'another color sunflower
'with heart'
'resting'
8.10.2009
Stage
Leopold and Loeb’s murder trial became a media sensation in real life, even if the details were unprintable at the time. The lovers- murderers angle was turned into a homoerotic game in Hitchcock’s Rope and outright sexual acting out in Swoon.
Philly actors Evan Jonigkeit and Brian Kurtas are tackling the collective psyche of notorious 20s lovers in John Logan’s drama Never the Sinner opening this week at the Adrienne Theater. Kurtas jumped into rehearsals late, taking over for another actor, said he understands why this gruesome story still intrigues.“I think what is fascinating regardless of what kind of relationship this is, heterosexual or homosexual relationship, is that these boys do what they do for love. Leopold was treated as such an outcast; Loeb was the only person who would talk to him.”
Jonigkeit scored critical praise starring in Mauckingbird’s very gay version of The Misanthrope and the British boys’ prep school version of Shakespeare’s R & J. Working with Kurtas on the chemistry of Leopold and Loeb has been a different challenge for the versatile actor.
“The language of Moliere and Shakespeare kind of gets rid of the guess work. This play is different because it’s so naturalistic. The character is expressive, but with a lot less information. It’s a phenomenal part to try to capture. He’s a villain, but more than that he is also a child.” he said.
Jonigkeit said that Brian has been a real trooper letting “me throw him different stuff; he’s making daring choices in this role. My thought on why these characters are so interesting because they really need each other and they are misfits. The extreme measures in which they express those needs is so bizarre…that is fascinating to try to figure out. It’s thrilling really. Peter Reynolds the director keeps telling us in notes ‘Don’t be nice.’”
Short Morning
The last conjuring
lacerated word
aster, kiln
arc-light
in his eye
dreamt of dead
cardinals taking off their heads
twig scraping the window
no, it’s my hand
Shadow mouth
too late for
oatmeal to taste
like the past
Jack leaves
day.
lacerated word
aster, kiln
arc-light
in his eye
dreamt of dead
cardinals taking off their heads
twig scraping the window
no, it’s my hand
Shadow mouth
too late for
oatmeal to taste
like the past
Jack leaves
day.
Gone Fishin'
Impossible to face Monday grammar and 105 heat index. It rained all around Philly last night, setting up a bubble of a steam bath within the city limits. The storms must be performing just outside the city limits, all sound and fury signifying nothing here. Was hoping they would rip through and lance the heat, but barely a spit take all night.
I’ve been out already for an emergency trip to the bank and to partially blind myself with the sun. Inspired by the runners and cyclists undetered by the heat. The motorists are already cursing, slavishly whipping around Rittenhouse Sq. destroying any momentary inner city bucolic peace. Maybe already thinking that they are sitting in traffic combat at 5:25 tonight. They can’t go fishin’ and really can you blame them for wanting to run me down as I wing past them that is stuck in broiling traffic. No brakes! no brakes! please.
I’ve been out already for an emergency trip to the bank and to partially blind myself with the sun. Inspired by the runners and cyclists undetered by the heat. The motorists are already cursing, slavishly whipping around Rittenhouse Sq. destroying any momentary inner city bucolic peace. Maybe already thinking that they are sitting in traffic combat at 5:25 tonight. They can’t go fishin’ and really can you blame them for wanting to run me down as I wing past them that is stuck in broiling traffic. No brakes! no brakes! please.
Lives of the composers
Back from that jaunt around town on my brakeless bike and inner city blues was replaced by Rossini in my mind’s ear as vaulted away from the park. Now back considering Anne Migrette’s discussion via Think Denk whether Charles Ives was a homophobe or a victim of prejudices of his time. Migrette takes it a step further looking for gay markers in Ives’ music. Interesting exercise.
The out composers I’ve been lucky enough to talk to have reinterated, sometimes emphatically, that there is no such thing as ‘gay music.’ Principle among these is Ned Rorem, who admitted that he regretted being included on a recording ‘Gay American Composers’ just for that reason. Timeless music is, after all, bigger than sexuality even though it may have everything to do with who you are sleeping with.
Anyway, even though there is a collective gay mantra about there not being anything as ‘gay music’ in classical realms, can anyone conceive that ‘Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies’ could have been written by anyone else but Tchaikovsky? Or as I’m listening now to ‘Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis’ Henry the Eighth’s court composer and I’m wondering where classical music would be without gay aesthetics, consciously recorded or not.
The out composers I’ve been lucky enough to talk to have reinterated, sometimes emphatically, that there is no such thing as ‘gay music.’ Principle among these is Ned Rorem, who admitted that he regretted being included on a recording ‘Gay American Composers’ just for that reason. Timeless music is, after all, bigger than sexuality even though it may have everything to do with who you are sleeping with.
Anyway, even though there is a collective gay mantra about there not being anything as ‘gay music’ in classical realms, can anyone conceive that ‘Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies’ could have been written by anyone else but Tchaikovsky? Or as I’m listening now to ‘Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis’ Henry the Eighth’s court composer and I’m wondering where classical music would be without gay aesthetics, consciously recorded or not.
