Blogging During A Pandemic And Insurrection

1.  John Brown and Harper's Ferry

From History:

"Abolitionist John Brown leads a small group on a raid against a federal armory in Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia), in an attempt to start an armed revolt of enslaved people and destroy the institution of slavery."

 This incident is in every American history textbook.  STOP  My students knew that if they wrote a sentence like that, I would underline it and write something like:  "Have you looked at every American history textbook?  

So, of course I had to see what I could find to answer that question.  I suspect one would have to sample as many US history books as one could gather and read through them.  (I did something like that in an article about the lack of Native American Law in public administration textbooks.)  In answer to that question I did find some related sites.  One is by a history teacher writing about how to use Harper's Ferry as a lesson. He writes:

"What the Textbooks Say

Brown’s raid often appears in the narrative of the Civil War as the point of no return—the moment in which the country’s deep divide between free and slave interests polarized with the injection of violence. Textbooks tend to describe the responses to Brown’s raid and trial in binary terms, with Northerners and Southerners displaying unified, and starkly opposite, reactions."

That doesn't answer the question, but does let us know it's a topic in many history textbooks both in the North and the South.  

Magazine of History looks at John Brown as an chance to teach history, not through the memorization of names and dates, but as an opportunity to explore difficult and ever present moral tensions.  

Although the institution of slavery was purged in the crucible of the American Civil War, John Brown's determination to expose and end chattel slavery still resonates. The multiple legacies of slavery and questions about the efficacy of violence as a tool for change in a democratic society continually bring historians and teachers back to the complicated life of John Brown. When students consider Brown's contributions to the American narrative, lines between advocacy and criminality, contrasts between intensity and obsession, and differences between democratic ideals and harsh reality are brought to the surface. To this day, artists, authors, historians, political activists, and creators of popular culture maintain a fascination with the antebellum rights-warrior and his death.

Wow.  I was planning an array of short comments in this post, and already I've gotten carried away on this first one.  But as I think about those who plundered the Capitol Wednesday, I have to think about Harper's Ferry and the fact that this nation is still divided over the same questions that led to Harper's Ferry.  While slavery has been abolished (but not completely eliminated if we consider things like sex trafficking and even prison labor, and some might suggest people who have no choice but to take minimum wage jobs), the belief that some people are inherently superior to other people based on skin color or ethnicity or religion is still capable of stirring people to violent attempts to overthrow the rule of law.  Just as the belief that everyone deserves to be treated by police with the same respect and the same level of force based on the real inherent danger to the police and the public got people out into the streets all summer.  

When John Brown took up arms, slavery was still legal in the United States.  His cause was to overturn those laws.  As much as I want to believe that slavery is inherently evil and that racism is evil, there are tens of millions of people who either disagree or think these issues are subordinate to other values they hold.  

2.  Both Energized And Drained by Zoom

Thursday I was in front of my screen from 3-3:30 watching Bridgman/Packer's presentation to APAP.  

"The Association of Performing Arts Professionals is the national service, advocacy and membership organization for the live performing arts field. APAP is dedicated to developing and supporting a robust performing arts presenting, booking and touring industry and the professionals who work within it."

My understanding is that every year they have artists - in this case dancers - perform for people who book acts to various venues around the country.  This year it was done virtually and Bridgman/Packer invited us to sit in.  Bridgman/Packer is a dance duo that totally dazzled me when I first saw them perform in Anchorage.  We've sent a modest check each year to support their work - it's criminal how geniuses in the arts have to scrape by.  Here's the blog post I wrote when we first saw them.  I was trying not to give anything away.  But the magic of what they do is combining live dancing with prerecorded dancing, use of screens and shadows.  It sounds odd, but it's amazing. In the showcase they talked about and showed video of their work.  They've been using abandoned factories in upstate New York as filmed backdrops.  They also do dances inside a large truck.  And they had one set that was filmed by a drone.  

Then I had back to back political fundraisers - we have a mayoral race in Anchorage in April - to attend.  And finally I tried to watch the Humanity Forum's annual awards to see Rachel Epstein get her award.  She ran the UAA bookstore speaker program for years and years - a real treat for many of us.  

