Ballet @ MindSay

our weekend began early with dinner at a friends wednesday night. we thought it would be an early night but everyone else was going over to a jazz bar. I recall the days that those types of places were off limits due to all the smoke. But as people get enlightened about second hand smoke more and more laws prevent exposure to the non smoker nice pink lungs type like me.

and last night we went to the ballet and ate at the Heathman first. OMG do I ever love the Heathman. very NYC, busy, delicious and an amazing cocktail menu. so I had a raspberry crusta (crustas were the class of coktails invented in the 1850's with a sugar rim----- grandparent to the margarita and cosmopolitan... which not only TASTED great but had an aroma like flowers. I definitely need to learn to make this one. It may be my favorite ever. then we split a beet and blue cheese salad. and split bacon crusted salmon with spinach risotto and asparagus. and dessert was pistachio profiteroles.

I think we almost slept through the first ballet piece at thye Schnitzner ( dress circle) ...Whitebird finished their season with a bang. the four largest and maybe best West Coast ballet companies: Eugene, Portland, San Francisco and Seattle. SF had a guy with the most amazing ass since Baryshnikov. yikes, I was mesmerized at first by the tush and then his dancing actually brought me to tears.

Jim filled the sedan with  gas yesterday and it cost $63. I must confess that I am not bugged by these high price tags as much as most Americans because we have  never been into car commuting and  never owned a gas guzzler SUV. so if these prices change people's car  and driving habits and maybe makes cities rethink mass transit it will be a very good thing. W wants Americans to remain in  love with their cars but I feel things must change and if it's the pocketbook that does it. good.

Most of the front yard decking is done. I have to finished enlarging the baby pond in front and then line it with the basalt I dug up. and then mulch the beds. Then start looking for a price effective stone pagoda. A friend pointed out that the reddish wood contrasts with all the green and makes everything pop. makes sense. so if we dont get rain tomorrow I will do the pondette... and if It rains I will work (finally) on the window coverings for the guest room ( red and white toile) cool huh?

When I was in middle school, I used to walk home with my friend Chris, and his house was closer so I pretty much dropped him off everyday.  Chris had this neighbor who had a giant, glorious porch/overhang in front of their house, and we swore that one day we'd build a few walls of beer cans and wine bottles on that porch, and we'd live there.

somebody else beat me to the punch:

http://news.aol.com/story/_a/a-mans-6-pack-can-serve-as-his-castle/20080307091109990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001

I think this is one of the few things about middle school I can happily reminisce about.  I miss my friends from back then, if nothing else.  But I really miss walks home with Chris, our games, the unfinished animal sounds, Lily's trees, my real flowers...

In other news, there are going to be 2 weeks of ballet missed, thanks to NYU spring break and then Easter, and then she's going to be in a wedding in Chicago April 6th, so that's 3 less classes this semester, and I could really use them.  Dang.  I guess I'll just have to practice in my room like I always do : ).

An unforeseen benefit to my dear one getting married…

Lilr’s husband and I work together. For a brief time, he was directly over me as a supervisor, which made things a little rough, but he transferred to another department, so now we’re just in the same building.

Lilr and her husband are very sweet together, but they have a good-natured ongoing battle of surprising and attempting to vex the other (not seriously, just to come out with the upper hand). So, if I, say, wanted to surprise her…he’s completely up for not only letting me know her full schedule, but also arranging anything else I need.

In this case…this’d be the last Christmas that we’re going to have together for a few years. They’re moving to the Southwest come early summer, and I’m leaving for some traveling come fall. And lilr, despite being lovely, appreciative of art in many forms, appreciative of music, rather on the pure side, appreciative of ballet, loving the classics, being reasonably fond of Christmas…has never, ever seen the Nutcracker!

And, by happy coincidence, the Nutcracker in its entirety is being performed in our town. An evening, in fact, when I get off work an hour before the show starts.

Already having it on her husband’s word that she’s not up to anything that night, and he’s at work (thus having the car) – get off work, call her.

“Hey! Whatcha doin’?”
Paraphrase: Bumming around on the Internet.
“Aha. So, if I were to come by and kidnap you in, oh, ten minutes, would you be ready?”
Paraphrase: Uncertainty, for what?
“Your husband knows about it.”

This is also a wonderfully delightful aspect of her being married. I’m rather out there as a person, and once in a while (not so much anymore) I have been known to pull her out of her comfort zone. I’d okayed this with him the night before, and he knows her quite well – more importantly, she knows that he knows her quite well. I may from time to time (again, it doesn’t really happen anymore) get so excited about something that I just have to haul her along and kind of forget that she doesn’t share all my interests (I’m working on it, okay?). He’s much more laid-back, even-keeled, so while it may very well be something that I’m excited about, she knows that, A) by nature he wouldn’t so wholeheartedly endorse something of a nature against his grain, and B) he knows her, and wouldn’t subject her to something she would hate.

