I haven't seen the first disc yet; no time. But, seeing as how I'll be doing Mysore something-or-other under Kino's eye in two weeks, I thought this was a required purchase.
"How to Work" covers the majority of poses in Intermediate: no Shalabhasana, no Bakasana A, no twists, (perhaps oddly) no Tittibhasana walk (although we do get all other parts), no Parighasana, no Gomukhasana, no Baddha Hasta headstands.
This is not introductory; it's NOT for people who want a Pasasana lesson. It's for practitioners who variously cannot achieve full expressions and want modifications that will productively develop those expressions.
There are delicious goodies on Supta Vajrasana, on Karandavasana. What you get from this disc depends on where you struggle and how much AND how much you've been told (or not) by whoever teaches you.
In general, I learned something from this disc; definitely. Sure, I knew that Bhekasana modification, but I didn't necessarily ALSO have Kino telling me what to emphasize and what the purpose of the pose is. "How to Work" is being billed as "how to achieve the shape," but it's also about "how to think about the shape" and "what the shape is for."
Sometimes the voiceover comes with anatomy info; sometimes with personal narrative; sometimes with advice about how to practice by yourself.
The more I think about it, the more I like it. Enjoy!
Monday, October 19, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
8 Hours Kid Care, Lead a Primary
And that's my Monday. Wake up at 6:30, make sure J has tea and consciousness and clothing enough to leave the house and get to work. As its some kind of daycare in-service day, begin kid care. The kid can reach and grab things, but doesn't have any kind of fine motor control of the hands. He's as likely to put a hand in my eye or grab a big handful of my throat as he is to wave.
8:30, first fussiness. Food solves it. Yay for checklist running!
10:10, more sophisticated fussiness. Food, nay. Diaper, nay. Hmm. At about 11:00 am, I find out that sticking him into the shoulder sling and going for a garden walk will then create sleep. Check! He and I stand up and hip-sway and watch 40 minutes of Eddie Izzard.
12:50, high-powered fussiness. No food, no sleep, no diaper. OK, it's on. Fussy baby hour. This has certain repeating characteristics:
1. You cannot put me down. If you sit or lay me out, I cry, on contact.
2. You cannot stop moving. If you cease to walk or heavily hip-sway, crying.
I dealt with fussy baby hour for FOUR HOURS until J came home at 5 and put him to sleep with great ease. It wasn't easy; I'll be polite and only say that about it.
***********************
Then I led a Primary, with Carol (who usually teaches) in attendance. Five students in all, good times, some laughter, some stories told (I always tell stories when teaching, when teaching ANYTHING), many poses done, adjustments given, et cetera.
Good, good energy. Mmmmhmm. Love that stuff.
Then I read through yoga blogs. I still am shocked that people think Nakrasana is difficult. Then I remember that I've seen DOZENS of students who can't hold a single chaturanga for longer than about 1.5 seconds.
For my money, Nakrasana is difficult because of WHERE it comes, not WHAT it is.
I remember over the summer, doing a week of Intermediate only (the whole thing) and seeing my FBH capacity RADICALLY increase.
Kapotasana, however, responds best to a Primary-and-up-to treatment.
I aim--even though I have meetings and course prep and money anxiety--to try to practice tomorrow, between, say, 1 and 4 pm. I have two noon student meetings and I won't have food between 8 and 1, and I have the metabolism of a COMET--it's going to be HARD not to chow a burrito or something, but I will have my pre-fab raisin/walnut trail mix that I made, and that'll back it off. That's what that is for.
Tomorrow, we practice! This week was a TOTAL loss on practice. Massively overwhelming obligations: fevery kid, 11 students worth of grad advising, test grading, total chaos.
The intention is set. Kino on Halloween weekend. I want to be able to bring my big game.
8:30, first fussiness. Food solves it. Yay for checklist running!
10:10, more sophisticated fussiness. Food, nay. Diaper, nay. Hmm. At about 11:00 am, I find out that sticking him into the shoulder sling and going for a garden walk will then create sleep. Check! He and I stand up and hip-sway and watch 40 minutes of Eddie Izzard.
