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Shostakovich Trilogy

This past Saturday marked the end of our 2019 Ballet Season. Happily, the program was excellent and left us excited for 2020 (yes, we have already renewed our seats).

This program was comprised of three works choreography by Alexei Ratmansky, all to music by Dmitri Shostakovich. Shostakovich Trilogy was co-commissioned by San Francisco Ballet and American Ballet Theatre. The SF Ballet premiere was in 2014.

Alexi Ratmansky is a Russian choreographer who is currently artist in residence at American Ballet Theatre. Previously, he held the position of artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet where he is known for remounting some of the Soviet-era ballets. You can see the influence of his experience with artistic productions of that era in the deft way that he layered the pieces in Shostakovich Trilogy with nuance evocative of the time and place in which the music was created.

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) was an early-twentieth century, Russian composer. Unlike Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) and Stravinsky (1882-1971), Shostakovich spent his entire career in Stalinist Russia where he experienced constraints on his work. Despite these constraints, his music is powerful and timeless. One has to wonder what he could have accomplished if he had the artistic freedom of some of his contemporaries.

Symphony #9 has a movement vocabulary that combines classical ballet steps with traditional Russian folk-dance movements in a very elegant way. The music, composed in 1945, was commissioned by the government as a celebration of the victory of the Soviet people over the Nazis and the conclusion of WWII. This piece sort of switches back and forth from a feeling of self-conscious restraint to rah-rah proletarian propaganda, highlighting the dichotomy of Soviet society at that time.

Chamber Symphony was the most narrative piece in the program. The backdrop for this work was a series of oversized, cubist-style heads suspended in front of the back scrim. The heads shifted and different effects were created with lighting throughout the course of the piece. It created a sort-of “big brother is watching you” feeling. At one point, the music become quite bombastic and the most center-stage heads became quite prominent and menacing.

The main character in this piece represents Shostakovich. Watching it without reading the program notes first made for an interesting exercise in deciphering a story. I was left with the firm conclusion that the central character was a depressive cad.

The corps de ballet in this piece is composed of eight couples who seem to be exerting influence on the behavior of the main character. He alternates between going along with the group, acting out, and utter dejection.   There are also three female soloists who represent different women in the composer’s life. These roles were danced divinely by Sasha de Sola, Yuan Yuan Tan, and Mathilde Froustey.

Piano Concerto #1 was my favorite piece of the three. That being said, I can’t describe the dancing to you at all. I was completely mesmerized by the costumes, which were these extremely simple and effective two-tone unitards. Yes, that’s it. The front was blue, and the back red and it was visually spectacular. I guess that I could say that the dancing was interesting and dynamic because it didn’t detract from the excellent effect of the costumes.

There was an energy to the dancing on this night. We all got the impression that the dancers really enjoyed performing these works (maybe they were just happy that it was the end of the season). It was nice to see such a consistent program of interesting, contemporary work, I think this had to do with the strength of the music.

At any rate, it was a satisfying end to the season.

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An Intro to Chakras – Preface

I had this idea that I would do a whole Health & Wellness Monday series on the chakras.  The chakras are a concept from Kundalini yoga that pertain to a series of energy centers within the body.  My intention was to introduce the concept one week, then elucidate a different chakra every week. I liked the idea so much that I decided to use the same topic as the subject of a speech for my Toastmasters club.  That is how I went down the rabbit hole of chakra/Kundalini yoga research which has been fascinating and has also put me way behind on my writing schedule.  At some point, its time to stop researching and just get down to it, so here we go!

The first thing that I found was that there was a great deal of interest in this subject among all sorts of different people who I know.  One friend mentioned that he thought that there was something in the air that made this idea have a lot of resonance with people at this time (hold that thought, we’ll be coming back to it in a bit).

