Tom Waits' Biography

To those folks out there who are fans of the man: the much anticipated biography of Tom Waits is out!

Uncover the Cure!

Summer is here at last! Double digit temperatures feel really good after a long, frost-bitten winter. It's time to celebrate! It's time to get out... naked! After all you've got 2-3 months to gather your annual supply of Vitamin D!

So I decided to participate in this event: Uncover the Cure

It's a 10K run, fund raising for Cancer Research (Alberta Cancer Foundation) and you'd have to run in your underwear. The focus of the fund raising is for cancers below the waist (Read more about the details here: +). The runners pay for an entrance fee (25$), which would cover the managing and running-the-show expenses. All the donation would directly go to cancer research.

If you feel inspired to donate for this good cause, please follow this link:

Donate Now!

and search for the team I'm running in: Excommandos
... and use your magic Credit Card.

If you're around in Edmonton at the time (20th of June) and up for running a 10K (or walk for 5K), just drop me a message.

چهارشنبه سوری

در میانه برف و سرما... خواندیم

چشمهامان دوخته به هرم اخگر میان آتش

گرمای بهار را یک نفس به بیرون خواندیم

Frank Sacherer (1940-1978)

Frank Sacherer, 1965 (Photo: Glen Denny)- taken from here.

I'm currently reading the autobiography of the legendary climber Lynn Hill. In her account of the climbing scene of the Yosemite valley in the 60's, she mentions Frank Sacherer as one of the prominent figures, who lead some of the epic first free ascents (i.e. not using "aiders" or small ladders for climbing the wall, and climbing only using hands and feet) of some routes that are now among the classic Yosemite climbs. Sacherer Cracker, on El Cap being one of them. Here is the kudos he received from another climbing legend of the time, Yvon Chouinard (who later founded Patagonia):

Yvon Chouinard, greatly impressed with Sacherer's ability, wrote that he "always climbed on the verge of falling over backwards-using no more energy than was necessary to progress and rarely bothering to stop and place protection.... Apparently his belayers have been so completely gripped they were unable to use a camera. I have not been able to find a single photograph of Sacherer on a lead!"

And it is indeed hard to find a photo of him...
He used to "switch" climbing partners quite frequently, partly because of his personality, as he "tended toward arrogance and recklessness".

What makes him an interesting figure though, is that he had another passion too, which he pursued seriously... Physics. He got his PhD in nuclear physics from UC Berkeley, in 1968. He later joined CERN in Geneva, in 1970. There he made great contributions in some design aspects of accelerators. Today, there's even a prize named after him for nuclear physics.

On August 30, 1978 he and his partner (a colleague at CERN) were killed in a thunder storm, while climbing Grandes Jorasses. This is his obituary appeared in Physics Today, 1980, written by his PhD advisor:



And here's how the author of the book Camp IV, finishes the section about Sacherer: "I can envision Sacherer shaking his fist at his partner - or God, or the lightning- during his last moments."


Check out this NYTimes article on climber/physicists.

Barefoot running

Couple of days ago I had an interesting random conversation at the gym, with a fellow who was stretching and doing handstand push-ups (on his fingertips!) on the neighboring mat. He said he is a "barefoot runner". Noticing my surprise, he said that he runs only using the front part ("ball") of his foot, i.e. no heel-strike like most of us. He runs, literally barefoot, on indoor running track and uses a pair of these Vibram fivefingers for outdoor running during summer. Gradually you'd develop a thick skin ("natural sole"!) that, according to him, you can even run barefoot on trails, outdoors.

Barefoot runners believe that by using running shoes that give you more support, you are losing or weakening the muscle-groups that are supposed to maintain that stability. And, again according to him, avoiding heel-strike style of running prevents shin splints. He said studies have shown that running on ball of foot is more compatible with human physiology. And after all it's more natural and organic! ha ha...

Yesterday I experimented this style of running in my regular running session. I was wearing shoes (running outdoors), but trying to avoid the usual heel-strikes. I could not increase the pace, possibly because I was not used to it. But I found it close to impossible to run like that on steep down-hills. On steep up-hills you naturally run on your front-feet.

But something makes me wonder... If this way of running is really more compatible with human body, shouldn't we all now look like this? Maybe we are still evolving in that respect!

Patience

I remember watching the stunning documentary about the British artist/photographer Andy Goldsworthy for the first time, 4-5 years ago. Rivers and Tides it was called. The way he works is nowhere near the common perception of a sculptor/artist. He would go out in nature, out there, and make mostly compositions/installations using the material he finds at a specific location [with the characteristics of that specific time of year].
It may involve arranging tiny leaves, when they are turning color at the dawn of fall, like a puzzle, and making gradients of vivid colors. Or it may require connecting small pieces of icicle with his saliva into the shape of a serpent wave across a tree branch, in a freezing cold winter.


One thing is usually shared among most of his artwork: they are mortal! Well... more mortal than other common artworks... They would crumble into pieces minutes, if not seconds, after he finishes creating them. So he became an avid photographer for a good reason!


In one part of the film, he is making one of his signature slate cones (See above) close to the ocean. He'd probably made tens of them before. He has chosen the location close enough to the water such that the finished sculpture would be swallowed by the sea with the rise of tide. He is "giving it to the sea, as a gift", in his own words. The water is getting close. The cone is half done, up to the fat waist... and then suddenly it makes a noise... and falls apart...
He sighs and goes "I don't understand the stone yet"! And restarts building meters away...

The ocean takes his gift in... And then returns it, intact, as the tide recesses in the next cycle.

Bob Marley - Is this love

It's Bob Marley's birthday.... And he's said it best.