http://www.bartitsu.org Sun, 09 Nov 2008 05:12:02 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en November 8th marks the 148th anniversary of the birth of E.W. Barton-Wright, the founder of Bartitsu.  He was born in Bangalore, India in the year 1860, the son of William Barton Wright, locomotive Superintendant of Madras Railways, and Janet Wright. Cheers! http://www.bartitsu.org/index.php/2008/11/ew-barton-wrights-birthday/ Congratulations to Bartitsu Society member Anton Krause, whose introductory article on Bartitsu is featured as the cover story of the Autumn 2008 issue of "the Chap" magazine. http://www.bartitsu.org/index.php/2008/11/bartitsu-featured-in-the-chap-magazine/ Popular science fiction author Neal Stephenson's comments on Bartitsu, from a recent interview with the UK Daily Telegraph: "So we'd mostly been doing longsword, in my little group," says Stephenson. Ropes of muscle on his forearms attest to this, as do the pictures online of a Stephenson-designed spring-loaded practice sword that ... http://www.bartitsu.org/index.php/2008/11/science-fiction-author-neal-stephenson-on-bartitsu/ Next weekend I am teaching a short Bartitsu class at the Swordfish event in Gothenburg. There's a fair bit of interest, including this article in a Swedish MMA magazine. Here it is in English, courtesy of Tony Wolf Bartitsu is particularly exciting, because had it not been for the books about Sherlock Holmes, ... http://www.bartitsu.org/index.php/2008/10/swordfish/ Since our early September update, the Bartitsu Society has been in contact with the upcoming Sherlock Holmes movie production and has donated copies of both volumes of the Bartitsu Compendium to the project.  Of course, this does not mean that what appears in the move fight scenes will be verbatim ... http://www.bartitsu.org/index.php/2008/10/sherlock-holmes-movie-update/ This footage was recorded at the International Swordfighting and Martial Arts Conference in Michigan, USA, between July 12-15, 2007.  It features a series of mostly canonical Bartitsu unarmed combat and cane demonstrations by myself, with Kirk Lawson assisting. The theme of the seminar was to use a small selection of canonical ... http://www.bartitsu.org/index.php/2008/09/basic-bartitsu-demo-from-ismac-07/ Bartitsu: the gentlemanly art of self defence Bartitsu: the Gentlemanly Art of Self Defence from Tony Wolf on Vimeo. A new 6.5 minute mini-documentary on the history and mixed fortunes of Bartitsu, from E.W. Barton-Wright's training in Japan in the late 1800s to the modern Bartitsu revival. http://www.bartitsu.org/index.php/2008/09/bartitsu-mini-documentary/ There is a tendency for those looking at Bartitsu to pay especial attention to the jui-jitsu parts of it, and to discount the necessity of both boxing and savate skills. As Tony reminded us in a recent post to the mailing list, Barton-Wright's lecture to the Japan Society raised this ... http://www.bartitsu.org/index.php/2008/09/on-the-arts-of-bartitsu/ Robert Downey, Jr., who is to star in an upcoming Sherlock Holmes feature film being directed by Guy Ritchie, was quoted in Premiere Magazine as saying: "We're both martial arts enthusiasts and historically, in the real origin stories of Sherlock Holmes, he's kind of a bad-ass and a bare-knuckle boxer and ... http://www.bartitsu.org/index.php/2008/09/baritsu-to-feature-in-new-sherlock-holmes-movie/ The Gothenburg Historical Fencing Society is hosting it's 3rd annual Swordfish event, bringing together instructors in Western Martial Arts from across Europe. For the first time this will include a Bartitsu class taught by me, James Marwood. As far as I know this is also the first time Bartitsu will ... http://www.bartitsu.org/index.php/2008/08/bartitsu-at-swordfish-2008/