Iv'e got that Paul Simon song running through my mind. The Greyhound Bus is calm and full of sleeping people.
11/28/11
11/19/11
Old Friend and New Ideas
I had dinner with my old friend Chung-Fu Chang on Tuesday. I performed in a piece of his in 2003 when he was teaching at Kent State University and I was in between dance companies.
My solo in "Golden Heat", Choreography by Chung-Fu Chang
He was in Cleveland setting a piece on Verb Ballets. We talked a lot about what it means to perform when your body changes as you get older, how virtuosity becomes impossible, and how constraints can lead to greater creativity.
Chung-Fu told me a story about having surgery and making a piece with a bathtub that he used for support because he was still weak. The piece won an award and was eventually performed at the Kennedy Center. (The video is below)
We got a little silly and reminisced about how fun jumping used to be--how fun it still is-- it is just the landing that stings. Of course, it spawned an idea to do a piece all about jumping, but using some kind of bungee contraption to soften the landing.
We hadn't seen each other in eight years, but we still share a common philosophy about dance, authentic performance and honoring individual dancers in choreography. I also realized that he has had a deep influence on my own choreography, particularly in the use of fabrics and props. I hope we see each other again soon.
My solo in "Golden Heat", Choreography by Chung-Fu Chang
He was in Cleveland setting a piece on Verb Ballets. We talked a lot about what it means to perform when your body changes as you get older, how virtuosity becomes impossible, and how constraints can lead to greater creativity.
Chung-Fu told me a story about having surgery and making a piece with a bathtub that he used for support because he was still weak. The piece won an award and was eventually performed at the Kennedy Center. (The video is below)
We got a little silly and reminisced about how fun jumping used to be--how fun it still is-- it is just the landing that stings. Of course, it spawned an idea to do a piece all about jumping, but using some kind of bungee contraption to soften the landing.
We hadn't seen each other in eight years, but we still share a common philosophy about dance, authentic performance and honoring individual dancers in choreography. I also realized that he has had a deep influence on my own choreography, particularly in the use of fabrics and props. I hope we see each other again soon.
11/8/11
Weeknight Cheater Pumpkin Pie
Yes, you too can bake after work and have pie by 8:30pm. Filling made by scratch although pumpkins cooked before. Crust: courtesy of graham crackers.
11/5/11
Ingenuity Fest Performance
We performed this 3 times in September at Ingenuity Fest on the streetcar level of the Detroit Superior Bridge. We had a great time performing and hope to do something for Ingenuity again next year.
11/4/11
your life to live
Our names are unimportant
Where we live, we're looking for it
What we know, we do believe in
That's the love of a friend.
On your right side, that's your brother
On your left side, that's your sister
Right behind you, that's your family
Right in front of you, that's your life to live
-We are many, Hackensaw Boys
10/28/11
10/26/11
10/24/11
10/21/11
10/9/11
Kimchi is in Season
Spent this morning prepping vegetables for kimchi and mostly followed Sandor Kat'z recipe (see below). Now it is doing its thing in the fermentation crock. October is a great time in Northeast Ohio to make kimchi because nearly everything you need is in season and available locally. Here is what I used:
From the backyard: cabbage, red onion, kohlrabi
From City Fresh: carrots, radish, pepper, onion, garlic
From Local Roots: dried hot pepper
From the grocery store: salt and ginger
I should have salty, spicy, tangy kimchi in about a week.
From the backyard: cabbage, red onion, kohlrabi
From City Fresh: carrots, radish, pepper, onion, garlic
From Local Roots: dried hot pepper
From the grocery store: salt and ginger
I should have salty, spicy, tangy kimchi in about a week.
10/2/11
Oh September
I always like the edges of things. I believe that is why September is my favorite month of the year. Having trouble letting it go. Here is a little musical tribute to my dear September. Until next year.
**note the awesome hand clapping in the music
***hand clapping in music is one of my favorite things ever. I think because it is so participatory
**note the awesome hand clapping in the music
***hand clapping in music is one of my favorite things ever. I think because it is so participatory
9/27/11
Preservation Fall
A 1/2 bushel of City Fresh Peaches turned into peach jam, peach salsa and canned peaches in honey. Sunshine in January!
