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January 13, 2008
Dia:Beacon and other things
Gulls on the Hudson River, Beacon, NY
A summary of my Favorite Things Right Now:
- Yogi Tea's Bedtime tea. There's a mild licorice flavor, even though I hate licorice as well as the word "licorice" because, well, look at it. It's pronunciationally misleading like "catsup" only it has the additional flaw of making me think of "lice". But the tea is awesome! Instead of having an adult drink to wind down my day, I drink this.
- Yoga Download. I guess there are plenty of free yoga podcasts but you still have to test them out (I give them 10 minutes before I inevitably turn them off and delete them), which is annoying if you're like me and you change your clothes and lay out a space with your yoga mat prior to testing. Yoga Download offers yoga sessions that aren't free but they are inexpensive. Bonus: one of my and DC's favorite former teachers, Lisa Richards, is one of the instructors. The great thing about these sessions is that you can find a variety tailored to your tastes--morning sessions, restorative classes, 20 minutes v. 60 minutes, etc--and you can preview them before you buy. I like straight up vinyasa classes and these have matched the types of classes I've grown accustomed to. I've purchased seven of them so far.
- If yoga's not your thing, may I suggest this clip from the "20 Minute Workout". You remember that, don't you? Make sure you have the sound on. That's it, join us!
- George Antheil's wild Ballet Mécanique, the accompaniment to Fernand Léger's 1924 Futurist short film of the same name. (Watch here.) The original score was composed independently of the film and ended up being twice as long as the film. More interestingly, it was composed for player pianos. In 2006, the National Gallery featured an all-robotic performance of the piece.
- Alex Ross, whom I've been a fan of ever since I started reading his New Yorker reviews and, later, his blog, whose book The Rest is Noise is a fun read for those musically-inclined, although I feel a little ashamed that much of my ten years of private music education has escaped me. That was such a run-on non-sentence. Anyway, I'm delighted to discover there are audio samples to accompany his book.
- Dia:Beacon. I took Metro North (90 minutes one way) up there yesterday for a Merce Cunningham Dance Company Event. Why I had never gone up there sooner is now a mystery to me--this is a museum the way a museum ought to be (at least, for this type of art): staggeringly spacious, absent of any artificial lighting, arranged with a single artist per gallery. The expansiveness and austerity allow for the (mostly large-scale) works to become more dramatic. There's no photography allowed inside--and certainly not for the dance performance--but in being mere feet from Merce's dancers, I desperately wished I could've used my 85mm lens to capture the focus on their faces and the way their hands found each other during partnering moments, despite a choreography known for its full-body shapes.
Posted by Missy
Comments
That Ballet Mécanique score piece was wild. Thx for the link.
Posted by: TimmyC at January 15, 2008 09:42 PM
As a tea drinker, I like to think that tea is in its way as much of an "adult drink" for me as beer or wine, in the sense that I drink it for enjoyment. When you're young, you only think of drinking something when you're thirsty, but as you get older the pure recreational and even social aspects of certain drinks become more apparent. When I'm thirsty, I'll get a glass of water; tea's for unwinding and getting into a particular mood. Just because I can't get drunk off darjeeling doesn't make it any less enjoyable for me. Perhaps it's even more enjoyable, come to think of it...
I'll have to look for the Bedtime tea you've recommended. Sounds interesting, despite the fact that, like you, I'm somewhat averse to l-ice.
Posted by: Paul C. at January 29, 2008 10:16 AM
Good point, Paul. I was being a little tongue-in-cheek but you're absolutely right.
I drink different teas at certain times of the day. English Breakfast in the morning (replacing coffee), green or white tea--often with a jasmine flavor, if my cafeteria has it available--with lunch, peppermint tea in the afternoon, and the bedtime tea at night. All give me something to look forward to during the day.
Posted by: Missy at January 29, 2008 02:25 PM
Personally, I'm partial to the old standbys, and I generally don't go for teas that are fruity or spicy. But I picked up the Bedtime tea today and I agree that it's quite tasty. The flavor is light, which helped win me over, but the combination of flavors is very soothing. So thanks for the recommendation. Big thumbs up™ from me.
Posted by: Paul C. at February 4, 2008 12:50 AM