Alright, so the week isn't over, but I am pretty sure I can give an accurate summary of my classes and what they are going to be like based on M-R.
LING 435: Morphology and Syntax (Prof. Scott DeLancey)
THE CRAZY OLD MAN IS BACK! Ok, not true, I took this class this term BECAUSE he is teaching it. He is a truly amazing teacher, and it is fantastic to learn from him. For those of you who remember when I took intro to linguistics, it included several pieces, including morphology, syntax, historical linguistics, phonetics, and phonology. Well, these subjects have been split up into separate classes, and this one is about morphology and syntax, which go hand in hand. Syntax is the construction of words and sentences, and morphology is one possible mechanism by which that is accomplished.
Conclusion: class will be interesting, both the teacher and TA like me, and it shouldn't be that hard (challenging, but not difficult)
MATH 315: Elementary Analysis (Prof. Weiyong He)
Well, after we figured out that "modify" meant "multiply", this guy's accent wasn't too bad. However, this class is widely regarded as "the worst math class on campus" because, not only is it "the proof class" with automatically means it sucks, but the format is apparently crap, and I am believing this to be true. However, it is a prerequisite for every single upper level class, and so it cannot be avoided.
Conclusion: class will be boring, difficult, and will be the most crap class this term
PHIL 216: Philosophy and Cultural Diversity (Prof. Scott Pratt)
I was told this guy was both interesting and inspiring, and from what I have seen, they were right. The first unit we are doing is all about identity as it applies to race and culture, how identities are formed, and how they affect people/how people relate to other identities and cultures. It is a large lecture class, and so it is pretty boring, but the discussion section we had today about the 'Ground Zero Mosque' was one of the most engaging conversations I have had in quite some time.
Conclusion: I don't really care that much about philosophy, but as it goes, this could look to be an interesting source of conversation for Evan and I (we had a talk about the GZM last night, and he brought up some things I hadn't thought of)
DAN 251: Looking at Dance (Shannon Mockli)
In this class, we will look at movement through a historical, academic, and hands on lens. We will do readings and research, write papers on dances we see, and workshop dance activities once a week. The class is actually part of FIG (Freshman Interest Group) about MTV, and their other class is music class of the same variety, so it is largely freshman, which is not great, but it is a 200 level class, so it is to be expected. It really is too early to tell how good this class will be.
Conclusion: Going to be pretty easy, and hopefully interesting, and will not require a whole lot of work.
DANC 276: Tap II (Jean Nelson)
Well, it is tap dance, but harder than tap I. We learn more things, and learn them faster.
Conclusion: it's gonna be awesome, I just wish it was more than a 50 minute class.
DANC 271: Dance Improvisation (Brad Garner)
This class focuses on solo work, although we will do some contact things. We will work on how to get those creative energies flowing so that it isn't a thinking process when we dance so much as a feeling exercise. For example, today, we walked 50 feet in 30 minutes across the lawn in front of the library, while stripping off layers of clothing (I ended up in just my dance shorts) just to see how people would react. Yeah, it was hard... and it was really interesting to see how people reacted to 30 kids moving so slowly you could barely see them moving, but if you left for 5 minutes and came back they were in different positions wearing less clothes...
Conclusion: see previous
In other news!
I begin my adult classes tomorrow with Acrobalance. I have no idea how many people are going to show up, so planning that class is going to be hard, but I will do my best. I am running 4 rehearsals per week now to accommodate work schedules of my performers. Needless to say, I am not going to have a whole lot of time to goof off between work and school.
My one hour per day of pure relaxation, however, that I have made the rule is to be used only for that unless there is an emergency and I forget to write something for DAN251, is my lunch hour, between noon and 1 (when I have dance or work). This hour is spent 15 feet above the ground, in a tree that we have named Orpheus, or Orphi for short (the species name of the tree, according to Laura, someone who joined us for lunch, involves a word that sounded like Orphi, and we extrapolated Orpheus from that). Orphi has a place for my bag to go, and comfortable branches for everyone to sit on while eating! There is a big hollow area inside of where the needles begin to grow, so nobody can see inside. It is a very peaceful feeling in there, and it is a big time for me to cool down and let things go from the stressful morning.
I have two new projects as well.
1) I am doing a vlog, and the first entry in this, to be posted sometime next week (when I get done editing the hours of footage) will cover today. Things I did today, sort of a "day in the life" video, including me riding my bike around Eugene, walking around campus, eating lunch with Orphi, going to Bounce, and the first part of project #2.
2) By the end of this year, I will have footage of me juggling either by myself or with a group of people passing inside of every single UO building (not including dorms) on campus + Autzen. That last one will be hard. I am going to try to get inside Autzen to film juggling... I'm not sure how I am going to do that one, but I have 9 months to figure it out... Tonight, I checked Lillis off the list - I juggled in the Lobby, which is HUGE! I always have juggling stuff on me, and I always have a camera, so when I have a couple minutes to kill, I will just go to a building, set up the camera, and juggle for 30 seconds and then be on my way. It isn't a terribly difficult goal, but it will be a cool one. And to finish it off, I will video myself juggling in strange places around campus (in trees, on top of things that should not be climbed on top of, stuff like that).
I think that is all I have for you as of yet, but keep your eyes peeled for the entry containing the vlog entry (I will post them on youtube as well at Cobbledick's Vlog), but they will show up here first, and they will be accompanied by annotations and fun stuff. I am also waiting on the correct program to edit them (iMovie HD cannot speed things up properly, and iMovie '08 can't do it at all, so I need iMovie '09) and I need speed up capabilities, because I know you don't want 12 minutes of real time footage of me riding my bike from campus to the south hills... I don't like riding it, I don't know why you would want to see it... Except maybe the cool 2 minute piece in the morning through the fairgrounds when it is really foggy... That's pretty cool.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Friday, September 17, 2010
New Word: Lazanthetic
To begin, some definitions in preface, according to my dictionary
Lazy: averse or disinclined to work, activity, or exertion; indolent.
Apathetic: having or showing little or no emotion
My new word, while it is not a perfect blend of the two in spelling or in definition, serves its purpose well enough.
Laz·an·thet·ic
[laz-n-thet-ik] /leiz
nˈθɛtɪk/
-adjective
1. having or showing interest or emotion, but averse or disinclined to work towards the object of that interest
There is a fairly complicated logic behind why the spelling is what it is, and unless you think linguistics jokes are funny, you will simply give me the internet version of a blank stare, which I generally try to avoid.
