Zo-Babble

How Do You Get An Elephant Out Of The Theater?

I do enjoy internet anonymity, and generally avoid posting personal photos in public forums. Yet, exceptions must occasionally be made, and I’m going to succumb to the urge to post a pic of my nearest and dearest.

The angel that lights up my life has developed a love for this long lost art form called “Ballet.” And not just a, “Barbie did it on TV” kind of love, but a burning desire to learn and be part of it. The child wants to listen to Tchaikovsky when she goes to sleep at night.

Why does a six year old even knows who Tchaikovsky is?

But wait, there is another purpose to this post besides bragging of my progeny’s irrefutable talent. I have ignored, scanned, and dismissed several on-line critiques of the art of ballet lately. I’ve seen complaints about “objectification” “eating disorders,” etc… from many, many non-practitioners of ballet, and it seems there is some special animosity toward ballet that comparable disciplines (e.g. gymnastics) don’t seem to inspire.

Seeing as I’m not a ballerina, this doesn’t actually effect me directly. Thus, it’s kind of boring and I wasn’t really paying attention. (Yeah, I’ll get into my “Narcissistic Personality Disorder” later).

My mother, however, was a ballerina. My daughter sure seems to be shaping up to be one herself. So, is there some problem with ballet specifically, as opposed to any other dance or sport?

I can understand that ballet is hard on the body. Most “traditional” dance and rigorous sports are. A career in ballet is usually short, and competition is fierce. However, do we generally tell our children not to reach for the stars, because they may fall on their asses? Most dancers I know, including my own mother, insist it was effort well spent.

I have to admit that I do find the “feminization” of ballet to be a little irritating. Folks, it takes two to tango (pun intended). And ain’t nothin’ hotter than a ballet dancin’ dude. So I’m not sure how ballet got to be so equated with the girliest of girliness.

Girly or not, however, leaving class today my angel spontaneously yells out to the world “I LOVE BALLET!”

And I love her enthusiasm.

Notes:

1)  Thank you so much Annette (whose other information I will get) for the AWESOME picture.

2) Thanks to Max Tichauer, Ballet Dude and Dance Instructor Extraordinaire; and

3) The answer to the photo caption above is: “You can’t, if it’s in its blood.” (With thanks again to my mother)

ZoBabe manages to get a fuzzy, out-of-focus snapshot of a bird.

Okay, honestly, I wasn’t actually trying all that hard. It just kept leisurely strolling past my window several times a day, as I was blissfully ignoring the natural splendor that exists just outside of the little bubble containing me and my computer, and disrupting my peripheral vision. So, I would stop whatever I was doing, for just a few moments, to try to catch it on film (well, not film exactly) just to have it do something like this:

Yet, I persevered, since my mom seems to like these silly snapshots of random fauna, and eventually prevailed (sort of).

Wait a minute.

As I was writing that very last sentence, I noticed a slight movement in the corner of my eye. A quick glance confirms, it is an entirely different bird. Much to my chagrin, I realize that this silly over-sized quail looking thing, surreptitiously stealing cookies from the offerings, is actually the bird I was after in the first place.

ZoBabe has done gone and shot the wrong bird. G’ah!

All right. Now it’s personal…

These days, than when acting in her de facto roll as Editor in Chief of www.CempakaPutih.org.
Helping our volunteer Dee put his evocative stories of his time here with CPF to virtual paper almost makes her feel as though she is not, in fact, chained to the computer.
Well, I’m not “in fact” chained to the computer, so one of these days I’ll really just go and actively participate.
Novel idea…
Although Dee seems to be having way too much fun teaching some of the most remote school children in Bali the English language, and exploring parts of the island few tourists ever get to see (and I certainly have way too much fun helping him tell people about it) they really do need additional support for their medical and outreach programs.
In these dramatic times, and with the horrifying realities in Haiti and the many, many places around the globe ravaged by war, I am aware that the relatively quiet struggles of the families CPF was founded to support would be hard-pressed to find a place in the forefront of people’s minds. And yet, the basic needs of food, shelter, medicine, and education still go unmet for far too many people.
Oh Jeez, before I go talking myself into feeling bad for even bringing it up, I’ll just go donate something to Haiti relief.
Z

Hey, it happens!

  As it turned out to be pretty simple after all, I went ahead and imported most of my old posts. I just left out those I find really irritating. I find most of my old categories to be pretty irritating, and have been wasting bucket-loads of time I don’t have recategorizing everything.

  It’s a bit chaotic at the moment, but I doubt anyone will really mind. I’m always open to suggestions if anyone thinks I should move things around.

  One of these days, I may surgically remove myself from the computer and actually find something to write about.

Bebek (Bengil atau nggak? Tidak apa-apa)

Ha! New blog, clean slate… Time to start reoffending. When ZoBabe can’t come up with something to say, she reserves the right to post pictures of ducks.

Not that there’s nothing going on, mind you. I just don’t feel like formulating my thoughts enough to share.

This pic is a couple months old, when the ducks clear the fields of pests before the farmers plant the new rice. There are guys that literally go around renting out their gangs of ducks for just that purpose.

Right now, however, is really my favorite time of the harvest cycle. The rice fields are lush and full and almost too beautiful for words. (Actually my second favorite, I like it a little better when the rice is so small you can still see the sky reflected in the water.)

But am I gonna post a picture? Only time will tell…