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Thursday, June 10, 2004 Checking out other people's stuffHot Juicy Breathless Bla Bla actually has more than bla bla! (in my humble opinion) Beautiful Stuff revolves around things literary and he's going to open a bookstore. One of my 10-year-old notions was to run a bookstore, but I really just want to be in a room full of books. I wouldn't really want to do all that other stuff you have to do to own a store. So I will vicariously read through beautiful stuff. posted by Jillian | 7:52 PM | (3) comments Monday, June 07, 2004 Spewing Greasy Indulgent Words (Wherin I Feel Like an Expert)While there was theater of the grotesque, so was indeed there dance of the grotesque. Of course, since I'm currently researching German Expressionism from the modern dance perspective, I feel I must share at least an ounce of the cerebral weight my head is trying to consume. And since I just saw Supersize Me last week, the image of the guy spewing out his car window twenty minutes after eating his first supersize meal at Micky D's rears its ugly head. Very uncomfortable moment - body spews very vile substances. I often find myself vomiting up strange massive sentences like "you know, Pina Bausch didn't believe in the concept of gesamtkunstwerk (total art). She actually chooses fragmentation over synthesis." What the f*&@? I'm horribly full on performance analysis and scholarly speak. Gross. (and strangely I'm addicted to this non-fiction. However, I can pass up the McArches when I drive by them hungry). And now back to the original thought -- the word grotesque. Valeska Gert progressed this form of dancing in the 1920's and 1930's and she inspired the likes of Brecht in the theater world. She performed in the 1931 release of Three Penny Opera among other films as well. Her inspiration for me is that she doesn't exactly embrace the notion of soft focus -- Hollywood feminine style. Her movement and her face often contorted or exploded. She had great schtick. (AND, she took herself seriously!) 
posted by Jillian | 6:23 PM | (0) comments Thursday, June 03, 2004 Books, Calories, Dogs, CategoriesSylvatica remains busy as ever, and I'm trying to fill my days as best as I can. Today involved an excursion to the Montague Book Mill where I drank natural rootbeer on a patio next to a stunning, noisy waterfall, nearly bought a copy of Angels & Insects by Byatt and attempted to read some sections on Jung's theories on Alchemy (no, don't try!). I fast walked 2 miles and burned 321 calories on the elliptical machine while watching the Sharon Osborne show. Scarlet Johansson talked about her bulldog and Sharon made her promise to think about his "thick, wet farts" when she goes up to accept her Golden Globe. (old episode) Oo. Another reason why J and I WILL NEVER get a bulldog. (I'm growing an obssession with dogs as of late. All the different kinds I would love -- but no, no, no -- not until there's a yard, a yard, a yard) I wonder if I should be counting calories I burn. Am I getting obssessive about that too? One note when you're the queen of your days - you begin cataloging details. I'm actually a bit fascinated by the brain's capacity to log the numbers that rise up during the day. When I'm mad busy, it all escapes me in a big blur of constant "go!" And speaking of cataloging, I have begun the great task of systemetizing my research on the German Expressionist Movement and Dance in the early Twentieth Century. I suppose it's not unlike organizing a blog into interest categories. You have GrotesqueAnd so on. I may do some posts that further expound on the bad ass qualities of weird and strange people who did a lot of screaming and wearing of masks on stage. posted by Jillian | 6:55 PM | (0) comments Wednesday, June 02, 2004 Hunch problems of Camera ManWorking at a Pil.ates studio in town, I enjoy eavesdropping on private lessons. First of all, if you've seen these teachers do the swan exercise on the equipment, you'd know why. It's stunning to watch how they've trained their bodies to lift off the ground with such effortlessness and efficiency. It may be a bit hedonistic of me to enjoy the sheer aesthetic, but all the same, I do. Another interest involves seeing how these teachers respond to the scenarios in people's lives. For instance, today, the teacher responded to a man who was either a videographer or a photographer. They both sat on the camel with hands grasping an imaginary camera at the shoulder. He said he had pain in the shoulders from accomodating the weight of the equipment. Then the teacher began to show the man how he might begin to manage the