The Dharma Force

Wanted: A Solid Brick

Wanted: A good solid brick .

Do you ever have one of these days? You just wanted a brick to smash you head against?

Not for self-mutilation or anything, just kind of want to wake yourself up.

I am having one of these days.

Unfortunately, or rather, fortunately, my brick banging, board smashing days are over.

Aww, that was the good old days.

I remember that was when the first movie by Jet Li just came out, properly named, "Shao Lin". The first time the name of that temple introduced to a young generation.

Bald-headed men with nothing to do but to beat the stuff out of innocent bricks and sticks. And at that time, Jet Li was not yet Jet Li, just his real name --- Li Lian Jie.

After the movie was released, a whole generation of teenage boys hummed the theme song and found out the definition of such words as "Fractured hand", "Concussion", "Stupid", and "Swollen Buttocks" (Spanking was legal in that day and age, unfortunately for us).

Then a flock of young idiots ran away from home to go to the remote run-down temple (At the time of course. Nowadays, the abbot of that temple comes touring with an entourage of limousines and cell phones.) to find the true sense of heaven --- A clean and working flushing toilet.

Of course, the topic of the day among boys was that who can beat whom, the choices being Jet Li, Jackie Chen, and Bruce Lee.

The answer after careful investigation, scientific analysis, and with the threaten of violence, was of course Bruce Lee will come on top, with Jet Li follow, and Jackie Chen as the beanbag chair.

Bruce Lee, not only a renowned martial artist, but also the inventor of his own style of fighting. A true master, no less. And because of his unique situation, he had to fend off real challengers in real life. So he was the undisputed top dog.

Jet Li was a champion of tournaments before he was picked to star in the movie. His style is of course "ShaoLin", but because of the civilized nature of the tournaments, he cannot be in the same league as Bruce Lee.

Then of course, Jackie Chen. His style was actually for show only. In a real fight, he'd probably got his living stuff beaten out by the real masters.

Ok, how in the world did I move from the beginning of this entry to Jackie Chen?

I have no idea!
But despite the lack of a solid brick, my headache is pretty real. So ...

See you next time, and keep the brick handy.