The current selection in the Vancouver Book Club is Lee Henderson's award winning book, The Man Game, and we'll be hosting Lee for a chat this coming Wednesday, May 25 at 7pm at the historic Vancouver Park Board office in Stanley Park (directions HERE). This is a free event where we're inviting all of you who have read this great book to come down and have an intimate talk with the author for a couple of hours.
In the few days leading up we're sharing the entire collection of original illustrations that Lee drew to illustrate the different moves in the actual Man Game he dreamed up!
Figure 3.1
The Pisk
The lunging right hook transformed into a fey waltz and a tossing finish; the original move, as eloquent as a continuous stroke a the sword across the torso.
Figure 4.1
The Medical Breakthrough
A complete upheaval in the order a events in which any move is redirected using momentum to swing his opponent one complete rotation before releasing him.
Figure 4.2
The Boxing Chinee
The skilled player uses his feet and knees as accurately as a lion tamer his whip and chair.
Figure 5.1
The Spanish Layover; an early study
A sympathetic opponent will retreat with you as quick as a hound, but if you've hooked a feisty player he will treat you like a Sunday fisherman who's caught a live one.
Figure 5.2
Sausage Links
The giant timber made of two men, head to head, the branches trying to strangle the trunk, which, out a fear, has uprooted itself, and desperately looks for help among the other trees in the forest.
Figure 6.1
The Spanish Layover; alternative study
See figure 5.1, above
Figure 6.2
Rook Takes Pawn; alternative sketch
An early derivation of the Litz, where without so much attention paid to footwork the slaps become far more musical and percussive.
Figure 6.3
The Boxing Chinee, study 2
Figure 6.4
The Litz
A dance labour, a lumberjack's dance, wherein the first player to fall to the ground either from fatigue, loss of balance, or concussion can at least remain proud to have given his opponent such a tiring, hard-won point.
The original variant of the Rook Takes Pawn, where if you choose to attack with your legs, your opponent can attack only with his arms, and vice versa, all while moving in a sixteen-bar rhythm.
Figure 6.5
The Wheelbarrow
Any farmer who has competed with his barrow down a rocky slope can master this amusing competition.
Don't miss the FREE Vancouver Book Club meeting with Lee Henderson on Wednesday, May 25 at 7pm at the historic Vancouver Park Board office in Stanley Park! Click HERE for more info.