The City Fresh romas were de-skinned, food milled, and turned into sauce for use in Cleveland's post-tomato months.
Community garden plot onion and shallots: a key ingredient to the freezer stored pesto I made.
Backyard herb spiral basil bound for freezer pesto
Great Ohio grown cucumbers from the Basketeria at the West Side Market. Pickling these now in my fermentation crock with fresh garlic, dried dill, a couple grape leaves for crispness, brine and peppercorns. The crock is bubbling as I type.
9/12/11
Ingenuity Fest
I've been busy at work and at art and feeling pretty good about both.
Ingenuity Fest is one of my favorite Cleveland events and I'm excited to be presenting two dance works there. Both pieces are about nature, terrain and landscapes and I imagine that performing them under the bridge, outside, and over the river will feel just right.
I've re-set and re-worked Borne Away on Crooked River (2007) for Ingenuity Fest and I'm feeling satisfied with the changes made to the choreography. The piece is about water and our relationship with it. When I looked with fresh eyes at the video of the original choreography, parts of it didn't seem organic enough for a subject such as water.
It has been a real treat to work with great dancers and to find more connections to the movement and to each other than existed before. Also, Jeff Schuler is playing live guitar and violin and everything just breathes nicely.
I made a little video for Ingenuity that they'll use with a QR code:
Also, will re-set Heart's Terrain (2009) at Ingenuity. This piece is a solo about internal and external landscapes and I can imagine the large swath of wine red fabric billowing in the wind that blows off of Lake Erie.
Showtimes:
Ingenuity Fest is one of my favorite Cleveland events and I'm excited to be presenting two dance works there. Both pieces are about nature, terrain and landscapes and I imagine that performing them under the bridge, outside, and over the river will feel just right.
I've re-set and re-worked Borne Away on Crooked River (2007) for Ingenuity Fest and I'm feeling satisfied with the changes made to the choreography. The piece is about water and our relationship with it. When I looked with fresh eyes at the video of the original choreography, parts of it didn't seem organic enough for a subject such as water.
It has been a real treat to work with great dancers and to find more connections to the movement and to each other than existed before. Also, Jeff Schuler is playing live guitar and violin and everything just breathes nicely.
I made a little video for Ingenuity that they'll use with a QR code:
Also, will re-set Heart's Terrain (2009) at Ingenuity. This piece is a solo about internal and external landscapes and I can imagine the large swath of wine red fabric billowing in the wind that blows off of Lake Erie.
 |
| Heart's Terrain |
Showtimes:
PERFORMANCE TIMES
Friday, Sept 16th
8:15-8:35 pm Borne Away on a Crooked River
8:45-8:55 pm Heart's Terrain
Saturday, Sept 17th2-2:20 pm Borne Away on a Crooked River
4:45-5:55 Heart's Terrain
6:30-6:50 pm Borne Away on a Crooked River
The venue is the "The Span Dance Space". Here is a map of under the bridge:http://
8:15-8:35 pm Borne Away on a Crooked River
8:45-8:55 pm Heart's Terrain
Saturday, Sept 17th2-2:20 pm Borne Away on a Crooked River
4:45-5:55 Heart's Terrain
6:30-6:50 pm Borne Away on a Crooked River
The venue is the "The Span Dance Space". Here is a map of under the bridge:http://
7/15/11
Flip the Script on Flash Mobs
Stop, what's that sound? Everybody look what's goin' down.
"It's frightening to see these flash mobs . . . they come in swarms like bees," Warrensville Heights Councilwoman Ruby Wilson was quoted in a Plain Dealer article as saying.
I've read the articles chronicling the flash mob phenomenon in Cleveland's inner-ring, and raised my eyebrows at some of the quotations. My initial conclusion: We as a community are afraid to see large groups of black teens assembled in public places when we don't expect it AND we want them to leave when we say so. We feel so strongly about this that we are willing to detain individual teens for being out in public after 6pm.
I took a brief glance at the American Community Survey and I believe it should be perfectly normal to see large groups of black teens assembled here in Cleveland. Almost 30% of the population is under 18 years of age and 52% of the population is African American.
