Bruce!

"It is like a finger pointing to the moon. Don't concentrate on the finger, or you will miss all of that heavenly glory."

He could kick your ass, my ass, your tough older brother's ass. He could beat up your dad, your uncle who knows special forces shit, Hulk Hogan, a ninja, all the Nazis and probably even a bear. He also came up with the premise for the show "Kung Fu," starring the late David Carradine. Originally he was set to play Caine, but the studio essentially stole the project so they could use a white actor to play the Chinese monk.


In a speed demonstration, Lee could snatch a dime off a person's open palm before they could close it, and leave a penny behind. He could do fifty one-armed chin-ups and even thrust his fingers into cans of soda — the kind they used in the 70's which were steel, and thicker than aluminum cans. He could throw grains of rice up into the air and then catch them in mid-flight using chopsticks. I'm not making this shit up.

He surrounded himself with books, mostly pertaining to martial arts, combat and sports from around the world, but he was still much more than that. He was sensitive, spiritual, eerily intelligent and he had style.

Take Ivy

Ok, thought I'd throw this up here. If you haven't already heard of this photo book "Take Ivy," check it out. It's a lot cooler than it sounds. A Japanese guy made it, and the book features candid pictures of Ivy League college guys in the 60's in an effort to capture their style.


Now, don't get me wrong. It's no doubt that 90% of these guys were absolute jerks at the time, and probably still are. They probably behaved similarly to what we now refer to as "bro-dudes," "dude-bros," or "bras." They were "proto-bros." They were probably homophobic and homoerotic at the same time — rich, stupid and spoiled WASPS. Their fathers owned car dealerships and threatened boarding school every time Junior fell out of line.


Say what you want about these characters, they had style. Or rather, they HAVE style. The American prep has been in an out of fashion over the years, and now seems to designate a young man as simultaneously hip and (in some ways) conservative. Think of what was happening around the men in these pictures during the heat of the sixties. THE SIXTIES were happening. Culture was exploding, and the youth were behaving more freely than ever before. But, probably not these fellas. They would had to have been squares. Non-hippies. Opponents of free love and flower power.


This is a tough contradiction for me. On one hand, I have come to appreciate everything the "hippie" movement did in terms of things like consciousness expansion, free love, freedom, civil rights, peace, art and especially music. These people changed the world, even if it didn't (at least on the surface) last long enough to benefit their children, they still stood up for change and united themselves against Universal evils like the Vietnam War and unflinching riot police. Fashion and style, are two things hippies were unable to give me. But these Ivy League cats had swag, even while wearing white socks with shorts!

Cake Eater

If you think it's weird that I was captured by this photo enough to post it here for reasons that are probably perverse, and only vaguely mammalian; some unhealthy interest in mid-20th century, American housewives, birthday parties and cake which could be called anything but nostalgic, well...you're just gonna have to figure that shit out on your own.

I love old photos.
I like cake.
Maybe it's the hair.