3.  Turkish and Spanish

I've been doing 20-30 minutes a day of Spanish on Duolingo for over a year now.  It helps my vocabulary and grammar, and my listening, but not my speaking.  But I figure it keeps my brain active.  A couple of months ago I decided to add Turkish.  A month or two in Istanbul is something I've been wanting to do.  I skipped Istanbul in 1965 when I was hitching from Germany to Greece and back - promising to get there one day.  So we've watched a few Turkish movies on Netflix, and the one at the Anchorage International Film Festival.  Turkish definitely offers insights in grammar that I'd never considered.  Lots of things - like plurals and possessives - are done with suffixes.  Well, we add an 's' to make plurals, or 'ies' so I'm sure we're as bizarre to speakers of other languages.  Also, adjusting my brain and fingers to a Turkish keyboard is tricky too.  

4.   Prodding Dan

I sent my junior Senator another email.  I figure his original Koch backers have their own agenda for him in the US Senate so he's more loyal to that than to protecting Democracy.  But I figure I can keep reminding him I'm here and I want him to prove he's really a Marine.  And maybe the staffers who read the emails are more susceptible to reason.  

5.  Keeping My Photoshop Skills Alive

6.  And There's The Daily Alaska COVID Count Update

Why I Live Here - Bridgman/Packer Win Bessie Award

Bessie?  Who"s that, you might ask?  Here's what the New York Times says about the Bessies:

"New York Dance and Performance Awards — affectionately known as the Bessies, the dance world’s equivalent of the Tonys and Oscars." (emphasis added)

Here's the award for Outstanding Production from the Bessies website:

"OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION:
Art Bridgman and Myrna Packer Bridgman|Packer Dance for Voyeur at the Sheen Center
For groundbreaking use of video in live performance, creating a space where virtual and actual movement merged. For inhabiting Edward Hopper’s imagery and taking the audience on an inventive journey of private spaces and ever-shifting viewpoints."

And what does this have to do with living in Anchorage?

Well, back in 2008, Bridgman Packer were in Anchorage in a very small venue doing the kind of amazing dance performance that won them the award the other night.  It's a mix of dancing with their own shadows and with video of themselves dancing live.  When I first saw them in 2008 here, I was breathless afterward.  What I saw was so amazing.  I worried that maybe I was just a hick from Anchorage who was excited over something New Yorkers take for granted.

But as time went by, I realized, that they were the real thing and my reaction was justified.  They have gotten a number of awards before, but here it is nine years after people in Anchorage first got to see them close up and personal (you could talk to them and the other artists with them after the performance), New York gives them dance's highest honor.

Here's a post I did about their 2011 performance in Anchorage.

I'm going to add some video here, but with a BIG warning.  You might be able to video other dance performances, but you can't really capture Bridgman Packer on video because live, they already dance with video of themselves dancing.  Though this clip comes close.  Remember, there are just the two of them.  It's hard to tell who is the live performer and who is just the image.  And it's NOT a gimmick, it's integral to the messages they are conveying about reality and illusion and truth.


Bridgman|Packer Dance Excerpts from Bridgman|Packer Dance on Vimeo.

I believe Out North was involved with their first performance here, along with The Alaska Dance Theater.  I know for sure Out North was involved with their second trip here.

Poop, Swoop, Can Weird Be Cool, and other Google Searches

Watching how people get to this site offers an interesting view of how people search Google (and other search engines) and how Google handles them. Some of the more recent ones are below.  For previous posts on google searches click here.


the millions sank awestruck in the dust -This person got to  Susan and William Goldenberg Make Stunning Music a brother and sister team who had reminded me of another couple making music together in Richard Musil's The Man Without Characteristics. So I had a paragraph from the book that began with "The millions sank, as Nietzsche describes it, awestruck in the dust."  I'd say this person found what they were looking for.

