an anthology of endeavors

Such a hot song.

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 16:04:00 -0700

Such a hot song.

I'm so happy you're posting again! Keep the writing posts coming :)

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 12:18:30 -0700

thanks love, unfortunately this is the last day of Spring break and tomorrow’s the first day of Spring quarter soooo idk if I’ll still be posting then or not hahah.

a small piece of the story.

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 12:09:00 -0700

we were children:

drenched in a world of basketball games, scrawny limbs, calling names, knee scabs and band-aids, treasure hunts, and make-believe worlds

Enthralled to be alive, curious about why cats hate dogs

and what it’s like to be married (married at 16 or married at 25?), have a job where

all you seem to do is type words and numbers on your laptop.

We were enthralled by music, by moving images of a teenage psychic

on a black-and-grey box

As if they were layers of a chocolate molten lava cake: a metaphor for life?

You were the vanilla ice cream topping of my grade-school soul.

we grew:

carefully placing building blocks of feelings and memories (outgrowing legos), a vignette of thoughts and memories of passing on secrets, reading books, falling in love, a series of self-discoveries washing us from one ego to the next.

Cerebral quests, and still curious

about how people fall in love, or why they hate

jumping from one lover to the next, suspended between destinations, continents, fuming wafts of perfumes, paying rent and

having brunch, reading George Orwell and re-reading scripture

wondering who God is, and why we are alive

Still enthralled, but I forgot (about you?)

Look around

surrounded by nature, surrounded by newspapers and existentialism and art and the daunting prospect

of paying taxes and puffing up lists of accomplishments

We passed each other, we passed the time of day, we proceeded: I only attempted (from you?), convincing myself I succeeded.

I walk I dance I envy beautiful people I drink coffee schmear bagels lit nicotine sticks (invitation for death, they say: he RSVPd “yes”) I inhale fumes, perfumes, morning dew

and release an exhale heavy with

thoughts of

you

Look around.

where do I go from here?

Copyright © Imana Gunawan

My campus and a small glimpse of its beauty. Sometimes when I...

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 00:03:00 -0700

My campus and a small glimpse of its beauty. Sometimes when I get frustrated with college life, I have to shake and slap and remind myself how lucky I am to be around such exquisite beauty every day.

Bangs+undercut.

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 23:55:46 -0700

Bangs+undercut.

"“This spring, you’d swear it actually gets dark earlier. At the elegant new restaurants..."

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 11:16:00 -0700

“

“This spring, you’d swear it actually gets dark earlier.
At the elegant new restaurants downtown
your married friends lock glances over the walnut torte:
it’s ten o’clock. They have important jobs
and go to bed before midnight. Only you
walking alone up the dazzling avenue
still feel a girl’s excitement, for the thousandth time
you enter your life as though for the first time,
as an immigrant enters a huge, mysterious capital:
Paris, New York. So many wide plazas, so many marble addresses!
Home, you write feverishly
in all five notebooks at once, then faint into bed
dazed wit ambition and too many cigarettes.

Well what’s wrong with that? Nothing, except
really you don’t believe wrinkles mean character
and know it’s an ominous note
that the Indian skirts flapping on the sidewalk racks
last summer looked so gay you wanted them all
but now are marked clearer than price tags: not for you.
Oh, what were you doing, why weren’t you paying attention
that piercingly blue day, not a cloud in the sky,
when suddenly “choices”
ceased to mean “infinite possibilities”
and became instead “deciding what to do “without”?
No wonder you’re happiest now
riding on trains from one lover to the next.
In those black, night mirrored windows
a wild white face, operatic still enthralls you:
a romantic heroine,
suspended between lives, suspended between destinations.”

”

- “Turning Thirty” by Katha Pollitt, from Antartic Traveller.

Current obsessions: a poetry book, a journalism-themed...

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 10:47:00 -0700

Current obsessions: a poetry book, a journalism-themed nonfiction, a choreographer’s diary, and a Wes Anderson favorite.