Now, why have I invented this word? Because in my search through the dictionary, I cannot seem to find a word that describes the phenomenon that I have observed, and so I decided in my somewhat sleep-deprived state to invent such a word.
The above mentioned word was given the necessity to exist this morning. I had decided to pick up a new juggling/spinning tool called a double-sided meteor hammer (or "meteor" for short, because nobody uses a single sided one, and if they use something similar, they call it a rope dart when it comes to circus equipment - if you want more information, I can guarantee you that wikipedia can tell you everything you want to know about it) due to my stupid need to learn new things constantly. Anyway, the basic "need to know" of a meteor is that it is a ~4.5' rope, with two weights on each end. In the chinese version, which was a weapon, they were two heavy metal balls, that when spun into an opponents head... well... hurt. In circus, they can be two rubber balls or something similar for practice, or they can be two wicks for purposes of BURN! I don't have one of these, so I improvised by tying two sock poi together. The rope is a bit short, and the weights aren't heavy enough, and the poi are uneven, so I had to adjust for that, but the idea is there.
I posted this such news on Facebook, greatly abbreviated of course, followed by conclusion that learning meteor hammer is similar to learning poi; very frustrating, and you get hit in places you least expect - in this case, the spot on my head behind my right ear (note: if someone asks you what area of your body you want to get hit gently but repeatedly should you be forced into it, there are two areas not to tell them: groin and the place behind an ear), and this second post was met with some interesting comments, which will be edited for names and shortened to give you the highlights.
Now, I have been preaching this philosophy for years, and it has reached many ears, but not enough obviously, so I shall write a blog about it, and I shall send a link to it to anyone who says such things as Ms. Normal does (there is a joke waiting to be made about her name that I set up completely accidentally, and I am a little bit pleased with myself for it - you'll see it soon enough).
Before you can understand this philosophy of mine, lets call it the "If I can do it, so can you" philosophy, or Tao of Nike (Just Do It! get it?), I will explain to you how I got into the ground based circus arts (i.e. non-aerial/acrobatic, which have stories all to themselves).
When I was around 16 I believe, someone showed me a video of a man named Chris Murdoch doing something awesome called contact juggling, and I decided I wanted to do it, so I went and found some tutorials on ContactJuggling.org, and started learning with a grapefruit. I ruined a lot of grapefruit, but this was a non-issue, considering the grapefruit tree in my yard that produced more fruit than we knew what to do with. If you choose to learn with fruit before you spend money on supplies, use something that is readily available and very round, reasonably large, and heavy (i.e. not a lime). Anyway, I spend approximately three weeks learning the butterfly before I was confident in showing to my parents and friends (with the grapefruit) and decided I wanted to buy some practice balls so that I could stop ruining potential fruit juice. I would not even like to estimate the number of grapefruits met their demise falling off of the back of my hand.
Anyway, I decided to learn traditional juggling as well - it made sense. Now, as many jugglers will tell you, every time you add another ball, the difficulty (and number of drops) increases 10 fold, so when you juggler three balls as supposed to one, you get 100 drops proportionate. As someone who has learned to juggle, I agree with this statement. So I kept going, and kept dropping what were not objects resembling fruit (thank goodness) and I kept working at it. I chased my balls all over the yard, and I picked them up (until the greatest day ever: the day I learned kick ups - my back was quite happy with me that day) until I finally got it.
Finally, now that I have gotten past my basic history, I will get to my very blunt point: YOU THINK I WAS BORN THIS COORDINATED? HELL TO THE NO! I worked my ass off to be able to keep track of three balls at the same time, and to be able to change throws and mix combinations together. How did I manage to do it? I juggled. A lot. I'm talking the kind of a lot where normal parents would say "get off the computer" my mom would yell into the back yard "Stop juggling you idiot, you have to eat sometime" and I would yell back "BUT I'VE ALMOST GOT MILLS MESS!" which I didn't actually get until 3 months later in my father's living room, but that is the story of insane determination and dedication, which is another lesson I learned for juggling, and belongs in a completely different blog entry.
Two nights ago, I spun this stupid thing around and hit myself and dropped it and knocked shit over (every time worrying if my dad and Sheila had woken up, which they didn't... or if they did, they just rolled over and whispered "I wonder what crazy thing Connor is trying to learn now") and kept going. I would take a break every 20 minutes or so to get some water, or eat something, or watch an episode of some TV show I had downloaded. That's what purpose TV serves to me these days - relaxation in between episodes of training. And most of the time, I stretch while watching TV.
Final words, I promise.
When someone comes up to me and remarks about how coordinated I am, or how talented I am, or how amazingly badass and sexy I am when I roll that ball on my arm (ok, maybe not that last one - but the other two I do get from strangers) I just want to tell them that they could do, if they would just obey the Tao of Nike. If they would take a half hour out of every day to learn a new skill, and then to practice it 30 minutes every day instead of watching TV or something else mundane and useless, they would be able to do all that I could do. Anyone who says that they wish they would love to do what I can do, but just aren't talented enough or coordinated enough, they are lazanthetic. They want to, but not bad enough to put their mind to it, and actually work for something you might not succeed at the first time.
So Abby, your reaction to what I do is understandable - we live in a fairly lazanthetic society - nobody wants to fail, so many don't try. And those are the people looking wide-eyed at me on Saturday mornings putting money in my hat for something that they could do. You really are completely Normal - are you bored of that yet?
Lazy: averse or disinclined to work, activity, or exertion; indolent.
Apathetic: having or showing little or no emotion
My new word, while it is not a perfect blend of the two in spelling or in definition, serves its purpose well enough.
Laz·an·thet·ic
[laz-n-thet-ik] /leiz
nˈθɛtɪk/-adjective
1. having or showing interest or emotion, but averse or disinclined to work towards the object of that interest
There is a fairly complicated logic behind why the spelling is what it is, and unless you think linguistics jokes are funny, you will simply give me the internet version of a blank stare, which I generally try to avoid.
Now, why have I invented this word? Because in my search through the dictionary, I cannot seem to find a word that describes the phenomenon that I have observed, and so I decided in my somewhat sleep-deprived state to invent such a word.
The above mentioned word was given the necessity to exist this morning. I had decided to pick up a new juggling/spinning tool called a double-sided meteor hammer (or "meteor" for short, because nobody uses a single sided one, and if they use something similar, they call it a rope dart when it comes to circus equipment - if you want more information, I can guarantee you that wikipedia can tell you everything you want to know about it) due to my stupid need to learn new things constantly. Anyway, the basic "need to know" of a meteor is that it is a ~4.5' rope, with two weights on each end. In the chinese version, which was a weapon, they were two heavy metal balls, that when spun into an opponents head... well... hurt. In circus, they can be two rubber balls or something similar for practice, or they can be two wicks for purposes of BURN! I don't have one of these, so I improvised by tying two sock poi together. The rope is a bit short, and the weights aren't heavy enough, and the poi are uneven, so I had to adjust for that, but the idea is there.
