Written by Philip Walter on Aug 21 at 5:57 pm.
photo credit: CraigGrocott
Well, I’m back. It’s been a couple weeks since the last post. Went on vacay, been working hard on the book as well. I shall continue that work, but I managed to see Chris Nolan’s The Dark Knight finally, and the following commentary came out. Hope y’all enjoy!
I must say first that it really was a nice piece of work. Fast-paced, well-written, masterfully edited, and nicely acted. The highlight for me, as for many others, was Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker. I expected it to be a bit eerie and stinging given Ledger’s tragic demise, but beyond that, something about the character of the Joker captivated me more in this rendition than, say, in Tim Burton’s version.
It’s nothing against Jack Nicholson’s performance, which I still think holds up at least as well as Ledger’s. The difference is in the way the character is written in each script. There is a marked difference between the way Burton’s writers present the Joker and the way the Nolan brothers write the character in The Dark Knight. There’s something more mysterious, and more meaningful, about the character in this more recent incantation. I try not to be a moralizer, finding deep meaning in every line of dialogue where there clearly is none. However, I just couldn’t shake the feeling that the Joker was really trying to tell us something important, that his apparently senseless acts of violence somehow made sense.
Could the Joker’s mission somehow be helpful to those of us in the audience? Is there something right about this maniac’s demented point of view? He’s sick, to be sure. Certainly violent … even malevolent, but what is the impetus of his behavior? Without a detailed family history, or the ability to sit this fictional character on a head-shrinker’s couch and listen in, it’s all conjecture. However, regardless of what trauma made him who he is, he gives us at least one clue as to what drives him in the following line of dialogue:
“Do I really look like a guy with a plan? You know what I am? I’m a dog chasing cars. I wouldn’t know what to do with one if I caught it! You know, I just, do things. The mob has plans, the cops have plans, Gordon’s got plans. You know, they’re schemers. Schemers trying to control their worlds. I’m not a schemer. I try to show the schemers how, pathetic, their attempts to control things really are.”
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Written by Philip Walter on Aug 3 at 1:27 pm.
Designed by philip.
Well, it has been a while since the first blueprint came out, but as promised this is a series of documents, so here’s the second one. It’s called “Biotensegrity and Musculoskeletal Traction in Hatha Yoga Posture Practice.” It represents an amalgam of ideas I’ve been mulling over for a while now, but only really came to fruition after reading Scott Sonnon’s blog post, Biotensegrity = Circular Strength Training. As is my modus operandi, I began digging through the search engines to find out as much as I could about the subject, and what I found validated much of what I already felt to be true of the value of hatha yoga posture practice.
Biotensegrity is a subject that has recently come of age, which observes the principles of tensegrity structures at work in living, biological systems. This dynamic dictates that certain conditions be present for living systems such as the human body to function efficiently. In this blueprint, I discuss the principles of tensegrity structures, how those principles apply to the human body, and then how the practice of hatha yoga asanas can help bring equilibrium to such a system.
This blueprint will, like the first one, be freely available to anyone who drops by. I encourage folks who enjoy these essays to subscribe to my e-mail feed, or via rss. This insures two things - 1) that you’ll be among the first to know when the next blueprint comes out, and 2) once these documents become available to subscribers only, you’ll already be on board.
Get it here - BrickhouseBodymind Blueprint 002 - Biotensegrity and Musculoskeletal Traction in Hatha Yoga Posture Practice.
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Written by Philip Walter on Jul 25 at 2:35 pm.
Editor’s Note - The translations referenced in this post are from Godfrey Devereux. I feel his translation is more practical than some of the others out there. If these differ from your previous exposure, please take them for what they are - interpretations.
photo credit: bitshaker
Alright, first things first - yoga is not all mirrored rooms packed with sweaty Gumbies stretching and oming. In truth everything you do can be yoga practice … if you approach it with the right intentions. Yoga is all about getting to the point, cutting through the fluff, and seeing things for what they are. At the root of any yoga practice is that inalienable human right to pursue happiness - happiness in the form a life lived free from the blame and guilt that arise from the pesky human ego.