"Being mobile in transnational spaces entails living with ambiguities and paradoxes … it is..."

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 10:44:17 -0700

““Being mobile in transnational spaces entails living with ambiguities and paradoxes … it is quite an intricate dance that immigrants do, weaving identities, cultures and homes between continents and across oceans.””

- Hui Wilcox

You should follow me on Instagram

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 22:34:00 -0700

You should follow me on Instagram:

I post random shit and the occasional outfit posts, so if you’re into that stuff, go for it. @imythecat

|ˈmyoōzik|

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 22:31:00 -0700

Top 10 songs I’ve been really hooked on (in no particular order), February/March ‘013:

1. “Let Me Back In” - Explosions in the Sky

2. “Primavera” - Ludovico Einaudi

3. “On Your Side” - The Radio Dept.

4. “Love” - Daughter

5. “Back to the World” - Mychael Danna

6. “Consequence” - The Notwist

7. “To This Day” - Shane Koyczan

8. “The Trees Were Mistaken” - Andrew Bird

9. “Forever More” - Moloko

10. “Moonglow” - Artie Shaw & His Orchestra

Hi.

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 22:24:03 -0700

Hi.

This is perfection. I am indeed a new fan of Mats...

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 22:16:14 -0700

This is perfection. I am indeed a new fan of Mats Ek.

choreographed by Mats Ek

performed by Sylvie Guillem and Niklas Ek

music by Arvo Part

the tirades of a young adult - viii: don't shoot the label-maker.

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 22:01:55 -0700

Hullo mortals!

It’s finally Spring Break people, which for me is a little piece of heaven because I get to take a breather and do some leisure writing! (Cheers! Confetti! Fireworks!)

Before I start preaching on this page, I do want to share some happy news with whomever is reading this right now: I got casted for the UW Dance Department MFA concert! (More cheers! More confetti! More fireworks!!) Basically, the MFA concert is where the grad students in the dance department get to choreograph their own pieces and the undergraduate students get to dance them. After a not-so-encouraging audition process (to be honest it’s not that I screwed up my audition, it’s just that the others were so good), I was jumping for joy (only in my head though) when I saw my name on the cast list. I was basically all smiles for the rest of the day. Now, obligatory life update aside, let’s try to weave this news in smoothly with what I’m really trying to say in this post.

Two weeks ago, I had my first rehearsal with my choreographer Natalie, and she was just the darlingest person ever. For our first exercise, the dancers had to create gestures that depict how we view various aspects of our lives, such as family, childhood, education, and even things like political affiliation and religious beliefs (or lack thereof) –– of course I can’t name every little detail here, because I do want to respect Natalie’s creative process. Anyway, before we make gestures that depict how we view these things, Natalie always asked us to explain a little bit about it first. For example, I am the youngest of two children, what do I think about being the youngest? Or, I was raised as a Muslim, what do I think and how do I feel about it? Or, how do I feel about my age, or height, or my college major? These were only some examples of the things we discussed before we made our gestures about each of them.

To be honest, I loved being able to explain these aspects of my life, and I think the other dancers do too –– though I don’t know if we love it because of the same reasons or not, but we still enjoyed it. For me, I loved being able to explain myself, because not only do I get to talk about myself (don’t you look at me that way, just admit that deep down everyone loves to talk about themselves ok. We’re egotistic, it’s human nature, deal with it), but I get to explain it in my own terms, therefore challenging whatever pre-existing judgments or stereotypes there might be of these various aspects. For example, there’s always a pre-existing judgement for the youngest child, for the Muslim or for the Atheist, for the 18-year-old or the 23-year-old, for the liberal arts majors or the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) majors, for the liberals or the conservatives. These pre-existing judgments are usually summarized in one word: a label. These labels then put a person’s characteristics into defined categories, putting a person’s complexities into a discernible order.

