Podcasts about when bruce

We catch up an old friend from my playing and coaching  days Bruce Garber. He has a great career in the game of hockey. Bruce starts off telling how he played hockey and other sports outside of Boston in Chelsea. His first organized hockey was at the age of six in Pee Wee hockey in Revere with Mike Eruzione from Olympic Hockey Fame. When Bruce was starting high school his dad became the trainer to the Milwaukee Bucks in the days of Oscar Robinson and Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul Jabbar). Great stories about his time with dad and the Bucks. He played high school in Wisconsin and set the state record for scoring which was broken a year later by Mark Johnson who was on the 1980 Olympic Team and then Lane McDonald from Harvard broke the record and still holds it. Bruce started out at the University of Wisconsin playing hockey and baseball. A week before the hockey season started Bruce found out he could not play his freshman season because of rule in the WCHA and USHL. So he left school and went to Canada in Laval and played on a team with Mike Bossy and Ray Bourque. Ray was his defensive partner and said you could see Ray's talent at 15 years of age and Bruce was 19. After the season he was able to get to Providence College with Lou Lamoriello and his life in hockey was going to change without his knowledge. It is a great start to a fun interview with my buddy Bruce Garber. 

Welcome back, today on Earn & Invest we discuss life after retirement. Search Amazon or any best seller list and you’re likely to find a number of books regarding the financials behind leaving the workplace. In fact, Americans are retiring in their mid-sixties and can look forward to enjoying as much as a three decades outside the structured work force. Up to now, affordability has been at the forefront of the conversation. With their new book, Retiring:Your Next Chapter is About Much More Than Money, Former senator Ted Kaufman and Business consultant Bruce Hiland draw our attention to an oft forgotten aspect about the ending of our formal careers.    Ted Kaufman is the former U.S. Senator from Delaware succeeding Senator Joseph Biden. Ted was Biden’s Chief of Staff for nineteen years and led his presidential transition planning in 2020. He taught at Duke Law School for twenty-six years. Bruce Hiland’s career included working for global consulting firm McKinsey, more than four years as Chief Administrative Officer at Time Inc., twenty years of independent consulting, and four startups. When Bruce and Ted both reached retirement, they realized that instead of slowing down, people are leaving their jobs feeling ready to take on the world. They’re financially independent, active, and capable.... And then, suddenly, they have nothing to do.

Do you like free golf stuff? Here is what we for you...Step by Step Guide to Creating Your https://www.birdiedads.com/golf-pre-shot-routine-guide/ (Golf Pre Shot Routine) Printable https://www.birdiedads.com/printable-golf-coloring-book/ (Golf Coloring Book) for Kids (Animals Golfing) https://www.birdiedads.com/golf-swing-webinar-signup/ (Golf Webinar - Speed, Power and Consistency) https://www.birdiedads.com/birdie-dad-subscribers/ (30% off coupon) on merchandise "I knew Kobe wanted to get to that right elbow. I knew that Dirk Nowitzki wanted his left hand more than anything else. I knew that Ray Allen didn't like the physicality of the game." - Bruce Bowen explained. In our interview he compares that to golf: I'm 150 out. What's my 150 club? That's what I'm thinking. But that's not what the pros are thinking. They are not going for the flag. They are taking in everything else, what are the contours of the green. They are going for a spot for a 6-7 foot putt. To hear how they think on the game is fascinating. When Bruce was playing NBA basketball against the best - he would compare that approach to guarding the best scorers. It is a challenge each time I play golf to have that mental aspect of the game. Bruce Bowen: NBA, Dad, Coach, GolferBruce Bowen has guarded Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Ray Allen, Dirk Nowitski...and today he takes all of that experience to his boys on and off the court. We sat down to interview Bruce Bowen. Why would we have Bruce on a golf podcast? Hear from Bruce's experience why golf brings out the weaknesses and requires preparing mentally - just like his days in the NBA. Bruce Bowen was not always a golfer - he talks about growing up in the Valley in California, going to Edison High School and later finding his basketball career. He discusses how he isn't your typical golfer who loved the game at a young age. He didn't get his first set of clubs at 9 years old. Today Bruce Bowen takes all that experience - and applies it to our society for his boys and his players. Bruce takes all of his life and NBA experience and finds new challenges on the golf course. He explains when he fell in love with golf and what keeps bringing him back. We also asked Bruce about some NBA guys including: Who are the top 3 hardest guys in the NBA you had to guard? Who is your favorite NBA player to golf with now? And how does playing in the NBA compare to playing in a golf tournament today? More EpisodesIf you enjoyed this episode - listen to our interview with https://www.birdiedads.com/how-parents-influence-their-child-with-andrew-jensen-ep-28/ (Andrew Jensen, How Parents Influence Their Child), https://www.birdiedads.com/golf-is-what-i-do-its-not-who-i-am-with-scott-stallings/ (Scott Stallings PGA), and https://www.birdiedads.com/clinical-sports-psychologist-bhrett-mccabe/ (Clinical Sports Psychologist Bhrett McCabe.) Are you ready to hit the course? The question I get all the time is how to swing faster. Anyone can golf. We'll prove it. If you need to build club speed and add consistency - use https://birdiedads.com/the-golf-swing-tips-to-hit-irons-farther/ (the golf swing tips) to hit your irons farther. Highlights of this episode::00 Intro 03:00 Introduction to Golf & Where It's Taken Bruce 05:04 Growing Up & Youth Sports 06:37 Coach Bobby Braswell's Impact on Bruce 08:42 Being A Dad & Exposing His Sons to Golf and Sports 11:22 Fitness and Golf - Golf Is A Sport 12:32 NBA Experience As A Father & Today's Society 15:42 Coaching Today's Kids 17:57 Kobe Bryant's Passing 20:37 The Three Hardest NBA Players Bruce Bowen Defended (and how Lebron James fits into that) 21:42 Who Is the Greatest NBA Player of All Time 22:57 The Mental Challenge of Golf 23:42 Golf Exposes Your Weaknesses 25:12 Which NBA Player Would He Take As A Golf Partner 26:42 One Thing That Makes Golf Addicting 28:12 Why Amateurs Should Watch More LPGA 30:32 The Mental Game in Sports 32:12 Short Term Memory...

Bruce Cardenas is the Chief Communications Officer at Quest Nutrition. He met the owners of Quest in 2010 and hasn’t looked back since. Whether he’s at bodybuilding, CrossFit or entertainment events, or even if it's just through engaging with different communities, it's Bruce’s mission to share Quest's products, message and lifestyle with as many people as he can. In just 5 short years, Quest has expanded to almost 90 countries and is the number one selling protein bar of its kind. Quest is in every GNC and Vitamin Shoppe around the world, Walmart’s, thousands of 7-Elevens, and most grocery stores in the United States, and it got there because the team has believed in the brand since day one. Bruce knows that developing long-lasting relationships is key to any successful business. When Bruce joined The Quest Nutrition Team they were at 3 million a year in sales. 9 years later Quest was acquired for a $1 billion cash Deal. Bruce was instrumental in the wrapped growth and expansion of the Quest brand globally. It's been Bruce’s natural entrepreneurial ambition, combined with his love for connecting communities through meaningful relationships, that has solidified his place with the Quest family.

Bruce Cardenas is the Chief Communications Officer at Quest Nutrition. He met the owners of Quest in 2010 and hasn’t looked back since. Whether he’s at bodybuilding, CrossFit or entertainment events, or even if it's just through engaging with different communities, it's Bruce’s mission to share Quest's products, message and lifestyle with as many people as he can. In just 5 short years, Quest has expanded to almost 90 countries and is the number one selling protein bar of its kind. Quest is in every GNC and Vitamin Shoppe around the world, Walmart’s, thousands of 7-Elevens, and most grocery stores in the United States, and it got there because the team has believed in the brand since day one. Bruce knows that developing long-lasting relationships is key to any successful business. When Bruce joined The Quest Nutrition Team they were at 3 million a year in sales. 9 years later Quest was acquired for a $1 billion cash Deal. Bruce was instrumental in the wrapped growth and expansion of the Quest brand globally. It's been Bruce’s natural entrepreneurial ambition, combined with his love for connecting communities through meaningful relationships, that has solidified his place with the Quest family.

We go back to the Robin well, this time for Tim Drake! Just because he may be the smartest Robin doesn't make him the best - find out why! SHOW NOTES:  Issue 102 - Tim Drake Intro Shoutout to To Know Her is to Fear Her, the Spider-Woman podcast - cohosted by Rey from ITK Reminder of TeePublic sale Background (02:48) Tim Drake created by Marv Wolfman and Pat Broderick in Batman #436 (August 1989) The third Robin, young Tim Drake visited the circus the night the Graysons were killed - later deduced Batman & Robin’s identities, and decided to teach himself martial arts to follow in their footsteps Offered himself to Dick Grayson as a new Robin following the death of Jason Todd - Bruce initially hesitant, but puts Tim through rigorous training before giving him the costume When Bruce retires after Knightfall, Tim works alongside Jean-Paul Valley, but distrusts him and his methods, and helps Bruce reclaim the Batman mantle Began dating Stephanie Brown (Spoiler), and then forced to retire from being Robin after his father discovered his secret After Stephanie and his father were both killed, he moved to Bludhaven to get away from Gotham Battled both a resurrected Jason Todd and Damian Wayne for the Robin title When Bruce “dies” and Dick takes over, he makes Damian the new Robin, so Tim becomes Red Robin and looks for Bruce - when Bruce returns, Tim takes over the Teen Titans New 52 - backstory rewritten - he’s a young hacker who draws the wrath of the Penguin, so his family goes into witness protection, and he’s taken under Bruce Wayne’s tutelage, where he becomes Red Robin out of respect for the dead Jason Todd - once again serves as leader of the Titans Rebirth - retcons to original backstory Issues (6:26) Being “self-taught” in any area leads to unknown pitfalls Loss of multiple fathers (13:08) Sole dissenter against Bruce’s death - loyalty vs. what’s “right” (22:36) Break (34:11) Plugs for Into the Knight, Sips Suds & Smokes, and Gail Simone Treatment (35:58) In-universe - Shadow Alfred, learn from him on how to serve while remaining humble Out of universe - Big Brother/Big Sister mentor type programs to help adolescents (39:33) Skit (46:44) Ending (53:14) Recommended reading: Robin, the Chuck Dixon run - any point of the series works Next episodes: Luke Cage, Clones Plugs for social References: Ra’s al Ghul episode - Anthony Jason Todd episode - Anthony Dick Grayson episode - Anthony Azrael episode - Anthony Damian Wayne episode - Anthony Alfred episode - Anthony (39:17) Apple Podcasts: here Google Play: here Stitcher: here TuneIn: here iHeartRadio: here Spotify: here Twitter Facebook Patreon TeePublic Discord

When Bruce the shark returns home for the summer he is surprised to find all his shark friends missing.  Now he must summon all his courage and venture into the dangerous shallows of Amity Island to solve the mystery of the missing food-chain. Join Bruce on a magical underwater adventure as he tries new things, makes new friends and learns all about compressed gas. Edited by Andrew Ivimey and produced for the From Superheroes network. Visit www.FromSuperheroes.com for more podcasts, YouTube series, web comics, and more.

“I want to work with really smart people and here is a list of schools that this person will have graduated from” said Lawrence, the CEO. “I do not want to interview anyone who has not come out of one of these schools”. My gut reaction was to simply say, “no thanks” and exit the meeting. Afterall, this CEO was going to be difficult to work with.  My response back was simply “Confirmation Bias”  We favor information that confirms our world view and this helps us to reduce any cognitive discomfort that discounts our values and realities. As Entrepreneurs, we are more susceptible to this bias because we are so focused on the task at hand. This reduces our ability to objectively make decisions that are best for the business.  Lawrence laughed, grabbed the sheet of paper and threw it in the trash. “Ok find me smart people”!  The truth is the strongest people often surface in the most unexpected ways and your bias clouds your vision of the truth! Our guest today: Bruce Marable, Co-founder & CEO of Employee Cycle, the all-in-one People Dashboard Bruce is a Philly-based serial tech startup founder. When Bruce is not helping HR leaders better use data to make smarter workforce decisions, he is making music playlists on Spotify, taking self-care at the boxing gym, or hunting for the best bread pudding around town.    Today we discuss: Why Bias needs to be eliminated from your hiring process How to deliver an unbiased, evidence based interview Challenge today? According to Wikipedia, Bias is defined as a disproportionate weight in favor of or against an idea or thing, usually in a way that is closed-minded, prejudicial, or unfair. We all have bias. It is important to eliminate it for one simple reason… Your company’s success Why is bias elimination important to the company? More diverse companies succeed More revenue Higher productivity Cannot properly market to diverse groups of people/customers Totally different backgrounds bring different ideas  More diverse individuals create more self awareness, well rounded thought process Disabilities Sexual orientation Ethnicity Ageism Re entering workforce Incarcerated Parenting  Rick’s Nuggets Innate Biases Overconfidence: Subjective confidence in ideas or decisions Illusion of control: overestimate ability to control situation or outcome Anchoring/Adjustment: past experience predicts plans for future Confirmation: preexisting beliefs- devalue contradictory information  Cognitive tunnel vision Curse of Knowledge : experts assume similar content understanding in others Optimism: See the positive outcomes… delusional optimism How do we solve the bias issue? Mindset Open to People who are different Everyone is on equal footing Allow people come in as being perceived as qualified Vs. unqualified Reinforce that they are qualified  Eliminate your assumptions- college degree Actions Recruit from a diverse pool of job candidates Remove all language in job descriptions that may have bias. Standardize the interview questions. Perform the same due diligence on all candidates whether that candidate is a referral or not Give all candidates the same level of respect  Blind the resume process Remove bias from likability Rick’s Nuggets Customer experience mindset - applicants are your customers More difficult to say No than yes Conduct a qualifying call with most Interview questions Pre-determined and assigned to the individual interviewer according to the order in which they participate Must gather evidence to support the decision either way Feedback & closure Key Takeaways: Acknowledge confirmation bias. Review the language in your job descriptions Standardize your interview questions Guest Contact: LinkedIn  or Twitter  

Learning notes from this episode:   If you want to transition into Big Tech from a non-technical career, start by working on digital initiatives  Use storytelling and public speaking to stand out in front of Big Tech recruiters When Bruce led Twitter for EMEA, his job was divided into 3 sections: brand management, user growth and revenue growth. Can you bring one of these specialities to a tech company?   If you want to hear more from Bruce and his take on how to bring more joy to work, sign up to his newsletter.   To hear the full session, join Tech for Non-Techies membership. You'll get access to all the recordings, live events, a mini course and monthly Q&A with Sophia.   To make sure you never miss our free events and webinars, sign up to the Tech for Non-Techies newsletter.

