Evan Tanner - R.I.P.

Back as far as I can remember, I've always liked Martial Arts. My obsession started with the likes of Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan (way before they were mainstream in America) Brandon Lee, and your usual characters in Jean Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal. Between my friends and I we used to have discussions about which Martial Arts Discipline was the best. We would argue how if Bruce Lee were alive, his Jeet Kune Do fighting style would kick almost anyone's butt.

Other than the Olympics, and in Dojo's there really wasn't a place to see people with different disciplines fight each other. You could always go see a Judo match, a Kickboxing match, but never a Judo fighter vs. a Kickboxer fighter against each other. We got small glimpses of a supposed barbaric sport in the movie called Bloodsport where fighters would fight with their legs and without gloves.

Not too long ago a fighting organization was formed and called the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship). Way back in the early 90's we finally got to see fighters with different disciplines fight one another and yeah, it was bloody. Not too many people except die hard fans actually bought the pay per views, but the sport lived underground for a bit.

It wasn't till new ownership of the UFC that the sport took off. The new owners would get the sport commissions to sanction the fights and thus make it legal. Needless to say, I've been a fan ever since the very first UFC. Along the way I grew to like a variety of fighters for very different reasons.One of those fighters was Evan Tanner. I think I associated with Evan simply because he wasn't braggadocios in victory, and he was always humble in defeat.

I was able to attend UFC 50 on October 22 2004 and you know who was on the card that night.
Evan Tanner vs Robbie Lawler.


In the picture below you see Mike Goldberg, and Frank Mir with the mic's and Ken Shamrock sitting on the bottom left hand side.


The first fight of the night. Travis Lutter vs. Marvin Eastman


Believe it or not, Mixed Martial arts is much safer than boxing.


We finally reach the fight with Evan Tanner


Evan Tanner was found dead on Monday September 8, 2008. Besides being a fighter, Evan was somebody who appreciated life and actually lived it to it's fullest. It is believed that after going to the desert he succumbed to the extreme heat, but the reports have been very vague up till now. Perhaps I identify with Evan because he was a free spirited person. Never ordinary, and always searching. What a beautiful way to live your life. I've always said that it's not tragic to die doing what you love.


Evan wrote about his trip to the desert. You can read his writings here. As you well know, I don't believe that Evan went somewhere else and is now living somewhere happily. I believe that Evan lived his life here on Earth, and allowed us to part take in a little bit of it. He has left us his legacy of being an exceptional MMA fighter, but also an exception human being. Thanks for the inspiration Evan Tanner. Thanks for having existed.

"Believe In The Power Of One"

Brian Vander Ark

Back in the days when I used to work at BMG (Bertelsmann Music Group) we used to get tons of CD's handed out to us. The building consisted of a variety of music Labels (RCA, J Records, Bad Boy, etc.) and there was always something in your taste there. Amongst the things you'd expect to like, there were bands like The Verve Pipe which I never really paid attention to back then as my musical taste was different.

Last week a friend of mine who worked with me in the same floor at BMG invited me to a private party he was having at his apartment. Woo Hoo, big deal. Well, what he mentioned next to me was rather surprising "Brian Vander Ark from The Verve Pipe will be at the party performing and hanging out for a little bit". Now, I remembered the band name and the singers name but I couldn't remember what songs I knew?

A quick check online and hours later I couldn't stop listening to a bunch of Brian's music. Considering that my taste in music right now is exactly what Brian Vander Ark is doing, it was a thrill to know that I'd be in a small setting listening to him. If you still don't know who Brian is, he is most known for the song called "The Freshmen"

Now that you know who he is, let me progress with the party at hand. The night begins with some food that my friend Bill Fleischer (the host) provided.


The veggies were right on the money!


Damn, that yellow cheese was so good.


This is a must for any REAL party.


Brian Vander Ark listens to the host before he begins to play.


In between songs Brian explains how some of the songs came about.


Rocking to the tunes head shake


To hear his voice live is an experience on it's own


Lastly, yours truly with Brian. Great shot Bill!


The entire night was just awesome! I cannot tell you how great it was to listen to Brian Vander Ark live, and only about 5 feet away from me. Don't believe me, check out the video:


Watch in High Quality Here

Pulp Fiction

They say if you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere...
Who knows.
Maybe one day you'll see this at your corner news stand.
:-)

Ice Ice Baby

Snow isn't that bad you know.. It's the damn sleet that makes it terrible! As you can see, in New York we're up to our knees in snow. I guess this makes up for the not so cold winter we've had so far. We were due to get slammed by the weather sooner or later.





A fond memory I have as a kid in NY is the kind of things kids do when it snows. Besides playing the obvious snow ball matches, some of us (including me) used to eat snow. Yes, I said we ate snow. Of course this can only happen when it snows a lot and you're not eating dirty snow. It almost feels like you're diving into a cotton candy pillow. I don't recommend you go out and do this, but seeing all this snow accumulate brought those tiny memories back.

Let is snow...

Eclipse This!

The next time this phenomenon happens will be in 2010. Did you happen to see the Lunar Eclipse last night? I decided to brave the cold and take some pictures of the Eclipse. I must say that looking at the skies makes me feel magnificent.

I feel great to be part of this world, in this time and age, and in this state of mind.


The moon is barely visible as the Earth is covering the sun's rays.


Slowly but surely the Earth moves out of the way.


Can you see the little bit of light making it's way to the moon?


It's becoming clearer isn't it?


You can see that the Earth has finally begun to move out of the sun's way.


The sun starts lighting up the moon again.

So, did you see the Eclipse last night?

Less Is More

I have a tendency to appreciate the small things. My friend Gabe is on hard times right now but his little gift actually means a lot more than anything money could buy.

What you see below is the product of Gabe's amazing clay skills. He replicated a Dean guitar that Dimebag Darrell used to use. After creating the guitar by hand he had to bake the clay in order to make it hard.

Incredible isn't? Like I said, these kind of things mean a lot more to me than a really expensive gift. It shows that he thought about it for a bit (even for 5 seconds), and really paid attention to the detail.



The gift is awesome... Thanks my dude...

Aquaman

Happy New Year folks!

A new year is upon us and hopefully your new year has started off on the right foot. What's in store for you this year? Have you made any resolutions? Can you actually keep any of the resolutions you've made?

I can't say whether or not I have any resolutions, but I plan on learning anything that can help me in a positive way. That just means reading books, questioning everything, and helping anyone who needs help.

The past few weeks have been absolutely incredible. I spent most of my time scuba diving and appreciating life. While in the ocean you realize that you are a tiny spec in this huge bowl of soup we call life. The ocean has a plethora of life and there is never enough time to see all of it. I've come to the realization that I was made for the ocean, and from the ocean. The feeling of weightlessness is probably the closest I'll come to knowing what it's like in space. Interestingly enough, the oceans of earth are like our universe; They're never ending and almost impossible to explore with ease.

My latest trip can be seen on my website or by clicking on the picture.