pennsylvania had to endora, sorry, endure this lady in 1972 - Who says civility is dead?  This searcher (why do I think it's a woman?) even apologized to Google and corrected herself. I have no idea if she found the scurge of Pennsylvania. She got to Famous People Born in 1908, so maybe.

half moon bay beach - I've gotten this a couple of times recently.  I have pictures of Half Moon Bay beach on this post and this one in moonlight.   But they get sent, instead, to this post of Venice Beach, which does mention Half Moon Bay.  Google, why isn't there an easy way for me to tell you that you sent them to the wrong page?  I've since linked from the Venice post back to the actual Half Moon Bay beach posts.

can weird be cool - got this lucky searcher to a post on Strange,Weird, Wonderful, and Cool, Buildings.  Perhaps the title answered the question.

aiff 2010 film festival scam? - Google, sometimes you exasperate me. I have posts about the aiff film festival scam.  More than one. With scam in the title. And usually you send people to a film festival post that at least mentions 'scam.' But this poor reader was sent to a post of AIFF 2010 Features in Competition which doesn't mention or link to a post with the the scam aspects. Why?   BTW, The Anchorage International Film Festival is legit, and weird and cool, but not the other AIFF which has changed its name to AIFA.

clearing customs in anchorage alaska flying from lower 48 - The same way you clear customs flying from New York to LA.  Oh dear.  There are still people who don't know that Alaska is in the United States.  On the other hand, when traveling overseas where Americans aren't too popular, we can say we're Alaskans and we're always welcome.  They got Flying to Light - From Seattle to Anchorage.  That said, you can go through customs in Anchorage if you are flying from overseas, but not from the Lower 48.
 

morning discovery i shouldn't be alive -  Now, that, with a little editing, would be a great first line for a novel, or at least a short story.  This searcher from India (using a computer set on US English) got to this photo of sunset on Chester Creek in an archive that included an energy conference and Bridgman/Packer.




what does poop look like in litter box - This isn't as dumb a question as it might appear.  They got to my post  kitty litter technology, who knew? which included pictures of what I figured out, eventually, were clumps of cat piss, not poop. 

 money for being born in alaska - Let's get this clear.  There isn't money for being born in Alaska.  There is money - Alaska Permanent Fund Dividends - for people who live in Alaska and intend to stay indefinitely (ie - have no plans on moving away.)  The person got to a previous Google searches post where I'd highlighted someone asking a similar question, and then linked to Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend Application Time.

Horse diagram from an Oklahoma State website

where's mane on the map  - I'm sorry, I can't resist.  (click to make the image clearer) Strangely, the searcher got a map of Africa.  I've noticed, as a searcher, that Google gives you lots of choices of images, so I assume people might check out something different from what they were looking for. Is that serendipity or Attention Deficit Disorder?

 
hulling rice in a thai village - Usually Google does a pretty good job, as it did here. This searcher got to pictures of an old and a newer rice huller in this post  (Sustainable Farming The Old Fashioned Way - Karen Village)  at a Thai village.


how to wash a white rooster -  No laundering instructions, but this person got to a post called Swinging Bulbul and White Rooster.  There's a  video of the bulbul swinging in the tree outside our Chiang Mai apartment window in 2008 and a photo of a white rooster I passed daily on my ride to work. 

what does swoop mean in todays facebook languages - Six Books:  Media, Ethics, Balance and Language, which has the words 'swoop,' 'facebook,' and 'language'  but doesn't answer the question.  (I checked and the online slang dictionary says, in a 2000 posting, that swoop means:

to take something or somebody from someone.
  I swooped on your girlfriend.

The Source for Youth Ministry Slang Dictionary gives it a little more positive meaning:

swoop me up
1. requesting someone to pick you up in their car.  "Swoop me up for school in the morning." 

 The Urban Dictionary in its definition for the verb 'to ninja' echoes the first definition:

14. v. the act of stealing, swooping, or snaking something. usually the person who has been ninja'd upon does not realize it for a little while, and then they are mad when they find out that something of theirs has been ninja'd.

Hey man you ninja'd my chair. Why the hell did you ninja my book, Jordan?

