Swan Lake

[JHC]

Have you ever seen a performance like this before??
http://www.nzwide.com/swanlake.htm

[wljmrbill]

can't say that I have:but I did enjoy it very much.. Always great music.They were rather artistic in their performance I thought.

[teddy]

Fascinating Colin, although I suppose a purist would frown at it

teddy

[marval]

Thank you Colin, I enjoyed that. Rather her than me balancing on the man's arm though.


Margaret

[John Watt]

I'm not sure purists have any more credibility about swans any more. They've changed.
As a species that has been observed around the world as a dominant bird group,
going back as far as The Royal English Swan Society, before the Royal interest in all English birds,
and birds around the world,
swans have been one of the most studied and hobbied birds in human history.

They have a unique quality, even amongst all nature, in that the males create a certain amount of sperm for that mating season,
and if they don't use it all up the glands open and it reduces itself back into the bloodstream where it is passed as urine.
Swans have always mated for life, a long lifespan, and if the mate transpires, swans remain single.

However, over ten years ago, for the first time, observed in Stratford, Ontario, Canada,
a male swan killed another male and took up with its' female partner.
That's still shocking behavior for birding groups.
Now, whether you can ascribe that to these birds being invasive species to begin with,
I'm not sure. After reading a lot of New York Times papers these holidays,
I'm not sure if this can be considered an invasive cultural act, in the pond or onstage.
Uh, at least I'm typing I'm not sure.

[JHC]

As interesting as that is John, what about the video clip??

[John Watt]

J.H.C.! Please, let me take another swan dive. I'm sorry for the slight, almost negligible reference to the clip,
even if it summarizes my overall perspective. I'll admit it, I didn't watch the clip. I could have, but I took it for granted.
I've been watching "Chinese" acrobats going back to the early Ed Sullivan Show, Johnny Carson, etc.
It's taken something like the Cirque de Soleil from Quebec to come onto the world stage with similar gymnastic performances.
The last thing I saw that surprised me is the cup stacking thing.

The new movie Black Swan is so nice to think about, Natalie Portman being someone interesting to think about,
in terms of being a ballerina, and with-in the context of the movie, beginning ballet in her youth.
But it is a modernization compared to any traditional swan theme,
modern technology creating and enabling activities never before known in our human history.

Now if someone added that the lead ballerina stood up front onstage,
spreading her arms out like wings towards the heavens,
her fingers reaching out, trembling a little,
with the two male principals approaching on each side,
and using only her outstretched middle fingers,
lift her and move her around the stage as she does side arm body lifts,
like gymnasts do on the rings,
looking like she's flapping her wings,
then I'll look at the clip.

I'm just going to look out the window at all the softly falling snow,
and think about the time I rescued some expensive swan art from Lake Erie near Point Abino.
That was me getting into my own big swan lake.

[teddy]

Goodness, you don't ask for much, do you John. How about laying an egg as well.

teddy

[John Watt]

Teddy! I should have noticed, and thought,
that someone with "duckmeister" would be overly sensitive to swan trivia.
If I'm to pull on your canard, draw on your mallard attitude,
I could type about where those Canada geese have their nests this year.
It was big news when they abandoned their traditional Gibson Lake peninsula.

But you are right. Expecting vigorous wing-flaps from an adult ballerina is expecting too much.
Now I can see a small chorus of angelic youth being fluttered around the stage.

I see Harry Houdini, with his extreme conditioning, ice cube baths every day to improve resistance for stunts,
practicing various dislocations to aid in extrications, part of his promotional behavior,
as pushing himself to where he could achieve international acclaim, setting a North American entertainment standard.
Unfortunately, poverty is too often the motivation for parents to make their children outstanding.
I can't fault Chinese society, in China, for exhibiting more of a global trait than most other countries.
China experienced horrific poverty in the 20's and 30's, survived, and recovered more than nicely.
That's another reason I didn't look at the clip.
There are some things I'll never try to do, never did try to do, and don't want anyone else to have to do them,
especially if it's for such a whim as entertainment.
What I've seen from China lately that sets an artistic standard for me with available technology,
is what looks like a painting in a frame, as a construction, but is a moving panorama of a city or scene.
Even the simple underwater scenes with fish look better than any computer animation I've seen, real 3-D.

Does that count as an egg? It didn't feel like I was squeezing it out.

[teddy]

Well the yolks on me John. I didn't expect you to shell out so many words on this subject but I guess it is all white. Its not as if you are swanning around trying to feather your own nest, or even ducking the issue. It would not be right to give you the bird after so much effort.

regards

teddy

[John Watt]

Oh! The iniquity of it all!
If I wasn't using this borrowed office system,
if I was in my new residence, if online was activated,
I could add a photo or scan, of some serious swan feathers.

As a long distance bike-hike I go out of my way to get feathers for my collection.
It took many observations, and figuring out how to get there across a river,
but I was looking around where I regularly saw grey herons.
I thought it was a deer leg bone sticking out of the muddy bank,
but it was part of a wing. I took the skeleton, with only wingtip feathers intact,
back home and called birder friends in Port Dalhousie, known for their eagle watch.

They sent a conservation officer over to make sure I didn't kill it, an automatic $5,000 fine.
He knew the bird by that tag, saying it's one of 242 known trumpeter swans that migrate further north.
He measured the wingspan as 8'4", and the longest feathers are over 22" long.
Incredible. Even as a skeleton, that bird gave off a lot of character.

That's got me thinking now, thinking about ballet and this swan.
Maybe Keira Knightley, looking more gaunt, a little darker, could have had a part.
She could have been the swan that didn't go home, always in costume,
maybe instead of a Victor Hugo hunchback thing, hunchback being hot back then with industrial labour,
Keira could be more American, maybe lurking, maybe just always there,
coming out of a washroom or from under the subway, something like that.

Of course, Jack White is going to write a riff about this, coming out with "White's Swan", wiping up with that.
Jus'relayin'some sayin'.

[JHC]

Why use a dozen words when you can drag it out to hundreds ?

[wljmrbill]

sounds like bunch of vrapto me.. actually

[JHC]

This one ???

http://www.facebook.com/morenovrapto

[wljmrbill]

No J.H.C. was a type-o meant" crap-o" referring to John's long dissertations above.