hi friends

1 last month, rog was kind to invite me to see donna uchizono's thin air at ODC theatre (17th and shotwell). i didn't come with any idea what it was about. maybe a mix of minimal sets, steve reich / john cage sounds, and sweeping choreography a la martha graham / merce cunningham, with dancers shod in jersey onesies. but this performance -- by three dancers, no more -- blew me away. i've never seen dance movements on stage or on screen that characterize the PRESENT before seeing her work.

uchizono takes a single gesture anyone might make in conversation or while waiting, like the loose-wristed rolling of your fisted hand over your knee or the manner your feet shift standing, and articulates it, repeats it, until it becomes a tone, much like sampling a snippet of spoken word. the tones rise and fall with the pace and strength of movement. watching these extreme articulations, you start noticing the moments where there are detachments more than where there are connections. there were no sets besides ladders, and the geometries made shifting through plastic sheet, minimal video projection, the sounds of fred frith's dirty guitars, crippled radios, all of it understated, sort of uncomfortable, and gorgeous.

2 after a show two months ago, i heard a shrill, constant ringing in my right ear (even louder than the ringing in the left that i've gotten used to for the past few years). two weeks later and still ringing, i suspected it was about time i head over to see a specialist. it turns out i have hearing 'dips' at the high frequencies and in the mid range, with a 15 dB minimum for conversation (10 dB is average for someone in their twenties). it's not as dismal as it sounds, but i'm gonna be wearing ear plugs like there's no tomorrow!