Demo: Colors in Harmony

Video from our demo at the 2010 Colors in Harmony get-together! Which was a great time featuring a lot of demos by a lot of cultural groups, including Indian song and dance, Mongolian dance, Korean drumming, African dancing.

This turned out pretty well. If we were short on explanation, I have to shoulder that - we had very little time (supposed to be 5 minutes) so I thought we make the main points - rei, kendo is sword fighting - and let the waza speak for themselves. Also, did something a bit different with how everyone attacked and went back to the end of the line.

We take demoing very seriously, of course, but we're still getting better at it. Thanks so much to the participants: Mike, Jonathan, Stijn and Brian. You guys look great!

The Annual Detroit Tournament, or, "Valentine's Day Massacre"

By Charlie

Guys, sorry it's been so long since we (I) updated the blog. I wanted to let you know that despite the awful weather and roads, practice is still happening every Tuesday from 7-9:00 at Warner Hall. Last week's Above and Beyond Award goes to Mike Hemstadter, whose 20 minute commute after practice was.... two hours. Ya gotta love 23 sometimes. Thank you, Mike.

All right, the big news is that the annual Detroit Tournament is February 14. Testing is that weekend also. If you are interested in participating in the tournament and testing, and I hope you are, you need to:

1) See me and get your dues in by end of January. We're getting the proper dues forms still but I will have all info.

2) Download or obtain from me or Eric or representative of Detroit kendo the tournament entry form. Fill it out and send it in with entry money ASAP.

3) If you want to test, you must see Eric,-sensei, get his permission and have him sign your form. You have to mail this in with entry money ASAP also.

The forms for items 2 and 3 are downloadable here.

Hope to see you all soon, hope you are well in all your endeavors. Practice is still happening at our sister club at U of M. We'll also be visiting Detroit on Thursdays and Saturdays so stay in touch with me or Eric about those opportunities.

Oh, yeah, and I haven't even mentioned that BRENDAN ERIC ABBEY came into the world last week. At this rate, EMU Kendo may have enough for TWO kids teams!!

OnlineKendo.com - a kendo equipment retailer to check out!

I know most of us have had good experiences buying kendo equipment from e-Bogu, Eguchi, Mugendo, Kendoshop and others, but I want to introduce you to a kendo supplier that's not new but new to me, OnlineKendo.com.

We are becoming an affiliate marketer with OnlineKendo.com, which means if you click the link above and buy something, we'll get a percentage of the sale above a certain amount. We'll add this link to the blog and to our main page as well.

Truthfully, I would encourage you to click over and check out the company's inventory anyway, since I feel it is important to support all of these suppliers, which are a valuable part of the national and international kendo community as well as businesses. Here, for example, is a standard beginner's shinai I'd like to try.

We'll be getting some samples of OnlineKendo's stuff and we'll let you know our experiences with them. For now, we just say, Welcome, OnlineKendo.com!