8.02.2009
metroscape
Biking back from the Kelly Pool along West River Drive in stifling sun today. the Philly skyline rushing the eye in brilliant color saturation like a Hitchcock film from the 50s. My mind’s ear provided the Bernard Hermann soundtrack.
Gay saute
While at the Dancewriting Institute I was inspired to make quick meals for the fellow fellows who were dropping. My roommate Christopher Blank, a fab young journalist and willing scullery, kept the galley kitchen ready. Bent over the sink, he would mumble asides as I tried to work on an electric stove. He wants me to do a tv version in Memphis called Gay Saute with him cleaning up and mumbling asides while I cook and interview celebs hanging out in the kitchen. I’m meant to distract them with dishes as I grill them. Well..anyway…meanwhile I’ll offer my first gay saute recipe for success-
Use high heat on top of the stove!
Use high heat on top of the stove!
Music
Philadelphia’s famed heat and humidity was the perfect clime as prima diva Angela Brown sang ’Summertime’ from ’Porgy & Bess’ an encore that was accompanied by an on cue breeze. Brown, stunning in a tight turquoise opera gown was center stage at the Mann Center in Fairmount Park. Last month the Fabulous Philadelphians were in Vail, Colorado, next month they are in Saratoga NY, but this week they are in the final week of their summer season in Philly.
Rossen Milanov, musical director of the summer series, conducted Brown in a program of Verdi arias including the overture to La forza del destino, Ritorna vincitor” from Aida and “Tu, che le vanità” from Don Carlo. As thrilling as it was to hear Angela, the orchestra was just as thrilling in its powerful reading of Rachmaninoff’s Symphony no. 2. This is a lengthy piece, with a lot of symphonic undertow and vaulting progressions. Highlights in this performance were the understated decrescendos, the overlapping tremolo runs and the concussive pre-codas. Milanov is a specialist of Russian, Slavic and Eastern European music. This was a brilliantly balanced interpretation of Rachmaninoff.
Rossen Milanov, musical director of the summer series, conducted Brown in a program of Verdi arias including the overture to La forza del destino, Ritorna vincitor” from Aida and “Tu, che le vanità” from Don Carlo. As thrilling as it was to hear Angela, the orchestra was just as thrilling in its powerful reading of Rachmaninoff’s Symphony no. 2. This is a lengthy piece, with a lot of symphonic undertow and vaulting progressions. Highlights in this performance were the understated decrescendos, the overlapping tremolo runs and the concussive pre-codas. Milanov is a specialist of Russian, Slavic and Eastern European music. This was a brilliantly balanced interpretation of Rachmaninoff.
LsOTD
“Nobody is talking about some government takeover of health care, I’m tired of hearing that.” President Obama told a wildly supportive crowd in Durham, NC. The President fired back at critics who just will say anything to obstruct health care reform. “I’ve been as clear as I can be; under the reform I’ve proposed, if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor,…If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan. These folks need to stop scaring everybody.” Obama said.
“Nobody is talking about some government takeover of health care, I’m tired of hearing that.” President Obama told a wildly supportive crowd in Durham, NC. The President fired back at critics who just will say anything to obstruct health care reform. “I’ve been as clear as I can be; under the reform I’ve proposed, if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor,…If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan. These folks need to stop scaring everybody.” Obama said.
Politictictic
Bill Moyers’ Journal this week is a blistering indictment of insurance company lobbyists and the Reps. and Dems who are bending over for them. It’s a case of the snake calling the viper asp.
Wendell Potter former Cigna executive, the fourth largest health insurance company in the US, was the insider pulling no punches.
“The industry doesn’t … want any more competition period. They certainly don’t want it from a government plan that might be operating more efficiently than they are, that they operate. ..”
Wendell Potter former Cigna executive, the fourth largest health insurance company in the US, was the insider pulling no punches.
“The industry doesn’t … want any more competition period. They certainly don’t want it from a government plan that might be operating more efficiently than they are, that they operate. ..”
7.27.2009
Dance
The New York Times is reporting that American Dance pioneer Merce Cunningham has died. Cunningham brought his company back to Philadelphia last year.
March 2008
The return of Merce Cunningham Dance Company in the middle of Dance Celebration’s ’Innovators and Pioneers’ series is perfect placement. It is so remarkable in a work like Biped, premiering in Philadelphia, that Cunningham, at 89, continues to define his own dance universe.
Not to be outdone by hidef film effects, the current trend in dancearts Cunningham instead conjures a dance black hole on the Annenberg stage that we get sucked into.
Although somewhat dwarfed here from its full expansion on the BAM stage, the dance arena is nonetheless stunning. Cunningham’s sketchpad of dimensional skeletal danceforms he pioneered with ’motion capture’ computer imaging float in and out along with worm graphics, scribbles, and drafting bars.
