Hey all! So yeah, it's been a loooong time. I've been doing things and being away in Europe and that's been exciting. I don't think I'm going to post photos on here because they're all on facebook and there's so many of them. But I did want to put up this, which I wrote today. I decided it's an accurate continuation of the poem Yellow Trees, which you can see on this post.
Yellow Trees Continued
On an Autumn night
underneath yellow trees
we came together to come apart
on a beach by the sea.
And I walk by that place
several times a year,
the trees seem to whisper
just loud enough for me to hear.
They feel just like us
both growing apart
and as seasons change
they look just like my heart.
A couple weeks after
they were nearing their death
but a few leaves still lingered
a little love left.
That’s when I first noticed
I felt just like them,
a witness to everything
and barely strong enough to stand.
But as Winter progressed
I walked by again
the leaves were all gone,
all colour was dead.
I felt just as brittle
a chill always in my bones
like the smallest breath could break me
and my heart was so cold.
Then the rainy Spring came
there was growth in our trees
but they were steadily dripping
not completely at ease.
I, too, felt stronger
but still mourned my loss
I knew to start a life with colour
may come at a cost.
In Summer the trees are fully green
truly the start of something new
but whenever I see them
I still think of you.
***
So yep, in other news, college is coming up so unbelievably fast. So. Unbelievably. Fast.
THE YOUNG CHOREOGRAPHER'S PERFORMANCE IS COMING UP REAL REAL SOON!!!! COME TO IT!!! IT'S FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
The show starts at 5 and is at Velocity Dance Center (located at 1621 12th Ave, Seattle WA). Tickets are free, and you don't even need to reserve them. Just be there at 4:45 when doors open, and have fun seeing four different young choreographer's pieces that we've been working on very hard for awhile now! (I'm in Anna McKee's piece.)
Here's a letter that Claire Connell wrote for anyone interested in coming:
Hello Friends and Family,
You are INVITED to STG’s 4th annual Young Choreographers Lab—Project Showing! May 5, 2012, 5-6 pm Velocity Dance Center (1621 12th Avenue, Seattle, WA 98122)
FREE (donations welcome)
STG presents works choreographed by four aspiring teen choreographers from STG’s Young Choreographers Lab. Young Choreographer’s Lab is for teens interested in pursuing their artistic vision as choreographers as well as dancers. In the fall, participants met once a week, for eight weeks, for choreography master classes. Starting in January, four choreographers were selected to create a larger work on local teens with the mentorship from leading Seattle choreographers, Amy O’Neal, KT Niehoff, Tonya Lockyer, and Mark Haim. The showing will be followed by question/answer with the young artists. RSVP requested; please email jessicaj@stgpresents.org.
Choreographers: Kyle Easterly
Heather Kaufman
Anna McKee
Jasmmine Ramgotra
Hope to see you all there!
Claire.
Also it looks like I'm going to be in another performance called the Unrehearsed Ensemble. It's going to be presented at On The Boards on June 17 from 4-10pm. (Yeah, long show.) It's an improvisation festival type thing, and will probably be very very fun and wild and (dare I say) craaaazzzaaayyyy. Heh..
So this has been something I've been wanting to do for awhile, and I've been constantly drawing to try to get a specific style down, but the other day I realized I just needed to go for it, and then while I'm doing them my style might emerge. So here it is, my first ever webcomic- hopefully there'll be more to come. As always, criticism is appreciated.
In other news, I now have two part time jobs! I think most people that are reading this blog have known that for awhile now, but I haven't posted since then and so I figured it'd be important to put on here. I'm a hostess at West 5 Lounge, and a waterer at West Seattle Nursery. The jobs are very different from one another (except for the fact that they both involve a lot of standing, so I end up standing from 9am-11pm on Saturdays,) but it's nice. I get peace and quite contemplation at the nursery, and social interaction at West 5, and it's a good balance in my opinion.
Other stuffs. Here's a picture! Of a flower! Hooray!
Hah, also I just joined Instagram. Probably addicted now. Oh wells. For those of you who may not know what it is, it's a photo-sharing app on apple devices (and droid too, actually, as of now i think?) where you can make your pictures look really cool and pretty and nice. For example.
I know I haven't updated in a while, and I don't even have a super good explanation for it. Hah. Other than the fact that I've been a little bit more busy with work study at Velocity, which opened up the ability to take more classes for less moneys. I've been getting used to it, things are coming a little more naturally now. And I keep feeling more and more welcome into the dance community there, it's wonderful. I even was given an opportunity to bartend at the last show I volunteered at for the first time. So I am gaining employable skills! Hurray!