Recently, Religica Co-Founder Dr. Michael Reid Trice had a chance to speak with Bruce Knotts. Bruce has had a high-impact career as a human rights advocate, including service in the U.S. State Department with diplomatic assignments worldwide. Currently, Bruce directs the Unitarian Universalist Office at the United Nations and provides human rights advocacy at the United Nations. He co-chairs the United Nations Non-Governmental Organization Committee on Human Rights, among other responsibilities.   When Bruce and Michael sat down together, the two discussed whether there is a spiritual Hippocratic Oath. Take a listen.   More from Religica at religica.org   Facebook: www.facebook.com/Religica.org/   Twitter: twitter.com/religica   YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCPuw...   Soundcloud: @user-religica   Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/3CZwIO4...   iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/r...   Religica is a comprehensive online platform at the axis of religion and society that provides non-sectarian, coherent, integrated and accessible awareness about the role of religion in society, with a focus on strengthening local communities.

Robert Ross travels to The Napa Valley Reserve to speak with William Harland and Bruce Meyer about their personal history with cars and the importance of Napa Valley in the collectible car community. When Bruce has to leave, Robert and William are joined by Brett Anderson and they delve into the history of the winery and the philosophies guiding their craft into the future. (This episode is selected portions from a previous episode--to hear the full interview, listen to "William Harlan and The Napa Valley Reserve.") Hear more Cars That Matter and learn more about host Robert Ross: https://www.curtco.com/carsthatmatter And follow us: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/curtcomedia Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/curtcomedia Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/curtcomedia A CurtCo Media Production https://www.curtco.com

Robert Ross travels to The Napa Valley Reserve to speak with William Harlan and Bruce Meyer about their personal history with cars and the importance of Napa Valley in the collectible car community. When Bruce has to leave, Robert and William are joined by Brett Anderson and they delve into the history of the winery and the philosophies guiding their craft into the future. Learn more about Cars That Matter and Robert Ross: https://www.curtco.com/carsthatmatter And Follow Us: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/curtcomedia Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/curtcomedia Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/curtcomedia A CurtCo Media Production https://www.curtco.com

Sarah Tash is a long-time rider and trainer currently located in Camden, South Carolina. She is also one of the members of the Nature's View team. When Bruce finishes the foundation work on a training horse, it is a real benefit to have options for continuing the methods with a rider who supports and continues the program. Between Patricio "Chile" Guarda and Sarah Tash, there are a number of different ways of building on that foundation for young or problem horses.Tune in to hear Bruce and Sarah talk about one of the training horses currently finishing up a 90 day training program, as well as Sarah's new horse and his trailer loading issues.

Bruce Richman is the founding Executive Director of the Prevention Access Campaign and tireless advocate of the Undetectable Equals Untransmittable (U=U) campaign. He joins the show to talk about what exactly the U=U campaign does, and how it pairs with activists and researchers to make sure the correct science reaches the people that would benefit from it the most. He also talks about what breakthroughs took place in the movement, why the United States is one of the most challenging countries so far, and how changing the stigma surrounding HIV and transmission is changing many lives for the better.   TAKEAWAYS: [2:28] A person living with HIV who is on treatment and has undectable viral load can’t transmit HIV through sex partners. An undetectable viral load means less than 200 copies/ml. [3:35] In the late 1990’s, any findings on HIV transmission were widely criticized, with many skeptics finding not enough evidence to trust the research. After 2010, new studies provided breakthrough results: these studies featured 150,000 couples who had sex without condoms, providing a solid evidence base and a staggering amount of scientific evidence. [6:16] Bruce’s background in philanthropy and social justice gave him a foundation on how to use his platform to help inform and educate those who needed it. He was depressed and felt isolated about his own HIV diagnosis, and knew the feeling of hopelessness and not knowing where to turn. When Bruce learned the information from the study, he started taking medication and knew he needed to share the information and focused his energy on putting the groundbreaking science to light to create community awareness and a coalition for others to feel a sense of belonging. [11:12] Many advocates paved the way for others, using their own courage and bravery, and took the risk to go public with their diagnosis. [12:57] There have been 98 countries and 1000 partners that have signed on from different organizations. England and France are leading the pack with their creative and innovative campaigns. Hopefully the US will pick up more and find a way beyond the scarcity of resources and inner policy blockages. [19:16] When advocates get together with policy makers and move things forward, it can help thousands of people overcome the stigma that leads to shame, violence, isolation and possibly even suicide and murder. [29:31] The U=U campaign serves as a hub for resources, research and solidarity with the vast partners that are pioneering.   RESOURCES: Prevention Access Campaign @UequalsU Bruce Richman @preventionac CDC U.S. Health Department @DrDemetre   QUOTES: ● “We really did it together.” ● “It is surreal how fast this has expanded in such a short period of time.” ● “We are seeing a lot of really brilliant national efforts.” ● “This gives people one less thing to worry about. This gives them hope.” ● “The impact on stigma can’t be underscored enough.”

On this episode we talk to Dante Morelli about how he came to form his collection in honor of our past great friend, Bruce Leven. Dante and Bruce have been friends, competitors, partners, and collectors for years; they are staples of the PNW car community. When Bruce passed away, Dante and many of other Bruce’s friends helped save Bruce’s vast car collection and bought many of his vehicles. Dante joins us on episode 74 to share some his favorite stories with the late, great Bruce Leven.

Always tight on money, with a self-inflated view of his own “genius,” Bruce (Eden Marryshow “Jessica Jones”) is an egocentric, self-professed writer, director, artist and playboy who damages all of his relationships, romantic or otherwise, as he cons his way through his self-obsessed existence with a mixture of swagger and deeply insecure neuroticism. On the heels of his parents cutting him off, his free ride comes to an abrupt end after his roommate (Jason Tottenham “Quantico”) informs him he’s moving in with his fiancé (Jade Eshete “Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency”). Desperate to keep his apartment and stay afloat financially, Bruce concocts a plan to run an ad for a hot female roommate and charge her 80% of the rent. When Bruce falls for one of the applicants (Mle’ Chester “Vinyl”), he tries to turn his life around, but as the saying goes, “karma is a bitch.”  Will Bruce see the error of his ways or remain irredeemably awful? Director, Producer, Writer Eden Marryshow joins us to talk about assembling a terrific supporting cast and the inspiration for his brash feature film debut. For news and updates go to: brucethefilm.com

Wonders and Miracles podcast is a show dedicated to the miraculous moments in everyday lives.  Each episode features awe inspiring true stories from regular people that have had a Divine encounter.  When Bruce was killed in Vietnam, Sharon, his sister, assumed he was forgotten.  But after 45 years God showed Sharon that no one is ever forgotten.  Through Divine timing, the Lord miraculously helped her find others who remembered and loved Bruce.  A great work of healing took place for all as they gathered together for a memorial event.  Thanks for joining in on the movement that miracles still happen. Visit www.wondersandmiracles.com for more stories. Support our sponsors www.meditationsonthemount.com  & www.bibledice.com   Hearts of the Fathers by Sheldon Lawrence   Follow me on Facebook and Instagram @wondersandmiracles.  

“Using no way as way; having no limitation as limitation.” The idea of being limitless was a core tenet of Bruce Lee’s approach to his art and his life. He lived the philosophy of being limitless and took action. The idea of being limitless is a mindset and a sense of freedom within one’s own life; it does not mean that you have no boundaries or that you are negligible of your environment or others around you. Being limitless is the ability to make the decision to be and do anything that is centered in your heart and in harmony with you and the world. You do not have to ask for permission or get approval from any outside institution, person, or society. Most of our excuses or rationalizations for why we cannot do something is us giving voice to a fear we have about it. Sometimes we limit ourselves because we fear criticism. It is inevitable that we will receive criticism when we follow our hearts, and that can be really hard, but it is important to stay true to our hearts. “Limitless means infinite mobility.” When Bruce says, “Having no limitation as limitation,” he is talking about the limitations that we put on ourselves. When we do not put ourselves in a box then we can move in any direction. Being limitless is to have infinite mobility, not that you have no path or direction. Being limitless means you have the freedom to pursue any direction to create your life in the way that is the best and most enjoyable for you. We do not have to limit ourselves to one pursuit in life. If we follow Bruce Lee’s example then we can pursue many different interests and be an Artist of Life. Being limitless is to never feel trapped. “Be a practical dreamer backed by action.” Dream something that is achievable, and then go for it.  In order to be limitless you have to be present. You have to be present in your thoughts, feelings, and environment so that you can be infinitely mobile and take action.  “If you are in the now, you are creative. If you are in the now, you are inventive.” “Unlimited living is turned into something dead for the sake of security. Pattern = limit. One ought to throw away all ideals, patterns, styles and throw away any concepts about what is ideal. Can you look at a situation without naming it? Naming it causes fear.” We must be willing to examine things in the present moment. If the path is not working for you give yourself permission to turnaround from it and find a different route.  Being limitless is skillfully and thoughtfully following your enthusiasm in your life. “The great mistake is to anticipate the outcome of the engagement. To spend your time sitting in what might be.”  You do not learn anything in the avoidance of difficult situations or choices. “It is indeed difficult to see a situation simply. Our minds are very complex.” We want to complicate everything. We want to think of every possible way and outcome and this can carry us away from the center of what we want to do. When living limitless, we have to be present, and not judge with our preconceived notions, so that we have the freedom to consider that there might be a path to take we would not normally consider. “To bring the mind into sharp focus and to make it alert so that it can immediately intuit truth, which is everywhere, the mind must be emancipated from old habits, prejudices, restrictive thought process, and even ordinary thought itself.” “To realize freedom requires an alert mind, a mind that is deep with energy, a mind that is capable of immediate perception without the process of graduation, without the idea of an end to be slowly achieved. Preformations simply lack the flexibility to adapt to the ever-changing. At this point, many would ask, “how then do we gain this unlimited freedom?” I cannot tell you because it will then become an approach. Although I can tell you what it is not, I cannot tell you what it is. That, my friend, you have to find out all by yourself.” “Create immediately and atmosphere of freedom so that you can live and find out for yourself what is true, so that you are able to face the world with the ability to understand it, not just conform to it. One can tell for oneself whether the water is warm or cold. In the same way, a man must convince himself about these experiences, only then are they real.” “A mind that has no dwelling continues to flow ceaselessly and ignores our limitations and our distinctions. Do not localize the mind anywhere but let it fill up the whole body; let if low freely throughout the totality of your being.” Notes: BruceLee.com/podcast Check out our Podcast Bundle on the Bruce Lee Store! Follow us @Brucelee & write us at hello@brucelee.com

Hello and welcome to sixteenth episode of Fanboy Nation’s Toon-In-Talk, your rendezvous for animation interviews. Have you ever wondered what happened to kid voice actors when they grow up? Whitney Grace has! After watching Walt Disney’s The Jungle Book, Whitney wondered what happened to Mowgli. It turns out that Mowgli is Bruce Reitherman, son of Wolfgang “Woolie” Reitherman, one Disney’s Nine Old Men! Bruce was more than happy to discuss his experiences voicing Mowgli and growing up at the Walt Disney Animation Studios in the 1960s. Show Notes Bruce voiced Mowgli in The Jungle Book and he is also the son of Wolfgang “Woolie” Reitherman, one of Disney’s Nine Old Men. Growing up in the Disney Studios was like being alive during the Renaissance. Some of his earliest memories include that it was a very family oriented place and some of the people he ran into. Whitney praises the Ink and Paint Club. Bruce delves into the creativity he witnessed at the studio, including how individuals added to the big picture. Woolie took over the art department after Walt Disney passed away. He was always eager to go to work everyday, was a great father, intelligent, and talented. Bruce stresses that all animators had the same attributes as his father and this made them great animators able to capture the illusion of life. Woolie was in charge of the Xerox age of Disney animation. Whitney loves this era, because you can see the original pencil sketches and the animation process. Bruce gives a history of the Xerox process, why Disney implemented it, and what he enjoys about this animation process. Bruce talks about his experience voicing Mowgli in The Jungle Book and the fun he had. Whitney wonders how The Jungle Book changed from the original concept and Bruce explains how Disney was interested in making an enjoyable character film and take it in a new direction from the original story. When Bruce got the Mowgli role, he wasn’t a child actor. His dad needed a regular voice from a regular kid and Bruce was in the right place: living under the same roof as Woolie Reitherman. Bruce shares his views on Mowgli’s different relationships with the animals. Whitney wanted Mowgli to go back to the jungle and live, while Bruce likes the ending where Mowgli goes back to the man village. He likes this ending, because it shows that Mowgli accepts growing up. Bruce “wants to be like you!” and he has never seen The Jungle Book 2.