What if, instead of thinking of flash mobs as a problem; we envision their potential. What if we were pleased that groups of black teenagers have the organizational skills and connectedness to assemble in large groups at a moment's notice. This is a demographic that is historically technologically disadvantaged, disempowered and disenfranchised.
Perhaps they don't know what to do with themselves when assembled, but let's not throw the baby out with the bath water. The right to assemble is in the Bill of Rights. The ability to assemble equates to power. The teens know it and so does everyone else. We should be encouraging these teens to exercise their power, to feel part of something larger than themselves, to connect with others in the community.
Maybe the flash mobs are appealing to teens because they know they are inspiring fear and they know that is not fair. Instead of squashing the flash mobs, maybe we should be putting energy toward guiding teens to use this skill for good. For example, teens in Chicago protested the closing of a hospital's trauma center, and teens in Barington, Illinois assembed to draw attention to their schools' budget cuts. I see civic potential in the flash mob.
"It's frightening to see these flash mobs . . . they come in swarms like bees," Warrensville Heights Councilwoman Ruby Wilson was quoted in a Plain Dealer article as saying.
I've read the articles chronicling the flash mob phenomenon in Cleveland's inner-ring, and raised my eyebrows at some of the quotations. My initial conclusion: We as a community are afraid to see large groups of black teens assembled in public places when we don't expect it AND we want them to leave when we say so. We feel so strongly about this that we are willing to detain individual teens for being out in public after 6pm.
I took a brief glance at the American Community Survey and I believe it should be perfectly normal to see large groups of black teens assembled here in Cleveland. Almost 30% of the population is under 18 years of age and 52% of the population is African American.
What if, instead of thinking of flash mobs as a problem; we envision their potential. What if we were pleased that groups of black teenagers have the organizational skills and connectedness to assemble in large groups at a moment's notice. This is a demographic that is historically technologically disadvantaged, disempowered and disenfranchised.
Perhaps they don't know what to do with themselves when assembled, but let's not throw the baby out with the bath water. The right to assemble is in the Bill of Rights. The ability to assemble equates to power. The teens know it and so does everyone else. We should be encouraging these teens to exercise their power, to feel part of something larger than themselves, to connect with others in the community.
Maybe the flash mobs are appealing to teens because they know they are inspiring fear and they know that is not fair. Instead of squashing the flash mobs, maybe we should be putting energy toward guiding teens to use this skill for good. For example, teens in Chicago protested the closing of a hospital's trauma center, and teens in Barington, Illinois assembed to draw attention to their schools' budget cuts. I see civic potential in the flash mob.
6/28/11
Bounty
Somehow I managed to get my garden planted on time this year. I started seeds indoors in March and was pretty much determined to get early spring vegetables planted in April. I planted some from seed outdoors in June. I will admit that I likely risked the whole endeavor by planting some seeds and seedlings when there was potential for frost. I also wallowed in the rain and mud and planted some seeds in a garden that resembled a swamp. I will confess to planting pea seeds in early April and poking them back down into the dirt repeatedly after they floated out of the ground.
After that long disclaimer about all of the things I did wrong, what I did right was get stuff planted before June so I can have a 3-season garden. Here's the update:
Cucumbers are fruiting. I started these inside in April and planted them outside in early June.
Kohlrabi is getting there. I started inside from seed in March and transplanted outside mid April
Butterhead Lettuce-- started inside in early March. Transplanted outside in mid April
Other Kind of Lettuce-- I've been saving these seeds myself and can't remember the variety. Same timing as the other lettuce.
Herb Spiral-- I started most of the herbs inside, but some wintered in the house/outside: sage, oregano, marjoram, lemon balm, basil, cilantro, chives, dill, stevia, tarragon, rosemary.
Tomatos are starting to blossom. I'm experimenting with pruning this year to yield more fruit and reduce risk of damp-loving diseases. I've planted brandywine, paste, cherry and numerous volunteer hybrid tomatoes.
Strawberry patch is doing ok and radishes were puny, but delicious
Not pictured: Cabbage, beans, asparagus, squash, kale, beets, radish, garlic and chard. The community garden plot has burdock, parsnip, carrots and shallots.