I posted this such news on Facebook, greatly abbreviated of course, followed by conclusion that learning meteor hammer is similar to learning poi; very frustrating, and you get hit in places you least expect - in this case, the spot on my head behind my right ear (note: if someone asks you what area of your body you want to get hit gently but repeatedly should you be forced into it, there are two areas not to tell them: groin and the place behind an ear), and this second post was met with some interesting comments, which will be edited for names and shortened to give you the highlights.
Abby Normal: good luck, I would have knocked myself unconscious with one... do NOT have that type of coordination.... ~hugs~
Me: nah, can't knock yourself out - my meteors are beanbags. Anything is possible with enough training, though. I worked hard on this for 5 hours straight to get the tricks I know. Practice Practice Practice.
Abby Normal: this is why you're awesome, and I'm a complete nooblet! I need to visit one day and be seriously humbled...
Now, I have been preaching this philosophy for years, and it has reached many ears, but not enough obviously, so I shall write a blog about it, and I shall send a link to it to anyone who says such things as Ms. Normal does (there is a joke waiting to be made about her name that I set up completely accidentally, and I am a little bit pleased with myself for it - you'll see it soon enough).
Before you can understand this philosophy of mine, lets call it the "If I can do it, so can you" philosophy, or Tao of Nike (Just Do It! get it?), I will explain to you how I got into the ground based circus arts (i.e. non-aerial/acrobatic, which have stories all to themselves).
When I was around 16 I believe, someone showed me a video of a man named Chris Murdoch doing something awesome called contact juggling, and I decided I wanted to do it, so I went and found some tutorials on ContactJuggling.org, and started learning with a grapefruit. I ruined a lot of grapefruit, but this was a non-issue, considering the grapefruit tree in my yard that produced more fruit than we knew what to do with. If you choose to learn with fruit before you spend money on supplies, use something that is readily available and very round, reasonably large, and heavy (i.e. not a lime). Anyway, I spend approximately three weeks learning the butterfly before I was confident in showing to my parents and friends (with the grapefruit) and decided I wanted to buy some practice balls so that I could stop ruining potential fruit juice. I would not even like to estimate the number of grapefruits met their demise falling off of the back of my hand.
Anyway, I decided to learn traditional juggling as well - it made sense. Now, as many jugglers will tell you, every time you add another ball, the difficulty (and number of drops) increases 10 fold, so when you juggler three balls as supposed to one, you get 100 drops proportionate. As someone who has learned to juggle, I agree with this statement. So I kept going, and kept dropping what were not objects resembling fruit (thank goodness) and I kept working at it. I chased my balls all over the yard, and I picked them up (until the greatest day ever: the day I learned kick ups - my back was quite happy with me that day) until I finally got it.
Finally, now that I have gotten past my basic history, I will get to my very blunt point: YOU THINK I WAS BORN THIS COORDINATED? HELL TO THE NO! I worked my ass off to be able to keep track of three balls at the same time, and to be able to change throws and mix combinations together. How did I manage to do it? I juggled. A lot. I'm talking the kind of a lot where normal parents would say "get off the computer" my mom would yell into the back yard "Stop juggling you idiot, you have to eat sometime" and I would yell back "BUT I'VE ALMOST GOT MILLS MESS!" which I didn't actually get until 3 months later in my father's living room, but that is the story of insane determination and dedication, which is another lesson I learned for juggling, and belongs in a completely different blog entry.
Two nights ago, I spun this stupid thing around and hit myself and dropped it and knocked shit over (every time worrying if my dad and Sheila had woken up, which they didn't... or if they did, they just rolled over and whispered "I wonder what crazy thing Connor is trying to learn now") and kept going. I would take a break every 20 minutes or so to get some water, or eat something, or watch an episode of some TV show I had downloaded. That's what purpose TV serves to me these days - relaxation in between episodes of training. And most of the time, I stretch while watching TV.
Final words, I promise.
When someone comes up to me and remarks about how coordinated I am, or how talented I am, or how amazingly badass and sexy I am when I roll that ball on my arm (ok, maybe not that last one - but the other two I do get from strangers) I just want to tell them that they could do, if they would just obey the Tao of Nike. If they would take a half hour out of every day to learn a new skill, and then to practice it 30 minutes every day instead of watching TV or something else mundane and useless, they would be able to do all that I could do. Anyone who says that they wish they would love to do what I can do, but just aren't talented enough or coordinated enough, they are lazanthetic. They want to, but not bad enough to put their mind to it, and actually work for something you might not succeed at the first time.
So Abby, your reaction to what I do is understandable - we live in a fairly lazanthetic society - nobody wants to fail, so many don't try. And those are the people looking wide-eyed at me on Saturday mornings putting money in my hat for something that they could do. You really are completely Normal - are you bored of that yet?
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Cracked Glass
I lie down in the grass, the cloud drifting through kisses my cheek. The lights flash across my face, illuminating the cracked glass shielding me from the rest of the world. Layers upon layers of glass, and then above them nothing. Nothing but sky. Countless stars painted across the sky, speaking to me, asking me to come join them. They close in, beckoning me. Twinkling with their own personalities, they are so intriguing, and I have no choice but to come with them. The music drowns the sound of my breathing, and I leave my body in the glass coffin. My hands sink into my chest, my feet into the ground, and I am lying above the glass, finally with nothing between me and the universe. After the universe has shown me all it wanted to, of its calm, of its beauty, of its oneness, I begin to come back to my body. My feet rise out of the dirt, my hands out of my chest. As a gift for my communion with the stars, I am in ecstasy. I feel bliss radiating from my stomach downwards through my body, and heat up into my arms and chest. My breathing quickens and picks up volume, and I am aware of it once more. I rise out of my glass encasing, and rejoin the rest of the world around me. Hookah anyone?
