Beware the Dim Mak of Count Dante!

John Keehan (aka “Count Dante”) is one of the most fascinating and mysterious figures to come out of the 20th century martial arts world. He broke the race barrier in Chicago by teaching martial arts to students of any color, organized large fighting tournaments attended by the likes of Bruce Lee and Ed Parker, was a hair-stylist to Playboy Bunnies, claimed he descended from Spanish royalty, dabbled in voodoo, boasted he could kill man with a mere touch, liked to wear a cape and took walks around Lake Michigan with his pet lion. Keehan was also involved in a bloody confrontation with members of a rival dojo that left one of his friends dead. He died at the age of 36.

Would you mess with this man?

The masthead to this blog comes from one of his ubiquitous ads found in the comic books of my youth. Watch this video to learn more about the original Deadliest Man Alive.

Thanks to @xenijardin for bringing the clip to my attention.

I’m organizing a gathering of different martial artists from the Web community to participate in a little experiment I’m calling Web 2.0 Fight Club. It’s scheduled for 10 am on Sunday September 28th at Clover Park in Santa Monica. Let me know if you’re interested in participating. You can get more info about the project here.

My very manly knee

Today I ran for the first time in 8 weeks. Four miles in a little over 35 minutes. Slow, but for me it was a total victory. I’d been sidelined with a knee injury that was brought about by over-training and left me limping for weeks. I didn’t listen to my body and paid the price when my knee gave out during a boxing class. I saw an orthopedic surgeon shortly after the injury who took x-rays, saw nothing serious and prescribed taking it easy for a few weeks. He specifically prohibited kickboxing, running and anything that involved lateral stress on the knee joint. So I grumpily obeyed, going to the gym occasionally to use the elliptical machine and lift some weights. Boring.

I forget how much I really need to run and fight to keep happy, but this forced layoff sure has reminded me. Glad to be back.