Tangents

The subject line is from Vienna Teng's "Level Up." I've been rewatching the video with new appreciation, now that I've spent more time practicing combinations within the past five years than during the previous forty-five. (I have not become good at combinations, but neither am I trying to be Xin Ying or So Young An or Masazumi Chaya. I am aiming to become the healthiest I've ever been . . . )

Given that Teng and her partner aren't professional dancers, the choreography in the opening minute really impresses me now. The sequence between 0:57 and 1:03 has always made me catch my breath.



I was thinking about Vienna because I first saw Alex Wong and Ben Sollee perform with her at the Belcourt. Alex, in turn, has recently introduced me to an array of performers and artists I'll be paying closer attention to (and have, in some cases, put on my next Bandcamp Friday list): Ruby Ibarra, Rotana (a Saudi-born artist whose songs on Sunday included one about self-pleasure), MILCK, and Surrija.

My favorite Surrija track so far is "Sylvette," which is ironic, because I spent dozens of hours this past year wrangling content about Picasso (becoming a Françoise Gilot fan along the way, as well as ever more firmly Team Braque), and not once did Lydia Corbett ever come up.

The past few days have been rife with derp -- sunfried tomato seedlings, pizza sticking like tar to its pan, and other mishaps -- but I managed to deliver some thises and thatses, and also didn't get killed riding my bike to the East Nashville Farmers Market (I rewarded myself with a tangerine popsicle when I got there).

Then there are the guys in another league:


(The dude cruised up at least a block on just the back wheel. His buddy behind me cheerily bellowed "Awww yeah" when I snapped the pic.)

Elsewhere, in other negotiations with movement, there's a virtual formal ball for English country dancers next week. The band's recordings include "Ransom Note," which I'm going to hope is on the program because the tune is so beautiful, and I have a lovely memory of whirling around to it in Decatur two Septembers ago.

Vicki Swan was kind enough to invite me to join the dance mosaic she compiled for "Bonnie at Morn." I'm in the third tile up from the lower left corner:

This entry was originally posted at https://zirconium.dreamwidth.org/175161.html.

The tornado has increased the amount of blue in my neighborhood. The blue of flashing police car lights, blocking off streets or parked outside buildings. The blue of tarps on many roofs, especially on Holly Street.

On my walk to and from Turnip Truck this afternoon, I could see and hear carpenters at work on a roof between Woodland and Holly, even though enough rain was coming down for me to bring out my umbrella.



This tree near East End UMC has a PLEASE DO NOT HAUL AWAY sign affixed to it -- apparently Good Wood Nashville has dibs and will presumably turn it into "tornado furniture."

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I had ambitious plans for the day, but then I stayed up until 4 a.m. sipping valerian-camomile tea while writing letters and organizing old messages, and subsequently woke up once or twice mid-sleep thanks to dreams and discomfort (I'll be taking up an extra blanket tonight), so today's been more of the same (plus rereading Jackie Lau's Ultimate Pi Day Party). It's okay:
during high school and part of college, I used to have a Shaker postcard above my desk that said, "Do your work as though you had a thousand years to live and as if you were going to die tomorrow," and some days the thousand years has a bigger say in the pacing.

Today's cooking:

impromptu corn chowder: I belated realized that I really wanted soup for lunch, so I mixed a can of creamed corn with around a 3/4 canful of water, a handful of imitation crab flakes, and a few shakes of pepper.

slow-cooker pork and lentils: 1 lb. pork. 1 bag of lentils. 1/2 bag of cubed sweet potatoes. Around a cup of white rice. All piled into the cooker with water to cover, and some shakes of Montreal chicken seasoning (garlic, onion, salt, black pepper, parsley, red pepper, paprika, orange peel, and green bell pepper); stewed on low for I guess around eight hours, and garnished with fresh parsley and chopped sugar snap peas

There is much that is awful about Twitter, but it does also yield quite a few kernels amid the chaff. Kara Hartnett (Kara_nashpost) communicated the mayor's Safer At Home order far more effectively than the local Gannett publication or the then-crashed Metro site, which my partner attempted to consult when I came downstairs and said, "So, you saw...?"

Later in the day, I played for him Jane Godley's profane "translation" of Nicola Sturgeon's speech, which (as I'd hoped) had him grinning by the end, especially once he found out that Sturgeon herself had retweeted it.

This entry was originally posted at https://zirconium.dreamwidth.org/161989.html.