Wednesday, August 30, 2006
The only multi-day climbing trip I've ever taken is approaching. Thursday, I fly to Austin and the next day we drive into Mexico for two and a half days of climbing. Back when I climbed all the time, I lived right next to a number of good areas so I never had to make a trip to for it. Ironically, 15 years after the fact, I make my first one. I'm starting to get pretty excited.
On the other hand, I now know just exactly why -- after thinking I knew -- old(er) athletes simply can't compete with young ones: Our bodies won't allow it. I've bouldered pretty hard the last few weeks, pulled together some pretty good shape in short order, had good rest between sessions and haven't been overdoing it in that regard, and yet, my left shoulder and both pinkies are a little tender in the joints. Clearly, I can't continue at the rate I've been going, or at least, I'll have to back off of the intensity a little bit. It's been so much fun getting back into it that it's a little disappointing that my body can't hang with what my mind wants to do. It's also tantalizingly frustrating that the more difficult things it can do, it can't do for very long.
On the other hand, I now know just exactly why -- after thinking I knew -- old(er) athletes simply can't compete with young ones: Our bodies won't allow it. I've bouldered pretty hard the last few weeks, pulled together some pretty good shape in short order, had good rest between sessions and haven't been overdoing it in that regard, and yet, my left shoulder and both pinkies are a little tender in the joints. Clearly, I can't continue at the rate I've been going, or at least, I'll have to back off of the intensity a little bit. It's been so much fun getting back into it that it's a little disappointing that my body can't hang with what my mind wants to do. It's also tantalizingly frustrating that the more difficult things it can do, it can't do for very long.
Determinedly pulling things back into perspective, I'd still have to say that I'm doing just great for age 48. I've got 20 years on all the other boulderers in the gym, over 30 on a significant number, and I'm not looking that bad by comparison.
Saturday, August 26, 2006
Life is good these days:
In working out at a local climbing gym the few weeks, I can feel my forearms coming along and getting stronger. Reclaiming that feeling of moving my body over the holds, feeling every little detail on the holds as they go by is delicious. Last night I met a good Belgian climber who is on holiday here. We bouldered together for a good hour. I hadn't had that in quite that way in over fifteen years. What a treat: Watching someone really good, talking over the moves, trying different things myself, receiving good advice, talking over the States and Europe a little bit, just a magical experience. I felt 20 years younger. I gave him my cell phone number and email. Perhaps he'll write sometime.
And on climbing, it sometimes surprises me at how complex a given move can be in terms of geometry, the shapes of the holds, the directional forces the holds allow and generate because of that shape, the myriad muscles involved. It not surprising that I miss how to do them here and there. Last night, I was working a move straight up over an overhang. The hands were on good holds that were a little sloping. I kept trying to find higher feet directly under the hands not quite realizing that that tends to push the body out away from the rock and make the sloping hands holds worse. The Belgian recommended a foot hold out right that I thought looked too high, b ut when I tried it, my body instantly came in closer, and I could reach farther and almost got the move. With fresh forearms, it will certainly go next time.
A little later, I used the very same technique on a vertical wall, and recognized right away that I had just done so, and wondered: why didn't I think of that over there? Something about the overhang and the sloping holds had me a little confused on my approach.
One another note, I've reconnected with an old friend from high school and it's been a delightful series of emails and conversations about music, books, and life. The thoughts are long, multifaceted, and on the same wavelength. So she loaned me six CD's I've never heard, some by artists I've never heard of. I look forward to new sounds and styles. I'll say this: Good friends are really something to savor when you're my age and they don't just happen along every day.
And then there's this: I've had Beethoven's 9th in the car for a few days now. Do I really need to say anything else? For me, that piece really is all it's cracked up to be and even a lot more. Simply stupendous!
In working out at a local climbing gym the few weeks, I can feel my forearms coming along and getting stronger. Reclaiming that feeling of moving my body over the holds, feeling every little detail on the holds as they go by is delicious. Last night I met a good Belgian climber who is on holiday here. We bouldered together for a good hour. I hadn't had that in quite that way in over fifteen years. What a treat: Watching someone really good, talking over the moves, trying different things myself, receiving good advice, talking over the States and Europe a little bit, just a magical experience. I felt 20 years younger. I gave him my cell phone number and email. Perhaps he'll write sometime.
