Thursday, November 20, 2014

Swan Lake, Music and Love

My old friend, B, who is fighting to keep pursuing her photography work through many obstacles, has recently found that classical music helps calm her during a stretch of depression. We have been friends for over 40 years, and I share some of her challenges: illness, severe income loss, and mourning the absence of a nearby family support network. Poverty being what it is, for her to get a radio strong enough to receive the local classical radio station is not so simple. She asked if I had an antenna that would help, but I don’t have the right kind. I do have one classical CD, which I will lend her until radio access is established. I played it one more time before lending it to her and it reminded my why, I, one of the most musically challenged people in the world, bought it to begin with.

One track has special meaning for me.

My parents grew up in small Midwestern towns in the 1930s where music lessons were a rite of childhood and a badge of middle-class upward mobility. Also, I suspect, a rudimentary form of daycare. As long as the kid was practicing a musical instrument, you had ongoing feedback that she/he was home and not getting into mischief.

I grew up “spoiled,” as they would call it in the 1950s. I was an only child till age 12, and my parents would have made some sacrifice to get lessons if I had ever demonstrated the tiniest aptitude for music or dance.

I enjoyed music in small doses, but words and stories captivated me. When I could count, although not yet read, I had some records of Disney stories. My parents pasted stars on the label to indicate sequence, so I could play them on my own. Another form of low-cost daycare! I know some writers who can (and do) offer a play list of music they listen to while writing. But I can’t write with music on as a background. It’s as if I can immerse myself in words or music, not both at once.

more at Body Impolitic

Monday, April 7, 2014

Who owns your image and what can they do with it?

Rachele, a blogger at Fat Babe Designs, artist and fat activist embarked on an unexpected journey when she posted a pic in a fatkini.

Her intent was “to spread a powerful message about body positivity.” Instead she found her image being used as the "before" example in an affiliate-marketed diet scam.

More at Body Impolitic

Monday, March 10, 2014

Before and After removing toxic body hatred from your life!

After watching the hero's journey at the Academy Awards, how about an After experience of body acceptance with no body-hatred, commercial intervention or weight-cycling hangover?

Some thoughts at Body Impolitic Before and After Acceptance

Because heroes should save their energy for real adventures rather than body-bashing.

Friday, February 21, 2014

Science done correctly and un...

I was inspired to post on Body Impolitic The Search for Science without Bias when I read a study examining the phenomenon of lab animals gaining weight over the past few decades even though they live for generations under totally controlled conditions. The study suggests further research to find out why this is happening. Hint, they're not "eating more and moving less" or sneaking down to the fridge for midnight snacks and lying about it.

This also brings up some topics such as the extreme erosion of ethics in many areas of scientific research. Product-promoting reports masquerade as research and the both the popular media and (sadly) some researchers themselves often tailor experimental results to better fit the most popular prejudices of our time.

Monday, January 6, 2014

Now on YouTube...why write fiction

I keep wanting to say it. I know it's not wise, but with all the gray hair on display I'm already a known old person. When if not now?

I've gone YouTubular.

I know it doesn't even really mean anything. Plus it's slang from a later generation, but how was I going to work my generation's word "groovy" into the conversation? This YouTubulation has driven me a bit off the rails, but here it is for your enjoyment.