In the tent, I am resting (communing with the universe is fairly draining) and friends are doing some healing work, going on about chakras, and my eyes slowly shut and I fall asleep for just a few minutes. I wake up to the sound of Travis' voice, but I don't open my eyes. I don't need to: I can see him plain as day. I know where he is from the sound of his voice, and I can feel his energy pulsing around us. I can see his face, and his mouth when he talks. I can see his chest rising and falling with his breathing. I can see Shakti pushing healing energy into my body, see the energy flowing from the universe through her into me. I can't hear Kat though. I can see her, out of arms reach, and she is the brightest light in the room. I couldn't see her with my eyes, I couldn't hear her with my ears, and I couldn't feel her with my hands, but I knew she was there. I went to her, and just felt her face - I wanted to learn when it looked like without the distraction of sight. As I payed attention, I could feel everyone around me. But not the dead things - I have a bruise on my knee to prove that rocks don't have energy.
On August 8th, the universe taught me how to see without my eyes. Not a lesson I will soon forget.
In the tent, I am resting (communing with the universe is fairly draining) and friends are doing some healing work, going on about chakras, and my eyes slowly shut and I fall asleep for just a few minutes. I wake up to the sound of Travis' voice, but I don't open my eyes. I don't need to: I can see him plain as day. I know where he is from the sound of his voice, and I can feel his energy pulsing around us. I can see his face, and his mouth when he talks. I can see his chest rising and falling with his breathing. I can see Shakti pushing healing energy into my body, see the energy flowing from the universe through her into me. I can't hear Kat though. I can see her, out of arms reach, and she is the brightest light in the room. I couldn't see her with my eyes, I couldn't hear her with my ears, and I couldn't feel her with my hands, but I knew she was there. I went to her, and just felt her face - I wanted to learn when it looked like without the distraction of sight. As I payed attention, I could feel everyone around me. But not the dead things - I have a bruise on my knee to prove that rocks don't have energy.
On August 8th, the universe taught me how to see without my eyes. Not a lesson I will soon forget.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
What a week...
Since i last blogged, a lot of stuff has happened. I will spend a disproportionate time on different events, but this is to be expected, because I simply do not care about everything equally.
The last time we spoke, it was just after Faerieworlds (which shall be called FW from here on out, as faerieworlds is not fun to type), and we spent a few days recovering. Nothing terribly interesting happened that week until Friday. I took a wee bike ride downtown to the Eugene Weekly HQ, because a designer I am walking for in a fashion show next week had be be her model for a photoshoot! I am not a model, not is modeling something I want to do seriously, but Hera keeps giving me these jobs to do, and I figure getting my name and face in the paper cannot possibly be a bad thing. So I wore this really poofy vest, and pants that can only be described as MC Hammer parachute pants meets 1800's ladies long underwear. Needless to say, I didn't know what emotion to really go for, and when I asked for a suggestion from Hera, her response was both awesome and completely unhelpful and was to "think Tim Burton." So, if you see the article in the paper this week, that's what I was going for. That's what the kid who stumbled into modeling and has had no training and has never done a photoshoot before. Not gonna lie, wasn't my best work - the goth look is my safety box (see spring fashion show pictures) and stepping outside of it is something I am still getting used to.
The photoshoot was short, and Jeremy and Lyra got distracted on their way out of town by a garage sale, so they had to go home to drop their haul off, which allowed me to jump in the car with them and go on a road trip to ashland. We were going to ashland because the next morning, an event I shall call the shakesale was going on. The shakesale is where they sell off (for very cheap) all of the costumes that the shakespeare plays had been using for the past 5 years. For those of you who don't know, ashland is shakespeare central. I got a pair of white gloves that got used yesterday for the first time (I'll get to that), and J and Lyra got $150 of clothes which filled up 4 garbage bags of clothes. These bags will largely comprise our costume budget for Kirkos for quite some time I think. We also got to hang out with the Mythmaker crew (people who put on Epic shows with seriously cool costumes and stilts and fire - people I will get along with very well) and just have a jolly ol' time.
But now, for some serious news. We were walking around friday night during the first friday art walk, and we were told that there was a trapeze show. And when I hear about someone doing aerial work when I don't know them, I am so going. So we went, and saw some pretty excellent stuff. One thing I couldn't help noticing was how similar the style was to that of Zuzi (a company I worked for in Tucson). Perhaps this was unavoidable, considering they were the only other aerial dance/modern company I have ever seen since Zuzi, but nevertheless, the similarities were uncanny. As it turns out, the person who runs this company moved to Ashland from Tucson, and used to work with Zuzi, and is friends with the women who trained me! Small world when it comes to circus and dance I suppose. In addition to this, I had the privilege of watching a woman named Emily Abrahams. She performed a piece to "The Ghost of You Lingers" by Spoon, and this is when I perked up. Her movement style was so unique, and so incredibly beautiful, and the more I watched, she is the anti-connor. I tend to do very sweeping, curvy movement, because that is what I feel. She was very angular (note: angular≠sharp, it just means straight line movement) and I've never seen someone make angular movement look so beautiful. You will see her influence in my pieces in the future, to be sure.
Emily then followed that piece with one called "Can't Stand The Rain" set to a song by the same name by The Rescues. This piece was mind-blowing. The dance was mixed so seamlessly with the aerial, and it was so incredibly beautiful. She is such a small person. 110 lbs at absolute most. She is about 5'2" and is small is every way it is possible to be. When she did this piece, she commanded the entire room. She filled it up with her energy, and, as my old martial arts teacher used to say, she "took up space." I was inspired, to say the least, and I am working on a new trapeze piece by the same artist, except to the tune of "Before The Fall," a piece which is still developing it's plot. However, what I have so far, coming from the lyrics and my own life, is loving the past, so that you cannot move on. This past continually trips you up, and you keep falling. However, the piece will not conclude with learning how not to get tripped by your past, or even to accept it, but to learn how, when you are falling, to catch yourself. To learn to live with your past, rather than to move past it. And I know how I am going to portray most of that. So, now I need is a show to put this piece in. I'll find one.
So since then, we've been having Tricky Pixie over to dinner, having a lot of fun, dancing around and generally having a good time!
Yesterday I actually got something done. I decided to take my "rock standing" to the next level, and I went downtown to do it. I was wearing clothes such that not a single inch of my skin was showing (I was wearing a mesh hood to cover my face). As it turns out, there was a big eventy thingy going on downtown, and I did my thing there. I would stand perfectly still on a pole (or crouch) and if someone put money in my hat, I would do a balance trick on my hands on top of the pole. I then donated my earnings to the event (which was a fundraiser). So next week, when I have business cards, I will continue to do this downtown, and use it to publicize our company, Kirkos (see last post).
Yeah, then I went to Voodoo Donuts and got a huge donut, and then went home and listened to The Rescues and then went to sleep. It was a good night indeed.
Adios, bloggosphere, until next time!
