Kobe rocks

Went to see the Lakers vs the Clippers at the Staple Center last week. Like every game between these two, it was intense and the crowd responded enthusiastically. The Lakers won 105/101. Kobe was huge with 40 points and scored some amazing shots. I’m not a big fan of the Lakers’ strategy that basically bet on Kobe against everybody else two years ago. I’m not ok with it simply because basketball is a game of five but I’ve got to admit that Kobe is in a different league. That’s where the strategy might make sense or more precisely business sense. There are maybe two or three other players like him in the NBA, on top of my mind I would say, Dwayne Wade (Heat) and LeBron James (Cavaliers). So with a guy like this, even though you’re not automatically going to be champion, people are still going to watch the team on TV or crowd the stadiums and the sponsors are still going to pay. Maybe that’s what matters as far as the Lakers management is concerned. On a celebrity note, the great Jack Nicholson was there, as well as Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal.

Ujai Breath

I’ve been practicing yoga for almost a year now and I realized today that I wasn’t breathing right. In yoga, your mouth is closed and you're supposed to breathe through the nose, it’s the Ujai Breath. I was doing the exact opposite. With my asthma, breathing only through the nose is not a piece of cake. I would even say it’s a hell of a challenge and I confess that I cheated a couple of times during my morning practice. However, I made a great deal of efforts and the results are amazing. I had no idea whatsoever that the breath was so important to our balance. I learned to move my body with my breath, to my own rhythm. Awesome. I even held a headstand longer than ever. Big thanks to my teachers, Joan and Sarah.

Darren Aronofsky sucks

I’m usually a gentle, very tolerant moviegoer. I like clever indies as well as good big budget Hollywood flicks. But I saw « The Fountain » yesterday and my natural zen like attitude turned into raw anger. Don’t waste your time and money on it. How can a story like this find its way to the screens? It’s a pretentious attempt to explain the source of life and death but only accomplishes to lose the audience in the meanders of a meaningless plotline. Nothing here is credible, neither the queen of Spain seeking salvation in the sap of the tree of life (hmmmm?) nor the buddha like Hughes Jackman trapped in his bubble. Only the actors provide a gleam of light through really good performances unfortunately not served by good dialogues. Disappointing and boring. What a self indulgent, pompous mess.

Thank you for smoking

I went to “the Standard Down Town” last night with this new girl I’m dating. For those of you who’ve never been there, I highly recommend the place. One of the best night spots in LA, you’re basically seating on top of a tower in the middle of the city. Awesome view, eclectic crowd, divine drinks and lounge music. Anyways, I’m with this girl and her friends, we argue about movies and actors, we drink vodkas and white Russians. It’s a nice, typical LA evening until one of the girls grabs a smoke. And here I am, without even thinking about it, I’m asking for a cigarette, ready to do anything to look cool in front of the girls. At the first drag I made an ass of myself. I started to cough, my throat was on fire, it was like having a wall in my lungs. I went on a coughing spree, I couldn’t stop it and had to leave the place, alone and ashamed. You see, my problem is that I have asthma. Usually the dry weather of LA is pretty good with me, so gentle in fact that I sometimes forget about my challenged lungs. That’s also why I don’t have my ventolin 24/7 on me. Well… lesson learned. It was my first and last cigarette. Happy Thanksgiving.

First blabla

I was wondering the other day, what is it that pushes people to share their life with everybody on the net. In the past, well… we had diaries, it was more intimate, usually not supposed to be shared, a way to reflect on oneself, keep track of what happened. Blogs, youtube, stuff like myspace are different. You write a blog because you want to be read or because you think you have something to say that would benefit the rest of humanity. Yeah, maybe. Let’s say that 5% of bloggers have really something to say, I mean something useful, for the greater good. That leaves 95% of exhibitionists. Let’s be honest, why do we watch videos on youtube?? We just want to see people make jackasses of themselves. It’s like reality tv. Well… I guess the easiest way to understand it, is to write one and see what happens. So… I’ll talk about me, what I like, what I hate, my little problems and joys.