Chuck Norris and Rick Lenchus...by Request

As noted here and there, I trained for many years with Hanshi Richard Lenchus. He gave me flying lessons (so to speak), my first blackbelt, and a second set of balls (the brass ones). The blackbelt prompted a letter of congrats from celebrated Sensei Chuck Norris, an old sparring partner of my sensei's... As a boy, no one ever frightened me like Rick Lenchus. And after that, nothing could.


Pictured: Aaron Banks, Rick Lenchus and Chuck Norris

Richard Lenchus: Still Crazy After All These Years

With deepest love and respect, wishing my Sensei Rick Lenchus, the Great Grandmaster, martial arts pioneer and founder of Legend Shotokan, a happy birthday on this, his landmark 75th. For half a century, Sensei Lenchus has given all of his students great dedication while setting us on the path of dignity and budo.

Legend Shotokan of Morristown, NJ

And he taught us how to fight.

Clifford Meth, Rick Lenchus, Avi Meth and Benjy Meth (2010)

The Legend is Down but not Out

In all the years I’ve known him, I’ve only seen Grandmaster Richard Lenchus knocked down once, and that by the double-bout of pneumonia that recently gripped him. Nothing human could put my sensei on his back.

“One minute I'm home, the next I find myself in here,” said Mr. Lenchus this morning from the hospital. “They woke me up by putting a needle in my stomach. That wasn’t nice.”

At first, the East Coast fighting legend wasn’t even sure what he was doing in the hospital. “They asked me if I knew why I was in here. ‘My penis is too big,’ I told them. ‘My arms are too large for my shirt.’”

Having a guy like Lenchus in the hospital isn’t easy on anybody, least of all the staff. “He’s been walking around singing to the other patients,” reported the head nurse. “What the hell is hav-a-negliah? I’d send for an orderly, but they’re all scared of him.”

Get well soon, Sensei!

My Classical Shotokan Roots

Some yutz has been obsessively writing me to "question" the authenticity of my martial arts training, considering, as he put it, my tendency towards occasionally using it. Frankly, I couldn't be happier for the opportunity to break out the family album.

I received my shodan (1st degree blackbelt) directly from Grand Master Richard Lenchus, founder and O'Sensei of the Legend Shotokan System, a worldwide syndicate of dojos based on traditional Shotokan plus Lenchus' own inimitable style of kata and kumite. A Legend blackbelt takes anywhere from seven to ten years to achieve. Unlike what's found in American Tae Kwon Do and many other U.S. dojos, rank in the Legend system cannot be bought--it must be fought for, on every level. Information on Sensei Lenchus and "The Legend" is available all over the web, including numerous articles that it has been my honor to pen.

My Sensei trained with and received rank from Kawanabe Sensei in Atsugi, Japan in 1958. I have had the good fortune of corresponding with my teacher's teacher, who is regarded as a pioneer in Shotokan.

Kawanabe Sensei received his training and rank directly from the legendary Funakoshi Sensei, the founder of Shotokan and pioneer of modern-day Japanese martial arts. Funakoshi Sensei's legacy rests in a document containing his philosophies of karate training now referred to as the niju kun. These rules are the premise of training for all Shotokan karateka and are published in The Twenty Guiding Principles of Karate wherein Funakoshi lays out 20 rules by which students of karate become better human beings.

I currently hold the rank of Sensei in Legend Shotokan but am no longer actively training nor teaching. I also have a blackbelt in Tae Kwon Do as well as training in Ishin Ru and American Combat Karate.

My two oldest sons, Avi (20) and Benjy (18), both trained in Shotokan and Tae Kwon Do as children. Each of them are accomplished wrestlers, too, and actively training in Brazilian Jui-Jitsu schools within the Gracie system (the top of the food chain). Benjy, whose wrestling record was 21 and 2 his senior year, recently took first place in his very first BJJ tourament--an invitational in Haifa, Israel.

Avi Meth

Benjy Meth

Happy Birthday Richard Lenchus

Happy Birthday Grand Master Richard Lenchus, founder of Legend Shotokan Karate, maker of men, kicker of asses, the Jewish pride of Coney Island.

