Bats

If you're any kind of Batman fan, even casually there are some things you owe it to yourself to read and view. I am going to list them in no particular order. There are so many opinions as to what is the best that I am leaving to you to decide. If you've not read/viewed these....well get moving:

1. Batman: Year One - Really a retelling of sorts of Batman. This was Kane and Fingers original vision of The Batman. Also really brings you who Commissioner Gordon is as well. The premise of Batman Begins.
2. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns - Yes both of the first two on this list are Frank Miller products. Many people say Miller single-handedly saved the Batman franchise, along with Denny O'Neill. 
3. Batman: A Death in the Family - The first really legitimate loss in Batman lore. DC announces that fan vote will decide whether Robin lives or dies. This is not your father's Robin. Dick Grayson has grown up and moved on to become Nightwing and Batfans had a notable disdain (see outright hatred) of the new Robin, Jason Todd. You do the math. 
4. Batman: The Killing Joke - Another very human look at Batman, but an equally human view of The Joker. In as much as The Joker continues to be a psychotic murderer as he guns down Barbara Gordon (then Batgirl) the story ends on a decidedly realo ( and yes even funny) moment.
5. Batman: Hush - Drawn by one of my all time favorite artists, Jim Lee, this 2002 story is as much Batman being the World's Greatest Detective, as he is The Dark Knight. With a jaw dropping ending it's one the best contemporary Batman stories.

It's difficult to understate the impact of people like Denny O'Neill, Alan Moore, Frank Miller (especially) and a great many others. With DC just having hit the reset button on all 52 titles, I have no idea where the Batfranchise is going now. I can't get a copy of Batman or Detective Comics for less than $10.00 right now so it will have to wait. I'll settle for watching Batman: Year One on DVD and chillin like a villain...so to speak 8-)

The special features on the new DC Universe Blu Ray release of Batman: Year One were worth the entire price of the Blu-Ray if you ask me, which is what prompted this blog.

The story of Jitsu

We kind of adopted a stray cat that had been coming around for a couple of months recently. His pic is on my wall on Facebook. He was just sitting outside my slider door on the back deck one night when I came home (I work 5:30pm to 2:30am now at Charter). I walked out and sat down next to him and just let him get to know me. He was very pleasant and liked to be petted, although he was quite skittish at times. It became a nightly ritual with he and I visiting. I would sit out on the deck with it being so warm at the time with him for an hour or two some nights.

He started coming around in the morning while the kids were getting ready for school and they fell in love with him. They started leaving him cat food when one of my oldest daughter's friends had spent the night.They drove back to her house to get cat food from her friends house to bring back here.They were leaving food for him as often as they could. At some point they began sneaking him into the house for a few minutes here and there and I even caught my wife leaving a small dish of milk for him now and then and even a little tuna after she packed the kids' lunches. She denied it and played that tough, "I don't like the cat" routine with me which I found amusing.


I grew quite fond of our visits when I came home every night because all of my kids and my wife were all asleep. He began to let me pick him up and hold him and he would do that thing were he kind of kneads (is that the word?) where he kind of claws in a spot to make himself comfortable and then would lay down on me and fall asleep. He never came around during the day. He just disappeared and did his own thing and would come around at night or early in the morning. 

Eventually I stopped at the store and bought some cat food and began feeding him every night. Sometime he would not come around for a couple of days and once he didn't come around for five. I actually posted on Facebook that he had been gone and that I was afraid something may have happened to him. About a month ago it got really cold and I began sneaking him into the house. I would stay up until 5 or 5:30am just so he could sleep safely and be warm and comfortable until I had to put him back outside. We are not supposed to have pets in the house and we didn't have a litter box. He was so smart though because he would let me know when he wanted out. He would just meow at me and when I would stand up he would run for the kitchen. When I got to the kitchen if I put my hand on the handle of the slier he would reach up and paw at the door and I would let him out. He never once went to the bathroom in the house. I came home one night and was looking out the slider door for him when I heard a "meow". He wasn't at the door though which was weird. I looked and listened and he kept meowing and it turned out that he gone into the side porch from our kitchen which has a curtain hanging to separate the rooms rather than a door. He couldn't figure out how to get back through the curtain which made me laugh hysterically. It turned out that Kristina had let him in and let him stay until I got home. She who did not like the cat (insert eye roll here).

We named him Jitsu (for my love of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu) and the kids loved it. My team at Charter actually named him which was really funny. He began to come around every night and most mornings and sometimes the little stinker made the kids late for school. 

This past Sunday he came around late in the morning which he had never done before. As I mentioned he was quite skittish, except with me, and did not like to be petted by several people at once and some nights would not want to be petted at all. The kids let him in Sunday morning and he only stayed for a couple of minutes and then ran out. My two youngest (Isaiah and Trinity 8 & 7 years old) followed him outside and chased him trying to pet him. He ran across the road and was run over by a car. 

I was hysterical and tried to call every damn vet in this town and no one would respond. I even called 911. My wife had run out there to him and came back and told me he was in bad shape and that she thought both his hind legs were broken. I ran to check on him and he had pulled himself across the road with his front paws and under a truck kitty corner from our house. It was not 15 feet from where my son was hit this summer. 


He only survived about 15 minutes after being hit. My daughter and I had crawled under the truck with him but were afraid to move him. We both just laid there crying after he passed away. He's buried in the back yard now. The kids and I had a small ceremony and the babies made a makeshift headstone out of a plywood board for him. Alex goes out there most days and recently left cards for him.




It may seem silly to some to have this reaction over a pet but this whole summer has been pretty horrific. This was just the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. He was a really good friend.

On hold

A bill passed within the last 48 hours in the state of Illinois has derailed the IBJJF's (International Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Federation) summer open tournament. I have only competed in one BJJ tournament and it was here in Michigan. I was really looking forward to this event and have been training hard in preparation for it. Several of my teammates have been been putting four, five and even six days a week in at the academy getting ready for IBJJF in August. I am more disappointed for them than I am for myself.

State of Illinois has the fix in to protect boxing and it's friends

I am obviously greatly disappointed with the new legislation, especially as it is basically written to protect boxing in Illinois from MMA and any other combat sport that might remotely compete with boxing. This legislation serves as nothing more than to be a vehicle to line the pockets of boxing promoters, boxers, and politicians who are associated with boxing. Despite the fact that Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is not a "competitor" of boxing, this bill in one fell swoop covers in a very broad stroke, any "full contact combat sport" which obviously would include BJJ.

The unintended consequence for the State of Illinois is preventing a large amount of income from entering the state. The IBJJF summer open alone would have garnered tens of thousands of dollars for local businesses like hotels, restaurants, parking venues and the like. Not to mention revenue on taxes for all of this. This is just for one event, in one location for this summer. Other events, like NAGA, and others will look to move their venues to other states (hopefully Michigan) like Indiana, Ohio or others.

I am obviously going to continue to train hard in the hopes that this legislation is repealed or otherwise modified in anticipation that the IBJJF summer open will be back on at some point. I'll also be looking for another tournament to compete in, in the interim. Here's hoping the State of Illinois, who has a long history of corruption behind it (three Governors in prison in the last 35 years and several others in some amount of legal difficulty), can come to it's senses in time for aficionados of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and other grappling sports to avoid further negative impact.