Does this answer the question? 



I've never thought about it before, and I'll check, but I'm guessing the reason there are no capital letters or question marks is that Sitemeter simplifies things.  Sitemeter is how I see all these search terms and much more.  You can see what Sitemeter  tells me at the Sitemeter link in the right hand column below "Blogs of Friends and Acquaintences." Click on the number.  Because I believe in transparency, I've left the data available to anyone.

Enjoy your day and reflect on how you phrase your searches and what you get.

Bridgman/Packer - The Matrix of Dance

[8pm Discovery Theater tonight (Saturday) tickets here or at the box office.]

Last night we saw Bridgman/Packer perform in Anchorage.  We'd seen Under the Skin - their first piece Friday - here three years ago.  But I'd forgotten details.  It was just as amazing as it was the first time as the dancers perform against an audio/video backdrop that blurs the line between live and recorded, real and unreal, and does other tricks on your expectations of dance, art, and even gravity.  This is the Matrix of dance.

Packer, Bridgman, and videographer Bobrow after Friday performance

The second piece, co-commissioned by Anchorage's Out North Theater moves into yet another dimension.  [Look, I feel an obligation to write about this, but I also realize that what they do is so radically different, that there is nothing I can say that can capture it adequately.  Not just different, but amazing and spectacular].  In Under the Skin, there is a lot of video through which the live dancers dance, starting with the opening scene of letters zipping up.  But then previously shot images of the performers dance with the live performers on stage.  And then one more layer gets added - live video of the current performance is layered on top of it all until the audience is wondering which are the real dancers and which are the images.  Though this time around, the projected images were not as saturated as I remember last time, and so the live Bridgman and Packer did stand out from their paler video images.

Here's some video of Art Bridgman working with the lighting crew Wednesday evening for the Friday performance.  Myrna Packer was stretching on stage at the beginning.




But all the technology would just be a gimmick that was neat the first time, but flat once you've seen it, if the ideas behind the choreography and the quality of the dancing weren't first rate.  The precision necessary for them to be at exactly the right spot so that you can see the front of their live body superimposed with the back of the projected image of their back is incredible.

And perhaps I'm biased because the theme that jumps out at me is the theme of this blog - how do you know what you know?  What is real?  What is imagined?  How do the real world and the non-real world interact to lead us to think we know reality and truth?

The second piece - Double Expose - pushes to a whole new level.  A lot of the background images are very real street scenes and architectural settings through which Bridgman and Packer roam as six different characters - prerecorded, live, and as projections of their live performance.

What does it mean when you see the live Art Bridgman on stage dancing against a black background to the side of the stage while the projected image of him dancing is put in context in the video landscape center stage?  He's live on stage, but your eye is drawn to the image which is part of the scenery and where he interacts with a prerecorded, a live, and a live recorded Packer.  Or a prerecorded Bridgman.  What is more real?  What has more meaning?  The live man abstractly dancing against the black backdrop?  Or the image of that man interacting with other images?  And where should I look?  I'm paying money to see a live performance, so why is my eye pulled from the live performer to her image? At one point the lights are behind the performers and their shadow giants are also dancing on the walls of the theater in the audience. 

What does this say about how the human brain constructs its version of reality? 

At one point, their very realistic backgrounds change into fantastically playful fabric patterns, which come to life. [UPDATE 5/1/11: These were done by artist/animator Karen Aqua, who I was told is ill and hasn't seen the performance.  Send her good vibes.]  The colors and images were a total change from the noir feel of most of the realistic backgrounds.  The animation added yet another dimension to the juxtaposition of reality and image of reality.  Why are the filmed street scenes more 'real' than the animated tiger walking in the background?  After all, the filmed street scenes and arches and tunnels are no less humanly created artifacts than are the animated images.

The live performers dancing on the sides of the stage while their images were stage center in the scene interacting with the images of other characters also reminded me of puppeteers being the live animators of their on stage puppets.

I also pondered about how Bridgman/Packer  (I feel that now and then it should be Packer/Bridgman) play with so many different media, yet their performance, ultimately has to be seen live.

