Irrationality rules . . . sometimes

    Lar Lubovitch Dancers

(Source: Steven Schreiber, edgeBoston.com)

Ransom conducted for the Lar Lubovitch dance company last weekend. It reminded me of the first time I heard him do that, back in 1986. It was, oddly, at Carnegie Hall, not your usual dance venue. The dancers were on stage; Ransom and his orchestra, Solisti New York, were on the orchestra level, house right.

I re-read the New York Times review of that performance -- displayed below -- and enjoyed being taken back to that magical night. In case you don’t know, Lubovitch’s Concerto 622 is my all-time favorite dance piece; it’s set the to the Mozart Clarinet Concerto (K.622) and the slow movement is a pas de deux for two men; it makes me weep. The piece inevitably brings the audience to its feet, as it did at that Carnegie premiere.

Reading that review I realized I had the date wrong for my move to New York. I’ve said for years it was 8 April 1986, but since the Lubovitch was the day BEFORE, obviously I had it wrong.

I haven’t been able to find a more accurate date in my journals, but I did come across this startling entry dated a month earlier: “In fact -- unbelievable as this sounds after seven days -- we have decided that I will come to New York to live with him.”

Can you believe that? Ransom and I decided – after SEVEN DAYS – that we would live together. We had been in phone contact for several weeks but seven days after our first visit together in almost two years we made the decision. (The whole story of our beginning is told here.)

It’s too crazy to believe, but that’s the way it was. Sometimes in life you just have to go with your gut, do something irrational because it feels right. That’s the way it was for me in 1986. For Ransom too.

The cynic in me would tell young lovers that most relationships fail; they should not to do anything crazy or rash; take it slow, there’s no point in making it harder by upending your entire life and moving 350 miles.

This is one time I’m sure glad I didn’t take my own advice.

Photos of Concerto 622, courtesy Lar Lubovitch Dance Company

April 9, 1986

DANCE: LUBOVITCH TROUPE

By ANNA KISSELGOFF

THERE is something to cheer about when an already good choreographer comes gloriously into his own - and that is exactly what Monday night's audience stood up to do in Carnegie Hall at the local premiere of Lar Lubovitch's ''Concerto Six Twenty-Two.'' As thousands cheered, the dancers in the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company received huge white lilies at the curtain calls.

The new work, almost a sequel to Mr. Lubovitch's grandly passionate ''Brahms Symphony'' of last year, is named after Mozart's Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra, K. 622. It is festive music and it was played with liveliness and wit by the Solisti New York Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Ransom Wilson.

This ensemble, which featured Todd Levy as the clarinet soloist, was seated below the stage to the audience's left on the orchestra level. Like invited guests at an 18th-century patron's musicale, they were part of the party.

For Mr. Lubovitch's view of Mozart here is very much on the frolicsome level - until he surprises us and turns the middle adagio section into a tender duet for two men. Is the entire dance piece then a statement about the love two men can have for each other? It is possibly more about the way Mr. Lubovitch hears the music. And what he hears are musical themes that consistently suggest a cornucopia of movement themes.

Something wonderful has happened to Mr. Lubovitch's choreography. The minute his extra-special dancers swept out in the surge of movement that makes up ''A Brahms Symphony'' it was obvious that the company was on a performance high (''Big Shoulders'' was also on the program).

''Concert Six Twenty-Two'' was commissioned by France's National Center for Contemporary Dance in Angers with funds from the French Government. The world premiere took place at the center, whose director, Michel Reilhac, was in the audience at Monday's gala, a one-night affair to benefit the Lubovitch company.

The money has been well spent. Like Paul Taylor, Mr. Lubovitch is interested in having dancers dance. The sheer power and urgency of movement is his current concern. And amazingly, his inventiveness never falters. Repeatedly, the new choreography produces new steps, new movement, new patterns, new twists on highly sophisticated formal structures - and all with a vibrantly alive human passion that emanates from the dancers at every moment. Why beat around the bush? The truth is that this is very exciting dancing and this is what dance is really about.

''Concerto'' introduces an ensemble in its first ''Allegro'' movement. The men, Douglas Varone, Rick Michalek, Leonard Meek and Joel Luecht, are dressed in white polo shirts and white pants with a thin colored stripe. The bare-legged women, Ronni Favors, Christine Wright, Kathy Casey and Lorn MacDougal, are in simple white dresses. Craig Miller's lighting, however, makes the white appear brighter and shinier than it is.

Into this sunlit clime, the dancers circle or regroup with endless fluidity into chains, diagonals or various units of four, all the while leaping and twisting into vigorous shapes that curve through space. Power from the thighs and strength from the back radiate from every dancer - this forcefulness is a leitmotif to the increasingly playful tone of the section.

At one point, in fact, Mr. Lubovitch takes Mozart's repeats less than seriously. After some of the dancers vigorously jog through a phrase, they tiptoe to the musical repeat. There are other movement jokes that flash by.