And on climbing, it sometimes surprises me at how complex a given move can be in terms of geometry, the shapes of the holds, the directional forces the holds allow and generate because of that shape, the myriad muscles involved. It not surprising that I miss how to do them here and there. Last night, I was working a move straight up over an overhang. The hands were on good holds that were a little sloping. I kept trying to find higher feet directly under the hands not quite realizing that that tends to push the body out away from the rock and make the sloping hands holds worse. The Belgian recommended a foot hold out right that I thought looked too high, b ut when I tried it, my body instantly came in closer, and I could reach farther and almost got the move. With fresh forearms, it will certainly go next time.
A little later, I used the very same technique on a vertical wall, and recognized right away that I had just done so, and wondered: why didn't I think of that over there? Something about the overhang and the sloping holds had me a little confused on my approach.
One another note, I've reconnected with an old friend from high school and it's been a delightful series of emails and conversations about music, books, and life. The thoughts are long, multifaceted, and on the same wavelength. So she loaned me six CD's I've never heard, some by artists I've never heard of. I look forward to new sounds and styles. I'll say this: Good friends are really something to savor when you're my age and they don't just happen along every day.
And then there's this: I've had Beethoven's 9th in the car for a few days now. Do I really need to say anything else? For me, that piece really is all it's cracked up to be and even a lot more. Simply stupendous!
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
You gotta love Martina: She just won the Rogers Cup doubles title at age 49. Fabulous!
Monday, August 21, 2006
Hehe: If you look carefully at this picture you'll see, besides all the junk in bins in the room, the first mobile I've done in a couple years. I was pretty happy with the way it turned out.
When we joined Netflix recently, I queued up several old SF movies I either hadn't seen in a long, long time, or had never seen: Soylent Green, Silent Running, and Rollerball. All three have the late 60's/early 70's evil corporation/authority slant going on, but all three have something to say, that notwithstanding. They were fun to see again. Noteworthy was how tame the violence in Rollerball seemed, because at the time, it was thought to be extraordinarily violent. Now, I think similar fare is seen on nightly prime-time TV.
Had some fun with music over the weekend, playing flute a bit, piano a bit as well. On flute, I was just working out melodies (Baby Face and Reveille sure do make the wife and kids roll their eyes...hehe), learning the chromatic scale a bit more fluently, and trying to hone embouchure in the second octave, some in the third. Also, I'm starting to get the feel for singing the notes while playing them, it gives a different sort of sound, and to jam a bit in Em pentatonic. All in all, I'm approaching it like a guitar. On piano, I worked on Moonlight Sonata (I guess it's really just the first movement) a bit, the first page and a half. Fun stuff, and just beautiful music. I did notice something that an old friend who was taking piano lessons had complained about: My back was killing me after 30 minutes or so. I'm going to move the bench around and see if that changes it at all. I sure hope so.
The odds and ends to repair and replace keep mounting: My car's CD player, my wife's car's front hubcaps dissappeared, upstairs A/C, both garage doors, and on and on...
Welcome to home and car ownership!
An amazing update: Literally as I was writing that last paragraph, my wife just called and found the hubcaps! She drove home in a downpour through a flooded area last night and the water had taken them off. She found them by the street this morning, still there. Unbelievable!
Had some fun with music over the weekend, playing flute a bit, piano a bit as well. On flute, I was just working out melodies (Baby Face and Reveille sure do make the wife and kids roll their eyes...hehe), learning the chromatic scale a bit more fluently, and trying to hone embouchure in the second octave, some in the third. Also, I'm starting to get the feel for singing the notes while playing them, it gives a different sort of sound, and to jam a bit in Em pentatonic. All in all, I'm approaching it like a guitar. On piano, I worked on Moonlight Sonata (I guess it's really just the first movement) a bit, the first page and a half. Fun stuff, and just beautiful music. I did notice something that an old friend who was taking piano lessons had complained about: My back was killing me after 30 minutes or so. I'm going to move the bench around and see if that changes it at all. I sure hope so.
The odds and ends to repair and replace keep mounting: My car's CD player, my wife's car's front hubcaps dissappeared, upstairs A/C, both garage doors, and on and on...
Welcome to home and car ownership!
An amazing update: Literally as I was writing that last paragraph, my wife just called and found the hubcaps! She drove home in a downpour through a flooded area last night and the water had taken them off. She found them by the street this morning, still there. Unbelievable!
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
A few thoughts this morning...
