About Me

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The owner and director of Five Birds Industries, has been a martial arts student for almost 50 years. He has also been a teacher of English Composition,Film as Literature, Creative Writing, Scriptwriting and Martial Arts for 2/3 of that time. Like any good journalist, he never made himself the story. On June 19th, 2010, Gordon was inducted into the Martial Arts Masters Hall of Fame. The next year he published his first novel, SHIDOSHI:The Four Ways of the Corpse and was then inducted into the U.S.A. Martial Arts Hall of Fame and the Legends Hall of Fame, both with Book of the Year awards. Barbara Rich, his wife and Gordon have been working and writing together for 10 years. She is the author of The Gradual Diet and is known as Ageless1der to family and friends. She is also one of 15 contributors to The Five Principles of Everything.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Ken MacKenzie and students were GREAT hosts!



Master Ken MacKenzie, the acknowledged highest ranking student of Ji Han Jae, allowed me to meet with his students (and their parents) to discuss my books, SHIDOSHI:The Four Ways of the Corpse and Go-Tao-Chi, the five principles of chi. It was an honor and a pleasure to meet so many dedicated young (and not so young) martial artists. Their good manners and interest in my writings was very refreshing. In all cases, it was a testament to the maxim that the "fruit doesn't fall far from the tree." You can always tell a great teacher by the behavior of his students. Before any of them really knew what I was doing in their school, each made a point to come to me individually, introduce themselves and shake my hand. Afterward, when we had all gathered together and exchanged a formal salute, they sat and listened attentively and asked some very thoughtful questions that I had not anticipated, but were welcomed with what I hope were thoughtful answers.
It was especially heartening to see such respect for the topic I had to share, because it would have been understandable for them to be anxious to continue with a special workshop that was being conducted by Austrian instructor, Perry Zmugg who was teaching both knife throwing and escrima work on the same evening. A special thank you to Mr. Zmugg for graciously allowing me to interfere with the flow of his workshop...and of course to Master MacKenzie for opening his Dojang with such a warm welcome. I was very impressed.

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