A mundane, bloggy-blog

Making progress on my reading list: finished Oracle Night by Paul
Auster and The New Earth by Eckert Tolle. Both wonderful books I
highly recommend if you are ready to have your perspective on reality
questioned and challenged (in very different ways by each book).

In Oracle Night, I at first was annoyed by the footnotes, but
realized this enhanced my belief in the reality of the narrator (you
know, where the narrator is so real you forget it is fiction!).
Many wonderful things about this book, which, as the synopsis says,
is a mystery without a mystery. Though I do think there is a kind of
mystery to be solved, which is simply life.

The New Earth will continue to alter my life for months, maybe years,
to come. I have no doubt. Tolle draws from many religions and
philosophies and succinctly outlines a new way of approaching
spiritual growth for anyone who seek to live with more vitality and
purpose. At the end, however, I am a bit ambivalent at his theory
about humans being the only vessel for enlightenment. That said, I
would say everyone should read it, but then I would sound like some
nut proselytizing some new religion. So i will restrain myself and
let you decide. But you should read it.

I have been indulging in salsa dancing lately. Twice now, I am very
proud of myself, I have ventured out on my own to a small bar in
Clearwater that has a salsa night on Wednesdays, determined to
practice in order to keep up with my partner in LA when I return. As
well as just being great fun and exercise for myself. I love
dancing, always have, actually. I also, which all my friends who
have been advising me for years will be happy to hear, put myself out
there and asked the rather timid Florida men to dance (in LA, usually
the guys will ask if you linger long enough on the dance floor and do
not injure your previous dance partner -- wearing a skirt helps,
too). The first guy knew how to lead, but had a style that bordered
on somewhat abusive, such as this turn where he placed his hand on
the back of my head to 'cue' me. I don't think this is graceful or
standard leading technique. I finally bowed out to the ladies'
room. Next, I danced with the Costa Rican student. He is a good
lead, but does not have much of a repertoire, so after about four
dances, i wanted to move on. He wanted to rest, so I asked some
other guy who was groovin' on the fringes without a partner. He told
me he only dances with 'pros.' I was a bit taken aback at this
unnecessarily direct insult. He could have just politely said no
thanks. Anyway, he later came to 'apologize' and said if I was up to
it, we could try one dance, maybe I could do more with a good lead.
I did. He stopped a bit too much to instruct, rather than just
letting me fall back in step, but I learned a lot about what I was
doing wrong on my turns (a problem I have been wanting to remedy). I
should have learned a lot, I later discovered, since he teaches
salsa. Leave it to me to ask the teacher! He turned out to be very
gracious and told me of "the place" for salsa on Saturdays in Tampa.
I doubt I would go out to a large club on my own, but hope I can
wrangle a conspirator among the few people I know or my sister's
friends to check it out before I leave town.

Watched Nine LIves, an indie movie by Rodrigo Garcia, nine vignettes
of glimpses into women's lives, some loosely connected. It was a
bit depressing focusing on tragic turning points in these women's
lives, much to do with men and choices in love and fidelity. What
was most intriguing was that each vignette was done in one take (for
non-film aficionados, this means that there are no cuts, you just see
everything unfold from one perspective -- the cameras-- and creates
many logistical challenges such as lighting, which cannot be reset
for each angle, and a challenge for actresses/ directors as there is
no cutting in the best take of each line or angle, the performance
has to be on for the whole scene -- more like theater) and done so
beautifully. The performances were honest and engaging and, despite
the lack of plot, I did not find myself lost or bored. At times it
was emotionally overwhelming and, since I am already in a state of
feeling emotionally overwhelmed, this did tire me a bit. Yet, the
stories and characters are the kind that I know will linger and visit
me a unexpected moments, like sympathetic friends.