Lee Defeats Sun In 60 Seconds - Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story

Throwback Saturday night, here is a scene from the 1993 film Dragon: the Bruce Lee story. 

Hollywood can't get anything accurate it seems, and here is a good example. This scene takes place at the Long Beach Internationals, however they have it taking place in what looks like a high school gymnasium.... in a boxing ring!

Also, Bruce fights an opponent to prove his Jeet Kune Do principles are correct. They base this off Bruce's fight with Wong Jack Man, however in the film he fights "Johnny Sun." And to boot the fight with Wong Jack Man took place at Bruce's Oakland dojo, not at the Internationals.

Anyway, you get the idea. 

I guess we just need to relax and have fun with it, at least they did get Ed Parker Jr. to play the role of Mr. Parker.

Lots of new Ed Parker Jr. artwork

Mr. Ed Parker Jr. has come out with a lot of new artwork lately!

According to his Facebook page they are all part of a couple of different series's he's working on, one that covers the forms of Kenpo and another that covers different animals associated with the martial arts.

To order it looks like you have to contact him or his wife Mrs. Baer Parker directly through their Facebook pages. 

(Here are a few examples of the artwork posted on his Facebook page.)

Some new Ed Parker Jr. artwork

(from Mr. Parker's Facebook page)

What is it about summer and buckets? There's always a cool project to be found in the hot days of summer with the idea bucket staring you down. Pretending you don't notice is bad form. 

Short Form 1 

Long Form 1  

Short Form 2 

Long Form 2 

Short Form 3 

Long Form 3

Form 4 

Form 5 

Form 6

There it was staring me down saying 'if not now, when?'

What's that you ask? 

My haunting artistic vision of me illustrating Dad’s Kenpo Forms with a Tiger and Dragon theme. 

Twenty years ago I illustrated a version of Kenpo Forms 4 thru 6. I wasn’t happy with it and I wanted to redo it for like foreverrrr...

Today is the day I check that off. 

Here are 9 Illustrated Tiger and Dragon Kenpo Forms. 

Each of the 9 illustrations contains symbolic imagery of the Forms Short 1 through Form 6. 

All 9 illustrations contain a Tiger and Dragon.

Today my wife Baer and I are making available these 9 Limited Edition Tiger and Dragon Kenpo Forms in 13 x 19 inch gicleé prints. 

They will each be signed by me and numbered 1 to 50. 

Only 50 of each of the 9 Kenpo Form Prints will be made available.

To reiterate, these images that we are making available to the public are only limited to 50 numbered prints of Ed Parker Sr.'s Kenpo Forms. Each of these images are custom illustrated by me, Ed Parker Jr.

If you are a serious collector in the martial arts world you will want to collect one or all of these 50 gicleé prints signed and numbered. They will become rare pieces of martial arts history and artwork. Once they are gone, they are gone forever.

If you do any version of my Ed Parker's Kenpo System we ask that you please support this project by purchasing a print or by sharing this post. 

If you are interested in one or more gicleé prints PM me or my wife Baer Parker. 

My wife Baer and I are selling these gicleé prints for 60% off. 

These will be the lowest prices we have ever offered on my collectable artwork images.

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'A Son's Tribute'

Bucket List 2 - Check √

Completing the American Kenpo Forms 1-7 was part of that bucket list. 

Forms 1-7 Have been completed √  

1-6 has been released √

Form 7 will be released soon....

A Son's Tribute is a 3D version of my dad’s patch. 

I've done it once but this is the one I wanted to do originally. I wanted to use the same theme as my former piece of art but this time in ancient Chinese style and in black and white. 

Today we are releasing A Son's Tribute prints in Limited Edition, Signed and Numbered 1-50. The glicleé print is 13 x 19 inches.

This print will be sold for 60% off for a limited time. The regular price is $100.

Those who act now benefit from the 60% discount. We will cover shipping domestic and International.

My Final bucket list project is to complete all of the techniques as sets in theme and style in black and white with an ancient Chinese style.

Pm me or my wife Baer Parker if you are interested.

Aloha,

Ed and Baer Parker

Ed Parker Jr. artwork done for Mr. Chapél

 

(recently posted on Facebook by Mr. Chapél)

The expanded design based on the Vitruvian Man was created and executed many years ago by Edmund Parker II inserting some of the terminology and principles utilized within the system as we trained, for presentation in an academic discussion and as a companion logo to the Martial Science University Design Logo.

“BODE” – Body Optimized Defensive Energy

“PNF” – Proprioceptive Neuro-muscular Facilitation.

“BAM” – Body Alignment Mechanism.

“BIT” – Body Index Training.

“PAM” – Platform Aligning Mechanisms.

“GCM” – Grapple Control mechanisms.

“SIA” – Surviving The Initial Assault.

