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Sunday, 31 March 2013
Friday, 29 March 2013
Thursday, 28 March 2013
Katrien De Blauwer
Katrien De Blauwer
Eisenstein believed that film montage could create ideas or have an impact beyond the individual images. Two or more images edited together create a "tertium quid" (third thing) that makes the whole greater than the sum of its individual parts.
Montage theory: Eisenstein
Rebecca Horn
Mechanischer Körperfächer (body fan 2) - rebecca horn
"the fan suits my body -- i carry it and i
balance it on my shoulders so that head and shoulders constitute the
central axis of the two semi-circles -- starting position -- the two
semi-circles of the fan close over my head -- when i move my body's
balance, the two semi-circles change their horizontal starting position
and begin to turn -- one semicircle turns in fron of my body, the other
one behind it, so that my body becomes the fixed axis for the
semicircles -- when the rotation is slow, just sections of my body can
be seen by turn -- when the two semicircles rotate fast, they close in a
transparent circle."
-- rebecca horn
via flash art n. 46-47, june 1974
Pose of the week
Salabhasana (Locust Pose)
When practised with attention to the distribution of movement, this posture is the most fundamental of backbends. It engages the extensor muscles of the body in a patterned way, developing an even tone, while at the same time encouraging a release of the flexor muscles. It is the only back bend to to act this way, making it and important posture for restoring the balance between flexion and extension.
The muscles used here are the hamstrings and gluteals to extend the legs, the erector spinae to extend the spine and the lower trapezius to anchor the scapular down. The difficult places to move from, as with most backbends, are the hip joint and the thoracic spine. Pursuing the extension needed to much from the neck and low back, which most people can do with ease, when practicing these back bending movements is pointless.
When movement comes from the hip joint, the lumbar will be protected, but this can only happen if there is enough length and release in the iliopsoas muscle and the iliofemoral ligament. If you attempt to lift against resistance from the hip flexors, you will likely find yourself compressing the lumbar and trying to bend from another easily accessible place, the neck.
Remember, as always, it is not how far you bend that is important, but how well distributed your pattern of movement is.
(image found here)
Wednesday, 27 March 2013
The Strew of Salt and Oil (Buttermilk, Cornmeal)
Because my grandmother made meJake Adam York, "Grace"
the breakfast her mother made her,
when I crack the eggs, pat the butter
on the toast, and remember the bacon
to cast iron, to fork, to plate, to tongue,
my great grandmother moves my hands
to whisk, to spatula, to biscuit ring,
and I move her hands too, making
her mess, so the syllable of batter
I'll find tomorrow beneath the fridge
and the strew of salt and oil are all
memorials, like the pan-fried chicken
that whistles in the grease in the voice
of my best friend's grandmother
like a midnight mockingbird,
and the smoke from the grill
is the smell of my father coming home
from the furnace and the tang
of vinegar and char is the smell
of Birmingham, the smell
of coming home, of history, redolent
as the salt of black-and-white film
when I unwrap the sandwich
from the wax-paper the wax-paper
crackling like the cold grass
along the Selma to Montgomery road,
like the foil that held
Medgar's last meal, a square of tin
that is just the ghost of that barbecue
I can imagine to my tongue
when I stand at the pit with my brother
and think of all the hands and mouths
and breaths of air that sharpened
this flavor and handed it down to us,
I feel all those hands inside
my hands when it's time to spread
the table linen or lift a coffin rail
and when the smoke billows from the pit
I think of my uncle, I think of my uncle
rising, not falling, when I raise
the buttermilk and the cornmeal to the light
before giving them to the skillet
and sometimes I say the recipe
to the air and sometimes I say his name
or her name or her name
and sometimes I just set the table
because meals are memorials
that teach us how to move,
history moves in us as we raise
our voices and then our glasses
to pour a little out for those
who poured out everything for us,
we pour ourselves for them,
so they can eat again.
Mix Tape
1. People Get Ready -- The Impressions
2. Through & Through -- My Bubba & Mi
3. Froggie Went A Courtin' -- Bob Dylan
4. Born in Hard Luck -- Chris Bouchillon
5. Wish You Were Here -- Lia Ices
6. Funky Malaguena -- Snooks Eaglin
7. Green Garden -- Laura Mvula
8. Ana - Los Saicos
9. Rain Dance -- Valerie June
10. Leap frog -- Louis Armstrong
Tuesday, 26 March 2013
Gordan Shark
1. Ska, Where Duh Ann Sing?
2. Mindless Movement
3. For No One
4. Bah Al Arena
All image by Gordan Shark
Sunday, 24 March 2013
Saturday, 23 March 2013
Something i love...
Not strictly yoga related but, with the previous post in mind, I love looking at old photos...i do it most days...and now the National Geographic has a tumblr. Oh happy days!!
Friday, 22 March 2013
Important stuff...
Sugar, not fat, exposed as deadly villain in obesity epidemic
It's addictive and toxic, like a drug, and we need to wean ourselves off it, says US doctor
Sugar – given to children by adults, lacing our breakfast cereals and
a major part of our fizzy drinks – is the real villain in the obesity
epidemic, and not fat as people used to think, according to a leading US
doctor who is taking on governments and the food industry.
Dr
Robert Lustig, who was this month in London and Oxford for a series of
talks about his research, likens sugar to controlled drugs. Cocaine and
heroin are deadly because they are addictive and toxic – and so is
sugar, he says. "We need to wean ourselves off. We need to de-sweeten
our lives. We need to make sugar a treat, not a diet staple," he said.
"The
food industry has made it into a diet staple because they know when
they do you buy more. This is their hook. If some unscrupulous cereal
manufacturer went out and laced your breakfast cereal with morphine to
get you to buy more, what would you think of that? They do it with sugar
instead."
Read the full article here
(Sarah Boseley, health editor at The Guardian)