2002-03-25 - 1:26 p.m.

Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros are playing four nights next week underneath the Brooklyn Bridge on the Brooklyn side. I really want to see them, but it’s doubtful I’ll be able to convince anyone to go with me. Yeah, tickets are $35. Yeah, it’ll be a weeknight (I’m leaving for Vegas on Friday). But come on, it’s Joe Strummer, for the love of Blighty. Everything I’ve heard about the Mescaleros says that they’re as eclectic as a Benetton ad. This brings to mind one thing, Clash-wise: Sandinista.

Yes, the troublesome three-record opus that extends some 150-odd minutes into the vastest reaches of dub reggae and pub chanteys. I’ve been listening to CD one (sides A, B and C, I guess) over and over and over again on a taped copy (that also holds side B of Give Em Enough Rope). This is where Strummer’s penchant for the diverse truly shines (“Midnight Run,” “The Leader,” “Let’s Go Crazy,” “Up in Heaven (Not Only Here)” all seem to be from different decades) even when it doesn’t work out for the best (say, the palefaced Motown of “Hitsville UK,” a very lame follow-up to the funktastic opener, “The Magnificent Seven.”). This isn’t just a band creating sounds, this is a vision.

Disc two (sides D, E and F) is a bit more uneven, but not much.

Incidentally, I believe the Clash put out the greatest funk/disco of the early ’80s. “Ivan Meets G.I. Joe.” “The Call Up/The Cool Out.” “The Magnificent Seven/The Magnificent Dance.” “Radio Clash/This Is Radio Clash.” “Rock the Casbah/Mustapha Dance.” Pages could be written about the three unclassifiable (yet uniformly funky and trippy) B-sides of the Combat Rock singles.

The eclectic Gorillaz are the late-period Clash’s spiritual heirs. I just picked up G Sides on the street in SoHo and I’m loving all the remixes (like they’re dub versions of Sandinista songs or something!). And try to tell me that “Clint Eastwood” doesn’t owe a large debt to “Armagideon Time”/“Justice Tonight/Kick It Over.”

Yoga journal: I’ve realized now, after about a year and a half of intermittent yoga practice, that the key to increased flexibility is found not in pushing but in consciously ending resistance. I think the body’s natural reaction to pain is to clench up, resist. Stretch the groin in a wide leg stretch, and generally, my legs try to “right” themselves and push themselves back together. Stretching is easier if I can somehow relax the opposition muscles and stop worrying about pulling something.

I now can touch my head to my knee when I’m grabbing my foot in a sitting, one-legged stretch. (Left side only; my right side is less flexible, which I’ve heard is fairly normal.) I’ve realized that it’s much easier to do a bridge (backwards bend with hands on the floor) if you push your body upwards and really bend the spine – that way the weight is better centered and the arms have better leverage with which to support the body’s weight (this is, of course, not much in my case).