Archive for May, 2009
Friday, May 29th, 2009
Two headlines this week:
Excess Cola Can Cause Super-sized Muscle Trouble
Texting May Be Taking a Toll [on health]
Did anyone ever think that drinking Coke or texting incessantly were going to be good for us? C’mon people.
Recently, a friend who’s my father’s age shared frustration with blogs and things like Twitter. He cannot keep up with the flow of information. It’s a complaint many people of a pre-computer generation have. This phrase of his stuck: The onslaught of information invades “a quiet space.”
I cut my texting plan in an attempt to cut costs. When my little brother visited me last month, he expressed his profound shock and irritation at not being able to text me: “Who are you? What do you mean you can’t text? That’s impossible.” So, I told him to email me, since I have a blackberry leftover from my former job. One evil swapped for another… or, just trying to stay on the wave. I’ve never like the idea of doing what everyone else is doing, but in this case, at my tender age of 29, unless I plan to divorce myself from society, I should probably be onboard with email (which I am) and cellphones (which I am) and maybe even texting (which I’m not at this point). Why? (more…)
Tags: texting
Posted in Career/Life, Environment, Health, Orienting | 9 Comments »
Thursday, May 28th, 2009
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Kimmi
Therapy Thursdays
Tags: awesome, fear, feng shui, Freedom, guilt, love, obligation, support, toxic
Posted in Relationships, Therapy Thursdays | 8 Comments »
Wednesday, May 27th, 2009
I am not a gym person. I was a member for a while, but I would always get headaches while I pumped the elliptical or spinning on the recumbent bike and read at the same time. I could feel the connections between my mind and my body snapping, and though my body was in better shape, it was not fun at all.
If I’m going to move my body, it had better be fun. Swimming, cycling outside, S Factor, dance. For me, it’s non-negotiable. My health *is* my joy — if it doesn’t bring me pleasure, I’m not likely to do it.
In exploration of this desire, I took my second Nia dance class this morning. I took one quick class two years ago, and I remember feeling liberated by the lack of formal “moves” – the goal is not to be perfectly synchronized with the other dancers in the room, but to feel, to enjoy the natural movement of your body. Nia blends nine movement forms, including aikido, modern dance, yoga, t’ai chi, and Feldenkrais.
What I didn’t remember was how vigorous the movement is. This class was about an hour and a half long, and I was sweating and hitting my wall in the first 30 minutes. (My wall tends to be easy to hit. My instinct is usually to move as slowly as possible.)
(more…)
Tags: dance, debbie rosas, Health, movement, nia
Posted in Beauty in a Wicked World, Health | 5 Comments »
Tuesday, May 26th, 2009
I’ve heard that THE film to watch in the next year is going to be Precious, based on the incredible novel Push by Sapphire. It won both the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award and is set to storm Cannes soon. The trailer was just released by Lionsgate:
It will hit theaters in November. I can’t wait.
For more on the director, Lee Daniels. And yes, that’s Mariah Carey as the social worker.
Posted in Generation Overwhelmed, Movies, Race | 4 Comments »
Monday, May 25th, 2009
With all due respect for the original intentions of this holiday, I’d like to draw attention to the world’s loss of different type of hero earlier this month. Augusto Boal was a chemist from Rio de Janeiro, who began studying theatre in the midst of his research at Columbia University and wrote and directed his first play in New York in 1955. Boal returned to Brazil the next year, where he began creating what he called Newspaper Theatre– political shows packed with audience engagement, performed in the countryside for the purpose of addressing local problems. By 1971, Brazil’s military dictatorship began to see Boal’s theatrical activities as a threat. They imprisoned and tortured him for three months.
Boal complained of knee pain at a plush hotel in Hollywood, but then laughed and told me that he wasn’t sure if it was from the torture or because he was in his 70s. His smile was contagious. His bravery unimaginable. This particular workshop, led by Augusto Boal and his son Julian, was not only on Theatre of the Oppressed (his first book and life’s work) but also on Legislative Theatre. Imagine if before voting, Congress watched a short play about the possible effects of the law they are about to pass. Now imagine Congressmen getting up on stage to explore other outcomes and to express their ideas. Twenty laws were passed this way in Rio De Janeiro when Boal was a City Councilman.
(more…)
Tags: agitprop, Augusto Boal, Legislative Theatre, Theatre of the Oppressed
Posted in All The World, Art, Politics, Theater | Comments Off
Monday, May 25th, 2009
Courtney Martin
- This Saturday, May 30, Courtney, along with Gloria Feldt, Kristal Brent-Zook, and Deborah Siegel, holds a conversation on feminism and the economy at Princeton University. Click here for all the details.
- “Honoring Military Families with Adequate Healthcare” on The American Prospect Online.
