http://aventurinaking.blog.com arts journalism Wed, 21 Jan 2009 06:22:54 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Dear all, Something has happened: I've moved to China, I've decided to become a singer. Here is my new blog (since blog.com is blocked over in China) blog.sina.com.cn/jinxiaoyuer Look forward to seeing everyone at my new blog. Welcome to Beijing! http://aventurinaking.blog.com/2009/01/21/moved-to-china/ I just came back from a five day jump-over to London, and yes me mates, I went there just to see me grandmother! My grandmother is 91. She is petite, always wears tailored dresses or skirts and matching high-heeled shoes with clear tights: "I don't see how you could wear trousers. ... http://aventurinaking.blog.com/2008/11/04/my-british-grandmothers-favorite-tv-shows/ This week, I discovered the power of multi-vitamins. I had never realized that literally everyone I know takes a multi-vitamin in the morning. And there I was, huffing and puffing through the day, putting weight on the candy I ate to try staying awake, when all along, the answer was ... http://aventurinaking.blog.com/2008/10/24/alive-multi-vitamins-are-the-new-cocaine-tahini-love-locked-my-mac-keyboard/ At my last meditation class, the leader said that raising energy up to your higher chakras (the head and the heart) is conducive to meditation. Sex drags your energy down to your lower chakras--your stomach and your genitals--and therefore detracts from meditation. Which is why most of the members of ... http://aventurinaking.blog.com/2008/10/24/meditation-and-sex/ The first of my 4-week meditation classes unfolded in a high-ceilinged, baby-blue carpeted suite in downtown Manhattan. It was lead by two small and smiling women who work together at the UN in international development. On an altar near the window, there was a clear vase with a few pink ... http://aventurinaking.blog.com/2008/10/12/meditation-part-ii-channel-jellyfish-and-aum-govindaya-nama/ I always take flyers handed out by people. It's a small gesture that brings them a second's relief from hours of standing and being ignored: a smile, a grasp, and then a trashcan down the road far enough so they can't see. This time the flyer was for a free eight-hour ... http://aventurinaking.blog.com/2008/10/07/meditation-and-sri-chinmoy/ I just finished watching the first half of Red Cliff, a 2 CD Chinese blockbuster that stars Takeshi Kaneshiro and Tony Leung. They are China's two hottest male actors, and up to now, the only apparent reason for the film's box office success. The movie's bad because the Chinese high-budget war ... http://aventurinaking.blog.com/2008/08/07/red-cliff/ I've begun reading "The Art of Happiness" by the Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler.  So far, I haven't found it intellectually challenging ( but then again, many self-helpy books pale in comparison with the analytical depth of Nathaniel Branden's "Honoring the Self").  Sometimes questions feel incompletely or simplistically addressed.  And ... http://aventurinaking.blog.com/2008/08/05/yoga-and-hip-hop-in-beijing/ Here are the basics of my life in Beijing this Summer 2008: I live in Season's Park, an apartment complex in the East center of Beijing right across from the Embassy neighborhood. I moved in during the first week after its construction ended May 08. The complex has a swimming pool, a ... http://aventurinaking.blog.com/2008/07/29/the-basics-a-22-yo-americanfrench-female-freelancer-in-beijing/ Julia Allison is the 26-year old dating columnist of Time Out New York, and her website, NonSociety, features videos of her and two young female business partners lip-syching, dancing in Times Square, and plowing through tutu dresses and diamond necklaces. I agree with a few things Allison writes in her columns. ... http://aventurinaking.blog.com/2008/07/25/dating-self-promotion/