Creations & Ruminations

Between Departure and Arrival - The dream has begun

Liz Erber — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 00:46:41 GMT

The dream has begun. Walking through long white corridors. Propelled forward by destination. My mind shrouded in a sleepless haze, I step dazed, I float, I glide, My eyes, my ears, catch note of the polyglot melody enlacing me, tracing me. Languages, some recognized, others not. A wild blend of cultures and stories, passing through, sliding by one another with such ease. I steal away from my own story, slip from my own skin to hear the chatter of others. Once again I think I find myself (I discover myself) in this state of movement, between places, between time, between destinations, ironically, I am never so present as now. In this airport. Then a bus journey. Next time a train. The past has discharged me, and no future has bound me. I breath new air and smells and sounds, I could go anywhere, but most of all I am here now. I revel in the anonymity of the moment, but am somehow more defined. Nothing in the moment binds me, or tries to define me, I could be anyone. As Joseph Campbell wrote,” where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own existence; where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world." I find satisfaction in being one of the thousands of moving bodies, the swirl of colors, each of us a different hue. I am a solo traveler, but do not feel myself alone. Spontaneously I imagine all of this as life after death, after the last breath, walking through these white corridors, going I don’t know where, our lives passing one another so softly, we see our differences—the differences we couldn’t escape in life, that kept us apart—their meaning has passed and we just see. The dream.

Smokers Elcome

Liz Erber — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 00:48:27 GMT

Smokers Elcome*

Smokers elcome!
Ednecks and all!
Orkers, ruckers, amilies
We’re here to lease!
Before or after a mornins ork
We’ll give you what you eed

Big plates of iscuits and ravy
Acon, egs and oast
Bottomless cups of offee,
Iced ea and oke
Bring on your hungry elly
We’ll make sure it gets toked

Sorry if you can’t nderstand me
With my Midwestern farm rawl
Or, maybe its our ignage
That keeps wantin to fall

We’re right of Highway 40
In old Independence, MO
We’ve got a 60 foot sign
Marking our humble bode
Just give us a holler, or a nock
We’ll be sure to let you in
Long as your from the right tock

Don’t like to talk olitics
That just ain’t our peed
There’ll be no hell and tarnation
Long as we agree
Riends and easy-goin olk
That’s alls we eed!

Whether a moker or edneck
An orker or rucker
An ama or apa
Randma or randpa
Whether appy or adv
Awake or uckered
Come to Debbie’s iner
And we’ll feed your pucker

*"Smokers Elcome" - as appears on Debby's Diner sign (photo 1)

Early Morning Contact (video)

Liz Erber — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 08:08:59 GMT

After teaching a contact improv workshop at South Side Dance Force in Kent in May, I realized that I needed some way to demonstrate what contact looks like when practiced by two experienced cotnacters. Most, if not all of the students at the workshop, had never before seen contact. After the event I realized how much it would have helped them to have had a better visual image of what they were working on and working towards. I therefore, put together the following video: I had very little time to work on the performace/capturing portion of the video, but nonetheless, I believe that I was able to put together a video that serves its intended purpose and is also interesting to watch! If antything, it is worth checking out the accompanying music by Portland artist, Podington Bear. Thank you to Cyrus Khambatta for dancing with me on this video and for the use of Grassroots Studio. Hope you enjoy the video!