Posted in Brag Round-Up | Comments Off
Friday, May 22nd, 2009
When amphibians start to die-off, it’s a sign of a degrading environment. They literally absorb the environment. These sensitive creatures sound the alarm bells. I learned this from a zoologist friend in New Zealand, as we padded around a remote island looking for endangered frogs. I was reminded of it in Elizabeth Kolbert’s New Yorker article, “The Sixth Extinction?” She writes:
“Though it’s difficult to put a precise figure on the losses, it is estimated that, if current trends continue, by the end of this century as many as half of earth’s species will be gone.”
Here’s my reaction, thoughts in order of appearance.
1. Whoa.
2. That’s so upsetting. Half? Really?
3. Ugh.
4. Okay, end of century, (quick mental calculation). Phew, I’ll be dead by then.
Much to my shock, that last thought actually happened–fired itself through my brain and some part of my heart. It’s an embarrassing and horrifying thing to admit. I’m an environmentalist. I live simply. I believe in working hard to preserve the future of humanity. I mean, I believe this in the marrow of my bones, in my very core.
Not only did I privately think this thought, I later admitted it out loud to two friends, who… (more…)
Tags: amphibians, Derrick Jensen
Posted in Environment, Orienting | 8 Comments »
Tuesday, May 19th, 2009
Building on last week, here are four of the most underrated things in the universe (in my humble opinion).
1. old people
2. chick peas
3. keeping your mouth shut
4. Sunday evenings
What do you think?
Posted in General, Generation Overwhelmed | 6 Comments »
Monday, May 18th, 2009
The 1908-1909 Broadway season featured roughly 140 productions and 12.8% of them were by women. 100 years later, of all the shows at major New York theaters this year, only 12.6% were by women. This isn’t representative of the number of plays being written by my gender. At least 40% of scripts submitted to professional theaters are written by women.
So if I can support the work of a female playwright, I will. Unfortunately, God of Carnage was already sold out and I was facing an impatient woman at the TKTS window. I didn’t think I wanted to see Reasons to Be Pretty. In spite of all the accolades garnered by In the Company of Men and Shape of Things, I’ve never been a fan of Neil LaBute’s. I may even have called his work misogynistic (on a regular basis). But there I was in the Plays Only ticket line, and I had been promised that this LaBute play was different. It was.
(more…)
Tags: Marin Ireland, Neil LaBute, Piper Parabo, Reasons to Be Pretty, Steven Pasquale, Thomas Sadoski
Posted in All The World, Relationships, Theater, Writing | 2 Comments »
Monday, May 18th, 2009
via Marissa
Another hilarious one from Shoot the Messenger, the group who brought you the Brownbow Coalition Storm is Gathering video.
Tags: freetorturereport.com, humor, shoot the messenger, torture
Posted in In The News, Politics, Pop Culture | Comments Off
Friday, May 15th, 2009
This week the Belgian city of Ghent will be going meat-free for one day every week. No city has ever done so. Their goal: to cut the city’s carbon footprint, battle obesity and recognize the impact of livestock on the environment. Who’s participating? Civil servants, elected councilors, and anyone else who’s inspired.
I have it easy. I am a vegetarian by birth. The taste of meat is gross to me; and the thought of eating something pumped with hormones is even grosser. But, when I force myself to eat wild salmon or fresh deer meat, I feel a true-blue unfogging of my brain. I think it would be good for me to eat more meat. I don’t think being vegetarian is right for everyone. That said, it’s hard to look at the facts without feeling a need to become mindful of meat consumption. As Jennifer pointed out earlier this week, what we do in our tiny square meter is important.
These quotes come from The Economist. (Thanks to my friend Sam) Check it out:
“It takes 2,000 litres (530 gallons) of water to grow a kilo of vegetables but 15,000 litres to produce a kilo of beef.”
“Agriculture uses three-quarters of the world’s water (urban use is trivial: most people drink two or three litres a day, on average, but 2,000 – 5,000 litres are used to make the food they eat). Because water is usually free, thirsty crops like alfalfa are grown in arid California. Wheat in India and Brazil uses twice as much water as wheat in America and China. Dry countries like Pakistan export textiles though a 1kg bolt of cloth requires 11,000 litres of water.”
** Also, according to the UN, livestock in responsible for nearly 1/5 of global greenhouse gas emissions. Water is the stuff of life. What do you think about it all?
Tags: vegetarianism
Posted in Environment, Orienting | 5 Comments »
Thursday, May 14th, 2009
I spent most of the fall and winter helping create an online tarot game for myLifetime. I worked closely with Eve Lavendier, a super positive and passionate project lead over at Lifetime, and Lucy Blackwell, an awesome graphic designer, as you can see below. I directed the designs and wrote the copy, and think it turned out really cool. Shuffle the deck and let me know what you think!
