Dante Update #1!

What the fuck is up fisting enthusiasts! I apologize for the late update, I had meant to give a proper update weeks ago, but both myself and Mrs B came down with a bad flu, her just after Christmas, and me in the first week of January. So I wasn't really in a writing mood for a week or so, but I'm more or less recovered now so here we are!

First things first, work on the Dante video is properly underway now! I was toying with it for a week or so after making that first trailer, and honestly I was unsure if it was really working, and with the lack of footage to show I honestly kinda wasn't feeling it. I hate just using B-roll or stock footage or whatever while talking because it makes it feel less like a video and more like a podcast. Not that there's anything wrong with podcasts, but part of what I enjoy most about these videos is the actual assembling of footage like it was a giant Lego kit... made of video clips. But I've found some ways to make it visually interesting even when there isn't related footage, and I've also hired an artist to illustrate some segments, and as always LCQP have come in clutch and agreed to do not just a couple of tracks, but, assuming everything works out, an actual musical score for large swaths of the video!

There's no shortage of Dante videos on Youtube, but most of them are around 10 minutes or so and more or less a wikipedia recital, or if they're longer and have any actual depth past page 1 of a google search, they're probably just someone reading a script into a camera for a half hour. I said to myself all along if i ever did a full length Dante video, I wanted to do it right. It wasn't good enough to just talk over stock footage or read a script into a camera. And I think with the animated sequences and the musical score, this is going to be about as close as i can get to the vision I had of this video in my head when I first thought about doing a full length Dante video about 2 years ago!

Dante dropping some 12-6 elbows on an unsuspecting pile of innocent bricks

So currently I've gotten about 15 minutes of work completed (video & audio), and about a half hour of script total. It covers Dantes early life, introduction to Karate, and his Dux-esque military service. I've actually requested his military records from the US Archives, and I also put in a FOIA request to the FBI for any files they have on him too, so I look forward to receiving all this information sometime next year and also getting put on the feds watchlist.

I spent so long digging through the archives of Black Belt magazine for interviews and stories about Dante that 10 of those 30 minutes are a tangent about the insanity of Black Belt and how its role as a super spreader of the Ninja empidemic of the 80s. The amount of amazing shit I've come across in Black Belt is out of this world. How about a deeply sensual Joe Rogan photoshoot?

 How about a pre-feud Tito and Chuck demonstrating some moves for the readers?

 Or an advertisement for some shitty strongman contest that will likely never take off?

The black belt archives are a fucking GOLDMINE, and I urge all of you to have a root through it at some point! They're all free on google books: https://books.google.ie/books/serial/ISSN:02773066?rview=1

Anyway, that's all for now! I hope you're all doing well, and the new year is treating you well so far.

Catch you next week!

Nap