>>742 (OP)
I have a practical interest in martial arts, because the area in which I live is deteriorating very rapidly, and I'm not getting any younger. I am in a college town, or at least it used to be. I don't know very much about the subject matter. I hear there are a lot of shitty "McDojos," which doesn't surprise me, given the prevalence of idiots and bullshit artists presenting themselves as experts on every other topic.
I am old, not very flexible, and not in very good shape, though I'm working on it. I am mainly interested in forms that would permit me to disengage rapidly from a belligerent crackhead who's closing to arm's length distance without hanging around to get stomped to death by twenty of his homeboys. I have some very small knowledge of edged weapons, enough that I really, really don't want any involvement in a knife fight.
I also don't have the faintest idea how much any of this costs. There are some martial arts studios listed as being in the same town. None of them has any prices on the web page, all of it is "leave your contact information in the form and one of our salesmen will call you to see what he can talk you into today."