June 11

Are you right-handed? Left-handed? I'm very happy to say I'm a lefty. I know my 2nd grade teacher is still greatly disappointed. Sometime during that year, I fell and broke my wrist and had to wear a cast for a couple of months. She got me switched over to writing with my right hand. As soon as that cast came off, I went back to the left side.

Over the years, I've enjoyed reading a lot of things about left-brain, right-brain styles of thinking.
A book that comes to mind is Betty Edwards', "Drawing On the Right Side of the Brain." If you buy into the idea that the brain is split into the left hemisphere (logical thinking) and the right hemisphere (creative, spatial thinking), Betty's book will give you lot's of exercises and ideas for stimulating the right side of your brain.

Exercise sample

"You have two brains: a left and a right. Modern brain scientists now know that your left brain is your verbal and rational brain; it thinks serially and reduces its thoughts to numbers, letters and words… Your right brain is your nonverbal and intuitive brain; it thinks in patterns, or pictures, composed of ‘whole things,’ and does not comprehend reductions, either numbers, letters, or words."

From The Fabric of Mind, by the eminent scientist and neurosurgeon, Richard Bergland. Viking Penguin, Inc., New York 1985. pg.1

An exercise I've found fun and interesting is to use the opposite hand for a day. If you are right-handed, try eating, brushing your teeth, dribbling a basketball and other things with the left hand. Try writing with the opposite hand. Take out a piece of paper and sketch or doodle with the other hand. If you keep a diary, put an entry in your diary writing with the opposite hand. You might be very surprised to go back a few days later and look at what you wrote. I often times will practice certain exercises on the trumpet with the left hand. It's amazing how easy the same exercise is when I go back and use right-handed fingering.



"Dead In The Water - Sinking of the USS Liberty"
Documentary
I've known about this story for a couple of years. I know, it's unbelievable. Most won't believe it until they do their own research (which most won't do). Is this creative material? Maybe...maybe not. I think it is. I'm interested in how history shapes the world we live in. Or should I say, our perception of history. I really had no interest to study history in school. Now, I'm so interested in history. I'm very interested to see how history is rewritten (in an almost Orwellian fashion) and HOW THAT affects the world I live in, including the arts.

Books
I'm crazy about books. Went to Junkuro last night to look at a Photoshop book. When I got into the store, I realized they were having a 70% off sale on English books. Oh mannnn!!! Picked these up......











Energy
Read some articles today on a couple of sites I enjoy:
http://www.yogajournal.com/
http://www.qigonginstitute.org

Listening
Alan Watt's Cutting Through the Matrix - June 8 (mp3)

Movie
Went to see the new Star Trek movie. Unfortunately, I was pretty sleepy and missed a lot of the movie.

Practice
Chops are feeling good today.
Practice VERY slowly. Imagining my trumpet practice is like a taichi practice.
Playing with the left-hand a lot today.

Photography
Took a walk in Itabashi-ku today just before sunset. Happened to catch these shots of the sun.