how do i love thee? let me count the ways, i love the parasol, the explaining hand, the bike against the tree, the nickelodeon and jack’s in the background, reminding you we’re in downtown santa cruz. that’s the view from here, earlier today.

in case you haven’t, please see the a-team—it’s an exciting, fun, escape from the day. i liked it so much, i watched it a second time, god bless the internet! it was very much like the t.v. show and left me wanting a second movie. also on the nostalgia vibe, i’m looking forward to the karate kid remake, it looks almost as bad ass as the a-team was. alright heartbreakers, hope your saturday was as nice as mine was. love you, m

another scene from the pride fest in san lorenzo park. i don’t mean to make fun, but i had to take a photo of the guy that looked like mork meets a clockwork orange.

mork. that reminds me, i think the a-team movie looks kinda bad ass. i gotta admit, i love action movies and this one looks exciting. plus, the actors really do resemble the a-team i remember. at the least, it should be a nice diversion for a couple of hours. okay friends, that’s all for tonight. hope you enjoyed your bikram class as much i enjoyed mine. see you tomorrow ~m

drum circle displacement. the downtown santa cruz farmers market hates the drum circle that has congregated around it. in an effort to quash the drum circle, the farmers market now has a bunch of new vendors in the parking lot that the drum circle would gather. i took this was when the drummers were getting kicked out of their second location by the police.

i gotta admit, i’m kinda bummed out gary coleman died. it makes me feel old—he was a child star when i was a child. i remember going on a class field trip to see a taping of different strokes. later, in my twenties, a close-up head shot of a grumpy gary coleman on the cover of a magazine made for a scary mask that i still have. poor guy, he’s been so troubled the past two decades, i think he may be better off now that he’s gone. but it still kinda bums me out. i had a nice practise today, wish i could have dedicated it to g.c. ~ i can’t resist—gary coleman dead? whatchya talkin’ ’bout willis? ~m

greetings from california! after yesterday’s bikram practise, i went on a little photo safari along the coast. power lines make up a lot of the landscape in this town. santa cruz circa 1987, makes up the fictional town of santa carla in the lost boys. the landscape has changed a little, but not much else. at the beginning of the movie, corey haim’s older brother asks a local, “is there any work here” and the response is “nothing legal.” i have to be honest, i think i was more bummed that corey haim was younger than me than i was that he actually passed. just being honest.

while i’m being honest, i gotta say i do not like the fact that comedy central has taken their toy home. i used to love watching the hulu stream of the the daily show. now that it’s on comedy central, it kinda sucks. i think they’re putting in 3 commercials during every break! compared to the 1 on hulu, this is 3 times as lame.

and since i’m on the honesty trail, i din’t feel like going to bikram today! it was amazingly sunny and clear today. not warm, but kinda getting there. yesterday was a dream day and today was looking even better. a day at the beach? hmmmmm, work trade at the yoga studio, get my bikram on during the middle of the day. small class today, prolly because of the beautiful day. heard the best correction during class. before the second set of camel, paul says “i have 2 friends who aren’t supporting their lower back with their hands.” very important to support yourself there because that’s where you’re most likely to cave in. 2 friends, that was great. see you tomorrow. ~m

dude, jeff bridges won an oscar last night. here’s some scans from the first edition of bikram’s beginning yoga class. jeff bridges demonstrating half-tortoise. these pictures aren’t in the current edition, hmmmmmm. i don’t know anyone who actually saw crazy heart. i still haven’t seen it, but i plan on correcting that soon. i also haven’t seen the hurt locker, this year’s best picture. i’m glad a woman won and all, but the movie looks way too tense, emotional and violent for me to enjoy. i had trouble watching precious and that din’t even have guns. alright, since oscar chit chat was soooo last night and i still need to catch up on my movies, i’ll see you tomorrow ~m

steamer lane, santa cruz. after bikram, would you like to go see some world class surfing? life in surf city, it’s not that far from the studio! super love the spray of the wave caused by the surfboard—you can see where he was hundredths of a second ago.

i’ve noticed that when i’m in bed, on my back, i like to cross my left leg over my right. to do this, i have to hunch in my right hip a little, where i’m already tight! my body is always trying to find a way to get comfortable, but this usually means bad alignment. i notice a similar hunch in my hip when i’m sitting down to eat. it’s a constant battle to stay in good alignment. as your body realigns itself, pay attention to the shifts within and make sure you’re not overcompensating in another part of your body.

nice to see @conanobrien on twitter! like @dalailama yesterday, you could sit on his page, hit refresh and watch his follower count grow. i had @jayleno & @conanobrien’s pages up at the same time, in one minute-long span, jay added one follower while coco added over 1,000! makes one wonder how many people watched conan online, away from nielsen rating boxes? i know i did.

oh my gosh, i’ve blahhed so much about coco and how my body likes to sabotage all the work i do in bikram, i never actually got to write about my class. still balancing that line of “don’t wanna go too far” but feeling really good. good to see jules in class too, welcome back! see you tomorrow ~m

i liked this one so much, i had to show you the uncropped version. you should still see the larger, better quality version.

alright friends, i have to admit, i stayed up way too late last night watching avatar. i din’t think i’d get so caught up in the story, but it was pretty great for about the first 100 minutes or so. too long for me, but a great movie, nevertheless.

my favorite comedy of 2009 was black dynamite, actually, since i saw it 5 times, it was prolly my favorite movie of 2009.
great writing, acting, i mean, the colour processing of the film was perfect, it was that great. a “lost in the vault,” low budget blaxploitation movie, but not really. pure genius.

“mama, you gonna wake up thre rest of the bitches.”

my other favorite movies of 2009 were paranormal activity and district 9. paranormal activity was creepy fun and district 9 was exciting and emotional at once.

other movies from 2009 that i liked:
star trek—wow, you need this and the dark knight on blue-ray and forget about it.

paul blart: mall cop was kinda funny. adventureland was cute. i had fun in zombieland. taken was tense good. drag me to hell was shlocky fun. paper heart stole my heart.
screenshots from story re-enactments in paper heart.

besides comedies, my favorite film genre is documentary. food, inc is mandatory viewing for anybody who eats. period. anvil: the story of anvil was uplifting, you don’t have to like the music to get the message. also really enjoyed chris rock’s good hair, it was great seeing rev. al sharpton talk about the first time he used relaxer.

caveat: movies from 2009 i still haven’t seen: precious, the men who stare at goats, the fantastic mr. fox, up in the air, whatever works, next day air.

up late watching avatar meant i was gonna go to the 4, but i couldn’t sleep in and found myself at the noon instead. glad i went because it was one of those classes when you’re sloshing around in a pool of sweat! nice & hot and i’m all in my groove, hope you’re in yours! see you tomorrow ~m