if . . .

 Well ... ... Ullaanbaatar, Mongolia was a wonderfully challenging experience ... reaffirmed, if you want to make a difference you have to do things normal people would think are too radical/incomprehensible ... maybe the biggest hurdle to get over ... you think "fungus" ... the word in use now as my partner, a completely fluent english speaker/writer though not her native tongue, uses f--- often in public saying it is a fun word pretty devoid of meaning for her ... makes me uncomfortable ... we agree to use "fungus" as a replacement ... now i too have fun ... it seems a good choice ... ... so fungus ... performance/poem "Untamed" is not going to work/be understood/be accepted or appreciated ... you think fungus ... so just do it  ... it might work ...  note "make a difference" not succeed because then what the fungus does success mean ... seventy years old now ... need to throw caution to the wind ...  photo during performance by Kakumoto Atsu...

:: Note::  ... our performance group Untamed has created a piece ... coming soon ... after 12 workshop sessions and 15 rehearsals we are about to be ready ... a few more sessions when we return from Mongolia where we perform our signature piece " Untamed " ...  then " Abandoned: a thousand tongues" will happen ...   

Acting School  begins again in May.       :: Note:: ... started in March ... had to return to Canada ... started up again in May ... classes vary but always with AeRan ... 

:: Note::  … a Mastadon embed

Untamed A piece to be approached as a poem. Yet there is a story ... The untamed, perhaps even called a 'soul' reimagines the past. Alone having left Korea, untamed has wandered foreign horizons. Releasing a blur of pain, lips call out scaring away the bitter hurt.   In early autumn returning to Seoul, a place once called home, wild faces the times. What did Korea mean? What does it bring now? The flowering tree under the harvest moon beckons. Tread softly for the journey has just begun.  Prologue  Spirit,  form the Koryo Dynasty, enters. Plays Buk & dances: cleansing the space. Exits  (5 min.) I. Facing the Past Wild emerges from the flowering tree. Finds a posted paper on the tree and reads  Yi Sang poem:   Flowering Tree / 꽃나무 On an open field      a flowering tree stands      with no other like it      nearby      t...

... received notice there was a tenant in the bushes next to my studio/living residence ... am in the process of relocating ...  the structure and surrounding area are vacant ... the prairie gothic building was actually a place of worship in previous incarnations thus i refer to my place as The Temple ... there exists a tiny insignificant plot at the back dominated by white and purple flowering lilac bushes open to  the alley ...  ... on the edge of downtown ... located a stones throw away from the original train station turned into small mall ... surrounded mostly by apartments and housing "progressing" towards gentrification i allowed this tiny unkempt bush area to be a respite from concrete ... oh yes there is a lawn ... not exactly manicured turf grass but a collection of quack grass and the likes i watch over treasuring the dandelions, ants, ladybugs and multitudes of robins, magpies, ravens, crows and others ... close to the basement windows are thankfully a mix of ...

... we were returning from a walk to Azalea ridge ... a fellow walker had stopped on the bridge at trail's end ... a bridge from trail to street ... he was pulling what most, i believe, would describe as weeds ... wasn't sure if he was a worker or ... he stood up and continued down towards the bus stop ... he was singing quietly ... was struck by the genuinely beautiful melody and the pure voice quality ... listened to his warm, soft cadence ... he smiled as i passed and with joy shouted our "hello ... where are you from?" ... i replied and he nodded ... "ahh Canada" ... ... i asked my partner to invite him to keep singing ... after many requests he started to sing again ... my impulse was to record him ... instead after a minute of walking together i joined in following his pitch wrapping my tongue around the foreign korean sounds ... he stopped surprised, laughed with joy commending me on my voice ... we had, for a fraction of a second, connected ... his c...

... cities amaze in their ability to disregard, displace and disrupt ... my first weeks in Seoul confirm this statement ... at the moment i am an onlooker more than a resident ... persist, endure, follow & watch ...  ... i search for a form of reconciliation ecology ... inventing, establishing and maintaining a new habitat designed for a diversity of living, working and playing ... a place which possesses anima meaning breath, spirit and soul  ... at first, in the leaving, i imagined a radical break ... on arrival have learned to accept a certain amount of conservation of the past needs preservation ... perhaps even restoration ... the challenge is to generate a creative coexistence between the old and new territories ... to comprehend the mysteries of place a cultivation of morals & purpose are required ... i consciously accept the self-organizing complexity of this odyssey ...  ... i once dreamed of a place for a vibrant exchange of active creation and researchi...