Also I have a kind of starter poem that I've been meaning to work on lately and put up, but maybe I will just put up the rough draft and then I can get some input from anyone who wants to give it!
I once heard
the secret songs of trees with you,
their whispers
of all hopeful things.
I felt their joy and desire and peace,
but you heard it and only felt fear.
You could tell
things larger than you, us,
were living and breathing
and sharing with us
their raw honesty.
Maybe
you liked the idea of it,
because you shared the story with your friends
so you would sound
like all the things you wanted to be.
But now I know
you couldn't handle it.
So I went on
to stand
in high places
on dark nights
to hear the mournful bittersweet stories
of the wind and water,
rocks and trees.
In other news I'm back in Port Angeles for a bit, and I'm feeling really thankful for good friends. Friends that are there for you through thick and thin. Life is tumultuous and hard but we will be stronger in the end for it. I am also very thankful for the existence of cupcakes, because without them I don't think life would be as easy to get through. So, cheers to cupcakes and good friends.
And pretty pictures! Got to include my recent pretty pictures.
Night walking
Self portrait. kinda.
Sunny day flowers backyard pretty.
ALSO THE NEW ANDREW BIRD ALBUM IS OUT, AND THE SHINS. THEY ARE BOTH REALLY GOOD. GET THEM.
This is my mascot. I discovered it at Genki Sushi. It is my favourite thing in existence.
I just keep watching it... over and over and over...
In other news, my name came up for starting work study at Velocity in March! So I start then and it will go for at least three months, and I will get discounted classes. It's super exciting!
Hey, so the other day I came up with the idea of video recording any dance improvisation I do, for my own educational purposes. I want to be able to see what I did, in order for me to maybe incorporate parts into actual choreography. So I did a bit of improvisation last night, and tested it out. It was okay, except for I didn't pick out the optimum place to set my computer to record it so it's mostly upper body stuff, no floor work and I didn't get to go out of the range of the camera. But even if it's not great, it's not terrible, and I thought it might be interesting for people who don't have the ability to see me dance all the time.
This is the first video I took, it's to a song called "Hide and Seek" by Imogen Heap. I really want to choreograph something to it, so I'll probably be working with it a fair amount.
UPDATE- I watched this on here after I posted this, and the sound and visual are really not synced very well. I apologize, it's a lot cooler when it is.
I also wanted to put up a couple pictures I've taken over the past couple of days.
Definition of perfection: Seattle dinosaurs at sunset! (:
Hey, I thought it was about time I put up some more of my writing, and I also wanted to put up a couple pictures I took of our dog, Hayes, yesterday.
Mid yawn.
Now for poetry.
This one I wrote about a month ago. I didn't title it.
Every time I sleep
I have these terrible dreams
where it's the same as when I'm awake.
But then I walk to you
and you say you love me too
all the time for contact I ache.
We hold hands and smile
keeping it secret all the while
until my eyes open and my heart breaks.
Here's another that's fairly recent- (it's less about rhyme schemes, but more about the sound when read aloud.)
On dripping days like this
I think of you
when everything is so
thoroughly soaked
that we're all fragile as bird bones.
The poetry seeps back into me
around this time of year,
through my feet
and up my body
until it bleeds out my eyes
and fingertips.
Life is weird. Today, sad and strange things are happening elsewhere, things no one can begin to understand why they're happening. At the same time, it feels like something resembling summer in Seattle today! And the mountains are so wonderful!
So although life is weird, and although it might be hard sometimes, one has to try to see the happy and beautiful things in life as well.
Like Betty! She is the perfect example of being at peace with the world.
Now to what's been going on with me-
While going on a walk to Caffe Ladro today, I was listening to the Decemberists, and it just felt good. I thought I'd try to share the experience with you to the best of my ability-
Also, last night I cooked again! I made vegetable chowder with carrots, mushrooms, broccoli, cauliflower, corn, and potatoes. Very yummy. I also made cookie bars!
(They all made very good leftovers today, too! Hurray!)
And to update you all in the dance life of Jordan Rahne MacIntosh-Hougham, I randomly got asked to be in Kelsey Murphy's Cornish College of the Arts Senior BFA Performance, which will be on the 16th and 17th of February. Wednesday I had my first rehearsal, and tonight is my second. Things are lining up!
IN OTHER NEWS PINA 3D IS COMING TO CINERAMA FEBRUARY 10TH AND I AM SO EXCITED! It will be glorious.