His troupe of 13 bipeds, dressed in metallic acid burn organza danskins appear and vanish. This spatial reality frames Cunningham’s spectral choreographic progression. As avant garde as Cunningham remains a work like "BiPed" does not sidestep stellar modern technique delivered by these dancers.
"Biped’s" choreographic base is a study in tendu and relevé transitional foundations that bloom with dazzling arabesque variations and innovative body lines. There is a uniquely steeled suppleness in the backbends and formitable athletic prowess in Olympic jump sequences from static positions.
Not to be outdone by hi-def film effects, the current trend in dancearts the Cunningham instead conjures a dance black hole on the Annenberg stage that we get sucked into.A dancer vaults and is caught by four men by her limbs, without hand support on her torso. The dancer is lifted, falls low to the ground in a lift sequence that keeps evolving until it moves offstage. Such kinetic elements give any non-representational movement amplitude. Something for those who don’t like abstraction, to grab onto.
Asymmetrical group fragments are as cohesive as contrasting duets and unison work. As the motion capture projections fill out into more charcoal sketches, dancers put on sheer garments and flying into epileptic aerials, then they assemble in pairs. Whether suggesting evolution or deevolution, Cunningham is fascinatingly enigmatic.
The companion piece EyeSpace is accompanied by Mikel Rouse’s soundscape and ambient live music incorporating seepage from the collective Ipods, distributed to the audience like 3-d glasses, makes this a per performance happening. Onstage, a pastel construction paper galaxy with confetti funnels hover over the dancers in turquoise unitards.
Cunningham keeps returning to expressive and playful trios, one a quicksilver display of free leg battlement in alternate body positions. The finishing duet is synergistic between the dancers without any body contact and without the need to imply any emotional intimacy.
A concert from a choreographic master who may have to choreograph on computer more, but whose work is as exploratory and as polished as ever. Maestro Cunningham made a surprise appearance taking a bow from his wheelchair at the curtain and pierced his own parallel universe with a starburst.
March 2008
The return of Merce Cunningham Dance Company in the middle of Dance Celebration’s ’Innovators and Pioneers’ series is perfect placement. It is so remarkable in a work like Biped, premiering in Philadelphia, that Cunningham, at 89, continues to define his own dance universe.
Not to be outdone by hidef film effects, the current trend in dancearts Cunningham instead conjures a dance black hole on the Annenberg stage that we get sucked into.
Although somewhat dwarfed here from its full expansion on the BAM stage, the dance arena is nonetheless stunning. Cunningham’s sketchpad of dimensional skeletal danceforms he pioneered with ’motion capture’ computer imaging float in and out along with worm graphics, scribbles, and drafting bars.
His troupe of 13 bipeds, dressed in metallic acid burn organza danskins appear and vanish. This spatial reality frames Cunningham’s spectral choreographic progression. As avant garde as Cunningham remains a work like "BiPed" does not sidestep stellar modern technique delivered by these dancers.
"Biped’s" choreographic base is a study in tendu and relevé transitional foundations that bloom with dazzling arabesque variations and innovative body lines. There is a uniquely steeled suppleness in the backbends and formitable athletic prowess in Olympic jump sequences from static positions.
Not to be outdone by hi-def film effects, the current trend in dancearts the Cunningham instead conjures a dance black hole on the Annenberg stage that we get sucked into.A dancer vaults and is caught by four men by her limbs, without hand support on her torso. The dancer is lifted, falls low to the ground in a lift sequence that keeps evolving until it moves offstage. Such kinetic elements give any non-representational movement amplitude. Something for those who don’t like abstraction, to grab onto.
Asymmetrical group fragments are as cohesive as contrasting duets and unison work. As the motion capture projections fill out into more charcoal sketches, dancers put on sheer garments and flying into epileptic aerials, then they assemble in pairs. Whether suggesting evolution or deevolution, Cunningham is fascinatingly enigmatic.
The companion piece EyeSpace is accompanied by Mikel Rouse’s soundscape and ambient live music incorporating seepage from the collective Ipods, distributed to the audience like 3-d glasses, makes this a per performance happening. Onstage, a pastel construction paper galaxy with confetti funnels hover over the dancers in turquoise unitards.
Cunningham keeps returning to expressive and playful trios, one a quicksilver display of free leg battlement in alternate body positions. The finishing duet is synergistic between the dancers without any body contact and without the need to imply any emotional intimacy.
A concert from a choreographic master who may have to choreograph on computer more, but whose work is as exploratory and as polished as ever. Maestro Cunningham made a surprise appearance taking a bow from his wheelchair at the curtain and pierced his own parallel universe with a starburst.
the time is now
Congressman Patrick Murphy (D-PA, 8th district) is an Iraq war veteran and leading the fight in congress this month to pass legislation repealing the military's discriminatory DADT policies. 13,000 military personnel have been kicked out, and countless others have been affected by DADT, not because of conduct unbecoming but because of sexual identity.
“‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ clearly isn’t working for our military, and it hinders national security and military readiness at a time when America is fighting in two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Congressman Patrick Murphy. “My time in Iraq taught me that our military needs and deserves the best and the brightest who are willing to serve- and that means all Americans, regardless of their orientation."
Murphy said.
“‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ clearly isn’t working for our military, and it hinders national security and military readiness at a time when America is fighting in two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Congressman Patrick Murphy. “My time in Iraq taught me that our military needs and deserves the best and the brightest who are willing to serve- and that means all Americans, regardless of their orientation."
Murphy said.
metroscape
Sunday in the park with everybody yesterday in Rittenhouse Square with the heavy air and blasts of rays coming through the clouds making everybody look seered to the grass. When a scant breeze came through, no one blinked.
7.25.2009
lotd (after Gertrude Stein)
"Equality is equality is equality,” St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman told the crowd at the Camp Camp nightclub on the occassion of recognizing 'domestic partnerships.' Always trust the sainted cities to do the right thing.
dancemetros
Company personality
Ballet X is on fire at the Wilma Theatre with their summer concert series. The concert was bursting with dramatic stage pictures, sumptuous dance and electric chemistry. The opening work, Jorma Elo’s Scenes View 2’s text of stage directions sets up a ‘contact improv’ feel of dancers in movement fragments that get more fevered. Bach's Partita No. 2 for Solo Violin to the rescue and Elo finally uncorks his choreographic stream. Elo’s choreography can look decorated, but these dancers have the muscle to attack choreographic extravagances with suppleness and simmering theatricality.
Matthew Neenan’s 'Broke Apart,' set to a mix of songs begins with a duet between Amy Aldridge and Matthew Prescott whose eyes are locked and bodies moving around a sectional barre formed in a box which they bust through in various ways. That theme of bodies over under sideways down captures Neenan’s sense of movement humor, drama and mystery. The highlight was Cindi Lauper’s vainglorious version of ’Le Vie en Rose’ that underscores one of Neenan’s finest trio passages danced with shimmering clarity by Laura Feig, Amy Aldridge and Jermel Johnson.
Jodie Gates ’Le Baiser Inevitable’ has a Cirque feel with its total eclipse light ring with the men in rust- olored black banded pants and the women in red bikinis with black sheer shrugs. Dancers cluster in a Fossesque circle as Ravel’s Bolero starts and the dancers looking volcanic. They start to sway and as one by one they pulse out of the circle and bommerrang back in. Bodies snake as Ravel’s oboe gets more and more aggressive. Matthew Prescott has an over the top duet with BX-MVP Tara Keating that skirts close to balletic camp. All part of the fun. Even though the back half was heavily danced, with muddy unison work in key moments, the esprit and sexual subtext had trajectory of its own.
Ballet X is on fire at the Wilma Theatre with their summer concert series. The concert was bursting with dramatic stage pictures, sumptuous dance and electric chemistry. The opening work, Jorma Elo’s Scenes View 2’s text of stage directions sets up a ‘contact improv’ feel of dancers in movement fragments that get more fevered. Bach's Partita No. 2 for Solo Violin to the rescue and Elo finally uncorks his choreographic stream. Elo’s choreography can look decorated, but these dancers have the muscle to attack choreographic extravagances with suppleness and simmering theatricality.
Matthew Neenan’s 'Broke Apart,' set to a mix of songs begins with a duet between Amy Aldridge and Matthew Prescott whose eyes are locked and bodies moving around a sectional barre formed in a box which they bust through in various ways. That theme of bodies over under sideways down captures Neenan’s sense of movement humor, drama and mystery. The highlight was Cindi Lauper’s vainglorious version of ’Le Vie en Rose’ that underscores one of Neenan’s finest trio passages danced with shimmering clarity by Laura Feig, Amy Aldridge and Jermel Johnson.
Jodie Gates ’Le Baiser Inevitable’ has a Cirque feel with its total eclipse light ring with the men in rust- olored black banded pants and the women in red bikinis with black sheer shrugs. Dancers cluster in a Fossesque circle as Ravel’s Bolero starts and the dancers looking volcanic. They start to sway and as one by one they pulse out of the circle and bommerrang back in. Bodies snake as Ravel’s oboe gets more and more aggressive. Matthew Prescott has an over the top duet with BX-MVP Tara Keating that skirts close to balletic camp. All part of the fun. Even though the back half was heavily danced, with muddy unison work in key moments, the esprit and sexual subtext had trajectory of its own.
7.22.2009
7.21.2009
bloggerdriller
"This isn't about me." President Obama responding to Jim DeMint of South Carolina saying that a defeat on the President's health care reform bill would be his 'Waterloo.' That's all the Republicans are about on this, how it would bring down the President.
The President answered his critics on this on Friday with where the bill stands, what it will do and how it will be paid for, but those remarks didn't make it in the news cycles.
He pushed back further in a press conference today-- "These opponents of reform would rather score political points than offer relief to Americans who've seen premiums double and costs grow three times faster than wages...They would maintain a system that works for the insurance and the drug companies, while becoming increasingly unaffordable for families and for businesses." Obama told reporters.
