Stars hide your fires...

A BIG THANK YOUThe biggest thanks to Claire Ford and Sarah Lawton who braved the masses to present their work around the arts and dementia at Culture Shots. Feel free to get in touch to suggest more networking events.

I went to one of the Manchester International Festival (MIF) events at the weekend. It was Massive Attack vs Adam Curtis, and it was a real treat. Curtis is a sublime documentary maker. Quite unique stuff in this world of consumer rubbish. I had to smile reading the MIF brochure for this event though. Tickets were £36, but if you were a citizen of this fair city, there were limited tickets at £12, but of course, 'a transaction fee applies'. HA! Imagine - you've just got your payday loan, but your phone's been disconnected and you don't have a credit card. Personally, I'd have liked to have seen it performed at Old Trafford, free of charge...better still, at that temple to the consumer, the Trafford Centre. Hey Ho. Of course, our Mortality exhibition is completely free of charge, as have been any events to which the speakers and performers have given their time gratis too.

For those of you who were unable to attend the Mortality event so wonderful facilitated by Sam Guglani and Molly Carlile, I can only say it was brilliant! Thank you so much to you both for all your input. Alas, no recoding exists of the spoken sections of this event, but to keep you satisfied, I have a recording of the sublime Victoria Hume and Chris Reed performing Skeletons from Delirium. Thank you both for a simply beautiful set.

PRESENT-TENSE
There is a book to accompany the exhibition, which is available from the Holden Gallery, from Arts for Health or Cornerhouse books who are our distributors. The text that accompanies the selected works for the exhibition is critical if you want to get the most out of the works. there’s also an essay from Steven Gartside called The Coffin Route and a new piece of work I’ve written that in parts, explores the numinous potential of the arts asks how we can achieve some kind of wellbeing as we face our mortality. It’s called Present-Tense and this little film is an oblique ‘teaser’ to whet your appetite. Go on, you know you want to read it!

New Fund to Develop the Careers of 

Artists & Bands 

PRS for Music Foundation and Arts Council England have announced the launch of the Momentum Music Fund.  This is a £500,000 fund to develop the careers of talented artists and bands.  It is anticipated that grants of between £5,000 and £15,000 will be awarded to between 50 and 75 artists/bands over the next 2 years.  Applications can be submitted by the artists themselves or those who are working on their behalf, e.g. a manager, an independent label or publisher.  Priority will be given to those that haven’t been funded by PRS for Music Foundation in the previous 12 months. The next application deadline is the 30th August. Read more at http://www.prsformusicfoundation.com/Funding/Momentum-Music-Fund 

Wellcome Trust -Arts Awards 

The Wellcome Trust is inviting organisations and individuals to apply for funding through its Arts Awards. The Arts Awards support projects that engage the public with biomedical science through the arts including dance, drama, performance arts, visual arts, music, film, craft, photography, creative writing or digital media. Applications are invited for projects of up to £30,000 through their small & medium-sized grant programme, and for projects above £30,000 through their large grant programme. The aim of the awards is to support arts projects that reach new audiences which may not traditionally be interested in science and provide new ways of thinking about the social, cultural and ethical issues around contemporary science.

The scheme is open to a wide range of people including, among others, artists, scientists, curators, filmmakers, writers, producers, directors, academics, science communicators, teachers, arts workers and education officers. The next application deadline for small & medium sized projects is the 1st November 2013, and for large projects the application deadline has now passed. Read more at www.wellcome.ac.uk/Funding/Public-engagement/Funding-schemes/Arts-Awards/index.htm 

Do you ever read the comments on youtube? I saw these under the little song below and had to share them.

"I work nights in a nursing home. Four o'clock in the morning i'm giving a cup of tea to Ivy, an 84 year old lady with advanced Alzheimers who cant sleep when this song comes on the BBC2 nightscreen and we both just stare at the T.V. speechless. enjoying the music. it finishes and she looks at me and says 'that was lovely' Just shows that real music transcends everything and can bring about obscure and beautiful moments and connections like this."

Be happy, be safe and only good things...C.P

Protective Style Lookbook || Elegant Formal Twisted Updo

By popular demand, this is a series showcasing various protective hair styles.  Protective styling does not have to be boring. :o)

Model: Nik

Difficulty level: 2/5

Description: Flat-twisted bang into three bunned twists.

Mixology || Lola Zabeth's Mud Wash Recipe

Are you interested in making your own mud wash?

