Happy longish weekend! I love the vibe of scheduled holidays. Even though I’m working today it was appallingly easy to sleep in, and the whole day has this pleasant glow to it. A perfect time to come and try out Big Friday, especially if you usually work at this time…spring is in the air, a young yogi’s fancy turns to love, under the boardwalk, some enchanted evening &c. &c. Also will help you work off your ham or ham-analogue Easter dinner.
I’m also teaching Freestyle Friday this evening, a class with very little instruction where we groove to somewhat more subtle music and you can pretty much do whatever you please, so if you can’t make the 4 pm and you have a self practice, come up and see us at Yaletown at 6:30.
“Call My Name”, Prince
It was around this year that they perfected the jacket/vest synthesis
“The Way You Do The Things You Do”, The Temptations
“I Want You Back”, Jackson 5
“Do I Do”, Stevie Wonder
“Here I Am [Come And Take Me]“, Al Green
“I Second That Emotion”, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles
“In The Midnight Hour”, Wilson Pickett
“What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted”, Jimmy Ruffin
‘You Really Got A Hold On Me”, Percy Sledge
“Baby, Baby, Baby”, Sam Cooke
“Until You Come Back To Me [That's What I'm Gonna Do]“, Aretha Franklin
“Let’s Stay Together”. Al Green
“[You Make Me Feel Like] A Natural Woman”, Aretha Franklin
“I’ll Be There”, Jackson 5
“Smoke Gets In Your Eyes”, The Platters [This is such a great song, even though it's a bit outside of the vintage/style of the other songs...I couldn't resist. The big timpani smash at the end? Deadly]
“Beautiful Wonderful”, Anthony Hamilton
“My Funny Valentine”, Etta James
“Blame It On My Youth”, Brad Mehldau. Everybody enjoys the Brad at the end of class these days.
Apparently after his concerts they would have to mop the floor down before the next act, from all his sweat. Sounds like us on Friday.
*SO* many great requests for this week. It’s like this genre just brought out the music maniac in everyone. It was super sweaty last week so wear your skivvies and don’t forget to bring a towel.
“Try A Little Tenderness”, Otis Redding
“Superstition”, Stevie Wonder
“ABC”, Jackson 5
“Ain’t Too Proud To Beg”, The Temptations
“This Old Heart Of Mine [Is Weak For You]“, The Isley Brothers
“Share Your Love With Me”, Aretha Franklin
“The Tracks Of My Tears”, Smokey Robinson
“[Sittin' On] The Dock Of The Bay”, Otis Redding
“Hey Love”, Stevie Wonder
“Sweet Thing”, Chaka Khan & Rufus
“When A Man Loves A Woman”, Percy Sledge
“These Arms Of Mine”, Otis Redding
“Do You Feel Me”, Anthony Hamilton
“Take Your Time”, Al Green feat. Corinne Bailey Rae
“How Long Has This Been Going On”, Brad Mehldau
Dig. I’ve just been so darn mellow since I got back from CR that I can’t stop listening to “Ain’t No Woman Like The One I Got” and lack any desire to scream at people to engage their back leg in Ardha Chandrasana while listening to Dokken, or something. I’m going with my gut and my groove on this one, and proposing a delightful spring of Motown and R&B classics, both old and new.
I'm a Ringo girl, personally
A tip for surviving Big Motown Fridays is to remember that even when the sweat is falling into your eyes from below while you attempt your fourth preparation for full Kapotasana dropbacks: Marvin Gaye ALWAYS has the right idea, and if you’re p.o’d at Marvin for sounding so mellow and joyous while you are about to blow up or swallow your tongue it’s time to chill out and laugh and watch the floor show until sanity prevails. I know you know what I’m talking about. See you on Friday at 4.
“Set The Mood Right/Until The End Of Time Prelude”, Justin Timberlake [I have ALWAYS wanted to start a class with this silly song. Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa]
“Let’s Get It On”, Marvin Gaye
“My Girl”, Temptations
“Little Bit Of Feel Good”, Jamie Lidell
“When You Gonna Learn (Didgeridoo)”, Jamiroquai
“Golden Lady”, Stevie Wonder [This right here has been my jam for like 12 years now. I wake up to this song on the Sony Dream Machine every morning. It gives one a decent shot at a great day.]
“What’s Going On”, Marvin Gaye
“Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing”, Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell
“Ain’t No Woman Like The One I Got”, The Four Tops [See above]
“Stay With Me (By The Sea)”, Al Green feat. John Legend
“Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)”, Temptations [What's up with Motown artists (and parenthetical song titles?)]
“Live It Up”, John Legend
“Eddie You Should Know Better”, Curtis Mayfield
“Rope Of Sand”, Jamie Lidell
“Wild And Peaceful”, Kool and the Gang
“All I Wanna Do”, Jamie Lidell
“If It’s Magic”, Stevie Wonder
Stay tuned for more Big Motown/R&B Friday offerings. Can’t wait for Aretha, Sam and Dave, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding…
BOSS. It’s been so long! Some oldies, some, uh, newies, and some requests. Come and sweat out 1/5 of your body weight with us this afternoon at 4.