“SIR” – Significant Initial response.

“DIP” – Decision Index Point.

“DAM” – Disassociated Anatomical Movement.

“MRT” – Mental Reference Training.

“ASS” – Adrenal Stress Syndrome

Everyday Martial Artist Podcast with Brian Doucette interviews Mr. Ed Parker Jr.

 Link to interview

https://everydaymartialartist.com/episode-11-ed-parker-jr/?fbclid=IwAR1hPlx8jtkTU6KBMJCbYecnXIZClgeEnVICt8n3ksr3ThH22838cThgLqA

The Signature Uniform

This signature kenpo uniform came out quite a few years ago and is still available for purchase today on various websites selling martial arts uniforms and equipment.

Stains of kenpo's past

(from Ed Parker Jr.'s Facebook page 9-14-17)

Back in the day my father Ed Parker Sr. changed from a white GI to a black Gi. Why?!

Because people of authority such as Judges and Police officers wear black.

In that time period the students wore white GI's and the instructors wore black GI’s.

It drew a distinct separation to the groups with which they belonged.

And as was previously discussed with me by my father; he wanted to change from a white Gi to a black Gi.

Again, Why?!

This was due to a delicate issue about how students and/or instructors had a habit of leaving their uniforms in the locker room at our original SoCal Pasadena Karate Studio.

That’s not so bad, right?!

Well, to make things worse;

Sooooome of them left their Gi’s for over a year - maybe two...could be more...

IN the locker room without washing them.

There were big yellow stains.

Did I mention that there were big yellow nasty stains?!

Sooo without pointing fingers…

Soooome of these Gi’s belonged to instructors ~~

and rather than to engage in the discussion of this...

Um.

Delicate situation,

the decision was made to go to black uniforms; you know; for the hygiene!

Prior to the final decisions made; might I say that I was witness to or should I say whipped by the horrible parade of fashions and designs presented:

- the complete sailor bib competition GI with sewn-in cape

 - the leopard patterned cuffs with kimono-lined seams

 - the pullover V neck GI with color coordinated dickie

 (*if you’re too young to know, look up the definition of ‘dickie’)

Um.

 Yah.

So for those of you out there who have witnessed this era maybe you can educate some of these younguns, you know, for some historical perspective!

Feel free to toss em out!

Kenpoflections

Edmund Kealoha Parker Jr’s reflections on Kenpo in 2018.

(from Mrs. Baer Parker's Facebook page, November 26, 2018)

 With Ed’s permission as his scribe I am posting this particularly poignant and brief correspondence from Ed to a producer of a video series regarding the current state of Kenpo.

“We have just seen your channel. You’ve done good work on it. I applaud your efforts. I’d like to add a few things.
...

Kenpo is an interesting animal to me.

Kenpo can rear it's head as an ugly beast sometimes because it's taken out of context. Mitose's era was Mitose's era. Chow's era was Chow's era. Parker's era was Parker's era. Following Parker's era Kenpo is still struggling to acknowledge it's next era even though it's right in front of their eyes.

To refine what I'm saying there were several people like in Chow's lineage that created new branches of the arts. We know who those people are. Just as we know who those are that branched off from the Parker system. Which is pretty much everyone after my dad died.

Some of the superstars of those groups can be found in the book The Journey.

Others made their mark in different ways. Just to name a few, Tracy Kenpo, Kenpo 2000, Kenpo 5.0, UKF, and SL4 Kenpo.

Kenpo as set in motion from my dad's perspective was an evolutionary art. He often referred to it as "the art of perpetual change."

On one level I love hearing my dad's name in a video, but I don't like hearing the fact that Kenpo is broken. It is no more broken than Mitose or Chow or Emperado.

The glass is half full or half empty.

Either American Kenpo is half empty, broken, splintered, and doomed, or it is not. To me it is not broken.

I see the yearning in the martial arts community for the next Emperado, Mitose, Chow or Parker to evolve.

Sometimes one has to die to surface as that era's most influential teacher.
 

There are those teachers who create the master and there are those teachers who become the masters. Both have an important role. Who is to say which is greater? For one cannot be without the other.

 

Yes, we do have influential teachers now that will never be acknowledged as to their true importance in history.

When teachers take upon the greater responsibility to influence the masses and they step out of their own ego for the greater good of all and not just the one, then they can move to the next step by inspiring, influencing, evolving and progressing the arts.

My dad’s point was not just to mimic a master in his system but to become a master in his own right, standing on his own innovations, inspiring his own students to evolve as well as he did.

In essence my dad’s point was to become bigger than himself.

And he did.

