stock images

the photographer dennis stock passed away last month at the age of 81. i heard the news about a week afterwards, and have spent some hours since touring various online galleries devoted to his work. if you have been a fan of hollywood and its stars of the 1950s and 60s, or if you're a jazz enthusiast, you may find many of these images wonderfully familiar. if you have time in the coming days, i'd encourage taking a look at a multimedia presentation, the self-assigned photographer, that mr. stock himself narrates. or if you'd rather move through the images at your own pace, here's a link to his gallery on the magnum site.

back in high school (or freshman year of college) i bought james dean revisited, and until very recently, it had been sitting on the shelf in my bedroom at my parents' house (gathering no dust, thanks to mom).

i remember my favorite images (the whole series of him taking katherine dunham's dance class, him with his bongo drums --did his bare feet make him seem more real to me? one of him, in his sailor-striped shirt, standing in his west side apartment, so tiny, like ship's quarters. and one of him, in indiana, reciting the poems of james whitcomb riley at the dinner table (i still love that one). but in essence, i really only cared about what james dean was "doing" in the photos. but i seem now to be looking at them, trying to imagine mr. stock himself--what he was thinking, doing, saying, even where he was standing. (it would probably do me good to try to figure out his settings.)

in any case, now i see the awesome tree, the reflection in the ice, the tubas and the music stands. i see geraldine page for the first time, really. and his shoes.

dennis stock/magnum. james dean, nyc. 1955.

i like some of mr. stock's california images, too.

dennis stock: corona del mar, 1968. via wink magazine blog

dennis stock/magnum via time.com

of his jazz photos, this might be my favorite...


i hope you find some that you like too.

(the new york times also has a nice short piece on their "lens" blog, which mr. stock himself followed. i love that he would take the time to offer encouragement and praise to his colleagues via the blog.)

read a good poem: morning

tree, by robert stivers. via photoeye.

seems like a good day to stay home...

***

morning

why do we bother with the rest of the day,

the swale of the afternoon,

the sudden dip into evening,

then night with his notorious perfumes,

his many-pointed stars?

this is the best—

throwing off the light covers,

feet on the cold floor,

and buzzing around the house on espresso—

maybe a splash of water on the face,

a palmful of vitamins—

but mostly buzzing around the house on espresso,

dictionary and atlas open on the rug,

the typewriter waiting for the key of the head,

a cello on the radio,

and, if necessary, the windows—

trees fifty, a hundred years old

out there,

heavy clouds on the way

and the lawn steaming like a horse

in the early morning.

by billy collins
via the poetry foundation

see a fine picture: simon roberts

camel estuary. padstow, cornwall. 2008.
photo via klompching gallery.

devil's dyke. south downs, east sussex. 2008.
photo via klompching gallery.

salcombe sands.devon. 2008.
photo via klompching gallery.

i will have to head out dumbo way, to see simon roberts' photographs at the klompching gallery. the thumbnails on the site are a pretty introduction, but i want to see the details and feel the effect of these in their proper, large format.

if you're interested in seeing them too, the show will run through october 24.

the klompching gallery
111 front street, suite 206
brooklyn, nyc 11201
gallery hours: wednesday — saturday, 11am—6pm

***

more about simon roberts via his site...
more images from his "we english" portfolio here.

see a fine picture: fritz henle

this one is for my sister:

frida kahlo at xochimilco, mexico, (1937). by fritz henle. via judith puckett-rinella @ the moment blog at nytimes.com

some of fritz henle's work seems familiar--or is it merely an appealing, recognizable style?
in any case, his name is new to me.

the harry ransom center, a humanities research library and museum at the university of texas at austin, is presenting a retrospective exhibition "fritz henle: in search of beauty," which will run through august 2, 2009.

i won't make it down to austin this summer, so i'll have to be satisfied with online gallery-viewing, or the book.

from what i've seen so far, my favorites are photos that he shot over a two week period in paris, in july 1938, for time magazine. the photo essay never ran in time, but several photos were picked up years later by the ny times magazine, and published in book format in 1947.

if you're interested in henle's recollections of the "paris 1938" experience, here's the link.

monfils le magnifique

on the list of "dream assignments" or things i'd like to do before i die: to spend some weeks photographing atp tennis players--specifically nadal and monfils--during the european clay court season.

