Watching Kung Fu With Quentin Tarantino AND David Carradine.

First of all, I gotta give credit to this find to Dot Bruce. I met Dot through her work on David Carradine wikis and as a participant on our Kung Fu Facebook fan page and she is VERY knowledgeable about the work of Carradine, including Kung Fu - I just added her as one of the page's admins for this very reason (and with her permission).

But dude. Check THIS out. Aintitcool piece from 2001 about watching kung fu movies at Quentin Tarantino's house with QT, David and a bunch of other guests. This is worth a read, man, I am freaking out at how cool this was.

Tarantino:

Quentin informed us that each episode this night would be an example from each season and that we should notice that in Season One, Caine was half White – half Asian and that other than a bald cap and sparse hair there was really no make up involved. In Season Two Carradine grew his hair really long, "Caine had gone native, almost a native American Indian type of thing. He also started mixing Confucianism with American Indian Great Spirit showing a comparative feeling for Shaolin and Indian. Then in the 3rd Season it was like Carradine said, now it is going to just be me. And Kwai Chang Caine became David Carradine! And it works real well!"

Carradine:

"I have to tell this. There have been a couple of times… A few confrontations where people just were attacking me because well, I’m Caine and they want to see if they can… You know take me. I was shooting this Roger Corman picture, this big swordfight scene… The picture was called THE WARRIOR & THE SORCERESS although there was no Sorceress in the film, anyway… There’s this scene between two warring swordfighting groups on another planet. Basically it was all stolen from YOJIMBO, the film was YOJIMBO on another planet… that was the story. Well we’re on the middle of the set in-between shots when this stuntman comes over and does this real formal challenge to me. To challenge me to a fight. I was like, you don’t want to fight me, but he did. He threw a punch and I… well come here Quentin…" Quentin nearly pissed himself to be put into a combat position with Carradine on stage…. "I just did this" He show how he pivoted away, put his leg out and pulled on the guys shoulder to throw him to the ground. "Then I showered him with kisses all over his head and shoulders!" The audience begins laughing… "But then the guy says to me, ‘Hey you tore my T-Shirt’ and I was, I mean this guy just threw a punch at me, and he’s… he should have more than a torn short. So I say to him, ‘Well it’s probably worth $100 bucks now’ and a while later he came up to see if I’d autograph his shirt!" Quentin, the audience… everyone begins laughing.

It just keeps going.

OH MY GOD, DAVID CARRADINE DIED?!

Here I was, getting ready to update this blog with my final reviews from Season One, a review of Carradine's autobio, and some other assorted stuff when THIS HAPPENED.

NY Times and AP:

David Carradine, the star of the 1970s television series “Kung Fu” and the title villain of the “Kill Bill” movies, has died in Thailand, The Associated Press reported. The United States Embassy in Bangkok told The A.P. that Mr. Carradine had been found dead in his hotel suite in Bangkok, where he was working on a movie. He was 72.

Mr. Carradine was part of an acting family that included his father, John; his brother, Bruce, and half-brothers Keith and Robert; and his nieces Ever Carradine and Martha Plimpton.

After a short run as the title character in the 1966 television adaptation of the Western “Shane,” he found fame in the 1972 series “Kung Fu” as Kwai Chang Caine, a wanderer raised by Shaolin monks to be a martial arts master. He enjoyed a career resurgence in recent years when he was cast by Quentin Tarantino in the action movies “Kill Bill: Vol. 1″ and “Vol. 2.”

Updated | 10:58 a.m. Thai police have told BBC News that Mr. Carradine was found on Thursday morning by a hotel maid in a wardrobe with a rope around his neck.

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What more can I add? The only thing I can say is that the world lost a great actor. I can only speculate as to why he may have taken his life - it may be as a result of his struggles with alcohol. EDIT: Or it may have been accidental. I am shocked at this, frankly, because David's confidence and self-worth seemed so evident. Perhaps we'll learn more in the coming days. Regardless, my prayer is for your rest and hereafter, David. We'll miss you but, in a way, because of what you left behind, we'll always have you. God keep you, Grasshopper.

Shoot, I'm kinda crying right now!

Zen and Now: A Dinner With David Carradine and Friends

Anybody seen this?! I just became aware of it and will be watching it ASAP.