I saw this ballet when I was about 12 years old at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC). That’s where I spent all my babysitting money. It was one of my first experiences with a Balanchine ballet. I think Edward Villela danced the day I saw it live. Not at all what I expected. I thought all ballets involved ballerinas in tutus and crowns dancing to tinkly classical music.
Apollo wasn’t that. It’s spare. There is no plot really. No lavish sets. The costumes are minimal. Stravinsky is an acquired taste. But I was hooked anyway. Pretty soon I was mainlining Stravinksy’s Violin Concerto, Agon and Firebird. I had to keep watching more kids to support my habit. When I couldn’t get to SPAC, I wandered around the house hollow eyed hitting up the parental units for a loan on a matinee. It got bad.
Fortunately for you, oh best beloveds, the NYCB is having a digital season on YouTube featuring some of their best ballets so you won’t need to spend any time watching your mom’s friend’s kids for a quick fix. This week is Apollo dances with his muses. Enjoy!
Filed under: General |
The Confluence 
I will relate something which is not that important, but is indicative. Like virtually everyone else, i am entitled to a $1,200 check from the so-called stimulus package. Not quite as much as the literally hundreds of billions of dollars which were given to large corporations and sent out immediately; but I might as well take it. However, i still have not gotten it, two months later.
Apparently this is because i do not have direct deposit information on file with the IRS. This is because I do not have taxes withheld, and I always owe money on my tax return. This is not that uncommon, of course. I read that as of a few days ago, some 60 million Americans have not gotten their stimulus checks, and that it may be months before they do. Now, that would seem to defeat the alleged purpose of the stimulus, but likely not the purpose of the Trump Administration, which was to give out trillions of dollars to their friends and political donors, and hide that purpose behind this stimulus check program.
I do not immediately need this $1,200, but many do, and they may never get it, because how are they going to, since IRS does not respond to letters or phone calls about this? What is to stop the government from never sending out the checks? Who is going to sue them? Trump would always dare his creditors to sue him, back in the days when his grifting was on a smaller scale.
For the first time, i do not trust our government at all. Of course there were many days when i did not trust them with regard to foreign policy, or telling the truth about wars, and such things. But at this point, the government is not our friend, not there to help us, it is a criminal enterprise devoted to stealing everything from out pockets, to go into theirs We can’t believe one word which comes out of the mouth of Trump or his officials, nor from McConnell. Some people will starve before they get their paltry $1,200; and the Republicans refuse to do any more, they have given about $4 trillion to the wealthy, and now must focus on ways to reduce the deficit by removing social services. One of Reagan’s favorite lines, for which many in the media and without, applauded him for, was, “The worst thing a person can hear, is someone telling them, “i’m from the government, and i’m here to help.'” No one has to hear that now, not unless you are a personal billionaire, or a corporate trillionaire. They are not there to help you one bit. The Enemy of the People is the Republicans.
Who are only the tools of that greater Enemy of the People, the plutocrats–who, in turn, have become the tools of the Greatest Enemy of the USA, the Russian Mafia State. Only the stupidity of Benedict Donald has kept him from entirely turning the USA into a Mafia State as well.
Thanks a fucking heap, Stupid White Folks (or as we call them here, cr@wd@ds). 😉
On a lighter note, May The Fourth Be With You! 😛