My Butt Off!

Ah, more dance today. Gonna dance with my butt! Yes, I'm going to learn some Caribbean fusion belly dance stuff. I'm picturing booty popping reggaeton- and dancehall-style.

valkryor suggested I wear a lined woolen Ghawazee coat (mine would cover more than the one in this picture) for my upcoming dance performance. I was hoping to avoid making myself another costume (I have so many other projects on the go, right now), but I think she's right. I'm gonna freeze my skin off if I don't wear something warm. I'll just try to make something that I can use for LARP, too. I just don't see a lot of use for cold weather dance costuming. I'm not sure I have any appropriate wool, so I think I'm going to need to go fabric shopping.

With the leftover wool, maybe I can make myself a beret.

I was pleased to discover my guesswork on the Viking coat was pretty accurate. With a couple of minor adjustments, the coat fits knightky perfectly.

Link time!

Food For the Poor | Leadership: Check out the name of the CEO. I laughed. A lot.

Elven Forest Creations: A photostream of fun, imaginative costuming and clothing. It looks like they used to have an Etsy store, but it seems to be defunct. Still, I'm getting some good inspiration from the pictures.

'Marathon man' breaks world record by running 365: Three cheers for human potential! At 45 years of age, Stefaan Engels ran a marathon a day for a full year. He averages each race in 4 hours. The previous world record was held by a man in his 60s. This makes me feel like a spring chicken again.

Christopher McDougall: Are we born to run?: I haven't seen this yet, but want to check it out.

$25 buys you and a homeless person a coat? Yup.: I sprung for one for me, and one for a homeless person, too. I'm hoping I get something really awesome, and that the recipient of the other coat gets something equally dashing (thanks, elanya).

And here's me, today:

Use It or Lose It

When I was in my mid- to late-20s, I remember reading an article on strippers. One of the things that caught my attention was that a stripper's prime career years were short, because as the body aged, her earnings would decrease because she wouldn't look 19 anymore. I remember feeling genuine surprise at this revelation, and I took a look at myself in the mirror and tried to see what looked so haglike about my body. And I just couldn't see it. And even now, pushing 40, I still don't see the hag. In fact, I think that as the years pass, my physique has been improving rather than going downhill. Not that I have any intention on pursuing a career in exotic dance, mind you.

I know that some day, despite my training regimen, my body is going to start hagging out on me. It's pretty much inevitable, unless I die young and leave a good-looking corpse. And I have no plans for that, either. But you know what? Hagging out might not happen for a long, long time.

Look at the physiques on these older folks:

Dave Draper


Charlie Boxall


Marjorie Newlin - age 86


Now, you might look at all these pictures and think that they've been working out all their lives. That it's too late for you. But guess what? That last one? Marjorie Newlin? She only started working out in her 70s. And look at her!

So it seems pretty obvious to me that if you take damned good care of your body, you just might not hag out, after all.

I share the same belief about my brains. If I keep working the grey muscles, keep learning new things--stuff that challenges me--I might just keep my smarts going for a long, long time, too.

Eeeeeeeeeee!

OMG OMG OMG! I just signed up to take a workshop in May with a serious dance legend: Louise LeCavalier.

In case you don't know who she is, watch this insanity:

Yeah. She kinda makes Jackie Chan look lazy.

I've never felt nervous about taking a dance workshop before, but this one scares the crap out of me! Here's the write-up:

Workshop open to professional dance artists, and dance students in a professional dance training program.

This workshop will be divided into two parts, each one lasting approximately an hour and a half. The first part will be a training session based not on usual dance techniques, but on elements taken from boxing, as well as simple, dynamic, natural movements aimed at developing intensity and pushing stamina to its limits. In the second part, participants will perform a choreographic excerpt that - although it may seem simple at first glance - will demand the speed of execution, precision, and coordination of original movements characteristic of the style of choreographer Édouard Lock.

"The starting point is my fascination for the impulse of movement, which precedes all forms of human communication and allows us to read the soul." Louise Lecavalier

Oh dear lord. Pushing stamina to its limits. As led by her. I may die. Lungs, don't fail me! I guess I'd better keep working my interval training to increase my odds of survival.

Yeah. Tomorrow is a gym day for sure. I have to train up just so I don't meet my demise while training with her.

So Now I Do Have A Definite Fitness Goal With a Definite Deadline

I need to be in the best shape of my life by the time that workshop rolls around. I'm talking hardcore cardio training daily to get my stamina up to snuff. Power jumping jacks. Interval training on the treadmill. Running flights of stairs. Skipping. Plus weight training.

It's on.

I can forget a body building competition as a goal. If I can get myself into the right condition to excel at this workshop, that's a much bigger achievement.