weekend: no time toulouse
May. 9th, 2005 09:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anotheranonD. and I went to the Toulouse-Lautrec and Monmartre exhibit on Saturday.
Conclusions - very good and comprehensive, and seeing the "famous" originals of paintings I recognize from books was a thrill as always - is it possible to be a fangirl for a piece of art? D. was not as enthused as I was but enjoyed the lithographs, particularly Tournee du Chat Noir.
I was surprised at all of the non- T-L paintings in the exhibit, including several by Van Gogh before he went to Arles and developed his familiar orange/yellow/blue palette. His were still recognizable even in paler colors because the proportions are all slightly slanted or askew. Another surprise was that Toulouse-Lautrec did a lot of his "finished" works on plain cardboard - and here I was thinking all this time that he just used a lot of brown :P
The characters of Monmartre are always fascinating to me because you see them in different paintings and start to recognize individuals. My favorite is Yvette Guilbert, the cabaret singer with the trademark long black gloves. This painting (not part of the exhibit) is my favorite; the way T-L painted her as all angles and points and long skinny arms she looks quite like an alien to me - what would an alien keep in those gloves?
Maybe I'll write a sci-fi brothel-circus story sometime, populated entirely with green-faced creatures based on Toulouse-Lautrec's art....
Saturday: in a fit of home improvement, D. had maintenance out to fix the kitchen faucet, which had calcium (or something) buildup and was losing pressure and leaking all over the counter. It is now replaced by one of those inverted "U" shaped spigots that stays nicely above the volume of the sink, so we can stack dirty dishes and still have room to fill the Brita water pitcher :P
Continuing the home improvement I went to target to replace the shower curtain - while furtively looking for dark chocolate M&Ms. Alas! The plain ones were sold out and I don't care for the peanut butter ones. Luckily, they DID have new dark chocolate Hershey's Kisses! My favorite poison in a perfectly sized dose ;)
Sunday: rapier fencing. Got my ass handed to me because... well, I'm new at this :P Also, I was practicing with a borrowed weapon made for someone far taller than me, and I lack the strength to keep holding a 49" weapon aloft for 15 minutes at a time. I need to start working out the muscles right next to my pectorals - the front of the shoulder where the arm meets the torso, whatever those are called (anyone?).
General: I'm now in constant low-key "Hermoine-mode" in preparation for my class. I'm going to try and read as much of the main textbook as possible before the class starts on 5/31 - I may not understand all of it, but at least I'll know what's coming :P
Conclusions - very good and comprehensive, and seeing the "famous" originals of paintings I recognize from books was a thrill as always - is it possible to be a fangirl for a piece of art? D. was not as enthused as I was but enjoyed the lithographs, particularly Tournee du Chat Noir.
I was surprised at all of the non- T-L paintings in the exhibit, including several by Van Gogh before he went to Arles and developed his familiar orange/yellow/blue palette. His were still recognizable even in paler colors because the proportions are all slightly slanted or askew. Another surprise was that Toulouse-Lautrec did a lot of his "finished" works on plain cardboard - and here I was thinking all this time that he just used a lot of brown :P
The characters of Monmartre are always fascinating to me because you see them in different paintings and start to recognize individuals. My favorite is Yvette Guilbert, the cabaret singer with the trademark long black gloves. This painting (not part of the exhibit) is my favorite; the way T-L painted her as all angles and points and long skinny arms she looks quite like an alien to me - what would an alien keep in those gloves?
Maybe I'll write a sci-fi brothel-circus story sometime, populated entirely with green-faced creatures based on Toulouse-Lautrec's art....
Saturday: in a fit of home improvement, D. had maintenance out to fix the kitchen faucet, which had calcium (or something) buildup and was losing pressure and leaking all over the counter. It is now replaced by one of those inverted "U" shaped spigots that stays nicely above the volume of the sink, so we can stack dirty dishes and still have room to fill the Brita water pitcher :P
Continuing the home improvement I went to target to replace the shower curtain - while furtively looking for dark chocolate M&Ms. Alas! The plain ones were sold out and I don't care for the peanut butter ones. Luckily, they DID have new dark chocolate Hershey's Kisses! My favorite poison in a perfectly sized dose ;)
Sunday: rapier fencing. Got my ass handed to me because... well, I'm new at this :P Also, I was practicing with a borrowed weapon made for someone far taller than me, and I lack the strength to keep holding a 49" weapon aloft for 15 minutes at a time. I need to start working out the muscles right next to my pectorals - the front of the shoulder where the arm meets the torso, whatever those are called (anyone?).
General: I'm now in constant low-key "Hermoine-mode" in preparation for my class. I'm going to try and read as much of the main textbook as possible before the class starts on 5/31 - I may not understand all of it, but at least I'll know what's coming :P
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no subject
Date: 2005-05-10 12:30 pm (UTC)Right now I'm just trying to develop some strength - the weapon usually only weighs ~2lbs, but it's hard to hold that at arms length for the extended time demanded by drills. Endurance will be my aim in the long run.
Some of my fellow fencers suggested: 1) lay on your back, take a 5-10lb weight in both hands over my head and lift until it's over my face - repeat and 2) use one of those "bungee" cords over the edge of a door and pull downwards. I did 1) last night and don't feel much strain; will be trying 2) later in the week to see what happens. Further suggestions are welcome.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-11 03:38 am (UTC)I don't remember the kinesiology of the delts well enough to be 100% sure, but as I recall it is not terribly necessary to shift the effort to different parts of the range of motion. At least not until you get pretty advanced, I think.
For building up strength, front and side delt raises are basic. Do them standing up, with a dumbbell. For the front version, just lift it straight in front of you, up to horizontal. The dumbbell's bar should be parallel to the ground the whole way, with perhaps a slight twist (inner side comes down) at the top of the motion. For the side version, start with the weight down at your side and raise it, straight out at your side, to the horizontal. For the side raises do both at once, it's easier to keep good form that way. For the front version, just be very careful and square.
To add trap involvement, either go slightly above horizontal with all exercises, or do shrugs, which are a very basic trap exercise. Be warned that shrugs can thicken your neck surprisingly. As a woman you may not run into this to the extent that a man would, but on the other hand *any* untrained muscle gains a bit of size very easily, no matter who you are, so there is that possibility. If I try to get fitted shirts, the ones that fit my neck are typically 6-8" or more too big around my chest, and that was true long before I ever seriously worked my traps.
These exercises will mainly help with strength, but to bias them somewhat in favor of endurance, do many reps and do them slowly, with lighter weights. Think of it like aerobics for your shoulders rather than (anaerobic) weightlifting.
When you get to really focussing on endurance later on, I would say just hold the sword straight out in front of you for 5 minutes, or as long as you can stand. You might trade off and use a heavier weight for a shorter time, but in the end I would come back to using the sword itself, or at most something a bit heavier than the heaviest sword you ever really expect to use. Controlled "bouncing" may help somewhat.
For speed your best bet is to focus on drill type exercises, or whatever equates to katas in western sword training. Again use a heavy but realistic sword, or a normal one plus small wrist weights.
Unfortunately the muscle adaptations for maximum speed are counter to those for maximum endurance. If I had to guess I'd say work strength first (possibly a few months depending on how trained your delts are), then endurance, then finally speed. Just a guess tho.