2011 December

On December 31st, 2011, THE MERCE CUNNINGHAM COMPANY FINALE…

the company takes a bow on center stage after it's last performance

…tonight at the Park Avenue Armory was a New Years Eve spectacle on three stages spread through out the Drill Hall (where I did an infinitely more modest production of Animal Drills four years ago for the Whitney Biennial with just a circle of people in the center watching then performing the Animal Scores danced by 12 dancer friends) where we were treated to a mash-up of scores from the past 60 years, performed for the last time as the company disbanded at the final ovation which was long and warm – from an audience comprised mostly of Company family – such as Charlie Atlas seated in front of me – and then, rightly enough, it was to the dance floor where 2012 was danced in.

Merce Cunningham Dance Company; Choreography by Merce Cunningham; Arranged by Robert Swinston; Music by David Behrman, John King, Takehisa Kosugi, and Christian Wolf; Décor by Daniel Arsham

The Merce Cunningham Dance Company returns to New York City—its home since its founding in 1953—for six historic final performances at the Armory, culminating a two-year farewell Legacy Tour that brought the Company to more than 50 destinations worldwide. For this last engagement, the Company will perform a series of Events created especially for the occasion across three stages in the Armory’s dramatic drill hall. The Company has mounted these signature site-specific choreographic collages in unusual locations around the world throughout its nearly 60-year history, including two previous engagements in the Armory’s drill hall, a 1983 performance and the 2009 public memorial for the legendary dancer and choreographer. The Park Avenue Armory Events will feature the last-ever music commission by the MCDC Music Committee and a specially commissioned décor by visual artist Daniel Arsham, who will fill the drill hall with massive suspended “clouds” comprised of thousands of individual colored spheres. This momentous engagement marks the final opportunity for audiences to experience first-hand the work of Merce Cunningham as performed by the Company he personally trained and to celebrate Cunningham’s lifetime of creative achievement with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company before it disbands.

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By Fritz Haeg on December 31, 2011 | dance
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On December 30th, 2011, FLYING OVER MANHATTAN ISLAND…

at home over Manhattan

…is an adrenaline producing high, nothing like it to get you really jazzed for some time on the streets and avenues, especially coming from LA but having lived in NYC in my 20′s, when I never felt more at home anywhere (like a comfortable old shoe), and probably never will again, in a way you never really can in LA, so in a strange way landing here always feels like coming home even though I haven’t lived here for almost 12 years.

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By Fritz Haeg on December 30, 2011 | New York City
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On December 29th, 2011, CUNNINGHAM ARCHIVES AT THE WALKER…

Cunningham archives at the Walker

…seems tailor made for me, walking through the galleries, anticipating travel to NYC tomorrow, to see the finale New Years Eve performance of the company before it disbands. (Walker Art Center)

The extraordinary partnership between two legendary artists is the foundation for this installation of backdrops, props, and costumes created for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company (MCDC). Merce Cunningham (1919–2009) and Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008), who repeatedly reshaped dance and visual art during their lengthy careers, collaborated on over 20 dance works between 1954 and 1964, a key period for both.Dance Works I features enormous curtains painted by Rauschenberg for one of Cunningham’s dance pieces that frame other rarely seen works he made for the stage, including large-scale sculptural objects that lend new perspective to his famous “combines” of the 1950s.  Over more than 60 years, Cunningham not only expanded the parameters of dance but also transformed the role of the visual arts within them. The choreographer developed relationships based on free-thinking experimentation and exchange with numerous leading artists, often bringing them into the sphere of dance for the first time. Dance Works Ishowcases one of the richest examples of this collaborative approach, inaugurating a series of exhibitions exploring Cunningham’s work with visual artists and drawing from the Walker’s 2011 acquisition of more than 150 works from the MCDC archive.

 

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By Fritz Haeg on December 29, 2011 | dance
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On December 28th, 2012, THE COMO PARK CONSERVATORY…

in and out of the Como Park Conservatory in the middle of a Minnesota winter

…is where we have come this morning with nieces and nephews in tow for some escape out of cold dry midwest winter and into the hot moist tropics. (website)

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By Fritz Haeg on December 28, 2011 | gardens
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On December 27th, 2012, AN ARRANGEMENT OF CRYSTALS…

crystal arrangement

…at my uncle’s admirably and intricately decorated house, is a hypnotic diversion from our lunch here this afternoon.