The last time we spoke, it was just after Faerieworlds (which shall be called FW from here on out, as faerieworlds is not fun to type), and we spent a few days recovering. Nothing terribly interesting happened that week until Friday. I took a wee bike ride downtown to the Eugene Weekly HQ, because a designer I am walking for in a fashion show next week had be be her model for a photoshoot! I am not a model, not is modeling something I want to do seriously, but Hera keeps giving me these jobs to do, and I figure getting my name and face in the paper cannot possibly be a bad thing. So I wore this really poofy vest, and pants that can only be described as MC Hammer parachute pants meets 1800's ladies long underwear. Needless to say, I didn't know what emotion to really go for, and when I asked for a suggestion from Hera, her response was both awesome and completely unhelpful and was to "think Tim Burton." So, if you see the article in the paper this week, that's what I was going for. That's what the kid who stumbled into modeling and has had no training and has never done a photoshoot before. Not gonna lie, wasn't my best work - the goth look is my safety box (see spring fashion show pictures) and stepping outside of it is something I am still getting used to.
The photoshoot was short, and Jeremy and Lyra got distracted on their way out of town by a garage sale, so they had to go home to drop their haul off, which allowed me to jump in the car with them and go on a road trip to ashland. We were going to ashland because the next morning, an event I shall call the shakesale was going on. The shakesale is where they sell off (for very cheap) all of the costumes that the shakespeare plays had been using for the past 5 years. For those of you who don't know, ashland is shakespeare central. I got a pair of white gloves that got used yesterday for the first time (I'll get to that), and J and Lyra got $150 of clothes which filled up 4 garbage bags of clothes. These bags will largely comprise our costume budget for Kirkos for quite some time I think. We also got to hang out with the Mythmaker crew (people who put on Epic shows with seriously cool costumes and stilts and fire - people I will get along with very well) and just have a jolly ol' time.
But now, for some serious news. We were walking around friday night during the first friday art walk, and we were told that there was a trapeze show. And when I hear about someone doing aerial work when I don't know them, I am so going. So we went, and saw some pretty excellent stuff. One thing I couldn't help noticing was how similar the style was to that of Zuzi (a company I worked for in Tucson). Perhaps this was unavoidable, considering they were the only other aerial dance/modern company I have ever seen since Zuzi, but nevertheless, the similarities were uncanny. As it turns out, the person who runs this company moved to Ashland from Tucson, and used to work with Zuzi, and is friends with the women who trained me! Small world when it comes to circus and dance I suppose. In addition to this, I had the privilege of watching a woman named Emily Abrahams. She performed a piece to "The Ghost of You Lingers" by Spoon, and this is when I perked up. Her movement style was so unique, and so incredibly beautiful, and the more I watched, she is the anti-connor. I tend to do very sweeping, curvy movement, because that is what I feel. She was very angular (note: angular≠sharp, it just means straight line movement) and I've never seen someone make angular movement look so beautiful. You will see her influence in my pieces in the future, to be sure.
Emily then followed that piece with one called "Can't Stand The Rain" set to a song by the same name by The Rescues. This piece was mind-blowing. The dance was mixed so seamlessly with the aerial, and it was so incredibly beautiful. She is such a small person. 110 lbs at absolute most. She is about 5'2" and is small is every way it is possible to be. When she did this piece, she commanded the entire room. She filled it up with her energy, and, as my old martial arts teacher used to say, she "took up space." I was inspired, to say the least, and I am working on a new trapeze piece by the same artist, except to the tune of "Before The Fall," a piece which is still developing it's plot. However, what I have so far, coming from the lyrics and my own life, is loving the past, so that you cannot move on. This past continually trips you up, and you keep falling. However, the piece will not conclude with learning how not to get tripped by your past, or even to accept it, but to learn how, when you are falling, to catch yourself. To learn to live with your past, rather than to move past it. And I know how I am going to portray most of that. So, now I need is a show to put this piece in. I'll find one.
So since then, we've been having Tricky Pixie over to dinner, having a lot of fun, dancing around and generally having a good time!
Yesterday I actually got something done. I decided to take my "rock standing" to the next level, and I went downtown to do it. I was wearing clothes such that not a single inch of my skin was showing (I was wearing a mesh hood to cover my face). As it turns out, there was a big eventy thingy going on downtown, and I did my thing there. I would stand perfectly still on a pole (or crouch) and if someone put money in my hat, I would do a balance trick on my hands on top of the pole. I then donated my earnings to the event (which was a fundraiser). So next week, when I have business cards, I will continue to do this downtown, and use it to publicize our company, Kirkos (see last post).
Yeah, then I went to Voodoo Donuts and got a huge donut, and then went home and listened to The Rescues and then went to sleep. It was a good night indeed.
Adios, bloggosphere, until next time!
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Philadelphia, Faerieworlds, good times
Philadelphia came to a close. Finally. I cannot express how much I was looking forward to coming home, but when the day finally came, I did not want to go through with it. Let me explain why.
In order to get to the airport at 11:00AM, we (Emilie and I) had to lug out luggage a mile and a half to the train station, make a transfer to a bus in 2 minutes (which involved running with out luggage, her suitcase didn't have wheels) and then walk around the philly airport to find the right terminals on foot. Oh yeah, and did I mention the 3 hour layover for the 4.5 hour flight, and then two hour drive back to Eugene? If you do the math on that one and take time changes into consideration, it was roughly 15 hours of travel time. That. SUCKS.
Well, I got home, and now with the beautiful weather, I can appreciate the pages and pages of notes I have from philly. It was an experience that I am glad I had, not just for circus experience, but a cultural one as well. I have never been so scared as I was the first week there. I have never been so severe a minority as I was there. As a result of this, I can say with quite a fair amount of conviction that it was one of the most important experiences in my circus career and my cultural life, and I can also say with equal conviction that it is an experience I fully plan to never repeat as long as I live.
Oh, and just to smirk a bit - my weather widget claims that it is 96 in Tucson, and 63 in Eugene at noon. This makes me happy.
I got two packages this week: 2 new CD's from Carly, which I am listening to right now, and my new 4" contact ball, which is going to hide in the shade until the end of it's days.
Alright, I suppose I should write about Faerieworlds.
Faerieworlds, as Jacob says, is not nearly as gay as it sounds. It is a 3 day gathering to listen to amazing music, dance your legs off, hang out with amazing people, and dress up however you want. We had everything from your classic faeries with wings, so Avatar Chick, to your dark elves. We had lost boys and girls, stilters and demons, people who looked like they just came from ren faire, and many many others. I myself was a forrest nymph, and that was a good look, because it involved shredded shorts and shirts, and since we were in the sun all day at Mt. Pisgah, having ventilation was a good thing.