I've been listening to a little jazz and a little traditional music of late. There's a theory, especially in jazz, regarding how listeners react to music and it goes something like this: A certain amount of repetition is needed to draw listeners in, but a certain amount of variance is needed to keep them from getting bored. There is an element of taste in this; various people will prefer more or less repetition, but the theory still holds. This is part of constructing a good improvisational solo, finding that balance, and part of good song writing in general. It also relates historically as well.
Nowadays, people in general hear more recorded music than live and that works against the improvisational idiom since by definition improvisation is "song-writing on the fly" but the song is frozen by the recording. This freezing renders it little different than traditional music that is performed almost the same every time.
Which brings me to my point: I'm growing more and more tired of jazz, rock, and other more improvisational based forms and on to traditional music because a) I listen to much more pre-recorded music than live and b) a song-writer with the luxury of time can be much more compositionally creative than a jazz improvisationalist without it and if the piece is pre-recorded, the spontaneity of improvisation is lost anyway. Certainly it won't feel the same to the player, and to that I'm sympathetic: I'm an old rocker who likes to take a good solo as much as anyone else.
I've been listening to a little jazz and a little traditional music of late. There's a theory, especially in jazz, regarding how listeners react to music and it goes something like this: A certain amount of repetition is needed to draw listeners in, but a certain amount of variance is needed to keep them from getting bored. There is an element of taste in this; various people will prefer more or less repetition, but the theory still holds. This is part of constructing a good improvisational solo, finding that balance, and part of good song writing in general. It also relates historically as well.
Nowadays, people in general hear more recorded music than live and that works against the improvisational idiom since by definition improvisation is "song-writing on the fly" but the song is frozen by the recording. This freezing renders it little different than traditional music that is performed almost the same every time.
Which brings me to my point: I'm growing more and more tired of jazz, rock, and other more improvisational based forms and on to traditional music because a) I listen to much more pre-recorded music than live and b) a song-writer with the luxury of time can be much more compositionally creative than a jazz improvisationalist without it and if the piece is pre-recorded, the spontaneity of improvisation is lost anyway. Certainly it won't feel the same to the player, and to that I'm sympathetic: I'm an old rocker who likes to take a good solo as much as anyone else.
Thursday, August 10, 2006
I just got through watching Horowitz in Moscow after loving the CD for many years: What a performance!
I consider it a remarkable representation of the legacy of human civilization in general and Western Civilization in particular. Connecting events and efforts spanning centuries are required to bring about such a moving event: The development of Western music; the industry that enables the development and construction of the intruments; the craftsmen that care enough to imbue them with such expressive capabilities; the composer to write the incredible pieces; and a pianist who dedicated a life to understanding and playing that music on that instrument. Add in the people who designed and built the hall, the city, the agriculture that supports the population density that allows cities to occur, and on and on.
The fact that I am constructed so that I react with such joy over things like Horowitz's playing strengthens my belief in My Lord.
Rational or not, that's how it seems to me.
I consider it a remarkable representation of the legacy of human civilization in general and Western Civilization in particular. Connecting events and efforts spanning centuries are required to bring about such a moving event: The development of Western music; the industry that enables the development and construction of the intruments; the craftsmen that care enough to imbue them with such expressive capabilities; the composer to write the incredible pieces; and a pianist who dedicated a life to understanding and playing that music on that instrument. Add in the people who designed and built the hall, the city, the agriculture that supports the population density that allows cities to occur, and on and on.
The fact that I am constructed so that I react with such joy over things like Horowitz's playing strengthens my belief in My Lord.
Rational or not, that's how it seems to me.
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Pat Metheny's The Way Up has been in the disc player in the car for a week or so now. A well reviewed disc, it has a really nice melody that is presented and elaborated on in the second section, and which recurs throughout. I'm really enjoying the music and note that it bears many listenings, even one after another, to tease out what's there. Nice disc.
The Middle East continues to make me shake my head, but there's not a lot I can say about it that isn't written all over the place. If for nothing but to chronicle my own sometimes shifting opinions on the matter I'll note this: I don't see how Hezbollah -- as well as the Syrian and Iranian backing -- can be viewed as equivalent to Israel. To me there are enough hard facts to preclude this to any reasoning person. And I by no means think they -- or anyone else for that matter -- are perfect: They're not. But as I've heard it said: If the Arabs put down their guns the war stops. If the Israelis put down their guns they cease to exist. A struggle to eradicate someone (the involved Arabs' stated goal is to destroy Israel) is simply not the same as the struggle to prevent that same action. One interesting article by Victor Davis Hanson on the matter offers an explanation.