Tags: game, my lifetime, tarot
Posted in Career/Life, Writing | 8 Comments »
Wednesday, May 13th, 2009
I’m reading this book by Kabir Jaffe and Ritama Davidson on a friend’s recommendation. This quote leaped out at me today:
…in a sense, I am working on the one square meter of the planet that happens to be in the location where ‘I’ am now standing, just as you are working on your square meter of the planet. And with millions of people working on their square meter, we are changing millions of kilometers. Each one of us is contributing in tremendous ways to the evolving life of the planet, and the emergence of the New. And really, in a very short period of time we are changing thousands of years of vibratory structure.
The authors are speaking specifically of energy work here, of evolving our individual consciousness, but I think this quote applies to the physical world as well. What we do in our square meters makes a difference, in the physical and energetic world and in the people around us. Even if it feels like a tiny positive action, it ripples outward.
I’m taking vitamins and drinking water. I’m reading this Marianne Williamson quote daily. I’m releasing everything item in my house that I don’t need anymore. I’m talking to my neighbors. I’m breathing.
What are you doing in your square meter to contribute to human evolution? Remember, no action is too small to claim as your own.
—–
Beauty in a Wicked World is a weekly column by Jennifer Gandin Le. It appears on Wednesdays.
Tags: activism, change the world, evolution, my square meter, our square meters
Posted in Beauty in a Wicked World, Career/Life, Environment, Health, Relationships | 5 Comments »
Tuesday, May 12th, 2009
Friend of Croosh Manoosh and all around awesome dude, Andrew Marantz, has a new blog called Overrated List. Essentially, he played off of a notorious Christopher Hitchens quote from The New Yorker (in which he named champagne, picnics, lobster, and wait for it…wait for it…anal sex as the four most overrated things), to invite all of his diverse friends to make their own lists. Mine is up now:
1. Revenge
2. Marriage
3. “Sex and the City”
4. Rationality
What’s yours?
I also like the idea of an underrated list, so feel free to add those in comments as well. Oh, and if you want to get yours on the Overrated List blog, email Andrew at overratedlist@gmail.com.
Posted in General, Generation Overwhelmed | 9 Comments »
Monday, May 11th, 2009
Six months pregnant and living 750 miles away from family, it suddenly struck me as incredibly important to go home for Mothers’ Day. I grabbed a last-minute fare, threw my clothes in a bag after work, and took a plane back to the Midwest. My sister, who became a mom herself just over a year ago, picked me up at the airport and we surprised my sleeping mother. She must have some kind of daughter homing device, because even in the dark of night with her eyes half closed and before I could utter a word, she said, “Cristina?”
I imagine that maternal instincts are innate and that with the stacks of borrowed books on my shelf, I will find my way in this new role. Forget the fact that the books don’t concur or that friends mostly share their most traumatic experiences and not the day to day of course you’ll be fine stories. In addition to being a treat, my first Mother’s Day weekend at home in years was anthropological. I got to see how my sister parents and to remember how my mom pulled off the work/family trapeze act.
(more…)
Posted in All The World, Career/Life, Relationships | 4 Comments »
Monday, May 11th, 2009
Posted in Brag Round-Up | Comments Off
Friday, May 8th, 2009
dis·place·ment n
1. the moving or movement of something from its usual or correct place
I have been consumed with the Swat Valley story. Even calling it a “story” shows the distance I have from it–sitting in the library, typing on a computer, going outside to eat my avocado sandwich in a park. According to the United Nations, approximately one million people have fled northwest Pakistan since August. Right this minute, as the Pakistani government attempts to fight (or in the words of Prime Minister Gilani, “eliminate”) Taliban militants, Pakistani families are walking or busing towards refugee camps, where they hope to find food, space, toilets. “Massive displacement,” is the phrase emblazoned across newspapers. Real people uprooted from homes, routines, community, and forced to migrate to safety, if there is safety.
I wonder what this would look like in New York City, (more…)
Tags: displacement, Pakistan, refugees
Posted in In The News, Orienting, Politics | 2 Comments »
Friday, May 8th, 2009
Supercool event this Saturday!
Come out and celebrate the return of the sun, good art and sustainable living.
Riverside Theatre, The Living Word Project, MAPP International, Mighty4 and Samurai Graphix and Cultural Animators Series EARTH (H)OURS present:
Life is Living
A public outdoor installation to catalyze deeper thought and community action around the value of life and our relationship to our planet.
Featuring:
The Estria Invitational Living Word Graffiti Battle
The Mighty 4 B Boy Battle hosted by Paulskeee
(more…)
Posted in General | 3 Comments »
Thursday, May 7th, 2009
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Kimmi
Therapy Thursdays
Tags: intimacy, motorcycle, nature, rain, sensuality, sex, unguarded, wind
Posted in Environment, Random, Therapy Thursdays | 6 Comments »
