It takes a lot of experience for a girl to kiss like a beginner.

Balanchine may be considered the master genius of 20^th century ballet but Julia Adam's choreography is pretty damn amazing. Last night at the Newmark Theatre we saw Oregon Ballet Theatre do Apollo followed by Adam’s Il Nodo ( the knot) and I must confess I preferred Il Nodo. First of all, it featured my favorite dancer Anne Mueller and secondly it was a beautifully executed piece of visual whimsy.  The dances don’t just finish up in amazing positions as in Balanchine, they move through space and fill the air with the shadows of where they just been and where they are going next.

 

 

Now the unwashed Portland masses were a whole other thing. I could choose between a man who smelled of garlic, wheezed and breathed through his mouth or a tall manic brute who smelled of too much alcohol and had an annoying habit of hooting and clapping so hard that I actually was getting tinnitus .. so i  stuffed my left ear with tissue paper. His wife two seats over smelled as though she had not taken a bath in weeks.  Do people in Portland think that since it isn’t hot and they don’t sweat a lot they don’t have to bathe?

 

My husband bemoans the fact that I have an olfactory system that rivals that of Madeline in the Fall of the House of Usher. But a great “nose” for things can enrich your life and sometimes prevent an early death by fiery explosion. This is important because years ago I came home late, the house reeked of gas and Jim was upstairs reading. The pilot light had gone out in our small apartment's range and the house was getting filled by the noxious gas. Am I being too dramatic?

 

On the nice side, a great sense of smell lets me taste more things, enjoy the most subtle of flowers and even on a hike tell me when we are near  water ( if one can’t hear it)  Ironically if I had to lose one of my five senses smell would be the one I choose because it is the least horrible  to give up of five but it is also my most acute. ( although I do have a superb clarity for color too)

 

Anyway, every part of me seems sore this morning after too much gardening tumbles and working-  planting woodland wonders while on my knees – in the rain no less. if one stops for rain in Portland nothing will ever get done. Today I intend to hand weed a section of the front garden and mulch the open beds  and prune back a saxifrage so I can dig out for a small water hole I am making near some amazing stones in the front yard. But instead I watched a film and blogged. sigh.