As suddenly as the ensemble sweeps off stage, Sylvain LaFortune and Edward Hillyer, a guest from Montreal's Grands Ballets Canadiens, walk quietly toward each other to begin the male duet of the ''Adagio'' movement. There is a beautiful moment when they meet, place an arm around each other's shoulder and then form a linked pattern of two curved arms between them - as spiritual as the Gothic vault it suggests. The duet is essentialy about one man supporting the other in partnering, mainly in tilted and inventive shapes. Chastely danced, it is also about caring.

The last section, ''Rondo (Allegro)'' features the brilliant Peggy Baker with Mia Babalis and John Dayger in an initial trio, folowed by Miss Casey, Miss Favors and Mr. Meek.

The latter three each have a solo, eccentric in shape, all wonderfully danced. The first trio attempts to stalk around in a neanderthal manner but there is no hiding the technique behind the pose. When Mr. Lubovitch brings back the rest of the company for a unison leaping finale that dissolves into a chain dance advancing toward the audience, that audience goes wild. Mr. Lubovitch and his dancers deserve every bravo.

Courtesy, New York Times

Learning from the boob tube

I've been a fan of Glee since the beginning, though at times it’s been a love/hate thing. There's no denying it has been a positive force for change in the lives of young gays and lesbians, whatever its artistic merits. Smash, the new NBC show cashing in on Fox's success with Glee, looks to be as good -- and may turn out to be better; it's too early to call.

Smash’s second episode did something that non-PBS TV rarely does for me: it made think about my own life. I examined my behavior in light of how two characters on the show behaved. The very sexy Raza Jaffrey and the luminous Katharine McPhee play a couple; she's trying to land the lead in a Broadway show; he's working his way up the New York City governmental ladder. She misses an important social occasion because she feels she can't leave a rehearsal; he's justifiably angry that she didn't update him via phone or text.

When she finally shows up they fight; she apologizes, but he walks away. It looks like he'll leave the restaurant angry. But he doesn't. He stops, takes a breath and then holds out his hand. It's a beautiful moment, pregnant with forgiveness and love. It took me by surprise and stopped me cold.

How many times have I done that?

How many times have I instead kept walking, more interested in nurturing my anger than in forgiving?

It's a very hard thing to do -- for me anyway. When I'm angry I feel I have the right to be angry and the right to display that anger. I forget that the relationship -- whomever I might be angry with -- is almost certainly more important than the moment. It's about keeping the big picture in mind, rather than focusing on the small hurt.

I'm not very good at it. I didn't expect a TV show about Broadway would point that out. I'm glad it did.

Your old road is rapidly aging; please get out of the new one if you can't lend a hand

So Washington has become the seventh state to grant marriage equality to gays and lesbians. There have no doubt been celebrations in the Evergreen State, but of course there have likely been meetings and planning sessions as the bigots and homophobes ready their counter attack. They have until June to gather enough signatures to put civil rights on the ballot.

What a country we live in. A state's residents can vote on who has rights and who doesn't. Imagine if that had been true on a national level in 1964 and 1965 when society-changing civil rights legislation was passed. Does anyone doubt that, had granting civil rights for African-Americans been put to a vote of the citizenry, it would have failed? In 1964? Of course it would have failed!

That's why Jefferson wrote that ALL men are created equal, that they have an INALIENABLE right to life, liberty and the PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS. All men, not just heterosexual men; inalienable, meaning "cannot be taken away;" pursuit of happiness -- well, for a lot of people, that includes pursuing the object of your love and marrying her or him.

I'm not arguing that Jefferson was a gay rights crusader, but it's pretty clear he realized certain rights could not be taken away, not by the king, nor government, nor a concerned (or crazed) citizenry.

Am I riding a dead horse here?  Would the homophobes in Washington State and the rest of the country just get over it? You are on the wrong side of history. Get out of the way.

----------  ----------  ----------

The complete lyrics to Bob Dylan's prophetic classic:

Come gather 'round people wherever you roam

And admit that the waters around you have grown

And accept it that soon you'll be drenched to the bone

If your time to you is worth savin'

Then you better start swimmin'

Or you'll sink like a stone

For the times they are a-changin'

Come writers and critics who prophesize with your pen

And keep your eyes wide the chance won't come again

And don't speak too soon for the wheel's still in spin

And there's no tellin' who that it's namin'

For the loser now

Will be later to win

For the times they are a-changin'

Come senators, congressmen please heed the call

Don't stand in the doorway, don't block up the hall

For he that gets hurt will be he who has stalled

The battle outside ragin'

Will soon shake your windows

And rattle your walls

For the times they are a-changin'

Come mothers and fathers throughout the land

And don't criticize what you can't understand

Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command

Your old road is rapidly agin'

Please get out of the new one

If you can't lend your hand

For the times they are a-changin'

The line it is drawn the curse it is cast

The slow one now will later be fast

As the present now will later be past

The order is rapidly fadin'

And the first one now

Will later be last

For the times they are a-changin'

----------  ----------  ----------

And in a totally unrelated and only slightly less important development, this New York Times headline belongs in the “World Is Coming To An End” File: Pekingese Steals Show Along With Westminster’s Top Honor.