A most enjoyable time was had. We have a new random one-liner between us (while I fully expect that many of our one-liners should involve silly songs we know, I sometimes find it curious how many of those happen to be Christmas carols), we enjoyed the orchestra, we quite enjoyed the dancers. Lilr identified a half-dozen munchkins that she knows from her church (her husband is rather involved with the nursery), we talked about impending motherhood on the way home.

She views motherhood much the way I do marriage – she wants to, but she has things that she wants to take care of first. I will probably share a similar view when I’m married, but sheesh, if my biological clock didn’t wake up with full force in the last few years! More discussion on both of us thinking of the other as being older – lilr is actually a year older than I am (oddly, most of my friends from high school are. People who’d grown up with me thought I was weird.), but she sees me as being more emotionally and spiritually mature, whereas I think of her as the same.

Really, to have the truth of it, the problem is in our definitions – mature to me means having a solid center, even-keeled. To her, it means having a greater experience in this than one who is immature. I suppose the two are linked because the thought is that you’d develop that even-keel after experience, but it hasn’t worked out that way with us.

Watching the ballet, got to thinking a bit. I love dance. I wanted to minor in dance for quite a few years. It’s still something I sort of hold onto. But real dance takes so much commitment, and I already have a big commitment to music. Music is kind of a ‘me’ thing, and having a ‘me’ thing is good – but I want to be doing something to help other people. There’s so much in the world that I could be helping with. Ballet is beautiful, jazz dance is a blast, but neither one is helpful in a flood setting or building schools or shelters in war-torn countries.

So, then it comes back to, what DO I want to take with me when I leave? In more ways than one.

Still figuring out, “I got to be who God created me to be.”

 

By Samantha L. Quigley

American Forces Press Service

 

Dec. 3, 2007 - It may be just a dress rehearsal for Clara, the toy soldiers and the Sugar Plum Fairy, but for servicemembers and their families in the audience, it's a big "thank you" from the cast of "The Nutcracker."  For the past four years, the Community Ballet Association of Huntsville, Ala., has recognized the sacrifices of servicemembers past and present with a special performance of the holiday classic. Originally a night reserved for a full-dress rehearsal, the association closed the performance and dubbed it "Military Night."

 

"The Huntsville community is comprised of thousands of military and their families, and many, if not most, of our students either are or have been affected by these conflicts," said Sherry Polk, president of the Community Ballet Association. "The dancers, staff, and board members involved take great pride in this production, (and) it gives us the opportunity to show our gratitude in a way that brings holiday cheer to (the servicemembers)."

 

Military Night is open to active duty military, National Guardsman and Reservists as well as retired military and their families. One valid military identification card admits the entire family, Polk said.

 

The Dec. 6 program will begin with a military color guard presenting the colors before the Pledge of Allegiance. Polk and select military personnel also will offer some opening comments before distinguished guests are recognized.

 

While the dancers always are excited about the chance to perform, Military Night is special to them, Polk said. Just having a live audience is a thrill, she added, but to have such a receptive and enthusiastic group energizes the dancers, adding to the special importance of the event.

 

"The strife in the Middle East had served to remind us in a very dramatic way of how much we owe to our men and women in military service, and how military families frequently sacrifice very much," she said. "It's gratifying to be able to do something so special for them."

 

The association is a nonprofit organization working to provide the community with programs that bring the physical and mental benefits of dance to a large, varied audience, Polk said.

 

This performance marks the association's fourth Military Night and its 39th annual production of "The Nutcracker."

 

Editor's Note: To find out about more individuals, groups and organizations that are helping support the troops, visit www.AmericaSupportsYou.mil. America Supports You directly connects military members to the support of the America people and offers a tool to the general public in their quest to find meaningful ways to support the military community.

anne muelleer is my favorite dancer . while alison roper gets most of the limelight and she is indeed splendid, I favor mueller because  her humor and expressiveness and verve. last night we went to OBT and you know how they sell old dance shoes with the artist's signature. so i bought a pair of mueller's shoes to go ina shadlow box next to my memorabilia of helen mirren in Dance of Death in NYC a few years back. I am not generally a groupie but some artists give me the shivers and the chance to see them in person is a thrill.

 

 

^{(these were NOT the costumes they wore, damn it)}

the program itself had two very exciting pieces by contemporary choreographers and then there was a very hokey and dull ( even the costumes made me yawn) one act version of midsummer nights dream- mendelsohn. I do not understand why people insist on taking ahakespeare and putting in opera or dance form. I mean we are talking about some oof the greatest words ever written and they take them all out and expect it to work. the bard IS the text , really i dont get it. But it is fun that ballet and dance in general season is up and running again. It is my favorite form of performance art/theatre.

 

today I will check out an obscenely low priced  floor loom i found through the weavers guild. will keep you posted.