Jessica and her camera get along quite well.

My dear dear dear beautiful friend, Jessica Peterson
(Jessica's Official Photography Website),
asked me to help spice up her artistic statement.
Here lies the fruit of my efforts.

Some people, when excited, wave their arms and waggle their fingers and other necessary extremities to articulate and punctuate their sentences. Some people, when joyful, dance jigs and click their heels together three times. Some people, when distraught, lie on the floor for a week, moan un-earthy sounding moans, and later start successful careers in pop music. Jessica Peterson, can, will, and does blink once, and the sum of all the sentiments, opinions, and truth of living in this green world, is gathered in photo form.

Jessica and her camera get along quite well.

They hold hands and skip through existence responding and reacting to the beauty and life that surrounds all. Jessica and her camera can build forts under tables with blankets, make up secret passwords (using pig-Latin and actual Latin), and tip toe softly to be the first to see Christmas morning. Jessica and her camera will spill enormous vats of golden light onto the audience that digests the creative nuance and dynamics that populate this artwork.

Jessica swam through blood, sweat, and tears and blissfully earned her BFA in Photography from Art Center in Pasadena CA in 2006. She has been working independently as a freelance photographer, as well as an in-house photographer and editor at a stock production company.

Nana, the unwitting philosopher

... and then I realized who I want to be when I grow up.

I am brimming with machismo.

I just wrote a blog self-proclaiming my extreme awesomeness over a feat that
ANYONE and EVERYONE
has done at least once in the last fiscal year.


. . .

Have I really sunk this low? Am I really REALLY this bored?
Do I think I will last the entire long desert of non-dance this winter break?

Hmmm.

The answer is . . . maybe.


Looks like it's time for me to get new hobbies.
Kissing B is probably going to remain at the top of my list.

Now, if you will excuse me please. . .

Sleep Dust and Hair Everywhere

I just had a SIX HOUR NAP.


I pretty much think that my life is more awesome than yours.


Eat that.

"How do I look at dance" or Get it? Got it. Good.

Ah, clarity.

All I want for Christmas this year is to never again have the scoffs and snide commentary directed towards modern dance, my major, or how being "so artistic" might/maybe/probably scares legitimate dating experiences away (you know you said it, you know who you are, you should probably be ashamed of yourself.)

So, when I read the forward inside my program for Ririe-Woodbury's performance of Interiors, I breathed a sigh of relief, clapped my claps twice, and planned on copying it down HERE so that you, my friends & family members (basically, any nay-sayer around these here parts), can finally understand how to look at modern dance without feeling the need to interpret, and maybe, just maybe, learn to give yourself permission to love what you experience in a modern dance concert.


This piece was written by Rachel Howard,
for an April 2005 San Franciso Chronical article.
(For more of her articles and reviews,
check out this link: Rachel Howard)

“Dance can be mysterious, mystifying, intimidating. Dance is nonverbal. You can't reduce what you've seen to a plot; you can't recite the lines. It's ephemeral. It vanishes before you're quite sure what you've seen. And at its best, dance says things no other art form can, and you feel it in your muscles and your breath, and you walk out wondering if you can communicate what you've just experienced to another person.
Or wondering if you got it.
The fact is, each of us is a dance person. We've each swayed to music at a rock concert, or appreciated the curvature of a finely trained physique, or felt the rush of another person's rhythms vicariously in our own limbs. Dance is elemental, like music..."
"At a lecture I gave on ballet last year, one of the first questions was, "What should I be watching?" There are no shoulds. You can watch the dancers' athleticism, the patterns they make onstage, the rhythms of their steps. A good choreographer will focus your eye. But just as important as what you're seeing is what you're feeling. Dance is not two-dimensional. It's not visual art. When a butoh master crawls in tense, time-suspending steps, you can imagine that tension and control in your own body. When a ballet dancer swooshes past in an enormous grand jete, you can feel the wind in your own hair. Open yourself to these sensations and you will "see" dance anew."
“Don't be afraid to say you're bored -- or thrilled. If you went to a bad movie, you'd complain about why you didn't like it. You wouldn't decide that you don't like movies. But often with dance, viewers stop trusting their guts. They've been told this is art. Something must be wrong with them, not with the dance itself. It's healthy to realize no one has the final say on whether a work is good, but it's folly to deny how you really felt about the dance in the moment. Be honest with yourself about your emotional response to the dancing, and you'll be all the more moved when you find that performance that makes you say, this is for me.”

I miss August.

I want to sketch out three mores hours. I want to use permanent ink.


What happened to make me realize that I am carrying my home in a little blue bag? I'm not complaining, I just wish I had more throw pillows there.

Sometimes I can't remember which way was up or why you left or how many nails I've bitten off and spit into the sun over you and you and you.

I can't remember what number I'm on. Time for another list.

I miss August.

The Official Alsoran Cupcake Girl List

I just got my Alsomas gift this evening, being the newest cupcake girl, and all.

Lemon Poppyseed Cupcake mix.

I'm in cupcake girl heaven.

• Claire Bagley
• Rachel Lewis-Clark
• Chanel Ryan
• Becca
• Jessica
• Erin Dixon
• Jennifer Dare (prounounced Duraaaaa)
• Kiana Alarid
• Erica Marie
• Kelly Ramona
• Megan
• Megan's friend Cassie
• Brittany
• Regina Spektor
• Jana Lindblom (Three layer wedding cake/Alsoran Dancer)
• Emma A.
• AmandaRan (also President of the Pirate Crew)
• Eva Mah
• Chelsea Smelsea

Brought to you by Quarter Horse, the equine music zine.