We walked about 10 blocks up to City Center to see a dance performance by The Next Stage Project. We got there early, so we went up to the roof where I've visited before and clambered up a 30-foot ladder to the uppermost part to take in the view around us.
The modern dance performances were dazzling and inventive, and broke some new ground by including some vocalizations and even singing. It's a rare privilege to see such grace and powerful movement at such a close distance (we sat in the front row of chairs on the sides, which brought the dancers within three feet of us at times). Puck and I enjoy seeing TNSP a couple times a year - the experience of seeing this communication through movement also comports nicely with our touch communication.
Afterward we went to Totto Ramen. It was Puck's first time to visit, but I was amazed how much it has changed! When I first visited last year with Katie B and Katie M after my TSMC screening of Tampopo, it was a dark, cramped below-ground noodle joint with no climate control and a crowded waiting list. Now, it's a bright, modern and street-level enclosed restaurant about three times the original size (with a huge bathroom by NYC standards) that was able to seat us immediately. The menu hasn't changed and the food is as good as ever, so this was a nice surprise. I suppose there are traditionalists who will miss the old Totto Ramen, but I'm not one of them. The transformation was as startling as Lai Lai Noodle House into Tampopo Ramen in the movie.
We came back to TSMC and had a little improptu Purim celebration and listened to some music, waiting for Puck's homeward-bound train. We had an interesting talk about the L-word (the four letter one), and it reminded me of the following quote I've posted before from Daniel Pinchbeck's book, 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl:
"Robert Johnson notes that the English language reflects our emotional paucity. Ancient Persian and Sanskrit possessed more than eighty words for love, denoting different qualities and valences of communal and erotic feeling. Whether we want to proclaim our affection for Krispy Kreme doughnuts or our significant other, we are stuck with just the single word, obliterating differences and qualities."
Saturday night Katie M had come over to watch movies, and one that we watched was Another Woman, Woody Allen's introspective masterpiece. It reminded me of the importance of having authentic and honest relationships with the people in my life, and that includes using the right words to describe our feelings toward each other. Unfortunately, our society tends to stifle that kind of honesty in a variety of ways, but I keep trying to find ways to work around that.
