Tundra of Blades

Had a great time in cloudy, drizzly Topeka at the German longsword seminar. Our hosts, the Finleys, were great. They let us stay at their big, old, really cool house and put up with our (my) nonsense. Christian Tobler, the instructor running the seminar, was outstanding. He really knows his stuff and taught in a way that even I could understand. Now listen, bitches. I'm not talking about a bunch of jackasses with rattan sticks covered in foam rubber bouting according to rules designed to protect them from themselves. I'm talking about the real martial art with real weapons. This is the shit people used to kill each other with back in the day. The really deal, neegro. Ugly stuff expressed in a graceful dance of death.

I won't go into details of the trip like the flat tire or the cool liquor store or all the weird martial arts movie characters present at the seminar. After two days of intensity, I'm glad to be back.

Kansas is like loneliness itself. A landscape of stark beauty.