niyalune

I've been a Knicks fan for 35 years and this past two weeks has been the best I have ever seen the Knicks play. They are better by far than '94 and '99. They're also astoundingly more likeable than the '94 or '99 Knicks. It's so much nicer to cheer for Jalen Brunson than it was to cheer for Latrell Sprewell.

The Hart-Bridges-Brunson Nova Knicks thing is adorable, the sheer joy of them getting to hang out again with their college buddies is one of the fun dynamics of this team and certainly contributes to team chemistry.

And KAT, especially Point God KAT that we are seeing in the playoffs, is so much fun. The problem with KAT has always been that he's so talented that sometimes he loses interest and coasts, but he is so fun to watch when he tries his hardest and I have never seen him trying harder than he is trying right now. He fights for every rebound, he's blocking shots like he was Willie Cauley-Stein, and when he drives from the three point line it's like a freight train. And yet even better than any of that is when he stands at the middle of the arc and orchestrates the offense like an air traffic controller. And he's doing it with all of his goofy KAT energy intact. What a delightfully silly man.

I haven't even said anything about OG, who a surprising amount of the time is the best Knick in the floor, a defensive wizard who has discovered how to score at will.

And OG's injury aside, the greatest delight of this postseason is how well rested everyone is. It was so miserable last season watching Thibs grind his starters into powder. Were there triumphs, yes, but the human cost was too high. With help from Mitchell Robinson, Deuce McBride, Landry Shamet, Jordan Clarkson, and even a bit of Tyler Kolek and Jeremy Sochan, the starters are getting to take a break, and the result is obvious, what everyone was screaming about last year. If you're well rested, you don't get hurt as much and you can play with more energy and have more fun. DUH, Thibs And now the Knicks get a full week off before the Eastern Conference Finals while Detroit and Cleveland slug it out.

I'm very nervous nonetheless about Detroit, who has dominated us in the regular season even though they look like they're running out of gas now. But maybe we don't need to face them at all, if they can't get passed the Cavs. And right now the Knicks look like they can beat anybody, and I cannot remember ever having that feeling. It feels so good.

seekingferret

Spring Experience by Boston Ballet

After choreographed by Lia Cirio, music by Lera Auerbach

This didn't really land for us. Immediately afterward we were speculating that maybe we just didn't have an eye yet for non-narrative ballet, but the next two pieces belied that theory, so all I can say is that this didn't land for us. The set consisted of a large white structure of curves, somewhat resembling a miniature Gehry building, but the dancers didn't really interact with it. I think there was some fusion of classical ballet and modern dance vocabulary, but it didn't spark anything for me.

Herman Schmerman choreographed by William Forsythe, music by Thom Willems

On the other hand, this landed. An energetic duet (pas de deux?) followed by a section for 5 dancers, to an interesting miminalist electronic score. I loved the way the dancers moved to the music and how they played off each other, I loved the bits of humor sprinkled throughout. Also the asymmetries of the 5 dancers played out in really satisfying ways. My girlfriend said it seemed like they were having fun out there above all else.

Dances at a Gathering choreographed by Jerome Robbins, music by Chopin

Seeing this was the reason

chestnut_pod recommended we go to this performance and it didn't disappoint.

Ten dancers each in distinctive colored outfits perform in a series of smaller ensemble dances, mixing and matching relationships, to a sequence of short Chopin piano pieces. The dancing was beautiful, graceful and physical and surprising. But it was really the combinatorics that were striking, the way the dancers mixed and mingled in different interactions, playing out their personalities by way of the dance. It was an utterly enchanting experience.

ineptshieldmaid

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kaydeefalls

Today in a fit of boredom I decided it was time to update my AO3 account with any of my old fanvids that hadn't already been posted there. I had a good 30-odd vids on AO3 already; surely, I thought, there couldn't be THAT many I'd missed.

Anyway RIP to anyone subscribed to my AO3 who just got like 20-odd new work notifications for my backdated vids. Um. Sorry? The tragic part is, there are still like 10-15 left to go, I just got embarrassed by how many vids I apparently made in the period from 2009-2011 and gave up. For now, anyway. Holy SHIT I made a lot of vids back in the day. I kinda miss that hobby. But while I've found new software that I can make work (and have made a few Festivids with it), it doesn't jive with my brain very well, so vidding just isn't all that fun for me anymore. Alas.

I haven't written anything since finishing the 100k+ fic in February, and I'm starting to get antsy about it. But my brain always needs a writing break after finishing a longer project, and burnout from RL has been very real, so trying not to be too hard on myself.

And, fingers crossed, RL seems to be easing up a bit. Wife spent another stint in the hospital involving another emergency surgery in mid-March, but that one actually seems to be helping, and she's recovered MUCH more strongly from this one than anything since November. Of course, the way her body works, the successful resolution of that issue means her other chronic pain issues have decided to flare up in retaliation, having been woefully ignored for lo these many months while she focused on the emergency stomach stuff, so that sucks. But at least none of THAT is life-threatening. We take what we can get.

On the flip side, after a couple of years of gradually more apparent signs, my mom has finally been diagnosed with Alzheimer's. This is...a lot. She's still physically fine and functional, but her mind is deteriorating at a worrisome rate, and it's just...yeah. My dad has functionally become her caretaker, and he's struggling a bit with that adjustment, understandably. But boy howdy has he been good about getting all the legal stuff in line. So. Yeah. Very glad I still have one extremely functional parent, because I would be floundering badly if it were all landing on me right now.

In the midst of all this, I somehow applied for and landed a new job? This is baffling to me, but VERY welcome. I'd been at my prior org for eight and a half years, which is absolutely mind-boggling, and in the past few years I'd really started to hate it there, but thought I'd be stuck there forever because the job market sucks and the benefits (and health insurance) were too good for me to just quit. But then this opportunity unexpectedly fell into my lap, and I went for it, and here we are. I've been at new job for a month now, and I'm SO much happier there. The work is more interesting and the focus of the new nonprofit much more strongly aligns with my own priorities, and while it has its drawbacks, it's just been so much better for my mental health. So. That's a positive.

Wife did gently point out back back when this was all happening that I'd likely not be in an good headspace to write for a good two months - the last month where I was frantically trying to transition out of old job, and the first month of onboarding and adjusting to the new one. She was very right about that. Let's see if I can kick myself back into a creative headspace now that I'm feeling more settled with everything else.