Let's All Meet Up in the Year 2000

Over the last week I watched the movie Rise, David LaChapelle's documentary about krump and clowning in Southcentral LA.  It had some flaws as a movie, but content-wise, I'm so glad I saw it.  I had no idea about the whole clowning movement, let alone its relation to krump.  The dancing was off the hook fantastic--I don't know how Lil C (prominently featured in the film) keeps a straight face when he critiques what they call krump on So You Think You Can Dance, because it really doesn't bear a lot of resemblance to what the kids were doing on the streets.  I suppose that's the nature of turning a dance into a codified form though, like the difference between Latin social dance and Latin ballroom dance.  One of the things I really liked about the film was that LaChapelle dug into what the dances mean to the people who do them, providing historical and social background for the dancers.  Perhaps not surprisingly, the popular presentation of krump seems to miss the point; it's not all about being angry and stomping around, but rather about taking your anger and frustration and dancing it out in the company of men and women who understand you.  It was a cliché scene in some ways, but a shot of the dancer Dragon (I think that was who it was) krumping on an empty beach at sunset with an amusement park off in the distance while the voiceover talked about his family problems and frustrations in life was pretty damn moving.  In a lot of ways, the krumping competitions reminded me of mosh pits and slam dancing way way back in the day.  An outsider would just see how violent it looked, without getting that the kids in the middle of the pit bouncing off each other aren't out to hurt people at all and that it was really a community bonding experience.  Watching the film, I got a real sense of dance helping people to take control of their lives and giving them a source of pride in themselves and their community.  I really recommend it, both for people who want to learn something about krump and clowning and just as a documentary about people who live in Southcentral LA.

Also watched WALL-E, which of course I enjoyed very much.

In still more entertainment news, Saturday we spontaneously decided to go to the Museum of Science and see the Mythic Creatures exhibit, along with half of the rest of Greater Boston.  The exhibit was pretty interesting and I think valid in a science museum, contrary to some popular criticism.  I was expecting more of the possible biology and physics of mythic creatures but was pleasantly surprised to find it was really more of an anthropological exhibit exploring why people believe in sea serpents, unicorns, chupacabras, etc and how those beliefs travel around the world and change in the course of cultural contact.  Not sure I learned much that I didn't already know, but it was well put together and worth a look.  We also visited the new triceratops, one of the most complete skeletons in the world, who is very cutely posed rather like a romping golden retriever.

Wish I had gotten in more dancing over the weekend.  I am feeling very sketchy about the drum solo I'd picked out for next Sunday.  It's very frustrating not having a room with doors I can shut and be alone in at home.  M stays out of my way but I can't really concentrate feeling that there's somebody moving around the house and also knowing that I am preventing that somebody from using the main lounging part of our apartment.  Hopefully I'll have some time alone this week to see what I can cobble together for this solo.  I think I'm going to have to choreograph to some extent so that I don't end up scribbling.  I can write and memorize a choreography in six days, right? :-/
 

10 years ago today M and I had our first date--we watched an episode of Deep Space Nine and then went out to a Korean/Japanese place in Brighton Center.  I can't believe it was so long ago, and at the same time I can't believe it was only ten years.  That was the first day of the rest of my life :-)

The holidays have been good to us.  We both got good swag and some exciting family news from my brother and his wife, making it a very happy holiday indeed.  I bought a camcorder yesterday, a JVC model that came with its own DVD burner, which is very cool since my computer does not have a burner that can do DVDs.  I've been following Seti around making little movies, and it does ok in the low level of lighting in our dining room at night, so I'm optimistic about how well it will handle belly dance shows.  It has a sports setting for capturing fast moving people on static backgrounds, which might be useful.

I've got to get dancing again, but the last three days have been super productive for me.  I organized all my sweaters in bins (as opposed to storing them in a jumbled heap on the top shelf of the closet), went through years of accumulated paperwork (I suppose I don't really need to keep the phone bills from three apartments ago), am currently backing up my computer, found places to put all the christmas stuff, bought a utensil holder bucket thing from Monroe Saltworks so that we can actually find things in the kitchen drawers again, and many other useful endeavors were undertaken and accomplished.  This is really what I wanted to do with my holiday break, so I'm not too sorry about missing the dance time.  Tomorrow I should get in some dancing, after the trip to Winmill Fabrics and a couple of sewing projects.  Though among my swag were a couple of samba DVDs, so I might delay the Middle Eastern dancing another day ;-)

Today my parents took us to see the Napoleon exhibit at the MFA.  I'm not sure I would have gone on my own but it was quite fascinating.  I had no idea about much of the symbolism of the material culture of the time--no design elements were accidental.  Napoleon had his artists creating a new lexicon of symbols based on the principles of the Revolution, at least before he went all power crazy emperor.  Josephine sounded fascinating in her own right.  I'd like to find a good bio or better yet a good reality-based novel about her.  Of course the elegant gowns made us all think of kambriel --if you are reading this, K., my mom says hi to you and C.