Dan Henderson: Love Hurts

I've crowed about Hendo before, but seeing him climb the mountain and capture Strikeforce's light heavyweight title at age 40 raises him to mutant madman status, earning him that rare and special love I have for warriors like Rick Lenchus and Randy Coulture. My son Benjy tells me Hendo's fighting bums now but I don't buy it. Comparing Strikeforce's top guns to the UFC's may be like pitting the Doom Patrol (or maybe the Metal Men) against the Justice League of America with Superman, but you know what they say about any given Sunday. And watching Hendo lay out Michael "The Mouth" Bisping some years ago was up there with a Bukowski reading. So feed this lion anything he needs to keep his roar, baby. There's kryponite in that heavy right. Saturday night, Strikeforce's reigning 205-lbs. champion Rafael "Feijao" Cavalcante met Dan Henderson for the first time. More acurately, his jaw met Hendo's right. Henderson, the two-time Olympian wrestler, former UFC tournament champion, and two-division Pride champion, is now Strikeforce's light heavyweight king of the hill.

Grandmaster Joe Onopa - Remembered

Joe Onopa, Black Belt 10th Degree, Kwon Bop Do (Tae Kwon Do) has passed away. The Grandmaster was the great, great grandson of the Native American Apache Chief Geronimo and a pioneer martial artist. I was honored to receive some small instruction from Master Onopa when he visited my sensei Richard Lenchus in Vermont many years ago, and to have him sit on the committee that judged me for my first blackbelt test (which I failed).

Master Onopa was a warm and powerful man, a revered instructor and fighter, a special friend to those who knew him--in all ways, a testament to the true spirit of karate-do. There is a detailed tribute to him here and a video tribute here. Joe Onopa was 69 when he passed. Oos great hanshi. Domo arigato.

Karate-do, Gichin Funakoshi, and a Few Words about Avodah Zarah

“The ultimate aim of Karate lies not in victory or in defeat, but in the perfection of the character of its participants.” Those are the words of Gichin Funakoshi, the great grandmaster of karate-do and recognized founder of pre-MMA, modern martial arts.

As a life-long karateka, I feel a particular closeness with Funakoshi Sensei not just because I trained directly under Richard Lenchus (who trained under Kawanabe Sensei in Atsugi, who himself trained under Funakoshi Sensei)--I feel this closeness because Funakoshi Sensei was authentic, a man who mastered himself, someone worth emulating.

Funakoshi Sensei was born in the Yamakawa district of Shuri, Okinawa on November 10, 1868. He began training in Isshinryu at the age of 11 under Master Yasutsune Azato, who also taught him the Confucian classics. Later, he trained with Master Azato's friend and contemporary Master Yasutsune Itosu. Funakoshi dedicated his life to the development and promotion of karate training throughout Japan.

To fully appreciate Funakoshi Sensei’s Shotokan Karate, it is essential to realize that, above all else, Funakoshi was a Chun-tzu. Becoming such, in Confucian terms, is not an accident of birth but rather the result of the development of ethical values (midos, in rabbinic Hebrew). Chun-tzu can be translated variously as gentleman, superior man, and man at his best. Funakoshi was all of this, and his devotion to Confucian teachings was part and parcel of his karate-do.

Confucius said, “He who in this world can practice five things may indeed be considered man-at-his-best.” These five disciplines are Humility, Magnanimity, Sincerity, Diligence, and Graciousness. If you are humble, you will not be laughed at; if you are magnanimous, you will attract many to your side; if you are sincere, people will trust you; if you are gracious, you will get along well with your subordinates (The Sayings of Confucius, New American Library, 1955, p. 110). It is this type of man, Confucius teaches, who can transform society into the peaceful state it was meant to be.

Diligence, which remains undetailed in the above list, fairly well speaks for itself. But by way of a base illustration: When I was younger, I found the spinning back-roundhouse kick awkward. Or perhaps I was awkward. In any event, I was frustrated by the technique and eventually turned to one of my instructors to ask for a few pointers. "Here's the secret," he said, calling me over to whisper into my ear. "Do it a million times."

Years later, when I taught martial arts at the Lubavitcher cheder (a Chassidic children's dayschool) in Morristown, NJ, I had a number of young students, among them the children of two prominent rabbis from the community. But another "rabbi" objected, claiming that karate was a form of idol worship (avodah zarah was the term used). He fought diligently to have my free class removed from the building. What a shocking non-surprise to later find this very man confronted by the NJ State authorities for physically abusing his own pupils. Ignorance and low morals oftentimes go hand-in-hand.

There is nothing in classical martial arts antithetical to classical Torah teachings. Indeed, Professor Chaim Sober's Tora Dojo--a vital part of Yeshiva University's history as far many of us are concerned--makes it clear that the physical and philosophical aspects of classical martial arts are not only in harmony with Torah, they are a healthy supplement, much like the mussar teachings of the 18th century.

