Bad — The Bad Plus 3 Pak — Baduizm — Bag’s Groove

One thing ANA is wondering abou is how to deal with the songs and albums she isn’t exactly in love with (or downright can’t stand).  The tracks she would never listen to unless mandated to by some ridiculous project she’s set for herself.

ANA’s got plenty of space on her external drive, so it’s not like she needs to concern herself with the extra space she would have available if she deleted, say, “Part-Time Lover.” But at the same time she doesn’t like the idea of not keeping whole albums intact. (Do albums have feelings? She doesn’t want to hurt them.)

And what about if a friend is over who is all “What is this ‘Part-Time Lover’ song I’ve heard so much about?” ANA should probably hold on to it, just in case.

So ANA had forgotten about you, but then something happened — as it always seems to.

People have been talking to ANA a lot lately about flower essences. It’s not like she’d never heard of them; they practically have a wall full of them at Scarlet Sage. But she’s never really understood what they were, nor had the gumption to do research until recently. Because they keep coming up in conversation. Then, ANA’s bodywork genius squeezed some into ANA’s mouth during her last session and she decided she needs to know more.

Apparently, and ANA didn’t fact check this (nor does she have an intern to do said fact checking), the flower essences are made by infusing spring water with, you know, the essence of flowers. And they are used to help bring people and their pets back into their natural balance. Apparently they’ve been shown to work on babies and dogs, so take THAT placebo effect.

Anyhoot, what do flower essences have to do with you? Well the other day, when ANA got out her flower essences and squeezed four drops of each directly into her kombucha, she thought “I need to tell someone about this.”

The plan for now is to become an occupational therapist, but ANA is open to being led down a different path — say, cosmology.

For the time being, though, ANA is taking all the prerequisites that she didn’t manage to fulfill while obtaining her liberal arts degree.

Learnings from the first week of classes:

• Before Newton and his Law of Inertia, there was the idea that an object remained in motion because air created a vacuum behind it and squeezed it along.
• If a teacher tells the class they will need to get into groups of three and will likely be called on to present what was learned in class, everyone will sit up and start taking notes.

It’s pretty much a 25-minute discussion about scientists’ discovery of (and lack of true comprehension about) the mystery of spanda. And so I loved it. And so should you.

Enjoy.

P.S. The interview features several mentions of the Large Hadron Collider. Which leads to the obvious question:  Has the Large Hadron Collider destroyed the world yet?

ANA told her journal that 2009 is the year of going outside every day to admire the moon. And so it is.

Lists of coleoidea and decapoda cephalods in order of subjective awesomeness (1. giant squid, 2. octopus, 3. jellyfish/cuttlefish [tied], 4. all other squids).

Annotated lists of dance movies.

Lists of all the types of bodywork she’s received.

One of ANA’s favorite lists to make, though, is her semi-annual list of all the crap she’s been meaning to do, but hasn’t gotten around to doing. There’s something about putting all of this information into visible, doable chunks that makes the list a great project to do — from the writing of it, to the checking off of each item. (Last item: reach enlightenment!)

Right now, just days before the full moon in Aquarius, seems like optimal list-making time. (omg, ANA just looked at her lunar calendar to make sure she wasn’t lying about that full moon in Aquarius business, and her calendar uses an icon of a big squid to represent that sign. ANA needs to go lay down.)

The new culture seemed to whirl backward and forward—a loop of history, history as loop—calling and responding, leaping, spinning, renewing.

In the loop, there is the alpha, the omega and the turning points in between. The seam disappears, slips into endless motion and reveals a new logic—the circumference of a worldview.

—Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation by Jeff Chang

Accidentally New Age is always on the lookout for ways that her everyday reading relates, metaphorically or otherwise, to her Yoga. Those of you who know ANA know she really can’t make it a day without talking about spanda—the divine vibration. Fascinated with this idea of perpetual creation and dissolution, ANA looks for it everywhere. Which makes for a pretty satisfying activity since, by definition, it really is everywhere.

It’s in her yoga practice: in the setting of intentions and the transitions within and between poses.

It’s in her work day: in a particularly creative application of editorial style to a sentence that needs a certain bit of polish.

It’s in the news: in the seemingly perpetual expansion of dark matter (shakti?) in the universe.

And it’s in hip hop…or at least in Jeff Chang’s telling of its history. The alpha, the omega, and the turning points in between. What’s not to love about that?

At a recent Anusara intensive, ANA heard John Friend talk about the goddesses Saraswati, Lakshmi, and Kali, and how they relate to creation and dissolution. Saraswati creates order; Lakshmi represents fullness, purna; and Kali is destruction. In an asana practice these three phases would be: setting up the foundation for a pose (Saraswati), finding the full expression of the beauty of that pose (Lakshmi), and then the necessary end of that pose (Kali) before transitioning into the next one.

The alpha, the omega, and the turning points.

Maybe it’s the smoky haze drifting up from the 1,088 wildfires burning in northern California. There’s something both incredibly beautiful and also wrong about the sun burning bright orange every morning. But ANA finds herself a little bit sluggish and prone to staring off into space this week. [ANA wonders: 108 is an auspicious number; is 1,088 extrauspicious? ANA also wonders why it is that we don’t smoosh more words together in English, like the French do.]

Or, maybe it’s because she can’t draw stick figures with any aptitude. There are a lot of things that ANA was terrible at as a kid that have kinda come to her naturally over the years — skipping, writing legibly, being remotely sociable — but drawing isn’t one of them. ANA doesn’t have low self esteem, but really, stick figures? She’s pretty sure her cat could handle drawing those.

Oh, did ANA mention that while she was putting the Jackson sandwich together she was watching Dave Chappelle’s first show, which consisted of Dave doing cover versions of old songs. It wasn’t a particularly funny or good show, and ANA was surprised anyone ever watched it.

Mom: Wow, look at those clouds!  They’re amazing!

ANA: Yes. They look light and fluffy. Like light and fluffy clouds.

Mom: Yes!