Tai Chi in Pop Culture

Nei Jia: the Qigong and Taijiquan Forum Taijiquan and the Internal Martial Arts
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Tai Chi has been in Parade many times. In fact, Parade runs a regular ad for a Tai Chi for Senior program and used to advertise Carradine’s Tai Chi vids. In fact, I found 37 articles on Parade’s site when I did the keyword search. So why bother posting this? Parade is one of the largest magazines in America, distributed in over 470 Sunday newspapers with a circulation of 33 million and an estimated readership of 72 million. It’s a good barometer on the pop perception of Tai Chi.

Better Balance With Tai Chi
by Michael O’Shea
published: 05/03/2009

  1. Better Balance With Tai Chi
  2. Go With The Flow
  3. What’s a good low-impact workout for those living with a chronic illness?
    According to new research, patients who have suffered a stroke may be able to regain some of their lost balance by practicing tai chi, a form of Chinese martial arts. Tai chi involves slow, rhythmic movements that are circular, flowing, and low-impact. It is sometimes called “moving meditation,” because you do it while breathing deeply, which helps to balance your mind and body.

Scientists from the University of Illinois at Chicago found that people who learned tai chi after having a stroke showed significant improvements when tested on their ability to maintain balance while shifting weight, leaning in different directions, and standing on movable surfaces (as on a bus). Their progress was evident after only six weeks of training with a physical therapist in weekly tai chi classes and practicing by themselves at home.

Done regularly, tai chi can reduce the risk of falls and injury. It also may improve circulation, flexibility, posture, blood pressure, and heart rate, as well as ease pain, reduce stress, increase energy, and prevent osteoporosis. One study even shows benefits in people with fibromyalgia. Free or affordable classes are taught at many local Ys and community centers.

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Tai Chi on Family Guy

Follow the link for the vid.

Stewie Griffin Does Tai Chi!
Posted on July 1, 2013 by Slanted Flying in Film and TV, Videos with 0 Comments

Stewie Griffin from the animated TV series “Family Guy” is seen practicing Tai Chi at the beginning of the episode “the Blind Side” from Season 11 which aired on January 15, 2012.

Enjoy watching Stewie practice Tai Chi in this video clip below!

While this show is not always politically correct and not everyone enjoys this type of Humor, this is a fine example of Tai Chi being used in TV and Movies.

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When my former employer started marketing Celebrex, there were some snippets of people practicing taijiquan, in most, if not all of their prime time slots!

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That’s a good one, mawali

I found some related stories from 2007 about that campaign in WSJ’s archives.

March 29, 2007, 9:46 AM

Celebrex: More Gray-Haired Tai Chi?
By Jacob Goldstein

The comeback continues for Pfizer’s Celebrex, baby step by baby step. In the latest turn, Pfizer may resume TV advertising for Celebrex, three years after the company pulled the ads in the wake of safety concerns sparked by the Vioxx mess, the Chicago Tribune reports this morning.

Celebrex is the last of the class of painkilling pills, known as Cox-2 inhibitors, still on the U.S. market, after the withdrawal of Vioxx and Pfizer’s Bextra, a cousin of Celebrex. The massive consumer advertising push for the drugs came under scrutiny in 2004, after Vioxx was withdrawn when it became clear that the drug increased the risk of heart attacks. Critics said the ad blitzes led patients who would have been better served by older, generic drugs, such as ibuprofen and naproxen, to seek prescriptions for Cox-2 drugs.

Last year, Pfizer re-launched consumer ads for Celebrex in print; TV ads could appear this summer, the Tribune says. The ads would likely include a strong warning of the risk of heart attack and stroke in people taking Celebrex. No word on whether the company will bring back the old ads with people of a certain age doing tai chi in the park (pictured above, left).

Boomers do seem to want their Cox-2s — and the drug makers want to sell them. As the Tribune reported last week, sales of Celebrex rebounded 18% last year. Merck is seeking FDA approval for another Cox-2, Arcoxia. Novartis recently started selling its Cox-2 Prexige in Europe, and hopes to bring the drug to the U.S. market next year.

April 2, 2007, 10:14 AM

Celebrex: Not New, Unimproved
By Scott Hensley

Pfizer has revived TV advertising for its arthritis painkiller Celebrex with a bracing animated spot (pictured at left) that hammers away at problems with alternative pills, such as prescription ibuprofen and naproxen. Gone are Celebrex’s feelgood Tai Chi ads. Now you get a cold splash of water in the face. Celebrex and other painkillers all have problems.

Why take Celebrex then? You have to wait through half the ad to find out. If you do, you’ll learn that Celebrex users reported less abdominal pain, nausea and indigestion than people taking ibuprofen and naproxen in some studies. And Celebrex can be taken with low-dose aspirin, a common approach for reducing heart-attack risk. Oh, and as the ad reminds us, “Celebrex has never been taken off the market.” As advertising goes, that claim seems like pretty thin gruel. Celebrex is the last of the so-called Cox-2 inhibitors still standing in the U.S. Merck & Co.’s Vioxx and Pfizer’s Bextra were yanked due to their risks.