In this episode we discuss some cards that Bruce Lee sent in 1964 to his best friend Taky Kimura. Taky was Bruce’s best friend, he was the best man in Bruce and Linda’s wedding, and Taky was Bruce’s first assistant instructor in Bruce Lee’s first school in Seattle at the Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute. In 1964, Bruce Lee left Seattle and moved to Oakland to open a second school with James Lee. When Bruce moved he wrote these cards and gave them to Taky, who was now going to run the school in Seattle, as a way to prepare Taky to step into the role of teacher and to be a Gung Fu Man. An excerpt from the cards: “Self-Cultivation The point where to rest being known, the object of pursuit is then determined; and, that being determined, a calm unperturbedness may be attained too. To that calmness there will succeed a tranquil repose. In that repose there may be careful deliberation, and that deliberation will be followed by the attainment of the desired end.” Read Part 1 of the Taky Kimura letter at Brucelee.com/podcast Check out our Podcast Bundle on the Bruce Lee Store! Follow us @Brucelee & write us at hello@brucelee.com

“Be water, my friend.” This is one of Bruce Lee’s most famous quotes, but how did the idea first come to Bruce? In this episode we share and discuss an essay that Bruce wrote around his epiphany on the nature of water. When Bruce first had his epiphany on water he was 18 and this essay is him reflecting back on that time. When Bruce was 18, he had been studying wing chun gung fu with his sifu Yip Man for about four years. Being a teenager, Bruce was filled a fiery dragon energy, and was set on beating his opponents. During his training his teacher Yip Man continually tried to get Bruce to be more in tune with nature and his opponent instead of being so concentrated on winning. It was not until a solitary boat ride that Bruce’s connection to nature was realized. Bruce’s epiphany on the nature of water shifted his perspective forever on both gung fu and life. Read the full essay at brucelee.com/podcast Help support the Bruce Lee Podcast & check out our Podcast Bundle on the Bruce Lee Store! Follow us @Brucelee & write us at hello@brucelee.com

