Facebook confuses me with its publicly private world. In the process of trying to follow some of my favorite artists and arts organizations, I accidentally (okay, maybe not very accidentally) clicked on a friend request for a certain dancer.
A week or two passed with the "request pending" still sitting in my Friends list. I thought about deleting it, but would that have seemed rude?
(For the record, there is a friend request of my own sitting in my notifications: the high-school boyfriend who dumped me before prom and took my best friend and who is now a married minister, and a Republican to boot. He only needed three strikes.)
Last night when I got home from the Kaleidoscope skating-for-survivors event with Scott Hamilton, I checked my e-mail and found that I'd had a message from the dancer whose friendship I had blundered into requesting.
It was a very sweet greeting that invited me to join his fan group, which I did right away. This dancer is most certainly a master of the art of the graceful gesture. But I won't get to tell him how much he reminds me of Rudolf Nureyev.
love and big smiles, hosaa blundering as gracefully as possible
I know I'm late to this, but I finally went to see "This Is It" last night. Just a few thoughts from a non-fan: I loved it.
The movie's tagline is "Discover the Man You Never Knew," and for someone like me, that was truly the case. I pretty much grew up with MJ music, but from the Jackson Five. I remember their cute cartoon show. By the time MJ went off on his own and reached superstardom with Thriller, I'd moved way far away from pop. (I didn't come back to pop at all until 2003, when a certain redhead said he could've been in the top one or two at least on American Idol). All I knew about MJ, really, came from the tabloids, and for me the "freak" factor (plastic surgeries, dangling babies over balconies) was a big turnoff.
With MJ's death, that "freak factor" evaporated, and the voices of those who truly knew the man and were inspired by his talent dominated the public consciousness. The enthusiasm of at least one friend alone was enough to make me rethink MJ. And the movie did the rest.
Of course with all I'd seen happening to Clay Aiken and the gossip-lies-hatred thrown at him over the last six years, I should already have known not to believe what I read/hear. I try to accept reality as it's presented to me, but I still need to ask questions.
As for This Is It - I am sure I enjoyed this "making of" view more than I would have the actual concert, simply because the big productions leave me too overwhelmed (that's the reason I HATE Phantom of the Opera, for instance). What I got to see was the work behind the art, the meticulous attention to detail, the deeply respectful collaborations, the humility and appreciation for other people's ideas. His vision was so absolute and powerful, he made others see it too.
In the end, MJ was an artist who had become the art.
The film itself, I found just enthralling, simply as a great musical. I would rate it with A Hard Day's Night (which, though scripted, was as close to a documentary of the Beatles' experience with music, fans, and production as you can get). I especially appreciated the full-body-view photography of the dance sequences - something I always look for in musicals. The editing was seamless and fluid. Just a wonderful, wonderfully made work. It's amazing they put it together so quickly.
One episode in the rehearsal process made me smile - when MJ and his backup singer were carrying on after "The Way You Make Me Feel," their playful trilling (musical one-up-manship) reminded me of Clay and his backup singer Quiana Parler during the 2007 summer tour, riffing after "I Want to Know What Love Is."
What a tragedy that, though Michael had complete control of his music and the concert experience, he did not have the same control over his own life. I wish this kind of film had been made years ago - maybe it would have countered a lot of that "freak factor" crap he had to deal with.
Love, hosaa envisioning the man in his mirror
ETA, I have no idea when MJ started using one particular dance move, but its prevalence in this movie called to my mind the 1980 film Fame and the "Red Light" number by street dancer Gene Anthony Ray:
Dang, I've been at the magazine so long that I not only can't find an article from way back when, I can't even remember the decade it was from.
For the record, I was looking for a story (with illustrations) on converting the backyards of all the houses in a typical suburban block into a common area for gardening. A great local-farming solution. But what issue was it in? I couldn't remember the author or the title, and I'm pretty sure we ran the story long before ProQuest began digitizing our stuff.
Anyway, short story long, while looking for that article, I found these cartoons from a 1987 article, "How to Think Like an Innovator" by Denis Waitley and Robert Tucker. The art work was by an illustrator named Spyder Webb, but it was based on sketches I provided him.
I guess I thought that was really hysterical at the time... setting up the expectation that the little innovator was going to invent the wheeled suitcase but then actually coming up with a game show. HAHA! The lesson is (I suppose) that the process of innovative thinking can lead you in a variety of directions.
And even if I didn't find the future I was looking for, it's all good.
RIP Joseph Alvis Aiken, beloved grandfather ("Papa") of Clay Aiken.
This is the montage I made after the 2005 Christmas tour, when Clay sang a bluegrass Christmas carol especially for Papa. Clay wrote in his book "Learning To Sing" that one of his favorite childhood memories was listening to the Grand Ole Opry on the radio.
