Thursday, January 20, 2005
music and the Philosophy of Whee!
I often exclaim WHEE! at totally random moments during my day, like when settling into my desk in class, or when getting off the bus, or going down stairs. Am I insane for doing things like this? I actually think I may be more sane than many of the people I encounter in my daily life, but correct me if I'm wrong. At least I acknowledge the absurd instead of pretending it doesn't exist.
I went to capoeira again last night, and had a damn fun time of it. For warm-up, the guys teaching us had us do jumping jacks, stretches, push-ups, and some painful exercises involving holding your arms straight in front of you and by your sides at shoulder level for ten minutes. If you bent your arms you were punished with push-ups (I actually rather thought of those as a reward at that point). Then they had us pick a partner (I chose a cool-looking black girl wearing bright pink track pants and a grin. Always pick the grinning ones who wear pink. They may be insane, but they'll never bore you), for what I thought would be skill exercises. But they actually just had us pick the other person up by the ankles and run them across the room with them like a wheelbarrow (good for the triceps!), then we had to piggy-back them back and forth and do squats with them still on our backs. Then we had to pick them up and sling them across our shoulders and carry them back and forth. Then we did the wheelbarrow thing again, except this time the person walking on their hands had to do push-ups at the end.
To be totally honest, I had an easy time of it, because the pink girl, Ava, was light as a feather and a real trooper. Compared to lifting girls above your head, carrying them over your shoulders is damn pleasant. I felt bad for her though, because I think I'm probably a lot less pleasant to carry than she is.
Ava is in damn good shape, as I realised later on when we did flexibility exercises involving standing on each other's backs. Then they had us do 100 sit-ups, the real kind, not crunches. And we had to count -- in Portugese. Ava is Spanish so she could count pretty adequately, but I only made it to "sixuente cinco," which I think is 65, and which I think I'm spelling very very wrong. I couldn't believe my burnout on those. It was really poor. And she was still going strong. We exchanged emails so we can practice together. At the very least I have to get myself up to the same level of fitness as she is. I did notice that my push-ups were better than hers, but that was about it.
We learned some skills as well, many more than I learned in about four months of kickboxing. The coolest thing we did was something close to a cartwheel, but I'm keen to get to an aerial down (read: cartwheel with no hands).
On the whole, it was damn fun. My abs hurt a bit today, along with the muscles that connect to my abs across my ribs. Hurts to breathe. But it's all good!
If anyone is getting sick of hearing about the silly and insane things I am doing to my body, please let me know. It's all part of a crusade to get me to appreciate my body as a functional item more than a pretty mannequin to hang things on. I've discovered I'm about a million times more comfortable in my own skin if I feel like it can DO cool things. The feeling of doing things is infinitely more satisfying to me than the feeling of looking good in a skirt, or a bathing suit for that matter.
It's also part of my new philosophy of WHEE!, which is basically, if it feels good, is fun, doesn't hurt anyone else, and is not self-destructive, then I plan to go for it. Makes sense to me!
The Boy has set up a fund to raise enough money to send his roomie Kun to a dietitian. This is the girl who exists on a diet of cornflakes, skim milk, non-fat yogurt, fruit, water, and occasionally salmon sushi. I worry about her, so I donated $20 to the fund. We only need $60 to get her an appointment. I wish there were fewer girls in the world who were neurotic about food, but I feel like I can only really help myself and the ones I know relatively well. I don't think I can do anything about the anorexic girls at the gyme except feel really sad for them. I don't think they would take very well to a comment like "Hi there. I've noticed you don't eat and you work out all the time. How about seeking some help?"
For any of you who might be interested and/or curious, I'm going to start a list of the music I'm listening to these days:
Music to wake up to:
-Madonna's Immaculate Collection -- solidly in the so-bad-it's-good territory. By the way, did you know that it was a Canadian who first used the "so-bad-it's-good" phrase? It was Susan Sontag, who just died of cancer a few weeks ago. She was a smart woman, and a solid Group 3 member.
-Hole's Celebrity Skin -- Courtney Love is also in Group 3. And I like that she's totally insane.
-The Divine Comedy's Regeneration -- I love this band to pieces. Their music is so melancholy and so smart that I have to wake up in order to listen to the words.
-Sheryl Crow's The Globe Sessions -- She is one of the most underrated female musicians of the 90s. This is a fantastic album. Stunningly well-written. Pick up a copy or download some songs from it. You can probably skip her new album though. I think the California sun's gone to her head.