The runner up breed at the Westminster Show

The Ultimate Trip

I wrote last month about the events of 4 April 1968, the day Martin Luther King was assassinated. Today I’m thinking of a happier event that occurred the previous day: Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey had its New York premiere at the Loew’s Capitol at Broadway and 51st Street. (Coincidentally, two years later I took a job at Steak and Brew, also at 51st and Broadway).

Sometime in the late spring of 1968 I was in New York visiting my Notre Dame buddy Charlie Walsh; I went with him and his girlfriend Kim to a showing of 2001 at, I assume, the Loew’s. I’ll never forget it; when it was over, when even the credits had finished rolling, at least a quarter of the audience sat there, in stunned silence or in quiet conversation. “What in the world have we just seen?” was the question in the air.

It would haunt me for 44 years. I still question what it means.

What I do not question is that it is a masterpiece, a movie milestone that has had tremendous impact not only on filmmaking but on popular culture as well. David Pogue, in his 14 October 2011 review of Siri, the iPhone 4S virtual assistant, reports this conversation:

You: “Do you know HAL 9000?”

Siri: “Everyone knows what happened to HAL. I’d rather not talk about it.”

Last night I experienced 2001: A Space Odyssey on the big screen for the first time in years, at Fairfield University’s Quick Center. It was, in a word, FABULOUS! If any of you have only seen the film on DVD or Blu-ray, or, worse, videotape, you have NOT seen the film at all. Its original run in 1968 was in 70mm Cinerama; most theatres have shown it in 35mm. It demands that, at the very least.

In 1980 a friend gave me 2001 on VHS tape, knowing that I loved it; for at least thirteen years, until Chariots of Fire was released, 2001 was my all-time favorite film. I thanked my friend but he could tell I wasn’t that excited. When pressed I admitted that I would never watch 2001 on a TV screen. His gift remained shrink-wrapped until I gave it away years later. Recently I bought the Blu-ray version because it is loaded with extras and because amazon was selling it for eleven bucks, but I’m still not sure I’ll ever watch it, even on our 42inch TV, far bigger than I had in 1980.

The film still stuns with its lack of dialogue (the first words are spoken 24 minutes in), its use of classical music to depict space ships and space stations (to this day I do NOT think of Viennese waltzers when I hear The Blue Danube), its psychedelic use of colors and graphics near the end, its gorgeous cinematography and its use of absolute silence. It is an astonishing, provocative, visually beautiful and powerfully intellectual film that was just as exciting to watch last night as it was in 1968.

I worship at the altar of Kubrick.

WHAT THE F*CK?!

Rick Santorum yesterday won both the Minnesota and Colorado caucuses and the nonbinding Missouri primary.

Seriously?

I mean, REALLY?!

The man is a right wing religious zealot and bigot, a homophobe of the first order.

Thomas Jefferson wrote: “we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…”

I believe that. Rick Santorum does not.

But go on, you silly Republicans, nominate him. I’ll enjoy the drubbing President Obama will hand him in November.

Courtesy New York Times, 8 February 2012

The GOP's Heartless War

Listening to This American Life is one of the very best hours of my week; I subscribe to the podcast so that I can listen on my schedule. Episode 456, “Reap What You Sow” includes a sobering piece on the new Alabama immigration law. The law is designed to make life so uncomfortable and scary for undocumented aliens that they will leave Alabama; “self-deportation” is the goal of the law. From some perspectives the law has been a success; thousands of immigrants have fled the state; others live in fear, hunkered down in their homes, afraid to go out.

I’m reminded of the old saw “if you’re not a liberal (Democrat) when you’re twenty, you have no heart; if you’re not a conservative (Republican) when you’re forty, you have no head.” Clearly the Republicans who passed this law are heartless.

HB56 doesn’t punish only illegal immigrants; it punishes anyone who helps them. Churches and social welfare agencies have complained that they cannot legally minister to their charges. The law even makes it illegal to transport an undocumented alien; you could theoretically be cited for giving your neighbor a ride to the store.

Aside from the predicted impact (families pulling their kids out of school, vegetables rotting in the field for lack of workers) there have been some embarrassing unexpected consequences. In November a German man working for Mercedes-Benz was arrested for not having documentation while on a business trip to Alabama, even though he had his German identity card and his passport was in his hotel room.

The next month a Honda executive from Japan was cited at a police checkpoint even though he carried an International Driving Permit, a valid passport and a US work permit. Both Honda and Mercedes are major players in the Alabama economy; the law makes Alabama look the fool.

This would all be funny were it not so chilling. The Republicans cry that Obama is leading us toward some sort of European welfare state. I’ve never thought there was anything wrong with that and I completely favor it over the Gestapo tactics at work in Alabama.

Where do Republicans learn such hatred? If you’re a regular reader, you know my answer: they learn it every Sunday in their church, where homophobic, xenophobic, Puritanical preachers misread the bible to promulgate their us/them view of the world. The Republican Party – the Grand Old Party – has been taken over by right-wing religious zealots. It's the Grouchy Ogre Party as far as I’m concerned.

Saying it better than I can: click here to read a first-person account of this issue.