As you can see, they've invaded my brain and are rearranging the furniture.  We're going back tonight and will sit in a different location to see how that changes all this.

So, yes.  While there was a nice sized (and incredibly appreciative) audience last night, you can go to the Discovery Theater and get tickets for tonight's performance.  As good as these performers are, they are off the radar.  And when Bridgman/Packer is finally a 'household name' it will be much harder to get to see them.

Bridgman/Packer Ticket Contest

Myrna Packer

I got to talk with Art Bridgman and Myrna Packer at a gathering tonight at SubZero.  And with Scott Schofield, the Out North executive director.

So, Scott has given me a free ticket for one of you readers.  Since you all know there is no such thing as a free ticket, here's the deal.

Art Bridgman

Simple contest rules:

First person to email me a copy of your receipt for nine tickets* to Bridgman/Packer gets a tenth ticket free.  But you have to buy them after this post is published.  Just get nine of your friends (enemies are ok too, but after this they may not be enemies) to pool together to buy tickets as a group, and I can add the tenth ticket if you are the first to email the receipt showing you bought nine tickets after the time of this post.  Include a name, email address, and phone number.

Note for  whiners and troublemakers (not that any read this blog): One receipt for nine tickets, not several receipts that add up to nine tickets.  Let's not make this complicated, though I know that people can think up all sorts of contingencies I haven't thought of.  If you do, I reserve the right to determine the fair winner. 

(Note:  if no one sends in a receipt for nine tickets, I'm guessing Scott might let me give that ticket to the first person to email me a receipt for the biggest block of tickets over five or six. For example, someone sending a receipt for seven tickets at 5pm on Wednesday will beat a person with a receipt for six tickets at  2pm Wednesday.  The contest ends when I verify a purchase of nine tickets or about 4 hours before the performance of the largest block purchase below nine.  So, if the biggest block is for 8 for Saturday, I'll announce about 3pm on Saturday.)

Think of this as a party with your friends.

And as I was preparing this I found some Bridgman/Packer video.  I wasn't going to post video because the best way to go is with no expectations, but watching the video I was reminded why I am so excited about seeing them again and I thought it might spur some folks to get their friends together to see the Friday and/or Saturday performance.  I'd recommend Friday, because when you see how amazing they are, you'll still have a chance to see them again on Saturday. 

This video is from a piece they did last time they were here.


Bridgman/Packer Dance: "Under The Skin" (composite video) from Bridgman/Packer Dance on Vimeo.



 Ticket information here.

 What's in it for me?  First and foremost, I think it would be a waste if the Discovery Theater weren't filled up both nights.  The only reason someone shouldn't be trying to buy tickets is that they don't know these performers are in town.  And I want Out North to make money off this so they will take similar financial risks in the future to bring great performers to Anchorage.



And there were light tricks coming home along the Chester Creek bike trail.

Why Missing Bridgman/Packer This Weekend Would Be a BIG Mistake

Here's part of what I wrote after seeing Bridgman/Packer the first time in 2008:

You should go if you like at least three of the following:

Watching water ripples in a stream.
Magicians doing really amazing tricks.
Shadow leaves dancing on your sunlit white walls.
MC Escher.
A cello dancing with a human voice.
Surprises.
Precision.
Optical Illusions.
Hand drumming.

Wait. There is no rippling stream in the show. I'm just trying to give you a sense of this show without giving anything away.

If you took this list literally, maybe you shouldn't go see it. Or, if you can't stand stuff that is NOT:

Linear.
Predictable.
Melodic.
Clear and straightforward.

I didn't want to spoil it by giving more details.  What they do is AMAZING!!  Going in without knowing anything about them, other than you should go, is the best way to do it.

Out North just keeps selecting stuff they think is good even if it is on the edge or financially iffy. 