however mercurial or frustrating his game and attitude can be to someone who roots for him, monfils is soaring inspiration for a photographer. the clay brings out the best in him and it shows in the shots...all the "flights of fancy" and falling to earth:

this was the point of the match, if not the tournament. it went something like: backhand-pirouette-belly flop-backhand-recover-rush the net-forehand volley-forehand volley winner. monfils secured the break... even melzer gave him a high-five. tho if memory serves...monfils lost the set?
may 30, 2009. photo via rolandgarros.com

monfils won in 4: 6-2, 4-6,6-4,6-1. photo via rolandgarros.com

i love this one, also taken during the melzer match, by award-winning getty photographer, ryan pierse. may 30, 2009.

more of pierse's award-winning photos here.

in the pink: round 1

nadal at roland garros. may 25, 2009. photo by jacques demarthon/afp/getty images.

nadal photographed during his first round match against marcos daniel of brazil. nadal won, 7-5 6-4 6-3. may 25, 2009.
photo: jacques demarthon/afp/getty images.

it took me a few minutes to adjust to nadal's look for the french: all that mardi gras color is a lot to take in at 7am on the monday of a long weekend. but the more i see it, the more i like it. it's bold against the burnt orange terre battue, and it photographs beautifully.

and it is actually very "paree"--think fauchon...

nadal's pink nike shirt will be the talk of the town for this fortnight, and it will be noted in virtually every feature article written at the tournament's conclusion, and again at year's end. fashion faux pas or not, nadal's sartorial decisions--cuts and color combinations that most players wouldn't attempt (or couldn't pull off), the precise fit of his garments and how he puts them all together--mirror his style of play and his approach to the game: audacious, studied, and unlike anyone else on the tour.

madonna, marion, and mondino...

i've been on a little madonna kick for a couple of weeks, ever since nikki, an instructor at my gym, threw a little "express yourself" into the mix for our ballet barre class. (one thing about nikki--she's about 4 inches shorter than me--and i am right around 5 feet--but her legs? oh, about 6 inches longer than mine. amazing.)

the "don't tell me" video, directed by jean baptiste mondino, with alex barber as dp, is an all-time favorite. a deceptively simple idea, the video deconstructed, but so stylishly executed: her on the automated walkway and dancing on the set; the second location, with beautiful big blue sky and way out west imagery; the third, with the fellas dancing in the desert; and then everyone on set at the end.

aaaand, i can't get enough of alex magno's choreography. i've dreamed about learning that dance, but so far, i've only got the last bit, the hip-shaking. ah well, it's a start.

***

i do love mr. mondino's photography; if i could figure out how to get indoor light to look like it does here (marion cotillard in the kitchen!), it would be an achievement worthy of the thesaurus: significant, magnificent, miraculous, monumental...and those words would still not be enough.

marion cotillard, photographed by jean baptiste mondino, for french elle's special "green issue" (feb 2009). via mondino's official site.

i adore this, too:

marion cotillard, photographed by jean baptiste mondino, for french elle's special "green issue" (feb 2009). via mondino's official site.

***
i've been picking up some interesting lighting tips via twitter, but if you can de-code the lighting scenario here, i'd love to hear what you think...

in any case, more of mondino here at the official site. they've curated the images nicely, so it won't take long to scroll through all the pages. unless you want it to...

some ultra-enthusiastic fan has created this site, if you want more, more, more. it's quite a catalog!

read a good poem: us together (and see fine pictures)

todd hido, landscape, 2653. via monthlyphoto.com and toddhido.com

nude, 1927, 61n, by edward weston. edward weston negative, cole weston print available at edward-weston.com

us together

i do not like anything the way i
like you in your underwear i like you
and in your party clothes o my in your
party clothes and with nothing on at all
you do not need to wear a thing at all
for me to like you and you may talk or
not talk I like you either way nothing
makes me feel so nearly at home on earth
as just to be with you and say nothing.

george johnston. from the essential george johnson, selected by robyn sarah. copyright the porcupine's quill, 2007.

via the writer's almanac.

***

i love the playfulness and simplicity of this, and the rhythm too.

last month was "poetry month" and there was hardly one that i read of the offerings by the poetry foundation, the ny review of books, or the writer's almanac that really grabbed me. i suppose it had something to do with my own frame of mind (distracted, impatient).

but what i am always open to, stopped and stilled in my tracks by, is a "love" poem. sweet or lusty. clever or plain. celebratory or crushing. truthful...

"us together" is the first george johnston poem i read. of johnston's work and the "essential" collection, the canadian book review annual said:

he is preoccupied with rhythms, with diction, with tones and nuances, and the creative challenge of complex metres and stanza forms. ...this verse celebrates ordinary life in tones that vary between the ironic and the sombre, and the tender and the stoic, but its technique is impeccable, and its chief pleasure lies in the display of an unostentatious but formidable artistry...'

anyway, it is a favorite. hope you like it, too.