As I mentioned, the term chakra describes a series of energy centers within the Kundalini yoga paradigm.  Kundalini yoga is a branch of yoga that comes out of Tantric philosophy.  In some usages, Tantra and Kundalini are used interchangeably to describe the style of yoga practice; however, Tantra refers to an entire subset of the Hindu/Buddhist cannon.

It is a rich tradition, full of iconography and symbolism.  It is also complicated, and the classical Tantric texts are intentionally opaque.  I’m going to try to strip things down as much as possible without simplifying the concepts too far.  You’ll have to let me know how I do.

Kundalini an aspect of the goddess.  She exists within everyone in the form of a serpent that is coiled three and a half times at the base of the tailbone, asleep.  The object of Kundalini yoga is to “activate” the various energy centers (chakras), waking Kundalini and allowing her to rise through the body, ultimately connecting an individual’s consciousness to the universe.

In the course of conducting research for my speech, I re-read a book called The Psychology of Kundalini Yoga by C.G. Jung.  This book contains the transcription of a series of seminars that Jung gave on the subject of Kundalini yoga in 1932.  Jung had already established his ideas on the collective unconscious and archetypes and reading the ways that Jung relates the concepts and symbols of the chakras to universal themes gets really interesting and overwhelming.  One point though did feel like a sort of life-line, when the way that Jung was explaining the chakras related directly to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (even though Maslow was much later).  I’m really interested in exploring this idea more after laying the groundwork by spending some time considering each chakra, I hope you’ll bear with me.

I’m listing the sources from my research so far here, but I will also tag references in future posts.

Sources:

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Happy Birthday Anabel and Sally!

When I adopted Anabel and Sally last June, I was told that they were seven weeks old. That meant they would have been born on Cinco de Mayo.  Works for me!  That is an easy-to-remember date and there is already motivation to celebrate.  So, this past weekend, we celebrated the kitten’s first birthday. Happy birthday Anabel and Sally!

Now apparently calculating cat years isn’t quite as straightforward as dog years.  It is said that the first two years of a cat’s life are equal to 25 people years, then every year after that is around 4 people years.  They certainly do mature quickly because their kitten making equipment was just about ready to go by the time that they were fixed, and they were not-quite even five months old then.

  • Anabel, 7 weeks old

According to this online calculator (don’t you love the internet, it really does have everything), the kittens are the equivalent of 15 in people years.

Fortunately, they don’t behave like teenagers.  But Mr. Man and I have noticed that they are acting much more like cats than kittens over the past few weeks.  Sometimes Sally can’t be bothered to run to greet whoever is at the door or monitor our showers because he is too busy napping or looking out the window.

They are still sweet little loves though; thank goodness they didn’t develop big cattitudes as they grew up!

I feel a sense of relief that we managed to keep these precious, little, baby kittens so sweet and loving.   That we didn’t turn them into aloof, difficult cats. They are healthy and comfortable and nice to be around, and they bring immeasurable happiness to my and Mr. Man’s lives.  Cinco de Mayo may well be my favorite day to celebrate from now on.

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Fairy House Craft Day

Somehow, I tricked my friend S into coming over for craft day this past weekend.  I’m still surprised that she let me talk her into it.  But in spite of how much of a poorly conceived idea it was or how much craftprehension we started out with, we managed to have a great time and created a couple of delightful fairy houses.

The great thing about building fairy houses, or any fairy garden furnishings is that fairies are magic, so whatever you make for them doesn’t actually have to be functional.  As long as the intent is there, the fairies can do the rest.

I have been wanting to make a fairy house out of wine corks with a beer bottle cap roof.  Because Pinterest.  I’ve been collecting supplies for a while (tough work, I know).  S brought her collection of Veuve Clicquot corks and seashells because she is fancy like that.

Of course, in my house the single greatest barrier to crafting (and productivity in general) are furry little somethings named Anabel and Sally.  Hot glue and fluffy kittens are a bad combo.  So craft day had to happen al fresco. 

