rachel johnston: March 2011

Thursday, 31 March 2011

Pose of the week...

Sirsasana (Headstand)

Benefits

Calms the brain and helps relieve stress and mild depression
Stimulates the pituitary and pineal glands
Strengthens the arms, legs, and spine
Strengthens the lungs
Tones the abdominal organs
Improves digestion
Helps relieve the symptoms of menopause
Therapeutic for asthma, infertility, insomnia, and sinusitis
Makes you feel like you've had a double espresso!

Contraindications and Cautions

Back injury
Headache
Heart condition
High blood pressure
Menstruation
Neck injury
Low blood pressure: Don't start practice with this pose
Pregnancy: If you are experienced with this pose, you can continue to practice it late into pregnancy. However, don't take up the practice of Sirsasana after you become pregnant.
Sirsasana is considered to be an intermediate to advanced pose. Do not perform this pose without sufficient prior experience or unless you have the supervision of an experienced teacher. Some schools of yoga recommend doing Sirsasana before Sarvangasana, others vice versa.

Source: http://www.myconfinedspace.com/

Tove Jansson - Adult Fiction

I love these books...everyone should read them!

Wednesday, 30 March 2011

The Foot

You can't build a house on shaky foundations!

DORSAL SURFACE OF THE LEFT FOOT,
1, the astragalus, its upper articular surface.
2, its anterior extremity, which articulates with (4) the scaphoid bone.
3, the os calcis, or heel bone.
4, the scaphoid bone.
5, the internal cuneiform bone.
6, the middle cuneiform bone.
7, the external cuneiform bone.
8, the cuboid bone.
9, the metatarsal bones of the first and second toes.
10, 11, the first and second phalanges of the great toe.
12, 13, 15, the first, second, and third phalanges of the second toe.

Still. Kiki Smith, 2006

Wild Geese
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting--
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

Mary Oliver

Source: http://www.vagabondbond.com/

French & Saunders - Old Ladies Museum Tour

Abe's Penny

Issue 2.10 featuring Flora Hanitijo and Dan Chaon

2.9 featuring Massimo Vitali and James Yeh

2.5 featuring Aria Newton and P. Scott Cunningham

Brooklyn based micromagazine Abe's Penny have used a very imaginative approach for their monthly magazine. They work with a different artist and writer pairing every month, creating postcard art sets that they mail out to subscibers. You receive one issue per month as a four part postcard set, tantalisingly posted in weekly doses...it brings to mind the way 19th century novels were published in periodicals like episodes of Eastenders. FUN! Check it out here http://www.abespenny.com/