12:50, high-powered fussiness. No food, no sleep, no diaper. OK, it's on. Fussy baby hour. This has certain repeating characteristics:
1. You cannot put me down. If you sit or lay me out, I cry, on contact.
2. You cannot stop moving. If you cease to walk or heavily hip-sway, crying.
I dealt with fussy baby hour for FOUR HOURS until J came home at 5 and put him to sleep with great ease. It wasn't easy; I'll be polite and only say that about it.
***********************
Then I led a Primary, with Carol (who usually teaches) in attendance. Five students in all, good times, some laughter, some stories told (I always tell stories when teaching, when teaching ANYTHING), many poses done, adjustments given, et cetera.
Good, good energy. Mmmmhmm. Love that stuff.
Then I read through yoga blogs. I still am shocked that people think Nakrasana is difficult. Then I remember that I've seen DOZENS of students who can't hold a single chaturanga for longer than about 1.5 seconds.
For my money, Nakrasana is difficult because of WHERE it comes, not WHAT it is.
I remember over the summer, doing a week of Intermediate only (the whole thing) and seeing my FBH capacity RADICALLY increase.
Kapotasana, however, responds best to a Primary-and-up-to treatment.
I aim--even though I have meetings and course prep and money anxiety--to try to practice tomorrow, between, say, 1 and 4 pm. I have two noon student meetings and I won't have food between 8 and 1, and I have the metabolism of a COMET--it's going to be HARD not to chow a burrito or something, but I will have my pre-fab raisin/walnut trail mix that I made, and that'll back it off. That's what that is for.
Tomorrow, we practice! This week was a TOTAL loss on practice. Massively overwhelming obligations: fevery kid, 11 students worth of grad advising, test grading, total chaos.
The intention is set. Kino on Halloween weekend. I want to be able to bring my big game.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Eight days is too long.
I NEVER stop posting for eight days, not even when I TRY not to write here.
Quick updates on everything:
Yesterday I walked hands to feet in Kapo and was able to press head up, clearly off the floor, but not to walk the hands further in. It would have been beyond toes. That's cool.
Seventh series has progressed past four months now. More smiles, more friendliness, more predictable, readable crying (diaper is wet is one cry, hunger is another one). Very good. But WTF is this 3 o'clock in the morning "I'm awake and ready to play!"???? Noises, hands that work, tons of eye contact, grins on sight, on and on like that. Very good. First air travel is to be Thanksgiving weekend. He'll be six months old then. Crawling, we think.
J and I see each other rarely; she has a combined academic/administrative gig that requires five days of 8-5. I teach yoga 2 nights a week, often, and a night class for school; we often crash by 9 pm. Weekends are all baby time; five days of daycare besides. A lot of driving, occasional parking lot handoffs and then we're onto the next task. It's good that we built up six years of "savings" in this relationship, because we're living on that time now.
I am managing practice on every day but Tuesday and Sunday. Sunday there's simply no 90 minutes away from baby and J. It's not fair to ask for it. Tuesday, I teach double sessions of art history at the intro level, from 9am-noon, have office hours and meetings, have to pick kid up at 3:30-4pm, and teach at 6:30-9 pm. I can't pull 90 minutes in the middle of that unless my afternoon meetings are TOTALLY CLEAR. So I count those as my days off.
Home practice has returned to 68 degrees. Standups, predictably, retreated for a while, but seem to be creeping back. I wear a polar fleece top and shorts and only take the top off when doing Garbha Pindasana/Kukkutasana.
I am teaching a course in art theory for MFA students (12 of them) and it's becoming evident that as working artists, they're not totally clear on their "theoretical" reasons for making things. So I am starting to do studio visits and mini-critiques (in which I'm not trained) in order to sort of co-brainstorm with these people and connect hands to minds to thesis writing to theory. It's a lot like yoga teaching. There is a weird cognitive "hands-on" (maybe "minds-on"?) quality in the interaction; I THINK about what they MAKE and ask them questions that convey the thinking and they answer me and facilitate my further theorizations. It's part watching and part "adjusting," not that I adjust their concept, but I look around at it, invite them to move things, try things, ask how things "feel." It's much more similar than I'd expected it to be. Makes one wonder what kind of relationships would obtain between practicing asana and making art.
When I read yoga blogs now, I get jealous of travels, retreats, training, the ability people have, to have free time. You do NOT know what "busy" is until you're a parent.
Raising a kid is so hard that it makes writing a dissertation look like a pillowfight.
I have successfully put away two and a half thousand bucks, regarding my "get out of Indy someday" fund.
