all photos: Joel Didriksen
As I was waiting for Jean-Baptiste Andre to start his performance Sunday evening, I was thanking god for the fact that I have a DVR. Frankly, I was worried about the greater psychic ramifications of missing out on NFL playoff football to go to the Kennedy Center and watch a French circus performer. Good thing then for technology, I say. It can be a godsend for those times when you are questioning your manhood.
But for the entirety of his performance piece, Dis-moi ce que tu wis et jet e dinai…(Tell Me What You See And I Will Tell You…), I could only marvel at the fact that I was witnessing a man writhe about onstage for thirty minutes. I began to get caught up in the moment, and at one point I thought I was watching a live version of the stretching portion of a home exercise tape directed by David Lynch. It had all the elements: a bare stage, the floor divided into a grid, a lone mirrored disco ball, a haunting French aria, a midget in the corner with a burning playing card speaking in reverse. Well, all except for the last one, but if you replace "midget" with "Frenchman trained as an acrobat specializing in handstands and art of the clown", it's pretty much the same thing.
I couldn't begin to say what it was supposed to mean, and I would be doing a disservice to the artist to even try to make sense of it. I could look at my notes and see that I jotted down Jesus Christ, a marionette, a tightrope walker, and the miracle of birth. A better hack could find a way to weave these themes together in a coherent manner, but I'm not that hack. I can't form a cohesive explanation of the performance when all I can think about is the choice of music and the song that was played where the singer seemed to be comparing the act of sexual intercourse to the act of making sandwiches.
It's a credit to Jean-Baptiste, then, for that half an hour, I could look beyond the "sandwich making as sex" metaphor, forget about the football game awaiting me at home, and just be hypnotized by the poetry of someone moving across a bare stage. Yes, France, it is possible to soothe the savage American male with art. Maybe if you sent a coalition of circus performers to Iraq this whole pesky war thing would end soon. Then again, maybe you'd wind up with a bunch of dead clowns.
Previously in Live DC:
- 5/24: LiveDC: The Adicts @ RNR Hotel
- 5/24: LiveDC: The Donkeys @ Black Cat
- 5/23: LiveDC: The Barr Brothers w/ Kishi Bashi @ The Hamilton
- 5/23: LiveDC: Damien Jurado @ Black Cat
- 5/23: Report: Soundbites 2012
- 5/22: LiveDC: Spirit Animal @ Red Palace
- 5/22: LiveDC: Astra Via @ Black Cat
- 5/22: LiveDC: Father John Misty @ Rock & Roll Hotel
- 5/22: LiveDC: Drive-By Truckers and Lucinda Williams @ Merriweather
- 5/22: Photos: Summer Camp takes the "Ladies of Town" Drag Show
God loves a cheerful giver.
Jason - When was it that you realized that you first loved dudes exclusively?
quite possibly the first time I saw the chariot race sequence in Ben-Hur. Or that time I was making a sandwich, slipped and fell on a pickle.
It moved.
it certainly did, indeed.
flexibility is almost as sexy as knowledge
on my top 10 list anyways
well, you should know then, I am a master of Trivial Pursuit Twister. At least, I always win when I play my Grandma, and she was the Virginia Grand Champion '68-'71.
ditto on lily's comment (um, for girls, of course)
thanks e
great minds think alike
once i get my wishlist updated
it will include twister bedsheets
(under the covers b/c they are hideously ugly)
nothing like a good game of twister before bedtime with the one you love to get in some last minute exercise before the day is done
lily, there is SOMETHING that's like a good game of twister before bedtime.
and that something is a good, wholesome game of Candyland, Monopoly, or any of the other fine Hasbro Brand toys and games.
Monopoly? are you kidding?
that game takes way too long
the way i play, when we auction off property you don't have enough money to buy, bankruptcy hearings, house rules
ah Candyland, always loved Mr. Mint
and i should be Queen Frostine for Halloween someday
if only i could find her outfit, so rad
Connect Four is generally a quick and easy time
i know, i know
mom jokes aside
super flexible people are obscene. If some girl tried to do a split on my ding-a-ling I'd have to pick up a book out of boredom. I mean have you seen gymnasts? Now imagine them naked with their parts all gaping open. Shit's gross. I prefer enthusiasm and a high regard for open-minded kink (no, not with you Jason) over flexibility.
I mean shit, people, how many positions do you possibly want to be in? I'd take a bisexual chick who couldn't bend down to touch her toes asking her sister to join us in a threesome over someone who was "really good at Yoga, wink, wink" any day. And night.
I just love how I can send Jason to ANYTHING and the write up will still be PURE PURE JASON.
which means: genius.
it ain't that serious, Michael
i just like the idea of someone i can work out with
and work on flexibility with
which would and has led to other things
i don't know a contortionist from Cirque du Soleil per se
different strokes, literally
I like working on my flexibility.
In fact I'm doing the splits right now.
know = need
really?
feel free to post pictures to prove it
ask and ye shall receive:
