"Ugly. Is irrelevant. It is an immeasurable insult to a woman, and then supposedly the worst crime you can commit as a woman. But ugly, as beautiful, is an illusion."
-Margaret Cho, weblog, 01-27-04"

there are so many issues of interest to me that refer to beauty and femininity, but let's save it for another time... i wanted to address beauty as a higher art form. i went to see the SF Ballet today - so beautiful, in the beautiful outdoor ampitheatre Stern Grove. I was explaining to my non-ballet going audience that these dancers don't make a lot of money, but they do it b/c they love to dance. is it to appeal to a higher goal than the rest of us, in the material world, the ethereal goal of perfect beauty? is that a goal that is so above the rest of our heads that it doesn't seem real to us, yet it is a real goal? or does is it too high that it actually doesn't exist?

i think they do it tho b/c of the pure love of dance. if i could give up my life to be anything, i would be a ballet dancer, dancing my heart out every night.

it was a beautiful performance today tho. balanchine, my favorite... one of the pieces performed was the four temperaments. i loved the musicality - the way that balanchine really personifies music. a picture is worth a thousand words, but how many dance-movements is a moment in music worth? that is the question that george balanchine tries to answer - beautifully. it was great.

i tried to go see amanda schull, the lead character in the movie, center stage, but the backstage was set up strangely since it was outdoors. there was no "stage entrance" as there is in normal theatres, so i couldn't get through. ah well. out of the three leads in the movie, Center Stage, I have one autograph (Sascha's) and I met Ethan but didn't have the DVD with me... so two more signatures to go. it's nicer b/c they're ballet dancers and not as famous as movie stars, per se... next time! (i know, i'm such a groupie :)

it was a fun weekend away from microbiology.