I've been working out at a climbing gym lately in preparation for a trip over Labor Day weekend with an old friend. I can feel my forearms coming back to life a little bit. It's fun to not feel quite so out of shape.
The Middle East continues to make me shake my head, but there's not a lot I can say about it that isn't written all over the place. If for nothing but to chronicle my own sometimes shifting opinions on the matter I'll note this: I don't see how Hezbollah -- as well as the Syrian and Iranian backing -- can be viewed as equivalent to Israel. To me there are enough hard facts to preclude this to any reasoning person. And I by no means think they -- or anyone else for that matter -- are perfect: They're not. But as I've heard it said: If the Arabs put down their guns the war stops. If the Israelis put down their guns they cease to exist. A struggle to eradicate someone (the involved Arabs' stated goal is to destroy Israel) is simply not the same as the struggle to prevent that same action. One interesting article by Victor Davis Hanson on the matter offers an explanation.
I've been working out at a climbing gym lately in preparation for a trip over Labor Day weekend with an old friend. I can feel my forearms coming back to life a little bit. It's fun to not feel quite so out of shape.
Friday, August 04, 2006
Just finished Delany's Neveryóna. What a different read this time at age 48 from the first time, probably at age 24 or so! It's the type of book, as are all the Nevèrÿon books, that is slow reading for me, but that I find thoroughly enjoyable now. It's fantasy that is completely different from all other fantasy I've ever read. Very intelligent. Very thought provoking. Years ago I read them with incorrect expectations, looking for the average sword and sorcery tale, which is not in the least what they're about. Highly recommended.
The next one for me is Tales of Nevèrÿon, actually the first of the four books.
A couple DVD's: Jethro Tull at the Isle of Wight, The Gumball Rally, and Kontroll. Enjoyed them all very much. I'm an old Tull fan from way back. I hadn't seen Gumball Rally in since high school. The cars were so much fun. The action is sedate by today's standards, but it's a really fun, very light-hearted film, with not a trace of malice anywhere to be seen, something impossible to find in current films. Kontroll is an Hungarian film well worth seeing.
At a friend's recommendation, I've started keeping a journal of writing ideas along with words I don't know that I run across while reading. I'll say this: Why didn't I start this before? I used to think I never had ideas. The truth is I had them and just forgot them. This is going to be good, I think. The word list I had done 15 years ago for a couple years and looked up a good couple thousand words. I have around 120 from the last couple weeks already. Great way to work on vocabulary.
The next one for me is Tales of Nevèrÿon, actually the first of the four books.
A couple DVD's: Jethro Tull at the Isle of Wight, The Gumball Rally, and Kontroll. Enjoyed them all very much. I'm an old Tull fan from way back. I hadn't seen Gumball Rally in since high school. The cars were so much fun. The action is sedate by today's standards, but it's a really fun, very light-hearted film, with not a trace of malice anywhere to be seen, something impossible to find in current films. Kontroll is an Hungarian film well worth seeing.
At a friend's recommendation, I've started keeping a journal of writing ideas along with words I don't know that I run across while reading. I'll say this: Why didn't I start this before? I used to think I never had ideas. The truth is I had them and just forgot them. This is going to be good, I think. The word list I had done 15 years ago for a couple years and looked up a good couple thousand words. I have around 120 from the last couple weeks already. Great way to work on vocabulary.
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
This morning I saw tangible evidence of the wide-eyed innocence and naivete of a 7 year old. My son drew a picture of a new drone creature he thought the makers of Entropia Universe should implement. He shoed it to me; I chuckled and thought it was cute. On the way to my car which was parked by the mailbox I noticed the flag was up. Upon looking inside, there was a letter from my son to Mindark, no address, a 2 cent stamp on it, with a note to the mailman taped to it that said something on the order of "Dear mailman, I know the address is wrong, but can you send this to Mindark? Thanks".
It made me smile.
Then it broke my heart as I thought about how life takes that away from people as they age. I've said to my wife many times that it's one of the hardest things about being a parent, that is, to watch our children lose that innocence and learn what the world is really like. It's a loss that I feel very deeply from time to time.
It made me smile.
Then it broke my heart as I thought about how life takes that away from people as they age. I've said to my wife many times that it's one of the hardest things about being a parent, that is, to watch our children lose that innocence and learn what the world is really like. It's a loss that I feel very deeply from time to time.