Now that I've captured your attention, I'm not going to tell you what it is. Yet. Because I have other things to talk about first which are probably just as equally exciting.
First, a picture. (On a napkin.)
Secondly, a cookie recipe! I cannot, sadly, take credit for the recipe, other than the fact that I chose to make them with coconut, chocolate chips, and oats, and I made them well. I got several compliments on them, including them being referred to as "a revelation," "the best cookies I've had in awhile," and "pretty good." (That last one is my favourite.) I have gotten asked for the recipe a bunch, (meaning once) and so I'm putting it up in case people want to try!
1 cup softened butter
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups rolled oats
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup shredded (I used unsweetened) coconut
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F, unless your oven is incapable of doing anything correctly like mine, in which case just turn it on and it will gradually heat up to 500 degrees, then turn it off and the cookies will cook the way they're supposed to after it's off.
2. Mix butter, brown sugar and white sugar until creamy. Beat in the eggs, then stir in milk and vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt, and then slowly add the latter mixture into the former. Mix well. Add the oats, coconut, and chocolate chips! Fun stuff!
3. I'm sure you know the rest- put scoops of the dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet, bake until they look good! The recipe I used says 10-12 minutes, but if your oven is incapable, just eye it!
4. Voila! 30-ish "Revelation Cookies." (The recipe says 30, I got more than that out of it. Depends on what size cookie you want.)
Thirdly, things are getting rolling! Things are looking up! Things are happening in yours truly's life! Finally!
Within the past couple of days I have had visitations from my dear friend Adri Rainwater, and my dear mother. Adri and I basically bummed around Seattle and went to Oddfellows because apparently that's my home away from home now, and bought tea, which is one of my favourite pastimes. Mom took me with some of her friends from LIOS to Goodwill, and then she and I went to Blue C Sushi, (which I also had just been to with Adri, heh) and caught up. Niceness. Also Magda and I are still hanging out, still doing weird things together, and that is good. Vurry good. Things are good.
And I went and saw The Artist, which was stunning! Everyone needs to see that movie. It was so beautiful and clever! I cried, and I don't normally do that in movies, so see it! Really, probably one of the most excellent films I've ever seen.
One a different note, last night I volunteered at Velocity Dance Center because it was the last night of The Bridge Project, a workshop/performance they do every year where four up and coming choreographers are chose to do an intensive type thing and create a piece of their own, and then showcase it at the performance. I helped set up, usher, and take things down, and I got to see it for free! (Who calls that volunteering when you get to see it for free!?) It was breathtaking, and beautiful, and I highly recommend you all to keep on the lookout for the choreographers that got chosen for it. Their names are Rachel Grant, MaryAnn McGovern, Alice Gosti and Alicia Garcia.
AND MY BIG NEWS! I AUDITIONED LAST SATURDAY FOR THE YOUNG CHOREOGRAPHER'S LAB AND TODAY I GOT AN EMAIL SAYING I GOT IN!!! YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!
I will be working every saturday with one of four young choreographer's that participated in the lab, and some other young dancers that got in as well until May 5, when we perform at Velocity! Then, if the piece I'm in gets chosen, we would move on to perform in DANCE This, which will be July 12-14 at the Moore Theatre. So keep your calendars open, especially May 5!
Mmkay, I'm done now. That was my exciting news.
Also, I just learned Andrew Bird (my favourite musician ever) is releasing a documentary February 17 which will be premiered with an intro short film by Fleet Foxes. Stoked!
Here's a couple videos of him, for your enjoyment. You may know him already as the artist who did "The Whistling Caruso" for the Muppet Movie. (The puppet Walter 'performed' it, but it was Andrew Bird who was whistling.)
Guess who's back?
Back again...
Jordan's back...
tell a friend!
(I've been in a funk for the past while but I'm getting out of that now so hopefully we can really get this blog rolling. Also I'm ashamed to admit I wasn't the sole creator of that beautiful rhyme that is above these couple of sentences in brackets.)
This was my inspiration. (Click the hyperlink for the full video, 2:50 for the clip, if you don't know Mitchell Davis you probably won't find it funny. Sorry.) And sure, he got that from Eminem. But whatevs.
So I've been in a funk because I've been putting effort into relationships where the effort wasn't mutual. And I'm done with that now. I'm only going to be with people who want to be with me too. Which brings me to my next topic.
