it started when i wanted to find the music video for "gorecki", by lamb, and the first thing that came up was a dance recital video.

i watched it and spent some time pondering why i'd never wanted to do modern, and furthermore how i doubt i'd have been this good even if i had. curiosity piqued, i looked around some more, and eventually found this:

which all by itself out of context isn't THAT special, perhaps, until you realize that those girls are eleven. :O

it's the synced pirouette right as the music picks up that gets me.

after three days of watching dance videos, i'm maybe regretting quitting after all. i always had the skill, but when i hit puberty i became paralyzed by self-consciousness... not in regards to an audience (anyone who's been on stage knows you can't even see them), but rather where my dance-mates were concerned. they were cooler than me, and it was junior high. i didn't stand a chance.

still, it makes me sad knowing that i let something like that stand in the way of an activity that used to make me so happy.

i was 19 before i could dance in front of people again. bet you're all surprised to learn THAT.

i don't normally post videos of cute animals, but this veers more into the territory of public awareness.

courtesy of ungratefulbiped, i present to you the heartwarmingest cat video EVER:

i mentioned these birds during saturday's island excursion, and lo and behold, youtube has the very sequence i was talking about! apparently, one of the few if not the only times birds of paradise have been captured on film.

this is just a little taste of the awesomeness that is bbc's planet earth, available in free streaming format here.

clearly this is the most awesome bird EVER. i really enjoy that the names of the many species of bird of paradise include the "superb bird of paradise" and "magnificent bird of paradise".

the photographer spent over 300 hours in a hide to get these shots!

last night's youtube hopping led ___blank___ and i to a dance fad popular in, as far as i can tell, only belgium and the netherlands. it's called jumpstyle, or jumpen in dutch, and jason describes it as "ddr players who lost their mats".

the actual music they do it to is sort of like gabber, a kind of trance, but with a mind to who reads my livejournal, i present the fratellis version instead:


for those curious as to what it's like with the appropriate music, check out this or this. the last one especially makes me think of step dancing on speed. yay strange dance fads!

mostly, though, i just think it would make an amazing workout.

in a meme that was going around a few months ago, it was concluded that the new order version of "ceremony" is the song that most reminded people of me. now, i'm sure that it had a lot to do with my having recently linked to it, but the fact is that i DO have a strong attachment to that song.

i first heard it just last summer, in a montage scene from marie antoinette. there's a five-second shot in that montage that for me, encapsulates all of the heady abandonment of the summer of 2005- spent with one foot in montreal, and the other in toronto. the characters rush through the grass and down wide stone steps, letting the force of gravity take over and send them sweeping towards the lake, laughing.

( the final perfect moment before the fall )

i think i can measure my adult life in chunks of eighteen months. it was eighteen months after high school graduation that i moved to montreal. eighteen months after moving to montreal that i got restless and went to maine. eighteen months after maine that i wiped the slate clean again and came here.

the maine journey is the one that i find myself thinking of the most- i was in a committed relationship, comfortable if not without issues. i didn't want it to end, and knew that we might not make the three month separation.... but i left anyway.

i had love, and it wasn't enough. i was still restless and unhappy with my life. a good thing to remind myself of, and often.

anyway, i'm approaching my first eighteen months in toronto. i don't know what the future will bring, but i HAVE pre-picked this summer's theme song, and after having so accurately predicted "crazy" for summer '06, i'm being a little more careful this time.

arcade fire - keep the car running