The truth is, humans are programmed to arrange things in the world into categories; it is how we make sense of the world. Labels make it easier for us to give order to the seemingly chaotic world. It helps us remember categories, and what those categories stand for. Throughout all aspects of life, there is always a constant need for a set definition –– are they men or women? Are we lovers or friends? Is she a classical music junkie or a hardcore scene kid? Is he a jock or a science brainiac? Do they like boys or girls? As my dance mentor Amy O’Neal said, “humans are scared of ambiguity –– they’re scared of the unknown.” I think truer words were never spoken. Because of this fear of ambiguity, we always rely on labels to define something, anything, everything. However, more often than not, we forget that we as humans are complex (or we forget that other people are just as complex as ourselves; a case of Us vs Them). All of us require more than a single word to define who we are as a person. In Natalie’s exercise, all the dancers in her piece who participated explained all the aspects of their lives, and that explanation is never just one sentence, let alone a single word. By being able to explain ourselves, we get to explain ourselves in our own terms in relation to these labels and these categories, therefore making really clear who we really are.

So yes, labels are useful and necessary to make sense of the world around us. But it is just as necessary to remember than no human can ever be defined by a label consisting of one word. We as humans are never just a single word, we are public libraries filled with volumes of novels and encyclopedias. Our stories are rich, intricate, and textured, so much so that no word can ever do it justice –– no matter how appropriate that word might be to a person’s specific characteristic. We should never define another human being by a label, nor should we ever let a label define us. Labels are a shortcut, a timesaver, an easy way out. But despite it’s easiness, never forget that for every shortcut we take to define a person, there is always a longer, richer, more scenic route to take –– an infinitely rich and beautiful explanation that aptly shows a person for who they truly are.

-i

favorite choreographers?

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 13:48:00 -0700

oh gosh too many to count! Since I don’t know what kind of choreographers you’re talking about (hip hop, popular as in SYTYCD popular, youtube sensations, ballet, modern dance?), I’m going to go with those who are pretty much godlike to me: first of course George Balanchine (duh??), Ulysses Dove is A GENIUS and also like a god to me, Twyla Tharp is amazing, Jiri Kilyan’s works are so exquisitely beautiful, Victor Quijada’s style is one I’m absolutely OBSESSED with right now, Mats Ek and Pina Bausch are also right up there with the rest, and of course we can’t forget William Forsythe now can we? Those are the few that I can think of off the top of my head, but there’s so many more!

Morning stretch. (via Instagram, @imythecat)

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 22:41:33 -0700

Morning stretch. (via Instagram, @imythecat)

What do you do when: 1) All of your boyfriend's ex girlfriends are all so much hotter than you, 2) Your boyfriend's mom think you're ugly, and 3) you just don't feel pretty enough for your boyfriend in general and you're scared he's embarrassed of you?

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 00:44:00 -0700

In regards to 1 and 2: if other people think you’re ugly and/or not good enough for someone, that’s their problem to think about, not yours. To be honest, that hasn’t been applicable to me in my past relationships (or maybe it has and other people think so, but I just happened to not care haha). But in regards to 3: never ever feel that you’re not pretty/good enough for anyone. Everyone is not just pretty, but also beautiful (I personally think there’s a huge difference between the two synonymous adjectives). Remember that he chose to be with you for a reason, and that two people in a relationship are always equals. If he ever thinks you’re less than him any way whatsoever, then dump the douchebag and find someone who deserves you. Honestly, it’s all about finding and maintaining respect for yourself, but that respect does branch out to all parts of your life, including romantic relationships.

Impromptu video on one Sunday night. Music: “John Wayne...

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 00:09:13 -0800

Impromptu video on one Sunday night.

Music: “John Wayne Gacy, Jr.” by Sufjan Stevens

Home.

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 21:02:34 -0800

Home.

agreatergatsby: Babies. #kurtvonnegut #charlesbukowski #poetry...

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 21:39:32 -0800

agreatergatsby:

Babies. #kurtvonnegut #charlesbukowski #poetry #books #literature

a preview of some of the clips we shot today. stoked.

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 18:58:13 -0800

a preview of some of the clips we shot today. stoked.