by day the blue will pale down into white where it touches the white of the land, after sunset it has a new circumference-orange, melting upwards into tenderest purple. but the core of blue persists, and so it is by night. then the stars hang like lamps from the immense vault. the distance between the vault and them is as nothing to the distance behind them, and that farther distance, though beyond colour, last freed itself from blue. -e.m. forster (a passage to india)
it was a day busy with schoolwork and ballet class.
chanda has been slowly getting her oral report about italy onto paper for her lesson book.
we had leftovers for dinner along with chicken that i picked up from the local butcher.
and yesterday morning we skyped with morgana. she's been busy with teaching dance classes, skiing and attending her german language class twice a week. we always talk for a few hours and the time goes by fast.
chanda has been working on a pair of fingerless knit gloves that korrina gave her for christmas. it's a pattern from the store she works at and the yarn is from an independent dye company in maryland: the verdant gryphon. the yarn is a bulky weight called odyssey and the colorway is psychedelic peacock. she's also been reading sherlock holmes when riding the train and in the mornings before she gets up.
i realize i haven't posted about seeing romeo and juliet on sunday! i'll try to do that later today.
chanda and i decided to try out the restaurant by our friend's apartment.
it's been around for eighteen years and has a late 80's feel to it. actually, it felt "late '70's" to me.
basically, it doesn't feel like a present day upscale manhattan restaurant. there's nothing new in it. the decor is decidedly "old" and very comfortable. much of manhattan is currently stuck in having to "upgrade" and "renovate." nothing can be worn or made of wood or stone. it must all be shiny and glassy and metallic or plastic. here the walls are dotted large fieldstones and the ceiling is supported with old wooden beams. there are three fireplaces with "sterno" fires in them; very cozy and '70's feeling to me. what's funny is that a few weeks ago i had a weekday brunch at the popular restaurant next door with my friend marisa. it boasts a "chef" and signature dishes and feels very trendy. but i didn't find the food there half as good as the eggs benedict i had this morning with chanda at "the place."
we shared a dessert of three sorbets with mint leaves.
afterwards, we took the train to lincoln center for new york city ballet's romeo and juliet.
(you can see the orange lanterns hanging between the columns celebrating chinese new year).
we were looking forward to seeing nycb soloist lauren lovette dance juliet. she really was lovely, but we weren't enthusiastic about the staging for the ballroom scene. romeo bounced in and out from the wings and didn't stay onstage, thus severing the dramatic tension created when he and juliet first set eyes on each other. you can see what i mean in the excerpt below from the royal ballet's staging with principle dancers tamara rojo and carlos acosta (choreography by sir kenneth macmillan).
romeo first sees juliet dancing with paris and cannot take his eyes off her. they bump into each other just off center stage and their eyes never leave each other even as they must separate. juliet is asked by her friends to play a song on the mandolin and romeo cannot resist showing off and dancing for her. it's immensely beautiful and satisfying. it sets up the rest of the ballet. (it's a good two minutes before juliet comes on, and then probably another two minutes before she bumps into romeo . . and what she can see of him with that mask covering half his face, i don't know; "oh wow. a man with a mask! this is different! and much more interesting than that boring old paris.")
unfortunately, nycb had the two lovers bump into each other and immediately separate with romeo disappearing offstage and only reappearing sporadically at odd moments. i loved the costumes and being in the theatre, but since nycb rarely does story ballets, the acting was weak and the stage fighting clumsy. ah well. of course, no company can dance balanchine as well as nycb!
afterwards, while waiting for the subway along with all the other theatre-goers, we listened to a musician play the gorgeous prokofiev music we had just heard.
it was a beautiful snowy late afternoon and we took the bus uptown to meet our friends at a diner, before heading over to the pearl theatre for a production of the winter's tale. there's more to say . . but it's sunday and i need to get ready to see nycb's romeo and juliet . . ! i'll write more later.
the bus got stuck in tunnel traffic at 29th street. it took us 30 minutes to get through. thankfully, everyone was in a good humor and a woman sitting in front with her five or six year old kept us posted on the movement of the trucks and cars. the bus driver finally got pushy and just kept nosing his way across thirtieth street . . and then it was smooth sailing and we were at 42nd in less than 2 minutes.
our friends had already ordered for us since we had texted them what we wanted from the bus . . ahh . . . cell phones . .
i love days and nights like this with snow falling and everything all grey and white and quiet.