Ingredients:
3 tbs bentonite clay powder
1 tbs organic powdered honey
1 tbs organic slippery elm powder
3 ozs aloe vera juice

Instructions:
1. Mix the bentonite clay, powdered honey and slippery elm powder in a bowl.
2. Funnel the mixture into a bottle. Pour the aloe vera juice into the bottle. Shake well. The consistency is perfect–loose enough the spread easily without being drippy and messy.

For the full tutorial and/or more details, check out Lola's blog.

Dr Iona Heath + MORTALITY 2013

For those of you who weren't able to make the symposium on Friday, I am thrilled to be able to share the opening speech by Dr Iona Heath which so eloquently framed Mortality: Death and the Imagination. The exhibition opens to the public on Monday and runs until the 16th August at the Holden Gallery. Iona's paper is in titled Memento Mori and is available here. I thank Iona for such a sparkling and stimulating start to the exhibition. I'd also like to extend my personal thanks to all of you that have worked behind the scenes to curate and install the exhibition. Seriously - a huge thank you.



On Monday afternoon Dr Sam Guglani from Medicine Unboxed will be giving a free public talk alongside Molly Carlile around themes that their work around oncology and palliative care and the exhibition bring up. This will all kick-off in the gallery just after 2:00 in the afternoon and will be followed by a performance of work created as a response to people who have experienced delirium following time in intensive care. Singer songwriter Victoria Hume will be performing this new work exclusively for us. The session will be finished before 6:00, but to take part, you'll have to be at the Gallery before 2:30 and its all absolutely free.

Finally, the exhibition catalogue contains an essay by curator of the Holden Gallery, Dr Steven Gartside and your blogger CP. This is a new piece of writing from me is called Present Tense and it expands on ideas around the numinous, starting with Dennis Potter and taking us on a ride on the ultimate Euthanasia Roller-coaster. I hope it develops some of our understanding, or at least begins a dialogue around the relevance of the arts and wellbeing in relation to how we live and how we die.

What a beautiful photograph. I respect Elham Asghari and if you click on the photograph, you will see why.

ADVANCED NOTICE

ART IN THE ASYLUM

CREATIVITY AND THE EVOLUTION OF PSYCHIATRY

Admission Free

Saturday 07 September - Sunday 03 November 10am - 5pm

Djanogly Art Gallery

Uncovering fascinating stories, this historical overview provides insight to the diagnostic and therapeutic use of patient artwork, its influence on the development of humane psychiatric practice, and its wider recognition by artists associated with Art Brut and so-called Outsider Art. Art in the Asylum presents the first examination of the evolution of artistic activity in British psychiatric institutions from the early 1800s to the 1970s. With over 100 loans from national and international archives, the exhibition traces the historical shift from invasive treatments of mental disorders to a more humane regime in which creativity played a significant role.

There will be a full range of events running parallel to the exhibition and more details can be found by clicking on the flyer above.

Time to Change Grants 

The Mental Health charity, Time to Change has announced that its grants programme will re-open for applications on the 17th July 2013.  Through the programme, grants of up to £100,000 are available to constituted not for profit organisations for projects that bring people with and without mental health problems together to challenge discrimination in their communities. 25% of the fund is for projects run by and for people from Black and Minority Ethnic communities and 20% is for projects that work with an audience of children and young people, in specific regions. Read more at http://www.time-to-change.org.uk/grants 

BIG - Local Paper Initiative

Big Lottery Fund is joining forces with eight local newspapers across England to award a huge £250,000 of Lottery good-cause cash to community projects in each area.  The Local Paper initiative is aimed at encouraging communities to think about how funding could benefit their area and bring real improvements to the lives of local people.  Readers of the local papers will vote to help decide which projects will get the cash. The Local Papers initiative will be delivered by UK Community Foundation working with its local offices across England.  The fund will provide grants of up to £30,000 per project and is open to community groups, not for profit groups, parish or town councils, health bodies and schools. The application dates will vary from area to area. Read more at: http://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/global-content/programmes/england/local-papers 

British Academy Small Research Grants 

The British Academy for the Humanities and Sciences has announced that it is planning to issue a call for a further round of Small Research Grants in September 2013. Under the Small Research Grants programme grants of up to £10,000 over two years are available to UK research institutions to support primary research in the humanities and social sciences. Funds will be available to facilitate initial project planning and development; support the direct costs of research; enable the advancement of research through workshops; and visits by or to partner scholars. http://www.britac.ac.uk/funding/guide/srg.cfm

25, 26, 27...

