Recent events
Oct. 14th, 2002 08:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidA lot going on these days... plus it's finally autumn, an awesome time of year.
Saturday night I went to the Snappy Dance performance, at the Copley Theater. I hadn't been to this venue before. It was a pretty nice heater, with good sight lines from the balcony (where we were). And there were sufficient typos in the program to keep us entertained until the dancing started.
There were 10 pieces. Three of them were related, blue and green lights on a dark stage, meeting, multiplying, etc. I liked them, though I thought they were similar to Mummenschantz sorts of pieces. Oh, and while the manager was doing announcements, he was looped across the stage, as he read on. Pretty funny.
Spring Collection was danced by a man and two women, starting with the idea of three models posing for a photographer (voice over). And then it progressed in fluid motions into amazing balanced motions, two on the other, and it was great to see that it wasn't always the man lifting/supp orting the woman/women. It was beautiful. I wish I could be half so flexible...
Movement in D'Flat included some two-paneled black walls that moved around, as a man got pieces of life in other flats in the building. The music was a bit ominous, but I liked how they did the quick changes, including lighting.
Fardel was two men dancing with each other, slowly, gracefully working with the other, supporting each other. The strength required for some of the moves was impressive, as they used eac h other to form a huge variety poses (not that they stopped in the middle).
Sangere (accent on the first e) had local kids joining with the regular dancers, in a piece about playing and growing, and using cool shadow effects on circular pieces.
Ma Chairie had a man delighted with a tiny red chair, and all the things he could do with it.
Tango Tangle was a riff on the tango, nice, but I was getting tired by then :-(.
overneath had the dancers exploring the use of some tubes, into which they could fit their heads and an arm, or swing about, or stand on, or jump over, or bounce, or.... It was interesting and fun, though it felt a bit more contrived to be avante-garde than the rest did, somehow.
Garrison Keillor read 50 poems tonight, in a reading promoting his new book, Good Poems. It was at the church in Harvard Square, the one that, though on one side of the street, manages to be both 0 and 3 Church St.
I hadn't been in the sanctuary before (and was relieved there weren't any guys on plus signs, since I wouldn't have felt comfortable staying in that case). Very old New Engand, with divided pews, a balcony on 3 sides, everything white or glass, in a comfortable histori cal w ay, rather than a harsh angular modern way. We sat towards the back, and since we were early, had plenty of time to look through their hymn book. I was surprised that there was music printed for every piece; I wonder if it would've been easier for me to learn to read music if I'd seen it all the time? I was also surprised to find some Hebrew pieces (transliterated) in it. Also some translations of traditional prayers. Not at all expected. Apparently UU is much more wide-ranging in its acceptance of belief s than I'd realized. Oh, and I got to hear snippets of things sung by Queue.... I thought of a singing evening friends had years ago.
The reading started pretty much on time. First he started by talking about his involvement in poetry, and havin g a 5-mi nute radio show. He spoke in his regular, very spaced out words. Then he said he'd be reading 50 poems, the citations to come at the end. And it worked, though it took me a couple of poems to figure out where t he breaks were definitively. There was a wide variety of works, and his voice changed over the course of it, an Irish accent for one, a touch of drawl for another. Two were familiar to me: one was based on a familiar psalm, the other was the chilled plums poem we read in grade school. There were others that were funny or interesting, some that I would've liked better had they not come on the heels of others about Love and/or relationship with the Divine. I particularly liked one about the things that stick around in our lives, too good to throw out, though useless to us. Another was about a blue-and-white (Delft?) bowl, used for many things, including washing babies, first one end, then the other. One poem about urination, another about (ahem) evacuation. One about a discussion of complimenting dinner (the man saying he eats it, so of course it's fine, while the woman wants to hear the words). Many more as well. A Q&A session started, but we left, just in time for me, since I seem to be allergic to the sanctuary somehow...
Shabbat afternoon, I went to the second parsha class looking at family relationships, this week in parshat Noach. I was surprised at how few people there were, compared to last week. I hope it continues, though, s ince I find it interesting.
