My neighborhood was nothing like this! At least not mid-day and I don’t think the line was that long in the morning…
Hehe, speaking of Mr. Marshall, I remember 16 years ago celebrating with him (among others) the results of another presidential election. We were both grad students in the same program. Ugh, 16 years ago… Anyway, hopefully hopefully hopefully we’ll both feel like celebrating again in a few hours…
It’s almost time for results to start coming in, you guys!
Great thing having a view of your voting place from your window! I was able to wait until there was no line (early afternoon) and sprint down there.
Ooooh, nervously excited…
Can they come up with something better than having Kym show Warren how a man (in the form of Nick Kosovitch) dances a Foxtrot? These producers have got to come up with some more entertaining filler here!
Warren & Kym: Oh goodness, can you say tense?! Poor Warren: he did not look at ease at all with that Foxtrot! Until he did that teensy tiny jazzy little barrel turn. Then he seemed to come alive. Unfortunately it was all the way at the very end. He was musical and had the rhythm down and all the footwork was good — even did well on those fast-footed grapevine steps. He had the rise and fall too. It just lacked polish and most definitely character.
Susan & Tony’s Paso: ditto for Susan, except without the musicality. Actually, it was there, mainly because Tony was leading her. Notice how Kym will trust Warren with side-by-side action, not always keeping him in the close handhold. The better dancers can take care of themselves out there. But the weaker ones need to be led a bit more. But Susan is sweet and she’s trying. She didn’t follow through with all of her lines though; it looked like she stopped everything a bit short, going on to the next move before she’d finished the prior one. I noticed it mostly with the little dips. She’d let him take her down, then be pulling herself up before she’d finished her lovely leg line (or what should have been such). It’s something I used to do too all the time, though, particularly when nervous. And the long red and black dress, while gorgeous, was too much for her little body; it engulfed her. I know it’s Paso, but she could have had a short dress and just a light bit of fabric in back for a cape.
Maurice & Cheryl’s Cha Cha: best routine of the night so far. Very rhythmic — rhythm’s just in the man’s body — awesome body rolls and hip swaying and circular hip rolling / almost Samba-like action. And notice all the side-by-side / solo dancing. And he’s a very good partner for her. He was very strong in those dips and stretches; she really threw herself out there and trusted him to hold her. Looked like he had a bit o’ trouble getting through her legs there on that little floor trick toward the end. But who cares; he’s so much fun.
Cody & Edyta’s Viennese Waltz: AHHHHH, I LOVE him! He’s a gawky teen trying hard hard hard to be a polished gentlemanly ballroom dancer and I love him so much for trying so hard and taking this very grown-up competition so seriously! Darling boy! What a cutely serious face he had on, huh! Well, he had that footwork down, and he was moving pretty fast in lots of circular floor patterns, with a partner, often in close handhold — so he did damn well and deserves big kudos for that. His lines need LOTS of work — particularly arms. Keep those fingers together! Eeee!
Lance & Lacey’s Rumba: Well, my very first Latin teacher, the excellent Mr. Kelvin Roche, used to play that song (I think it’s called “Wonderland” right?) for our beginning Jive classes. Because it is a jive — a very slow one, and hence perfect for learning the dance. It wasn’t a rumba at all. It was fun though but I totally agree with Len about the shoes. You wear the shoes with the heels (high for ladies, Cuban 3/4 inch for men) to pitch your foot forward to put your weight on the ball of your foot, so that when you put your heel down, your weight tends to shift at the hip. So, he was flat-footed and hip-less. Which is not rumba. I’ll give him the arms though — those bolero-like above-the-head full sways from the shoulder to the fingertips were lovely. And he followed through with the movement, and had nice, full lines. Best arms of the night.
Brooke & Derek’s Foxtrot: Oh, very nice, very elegant. She looked like a real dancer. Not quite as fun as Maurice, and so my second favorite of the night, though I understand the judges’ giving her three tens. Very beautiful lines — I agree with Carrie Ann on that. Lovely how he carried her across the floor in the splits. It was a very basic routine, but basic Foxtrot is hard, and she kept in proper close frame well, and she had the rise and fall, and just overall looked very glamorous and in character. I love the little kiss-blowing. Nice 40s hairstyle.
Okay, now onto these (new to the show) team matches:
Team Cha Cha (Susan, Lance, and Cody & partners): cute. I mean, so these team comps apparently are basically the three couples dancing one at a time with a tiny bit of team work with formations and synchronization. During the brief bits where they all danced together, I wasn’t sure if they were supposed to be moving in unison each doing the same steps or if each couple was supposed to be doing its own thing. Carrie Ann seemed to think they were supposed to be in unison. Anyway, Susan looked tense, and hence stiff, again — poor Susan, I think her nerves are really getting to her, and whose wouldn’t when you’re basically the one woman dancing alongside Edyta and Lacey! I agree with the judges that Lance and Lacey were best, most on and rhythmical, but I also like Cody’s effort and stage presence.
