Tonight, I had the fortune of taking part in a dance party. I'm a miserable dancer, first of all -- I may have talked about it on this blog before -- I flail and thrash and knock out passersby with my enthusiastic moves. But that's just it: my moves are motivated by pure passion. And really, what more passionate era for dance music is there than the gorgeous, gory 80's? The 80's, when nobody minded if you acted out the words in dance form? The 80's, when your moves were only eclipsed by your shoulder pads? Thanks Gina for inviting me to your shenanza. I had a fabulous time.
Yesterday, I went to see Kalkwerk, directed by Krystian Lupa, which was on as a part of the Lincoln Center Festival. The production was a sprawlingly tidy four hours long, with two intermissions; presumably both were necessary to bring the viewers back from the absolutely existential bleakness of the first and second act. (I didn't get up between 7PM and 11PM. I have a social bladder.)
Kalkwerk's production is relentless in its portrayal of the wretched genius; Konrad, the somewhat-narrator, is unable to sleep or even be normal because of his obsession with a certain treatise he claims he will one day write on the subject of hearing. He subjects his invalid wife to a series of auditory exercises that go on for hours in the lime works (the titular Kalkwerk) that they've moved into, and the rest of the day they only eat or sleep. In the end, the narrator has nothing to show for the enormous sacrifices both he and his wife made for the advancement of this scholastic notion. The production is beautiful to watch, powerful and intriguing, and Krystian Lupa directs his actors to the point of exhaustion so they're spot on with every bit of disturbed silence. It's also funny in parts -- but don't expect a happy ending, or even an ending, really. Kalkwerk is not for the kicky rom-com seekers among us.
Tomorrow, Coney Island, to round out the culturally relevant weekend I've been having.
vittles
- niina
- I write some poems and some prose and put together events. In 2009, Birds of Lace put out my chapbook, Fabulous Essential. In 2011, Hyacinth Girl published another chapbook, Book Four. I also yell and play the beep beeps in a band called mindtroll.
ACTHUMAN.EXE
Book Four (Hyacinth Girl Press 2011)
Buy my new chapbook, Book Four, from the Hyacinth Girl website.
reviews
writing around the web
- Alice Bag interview (The Rumpus, 2012)
- Facebook's Antique Courtship Rituals (Jezebel, 2011)
- Rah Digga interview, (Sadie Magazine, 2010)
- Girlpants author archive (girlpants.org)
- Three poems (The Scrambler, 2010)
- The Shondes & More (Jezebel Music, 2009)
- Translations & commentary of poems by Tytti Heikkinen (The Brooklyn Rail, 2009)
- # (poem) (Blossombones, 2009)
- Two poems (La Fovea, 2009)
- The Green Guide to the Red Tide (Sadie Magazine, 2008)
projects & things i participate in
coolguys and dynamos
6 comments:
Dancing...dancing is all about the hips. :) I've noticed men don't move their hips, they kind of bob their torsos up and down. Girls bend from the hip. I think.
You dance the way that I do! Or better. I haven't really knocked someone over yet, but with practice, I'll surely get there.
Word around the blogosphere is you're a good dancer! Anyway, I exaggerate a little - I've never actually caused serious injury. :)
Lol - M exaggerates my dancing skills. But if it's moving the hips that counts, I'm sure we're both stars. ;)
I think you dance great. But the last time I saw you dance -- at that rehearsal of Abigail's for Rocky Horror -- you kept rolling your eyes as if to say "I know this is dumb but I'm doing it anyway." Sue says I dance like a white boy, and, as honored as I am to be thought a boy at my tender age, I know what she means. I'm all chest and ribs; she's all hips don't lie.
Yesterday I hearded a bunch of high-school kids around the Zoo. A kid came up to me with a penciled notebook of stuff he'd written and asked me to read it. I said no, I was on the clock and was out there trapseing around in the 90-degree-plus heat not for fun but for money. He looked so shocked, I know it was a revelation about his teachers. Still, I'm glad young people are writing and don't want entirely to discourage him. Tonight I'm taking them all to Shakespeare-by-the Sea; my plan is to tell him to put more work into his writing before he asks anybody to read it.
SO glad you came! you are an awesome dancer- i too enjoy the flailing technique that works so well with new wave tunes- everyone knows good dancing is all about how into it you get! in that respect we had to have been the best dancers there. xo
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