Fabrizio Ulivieri - TrendSetter

I met Boris. A former fighter of the UFC. A young man from Russia who lived in Vilnius. Boris's smile surprised me for his simplicity. For the the joy he had within himself. He started giving me Muay Thai lessons. I liked Tai Chi but I felt there were mistakes. It was not a combat art. The way to kick, the way to punch, I found them improper, inappropriate in case of a real fight. - It's full of fake martial artists. Be careful - he told me – it’s a cult, you know. Old martial arts schools are very culty. Have you seen Dojo martial arts in Instagram? Dojo is an awesome collection of the fakest martial arts you have ever seen in your life. They know that this shit won’t work but they pretend that will work. And you know why? Because it’s a cult. This is exactly the shit that freaks me out! You know…too many fake martial artists. Too many. He paused. He started watching outside, beyond the big windows of the gym. He saw nothing. It was 3:30pm and was dark. Th...

(foto Živilė Abrutytė) The Master had explained to me, without any apparent reason, that someone has funneled thousand of euros in that coffee shop, where I encountered him, to keep it open during the winter. In Vilnius to manage any local business was really hard in that season. There was a sort of depression in winter around the center. Few passersby, no tourists, no business, given the harshness of the winter…an unfortunate situation to run a shop in winter in Vilnius, because the weather was astonishingly cruel. An Italian I knew used to say that in those days ci sono i lupi per le strade. He meant that the streets are so deserted that only wolves go around the empty gatvės (streets) descending down from the hills into the city and looking for food. And I agree with his similitude. Outside the road had disappeared without leaving any trace. The air was smoking with snow. The snowstorm had caught The Master’s sight. The Master seemed terrified by the roaring and howling ...

- If one punches with anger, his mind is dangerously sick. For this reason we must seek love in martial arts, love is fluid like smoke, it moves everywhere and in every direction. Only if love is the object of your mind your body becomes fluid. In anger, fear and in hatred body is rigid, hard. Love is energy, if you have love you have energy, an inexhaustible source of energy. After fifty years of age body needs elasticity and fluidity. Everyone love himself. Who does not love himself? Maybe a few...usually people love themselves, their ego. A martial artist must look inside and seek for love – The Master spoke. The day I arrived in Vilnius my goal was to find a new martial art. The search for it took eleven months. Until I met The Master. After moving to Vilnius I learned many things. A new reality. New people, new culture. New mentality. New colours , new flavours, new smells...a different world from the world I was coming from.  But, the most important thing I learn...

Foto Elinga Šakalytė Vilnius with snow is beautiful. It is her natural state in winter. Without snow, in that part of the year, it is an unrealistic stressed city that does not express what it is. Autumn is perhaps the saddest period. It's wet, it rains almost every day, it does not have a definite personality. Only when the first snow falls Vilnius becomes Vilnius. And finally receives her charm. Only then Rūta’s heart finds peace. Only when everything becomes white. With the premature arrival of the first snowfall, Rūta calmed down, stayed quiet and unhurried. She stopped thinking of Goda's visions. She perceived that white as a sign of a new season that was beginning. Nobody knows where a sign of a new beginning will take you. Only at the end when all the signs are composed they will show the direction and tell you where you are, what you did. But sometimes is too late. Not always like this though. There are times when those signs took you where you wa...