I’ve included two awesome clips of the number one Jerkin dance crew, The Go-Go Power Ranger$. Besides the incredible moves, I was struck by the way the dancers have incorporated their environment into their dance performances. It’s a really organic way of re-purposing the neighborhood around them into a mobile interactive theater. From their high school’s front steps, to the basketball court asphalt and to street intersections, these everyday places become their stage and influence their choreography. Note the faux car driving moves and the way they claim a street for dancing, at times not allowing traffic to pass. It’s a fascinating way of pushing the boundaries of city space and engaging with the geography of their neighborhood. Social space for communal dance!
Lately, my reading has been limited to short time chunks. No long leisurely afternoons of lounging these days. I recently came across The New Book of Lists: The Original Compendium of Curious Information by David Wallechinsky and Amy Wallace and it’s perfect reading for my five minute “input” intervals.
The book is filled with all kinds of random information and facts, some lists I passed over like 12 Men Who Cried in Public or Unnamed Women of the Bible. I think I can live without knowing these facts.
Some of the most entertaining lists so far have been 13 Art Riots, Names of Things You Never Knew Had Names, 17 Untranslatable Words and New Neuroses. I found the terms for New Neuroses to be the most enjoyable. I look forward every year to those dictionary introductions of new words for new situations. In fact, I think there needs to be more words to describe a number of unnamed situations that happen in life whether they are considered neuroses or not.
For instance, a co-worker and myself were trying to describe the feeling one gets when away from the job and being unable to imagine yourself back in the workplace. In this state, it can seem almost impossible to think your daily life revolves around the workplace. You start to think “That life could not possibly be mine.” Of course, one often gets this feeling while away on holiday or in some foreign city but it can easily happen over a long weekend. So this is my new goal, to come up with a word or phrase to describe this phenomenon.
Some highlights from the lists:
Untranslatable Words
Bilita Mpash from Bantu meaning “a legendary blissful state where all is forgiven and forgotten” much like the feeling one gets when waking from a happy dream.
Espirit de L’Escalier (French) when a brilliantly witty response to a public insult comes into your mind only after you have left the party. Literally translates as “the spirit of the staircase.”
New Neuroses
Cell Yell: Loud talking on cell phones in public places by people with the neurotic need to invade their own privacy.
Cyberchondria: Hypochondria resulting from seeing one’s symptoms on a medical Web site.
Art Riots
Most of the art riots listed in the book were the results of controversial performances. One exception was the 1809 “Old Price” Riot at Convent Garden Theatre where the audience interrupted a performance of Macbeth with cries of “old prices! old prices!” The theater had recently raised the rates and redesigned the theater so that only the legs of the performers were viewable from the cheap seats. Soldiers were called in to quell the audience but this only inspired the theater goers to mount greater disruptions. For months they brought in whistles, trumpets and even barnyard animals to cause mayhem. It worked, the ticket prices were finally set back to the “old prices.”
George Antheil, an avant-garde composer and performer who was well acquainted with hostile audiences, provoked a riot in Budapest, 1923 while performing one of his “harsh and unfamiliar sounding” piano compositions. The second night, in order for his music to be heard, he ordered all of the ushers to lock and guard the doors and then in full view placed a revolver on top of his piano. There it remained throughout the whole performance and no disturbances took place. It was said he carried a gun around for this very purpose.
George Antheil – Sonata for Piano and Violin 1 (b)
This was not the composition that caused a riot but it gives an idea of the type of music he composed.
Nowadays, it’s social conventions that will keep you in your seat suffering through drawn-out performances of self-absorbed artists, musicians and poets. I say we return to the good old days of rotten tomatoes, catcalls and barnyard animals. Artists, you need some inspiration? I got yer inspiration right here! All power to the peanut gallery!
Watching the evening news has been very depressing this past week. It seems all efforts to create a more efficient (I wouldn’t even say better) world are falling apart. It’s quite frustrating to me but at the same time, I’m not sure how much I’m interested in propping up this dead horse, this zombie of a society that masquerades itself as something viable. Perhaps it’s time for us to start creating our own co-ops, neighborhood groups and mutual aid societies to take care of our everyday needs like health care.
For now I can listen to Felix Da Housecat, he’s not political – far from it, but his music excites me and inspires me and sometimes that just what I need!
Ah, the 90s! Everyday you move farther and farther away. But with these three songs I can remember you and the sad days you left me with.
Sweet Jane-Cowboy Junkies
I actually prefer this version to The Velvet Underground. I know that’s sacrilegious.
Fade Into You-Mazzy Starr
The singer Hope Sandoval is an Eastside girl. Maybe because of this, I’ve had these recurring one-step connections to her, random stuff like back in the 90s, the guy who once told me “Didn’t I see you at Hope Sandoval’s party last week?” I guess all of us indie Latinas had a similar look?
It’s been an unfruitful gardening season this year. It’s high summer and I have not one tomato growing, unlike the bounty of years past. This beautiful eggplant makes up for the lack of other vegetables though.
The grasshoppers are feasting on the garden plants, leaving ragged holes in the leaves and spreading little viruses as they move from plant to plant. If only I enjoyed eating grasshoppers, then there might be some equality in this ecology.
Yeah, I’m late to the Crystal Castles bandwagon. I saw them mentioned so much on other blogs, I never paid attention to them. Usually when a band is all hyped up, I’ll take a listen and then I’m inevitably disappointed. However in this case, some of their songs live up to the hype. The Russian dancing is extraordinary in itself!
My grandmother’s favorite craft/hobby was to construct these little castles from leftover scraps and refuse from around the house. Sometimes her depression era ways would confound and annoy my brother and I but nowadays she’d be rather fashionable. We should be having a resurgence of depression era habits very soon.
She would gather empty cereal boxes, baking soda boxes, oatmeal canisters, toilet and cardboard tubes and the ubiquitous Bisquik boxes that seemed to be everywhere in her house (her breakfast specialty was waffles) and glue them together to form the shape of the castle. She’d then spray paint them whichever color suited her fancy but usually white. From the Sunday Los Angeles Times magazines she’d collect clippings of windows, doors and all sorts of other objects which she would glue on the exterior of the castles. The steeples were made from construction paper. We’d sometimes help her but she seemed to find solace and relaxation in creating these little castles on her own.
Many thanks to blog commenter Secret for recommending this link of the Kurdish dance agridan tulum (I hope I got that right!) and letting me know the difference between halay (which is a Turkish word) and govend (which is Kurdish). Between youtube comments and online sources, I try my best to get information on the videos I post but I’m not always accurate. My main goal is introducing you all to bits of world dance you might not encounter other places. Cheers!
ağrılı tulumcular 2
Besides the amazing dancing, this clip features the musician, Yakup playing this hypnotic music. El Mariachi anyone?