I got this comment from Australia this morning on a 2009 post about Out North's production of Man in the Attic:

"This play won the Patrick White Award, one of Australia's major playwriting awards. Good on you for staging it when not one company in Australia bothered to do so! Congrats"

We have this tiny little theater that does cutting edge local productions and also brings the most interesting and challenging Outside artists to Anchorage where you can get intimate with them.  The theater is so small all the seats are in what would be the $100 and up section in bigger venues Outside.  Not everything works perfectly, but still, you are there with the artists as they push the limits of art.  You can talk to them afterward and ask questions and answer their questions. 

But this Friday and Saturday, they've got an act that doesn't fit in that tiny space.  In fact, last time Bridgman & Packer were here, they performed at the Alaska Dance Theater, where I got to see them and become a fanatic fan. 

This year (this Friday and Saturday to be specific) they will be in the Discovery Theater.  So there will be room for a lot of folks. 

Do you live in or near Anchorage?  Then you should be there too. And bring the kids.  Unless you are bedridden or out of town, you have no excuse for not going to see Bridgman & Packer.  You don't like dance?  Trust me, this is way more than dance.  This is magic. 

Do I sound enthusiastic?  Are you suspicious of my motives?  Am I getting paid to write this?  Actually, after I did a short breathless plug attached to a post on another Out North performance, Scott Schofield, Out North's Executive Director asked me to invite all my friends and offered me a free ticket even.  But that would compromise my blogger ethics so I won't take it.  But, I'm thinking I should offer that ticket to one of my readers.  OK, I'll think about  some sort of contest here - and you can give suggestions.  I'll check with Scott and see if the offer is still open. 

So what are my motives?  This is two humans (plus their helpers) showing what incredible things humans can do if they stretch their minds, train their bodies, and break the rules. I just want everyone to know this is happening in town so they don't miss it.  I also want Out North to make some money on this so they'll keep doing this sort of thing. 

When I first saw Bridgman/Packer I wondered whether I was just an Anchorage hick who just didn't get out much, but it turns out people who know about dance think they are pretty amazing too.  Mike Dunham's ADN story lists some of their glowing comments.


So, if you don't trust me or you don't like surprises, check out the ADN story on Bridgman/Packer.  When Dunham and I are both equally breathless, you know something has to be special. 

To get tickets or just to learn more about Bridgman/Packer and see a video, click here.

And here's a link to Bridgman/Packer's website.

I Love Ted Herlinger's Guts

It was pretty amazing to walk into the gallery with all these spheres floating in the air.  And then I started looking at individual spheres and it was even more amazing.  I know, some people think it doesn't take much to get me excited.  But these are special, especially the whole collection hanging in this lighting.

 

The exhibit is called Phase II.  The artist is Ted Herlinger.

They're made of reed, pork gut, and elk sinew.

Here's what the description said.

One more.

I was there in Out North's gallery during intermission of The Brits and their Telly, which continues next week.  While there were a lot of interesting shorts - they are supposed to be the best British tv commercials - I remember being more enchanted by past Telly shows.  I was trying to figure out why.  I remember them as quirkier and I think for more local British products.  There were too many McDonald's and other multinational ads.  I think another issue for me was that what used to be high on originality is now more focused on high production values.

They were technically better, but too many were more like apprenticeship work for Hollywood.  All that talent and money to sell junk food is depressing.  But there were a bunch still reflected the Brits and their Telly that I remember.  Out North has a video with two of the good ones on their website.  Watch for Duckzilla, for the picnic in the field, and the British Airways ads were good.  So were the ads for non-profits. The anti-smoking and HIV prevention ads didn't beat around the bush.  And I was upset with Bob Dylan for selling out until I saw what it was for. 




An Out North heads up:  Bridgman Packer will be in Anchorage April 28 and 29.  We saw them at Alaska Dance Theater about three years ago.  Probably the most superlative post on this blog ever.  This time they will be in the Discovery Theater - but still an Out North event.  Scott says they'll be performing a piece commissioned by Out North which won them a Guggenheim Fellowship.  My breathless gushing last time wasn't misplaced.  They're so good, I think even a blind person would feel it in the room.  If you read this and don't go to see them, it's not my fault.

