poem for a sunday

 we had pancakes this morning . . 

 along with our sunday poem which was robert burns' to a mouse: 

to a mouse 

on turning her up in her nest with the plough, november, 1785 

wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim'rous beastie, 
o, what a panic's in thy breastie! 
thou need na start awa sae hasty,
wi' bickering brattle! 
i wad be laith to rin an' chase thee,
wi' murdering pattle!

i'm truly sorry man's dominion 
has broken nature's social union,
an' justifies that ill opinion
which makes thee startle
at me, thy poor, earth-born companion
an' fellow-mortal!

i doubt na, whyles, but thou may thieve;
what then? poor beastie, thou maun live!
a daimen-icker in a thrave
's a sma' requet; 
i'll get a blessin wi' the lave,
an' never miss't!

thy wee-bit housie, too, in ruin! 
its silly wa's the win's are strewin! 
an' naething, now, to big a new ane,
o' foggage green!
an' bleak december's win's ensuing,
baith snell an' keen!

thou saw the fields laid bare an' waste, 
an' weary Winter comin fast, 
an' cozie here, beneath the blast,
thou thought to dwell, 
till crash! the cruel coulter past
out thro' thy cell.

that wee bit heap o' leaves and stibble, 
has cost thee monie a weary nibble! 
now thou's turned out, for a' thy trouble,
but house or hald, 
to thole the winter's sleety dribble,
an' cranreuch cauld!

but mousie, thou art no thy lane, 
in proving foresight may be in vain: 
the best-laid schemes o' mice an' men
gang aft agley, 
an' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
for promis'd joy!

still thou are blest, compared wi' me! 
the present only toucheth thee:
but Och! i backward cast my e'e,
on prospects drear! 
an' forward, tho' I cannot see,
i guess an' fear!

discussing the line "of mice and men . . "

 chanda dusted off the piano and we fixed up our nature table.

 martinmas is almost upon us . . 

i've been wanting to do this for weeks so it felt good to finally accomplish it.

afterwards, i walked with chanda to her dance rehearsal at the mary anthony studio.

 mary's cat lounging on the divan . . 

oh! well, if you're going to take my picture . .

 so many mementoes . . mary anthony passed away just this year. she was 97 years old.

 in front of the desk is a picture of jose limon in the moor's pavane.

she only just retired from teaching last year. she was an amazing woman and you can read a little bit about her in a new york times article here (i like the photograph they include).

it was cold walking home this evening, so it was good to get back to a warm apartment. we had a nice dinner together of carrots, potatoes and a pork roast.

studio time

 morgana and chanda rehearsed at the mary anthony studio this morning.

 one of the two studio cats . . 

 morgana actually still has an important middle section of her dance to choreograph . .

 this studio is smaller than the one they usually rehearse in . .

so chanda found it difficult to work on certain sections. i still have to sew the pants up. they're a little too long.

morning studio rehearsal

at mary anthony's

chanda is performing her modern dance piece at the mary anthony studio tonight and tomorrow afternoon. greg will be attending with her as morgana and i are out with my mom and dad. mary anthony just had a biography published about her life. she's a fascinating person, and is still teaching at 96 years old. you can learn more about her from this cbs news article (from 2010). here is a pic and short movie from korrina's performance with the trio last year at her dance studio.

gay pride day

 korrina and i started the day with fresh blueberries and strawberries . . 

and a watermelon pineapple smoothie . .

then we left the apartment early to circumvent the gay pride parade on our way to mary anthony's studio for the 3 pm performance. we walked along the river to morton street (the police had pier 40 closed off along with the walkway and bikepath - everyone was riding in the street with the traffic - too crazy), and into soho to get a chocolate croissant at balthazar. we met tyler and got coffee at macnally j's bookstore and coffee shop. korrina worked on her new knitting project for a little bit until we had to leave for the show. we walked up broadway to 8th street.

along the pier . . 

two sweet dogs on prince street . .

walking along broadway . .

we made it to the studio at 2:35 pm. it was another beautiful show with the final piece being gloria-5th movement by mary anthony. gloria is about the crusades, and the fifth movement is a piece for the women, when they arrive on the field after battle and must lament the dead. very moving and all-encompassing. korrina's teacher, ellen, had danced in the piece years ago, which was nice to hear about.

i left the studio at 5:30 and ran into . . the parade! (they had started at noon!) they were still marching and dancing and celebrating. it was very joyous and fun.

i caught them at the turnaround from fifth avenue to 8th street.

and then i walked along university to 10th street and crossed fifth at 10th. this is looking north on fifth . .

and looking south towards washington square . . 

10th street walking towards sixth avenue . .

at sixth avenue i turned to go up to 11th street.

it's always fun when the avenues and streets are devoid of cars.

 here is greenwich street at bank, just two blocks from the apartment.

of course my neighborhood was noisy far into the night. it's the ending zone for the parade, and also has dances and fireworks on the piers at night. surprisingly, around 1 am or so, all became quiet. i was surprised! i thought i would hear everybody partying until 3 or 4 in the morning.

yarn stores and dance performances

after the rehearsal today, korrina and i decided to take the F train to brooklyn general store as they were having a sale. we bought beautiful yarn! i haven't taken a picture of it! too sad. i'll have to do so tomorrow. i also bought the wooden rabbit you see on top of the coffee cup . . from mazzola bakery! mazzola bakery is one of our favorite stops when we're going to or coming from brooklyn general. today we had coffee, tea and italian butter cookies. it was a good thing, as we transferred to the R train, the slowest train on earth, and it was good i had cookies and coffee to keep me going.

what was this dog doing??? i really wasn't sure . . just trying to stay cool, i suppose!!! to continue the day's story: after visiting the yarn store we took the R train back into manhattan to 8th street and to mary anthony's loft for the 8 pm performance. we arrived at 6:40, just in time for korrina to run the dance with the quartet . . i mean the trio . . before the audience arrived. it was very, very hot in the loft (i felt like i had gone back in time to the '60's when cafe cino was still open!) and korrina was not a happy camper. but she and the rest of the trio danced beautifully, as did the other performers. it was an amazing show, ending with dancer mary ford performing mary anthony's dance lady macbeth (first shown in 1948, i think). it was truly a tour de force, and i had chills run up my spine as the full horror of lady macbeth's predicament swept over me. here is a link to photos of ms. ford dancing the piece at riverside church in 1999.

another dance tech

ellen robbins' dance teacher, mary anthony, has twice yearly performances at the beginning of the summer and in the winter. ellen asked the quartet to perform for her latest show on saturday at 8 pm, and sunday at 3 pm. this evening was their tech at the studio on broadway.

mary anthony is 95 years old and lives in an old loft without any air conditioning. well, it has been very hot these past few days, ever since we arrived home from annapolis, and the loft was quite steamy!

korrina, deychen and amelia actually have to re-work the piece as the fourth person is away at a piano camp, and the choreographer, who was to fill in for her, is ill. it's to be a trio now, and they'll rehearse in the morning at 11 am.