The Mystical "Street" ???

[Gorilla]

Its somewhere in the mystical mind of the loud mouthed who are unable to compete in the sport so they make up excuses to justify their inabilities.
By the way... you have to be dead before you can go to Valhalla.

Then Bruce Lee must be at "the street" waiting to right Martial Arts wrongs!!! If you have to be dead to go there then I will pass. I thought Valhalla sounded "COOL".

 

[ralphmcpherson]

Another reason "the street" is hard to define is that it matters WHO attacks you on the street. I have mates who go out and get in street fights who cant fight to save themselves but then I see street fights with very hardened guys who fight very well. When people talk about 'defending yourself in real street situations' it just comes down to who is attacking you.

 

[granfire]

Then Bruce Lee must be at "the street" waiting to right Martial Arts wrongs!!! If you have to be dead to go there then I will pass. I thought Valhalla sounded "COOL".

COME ON! never ending pork roast and mead IS cool!

 

[Carol]

Viking Funeral.

 

[dancingalone]

Then Bruce Lee must be at "the street" waiting to right Martial Arts wrongs!!! If you have to be dead to go there then I will pass. I thought Valhalla sounded "COOL".

You don't just have to be dead - you must have died in battle as well. And you should want to go there if only for the Valkyrie hotties.

 

[dortiz]

d1jinx,
So you do know ; )

Fb me. I went to Friends school and then Baltimore Experimental. Lived off Calvert Street (another bright spot). More of the art scene hanging at the Club Charles and Mount Royal Tavern etc.

Dave O.
www.fbook.me/davidortiz

 

[troubleenuf]

Actually if you look at the actual description of the Valkyries they were hideous to look upon..... but I agree that the Hollywood version is MUCH better!!! Especially if every day they are reborn virgins. Of course the mead horn that never goes empty and the roast pig that is reborn everyday for the nights meal has its appeal as well. But the best part is you get to go into battle everyday and if you are killed you still get to go to the party that night.

You don't just have to be dead - you must have died in battle as well. And you should want to go there if only for the Valkyrie hotties.

 

[Daniel Sullivan]

Could someone let me know the location of this Magical Valhalla where Martial Artists can go and test their skills. The "WEAK" and "IMPROPERLY TRAINED" will be vanquished and the true Martial Artist will be forever vindicated.

I believe that the answer to your question can be found here:
http://www.martialtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=76077&highlight=street

Here is my long post from the same thread. It should answer your question fairly comprehensively without you having to read five pages worth of the other thread.

Daniel

I will warn you, this is a long post.

A lot of posters have defined "the street" as anywhere outside of the dojo or tournament. While I understand what is generally meant by that and when street vs. dojo comparisons come up, I personally consider this a gross over simplification. It implies a sustained and uniform threat level anywhere outside of the dojo.

Personally, I think that the term is way overused and overhyped.
I almost think that some guys imagine a deep, radio announcer’s voice run through several stages of echo and reverb uttering the words, “the street.”

So rather than simply come right out and say, “this is the street and you need to be ready for it because it can come and find you and bite you at any time, anywhere, and for any reason,” how about actually enumerating the different environs that one finds themselves in and discuss how they intersect with “the street” instead?

The Home: Most often the safest, most controlled environment. Violence or abuse issues in the home not withstanding, the home is a sanctuary from the outside world. The biggest risks are home invasions and burglaries which can penetrate that safety. No, this is not an example of “the street” coming to you (unless you are in a gang or some illegal profession that involves the street). This is an example of criminals coming to you.

The workplace: Nearly as controlled as the home environment, sometimes more so, the workplace is focused on keeping the workers working. Fisticuffs, harassment, threats, and overt malevolence can get people fired. People go to work to earn money. Bad behavior inhibits that. The biggest risk is similar to that of the home: robbery of the business, nutballs wanting to take hostages or the disgruntled employee who decides to shoot up the office. Uncommon, but it happens. Likewise, this is not “the street” coming to get you, but criminals.

The dojo: Like home and the workplace, the dojo is a controlled environment. The likelihood of being attacked outside of a training context is fairly low and there are mechanisms in place to keep things from getting out of hand. Your biggest risk is really training injuries. The dojo's only point of intersection with the street is the parking lot (see shopping malls below).

The friendly social event: Often an extension of home or the workplace. Generally, all involved are friends and the purpose of the gathering is friendly. Cook outs, religious services, picnics, kids’ little league games, coffee house performances, Tupperware parties, and martial arts demonstrations and tournaments all fall into this category. Generally the biggest threat is either a sports injury, a guest getting out of hand due to alcohol or a parent getting out of hand because he or she did not like the ref’s call and thinks that their kid was safe/scored the point/whatever. Such events generally are tame and not the place where partygoers get hammered. If the event is outdoors, it is at a park location designated for such things and there are a lot of people around who are friendly and disinclined to violence.