Once again Republicans have money for the rich. Not to mention all of their wars, scandals, pay-offs, favors, and political follies, but when it comes to help comes to
helping the middle and lower classes, they call it socialism. They will do anything to keep the insurance, drug companies and corporate medicine flush. There should be no profit in medicine. Once again Republicans prove how small they really are.
Once again the issue is not the issue it's the fight about the issue and the American people loose every time.
The President answered his critics on this on Friday with where the bill stands, what it will do and how it will be paid for, but those remarks didn't make it in the news cycles.
He pushed back further in a press conference today-- "These opponents of reform would rather score political points than offer relief to Americans who've seen premiums double and costs grow three times faster than wages...They would maintain a system that works for the insurance and the drug companies, while becoming increasingly unaffordable for families and for businesses." Obama told reporters.
Once again Republicans have money for the rich. Not to mention all of their wars, scandals, pay-offs, favors, and political follies, but when it comes to help comes to
helping the middle and lower classes, they call it socialism. They will do anything to keep the insurance, drug companies and corporate medicine flush. There should be no profit in medicine. Once again Republicans prove how small they really are.
Once again the issue is not the issue it's the fight about the issue and the American people loose every time.
booksbooksbooks
One might think that former Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland had a flair for the dramatic. In 2002 at the height of the pedophile priest scandal, he was being blackmailed by a former lover, outed in public and forced to step down in disgrace on the eve of his scheduled retirement at age 75. Would sound contrived on a soap opera, but the good bishop is anything but dramaclergy, as is quietly apparent on every page of his memoir “A Pilgrim in a Pilgrim Church." Weakland sets the record straight about his life and the various crisis in the Catholic church hierarchy and lights no incence or pulls any punches.
Weakland didn’t so much as have a crisis of faith as much as he had a crisis of catholic politics. 'Pilgrim' is a soul-searching expose that reveals the inner struggles of a devout Benedictine monk at odds with the Vatican on a number of issues including the ordination of women and schizophrenic church views on homosexuality.
Even though Weakland publicly apologized for the affair, admitting that he sinned by breaking his vows of celibacy, he speaks about his sexual identity as a gift from God, as part of one’s true self. He rejected modern church doctrine that homosexuality made him “objectively disorder(ed)” (1986) and reasserted in 2004 when the emergency synod characterized gay life as “intrinsically evil.” The bishop's response in finally accepting his sexuality -“I felt no diminution in God’s love.”
Bishop takes Queen's Knight. I wonder if Rome knows?
Weakland didn’t so much as have a crisis of faith as much as he had a crisis of catholic politics. 'Pilgrim' is a soul-searching expose that reveals the inner struggles of a devout Benedictine monk at odds with the Vatican on a number of issues including the ordination of women and schizophrenic church views on homosexuality.
Even though Weakland publicly apologized for the affair, admitting that he sinned by breaking his vows of celibacy, he speaks about his sexual identity as a gift from God, as part of one’s true self. He rejected modern church doctrine that homosexuality made him “objectively disorder(ed)” (1986) and reasserted in 2004 when the emergency synod characterized gay life as “intrinsically evil.” The bishop's response in finally accepting his sexuality -“I felt no diminution in God’s love.”
Bishop takes Queen's Knight. I wonder if Rome knows?
7.20.2009
Q fest
Philly Qfest's final night and GLBT doves flocked to the theater to see the premiere of The Big Gay Musical (is there any other kind?)with a Broadway cast and shot in 17 days in NY, this movie has rough edges and a huge heart.
Directors Casper Andreas and Fred M. Caruso and were on hand to answer questions (savvy room fellows, you should have been more prepared with better jokes. The film send-ups of Broadway war-horses adapted to tell the story of the off-Broadway production of 'Adam and Steve: Just the way God made them' the musical and the religious right's antigay agenda. Daniel Robinson and Joey Dudding, are handsome off-Broadway babies (and all around nice guys) on leave from Legally Blond and A Chorus Line.
Beforehand the Qfest awards were given out and some news by Philly film ambassador Thom Cardwell, who announced a new co-op with the French film industry presenting 'la Cinemateque' starting in Sept.
7.19.2009
thinking of Frank
July 1952
July in NY
Boring heat wave settles on
ugly sheets along with
Uglier thoughts of
sleeping with Frank
Even though he says
We can’t make love
But possibly still could fuck
In the winter in Chelsea
Last minute, if
He is slumming
Last week
Sleeping with Torques
(The dancer) &
Frank in this flat
In stupefying steam heat
Now I have to not not
Think about it tomorrow
Now Frank is in love with
Torques torque
Bastards they!
The more I loose my looks
The better the dancing gets
Thinking of dance
Stepping Into that
Atria while imagining
Frank was following me
To that century magnolia tree
Opening the leaves both pink ivory
Whispering past the bent leaves.