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By Fritz Haeg on December 27, 2011 | crafts
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On December 12th, 2011, HOME BAKED SPELT BREAD TRIUMPH…

piping hot spelt bread fresh from the oven

…this afternoon while trying to approximate the simple primitive spelt (farro) and water non-yeast bread that I fell in love with in Italy – especially the stuff made by the mystical baker/artist with a little stand at Rome’s  whom I would visit most Sunday’s (who would apologize for the ashes on the bottom of the loaf while brushing off that evidence of the homemade fire it was baked in) - and it was on my first attempt of what I thought would be many, and with many recipes – that the magic steaming loaf came out of the oven, warming this rainy day – amazingly textured, light/substantial, delicious and satisfying in the way that only bread can be – especially to someone who is vegan and avoids wheat – making me wonder why I ever bought bread? (recipe website)

3 cups spelt flour – organic
1 1/2 cups water - purified
1 tbs. baking powder – non-aluminum
1 tbs. olive oil
1/4 tsp. sea salt
Mix liquids and dry ingredients separately; then combine and mix well. Place in oiled and floured cake pan. Bake at 375 F  for 50 – 55 minutes. When top is light to medium brown, bread is ready to cool on rack.

…plus I basted the top with homemade almond milk before baking…and next time, nuts!

 

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By Fritz Haeg on December 12, 2011 | food
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On December 11th, 2011, ‘HOME WORK: HANDBUILT SHELTER’…

Home Work: Handbuilt Shelter, 2004

…the super charming 2004 survey of hand made homes (adobe, bark, barns, bottles, camps, canvas, floating, geodesics, green-roofs, mobile, mud, sandbags, straw, stone, tiles, timber, tiny, tipis, thatch, treetops, yurts…) from all over – including up close and personal profiles of the builders – is the book I just picked up by Lloyd Kahn which I am extremely jazzed about, representing for me the height of architecture – a follow-up to his 1973 best-selling ‘Shelter.’

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By Fritz Haeg on December 11, 2011 | architecture, books
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On December 10th, 2011, COOKBOOK IN ECHO PARK…

the beckoning storefront colors of Cookbook in Echo Park

…is the recently opened neighborhood boutiquey charming but expensive green grocer that I am hearing about – as I’m asking around trying to figure out what progress has been made with access to simple good food on the east side of LA while I’ve been away the past 16 months – so I stop by this afternoon, impressed by the way it feels like someone has opened up a room in their home as a store – reminding me of the candy-jar-filled wood-paneled glass-cabinet-lined Minneapolis candy store in the first floor parlor of the Melby family house a few blocks away where we got out sugar fix as kids.

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By Fritz Haeg on December 10, 2011 | food
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On December 9th, 2011, ‘ORGANIZING COOLS THE PLANET: TOOLS AND REFLECTIONS TO NAVIGATE THE CLIMATE CRISIS’…

Organizing Cools the Planet, 2011

…is the title of the Hilary Moore and Joshua Kahn Russell authored booklet from PM Press that I was seduced into buying at Skylight Books in Los Feliz this evening – mostly because of it’s engaging simple loose sketchy illustrations about a heavy dark complicated topic – and I look forward to digging in. (website)

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By Fritz Haeg on December 9, 2011 | books, environment
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On December 8th, 2011, THE NEXT LIFE OF THE DOWNED CAROB TREE…

one massive trunk of the carob tree gently resting on the fence

…which is now lying in wait and shorn of it’s branches – will include: the chipping of it’s branches into mulch for the garden beds, paths, and slopes; the cutting of it’s medium sized trunks into 18 and 30 inch pieces for garden seating and table surfaces; and the really massive lower sections will remain where they have fallen to retain planting terraces and to create long tree seating landscapes, to be occupied like driftwood on the beach.

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By Fritz Haeg on December 8, 2011 | home, landscape
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On December 7th, 2011, THE LIGHTED GRID OF LA…

over the lighted grids of LA

…beginning to emerge as the pilot announces our descent into the city somewhere over 29 Palms, then Palms Springs, then the endless Inland Empire – welcomes me back home to the wild urbanized west for a few weeks.