Team Paso Doble (Brooke, Maurice and Warren & pro partners): this one was much better, clearly the winner, though Len is totally right about it being much easier to keep formation in a slower marching dance than a quicker-paced Cha Cha. Having said that, excellent formations and everyone was perfectly in sync during the group parts. And each couple was amazing — Brooke and Derek’s continuous pivot turns — badass!!! Whoa! That blew me away. The men were good too — Warren looked much more at ease here than in his Foxtrot earlier in the evening. His tough footballer attitude fits much better with the Paso character.
All in all: my favorites of the night are a tie between Brooke and Maurice. I think, unfortunately — because I like her personality a lot — Susan may be going home this week.
You guys, by the time we see the results we will have a new President. Eeeeee, I’m nervously excited…
If you haven’t already, make sure to read (and listen to) Claudia La Rocco’s excellent WNYC post containing interviews with several NYC dance artists speaking about the role of race in their work and how they view the election. She apparently came up with the idea to do the interviews after an angry back and forth between Time Out editors and readers over the fact that the magazine’s list of top 40 New Yorkers who’ve made the most impact on the city over the last decade is, as Claudia put it, rather “monochromatic.”
At least things are different in the literary world. Check out the list of recent Whiting Award recipients. Also, Galley Cat is doing a series of author interviews about the election. Here’s one with poet Douglas Kearney over harmful language used in political speeches. His upcoming projects sound very cool.
Hehehe, my friend Dea sent this to me. I thought it was too funny not to post 🙂
Last night I was in Brooklyn, and, passing through the Atlantic Avenue subway station, I saw a group near the entrance to the Long Island Railroad registering people to vote. They were pretty busy. This, along with Counter Critic’s post today, reminded me to remind you all to register, if you’re not already. Tomorrow’s the last day in New York to do so for the upcoming election. Go here for info on how to do that; go here for other states.
Because my TAC headaches have not been responding so well to my regular medication, my neurologist wants me to try something different for a while. I went to the pharmacy today to pick up my new prescription. It cost $100 after my insurance copay, for 6 doses. Six doses. I hope Glaxo Wellcome are happy with themselves for finding a way to make big bucks off of human pain and suffering.
And I know I’m hardly the only one who struggles to pay for prescription meds. I know older, retired people who have credit card debt because the only way they can pay for necessary medication is to charge it. Medicare apparently covers very little.
I hope Obama makes healthcare reform a very top priority when he becomes president. One of the reasons — the main reason actually — I’d been such a Hillary supporter is that I knew healthcare was her biggest issue. I trusted that she would work tirelessly for change, as she did when her husband was in office. I really hope we can expect the same from Obama.
I just received this in my inbox. The subject line was titled, “Good Spam.” It’s from Obama’s Campaign site. Apparently when you contribute you can send this email around to all your friends. I find the language used seriously disturbing. I know the person who sent this to me and he doesn’t speak like this — this is a form mail written by Obama’s people. He’s attacking Clinton for exercizing her right to continue her campaign. Clinton has won many primaries and obviously has a great number of supporters. The way this is written, it’s as if he believes he’s entitled to the nomination and considers her a problem that needs to be taken care of. She has a right to continue her presidential bid and we supporters have a right to have our candidate continue to run. Has he no concept of rights? And “desperate” — after last night??? I’m sorry but I will never vote for him for tactics like this. I’d rather vote for the senator from my old state of AZ if it has to come down to that.
Here’s the email:
Hey,
I don’t usually send these emails, but I just made a donation to Barack Obama’s campaign and I want to invite you to join me:
Join me and make a donation now:
https://donate.barackobama.com/twofront
It’s clear that Senator Clinton wants to continue an increasingly desperate, increasingly negative — and increasingly expensive — campaign to tear us down.
That’s her decision. But it’s not stopping John McCain from going on the offensive.
Right now, it’s essential for every single supporter of Barack Obama to step up and help fight this two-front battle. In the face of attacks from Hillary Clinton and John McCain, we need to be ready to take them on.
Join me in supporting the campaign by making a donation now:
https://donate.barackobama.com/twofront
Thanks
———
A user has sent this message from BarackObama.com. The sender’s name, email address, subject and message have not been verified.