Listening to Götterdämmerung
While soaking in the tub
Because backed up drain water
Squeezing my brain
to the Germanic
Concussion of ariatic blood boil.
(Forgot that I flipped over
On my bike before I left
And ripped the brake line out
Instead of my spine)
I ache, ache ache
And all I can think about
Is sleeping with Frank
in a previous life or
Torques in Chelsea
Maybe this winter
Gives me no inspiration
Except to soak in dirty
Bath water
I guess I should write.
July in NYBoring heat wave settles on
ugly sheets along with
Uglier thoughts of
sleeping with Frank
Even though he says
We can’t make love
But possibly still could fuck
In the winter in Chelsea
Last minute, if
He is slumming
Last week
Sleeping with Torques
(The dancer) &
Frank in this flat
In stupefying steam heat
Now I have to not not
Think about it tomorrow
Now Frank is in love with
Torques torque
Bastards they!
The more I loose my looks
The better the dancing gets
Thinking of dance
Stepping Into that
Atria while imagining
Frank was following me
To that century magnolia tree
Opening the leaves both pink ivory
Whispering past the bent leaves.
Listening to Götterdämmerung
While soaking in the tub
Because backed up drain water
Squeezing my brain
to the Germanic
Concussion of ariatic blood boil.
(Forgot that I flipped over
On my bike before I left
And ripped the brake line out
Instead of my spine)
I ache, ache ache
And all I can think about
Is sleeping with Frank
in a previous life or
Torques in Chelsea
Maybe this winter
Gives me no inspiration
Except to soak in dirty
Bath water
I guess I should write.
7.16.2009
Politic..tic..tic
Listening to the Judge Sonia Sotomayer confirmation hearings some images come to mind
-a bullfight with all matadors circling and the bull being drugged and stabbed in the pen
-a minuet in clogs.
-Anita Hill letting swing a few sandbags
but leave it to Sen. Lindsay Graham for the LOTD day referring to Sotomayer's now famous statement about "a wise Latino woman" reaching a better opinion that a white man. Graham set out a muscled argument that if he had made a similar statement "If I Lindsay Graham said I would make a better Senator than X..to represent South Carolina...If I had said anything like that...they would have had my head...others could not get remotely close to that statement and survive."
A great point by Sen. Graham to which I would reply. "Absolutely, now, yes, I agree with you, but do you want to go back say 10-300 years?
-a bullfight with all matadors circling and the bull being drugged and stabbed in the pen
-a minuet in clogs.
-Anita Hill letting swing a few sandbags
but leave it to Sen. Lindsay Graham for the LOTD day referring to Sotomayer's now famous statement about "a wise Latino woman" reaching a better opinion that a white man. Graham set out a muscled argument that if he had made a similar statement "If I Lindsay Graham said I would make a better Senator than X..to represent South Carolina...If I had said anything like that...they would have had my head...others could not get remotely close to that statement and survive."
A great point by Sen. Graham to which I would reply. "Absolutely, now, yes, I agree with you, but do you want to go back say 10-300 years?
7.15.2009
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Which movement are you talking about?
In Durham at the American Dance Festival, the tag line was ‘where ballet & modern meet.‘ A cute pr angle that did little to attract new audiences. For dancers and choreographers, ballet and modern met long ago and creative seeds have been cross-pollinating for decades.
What constitutes modern and what constitutes ballet might be for academics to determine, but is a theoretical moot point in performance. The marriage either works or it doesn’t. In a down economy, dance fusion can be a good way to go for many practical reasons.
At ADF, The Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, showed how investing ballet with elastic repertoire, even with their wobbly reconstruction of an early work by Twyla Tharp. All of ASFB dancers have extensive ballet training, but co-directors Jean-Phillippe Malaty and Tom Mossbrucker have the attitude “We don’t look for dancers with turn-out, but open minds.” Versatility in both camps may end up helping the health of classical ballet particularly, since established audiences are, well, dying off and younger audiences need something fresh.
During a round table discussion with a panel of dance journalists, dance scholar Roger Copeland reminded that in the prevailing artistic climate in 1958, pioneer choreographer Merce Cunningham tried to fill in the divides between disparate dance worlds. For danceartists, Cunningham’s brilliance of purpose busted through conventions from all sides, changing the dynamics forever.
For those slower on the uptake, Copeland reminded that Cunningham was met with suspicion and derision by the dance establishment in general and ADF in particular. But 50 years later his is the dance new wave that is still breaking on unknown shores.
Suzanne Carbonneau, director of our NEA group, talks about the vital ‘ecological balance’ in the dance world. The necessity of all forms coexisting for a sound creative environment. Just as there has to be Sylphs and Apollos triumphing the dance stage there has to be environments for aesthetic labs so Brooklyn choreographer Miguel Guitierrez can stage a dance orgy of an orgy. Sex in this case is beside the point.
Speaking of that eco balance, choreographers from around the world continue to break dance traditions, as well as challenge methodology, theory and classical syllabus. Choreographer Ohad Naharin echoed the same sentiment as the Aspen directors, when he accepted the ADF Lifetime achievement award. He told the dancers in the audience “get rid of the mirror….and look at the sky.”