6/18/11
"Further In"
further in, grandmother; grandfather, hold my hand
as I go on through this life and try to understand
the beauty of your faces I will never see again
but I know you're with me now leading me further in
further in, you friends of mine, they led me further in
I know I've hurt you many times and I've helped you and I will again
you to me and me to you, and us to all of them
the circle that will ever grow as we go further in
further in, O my love, take me further in
past the place where love hides its face and down to where we begin
so deep in this mystery, my tears on yours depend
and they like some wild river flow as we go further in
-Greg Brown
Rest in Peace Pop Pop
6/12/11
Don't be a "fake ass green yuppie"
Tango Till You're Sore's Sustainable Living post calls some folks out for being lazy and living a green-washed lifestyle. Avoid being a "fake ass green yuppie" and recycle the packaging and products you have invited into your life by choosing to buy them. Here are all of the recycling drop off locations in Cleveland. (click the image to see the full picture or to zoom in)
More information about recycling services.
I take my recyclables with me in my shopping bags on the way to the grocery store. When the bags are empty, then I can fill them with groceries. My friend calls it "reverse shopping".
6/3/11
Global Cleveland
Today in a downtown drugstore an elderly Indian man with jet black hair--white at the roots-- was buying a box of hair dye and other sundries. The check-out clerk rings him up and then leans over to the clerk who was ringing me out and asks, "you have his coupons?". My clerk glances at his purchases and then ruffles through a stack of coupons and hands over two.
His clerk announces in a loud voice apparently reserved for those who don't speak English well, "you saved ten dollars". The Indian man raises his eyebrows, smiles, and starts fumbling with the gum at the counter. He hurriedly grabs 3 packs of orange Trident and adds it to his purchases.
He pays and gives a pack of gum to each clerk in gratitude. "For you, for you, for me," he says.
My clerk looks at me and explains, "I always keep his coupons for him. He never remembers to bring them. He's been coming here for years. He doesn't understand much English, but he understands ten dollars."
5/22/11
Crooked River Dancing
I made a Weebly today. After a conversation about artistic collaboration last night with Kate Sopko, I decided it was time I had a choreography website-- an online portfolio of sorts. I know that someday I'll have a real website, but I think it will do for now. Next step? Make a dance so I have something to put on the homepage. www.crookedriverdancing.weebly.com
5/11/11
raindark, countercat, athwart
I've turned 26 pages of Suttree by Cormac McCarthy-- a favorite author of mine. I've read most of his novels with the exception of 2 of his earliest, The Orchard Keeper and Outer Dark.
His books are compelling, spare, intelligent and poorly/brilliantly (un)punctuated. He makes up words, but I don't read it as gratuitous. I usually end up sacrificing a night's sleep with a McCarthy novel. My intention is to take my time with this one.
The book begins with an italicized intro. Here is just one crazy good sentence from it:
Down there in grots of fallen light a cat transpires from stone to stone across the cobbles liquid black and sewn in rapid antipodes over the raindark street to vanish cat and countercat in the rifted works beyond.
The first chapter starts like this:
Peering down into the water where the morning sun fashioned wheels of light, coronets fanwise in which lay trapped each twig, each grain of sediment, long flakes and blades of light in the dusty watersliding away like optic strobes where motes sifted and spun. A hand trails over the gunwale and he lies athwart the skiff, the toe of one sneaker plucking periodic dimples in the river with the boat's slight cradling, drifting down beneath the bridge and slowly past the mud-stained stanchions. Under the high cool arches and dark keeps of the span's undercarriage where pigeons babble and the hollow flap of their wings echoes in stark applause. Glancing up at these cathedraled vaultings with their fossil woodknots and pseudomorphic nailheads in gray concrete, drifting, the bridge's slant shadow leaning the width of the river with that headlong illusion postulate in old cupracers frozen on photoplates, their wheels elliptic with speed. These shadows form over the skiff, accommodate his prone figure and pass on.
Keep in mind that the dialogue that follows is Hemingway-spare.
5/2/11
4/3/11
Re-thinking Borders
Ron Rael says the wall on the US/Mexico border is expensive, detrimental to the environment, ineffective, and even deadly, since hundreds die of dehydration each year as they try to cross the border.
