Crim, Again · 20 June 2008
A client offered keys. She lives in Venice and the home studio is a silent wooden nest for my 108-beaded Saturday solstice mala. It ain’t Stonehenge, but the space sure is pretty.
I feel like a hippie, having you know I have a thing for the solstice, but I promise my enthusiasm for the longest day of the year long predates the yoga. Yonder up the 49th parallel in the land of my birth (Big Sky Country, Montana), there’ll be no more than 5 hours of shuteye, with the long days pulling the sweetcorn up knee high by the Fourth of July. Or more like chest-high these days, thank you Monsanto. Glad I no longer live in the flightpath of either cropdusters or testflight B2 bombers, thanks.
Here in godless LA we get a close to 7 hours of darkness tonight, but I’m still sun-stoned and loving the light. Did I mention the Editor tends to have business in South American archives? Winters in Buenos Aires or Porto Alegre… would I be an unbalanced person if I double-dipped the longest day and ducked out of the yule?
For now, everybody in town is having a party this weekend and I actually feel like doing something about it. Some dancing, party or two, breakfast with and old friend. Tonight, Billy Wilder and backrubs.
By the way, can somebody tip me to fast new summer music (electronic, hip hop, dub, bachatta, rock?) before I start taking the new Bonnie Prince Billy all seriously or succumb to these nagging memories of Jane’s Addiction, Danzig or (further back) the Beach Boys?
I’ll come down out of this feeling eventually. I do keep meaning to write about food and feet behind the head. Those thoughts have got to go somewhere.
Completely random Saturday links:
*Laksmi is normal, 8limbs and all.
*Fun with gender. Nagging isn’t female, it’s just what you do if you’re the less powerful one in the relationship. Excellent use of comparative- sociological method.
*I stopped reading the NYT and the smartmags. Which sucks. But this is what ABD looks like.
* Via Julian Walker's good blog, Andrew Harvey talking about how huge the shadow really is and how much it's in the body. I haven't listened yet, but will probably get to it during the usual Sunday night kale-washing ritual.
Posted by (0v0)
Categories: astanga yoga
, beta state
, esoteric shit
, having a body
, sound
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well, you know that i’d go with you double-dipping any day :)
not sure about new stuff, but if you’d ask me i’d say jungle/drum’n bass. Metalheadz?
Posted by: chitta vritti · Jun 21, 09:08 AM · #
yay metalheadz! is awesome-
Posted by: eeyore · Jun 21, 11:28 AM · #
I’ve got a thing for the solstice too. How was your ritual?
Posted by: joy · Jun 22, 01:11 AM · #
oo laa, porto alegre and bunos aires (as pronounced by lady maggie), tres chique. I’m in a medication induced silly mood, but i associate style and beauty with those cities.
hug
Arturo
Posted by: arturo · Jun 22, 09:06 AM · #
God yes, my little chitta vritti you got it exactly right with these guys. I had never even heard them before. Drum and bass I love, and there’s a lot of dub feel to this too—exactly what I was wanting. Did you see their second Myspace track is “Strange Owl Experiment”?
Strange Owl Experiment!
I think I will also get this. It’s a pretty amazing compilation of Dominican bachata from the 60s-80s. I love bachata in summer.
Posted by: (0v0) · Jun 22, 10:28 AM · #
Solstice ritual, reporting in. Last time I did this was in December (talked about here with poems from EOR), but I see I didn’t report on it much after the fact. Which maybe I should have.
Yesterday, my student left me the keys, and when I sneaked in to her studio she had a note, incense and a candle on the threshhold and a new mat rolled out and waiting. Sweet. The practice was oddly easy—just over an hour for 100 As and 8 Bs. Zero effort, unlike most of my alone-practices. The repetition catches you and the resistance is gone. Afterwards, I went straight to dance, which was also intense. In the afternoon I sneaked an hour-long nap before the Editor caught me and told me I had to get back to my dissertation chop chop!
