1001 Disco Days

Genevieve got us tickets to see Midsummer night's dream directed by Julie Taymor. It was spectacular. The greatest theater producer ever taking on the greatest playwright ever for an enchanting dream. The enchantment lingered and it  felt like we were still dreaming afterward when we went to Bembe, a dance club in Williamsburg with World music and live percussion. We danced for a Hours. Best caiparinhas ever. And it was amazing to watch the bartender dance while she worked, muddling the fruit and shaking the cocktails as if they were dance moves. It was epic date night. 155 dances for 2013. A good year!

Sweat every day. That's like, a maxim. today I did. Sweat is subtly ecstatic. Any water that leaves your body leaves On ecstatic waves.  Listened to my old friend DJ Rob This morning. He was in his scratch phase. Super fun. I love Rob.  Didn't get any pics, but came home and caught this reflection in Genevieve's photo. The wreath-laden windows across the street make a lovely design in this girl's dress.

Didn't make it out to dance all week and feel the resulting pain in my stiff back.  Loosened it up this morning. I took a series of photos of Christmas decorations on gravestones. There are hundreds of them up. This is a new phenomenon for me. At once absurd and moving.

Poem for 99 & Barry This morning's thaw, Scorched-earth saturnalia In subcutaneous scrimshaw. Watching the sun set the city on fire.

Went to a DadsNYC Christmas party at the Museum Of Moving Images in Astoria Queens. Good find by Genevieve. Great party for the kids. Face-painting, cookies and juice, Santa Claus, gifts (books and toys) and best of all, a video of the kids that they turned into a little flip book to keep. There was a terrific band too, playing jazzy little latin Christmas numbers. I got to dance for quite awhile with the girls, got really into it. The band gave me a special prize. A beautiful blue Christmas ornament. Woo hoo! Sofia appointed this woman to be mrs. Claus so we added her to the pic The ornament I won for dancing looms large on our little tree.

A beautiful dance in 20 degree weather thanks to warm clothes and good muggles and great music and arms and legs and lungs and heart and the rest of the body. I returned to the 11/1/13 set by 99 & Barry on Afterfm.com and was amazed all over again. Got some good images, maybe even a keeper. AND on the way home I found 2 pair of girls' ice skates in good condition someone was throwing away. Such an exciting gift to give my girls. Sometimes the universe is a remarkably good friend.

Terrasonic played songs about Nelson Mandela. I listened and danced. Not only do I get exercise and music and joy and art out of these morning excursions, but they are excellent meditations too. They give me time to get behind my mind, as an observer.  Very valuable all the way around. And the graveyard especially is a powerful place for this. As Tyler pointed out: everyday I have my momento mori. Check out the sun reflecting my girl's heart... And the way the city reflects the sun is an angel's head on fire...

It was cold and rainy this morning. I didn't bring gloves so whichever hand was holding the umbrella would freeze. And the cemetery was closed. But I didn't care. I was thrilled to be dancing. In fact at the end of the hour I would've happily kept going. What a difference from laying in bed and dreading getting up for work and going out into the cold. I mean, there is no pain, only pleasure, only joy. I was listening to the new 99 & Barry show and it made me laugh out loud more than once. Like when Barry said, "In the weather forecast today there's...lots of numbers. Very tiny numbers. Why does there have to be so many numbers?" Right! And his wife is number 99, ha ha. 99 problems but a stitch in time saves 99. Such a pleasure to listen to their set every week. The way I listen and dance to the music is like an epic odyssey. Over one Indian tabla track I imagine John Lennon's voice singing, "When it rains it shines. I can show you.&

This dance was different. First off went to have dinner with Tyler Burba and his family in Jackson Heights. Local Indian food (the best) and cheeba chews for desert. We sat on the couch and watched Laugh-In to see if it the humor stood the test of time. (It didn't) Then we watched Hee Haw for the same reason. (It did.) Finally we watched Busby Berkeley videos which I thoroughly enjoyed.  Tyler Burba and I headed out to 81st and Roosevelt Street to have a drink. We went to a place called Los Gatos Verdes Sport Bar. Green cats. Yep, that's us. We had a beer and tried to talk over the loud salsa and reggaeton music. On the way out I thought I would try to sneak a dance in. Once I got on the dance floor a woman came up to dance with me. I went into a kind of free-form cumbia dance with her and it was a ton of fun, like a roller-coaster but better. About three songs in I was ready to take a break and see how Tyler was doing, but I couldn't find a break. The DJ was go

Listening to K-Née again on a beautiful rainy morning in the graveyard. I hear... There's nothing like the jazz in you. And... The world softly lulls. I spend a few silent minutes with a white dove.

Brandon Downing introduced me to coach. My brother calls Her his coach too. I can already tell this is going to the poet. The poet is ready for anything, thought Ron Padgett. (Who never realized how poet rhymes with Padgett.) Neat trick, meat stick. DJ K-Knee gave me unbelievably soaring music this morning. I blew through the graveyard in between around stones. Unless you are reading this 5 to 7 million years from now, you can still find the set on afterFM.com. If you listen closely, it will transport you here. The entire flow of the dance as a mental, spiritual and physical organsm. Organism - ni (no) = orgasm. Each new nuance is a sensation you add to the feeling. To the feeling you get. -Ron Padgett

Barely a dance, but got there to the silly sounds of Slim Gaillard. Strange anxiety in my body, maybe coming from my dreams, notice it, feel it, work through it. I mean really. So many sensations, but how to feel them just right. 

Feeling good, more and more grateful for this the closer I get to dead. Met some beautiful people in the graveyard through their photos. A way to enter history.  The dance was skippy. More 99 & Barry. Plus Filthy McNasty.

Back in the graveyard, dancing to the 10/22 KGNU set by 99 & Barry. Took awhile to get started, groggy from travel, but when the right song came on I took off like a jet. A jet taking off into the new day, the new week, the new month... Vroom! The song was Koby Israelite's version of Subterranean Homesick Blues. So good. Could there be a better way to start the day? Yarn bomb