Month: September 2019

By Bennie McCann

There are those who fervently believe the road to happiness is paved with shiny new cell phones, Sony PlayStations and high-definition plasma TVs. The citizens of Gatlinburg, Tennessee have yet to receive this memo.

In a town where old-fashioned letter writing, chatting with ones neighbors and taking long, meditative walks are the order of the day, Gatlinburg offers another rarity to a materialistic nation. Here you’ll find a community of do-it-yourself arts and crafts artisans. In Gatlinburg, the locals will happily tell you that DIY stands for Dream It Yourself.

These dreams occur among an eight-mile stretch of road within Gatlinburg known endearingly as the Great Smoky Mountains Arts & Crafts Community. It is the largest group of independent artisans in North America. Established in 1937, its here that arts and crafts enthusiasts, advocates and aficionados get to experience, first-hand, the hands-on approach to cultivating fine art. Forget about DirecTV, wireless Internet and downloading MP3s. The eclectic members of this vibrant community have a passion for whittling, painting, sewing, weaving, carving and just about every other form of crafting.

In an area heavily prided for its gorgeous natural landscapes, Gatlinburg takes equal pride in producing antiquities with ease. Whether its candles, baskets, brooms, quilts, pottery, jewelry, dolls, ceramics stained glass, fine photography or silversmiths, the Great Smoky Mountains Arts & Crafts Community is a massive one-stop shop. If you love exploring, discovering and buying you can do so at will without a pesky commission-driven sales clerk watching your every move. Virtually year round, the Community holds informal workshops for children and adults of all ages. The only requirement: a zestful curiosity and interest for creative expression.

After you have visited a wide range of enchanting shops its time for food, drink and relaxation. All can be had within the vast, quaint confines of the Great Smoky Mountains Arts & Crafts Community. A delightful multitude of restaurants, cafes, tearooms, candy shops and soda fountains are within reach of the surrounding businesses.

For those requiring a more academic approach to fine art creation, youre cordially invited to attend The Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts. Arrowmont, a visual arts education center for adults and children, is the Oxford University for aspiring artisans. In addition to weekend seminars, Arrowmont offers one- and two-week workshops for beginners and advanced craftsmen (and women), along with weekly classes for local residents.

You receive a first-class fine/visual art education, on Arrowmonts pristine and historic 14-acre campus. Workshop and class topics are as varied as a vegetable garden in the English countryside. Subjects include ceramics, fiber, metals, jewelry, painting, drawing, photography, warm glass, woodworking, books/paper and mixed media. Workshops are open to those 18 years and older, with class sizes no larger than 12 students. Arrowmonts attraction lies in its old school adage: creativity and hard work are never mutually exclusive.

An equally prestigious feature in Arrowmonts pedigreed portfolio is its esteemed Artist in Residence program. Along with offering 160 rotating workshop artists and instructors of national and international acclaim, the 11 month residency affords visiting artisans a monthly salary shared housing with private bedrooms and meals, a private studio and, at terms end, the opportunity to showcase their work in Arrowmonts acclaimed Artist Outfitters Store.

Visit Gatlinburg now and you’ll find that, when it comes to arts and crafts, ingenuity is both a state of mind and a state of play.

For those people who are training for martial arts, the question which arises in their minds is that what kind of bag is best for martial arts training? However, there isn’t a single bag that completely fits all the requirements of your training.

There are three kinds of bags who can be used for martial arts training:

Heavy Bag
The first kind of bag is the heavy bag. The heavy bag is ideal for your punching power, it mainly toughen ups your whole body. These heavy bags are either made of leather or vinyl, and they need to be hanged either by a hanger or big stand. This is the main problem with these heavy bags is that they are really difficult to hang up as well as it is difficult to find space for them. This makes it tough for the average person have a heavy bag in their apartment or house.

Speed Bag
The second kind of bag is the speed bag. They are best used for improving your reflexes and speed. They are generally hung on a stand or mounted to a wall. It surely does take some patience with practice to use the speed bag properly for getting the speed and the rhythm down, but as soon as you are ready, you can’t get anything better than these speed bags for improving your speed and reflexes.

