School days

Boy-howdy! So summer gave way to a far brisker (and rainier) autumn, and my Graduate Experience is well under way. How's it going? Well, very well, in fact. I earnestly enjoy my peers, teachers and classes. I feel welcomed; I am impressed with the talent around me. But I'm also still vaguely terrified: that I'm behind, that I don't quite know what's going on, etc...

Taking advantage of beautiful September mornings (with nary a snow flake in sight - I'm looking at you, Winter Term), I've been walking the half hour or so to school.

It goes with the territory, but it's not particularly helpful. I finish my days exhausted, and I realize this is partially from the tension of trying so damn hard. Working diligently is one thing; over-stressing is quite another. I've decided, therefore, that part of my work as a Very Studious Wonderfully Adult Artist In Training is also to depend on myself for praise as well as critique, and to jump off the assumption that I am perfectly impressive and talented enough, thank-you-very-much.

Meanwhile, I am certainly settling into a nice rhythm in Ann Arbor:

My newly-claimed library carrel. Yes, I am quite proud of my little bit of [borrowed] property.

Why, yes, that is Jessye Norman, peering pensively at music before her masterclass.

I'll be holding on to the last vestiges of summer with a lovely bunch of tomatoes that I've happily pickled.

François Delarozière speaks for Penny Stamps

The Penny Stamps series brings a large array of artists to give talks at U of M. It is part of the the School of Art and Design, but the free lectures are also open to the public. Yesterday's speaker in the Michigan Theater was François Delarozière, the artistic director of La Machine, a French theater troupe of craftsmen, performers and dreamers who create mechanical creatures and structures. These gargantuan constructions are breath-taking: Jules Vernesque visions of the future filled with kindly, automatonic monsters. It was truly inspirational to see the sketches and some of the work that goes into planning and constructing the machines, wholly unpractical and absolutely magical. But the most amazing element was how much a 37-ton hydraulic spider comes to life as it begins to move. Presumably because of a mixture of anthropomorphism and awe of discovery we seldom have past childhood, it was downright moving to see these steel and wood animals walking through the streets. As Delarozière stated, they are alive to us, because motion is life.

La Machine built a spider that "lived" in Liverpool in 2008.

Liverpool poster, via lamachine.co.uk.

An uncommon elephant in Nantes, via Liverpool 360º.

Delarozière will also be speaking tonight at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit at seven o'clock, for anybody who is local. I highly recommend it!

Things brewing

Today was quite probably my last lesson in New York before I move to Ann Arbor for my first term at the University of Michigan's School of Music. I bought a one-way plane ticket for Detroit this afternoon - what an odd feeling to think that I am leaving my beloved east coast! But, as melancholy as I am to leave my haunts and loved ones (and anxious at the prospect of packing up my too-numerous books), I am tremendously excited to start my new, midwestern adventure.

The clouds, too, were brewing up something on the Upper West Side.

Much of my excitement stems from the work I've done this past year: I am proud of my progress, and of how I used my "gap year." I'm ready to meet new people and test out my independent efforts. The summer gave me a taste of this, and I have written a list of goals for myself that build on my experience in California. I want to make good use of those around me, and be open to be put to good use myself. It is a particular pleasure to realize that you are an important and supportive member of your group! Onward to new projects!