***

as to the photos:

the directness and clarity of the verse made me think that a straight-up nude be too obvious. these seem dreamy, sensual, rightly suggestive.

think they work here? i'm still deciding. but i like them on their own.

the coolest ever...

P020109PS-0339
the president and first lady, in 3-d glasses while watching superbowl 43. photographed by pete souza.

originally uploaded by the official white house photostream

i was feeling bluesy, until i saw this...

brilliant!

here's a link to the announcement of pete souza as the official white house photographer, and his site. i'll be spending the day admiring his work.

enjoy.

maybe not a dream match-up, but a dreamy one

i woke up in time to catch a few games of the battle of the handsomes: safin v robredo.
and then, with robredo serving at deuce, down 2-4, the rains came.

marat safin, during his match vs. tommy robredo at the internazionali bnl d'italia. photographed by julian finney for getty images. april 28, 2009.

to be continued...

***

in the meanwhile, here's a favorite photo of safin from last year's australian open:

marat safin, at the australian open 2008. photographed by greg wood for getty. january 18, 2008.

and to keep the "handsome guy with racket" theme going, one of robredo:

tommy robredo at the 2004 french open. photographed by clive mason for getty. may 30, 2004.

damon winter and "s.o.n.!"

shadrick johnson, 6, photographed by damon winter for the ny times, outside the columbia convention center in south carolina, as he waited to hear then-senator obama speak. via pulitzerprize.org and nytimes.com

i came home late from a job today, and felt completely out of touch with the world (i hadn't been online all day) and the first piece of news i read thrilled me: damon winter was awarded the 2009 pulitzer prize for feature photography. hooray!!

i posted a link to some of his slideshows a while back, and think about his work often. (i invested in a new camera a couple of days ago and my mind is aflood--even more than usual--with the work of photographers who i admire. i actually fell asleep last night thinking of damon winter's obama images...)

here are links to the "a vision of history" slideshow which can be viewed on the ny times site and the pulitzer site. also on the pulitzer site is mr. winter's bio, and of course, a full list of winners and finalists.

***

i love the look and smell of the newspaper. and the sound of it being lightly smacked and folded at its center. i love carrying it under my arm or stuffing into my bag on my way out the door--after all these years, it still feels cool, somehow (especially if you've got more than one on you). and i really like the crossword puzzle, in pencil or pen. but i am currently taking a break from receiving the new york times at home, a small change that is meant to benefit my wallet (working!), but is doing greater harm to my mind (and maybe my soul).

on the one hand, all that content--the slideshows, especially--is a feast for the curious, the infohounds. i've got a good bit of that in me. but one article can so easily lead me astray-- those slideshows (again!) and related links are so tempting, sometimes i don't finish an article, let alone think about it long enough before moving on to the next thing. i'm all over the place! with the actual newspaper, i can settle in... note-taking during or after required a bit more effort and time. even if only for the few minutes it took to find a piece of paper and pen, that time actually felt a bit thoughtful. and then there came a time when you were "done." whether you finished one article, or your favorite section, or the whole darn thing (you intrepid reader you), there was a satisfying end. i miss all that now, and don't want to imagine not having the option to have all that again.

and every time i hear about newspapers laying off staff, shrinking sections, going online only, or shutting operations for good, which is practically daily, i want to call and "un-suspend" my deliveries, as if my dollars will make an impact.

i found this video the other day: can design save the newspaper? jacek utko, a polish newspaper designer, whose redesigns of newspapers in eastern europe has increased their circulation 100%, presents an interesting case. is it too dreamy for our newspaper industry's deep-dish problems? perhaps. but it's a good dream.

save our newspapers!

here's 6 minutes of inspiration, anyway (i love the cirque du soleil bit).

inspiration: sylvie guillem

photo of sylvie guillem, by carl fox.

how i want to dance...

in(to) the swim

natalie coughlin (foreground) and katie hoff.

photographed by patrik giardino, for espn magazine.

via espn.com. published on july 29, 2008.

swimming is my new obsession. i plan to swim every day until my gym membership lapses at the end of this month.