“November Rain”, Guns’n'Roses
Reminds me of the guys that used to hang out beside the woodworking shop
“Any Way You Want It”, Journey
“Run To The Hills“, Iron Maiden
“Shout It Out Loud”, KISS
“Highway to Hell”, AC/DC
“Doo doo doo doo doo &c.”, Rolling Stones
“Let It Bleed”, Rolling Stones
“The Chain”, Fleetwood Mac [This song came on Heroes the other night when Syler was in the diner and M and I looked at each other at pretty much the same time and said "I REALLY like this song. Who is it, again?". I've noticed the older I get the more I forgive Fleetwood Mac.]
“Love Rein O’er Me”, The Who
“Long As I Can See The Light”, Creedence [This song keeps showing up on BRF because I have concluded it accesses the parasympathetic nervous system directly. As soon as the intro starts the temperature of the room drops 3 degrees and peoples' heart-rates slow down]
“Born Under A Bad Sign”, Jimi Hendrix
“Nothin’”, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss [check out this album if you haven't already; it contains much goodness, esp. for a household based almost entirely on Zeppelin anthologies and Coen Bros. movies like ours is]
The “Solitude/Orchid/Fluff” trifecta, Sabbath
“Julia”, Beatles
Dude, wait, what? I emerged blinking into the wan oatmealy light of North Burnaby after a rockin’ start to the workshop there and M is waiting in our trusty Kia to take me home. I’m burdened by an entire blueberry cheesecake from Pappagallo Cafe and
All the tyeyeyeyyeyeyeyyeme.
I’m so IN IT: I’ve been watching femurs and molding fascia and distilling rudimentary Tantra all week. The first thing I hear is Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” and I remember there’s a whole other world out there that ISN’T yoga and it’s quite shocking really, like somebody pouring a tankard of icy Gatorade down your back.
All this really means is that I can’t wait for Big Rock Fridays to return for an exclusive one-day blowout this Friday, March 6 at 4 pm. I’m off to Costa Rica on retreat for the next two Fridays so if you want to be a part of the myth and the legend, please come out and rock with me this Friday, in accordance with the prophecy. Requests in comments if you’ve got any.
I’ll be teaching the workshops below and going to see John Friend in Seattle so February is alllll bidness. This will be the first, last and only BHHF for February; lots of oldies and goodies; check it, wreck it…
“Never Can Say Goodbye”, Jackson 5
“No”, De La Soul f. Elizabeth “Yummy” Bingham, one of my favourite singers
“Heard Em Say”, Kanye West f. Adam Levine
“Bust A Move”, Young MC [I had this on cassingle]
“Listen”, Talib Kweli
“Good Life”, Pete Rock & CL Smooth
“Virgo”, Doug E Fresh, NaS and Ludacris
“Paris, Tokyo”, Lupe Fiasco
“Give Love A Chance”, People Under The Stairs
“She Said”, Pharcyde
“All I Need”, Al Green
“Me Myself and I”, Beyonce
“He Think I Don’t Know”, Mary J. Blige
“Lady”, D’Angelo
“Wild and Peaceful”, Kool and the Gang
“On The Couch”, Prince
Keep on till the early morn, even if your left nostril and sinus are plugged and you consist almost entirely of homeopathic zinc tablets. Yeah, I’ve caught whatever weird cold has been circulating but I simply couldn’t bear to give up the centrepiece of my teaching week. This one is a bit schizoid, inspired in part by some requests, some love songs, and also by a big brainstorming session that I had with M’s family where we talked about songs that crossed the supposedly impenetrable Rap v. Rock barrier. Enjoy!