Robert Lapage's The Blue Dragon in Berkeley

Wow! I just saw the future of theater. I had no idea what I was going to see. I went into Oakland today to see friends I've known forever. They were going to a play tonight and asked if I wanted to come along. I said sure.

Then we picked up my ticket at will call after dinner and walked around campus till it began.

No pictures during the show, but I took this before and it will help a little to understand why this was so incredible. If you look at the stage, you can see the three vertical lines that divide the stage into four units. Think of the stage more as a computer window that can be divided into eight frames. Four on top and four below. The stage was alternatively one large frame, one half screen frame, or one small frame; two frames (top and bottom, two small frames, though I can't remember how often or how configured, I remember one small one on top and another below over to the side open together.)

But there was also a "curtain" that was the canvas for computer graphics, which again could be part of the whole or the whole itself. This is like describing someone tying his shoe. It may get you the info, but the reader still can't tie the shoelace, or, in this case, imagine the stage.. It rained and it snowed, for example, it was an airport with perfect arrival and departure signs.

The play opened - I'm not even sure which of the following was first, but I think I have it right - with a man standing on the lower half of the screen/stage, at a small table about to do calligraphy. As he uses the brush to make his strokes, a single solid horizontal stroke appears above him in the upper left frame. And he talks about the Chinese character for the number one. Then he makes a tree and then a forest. Then he does child and it appears in the next screen. Immediately I knew this was going to be my kind of experience.

I think this was followed by the Chinese dancer in white came out. (Though she might have been first.)

She danced with her scarf flowing. Then suddenly puffs of white exploded out of the end of the scarf as the computer extended her dance magically. And as this was happening on the lower half, the black screen also became a movie screen with the credits. (Don't bet on the sequences exactly, I'm trying to pull this out of memory totally.)

This all could have been a big gimmick, but it wasn't. Robert Lapage managed to use a much greater variety of tools to help him create his stage and it almost all fit absolutely perfectly. The actors at times blended in with computer graphics.

The almost two hour play just flew by. In part, I think because the scenes changed more like television than a play. We didn't have the stage simply go black and wait as actors moved furniture for the next scene. Instead the scenes evaporated and appeared through the graphics. The stage was a perfect passenger section of a jet, it was a commuter train, a regular train, a boat. It was the Canadian ex pat's two story loft apartment, an art gallery, a bar.

What I've always liked about movies is that when done well, they could tell the story in visual - color, light and dark, etc. - and audio and tell the story with more than words. They went beyond theater because you could have the real world as your stage. Lepage has used the computer to make this possible on stage too.

Now, since I've spent all this time on the stagecraft, you might be wondering about the play. Surely it was upstaged by all the glitz. Perhaps in the same way that seeing one's first movie would cause you to talk about the technology more than the story. Well, it wasn't glitz. All the techie stuff was exactly right for the story. It wasn't gratuitous. I've seen computer generated backdrops, and lighting, and the incredible dancing of Bridgman and Packer who danced on stage with live video of themselves dancing. In their performance at times you couldn't tell, even though we were very close, which was the live dancer and which the video.

Lepage has taken all the experimentation and applied it to his story of the French-Canadian artist expat in Shanghai whose old friend visits him on her way to adopting a baby in China. The story of their two compromised careers, of the need for babies, of love, of disappointment, all of this was told almost movie like, but with live actors on stage before a live audience. Three very real actors and lots of brilliant stagecraft.

I was totally dazzled.

(There were two scenes that I might have cut. At least I didn't feel they were integrated into the whole as seemlessly as everything else. The Chinese KFC ad near the beginning generated laughs, but wasn't connected to anything else in the play. My friends suggested it helped show the contrast between the old and new China, but to me it seemed an intrusion. I also didn't quite understand the scene with the iconic Chinese revolutionary dancer. The CCTV (Chinese Central Television) going-off-the-air broadcast worked better because it emphasized the closing of a night and it ended in static which transferred onto the stage.

