Girl Walk All Day

 Jacob Krupnick screengrab

Sometimes you just feel like dancing.  And sometimes you feel like dancing All Day,  in fact.  (I just saw the film Step Up 3 on the bus, so I've got dance on my mind!)   Girl Walk All Day is a new film project by Jacob Krupnick that melds the new Girl Talk album All Day with the improvisational dance of Anne Marsen, Dai Omiya, and John Doyle.  The premise is basically the adventures of Anne, a ballet dancer who suddenly quits her regimented practices and decides to dance her way through New York--"a music video of epic proportions". The featured tapballethiphopetc style is utterly infectious and brilliantly playful, and shows that there are always new and inventive ways of experiencing your surroundings.  Check out the official website and download All Day (legally) here.  This is island dancing fo sho. 

Jacob Krupnick screengrab

 Jacob Krupnick screengrab

On the Street... Red and Magenta Monochrome

This lovely couple stopped by our yard sale over the weekend... their outfits certainly brightened up the neighborhood! 

Fresh Rhubarb, Radishes, and Onions

 I took these photos at our island market this past weekend... so great to see some beautiful fresh colorful produce after a long winter!  Most people were selling rhubarb, onions, and some radishes, but the selection will diversify as the season progresses.  What's fresh in your neck of the woods?

 

Drum Circle - Bangin on Pots and Pans

 Here's hoping you all have a great weekend!  Maybe join a drum circle, or even better, start one... don't forget the pots and pans!

Bikes Make Life Better - Projection Art

screengrabs via Wit and Delight

Bikes make life better.  Especially when combined with projection art!  Check out this cool short film and then go for a ride... remember those lights and helmets!   Can you bike to work?  How about that next potluck or concert?  Check out Bikes Belong and People for Bikes for more info on policies that promote safe biking.  (via Wit and Delight)

screengrabs via Wit and Delight

Happy Syttende Mai... Let's Dance!

 In all of the spring excitement here on the island, I forgot to wish you happy syttende mai yesterday (aka Nasjonaldagen or Grunnlovsdagen).  Many on the island have at least a tiny bit of Norwegian heritage (maybe that's why we ski so much!), and so Norwegian Constitution Day is a big day for parties, eating, and dancing like it's 1814.  These Stoughton Norwegian Dancers show us how it's meant to be done--at least the dancing part!

 

 

 

 

The Wild Braid - Stanley Kunitz in the Garden

One of our beloved poets on the island was Stanley Kunitz, who lived from 1905-2006.  His garden was, and is, a quiet place of solace, reflection, and meditation.  One of the books I'm reading this spring is The Wild Braid - A Poet Reflects on a Century in the Garden.  The book contains conversations that he had with Genine Lentine, a "bouquet" of poems, and 26 gorgeous photographs by Marnie Crawford Samuelson.  It is very inspiring to read about a man who had passion for his craft and knew that to get anything done, to plant a native flower and harvest a poem, you have to get your hands dirty and continue to nurture with light and water--each day, each day. 

 photo by Marnie Crawford Samuelson

The Round by Stanley Kunitz

Light splashed this morning
on the shell-pink anemones
swaying on their tall stems;
down blue-spiked veronica
light flowed in rivulets
over the humps of the honeybees;
this morning I saw light kiss
the silk of the roses
in their second flowering,
my late bloomers
flushed with their brandy.
A curious gladness shook me.

So I have shut the doors of my house,
so I have trudged downstairs to my cell,
so I am sitting in semi-dark
hunched over my desk
with nothing for a view
to tempt me
but a bloated compost heap,
steamy old stinkpile,
under my window;
and I pick my notebook up
and I start to read aloud
the still-wet words I scribbled
on the blotted page:
"Light splashed . . ."

I can scarcely wait till tomorrow
when a new life begins for me,
as it does each day,
as it does each day.

 

  photo by Marnie Crawford Samuelson 

  photo by Marnie Crawford Samuelson

 

 photo by Marnie Crawford Samuelson