and drinking coffee .
He lives in Amarillo, TX with his wife Shelley and, since his bass guitars are his children, their 13 kids.
- The Partial Artist - October 13, 2021
- The Harder We Fall - September 8, 2021
- Am I My Brother’s Keeper? - September 6, 2021
Learning to Live… Again
When Steven Tyler yelled in 1976 that he was back in the proverbial saddle it was without any inclination what the year 2020 was going to have in store and how hard it would be to just jump back on in ‘21. I have heard the word ‘unprecedented’ so many times in the past 19 months that I want to scream like Aerosmith’s singer. Unfortunately, that word, like the virus, isn’t going away. After months of being shutdown it looked like things were becoming a little normal or as close to normal as we could get. Families were gathering and hugging again, shops were open and I actually saw the lower half of my friend’s faces after a year of everyone looking like The Shadow. Vaccinations were up, people have become less afraid of…living.
Even more important, martial arts classes were being held so the students could work out the kinks. You can only get so good on a karate Zoom class. I live in the Great State of Texas (we aren’t proving ourselves to be too Great but I love it anyway), and out here it’s the wild west, rules went by the wayside so we didn’t have a lot of dojo closures. But there were a few schools who shut their doors for safety and when the lights came back on in the country, unfortunately those places of business did not.
Inside/Outside
This article isn’t written to be political, it’s just an observation. It’s not even an opinion piece, because I don’t have one about this issue. I’m as befuddled and selfish as everyone else when it comes to training. I’ll address the elephant in the room now- should we be training in doors at all? This is a hard one. Up until recently I trained at a local Okinawan Kempo school, we wore masks when the state mandate was in effect and took them off when it lapsed. The training was explosive, demanding and high cardio-not fun with a mask, but we did it because there was no other choice. Our options were to sit around and go nuckin’ futs or train with a goddamn mask on. So that’s what we did. I don’t see mask’s being worn at most school’s anymore, I mean I’M not wearing one at TKD class. Trust me, I jumped off my high horse a while ago.
Civil Protection?
Do we as martial artists owe it to one another to be safer? Or is it everyone for themselves? Again, I don’t have an opinion. I’m just trying to promote, hopefully, civil discussion. Also, what is safe? I think that’s the argument, a question nobody has an answer for. My viewpoint of what is safe is being vaccinated (this is MY opinion only) and using a mask, if you can. Training in BJJ is almost impossible in a mask. I’m sure there are some who do it and my hat is off to those diehards. I could barely do the BJJ conditioning with uninhibited breathing access. How the hell do you do it wearing a mask? Breathe through your ears?
If other vaccines come out, give enough to me where I look like Pinhead from the Hellraiser movies, I don’t care. Maybe , just maybe, if I make sure I AM inoculated then there is the hope that I won’t give it to someone else. I can’t live with that. There is no way I can control what someone else does in regard to their bodies. I only have control over myself. If my training partner does not wish to be vaccinated, that is their choice. But I’ll be damned if I’m the reason they contract the virus. Now, if they don’t block my roundhouse kick and get knocked out then that shit’s on them.
After several weeks trying to train on Zoom and Facebook Live,even belt testing and hand delivering my belt, I quit until I could train in person again. Zoom was spotty, sometimes okay, but often unavailable and Facebook Live was at inconvenient times. My studio allowed me to suspend my account for my time off, but I had l a lot of catching up to do. In October, we resumed in person classes with the mask requirement and mandated social distancing. Self defense was put on the back burner, but we sometimes used pool noodles to substitute for arms. Recently, we were allowed to resume sparring and grabs. Mask policy has been recently reinstated due to our states increase in COVID cases. Most, in my class of mainly senior citizens have received the vaccine and the few that haven’t wear masks. Hand sanitizer is available and its use is strongly encouraged.