Because I have not practiced a yoga mala since Dec 21, the contrast between that and yesterday is clear. And reveals what we already know: energy is so much more internal in winter, and effort for asana is greater. For me, too, practice in darkness (last time was at 5 pm) adds another layer of internality and body-openness… both mind and body were sharper at 8 am yesterday. It was easier to keep track of my number, and I was far more aware of my surroundings even though this time I was alone and last time I was in a full Mysore room.
Highly recommended, this 108 on the solstice thing. In 53 more years I’ll have done it 108 times! Nice to have a medium-term check-in point over the years, and a way to mark the sun’s cycles in a practice that is so attentive to the moon.
Posted by: (0v0) · Jun 22, 10:44 AM · #
I will need to approach my Kale a little differently now… mine is weekly too, it has all these Luteins…good for my screwed-up maculas!
Ritual, intention, exactly! Fanks!
Posted by: Gregor · Jun 22, 11:51 AM · #
strange owl experiment! why didn’t i notice?! that is… god, i’m without words here.
glad you like it! (you too Eeyore :) i find that some of the new d’n b is becoming more and more ambient (still has those typical rhythms and beats, though). i’m more in for the older stuff, mid 90’s – early 2000. if this caught your ear, you should also check out Alex Reece, Logical Progression (LTJ Bukem), older Talvin Singh, older Goldie, Adam F, Ed Rush. um, ok, i think i’ll stop there…
oh, and agreed, bachata is very summer. love that to.
Posted by: chitta vritti · Jun 22, 11:53 AM · #
too, i mean too…
and also, thanks for ritual update! so this is what i should do, having a thing with solstice and all? i only have one question, how do one keep track?
Posted by: chitta vritti · Jun 22, 12:05 PM · #
What??? You did 100 As but only 8 Bs??? Oh. My. God. It’s just not as much fun without a big mess of surya namaskara B.
Posted by: Carl · Jun 22, 01:05 PM · #
Ok, yes, about the ambient leaking-in. As I sometimes admit, I love ambient music and all its chakra-vibrating, consciousness-shifting cornball goodness. Interestingly, I do listen to older Talvin Singh while I write quite often…. Am excited to follow up on all of these others and will let you know what, um, resonates. Thanks!
To count the Namaskaras, I use some of the coordinates in my immediate space to create an abacus.
This time I took the candle that my student left me and put it in the middle of the floorboard next to my mat. I moved it down one floorboard at ever 10th salutation, so when I had moved 10 floorboards, that was 100. Then I slid it back up to the front of the mat for the final 8 B salutations.
Of course they were all supposed to be Bs rather than As, but as you know I’m a lazy ass. Sorry Carl.
Posted by: (0v0) · Jun 22, 08:21 PM · #
I was wondering how you kept track, too!
OK that settles it. I’m doing the 108 in December. I need some more ritual in my life, anyway. I’m incredibly devout for a skeptic and I need some more outlets. ;)
Posted by: joy · Jun 23, 03:49 AM · #
It is a pretty good post-religion ritual.
Posted by: (0v0) · Jun 23, 04:18 AM · #
“I use some of the coordinates in my immediate space to create an abacus” that’s an image i will keep, thank you, very nice :)
it’s not that i don’t like the ambient stuff, i do. LTJ’s whole production is worth looking into. and Talvin is one of my all time favorites.
Posted by: chitta vritti · Jun 23, 05:48 AM · #
My nasal stuff-uptness made my brain foggy too. (And my French was foggy as well – L’Amerique du Sud c’est tres chic.) I get it, 108 sun salutes for the soltice. Does practicing them make you feel strong like Queen-Mother Kong, or does it make your arms be useless for a couple of days? In any case, practicing in a wooden cabin in Venice sounds special.
hugs
Arturo
Posted by: arturo · Jun 25, 04:03 AM · #
Arturo, good question. In December, my arms (biceps especially—weird) were a little sore for two days. This time—no soreness at all. I wonder if that has to do with having more energy in summer or with the fact that in December I wasn’t practicing the arm balances of third and now I am. Thus my arms have gotten quite strong.
Posted by: (0v0) · Jun 25, 04:45 PM · #