The irony is that Cox-2 medicines weren’t better at relieving pain than older remedies. Instead, they were supposed to cause fewer ulcers and other gastrointestinal side effects. But Celebrex, unlike Vioxx, never proved a strong gastrointestinal benefit. So the Celebrex label can’t claim much in the way of advantage over older pills, like naproxen. The new ad seems to say that’s okay. Sure, Celebrex carries risks, but we’re in the same boat as the other medicines you might consider, so don’t worry so much.

Predicting individual results from painkillers is almost impossible, so it’s worth having options. But for most patients is Celebrex worth $3 and change a day? A month’s supply of generic naproxen can be had for $11.

Upon seeing the Celebrex ad, the Health Blog flashed back to an infamous bit from the glory days of Saturday Night Live. Dan Ackroyd plays toy exec Irwin Mainway, whose unorthodox products included “Bag O’ Glass.” Candice Bergen, as a consumer reporter, is dumbfounded: “I don’t understand. I mean, children could seriously cut themselves on any one of these pieces!” But Mainway is unfazed: “No! Look, we put a label on every bag that says, ‘Kid! Be careful – broken glass!’ ”

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My own opinion only and does not reflect any organizational investment in said media spots.:confused:

GI effects may be less but people not diagnosed with NIDDM or hypertension can have events over mild due to labeling instructions.
I had a friend who attended the same taiji classes that I did and he was going to university at the time. About 5-6 years later, I saw him limping and having problem walking and I asked what the problem and he attributed it to his taking of this new novel COX-2 inhibition (unsure of which one:confused:) but he was walking like an old man. Apparently, there was RA generalized arthritis but on taking this new product, he was worse off than if he didn’t take it.

One size fits all drug intervention is not always so one has to way personal vs objective use in the matter! Some of the old Celebrex print does show tai chi in the actual ad campaign.

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Are there enough Tai Chi players in Tampa to support a hotel?

Anyone here connected to the Taoist Tai Chi Society of the United States of America?

Potential buyer eyes historic Fenway as tai chi hub
Keyonna SummersKeyonna Summers, Times Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 10, 2013 7:42pm


Fenway Hotel used to be a hot spot for the rich and famous. It became the campus for Trinity Bible College in 1961, then Schiller in 1991. It is currently vacant.JIM DAMASKE | Times (2011)

DUNEDIN — A representative of the Taoist Tai Chi Society of the United States of America says the organization is pursuing purchase of one of Pinellas County’s iconic historic hotels, the Fenway in Dunedin.

Real estate broker Bill Sweetnam said the health and wellness society is in the “final throes” of contract negotiations with PNC Bank, which is foreclosing on the 6.4-acre waterfront property at 453 Edgewater Drive.

Sweetnam said the society intends to turn the property into a hotel and practice space for people attending workshops and formal instruction in tai chi, a centuries-old form of slow-moving, Chinese-influenced exercise.

The 50,000-member society’s Toronto headquarters draws thousands of people a year from around the world, and the Fenway would similarly function as the society’s U.S. hub, he said.

People “will come to the Fenway property, be able to stay at the hotel, attend workshops and avail themselves of everything else that the lovely city has to offer,” said Sweetnam, a board member of the Dunedin tai chi branch.

Sweetnam wouldn’t reveal the purchase price, but Loopnet.com lists the property at $3.9 million. He acknowledged that renovation of the long-vacant, 1920s Fenway could cost millions.

A sale would mark a victory for the bank and Fenway owner George Rahdert, who have been in foreclosure proceedings.

Rahdert, a St. Petersburg attorney who represents the Tampa Bay Times, purchased the hotel in 2006 from Schiller International University, planning to restore and expand it into a 132-room, high-end resort, but the project was derailed, in part because of the poor economy.

After PNC last year declared the unsecured, deteriorating property a “public safety hazard,” a judge appointed a receiver to oversee upkeep.

Rahdert and the receiver, Bruce Keene of Tampa-based Franklin Street Management Services, said Wednesday that no one has submitted formal paperwork to buy the hotel. PNC Bank could not be reached late Wednesday for comment.

While the contract has not been signed by all parties, Sweetnam said “it’s getting close,” that “the deal points are pretty much settled” and that final terms are being ironed out. He acknowledged that the deal would likely take months to close.

Sweetnam has scheduled a meeting this month to discuss the society’s vision for the property with city officials. Unlike Rahdert, he said, the society doesn’t plan any additions.

The group chose Dunedin, he said, in honor of late International Taoist Tai Chi Society founder Master Moy Lin Shin, who years ago visited Tampa Bay and fell in love with the area.

City manager Rob DiSpirito said he’s eager to hear the pitch: “We’re always happy to sit down and listen to people. Stand by.”

Keyonna Summers can be reached at (727) 445-4153 or ksummers@tampabay.com.