Music to listen to on the bus:
-Amy Winehouse's Frank -- this girl rocks, plain and simple. She's a 50-year-old black jazz singer trapped in a 19-year-old white British girl's body. I really GET her on some level. She's provocative, opinionated, and perceptive. She's also a highly skilled musician with a wonderfully layered and powerful voice.
-Gwen Stefani's Love Angel Music Baby -- okay, we've been over this before. Gwen is my greatest guilty pleasure and I'm not giving her up, ever. She is the absolute height of campy greatness. I love Hollaback Girl, What You Waiting For, and Hirajuku Girls, among others.
-U2's How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb -- you'd think that after half a dozen great records and many, many years, they would be putting out total crap by now, but not so for Bono and the boys. Vertigo simply rocks. And also Miracle Drug, A Man and a Woman, Yahweh (very intelligent song about the idea of God, an absolute rarity these days), and most of the other songs. They're just super-talented, very consistent musicians.
-No Doubt's Everything in Time -- This is something of a best hits album for serious fans. It doesn't have most of the popular, radio-friendly songs (this is a good thing), but the covers, rarities, B-sides, and remixes instead. It's actually a great album on many levels. I Throw My Toys Around is a particularly awesome song.
-Eminem's Encore -- I like the guy. I find him funny, skillful, occasionally offensive, but never boring. He is also cleverer and more aware of what he's doing than most people give him credit for. This is not his best album but it's worth a listen.
To listen to whenever:
-Jeff Buckley's Grace -- simply put: a classic. One of the best albums of the 90s. Buckley was just a great light who went out way too soon. This cd for me is like experiencing most of last year in an hour. It's intense.
-Led Zeppelin -- okay, anything by the Zep. They make me wish I had been born in the 1950s so I could have enjoyed them at their height.
-John Mayer's Heavier Things -- this is a smart album in a lot of ways. Musically, he's very accomplished for a 25-year-old, and some of his songs really hit home for me. Then again, it's easy to get sick of his "really-sensitive-but-don't-worry-I'm-not-gay" shtick after a while. I kind of wish he was gay just so I could get him better.
-Kinnie Starr's Sun Again -- Kinnie is a local, Vancouver-born hip-hop singer. I've seen her live, and she's fantastic. She gives our music scene a good name. She's worth tracking down if you can find her.
-Tegan and Sara's Under Feet Like Ours, This Business of Art, If It Was You, and So Jealous -- T&S are among my favourites of all time. They're getting a little more rock/pop and a little less folk now, but they did the transition with class, not as a sell-out. I've seen them live three or four times, and loved every minute of it.
-Fiona Apple's When The Pawn -- she was a formative artist for me, in that when I was young and confused she was young and confused too. She plays some beautiful piano, and she's delightfully bitter. If you read her life story, you'll find out that she has good reason to be.
-Katie Melua's Call Off The Search -- young jazz artist with a long way to go, but nonetheless she has her moments. She covered Jeff Buckley's Lilac Wine. I still haven't decided if the cover is lame and girly or kind of perceptive.
-Aimee Mann's Lost in Space -- another totally brilliant female artist. She's at times incredibly melancholy, a bit gritty, insightful, and completely beautiful. I have a lot of admiration for her.
-Nelly Furtado's Folklore -- another local artist from Victoria. She's of Portugese extraction, likes to use a half-dozen obscure instruments in each of her songs, sings in Portugese and unapologetically refuses to translate, writes all her own songs, some of which are great, and has a tremendously unique voice. This album reminds me of driving through snowy Switzerland at Christmas.
-The Tea Party's Transmission -- I really only like the song Temptation, but it's good enough to listen to over and over, and almost good enough to redeem the rest of the album. They're also a bit underrated, and one of the only metal bands I will listen to in earnest.
-Sarah McLachlan's Afterglow -- she's a local too, and once again has pulled off turning out zero material for many years and then releasing something really powerful that sounds like she spent five or six years writing it. This time around she was having a baby too. This cd has been consistently good for singing along to at the top of my lungs.
-Maroon 5's Songs about Jane -- massively underrated band that gets a lot of flack from people who don't actually listen to them. I find them to be extremely satisfying listening.
-Joss Stone's The Soul Sessions -- once again a 50-year-old jazz singer trapped in a 15-year-old white girl's body. Damn strange phenomenon. I really like her cover of The White Stripes' Fell in Love with a Girl, though.
There's tons more of course, but for the moment I have to stop writing and get on with my life. I kind of failed to get up and go to class today, so I should probably punish myself with extra reading. Ugh.
At least I'm taking my own advice and staying in bed when I really don't want to leave it.
A bientot.
-N
