Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Walking Meditation

I spent this weekend at a wonderful meditation workshop in the city which was intense, difficult, inspiring. We sat and walked, and during the walking meditation you focus on the sensation of your feet contacting the ground. I had a clear sense, during one wonderful bout of walking, of feet communicating with earth--a feeling of gesturing and receiving sense impressions, or more, through a totally different part of the body. I was kind of blown away by the experience.

Monday, August 21, 2006

Mysteries of Conducting

An excellent article in The New Yorker (August 21, 2006) by Justin Davidson on the art of conducting, and the mystery of the personal language that each conductor develops to control the whole vast range of musical elements. Sadly I can't link to the actual article because it doesn't seem to have been posted. I particularly liked James Conlon's observation that "a maestro's gestures fall into two groups, which might be described as 'Get ready!' and 'Go!'" It's worth checking out.

On a personal note, I discovered last week that I can no longer post from work. Ah, the joys of the firewall. This just means making sure blogging is my @home computer list (for those of you into GTD) where it has now been entered. We shall see...

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Gorilla Gestures

No, I don't mean excedingly large human gestures! Check out this wonderful website by Joanne Tanner on gestures observed in gorillas, particularly at the San Francisco Zoo. I was particuarly entranced to find that one of the gorillas has a gesture of looking at her wrist, as if looking at her watch (the "wrist glance") to indicate a delay in action. They must see many visitors a day do it, after all.

Saturday, August 05, 2006

Drips and more

I went to see the Jackson Pollack exhibit of works on paper at the Guggenheim yesterday. The reproduction above of "Untitled (Green-Silver) ca. 1949" was a favorite, and I definitely enjoyed going back to look at it after looking at some of the one and two color works--it was like the most extravagant burst of color after these more concentrated works. I especially liked the teal-green hue, which is a little muted on-screen.

My favorite was a black and red on an ivory background (Untitled, ca. 1948-49) which definitely had three figures on it, in back, all created out of lines. Funny how three figures immediately suggest a love triangle! Two closer, one farther away... The black lines that made them up plus the layers of red on top were like the traces of gesture, made by gesture. I especially loved that some of the red lines, up close, were a line of tiny ink spirals, like a telephone cord, from far away appearing like a thicker line.

A great antidote to a week in beige cubicle land and a wonderful thing to be in the presence of such passion to fill the page, to create, to detail. Inspiring.