I'm still stoked and absolutely delighted G and H pulled me into this. Great night. Anyone in the Berkeley area who wants to see a great production has a few more days left. (Comparing the box office dates to the post card dates, I'm guessing they added a couple of performances.)

Here's a more professional review from the Bay Area Arts and Entertainment Blog.

Guest Post by Catherine Senungetuk

Since Guest Posts are hot these days and I'm already hot because I'm in Thailand, which is why I can't post about Anchorage, I thought I'd put up a guest post taken from an email from my friend Catherine Senungetuk.


February 14, 2007

This morning I'm meeting with Deborah Schildt about the possibility of collaboration... she's a filmmaker (maybe you saw her film about roasting little ground animals in Mongolia a year ago "How to Roast a Boo-Dog" I think it was called) we were both so inspired after seeing that performance [Bridgman and Packer] - she was at the same one and that's where we hatched this idea... I was so moved because I wanted to do something for my show in Cordova that was more multi-dimensional than a painting on the wall....

Joe has been attending the AK Forum on the Environment Conference, today he'll participate in an elders circle. I'll be seeing my acupuncturist and then checking out the new chocolate store in town that a friend has recommended.

Joe and I went to the opera Sunday - our neighbor's brother directed it and they had some comp tickets. Oh my goodness, I might be an opera fan now. It was the most amazing thing I've ever heard. I'm still awestruck. I didn't know the human voice could do those things. The set was also quite well-designed.

There are Short-Eared Owls out by the airport - we saw one on Sunday before we went to the opera. It's fun to see such a large bird, and they're fairly uncommon to have around in the winter.

Wow!!! Bridgman and Packer! Best Show I've Seen in a Loooooong Time

We went opening night. That means if you read this right away, you can still get tickets for this incredible show on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday.

Yeah, I know I don't like to see something that's been hyped as great because then I'll compare it to my high expectations. I had no idea what to expect. I didn't really read the details of the article in the paper the other day, but I just got a feeling that we should go to this. Besides, it was our anniversary. Sorry Ropi, they were in Budapest last April, so I guess you missed them.

My reactions:

Wow!!!
How'd they do that?
Damn, I feel like a hick. I didn't even know people did stuff like this.
Wow!!

You should go if you like at least three of the following:

Watching water ripples in a stream.
Magicians doing really amazing tricks.
Shadow leaves dancing on your sunlit white walls.
MC Escher.
A cello dancing with a human voice.
Surprises.
Precision.
Optical Illusions.
Hand drumming.

Wait. There is no rippling stream in the show. I'm just trying to give you a sense of this show without giving anything away.

If you took this list literally, maybe you shouldn't go see it. Or, if you can't stand stuff that is NOT:

Linear.
Predictable.
Melodic.
Clear and straightforward.


There aren't a lot of seats at the Alaska Dance Theater, which by the way was another neat surprise. I'd seen the building once and thought, hmmmm, that looks interesting, but this was the first time we've been inside. (Our daughter hasn't gone to dance lessons in many years.) Anchorage has a wonderful new venue that was just perfect for this performance. But,as I was saying. There aren't a lot of seats and they weren't all full!!!! Just because it was a snowy Thursday night is no excuse.

But if everyone there tonight tells five people (and everyone else seemed just as amazed as I was) you'll be lucky to get a seat for the next performances. Get tickets on-line at Outnorth.org
.

I don't really want to tell you more. Being surprised by what they do is part of the fun. The first piece was amazing. The next ones got progressively amazinger. Yes, despite the flesh in the ADN promo article, it's fine for kids. They'll love it.

If you must, go to the Bridgman/Packer Dance website. But it isn't nearly as good as the show.

Oh, and a tidbit about the cellist/voice guy, Robert Een (that's two syllables). He sang in one of the temples at Ellora in India. These are a set of magical temples carved out of the rock hillside over an 800 year period. Based on what Robert told me, I think it might be the temple in this picture I took in November 2006. The acoustics were incredible. It would be - I'm running out of breathless adjectives so pick your own favorite - to hear him in there.

I'm not really a hick, and I don't get this excited easily. These guys are first class.