B.O.B.
The third bag, which is also the last, is the B.O.B. (body opponent bag). These bags are not entirely considered as punching bags because they are shaped like a human form. However, they are the best thing available to you for practicing techniques of attacks on the eye, ear, and throat.

In the end, a combination of these three bags is the ideal complete set for martial arts training. You will be able to get your body tough, will have quick reflexes, and finally you will be able to practice your techniques on a human shape.

Martial Arts for Kids have become a necessity these days. With the increasing number of crimes against the kids it has become the need of the hour to train the kids with some sort of martial art. The training schools for these art forms are easily accessible in cities like Florida, New Jersey and New York City.
These art forms have a great historical significance and have been used since ages. Even spiritual development is focused through these art forms. People from all over the world are now taking a keen interest in these art forms. Big cities need it immediately due to high crime rates as compared to the smaller cities.

History:

It is very important for a person to know the historical background of the art forms before he or she allows the child to learn these arts. There has been evidence that shows the existence of these arts in the first millennium BC. Now in todays world, India and China are the two countries that have these martial arts. Martial Arts for Kids has the equal significance as the martial arts for grownups as these arts are better to be learned at younger ages so that a person practices them a lot.

Appropriate age:

The best thing about these arts is that there is no age limit, as it is never too late to safeguard ones own interests. The schools for Martial Arts for Kids are open for kids belonging to all the age groups. This allows a parent to get his or her parent trained at any age. Even for the grown ups there are various such training centers. The list of all the schools in Florida, New Jersey and New York City can be seen on the internet.

Precaution:

There is also a word of caution for the parents who want their kids to be a part of training centers which provide Martial Arts for Kids. Due to the immense popularity of these art forms there has been a parallel fraud structure being prepared all over the western countries. As people in the west are not very much aware of the art form therefore people take undue advantage of this. In order to be safe from this a person needs to take care of the point that he or she does a complete research work on the training school before the child is admitted to the school. This would ensure that the child goes in the right hands to learn the right thing.

Fee structure:

As far as the fee structure of these schools providing Martial Arts for Kids is concerned, a person can have his or her child learn the martial arts at a very low cost. This ensures that a majority of people opt for these arts so that more number of kids assures safety for themselves. The fee may vary from school to school depending on the type of mentor or facilities provided at the school. In cities like New Jersey, Florida and New York the schools charge an amount that is not at all a drain on the savings of an individual.

We are now living in a multi-faceted digital world where everyone and everything has been digitized. The increasing numbers of digital lifestyle technologies that are taking up almost every aspect of our day-to-day living have gradually transformed our lives, causing every one of us to be reliant on technology.

Unfortunately, our basic knowledge and technical skills are not enough to keep pace with the demands of digital revolution. As the world faces a more serious and intense industrial transformation, the country is also faced with a greater need for equipped and experienced workforces that would facilitate and monitor such change. Businesses and institutions, most especially, would have to acquire better personnel and superior equipment and resources to advance their services and keep up with their clients necessities.

A Digitally Transformed Nation

Through digital technology, peoplespecifically the young onesare now engaging and enjoying in various online activities, such as social networking, instant messaging, video conferencing, and gaming. In fact, comScore, a U.S.-based research company has ranked the Filipinos as the worlds heaviest users of social media, and the Philippines as the country with the highest penetration in Facebook across the globe.

Apart from those life-changing developments, digitization stretched cutting-edge boundaries in art style and media. These new dimensions have provided huge and exciting opportunities and possibilities for people and industries, especially those that are related to multimedia arts.

Interactive media have become a commonplace globally, as its application can be found in a wide range of industries including, but not limited to:

Creative industries
Commercial
Entertainment and fine arts
Education
Engineering
Medicine
Scientific research
Education
Business sector

In the Philippines, Filipinos have shown their involvement and excellence in the digital world by winning a number of international competitions that are linked to the use of digital technology. Among these are global contests in video production and web master development that require high-tech tools and gadgets. In addition, Filipino animators were also able to penetrate and work in different digital film and game development companies overseas, showcasing their talents to many nations globally.

Mounting Career Opportunities

Meanwhile, due to the growing consumer demand for realistic visual and special effects, electronic publishing, digital audio, as well as three-dimensional graphics, employment and career opportunities in the design and media arts are expected to grow in the local and foreign job market in the coming years. Competition for job openings is also assumed to be tighter and challenging.