There's no better place to start than at the beginning – so, for the first episode of Die Hard With a Podcast, we're taking a look at the making of Die Hard. For a film with so many incredible stunts and huge explosions, it's hard to believe it's based on a book – or is technically a sequel to a 1960s Frank Sinatra flick. On this show, we go from acquiring the rights to the story, crewing up the film, writing the script, casting its stars, and rolling at the Fox Plaza building in Los Angeles. Learn why Die Hard was fully expected to flop, why Bruce Willis's salary was so controversial, and how exactly they pulled off Hans's fall from the 30th floor. As we kick off this limited series, let us know what you think! Drop us a line at diehardwithapodcast@gmail.com, or visit our site at www.diehardwithapodcast.com.   Source Links A/V Club, Die Hard humanized (and perfected) the action movie ABC News, 'Die Hard' turns 30: All about the film and who could have played John McClane Creative Screenwriting, “There is no such thing as an action movie.” Steven E. de Souza on Screenwriting Deep Focus Review, The Definitives: Die Hard Empire, Empire Essay: Die Hard Review Entertainment Weekly, Bruce Willis: "If I hadn't done 'Die Hard,' I'd rip it off" Eric Lichtenfeld, Action Speaks Louder: Violence, Spectacle, and the American Action Movie Film School Rejects, 31 Things We Learned From the ‘Die Hard’ Commentary Track Film School Through Commentaries, John McTiernan on filmmaking philosophy I Choose to Stand, Retrospective: Die Hard (1988) IMDb, Die Hard IndieWire, Cruel Summer: Die Hard (1988) Mental Floss, 19 Things to Look for the Next Time You Watch Die Hard Mental Floss, 30 Cold, Hard Facts About Die Hard Overthinking It, The Best of All Possible Die Hards Rolling Stone, Why the OG ‘Die Hard’ Still Rules Screen Rant, 15 Crazy Things You Didn’t Know About Die Hard Shmoop, Die Hard Shortlist, Die Hard: 25 Years On The Daily Beast, ‘Die Hard’: How Bruce Willis Changed the Movies The New York Times, If Willis Gets $5 Million, How Much for Redford? The Star Democrat, Five days of ‘Die Hard’ part one: ‘Die Hard’ (1988) Thrillist, A (Mini) Oral History of the Most Memorable 'Die Hard' Moments Viddy Well, 10 Fun Facts About Die Hard Vulture, How Die Hard Changed the Action Game Wikipedia, Die Hard Zimbio, 20 Things You Never Knew About 'Die Hard'    Get In Touch Email Website Twitter Facebook Instagram Patreon   Full Episode Transcript Welcome to the podcast, pal. My name is Simone Chavoor, and thank you for joining me for Die Hard. With. A! Podcast! The show that examines the best American action movie of all time: Die Hard. This is the first episode of this new podcast! It’s been a kind of crazy labor of love, putting the show together. Over a year ago, I started a podcast called Black Mass Appeal with the help of some of my friends. That show is about, shall we say... alternative religions... and it’s been a ton of fun to put together and I’ve learned so much doing it. But now, I’m starting on a new project about something else I love. I can’t recall exactly when I became a die hard Die Hard fan. I think my story is probably pretty typical; falling in love with the movie as I watched it at home on VHS, or badly censored on TV. I do remember that when I moved to Los Angeles in 2006 to take an internship on the Fox lot, I never got over my excitement at driving past the Fox Plaza building – Nakatomi Tower – every day. I got a gray sweatshirt and a red Sharpie to make my own “Now I have a machine gun, ho ho ho” costume for my Christmas party. I attended the Alamo Drafthouse’s “Nakatomi ‘88”-themed screening in San Francisco. And yes, I became one of those annoying drunks who’d go on at length about why Die Hard is a Christmas movie after a couple of cocktails. After yet another friend asked me for quick notes on whether or not Die Hard is a Christmas movie in order to settle an office debate, I sat down with a (couple) glass(es) of whiskey, rewatched the movie, and hammered out a four-page, fully-cited essay on the matter. (Which you can read on the website.) Yes, this is how I spend my Friday nights. But the fact that I did that made something abundantly clear: I love Die Hard. I have a lot to say about it. And I want to share it. So here we are! This podcast is going to have nine episodes that each explore different aspects of the movie. We’ll look at action movies of the 80s, we’ll look at our heroes and villains, how women and minorities are portrayed, and why Die Hard is so popular again. There’ll also be a BONUS episode… You can find out more about that in just a minute. So, before we dive in, a little housekeeping. Die Hard With a Podcast will release every other Thursday, wrapping up right before Christmas. If you want to get in touch... Email Website Twitter Facebook Instagram Finally, if you like this show, kick me a buck or two on Patreon. Patreon helps to offset the cost of doing this show, so unless you have a vault with $640 million in bearer bonds you can open up for me, pledge a little bit on Patreon. Patreon There are some cool bonuses you can get, like stickers, ornaments, and the bonus episode – and you can even help decide what you want the bonus episode to be on! So check that out, and pitch in if you can. And if you can’t – the best thing you can do is just listen and tell your friends. Leave a review on iTunes – that helps put this show in front of more people, so everyone can get in on the Die Hard love. All right, on with the show. For our first episode, I thought what better place to begin than where Die Hard began? So: this is the story of how Die Hard got made. The novel Die Hard doesn’t seem like one of those movies that started out as a book – there’s a lot of explosions in the movie and all – but it did. In fact, it started out as a sequel, to both a book and another movie. In 1966, writer Roderick Thorp wrote a novel called The Detective. It was an adult take on the cop genre, with the main character, private investigator Joe Leland, taking on a gritty case of supposed suicide that leads him to uncover murder and corruption. The novel was turned into a movie of the same name in 1968 by 20th Century Fox. The film starred Frank Sinatra as Joe, and the film did decent box office while Sinatra’s performance was well reviewed. Over a decade later, in 1979, Thorp wrote a sequel to The Detective with the express intention of turning it into another movie for Sinatra. The book was called Nothing Lasts Forever (which sounds more like a James Bond movie if you ask me). In it, now-retired Joe Leland goes to visit his daughter – not his wife! – at her high-rise office in Los Angeles at Christmas. While he’s there, terrorists take over and… a lot of the rest is the same is the movie. Kinda. We’ll get into that on another episode. Anyway, it’s kind of like how author Michael Crichton wrote The Lost World expressly to be made into a sequel to the movie Jurassic Park, or Thomas Harris wrote Hannibal to be a made into a sequel for the Silence of the Lambs. (You’ll come to find out that Silence of the Lambs is another favorite movie of mine…) Buying the rights According to Thorp, future Die Hard associate producer Lloyd Levin showed the book Nothing Lasts Forever to future producer Lawrence Gordon. Gordon took one look at the cover, with a burning skyscraper and circling helicopter, and said, “I don’t need ro read it. Buy it.” So, 20th Century Fox bought the movie rights to this novel, too. Now, Die Hard was actually produced by Silver Pictures, the production company founded by mega-producer Joel Silver in 1985. 20th Century Fox ended up being more of the distributor. (At some point in the early 80s, before Silver Pictures picked it up, the rights to Nothing Lasts Forever were actually owned by Clint Eastwood, who had intended on starring in the movie himself.) Joel Silver was just coming off of a hot streak of iconic 80s action movies like Commando, Lethal Weapon, Predator, and Action Jackson, and he was able to pull from the talent behind those movies to put Die Hard into production. The crew Silver offered the gig to the director of 1987’s Predator, John McTiernan. Back in 1985, McTiernan had turned down directing Commando, and he almost turned down Die Hard, too. In fact, he tried a couple of times to turn it down. McTiernan said the material was just too dark and cynical for him. (And if you’ve read Nothing Lasts Forever, you’ll totally get it. That shit is bleak.) Eventually, he came around because he came up with a plot change that would “lighten things up.” “The original screenplay was a grim terrorist movie,” he said. “On my second week working on it, I said, 'Guys, there's no part of terrorism that's fun. Robbers are fun bad guys. Let's make this a date movie.’ And they had the courage to do it.” So instead of terrorists, McTiernan’s bad guys would be pulling off a heist. “I liked the idea of imagining what would happen when one of those Baader-Meinhof types got tired of fighting his and others’ political battles and decided to show them what a criminal is,” he said. McTiernan also changed things up with inspiration from an unlikely source: Shakespeare. The original story took place over the course of three days, which was way too long. Now, borrowing from the structure of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the entirely of the plot would transpire over a single night. To hammer out the story, writers Jeb Stuart and Steven de Souza were hired. Jeb Stuart wrote the original script, and Steven de Souza was responsible for a lot of the on-the-fly revisions that would take place during shooting. Die Hard was Jeb Stuart’s first film credit if you can believe it, and after Die Hard he later went on to write Another 48 Hours, Fire Down Below, and the really really amazing The Fugitive. De Souza had previously written 48 Hours, Commando, and The Running Man, and he would go on to write Die Hard 2, Hudson Hawk, Ricochet, Beverly Hills Cop III, Street Fighter, and Judge Dredd. Basically, these are the guys to go to for action thrillers. The cast But who to go to to be the star of this action flick? Contractually, because Die Hard is technically a sequel to The Detective, the role had to be offered back to Frank Sinatra… who was 73 years old at the time. Fortunately, Sinatra decided he was “too old and too rich” to be running around making movies anymore. By not going with an older gentleman as the lead, the filmmakers were now free to explore new options for the lead role. Jeb Stuart describes how he discovered the core of the film: "I had no idea how to make this into a movie," he said. After getting into an argument with his wife, Stuart said he got into his car and took off. "It's in the days before cell phones and literally the minute I got on the highway, I knew I was wrong and knew I had to apologize," he said. He wasn't paying attention to the road and ran into a refrigerator box. "I went through it at 65 miles per hour and, fortunately, it was empty," he explained. "I pulled over to the side of the road, my heart was pounding and I thought, 'I know what this movie is about!' It's not about a 65-year-old man... It's about a 30-year-old man, who should have said he's sorry to his wife and then bad shit happens." He went home and wrote 30 pages of the script that very night. Hopefully he apologized to his wife first. When it came to casting the role of the now-renamed John McClane, the filmmakers seemed to try every male movie star in town. The part was offered to… Sly Stallone, Don Johnson, Harrison Ford, Richard Gere, Clint Eastwood (as already mentioned), Burt Reynolds, Robert De Niro, Charles Bronson, Nick Nolte, Mel Gibson, James Caan, Paul Newman, and Richard Dean Anderson (yes, MacGyver!). These actors ran the gamut from musclebound he-men to more sophisticated sorts. “When I first started working on it, they were talking about Richard Gere,” said John McTiernan. “The part was very buttoned down. He’s wearing a sport jacket, and he’s very suave and sophisticated and all that stuff. It was a sort of Ian Fleming hero, the gentleman man of action.” But what all those actors had in common was they all turned the role down. Going to Bruce Willis was seen as a desperate move in the film industry. After all, he was a *sniff* television actor, not a movie star. Willis was currently on the show Moonlighting, which was a comedy-drama about two private detectives. He had been in two movies by then as well, Blind Date and Sunset, but neither had been hits. Still, Willis was a charismatic, charming actor. Demographic data from CinemaScore, an entertainment polling and research company, said that Willis was popular with audiences. And once again, producer Lawrence Gordon stepped in to take decisive action. Bruce Willis tells it himself: “I know that Larry Gordon was instrumental in me getting the job. What’s that expression? Success has many fathers, failure is an orphan? Well, a lot of people take credit for my appearance in the first Die Hard, but Larry Gordon was really the guy. He lobbied for me. And then got them to give me an outrageous sum of money for acting in the film.” It really was an outrageous sum of money. Willis was paid $5 million – more than almost any other leading man at the time. (Dustin Hoffman got $5.5 million for Tootsie, and Stallone got $12 million for Rambo III.) But multi-million dollar paychecks were usually reserved for only the biggest names in the business. Even then, the figures were only in the $2 or $3 million range. A TV actor getting this kind of payday sparked a legit panic among studios. In a New York Times article titled, “If Willis Gets $5 Million, How Much for Redford?,” writer Aljean Harmetz calls it “equivalent to an earthquake. The map of movie-star salaries must now be redrawn.” In response, Leonard Goldberg, president and chief operating officer of 20th Century Fox got a little testy. He told the New York Times for that article, ''Die Hard hinges on the lead. We had a very exciting script and a team of producers who delivered Predator and Commando. We reached out for Bruce Willis because we thought we had the potential of a major film which is a star vehicle.'' But even after all of that, the reason Willis could even take the role came down to his Moonlighting co-star, Cybill Shepherd. Shepherd announced that she was pregnant – and because the pregnancy couldn’t be written into the show, Moonlighting producer Glenn Caron put the show on hiatus and gave everyone 11 weeks off. At last, Die Hard had its star. Casting the villain to McClane’s hero was less fraught, but still a bit of a gamble. The role was originally offered to Sam Neill, but he turned it down. Then, in the spring of 1987, casting director Jackie Burch saw Alan Rickman playing the dastardly Valmont in the Broadway production of Dangerous Liaisons – a role which earned him a Tony Award nomination. Rickman was known for theater, but, at the age of 41, had never done a movie. When he was offered the role of Hans Gruber, his instinct was to turn it down. He didn’t want to be a terrorist in an action movie. Rickman said (no, I’m not even going to attempt doing Rickman’s voice here): "I didn’t know anything about L.A. I didn’t know anything about the film business… I’d never made a film before, but I was extremely cheap. I read [the script], and I said, 'What the hell is this? I’m not doing an action movie.' Agents and people said: ‘Alan, you don’t understand, this doesn’t happen. You’ve only been in L.A. two days, and you’ve been asked to do this film.'" Of course, in the end, Rickman accepted the role. Rounding out the cast were Bonnie Bedelia as John’s wife Holly, Reginald VelJohnson as Sergeant Al Powell, Paul Gleason as Deputy Police Chief Dwayne Robinson, William Atherton as reporter Richard Thornberg, James Shigeta as Joseph Takagi, De’voreaux White as limo driver Argyle, and a whole mess of big tall dudes as Hans’s gang of robbers. While Hans is supposed to be German, Alan Rickman is British, and his right hand man Karl, played by Alexander Gudunov, is Russian. The rest of the crew was portrayed as more… vaguely international. That’s because there were chosen more for their intimidating look and height – 9 of the 12 were over 6 feet tall. And they certainly didn’t speak German – most of what they said in “German” was pretty much gibberish. As a final bit of casting trivia, there are three Playboy Playmates in Die Hard. Kym Malin (May 1982) is the woman discovered having sex in the office when the terrorists arrive. Terri Lynn Doss (July 1988) is the woman who hugs someone at the airport. And Pamela Stein's November 1987 actual centerfold is the one on the wall of the under-construction building hallway. The set Speaking of the under-construction building hallway – we have to talk about the set. Now, back in 1975, Roderick Thorp saw the movie The Towering Inferno, and dreamed about a man running through a skyscraper chased by men with guns. It’s what led to the high-rise setting of Nothing Lasts Forever, and eventually Die Hard. If you’ll remember, the cover of the book, with the building on fire, was what convinced Lawrence Gordon to buy the rights, after all. Call it coincidence or good luck or a sign of things to come. But 20th Century Fox was just wrapping up construction on their new office building, a brown steel-and-glass building at 2121 Avenue of the Stars in Century City, which would be named Fox Plaza. Or, as we know it better: Nakatomi Tower. It was production designer Jackson De Govia’s idea to use the building as Die Hard’s location. Getting to use the building required extensive negotiations with Fox. They had to agree to no daytime filming, and no explosions (whoops). According to McTiernan, "We had to periodically run downstairs and apologize to the lawyer beneath us, saying 'we're about to fire machine guns; will you excuse us?'" The scene where the SWAT team’s armored vehicle knocks over a stair railing in the front of the building caused months of negotiations alone. But in the end, Die Hard got its location, and Fox not only got to showcase its shiny new headquarters – in fact, a lot of early promotional material featured only the building, and not Bruce Willis – but they charged themselves rent for the building’s use. That’s actually pretty common in the film industry. The bookkeeping in the movie business is… interesting. The interior of the building was still incomplete, so any shots you see of under-construction offices were actually shot in the unfinished parts of the building. Other sets were constructed at Stage 15 in the regular studio lot. Using the half-finished areas allowed McTiernan and cinematographer Jan De Bont to place fluorescent lights in the ground and have half-finished structures in the foreground. The maze-like feeling of the offices and hallways was deliberate. Jackson De Govia said, “When I first read the script, I saw a jungle maze. It reminded me of the book High Rise by J.G. Ballard, in which a modern building becomes a tribal battleground. I wanted to make a building where that kind of action could take place. When the building is a jungle, people revert to utter realism, which is savagery… There are entire sequences where McClane moves through the building not touching the floor, like a predator in a jungle.” Although you might think so with a quote like that, De Govia didn’t work on Predator with McTiernan. De Govia had previously worked on a variety of movies, including Red Dawn, so he did have some experience with everyday folks fighting terrorists… De Govia did carry a visual element from McTiernan’s Predator to Die Hard, though: both Schwarzenegger and Willis crawl through waterfalls during the action. You see, the lobby of the Nakatomi Corporation’s office is a dead-on copy of the famous Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house Fallingwater, complete with stone walls and, uh, falling water. De Govia was inspired by Japanese corporations buying up American institutions – something that was freaking out Americans in the late 80s. He created a backstory where Nakatomi bought the actual house and had it reassembled in their lobby on the 30th floor of the building, waterfall and all. Directing style Now, putting McClane under waterfalls, into ventilation ducts and elevator shafts, under tables, and swinging him from firehoses certainly play to that guerilla-jungle spirit of Die Hard’s set. But the problem with a maze-like set is making sure the audience knows where everyone is, and where the action is taking place relative to the other players. Brad Bird, director of The Incredibles and Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, analyzed Die Hard for Rolling Stone magazine. He said, “John McTiernan’s direction is an amazing piece of intricate craftsmanship. What a lot of filmmakers have trouble communicating is a sense of geography. For instance, one floor of a building under construction looks a lot like any other floor. But McTiernan put in little things, like a Playboy centerfold hung up by a construction worker. At first it seems like a visual joke, but it’s really there to identify that floor, so when Willis encounters it again, the audience knows exactly where he is. Many directors also shoot action very sloppily – they shoot up close and cut around a lot and put in all these big noises to distract you. But in Die Hard, you know where every character is every second of the movie. Things are going by at a fast clip, but you’re never lost.” This kind of dynamic but geographically-clear directing was McTiernan’s signature style, already on display in his previous film, Predator, as Arnold and his crew battle a literally invisible alien in the South American jungle. McTiernan is known for helping the audience understand the relative locations of people and things within a space by using as few cuts as possible; instead, he keeps rolling as he pans the camera from something on one side of the room to the other side of the room. For example, in Die Hard, when the building’s alarm goes off and the henchman in the lobby acknowledges it, the camera moves from the alarm on the right to the henchman on the left, without cutting – just like you’re there yourself, turning your head to see. You can tell he’s sitting just to the side of the blinking alarm. Similarly, McTiernan will rack focus from something in the foreground to something in the background, or vice versa. Again, this creates a feeling of depth within a single shot and allows the viewer to follow where things are with their own eyes. It avoids confusion, and is in a way more efficient as you allow the audience to track things themselves instead of having to explain things every time. Connecting these shots with a moving camera also keeps things, well, moving. The camera roams around, taking in the shot in a natural way, the way your own eye would. The objects and people within the frame are arranged to guide your eye (and therefore the camera, as it mimics the movement of your eye) from one thing to the next, leading you to discover important clues to the story. McTiernan says, “The camera isn't just moving for the sake of keeping it moving. The camera is an active narrator in a thriller. The camera has to tell you how to evaluate every piece information you get and put it into context.” McTiernan was able to achieve this kind of visual storytelling with the work of his supremely talented cinematographer, Jan De Bont. De Bont was born in the Netherlands and had quite a body of work already; McTiernan was already fascinated by what was considered “European-style” camera movement, and had particularly admired De Bont’s work with director Paul Verhoeven in The Fourth Man. McTiernan was trained in this so-called “European style” of filmmaking, and it fits right in with what we’ve already discussed about his style. You see, not only do McTiernan (with De Bont) move the camera to naturally create a sense of geography, they also enhance emotion and tension with “unmotivated moves.” By moving the camera (tilting, panning) and zooming in on someone’s face, they heighten their expression. It’s just like when you’re in an uncomfortable or tense situation, and the first thing you do is look at everyone’s faces to understand how they’re reacting, so you can know how to react, too. Production Die Hard’s principal photography began on November 2, 1987. The film had a surprisingly low budget of $28 million – it’d more than double that for the sequel. Once everything was in place, things had to move fast – 20th Century Fox wanted to release the film the very next year. That lead to a lot of making shit up as they went. A lot. The script wasn’t even entirely done when they began shooting. The heart of John McClane was still a bit of a mystery. Sure, they knew Bruce Willis was not going to be playing McClane like he would have the hardened cop Joe Leland from Nothing Lasts Forever, but there was still something missing. It wasn’t until halfway through shooting that Willis and McTiernan realized that John McClane simply doesn’t like himself all that much. You know that moment where John argues with Holly in her office at the beginning of the movie, and he bangs his head on the doorframe after she walks out? That was a reshoot done way later, once they’d clued in to what makes McClane tick. McClane’s sarcastic humor was also the result of on-the-fly rewrites. Bruce Willis said about shooting, “I remember that the script was in flux. It would change and they would rewrite scenes and we would come in and there'd be new scenes. I'll give you an example. The second biggest line in Die Hard was 'Come out to the coast, we'll get together, have a few laughs…' That line was written while I was in this mock-up of a ventilator shaft, trapped in there, I couldn't come out. In those days, a cell phone looked like a shoe box, they were enormous. And someone had to hand me a phone with Steven de Souza, the writer for the rewrites on Die Hard, and he'd tell me a line, they'd turn the camera on, we'd shoot it.” There’s some debate about whether or not the biggest line in the movie was the result of improv or not. In a 2013 interview with Ryan Seacrest, Willis said that “Yippee-kay-yay, motherfucker” was “just a throwaway. I was just trying to crack up the crew and I never thought it was going to be allowed to stay in the film.” Then again, writer Steven De Souza recalled the creation of that line a little differently. “Bruce and I grew up watching the same TV shows,” he said. “Roy Rogers used to say ‘Yippee ki yay, kids.’ So it had to become ‘Yippee ki yay, motherfucker’ in the movie. That line was from me. Whenever you think you’re writing a line that’s going to catch on, it never does. A lot of people, cough, Sylvester Stallone, cough, think they can invent them. The line you think is going to catch on never catches on and the audience decides what is the takeaway line.” Damn. De Souza shading both Willis and Stallone at the same time… Aspects of Alan Rickman’s Hans Gruber were yet to crystalize, too. The filmmakers wanted John and Hans to have a “mano a mano” meeting somehow, before the final showdown. When De Souza learned that Rickman could do a “good” American accent (which… No disrespect, but I think good is up for debate…), he put it together with the fact that up until this face to face meeting, John had only heard Hans, and speaking with a German accent, over the radio. So, Hans, searching for his detonators, runs into John… and pretends to be a hostage named Bill Clay who has slipped away. To stay on this scene for just a minute longer: there’s a bit of a “controversy” where it’s not explicitly explained how John figures out that Hans is only pretending to be a hostage. How would John know not to give Hans a loaded gun? Well, in an earlier scene that was cut from the final film, everyone in Hans’s gang synchronizes their watches – and they’re all wearing the same watch – something McClane, as a cop, would have noticed as he searched the bodies of the bad guys he’d already snuffed. Steven De Souza says, “When Bruce offers the cigarette to Alan Rickman, Bruce sees the watch. You see his eyes look at the watch. That's how he knows that he is one of the terrorists.” So supposedly this is some big plot hole caused by the cut scene. But if I can interject for just a second – and I can, it’s my podcast – I think that’s bullshit. It’s not a plot hole. We don’t need it spelled out for us how John figures out that Hans is one of the terrorists. John’s a cop, and clearly a good one – I mean, he’d survived that far into the movie, he’s gotta be pretty skilled. The audience can fill in that he caught something we didn’t. He can be smart; he can know things the audience doesn't know. He can notice the watches, or he can have a gut feeling, or he can just have the common sense to not hand a loaded gun to a perfect stranger in a really dangerous situation. Anyway. When it comes to plot holes, there is one in Die Hard that is easy to miss, but is, in fact, logically inconsistent. Up until two weeks before the end of shooting, filmmakers still didn’t know how the gang was going to try to escape. They decided that the gang’s plan would be to drive away through the chaos of the inevitable disaster scene in an ambulance that was hidden in the back of the box truck they used to drive into the building. Not a bad plan… Except for the part where they don’t bring the ambulance with them at the start of the movie. If you look at Hans and company arriving at Nakatomi Tower in their truck, you can see the truck is way too small to contain another vehicle… and besides, it’s not there behind the men as they wait to unload. Whoops. The stunts But then, we’re not coming to Die Hard to pick apart its continuity. We’re here for some action! Die Hard employed 37 stuntmen, under stunt coordinator Charlie Picerni. Stunt doubles were used for many of the action scenes – this is Die Hard, not Mission: Impossible, after all. Things always have the potential to go disastrously wrong, and there were a few on-set accidents, but fortunately none were too grave. When McClane goes down the ventilation shaft, you can see him fall – and that wasn’t on purpose. The stunt man was supposed to grab the very first ledge within the shaft, but he missed – and editor Frank Urioste kept his fall in the final film, cutting back to McClane catching himself on a ledge way below the one he was supposed to grab. One of Die Hard’s stunt performers is actually a Technical Academy Award-winner for his Decelerator System, which is a cable system that allows stunt performers to “fall” more safely from a higher height, and to be shot from any angle. Ken Bates explains his invention: “When we did Die Hard, I started using a device called a Descender, to do controlled falls. In other words, we do a controlled fall from anywhere up to 105 stories. The fall is controlled because you’re descending on a small cable. If the film is undercranked, it looks like you’re falling.” Bates clearly knew what he was doing with his Decelerator System, since he was the one who acted as Rickman’s stunt double during his fall from Nakatomi Tower. (He also doubled Bruce Willis when he leapt off the top of the building with a firehose.) Bruce Willis and Alan Rickman did perform a couple of stunts of their own. John McTiernan recalled, “The first time we got to the point in a scene where you would insert a stuntman, I told Bruce he would only have to take it up to here, and he then could go sit down. He said, ‘No, I want to do it.’ And all of a sudden, you saw that New Jersey street kid in him come out. It’s not that he did anything dangerous, but it was a side that he had not shown us before.” Bruce Willis explained why he was so game. “I think doing my own stunts whenever possible adds a lot to the production value of the film… John can get the camera close, because he doesn’t need to disguise the stuntman. But on a personal level, it satisfies the little boy who still lives in me who gets to shoot guns, kill the bad guys and be a hero while doing jumps and falls and swinging from ropes.” McClane famously ran around Nakatomi Tower without shoes on, but Bruce Willis got a little more protection. He was given a pair of rubber feet to wear – they make him look a little hobbit-like, since they had to slip on over his own feet. You can see them in the scene when McClane jumps off the edge of the roof as the FBI shoots at him from the helicopter. McTiernan and weapons specialist Michael Papac also dialed up the intensity of the stunt weapons for added realism. As in most movies, the firearms in Die Hard are real weapons that have been modified to shoot blanks. But these blanks were specially handcrafted by Pacpac. McTiernan wanted the muzzle flash to be exaggerated and the sound to be extra-loud. He got what he wanted, but not without a price. When McClane shoots a terrorist from underneath a conference table, the gun was in such close proximity to his unprotected ears that the bangs gave Willis permanent hearing loss. Willis said, “Due to an accident on the first Die Hard, I suffer two-thirds partial hearing loss in my left ear and have a tendency to say, ‘Whaaa?’” The deafening blanks got to Rickman, too. Every time he fired his gun, Rickman would flinch. McTiernan was forced to cut away from Rickman’s reactions so his expression wouldn’t be caught on film, but you can see one of them right after Hans shoots Takagi at the beginning of the movie. The most famous stunt in the movie is Hans Gruber’s fall from the window of Nakatomi Tower. We’ve already discussed how stuntman Ken Bates was able to pull off the actual fall, but it’s the beginning of the fall, where we see Hans’s shocked face in slow motion, that makes it so heart-stopping. That, of course, is actually Alan Rickman falling, although from not quite as high a height. "John McTiernan had to talk Alan into doing that shot because even stuntmen will generally not fall backwards – they like to see where they're going," said visual effects supervisor Richard Edlund. For Hans’s fatal fall, Alan Rickman was to be dropped from 25 feet in the air, with a blue air bag below him and a camera above him to capture his expression. The camera was shooting at 270 frames per second to capture Hans’s plummeting face at a rate ten times slower than normal. Rickman was understandably apprehensive about the stunt. It didn’t help that, legendarily, the crew told him they’d give him a countdown of three, two, one, go – and drop him on “Go” – and instead… they dropped him on one. Rickman wasn’t exactly happy with the crew for that surprise bit of acting motivation, but miraculously, they convinced him to do a second take. Ultimately, the crew’s prank (?) worked – the first take is the one you see in the film. Release and reception Die Hard wrapped in March 1988, just four months before the film was set to be released. As the filmmakers got to work on post-production, the studio did not exactly demonstrate a lot of faith in the film. As mentioned earlier, the early publicity didn’t even have Bruce Willis on it; the poster featured the Fox Plaza building as the star of the show. The advertising campaign for the film was short, too – especially by today’s standards. In contrast, I think I saw the trailer for Mission Impossible: Fallout in front of every movie I saw for at least two years before it was released! Everyone seemed worried. Test audiences rated the movie poorly, and “had no interest in seeing [Bruce Willis] dart around a skyscraper shooting terrorists.” The New York Times summer movie preview doubted Willis was “enough of a movie star to carry the film,” and Newsweek’s David Ansen was even more harsh, saying Willis was “the most unpopular actor ever to get $5 million for making a movie.” Film critic Roger Ebert gave it a mere two stars, and criticized the stupidity of the deputy police chief character, claiming that "all by himself he successfully undermines the last half of the movie." 20th Century Fox was convinced it had a flop on its hands. The movie was released on July 15th, 1988, in only 21 theaters in 20 cities, where it earned only $600,000 its first weekend. But then… audiences liked it. They loved it. They kept coming back. In the second week, the movie expanded to 1,200 theaters across the country. After Die Hard opened wide, it started out in third place at the box office, taking in $7 million. From there, strong word of mouth took it to the top, where it lived in the top five for ten weeks. It only dropped into sixth place in October. Die Hard finished its theatrical run with $83 million domestic and another $57 million worldwide – completely making up for that $5 million paycheck Bruce Willis got. It was the seventh-highest grossing movie of 1988. It also enjoyed a long, successful run on home video – something we’ll talk about later in this series. Not only was Die Hard a financial triumph, it received Oscar nominations for editing, visual effects, sound and sound editing. And it turned Bruce Willis into a star. The kind of star who’d later join Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone – the very action stars he essentially replaced – in opening up a chain restaurant themed on Hollywood celebrity. And so, that’s the story of how Die Hard got made. There are certainly parts I’ve missed, or pieces of the story that have changed over time. Filmmaking stories sometimes take on the quality of oral histories, especially when the resulting film becomes a legend. Throughout the rest of this podcast series, we’ll explore why Die Hard has become so celebrated among action movies, 80s movies, movies in general. I’m excited to invite you to the party with me. Come out to the show, we’ll get together have a few laughs… Anyway, thank you for joining me. Happy trails, and yippee-kai-yay, motherfuckers.

