Fight World

[Drunk Monk]

Anyone else watching this yet? It's a docu-series, examining martial arts in different cultures.  I saw the first two episodes and really love what Grillo is doing with it. There's only 5 eps for Season 1. Not only is Grillo humble and respectful, it's beautifully shot. I highly recommend this for you fellow DOOM Netflixers.

[cranefly]

Well, heck.  I stumbled across this on Netflix and thought, "Gee, this looks pretty interesting, and Grillo's in it.  But if it was any good, DM would have given it a shout-out and he hasn't, so it's crap."  But now DM has spoken, so it must be great.  I'll check it out.

Yes, I'm a simplistic binary bit very easy to flip.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

But nobody’s pony. No sir.

[Drunk Monk]

DM has spoken

No more need be said. 
Okay, a little more.  I've been busy so I haven't been able to keep up with my shows.  I saw the 1st ep on Mexican boxing a few days ago and wanted to give it a thumbs up but I figured I'd best check out another so as not to be premature.  Saw the Muay Thai ep and it was on point.  I'll probably watch the other three soon.  I'm actually more interested in those.  I've been to Mexico & Thailand and know a lot of fighters from both of those places.  The next two are uncharted.  The last one, well, we'll see how that goes.

[Drunk Monk]

Finished all five. It gets a little heavy handed with its message in the end, but I agree with what they’re saying with it. It should be watched in order because there’s a subtle thematic progression. Grillo comes off well, down to earth and willing to listen. I didn’t realize that he’s only 3 years younger than me and still rock solid. The show captures the environments well, the hardship, cultural differences, universality, and poverty. I hope they make a 2nd season.

[cranefly]

I've seen the first 3 or 4 of these.  Ready for the Israeli episode.

Yeah, a tough position for Grillo, as his very presence with a film crew can easily disrupt the more poverty-stricken of these microcosms.  That 17-year-old kid (was it the Muy Thai episode?) was so calm and collected to start with, but by fight time he seemed very self-conscious and unfocused, which likely affected the outcome.  A similar effect elsewhere.

Sort of like how an observer influences the results in a quantum experiment.  No easy way around it.

Yeah.  Worth watching.

[Drunk Monk]

Agreed and I was glad to hear Grillo address that a bit - think it was in the Burma ep - where he was talking about feeling guilty eating all these power bars and stuff and trying to keep up with those kids living in squalor.  That reminded me of some of my early years at Shaolin.  I packed a suitcase full of power bars in but once I figured out how to eat healthy there, I usually wound up giving them away to local kids.  I remember once having one of the young Wushuguan monks in my room for tea and he was enjoying the TV because he almost never got to watch one.

[cranefly]

Finished the series. 

I tell ya, in that final Israel segment, that powerfully built Krav Maga instructor was scary.  I mean, Grillo communicated a lot of my own feelings in dealing with him.  He's so forceful and unyielding in his talk and tactics.  Very in your face, lethal in his thinking.  Like one of those martial artists who live in their own fantasy world seeing threats all around them and constantly thinking about how to react in each instant if such-and-such were to happen.  Sort of an obsessive readiness that robs one of any enjoyment of life.  But then you start seeing that he is sane, that's the world he lives in, or that's the world he's training people to live in, and underneath there is humanity, emotion, love, a family, etc.

I think.

One thing.  I'll never go to Israel.

Because if I did, there'd be too much temptation to throw a surprise birthday party for the dude.

[Drunk Monk]

Totally agree.  I cross paths with those sorts every once in a while.  It's always bothersome.  But it was balanced out by Israel - all the hardships of all the martial artists were balanced by their environment, which is what really worked for me in this series.

And I agree about visiting Israel.  In general, I avoid countries at war.  Oh wait, we're at war.  How long have we been in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, et.al.?  Oh never mind.