Dreamgirls

we are dream girls we are dream girls we are your wet dream girls

gotta love how songs gloss over the topics that they really are talking about. Sort of taking all the sting, spice, and interest out of the topic to make it palatable for the masses.

That is what happened with the movie"Dreamgirls". It had so many possible great storylines in there, too many for 2 hours to deal with, that nothing really stood out. The story of Eddie Murphy's heroin addict could have been great. The story of Effie's drinking and single mother hood could be really intense and then her comeback. The megalomania of Jamie Foxx's character. The squashing of C.C. soul and spirit to make the songs fit into marketable packages could have been interesting. Curtis' realization of fatherhood could have been interesting.

But in the end none of these issues are really tackled, leaving you with not much.

Also what is with Beyoncé's eyebrows? Looks like there is something missing between her eyebrown? is it expression? How much Botox is in there. And why is she up for best actress? Jennifer Hudson is the main star in the movie, not Beyoncé. Once again the curvy chick gets bumped by the skinny one.

Parking

Yesterday, Kelly and I went for a little hike in the Huckleberry Botanic Preserve up in the Oakland Hills.

As we were leaving, I saw a car drive into the parking area and back into a parking spot. From some reason, I have always been suspicious of people who back into parking spots. It doesn't save any time. Back out now or back out later, same diff. I understand backing into a spot at a campground, so that the trunk is closer to your site. I think people who back into parking spots are too occupied with their cars. Or they have some secret knowledge I do not possess.

Jealousy, it all comes back to jealousy.

Nauman

Just got a link to video by Bruce Nauman.

You just gotta love his stuff. The idea is so simple and contained almost like a color, a new color on everyone's palette. Each time I see a video of his that I have not seen before, it is like a section of the refied world is opened up, allowing me new possiblities. What would/could I do with a video of me pinching my neck? I had never thought about a video of me pinching my neck. Aaack, my mind is opening. And then all his walking videos. Damn, just makes you want to do something and then film it. Bam idea bam

new colors new colors new colors

That is what is important, the new colors. Anyone can paint but can anyone make new colors?

Post show depression

The Scenery was wrecked. Guessing some people were thoroughly confused. Received the usual platitudes "Nice to see you dancing", the euphemism for many things - don't like it, didn't get it, you can't dance. Not that people need to have a well articulated opinion after the show, but something.

The houses were filled, not busting at the seams, but more than my last two shows here. So that is nice. Not sure if that is due to Mary and Nina's names or just knowing more people here in town.

One thing I am learning is that most people are not very curious. And how can you be an artist and not be curious? Yes, everyone had busy lives and many obligations, but one of those obligations as an artist, as a dancer, is to see as much work as possible. To see what is going on, what people are investigating/thinking about. You can only poo-poo someone's work if you have seen it. And my show was only $15.

How else are you going to learn about art if you don't go see show? Dance class isn't much of a place, rehearsal isn't much of one either. Well, those are both good places, but not as good as seeing other people's work.

Maybe I am approaching bitterness, but more and more I am convinced that people are not curious.

Canary in a Coal Mine

I must say 21st Century car insurance has been a disappointment for today. Well, not them directly but, the towing services they use. Some guy was supposed to pick my car up about 3 hrs. ago. But one of his trucks got into an accident. Another one broke down. Ironically the name is Secure Towing. Kinda like the Patriot Act, the name is the complete opposite. Homeland Security. Woo hoo...

This is like the butterfly affect. Except I am in a cul de sac when it comes to that. The tow truck gets into an accident, so my car can't make it to the dealer. that's the end. well, though now I get to do laundry and I might walk to the movie rental place. And all that will start a different chain of events. I saw that I am in the cul de sac, because the fact that my car is not towed affects no one but me. Somewhat affects K,M, and N, but we have another vehicle to scoot around in.

What surprised me when I was on the phone with 21st century, was that the person did not know how to pronounce Prius, as in the the car. I would think that someone who works for a car insurance company would know how to saw the name of a car made by Toyota. It's not like it is a fancy unheard of Italian car, or a really old car.

Shit shit shit my car is dead. How much is this going to cost now? Now accepting donations...

To Cater or Not to Cater

That is the question. Whether it is better to cook for your fellow mankind or to hire others to do so, I do not know. Does your personal sweat make the food taste better? Or will a stranger's sweat do? If you can hire someone for the food, can you hire someone for the conversation, too? Or have a friend come over to cook the food, but then pay to talk to a stranger. Conversation catering...