 In today’s episode, Digital Marketing Expert and real-life Rocket Scientist Bruce Spurr joins Kris for a talk on how to win the digital marketing game using Facebook ads, Google Maps, and Google Search. They touch upon how to get your school to stand out, even above the “big boys” of advertising, ways to leverage your ad no matter how small your budget, what consists of a great ad, and how to use digital marketing to keep your enrollment high or fill the empty spaces. He and Kris reminisce of the olden days before social media, and ways that they have learned to adapt and work together in the current landscape to help child care owners overcome their challenges in the field. Strap in, and get ready to launch into the digital marketing stratosphere!   Key Takeaways: [4:22] Special announcement! The Child Care Success Summit announces their celebrity speaker, Les Brown. Les is one of the world’s top motivational speakers, and he himself has a tie in the child care market, so this is one experience not to miss. They are almost at 80% full, so be sure to get the tickets while they last, using promo code: ROCKSTAR to get a $100 discount off the full price. [7:31] Bruce and Kris met while at the Frank Kern Mastermind Group. [8:52] Fun Fact: Bruce has some Lebanese ties in his family, and traveling with his wife is one of his favorite parts of the way he has set up his life. He calls into today’s episode from Beirut, Lebanon and gives us an update on the current political climate and perspective there. [10:52] Bruce shares how he went from a physical labor job as a construction worker, to entrepreneur building e-commerce sites, then marketing and advertising. He has a Degree in Physics and Engineering and is a rocket scientist by education. [11:40] He was at the Web 2.0 Conference when Twitter was launched, and one of the first thousand people to open up a Twitter account. [15:42] All the owners Bruce has had the chance to meet are kind and loving people, driven by a purpose to help. They are in it for the passion of making a difference in the lives of children and leaving a legacy, but often are run by their business, instead of running their business. When Kris and Bruce work with the owner together, they win the battle of hiring in a tight labor market and the battle of filling up the school in a competitive community. [21:54] Bruce explains why people need to do Facebook ads, and how it’s important for people both just indirectly scrolling and also searching in a focused manner for child care centers geographically close to them. [25:54] SEO used to be about getting listed on a page, now it’s about getting listed in Places and Maps. Google is smart and figured out the search algorithm on a specific school in general, and organic articles and information on how to pick a school in general. It is a huge game changer and Kris and Bruce have even seen people triple their results once they get the Google Maps piece of the puzzle figured out. [30:00] When Bruce works with clients to determine the lifetime value of the customer, it is clear spending the initial marketing money to attract them is a drop in the bucket to secure them long-term. [33:40] The “Insights” tab on Facebook is a magical place, where you can look for your most popular posts, what gets the highest engagement (aka hunting for unicorns) and what gets the normal or not so big response (the donkey). Bruce explains how to drill down to hit your target market in a Boosted Post and why you may want to use Targeted Ads for an even more specific reach. [38:28] Even just $5-$10 can be a great budget to start Boosting and Re-Boosting your post. When something works, keep doing the same. [40:41] Bruce explains the difference between the two different types of ads. For an ad that is simple and straightforward with an offer or incentive for enrollment, they call it a “tuition credit” instead of a discount. [47:59] The biggest challenge Bruce has had is focusing on one thing and not getting too distracted by opportunity. [53:59] Your school’s success depends on getting yourself in the digital marketing game. It is a fun journey to play around and see what part of it you like best, whether it’s creating videos, managing the back end of ads or posting photos and captions. [56:05] Invest in some tools such as a selfie stick and mic to enhance the quality of your videos and audio.   Mentioned in This Episode: Kris Murray Child Care Marketing Solutions Child Care Success Academy Child Care Success Summit  Les Brown  Frank Kern  Google Maps Google Business  Facebook  Preschool Podcast 

If you're playing catch up with your finances, maybe it's time for a side gig to generate some extra income. With the technology of today, side gigs are more flexible than ever. When Bruce in New Orleans asked his insurance company for a homeowners policy on his rent house, they said he would have to get landlord's insurance, because the second house is owned by an LLC. Gregory Ricks shares some insight on getting the right insurance coverage for situations like owning a rental. Mike in Slidell is thinking about paying off his townhouse rental with money from a sale from another rental. Gregory stresses it's all about the numbers. If the net amount of return from that property is high enough, go for it. Mary in Houma asks Gregory if she can draw extra money from an annuity above what the income rider provides. Gregory says she probably can take additional distributions, but it will accelerate the time table for spending down. Mary follows up with a question about how Medicare premiums are taken from her Social Security benefit. The next Gregory Ricks Live is coming up Tuesday, July 10th, 6:30pm. Come find out more about Gregory Ricks and what he can do for you. http://www.WinningAtLife.com

Congrats! It's our 8 year anniversary for Winning at Life with Gregory Ricks. The trustees for Social Security and Medicare release their annual report with projections for the future of our two biggest spending programs. Gregory talks about building multiple streams of income to minimize the effects of possible cuts. When Bruce in New Orleans asked his insurance company for a homeowners policy on his rent house, they said he would have to get landlord's insurance, because the second house is owned by an LLC. Gregory shares some insight on getting the right insurance coverage for situations like owning a rental. Harold in Marrero and his wife are thinking about taking his Social Security early, and he wants to know how much it will cut his benefit. Jane in Destrehan asks Gregory if she could still be able to get homeowners insurance if she puts her house in a trust. Dale in California asks Gregory his thoughts on a particular stock. Gregory checks the charts and isn't too enthused about it. Wes Blanchard, Estate Planning Attorney on the Total Wealth Authority, details the importance of having your rental property in a will. Steve on Facebook asks Gregory and Wes about which type of trust he should put his house? John in Marrero asks Wes Blanchard about his issues with a bank branch moving his safe deposit box. Josh in Covington asks about what happens to the mortgage on a piece of rental property once he switches ownership to a newly formed LLC. Joe in Independence is switching jobs, but took out a loan from his 401k that will come due when he leaves. He's thinking about doing a cash-out refinance on his mortgage to cover the cost. Joe also has this issue with identity theft scammers hurting his record. Frank asks Gregory Ricks and Wes Blanchard about how to properly gift the max amount of money to his kids every year when it comes to taxes. Gregory Ricks and Wes Blanchard discuss how to know when you should put your house in an LLC or a trust. There's some big tax changes, and significant changes from an estate planning perspective. James and Gregory talk about 8 years of Winning at Life, how it grew from humble beginnings, and how the future is bright. Mike in Slidell is thinking about paying off his townhouse rental with money from a sale from another rental. Gregory stresses it's all about the numbers. If the net amount of return from that property is high enough, go for it. Byron in the Bourg asks how his wife's state pension will affect her ability to draw from his record. It's another sad story of the Windfall Elimination Provision. Mary in Houma asks Gregory if she can draw extra money from an annuity above what the income rider provides. Gregory says she probably can take additional distributions, but it will accelerate the time table for spending down. Mary follows up with a question about how Medicare premiums are taken from her Social Security benefit. Transferring money between IRAs can be a mess if you aren't familiar with the 60 day rollover rules. Gregory gives some basics on how you should move money between plans. http://www.WinningAtLife.com

