New Fitness Culture Scrapbook #5
This is a collection of ten things I found out about in the past week that felt relevant to my work.
They can be read as individual curios, or, as I understand them, as waymarkers towards a more interesting and inclusive culture of fitness.
I was reminded recently of this kid’s amazed reaction to Jeremy Wray’s huge ollie at the start of his Color Skateboards video part:
The American writer Randolph Bourne’s radical 1911 essay on disability, ‘The Handicapped - By One of Them’, is absolutely brilliant reading.
In its final paragraph he predates the social model of disability by more than sixty years:
[…] if misfortune comes, it will only be something flowing from the common lot of men, not from my own particular disability
Active bodies in the artwork of Monica Kim Garza
Here’s a wonderfully put together sequence of Catherine Destivelle free soloing in Mali:
I have deeply enjoyed experimenting with the “novel movements” of various joints demonstrated in this playlist. Thanks so much to my friend and amazing novel mover Isaac for showing me them however long ago it was…
This week I bought a few children’s magazines and I really enjoyed this spread about cycling jerseys in the Museums edition of Anorak Magazine.
The Compendium of Physical Activities is a fascinating collection of the “metabolic equivalent” of a surprisingly broad range of activities as compared to the energetic cost of “sitting quietly”. Example activities include “tailoring”, “board game playing”, “plumbing activities” and three intensities of “sexual activity”. (Sounds like a nice weekend lololol)
Set the scene — the American South; the 1930s; the prevalence of white supremacy and the culture of segregation. As the racial struggle slowly boiled, African-American boxers Jack Johnson (1878–1946) and Joe Louis (1914–1981) clawed their way to social prominence and recognition, each earning the title of World Heavyweight Champion. Their success in sport began to erode racial boundaries and to pave the way for social emergence of the African American — no qualifications, simply equal and American.
This is the vision of African-American, Nashville-born artist William Edmondson (1874–1951) when creating his Boxer, circa 1936. As the son of former slaves, Edmondson, who developed his sculpting technique by working on tombstones, internalised the struggle of his parents, and his race, and harnessed within stone the essence of assertive energy.
I have admired the Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) from afar for a while because the person who runs their social media accounts has a fantastic sense of humour.
I was delighted to see this article on MERL’s work with the Open Spaces Society, cataloguing their archives and collecting oral history alongside it.
The Open Spaces Society is dedicated to protecting our commons and rights of way.
I’m looking forward to seeing what comes out of this collaboration!