“I have to accept the wall because it exists, but as a designer I see that something better is possible. Why not do something intelligent, something incredible? I envision not just a ‘dumb wall,’ but a social infrastructure that connects and improves lives on both sides.”
His designs for a better, more useful, more environmentally friendly, innovatiave wall.
“I have to accept the wall because it exists, but as a designer I see that something better is possible. Why not do something intelligent, something incredible? I envision not just a ‘dumb wall,’ but a social infrastructure that connects and improves lives on both sides.”
His designs for a better, more useful, more environmentally friendly, innovatiave wall.
3/27/11
3/26/11
Every Piece of Plastic Ever Made Still Exists Today
No matter where you live, what you do affects our oceans:
Here's what some Clevelanders are doing to get people to "Drink Local, Drink Tap". Visit the Sustainable Water 2019 group Tower City this week to get involved.
Here's what some Clevelanders are doing to get people to "Drink Local, Drink Tap". Visit the Sustainable Water 2019 group Tower City this week to get involved.
3/20/11
Starting off Spring with Logic, Creativity & Chaos
It's time to plan and plant the garden again. My process is an equal mix logic, creativity and chaos. First I get out all of my seeds and spread them all over the ground. I draw a picture (not to scale) of the backyard and how I want the flow (colors, heights, shapes, etc.). Notice the coffee is an important part of the process.
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Then, I get practical and use graph paper to plan out how much of what will fit in the space I'm working with. Based on that number, I know how many of which seeds to start. I also plan which seeds I'll sow directly outside and when. Also, I figure out which ones will get planted in the community garden plot instead of the backyard.
Finally, I put it all together and spend 6-8 weeks babying my seedlings until I harden them off with tough love and transplant them to the great outdoors.
.
Then, I get practical and use graph paper to plan out how much of what will fit in the space I'm working with. Based on that number, I know how many of which seeds to start. I also plan which seeds I'll sow directly outside and when. Also, I figure out which ones will get planted in the community garden plot instead of the backyard.
Finally, I put it all together and spend 6-8 weeks babying my seedlings until I harden them off with tough love and transplant them to the great outdoors.
3/18/11
Fickle March
You're like a Cleveland Gray when there's daffodils blooming in the alleys and the sylvan cyclists glide by in the afternoon and when you dream the Guardians of the bridge stretch out their arms and drop their vehicles from a great height and the splash into the river sends ripples to the lake and back again to shore when a mysterious gull flies out of the valley his call bounces off the top of our towering city and then vanishes when you wave your wand and change the melody.
3/13/11
Pop Up Pearl
On May 21st, from noon until dusk, Old Brooklyn along Pearl Road will transform into Pop Up Pearl. For one day, vacant storefronts will showcase Pop UP gift shops, art galleries, restaurants and a more. If you've got an idea to fill a vacant storefront you can participate.
3/12/11
1996-97 was a good year
I had forgotten about the Primitive Radio Gods until Last.fm reminded me to like them. Remembering to like their song, Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in my Hand, reminded me to like Pepper by the Butthole Surfers and Brimful of Asha by Cornershop. It's good to remember to like what you like.
3/4/11
We Are Not Vacant
"Just because we have vacant lots and abandoned houses in our neighborhood doesn't mean we live in a vacant and abandoned neighborhood."
-Barbara Anderson speaking at a Neighborhood Connections holiday party
Need proof? Check out the Re-imagining Cleveland's Ideas to Action Resource Book.
-Barbara Anderson speaking at a Neighborhood Connections holiday party
Need proof? Check out the Re-imagining Cleveland's Ideas to Action Resource Book.
3/3/11
Local Food in Early March
Eating locally in early March means eating from the pantry and the "cellar". We don't have a cellar, but we do have a poorly heated front hallway that works pretty well. Tonight's dinner is soup made from:
- Canned vegetable stock (carrot, onion, garlic and celery from late summer)
- Canned Green Beans (From July)
- Frozen Kale (From Sept)
- Frozen Kohlrabi (From August)
- Frozen Zucchini (from July)
- City Fresh Garlic (stored from Dec)
- City Fresh Cabbage (stored from Dec)
- Dried Adzuki Beans (pantry)
2/19/11
Reducing the Noise
I just spent about an hour unsubscribing to 20 -newsletters and retail email lists that clutter up my email inbox. I also un-joined 3 underused ning sites.
