1001 Disco Days

Want to start up again. In a pushing through the difficulty barrier kind of way. Building strength and body. 40 years in the forest. Breakdown in class. Abject failure as a teacher. Taught EB White's "Once more to the lake" and Annie Dillard's "Total Eclipse", both existential breakdown pieces. I read them to myself while the classes slept. Literally. Having my own solipsistic experience. So to shake off the panic I dance. Only for 3 or 4 songs. Some playlist on Spotify. Tinariwin. Breaking through the cocoon of death. Time to fight. 40 years. Then die in peace.

a pastiche of dances Dancing home from teaching to Louis Armstrong singing the songs of WC Handy, care of Murakami's 1Q84 allusion to the music. And because he just died, to Fats Domino, "I'm walking," (could be the dance walking theme song.) And on my bike, and on the way to pick up the girls. And then to African Spotify playlist. Mother of a first grader in PS 150 walks up behind me and says she needs a little of what I've got. I'm a little embarrassed, but mostly okay. Always caught in that bind in this society. I was listening to the African music because an African dance performance by Manekadang, "music as language," concurred with my E101 class, so we took a short field trip. "In Africa music and dance are a way of living." --Maguette Camara, of Manekadang, at LaGuardia Community College. Now I want to move to Senegal. At least in spirit. Dancing all the time, as a way of life, that is the dream. Here's a strange...

Reading Murakami's 1Q84 and he has this great passage about Louis Armstrong playing the songs of W.C. Handy so I listened to it on the way home from teaching, feeling great, doing the 1,2,3 pause 4 suffle. Super good. Thinking to myself that I should make how-to YouTube video of how to Dance Walk. If I do it right... working backward here. This is one of my students. Imani. Psychedelic Palm Reading. Indeed. The arch above is at the entrance to the college. First time I'd noticed it, probably because of b&w photo challenge on FB, has me looking around. Anyway, it's sculptural, not structural, and I love how it looks like a harp, and a bridge, both excellent metaphors for education. The Woody Allen was up in the hallway, as were the international flags, also things I haven't noticed before.