On writing about T'ai Chi

Well, writing for the lj is already an education--I hadn't realized that writing anything interesting about T'ai Chi would be so difficult/not a default. While the sort of thing I've written could still be useful for me as practice and class notes, if T'ai Chi were as dull as I make it sound, I wouldn't have been doing it for 20-odd years.

Aside from doing more introspection and putting in more effort when I write and rereading some of my better T'ai Chi books (reviews will follow when I've got that amazon link set up--does anyone actually make money from those?) with attention to what they're actually doing, are there any lj's with substantive writing about T'ai Chi or other movement arts? Or good stuff about writing about hard-to-specify sensations?

On writing about T'ai Chi

Well, writing for the lj is already an education--I hadn't realized that writing anything interesting about T'ai Chi would be so difficult/not a default. While the sort of thing I've written could still be useful for me as practice and class notes, if T'ai Chi were as dull as I make it sound, I wouldn't have been doing it for 20-odd years.

Aside from doing more introspection and putting in more effort when I write and rereading some of my better T'ai Chi books (reviews will follow when I've got that amazon link set up--does anyone actually make money from those?) with attention to what they're actually doing, are there any lj's with substantive writing about T'ai Chi or other movement arts? Or good stuff about writing about hard-to-specify sensations?

More T'ai Chi

Remembered more from class--hands need to face each other a lot of the time, but it doesn't have to be palms directly opposite each other--that tends to be forcing things. The same applies to "holding a ball"--the hands and arms can be anywhere on the surface. What's important is keeping the arms/shoulders/upper body open and not jamming or pulling on anything.

And the lower hand needs attention as well as the upper hand--the lower hand has to be someplace where it's actually got a chance to protect a knee or the groin or something, not just vaguely in the air. I mostly worked on the stuff in the first paragraph, though.

These are both really valuable--a lot of what Dave Borofsky (my teacher) and I have been working on lately has been cleaning up the effects of earlier teaching approximations.

Still no comments on T'ai Chi stuff. Maybe it should be a separate lj?

More T'ai Chi

Remembered more from class--hands need to face each other a lot of the time, but it doesn't have to be palms directly opposite each other--that tends to be forcing things. The same applies to "holding a ball"--the hands and arms can be anywhere on the surface. What's important is keeping the arms/shoulders/upper body open and not jamming or pulling on anything.

And the lower hand needs attention as well as the upper hand--the lower hand has to be someplace where it's actually got a chance to protect a knee or the groin or something, not just vaguely in the air. I mostly worked on the stuff in the first paragraph, though.

These are both really valuable--a lot of what Dave Borofsky (my teacher) and I have been working on lately has been cleaning up the effects of earlier teaching approximations.

Still no comments on T'ai Chi stuff. Maybe it should be a separate lj?

Library of Alexandria found (or probably)

Library of Alexandria found, or at least a very early university

"Archaeologists have found what they believe to be the site of the Library of Alexandria, often described as the world's first major seat of learning.

A Polish-Egyptian team has excavated parts of the Bruchion region of the Mediterranean city and discovered what look like lecture halls or auditoria."

It's a major pleasure to get some good news from the Middle East, and I'm hoping they'll find books that we don't already have copies of.

Library of Alexandria found (or probably)

Library of Alexandria found, or at least a very early university

"Archaeologists have found what they believe to be the site of the Library of Alexandria, often described as the world's first major seat of learning.

A Polish-Egyptian team has excavated parts of the Bruchion region of the Mediterranean city and discovered what look like lecture halls or auditoria."

It's a major pleasure to get some good news from the Middle East, and I'm hoping they'll find books that we don't already have copies of.