On today's episode of The His & Her Money Show, Bruce and Brenda McGrew are joining us today for an incredible debt-free story of faith, marriage, and making progress where you need it the most. this inspirational couple never stopped. They're both teachers in the public education system, and now they're schooling others around the country on finances, smart money management, and paying off all your debts - just like they did! Bruce and Brenda once had over $58,000 of debt, and now they're enjoying the wonderful world of debt freedom. When Bruce and Brenda attended their first Financial Peace University class, they were going as moral support for another couple, not for themselves. They considered themselves pretty money smart already so they had no idea how great they'd benefit from the course, and the world it would open for them. But it did! Six years ago at the beginning of their debt freedom journey, Bruce and Brenda had roughly $58,000 in consumer debt, from credit cards to car loans (and their "eight-thousand dollar blanket"), and they knew they had to get out from under it, and as soon as possible. In the first year of work, they'd already paid off $30,000, and after that, it was time to get even more creative and have some fun with it. Today, debt-free and living well, Bruce is a certified Ramsey Solutions master financial coach, and this smart money couple loves to share any nugget of wisdom they can with YOU on their website, BruceMcgrew.com! WHAT YOU WILL LEARN IN THIS EPISODE The "hybrid method" Bruce and Brenda followed to debt freedom How Bruce and Brenda accidentally got started on their debt-free journey Handling finances as a couple, and the importance of trust Tips for the brand new budgeter Bruce and Brenda's "envelope" method RESOURCES TEAMM | https://brucemcgrew.com/ Thank You for Listening! Thanks for tuning into the His & Her Money Show. If you have any comments or questions about today’s episode, please let us know your thoughts in the comment section below. If you’ve enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post. Also, please leave an honest review of the His & Her Money Show on iTunes! Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we do read each and every one of them. Today’s show was sponsored by Teach Me How To Budget. If you are ready to gain freedom in your finances once and for all then enroll in our brand new personal finance course Teach Me How To Budget.

Some information about CF, and some musings on regrets, apologies, and amends. The Cystic Fibrosis Community Care organisation can be found here: http://www.cysticfibrosis.org.au/vic/ When Bruce "Stretch" Jarvis isn't volunteering his time to educate people about CF, he runs 'Stretch the Boundaries', a Personal and Business Development service: stretchtheboundaries@gmail.com A list of the twelve steps as recommended by AA (other self-help groups use similar steps): http://www.hazeldenbettyford.org/articles/twelve-steps-of-alcoholics-anonymous As always- Contact the Rotary Club of Forest Hill at: foresthillrotary1975@gmail.com Our online presence is www.foresthillrotary.com and www.facebook.com/RotaryClubForestHill/ AND the new Twitter: twitter.com/RCForestHill PLUS our page for the Blackburn Station Craft Market: www.facebook.com/BlackburnStationCraftMarket As always. Contact me personally at: mmfinke@gmail.com Any ideas about projects in the local area? Drop a line at whatwhitehorseneeds@gmail.com

“It’s not what you give, it’s how you give it.” Bruce Lee is talking about how you approach life, how you show-up in the world. It’s not what you’re doing, but how you’re approaching it. This concept is about effort, quality, and injecting your heart into what you do. Bruce was a big believer in putting in the training, the hours of practice, and applying effort towards his goals. He also believed in natural action, being in the flow, and not being in opposition to life. Bruce believed in sincerity, with your work coming from your heart.  When Bruce Lee came to the US when he was 18, he could speak some English, but was not fluent. He really wanted to communicate and have facility with the English language in a way that he did not have. Bruce put in the effort and applied himself learning the grammar and syntax of English. He also wanted to be able to communicate colloquially, and practiced this through telling jokes. Being able to understand humor in another language helps you to communicate in a more natural way. So, Bruce Lee was very into telling jokes, especially puns. Bruce approached learning the English language from all angles, including perfecting his handwriting and signature. Quality was a very important value to Bruce as a human being and in all that he did. It was important to Bruce to have the quality of nice penmanship and sentence structure, but also the quality of communication and expression in English. To be able to express himself clearly and beautifully was important to Bruce because his goal in life was self-actualization and expressing who he was as a human being to the world. “I don’t want to do things halfway.” It was a value of Bruce Lee to express himself fully in whatever he decided to engage in. “Some people may not believe it, but I have spent hours perfecting and working on whatever I did.”  Bruce Lee’s hard work shows, but for some reason, we want to look at Bruce Lee and declare him a natural talent. Which is not to say that Bruce had no natural talent, but he put in the effort, the time, the practice, and the love to craft his talents and achieve his level of mastery. He is an example of what can be accomplished if we put work into and develop our natural talents.  You have to work hard, but not work against yourself. Just because Bruce Lee followed a certain path, does not mean you have to follow the same path. You have to find what works for you and your goals. How you give is also the way that you give. It has to be your way, not someone else’s way. When you listen to Bruce Lee talk, it is very distinct and memorable. Anything that he is saying, he is expressing at a high level because he is so tuned into who he is. When Bruce is speaking he is very present and connected to whomever he is talking to because he is trying to connect and relate to that person. “It is sincerity that leads you to the Way.” What is sincerity? It is coming from your heart, your feeling, your emotion, and your genuineness. This notion of sincerity is about “how you give it.” “You should express yourself as an effect from within.” Express yourself from the inside out. There was a balance of masculine and feminine within Bruce, which can be jarring for some people since visually Bruce was such a representation of the masculine. Bruce Lee was a balanced masculine because he was vulnerable about his sincerity and genuineness. Bruce did not start out this way. Growing up he experimented with expressing himself brashly and confidently (others might call it arrogantly,) and in a way that was challenging or upsetting to people. He had to learn to apply the generosity of gentleness to the way he communicated because in that way people will hear what you’re saying. Early on, Bruce was criticized for being brash and critical, and he realized that speaking that way was not accomplishing what he wanted to. If your words rile and inflame people then they are going to immediately be in conflict with you, they will not listen and become defensive. The reason that we still talk about Bruce Lee’s words is because he moved into a sincere place with his communication.  “Living destiny is to follow the silent, unshakeable law in your own heart which to the self-expressed man is godhead.” If you’re going to live your destiny you need to follow what you know to be true and real in your own heart and self-express that. To express who you are and what is in heart is to live your destiny harmoniously. You as a human being are an experience in this world. When you are present with people you are inviting them to the experience of you. What do you want the experience of you to be in this world? “To live is a constant process of relating.” If you are truly rooted in yourself, if you truly know who you are, if your internal world and your outer expression are really flowing as one, then what you manifest out in the world will be an expression of your soul. When you meet someone who is expressing their soul, you feel it. This is what is so compelling and captivating about Bruce Lee, he was expressing his soul. “The root is the fulcrum on which will rest the expression of your soul. The root is the starting point of natural manifestation. If the root is right, so will be its manifestations.” Don’t neglect who you are because the experience of you out in the world is what you are cultivating within yourself.  “To mature means to take responsibility for your life and to be your own. Maturing is the transcendence from environment to self.” Take Action: What is the “you” experience? Are you expressing that experience? Experiment with a small, manageable moment to see how close you can get that interaction to be an expression of your truest self, the “you” experience. If you have a task or conversation you have to do, ask yourself what you want the experience to be. Remember to anchor the experience of “you” in your own sincerity.  Read our full show notes at Brucelee.com/podcast Share your #AAHAs, #BruceLeeMoments, and #TakeAction progress with us at hello@brucelee.com.

Bruce Lee referred to Natural Action in different ways. He would write about “spontaneous action” or “naturalism” or used a Taoist term “wu wei” which means non-action or non-doing. From Wikipedia: Wu Wei “In the Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu explains that beings (or phenomena) that are wholly in harmony with the Tao behave in a completely natural, uncontrived way. The goal of spiritual practice for the human being is, according to Lao Tzu, the attainment of this purely natural way of behaving, as when the planets revolve around the sun.” This grand, celestial action of the planets, the sun, stars, moons; it is a concert of beauty and movement happening naturally with no force or effort. The idea of natural action is action in one’s life without forcing. Bruce talked frequently about the Tao, and a nice synonym for the Tao is nature or the natural world. Bruce Lee talked often about not being in opposition to nature. Our culture is mind-heavy. We are always trying to hack, force, speed up this natural action. Sometimes we can lose sight of our naturalness as human beings. Bruce Lee talked about willpower and being a self-willed man, which is about applying some force and effort into your journey. But this was in the context of naturalness, it is not forcing your way through life. Natural action allows you to gather information to see what works and what does not, revealing a natural path to take towards your purpose. Bruce’s whole concept of being like water is about natural action, being in flow, flowing around obstacles.  Natural Action, or Wu Wei, is described as non-action, but this does not mean no action.  “Non-action does not mean no action, but no such action as begets opposition. Right action is neither to oppose nor to give way, but to be pliable, as a reed in the wind.” It is true that life’s circumstances can toss us around, we can get really mentally busy, and we can blindly engage without sensing the environment around us or without knowing who we really are. Let’s tune in more to our environment, and ourselves, and let those cues help guide us. Pay attention to what your body tells you. Our bodies are the number one indicator that we are not following natural action. The body will become tense and tight in response to unnatural pressure. Our bodies will initially give us feedback in subtle ways, but often we don’t listen until our body escalates to a more extreme reaction.  Bruce Lee would talks a lot in his writings about the difference between the rational, thinking mind and the deep mind. The deep mind is the feeling mind that is in tune with the heart, the body, and the soul. It is the opposite of the calculating mind. Trust and listen to your intuition. Do not let your mind rationalize away a bad feeling. Try not to compartmentalize your life; this takes away from the naturalness of your life. Since we are human, we will want to have goals and make plans, to take action. The goal is to calibrate the naturalness with our efforts and actions. Bruce Lee ignites the feeling of a naturally occurring phenomenon, beautiful and in flow. But he was not always that way because he was a person. There were times where he would not listen to his natural way. Bruce was a growing and evolving human being, and wrote extensively about learning from mistakes, which means even Bruce Lee made mistakes. When Bruce was a kid living in Hong Kong he was getting into fights. He had this innate energy in him and he wanted to explore and push those boundaries. Bruce wanted to tap that energy and use it aggressively, but he had no direction, no container. He was getting into fights, people were getting hurt, and his teacher was sending him home from class. Bruce had to learn how to cultivate his energy and harness it. “You are not in an independent position, but rather you are acting as an assistant. It is not your task to try to lead, that would only make you lose the Way, but to let yourself be led. The superior person lets himself be guided; do not go ahead blindly but learn from the situation what is demanded of you and then follow.” A good test is when we have a decision or a question, what is the feeling in our chest, in our heart? Is it a feeling of skipping towards that decision or answer with ease? Or do you feel that you are forcing yourself to march forward? From time to time, we do have to force ourselves to do things, such as getting out of bed in the morning, but if you are grounded in your life then you can still achieve flow throughout your day. When Bruce was in Hollywood, he had the goal of wanting to show the world the beauty of his culture and his art in a big way in Hollywood where it was not being done. This was a huge goal. He started it initially by being in the system, getting roles, writing treatments, trying to convince people to make his ideas, and doing everything he could to try to break Asians out of the stereotypical, racist portrayals. The natural state of Hollywood at the time was not going to allow Bruce to achieve this goal, so he had to find another way. Bruce had to find another, more natural route to his goal since all this efforting on his part was yielding nothing. So that is when he decided to go to Hong Kong where there were no barriers to an Asian actor being the lead actor. There, Bruce was able to write, direct, and star in his own projects. Bruce was able to execute his creativity and ideas in a place where it was more accepted, and was able to do it at such a high level because his ideas were good, and his artistry and mastery were superb. He took his learning’s from Hollywood, and implemented them in Hong Kong, creating his won production company. This is when Hollywood finally noticed Bruce Lee. Bruce Lee’s natural action was always towards innovation and weaving east and west together. “Support all things in their natural stage and allow them to transform.” Bruce Lee was able to achieve so much so fast because he was so attuned to listen to his body and feelings. As soon as he started feeling that something was not right, he was able to shift and pivot. Many of us waste days, years, even our lives, not hearing and not shifting because we are in fear. “Naturalness is expressed in producing and rearing things without taking possession of them and doing work but not taking pride in it. In this way, the natural way can stand in compliment to all artificial ways.” We can exert our effort without using the effort to satisfy our ego. As you level up, you can let the past go as you move forward. In this way you can combine your will with nature. Take Action: Where in life can you go with the grain more and follow the unfolding of things rather than force your way in opposition? Notice the times where your body feels like it is going into that controlled, tight feeling. When you notice that feeling take the opportunity to explore how you could experience that occasion by going with the grain. Don’t create problems where there aren’t problems, see what is there to be seen, accept it, incorporate it, and move through it. Start practicing being in your natural action. “Simplicity is a quality of perception in approaching any problem.” “Philosophy does not accept what life believes and strives to convert reality into a problem. Like asking a question such as, ‘Is this chair that I see in front of me really there? Can it exist by itself?’ Thus rather than making life easy for living by living in accord with life, philosophy complicates it by replacing the tranquility with the restlessness of problems.” Read our full show notes at Brucelee.com/podcast Share your #AAHAs, #BruceLeeMoments, and #TakeAction progress with us at hello@brucelee.com.  