There are no sequels in mastery.” - Edmund Kealoha Parker Jr

Paxtial Arts: A Contrast in Motion

(by Robert Cutrell Tae Kwon Do Times magazine January 2014

"The Warriors of old [like Chuang Tzu] many times found solace away from the perils of battle in the arts of writing, music and painting. In order to establish balance in their lives and escape the emotional challenges faced in confrontation, they sought to find, "Clarity of the Spirit" in the point of an ink quill or the stroke of a brush.

One such modern warrior is Ed Parker Jr., son of Ed Parker Sr., the Grandmaster of American Kenpo Karate. Though he could find himself tethered by the restraints of expectations of his lineage, and the experiences of his youth where he found himself surrounded by the legends of the arts on a daily basis, Ed Parker has found his Clarity of Spirit through his painting and his [non-combative self defense art], The Paxtial Arts."

The Heretic of Kenpo

(by Mr. Ed Parker Jr.)

So what is the rationale behind the direction of my life focus?

After my dad, Ed Parker, Sr. was no longer here I began to research alternatives to my dad’s system of American Kenpo. In the early days of my research and development I started calling what I was doing “passive kenpo.” It went over like a lead balloon.

I was emotionally tarred and feathered for the suggestion and the direction.

This was when I became known as the “Heretic of Kenpo.”

I was young and naive. I thought my idea would be understood and respected. I was wrong. I was the new Benedict Arnold to my dad’s system, or so they said. Even my siblings felt so. I have pushed forward against the tide of criticism as that is my nature. Reminds of my dad’s nature.

So I took a step back and looked at my idea from a distance macroscopically.

This was my head. My dad embedded within me a need to look for new angles and discover the undiscovered. It was from his head to mine. When my dad was in town, we talked for hours each day about how to present his ideas to his following and we worked together an ungodly amount of hours in his laboratory, searching for the best possible way to present his mindset and vision. He was a perfectionist after all. So am I. Just look at my artwork and that becomes obvious.

It was imperative that I get inside my dad’s head and understand what he envisioned. It was a magical time for me.

In the early 1980’s my dad cut short my personal life quest when he called me in Hawaii and asked me to leave my dream job on the Hollywood set of Magnum PI. He told me that he needed me to document his life work back home in Pasadena, California.

It was my dad’s belief that he was going to die.

So I chose to return home and join my dad in his quest. I had nearly a decade working at my dad’s side before he died and for this I am forever grateful.

My dad said often,”my son is my right hand, my wife is my left, which foot would you like to be?”

My dad didn’t just listen to me, he had me help him by illustrating, designing and publishing, along with applying many of the ideas I presented to him in his system.

He called me to his side because of the unique talents and skills that I had developed in my extensive education and training as an illustrator and artist. He mined my thoughts and ideas like a drill sergeant and he knew that I was fluent in the kenpo world language, visuals, and concepts. The unique talents and gifts my dad and I had naturally merged in the last decade of Ed Parker Sr.’s life as he also learned a lot of tools from my trade.

Opposites.

My dad’s focus was to go microscopic with the base altercation.

My focus was to go macroscopic with his research because no one else was entertaining that angle.
My dad made me a pioneer because he was a pioneer. Ed Parker Sr. lived and breathed innovations and ideas, then he put them all in categories.

I deeply believe that my dad is proud of me because I followed the path of rebel and innovator that he cut. When I was 19 years old I drew a picture of my dad which sold 50,000 copies and distributed internationally. My dad would be the first to say that I am far more of a mind than someone who just paints pretty pictures.

When my dad was gone I had to walk a solitary and uphill journey. I walked the journey alone but hundreds of my dad’s offspring influenced me. After my dad died, I did private and public training with three of my dad’s students; Frank Trejo, Huk Planas, and Ron Chapél, also known as ‘Doc.’

Doc was one of my greatest influences. He was in law enforcement and the years of our real life training opportunities together is something I will forever cherish.

I was also influenced by the Russian Art Systema as I did training with Vladimir Vasiliev, Martin Wheeler, and Frank Fileti. Martin and Frank were kenpoists at first and they introduced me to Vladimir.

For close to a decade I had a teacher to student, student to teacher training relationship with Frank Soto in which I will forever be grateful for the lessons shared.

I lived a Forest Gump type lifestyle for three decades in the martial arts world taking the best of each martial art style I was exposed to whether it be the Chinese, Japanese, Filipino arts or many other arts from masters around the world, all in single service private lessons. It was a LOT of information and training for my mind to digest.

Always in the back of my mind was my dad’s voice drilling into my head that discoveries come from something as simple as asking “what if?”

It was my dad who taught me about opposites and reverses. My dad taught me to get my mind out of the box. He taught me not to get caught up in routine. My dad showed me how to expand my mind and point of view.

With my dad gone I was left with one option: Play off the opposite angle.

So the inevitable happened. I asked myself what is the opposite option for aggressive solutions?

