Michael Blowhard writes:

Dear Blowhards --

* Experienced yogadude Alan Little shares some thoughts about what doing yoga postures ("asanas") is all about: Part One, Part Two, Part Three.

* Suicide Girls prefer Macs.

* I find it hard to believe that some of these stunts are physically possible, but I guess they are.

* Jim Kalb has some excellent ideas about ways to improve the discussion about immigration policy.

* I've heard that digital technology has brought down the cost of some kinds of moviemaking. But this seems ridiculous.

* "Kim Possible" buff Friedrich von Blowhard has turned up a couple of well-done Kim Possible remixes.

* Chris Dillow wonders why he gets paid.

* Rick Darby links to an alarming report from a sober Tucson source.

* Chelsea Girl is interviewed by sex-positive legend Susie Bright, and lists some other recent triumphs as well.

* This Bollywood music-vid (or song-and-dance excerpt from a movie, I can't tell) suggests that India has an awful lot to teach us about eye candy. (Link thanks to David Chute.)

* Lester Hunt thinks that "Catch-22" may be a wee bit overrated.

* Yes sir! Anything you say, sir!

* Steve Sailer tracks some of GWBush's attempts to merge the U.S. and Mexico. Meanwhile, in New York City, Mexicans -- who didn't begin arriving in town in substantial numbers until a decade ago -- are now among the area's top three immigrant groups.

* Having finished up with Bad Boys, Alias Clio is now categorizing the varieties of Femmes Fatales: here, here, here. Boys: read, learn, protect yourselves.

Best,

Michael

I actually link to Susie Bright. I read her seldom because her posture is the standard women's studies at UC Santa Cruz you'd expect.

The "sex positive" label is one of the craziest I've ever encountered. The "sex negative" attitude was invented by feminists. So, along comes another group of feminists to counter the idiocy of the first group. This amounts to... what?

The rest of us good ole boys and girls just ignored these dumbass ideologues from the beginning and continued to screw gleefully in the traditional fashion. Susie Bright is to be congratulated for finally pulling her head out of her ass? Perhaps she should never have shoved it up there in the first place. Perhaps she should change her name to Susie Not Very Bright.

I linked to her because I wanted a standard, predictable feminist type among my "Girls" category. When I asked her to link in return, her response was: I want to read what you have to say on gender issues, or some crap to the effect. The usual BS.

Posted by: Shouting Thomas on June 5, 2007 8:10 AM

Alias Cleo's blog is a hidden gem. I happened upon her Bad Boys and Bad Girls pieces by chance earlier, and also found this dead-on take on Camille Paglia in May's "Odd's and Ends" entry:

"[Camille Paglia's] sympathies are almost entirely oriented towards southern European art forms, a southern European sensibility. ... It means that she loves the grand gesture, baroque emotions, baroque sensuality. But it limits her appreciation of northern European humour, northern melancholy, the northern European understanding of the world."

Posted by: PA on June 5, 2007 8:25 AM

Michael, now that I've done my cranky old fart thing...

The yoga links are excellent. I've been thinking about going on yoga retreat, you know, one of those places where you eat vegan and do yoga all day for a week.

I would bet that women make up about 80% of the attendees. Usually, they are airheads... but I don't care. I'd have to sneak off in the middle of the week for a steak and baked potatoe.

Yoga instructors are almost alway odd characters. Many of them are loners who only come out for the classes. I always got a kick out of Lakshmi (I think that's how you spell her adopted Indian name). She would light candles and incense at the beginning of class and chant what I think were traditional Indian mantras. She had little finger cymbals, which she would clink at times throughout the class. And, I especially liked the Indian folk/elevator music she played.

She also rode a Harley. We went for a couple of rides together. I think she was a little sweet on me.

Posted by: Shouting Thomas on June 5, 2007 8:28 AM

ST -- I know what you mean about the "sex positive" thing. Who (some bluestockings aside) was ever "sex negative"? I'm fond of Susie Bright anyway, though ... If we're going to have intramural fights among sex-negs and sex-pos feminists (and I guess we are), I'm going to root for the sex-pos crowd. But don't put me in the thick of it!

