day two penasco.

silent snow is falling, floating down, dusting everything clean and white.
i can't find my plaid pants, they must've been flung off (perhaps in a fit of passion)
not under the bed, not in any visible nook or cranny, perhaps they've decided to go away to that great empty lost place, where stubborn things go when they don't want to be found.

cohdi is at alasondra's house with laura, it will be the four of us in india, and i feel really good about this group. they're making a large vegetarian feast which i unfortunately won't be enjoying because my belly is still stuffed full from the potluck meal i had at some wonderful artists' house down the street. alasondra models nude for them now and then, and she couldn't this time, because they had a rehearsal in the theatre today. i volunteered to take her place, and now i'm $63 richer and no longer hungry (the weekly figure drawing group always includes "free-eats"). everyone there was so kind, all of them in their late fifties, early sixties, ex-hippies, pot-smokers, full of stories and somewhat parental advice. i did 6 or 8 2 minute poses and then about a couple 10 minute ones and then 4 25 minute poses. it was exhausting. all the while i found myself coping with the stillness and the discomfort by focuses on a fixed point, imaging myself in some ridiculous scenerio (walking into battle, defeated by love, left in a heap of bodies to rot). they said i was a natural and several of the artists gave me their sketches. over pie we talked about dreams and what they mean, breakthroughs in brain science, teleportation and what is was like living in fear of the draft.

yesterday was fun. we went to a cabaret show at the wise fool space in sante fe. wise fool is a circus training center and performance venue and cohdi and alasondra are often involved in collaborations and exchanges with them. the show itself was somewhat miserable. cheesy, ridiculous, full of plastic smiles, and un-funny clowns who were more irritating than anything. it's bizarre being here, and being completely immersed in this very tight circus community. the first day i was here (after waking up next to cohdi, and starting the day with matte through a metal straw) we attended a "circus yoga" class in the penasco theatre space (which, i might add, is RIGHT next door to cohdi's place). it was great making the connections between the work that these people do and the work i do, the terms vary a little, and the effect isn't always the same (theatre doesn't ALWAYS aim to razzle and dazzle) but the way in which we discussed teaching (it was mostly a course for TEACHERS of circus) it was easily applicable to teaching or faciliating a theatre workshop. we talked about games that are non-verbal that get younger kids excited about impovisation and play. the teachers were from the east coast, a company called "cicus minimus," very sweet folks.

it's after 5 now and it's getting dark. might be the cloud cover, or maybe that's when it gets dark here in penasco. i am wearing a newly acquired fleece pull-over that one of the ex-hippy artists donated to me. they were so lovely. "no jacket? sweety go pull something out of the closet, you don't wear all those coats..." the lady of the house ordered her husband. it's cozy. i'm sure i'll be wearing it a lot.

i'm so curious to see how my work can fuse or be worked into the work of these people. how character and story can add to the aerial work of the trapeze, of the hung silks and suspended ropes. while they're flying through the air, risking boldly, jumping and twirling and tangling themselves into knots, perhaps there's a place for me on the ground, with my masks, my clown, some kind of human perspective, to make it more acceptable or more open to the audience as mataphor for human lives and emotion. more than just a trick or a feat of daring, but something externalized, an impulse from within.

cohdi is a sweet man. we are having fun getting to know eachother, and all the people around him are swell. totally inspired and motivated. really fun and creative. i so thrilled about the many prospects for the future, either with me making a home here, or coming to work on something, traveling, who knows.

india is like some distant fog that's due to roll in. you can't see it but it's coming. each time that word INDIA is mentioned i get electricity that runs through me, i feel a spark of something, real and tangible, i feel it in my body. this thing. these next three months. wild.

that's all right now. i will write more as it comes. and photos should accompany my next post.

from the NEW (mexico) homefront,
evan :)