Hair Diary || Back to Protective Styling and A New Way of Air-drying

Bun on stretched wash-n-go or reverted twist-out. (I can't remember).

So after a few months of wash-n-gos, braid-outs, and twist-outs, I miss protective styling.  While those few months were enjoyable for the most part, the constant manipulation was 1) a daily high maintenance task for a low maintenance gal like me and 2) did not allow for me to retain growth ... which is no surprise.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, my focus was to play more with my hair at its current length even if it met not retaining length.

Well now that phase is over and I am back to my trusty length retention regimen - twists.  However, there will be a few adjustments since getting to waistlength is one thing but getting to hip-length is a whole other hurdle.  I will talk more about those adjustments in a future post.

As for my new way of air-drying?  Well, it is roller sets.  I like them because they are quick and easy to do, dry fully overnight, require less manipulation, and get my hair more stretched than twists or braids.  So that is one of the changes I am making to my regimen -- air-drying my hair via rollers instead of twists/braids.

And now for more hair photos:

Dried wash-n-go into a puff.

Stretched wash-n-go (via braids that I did not allow to dry all the way).

First blow out in years.  Wasn't impressed with the result (especially the shrunken ends and the minimal overall stretch).  Hence, I will stick to other options for stretching my hair.

Jumbo twists on semi-flat ironed hair (300 deg F).   I was attempting to try a modified version of the Mahoganycurls' twist out tutorial but the weather (i.e., humidity and rain) wouldn't allow for it.

Air drying in rollers to stretch my hair.

The result.

Close-up of the result.  I like.

Experimenting with loose twists for the first time (on a failed flat iron job).  Though a few youtubers have done this style before, I was inspired by MsTanish because her hair characteristics are closest to mine.

Loose twists in a bun.

Natural Remedy for Menstrual Cramps - Blackstrap Molasses

Do you get really bad menstrual cramps?  Are you tired of relying on medication for the pain?  In the following video, Fran shares a natural remedy for menstrual cramps using blackstrap molasses:

An illustration of the waist-to-weight ratio theory: The fit2fat2fit experiment

In my previous blog post, I argued that one’s optimal weight may be the one that minimizes one’s waist-to-weight ratio. I built this argument based on the fact that body fat percentage is associated with lean body mass (and also weight) in a nonlinear way.

The fit2fat2fit experiment (), provides what seems to be an interestingly way to put this optimal waist-to-weight ratio theory to test. This is due to a fortuitous event, as I explain in this post.

In this experiment, Drew Manning, a personal trainer, decided to undergo a transformation where he went from what he argued was his fittest level, all the way to obese, and then back to fit again. He said that he wanted to do that so that he could better understand his clients’ struggles. This may be true, but it looks like he planned very well his experiment from a marketing perspective.

His fittest level was at the start, with a weight of 193 lbs, at a height of 6 ft 2 in. That was his fittest level according to his own opinion. At that point, he had a waist of 34.5 in, and looked indeed very fit (). At his fattest level, he reached the weight of 264.8 pounds, with a 47.5 waist.

As he moved back to fit, one interesting thing happened. Toward the end of this journey back to fit, he moved past the level that he felt was his optimal. He dropped down to 190.1 lbs, and a 34 in waist; which he perceived as too skinny. He talks about this in a video ().

As a self-defined “fanatic” personal trainer, I figured that he knew when he had gone too far. That is, he is probably as qualified as one can get to identify the point at which he moved past his optimal. So I thought that this would be an interesting way of putting my optimal waist-to-weight ratio theory to the test.

Below is a bar chart showing variations in waist-to-weight ratio against weight for Drew Manning during his fit2fat2fit experiment. I included only three data points in this chart because I would have to view all of his video clips to get all of the data points.



As you can see, at the point at which he felt he was too thin, his waist-to-weight ratio clearly started going up from what seems to have been its optimal at 34.5 in / 193 lbs. This is exactly what you would expect based on my optimal waist-to-weight ratio theory. You probably can’t tell that something was not right at that point, because he looked very fit.

But apparently he felt that something was not entirely right. And that is consistent with the idea that he had passed his optimal waist-to-weight ratio, and became too lean for his own good. Note that his waist decreased, and probably could go down even further, even though that was no longer optimal.