I was camping with Jeremy and Lyra... and Kat... and Gishe. And we were right next to Isha and Corey and Daniel and Yona and Moksha. It was a very beautiful camping circle.
We got to listen to Delhi 2 Dublin, Tricky Pixie, Brother, Faun, Stellamara, and many others (I chose to list these because these are the guys you should go check out) and dance for 3 days. We also got to do a wee little show. It was choreograhed and prepared in about 6 hours, and executed that night. It was a glow show, about the story (according to peter pan) of imagination and faeries. It came out not nearly as well as I had hoped, but it ended up much better than I could ever have expected. SO! I can now say I choreographed a piece for Faerieworlds. I can also say that I have taken part in the fire ceremony in front of about 5,000 people. This year, it was a duet, between myself and a belly dancer named LuLu. I did some torch spinning and a big fire blast. Oh, and this was after Faun. Yeah, I got to follow Faun and perform in front of about 5,000 people.
In the time when I was not dancing or performing, I was scurrying about the place having fun and talking to people and getting my picture taken for the register guard (newspaper). What was I doing to get myself in the newspaper you ask? Was I doing amazing acrobatics or juggling fire chainsaws? no. I was crouching. Not only that, I was not moving at all. I was crouched on one of the rocks in the stone circle in a somewhat gargoyle pose, and I was not moving. My guess is that over the weekend, about 50 or 60 people took pictures of/with me. And many more just stood there and watched me. I have never had such an easy time attracting people as when I did not move. How weird is that. So there is a picture of me in the sunday register guard of me on a rock. I am going to do this in downtown eugene to advertise our new exploits. Which I will now explain.
In other news, Lyra and I have decided to start a circus/performance arts troupe. It is named Kirkos Performance Arts. Technically it is Κιρκος, but I don't know many people who can read greek, so that looks like kipkoc, which is not right... Kirkos is greek for "ring" or "circle," and also where the word circus comes from, because the original circuses were horse tracks. The original circuses in greek and roman times were highly unique for their times as well. The circus was one of the only social events that both men and women could go to - and the only one where they could sit together. I liked that idea. So our goal is to bring circus and performance arts (including dance, theatre, and anything else we want) to the everyman.
So, using Jeremy's massive Faerieworlds contacts, we managed to get our first gig. We havn't started rehearsals yet, and we hve our first gig. We are starting at the top this time. We are performing on Halloween in Seattle, WA for Strowler Nights. Yeah. That's right. It's gonna be awesome.
I think that is all the updates from the front as of yet, but I will keep you guys posted as more interesting things develop.
In order to get to the airport at 11:00AM, we (Emilie and I) had to lug out luggage a mile and a half to the train station, make a transfer to a bus in 2 minutes (which involved running with out luggage, her suitcase didn't have wheels) and then walk around the philly airport to find the right terminals on foot. Oh yeah, and did I mention the 3 hour layover for the 4.5 hour flight, and then two hour drive back to Eugene? If you do the math on that one and take time changes into consideration, it was roughly 15 hours of travel time. That. SUCKS.
Well, I got home, and now with the beautiful weather, I can appreciate the pages and pages of notes I have from philly. It was an experience that I am glad I had, not just for circus experience, but a cultural one as well. I have never been so scared as I was the first week there. I have never been so severe a minority as I was there. As a result of this, I can say with quite a fair amount of conviction that it was one of the most important experiences in my circus career and my cultural life, and I can also say with equal conviction that it is an experience I fully plan to never repeat as long as I live.
Oh, and just to smirk a bit - my weather widget claims that it is 96 in Tucson, and 63 in Eugene at noon. This makes me happy.
I got two packages this week: 2 new CD's from Carly, which I am listening to right now, and my new 4" contact ball, which is going to hide in the shade until the end of it's days.
Alright, I suppose I should write about Faerieworlds.
Faerieworlds, as Jacob says, is not nearly as gay as it sounds. It is a 3 day gathering to listen to amazing music, dance your legs off, hang out with amazing people, and dress up however you want. We had everything from your classic faeries with wings, so Avatar Chick, to your dark elves. We had lost boys and girls, stilters and demons, people who looked like they just came from ren faire, and many many others. I myself was a forrest nymph, and that was a good look, because it involved shredded shorts and shirts, and since we were in the sun all day at Mt. Pisgah, having ventilation was a good thing.
I was camping with Jeremy and Lyra... and Kat... and Gishe. And we were right next to Isha and Corey and Daniel and Yona and Moksha. It was a very beautiful camping circle.
We got to listen to Delhi 2 Dublin, Tricky Pixie, Brother, Faun, Stellamara, and many others (I chose to list these because these are the guys you should go check out) and dance for 3 days. We also got to do a wee little show. It was choreograhed and prepared in about 6 hours, and executed that night. It was a glow show, about the story (according to peter pan) of imagination and faeries. It came out not nearly as well as I had hoped, but it ended up much better than I could ever have expected. SO! I can now say I choreographed a piece for Faerieworlds. I can also say that I have taken part in the fire ceremony in front of about 5,000 people. This year, it was a duet, between myself and a belly dancer named LuLu. I did some torch spinning and a big fire blast. Oh, and this was after Faun. Yeah, I got to follow Faun and perform in front of about 5,000 people.
In the time when I was not dancing or performing, I was scurrying about the place having fun and talking to people and getting my picture taken for the register guard (newspaper). What was I doing to get myself in the newspaper you ask? Was I doing amazing acrobatics or juggling fire chainsaws? no. I was crouching. Not only that, I was not moving at all. I was crouched on one of the rocks in the stone circle in a somewhat gargoyle pose, and I was not moving. My guess is that over the weekend, about 50 or 60 people took pictures of/with me. And many more just stood there and watched me. I have never had such an easy time attracting people as when I did not move. How weird is that. So there is a picture of me in the sunday register guard of me on a rock. I am going to do this in downtown eugene to advertise our new exploits. Which I will now explain.
In other news, Lyra and I have decided to start a circus/performance arts troupe. It is named Kirkos Performance Arts. Technically it is Κιρκος, but I don't know many people who can read greek, so that looks like kipkoc, which is not right... Kirkos is greek for "ring" or "circle," and also where the word circus comes from, because the original circuses were horse tracks. The original circuses in greek and roman times were highly unique for their times as well. The circus was one of the only social events that both men and women could go to - and the only one where they could sit together. I liked that idea. So our goal is to bring circus and performance arts (including dance, theatre, and anything else we want) to the everyman.