The ashtanga series-class that I began at the end of September is regularly seeing about a half-dozen people, and I teach it workshop style. Seated series, coming up this Sunday. Every pose. Lotus builders. Vinyasa. Everything. If it's in there, I cover it.
Potential plans to be in Seattle for a week or two over the summer.
Job market approaching. Gigs that sound ok, in Wisconsin, in Ohio. Good gig in DC, but too high-powered for me to get.
Writing an article and racing the clock before sending out the apps. MUST get submitted for publication before sending the CV, so it looks like I'm getting my publication history in order. Phallic power, gaze theory, French art cinema, emotional affect, et cetera.
Busy. Very busy. But not stressy worry-about-future busy. Present tense, one-thing-after-another busy. Like an asana sequence. Daycare, school, householding. Daycare, school, householding. Repeat.
Quick updates on everything:
Yesterday I walked hands to feet in Kapo and was able to press head up, clearly off the floor, but not to walk the hands further in. It would have been beyond toes. That's cool.
Seventh series has progressed past four months now. More smiles, more friendliness, more predictable, readable crying (diaper is wet is one cry, hunger is another one). Very good. But WTF is this 3 o'clock in the morning "I'm awake and ready to play!"???? Noises, hands that work, tons of eye contact, grins on sight, on and on like that. Very good. First air travel is to be Thanksgiving weekend. He'll be six months old then. Crawling, we think.
J and I see each other rarely; she has a combined academic/administrative gig that requires five days of 8-5. I teach yoga 2 nights a week, often, and a night class for school; we often crash by 9 pm. Weekends are all baby time; five days of daycare besides. A lot of driving, occasional parking lot handoffs and then we're onto the next task. It's good that we built up six years of "savings" in this relationship, because we're living on that time now.
I am managing practice on every day but Tuesday and Sunday. Sunday there's simply no 90 minutes away from baby and J. It's not fair to ask for it. Tuesday, I teach double sessions of art history at the intro level, from 9am-noon, have office hours and meetings, have to pick kid up at 3:30-4pm, and teach at 6:30-9 pm. I can't pull 90 minutes in the middle of that unless my afternoon meetings are TOTALLY CLEAR. So I count those as my days off.
Home practice has returned to 68 degrees. Standups, predictably, retreated for a while, but seem to be creeping back. I wear a polar fleece top and shorts and only take the top off when doing Garbha Pindasana/Kukkutasana.
I am teaching a course in art theory for MFA students (12 of them) and it's becoming evident that as working artists, they're not totally clear on their "theoretical" reasons for making things. So I am starting to do studio visits and mini-critiques (in which I'm not trained) in order to sort of co-brainstorm with these people and connect hands to minds to thesis writing to theory. It's a lot like yoga teaching. There is a weird cognitive "hands-on" (maybe "minds-on"?) quality in the interaction; I THINK about what they MAKE and ask them questions that convey the thinking and they answer me and facilitate my further theorizations. It's part watching and part "adjusting," not that I adjust their concept, but I look around at it, invite them to move things, try things, ask how things "feel." It's much more similar than I'd expected it to be. Makes one wonder what kind of relationships would obtain between practicing asana and making art.
When I read yoga blogs now, I get jealous of travels, retreats, training, the ability people have, to have free time. You do NOT know what "busy" is until you're a parent.
Raising a kid is so hard that it makes writing a dissertation look like a pillowfight.
I have successfully put away two and a half thousand bucks, regarding my "get out of Indy someday" fund.
The ashtanga series-class that I began at the end of September is regularly seeing about a half-dozen people, and I teach it workshop style. Seated series, coming up this Sunday. Every pose. Lotus builders. Vinyasa. Everything. If it's in there, I cover it.
Potential plans to be in Seattle for a week or two over the summer.
Job market approaching. Gigs that sound ok, in Wisconsin, in Ohio. Good gig in DC, but too high-powered for me to get.
Writing an article and racing the clock before sending out the apps. MUST get submitted for publication before sending the CV, so it looks like I'm getting my publication history in order. Phallic power, gaze theory, French art cinema, emotional affect, et cetera.
Busy. Very busy. But not stressy worry-about-future busy. Present tense, one-thing-after-another busy. Like an asana sequence. Daycare, school, householding. Daycare, school, householding. Repeat.
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