The shopping mall/grocery store/stand alone retail establishment: Probably the most dangerous place for the average person. The shopping mall or stand alone retail establishment has a parking lot that requires you to walk a good distance from your car to the establishment and they are open at night. Parking lots are rarely patrolled to any degree that makes them impervious to crime. Thus car jackings, kidnappings, purse snatchings, vehicular altercations, muggings and rapes all occur in parking lots. Often the victim is not aware due to being on the cell phone or focused on what they came in to buy. The victim feels safe, as it is after all, his or her favorite mall or trusted grocery store.

It is this environ where “the street” most often intersects with the lives of the average citizen.

The public venue: Large concerts, amusement parks, conventions, and stadiums all fall into this category. You have everything about the aforementioned parking lot, and it is amplified by the lot being of vast size and the venue often away from any sort of residential or built up area and people often leaving after dark.

In addition, you have the serving of alcohol, the presence of people from any and all walks of life, including gangs (hey, they like concerts and theme parks too, you know), ex cons, street toughs and thugs. Not to mention fans of rival teams that often wind up resembling gangs and are often drunk. There are way too many people for the security to effectively police.

This is a more dangerous proposition than the previous environs, mainly due to size and scale.

The Airport, train station buss terminal: Transients from all over the country or the world, massive parking lots with comparatively minimal security and people tense due to the stress of travel. All of the pitfalls of the large venues’ parking lot plus people who specifically target such places for kidnappings.

The social scenes: Night clubs, bars, raves, frat parties, large parties where partygoers party “hard” are all social scenes. I ranked these higher because they are more often frequented and often have the same security issues, but most importantly, they all involve alcohol after dark and are almost always in commercially zoned urban areas and are frequented by less desirable elements. “The street” is intermingled with these places, the only difference being the close at hand presence of some form of security (bouncers, guards) and a large public presence.

Biggest threats: armed partygoers, out of hand drunks, drugged up aggressive people, fights over who is dating whom, rival gangs, pick pockets, criminals and ex cons.

“The street”: Great Scot! It does exist! But what is it? Anywhere that is out of doors with no security or guaranteed public presence. Quite literally, “the street” is the streets of the city. This is, in fact, where the term came from. If you are a teen roaming or a person walking the dog or taking a moonlight stroll on the streets of suburbia at night, guess what, this is the street as well.

Muggers, armed robbers, gang members, board teens with too much time and not enough parental supervision, fleeing robbers or escaped cons who may or may not be getting chased by the police, criminals meeting at a neutral area to make the drop, gangs in cars out on a drive by shooting mission, cops patrolling their beat, citizens walking their dog, stray dogs, lovers on a stroll, lovers who like to ‘love’ in the outdoors, drunks who have left the party or bar, homeless people, and more are all the sorts of people you may encounter on “the street” particularly at night.

Biggest threat: robbery, assault, rape, murder. Mix it up with the wrong people and you could wind up injured or killed. Each and every bad encounter is the sort that would require police intervention. And when seconds count, the police are generally minutes away. Simple common sense can help you avoid a lot of problems on “the street” without any physical altercation. But not always.

And it is this unpredictability that makes the streets dangerous.

The wilderness: Walking on an interstate after your car ran out of gas, hunting, hiking in the woods, rock climbing, bouldering, safari are all the wilderness. Unpredictable, like the street, but there is absolutely zero chance of anyone witnessing what happens to you.

Biggest threats: exposure, animals, other bad guys in the wilderness, hunter’s stray bullets, injuries or medical conditions that may manifest. You just disappearing. The isolation is the biggest factor, which is the opposite of the street, where you do have at least a chance of getting help.

The badguys’ HQ: If you are not a bad guy, LEO, customer, aspiring bad guy, or mutant with super powers that make you a match for a bunch of guys with guns, you have no business being here. Walk into the badguys HQ and you can pretty much expect to exit in a body bag.

Bad guys HQ includes a literal bad guys HQ, such as a gang’s favored place of meeting, crack house, meth factory, secret back room where crime bosses meet, secure locations for black market deals, etc.
There is no security. Unless you are the cops, there is no police presence. There is no public to witness the bad guys being bad. Yes, the bad guys HQ is a step beyond the street. In fact, you are better off on the street.