How about the reverse of a restaurant? A place where you go to cook with people you don't know, instead of going to a place to eat with people you do know.

Identify the variables and then reverse them.

posture and poise

Without good posture, sexiness is impossible. Have you ever seen a well built wo/man and noticed that s/he had bad posture? Kills the appeal. Have seen a couple women at the yoga studio where I practice. They're tan, fit, maybe a nip here and a tuck there. They could have saved themselves some dough and gone to Alexander lessons instead. Hunched shoulders,rounded back...not sexy. Add a few years and some osteoporosis and you're looking at the floor. Why is something as fundamental as posture too often ignored?

Poise- a particular way of carrying oneself : BEARING, CARRIAGE as defined by Merriam-Webster. Poise is also important. I don't mean that one should be ramrod straight, like a drill sergeant with a stick up his ass. But considering the money people spend on lotions, trainers, matching outfits and shoes, yoga classes, and organic vegetables, you'd think that people would spend at least a dollar on how they stand and carry themselves. Or if they slouch and galumpf through a room, do it consciously so that it is a choice, not a default mode.

Is thinking about posture and poise shallow? If you are going to think about what you are wearing, you should think about how you are wearing what you are wearing.

Slacker

Just finished watching the movie "Slacker" by Richard Linkletter, is that his name? Anyway, it is a brilliant movie. At first I thought it was kinda boring, not much happens, nothing to follow as the characters keep changing etc, but what sticks out is the format. The format is different. If anyone were to make another film with different dialogue, actors, costumes etc people would say - Oh, it;s just like "Slacker." Yes, it might be just like Slacker, but then also very different.

As Keith Johnston says, Content lies within the structure. Then if that is true most movies have the same content. As I would say the L word and Grey's Anatomy do. People having sex breaking up, getting mad at each other, changing partners. One group is artistic lesbians and the other is heterosexual surgeons except for the gay bartender. But same shit, different package.

But Slacker offers a new door to walk through, a "new" format. New to me because I am so behind the times. So backwards, I am retro and then flip around and end up cool, yeah that's it. Kinda like that article in the Onion I read a while back.(find the reference yourself, I do not know how to add links to this stupid blog)

How can this format be used to "say" something other than the format? Would be nice to see a movie of this format in Baghdad.

Why do things/art pieces of vastly different formats become marginalized and then stuck out in the unreified universe? Guess they are waiting for the rest of us to ketchup.

Is there a grand unifiying theory for all of Art? Kinda like what Einstein was looking for in physics...

Sunday Morning

Sunday morning yesterday and I must be moving
Goodbye angel goodbye heart, I best be moving on
Some say they will, some say they won't

Those are not the lyrics, but that is how I am hearing them right now, to a Supertramp song. At least I think it's a Supertramp song. I was first introduced to Supertramp, not by hearing their music but by reading lines from their lyrics in the yearbook of the school where my father taught- www.polytechnic.org. The seniors, on their pages would have quotes from Supertramp. For acouple years that band was quite popular with graduating classes. Long hair and big glasses.

"who is this tramp and why is he super? Does he have a cape? What powers does this tramp have? Super B.O. or super wine breath?" I was mystified as a child, looking at all the seniors' pictures. Seniors were really old then. Parents were old but that was another class of old. In a way seniors, even 8th graders were old, older than parents, because they weren't parents, kids but of an unattainable age.

The wikipedia site doesn't have info as to why the band was called Supertramp.

When will time travel be possible? I have times I need to be.

Past, Post, and Now

Just went to the faculty dance concert at Mills College. What does it say that a dance piece from 1957 did not stick out?

Rumsfeld is out

Rumsfeld's out! Rumsfeld's out!

He is the fall guy. He's the fall guy. Taking the heat for the rest of the team. Now Dem's think something has happened. They're gonna let their guard down. That is the plan.

Now there is going to be grid lock in Congress. Instead of bad things spewing from Congress, nothing will. At least here constipation is a good thing.

Congress won't be able to get a veto override with the Senate so close, if they even get the Senate. And I doubt many Republicans will cross the aisle to override Bush's veto. They're too scared of losing their futures in the G.O.P. to do what is right. That is something I have never understood- politicians doing the wrong thing just so that they can stay in office. If they justify it by thinking that by staying in they can eventually do some good, they just then have to stay to correct the wrongs they did stay in. A zero sum game.

And remember this- IF YOU DIDN"T VOTE, DON'T COMPLAIN!

