Howdy,
Has June been as crazy busy for you? Mine has been so stacked with opportunities and endeavor that as I write here I realize that I'll be editing out a lot of random updates to focus a on a single theme –

Tea.

I've mentioned on more that one occasion how much it means to me. Not just as a beverage, but also its significance as a cultural artifact. Especially its popular association with tranquility. And with a summer that's already been so busy I realize how essential those momentary bits of tranquility truly are. Critical for getting one through epic busy-ness with enough left-over to actually do something fun; like have more tea on the beach; with The Milo.

Now much of this extra busy-ness was the result of jumping at the chance for multiple by-lines on KungFuMagazine.com – and not just movie reviews, I was also lucky with the chance for a one-on-one with an artistic hero of mine; comics artist/concept artist Geof Darrow.

It's not often that I find find five of my articles featured on this platform's homepage alongside ads for A TIGER's TALE & Martial Arts Masks! But to swing back to the subject of Tea, Geof shared with me a delightful tale of the time he went to a formal Zen Tea Ceremony in Japan. That story did not make it into any of the official pieces so let me share it with you here.

The chance to talk to one’s artistic heroes does not come often. When it does, prepariedness is helpful, as is adaptability. Had I stuck closely to the 2 pages of questions I had begun our zoom call with, I’m uncertain we would have gotten to the subject of a Japanese Tea Ceremony with movie producer Joel Silver. Read on…

GD: I know you’re going to know it, but I really liked  when I learned that kung fu isn’t just martial art. Kung fu means; it's like a talent.

Like if you're a good writer, you have good, kung fu. Like it means your great. It's a beautiful thing. It's like, well, you know, a mechanic could have good kung fu and that’s a beautiful way to look things.

PLUGO: Oh, it's true. It's totally true. I mean, this is stuff that I love to talk about. There are so many layers to it. The example I like to use is tea. Kung Fu Tea or Kung Fu Cha (工夫茶) is growing in popularity out here in California. You can imagine is as similar to the iconic Japanese Tea Ceremony.

GD: Oh Yeah?

PLUGO: just think of it as a Kung Fu version, similar but not the same. Rather than Green Tea it’s more of a red tea. It’s like what we talked about earlier the parallels and differences between a Samurai and a Shaolin Monk. May one’s more expressive than the other, or less formal.

GD:   When I worked on The Matrix, I got to go to the press junkets and we went to Japan and we went to a tea ceremony. And Joel Silver was there just like a hand grenade with the pin pulled. I mean, it's a solemn, quiet thing ahe's talking through the whole thing and. That was him.

PLUGO: Well, so he would do great at a kung fu tea ceremony because there is a lot of talking and the tea is very caffeinated.

GD: But this was just something. You know, how they are, everything is like a kabuki theater.

PLUGO: Yeah, well, it's a clash of worlds, right?

GD: And it's something that I guess we're all kind of doing it in a way, right? As we're picking and trying to convey something in our art.

PLUGO: Right. So you're kind of trying to pull some of the things that you've come to love about kung fu and about Chinese culture and translate it to a broader audience.

GD: You know, so I think when you're doing that, those kind of clashes happen, you know, like you couldn't make those translations if there wasn't a Joel Silver coming in to stir things up a little bit and change things up a little bit.

PLUGO: Those ceremonies are so reflective of that time and that place and years later we're only kind of just outside looking in on these things.

GD: Right. And we're trying our best to figure out.

Early in March Barney Smith, host of StoryComic.com and author of Dad Jokes joined me during a marathon live streaming event I closed my Kickstart.aTigersTale.com campaign with. Among the many random subject we discuss we share our mutual interest in and varied experiences with Tea. Unfortunately the live production was met with some microphone difficulties, which is why I never presented this video publicly. But the conversation was delightful, I miss chatting with Barney - we'll have to catch-up soon.  Besides, if you've ever been curious about how tea is brewed in Africa, now's your chance to find out.

One final comment on tea. If you've been to my website recently you may have noticed some recent updates to its presentation. The centerpiece is the 30 second video of my inking artwork for a tea label. The tea is called Elevenses and it's delicious!

I'm very excited to say that the fine folks at KOKKO WELLNESS and I will be reuniting to create a second in the this series of Organic Artisanal Traditional Pu-erh Tea. I sat in on a tasting of the tea before it's pressing and have only just begun initial thumbnails on the project. What better way is there to close this tea-themed missive than to share those very raw ideas with you.