Dokkodo

The great samurai Minamoto Musashi, better known for his Book of Five Rings, also wrote “The Way of Walking Alone” shortly before his death in 1645. A list of 21 simple instructions, it was a gift to his disciple Tergo Magonojo, along with the rest of his possessions, a week before he died.

Frankly, it’s an ascetic approach that’s often far from my own, which I find makes it particularly worth considering as a counter-balance to the many pulls of modern life.

  1. Accept everything just the way it is.
  2. Do not seek pleasure for its own sake.
  3. Do not give preference to anything among all things.
  4. Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world.
  5. Be detached from desire your whole life.
  6. Do not regret what you have done.
  7. Never be jealous.
  8. Never let yourself be saddened by a separation.
  9. Resentment and complaint are appropriate neither for oneself nor others.
  10. Do not let yourself be guided by the feeling of lust or love.
  11. Do not seek elegance and beauty in all things.
  12. Be indifferent to where you live.
  13. Do not pursue the taste of good food.
  14. Do not hold on to possessions you no longer need.
  15. Do not act following customary beliefs.
  16. Do not collect weapons or practice with weapons beyond what is useful.
  17. Do not fear death.
  18. Do not seek to possess either goods or fiefs for your old age.
  19. Respect Buddha and the gods without counting on their help.
  20. You may abandon your own body but you must preserve your honor.
  21. Never stray from the way.

My Foolish Heart

It was the final song of a two hour session, so my chops were basically fried, but I love the song too much to have not recorded it:

Tradition

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In keeping with custom, watched a movie (the excellent Brooklyn, with my parents and 92-year-old grandmother) and am now headed off to enjoy Red Farm.

Gut yontif to all, and to all a good night.

Joe Christmas

Yesterday, I headed to Bicycle Habitat, my favorite NYC bike shop, for a minor repair. One of the repair guys, as he worked, regaled me and his coworkers with a Christmas story specific to NYC, something that he had been told as a kid in the 1950’s in his very Italian neighborhood of Brooklyn:

Sure, everybody knows Santa Claus. And if you’re good, then Santa comes to bring you presents.

But if you’re bad? Well, in Brooklyn, you get Joe Fatinazzi.

Joe’s as fat as Santa, but he drives a green garbage truck, wears a dirty wife-beater, and slicks back his long greasy hair.

And if you’ve been bad, then late Christmas Eve, Joe pulls up, and leaves an old couch on your front lawn.

The whole time he was growing up, the repair guy said, each Christmas morning, before running out to look at what was under the tree, he’d peek out the window first, just to make sure he hadn’t gotten a couch.

Only in New York.

Yuletide

Despite being Jewish, I’ve always loved Christmas music. (Which I suppose makes sense, as approximately half of the 25 best-selling Christmas songs of all time were written by Jews.). At the moment, I’ve been wearing the digital grooves off this great cover, Billy Bragg and Florence and the Machine playing the Pogues “Fairytale of New York.”

An early merry Christmas (or gut yontif?) to all.

Keep Climbing

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Headed up this weekend to Cold Springs, NY, to climb Breakneck Ridge, one half of the Wind Gate northern gateway (along with New Jersey’s Storm King Mountain, across the river) to the Hudson Highlands.

Aptly named, Breakneck’s apparently the most challenging hike in the Highlands, as it starts with a steep, semi-technical rock-climbing scramble that ascends nearly 1300 feet in three-quarters of a mile. The trail map warns it’s suited only for experienced hikers in excellent physical condition, and not for those with a fear of heights.

In my own case, I’m actually pretty pettrified of heights. But I also climbed throughout my youth as a way to push past that fear. So it was with familiar butterflies in my stomach that I pulled myself up boulders and ledges, trying to stay towards the sides which didn’t terminate on several-hundred foot drops.

And, in the end, we made it up to the top in one piece, then back down the beautiful and (relatively) meandering descent in blazing time, finishing the hike (usually estimated at 3.5-4 hours) in just 2.5 hours, to beat the setting sun.

It’s been too long since I last headed out to the woods around NYC, and this made an excellent point of return. Apropos enough, if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere, indeed.

Lofty

Headed out this past weekend to Gowanus, to see LoftOpera’s final performance of The Rape of Lucretia. I always love Benjamin Britten (or, really, early 20th century British composers in general), and I’d never seen Lucretia staged, so it seemed a no-brainer choice.

The opera lived up to my expectations – not just great music, but strong singing, innovative staging, and some good ballet wedged in to boot. More broadly, I was excited and impressed by LoftOpera as a whole. The company strives to provide younger artists the opportunity to perform lead roles in paid positions, while keeping tickets affordable and performances interesting and intimate. As the Wall Street Journal put it, “LoftOpera offers a paradox: an embrace of highbrow establishment pomp as retold by riders of the G train.”

It’s the kind of thing that makes New York City great, vital and alive. Their 2016 season looks excellent: Puccini’s Tosca, Rossini’s Le Comte Ory, Mozart’s Così fan tutti and Weill’s Mahagonny. If you like opera, or even if you think you don’t, I’d strongly recommend checking them out.

Fit to be Tied

I always love life hacks that improve something small but essential, something you do every day without much thought.  Which is why I was intrigued to find this short video from Bloomberg, explaining that I (and likely you) have been tying my shoelaces in a less than ideal manner for my entire life.

For the last month, I’ve been using their Windsor shoe-tie exclusively, and it turns out those Bloomberg folks are completely correct.  The Windsor is a far better knot, and I’ll be using it from now on.  Try it out, and I think you will be, too:

Taxonomy

The degree to which this Venn diagram (and, really, all Venn diagrams) makes me happy is a pretty good indication that I fall somewhere on it:

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