After a long overland journey from Southern California, I arrived back here in Pocatello, Idaho a couple of days ago. School starts back up tomorrow, and I am still trying to re-orient myself to the gravitational pull of my "normal" life (i.e. the life that does not involve driving all over the place attending yoga workshops and interviewing celebrity teachers).
But I guess I'll spare you the boring details of this re-orientation. Here's something else that might interest you. On the way back to Pocatello, I took a little detour off the interstate, and stopped briefly in Preston, Idaho. Preston, as some of you may know, is the home of Napoleon Dynamite. I don't know how many of you are fans of the movie, but while in Preston, I went to a few of the places where the movie was shot, and took some pictures. In what follows, I shall set out these pictures I took alongside screenshots from the actual movie. I hope you find them interesting. If this doesn't interest you, and you'll rather read about something more yoga-related, well, then, wait for the next post :-)
But in the meantime, for all of you Napoleon fans out there, here goes. The first thing I saw when I got into Preston was Pop'n Pins Lanes. This is the bowling alley that Kip and Uncle Rico went bowling at in the movie:
I wanted to go in and take a few pictures, and maybe even play a game or two. Unfortunately, the place only opens in the evenings. Well, maybe next time :-)
Next up is the high school that Napoleon attends in the movie:
Deseret Industries, the thrift store where the scene was shot
You might also remember Uncle Rico, who is obsessed with going back in time to relive his glory days as a high-school quarterback. As you may recall, a big part of Rico's discussion of time-travel with Kip happens over a burger:
Unfortunately, the original burger joint where the discussion took place has since been torn down and replaced with a pizza and pasta place (I wonder why? You would think that there would be a big surge in business after such a big movie was shot there...). But the owners of the new place have nevertheless kindly kept the old sign in place:
Well, that was all I managed to capture from scenes in the movie during my brief tour of Preston. There are many other things from the movie that I did not manage to capture here. For instance, I did not see Tina the llama. Nor was I able to locate the martial arts studio where Rex Kwon Do was taught.
"Bow to your Sensei!"
Kip receiving instruction in Rex Kwon Do from the Rex himself
The locals didn't seem too enthusiastic about Napoleon-Dynamite-tourism. When I went into the thrift store and asked to take a few pictures (introducing myself as a fan of the movie), the clerk had this resigned look on her face ("there they go again...", she was probably thinking), but agreed to let me take pictures anyway. This being the case, I thought it would be wise not to overstay my welcome in this little quiet town near the Utah-Idaho border. But seriously, if any of you Napoleon Dynamite fans out there know the exact location of that Rex Kwon Do studio, please let me know. I could use a few RKD classes myself...
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This morning, I decided do my practice in what used to be my Buddhist prayer/practice room (for more details, see this post) instead of the living room, where I have been practicing for the last two months. I just felt that the prayer room seems to be quite a bit warmer than the living room, which might make for an easier practice (less internal heat to have to build up to get my system going).
Because the prayer room is smaller than the living room, the lighting from the ceiling light impacts my body at a more direct angle. Which means, among other things, that I could actually see my shadow on the wall as I moved through the Suryas. It's especially cool (not to mention ego-boosting) to be able to see my shadow lift its lower half cleanly off the ground in trini position, and then float and land neatly in Chaturanga. I even suspect that my shadow may actually look better than its owner (me) doing Ashtanga! For the record, I've never actually video-ed myself doing Ashtanga before. Which also means that I've never actually seen myself doing Ashtanga. Isn't it interesting that I'm never seen myself doing something which is so much a part of my daily life?
Practice on the whole was good today, if I ignore my rather uninspiring performance in Karandavasana. Tried the posture four times. Every single time, I missed my forearms/elbows, and dropped like a fly into seated padmasana (Ha! "Dropping like flies in Karandavasana"... sounds like a song or poem or book title :-)). But setting aside the uninspiring performance in Karandavasana, the rest of practice was great. The energy level was great, and I moved through the whole thing at a good clip; I did primary up to Baddha Konasana and second up to Karandavasana in about an hour and forty minutes. I know that the speed of one's practice is not the only indicator of the quality of the practice, but I really think there is something to be said for moving through the practice at a good clip. Builds heat, and also prevents one from over-thinking things. But maybe the downside is that if I had practiced at a slower pace, I would have had more energy to do a "better" Karandavasana; I can't help thinking that it may be easier to land Karandavasana (and eventually, come back up) if my breathing were a little slower. I don't know. We'll see what happens tomorrow.
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In other news: I will be moving to Pocatello, Idaho in early January. A few days ago, I was offered a short-term teaching position at Idaho State, and decided to take it. It is not a tenure-track position (obviously), but the terms are, well, better than my present employment situation, so I decided to take it. Ah, the joys of not being on the tenure track...
Anyway, I just started looking online for apartments today, and basically getting myself into relocation mode. It's not exactly a small move, distance-wise: Pocatello is 16 hours from where I am presently at. I guess I'm lucky that I don't have a lot of stuff, so I won't have the problem of having to lug a whole truckload of things across the country. But I do have a few boxes of books (mostly works of philosophy and literature) that I would like to give away to anybody who would like to have them. If you live near where I am (Fargo, ND, and Moorhead, MN), and are interested in coming into the possession of a few (or more than a few) good books, please email me. Otherwise, I'll have to try to give them away to local used bookstores or my department or something.
Anyway, I know nothing about Idaho. The only people I know who are from Idaho are not even from this world:
So yeah, it's not like I can get in touch with Uncle Rico, Napoleon or Kip, and ask them if they would like to hang out and maybe do some Ashtanga or Rex Kwon Do together. Oh, and if you don't know what Rex Kwon Do is, boy, are you missing out! It's so kick-ass, it makes Mixed Martial Arts look like a walk in the park. As they say, a (moving) picture says a thousand words. Here's a powerful demonstration of Rex Kwon Do from the Rex himself:
Impressive, no? ;-)
Anyway, long story short, is anybody reading this blog from Idaho? If you are, feel free to email me. Maybe we really can do some Rex Kwon Do together? ;-)
And also, does anybody know anybody who does Ashtanga in Idaho? Probably a long shot, but I guess it can't hurt to ask, right? I looked on the KPJAYI website, and it seems that the closest authorized teacher in that part of the country lives in Missoula, Montana, which is five hours from Pocatello. Maybe I'll take a little detour when I am moving there, and see if I can drop by and study with him for a day or two.
More later.
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