the pool at my gym is a funny place. it's in the basement (not so surprising). but it's tiny--my guess is that four laps equal 1 olympic size pool lap, and it's only 3 - 5 feet deep. there are two lanes, each wide enough to accommodate two swimmers, presuming they can swim straight. there are 2 odd little outlets on one side of the pool where folks can hang out and "aquacise" while waiting. there is a pile of blue kickboards, water weights and belts, and those brightly colored "noodles" that people use to practice treading or running, or for horseplay. there is also a hot tub and a eucalyptus steam room, and i am highly suspicious of both. there are a few chairs, including some lounge-y ones, made of teak. it isn't uncommon to find someone taking a snooze on them.

the pool itself often empty when i go; otherwise, there are only one or two others swimming. i like the relative quiet--no speaking, no tv, no music. my mind is free to wander.

when i'm actually swimming, i'm pretty focused on things like breath and form--i count my kicks, think about shoulders (rotated) and fingertips (graceful) and abs (tucked).

in between the mercifully short laps, i take everything else in. there is always a lifeguard, looking bored. i wonder if they are allowed to read, because i think surely they cannot be expected to just sit there, looking at this lonely, shallow pool. but the two lifeguards that i have encountered don't read. one older man, who looks ashen and a little asthmatic, sits forlornly in a t- shirt, swim shorts and striped shower slides. occasionally he'll get up and very deliberately spray and wipe to a streak-free shine each of the nine, big round mirrors that surround the pool area (meant to evoke a cruise ship?). i admire his serious, patient approach to each one. and then there is a younger girl (not dressed in any sort of swimming or lifeguarding gear). she's pretty. she looks at herself in the mirror...she poses...checks her pores.

and then i check out the pool-goers. they tend to skew much older. there is one woman who wears a cap loosely over her wig, though i have never seen her in the water. there is another who swims with snorkeling gear. and there is an older man, who receives personal instruction from a coach who enters the pool area carrying a briefcase, wearing slacks and florsheim thayer mcneil leather shoes. he doesn't bother changing in the locker room.

but sometimes random "swimming" thoughts will come to mind:
will i be able to swim without my goggles?
what if the water were deep? the pool long?
how will i fare in the ocean?
could i save myself from drowning?
how much chlorine is safe to drink?

today, an entirely new one came to mind and it was so stunning, i actually said it out loud (there was no one else around): what if i tried to swim fast?
and then i remembered reading, never sacrifice form for speed. (clearly, advice for beginners.)
but i thought, why not try?
and so i did. i know i wasn't fast, but i was faster. and it felt pretty good, like sprints at the end of a run, you're winded but also energized. i did it five more times, free and back, and probably could have done it a few more. but it was 9pm.

and there's always tomorrow.

***
since i am still really a "beginner," i've been looking online for technique tips and drills to try.
i found this video featuring my favorite swimmer, natalie coughlin, but i must know a lot less about technique than i realized. i don't know what she's talking about! can anyone translate?

***

do you love the photo of natalie and katie as much as i do?

check out patrik giardino's website. stunning sports photography. the whole espn spread, "the olympics are for girls" is gorgeous. he's also done a lot of work with the company i used to work for, the publisher of men's health, best life, runner's world.

note: espn credits "patrick giardin" for this spread, but i'm guessing that is an error?

saturday with team guapo

nadal, engaged in the now compulsory act of tossing his sweatbands into the crowd.

in benidorm, spain. march 7, 2009.

nadal defeated janko tipsarevic, 6-1, 6-0, 6-2, giving spain a 2-0 lead over serbia in the davis cup first round tie.

photo by jasper juinen/getty images, via yahoo sports.

tennis channel is the exclusive US television home of the davis cup--or rather, all US davis cup ties. which means if you care about the US team (roddick, blake, and the bryan brothers) vs a federer-free swiss team, then you are "golden," as they say. because all of those matches will be televised live from birmingham, alabama, and then replayed and replayed and replayed for the next, oh, let's say several weeks.

if you live in the US and happen to care about other cup ties (in my case spain v. serbia), don't look too long or hard anywhere on tv for any kind of coverage. (and if i'm wrong about that, please let me know.)

luckily, a friend told me about a site where i can watch the matches live on my computer.

unluckily for me, watching matches live on my fossil of a computer is rather like watching the players do "the robot." everyone moves in fits and starts, and there is a 45-second delay.

i wasn't psychotic enough to get up at 4am (at least not this morning) to watch the matches under these circumstances, but i am content to sit here now on my couch with my laptop, ignore the sunny spring fling outside, and listen to the broadcast of the doubles match ("team guapo"--lopez/robredo-- v. troicki /zimonjic). i suppose that is another kind of crazy.

