Chip's snacking thoughts

I say give 'em a choice:

Angel Food Cake
Devil's Food Cake

-Chip

Nicole snacking thoughts

I like angel food cake. also pomegranates and figs. For some reason almonds come to mind. Makes me wonder if the food should be in a suitcase, like the fuller brush man....
love,
Nicole

snacking

okay y'all! these just in:

first thought
pickels
xodana

Angel-food cake of course!
Kobutsu

snack of the annunciaition

Would love input on this question......
I know there is a Feast of the Annunciation, and I always like to share food at the beginning of a performance. I usually give out oreo cookies. What food/snack might welcome us into this piece? thoughts?

dancing in the magnolias

there was no studio space available today. and i am getting anxious about rehearsing. yesterday the weather took a break from the stifling heat and i found a little sheltered space under two huge. i mean huge magnolias. right near a fountain. so you also get the sound of water. when i couldn't find studio space again today, i went back to the magnolias. of course dancing outside changes everything. and asked of me to "rehearse" differently.
i started scanning the movement for: when does a movement "announce" itself. I also looked at those jump cut transition places between the voices of self and narrator and commentator to see what i could discover about how a transition is an announcement, an announcement of an idea, a new idea. how to get your own attention. how to "ahem" to yourself.
i practiced the mantric chanting of the word annunciation with one of the trees (with its permission hopefully) the tree was kind enough to support me.
the movement changed because of the texture of the ground. of course. i loved the sound of moving through the dead magnolia leaves. they are huge and brown. i was reminded of dancing in the costa rican jungle.
today, it wasn't really an opportunity to rehearse, as in the dance as it is for a stage space. but it was a movement meditation space to explore moments of inquiry.
what are the moments the movement opens a door?
what are the moments the movement finds safety in definition, or finds release in definition, and everything inbetween?.
when does a movement define itself?
i'm really tired. i think i'll take a nap in the bosom of a magnolia tree.
.

video update

I finally loaded in the last rehearsal with Nicole, which is the full piece as it currently stands. Link to the right "rehearsal videos"

rehearsing your 90th birthday

Part 1: My mom just turned 90. She's doing great. Lives on her own. All that good stuff.

Part 2: I took a workshop with Eiko & Koma yesterday. A very beautiful exercise.... basically we ended up with partners. Eiko had told a story about their work earlier that week with some elders in a nursing home. And dancing with a 90 year old woman, "choreographing" her. With our partner, they closed their eyes, and we were to very gently move them into a dance for a 90 year old. Very slow, gentle, elegantly simple. The person being guided was to remember the movements and then "perform" them - and to infuse each movement with a 90 year old history. I thought about how we could rehearse now, for our 90th birthday. SO because I am dancing Mary these days - I am thinking of having a section where Mary rehearses her 90th birthday.

Connecting to the idea of the differences between Angel time and Human time - which also comes from the "rock time" thoughts I had in Argentina. In Argentina we were at this amazing desert place - Talampaya. Where these huge huge rocks balanced impossibly on the landscape. I wondered why they didn't fall. Until it occured to me - they are falling. Its just that they are moving in rock time, and in my human time I can't see the motion.
When Gabriel comes back to visit Mary, he thinks he's only been gone a day or two. but she is in human time. years have passed...

I have to stop writing. I am supposed to be reading: Objectivism's Consonance

epiphany at the water fountain

Today I finished teaching my 8am class and went to get some food before heading to the studio to work. And when I got to the store, I was feeling really bad. So I thought I needed just to eat raw, fresh food. Luckily I was at WHOLE FOODS and could get organic fresh fruit from the salad bar. Or, you could say I was shopping at WHOLE PAYCHEK and was paying an exorbitant amount for fresh fruit… both these statements, and more, are true,

I got my fruit, and found a shady spot to eat. (A challenge in this heat) But I still didn’t feel well, and started freaking out about getting sick. So I decided I was maybe dehydrated (it is really hot) and my water bottle was empty – has been empty. Then I thought, no, I am just really exhausted. I am starting working at 7am and I don’t get home until after 9. I’m old. I’m tired. It’s hot. Maybe I need a nap.