For our end of year episode we asked our listeners to submit questions they wanted us to answer or advice they wished they could receive from Bruce Lee. We had many, many questions submitted and we noticed that many dealt with finding motivation when you’re stuck. People were feeling stuck and unmotivated in a range of topics from their work and jobs, to dealing with injuries and feeling isolated. From listener Anthony: “I’ve had an empty feeling in me for as long as I can remember. It’s not what I would call depression, more like an unmotivated feeling. Like a “nothing really matters” feeling. It’s been with me since early years (I’m 20 now) and I’ve had problems feeling any belonging. Bruce has written about this type of thing. How loneliness is an opportunity to find yourself. I was wondering, were there any rituals Bruce would find himself doing when things were rough?. For example, when he was struggling to land genuine movie roles that weren’t discriminatory to him in his early years. Best wishes from Ireland.” Shannon shares that she knows this sort of low-grade depression well, and remembers feeling this way during her childhood. She remembers her mom telling her that when things wouldn’t work out for Bruce, at first he would be really angry and frustrated. Then, he would get really quiet and give himself some space and time to contemplate and “go in.” For many of us, the problem with feeling stuck is that we do not want to feel stuck and we want to fix it right away. We feel judgment if we cannot fix it immediately and be rid of it. This is a natural reaction, but it prevents us from really experiencing what the “stuckness” is and looking at it. Instead we push it away and we beat ourselves up when it comes back. If you allow yourself to be with that feeling, it has information for you. When you allow yourself to feel the feelings fully, it can help it pass through. The first step: be gentle and kind with yourself. Let go of the judgment you have about what you’re feeling and don’t beat yourself up or push the feeling away. Just say, “Ok, this is where I am right now.” The second step: feel your feelings. When Bruce would become quiet he would sit with the problem, allow himself to feel it, and investigate it. Some of Bruce’s greatest philosophical realizations and writings came from these times of hardship. The third step: take action. After sitting with your feelings and investigating, you have to take a step towards action. Do not skip the first two steps and go right to the action item because then you are trying to fix the problem before knowing what the problem is. For some it works to come up with an aggressive action plan, but for others we do not know what action to take at all. The actions you can take can be small, and they should not be viewed as a fight you have to make to overcome your problem. These action steps should be towards your wellness and wholeness, and that bring you joy. What works for someone else might not work for you, so you have to customize and personalize your action steps for yourself.  Affirmations and journaling can be actions that you can take. Affirmations are statements you read aloud everyday, which are meaningful to you that you want to make a part of your life. Then it becomes a part of your everyday thoughts and you’re planting a seed in you mind that will grow. If you're having a difficult time thinking of anything that brings you joy, remember the things that brought you joy as a kid. Or remember the last time that you felt joyful. When you're depressed it can feel impossible to think of anything that makes you happy, which is why you might have to go way back to think of a thing that brings you joy.  Doing these small actions will not immediately solve your problems or how you feel, but they create space for you to start to energize and heal. Creating this space helps you tackle the next bigger action steps to address your larger problem. Bruce Lee had tools to help him such as to be quiet, to meditate, to write, to move his body, to laugh and tell jokes. Find out what your tools might be. Bruce’s lesson is that YOU are the medicine and you have to participate in your own healing. You have to be willing to engage in your own wellness and healing. “The medicine for my suffering I had within me from the very beginning but I did not take it. My ailment came from within myself, but I did not observe it until this moment. Now I see I will never find the light unless, like a candle, I am my own fuel.” For more listen to Episode "#12 The Medicine For My Suffering”  “Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system.” Listen to Episode "#18 The Individual Over Any Established System” When we are talking about our own healing and unsticking of ourselves, you are the most important thing. Take the focus off of “I have to be well so that I can participate in this other thing.” You have to treat yourself as the most important thing in your life. We often put ourselves last in the wake of our obligations to our family, job, and friends. The truth is all those people might need you to do things, but without you as a whole, functioning human being, they are not going to get those things or a very partial version. Read our full episode show notes for “#78 Motivation When You’re Stuck” at Brucelee.com/podcast. We share more about healing from injury, time management, feeling stuck in your job, and letting go. Share your #AAHAs, #BruceLeeMoments, and #TakeAction progress with us at hello@brucelee.com.

Director John Alan Thompson joined us to discuss the film project we worked on together, “One Family.” John discovered he wanted to be a filmmaker at 15. A video production class in high school and seeing “Apocalypse Now” propelled John to start experimenting with filmmaking. His teacher told him about a competition that AFI was hosting for students, and his senior year John created a short film that ended up placing. After that first taste, John dove into filmmaking. John still mostly works in short formats, creating music videos, commercials, and short films, including the short film he made with the Bruce Lee Family Company “One Family.” This project came to John during a time when he was feeling creatively depleted and filled doubt about some life choices. When he started reading Bruce’s philosophy, it was exactly what he needed to hear at that moment in his life. John absorbed from Bruce that fundamental part of living is finding that true essence inside of you and expressing it to the world. For the “One Family” film, Shannon wanted to share this story of the fight between Bruce Lee and Wong Jack Man, a pivoting moment for Bruce that hasn’t been told well. The biggest challenge with creating “One Family” is that we didn’t have any footage we could use. This challenge of recreating the fight through non-traditional means intrigued John. He pitched the idea of using old photographs and animating them, which proved to be complicated since we didn’t have an animation budget. No one moves like Bruce Lee, so the creative puzzle was how to represent the energy, movement, and flow of Bruce’s fighting. When Bruce had a school in Oakland, he was challenged by the San Francisco Chinatown community because he was teaching his martial arts in a very brash way and teaching it to anyone who wanted to learn regardless of gender, race, or background. That was not done. The Chinatown community wanted him to stop teaching to non-Chinese so they challenged him to a fight. They picked their champion, Wong Jack Man, and came down to the Oakland school for the fight. Shannon’s mother, Linda, witnessed the fight. Bruce won the fight in 3 min, but the take away for him was that his traditional kung fu training didn’t prepare him for actual combat outside of a competition environment. This opened Bruce’s mind to needing to look at Kung Fu and his approach to combat as well as to training and being in the right kind of shape. Bruce won the right to continue teaching whoever he wanted and continued to do so. He truly believed that we are all one family, all of us humans, no matter our backgrounds, ethnicity, gender, or orientation. This is why the film is titled “One Family.” #AAHA Paul Kariya is a Japanese Canadian hockey player that played in the NHL from 1993-2010. He played for four NHL teams, Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, Colorado Avalanche, Nashville Predators, and St.Louis Blues. He still holds a few team records for Ducks and Predators. NHL First Team All-Star three times, Second Team All-Star twice. Kariya's international resume includes Olympic silver in 1994, and gold in 2002 with Team Canada, World Championship gold in 1994, silver in 1996, World Junior Championship gold in 1993. He was elected to the Hall of Fame on 26 June 2017, and is the first Asian player to be inducted to the Hockey Hall of Fame. #BruceLeeMoment From listener Dan V.: “Growing up as a young child was not easy for me. Never knowing my father and only living with my mother until I was four years old, it was a very difficult time for me, as you can imagine. In 1970 I was forced to live in a shelter until I was nine years old. It was in those years that I was taken in by Bruce Lee's philosophies through his movies. He inspired me to take up martial arts; I loved the energy that was linked to his Philosophies.” Share your #AAHAs, #BruceLeeMoments, and #TakeAction progress with us at hello@brucelee.com Find the full version of our show notes at BruceLee.com/podcast

“Research your own experience. Absorb what is useful, reject what is useless, add what is essentially your own.” The idea of constantly researching and refining your own experience was key to Bruce Lee’s way of life. When Bruce decided to break away from traditional martial arts, he wanted to know what really works in combat and how to train your body for real conflicts. Bruce only incorporated what was useful to him and left the rest behind. This quote is the recipe for finding your path in this world and the first step is “Research your own experience.” Be neutral, be the researcher, understand what’s going on with you from a neutral place. Notice what you normally gravitate towards and notice what you enjoy in the tasks you already do in life. Take note and journal your experience. The second step is: “Absorb what is useful.” After researching and noticing, pull out the things that resonate with you and that are working for you. These are the things that you keep and take with you. The things that bring usefulness in your life, bring you joy and create threads that attract more of the same. Absorb what is useful to you personally, not what society or those around you accept as useful. Take note of moments that spark your interest and grab your attention. If you write down these moments and thoughts, you will get clues as to what interests you and it will guide you to your path in life. The third step is “Reject what is useless.” This can be the most difficult step. It can be easy to identify the most negative things holding you back, but it’s harder to identify the mediocre obstacles. When you’re doing self-research, it’s important to pick out what is useful to your journey and leave behind what doesn’t work. If you don’t reject the useless in your life, you end up carrying it around with you and it can block what is actually useful and interesting in your life. The final step is “Add what is essentially your own.” This can seem daunting if you don’t know what is “essentially your own.” It is adding what speaks to you and having the confidence to believe in yourself. What inspires you, moves you, motivates you personally. This whole process is about radical trust in oneself and becoming the divining rod for our own experience. It is about paying attention to what ignites the spark within us. Take Action: In addition to Bruce Lee, who are your other teachers, philosophers, writers, creative people, who you really connect with? Make a list of those people. There is something in that list of people that continually draws you to them, what is it? Take note of any thought or thing that catches your interest throughout your day and write it down. At the end of the week examine your notes and see what speaks to you. #AAHA This week our #AAHA is Asian American comic book illustrator, Bernard Chang. Bernard did the cover for Bruce Lee: The Dragon Rises, which is how Shannon got to know him. Bernard was born in Montreal, and started drawing comics professionally while attending the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY studying architecture. He has since gone on to draw for Marvel and DC comics, including X-Men, Deadpool, Superman, Supergirl, and Wonder Woman. Bernard was also a “blue sky” concept designer for Walt Disney Imagineering, designing a bunch of attractions in the Disney parks. He just recently drew a book that is an all Asian Superman. Bernard, we think you’re awesome! #BruceLeeMoment Our moment comes from listener Alanzo: “I recently stumbled on the podcast, and, listening to you two have me hooked. The chemistry between you two resonates a powerful sophistication enriched with substance and candor. I guess discovering, and loving everything about the Podcast, I will say is my Bruce Lee Moment.” Share your #AAHAs, #BruceLeeMoments, and #TakeAction progress with us at hello@brucelee.com Find the full version of our show notes at BruceLee.com/podcast

When Bruce talked about confrontation he was talking about it on two levels, physical confrontation and then confrontations between people in everyday life. As you become ore rooted and secure in yourself, the natural tendency is to feel that you can more easily avoid confrontation, that you don’t need to prove yourself. What Bruce has learned from being challenged is: What is your reaction to being challenged? How does it affect you? If you’re secure then you treat it lightly. Part of being able to handle confrontation is self-work. “Wisdom does not consist in trying to wrest the good from the evil, but in learning to ride them as a cork adapts itself to the crests and troughs of the waves.” “The great mistake is to anticipate the outcome of an engagement, you ought not to be thinking whether it ends in victory or defeat.” A lot of times confrontation has nothing to do with you and has to do with the other person being wrapped up in something that triggers them. “A struggle of any nature can never be settled satisfactorily until the absolute fact is touched.” “See that there is no one to fight, only an illusion to see through.” “Intelligence, intelligence, is sometimes defined as the capacity of the individual to adjust himself successfully to his environment or to adjust the environment to his needs.” If there is a confrontation presented to you, you want to wait a beat before reacting. “Who is there that can make muddy water clear? But if allowed to remain still, it will become clear of itself. Who is there that can secure a state of absolute repose, but keep calm and let time go on and the state of repose will gradually arrest.” It’s not about what happens, it’s about your reaction to what happens. It’s not a sign of weakness to stay calm and not respond to someone who is be aggressive towards you, it’s a sign of strength and patience. “It’s not a shame to be knocked down by other people, the important thing is to ask when being knocked down, why am I being knocked down? If a person can reflect in this way, there is hope for the person.” Most of the time when Bruce was talking about confrontation, he was talking about physical confrontation. When someone is actually attacking you, you can discover your emotional response to confrontation, it’s an amplified reaction of how you feel in other non-physical situations of confrontation. “If you want to see an opponent clearly, you must throw away prejudices, likes, and dislikes, and so forth. Then, your mind will cease all conflict and come to rest, in this silence, you will see totally and freshly.” Take Action: Start with noticing your response to confrontation and conflict. What is going on within you? What can you learn about yourself? #AAHA Tamlyn Tomita is a Japanese born American actress. She made her acting debut in The Karate Kid Part II and was also in The Joy Luck Club, Four Rooms, and Day After Tomorrow. Recently, Tamlyn was in the news for standing up against the white washing that’s been happening in Hollywood. Tamlyn was sent a script that she found extremely offensive, and she spoke out publicly about how terrible the script was and how it used offensive Asian stereotypes for the characters. We think it’s awesome that she stood up for herself and her heritage, much in the way Bruce Lee did, especially because it’s difficult to get roles as a minority in Hollywood. We think you’re awesome Tamlyn! #BruceLeeMoment From listener Karen M.: “I have been struggling with Add/ADHD and dyslexia may entire life 55 years. I have always been on edge feeling like I have not been good enough because of my disabilities. Listening to your podcast about Bruce Lee has given me a chance to look at things in a different way. Letting me know that it's ok if i have to do things a different way.” Share your #AAHAs, #BruceLeeMoments, and #TakeAction progress with us at hello@brucelee.com Find the full version of our show notes at BruceLee.com/podcast

(S03E18) (S03E18) - Are Jim’s machinations a little too blatant? Kathryn discovers he’s a dumb double agent. Can he stop the Tetch virus from infecting the city? The cleansing of Gotham is done by committee. Will Ivy heal Catgirl? She can, with her plant. Will Lee’s vengeful queries turn into a rant? When Bruce drops his rage will everything click? A new stage is set in this week’s “Light the Wick.”