Magda Pendergrass and I have been hanging out lately because I go to Velocity Dance Center a bunch and she goes to Seattle University, so we're both in Capitol Hill, but also we're both just basically awesome. I thought I'd put up this picture to illustrate just how awesome we are.
Yepp...
Plus we have mind stimulating conversations regarding circulation, psychopaths vs. sociopaths, and Serotonin. And now we have matching screen-printed shirts. Hurray!
Oh and I got my second ear piercings finally! They were long overdue. Probably most of you have seen them already via Facebook, but just in case:
On another note, I just got finished with the Danielle Agami Intensive at Velocity Dance Center. It was three days working with her, which was amazing and wonderful. She performed in the Batsheva Dance Company in Tel Aviv and is now teaching GAGA classes in the United States. GAGA is a dance technique created by Ohad Naharin, the director of Batsheva.
One of my favourite videos:
I've watched their videos on youtube for awhile now, and working with Danielle was an incredible experience. I'm starting to get a lot more comfortable with improvisation, which is one of the more intriguing aspects of dance in my opinion. So I'm really happy I had this opportunity.
I also had my first dance audition the other day! I auditioned for Full Tilt, which is an annual dance performance that includes works by 6 different choreographers. I auditioned for all of them, so that was just about 6 hours worth of learning different combinations and trying to perform them well and with passion in front of the choreographer! Definitely a good experience to have. I think I'm going to audition this next weekend for the Young Choreographer's Lab. Apparently I wouldn't be auditioning to be a choreographer, that happened a really long time ago and I wasn't aware of it's existence, but I'd be auditioning to dance for one of the "young choreographers." I think I have a better chance of getting into that than I do of getting into Full Tilt. But we'll just have to see!!!
A couple of posts back I mentioned thinking about going to the casting for the T-Mobile ad. Didn't get any part, but I am going to be a production assistant on set, so that should be fun! That's tomorrow. Looking forward to earning some money and putting in some work.
Still trying to find a job, but for the time being, I'm really happy with working on dancing.
Definition of perfection: living to the fullest, in whatever way that means to you.
First, a plug-
A friend of mine has written a book which is being sold on Amazon for the next ninety days, and if it gets sold enough, it'll stay up. It's only 3.99, and it's super easy, so even if you're not planning on reading it, buy it to help him out, and who knows? Maybe you'll like it. So check it out- it's called King of Storms.
Secondly, my dad and I were in the car the other day, and Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes came on the radio, and my dad started singing to it in chicken, and I started singing to it in cat, and that gave me a great idea for a band.
Hurray! It's Chicken and Cat: The Band!! They only do Jack White covers.
Hey all. I've been trying to get jobs/applying for colleges/dancing/making food lately, in case you were wondering. As some of you know, I've been really excited about a job opportunity at Caffe Ladro, which was right up the street from where I lived... it was looking like I was going to get it, and yesterday I learned that it was between me and one other person and... they got it. Ah well. I'm applying to some places in Alaska Junction and Pike Place Market, somebody's bound to pick me first someday.
Last night I made samosas and mushroom curry from the moosewood cookbook though, which was excellent. The curry had a bunch of spices, and apples, and mushrooms, and celery, and honey, and all in all it was a success. The samosas got burnt thanks to our oven- (it's incapable of cooking things properly, I believe) but they were still good on the inside and I had leftover filling so I'm going to make more today and hopefully they will turn out better.
Samosas! Before they got burnt.
Mmmmm.
Today I'm helping my dad out at his work. (In trade for lunch, today and yesterday... heh. I'm working for sandwiches.) He needed someone to be talent for an animatic, and so I'm riding a bike around in a garage and pretending to catch a phone. I think I'm going to also try to get cast as an extra for the actual shoot, so I might end up being in a T-Mobile internet thingy! We'll see.
Oh, and New Years! Hey it's a new year everybody! 2012!!!!! Yayyyy!! Yayyy....
Ahem. But yeah, New Years was fun. I hope everybody reading this had a good holiday. After having Korean barbecue with my family, (which had been long overdue- I've been craving Korean food for awhile) I went out on my friend Sophie's boat with a bunch of friends on Lake Union, and we watched the Space Needle fireworks from the boat's roof. Played games, listened to music, and other stuff until we all got tired and went back to Sophie's house where we crashed. So, pretty successful New Years, if I say so myself.
Also I had a great idea for a band when I was riding in the car with my dad the other day. I will tell you more about that later, because I designed the cover art for their first album, but I don't have it on me right now to scan and put onto this post. So be patient! I know the suspense and overall anxiety will probably kill you! But you'll just have to wait!