Naharin is integrating his GaGa training technique, which is just as much as a philosophy for life as it is dance training. You have to wonder at such sweeping statements, if in the dancers trenches of classes, touring, rehearsals and performance, such a laissez-faire attitude can work over time or if it just a nice idea. You wonder if you can wander into one of his rehearsal late with a note from nature.
In Durham at the American Dance Festival, the tag line was ‘where ballet & modern meet.‘ A cute pr angle that did little to attract new audiences. For dancers and choreographers, ballet and modern met long ago and creative seeds have been cross-pollinating for decades.
What constitutes modern and what constitutes ballet might be for academics to determine, but is a theoretical moot point in performance. The marriage either works or it doesn’t. In a down economy, dance fusion can be a good way to go for many practical reasons.
At ADF, The Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, showed how investing ballet with elastic repertoire, even with their wobbly reconstruction of an early work by Twyla Tharp. All of ASFB dancers have extensive ballet training, but co-directors Jean-Phillippe Malaty and Tom Mossbrucker have the attitude “We don’t look for dancers with turn-out, but open minds.” Versatility in both camps may end up helping the health of classical ballet particularly, since established audiences are, well, dying off and younger audiences need something fresh.
During a round table discussion with a panel of dance journalists, dance scholar Roger Copeland reminded that in the prevailing artistic climate in 1958, pioneer choreographer Merce Cunningham tried to fill in the divides between disparate dance worlds. For danceartists, Cunningham’s brilliance of purpose busted through conventions from all sides, changing the dynamics forever.
For those slower on the uptake, Copeland reminded that Cunningham was met with suspicion and derision by the dance establishment in general and ADF in particular. But 50 years later his is the dance new wave that is still breaking on unknown shores.
Suzanne Carbonneau, director of our NEA group, talks about the vital ‘ecological balance’ in the dance world. The necessity of all forms coexisting for a sound creative environment. Just as there has to be Sylphs and Apollos triumphing the dance stage there has to be environments for aesthetic labs so Brooklyn choreographer Miguel Guitierrez can stage a dance orgy of an orgy. Sex in this case is beside the point.
Speaking of that eco balance, choreographers from around the world continue to break dance traditions, as well as challenge methodology, theory and classical syllabus. Choreographer Ohad Naharin echoed the same sentiment as the Aspen directors, when he accepted the ADF Lifetime achievement award. He told the dancers in the audience “get rid of the mirror….and look at the sky.”
Naharin is integrating his GaGa training technique, which is just as much as a philosophy for life as it is dance training. You have to wonder at such sweeping statements, if in the dancers trenches of classes, touring, rehearsals and performance, such a laissez-faire attitude can work over time or if it just a nice idea. You wonder if you can wander into one of his rehearsal late with a note from nature.
7.12.2009
7.11.2009
Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet
ADF 2009, Durham Performing Art Center
Durham, NC
June 25, 2009
Reviewed by Lewis Whittington
Ohad Naharin received the Samuel H. Scripps Award for lifetime achievement the 2009 American Dance Festival. He took the opportunity during his acceptance speech to tell the dancers in the audience to “get rid of the mirrors. “ That rebel spirit was definitely in play afterward during The Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet performance of ‘Decadance 2007’ a compilation of dance works Naharin created between 1985- 2007.
Dancers stand on the edge of the stage and glared like pissed off runway models (instead of an attempt at veiled contempt). They pump their arms, then freeze, with each dancer taking turns in furious solos only they could own at this speed. The line recedes to spatial black as a deSadean duet unfolds with a women in a corset backing away from a man begging her for something more than the missionary position.
Sensual thoughts were absent during ‘George and Zelman’ a study for five women performing to a recitation of a Charles Bukowski poem. Each plaintive line is repeated with a new word and dance move added to the end. The dancers shift the group formations so we see the bodies at different angles, perhaps avoiding any chance that the dancers could catch us yawning.
More to grab onto in ‘Black Milk’ five men naked to the waist in warrior garb are performing a ritual where they smear their bodies with paint. They fly around in staggered formation, executing explosive layouts and jumps until they reach such a frenzy they have conjured a woman on stilts who stalks onstage in a feathered Carnival drag.
Naharin’s use of repetition in ‘Anaphaza’ grabs you by the throat and keeps squeezing. The troupe is dressed in black suits with white shirts and seated in a wide communal crescent. The Hebrew song ’Ehad Mi Yodea’ is a concussive shock wave that seems to bust open each dancers‘ chest and throw their heads back as if imbued.
The house lights come up for ‘Zachacha‘ set to a disco version of ‘Somewhere over the Rainbow’ with dancers picking audience members to join them onstage. Once assembled it segues into Dean Martin’s ’Sway’ with hilarious results. Dance sleights of hand or not, this is infectious fun.