Okay, where?
Oh, this brings up so many dilemmas about finding safe places to sleep; we don’t even want to go there.

So there is an “MFA Lounge” on campus. I figured I’d go there. There’s a couch. The only people coming in and out are people I feel safe with… so I crossed campus, in the heat, my backpack (the load I place on myself) is really heavy – my computer, all the books I have to read, my water bottle, a change of clothes… (ok ok I am really cranky…..)

And I get to the lounge and there is a meeting going on.
Now I am tired and thirsty. For some reason I can’t seem to figure out where a water fountain is. For those of you who know this campus, this thought is absurd. Every building has a water fountain. But I can only think of one place that has a water fountain. That’s the building (across campus) where I teach my composition class. A building that is shared by the art department and the theatre department.

So off I go. Luckily my car is parked in front of that building and I tell myself I will fill my water bottle and drop off some of these books in my car! I can only read so much at a time…. (cranky, I told you)

But on my way across campus one of my students spots me and comes running up to me
“Did you see my journal after class today? I think I left it in the classroom.”

I apologize. I was so focused on packing up that I didn’t see a stray journal.

She continues, “ I tried to go back and look for it, but my keycard wouldn’t open the door.”

So I told her we should go together and maybe my card would open the door. So we went. And my card worked. And her journal was there. What a beautiful thing. This student is so sweet, and so young – her energy a gift to the world.

Then I said goodbye to her and was standing in this empty classroom, which is a small theatre space, and I was so tired and I realized: its lunchtime. No one is coming in here for at least half an hour. I can get some rest. So I found a hidden space and set my alarm on my phone and did my breathing/resting practice.

I came back to the world and felt better for an instant. And then felt bad again. I decided it was the water thing. And maybe I was getting sick, too. So I pulled out my Airborne salvation, and headed for the water fountain to dissolve the airborne tablet. The water fountain (the only one I could picture in my mind on the whole East Campus of Duke University) is on the first floor, which is in the Art Department.

I popped the Airborne into my water bottle, and filled it with water. Then swished it around so it would dissolve. And swished and swished. Impatient, worried, frantic…. And my eyes wandered to a display..

(okay, it’s been a long wait, but here comes the epiphany)

Here’s what the display said at the end: "Comparison of Europa becomes the archetype of the mother goddess and the priestess. Europa iconography will persist in roman goddess cults and Christian Mary imagery."

After reading the full display, looking at the art work. I felt instantly better.

Here's the whole text, by Art Beacham.

A Woman on a Bull: an icon of cultural unity or assertion of female sexuality?

Of the many recurring themes in Archaic and Classic Greek art the depiction of a woman grasping at or mounted upon a bull is one of the most ambiguous. On the one hand it references one of several stories that unify the pan Hellenic culture in a common Jovian ancestry. That is the rape of Europa by Zeus manifested as a white bull which was one of several myths in which Zeus’ liaisons with moral women resulted in offspring who became the founders and princes of Hellenic states and nations. In this case Europa’s son by Zeus was King Minos of Crete. On the other hand, of the many forms which Zeus assumed for these liaisons such as a cloud a shower of gold or a swan this of a bull is the most sexually prodigious of the maiden’s violation against the ecstasy of her epiphany at the honor of her election.
The tension created by the moral impasse, that is the rape of Europa, found release in an alter maiden and bull iconography, this is a solution unique in classical art and as such a measure of the conflict the image evoked. The image of a maenad upon a white bull both reference the Europa story and gave voice to feminine sexuality in a sanctioned context we are to understand that in the frenzy of a bacchanal a woman mounts a bull to suggest her desire for the consummation forced upon Europa. Through this image the artist and the audience are free to indulge in an otherwise inadmissible perspective, on that both acknowledges and avoids the sexual inferences of a sacred myth.
Notwithstanding the bacchanal was the religious equal of a Jovian genealogy; reek traditions embraced all that was human as fit for reverence yet while the Europa iconography ins congruent with the maenad iconography the bacchanal is not congruent with Jovian mythology that is while seeing a maenad on a bull recalls the Europa myth, a depiction of Europa does not reference a bacchanal. This circumstance encodes a moral hierarchy in Greek religious thought the maenad is the common denominator of feminine nature while Europa is the virgin conduit of a divine heritage. In this context the archaic and classical Greek artist needed details that conveyed a distinction. Dolphins and waves beneath the bull indicated the Europa story, as Zeus carried her to Crete and vies indicated a bacchanal, but the chosen maiden herself needed distinction, esp. if she was to be recognized in other depictions. Thus the mine, headdress, and hand gestures were also elements of Europa's iconography.
- Hugh Beachum, ART 103 Duke University.