In order to be highly employable in the industry, a candidate should have the artistic talents and technical skills required by the position. There are several digital arts schools offering programs which focus on interactive media work and training in such field. CIIT, for one, is among the best emerging colleges for multimedia arts in the Philippines. Students of CIIT are trained to be equipped with wide range of digital media skills.

CIIT offers programs that will develop each students creative and technical competence through appropriate hands-on training. Through the use of state-of-the-art facilities and software, the school helps motivate and bring out the passion of every student in digital arts and design.

So if you are a multimedia arts and animation enthusiast, enroll now at CIIT!

To know more about the schools programs and services, visit www.ciit-ph.com.

Besides rocks, one of the most basic of all weapons throughout mankind’s history across most cultures has been the long wooden stick. This makes sense since sticks were always readily available in the forests or could be easily made. The Asian martial arts took the long wooden staff into an art form as many martial art styles include the long staff in their systems. Some styles even have traditional weapons forms or katas featuring the long staff. Some systems of martial arts train with weapons such as the staff through practical techniques only without the use of set forms.

Unlike many martial art weapons such as swords, knives, kamas and sais which are short range, staffs are long range weapons with superior reach. This enables the user to attack and defend from a distance which can be frustrating from the point of view of an opponent who has a short range weapon. Long range weapons are also useful in keeping multiple opponents out of reach too. Of course, long weapons such as the staff cannot be easily concealed like short range weapons so they can be cumbersome to carry around.

One of the most popular martial arts weapons from the Japanese karate styles is the bo. Even today, the bo is usually the first weapon taught at karate schools and is the most common weapon seen at tournaments. The bo staff comes in different variations. There are heavy bo staffs which resemble thick poles which are considered more traditional and there are lighter versions which are tapered at both ends. There are also multi-sided bo staffs such as octagonal but these are much less common than the usual round, circular versions.

Although there are one handed swings, most bo techniques involve both hands holding the weapon. Various strikes and blocks can be performed with either end of the bo as well as the sides and middle. Bo users take advantage of the entire weapon as techniques can be executed with any part of the bo. For the majority of techniques involving the bo, the user holds the staff near the middle with both ends protruding out equally. Traditionally, the lead hand (furthest away from the body) has been the right hand.

Contemporary weapons forms competitions have caused the bo to evolve where competitors now use extremely lightweight bo’s and some even have reflective finishes giving a more flashy visual appearance when the user is performing a bo form. Unlike traditional bo forms, contemporary creative open forms with the bo involve more complex spins and even tosses. Some martial artists do not consider some of the modern bo forms observed in the competition circuits to be true weapons forms as some competitors emphasize too much baton-like twirling action rather than actual combative techniques. It could very well be a matter of personal taste. This is why in most of the large open martial arts tournaments, weapons divisions are split into traditional and creative.

Chinese kung fu styles also utilize the long staff although there are some differences in techniques when compared to Japanese karate styles. Instead of holding the weapon in the middle most of the time like a bo is held, Chinese staffs are usually held near one end which has the effect of elongating the weapon even more. Taditionally, the lead hand is the left hand with the right holding the bottom end of the staff. However, there are techniques which involve switching sides as well as using the bottom end to strike too. In addition to strikes executed while holding the weapon with both hands, there are more single handed techniques with Chinese staffs than with Japanese bo staffs. Like their empty hand kung fu forms, Chinese staff forms have more circular, swinging techniques than in Japanese karate styles.

Contemporary wushu forms use a much lighter weapon than in traditional kung fu staff forms. Wushu stylists also use staffs or cudgels that are made of a unique white wax wood from trees that are grown only in China. Staffs made of this type of wood are not made with precision like Japanese bo’s. The wushu staffs are naturally tapered with a thicker bottom and thinner top. The white wax wood is extremely resilient as users of this type of Chinese staff perform techniques which involve smashing the entire weapon on the floor at full force.

Korean kuk sul won also has the long staff in their system and the techniques used are like a blend of Chinese and Japanese moves. Although all martial arts styles that utilize weaponry have more complex and possibly more impressive looking weapons, the long staff has remained to be a favorite for many martial artists.