There are more selections in the mix, but heady or silly, Naharin diced-up retrospective is dizzying but fresh in the hands of Cedar Lake dancers, who perform with drama, humor and even reverence to Naharin’s own stage conventions.
ADF 2009, Durham Performing Art Center
Durham, NC
June 25, 2009
Reviewed by Lewis Whittington
Ohad Naharin received the Samuel H. Scripps Award for lifetime achievement the 2009 American Dance Festival. He took the opportunity during his acceptance speech to tell the dancers in the audience to “get rid of the mirrors. “ That rebel spirit was definitely in play afterward during The Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet performance of ‘Decadance 2007’ a compilation of dance works Naharin created between 1985- 2007.
Dancers stand on the edge of the stage and glared like pissed off runway models (instead of an attempt at veiled contempt). They pump their arms, then freeze, with each dancer taking turns in furious solos only they could own at this speed. The line recedes to spatial black as a deSadean duet unfolds with a women in a corset backing away from a man begging her for something more than the missionary position.
Sensual thoughts were absent during ‘George and Zelman’ a study for five women performing to a recitation of a Charles Bukowski poem. Each plaintive line is repeated with a new word and dance move added to the end. The dancers shift the group formations so we see the bodies at different angles, perhaps avoiding any chance that the dancers could catch us yawning.
More to grab onto in ‘Black Milk’ five men naked to the waist in warrior garb are performing a ritual where they smear their bodies with paint. They fly around in staggered formation, executing explosive layouts and jumps until they reach such a frenzy they have conjured a woman on stilts who stalks onstage in a feathered Carnival drag.
Naharin’s use of repetition in ‘Anaphaza’ grabs you by the throat and keeps squeezing. The troupe is dressed in black suits with white shirts and seated in a wide communal crescent. The Hebrew song ’Ehad Mi Yodea’ is a concussive shock wave that seems to bust open each dancers‘ chest and throw their heads back as if imbued.
The house lights come up for ‘Zachacha‘ set to a disco version of ‘Somewhere over the Rainbow’ with dancers picking audience members to join them onstage. Once assembled it segues into Dean Martin’s ’Sway’ with hilarious results. Dance sleights of hand or not, this is infectious fun.
There are more selections in the mix, but heady or silly, Naharin diced-up retrospective is dizzying but fresh in the hands of Cedar Lake dancers, who perform with drama, humor and even reverence to Naharin’s own stage conventions.
metroscape
Back in Philly and missing the quietude of the magnolia tree that brushed against the windows of our conference room at Duke U. No time to lull, back to work here, but not before stopping at the Amish flower market on Rittenhouse Sq. where I picked up sturdy zinnia bursting with reds, yellows, fushia and deepest purple. Maybe I'll play hooky after all.
7.05.2009
7.03.2009
H Art Chaos was one of the center events at the American Dance Festival in Durham
Oshima's singular vision
The harrowing terrain Sakiko Oshima carves out in ‘Flowers of the Bones’ starts above the stage dancer Shino Kido, dressed in a bone-white gown, harnessed above the stage motionless and then flailing around. The effect is both grotesque and beautiful, one of the visual threads that runs through this dance. Kido touches down on a smoky stage of greenish gray hues as other women drift in. Medical tables are wheeled around by dancers who keep to themselves.
The coldness and fearful images are in contrast with three mermaids on top of the table with their torsos bowing back with lyrical expression, but oscillate with sad resignation. They flick their tail and white confetti flies around them, part of spellbinding lighting design The choreography is very floaty, and in its transitions suggest time frozen, but state of being altered, muddy. Eventually all the dancers are clustered together for a group portrait. Shino ends up under surgical light on one of the slabs, her body pulling upward.
Oshima’s 1995 production of ‘The Rite of Spring’ is the marquee work of this program. Oshima immediately erases the expectations of grandeur that can accompany revisits to Stravinsky’s titanic score. Instead of a ritualized tribal tableau for a throng of dancers, we enter a drab apartment with the furniture upended and Nooko Shirakawa , the sacrifice, flailing around the room in a camisole. I resisted Oshima’s concept might seep in primarily because she took this loaded piece of narrative ballet music and scaled it to score to an interior drama of a woman in psychological crisis.
Shirakawa’s gritty performance seems so choreographically uncontrolled that inadvertent comedy pops up. She obsessively turns a lamp on and off ala Fatal Attraction and when she franticly jumps on the furniture Gilda Radnor springs to mind.
Those bits seem like filler and detract from remarkably visceral moments.
When Shirakawa emerges from the tub and executes an inverted split that keeps blooming, The emotional impact draws you so close to Oshima's bold choreographic response to this music.
6.30.2009
bloglog
'love,Daisy'I almost forgot the last day of June and doubly spacey, like Daisy Buchanan in the Great Gatsby, I also forgot the first day of summer. Which is already so ripe and gorgeous in Durham right now.
blogger slacker
It's this charming Durham heat that just makes me want to nap in a tub of iced tea. Tomorrow pie!
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