Kristin Von Claret is performing as a dancer at McCall Hall as part of Gluck’s Iphigenia in Tauris, a Seattle Opera presentation and co-production with the Metropolitan Opera of New York. Kristin is also the choreographer my company Social Living Productions partnered with for my three productions: Tokyo 2025, Revenge of Tokyo 2025, and 4 Seasons.

Yesterday, Kristin arranged for me to watch their first rehearsal in McCall hall. The first time that all the teams (dance, voice, set design, lighting, etc.) came together on the McCall stage. There was marking, adjustments to sets, surprises as to the floor material, and stage direction from Stephen Wadsworth. Here’s a sneak picture of her about to leap into action; she’s center in black. Erin, one of the dancers from my Revenge of Tokyo 2025 production, is also a dancer in this production.

I was able to watch until about 8:30pm but needed to leave to go shower and meet other friends out for a drink. We met at Cha-Cha’s new location on Pike St. between 10th and 11th Ave. Vinita, Bruce, Nima, Gary, and Bud all came by. We started upstairs but later moved to a primo corner table downstairs where we held court. I shared stories of New York and one time was kidded about my changing accent when they heard me say, “Long Island.”

I’ve got my new jellyfish tattoo. Its on my left arm, elbow, shoulder, scapula, and chest. Yes…its large. Its a jellyfish designed and inked by Jeff Cornell of Hidden Hand Tattoo on MySpace (or Hidden Hand Tattoo website) in Seattle, Washington.

Jeff did my first tattoo, the tree on my right arm. I knew I wanted a tattoo and thought about what it would be for years. Long time ago I wanted a musical note but it evolved into a tree and then into a specific symbol of a tree and not a specific tree. I had scoured Seattle, looking at dozens of portfolios until I found Jeff. We consulted, I brought in pictures, he sketched, I tweaked, he sketched, then inked. I love it; the tree not the six hours of pain.

So then came the thought, “Do I get another?” Yes! So what would it be? I wanted to have another tree but not a tree. So I though about the ocean. Trees are in forests. There are forests of seaweed. So I decided to get seaweed on my arm. Again I researched online and in the Seattle library. In the library, I found a 20th century scientific book that was specifically on Pacific Northwest seaweed. I found a couple of images in there that were good. Then, I found two books from the 19th and 18th century.

Albertus Seba’s Cabinet of Natural Curiosities: The Complete Plates in Colour, 1734-1765 is filled with illustrations of plants, sea shells, insects, coral, and more. He was an Amsterdam pharmacist and collected all kinds of curiosities from around the world. So much that his collection and later the book he published from illustrations he commissioned of his collection became world known and is one of the 18th century’s greatest natural history achievements. Some of the animals illustrated are now extinct. I was in illustration wonderland. I particularly love the coral.

Then I found Ernst Haeckel’s “Kunstformen der Natur” aka Art Forms in Nature published in sections from 1899 to 1904. Its a stellar book filled with sea creatures, microscopic animals, plants, and a few land animals. There is so much in this book that I like, its hard to not want the book printed all over my body.

But one image stuck with me. The Discomedusae. The jellyfish. I decided that I wanted a jellyfish inspired by these illustrations but for it to be Jeff Cornell’s original artwork. Jeff’s extremely talented and I trust in him. When I was in Seattle earlier this year, I consulted with him, left references for him to noodle on and sketch, and made an appointment for October 4th. An all day appointment.

I grabbed another cup of Vivace coffee, a bagel, and hopped a taxi to his Fremont studio. We tweaked his sketch some and he made a transfer to a stencil. The first, second, and third transfer of the stencil to my arm weren’t quiet right. Number four was the magic one. And then the pain began.

We went for about eight hours with a lunch break and a few shorter ones. A combination of pain and the length of time in pain was a lot; more than the tree tattoo he put on my left arm. He’s a very skilled artist; the pain is just a temporary pain and part of the experience. I could see that we wouldn’t finish it all in one day. There’s a lot of detail and its just big. I’ve got another 6-8 hours of work to go and have made an appointment for his first available full day which is in Jan. I’m extremely happy with how it looks, how it is healing, and the whole experience. Jeff is good and in demand!

A change happened to New York City after labor day. It was palpable. Symphonies, dance companies, performance troupes, and other arts were beginning their seasons. Nightlife is picking up. It feels different.

I asked some long-time New Yorkers and this is normal. They say summer is for outside and for the rich to leave town. Labor day is the switch. After labor day, activities are in the city and going more inside as the weather turns colder. Not that its cold yet…it was 90 degrees a few days back. I’ve read that in a given week in New York City, at least 25 different dance performances fill theaters from Harlem to Brooklyn. So lets go!

With this shift, comes wonderful opportunities for me to see performances. As a producer, I crave them. Last night began the Fall for Dance festival at New York City Center. Every night is SOLD OUT! Every night. So I get to go in the cancellation line each night for the performances I want to see (every one of them). Its not too bad. I show up about 5:30pm, tickets are given out shortly after 6:30, I grab dinner nearby for the 8pm show.