According to the laws of the universe there is direction and redirection, action and reaction.

Passive is not a word that the martial arts world relates to. So what. Pick a word you like. The science, physics, and kinetics are all there. Let’s just go with the concept of a combative self defense and a non-combative self defense It is a reasonable quest.

The questions I pondered:

1. How much attention does the free press give self defense in today’s world?

2. What is the opposite of Martial Arts?

3. Where did the name Martial Arts come from?

4. Is there a Roman god of peace?

5. What is the philosophy of martial arts?

6. Can an alternative to the martial arts solution be discovered providing a win/win outcome?

My Answers:

1. Martial arts was played to death in the 1970’s. I don’t see much access to the free press. They have other agendas.

2. Nothing that I found within my research.

3. The god of war, Mars, was the inspiration for the name martial arts.

4. Yes, her name was Pax. She was the Roman Goddess of Peace.

5. The philosophy of martial arts is a win/lose philosophy.

6. Yes.

There is plenty of resistance to talk of my creation of the Paxtial Arts. Those outside the martial arts world in areas of education, the medical industry, peacekeepers of all kinds, veterans, and families seeking a peaceable life are just a small list of those excited about this movement.

There are greater numbers of those interested in new and innovative ideas for self defense that is peaceful than those who are not interested. Detractors of great and culture changing ideas have always been there and they always will be, but that never stops a great idea rooted in universal truths.

It was all there in my dad’s notes; discoveries that he did not have time to make. He told me before he died that his category named “other” was there in opposites and reverse. My dad told me that this category was for me to work and find discoveries in. Well, I did.

The perfect people to learn and teach Paxtial Arts are martial artists, but to train in it one has to adopt the philosophy of a win/win within the training. A win/win outcome is a very difficult challenge to present to a martial artist philosophically although I have seen the exuberance and excitement that is a natural response when those who have experienced the Paxtial Arts training experience first hand that it is a science and it does work. It has been described as an “out of body experience.”

This is the natural evolution of the art of self defense.

My dad’s book Infinite Insights Into Kenpo states in the first chapter; “a mind is like unto a parachute — it only works when it is open” along with the great Chinese Taoist philosopher Chuan Tzu’s quote;

“Never be like the frog at the bottom of the well who when looking up at the sky thinks that the sky he sees is all there is to heaven.”

In Ed Parker’s Infinite Insights Into Kenpo, Mental Stimulation; the closing paragraph of book one, chapter one, page 6 – my dad states:

“Do not discard any subject until you have made an honest, conscientious, and diligent attempt to incorporate it. REPEATED ADVICE – never discard knowledge that is not applicable to you, but store it. The day may come when that knowledge could be taught to someone who can apply it; who knows – that individual may be your own child.”

So to those who quote my dad often, what say you? Can you make an honest conscientious and diligent attempt to look at what Ed Parker’s son discovered during the thousands of hours that I spent looking through the eyes of my dad and recording his vision?

I am not telling you to incorporate it. I am asking you to look at it and consider that it is knowledge with added tools that you can incorporate into your own craft and business. Tools that can bring more revenue into your schools. Tools that can be used so that your children and grandchildren’s future might find balance in the whole coin, considering that there are two sides to this craft of self defense according to the universal laws of physics, anatomy, and science.

There is a solid reason that the public school system in several states is scheduled to incorporate the Paxtial Arts Formula. It really is a win/win and martial artists really are the only ones who logically should deliver this culture changing and educational key to evolution and progression of self defense.

So I give you my permission to quote me, Ed Parker Sr.’s only son, the Heretic of Kenpo…

We can never have enough tools.
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https://www.usadojo.com/the-heretic-of-kenpo/

Mr. Parker portrait

Artwork by Ed Parker Jr.

Tiger and dragon on kenpo crest

artwork from Ed Parker Jr.'s Facebook page

The Key to Kenpo

artwork from Ed Parker Jr.'s Facebook page

Artwork by Ed Parker Jr. for Mr. Wedlake's book

(artwork and text from Ed Parker Jr.'s Facebook page, 2-11-09)

This was the latest book cover that was published. It was done for a good friend Lee Wedlake, the author of this book on lessons he had with my father in American Kenpo.

The concept was that I wanted to have my fathers patch presented in a 3 dimensional point of view. Thus bringing his 2D patch to 3D life, as if to imply that this book focuses on a dimension of my father and his art not yet explored.

It was cool, cause I wanted to do a version of his patch like this for years and with this book coming to my art table it allowed me the opportunity to do this concept.

Thanks Lee

One of a kind portrait

(photo from Joe Rebelo's Facebook page)

One of a kind early portrait drawn by Ed Parker Jr. currently in possession of Joe Rebelo.

American Kenpo Karate belt system

artwork from Ed Parker Jr.'s Facebook page