So, using Jeremy's massive Faerieworlds contacts, we managed to get our first gig. We havn't started rehearsals yet, and we hve our first gig. We are starting at the top this time. We are performing on Halloween in Seattle, WA for Strowler Nights. Yeah. That's right. It's gonna be awesome.
I think that is all the updates from the front as of yet, but I will keep you guys posted as more interesting things develop.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
A Rant About Fushigi
If you have not heard of the Fushigi Ball, go watch that video, and then come read the rest of this.
Now that you've seen the "brand new, dynamically designed ball," allow me to yell about it for a few minutes.
#1 Fushigi is a noun, I can deal with this. Fushigi= acrylic/steel hybrid ball. Turns out fushigi is also a verb. It is synonymous with "contact juggling." I am gonna say it right now - the first person that comes up to me at market and sees me doin my thing and says "ooh! FUSHIGI!" I am gonna kick their ass with my torrent of corrections to their clearly flawed knowledge of the art.
#2 Fushigi lies. "Using FUSHIGI is an incredible, therapeutic form of relaxation"
Anyone here contact juggle? For those of you who do not, you know I make it look pretty easy. For those of you who do, you understand the HOURS of frustration I spent trying to learn this art. The months I spent learning a simple trick like a chest roll, or a 3 ball palm spin. Or a decent isolation. The years I have been doing this for and still screw up a waterfall if I am not devoting my whole self to it. After several YEARS on training, yes - a simply palm isolation or butterfly can be relaxing. Let me restate that: years. how many average american teens (who are the demographic of this, given the commercial) do you know who are willing to stick with something as stupidly hard and frustrating as contact juggling to get something "therapeutic." I answer myself - none. Not even me. I do it as a performance art, always have. Never have I thought about devoting time to learn something like this to relax myself.
#3 The existence of Fushigi is a serious double edged sword.
Pro: people might start to know what contact juggling actually is, and so there might be more of us around to spread ideas. If fushigi becomes part of mainstream culture, I will have to explain to less people what I am doing with that crazy ball that looks like it floats.
Con: does anyone remember what happened to poi? It was an obscure art with a very purist following - then mainstream culture got ahold of it and bastardized it. I am not overstating that. You see poi at raves with girls wearing almost no clothes, and doing 3 beat weave and butterfly thinking they are hot shit. Now, if you say "yeah, I do poi" this is what comes to mind - it has become a normal thing to do as a workout (every time I say "poi," feel free to substitute "hoop" and it still holds true). Anyone seen the poi videos (or hoopgirl)? After poi became part of mainstream culture, it became less impressive. It became largely about sex (not everyone, mind you - I have many poi heros who are circus purists) and this is just not ok with me. Sensuality has its place, but not flat out sex. I have seen so many videos where a girl is doing poi or hoop and is just doing... well... pelvic thrusts. The crowd cheers. This SUCKS! I have a fear that this will happen to contact juggling if Fushigi succeeds. I am not saying it will become about sex, but mark my words, the American public will find some other way to dirty up a beautiful and elegant art.
I think the cons outweight the pros... FUSHIGI GO AWAY!
I think that is all I have to yell about for now.
Now that you've seen the "brand new, dynamically designed ball," allow me to yell about it for a few minutes.
#1 Fushigi is a noun, I can deal with this. Fushigi= acrylic/steel hybrid ball. Turns out fushigi is also a verb. It is synonymous with "contact juggling." I am gonna say it right now - the first person that comes up to me at market and sees me doin my thing and says "ooh! FUSHIGI!" I am gonna kick their ass with my torrent of corrections to their clearly flawed knowledge of the art.
#2 Fushigi lies. "Using FUSHIGI is an incredible, therapeutic form of relaxation"
Anyone here contact juggle? For those of you who do not, you know I make it look pretty easy. For those of you who do, you understand the HOURS of frustration I spent trying to learn this art. The months I spent learning a simple trick like a chest roll, or a 3 ball palm spin. Or a decent isolation. The years I have been doing this for and still screw up a waterfall if I am not devoting my whole self to it. After several YEARS on training, yes - a simply palm isolation or butterfly can be relaxing. Let me restate that: years. how many average american teens (who are the demographic of this, given the commercial) do you know who are willing to stick with something as stupidly hard and frustrating as contact juggling to get something "therapeutic." I answer myself - none. Not even me. I do it as a performance art, always have. Never have I thought about devoting time to learn something like this to relax myself.
#3 The existence of Fushigi is a serious double edged sword.
Pro: people might start to know what contact juggling actually is, and so there might be more of us around to spread ideas. If fushigi becomes part of mainstream culture, I will have to explain to less people what I am doing with that crazy ball that looks like it floats.
Con: does anyone remember what happened to poi? It was an obscure art with a very purist following - then mainstream culture got ahold of it and bastardized it. I am not overstating that. You see poi at raves with girls wearing almost no clothes, and doing 3 beat weave and butterfly thinking they are hot shit. Now, if you say "yeah, I do poi" this is what comes to mind - it has become a normal thing to do as a workout (every time I say "poi," feel free to substitute "hoop" and it still holds true). Anyone seen the poi videos (or hoopgirl)? After poi became part of mainstream culture, it became less impressive. It became largely about sex (not everyone, mind you - I have many poi heros who are circus purists) and this is just not ok with me. Sensuality has its place, but not flat out sex. I have seen so many videos where a girl is doing poi or hoop and is just doing... well... pelvic thrusts. The crowd cheers. This SUCKS! I have a fear that this will happen to contact juggling if Fushigi succeeds. I am not saying it will become about sex, but mark my words, the American public will find some other way to dirty up a beautiful and elegant art.
I think the cons outweight the pros... FUSHIGI GO AWAY!
I think that is all I have to yell about for now.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Quotes 1 (I expect there will be more)
I'll give you the link up front
http://www.askmen.com/top_10/entertainment/top-10-quotes-about-men-that-every-man-should-live-by.html
And then I shall list the quotes in reverse order, as they do, with my own annotations, and why I hate this website.
10. "A man does what he must - in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers, and pressures - and that is the basis of all human morality" ~JFK
outstanding quote, but I will say it now, and know that it is to apply to (almost) all of the quotes to follow: I think that this should apply to the old form of the word "men," meaning people (i.e. mankind) and if they didn't write it that way, then they are assholes.
9. "Men are like steel. When they lose their temper, they lose their worth" ~Chuck Norris
possibly the best thing Mr. Norris has ever said. I am a huge supporter of keeping your temper, and I believe that when you lose it, you start making stupid decisions that get you nowhere.
