The Home of Steven Barnes
Author, Teacher, Screenwriter


Monday, February 18, 2008

They Call The Wind Mariah

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/
ideas/articles/2008/02/17/black_man_vs_white_woman/

I find this article to make sense to me. Basically, gender attitudes are more immutable, but racial attitudes are more negative. In other words, you might kill someone because they are of a different race, but if you forget race completely, life can go on, and most people would say it would be a better world. You cannot, on the other hand, imagine a culture in which men and women literally don’t notice gender. Can’t, and never will happen. What we CAN do is deinhibit the negative associations or invalid preassumptions related to gender—and this is the territory we’re currently negotiating.
#
This weekend, I attended a stickfighting tournament to see a couple of Mushtaq’s students compete. Cole Van Horne and Mariah Moore—just kids (Mariah is 14, I’d guess Cole is maybe 15) but phenomenal kids. Mariah, a leggy blonde Cornhusker type, is so all-American girl it hurts. Gorgeous, smart, a little shy, and an absolute animal in the ring. LOVES fighting, and is damned good at it. Explosive, loose, flexible, aggressive…wow. She’s pretty close to a total package. She completely dominated her larger opponent for the first two rounds, and then lost control of her breathing a bit, and got disarmed twice. Lost, but I’m telling you…the girl is amazing.

Cole won the match I saw, but had to use his reach to do it: his opponent was better conditioned. But Cole has everything it takes to be a champion. Both of them do.

Mariah’s dad coached her to “Breathe! Breathe!” during the match. I think he should have told her to “Exhale! Exhale!” She holds her breath too much. But she’s friggin’ 14! I see nothing but blue sky ahead for this girl. Her family is behind her 100%, and she has something close to a perfect set of combative assets.

Great fun.
##
So I don’t get Jack Bauer back until January of 2009? Damn, that bugs me. I’m afraid the shiny will be off the penny. I was unimpressed by season six. It felt gimmicky and heartless, more a parody of “24” than the series I’d come to love. And this was after Season Five rocked the house!

4 comments:

Frank said...

When a someone meets a new person, they may not remember anythjing about them: name, hair color, stature:

but they will ALWAYS remember if the person was male or female.

Mushtaq Ali said...

Just to give you an update Steve,
Mariah ended the competition with Gold in weapons forms, Silver in single stick and gold in double stick.

Cole took gold in both single and double stick, but didn't compete in forms (he hates doing them)

Steve Van Harn, Cole's father couldn't fight this year because of shoulder surgery, but nevertheless took gold in senior forms.

So both Mariah and Cole are now seated on the American team for the world championships this July in Cebu RP. Steve, as a returning champion is already seated if he feels healed enough to fight by July.

All in all a good tournament for us.

Anonymous said...

Steve,
It was a pleasure and a honor to have met you on that warm sunny day in south califoria.

Thank you for the kind words you gave my daughter and for taking the time out of your busy day to come and see us.

Thank you again..
Randy

Bobbe Edmonds said...

Hey Steve, thanks for coming out to support the team. I know they were extremely grateful to have you there. I told Mariah's mother that her daughter was in good hands if you were watching over them.

Bobbe Edmonds