the theatre was just across the street and around the corner . .
it's a funny diner with a parking lot . . very unusual for manhattan.
at the pearl . . a theatre built into one of the current skyscraper apartment buildings. the pearl theatre has been around since the mid '80's when they used to be located on 22nd street in chelsea. we saw henry iv, part i, here two years ago.
we had a great time seeing the show together, and a fun time critiquing it afterwards! some of the actors we just loved and thought they were fabulous, and a few were caught up in being very dramatic. our biggest obstacle was the set: a present day dining room scene. it never changed from it's three green walls, even when the play's scenes changed from indoors to outdoors and to another country altogether. it felt stifling, especially when the one of the main characters was opening up and undergoing changes himself. having the set stay the same felt constrictive. though we were unhappy with this aspect, we all loved hearing the words come alive with the actors. dialogue that didn't make sense in the book, set us laughing in the theatre. it was a fun night.
we went to the studio for a rehearsal today, and then to the dentist (just chanda, but i have to go one day too. i put it off much too much) . .
and stopped at eataly to share a panini and italian soda and then espresso. this is a picture of chanda taken as an excuse to surreptitiously capture the people around us. we weren't sure of the language they were speaking. we couldn't tell if it was spanish or italian so we thought it was some kind of dialect of either.
in the evening i went with my friend kendall to via carota on grove street. we had blood oranges in a vinaigrette with thinly sliced red onion and basil leaf; a cabbage and chicory salad with anchovie dressing; spaghetti carbonara; and pana cotta with sea salt and marmalade. it was all very good and we talked nonstop.
so i've been reading war and peace these past few weeks. it's difficult to put down so i'm getting through it quicker than i thought i would. i fall asleep over it in bed at night, and read it off my iphone on the subway. i began with a hardcover pevear and volokhnosky translation, but switched to the paperback maude we had on the shelf as it's just easier to hold. i was also able to get a free version of the maude on my phone, whereas the pevear was $12.99. i've never wanted to learn russian before, but reading this book i do. i also repeatedly exclaim aloud to greg when the book's protagonists are in trouble (he read it a few years ago): "oh no! poor natasha" (in a high voice) and "ohhhh poor pierre" (in a very low voice). poor me, poor us, poor russia, poor world.
i've been knitting on a cowl korrina got me started on. the pattern and yarn are both from her work (yarnco): the pattern is called odyssey neckwarmer and the yarn is verdant gryphon's odyssey in colorway psychedelic peacock. chanda has the yarn to make a pair of muffatees (sturbridge talk for fingerless gloves) and morgana has a pair of legwarmers made by korrina as a christmas gift. maybe i'll ask her to send a pic. she wears them everyday she says. she also has a scarf i made her that i never took a picture of as i didn't want her to see it in a post. i'll have to ask her to send a pic of that also.
i've had a scone mix sitting on my counter since christmas. it was a gift from my nephew and i finally made it this morning. it was incredibly easy as i only needed to add water (but i also added a diced apple).
we had an early afternoon dinner since everyone was separating in the evening (chanda to dance class and greg to a chess tournament).
we had cream of mushroom soup with cornbread. chanda has only lately begun eating mushrooms and made through only 2/3 of her bowl of soup; i had forgotten that she wasn't a big fan of them.
it was 16 degrees when c and i headed out to a dance rehearsal this morning at 9:30.
keeping warm with grumpy coffee.
it was time to begin work on the new solo . .
she listened to a few cello pieces and music by isao tomita who did the piece they used for madison square park.
ellen came by wearing a norwegian sweater very similar to chanda's . . in fact we noticed several people wearing norwegian sweaters today . . i guess that's what happens when it gets below 20 degrees.
after rehearsing we met greg and took the train uptown . .
interlude: visiting korrina at work
we got off the train at 79th and broadway and decided to say hi to korrina before walking through the park.
finding a pattern she has at home but with different yarn colors . . i think we need to do more craft hours . . we're behind on our projects.
winding a customer's skein . .
too much beautiful yarn.
back out into the cold:
and into the museum looking for a painting for modern dance class.
alexander calder, a black and white in the distance, ink on paper, 1931.
too abstract . . kittens and cats are actually running through her head . . along with cello music . . something like this, or like this.
we thought the museum would be empty since it was so cold outside . . but i guess with the three day weekend everyone had the same idea as us.