Mr. Man was a helpful enabler.  He set up the easy-up canopy and a table in the driveway.  He also ran an extension cord and power strip for us and loaned me some handy tools (I have got to get my own needle nose pliers, they are SO useful).

We gathered our supplies, poured a couple of mimosas and got to work. Our warm-up craft was making champagne cage miniature chairs (it is important to warm up for all sorts of activities, not just working out).

Then it was time for our experiments in magical architecture.  While S got started on her Veuve Clicquot sea-fairy temple, I sorted through my wine cork collection and realized that I had enough Stoplman Vineyards corks to make a single brand fairy house too.  We used Ikea cork trivets as our bases. 

After enough mimosas and only a few glue burns, our masterpieces were complete!  Now the only problem is where to put these houses to let the magic get in.

Craft day was a success! Fortunately (or unfortunately) we have a load of supplies left over.  I hope we can do it again soon.

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Anabel is a Daddy’s Girl

Recently, Mr. Man went off on a dirt adventure for a few days and left me at home all alone with the kittens.  Which is really no big deal, it is a lot like every day except including nighttime.

But Anabel was not happy about it at all.

She spent all day every day sitting in his desk chair.  She barely got up to eat and after, would go right straight back to her spot.  She didn’t want me to pet her or pick her up.  She didn’t even want to play, and Anabel always loves to play.

At night, I usually go to bed first, then Sally, then Anabel, then Mr. Man.  When he was away, Sally would come to bed with me like normal, but Anabel would just spend all night in Mr. Man’s chair. I had no idea that she was such a daddy’s girl.

Finally, on the evening of day three, she came out to the living room and hung out with me for a little bit (maybe 30 minutes) then back to her vigil.  The next morning, she seemed to be getting over it finally.  Either that or she knew that he was coming home that day.  She followed me around a bit and talked to me and let me brush her.  I was relieved that she was starting to act normal again.

That night, I went to be, Sally came to bed, then Anabel came to bed and eventually Mr. Man did too.  But what I really want to know is: if she only is going to come to bed when he’s home, why doesn’t she sleep on his side of the bed?

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Trailblazing Women

I recently attended an event hosted by The Society of Trojan Women.  The title of the presentation was Trailblazers: The First and the Few.  I decided to post about it on Health & Wellness Monday because I think that meeting new people and having shared, meaningful experiences is an important component of wellness and that being inspired is healthy.

It has been a long time since I have attended a USC alumni event and I was curious to see how it would be.  Somehow, I managed to seat myself at the table with the speakers for lunch.  Tara Campbell is the mayor of Yorba Linda (she’s 25 guys), Jennifer Grasso, an LAPD SWAT officer (the first woman to do this EVER), and Heather Rim, the senior vice president and chief marketing and communications officer of international infrastructure firm, AECOM (Heather is a fellow Communication Management alumnae and Rebecca Weintraub fan club member).

They are all women with very impressive professional credentials.  What stood out for me was how genuine they all were about mentoring, supporting, and empowering other women.  It’s important! We have all had our run-ins with those women at the top who thought they needed to protect their place by keeping other women out.  Our lovely panelists had too.  It was heartening to hear their commitment to turning around to offer a hand up to the women coming behind them.

Carol Geffner, a professor at the USC Price School gave the keynote.  She presented on her current research project concerning women in executive roles in patriarchal industries.  Her research questions pertained to how women in these roles find and learn to use their authentic voice, especially in male-dominated settings.  Although she is still in data-collection mode, she talked about four attributes that are trending in her early findings: curiosity, self-efficacy, cognitive resilience, and intention.

Leading with curiosity is more about the questions, and less about the answers. This is the inclination to ask, reframe, and re-ask questions until there is a satisfactory answer.  It isn’t about being right, or protecting a decision, but about learning and trying new things until the best possible outcome is achieved.

Self-efficacy is the internal sense of being capable of mastering something.  It is different from self-confidence, not, “I can do that,” but “I can figure that out.”