but the commentary is surprisingly engaging. this doubles match is turning out to be a hot contest, with the serbs up 2 sets. i love hearing the crowd cheer (o-leee, oleole, o-leee), the thwack of the ball, and the sweet rhythm of their sneakers sliding on the clay...

earlier today, ferrer defeated djokovic in straight sets, which surprised me, but i only had in mind djokovic's recent victory over ferrer in dubai, not ferrer's undefeated record (now 3-0) against the serb on clay.

i love jasper juinen's photo from today's match. i was hoping a site or paper would pick it up so i could present it here, sans watermark. but you get the idea.

a focused ferrer. may 7, 2009. benidorm, spain. photo by jasper juinen/getty images, via gettyimages.com

i'll be checking out the coverage of the US team this afternoon at 2pm est.

my friend, jason, is covering the festivities from down south, check out his report from day 1 here.

and since it looks like i'll be trying to get up at 4am tommorrow to listen in on nadal v. djokovic, i'm about to take a power nap.

happy saturday.

the potus, and winter

the POTUS, before he officially was. photographed by damon winter for the ny times.

chester, pa. november 2008.

i'm getting ready to listen to our potus' address tonight. primetime with the president. i'm sort of thrilled (that's a first).

seems like a good opportunity to re-visit the extraordinary work of damon winter. his work will appeal to admirers of obama, and anyone with aspirations as a photographer or editor. winter shot of 90,000 images of then-candidate obama--can you imagine selecting fewer than 20? but the result is thrilling. i've seen this many times, and it still makes me well up. great commentary too. president obama has to be one of the most photogenic public figures, but winter notes that it can be challenging to photograph him because he can be so good at controlling his temperament--he's not as expressive as other candidates.

photographer's journal: following obama

the second presentation--a diptych slideshow--is brilliant. who doesn't love a good diptych, right? finding themes, colors, patterns in random images, and aligning them to make a statement...here is one and while it's not my favorite, it seems fitting tonight.

see the rest of winter's "photographers journal: political landscapes," originally published in october 2008, here. i love the feet, the food, and the clinton one. you'll hear which one is winter's favorite, and it's hard to argue against it...

i would love to know yours...

here's a link to a great, albeit brief interview with damon winter, courtesy of photo district news.

read a good poem: "tossing and turning"

untitled, #1447-a, 1996. by todd hido. via the rose gallery, santa monica, ca.

The spirit has infinite facets, but the body

confiningly few sides.

There is the left,

the right, the back, the belly, and tempting

in-betweens, northeasts and northwests,

that tip the heart and soon pinch circulation

in one or another arm.

Yet we turn each time

with fresh hope, believing that sleep

will visit us here, descending like an angel

down the angle our flesh's sextant sets,

tilted toward that unreachable star

hung in the night between our eyebrows, whence

dreams and good luck flow.

Uncross

your ankles. Unclench your philosophy.

This bed was invented by others; know we go

to sleep less to rest than to participate

in the twists of another world.

This churning is our journey.

It ends,

can only end, around a corner

we do not know

we are turning.

"tossing and turning" by john updike, from collected poems 1953-1993.
via the writer's almanac, feb 19, 2009.


i hadn't read any of john updike's work until this poem, today. i had made a plan to, though, after reading this recent tribute by my favorite writer...i'm getting excited all over again.

i love "unclench your philosophy" -- those few words stayed with me all morning.

"uncross your ankles" is a pretty great line, too.

right after i read the poem, i did a quick search for a photo that might be suitable.
i happened upon todd hido's work--i love the moodiness.
if you're interested, here is a link to more of his photos on the rose gallery site and on the stephen wirtz gallery site.
i also found an interview from 2007, where he discusses his book, between the two. i enjoyed reading his thoughts on portraiture and the book editing process.
here's a taste:

re: his focus, and his portraits of women...

To me it is no mystery that we can only photograph effectively what we are truly interested in or -- maybe more importantly -- are grappling with. This is often an unconscious process. Otherwise the photographs are merely about an idea or a concept; that stuff eventually falls flat for me. There must be something more, some emotional hook for it to really work for me. I tend to photograph things I've had problems with or I have struggled with, stuff that used to keep me up at night. It's the same process with my photographs of houses -- they are about recognizing some mysterious element of my childhood.

I've read that sources of terror in childhood often become sources of attraction in adulthood. I've found that true. It's disturbing to me how many of the models remind me of past women that have been in my life -- not in terms of how they look but in terms of who they seem to be underneath their surfaces. There is a familiarity to them, something that resonates, something kind of troubled about them that is very recognizable to me. It is endlessly fascinating and utterly simple as to why we gravitate to what we do. Of course this is not stuff that I've worked out completely, which is precisely why it's engrossing to me. That is why I do it. That is the focus.

re: editing the book with chris pichler of nazraeli press...