We talked about the parallelism between last week's Creation and this week's emergence into a new world after the Flood, how there is a different role between people and God. God gave commandments about making the ark, but aft er the Flood, there is dwindling direct communication. Strangely, after Noach's sacrifice, which, theoretically, would be a good thing, God decides men are bad, but he won't punish the earth or the animals any more because of them. OTOH, people are now given dominion over animals, and permission to eat them. Also, why were the animals twosies by twosies, when, especially with herd animals, they don't mate for life, but have a primary male or two, and that's it (there are 7 pairs of each kind of kosher ani mal brought onto the ark). The teacher thinks this is a hint to monogamy being the ideal state for people. She drew parallels with the discussion of how vegetarianism is frequently seen to be an ideal, though not very achievable (for medieval rabbis), state. Interesting idea.
We went on to talk about the episode with Noach drunk in his tent and his son's sin against him. Though his son did something rather bad to him, enough to earn a curse, the teacher pointed out that (a) God doesn't get involved; Noach deals with his own troubles, and (b) no one ends up dead at the end of the story.
Not much time to discuss the tower of Babel (though she pointed out how the UN is now bringing together what was sundered then, and how gig antic a task that is with all sorts of cultural differences), since one of the people there is a woman who is incredibly.... traditional, feeling women should be in the home, and do good works, raise children. Everyone agreed that currently there is too much value placed on what is done in shul (probably an influence from the majority culture), rather than a more rounded view of what is of value. Still, it was amazing to hear the views she supports, especially since she's an older (40s? early 50s?) single woman without kids. Frustrating yet interesting.
I also hosted a friend and her kids over Shabbat (I felt badly that the food I'd made this week wasn't anything the kids liked); washed, folded, and actually put away two loads of laundry; almost got caught up with dishes; survived a day at work that was so totally meant to be a vacation day: it was a fast commute on a gorgeous day, and when I arrived, there were 7-8 trucks from the electric company outside. A couple of hours later, the elec tricity cuts out, and an email sent out two minutes in advance said it would be for half an hour. Of course it was closer to an hour. And after that, the AC wasn't on... it got rather unbearably hot in my office. Bleah. OTOH, it was nice to be in the office without any of the usual background hum...
And now, perhaps, time for bed, if I can get myself to stop surfing.
Saturday night I went to the Snappy Dance performance, at the Copley Theater. I hadn't been to this venue before. It was a pretty nice heater, with good sight lines from the balcony (where we were). And there were sufficient typos in the program to keep us entertained until the dancing started.
There were 10 pieces. Three of them were related, blue and green lights on a dark stage, meeting, multiplying, etc. I liked them, though I thought they were similar to Mummenschantz sorts of pieces. Oh, and while the manager was doing announcements, he was looped across the stage, as he read on. Pretty funny.
Spring Collection was danced by a man and two women, starting with the idea of three models posing for a photographer (voice over). And then it progressed in fluid motions into amazing balanced motions, two on the other, and it was great to see that it wasn't always the man lifting/supp orting the woman/women. It was beautiful. I wish I could be half so flexible...
Movement in D'Flat included some two-paneled black walls that moved around, as a man got pieces of life in other flats in the building. The music was a bit ominous, but I liked how they did the quick changes, including lighting.
Fardel was two men dancing with each other, slowly, gracefully working with the other, supporting each other. The strength required for some of the moves was impressive, as they used eac h other to form a huge variety poses (not that they stopped in the middle).
Sangere (accent on the first e) had local kids joining with the regular dancers, in a piece about playing and growing, and using cool shadow effects on circular pieces.
Ma Chairie had a man delighted with a tiny red chair, and all the things he could do with it.
Tango Tangle was a riff on the tango, nice, but I was getting tired by then :-(.
overneath had the dancers exploring the use of some tubes, into which they could fit their heads and an arm, or swing about, or stand on, or jump over, or bounce, or.... It was interesting and fun, though it felt a bit more contrived to be avante-garde than the rest did, somehow.
Garrison Keillor read 50 poems tonight, in a reading promoting his new book, Good Poems. It was at the church in Harvard Square, the one that, though on one side of the street, manages to be both 0 and 3 Church St.