Think about it. Most of our lives are spent running ourselves ragged trying desperately to calm our neurotic egos, satisfy the often unrealistic expectations of others, and convince ourselves we have things under control. This business of always trying to stay one step ahead of the curve, separates us tragically from the absolutely stunning beauty of the moment.
These ego games we use to define what’s mine and what’s yours are useful in many ways, but they fall short of providing us true joy and lasting happiness. We know there is something else, something beyond the roles we’ve learned to play in our everyday lives. Sites like this one, integralnaked.org, zenhabits.net, and many others are a testament to this realization. It is this pursuit of genuine happiness that underlies all authentic yoga practice. It is nothing more than a great cosmic sigh of relief, which erupts naturally as we embrace and explore that Something Else.
So how exactly do we turn every practice into this graceful sigh of relief? Well, I believe we can learn a bit here from the father of yoga himself, Patanjali. His Yogasutras lay out an eight-limbed path (Ashtanga Yoga) to what we might call enlightenment, and enlightenment’s really just a fancy word for peace - everlasting, joyous, ecstatic peace. This peace can only be found through the cultivation of proper perspective. One could also say enlightenment itself is nothing more than proper perspective.
Patanjali’s yoga is framed and informed by the first two limbs, called yama and niyama. These are basically attitudes or orientations that naturally set the stage for yoga practice. They are each comprised of 5 principles. These 10 principles together lay the foundation upon which yoga builds its house. Without them, all we have is some exotic stretching, odd chanting, and weird breathing techniques. I assure you, if you take these principles to heart and begin to infuse them with your daily activities, you will soon start to see the yoga coming out in everything you do.
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Written by Philip Walter on Jul 17 at 12:10 pm.
photo credit: weegeebored
I’ve decided to start a new feature here at BrickhouseBodymind.com. It’s called, “Your NPR Driveway Moment of the Week.” I find myself stuck in my car at all sorts of places, rapt by some story on NPR. We have a running joke at our house about the fact at least once a day I start a conversation with, “I was listening to NPR today, and …” So anyway, this is my way of sharing these great stories with you, and hopefully spurring some conversation in the process.
What is your life worth?
Did you know the EPA values your life at $6.9 million? It’s kind of a creepy thing to imagine, isn’t it - some number crunchers in some sterile building in Washington, DC putting a monetary value on your life. Who are they to say what my life is worth?
Still, $6.9 million is a lot. I’ll be lucky to make that much money in my entire lifetime. So what makes me worth so much? Productivity? Tax revenue? Home ownership? My sexy smile? Nope … we’re talking cost benefit analyses … and basically what I’m willing to pay to reduce my risk of death.
This story on last Friday’s All Things Considered is all about risk. The first interesting thing about this is the correlation between risk and compensation. Think about The Deadliest Catch here and you’ll get the idea. We expect to be paid more for greater risk, and this implies some monetary value to life. The second interesting point is that the statistical value of a life is down 11% from 5 years ago. Yikes! This could be saying we’re more accepting of risk now than we used to be. I’m not sure if that’s true, but the whole thing seems a bit icky to me. Then again, most of what goes on in Washington these days seems icky to me.
David Byrne is a badass!
Have you ever heard of anyone playing a building? Well, leave it to Talking Heads great David Byrne to make it happen. Check out the story here. He refuses to play this thing concert-style, because he doesn’t want there to be any airs about it. Shear populist genius!
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Written by Philip Walter on Jul 11 at 6:12 pm.
Photo courtesy of
Becca Davis
This is the first lecture-based installment of BrickhouseBodymind TV. The idea came out of a brief discussion on the RMAX Forums about the differences between vinyasa and prasara flow. Do they differ? If so, how do they differ, and how can they be integrated into a single practice?
The first pitfall is to think of prasara yoga as a type or brand of yoga. It is not. It is simply one of the software programs that comes with the Hatha Yoga 2008 package. I am grateful to Scott Sonnon for re-introducing this piece of the puzzle. The other two pieces of software are vinyasa and asana. To find out how they work together to integrate the hardware of the human body - breath, structure and movement - check out the video below.
One final note - I’m trying out a new video player to see if I can deliver a better quality video than YouTube. If this copy doesn’t work for you, you can view the crappy YouTube version here.
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