I retained a subscription with the 4 e-newsletters I actually read; feeling light and free about this.
I retained a subscription with the 4 e-newsletters I actually read; feeling light and free about this.
2/12/11
Context is Everything & the Near Future
If you hold your leg in a room full of twenty people, it's not the same as holding it when you are alone by the sea.
The body enjoys participating in the possible which becomes narrowed down to the probable, which fast becomes the actual or what we call the present. . . Perceiving the "probable future" transform into the present invites us to be there right then. There is no point in being only in the present because the body lives and breathes the future. We may live in the present, but we breathe the future.The video below (with Hamilton, Stark Smith and someone else) is better with the sound off.
-Julyen Hamilton
(from an interview in Contact Quarterly by Nancy Stark Smith
2/11/11
2/6/11
How we remember
At my grandmother, Jeane Morrison's, funeral this past weekend I met a first cousin twice removed who keeps and updates a family tree on my grandfather’s side of the family. I learned some new information about my great-great-grandparents (my cousin’s great- grandparents) that I didn’t know before. I also learned that my 93-year old grandfather has 4 living first cousins who are all about his age.
My newly discovered cousin lives next door to the “Old Morrison Farm” where my great-great-grandparents lived and my great-grandfather grew up. He also said he has a civil-war era diary written by my great-great-uncle. My cousin is going to send me the genealogy charts and maybe some scanned family photos including one of my great-grandparents wedding.
At the Woodland Cemetery in Ironton, most of my grandmother’s family is buried, the Murdocks, Johnstons, Fishers and now Morrisons . I believe my grandparents will be the last of our family to be buried in the family plot in Ironton. No one lives there anymore and we are all so scattered. Things are just different now. Instead of visiting the cemetery to remember relatives, we’ll use software to download our family trees.1/24/11
1/23/11
Red Line Sunrise
Practical commuter shoes belie the heels in your receptionist's tote. You turn pages of daily devotions. I glimpse your tender scalp through feathered hair and a cloud of perfume.
1/19/11
Roller Skating and Energy Efficiency
Tomorrow the City of Cleveland is hosting a kick-off event to the Year of Energy Efficiency. The Cleveland Conserves Energy Efficiency Fair will be 11am-2pm in Cleveland City Hall Rotunda. The event will feature businesses, nonprofits and City-based departments related to energy efficiency and conservation.
Of course, since I'm involved in the planning we had to make it just a little wacky and fun. The Little Hollywood Dazzlers will also be performing. They are a group of 5-9yr-olds who dance on roller skates. They are led by 71-year-old professional skater Maurice Cooke who is passing on everything he knows to the youth.I am an avid believer that rollerskating brings people together.
Below is a preview of the Little Hollywood Dazzlers. Stop on by the event is free. You can learn about how to give yourself the gift that keeps on giving: energy efficiency.
Of course, since I'm involved in the planning we had to make it just a little wacky and fun. The Little Hollywood Dazzlers will also be performing. They are a group of 5-9yr-olds who dance on roller skates. They are led by 71-year-old professional skater Maurice Cooke who is passing on everything he knows to the youth.I am an avid believer that rollerskating brings people together.
Below is a preview of the Little Hollywood Dazzlers. Stop on by the event is free. You can learn about how to give yourself the gift that keeps on giving: energy efficiency.
1/16/11
1/8/11
New Year Intentions
I intend to be more forthright when it matters and less forthright when it doesn’t.
I intend to jump from Adho Mukha Svanasana into Dandasana with grace.
I intend to make a new dance and teach it to some dancers and to organize a performance of the new dance.
I intend to take Ballet class again.
I intend to bicycle throughout winter.
I intend to be a better friend by calling, writing and visiting.
I intend to dress a little snazzier.
I intend to talk less about my cats, but to love them more.
I intend to knit my sister a hat.
Ok, that’s it for now.
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