Spencer Tunick’s ‘Everday People’ is coming to The Lowry this weekend, the artist is famous for taking photos of normal people at famous locations, who are all naked.

So my question for this week is, would you go naked in the name of art, or at any other time ?

Dawn Dais hated running. And it didn’t like her much, either. Her fitness routine consisted of avoiding the stairs in her own house, because who really has the energy to climb stairs? It was with this exercise philosophy firmly in place that she set off to complete a marathon. The Nonrunner’s Marathon Guide for Women is a fun training manual for women who don’t believe that running is their biological destiny but who dream of crossing the finish line nonetheless. It opens with a realistic training schedule and is chock-full of how-to’s, quizzes, and funny observations, which Dais felt were lacking in the guides she had consulted. The Nonrunner’s Marathon Guide for Women also integrates entries from Dias’s journal, sharing everything would-be marathoners need to know about the gear, the blisters, the early morning workouts, the late-night carb binges, and – most important of all – the amazing rewards. Anyone can do a marathon. This book just makes the experience a little more bearable and a lot more fun.

So having completed the half marathon now a number of weeks back, the idea to do the full thing is firmly fixed in my mind. So i bought a book about a non runner running the marathon. On a par with Eddie Izzard’s marathons, I’m now feeling motivated to get back in my trainers and start increasing my weekly mileage and calories and actually do this mad thing. I’ve even taken the first step and told people about it…but I’m Ok as there are still 11 months left to do all of the training that doesn’t involve lying on the couch reading random running books or Runner’s World. Any how, this was a really funny book written by someone, who has had a similar daft idea and actually gone through with it. My only problem is she managed to stop all this running malarky after her first marathon…I started off doing a 10k, then went back to 5s and am now entering a marathon, I’m just scared when that’s over I’ll start thinking ultra’s are a great idea!

According to Arthur Golden’s absorbing first novel, the word “geisha” does not mean “prostitute,” as Westerners ignorantly assume–it means “artisan” or “artist.” To capture the geisha experience in the art of fiction, Golden trained as long and hard as any geisha who must master the arts of music, dance, clever conversation, crafty battle with rival beauties and cunning seduction of wealthy patrons. After earning degrees in Japanese art and history from Harvard and Columbia–and an M.A. in English–he met a man in Tokyo who was the illegitimate offspring of a renowned businessman and a geisha. This meeting inspired Golden to spend 10 years researching every detail of geisha culture, chiefly relying on the geisha Mineko Iwasaki, who spent years charming the very rich and famous.

The result is a novel with the broad social canvas (and love of coincidence) of Charles Dickens and Jane Austen’s intense attention to the nuances of erotic maneuvering. Readers experience the entire life of a geisha, from her origins as an orphaned fishing-village girl in 1929 to her triumphant auction of her mizuage (virginity) for a record price as a teenager to her reminiscent old age as the distinguished mistress of the powerful patron of her dreams. We discover that a geisha is more analogous to a Western “trophy wife” than to a prostitute–and, as in Austen, flat-out prostitution and early death is a woman’s alternative to the repressive, arcane system of courtship. In simple, elegant prose, Golden puts us right in the tearoom with the geisha; we are there as she gracefully fights for her life in a social situation where careers are made or destroyed by a witticism, a too-revealing (or not revealing enough) glimpse of flesh under the kimono, or a vicious rumour spread by a rival “as cruel as a spider.”

This was one on my 888 list that I had previously read and just randomly picked up and started rereading a few nights back. I found this book easier to read the second time around, as I already had a basic knowledge of each of the characters so wasn’t tryinmg to remember who was who. I also found the book flowed easilly meaning i often stayed up reading much later than I’d intended. This is another example of a book turned into a film and whilst i’ve enjoyed them both, the film really oesn’t do the book justice.

I ran up the hill…there is video evidence of this, I trhink I’ve found me on 1minute 52, was wearling black joggers and a black cap and carrying a juice bottle! Gra and Freeda abandoned me for the run, so I went alone, with a new tactic of just running for as far as I could and made it to half way up the second hill. I finished in 34.58, so no nearer to beating my pb and possibly only one race to run in May due to other commitments,that has to be the one to beat my 30minutes! Methinks I may need to eat rocketfuel to achieve it though

Running in my addiction at the moment and it’s only gonna get worse over the coming year, when I actually sign up for and *shudder* train for a marathon!

My photo this week is back to where it all began; this was taken after my first Manchester 10k back in May 2005, with me wearing the souvenier t shirt and finisher’s medal. Hopefully when I do the race again in a few weeks time, it will be in a lot quicker time than my first attempt!

Yesterday was a really nice day, so I took the dog for a walk in the park and had a lovely ‘99′ ice cream from the ice cream van

So my Aloha Friday question is:

what’s you favourite ice cream?

Happy St George’s Day

Yesterday was the 100th Parkrun at Bramhall, which also marked its second birthday. Before starting the run I was still on the post half marathon high and convinced I was going to get a pb. This soon disappeared when after the first hill my legs remembered we’d done a half marathon less than a week ago and felt very groggy whilst being dragged around the remainder of the course!

Still not too bad for a recovery run, I managed a time of 35.55. Gra did 32.59, whilst freeda just keeps getting better every week and managed another pb at 30.37…surely she’s gonna break the half hour mark next week!

The nice weather meant another course record with 391 runners taking part, I’m sure i spotter quite a few people taking photos, but none are on the site yet…

Again, this made me think of 2 different photos from my collection. The first was taken in January this year in Edinburgh, just before the Winter Run and shows the area covered in snow!

And then here’s my doggy Rex covered in my duvet!