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You’ll figure it out.
Love is in the air…
and our task master keeps us busy….
“We show up, burn brightly, live passionately, hold nothing back, and when the moment is over, when our work is done, we step back, and let go.”
–ROLF GATES
So grateful for the brilliant light of my dance sisters.
Namaste.
Have you ever liked a song so much that you listen to it a gazillion times and you think you have the song all figured out, then years pass and you grow out of that song and move on to other songs until one day you hear the same old song again, but suddenly something in that old, tricky song has shifted and a whole new world of meaning opens?
Of course, it’s the listener that’s changed, not the song, right? Hmmmm…or is it?
No man ever steps into the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.
–Heraclitus
Or perhaps it’s the zeitgeist that changed. On a grand scale, I think this happened in the collective consciousness with the song, “Baby It’s Cold Outside” on the wake of the “Me Too Movement.” What seems like the innocent flirtation of one era turns into nefarious intent in another era.
Recently I experienced a song’s shift (in a good way) when I heard Madonna’s “Vogue.” ‘What just happened here? ‘ I wondered to myself after hearing the song with these 2020 ears. There was a lot more depth there than I remembered there being in 1990 when I first heard it. (Can y’all believe that song is 30 years old now?!) I had to go look up the lyrics and then the etymology of the word “vogue” to discover that in addition to the “fashion forward” meaning of the word, it’s also a boating term indicating the “drift, swaying motion (of a boat).” It’s from Old French voguer, meaning “to row, sway, set sail.” [according to vogue | Search Online Etymology Dictionary (etymonline.com)]
So this week in my classes we are going on a sailing adventure.
All you need is your own imagination
So use it that’s what it’s for
Go inside for your finest inspiration
Your dreams will open the door
-Shep Pettibone & Madonna/Vogue
“The artist is always engaged in writing a detailed history of the future because he is the only person aware of the nature of the present.”
–Marshall McLuhan
Hi! I’m still here poking around in old posts trying to figure out what this blog is about on its 10th anniversary year. Creativity? Collaboration? I don’t know — I’m still working on it! I don’t have a master plan here. That’s probably why so many people that have blogs with posts on the topic of things like, “Make Money with Your Blog” like or subscribe to My Little Spacebook — it’s painfully obvious I have no idea what I’m doin here. Despite my planners and goal trackers, I’m not the sort of person who has a 5-year plan. I’m just trying to get through today so I can give myself a gold star.
But Look! Here’s dance video of a duet we worked on for a bazillion hours. I haven’t shared this one yet. Hope you enjoy.
Mystic River Dance presented this dance in the show “Nature’s Rhythms” (February 2019, Memphis, TN).
Music: “Mergence” by Safaa Farid’s Orchestra Negum (edited), and “Shimmabulous” by Issam Houshan,
Choreography: based on Ahmed Hussein, adapted by Jasmine, Sameera, & Valentina
Dancers: Mystic River Dancers Sameera & Valentina
The first financial bubble on written record occurred in the Netherlands in the 17th century, as Tulipmania swept over Holland. During the peak of speculation, a single tulip bulb cost more than an average home. Bulbs for “broken” tulips, like Semper Augustus and the Viceroy, were very hot commodities and went for a fortune. A broken tulip had a striking pop of color that contrasted the base hue of the flower’s petals. The color break was caused by a mosaic virus (of all things), spread by myzus persicae, a type of aphid. The infection weakened the bulb and slowed the plant’s propagation. This is why varieties like Semper Augustus and the Viceroy no longer exist. When an outbreak of the plague prevented a bulb auction, a cascading effect of other cancellations rippled outward, which eventually lead to a collapse in the market in Holland. Many tulip traders went bankrupt.
“…any tulip thus changing its original colour is usually ruined afterwards and so wanted only to delight its master’s eyes with this variety of colours before dying, as if to bid him a last farewell.”
–Carlus Clusius, Botanist
Today, the tulips that have a broken effect are cultivated without the virus. These flowers are known a “Rembrandt tulips,” after the artist. You can see a broken tulip in Rembrandt’s portrait of his wife painted as Flora, the Roman goddess of Spring and flowers.
I was inspired to plant the orange lovelies pictured above late last November after reading Michael Pollan’s chapter “The Tulip” in his book The Botany of Desire. As Pollan put it:
“…the wayward color loosed on a tulip by a good break perfected the flower, even as the virus responsible set about destroying it.”
–Michael Pollan
