More folks than we'd ever expected mentioned the January 16th New Yorker article about Bunkerd Faphimai and his gym, Fight and Fitness to us, perhaps because our favored male companion trains there. "What's it like in there?" they'd ask us. "Is it scary?" "Well, no" we'd say, right before they'd remind us that the love of our life spends a lot of his free time choking and beating people, so maybe our perception is......

Last Friday was an historic night in California combat sports history, as the first ever sanctioned Mixed Martial Arts competition was held in San Jose's packed-to-the roof HP Pavilion. Anticipated since the establishment of the Ultimate Fighting Championships in 1993, the Strikeforce competition marks a landmark moment of legitimacy in a frequently misunderstood sport. The card read like a who's who of local marital arts talent, with students of Ceasar Gracie (more on him......

We admit it, it's been a slow couple of weeks here at SchwartzenWatcher HQ. Nothing much has been going on as the Governator has been pretty quiet lately being all wonky and acting all Governor-like. But then, like manna from heaven, we get word that after a few days in D.C. schmoozing with other Governors and enjoying the fact that the Chinese control our ports and not a bunch of A-rabs, we discover that from there, Arnie is off to Columbus for the Arnold Fitness Expo and Arnold Classic. And kicking things off will be a pay-per-view Mixed Martial Arts Championship, the Gracie Fighting Championships actually, one that will be have as it's master of ceremonies our Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Our Governor is SO not like your Governor. ...

Where we're from, we have a fine and vibrant Chinatown. Not huge, but you can certainly get anything there that you can get here (well, except in the produce department). Still, we drop by Chinatown every Christmas to pick up the kind of trinkets, doodads and gewgaws that you can get for less than five bucks and hand out to that friend you run into from high school that you totally forgot to get a......

Living in the city, SFist has had our fair share of unsettling encounters (the weird guy following us up the street, shouting obscenities; loud conflicts taking place right in the middle of the sidewalk, with shoving; overly-chatty BART seatmates; the list goes on) -- so SFist was pleased to find out about the Women's Beginner self-defense martial arts class being offered by the Progressive Martial Arts program. ...