Confucianism, as its founder taught, is not a religion – it is an ethical code. Three key principles are emphasized: the principles of Li, Jen and Chun-tzu. Li has several meanings and is often translated as propriety, reverence, courtesy, ritual, or the ideal standard of conduct. It's what Confucius believed to be the highest standard of religious, moral, and social conduct.

Where Li provides the structure for social interaction. Jen makes it a moral system. Jen, the fundamental virtue of Confucian teachings, is the concept of goodness and benevolence and is expressed through recognition of value and concern for others, regardless of rank or class or wealth or poverty. Confucius summarizes the principle of Jen as: “Do not do to others what you would not like them to do to you.” (Analects 15:23) In Pirke Avos, Hillel is translated as having said it this way: "What is hateful to you do not do unto others." Regardless of whether Hillel or Confucius said it first (and neither one of them, history shows, would have sued for copyright infringement), the statements are essentially the same.

Avodah zarah, it seems, is often in the evil eye of the beholder.

The third primary Confucian concept, Chun-tzu, represents the notion of gentlemanliness, of living by the highest ethical standards. The gentleman displays five virtues: self-respect, generosity, sincerity, persistence, and benevolence. His relationships are characterized as follows: as a son, he is loyal; as a father, he is kind and just; as an official, he is faithful; as a husband, he is righteous and just; and as a friend, he is faithful and tactful.

Funakoshi Sensei wrote, “True karate-do places weight upon the spiritual rather than physical matters...in daily life, one’s mind and body should be trained and developed in a spirit of humility, and that, in critical times, one should be devoted utterly to the cause of justice.”

Oh, that all of our "religious" leaders would have such high standards.

My Sensei's Tougher That Your Sensei

Hanshi Richard Lenchus, founder of The Legend (a hybrid Shotokan system) wrote to his blackbelts this morning:

Learning 22 katas doesn't mean anything if you can't do one well, but I have this problem of loving to teach even things I don't know well, as you all know. I think you all should go to Staten Island at least once a week to be polished up... Here are the katas I have taught you all:

Heian Shodan
Heian Nidan
Heian Sandan
Heian Yondan
Heian Godan
Tekki Sho
Tekki Ni
Empi
Chinte
Kanku Sho
Kanku Dai
Bassi Sho
Bassi Dai
Jion
Elbow Kata
Sepai (goju kata)

In Vermont we also did:
Jutte
Gojushiho Sho
Gojushiho Dai
Gangaku
Mask 1
Mask 2
Earth
Wind
Bo kata Evening Storm

We must review all before we go on to:
Nijushiho Sho
Nijushiho Dai
Tekki San
Kurumfa
Tensho
Seiochin
Unsu
Seiza

My Silence

After Gene died, it seemed like a hundred other horrible things happened in rapid succession. But at 50 I am no longer inclined to list them.

Neither am I writing at the moment. I am reading extraordinary letters by an extraordinary man who left this world in 1996 and that seems to be enough. I am genuinely considering an exit from any sort of public life, including publishing.

I remain in touch with my friends--with sensei Richard Lenchus, Paty Cockrum, my pal Harlan, and with several writers, artists and musicians whose work and whose nature (like Michael Netzer, Richard Manitoba, Peppi Marchello, Steve Forbert and Don McGregor) are uplifting and make one proud to be part of the same species, though others work endlessly to cast shame on the lot. I am devastated about this missing child in Brooklyn.

I will be 50 and a half next month. I am back to counting half birthdays like a child. I'm not sure if I will ever seek to publish fiction again. It really wasn't fiction anyway. And the death of the book in America calls for a certain reverence by those of us who care enough to be reverent.

The Gift that Keeps Giving from Artie Simek

Sensei Carlos Varon—my long-distance dobro from Legend Shotokan (thanks to our shared O’Sensei Richard Lenchus)—recently contacted me with a generous gift of comics and related books. When I asked him how he stumbled upon this little treasure trove, he told me they were once a gift from Artie Simek.

Sadly, you have to be a certain age, and a certain type of fan, to get goose flesh when the name Artie Simek is mentioned. But I certainly did.

Born on January 6, 1916, Arthur “Artie” Simek was what folks once called a calligrapher and what comics jargon calls a letterer. Starting with Timely (Marvel’s precursor) in the 1940’s, Artie didn’t receive his first confirmed credits until years later on both a 12-page Batman-Superman story in World’s Finest #91 as well as in Batman #112 (both in 1957). He went on to letter DC’s Showcase and House of Secrets, then shows up in 1959 on Marvel’s Kid Colt, Outlaw. 

