Saturday, November 14, 2020

NATHAN OGELSBY BUYS FRANKEE TOP NOTCH EVERYTHING

 When we're dancing "Haunted Moments" we use a Bose amplifier. Our  tapes are recorded on Magnecorder, at 15 inches per second. It provides the most realistic powerful sound you can get.   

Mark dances the train , chugging into a station, utilizing deep MARTHA GRAHAM contractions. She says she loves the way Frankee dances to the cheering crowd sound--especially  the 'economical use' she makes by doing just one low extension of a leg into a one very slow 'rondejambe.'  

The famous Pilates  actually came backstage the other day, when she performed  'LAUGHTER' at a fund raising  benefit  for Juilliard. They have become 'names' in dance. The life-size photo of Frankee in pink ballets slippers is on the main wall at Capezio's at Lincoln  Center.  When she told Pilates how Carola Trier, popular teacher in Manhattan had over-crowded classes, Pilates  said in broken English, ''You need no teachings."

The Big BIG Deal is Jacques COSTEAU, French scientist, photographer, author and researcher who studied  all forms of life in water. After each  performance Costeau hugged and kissed the team, and Mark Spitz, Olympic Swimmer, got Frankee on the cover  of "Time" in a new costume Nathan hired a famous designer to create for her that 'Vogue' called "super chic."   


Friday, November 13, 2020

WHAT ARE AVERAGE NORMAL PEOPLE THINKING ABOUT

 ARE THEY THINKING ABOUT THANKSGIVING ?  It's always been one of our special holidays.  My husband John Cullum loves to tell what I cooked for the first Thanksgiving we celebrated as a couple. In a flash I'm remembering how I make a spicy turkey--massaging the thawed cleaned bird with olive oil and  headING  for the spice shelf above the stove.    
I DID A GOOGLE SEARCH AND BUMPED INTO WHAT MY HUSBAND WROTE ABOUT THE HOLIDAY BACK IN 1914
"The most memorable Thanksgiving dinner for me was the one a young redheaded dancer made for me in her Artist In Residence n studio in New York City. It wasn’t a turkey, just a large chicken, and it never occurred to me that this gorgeous girl could even cook, but boy, she could – all the trimmings, fresh cranberry sauce, stuffing, sweet potatoes, vegetables and all. I could hardly believe it. There she was, the best dancer I had ever seen, gracefully whirling around a tiny kitchen, whipping up a dinner as good as any I had ever eaten, and all for me. Never had a Thanksgiving meal been made exclusively for me and me alone, and with such love. It was an experience I couldn’t walk away from. And I never did. I guess Emily decided if I was going to keep hanging around, she might as well marry me. Which she did."

Fact of life:  Unless our son JD who lives in California flew home for the holiday spur of the moment, I am not cooking. I am very busy finishing the novel I've been writing all year online.  

Anyhow, aren't most people today are thinking about survival; earning a living, and what our New President will be suggesting about "Wearing a mask."  

Since I specified average normal, what is average, normal?   

Are you? Am I?





Thursday, November 12, 2020

FUN DREAM

 I WAS ABOUT TO BE MARRIED, BEING TAKEN TOTHE CEREMONY BY OUR SON JOHN DAVID.   (ENVISION HIM as a GROWN UP VERSION  OT THE INTENSELY FOCUSED BOY IN THE PHOTO I POST SOMETIMES, WHO IS DRINKING MILK FROM A BOTTLE I AM HOLDING AS HIS CONTENTED  LOVING MOM..(MY HAIR IN A BRAID (THAT LOOKS LIKE A CROWN)

Yep, I was about to be married  to the good looking man  who was playing Mr. Chucky in the outdoor drama, (which I watched every night)  --he definitely to seemed to like the way I coached  him to have 'listening elbows' before doing cartwheels.  HE SENT ME AN E MAIL PROPOSAL SUGGESTING, "DON'T CALL ME mR.CHUCKY....CALL ME BY MY NAME...'jOHN' --  ACTUALLY  MY NAME IS "JOHN CULLUM." 