The prison: I listed this last as it is the most dangerous place to be. Even though there is a police presence and the bad guys are caged, the bad guys outnumber the guards. Unless you are one of the guards, guess what? You are stuck there with the bad guys. This is kind of like the bad guys HQ, except that you cannot leave. The bad guys cannot leave. Since the bad guys are already in prison, they have less to lose; they no longer have to worry about maintaining the appearance of behaving in order to stay out. A guy who is in prison for life for murder has no reason to be gentle or to not kill you. Then there is the issue of prison rape.

My point is that every environ outside of the dojo is most definitely not the street. Some are less dangerous than the dojo and some are more dangerous than the street. The strategies needed for survival are going to differ. Much of the strategum one needs in most of these environs has very little to do with combat training. In fact, in many (definitely not all) cases, if you get to the point of having to use physical force to settle the the issue or effect escape, you have probably misstepped somewhere along the line before the encounter.

As Black Lion pointed out, different people face varying threat levels in all of their enviroments depending upon geography and demographic and need to adjust accordingly.

It goes without saying that awareness, preparedness, and common sense is key in all of these environs.

Lastly, my post is based on my experience and on observation. I have no news sources or statistics to support any percentages or statements like, most of the time or most often.

Daniel

 

[ATC]

I believe that the answer to your question can be found here:
http://www.martialtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=76077&highlight=street

Here is my long post from the same thread. It should answer your question fairly comprehensively without you having to read five pages worth of the other thread.

Daniel

Good post Daniel. I think we said the same thing, almost.

 

[Gorilla]

WOW! You guys are very serious. I started this thread to get humor back to the board. Laughter cures many things including Martial Arts disputes. I will go to Valhalla if I don't have to die(battle or no battle).

 

[Daniel Sullivan]

WOW! You guys are very serious. I started this thread to get humor back to the board. Laughter cures many things including Martial Arts disputes. I will go to Valhalla if I don't have to die(battle or no battle).

Serious indeed. Serious spoken with James Earl Jones' voice run through a ton of echo and reverb.

Daniel

 

[Twin Fist]

some people here are dreaming, and i hope for the sake of thier families, that they never get woken up

 

[granfire]

some people here are dreaming, and i hope for the sake of thier families, that they never get woken up

Well, a few of us bite the dust along the way, can't help it, statistics work that way.

But if you consider not going to the bad part of town, night or day, dreaming, I am happily snoozing away.


And yes, like Gorilla, 'the mythical Street' cracks me up, every time, without fail. Those who harp about it most just don't know when to be quiet or where not to go. It is not a badge of honor to have participated in the most brawls, at least not in the social context I am living in.

Another little tidbit I learned over the years: Most people are attacked by somebody they know, almost all women assaulted are victims of family and friends. And to defend against somebody you know and trust is infinite harder than against a stranger who has not breached the invisible personal security perimeter.

it's like teaching 'Stranger Danger' to kids when the real dangers are lurking at home. So much for 'street'.

 

[Gorilla]

some people here are dreaming, and i hope for the sake of thier families, that they never get woken up

Could you elaborate?

 

[Twin Fist]

granfire, hope you are right


what if you are wrong?

what if the tigers come looking for you?

are you prepared?

 

[Daniel Sullivan]

I think that it is good to have a healthy respect for the possibility that things can go bad pretty much anywhere and to maintain an appropriate degree of preparedness.

That said, you can never be fully prepared. The bad guys are the bad guys for a reason: they are willing to do things that their victims are not. That is where common sense, alertness, awareness, and intelligent choices will hopefully make up the difference.

Black Lion made the comment on the other thread that depending upon where one lives, the threat level can be closer and greater than in other places. Certainly, this will have an effect upon one's perspective.

Daniel

 

[granfire]

granfire, hope you are right


what if you are wrong?

what if the tigers come looking for you?

are you prepared?

What tigers?

Considering the lingering anger issues I am having right now, I don't think anybody would like to unleash that beast.

What if I am wrong. Good question.

But you know what, I am not spending my life hiding in the basement pondering that question. I have what I consider to be a healthy respect for danger and situations that could get me into harm's way. Sadly I had to sacrifice too much of my innocense already.

maybe I am a spoiled 'rich kid' from the good side of town. I have a rather large family of which non had to use force to reach rather respectable ages. I intend to do likewise.

On the other hand, should the need arise, I intend to maim first, ask questions later. Is that street smart enough for you?

 

[Twin Fist]

its not a bad answer

 

[Tez3]

There's nothing mythical about Street, it's a very nice town close to Glastonbury (where you may see mythical things and beings)! Been around since Roman times!
http://www.streettic.co.uk/

 

[granfire]

There's nothing mythical about Street, it's a very nice town close to Glastonbury (where you may see mythical things and beings)! Been around since Roman times!
http://www.streettic.co.uk/

roflmao!