Bruce Lee often carried notes to himself or affirmations on notecards in his wallet. One of these read: “Be aware of our conditioning. Drop and dissolve inner blockage.” “Inner to outer – we start by dissolving our attitude not by altering outer conditions.” We are all raised in a culture, whether it is a family, community, or national culture. We all have a way we view the world depending on how we entered or experienced it as a child. When Bruce says, “Be aware of our conditioning,” he is saying that it is good to acknowledge and be aware that we are not bias free. Drop and dissolve inner blockage by freeing yourself from things having to be a certain way. This returns to the concept: “Using no way as way, having no limitation as limitation.” We start by dissolving our inner attitude, not by altering our outer conditions. “Do not have an attitude; Open yourself and focus yourself and express yourself. Reject external form that fails to reject internal reality.” One of our current dominant cultures is the workplace and we let it seep into our personal life more and more. “One should get rid of the obtruding self and apply himself to the work to be done as if nothing particular were taking place at the moment.” You don’t have to have a rigid framework around everything, take off the rigidity and just do what you need to do. “The mind itself is endowed with infinite mobilities that know no hindrances. “ It’s clear that these philosophies were helpful to Bruce Lee, especially because during the time Bruce was alive and working towards his goals, other people were constantly putting limitations on him. “Discard all thoughts of reward, all hopes of praise and fears of blame, all awareness of one’s bodily self. And, finally closing the avenues of sense perception, let the spirit out as it will.” Bruce was in a whole practice of Mind, Body, and Spirit. His gateway into this mental and spiritual experience was through martial arts and teaching. “Man’s mind and his behavior are one, his inner thought and outer expression cannot contradict each other.” Many of us have personas or masks for every situation and it can be exhausting. Dissolve your attitude and judgment; take off the masks to let your true spirit out. Take Action: Ask this: Can I take off the masks? Can I be myself no matter where I am? Take a step back and ask what your heart really wants. Try being truthful with your spirit and dissolving your attitudes. #AAHA This week our #AAHA shout-out goes to Malala Yousafzai, Pakistani activist for female education and youngest Nobel Prize Laureate. She’s best known for her human rights advocacy for the education of women in Northwest Pakistan where the local Taliban had banned girls from attending in school. In 2009, when she was 11, Malala wrote a blog under a pseudonym for the BBC detailing her life during the Taliban occupation. In 2012, the Taliban made an attempt on her life. That murder attempt sparked an international outpouring of support for her. She has since started the nonprofit the Malala Fund, has co-authored a book “I am Malala”, been the subject of numerous documentaries, and been on Time magazine. The most important thing is that Malala has become a voice against the suppression of children and women and for education as a right. Malala, as everyone already knows, you’re awesome! #BruceLeeMoment This week our moment comes from Darrel M.: In my spare time I run RPGs (D&D) well I run a Star Wars version. We are having great fun, and this campaign I have introduced a character based on Bruce Lee. It has been fun to try and translate his philosophy into the game. In fact we had a rather long debate (in my gaming group) about the Dark Side, evil, morality, and the like. This made me stop and consider what I had learned from your Bruce Lee podcast…” Share your #AAHAs, #BruceLeeMoments, and #TakeAction progress with us at hello@brucelee.com Find the full version of our show notes at BruceLee.com/podcast

On this episode of the podcast we are joined by renowned street photographer and Magnum member Bruce Gilden. Have you ever found yourself walking down a busy street, looking into the faces of those who walk by, wondering to yourself what they are thinking, or projecting your own emotions or stories into their life? That’s what Bruce has made a living doing. Although some critics have accused his work of being exploitive, after almost two hours of talking and laughing with him, I can say with a fair amount of confidence that the only thing he is exploiting is himself. Whether he sees the family figures he grew up with, the old characters of the streets he used to play in, or the pain and suffering of his own journey and struggles, he connects with faces at a very emotional and gut level. He sees a glimpse of himself and tries to capture it. Growing up in Brooklyn, Bruce used to look out the windows and watch the characters of the city go by. His father was a tough character in his own right and someone Bruce feels like he has photographed over and over again. When Bruce found sports, he started to find his own voice. He excelled in basketball and baseball, but he always wanted to box. Although his father would never allow him to get into boxing, Bruce ended up developing an aggressive one two punch with his style of street photography that he would become famous for. Today we talk about his legendary career and how it all started. We get the chance to hear about some of his favorite places he’s been, what he feels like is a common thread in the people he shoots all over the world, and what’s kept him going for all these years. So sit back and enjoy this conversation about characters from a true character. To Learn More About Bruce Gilden Visit: http://www.brucegilden.com   About Visual Revolutionary: http://www.visualrevolutionary.com Because we are interested in people's story, and not what type of gear they use, we introduce a new much needed podcast in the world of photography and filmmaking.  Featuring in-depth conversations with some of the world's leading photographers, filmmakers, and other visual artists, we are bringing you the backstory on how they got to where they are today.  

During one of the busiest times in his life, Bruce Lee wrote a letter to himself titled “In My Own Process”. When Bruce wrote this, he had just halted production on Game of Death was in mid-prep for Enter the Dragon which included re-writing script pages, creating fight choreography, and being a producer. He was moved to pause and write several drafts of this letter to himself—each version was an evolution of the ideas he began pondering. Through the different versions, you can witness his thinking and creative process—adding, building and refining with each iteration. He wrote: “At the moment I’m wondering for whom am I writing this organized mess? I have to say I am writing whatever wants to be written.” “I have come to the realization that sooner or later what it really amounts to is the bare fact that even an attempt to really write something about ones self demands, first of all, an honesty towards oneself to be able to take responsibility to be what we actually are.” “What it boils down to is my sincere and honest revelation of a man called Bruce Lee. Just who is Bruce Lee? Where is he heading? What does he hope to discover? To do this a person has to stand on his own two feet and find out the cause of ignorance. For the lazy and hopeless, they can forget it and do what they like best.” Most of us spend our lives avoiding these questions or distracting ourselves, Bruce confronted these questions directly. “The truth is that life is an ever going process ever renewing and it just meant to be lived but not lived for. It is something that cannot be squeezed into a self-constructed security pattern, a game of rigid control and clever manipulation. Instead, to be what I term “a quality human being” one has to be transparently real and have the courage to be what he is.” Take Action: When you feel compelled to express something meaningful to yourself, write it down. Keep track of all the different versions to research your own life and mark your progression. If you’d like to share how you’re doing with this action item you can email us at hello@brucelee.com or on social @BruceLee #BruceLeePodcast. #AAHA (Awesome Asians and Hapas) This week our #AAHA shout-out goes to a close family friend of Shannon’s, Taky Kimura, a Japanese America, martial artist, and one of Bruce Lee’s best friends. Taky was one of Bruce Lee’s top students, closest friends, best man at Bruce’s wedding, first person Bruce certified to teach Jeet Kune Do, one of Bruce’s first assistant instructors, and was pallbearer at Bruce’s funeral. Taky is in his 90’s and still teaching in Seattle, WA. Taky’s family was interred in WWII with his family and experienced a lot of the prejudice and racism that followed the war. Taky met Bruce when he was in his 30’s and credits Bruce with renewing his spirit. Taky has lived a quiet life and has trained people in his family’s grocery store basement for free. Taky, you have been a wonderful friend to Bruce and Shannon’s family, and you’re awesome, thank you! #BruceLeeMoment This week’s #BruceLeeMoment comes from Felix Sinn in Hamburg, Germany, read the full version in our show notes online: “I moved away from my family and friends south Germany up north to Hamburg, where I am going my own way and where I founded my company. And I am not only working on the company but also on myself and on being myself which seems to be a lifetime challenge. I am 28 years old now and there is nobody who I could copy, nobody who tells me what to do, and no mentor. And although I did not know too much about Bruce´s person I felt his philosophy. It felt like some of his spirit lives in me all the time and now as I hear all the information about him and his philosophy in the podcast, it is like you would tell me all these things that I already had in my heart but couldn´t express it in words like Bruce did.” Share your #AAHA and #BruceLeeMoment recommendations with us via social media @BruceLee or email us at hello@brucelee.com

Infected by Alice Tetch's blood, Mario vows to make Thompkins hate Gordon. To do so, he orchestrates a series of events that make it appear to her that Gordon is trying to sabotage their marriage. The plan works, and just before Mario and Thompkins' wedding, Thompkins vows never to see Gordon again. On their honeymoon, a deranged Mario attempts to kill Thompkins, but Gordon arrives and guns him down, much to Thompkins' shock. Barbara informs Nygma that Cobblepot killed Isabella because he's in love with him. After verifying this information, Barbara and Nygma plan to betray Cobblepot and usurp his power in the mob. When Bruce and Selina attempt to use their key to break into a vault, they are intercepted by Talon. With the help of Alfred, they kill Talon as Selina's mother reveals herself to them and helps them escape.

Infected by Alice Tetch's blood, Mario vows to make Thompkins hate Gordon. To do so, he orchestrates a series of events that make it appear to her that Gordon is trying to sabotage their marriage. The plan works, and just before Mario and Thompkins' wedding, Thompkins vows never to see Gordon again. On their honeymoon, a deranged Mario attempts to kill Thompkins, but Gordon arrives and guns him down, much to Thompkins' shock. Barbara informs Nygma that Cobblepot killed Isabella because he's in love with him. After verifying this information, Barbara and Nygma plan to betray Cobblepot and usurp his power in the mob. When Bruce and Selina attempt to use their key to break into a vault, they are intercepted by Talon. With the help of Alfred, they kill Talon as Selina's mother reveals herself to them and helps them escape.

Tabitha goes to an underground killer agency and pays to have James Gordon assassinated. Bruce tries to get information about his parent's killer from Silver, but is stopped by Alfred, who orders Silver to stay away from Bruce. When Bruce tries to sneak out, he is stopped by Selina, who claims she has evidence that Silver is not who she claims to be. Gordon and Barnes investigate Theo's condo for evidence. The killers arrive; however, Gordon and Barnes manage to fend them off, but Barnes is severely injured. Police reinforcements arrive, but are eliminated by another hired killer named Eduardo Flamingo. Gordon is able to arrest Flamingo, but not before Flamingo kills another officer. Meanwhile, Edward Nygma persuades Oswald Cobblepot to move on from the death of his mother, and the both of them kill one of Theo's kidnapped henchmen in celebration. The religious sect of the Galavan family arrives in Gotham City.

Tabitha goes to an underground killer agency and pays to have James Gordon assassinated. Bruce tries to get information about his parent's killer from Silver, but is stopped by Alfred, who orders Silver to stay away from Bruce. When Bruce tries to sneak out, he is stopped by Selina, who claims she has evidence that Silver is not who she claims to be. Gordon and Barnes investigate Theo's condo for evidence. The killers arrive; however, Gordon and Barnes manage to fend them off, but Barnes is severely injured. Police reinforcements arrive, but are eliminated by another hired killer named Eduardo Flamingo. Gordon is able to arrest Flamingo, but not before Flamingo kills another officer. Meanwhile, Edward Nygma persuades Oswald Cobblepot to move on from the death of his mother, and the both of them kill one of Theo's kidnapped henchmen in celebration. The religious sect of the Galavan family arrives in Gotham City.

Our guest, Bruce Sallan shares his story of becoming a first-time dad, to a son, four days after his 40th birthday, less than 9 months after getting married (they got pregnant on the honeymoon). His second son was born three years later. When Bruce’s sons were still quite young, he left show biz to become a full-time dad and to care for his ailing parents, the classic “sandwich” situation. Shortly thereafter, his marriage ended and his wife abandoned their children, leaving the state. He became a full-time single dad, in his late-forties. Hear Bruce share his lessons and musings on being a single dad.  Topics in this program include: Reactions from friends and acquaintances about being a single stay at home dad The inherent differences in the parenting styles of mothers and fathers How gender differences affecting parenting, friendships and dating A single dad’s view on custody and the children’s best interests Triumph over heartbreak; new ventures and lessons learned The real importance of being a single parent (http://www.brucesallan.com/)