The Dodman Blog

I’ve always been intrigued by what this means, and how useful it and its derivatives actually are for normal activities. What I mean by ‘normal’ is obviously dependant on lifestyle. Personally, I do a fair amount of sitting around but also a fair amount of physical activity. I’ve always found ‘monkey’, from its shallowest form, where the knees and hips and ankles barely bend, to its deepest, as in a full squat, invaluable. Also, the ‘lunge’.

However, last year I spent several months working part time Read the rest of this entry »

I used to believe that to have any chance of stopping harmful habits it was necessary for us to first become aware of what we were doing, for which an accurate bodymap would seem to be a prerequisite. I’m no longer sure this is the case. Read the rest of this entry »

Hello,

At www.forwardandup.com, under the heading “Narrowmindedness”, Maaike talks about receiving the latest quota of emails from AlexTech and how:

“The AT teachers on the list are so absorbed in defending their views that everything that is not AT is seen as heretical. Or at least, that’s what some contributors fear. Read the rest of this entry »

I caught a chance hour and a half of John Cale (and ex wife Rise) on German satellite TV singing all the songs from Fragments of a Rainy Season in what looked like a small, smoky, crowded club. I was so transfixed I didn’t even think of recording it. I’ve been trying to locate a video ever since. This album is an equisite portrait of one of the best artists around singing and playing the pick of his own songs (plus one beauty from Leonard Cohen) from the past twenty years, accompanied by himself on piano or guitar. The original “unplugged”. Delicious.

Okay, the ‘plot’ is banal, but Rowan Atkinson makes this film hugely enjoyable. Me, Myself and Irene was dire but it was redeeemed by one thirty second scene (dry mouth in the police station). Johnny English has several such breath sapping moments; and even without them, it’s still fun. Puerile, in parts; but that’s the human condition, isn’t it? I loved it. The extras are a bit on the limp side, though.

Last summer I was in France with my wife’s sister’s family for a wedding. Her mother was visiting, too, from further afield. She was suffering from numerous ailments. She was taken to the doctor, who pronounced most of the problems were psychological. Depression was seen as the cause. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m puzzled by the implication that the Technique instructs us to not interfere (with the right employment of the Primary Control), but not to stop current interference; largely because stopping something we are already doing smacks of releasing, which isn’t considered a valid part of Alexander work. Read the rest of this entry »

Having seen John Cale at St Luke’s without the benefit of knowing Hobosapiens back to front, familiarity with the new songs meant I enjoyed Brighton ten times more. The set list was similar, though no Hallelujah, nor Cordoba. In fact, it was almost identical to the others posted recently.

Queuing to get in, I was worried only a smattering of people would turn up. In the end, Read the rest of this entry »

This is undoubtedly John Cale’s second best album of his career - after Paris 1919 - and it beats hands down most music from any era for sheer, stirring emotion. That’s what I think, anyway. Of course, I love all Cale’s music, so I am biased; but give the guy a chance and you might come to realise how good he is, too.

I went to this show with my brother and our respective wives. We were both very familiar with all of Cale’s stuff except Hobosapiens which neither of us had heard. The ladies ‘knew’ Hallelujah and that was about it.

The setting was small, intimate, theatre sized, in a converted church. Cale dressed in white the first half, black the second. Read the rest of this entry »