The ability to externalize and problem solve rather than taking something personally and getting upset is what Carol means by cognitive resilience.  This concept is a major component of Stoic philosophy which I have been reading and thinking about a lot lately (more on that in a future post). For me, employing cognitive resilience is something that I have to consciously practice every day.

And by intention, Carol means keeping an eye on the prize, knowing and not losing site of the end goal.  I think this is the underlying factor in being able to employ the other three tactics because when you are clear about what outcome you are working for, you are more inclined to utilize tools such as cognitive resilience, self-efficacy, and leading with curiosity to continue to work toward achieving your goal.

Then Carol moderated the panel with our esteemed panelists.

These women are all succeeding in arenas where gender parity is notably unbalanced.  The great thing to me was that they weren’t trying to pretend that they didn’t notice or that their gender wasn’t noted in relation to their position by others. I am so glad that it is starting to be ok to have these types of conversations because it does all of us a disservice when women pretend that their gender is a non-issue.

Thank you to all of the speakers for stepping up, speaking up, and turning around to help the women behind you.  Thank you for trailblazing.  It was a privilege to meet you.

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The Little Mermaid

San Francisco Ballet 2019 Program 7, The Little Mermaid

This weekend’s ballet adventure was a performance of The Little Mermaid.  This is not your Disney Little Mermaid.  This version, choreographed by John Neumeier, more closely resembles the original Hans Christian Andersen fable.  The ballet was created in 2005 for the Royal Danish Ballet to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Andersen’s birth, and it was first staged by the San Francisco Ballet in 2010.

The Little Mermaid is considered one of Andersen’s most autobiographical stories due to his well-documented history of unrequited love of both men and women.  Neumeier inserts an Andersen-like character in the ballet, in the form of “The Poet.” This is a very successful element of the libretto in as much as it clarifies the way in which the little mermaid and the sea witch represent different aspects of the poet’s inner emotional landscape.

The story begins with the poet aboard a ship, remembering when the object of his love, Edvard married Henriette.  A single tear falls into the ocean, serving as the catalyst to ignite the story of the little mermaid in his imagination. The poet spends most of the production on stage, sometimes mirroring, other times seeming to direct the actions of the little mermaid.

Ok, now let’s talk about the production and the dancing.

In addition to the choreography, Neumeier also created the sets and costumes both of which are innovative and interesting.  The way that irregular lines of light (think stage-width florescent light tubes flown in from above) are used to delineate the surface of the water is highly effective.  The combination of the light tubes with stage lighting changes were used to great effect to indicate location changes from onboard the ship to under the sea to on land.

The mermaid costumes are very clever.  They wear these extra-long, wide-legged, silky pants. The ends of the pants can be manipulated by other performers to create the effect of swimming, but the dancers can move around the stage and dance (carefully).  One (three) of my favorite characters were the magic shadows (or as I like to call them, the Dread Pirates Robertses).  These three guys partnered the little mermaid when she was enjoying her happy life under the sea.  One would lift her and the other two would each manipulate one of the long legs of her flowy pants, it was a fantastic effect.  Later, they became the sea witch’s henchmen.  They wore black, billowy pants, long-sleeved black shirts, eye masks and black head scarves the whole time, so no matter what their function was, they were the Dread Pirates Robertses to me.

The dancing was very good.  Again, this is a ballet with characters (even the background dancers were characters) which suits San Francisco Ballet’s strengths.  A couple of crowd scenes on the ship made me think of Sweet Charity.  There was an eclectic assortment of characters and everyone had their own little schtick/movement vocabulary.  I’m a huge fan of Fosse’s work, so those moments were delightful to me.

Yuan Yuan Tan, our favorite, favorite ballerina was the little mermaid.  This role calls for tremendous emotional expression more than virtuosic dancing and she was very effective.  She was not just acting with her facial expressions, her hyper-flexible back and lithe figure helped to convey the difference between her happy, carefree life under the sea and her painful (physically and emotionally) life on land.