In the dream I was thrilled.  The fact is. the realme. Emily Frankel,  ex dancer who is writing a novel on line that is almost finished, about a dancer named "Frankee," (who wants to be the best dancer in the world ) is clearly dreaming (and still thrilled) about her marriage to John Cullum.




Wednesday, November 11, 2020

favorite tv PM commentators

 Nicolle wallace--so sympathic and tender even when she's not sympathetic. and Ari melber whom I especially enjoy observing  his beard, in the course of an annoucement, growing darker/ AND THE ARTICULATEL REID "REPORT" GALE WITH HER MARVELOUS HAIR DO  THAT KEEPS ME WONDERING IF HER HAIR IS REAL!!! EACH TIME ONE OF THESE THREE APPEARS I AM RIVETED. 

Tuesday, November 10, 2020

YOU ARE THE BOSS

 No one knows better than YOU what you want. Make a list"

 
1. fame/staus/

2. courage to do anything that crosses your mind

3. quit using a computer--it  limits freedom.

4. pin the head of a gorgeous, go-anywhere butterfly to the rectangle that's your door.

5. kill it? yes? no? black? or white?  Do iT! Yep/nope/real/ or fake!



















Monday, November 9, 2020

THE REAL MR. CHUCKY

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After Mark re-introduced himself to the star, Frankee mentioned the ten extra dancers. “We worried about hiring them, Mr. Chucky Jack. They’re not first class performers--they're...well...somewhat inept  as ballet dancers, but choreographer Mark  Ryder,  my husband felt  a stage packed with performers would be exciting,  more  impressive --actually, since the character you’re playing  is a well-known Tennessee hero. 

He nodded. Yes, a famous hero...” 

“Yes.   Most people who buy tickets have heard the name or read about “Chucky Jack” in the newspapers. Knoxville and Nashville are running ads and the extra dancers...

“Somewhat ’inept‘ like you said"...

“So, maybe we don’t really need them. It might  be a better number without them, Mr Chucky.”

“It might be. But your husband has enabled me to work with them, and your guidance is invariably helpful with successive cartwheels, Mr. Chucky.”

“Mrs. Ryder, why don’t you just call  me ‘John.’  My name, actually, is ‘John Cullum.’    


 


Sunday, November 8, 2020

SISTER MIRIAM

 

When I first  thought about creating a dance--- it was the Ballad of The False Lady. 

False Lady pretends an awful lot that she is very sexy even when she is not.  It was a ballad that I heard someone sing when I was 13.  More than anything I wanted to be a great ballet dancer.  I wanted to be the greatest dancer in the world.  I didn’t have the feet for it. That dream  was the dream of a false Lady. 



I came to NY in the summer from Harrisburg PA. My sister Miriam opened the grand piano, open all the doors and windows in our house and when my parents gave me permission to try a summer course in NYC at the Novikoff school of dance which advertised in Dance  Magazine every month,  Miriam opened all the doors and windows, put a record of the Romeo & Juliet overture on the record player--volume up, piano lid open she pretended she was playing and people stopped on the street to see and hear her.


I went on pointe too early when I was young.  Miriam has a snapshot  of me in my first ballet class outfit. There was something extraordinarily beautiful about my hands, my arms. At the end of the summer Novikoff told me and my parents I was a born ballerina. But when I returned to school  I couldn’t walk without a lot of pain.  Finally we consulted the best Doctor in Harrisburg.  He said ”she will never be a dancer--she has wrong FEET FOR DANCING,  


 Of course I Walked to and from school everyday.  I was eleven. We were living  near Indiantown Gap. I remembered Valse Trieste, EXCRUCIATINGLY  sad music by Sibelious . While it was playing, some soldiers asked if I could dance for them. Thinking very sad thoughts, I circled the room where soldiers where  they were sitting. They applauded., One soldier wiped his eyes with his handkerchief. .

        Despite  wrong feet, I allow myself to think  about dancing that sad circle in pink satin toe shoes.