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December 29, 2005

Link dump

A cornucopia on several subjects of interest (at least to me!)

Via dirac in the links forum at Ballet Talk:

R. D. Adams writes a measured assessment of NYCB in the NY Press.

Ismene Brown’s take on the year in the dance includes a view of the Royal Ballet that is the opposite of mine; partly because my viewing is not as complete, but it also shows that two reviewers can be looking for completely different things. At this point, I’d rather see the Royal Ballet find themselves as a company than see any new work that didn’t assist in that goal, and I’d argue that almost no guest choreographer, especially any whose native tongue is another discipline than ballet, does that.

Robert Gottlieb’s take on Ballets Russes is, as only Gottlieb can be, provocative, but he’s right about the historical context being a lost opportunity. What’s also interesting to me is a connection with something Francis Mason said at the Balanchine symposium in 2003 at the University of Michigan. He moved to NYC in the late 1940s, saw Massine’s ballets and hated them, thought they were ridiculous. Contrasting to that was the aesthetic of Balanchine. And here is Gottlieb, implying a similar divide. At the symposium I told Mason (who is my editor at Ballet Review) jokingly that I would one day corner him and get him to defend his statements about Massine. It makes me want to see his work and find out why he went into such eclipse.

In researching for a forthcoming article in Knit.1 Magazine on travel and knitting I came across this brochure for an exhibition I deeply regret missing. It’s for knitting’s mad scientist, Debbie New, who seems like a mild mannered grandmother but thinks in five dimensions, all of them a different color.

The Random Stripe Generator is both useful and fun. Find out how stripes look in given proportions. A less high tech way to do the same thing is to wind the yarn around a strip of cardboard, but this is even easier.

I’ve already talked about James Wolcott’s crush on Veronika Part. He defends himself here against the hordes who’ve decided he is gay gay gay. Not that I ever suspected otherwise, but I’m relieved he’s straight. Just means there’s more room in the castle for us queens.

Speaking of gay gay gay, here is the movie poster you just never never never wanted to see.

Apology accepted.

Posted by Leigh Witchel at December 29, 2005 6:26 PM

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Comments

the movie poster is a classic :)

Posted by: Edward M. at January 2, 2006 1:55 PM

Very tasteful. I liked this one, too.

http://blogs.citypages.com/canderson/2005/12/post_1.asp

Posted by: Alison Garcia at January 10, 2006 6:10 PM

I like the Abramoff one a great deal, but the expression on Big Time's face in the other one kind of clinches. . .maybe that's not the right word . . .it for me.

Posted by: Leigh Witchel at January 10, 2006 7:31 PM

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