This was a psychologically deep ballet.  All of the elements of the production worked together to tell a complex and nuanced story and I really enjoyed the performance.

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Sally is a Golf Fan

We’re a golf household.  Mr. Man is an excellent golfer.  I am a hack golfer, but I enjoy playing.  The kittens have a golf ball that they like to play with in the house (they can’t throw it, so they aren’t going to break anything with it).  And we like to put the golf tournament on the TV on the weekends.

Some golf tournaments are more can’t miss TV than others.  The Masters is one of them.  Augusta is one of the most beautiful golf courses that I have ever seen. Since I’ve only ever seen it on television, I can’t imagine how stunning it is in real life.

So, the other weekend, we had the Masters on and by the end of play on Saturday it had gotten really interesting.  Tiger Woods, Francesco Molinari, and Tony Finau were playing in the final group on Sunday (the leaders play last).  Tiger who?  Remember back in the day, there was this golfer named Tiger Woods who turned the golf world on its head?  Yeah, him.

Ok, so here’s the Kitten Tuesday part of this story:

When the kittens very first came home, I had them out in the front room while the U.S. Open was on.  They were both very interested in the golf tournament or at least seemed to actually be looking at the television that day.  It was good to know that I had brought home natural golf fans.

Since then Anabel has been more interested in watching TV than Sally.  She seems to like football and hockey but mostly she likes the sports ticker at the bottom of the screen.  She will jump up and sit in front of the TV and try her darnedest to catch that scrolling ticker.

Back to the Masters.  Its Sunday, Tiger Woods is in the lead and getting ready to tee off on the 17th hole.  Sally, for the first time ever, jumps up and sits in front of the TV.  He was watching Tiger Woods!

Now, it’s hard to say whether Sally just likes Augusta, or Tiger’s Sunday red & black, or if he is a true Tiger fan. I think he may be more interested in the big tournaments and great come back stories than week-to-week play.  We will have to keep an eye on him during the US Open to find out.

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Dog Days at the Science Center

Today I will be blogging about dogs.  Don’t fall over.  Just because I’m a crazy cat lady doesn’t mean that I don’t like dogs.  I think dogs are great, I just happen to prefer to live with cats.

Last week, Mr. Man and I were invited to an event at the California Science Center celebrating their new exhibit, DOGS!  A Science Tail.  Before visiting the exhibit, we were treated to a screening of a 3D IMAX movie called Superpower Dogs.

I love dogs with jobs and this IMAX movie was all about different dogs who are specially trained for various jobs.  One was in the process of training to be a search and rescue dog.  It was so suspenseful, what if she didn’t pass the credentialing test?  There were an amazing group of water rescue dogs in Italy.  In Africa, a brother and sister pair of Bloodhounds tracked down poachers at a wildlife reserve.  And there was a surfer dog who was super empathetic and good at making people feel better.

It was so wonderful to see all of these beautiful dogs being able to make the most of their natural talents to help others.  If only we all could be that lucky!

Then it was time to check out the exhibit.

The exhibit was really fun.  There were all sorts of interactive displays: look through this to get an idea of what dogs see; listen to this to get an idea of what dogs hear; push this button and take a deep breath to get an idea of what dogs smell…you get the picture.  I may have passed on the smell-o-vision but I’m sure that it was very edifying.

Upon exiting the exhibit, there was an area with actual dogs hanging out.  The dogs that were there the night we visited were from HOPE Animal-Assisted Crisis Response.  These dogs were all super friendly and mellow – that’s their job.  Their handlers were also super friendly and happy to talk to us for as long as we liked about the dogs and their experiences.  These dogs also all had trading cards! 

Of course, now I think that Anabel and Sally might need to have trading cards.  How great would it be if everyone had cards for their pets? I really think these crisis response dogs are on to something.

