Adolescence
“Fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, lemme tell you. Those are big years. Everybody always thinks of it as adolescence—just getting through to the real part of your life—but it’s more than that. Sometimes your whole life happens in those years, and the rest of your life it’s just the same story playing out with different characters. I could die tomorrow and have lived the main ups and downs of life. Pain. Loss. Love. And what you all so fondly refer to as wisdom.” Lidia Yuknavitch, Dora: A Headcase We’ve all heard school reunion stories about the nerd who’s now a...
Read MoreThe Handkerchief Dance
We couldn’t possibly take leave of either Dance, Dance, Dance or the Randy Rooster, without showcasing their connection. La Cueca This national dance of Chile represents the courting between the rooster and the chicken, using, what else? a handkerchief as the ultimate flirtation device. The dance comes from the word clueca, meaning a hen about to lay her eggs. The dancers wave handkerchiefs above their heads which symbolize feathers, and/or the rooster’s comb. Young dancers from Pepe’s Chile …from www.thisischile.cl The connection was spot on to our topics this month, but...
Read MoreJazz it Up!
This week marks the grand opening of San Francisco’s new Jazz Center. As I write this, I’m listening to Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto, and thinking about the recent loss of the late great Dave Brubeck. I used to listen to jazz with my dad. He adored Earl “Fatha” Hines and Ahmad Jamal, among others. Both were Philadelphia transplants who joined the Chicago jazz scene. We would listen to Dizzy Gillespie be-bop, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, and others. The Dixieland sounds of Al Hirt, Pete Fountain and Louis Armstrong were also ever present. By the time we were through, Jamal’s Live at the...
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