excess weight by emanating from transverse muscles that weave between the pelvic bones. Rather than giving in at the shoulder and hunching, she lifted. (actually, only slightly and not like a rigid robot either) AND, evidently, Pil.ates originally called his method "Contrology." He believed we could transfer most effort burdens (even sitting at a desk all day) to the core area in the lower abdomen. It doesn't mean muscles groups don't all work, but that thinking centrally allows shifts how we hold our bodies. However, this takes concentration. I never could do it at the desk job when too much was going on and the mind took its flights without the body. Okay, that's my nerdy movement analysis. posted by Jillian | 3:23 PM | (0) comments Tuesday, June 01, 2004 Convergence ConvertedHey! Yeah! New site. Thank ya to J. Wonderguy. Anyway, needed a design that said, hey, this blogger nearly shatters into millions of little pieces all the time. But it's not quite that dramatic -she likes to think she holds it together like that chic on the masthead -- gracefully -- not like Michael Jac.kson. If Jenny Cra.ig can, she can. No holding on by the pinky here. (Practicing art of "what you perceive = what you believe." Not self deception, but mind tricks, perhaps). As J noted while we redesigned, I skipped about five months of blogging, my blogroll is short and posts a bit sparse. But hey, I'm hoping to stick around and be a better blogger. Cheers. posted by Jillian | 1:53 PM | (0) comments Falling Asleep on Couch Have a lot of time on my hands, so I've been watching shows like Entertainment Tonight. Like sneaking peaks at People in the grocery store line, I get sucked into Hollywood gossip (what's wrong with me?) This story on Jenny Craig freaked me out. Here's her one regret. "I would not have gone to sleep on that couch," she says recalling the regretful accident. "I fell asleep and my head fell forward, resting on my chest, and as it happens sometimes, I guess my mouth was open. A commercial came on the television really loudly and when my head snapped up my lower teeth locked over the upper teeth and I had to pry them down."The interview glossed over this statement and then spent about fifteen minutes on how she sustained her weight loss empire, even after her damaged jaw muscles no longer allowed her to speak for years. Okay, SO SHE JUST LOCKED HER JAW JERKING OUT OF SLEEP? Whoh. Stop there. That's the story. Go back! Go Back! I kept yelling at the t.v. posted by Jillian | 1:23 PM | (0) comments Wednesday, May 12, 2004 Trippy to IowaTraveled to Iowa (unexpectedly pretty), brother got married, I got sloshed (threw up) and mom's book made its debut. We go into book stores and turn hers out -- if we could, we'd remove all the Grisham's latest paperbacks and refill the displays with mom's. However, we're not quite brave or hoodlum enough. I'm not sure which it is. On the wedding side of things -- well, it was beautiful. Aside from the fact that I do not remember most of the night of the rehearsal dinner (waitresses instructed to refill wine glasses even if only 1/17 of the merlot goes missing -- it took me a while to figure this out. sneaky), my favorite part is always the roasting and toasting. A great many of my brother's Brit and Aussie friends told some great stories -- things I just didn't know. I think I got up and said something about underroos and Shawn's "heart of gold." And while on the topic of inaccessibility of memory, I cannot go without writing about the incident of talking to a certain person and then forgetting. J and I were talking on the evening of the wedding while eating our prime rib and teriyaki salmon. I said to him, you know that guy we were just talking to? I swear that's this Australian guy that spent Christmas with our family years ago -- Mike. And J says, well, yeah, I think we already established that at the rehearsal dinner when you called him Mike and reminded him of the time when you were driving through Houston with him and went under a highway spaghetti bowl, wherein Mike said "quite an intersection, that is." Wow. I would just like to state for the record that while drinking irresponsibly can be a no- no, it sure can give you the surreal experience of clouded memory -- like dreams. As soon as J reminded me of the conversation, I could retrieve the image, but I thought it was from my dreams. Well, now I'm sounding loopy and stoned. So there's this guy named Mike, yeah, and had I not checked with J first, I very well could have re-introduced myself twice at the wedding. And wouldn't that have been trippy? Yeah. posted by Jillian | 10:16 AM | (0) comments |