Zits

everyone has popped a zit, at least everyone over 12. I just had one on my head, the right side near the forehead. I have been scratching it all day, irritating it. That irritation where it hurts if you touch the spot but for some reason you can't leave it alone. I guess it had been irritated enough as it finally formed a head, ( I can't really see it to tell) but just a little but ago, I squeezed it and it popped. Did I hear it, or feel it happen? or both? Such a visceral experience popping a zit. When it happens, you know it. Maybe a little blood, some lymphatic fluid. Pus is always exciting. But is it the skin breaking that you feel/hear? The opening of your fleshbodywaterbag to exposure to the outside elements, the ripping of your largest organ? I am sure that there is some noise made by a zit popping, how ever quiet it is.

Bastard Zen Koan- what is the sound of one zit popping?

Audition

Hey, that just reminded me of a freaky Japanese movie called Audition. This guy has a fake audition for a commercial or something. The real purpose of the audition is to find a wife. Then the whole situation turns around and bites him in the ass. I wonder if anyone one has written a dissertation on national character analysis through the lens of the type of movie that tends to come from different nations. Well, violent action movies and the USA. Hmmm....

But just was at an audition for Project Bandaloop. Probably didn't get it which is fine. But sure was fun!! Flying around bouncing on the wall. I wonder if it would be possible to make a cube of that bouncy wall stuff, suspend it and then bounce around in it. Or make a gigantic jungle gym of different angled surfaces and then bouce down it. kinda like a roller coaster, but no rolling or coasting, just bouncing.

Would be great but the insurance!!! Oy vey

Hang Over

Well, do not do yoga then go to a party and then drink 5 margaritas, or was it 4. See, bad...Especially if you have rehearsal the next day. Also bad if you smoke a cigarillo and you usually do not smoke. One guy ended up in the hallway for a while, head near a bucket. Later he was in the bathroom, his gf coming out every now and then to talk to people. Poor guy.

Other than the hang over party was good. Food folks and fun to quote McDonalds.

Matthew Barney
Time travel
jeff koons
poker
pin the tail on the donkey
wax lips
dance department gossip
style vs. formula

Where is my cell phone???????

L Word and That's My Bush

Just watched some of each show today. That's My Bush is an irritating show, don't bother to watch it. A spoof on sitcoms from late eighties early nineties and on Bush. There is no Cheney character in the show, guess he is hiding in an undisclosed location.

As for the L Word, after watching it for a couple DVDs worth, I have realized it is the perfect show...to watch while paying bills. If you actually have to focus your attention on it, it is boring. The music is really cheesy, and the scene when the group puts Dana's ashes in the waterfall near Camp Winamakalauolaipa and Dana's spirit appears in the water- major cheese.

blog set up part deux

So the blog that no one reads is back up...sort of. I can access it through the site www.andrewwass.com but not through the blog manager. The blog manager thinks the site is andrewwass.com. And the blog does not appear. But if accessed through www.andrewwass.com the blog appears. WTF?

Boring post

Good day yesterday at Mills. Taking with Kelly and Nina about some text I am working on for a work in progress show in January. The text is to be played over speakers while the performer just stands there. The text is to create lenses for the viewer to view the piece through.

I mean, when someone watches a performance, anything, a basketball game, that person brings all sorts of lenses to a performance. What colors s/he likes, kind of movements, what team, people, etc. There are so many, it is almost impossible to view the work in the same way that the artist does. At least an artist of any merit. A work could be made to appeal to most number of people but then you get television. Or television is made, most television, not to appeal to the most number of people, but to offend the fewest number of people.

Talking with the two of them lead me/us to not going to yoga. Stimulating conversation lead to the desire for more stimulating conversation. So I called some friends to see if they wanted to meet us at La Piñata #3 in Alameda for happy hour.

Oh...too great of a tangent

New site

Not sure if this will all work. Maybe I should add a picture for good luck.

Identity

If you weren't you, who would you be?

Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence in society- Mark Twain

Photo by Fred Covarrubias

Utilities

The building in which I live is a nice building. Great location, quiet neighbors, but the parking sucks. The utilities are kind of funky. The renters pay for the gas and electricity, which is fine. The bill for the water, garbage, and heating goes to the landlord, who then just divides the bill by the number of apartments. And instead of charging the renters that amount, the landlord charges $100 per month. This amount does not change if you happen to begone 2 weeks out of the month. This is not fair. In our last apartment, we never paid that amount for our utilities. We are getting ripped off. And if we are paying the right amount I would like to see the bill!