PA -- Clio's great, no? That's some seriously good writing she does.

ST -- After that week in Mexico I bet you need a week of cleansing and meditating! Yoga's a hoot, isn't it? Kooky, yet it works. (And Alan Little is so thoughtful and knowledgeable -- much more interesting than most of what I read in the yoga press.) Makes me feel very indulgent towards it. If yoga people get a little silly, well, why not? They're on to something, and they're feeling good, or at least better than they would otherwise. The sex ratio has a lot to be said for it too. I hear that weeks and weekends at Kripalu ... Well, the guy I talked to said it's like there are "herds" of women there and only very occasional guys. I bet a good number of the women are sweet, a little daffy, friendly, and toned -- so why don't more guys show up?

Posted by: Michael Blowhard on June 5, 2007 10:52 AM

Michael,

Thanks so much for the hott, hott linkage.

As for the term "sex-positive," I have to admit I'm never quite sure what it means. There's something about it that makes me twitch, and not in a good way. It seems to me at best an ambiguous catch-all phrase and at worst an intellectual assumption of some snobbery and exclusion.

I wish there were a better term. Let me know if you come up with one.

kissykiss,
chelsea

Posted by: chelsea girl on June 5, 2007 12:18 PM

S. Thomas:

I remember Bright saying something at the height of the man-bashing period (early nineties), that men had made the mistake of allowing women who hated men to become the authorities on men and sex, and that men needed to reclaim (and stop apologizing for) their sexuality, a sexuality that will never be safe enough, committed enough, and controllable enough for women.

That strikes me as both fair and wise, and given the times, even courageous. So I have a bit of a soft spot for Ms. Bright. She did get a few things right, in the end. So to speak.

Posted by: PatrickH on June 5, 2007 1:07 PM

Susie Bright was in trenches during the early 90s fighting the good fight against rampant PC-ism amongst the punk/hipster crowd. I met her a few times as a friend and I published a 'zine that combined punk rock and sex (this was WAY before Suicide Girls). We got HAMMERED by the punk rock crowd in the Bay Area, with indie record and book stores refusing to carry the 'zine. (Tower Records had no problem with it, though.) Susie came to our defense a few times. She's ridiculously smart and yeah, got caught up in some things that turned out to be not worth the time, but it's my opinion that people who can't look back on something and not be embarrassed just aren't that interesting.

Anyway, it's funny and a little grating that now SG are raking in the dough doing the same thing we did 17 years ago. All we ever got out of it was massive debt and, uh, a lot of sex. I'll have to blog about it sometime if I ever get back to blogging.

Posted by: the patriarch on June 5, 2007 1:16 PM

Aw, shucks. Now I'll have to get to work on finishing the draft of Part Four, in which I was getting into a sceptical take on all the chakra/kundalini stuff, until I got sidetracked by reading a blog by a smart guy who takes it all seriously in quite a convincing way.

That acrobatics video - wow. I took my little boy to the circus last weekend and saw some great acrobatics, but not quite as impressive as that. Also did a couple of yoga classes in April with a guy who used to be an acrobat, and was introducing us to some rudimentary partner balancing skills. Great fun.

In combination with the yoga gender ratio thang, however, acro-yoga did lead to some questions from The Wife when I got home, showed her the pictures and started demonstrating some of it with her. "You did *that* with *those women*?" I may not be allowed to go to those particular classes again.

Posted by: Alan Little on June 5, 2007 4:37 PM

Kareena Kapoor? Oh lordy. Posters for Ashoka were all over town when I was in Mysore, and was I smitten. Plenty more where she came from too.

Ashoka, by the say, is a well worthwhile film. And not just for gaping at the ladies, although I think I have yet to see a Bollywood film where that wasn't high on my agenda.

Posted by: Alan Little on June 5, 2007 4:45 PM

Catch-22 - the movie - is worth watching for three reasons: Orson Welles is in it; Sam O'Steen did the cutting; and the print was made directly from the camera negative, giving a lovely vividness and transparency to the image.

Other than that? Hooey.

Posted by: Brian on June 5, 2007 7:45 PM






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