Here's Bob, the online tai chi instructor at work in yesterday's AARP online presentation. The exercise lasted about 45 minutes, a long time for me, but I kept up till the last few minutes when I finished it sitting down.
it was very similar to Eight Pieces of Silk, which I haven't done in a while, and I ran into my usual coordination issues, getting arms and legs going out of sync, but it was really good. I was totally relaxed in the afternoon and much less stiff than usual this morning.
Bob has decades of experience teaching in person, and the only hitch was the sound quality. When he introduced himself, close to the camera, it was fine. Then he stepped back as you see and started the movements and was inaudible. I think AARP is amateur night about miking. He was not body miked, I'm guessing.
I messaged them and they said well that's why there's captioning, and anyway it worked fine in our practice run. I didn't pursue it but thought it was more than I could do, to read captions while watching and imitating what for me were difficult movements. I missed all the names of the moves.
It did revive my interest in Eight Pieces of Silk, and I may resume that practice, so that was good. And I'm glad they did it, even if not very well. They got about 150 viewers, pretty good.
They timed it for 12 noon, awkward time for lunch, so I postponed mine thinking better not to have a full meal right before. So eventually this was lunch. Curried shrimp over jasmine rice.
And here's a bit of good news, some priceless artifacts looted from Ghana in colonial times personally restored by officials of the Fowler Museum, with some gracious apologies.
Along with some lame excuses that they didn't know the full provenance back when the curators of the time acquired them. Which means they were either lying, or they didn't do their job back then. Anyway they now say they discovered these items were looted in conflict, and they are now back in the right hands
So, virtue signalling aside, this is good. They're beautiful artifacts, demonstrating the high culture of what Western powers dismissed as primitive people. Not so much.
And this tickled me. Ukrainian humor. If they can laugh in their suffering, it seems we more fortunate people can at least cheer up. Which may involve avoiding the news for now.
You would think AARP would be more sensitive to the issue of hearing difficulties among seniors in particular. Captioning is not an adequate substitute here when movement is required. And sheesh, how much does a wireless body mic cost -- AARP can't afford one?
ReplyDeleteI don't think they know much about this kind of presentation. When we get to evaluate I'll remind them.
DeleteThanks for the laugh! I do like curried shrimp, this looks so good. I haven't looked up any tai chi videos yet. My balance is awful, maybe it would help.
ReplyDeleteThe slowness of two chi is difficult for balance, while developing balance, oddly enough. But muscle strength, I think, is required for balance, so I've addressed that over the years.
DeleteThat's some dark humor.
ReplyDeleteYou made me smile with your description of AARP with their amateur night miking. How many of us actually remember amateur night?
You have reminded me that Tai Chi is yet one more thing I should be doing.
The humor is very Eastern European.
DeleteAmateur Night at the Bijou!
That dish looks delicious and it truly is art at every stage. Too bad whoever responded to you from AARP didn’t give that response more thought. It simply sounds defensive. Captioning is an especially poor solution for seniors. AARP knows better. I wish someone would host a Tai Chai class on the beach across the street!
ReplyDeleteI sent in my evaluation this morning suggesting better miking! But I was very nice about the instruction.
DeleteThat is good news on Ghana. I wish all artifacts taken would be return. The Elgin marbles are one in particular that for the life of me I cannot understand what the UK thinks by keeping them this long. To me it is on par with a country taking our original copies of the US Constitution. There are some things that are so sacred to a country's history, they belong to that country.
ReplyDeleteIt's very difficult for a colonial mentality to admit fault and make restitution. I continue, like you, to push wherever I can. If it empties museums, use them for other purposes, or pay the real owner countries to lend artworks temporarily.
DeleteI propably should be doing some Tai Chai to get balance from my foot surgery. Your rice and shrimp look amazing. Yes, cooking is an art for sure.
ReplyDeleteYes you'll need to rebalance after your period of needing to protect one foot.
DeleteI laughed at the Ukrainian humour. I shall have to copy that. How could you be expected to read captions and still know which one is your right hand?
ReplyDeleteExactly. hard enough to do this stuff, without squinting at captions.
DeleteYour valid comments were rudely dismissed
ReplyDeleteI wonder if they’re viewer numbers will drop because of this issue.
I wonder, too, but if people can follow the movements, maybe they're not so concerned with the words.
DeleteThat was a very amateurish job for such an organization.
ReplyDeleteJust checked out Eight Pieces. Have saved the channel to watch on a bigger screen. It looks like it may only be captioned (rather than voice instruction), but at least it's beautifully done filming, and a refreshing sound of birds in the background. Thanks, Liz.
ReplyDeleteI hope it goes well. Good for you for trying it.
DeleteSo many artifacts should to be returned to the First Nations people of Canada by the British. It is good those items were returned to Ghana.
ReplyDeleteThe Fowler is a California based museum. Where are the Canadian items?
DeleteTai Chi is intriguing but not enough for me to try it. I used to enjoy senior's yoga until our instructor started insisting we do poses that I simply could not do without pain. When she started wanting us to stand on our heads I gave it up. I have a hard enough time standing upright much less upside down.
ReplyDeleteIt's weird that sometimes yoga and tai chi teachers can be quite unsuited temperamentally. The angry tai chi teacher I had years ago put me off. Then if you find a good one, it's night and day.
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