(The Metropolitan Opera, 29 September 2018)
Some things change. Others don’t. Individuals crave both. Opera belongs to the latter kind.
Change is a tree, not a path. Having some recollection of the past helps one retrace one's steps back to a less wrong position, if necessary. A memory of the past shared by individuals in disparate presents furnishes a shared vocabulary that helps debate a more promising future.
5 October 2018
Hazmat Modine
(Terra Blues, 29 September 2018)
One should take care to live, not merely survive. It helps if one enjoys doing what one is doing---or at least enjoys the company of the fellow travellers---as one is trying to climb aboard. It is a jungle. The winners deserve their victory, but so do many losers. The net beneficiaries are the tourists, who are not required to fight on the turf whose fruits they consume. Everyone is a tourist tasting the fruits of the frustrations of past generations.
The band has perfected the blues and then has taken it two steps further. The timing is impeccable. The passion is genuine. The anger is genuine.
One should take care to live, not merely survive. It helps if one enjoys doing what one is doing---or at least enjoys the company of the fellow travellers---as one is trying to climb aboard. It is a jungle. The winners deserve their victory, but so do many losers. The net beneficiaries are the tourists, who are not required to fight on the turf whose fruits they consume. Everyone is a tourist tasting the fruits of the frustrations of past generations.
The band has perfected the blues and then has taken it two steps further. The timing is impeccable. The passion is genuine. The anger is genuine.
4 October 2018
"21st Century Choreographers I" by the New York City Ballet
(David H. Koch Theater, 28 September 2018)
In Vento (by Mauro Bigonzetti):
Individuals seek patterns, even in chaos, even if spurious. This quest is common to all (even digital) life, which seeks to encode and navigate the world. Discovered patterns knit the society together by helping its members coordinate with each other.
Art is the experience of being alone together with those who have long died, those who will live long after, and strangers, distant or near---all those who share the compulsion to create, if only vicariously. Art is a shared hallucination, a model of reality, the reality itself.
Judah (by Gianna Reisen):
Individuals find comfort in synchrony with others only to express autonomy by breaking free to syncopate, outperform, and improvise.
One way social science contributes is by isolating and naming phenomena. (Names don't explain, of course, just catalogue.) Art functions similarly but gives more expressive names.
The Runaway (by Kyle Abraham, with NYCB):
For some, a good life obtains if pleasure prevails over pain. For others, a good life is a good story. For some, a society worth imitating is healthy, sated, and entertained. For others, a society worth imitating is one that promises adventure.
In Vento (by Mauro Bigonzetti):
Individuals seek patterns, even in chaos, even if spurious. This quest is common to all (even digital) life, which seeks to encode and navigate the world. Discovered patterns knit the society together by helping its members coordinate with each other.
Art is the experience of being alone together with those who have long died, those who will live long after, and strangers, distant or near---all those who share the compulsion to create, if only vicariously. Art is a shared hallucination, a model of reality, the reality itself.
Individuals find comfort in synchrony with others only to express autonomy by breaking free to syncopate, outperform, and improvise.
One way social science contributes is by isolating and naming phenomena. (Names don't explain, of course, just catalogue.) Art functions similarly but gives more expressive names.
The Runaway (by Kyle Abraham, with NYCB):
For some, a good life obtains if pleasure prevails over pain. For others, a good life is a good story. For some, a society worth imitating is healthy, sated, and entertained. For others, a society worth imitating is one that promises adventure.
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