The California Science Center is a great place for special events.  The scale of the space is impressive, the exhibits are always interesting, and there are so many interactive components.  An ordinary cocktail party gets an instant activity without having to do any extra work.  It is the kind of venue that ensures that everyone is talking about the event at work the next day.

Christina Sion, the VP for Food & Event Services is (among her many wonderful qualities) a creative and clever event planner.  The reception that she organized together with the CA Science Center’s catering partners was a doggone delight.  There were dog topiaries, an impressive selection of dog-themed beers (may of which were served by dog sock-puppets through a hedge-wall), and a variety of Scooby snacks (some were even served in doggie bags) like mac-and-cheese with fixings, taquitos, ahi tuna wonton bites, and emPAWnadas.  Between the film, the exhibit, and the reception, it was such a fun evening.

If you are in the area and want a fun opportunity to learn more about dogs than you ever thought possible, you should check out this exhibit. 

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Princess Cake

I generally like most kinds of cake but to tell you the truth, the one kind of cake that I love above all others is princess cake.  Even though her name is “Princess” she is the queen of cake in my world.

If you don’t know what princess cake is, it is a wonderful creation that begins with white cake soaked with almond syrup. One layer is filled with raspberry jam and whipped cream and the other layer is filled with pastry cream.  Then the entire delight is frosted with whipped cream and covered with a beautiful, pale green layer of marzipan.

Your mouth is watering, I can tell.

The other day, while mindlessly scrolling the ‘gram, I came across a Martha Stewart Living video of someone making Scandinavian princess cake.  Somehow, this video gave me the idea that I could actually make a princess cake myself.  Ok, not somehow, it was because all of the ingredients were already prepared – the cake was baked, the pastry cream and the whipped cream were chilled, etc. 

I overcame my fear of making pastry cream (Martha Stewart has a great recipe for “no fuss pastry cream” that I shared with you when I made coconut cream pie) during last year’s cream puff obsession. Since I had no intention to make raspberry jam, almond syrup, or marzipan myself, I felt confident that I had at least a moderate possibility of success.

I assembled my ingredients and made the pastry cream a day ahead.  Then it was time for the big day.

I needed three layers of cake.  In the video, she cut out the rounds from a thin sheet cake.  Ok, I can do that, I have half sheet pans.  I greased the pans then covered them with parchment paper.  One box of cake mix filled one pan (yes, I used box cake mix).  Bake for 20 minutes.  Perfect!  I was making a 9” cake (using the ring from my springform pan for the mold) so I had to make a box of cake (good thing they were two for $3).  I wound up with four rounds and contemplated making an extra layer.

Back to work.  Cooled cakes were cut into rounds.  The extra cake and trimmings went into the freezer, I’m sure that I’ll come up with something to do with it.

Now it was time to make magic happen:

  • The ring was placed on an appropriately sized platter
  • Round of cake
  • Brush with almond syrup
  • Cover with raspberry jam (I bought seedless)
  • Layer of whipped cream
  • Round of cake
  • Brush with almond syrup
  • Layer of pastry cream (I wound up with about a cup of pastry cream left over to do something wonderful with)
  • Round of cake
  • Brush with almond syrup
  • Cover and place in refrigerator to set

A bit later, I retrieved the cake, unmolded, and frosted the whole thing with whipped cream. Then back to the refrigerator to set while I rolled out the marzipan.

This is the part of our program where I made not one, but two unfortunate discoveries:

First, I didn’t actually have any food coloring hiding in the depths of my cupboard with which to dye my marzipan green.  Bummer, but not that tragic, beige can be elegant, right?  The second discovery was perhaps a bit tragic: one 8 oz. package of almond paste is not enough to cover an entire 9” cake.  So, she wound up with a little beige overlay rather than an elegant, pale green coat.

The good news is that she did turn out fluffy and creamy and delicious.  The better news is that the result was well worth the effort.  Princess cake will be attempted here again very soon, and I fully expect that she will be properly robed when that time comes.