If you haven't read the comment I posted to Kobutsu's Trinitarian post, read that, too. Love to all.

Trinitarianism, from Kobutsu

In thinking about it, the Annunciation is the underpinning of the
development of Trinitarianism. It is the moment the god intervenes (to

reformat himself)? And create the son, the second person god. This
was somehow necessary to break with the Jewish tradition. Mary was
the first person to be told of; and demonstrated to, the concept of
Trinity.

In the Abrahamic traditions, the creation of god, in the image and
likeness of man replete with wrath and dominion-over is the defining
of self. It is like a gelling, a solidification of boundaries, the
establishment of center and fringe. The instant "god" is; "I" is born,

"other" is co-created and so forth marches dualistic cosmology!

The thing with the dualistic perspective is that it is fundamentally
empty, it is untrue. We only see folds and ripples in the cloth - not
the warp and weft of the fabric.

Dualism is ubiquitously present in our culture, arts, and sciences -
as to be unnoticeable. Dualism is The Matrix.

The practice of zazen is what enables us to gain perspective on the
convolutions of illusion.
- Kobutsu

From Chip

I listened to Kobutsu's recording. It's interesting, the parallel he
draws.
Who knew a mystical Catholic word could become a mystical Bhuddist
word? I
heard an interview with Ravi Shankar's daughter, I forget her name, she
talks about how important the m sound in om is, that you have to hold
it and
feel the vibration. Kobutsu puts vibrato in his chanting, something I
don't
recall hearing from the Asian monks. I'm now taking your Aaah and Ciiii
and
playing the pitches A and C along with them, a bit of musical mysticism
that
maybe only the audience members with perfect pitch will get, but those
2
pitches become central to the piece. Mary's pitch is A, and Gabriel's
is C.
Sort of.

Chip

Kobutsu's link

Check it out. To the right you will see a link to Kobutsu's mp3 recording.

in the universe

for those of you who have watched the videos - i have been working on the opening section, the attempts at finding the voice... anyway. you can watch. when i started working on this section - last summer - i was working on finding movement based on the sounds of the word, annunciation, which came out to me as:
ah
none
see
A
shun.
I then let the sounding inform the movement and the movement inform the sound. I played with the sounds, as well as the "meaning" of those words - until the phrase began to emerge. Chip and I, with Nicole's direction broke down the getting to that section to include: a forced first breath, a coughing as words get caught trying to get out, finally into the first "ahhh" sound.
Then just this morning, this came in from Kobutsu. The universe - ahhhh. (I will try and post the MP4 as well. hope it works)

Dear Celeste,

The vocalization-literation (I don't know how else to put it) -- the dramatic sounding-out of the emphasized syllables that you begin your sequence on the rehearsal video -- very much reminds me of a technique I have been using for years in chanting instruction. Your instructive vocalization is a brilliant segway into the story.

