HOLD ON TIGHT

HE SAID, MARIE, MARIE, HOLD ON TIGHT And when we were children, staying at the archduke's, My cousin's, he took me out on a sled, And I was frightened. He said, Marie, Marie, hold on tight. And down we went. In the mountains, there you feel free. I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter. ~ The Waste Land, "The Burial of The Dead", Eliot Friday, February 27, 2009 death and new york city today i interviewed a dancer who lived in new york's east village during the AIDS crisis of the '80s. he was rehearsing with the cornell dancers at the same time at the schwartz arts center--his eyes glued to the stage while he spoke with me. when the rehearsal music peaked, his voice would too; when it got quiet, suddenly aware of his surroundings, his voice would dip into a whisper. byron is an artist that has three eyes--one on his surroundings, one on his social responsibilities, one on art. we spoke in the dark, i scribbled in the dark, and he talked about taking his friends who had died out of his rolodex. he was tired, and he really wanted to get back to his dancing. i didn't ask many questions--but i asked enough. he was talking about cunningham, minimalism--the "scenes" in new york city's dance circle of the 80's. i tried cunningham last summer--cos it had been so long since i danced, it was the hardest thing in the world, your body only slowly gets into it after many studio sessions. cunningham is now an old man in a wheelchair, and it's hard to put together such a shaker with who he was. it's hard to imagine scenes growing old, scene's changing. i think that new york city must have been bursting with life and dirt, how our parents' jia hong generation was bursting with life, and how our lives seem so sanitized in comparison. tomorrow am going to review his concert for the sun. i brought a stack of yellow notebooks yesterday for the next few weeks. i realise context matters for every review, if not you end up being an arts-for-arts-sake sort of critic. i hope i get to be the sun's regular dance critic--this will be my 2nd dance review in 2 weeks. the other article i am working on is about how the national institute of health's new law on open access is changing the face of research in cornell. really psyched about that article. :) on another note, i might be starting a new blog. there's too much crap in the archives of this one. also cos i might be wanting to seriously consider freelancing--in the future. not anytime close to now cos i still dont have enough stuff for show--might want to do a proper freelancer-type blog, not the blogspot or wordpress kind of thing. oh well. will see how that pans out. posted by dawn # 4:26 PM Comments: Post a Comment << Home		[publishing] Publishers Weekly . Dystel & Goderich . New York Center for Independent Publishing . Association of American University Presses . Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators [people] clarisse . nurul . aunty zarina (ummi's bakery) . jeremy . pak . cyril . softblow . karen & kenny (booksactually) . eric . joel . [other loves] digitaljournalist . ballet dictionary . poetshouse . urbanwordnyc [me] dawn, singapore, new york city, ithaca. [yesterday] ever get afraid of sounding stupid, boring, uninfo... sleep activism things im excited about thinking about flight wishlist accents and attractions i got an on-campus job--production assistant at th... stories 94 dean drive, tenafly the wages of dying is love [archives] January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 December 2007 January 2008 February 2008 March 2008 April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 July 2008 August 2008 September 2008 October 2008 November 2008 December 2008 January 2009 February 2009

HE SAID, MARIE, MARIE, HOLD ON TIGHT

And when we were children, staying at the archduke's,
My cousin's, he took me out on a sled,
And I was frightened. He said, Marie,
Marie, hold on tight. And down we went.
In the mountains, there you feel free.
I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.

~ The Waste Land, "The Burial of The Dead", Eliot

Friday, February 27, 2009

death and new york city

today i interviewed a dancer who lived in new york's east village during the AIDS crisis of the '80s. he was rehearsing with the cornell dancers at the same time at the schwartz arts center--his eyes glued to the stage while he spoke with me. when the rehearsal music peaked, his voice would too; when it got quiet, suddenly aware of his surroundings, his voice would dip into a whisper. byron is an artist that has three eyes--one on his surroundings, one on his social responsibilities, one on art. we spoke in the dark, i scribbled in the dark, and he talked about taking his friends who had died out of his rolodex. he was tired, and he really wanted to get back to his dancing. i didn't ask many questions--but i asked enough. he was talking about cunningham, minimalism--the "scenes" in new york city's dance circle of the 80's. i tried cunningham last summer--cos it had been so long since i danced, it was the hardest thing in the world, your body only slowly gets into it after many studio sessions. cunningham is now an old man in a wheelchair, and it's hard to put together such a shaker with who he was. it's hard to imagine scenes growing old, scene's changing. i think that new york city must have been bursting with life and dirt, how our parents' jia hong generation was bursting with life, and how our lives seem so sanitized in comparison.

tomorrow am going to review his concert for the sun. i brought a stack of yellow notebooks yesterday for the next few weeks. i realise context matters for every review, if not you end up being an arts-for-arts-sake sort of critic. i hope i get to be the sun's regular dance critic--this will be my 2nd dance review in 2 weeks. the other article i am working on is about how the national institute of health's new law on open access is changing the face of research in cornell. really psyched about that article. :)

on another note, i might be starting a new blog. there's too much crap in the archives of this one. also cos i might be wanting to seriously consider freelancing--in the future. not anytime close to now cos i still dont have enough stuff for show--might want to do a proper freelancer-type blog, not the blogspot or wordpress kind of thing. oh well. will see how that pans out.

posted by dawn # 4:26 PM

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