Along with Sam Rosen, Artie was one of Marvel’s two principal letterers: The two hand lettered the word balloons and sound effects in nearly every seminal Marvel title, and likely designed many logos. If you ever hold a Fantastic Four #1 in your hands, those are Artie’s letters. His last lettering job was on Giant-Size Defenders #5 (July 1975). He died while working on the book.

Sensei Carlos Varon grew up in Elmhurst, Queens, NY. One Halloween, he and a few of his friends knocked on a door and shouted “trick or treat!”  “Imagine my surprise to get a comic book,” write Carlos. “How cool was that?” The other kids seemed a little disappointed in getting a book and not candy, but Carlos was thrilled—and Artie Simek saw that in his face. “He invited me into his home,” said Carlos, who was instantly amazed to see the many drawings and an active art board. “I can still recall the pile of comics and storyboards on display. He told me he worked on Marvel Comics as a letterer and I was not sure about that, but he took the time to explain and even offered me a few of his full-size storyboards. As a dumb, young kid, I said no thank you. Boy was I naïve!”

But over time, Simek gave young Carlos a number of books that he had worked on. “My collection really grew from that visit,” says Sensei Varon.

And now mine has, thanks to Carlos’ generous gift.

I never had the pleasure of meeting Artie, but my friend Gene Colan once described him as “a real Norman Rockwell character. Artie Simek could play the spoons. He'd have two spoons in his hand, and he would flip them around, they would bop up against each other, and before you knew it, there was a melody there. He was wonderful.”

All I Ever Wanted Was to Impress This Man

Hanshi Richard Lenchus, the man who taught me Shotokan and first put a gun in my hand ("You can't smack someone, Mr. Meth, if he's too far away!") just started blogging. Prone to occassional hyperbole (but without question the baddest motherfucker I've ever known), Sensei looks back on some of his students who made the grade, including your humble host:

Sensei Clifford Meth is one of the most awesome fighters without fear. He has instilled this into all his sons who are all fighting champions. [He] is a wonderful writer and knowledgeable not only in the Martial Arts but in the Literary Arts. He is also a dear friend and supporter who I hold close.

Note that the photo on the left was taken when I was still thin and quick. Today I'd use the gun.

Snaked, Sylvia Plath, and why Harlan Ellison is like Jesus Christ

The following interview appeared several years ago at ComicsVillage.com

What are you working on these days?

Getting more sleep. People don’t realize how important sleep is. I was just having this conversation with Howard Zimmerman the other day. Howard’s the former head of iBooks and an excellent editor. I’d gotten into a dust up with somebody the night before and Howard asked if I’d been drinking at the time and I told him I was sober as a judge but terribly sleep deprived and he said, "That’ll do it."

I meant what projects are you working on?

Why didn’t you say so? I’m working on a few top-secret things for IDW Publishing and a treatment for the proposed "Snaked" film.

I thought I’d read that deal was signed.

It was. "Snaked" was optioned by Richard Saperstein and Elysium Films, but I’m under contract to turn in a treatment and if that flies then I’ll do the screenplay. And if it doesn’t fly, I’ll go catch up on my sleep.

Assuming you get to do the screenplay - or at least the first draft - how hard will it be to let it go to the inevitable Hollywood rewrite and potential bastardisation of your creation?

It’s not like raising children, no matter what Sylvia Plath said. Crazy bitch wrote that seeing her poems edited was like watching her children get raped. What a fucking poseur thing to write! Spoken like a woman with an infertile womb…"Snaked" was a short story and then it was a comic and then it will be a screenplay and then, if the stars are aligned, a movie. Different stages in the lifespan of a creative embryo but it ain’t a child. It’s not even a puppy. Which is not to say I don’t care about it because I do care about it. But by the time anything reaches a big screen, it’s rarely a singular vision. You have to be Copola or Tarantino to get that, so I have no illusions. The "Spider-Man" you see on screen isn’t Stan Lee’s Spider-Man, and it’s 180 degrees from Steve Ditko’s twisted brainchild. But it’s cool.

How has Snaked gone over with readers? As well as you expected? Do people "get" it?

