Techno Immersion

I have recently rekindled my love of techno music. I had not danced to Techno music since 2002! However, I have also recently recognized that Boston is not a very spontaneous city. When I lived in San Francisco, no matter what kind of music was playing, people would move how they pleased and not care about other's opinions. However, perhaps the copious amounts of drugs in northern California assisted in this process ;)

In contrast, the club where I have been going with friends, Avalon, is filled with Europeans and college students who all move the same way. Alas. . . they dance on the floor as if they were listening to hip-hop or some sultry love song. Half way through the night everyone is drunk and making out. The thrill and energy of techno seems lost on them!

My friends and I do not drink when we go out to dance to techno. Believe it or not, it IS possible to appreciate techno music for its musicality. The DJ is good if he/she is able to bring out a range of emotions within you. Personally, if the DJ is good, I find it easy to just let my body move to the music and I always am amazed with the range of movements that emerge. It is better than any dance class!

Everyone has different ways of approaching techno music. I have found many people like to scoff and not entertain the thought of ever dancing to it. Others prefer to get drugged up and hop around in a zombie state, which by the way, in my book, does not count as really listening to techno music. This is like taking drugs to imitate the benefits of meditation and mind exercises. I have heard that Tibetan monks claim to be able to attain the same mind-altering states as some drugs though meditation. But I digress. . .

My friends and I prefer an improvisational approach. Sometimes this involves some form of contact improve-type movements or trying to do something purposely silly so that we are able to break the mold of "acceptable" club dance movements. I have always enjoyed both performance and club dancing. When I am on the floor, I attempt to integrate aspects of both these forms into my more improvisational movements. To say the least, when I dance to techno, I dance with a lot of gusto ;) In San Francisco, my friend and my "free dancing" landed us with a life long DJ friend who gave us VIP passes to all the clubs he worked at. Originality and a friendly sober attitude have its perks!

Most recently, at the end of one of our dance marathons at a local Boston club, a guy approached me and asked me what drugs I was on. I told him I hadn't even had a drink much less anything else. He said he was amazed because he had never seen someone with so much energy on the dance floor. He kept asking me what drives me to dance the way I do. I didn't have a legitimate answer. However, I love it and the pulse of the music surges through me. It is almost a transcendental state. This guy’s question made me think of the relationship of the body to music. The beat in a club setting literally is a physical presence, surging through all the limbs, how can anyone help but to respond? There is nothing better! For me it is my meditation and period of reflection. All of my feelings within emerge through the movement. I love all forms of dance and appreciate when there is more structure, such as ballroom or Latin dances, but it is the intensity and freedom latent within techno beats that truly sets me free! I just hope my old 26yr old body can keep up!

Trash Day

Appropriately tomorrow, Valentines Day, is trash day in Somerville. ;)

My roommates and I thought that due to the unusual amount of snow that fell last night, we had a duty to bring some more color to our neighborhood. In fact, we felt it our obligation to not only decorate the street, but, also, to make it feel a bit homier.

After all, Boston has always been known for its cold and inhospitable inhabitants and we wanted to start changing the image of this wonderful city. These pictures demonstrate one way in which we are attempting to help out our fellow man!

Now don't you wish your street looked this hip and stylish on trash day?

Disclaimer: For those of you who think it is wasteful to throw out a perfectly good hamper, cupboard, chair and tree, rest assured that some Boston resident will most probably take it for their home by the end of tomorrow morning.

Birthday Butter

In my family, well actually only on my mother's side of the family, a person must be buttered on their nose for good luck every time it is their birthday! My mom grew up in a VERY rural area of Pennsylvania, so don't ask me how or when this tradition started. Though, if you have any ideas, please let me know! :)

As I grew older I learned, to my amazement, that not everyone gets their nose buttered on their birthday. I started to rebel. At first I tried to introduce my friends to this ritual. I explained it calmly to them and then proceeded to butter their noses. I was giving them good luck for a year but they did not seem too appreciative! The result was that they would retaliate and some years I would be buttered by my mother and my friends. Next, I just tried to run from the butter.

Now , part of the rule is that for the ultimate amount of good luck, one must be buttered right as they wake up, or at least early in the morning. When I moved away to college, my mom became worried that I might not be buttered at the right time, but over the years, she has become more lenient concerning this rule.

When I went to college I thought I would be rid of the butter tradition. But nooo. . . My mother got my roommates in on it and they were more than happy to butter my nose. Next I moved across the country to San Francisco and into a house that had no phone. Now my mother couldn't call my roommates and have them butter me! I still got buttered! Three times! My mom called my work and asked my boss to butter me. Then, she was unsure of the outcome of this request so to be on the safe side, she asked my ex-boyfriend, who was living in the area, to butter me. Finally, my current boyfriend, who thought the whole thing was a hoot, decided to butter me on his own accord! Argh!

The story this year is not as good as some previous years, such as the story where I was chased through Boston traffic by my mom who was waving a stick of butter. However, it still deserves merit.

My mom showed up at my apartment at 7am! She called me and said that she had a card to deliver. Knowing something was up, I refused to come down. I told her that I was in the process of finishing a paper and truly was busy. I asked her to give it to me at dinner tonight. She insisted that I was keeping my poor mother out in the cold and that I should just come down because she wasn't leaving.

I went down and put only my hand out the door. She smiled sweetly and then threw her whole body against the door pushing with all her little 90 lb might. The little woman may be old and petite, but she is strong! She got her foot in the crack of the door and then used that as leverage to get the side of her body in.

Then it happened. . .

I suddenly found that I had a large clump of melted butter on my nose! I now officially will have a good year. . .This tradition only could have started in a little western village in the valley of the Allegheny Mountains in Pennsylvania! (ie. The middle of nowhere!)

Hope everyone has a good day! Be thankful you don't have grease on your nose ;) I am now officially 26 years old!