The editing process is part of making the work. I gather up the images I am interested in and then start to lay them out using just a standard book dummy, weaving the images together over a long period of time. With Between the Two, it took about three years of constantly shuffling unpublished work in with new images that I was making on a weekly basis. There was real joy in leaving the darkroom and stopping by the copy shop to make Xeroxes in order to slide them into the dummy, seeing if they fit in someplace. Sometimes the images would work, and sometimes they don't. But almost every image I've made in the last few years was tried out. Some were perfect and added just what I needed and others I've saved for the next project, whatever that may be!

want more? here's a link to the full interview, between hido and darius himes ...

hom-age

natalie coughlin, photographed by marc hom, for men's vogue, april 2008.

i have "used" the obvious charms of some of my favorite female athletes (tanith belbin, ana ivanovic, maria kirilenko) to lure a couple of (now former) boyfriends, with less than zero interest in sports, into watching the olympics with me or joining me at the us open. shameless? perhaps. maybe even a little bit wrong. but it worked. i am actually a little proud that, after initially appealing to them on this most superficial level, the merits of these and other athletes and the thrill of sport-spectating left a lasting impression on one of them (maybe he doesn't watch figure skating anymore, but i know he follows tennis. and, most unbelievably, i managed to turn him into a baseball fan).

but if there were a need for me or anyone else to employ such a tactic again, i'm pretty confident that with si's 2009 swimsuit issue, we could turn a few disinterested heads toward the wta. the ladies know how to "represent": tatiana golovin, looking mighty comfortable as the bombshell; daniela hantuchova, revealing even more (i would argue) with her lovely, vulnerable gaze; and maria kirilenko, starring as the most adorable, enviably athletic girl-next-door. these might be the best tennis pictorials in si's swimsuit issues to date.

but i personally favor a different kind of swimsuit shot: the portrait of natalie coughlin by the danish photographer marc hom. it marries the classic with a sleek, modern look. i love that it is basically a three color affair, with terrific geometric repetition of right angles and triangles.
has a gal in one-piece ever been more devastating?

********
the coughlin shot, which appeared in men's vogue in april 2008, inspired a little research on marc hom.

if you've admired these esquire covers of angelina jolie, sienna miller, keira knightley, and johnny depp (and the march 2009 clive owen shot that's on newsstands now), then you're a fan of his work. and if you're like me and blessed with a fashion-obsessed sister/friend and you've been perusing her issues of harper's bazaar, black book and british vogue, then you know his fashion photography pretty well too.

take a quick scan through the marc hom galleries on the trish south management site, and you'll see a lot of bare legs, bare feet, and cool (very cool) scandinavian blue highlights.

his book, "portraits" is a collection of some 260 shots from a 12-year period, featuring celebrities like lauren bacall (who also penned the foreword), anouk aimée , christopher walken, martin scorsese, liv and steven tyler and many more.

here are a few black and whites that i found especially appealing:

rachel ward and bryan brown

juliette binoche (and friend)

a very pretty pink

bjork (little bare feet)

a bit more on marc hom, via a 2006 copenhagen exclusive article, here.

interested in natalie coughlin's book (published in 2006 by the company i work for)? you friends o' mine can borrow my copy, or buy it here.

hard core

ms. lolo jones. photographed in nyc, by sarah a. friedman, for runner's world magazine.

i've never really had a problem with finding the motivation to work out. if i don't, i go a bit bonkers. i'll hit the gym or do some kind of exercise 3-5 days a week, depending on how the work and social calendars align. and i eat pretty healthfully, too--lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, never skimping on carbs and protein, especially if i'm going to run. my goal has been to be healthy and injury-free, and stay in decent shape.

my last few turns on the treadmill suggest that i'm going to need to push a bit harder to stay true to that last bit. the new year finds me a step slower (step and a half?) and all of the croque madames, holiday cookies, and coconut cream pies are making cameos on parts of this bod where they are not welcome.

so, time to step things up.

and i'm letting ms. lolo jones lead the way. if the photos (by sarah a. friedman) in the feb 2009 issue of runners world (online here) don't inspire an extra 15-minutes on the mat for some ab work, then i just don't know...(and there's more than just eye candy, there's also an interesting breakdown how the core is engaged during different kinds of runs.)