So last night was the premiere of the newest ballet by Christopher Wheeldon at New York City Ballet, the last he’ll choreograph for the company in his role as resident choreographer. Named ROCOCO VARIATIONS, because it was choreographed to Tchiakovsky’s music of the same name, it was relatively short and minimal, involving a total of four dancers — two male / female couples. Overall, my first impressions are that it was sweet and pretty, but nothing that really blew me away. The curtain opened to a bare stage, no sets. First one couple emerged, then another, the two women dressed in really lovely bronze-colored strapless dresses, the flowing skirts A-level and knee-length. They resembled a cross between ballgowns and a long tulle ballet tutu, and at first I thought it was going to be reminiscent of a Balanchine ballroom ballet, but I was wrong; it was pretty much straight ballet pas de deux. The men wore brown tights and white billowing tops covered by 19th Century-esque beige vests. The music was absolutely beautiful, it goes without saying, and Wheeldon’s very musical; the steps “looked like” the music.
I appreciated a few moments of original partnering and movement: at one point, when all four are onstage, the women stand next to each other and extend their arms toward each other, and the men walk around them and underneath their arms, on the way through grabbing each other and doing a short, jaunty little male -on- male dance. Cute! There was also a nice, evocative shape made by one couple — Sterling Hyltin and Giovanni Villalobos — when Giovanni lunged deeply toward her and she leaned toward him on one toe, her back leg in an arabesque. Where normally the ballerina would keep her head up to maintain her balance and smile brightly at her partner’s face, here she covered his hands with hers and let her head fall all the way underneath their locked hands. It looked like she was really deferring to him, really trusting him, and it was original. Near the end, Adrian Danchig-Waring, the other man, bent down, and his ballerina Sara Mearns, lay on his back, her body straight, almost like a log, and he carried her off that way, bent-backed, as if now bearing a weight.
I was really mesmerized by Mearns and Danchig-Waring. Adrian’s arms were so fluid, they were like water. And both were very expressive with their upper bodies; they had beautiful port de bras (arm movements) culminating with intricate, delicate shaping of the wrists.
I’ll see the ballet again, but, on first sighting, I found the choreography pretty and lyrical, with points of originality, but nothing tremendously profound. My thoughts are that Wheeldon is petering out a bit, wanting to focus now on his own company, Morphoses.
The rest of the evening consisted of Balanchine’s sweetly Romantic “Divertimento from ‘Le Baiser de la Fee'” — which translates to “The Fairy’s Kiss” and is based on a Hans Christian Anderson tale; Peter Martins’s short tribute to China, “The Chairman Dances,” likely in honor of the Chinese New Year (Happy Chinese New Year everyone!); and Balanchine’s fun, raucous “Stars and Stripes,” a patriotic tribute to his adopted country, choreographed in honor of NYC mayor, Fiorella LaGuardia, to iconic Philip Sousa marching music.
I then came home and watched Randy Jackson’s “America’s Best Dance Crew,” on MTV, which I’d taped. I thought it was a lot of fun — very different from the other dance TV shows. For people who didn’t see it, it’s all dancing — no singing, unlike “Dance War” and the groups have been working together for some time, so they’re familiar with each other and know what they’re doing. It appears that the judges give the groups a different song to choreograph to and they have to come up with something original in a short period of time. The crews with the two lowest scores have a dance-off in the end. But the dancing is really only hip hop with some breaking thrown in, so there isn’t a variety of styles, unlike SYTYCD. My favorite crew overall thus far is “Live in Color,” though I’m not in love with the name — too much like “Living Colour,” whose lead singer the lead dancer actually kind of resembles, with the mohawk (though the dancer’s hair is shorter than the singer’s was). I loved how that guy threw in those fouettes at the end (which one of the judges called “art spins” 🙂 ) Anyway, I’m expecting to write more about the show on my Huffington Post blog column, when it’s up (I’m thinking it got a bit delayed by Super Tuesday). If it’s not up soon, I’ll write more about the shows here.
I am so sick of the way the media is making the Democratic race into a race and gender war and the terms they’re using to construct it falsely. All I heard all night was that Clinton won among “women” while Obama prevailed among “Blacks.” What exactly are Black women then — doesn’t this language kind of negate them? Just when my blood was boiling over it, the reporter added, “oh and a footnote, a footnote: Black women voted for Obama by …” (whatever the percentage was). “A footnote”? How insulting.
While I’m mostly pleased with the Super Tuesday results, I am thoroughly disgusted by the media coverage, at least on network TV. They act like Hillary’s a big loser for not doing better, when, hello, she secured the most delegates and won the biggest states. On the other hand, the way they talk about Obama, it’s as if they’re patting him on the head, saying ‘good boy, good boy, you did really well, considering…’ Considering what? That he’s Black? That he’s young? It’s like he’s a child or someone with some huge handicap.
And right now on ABC some male jackass pundit is saying the Democratic party needs to decide whether it wants to be forward-looking, appealing to young people aged 30 and under, or looking backward to the good old days, appealing to the 60 plus crowd. Could the party possibly be both, dumbass? Ugh. Idiots. Okay, I’m tired and going to bed…