INTRO to “Brothers Gonna Work It Out”, Chemical Brothers
If there's anything made of more pure win than this video, I haven't seen it
“The Lesson”, The Roots
“Release Yo’ Delf [Prodigy Mix]“, Method Man
“Walk This Way“, Run DMC & Aerosmith
“Sabotage”, Beastie Boys
“B-Boy Stance”, k-os
“Jurass Finish First”, Jurassic 5
“Everything Is Everything”, Lauryn Hill
“All Falls Down”, Kanye West
“Freedom”, Jurassic 5
“All That You Are”, The Foreign Exchange
“Geto Heaven Part Two”, Common
“Respiration”, Black Star
“Sunshine”, Handsome Boy Modeling School feat. just about every indieish Manhattan musician in the early aughts
“The Healer”, Erykah Badu
“Stay With You”, John Legend
“All I Wanna Do”, Jamie Lidell
Republicans vs. Democrats, Mac vs. PC, Trek vs. Wars, Big Rock Friday vs. Big Hip Hop Friday: shall we ever find peace? I was greeted with a subversively unyogic arena-rock chant at my last class: ROCK! ROCK! ROCK!/HIP HOP! HIP HOP! HIP HOP! [which, to be clear, doesn't really scan]. Don’t hate the MP3 playa, hate the game: in this case, the game that’s got us thinking these styles of music as are Radically Different as radio stations† and video channels would have us believe. Sure, they’re different, doy, but they’ve both been developing to extraordinary depths over the last coupla decades [Lupe Fiasco OMG!] and as my friend Mr. Goodtimes used to say, when you reject an entire genre of music it’s like cutting off one of your fingers. He was talking specifically about musicians, so if you happen not to play anything let’s say it’s like cutting off one of your ears. And you only have two: One for Big Rock Friday, and one for Big Hip Hop Friday. Heeeere we go…
This one ended up a) kinda jazzy and b) a lot of love songs and [Heh.] body related songs. Not intentional, just kinda happened. To address the vicious rumours that I have created BHHF to refer to Teh Buttocks more often, it’s TOTALLY TRUE: Take the tops of the thighs back. Take the inner groins back and apart. Balance this opening with the tailbone rooting down. The beatings will continue until morale improves 
“Call My Name”, Prince
“Ready or Not”, Fugees
“Flute Loop”, Beastie Boys
“Around The Way Girl”, LL Cool J [I loved this song when I was a tween. I had a Vuarnet bath towel and the Rosie-Perez-esque black Lycra-blend sundress with the sunflowers all over it and the flip-top Dwayne Wayne sunglasses, o rly]
Shout out to high school French class
“Just A Friend”, Biz Markie
“Ms Fat Booty”, Mos Def
“Happy Valentine’s Day”, André 3000
“Superstar”, Lupe Fiasco
“Compromise”, Shad [Coming to Vancouver on Feb. 21!!!1!!oneone!!]
“They Say”, Common feat. John Legend
“Happiness”, Dead Prez
“Namaste”, Beastie Boys
“Letter from Yokosuka”, Nujabes
“Alright”, D’Angelo
“Take Your Time”, Al Green feat. Corinne Bailey Rae
“How Long Has This Been Going On”, Brad Mehldau
†I realize the plural of anecdote is not data, and any representative of Vancouver’s rock radio stations is welcome to set me straight on this point, but M reports having never heard either Bad Brains or Living Colour on CFOX or Rock 101, at least not since this whole telecommunications-buyout juggernaut. Contrast that with an abundance of Beastie Boys or Average White Band [who don't even play rock IMHO]. <sings> One of these things is not like the other, one of these things just isn’t the same…sigh.
Don’t call it a comeback. DO call it Power Yoga at 4 pm tomorrow…
Hey, I didn't say it, Mama did.
Common, “Intro [Finding Forever]”
Lyrics Born, “Callin’ Out”
Talib Kweli, “We Know”
Atmosphere, “Yesterday”
LL Cool J, “Mama Said Knock You Out”
Big Boi, “The Way You Move”
Common feat. will.i.am, “I Want You”
Pete Rock & CL Smooth, “T.R.O.Y. [They Reminisce Over You]”
Little Brother, “So Fabulous”
People Under the Stairs, “Montego Bay”
Al Green, “Just For Me”
Nujabes, “Reflection Eternal”
Mikah Nine, “Come Up Off Of My Love”
Remy Shand, “Everlasting”
Lauryn Hill, “Nothing Even Matters”
Jamie Lidell, “Rope of Sand”
Stevie Wonder, “If It’s Magic”
Can I kick it? Yes, I can.
Well, well, well…Happy New Year, blogosphere-dwellers! I threatened to change up our Big Fridays and the following was our Kickoff Playlist.
It’s sometimes hard to shift when you’re grooving on something and I do love and will miss Big Rocks [they will return, I promise]. But it’s good to remember that it was a change that started that whole thing, and so change [even though it's weird at first] is the only constant. Ya dig? Especially in a New Year. I am notoriously TERRIBLE at change. When my parents would drive me to camp I’d moan and whine all the way there, and then when they came to pick me up I’d weep piteously for a day and a half. And in spite of almost two decades between now and then, really I am as accustomed to my little routines as Evelyn is to hers. So I was nervous about unveiling this one.
Luckily I saw so many beautiful hip openers and challenging postures executed very well this afternoon; some smiling faces, some impromptu rhymes and R&B licks, and most importantly: rump shaking.
A Tribe Called Quest, “Bonita Applebum”
Dead Prez [No, really], “Hip-Hop”
Beastie Boys, “So What’cha Want” [A shout out to all my Raw Canvas NYE partiers]
Blackalicious, “The Craft”
Beastie Boys, “Body Movin’”
De La Soul, “Big Brother Beat”
Common, “The Light”
Common, “Funky For You”
Digable Planets, “Graffiti”
De La Soul, “Trying People”
The Foreign Exchange, “Happiness”
Curtis Mayfield, “Eddie You Should Know Better”
Eligh, “Riding Water Over Time”
D’Angelo, “Alright”
Aaliyah, “It’s Whatever”
André 3000 feat. Norah Jones, “Baby Take Off Your Cool”