Last night, the opening night of the festival had:

• “Arden Court” by the Paul Taylor Dance Company. The big rose projected on the scrim. Amazing ways their bodies moved in very exacting professional ways. I love this company.
• “Middle Duet” by the Kirov Ballet of the Mariinsky Theatre of St. Petersburg, Russia. They were founded in 1783 and produced legendary performers like Anna Pavlova and Mikhail Baryshnikov. Ballet isn’t my preferred dance form, but I can appreciate talent like this.
• “Varnam” by Shantala Shivalingappa. A classical South Indian dance form with music. Less athletic than some of the other dance forms I’ve seen but I could tell was done with extremely precise dance positions, postures, and hand positions.
• “Deuce Coupe” by Juilliard Dance and choreography by Twyla Tharp. Twyla loves the ensemble. Groups moving together as a unit yet each individual performer having their own rhythm and movement. I loved the choreography but I didn’t like the rapid transitions between songs. They were mostly mid-20th century songs like Little Deuce Coupe. It seemed more a collection of fun songs which didn’t really bind together. Seemed inconsistent with the choreography.

So that’s the opening night of the festival and one of many nights I’ll be attending. Sorry, no pics. They were hard core about not taking them.

I would normally be at Black Rock City, NV celebrating with everyone on the playa at Burning Man right now, but my recent move to New York City has me focused there. The current playa gossip is about a guy allegedly setting the man on fire early tues morning. Here’s my angle on it.

I’m more in the mindset of…do whatever you want to do on the playa as long as it doesn’t interfere/intrude on another person’s experience. Yea yea, the trance camps interfere with my sleep at 7am with their damned dush-dush-thump-thump music from hell…but I can easily (and do) put in ear plugs. So there’s some gray.

For me, burning The Man (I figure it gets a double cap) early and selfishly is a bit on the dark side of that grey. Regardless of any of his (the alleged arson) reasons, altruistic or not, he changed an iconic symbol for some/all playa citizens. Changed their expectations. Changed their experience.

For the good or bad? I dunno, but he intruded on the experience of everyone there and that, for me, is a behavior not to be supported. Ugh, but even as I write this paragraph, I hesitate because I also believe the following. And yes, I’ve quoted it before.

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” – George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman (1903) “Maxims for Revolutionists”

So probably a better way–for me–to think through this scenario is to better understand his reasons. If they are altruistic in nature, then perhaps this is a good thing. We will all have the opportunity to learn from this. But, if done for some meaningless reason like cheap thrills, then his actions don’t justify the results even if accidentally positive. Living in a world where alleged arsonists set fires for selfish reasons isn’t safe.

[Update 2:28pm 30 Aug 07] They are about to raise a new Man. You should be able to see it in this live camera feed from the playa which scans across the horizon.

A friend, Andy, and I went to NEWD at The Eagle tonight. Its a self-described “new monthly elektro fetish kabaret”. Tonight was Orwellian 1984 themed with optical lenses, bondage, odd lights, and women dancing in corsets. I have no clue why women dancing in corsets were there but the rest I got. The music was nice but, for me, the style didn’t match the theme. It was fun watching the slave in the middle knitting something out of leather string. I’m glad that their crew is out there doing this show. Creativity is my thing and I support it.

Lookout! Its the sunflower monster! Grrrrr!

All videos of the dances in my latest show “4 Seasons” are online. Choreography by Kristin Von Claret.

Yesterday, July 8th, was the first annual Figment celebration of art and creative culture held 10 minutes from New York City on Governors Island. I volunteered to help the group out and it was a blast. Smooth running. However, over a thousand (1000+) people couldn’t get on the island because we were overwhelmed with happy people that wanted to come out. We had writeups in the New York Times, Time Out New York, AM New York, and more. For those that did make it on the island, they had the opportunity to ride metal and tire tread horses, learn African dance routines, get their faces painted, listen to music, dance to electrifying DJs, watch medieval swordplay, admire beautiful artwork and experienced dozens of other projects and activities.

Pictures are here.

Here are lots of great pictures from my most recent show “4 Seasons”. Our photographer Kim Behrens took some great pictures and then I took waaaay lotta time to find the best ones and photoedit each of them. Below are three random pictures from the set or you can view the whole set.

Today I went into Supergenius Tattoo to see my tattoo artist Jeff Cornell. I want to get another piece on me by him before I move to New York City. I’m thinking about seaweed. It continues the idea from my other arm’s tree. The tree is strong, stable, provides shelter, gives life, etc. And seaweed is similar. There are forests of seaweed, is provides shelter for fish, and life as food. I also live the branching web of seaweed. Its a common thread with me as I also like the branches of Winterhazel. We talked and he let me look through a book called “Art Forms in Nature”. It was amazing. All kinds of illustrations of nature done in a very classic way.

So I came home and did some research. Kunstformen der Natur (Art Forms in Nature) is a book of lithographic and autotype prints by German biologist Ernst Haeckel. Originally published in sets of ten between 1899 and 1904 and as a complete volume in 1904, it consists of 100 prints of various organisms, many of which were first described by Haeckel himself.

I definitely see an interpretation of something from his book now on me. I do want Jeff’s own artistic take and not a straight copy. I found a German site which has his entire originally published book “Art Forms in Nature” scanned and available. Its been 70 years since Haeckel’s death so the images are now in the public domain. I’ve downloaded the whole book and really look forward to looking at them all.