They Might Be in the Other Glasses Case – Sat Night OT

 

If you’re a “New York sort” and they can see you coming, it might be your glasses  or your glasses case that sets off the security detectors, lolsigh

 

Worst part is I have so many pairs now (had the contacts in, so emergency glasses (haven’t forgotten coming down that mountain), anti-UVA-B sun, blueblocker readers – that I don’t know what it was that set it off

If I take them all out before I go through the detectors tomorrow & it still makes noise I don’t know yet what I’m going to do then

 

I’m on quasi-vacay with the superachieving extended family – so I have the privilege of not only hearing the BSO but also watching Martha Graham Dance celebrate its centennial doing its debut at Tanglewood and Jacob’s Pillow

 

The current Artistic Director, Judith Eilber, seemed to really enjoy herself sharing with the audience that the work was commissioned by a notable foundation for the Library of Congress

 

She, like, hung on the words as she enunciated them and it felt like the entire room (the “Shed”, as it’s commonly known on campus) was picking up everything she was putting down 

Everybody remember they were one of the first?

 

THE MARTHA GRAHAM

Gained a new appreciation for Copland’s “Appalachian Spring” not just because I’d never seen the company perform the work, but also because the way the company director told the story that Madame Graham was told by a mutual acquaintance from, I think, Jacob’s Pillow that composer Copland could be contacted at “Box 102, Stockbridge”

 

It originally was titled “For Martha” (which is, IINM, part of where the 2026 work got its title For Martha from En Masse, commissioned to celebrate the company’s 100^th year)

 

 

There are eight dancers in the work, and three of the eight being selected being of African descent during this timeline felt like a statement of force

 

All the classic Graham shapes and time stops

Extraordinary

 

THE OTHER MARTHA GRAHAM – For Martha from En Masse

Can’t say how proud I was to find out that I’d taken class from this choreographer at the Ailey Building (pre-COVID when I was in much better physical shape than currently)

 

She taught us parts of Revelations (ridiculously difficult, so much more than it looked) and shared she wanted us to “get the history in our bones”

 

What we were privileged to see was a single excerpt from the new work (again, extraordinary – ensemble, canon, what felt like references from Ron Brown’s “Evidence”) – so now I have to spend some time hunting down the rest

 

THE BEETHOVEN – Symphony no 7 in A

  

Thought the top of my head might fly off

The last three movements of that symphony are allegretto, presto, & allegro con brio

This is a lil’ video portrait of the conductor returning to her alma mater so you can get a sense of what she gave the house 

 

I heard this both from and about Fosse a lot but I also saw it recently apparently shared from a comedian – that what we can do is shaped by what we can’t

I’ve often thought that (and thought it was profound & original) – but what I felt sitting there as part of a community was

“Okay, I’m never going to have those contractions or jumps or verticals, but given what they’ve built by refusing the mess they didn’t want to be a part of – what else can I do in the spirit of what they are doing?”

 

 

I forgot to relay this to the case (this is the second “contacts” story I’ve had to share with you all) – when I’m moving bags for both self & family there are a lot of bags, which means there are a lot of opportunities to forget something you need (especially if even if the packing lists started out meticulous they sometimes end like run-ons)

I was getting ready to take out the contacts & was starting to wonder if I put them in the bottom of a cup w/saline if they’d be okay but then I remembered I’d put one last glasses case in one of the other bags – which of course was where I’d stashed those tiny-winy little cases (two of them)

 

When we are looking for those resources to create the things to shore up ourselves & our peeps against the current Onslaught of Ridiculous Menace – I hope we all do take a quick look in that last bag