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 rainy morning. chanda managed to talk her dad into having brunch at the place (for the very last time) where it poured and then left the air very humid.
we then walked along the river to her isadora duncan dance teacher's recital. she had a tech for it at 1:30. it was incredibly foggy.
the freedom tower is hidden out there . . somewhere.
i continued past the school where the recital was to north cove marina where i had read that there would be a polynesian canoe docked. the polynesian voyaging society is sponsoring a project called malama honua (which means "take care of island earth") to connect people around the globe to work towards a sustainable future. the hokule'a is their messenger and is a 62 foot long, double-hulled sailing canoe built in the style of the native polynesian people: guided by the sun, moon and stars, by currents, wind and wave patterns, by bird and fish behavior.
the society explains their mission in this movie.
it's a beautiful boat, and smaller than you might think is needed for traveling so far!
this excerpt is from the welcoming ceremony (which i missed).
i arrived in time for their picture-taking, and for the celebration dances with other first nations.
this is valerie, a jingle dancer from the ojibwe nation. there was also a young man of the new york iroquois nation who danced a smoke dance (he had grown up in the city as a descendant of the skywalking ironworkers). i was too entranced with his dance to film it . . !
the musicians sat behind the stage. can you hear the child singing along with the adults? i think he was about eleven years old.
. . a group partner dance with the audience . .
and my favorite: the polynesian stick dancers.
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and then it was time to see chanda's isadora duncan dance recital.
i wish i had a small clip to show!
with loretta at the reception afterwards.
after the recital and reception, chanda went uptown to babysit and greg and i went to help her modern dance teacher move several props and costumes into the theatre for her tech week. ellen was in a very good mood because the dressing room had already been cleaned (she usually has to do a little herself) and she had had a fabulous morning rehearsal with several students. i don't think i've ever seen her so pleased before a tech week begins.
greg was monitoring a storm on the phone and we had twenty minutes to get home before it broke.
he was ready to open the umbrella but i just kept running for it . .
these movies don't seem to be working too good . . but i'm too tired right now to figure it out!
i met chanda after her acting class and we picked up fresh local berries from the green market for lunch today. it was a quiet day at home and then i went with her to a dances patrelle audition for francis' production of macbeth that will start rehearsal in august and go up the third week of september. it felt great to see everyone there again, and chanda met another homeschooler who she knows from mutual friends. they had both heard about each other, but had never met. chanda said it felt so nice to be back with the patrelle family. she hasn't been able to dance with them these past few years, being so busy with joffrey, and has missed them greatly.
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yesterday night i finally tackled dyeing the unitard. chanda is hoping to wear it for her duncan dance teacher's recital on sunday. it's very humid out and so is taking a long time to dry, but should be alright.
she would like it to be a darker green so i'll have to try re-dyeing it, but not until after the recital sunday evening.
it was even a sweater wearing day . . which felt strange.
the latest ralph lee puppet exhibit . . is he drowning? or swimming?
chanda and i met korrina at the italian market store at chelsea market. we had the best lunch.
the food was sooooo good . . chanda had pasta with truffle sauce, korrina had a sandwich with mozzarella, tomato and proscuitto (with a cappuccino), and i had a double espresso and a cup of lemon and orange sorbetto. the best was chanda's affogato . . it was so delicious that i kept saying over and over that i had to bring greg back to try it.
chanda wrote down tips from korrina about ordering food at the restaurant she's working at. greg has no desire to go (it's just way out of his comfort zone in terms of prices) but we would both like to visit when she's working. we were trying to figure out the bare minimum order. when you visit a line cook or chef and you order a particular entrée, they will send out sides that go with that particular dish (sometimes "on the house"). we decided we wanted to go when she was working steam (her favorite position on the line) and she thought we should share the seared scallops and then she would send out the miso glazed roasted bone marrow with it. she also suggested the chilled cheesecake soufflé for dessert. chanda wasn't too happy about the bone marrow (i was - i like bone marrow) but she was very pleased about the cheesecake soufflé.
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afterwards, chanda had her last dance rehearsal before she techs next week.
we compared the densities of seven liquids this morning. chanda poured them individually and slowly into a graduated cylinder. first to go in was corn syrup followed by vegetable glycerin, dawn liquid detergent, water, vegetable oil, rubbing alcohol and 10 weight motor oil.
for some reason i found it hysterical that the motor oil slipped right past the alcohol and settled between it and the vegetable oil.
the motor oil sits at the 30 ml mark with the vegetable oil below it and the alcohol above.
then it was time to drop in several objects.
the metal paper clip and the rubber eraser settled at the bottom with the corn syrup. the piece of chocolate settled on top of the glycerin and below the dawn detergent.
a piece of wax settled on top of the vegetable oil and below the motor oil, and a cork and a piece of wood dowel floated on the very top with the rubbing alcohol.
most fascinating to me is that water is more dense than vegetable oil, motor oil and rubbing alcohol.
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after the density demonstration we got ready to run some errands in the neighborhood. i needed to move the car and chanda had a dance rehearsal for an isadora duncan dance concert at the end of june with catherine gallant and company. the rehearsal and performance is in the same church that she would have her string stravaganzas with third street music school. we decided to meet afterwards at one of our favorite cafes near there, paradis (before walking uptown to onstage dance for a basic black capezio leotard).
having a favorite snack at paradis: greek yogurt with cherries and granola.
i used to come here for coffee and a snack before watching her saturday morning orchestra class at third street.
they redid the doorway and it's very strange now as they added a window on the right which took away from the bench that ran against the wall for the tables and seating.
it was nice to see it so busy at 3:30 in the afternoon. school was beginning to let out and children and their parents and caregivers were starting to trickle in.
at the ballet store . .
and goat milk ice cream with tahini butter and halvah at chelsea market.
i've been enjoying austrian elderflowers and cooler weather. it's 64 degrees this morning, only going up to 75 today. bangkok is enjoying cooler weather also. it's only 88 degrees there, instead of 100.