"Papa's Beautiful Star" includes both the passage from the book and Clay's special Christmas gift to Papa.
The best stories are those that can be read at many levels, and "Rediscovering Lone Pine" is intriguingly multilayered. Told in the first person, present tense, the story draws the reader in at once as a confidante of the narrator, giving it the cinematic, intimate feel of "To Kill a Mockingbird" and bonding intrigue of "Stand By Me."
We join the narrator, Grant Harper, at the very beginning of a childhood mystery, sharing his internalized experiences and seeing through his mind the wild fears that his fevered imagination conjures when he realizes his friend has disappeared into the lonely wilderness. We then come of age along with Grant and his surviving gang, Hannah and Mickey, sharing their traumas, their loyalty, and the crises that would unite and reunite them, including their many searches for their lost friend Jason.
Approaching the book as a straight mystery story, this reader was trying to anticipate twists and predict the outcome - and was happily proven wrong at almost every turn. For where is the satisfaction in not being surprised by a mystery story? Was the detective investigating the disappearance of Jason merely a faux antagonist who would later become an ally? Was Grant's recollection of the events surrounding Jason's disappearance clouded by an amnesia-inducing trauma? My imaginings were nearly as fevered as protagonist Grant's.
The book's cover proclaims that "Rediscovering Lone Pine" won the Maryland Writers Association Prize for Mainstream Fiction. I'm not sure what level of literature "mainstream fiction" is - perhaps somewhere between a good beach book and high art. It's accessible and engaging; one cares about the characters, worries about them, hopes for the best. Living in their world with them is satisfying. My only complaint is that I would have liked just one more scene with my friends. We'd been through so much together!
I cannot praise Wandering Souls highly enough, a small troupe of players bringing to passionate life both the comedy and drama of Shakespeare's "The Winter's Tale." It was a seven-actor, 20-character tour de force by the peripatetic Wandering Souls, performing their "outreach" production in the beautiful art deco Bethesda Theatre in downtown Bethesda, Maryland, for a limited three-show engagement.
Pared down to its 90-minute essence (the play is perhaps best known for having the greatest stage direction of all time: "Exit, pursued by a bear"), "The Winter's Tale" was accessible to the small audience who was privileged to see it. Though the company did its own marketing, the booking at the between-seasons theater was apparently spur-of-the-moment; the first signal of its existence was the change on the marquee on the day of the first performance.
The vibrant young cast (could any of them have yet seen his or her 30th year?) brought conviction and energy to their multiple roles; the awkwardness of female casting in male roles was deftly handled (Kristen Garaflo as Florizel, Karen Novak as larcenous rogue Autolycus, and puckish Kelsey Meikeljohn as sons of a king and a shepherd), all effusing great charm. One could even hold a warm spot for the irrationally jealous Leontes (JJ Area), for his beliefs, though misguided, were so utterly heartfelt.
The soul of Shakespeare's tragicomedy belongs to the gracious queen Hermione, unjustly condemned for that very graciousness, and her outcast daughter Perdita raised as a shepherdess, parts played with equal helpings of irreproachable nobility and pastoral gaiety by Betsy Rosen.
Kudos to director Adam Jonas Segaller's smart adaptation and clever "stripped down" staging. As actors dart behind a curtain to make a costume (and character) change, or sit on folding chairs off to the side to await their next entrance, there is no attempt for realism except through our connection to the emotions portrayed. This was how Shakespeare often introduced audiences to the staging of his works--suspend your need to see the great battlefields or the passage of time--and the beckoning to use our imaginations is a compelling invitation to adventure.
Kudos also to the Bethesda Theatre and facilities director Tom Davis for offering Wandering Souls the run of the place. The use of the professional venue was intended to show the larger theater-going community what this intrepid band of players is committed to doing elsewhere on its tours of churches, homeless shelters, nursing homes, detention facilities, and community centers.
According to the Wandering Souls' mission statement, printed on the back of the single-sheet program, the troupe is driven by "a belief that the arts can fuel our imagination, engage our personal growth and help unite individuals and communities. Yet, the richness of the arts is often considered a luxury. By bringing stripped-down, high quality, energetic performances to those who have little or no access, we hope to break down that misconception and provide opportunities for a broader cultural exchange."
As the company's Artistic Director Becky Peters was giving her introductory speech before the play--explaining how important it was not just to make the arts more accessible but to actually go into the communities who would not otherwise benefit from these experiences--I commented to my companion, "This was what I wanted to do 30 years ago."
The final performance at Bethesda Theatre is tonight (September 19) at 8 p.m.
