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Kung Fu: The Legend Continues |
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This was a day of talking sharing and fun. I collected my things that I had brought for the display table, but I had not brought as much as others had. I could have brought more. What I brought with was my notebook of David Carradine, his shirt that he wore in the Long Riders, both sets of cassette tapes of the workshops that he did up at Omega, the articles for Inside Kung Fu, and the uncorrected proof of his book Spirit of Shaolin. I could have brought his autobiography and the records that he did; "Grasshopper," "You and Me," and "Trouble Maker." I could have even brought a few videos as well. I really thought my suitcase was full. But others had brought a great deal more. There were three people who were feverishly creating CD's for people from this weekend.
Sharing
While people shared stories, photos and displayed what memorabilia they had, preparations were also being made for the auction, for the lottery, and for the raffle in which two items were going to be given away. The raffle took place before lunch. It came as quite a surprise when Helen's name was drawn for one of the items. It was of a photo of the cast and crew of the show. Kim Chan was not present when that photo was taken.
(Helen Wins)
Barb won the Silk Stalkings jacket that had been donated. A very nice jacket, though I might have bought more tickets if it has been a crew jacket from KF: TLC.
After lunch, Kim came in and we held a light-hearted trophy quiz. During the quiz one of the questions reminded Kim when he was working on the show during the episode where Tan kidnapped him. He told how they covered him in spiders. Some of them were actually black widow spiders and one of the spiders had crawled inside his shirt. He said he was lucky that he had not been bitten. At the end of the quiz, I tied with someone else. But lost on the tie breaker.
Barb receives her Trophy
The winner received a sash, a crown, and a kiss from Kim Chan. Sandra even provided Kim with a crown as king (which he wanted to keep).
King and Queen
Kim also joked earlier about the Ancient giving Peter some love drops. Kim said he still had some.
Right after the quiz came the auction and Kim was acting as auctioneer. He started out each bid at $2.00 and became a running gag after that. At times he marveled at how some items went as high at $35.00. He would say, 'That's too high or that's enough. We have all this." There was one time when Kim was left speechless.
Action - Program
There were a lot of great items that had been auctioned. Photos, posters, T-Shirts, and even original artwork was auctioned.
Auction - T-Shirt
When it became apparent that the evening was not over, Kim had to leave because he had a dinner date with some friends. He introduced us to a lady friend who was actually the costume designer for the show. I thought about the time someone had mentioned about the auction that had been done at a previous Fufest with David and Kim. That must have been some fun that time, Kim offering $2.00 to sell his bridge work, and David offering $4.00 for Kim to keep it. And here at this current FuFest, to have Kim offering a $2.00 dollar bid on everything. Kim ended his portion of the evening with "Two dollar, two dollar. I am the two dollar man."
After Kim left, the auction continued with someone else acting as auctioneer. I was able to get a few more images of David to add to my collection, including one from the Long Riders that I have seen on eBay. That one I slipped in with my COA from the shirt that he wore. It was funny. No one seemed interested in the photos of David so much, so I was able to give them a good home.
I had gone upstairs during the conversation after the auction to put my items away because we would not have the room tomorrow. When I came down, everyone had gone to dinner so I met everyone in the Terrace Café.
After dinner, we all filtered up to the hospitality suite(next to my room). There was a great view from there of a wonderful sunset.
Sunset
Someone had set up a TV where we watched "The Mystery Tape" which turned out to be dailies for "Dark Vision." We then watched music videos that Carolyn Cooper and another person brought. Sandra also had two dailies from the episode "Escape."
It was at that point that Kim Chan cam in. He told us what went on at dinner and it was obvious that he had not been too happy. The couple and the lady friend that he had been with ran up a bill for $600.00. Sounded like his so-called companions had taken advantage of him. I learned that they had opened some of the more expensive bottles of wine. To take advantage of someone like Kim, who may even be living on a budget despite his celebrity status I find just isn't right.
Kim back from Dinner
We then watched a short 10-minute film that Kim had participated in. Some of the group had seen it after the reception, but some of us who had gone to bed earlier, had not. The film was produced by a student. It was called Zen Tales. Kim played all three parts in the film. It had been done very well. Kim had mentioned that they had filmed it in the student's back yard.
The three characters that Kim played were a traveler, a dignified lord, and his sloppy brother. Kim mentioned that he took out his bridgework so you could see that the sloppy brother was missing teeth. In this instance, it worked quite well. It was the reverse way of needed make-up. Rather than adding something to blacken his teeth, he was able to remove his teeth, which made it more real.
The story line of the short film was in reference to the Tao and how a person perceives things differently. The dignified lord stayed out of what happened between his brother and the traveler, but he still wanted to know what happened between each of them. Each told a different story as to what happened. The traveler's story told about wisdom. He perceived the brother as being wiser by his unspoken response to the traveler's unspoken challenge. The traveler thought he lost and with dignity and grace accepted that loss.
The brother on the other hand told a far different story where he believed he won by threatening the traveler because he thought the traveler was insulting him. In response the dignified lord laughed because each perceived the truth differently.
Without speaking to each other, and only using hand gestures, the two men who were in the challenge could not know what the other one was thinking, and yet the outcome was the same. The traveler still lost a place to sleep. It was humorous and wise at the same time.
After watching Kim's short film, we once again watched more dailies of Escape. Kim started to imitate the actors on the screen. Kim stated that he liked to imitate people. It was his way of learning. He believes that acting comes from being yourself.
It was getting near midnight so Kim went to his room and a few of us continued to watch the rest of the daily tapes and later talked how it would be possible to have another FuFest. Certain things would have to take place in order for it to happen. These were logistic issues that would have to be worked out..
After everyone left for their rooms, I worked on Maria from Oz giving her some healing energy. The bruising she got from the accident was very deep. After working on her for at least half an hour, I was sweating (not heavily, but enough). I was determined to give her as much relief as possible. A full two hours went by when she insisted that we stop and I get some sleep. I would have kept going until I had exhausted myself. I promised before the weekend was over, I would work on her again. Tomorrow was going to be another big day. Tomorrow Chinatown!
Continues with Episode
4 - My Chinatown Journey
Alisa Joaquin Copyright@2004.
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