Despite everything

...I still always find time for TED and I stumble across beautiful things. Like this one. I remember my mother practising on strings attached to handles of the kitchen cupboards. They were there for years.

One Billion Rising

Fascinating

Science Fiction coming to life

Whilst I am researching into the different techniques of kabuki dance (particularly hayagawari and hikkinuki), I do take time to brach out into learning about other things. TED continually provides me with a good source for varied and inspiring talks and I felt I needed to share this one.



So long.

Poetry

I enjoy spoken word poetry a lot. This one is particularly beautiful.

Word of the Day

esenggileer

Word of the Day

ailurophile

Word of the Day

weequashing

For the sheer beauty of a life where people feel the need to find a word that describes the act of "spearing fish or eels from a canoe by night with torches".

So long!

Hofesh Shechter

After watching Hofesh Schechter's Uprising/The Art of Not Looking Back last Wednesday, my mind keeps straying back to the performance.

'Uprising' is a wonderfully high-energy, sometimes comic, sometimes puzzling piece of work, simple and straightforward in some of its movements (we discussed afterwards whether some things would have been as impressive had it not been for the music), but undebatably beautiful. The men of the company are incredibly fluid, their ease of movement is breathtaking.

'The Art of Not Looking Back' is rather different. Very Pina Bausch. Again, the dancer's skill is undebatable, but the women in this piece are more symbols, whereas the men in 'Uprising' retain their individual character. Sadly, this piece lacked that je ne sais quoi its predecessor possessed, that something that draws the spectator into a trance and makes them forget time. Maybe it is the interrupting (and interrupted) narration that features as part of the soundtrack which inhibits this self-loss.
Perhaps this performance just had too much to live up to, since the last dance piece I saw before then was At Swim Two Boys by EarthFall, which was just so good that I didn't trust myself to write about it. I'm still puzzled how they got a stage with 5cm deep water and live music through Health&Safety regulations.
That performance was beyond words, Hofesh Shechter left me wondering and wishing for something more.

Agreed.

Word of the Day

Egregious.

Astounding.

The Emperor of Scent

Having decided to take the week off, I finally have the time to read Chandler Burr's 'The Emperor of Scent' - oh, what a fabulous decision!

The Emperor of Scent traces the story of Luca Turin and his semi-accidental discovery of the mechanisms of smell. Think Süßkind's 'The Perfume' without murder and in real life. It is fantastic. Burr manages to be engaging without ever turning to sensationalism; it makes me mourn Armani's decision to discontinue 'Sensi' all over again and tempts me to go hunt for a new scent. As Burr describes Turin as someone who is 'intellectually promiscuous', so this book is exactly for those kind of people: the ones that simply want to delve into obscure and seemingly unrelated topics and know more about the world we live in. It's also for anyone who is puzzled that their friends can't smell when it is about to snow.

Have a read, I cannot recommend it enough!

So long.

Eve Ensler

Well deserved

This won the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film. Deservedly.

BOUND

I went to see Bear Trap Theatre Company's 'Bound' yesterday. It was utterly breathtaking. Stunning. It was funny and heartbreaking. Beautiful in its simplicity. It's been a while since a play hase touched me the way this did. If you have a chance to see it, go see it.

http://www.bear-trap.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=46&Itemid=55

Word of the Day

Found on dribbleglass.com

Euneirophrenia: peace of mind after a pleasent dream.

Beautiful

He reminds me of one of my lecturers. In the best possible way.



So long!

Truth

Word of the Day

bete noir

Agreed.

As much as I enjoy academic writing, this man has a point.

http://youtu.be/UlDWRZ7IYqw

Word of the Day

loquacity

As stumbled upon in Ovid's story of the nymph Lara (which was hitherto unknown to me).

Afternoon escapism

Stumbled upon accidentally, and thoroughly enjoyed:

http://gallery.thecreatorsproject.com/gallery/Cinmatique/2794297

So long.