Alvin Ailey in New York

Last night, I went to New York City with a couple classmates to see an Alvin Ailey modern dance performance, the advertisement for which is above. Even though the ad does show the dancing and costumes from the performance I saw, and is set to music we heard, it doesn't really capture the evening too well, because the performance was divided into three parts. The ad focuses on the third, which was the most soulful and costumey. I really really loved the second part, which was nothing like what you see in the ad -- odd, beautiful, subtle, dissonant, sad, spooky, natural. It was fantastic.

The first section was also fantastic; a lot more humorous and fun, set to classic R&B songs like "Satisfaction." My friend Alex used to attend the Alvin Ailey school, so I was always hearing about it. And I, as everyone knows, am quite a dancer myself, having taken a semester of modern at Duke.
New York looked especially Christmassy, which was lovely to see. Obviously I didn't take a camera to a place that would have been interesting to photograph. And after the show we went to Pazza Notte for Grigliata di Pollo (barbecue chicken) pizza and 2-for-1 martinis, which sound like a deal until you realize that, given that we were in New York, each martini was $12.

Even though this wasn't the most prudently timed adventure, what with exams next week and all, I went nevertheless because I wanted to, and because I have not taken nearly enough advantage of my proximity to New York. When I first arrived I went there two times in a matter of a couple weeks, but I actually don't think I'd been back since our orientation trip in mid-August. How disgraceful! New Haven is close enough to New York that distance shouldn't be an excuse not to do something you really want to do, but it's far enough away that distance should be an excuse not to do something only sort of want to do. By train it's 91-103 minutes each way. A round-trip ticket is about $30.

The plan today is to s-t-u-d-y. After a jaw-droppingly expensive trip to my local grocer yesterday, I am ready to hunker down and shovel all these concepts into my cranium, along with some honey-roasted mixed nuts.