Old Sacred Heart Hospital, Pensacola

Diana and I explored Pensacola's Old Sacred Heart Hospital yesterday.

She was born there. I was not.

The day was grey and the light was not optimal for photographs, but we made do.

~

We started with lunch at O'zone Pizza Pub, in the basement of the old building.

Then we poked around the hospital interior.

There are a few offices but the building is essentially unchanged, from the solid oak doors to the shiny copper pipes.

I could imagine the Daughters of Charity with their white cornettes, gliding down the halls on hidden feet.

We peered, but were not allowed onto the upper floors.

Mary is visible through a rear window.  Strange.

Nijinsky 1911 - Petrouchka - part 1

Another in Christian Comte's series of filmic recreations of Nijinsky in which still photos are morphed into moving images.

This one is a bit creepy but I think that's Petrouchka as much as the animation technique. Delicious!

"All the major movements of the early 20th century are reflected in the Russian Ballet..." *

Once again my heart is broken as the worldwide celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Ballets Russes goes on without me.

~~~

Russia Smiles on a Lost Son - NYTimes.com

A trio of Dapper Dans:

Serge Diaghilev, Vaslav Nijinsky, Igor Stravinsky

1912

Photo by Bronislava Nijinska

~~~

Vera Fokina and Mikhail Fokine

1914 Ballet Russes Program

Illustration by Valentine Gross

Scheherazade Choreography by Fokine

Costumes by Leon Bakst

Music by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

*John E. Bowlt, director of the Institute of Modern Russian Culture at the University of Southern California

Sunday morning at Panera

Still Life With Blueberry Muffin

It's been ages since I've done the Panera thing. I used to come most Sundays, very early, and try to scram by the time the church crowd flocks in. Alas, I arrived a bit late today and here they come.

Penacola is jam-packed with churches. I frequently hear quoted that it holds the US title for most churches per capita but I can find no corroborating source. Still, what the fuck is an atheist like me doing in a place like this?

"When you have had something so beautiful, there is no need to have anything else as beautiful."

Kyra Nijinsky, Patrick Dupond, Bud Cort in "She Dances Alone" 1981

Watch to the last frame. She was gorgeous.

You may recognize Bud Cort, the filmmaker on this project, as Harold in the movie "Harold and Maude."

And the dancer, Patrick Dupond, went on to become a principal dancer and, later, dance director of the Paris Opera Ballet.

"My father was to me like a fairy tale."

Kyra Nijinsky interviewed by Margot Fonteyn

My porridge is just right.

Today's weather was perfect -- sunny, not too hot, not too cold.

This photo is from yesterday but pretend it's from today. The metal buillding is ugly/beautiful.

Nijinsky's Last Dance

Nijinsky as Petrouchka 1910

On January 19, 1919

at five o’clock in the afternoon in a ballroom of the Suvretta House Hotel in St. Moritz, Switzerland, Vaslav Nijinsky danced publicly for the last time. He called this performance his “Wedding with God”.
                 ~~ from the Hamburg Ballet's playbill for Neumeier's ballet Nijinsky

from Nijinsky's handwritten diary - "God Nijinsky"

Nijinsky in England 1945

The Place Where I Live

Sort of. The town where I live, at least. It's the street where Diana lives.

I was poking through some of my photos last night and made this my laptop wallpaper. Wow, it's a nicer photo than I thought. The lesson being one should always enlarge one's photos because they almost always look better bigger. So, yeah, click on it to make it big.

Because You Asked

Sylvie Guillem - Maurice Béjart - Boléro (Tokyo 2009)

Both Sylvie Guillem and Nicholas le Riche are, or were, étoiles of the Paris Opera Ballet, my favorite ballet company.

Sylvie Guillem was 44 years old at the time this video was filmed.

new pod, er, cell phone

First photos from my new cell phone. The McDonald's where I decompress some mornings before work -- reading, writing, surfing the Internet, chatting with the other regulars.

And the cemetery where I parked to eat my lunch yesterday. I didn't have time to read any of the headstones, had to get back, but I think it's an historic African-Amercian cemetery. Will research and explore later.

The cell phone camera will be fun. Not great quality but can do in a pinch if, for instance, I bump into Bob Dylan or President Obama. Unexpectedly.

I wish tonight I could go to sleep in my little room in the Berkshires.

In the morning I would creep downstairs before the others are awake.

I would drink coffee, ponder Rudi, and gaze at the misty world through leaded glass.

Pat Robertson -- the face of christian charity

(CNN) -- Pat Robertson, the evangelical Christian who once suggested God was punishing Americans with Hurricane Katrina, says a "pact to the devil" brought on the devastating earthquake in Haiti.


Full story here.

Nicolas le Riche in Bejart's Bolero

Part I

Nicholas le Riche in Bejart's Bolero

Part II

Shameless Whinging About the Weather and Other Things

It's freakin' 30 degrees. Right here in Florida. Tonight the forecast is for a near-record low of 21 degrees, with wind chill of 10. It's weather like this that chased me from the Northeast. Why move to Bodunk, FL, USA if I'm still going to freeze my ass off?! I could be home in NYC, desperate for a glimmer of sunshine and watching the snow accumulate in grey curbside mounds. But there'd be access.

The new Sherlock Holmes movie, eh, not so hot. I miss movies that feature human beings over special effects. Movies meant to evoke emotion, not induce headaches and motion sickness. If you've seen one explosion, you've seen 'em all.

Otherwise: Robert Downey's English accent sucked. Jude Law's Watson was more attractive for being unglamorous. Holmes/Watson, so married.

Watson to Holmes: You old cock.

Holmes to Watson: Mother hen.

The best parts were the sketched scenes in the closing credits and the Dubliners' rockin' "Rocky Road to Dublin."