Friday, April 04, 2008

A book, ideas of freedom and tango championships


A friend of mine mentioned a book that appears to be quite popular, "The Four Hour Workweek" by the guy who wrote the blog post "How to live like a rock star in BsAs". I hadn't heard of it, but I stopped by the bookstore today and picked up a copy. The concept is that if you regroup your views of life and manage to conquer you fears, or unplug and reset as the author defines it, you can escape the 9-5 grind and do anything you want anywhere you want to do it.

At first I thought, oh great, yet another self-help book that offends intelligence more than it achieves anything else. However, was it because the author turns out to be a BsAs Tango World Championship winner, the whole idea started to resonate with me (funny how any life change plan I would consider at this point has to involve the prospect of being able to dance as much as my heart desires...)

As I am reading the first few chapters, it almost sounds doable, until the the necessity to be reasonable and 'realistic', with which we have been programmed, hits. I sure do hope that one day I will have the strength to pause this pseudo-reality and go... And to all of those that have actually challenged themselves and followed their bravest dreams, my admiration!

Inspirational read so far. What I found interesting, however, was that Timothy Ferriss, an American, had only danced tango for a year before he won the competition. Guys, is this possible?? I am not doubting it, but just a year?! Here is a video from the event:



And btw, the whole idea of a tango championship seems odd, doesn't it? Since tango is nothing else more than it is a passion, how do you judge a feeling...


I missed you all and Besos,

Malena

7 comments:

miss tango said...

Did he not just win for the most spins or something like that? Very enthralling, no? 37! I feel kind of whoozy now.

AlexTangoFuego said...

it's good to have you back...

AlexTangoFuego said...

also...if anyone ever sees me dancing tango with a number pinned to my back...please use it as a target...and put me out of misery with as much haste and vigor as you can muster...

Malena said...

Yes, he did win the most spins thing too, I think it was on some tv show. It seems the guy is an entertainer more than anything else. He also won some martial arts championship after only 4 weeks of doing it. Hmmmm...

Hey, Alex. Will do.
We missed you too!

Anonymous said...

Actually no, he did not win the campeonato mundial. (world championship)
He was a quarter finalist - I don't even think he made it to the semi-finals. But I could be mistaken there.

He DID put himself in the Guiness book of world records for most tango "spins" (enrosques?) in one minute though (there never was a record for it, but he contact the Guiness folks and had them come and record it, live on TV).

I think Cherie has something about that on her blog... including a video of it! ;-)

Anonymous said...

ah yes it's here:
http://tangocherie.blogspot.com/
2007/06/most-tango-spins-in-one-minute-tim.html

(I broke the link in half to make it fit :-))

tangobaby said...

I'm interested in the ideas in his book more than his tango spins...as I sit in front of my boring work PC!

I think I need to get off my butt and walk down to the bookstore, like now.

Glad to see you again!