I think readers liked it better than I did. I’m rarely satisfied with anything I’ve written. I still like the poetry section of Perverts, Pedophiles & Other Theologians. I think that might have been my best work. That or Wearing the Horns, which was a novella I did about the divorce culture, or about a man with a tiny penis, depending upon your vantage point. "Snaked" the short story, which preceded the comic by about ten years, was something I’m still comfortable with, but the comic book was an experiment and I didn’t have time to percolate it as long as I like to. Ask me in five years if I like it. But yes, I suppose readers liked it. The first print sold out.
That says something, I guess. Any other books in the works?

Aardwolf is preparing my Comic Book Babylon, which will collect my "Past Masters" columns and some interstitial material. I began that column to help Dave Cockrum get his missed X-Men royalties from Marvel and ended up developing a sort of gonzo, behind-the-scenes look at the comics industry. There’s guest appearances by Harlan Ellison, Alan Moore, Neal Adams and quite a few others. And me getting drunk with Mark Texeira. Stan Lee wrote the introduction.

What’s with you and Harlan Ellison?

What does that mean?

He’s somewhat controversial yet it seems in your eyes he can do no wrong. He seems to be a father figure to you.

None of those statements are true. Harlan is not controversial; he’s a man of impeccable integrity who won’t be pressured by society or individuals or money or terrorists or the unraveling of the fabric of the universe to do things he doesn’t believe in… or to shut up. And I’ve seen him do plenty wrong—he makes the same kinds of mistakes everyone makes, like putting too much sugar in his coffee or eating things that doctors say he shouldn’t eat or taking the wrong exit on the FDR. Don’t kid yourself—those are serious mistakes! But the types of mistakes others might claim he makes are not things I would call mistakes… Harlan isn’t a father figure to me. I had a perfectly wonderful father who gave me the best guidance a father could offer, and a terrific education and unconditional love; a father I adored more than anything in the world, and he was old enough to be Harlan’s father... Harlan is more like a big brother. After awhile, I tend to forget that he’s one of the century’s great writers. He’s just a dear friend I admire and love and find terribly entertaining… But, do no wrong? Of course he does wrong. Jesus did wrong! You think Jesus was happy with himself after he tipped over that table in the Temple? No one wants to go home feeling like a klutz.

Tell me about your children.

The oldest two are already better fighters than most men will ever become.

And that’s important to you?

Of course. That's why I trained them. My boys started in my dojo learning Shotokan, then graduated to mixed martial arts, which is the trend these days, thanks to the UFC.

Is that a good thing?

No—that’s a great thing. MMA was the natural progression for anyone who took competitive fighting seriously. My teacher, Grand Master Richard Sensei Lenchus, always stressed the practical aspects of street fighting in our dojo. If you concentrate on sports fighting—on speed tag for points—you lose the entire reason for martial arts. The arts were designed to protect individuals from attackers, not to win trophies. MMA is serious, real-world martial arts. In a one-on-one situation, you’re almost always at an advantage if you have grappling experience; if you have a ground game. But in a bar fight, where if you land on someone his buddy might clock you in the back of the head with a beer bottle, well you’re a damn fool to take it to the ground. My sons, who are excellent wrestlers, can single-leg or double-leg you in the blink of an eye and you’re on your back before you know what’s flying. Then it’s ground and pound and you’re waking up with a crowd around you. Their years of competitive grappling are the perfect arsenal for one-on-one, even against opponents 30 or 40 lbs. heavier. But my game is stick and move. I was trained to tag the first guy and move on to the next guy before the first one hits the ground. It’s a different approach. One-on-one, my sons can take me down now. Three-on-one, you’d pick me. Even at 47 and out of shape, that’s what my training was all about… So, to answer your question, yes, that’s a good thing. Men need to teach their sons to fight. They need to teach their sons other things, too, but that’s one of them. You don’t teach them to pick fights, but you teach them not to fear fights. Big difference.

It’s almost a taboo subject to broach, but there’s a real feeling among black comics creators that there’s a racist undercurrent in comics, even if subconscious, on the part of readers and bosses. Do you have any feeling or evidence of that in your experiences?

Nope. Talent makes it. Talent gets discovered. Shitty writers get work, too, but there’s no holding back quality.

You often write about Jewish topics.

Sure. That’s what I know so that’s what I write. All writers do that. Your life and experiences create a confluence of material that you draw upon. I’m rock-and-roll culture. I’m 1970s post-Nixon mod. I’m Marvel Comics and New Wave science fiction and 20th Century literature and Beat poetry and baseball and Northern New Jersey. And I’m an observant Jew. Add a little salt, it goes down fine with a good tequila.