What the heck is up with Tony Jaa?

My blogging friend Mathew MacNish asked me to beta read his wonderful manuscript Warrior Monks. Matt has done a ton of research on oriental philosophy, martial arts, and the weapons that ninjas, Shaolin monks, samurai, and Chinese kung-fu films have made famous. This all kind of triggered in me a resurgence of interest in the career of Tony Jaa.

If you don't know who Tony Jaa is, then shame on you. He exploded onto the American scene around 2007 with a hit movie called Ong Bak: The Thai Warrior. The movie was short on plot, but showcased Muay Thai like I had never seen before. Jaa can vertically jump two meters, land on people's shoulders, and walk on them. He really can do this stunt and he does it in the film. He could jump through a hoop at full break neck speed, do somersaults, and twirls, and vertical pushups on elephant tusks. If you have the time, please check out the action-packed clips I have embedded in this post. It's possible that after watching them, you too shall become a fan of Tony Jaa.

I saw his next film called The Protector and there's a scene in there where he breaks the bones of like fifty guys. There's also another scene done in one shot where he runs up a spiral building basically annihilating everyone that gets in his way. The guy was a one man wrecking crew, and I loved it.

So after reading Warrior Monks one evening, I flipped to the internet to find out what had happened to Tony Jaa and if he had anymore great films coming out.

I discovered that he left the film business and became a Buddhist monk in 2010.

Like...really? What the hell?

Who goes and does this in 2010? The guy is single, rich, handsome, had the world right there...probably could nail any woman that he wanted or afford anything that he desired. He was a living sex symbol, has legions of adoring fans in Thailand (his native country), and a movie career that was just starting to explode. Basically, he was getting enough "power" that he could make any movie that he wanted. And that probably goes for America too. Like he could come here and demand what he wanted in a script from Hollywood and they would green light it.

Maybe if I understood Buddhism more, then I could somehow relate to this scenario. But I have to say I'm disappointed. I wanted to see more action films from him.

So I guess this blog post is an open letter to Tony Jaa who will probably never read it anyway since he's in a monastery somewhere in Thailand and I can't imagine that there is internet or WiFi there.

Dear Tony Jaa, 

Please pull your head out of your ass and get back to making good movies. I wish you the best.
Your adoring fan, 

Michael Offutt XOXO

The Pay It Forward Blog Hop

First off, the winner of the signed copy of Monarch by amazing author Michelle Davidson Argyle is Jen Burke from Jen's Bookshelf!  I shall contact you a.s.a.p. to get your shipping details. In the event that she declines the book I shall choose another winner.

Today I'm participating in the "Pay It Forward" blog hop organized by super bloggers Alex J. Cavanaugh and Matthew MacNish.

Here are the rules:

1. List, describe, and link to three blogs that you enjoy reading.
2. Visit and follow blogs that you see people pointing to that are on the blog list.
3. Visit all of them if you can, but if you can't then that's okay too.

And that's it.

Here are my three blogs that I enjoy reading:

1. The Grumpy Bulldog Blog by Rogue Mutt. Mutt's blog approaches writing with brutal honesty.
2. The Non-Sequitur Ramblings of a Steph Schmidt. Steph's blog is full of squishy non-sequiturs that include tales of school, nerd love, and giraffe earrings of good luck ju-ju.
3. Thinking The Lions by Briane Pagel. Mr. Pagel's blog has a lot to do with his autistic children, named Mr. F and Mr. Bunches as well as experiments in devouring  nasty Twinkies. He can ramble on and on and knows little of the word brevity, but I suppose that has to do with his lawyer-ness. Perhaps he will learn someday that it is not quantity of words that count but quality ;).

Please visit and follow all three. I shall include the blog hop code for you if you wish to join along (oh and have a great weekend):

The coolest staircase in the world

Look at what a group of clever engineers did to get people to change their behavior and choose to take the stairs instead of automatically heading for the escalator.

It's a great lesson in approaching a problem (such as obesity and lack of physical activity) from a new direction.

Tomorrow, I'm doing the Pay It Forward blogfest that's being run by Matthew MacNish and Alex J. Cavanaugh. You still have time to join and it should be fun!

Also in the blogging sphere, I'd like to let people know that Rogue Mutt (a.k.a. Patrick Dilloway) has moved his blog address. It is now located here. If you don't read his blog, I think of course that you should because the discourse about all things writing can be refreshingly bold. Sometimes the comments are even more fun than the blog post. Have a wonderful "Thor's Day" my friends :).