Costelloe-KuehnCommentMemo1-2Kenner

Brandon's Comments for Ali

Memo 1.
 * Yoga
 * It seems like it would be fairly doable to come up with and test a range of "perceptions of the body and the lifeworld" that correlate with yoga practice, but showing how yoga "changes" and "transforms" their practitioners might be more difficult. Oral history interviews with attention to temporality might be useful for showing causation.
 * I'm interested in the term "spiritual cultures" and would like to hear more about what you mean.
 * What aspects of your training in feminist literatures would be particularly useful to this project and its social theoretical questions?
 * Why women's studies in particular as audience with interest in health and the body?
 * Bodywork
 * Does "bodywork" imply you are interested in the "work," professional, and economic aspects in particular?
 * What's CAM?
 * You mention particular hopes for "state policy." Would there be a "policy studies" aspect to your project?
 * Funding from the American Massage Therapy Association might go in the bias column as well.
 * Astrology
 * The first two projects are largely ethnographic, but this one is more historical. While you need the "right tools for the job," are you drawn strongly to a particular kind of methodology and knowledge production? Is it worth privileging methodology and then finding topics that are well suited to it?
 * How challenging would it be to obtain access to the "science and math behind real astrology?" What are the locks on this knowledge?
 * What is your distinction between "real" astrology and its others (including daily horoscopes)? Are you interested in both? You say that astrology has probably made a comeback over the last 50 years and cite the proliferation of astrology in newspapers, magazines, the internet, etc. "Why is there a proliferating interest" in astrology is a different kind of question than the three listed in your question column, as I see it. How astrology could benefit, grow, and develop from advancements in astronomy is also a whole 'nother question. I like it. Are you interested in learning about astronomy?
 * You mention issues of power in your "qualified?" section. Would you like to make your research questions more explicitly about power?
 * Would funding be a big barrier?

Memo 2.
 * Habits
 * If you really lacked mental endurance, would you do hundreds of vinyasas, jumping, before eventually slowing down and starting to crawl? Related to your question above on how yoga changes people, do you think it has helped you improve mental endurance? Have you considered doing an experimental autoethnography on your own yoga practice? A mini-one to test the waters? I think you have a knack for writing reflexively and it could be useful.
 * Getting started was the tricky part for me too. Checking out your definition of "habits," working slowly, and doing other work until a phrase would set off an idea or connection helped a lot. I think of myself as a procrastinator but... wait, this is about you!
 * As for your habit of not finishing things, why do you think this is? I know you say you're fleeting not out of boredom but out of a lack of endurance. But maybe you can't endure boredom very well? Maybe if "things" continually transformed and were reinvigorated by plugging into other things they wouldn't need to be "finished?" Instead of finishing as cutting off, maybe you could think of continuing as swerving? Maybe i'm being an enabler here.
 * Or maybe you should collaborate with a really good finisher? But you also said it's hard to start. Are you best at the middle?
 * Neuroses
 * Neurosis: a mental disorder, less severe than psychosis, marked by anxiety or fear. Anxiety: a) An unpleasant state of mental uneasiness or concern about some uncertain event; b) An uneasy or distressing desire (for something); c) (//pathology//) A state of restlessness and agitation, often accompanied by a distressing sense of oppression or tightness in the stomach.
 * Neuroses can be "useful": disordering, unsettling, concern, uncertainty, desire, restlessness.
 * Again, collaboration with some other kind of neurotic (or another side of yourself) might help finish that book shelf.
 * Attention to context could certainly go in the talents section
 * "I got tools but no job." Could you just make up an imaginary job, for now, to convince the funding people and such, and then move to a more grounded-theory approach? "I want the data first, then I'll know what I can say."
 * Talents
 * What can I say? Perform!
 * What audiences would you like to perform for?
 * Do you like hearing stories as much as telling them?
 * Interactive performances?