I hadn't been in the sanctuary before (and was relieved there weren't any guys on plus signs, since I wouldn't have felt comfortable staying in that case). Very old New Engand, with divided pews, a balcony on 3 sides, everything white or glass, in a comfortable histori cal w ay, rather than a harsh angular modern way. We sat towards the back, and since we were early, had plenty of time to look through their hymn book. I was surprised that there was music printed for every piece; I wonder if it would've been easier for me to learn to read music if I'd seen it all the time? I was also surprised to find some Hebrew pieces (transliterated) in it. Also some translations of traditional prayers. Not at all expected. Apparently UU is much more wide-ranging in its acceptance of belief s than I'd realized. Oh, and I got to hear snippets of things sung by Queue.... I thought of a singing evening friends had years ago.
The reading started pretty much on time. First he started by talking about his involvement in poetry, and havin g a 5-mi nute radio show. He spoke in his regular, very spaced out words. Then he said he'd be reading 50 poems, the citations to come at the end. And it worked, though it took me a couple of poems to figure out where t he breaks were definitively. There was a wide variety of works, and his voice changed over the course of it, an Irish accent for one, a touch of drawl for another. Two were familiar to me: one was based on a familiar psalm, the other was the chilled plums poem we read in grade school. There were others that were funny or interesting, some that I would've liked better had they not come on the heels of others about Love and/or relationship with the Divine. I particularly liked one about the things that stick around in our lives, too good to throw out, though useless to us. Another was about a blue-and-white (Delft?) bowl, used for many things, including washing babies, first one end, then the other. One poem about urination, another about (ahem) evacuation. One about a discussion of complimenting dinner (the man saying he eats it, so of course it's fine, while the woman wants to hear the words). Many more as well. A Q&A session started, but we left, just in time for me, since I seem to be allergic to the sanctuary somehow...
Shabbat afternoon, I went to the second parsha class looking at family relationships, this week in parshat Noach. I was surprised at how few people there were, compared to last week. I hope it continues, though, s ince I find it interesting.
We talked about the parallelism between last week's Creation and this week's emergence into a new world after the Flood, how there is a different role between people and God. God gave commandments about making the ark, but aft er the Flood, there is dwindling direct communication. Strangely, after Noach's sacrifice, which, theoretically, would be a good thing, God decides men are bad, but he won't punish the earth or the animals any more because of them. OTOH, people are now given dominion over animals, and permission to eat them. Also, why were the animals twosies by twosies, when, especially with herd animals, they don't mate for life, but have a primary male or two, and that's it (there are 7 pairs of each kind of kosher ani mal brought onto the ark). The teacher thinks this is a hint to monogamy being the ideal state for people. She drew parallels with the discussion of how vegetarianism is frequently seen to be an ideal, though not very achievable (for medieval rabbis), state. Interesting idea.
We went on to talk about the episode with Noach drunk in his tent and his son's sin against him. Though his son did something rather bad to him, enough to earn a curse, the teacher pointed out that (a) God doesn't get involved; Noach deals with his own troubles, and (b) no one ends up dead at the end of the story.
Not much time to discuss the tower of Babel (though she pointed out how the UN is now bringing together what was sundered then, and how gig antic a task that is with all sorts of cultural differences), since one of the people there is a woman who is incredibly.... traditional, feeling women should be in the home, and do good works, raise children. Everyone agreed that currently there is too much value placed on what is done in shul (probably an influence from the majority culture), rather than a more rounded view of what is of value. Still, it was amazing to hear the views she supports, especially since she's an older (40s? early 50s?) single woman without kids. Frustrating yet interesting.
I also hosted a friend and her kids over Shabbat (I felt badly that the food I'd made this week wasn't anything the kids liked); washed, folded, and actually put away two loads of laundry; almost got caught up with dishes; survived a day at work that was so totally meant to be a vacation day: it was a fast commute on a gorgeous day, and when I arrived, there were 7-8 trucks from the electric company outside. A couple of hours later, the elec tricity cuts out, and an email sent out two minutes in advance said it would be for half an hour. Of course it was closer to an hour. And after that, the AC wasn't on... it got rather unbearably hot in my office. Bleah. OTOH, it was nice to be in the office without any of the usual background hum...
And now, perhaps, time for bed, if I can get myself to stop surfing.
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Date: 2002-10-15 05:12 am (UTC)