Only just two days in the coaching school and I am beginning to love the perm
anent invitation to go beyond our comfort zone.
David, citant Merce Cunningham a propos de la musique de John Cage et de ce qui se passait sur scène : » just two different things, happening at the same time, in the same place ». At first, I felt uncomfortable with this disconnect, but thinking about it today, I appreciate the value of discomfort.
Sortir de sa zone de confort : c’est ce que l’on fera de plus en plus souvent dans ce nouveau chapitre du « Journal », qui n’a plus rien d’estival. Gardons toutefois comme fil d’Ariane (link or wink?) le goût de l’énigme et des rébus. Of course you’re all so smart, you noticed the common point between the two pictures, didn’t you?
The drawing was made in 1929 during a « surprise party » organized for my grandfather. It became known as the « soirée des chameaux », as he exclaimed when he saw the caravan of guests arriving in top hats and fur coats, with music and champagne, ready to party and dance just when he was about to go to sleep. « Ah, les chameaux » became a rallying cry for the party-going sarthois.
The caption reads : « arrival of the caravan ».
J’imagine le cortège des voitures, le pinceau des phares balayant la nuit sarthoise, les femmes parfumées, le claquement des portières et celui des dents, les rires étouffés. Le carton d’invitation avait donné rendez-vous au bout de l’avenue « à 21 heures précises, à cause du froid ». They ate veal Orloff and salade russe, which was the sushi of the 1920ies : a fashionable fad, soon to go.
Fourty years later, we were walking in the middle of the night and in the middle of the road with David, Isabelle and a few other friends, dressed with « fancy clothes » found in an old cupboard in the attic. The top hats didn’t mind at all being worn for the first time since 1929, they seemed to enjoy a bit of fresh air under the moon, but there were no other « camels ». The following day, David was initiating us to « light-bulb jokes » while step-dancing in the grand salon. At the time we didn’t know anything about John Cage and Merce Cunningham.
Pourquoi tresser ici les deux langues, le français et l’anglais? Pour faire plaisir à la mouette voyageuse, pardi, car le « territoire » en expansion s’étend désormais aux deux rives de l’Atlantique (Seigneur, que tant de mers me séparent de vous). English and French, two languages « happening at the same time ».
BuencaRmino 