==pla|\|ing lakes==

Saturday, November 02, 2002

A O Scott's review of the new Donna Tartt in the Times

I link to the main article instead of the text page because of that mesmerizing pic of Tartt. Like some fierce descendent of Emily Dickinson or something.

7:19 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Friday, November 01, 2002

Yoga now an "All-American power fad"

Patanjali is giggling somewhere in the ethers.

I started yoga -- a very short and simple hatha version -- in '86 after an Ayurveda seminar, and stuck with it longer than any other exercise, though not lately -- too stiff and stressed, I need chiropractic right now just to be loose enough to do yoga. I know that makes no sense, but there you are.

Anyway, I heartily recommend the practice if you find a teacher you connect with, which as with all things, is essential. Even doing pranayama breaths every day will do you good. Syncing up breathing with exercise, whether yoga or t'ai ch'i or whatever, is very good for you.

No other links right now, but there's no shortage of info on the net.

OK, I couldn't help but see whether the fellow I learned from was on the net and he is, and doing well it seems. Gary's lives on Maui, so if you're considering a trip to Hawaii (which I also heartily recommend), this would be a great thing to do as part of the experience.

11:35 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Still here

I'll post more often here soon. My main site takes up most of my time, and Blog Studio has been intermittent due to upgrades lately.

Also, Newcity stopped sending my newsletters, which I many times use as a starting point for culture posts. Because I'm in the process of changing ISPs, and I lost my Newcity username and pass (it's been so long), I'll have to troll on my own a bit.

Perhaps a bit of winter reclusiveness setting in too. And the limits of Arizona culture-wise. All my culture comes through my PC, whether it's used books from half.com, mp3s from wherever (ahem), or news in general.

OK, more when I have more energy. . .

11:03 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Monday, October 28, 2002

Juan Rulfo's photographs

The library had the new book of Juan Rulfo's photographs of Mexico, from the same period as his famous Pedro Paramo

wood s lot posted about the new edition of Rulfo's seminal magical realism text with photos by Josephine Sacabo (scroll down to 10/24), so I checked out his photos, which are gorgeous black and white prints (compared to Adams and Weston in the accompanying essays), often transparent and surreal at the same time.

I never read One Hundred Years of Solitude or any other Latin American MR books, but somehow I'm intrigued by this.

I visited Palenque back in '87, and it was way past surreal.

7:40 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Interesting astronomy pic today: a sat shot of the Richat Structure in Mauritania (Sahara)

Not the result of a meteor or a volcanic explosion, their best guess is erosion -- but that seems a stretch to me. It's 50km (about 31 miles) across.

What do you think? (After midnight ET, I guess the pic will be here.)

7:17 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Sunday, October 27, 2002

Funny account of Oxford Union debate over file sharing including Hilary Rosen [drudge]

Hilary Rosen asks "Put up your hand if you download and burn music" (most hands go up). She then asks "Keep you hand up if you buy more music because of it" (many stay up). She gets worried and immediately asks some different and confusing set of people to put their hands up, causing everyone to look miffed, and everyone putting their hand down)

One of the proposition reading out several verses of "Thank you for the music" by Abba. We got the point after the first verse, but we then stated to wonder if he had permission from the rights holder, or was he simply claiming "fair use"?

The proposition trying to defend the vast profits they make on many CDs sales, and trying to make themselves look philanthropic about many of the artists they take on

10:26 AM - [Link] - Comments ()