I'm not sure I can properly convey this in text. I will consider this and perhaps make a little MP4 on it later today. What is most familiar is the initial sounding of the Aaah sound.... It is the first syllable found in the oft' mis-chanted OM mantra (particularly in the Hindu tradition) It does not contain the "hard" "O" sound, and it does not contain two syllables; rather, three. It begins with the Aaah sound (the first sound we make as infants) coming from the deep far back of the throat, goes into a soft "auh" or "ooo" sound and ends with a more forceful (sort of "capping") sound: humm or huum.

Writing this in text is clumsy for me, I do not know the proper diacritical marks to place over the vowels to convey the sound.

OK, I just dug out the iPod and microphone. (Amazing what gadgetry we 21st century monks work with! I was amused in South East Asia to find that every monk and his brother has a cell phone. Not only that, but these days, monk's robes are now all made with cell-phone pockets sewn into them. Thankfully, I do not own a cell phone. )
Kobutsu

From Kobutsu: tiddly winks

Hail Mary of Nazareth full of space, expansive sufficient to house the

son of God. An agent of eternal security dropped by to knock lobes on

the babe and train; always with the logistics. I stashed the files on

every thing; everywhere and nowhere.

The aerial capable agents are lame, just look at the condition of
their wings, ratty edges, clumps of feathers amiss. You wonder where
they get these guys, the “B” squad; heaven’s second string.

God doesn’t place dice with the universe ~ too complicated. He plays

tiddly-winks with the universe ~ more lively and fun. It is so
righteous of us to include ourselves into the upper crust of the
primordial pond-scum. Crème de la scum.

Don’t be without an Islam awareness wristwatch, see emerging trends
in
close to realtime. Up to the minute population counts, migration
patterns. Federal Emergency preparedness color charts. Watch the
colors change as we get more and more paranoid.
- Kobutusu

From Nicole

So here are some quick thoughts that pop into my mind. Choice. Looked it up in the dictionary and it mentions the act of selecting. I like "act of"- very active, direct, no meandering. Hm... wish it was always that easy... choice often isn't though, it's not often pick good over evil in a clear cut way.... life is much more complicated, finicky, there is much weighing of options. This story has amongst other things for me, an ongoing metaphor of choice and through that nuance. And not just Mary, there is Gabriel who faces many a choice. And God. Ah, so (wishing I could move, talk , and type as I might find this faster...) is weight part of this ongoing choice/selection? Would that help lead you out? Or as with our many conversations is it as simple as the monkey brain takes over, curious and impatient for information? Or as with decision making, is it a meandering way? Which then I ask, is it in the head? usually my first instinct is from the gut, but the monkey brain, the meandering in and out of thoughts... maybe the head pops you up? Or head and weight meet the feet and there you are, facing a part of yourself? Not quite ready for that as Narrator, Mary or Gabriel, you pop to information seeking mode? A safety net that mode sometimes...
All for now.... goodnight! Nicole

Dancing and Thinking

In the studio. ADF. A hot day in June.
So when I work I love the interplay between thinking and dancing, dancing through thinking and thinking through dancing. it’s the dancing that informs the thinking, the thinking that informs the dancing. Which is on my mind (body) (how come things are “on our minds” but “in our bodies” and can also be “in my mind” but “on my body” is entirely different)
But. And.
Butt
I’m thinking about our most recent reading assigned by Tommy DeFrantz for our History and Theory class. The reading (Human Rights – Not like a Document, Like a Dance” by Lisa Doolittle and Anne Flynn) discusses the ever fretful dualism of mind/body – and I am really intrigued by their reference to Gilbert Ryle’s “Concept of Mind”: “Why are people so strongly drawn to believe, in the face of their owndaily experience, that the intelligent execution of an operations must embody two processes, one of doing and another of theorizing?”