8. "After a certain age every man is responsible for his face" ~Albert Camus
This was explained to mean "we are all products of our past, and at a certain point, who you are is a reflection of what you have done, and when you reach that age, you'd better be proud of the choices you've made." I like that, physical decay as a metaphor for moral decay. If only having a good moral life would assure your health and attractiveness into your senior years.
7. "Big jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow small ones" ~Teddy Roosevelt
I really like this one, and the more general meaning, which is (to me) to work hard at everything you do, because only then can you get to the "doing" of better things.
6. "Few men have the virtue to withstand the highest bidder" ~ G. Washington
Whether you are talking monetary price or a less tangible price, I do think that every man (person) has his (or her) price and that you should be able to resist the opportunity to compromise your morals at all costs - ideally...
5. "Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship" ~Oscar Wilde
Before I comment on this one, I'm gonna give you the website's annotations:
"It’s an old quote that’s revisited by Billy Crystal in When Harry Met Sally -- there’s no such thing as a platonic relationship between a man and a woman. The man is usually consumed with the idea of sleeping with her. It’s a belief widely acknowledged by men, but rarely accepted by women. Remember that. Movie and dinner nights might mean one thing to you, but she certainly doesn’t view it as a precursor to intercourse."
To which a commenter on this page responded:
"Just to give you what you deserve...
Quotations are the tools of the witless - Oscar Wilde
And platonic relationships ARE possible, so don't blame the whole gender for your sexual desperation. "
I agree with the second thing this guy said. This quote is terrible, but worse than that is the comment that was said about it... "it is a belief widely acknowledged by men." I love generalizations, I do, but this one is terrible. I have nothing more to say.
4. "it is not titles that make men illustrious, but men who make titles illustrious" ~Machiavelli
I think this one goes along with the Roosevelt quote - if you work hard and take pride in what you do, things will be better than if you don't work hard and don't care.
3. "When men speak ill of thee, live so as nobody may believe them" ~Plato
I think this one goes on my favorite quotes of all time list. I do my best to live this way, not to say I do, but I try. I am not yet perfect, but that doesn't mean I cannot strive to be.
2. "There is one kind of robber whom the law does not strike at, and who steals what is more precious to men: time" ~Napoleon
Life is short, and if you want to get done what you need to, you had better use all the time you have - go Napoleon, you marauding dick-head!
1. "A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do" ~Bob Dylan
I think that you should do what you love and love what you do, and if you can pull that off, you are truly successful - but doing what you love and doing what you want are not the same thing i my book. I love circus and dance, but I don't want to do them all day every day - even though I hope that is what my job will be.
And now, miscellaneous quotes put in comments that people thought should have been in the list.
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power"
"The masculine imagination lives in a state of perpetual revolt against the limitations of human life" I would like it better if masculine was changed to human.
"Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind."
-Bruce Lee
Goodnight, until my next update - most likely on friday or saturday!
http://www.askmen.com/top_10/entertainment/top-10-quotes-about-men-that-every-man-should-live-by.html
And then I shall list the quotes in reverse order, as they do, with my own annotations, and why I hate this website.
10. "A man does what he must - in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers, and pressures - and that is the basis of all human morality" ~JFK
outstanding quote, but I will say it now, and know that it is to apply to (almost) all of the quotes to follow: I think that this should apply to the old form of the word "men," meaning people (i.e. mankind) and if they didn't write it that way, then they are assholes.
9. "Men are like steel. When they lose their temper, they lose their worth" ~Chuck Norris
possibly the best thing Mr. Norris has ever said. I am a huge supporter of keeping your temper, and I believe that when you lose it, you start making stupid decisions that get you nowhere.
8. "After a certain age every man is responsible for his face" ~Albert Camus
This was explained to mean "we are all products of our past, and at a certain point, who you are is a reflection of what you have done, and when you reach that age, you'd better be proud of the choices you've made." I like that, physical decay as a metaphor for moral decay. If only having a good moral life would assure your health and attractiveness into your senior years.
7. "Big jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow small ones" ~Teddy Roosevelt
I really like this one, and the more general meaning, which is (to me) to work hard at everything you do, because only then can you get to the "doing" of better things.
6. "Few men have the virtue to withstand the highest bidder" ~ G. Washington
Whether you are talking monetary price or a less tangible price, I do think that every man (person) has his (or her) price and that you should be able to resist the opportunity to compromise your morals at all costs - ideally...
5. "Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship" ~Oscar Wilde
Before I comment on this one, I'm gonna give you the website's annotations:
"It’s an old quote that’s revisited by Billy Crystal in When Harry Met Sally -- there’s no such thing as a platonic relationship between a man and a woman. The man is usually consumed with the idea of sleeping with her. It’s a belief widely acknowledged by men, but rarely accepted by women. Remember that. Movie and dinner nights might mean one thing to you, but she certainly doesn’t view it as a precursor to intercourse."
To which a commenter on this page responded:
"Just to give you what you deserve...
Quotations are the tools of the witless - Oscar Wilde
And platonic relationships ARE possible, so don't blame the whole gender for your sexual desperation. "
I agree with the second thing this guy said. This quote is terrible, but worse than that is the comment that was said about it... "it is a belief widely acknowledged by men." I love generalizations, I do, but this one is terrible. I have nothing more to say.
4. "it is not titles that make men illustrious, but men who make titles illustrious" ~Machiavelli
I think this one goes along with the Roosevelt quote - if you work hard and take pride in what you do, things will be better than if you don't work hard and don't care.
3. "When men speak ill of thee, live so as nobody may believe them" ~Plato
I think this one goes on my favorite quotes of all time list. I do my best to live this way, not to say I do, but I try. I am not yet perfect, but that doesn't mean I cannot strive to be.
2. "There is one kind of robber whom the law does not strike at, and who steals what is more precious to men: time" ~Napoleon
Life is short, and if you want to get done what you need to, you had better use all the time you have - go Napoleon, you marauding dick-head!
1. "A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do" ~Bob Dylan
I think that you should do what you love and love what you do, and if you can pull that off, you are truly successful - but doing what you love and doing what you want are not the same thing i my book. I love circus and dance, but I don't want to do them all day every day - even though I hope that is what my job will be.
And now, miscellaneous quotes put in comments that people thought should have been in the list.
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power"
"The masculine imagination lives in a state of perpetual revolt against the limitations of human life" I would like it better if masculine was changed to human.
"Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind."
-Bruce Lee
Goodnight, until my next update - most likely on friday or saturday!
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