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By Fritz Haeg on December 7, 2011 | Los Angeles
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On December 6th, 2011, LEFTOVER PRINCETON BUILDING MATERIALS…

Princeton building leftovers

…from slate pavers to gothic finials and concrete culverts to steel beams – collected, organized, and saved for future use by a thoughtful facilities manager – cover a massive field near campus as far as you can see, which I am inspecting for possible use in next term’s Princeton Student Colony.

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By Fritz Haeg on December 6, 2011 | construction
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On December 5th, 2011, THE LENAPE EDIBLE ESTATE…

Lenape garden 30 months later

…was established in 2009 in front of the Hudson Guild community center at Elliott-Chelsea Houses near the corner of West 26th Street and Tenth Avenue with thirty edible plant species that the native Lenape people of the island of Manhattan would have been eating from as recently as 400 years ago – and being in the neighborhood this morning, I stopped by to check it out (since there is no particular family that takes care of it and eats from it – as with most of the other Edible Estate gardens - I have always been a bit concerned about it’s future prospects) where some plants had gone and others had arrived, but it was still looking good, and even a little wild – in a good way. (webpage)

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By Fritz Haeg on December 5, 2011 | Edible Estates
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On December 4th, 2011, MAO MARATHON IN NEW YORK CITY…

Mao Marathon at the Jane Hotel

…at the Jane Hotel’s luxe comfy ballroom, where I found a spot on an old homey velvet upholstered couch, was an all afternoon performative reading of the entire text of of Frederic Tuten’s 1971 novel The Adventures of Mao on the Long March by over 70 people including Linsey Abrams, Michael Almereyda, Kurt Andersen, Laurie Anderson, Véronique Béghain, Ross Bleckner, Thomas Bolt’s, Cecily Brown, Lori Marie Carlson, Mary Ann Caws, Jerome Charyn, Clifford Chase, Michael Coffey, Lydia Davis, Mónica de la Torre, Jim Drummond, Deborah Eisenberg, Adam Ende, Barbara Epler, Francisco Goldman, Brad Gooch, Francine du Plessix Gray, Adam Green, John Haskell, Amy Hempel, Oscar Hijuelos, A.M. Homes, Richard Howard, Dakota Jackson, Ben Janse, Wayne Koestenbaum, Bettina Korek, Anne Kreamer, Paul La Farge, Dorothy Lichtenstein, Douglas Light, Phillip Lopate, Karen Marta, Patricia Marx, J.W. McCormack, Edward Mendelson, Gregory R. Miller, Hannah Tennant-Moore, Walter Mosley, Linda Norden, Sarah Paley, Robert Polito, Ernesto Quiñonez, Jonathan Rabinowitz, Dawn Raffel, Pedro Reyes, Rachel Rosenfelt, David Salle, Grace Schulman, Wallace Shawn, Aurelie Sheehan, Julie Sheehan, Geoffrey D. Smith, Iris Smyles, James Leon Suffern, Betsy Sussler, Lynne Tillman, James Traub, Lily Tuck, Edmund White, Andrew Zornoza - which just happened to coincide with my breezing through New York on the way to a few days in Princeton.

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By Fritz Haeg on December 4, 2011 | performance
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On December 3rd, 2011, A MISSING TREE…

the missing tree

…is a hard thing to point out.

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By Fritz Haeg on December 3, 2011 | home, landscape
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On December 2nd, 2011, JEDEDIAH CAESAR’S …

Jedediah Caesar's COMMA 23

…inverted cast pits of London rubble from a project at Bloomberg Space have arrived for display in LA – opening at Human Resources tonight – before being ceremonially destroyed…which I heard happened later in the evening as the opening evolved into a dance party partially on top of the sculptures.

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By Fritz Haeg on December 2, 2011 | art
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On December 1st, 2011, CAROB TREE ON THE HOUSE…

one part of the carob tree hanging over the 'cave'

…was one of the dramatic results of a truly terrifying night of hurricane strength winds that loudly pounded the hilltop last night – so loud that I didn’t hear the beloved massive carob tree crash down in two directions (towards the neighbors where a few other trees and my redwood fence fortunately braced it from crashing into their bedroom  - and on to the lower level of my house, fortunately braced from crashing through the roof by a perimeter concrete wall), but when I finally awoke at 6am from two hours of fitful sleep in the slightly muffled retreat of the downstairs bathroom, I discovered a totally new world in the garden, where the largest presence on the land was gone – replaced by the view to Glendale, Burbank, and beyond.

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By Fritz Haeg on December 1, 2011 | home
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