– but let’s cut to the chase –

Here is what is grabbing me right now.
In the studio
As I work on the transitions between the moments of “being inside the ahhhh sound of annunciation” and then the pulling out of them to ask for definitions. As in being in the body of understanding is somehow not valid and must be validated by the “dictionary”, the Authority. (of course this is part of what I am playing with between the three voices – my own personal trinity:

The narrator – who can only speak through definitions
Gabriel – who rehearses his words
Mary – who has an alphabet that spills from her mouth, and can gesture/but not speak the “no”.

(thank you to the students and teachers at monument mountain regional high school who watched the piece last Spring, and engaged in a lengthy discussion out of which this thinking came)

And of course there is the “me” in there, who is the container of the performance. Who storytells as biased observer, observer who “must” tell the story for her own “annunciation salvation”. Maybe like my Snow White piece there is some reclamation that I am doing here. When I wrote last about can’t get beyond the “rape” – and it bothered me to place rape in quotations, and yet I felt I wouldn’t be as clearly understood if I didn’t… hmmmm

But back to how the dance gives me the information!
So I am working out the technicality of I have certain movements that I want to “interrupt” to get to another idea/movement. And I am working on how to interupt those movements. Nicole and I worked with this a lot (thanks Nicole). So I can be inside a movement and
- just drop it. Pedestrian. Step out of it.
- I can use one body part to push the rest of the body into a transition. Push, entice, yank, coerce, extract….
- I can practice what I was practicing in the Costa Rica jungle. To just stay in a position until the something happened that would alter that position. But to not “think” through that moment. To just be in the moment. Let all the jokes be the why.
- I can “pull myself together” which is what I just tried. It was interesting. It led me to think about the safety of the definition section that always follows.
Words as safety. Its easier to talk about somethings than to do them (I’m thinking about righting wrongs)

Words as authority. The power of the one with the words, the “right” words, the most intellectual words, or the most cynical words.

“You’re out of control.” “Pull yourself together”. “You’re being hysterical” “Hysteria is a woman’s disease” (1950 American Medical system). “Calm down, just tell me what happened.”

It should be a beautiful thing. To be announced to. By an Angel. A loving angel. “fear not” it whispers, wrapping you in soft wings of protection. “fear not”.

“Yeah, right. “Fear not” – I’ve heard that line before….” Mumbles Mary’s mother in the other room.

Okay.
Back to dancing.
I was momentarily distracted by the page and now I’ve lost my choo choo train of thought.

If you want an assignment. Here is one.
Find yourself in a luscious movement opening, that by physical limitations must come to an end. some of you may have bodies young enough that "end" never happens -but you can try...
When you get to the end. Find a reason to transition into the "dropping" of that movement, and the entering into a direct face to face with (whoever) your audience is. (Maybe your dog or cat is watching, or the bird outside your window.) Figure out different ways to make that transition. Tell me what you discover.


(If you are reading this and are very confused…. Look at one of the rehearsal videos. I am working on the first transition between the big “AHhhhh” and the first definition of Annunciation. This informs how each subsequent break between being “in” the moment and stepping out of the moment to define the words is being developed.)

What's behind the story

Kobutsu just asked "What is the "lesson" being
propagated by this story?" and that is a main question for me. I guess being raised as a Unitarian, I always look for the metaphor in the stories - and believe that they (the stories) are there for us as metaphors. Not history. So I keep asking myself what is the metaphor in the Annunciation? But the "rape" keeps getting in my way. Then I came across this idea: from Ken Mogi (read the whole thing on his blog - link above and also in the resources links to the right). From Ken Mogi:

"The annunciation.
When a new idea visits us, the archangel Gabriel kneels before us, telling us that a new idea has been conceived. The idea does not stand still. Once conceived, it keeps growing, matures, until finally a fruit is borne.
Life is a vast ocean of change in which the annunciation might visit us at any moment. The miracle is to be found in the most subtle symptoms. We thus breathe on earth forever enthralled." - Ken Mogi