Musings on Dance, Food, Geek Stuff
I realized today that I’ve been riding Brompton bikes for about fifteen years. The Brompton is one of the best purchases I’ve ever made in my life, greatly contributing to my overall quality of life, health, and happiness. Here’s me with my first Brompton, purchased in London in 2003. (Check the red hair and the…
Bettina was a passionate, young human rights lawyer who I loved very much. In 1994, she and I worked at the World Federalist Association, a peace organization in Washington DC. I was a research fellow focused on transnational financial institutions. Bettina was hired to work on global human rights issues, including the proposed International Criminal…
This morning I finally topped a difficult V4+ boulder route at my gym, after three weeks of effort. I wanted to share some of my process for beating this route, and videos showing my progress over the last 9-10 sessions. Just getting through the first set of holds was a big challenge for me. Finally,…
I had a revelation the other day about ice cream sundaes. Bear with me here. I was eating an ice cream sundae at one of my favorite ice cream shops in the city, Hometown Creamery in the Sunset. Hometown always has a fascinating, often weird, array of flavors that they make in the shop. I…
About a year ago I added rock climbing to my regular workout regime. After going on a few sessions with my co-worker Jeff, I bit the bullet last September and signed up for a regular membership at my local climbing gym Planet Granite. That was one of the best decisions I’ve made in a long…
Apparently my post about experiencing loneliness and other negative emotions while at a dance resonated with a lot of people. I’m so grateful for the many people who shared heartfelt stories of their own struggles and feelings, and how they coped with them. (Check out “Vunerable” a moving photo essay by Sarah Warny Berg about…
As a Filipino American, I sometimes feel like I am surfing that edge between white privilege and being a person of color. On the one hand, I have certainly experienced racism in the past, both micro-aggressions and actual aggression. But my experience is so far from what most black and brown people experience in this…
All Bay Area teens are invited to a free lindy hop workshop taught by wonderful Cleveland based dancers Alexis Davila and Cyle Dixon happening on Sunday October 28 at the historic Bayview Opera House in San Francisco. The teen workshop will be followed by a community dance that is open to all. Here’s Cyle and Alexis…
DISCLAIMER: I am not a mental health professional. These are just my personal views and experiences as a “veteran” dancer. If you are experiencing intense feelings of depression or anxiety, please see a mental health provider in your area. I’m a “social dancer.” Which means that I dance a style (lindy hop) that requires two…
At the end of the remarkable rock climbing film The Dawn Wall, pro-climber Tommy Caldwell, described what it was like planning his legendary free climb of the Dawn Wall of El Capitan (my rough paraphrase): “For ten years I mapped out what I hoped was a climbable route up the Dawn Wall, never really sure…