The Shaolin Zone

[Drunk Monk]

Oh damnation…

[Greg]

China is here, Mr. Burton.

[Drunk Monk]

Right after I got home from the Monterey Jazz Festival, an old friend from MQ6, the award-winning photographer who got a blue ribbon for a pic of me last year, texts me about Sutra coming to Cal Performances. This is the longest running Shaolin show, a fusion with modern dance, that has been running for 17 years. I contacted Cal about press passes and secured them, along with an interview with the choreographer. Mind you, I've never seen this show. I've always wanted to see it. 

Had a great interview - my second choreographer this month (more on the other soon). Dancers can really talk about the art of movement. I finished it late last week and just hours after I turned it in, I got word that the show was cancelled. 

Damnation.

The official reason for cancellation is that one of the main players got injured. An inside monk source says none of the monks were granted visas because he was scheduled to host them too (so he claims). The choreographer said he had the blessing of the new abbot, but I'm thinking, well, perhaps not. 

We're still going with the interview with the blessings of Cal Performances. It'll drop today or tomorrow. You'll see it on my socials. 

Right now, I'm working through an article for our new magazine on Shaolin and what's happened since the pandemic. Unfortunately my previous coverage is all offline and I'm too lazy to dig through my submissions files so I'm trying to do it by memory and notes on the KFM forum, pix on facebook (mine & KFM's) and some notes here. I swear, huge chunks of my memory are now online. When the web goes down, so shall many of the finer points of my memory.