Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder
Stomp! And Honey.
Hi, reader. I wrote this in 2001 and it's now more than five years old. So it may be very out of date; the world, and I, have changed a lot since I wrote it! I'm keeping this up for historical archive purposes, but the me of today may 100% disagree with what I said then. I rarely edit posts after publishing them, but if I do, I usually leave a note in italics to mark the edit and the reason. If this post is particularly offensive or breaches someone's privacy, please contact me.
My parents came by and my sister, parents, and I watched "Stomp", which was fun. I liked the effects of the lighting and choreography, which varied between references to tribal ritual and sort of Venetian-blind-neon-sign allusions.
The racial balance of the work bothered me. The performers were obviously making some jokes about the supposed lack of rhythm of whitefolk, and at their expense -- and, since the whole experience is a wordless celebration of rhythm, that's unsettling. The "dorky white guy with glasses" was sort of the underdog/star of the show -- all the other performers showed off how skilled they were, and he pretended (I'm guessing) to lack that facility. It was interesting to try and figure out how much was acting and how much wasn't, and to catch little grace notes and moments of pure artistry.
In other news, I had interesting and fruitful conversations with my sister, my parents, Dan, and Leonard. Oh. and at breakfast with my family, I made this involved joke about how the supposed medicinal properties of honey are made-up by the honey manufacturers, which don't let you know about the Dark Side of Honey. I was just joking. And they didn't really get it. Thank goodness for my friends.
Originally published by Sumana Harihareswara at http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2001/9/3/191315/1054
